I'm rounding out into my last week of school here, which is very odd. I'm really looking forward to having more free time to see things around Wellington and the North Island before I leave next month. Last month I was able to squeeze another trip to Somes Island in, and though it left me with a rather heavy workload during this week, I think it was worth it. I got a lot of international students together who were interested in going, and my number ended up being about 10. The Department of Conversation rangers on the island are extremely cool, and I kept in contact with them in order to arrange timetables and accomodation. We were able to secure a house very similar to the one I stayed in last time, with a few minor structural differences. As it turned out, only four of us were able to stay overnight on the island. Everyone else had to get back to write essays, etc. I was happy to have successfully spaced my workload out in order to get another much-needed taste of New Zealand's natural beauty.
I really enjoyed the ferry ride over, as the sun was bright and the sky was clear. It's nice to take these weekend excursions, as sometimes school and my routine way of life here in Wellington sometimes gets mundane and stressful. Being on the ferry and out on the water allows me an opportunity to look back at the city from a new angle. Seeing it grow smaller and as only part of the grand harbor of New Zealand puts it in perspective both literally and mentally. Though it presented itself as a minor risk because of my decision not to buy a case, I decided to carry my guitar along for the ride, hoping for some nighttime jams in the nature reserve. It was a bit cumbersome, but totally worth it. I even played a bit on top of the ferry in the middle of the harbor. Never thought I'd do that before. So yes, an uplifting ride over on the ferry, everyone was happy about the weather and the weekend ahead. The guitar playing/sing alonging didn't hurt either. I went along with two guys from France, Two girls from China, a guy from Signapore, two American girls, and a guy from Signapore as well as one kiwi. As a matter of fact, two of them were friends from my road trip. They've all become pretty good friends of mine and I was proud to have them all along to show them the island that I'd had so much fun on.
I was glad to see Matt again, he's the ranger that helped us with accommodation last time around. I was able to get more opportunities speak to him much more this time, mainly due to my role as the unofficial "organizer" of this trip. Last time I came I was just part of a big group and didn't have much time to converse with the rangers. He was extremely cool, and he told me about his newfound guitar skills and other interesting facts about the island as we hiked up to our house. Good news: this time our walk up didn't involve carrying a large sewage pipe up the hill. Big improvement. In any case, I was really happy to be able to hold conversation with Matt more this time around because he seemed to be a really interesting and personable character last time we stayed.
This is Matt. The guy one the left, that is. The other one is me.
There's a small, cave-like island jutting just off from the main island, and Matt informed us that it was the permanent home of an immigrant man infected with leprosy in the early 1900s. As I mentioned before, Somes Island acted as an Ellis Island equivalent to New Zealand, and quarantined anyone that was sick in their large containment centers. This man basically lived in a small cave in his own lonely island for the rest of his days, with food and provisions dropped off by a plane overhead. I couldn't believe it. It was bad enough that, after traveling so far, he never got where he was going. He was also condemned to look at it from a distance for the rest of his life, never setting foot there. It was just beyond his reach. I guess you need to hear things like this every once in a while to realize just how much your life isn't as bad as you sometimes consider it to be.
The work this time around was much less structured and taxing, probably because we were coming of our own accord and weren't part of an organized group such as Australearn. Alas, we did not engage in anything as exciting or daring as "Extreme Planting", but we did take part in some Extreme Weeding, I suppose. We cleared suffocating 3 foot tall grass from around new plants. I had a particularly fun time doing this because I found a really cool serrated knife that could be affixed to my waist with a holster. In short, it looked like a sword, so I was happy. It was much easier to cut the grass with a knife than a hedge trimmer. I'd say we cleared/mulched/replanted about 40 different plants before packing it in for the day around 3:30.
At this point, clouds had covered the sky and the wind had certainly picked up. We toured around the island a bit before the day-trippers had to journey back home on the ferry. Upon reaching the top of the island, I experienced a level of windiness that I had never felt before. I could literally stand on the edge of the abyss, lean forward, and the wind completely held my weight. And my cheeks did that roller coaster thing again. So all in all, though the ideal weather didn't hold out the entire day, New Zealand once again proved that every aspect of its weather held its own treasures. The last twenty minutes before the ferry departure was spent on a desperate sprint around half of the island to the docks, as we found that we had poorly judged our time. What a place to have a run. Some of the sights on the way:
Watching the last Saturday ferry depart
And then there were four. The rest of the night we had off, and spent thoroughly exploring and relaxing on Somes Island until well after dark. I've come to the conclusion that spending a night on Somes Island is one of the most unique and special experiences that one can experience while being in New Zealand. There's something about the complete silence and isolation from the rest of society. You're able to look back on civilization from a distance across the bay, taking it in as a separate entity and quietly considering it without distraction or influence. I guess this ties in with my thoughts coming over on the ferry. It was my kind of night. I'm a person who likes more laid-back environments, more one-on-one experiences with small groups of people rather than large, loud and crowded areas.
We were napping on the trails and I decided to take cool pictures
"Get Off The Road!"
In other respects, the Somes Island nighttime experience also just really exciting. There's an entire nature reserve full of animals ready to be explored in the dark. Some of them like humans more than others, I learned. Side Bar: I petted a tiny penguin this time around. We didn't get it on camera because it decided it didn't like me after I petted it and ran away, but we got a pre-curser to the event: my stealthy approach.
Some more highlights of the night included a quiet reverie on the summit, inspecting abandoned WWII gun turrets, and a rather frightening experience with hostile animals noises coming from the nearby bush as we hung out at the island's lighthouse. They sounded like really angry monkeys, but also seemed to be getting more numerous in content and sinister in nature. I will admit two things regarding this situation. 1) I am a man, and 2) I was scared. Nothing wrong with that. You'd be scared to if you heard these noises. So we somewhat stealthily made our way back through the forests to our house. We had some quick food and waited for the generators to stop (they cut out at 11:30), and proceeded to round out the night with some peaceful guitar playing and candlelight chats.
I've got to get to an essay now, but I'll be back on with Part 2 in a few days. Take care.
