"We Have To Go Back!"

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.

Following You, I Climb The Mountain; I Get Excitement At Your Feet

Alright good news, I have an exciting adventure expedition to report on again. A bit back about ten of us rented 2 cars and decided to drive to Cape Palliser, a small, isolated coastal location east of Wellington, and the actual southernmost point on the North Island. It's lighthouse and rocky, windswept ocean peaks are somewhat of a symbol of the Wellington region. Our goal was to 1) See where they filmed The Paths of the Dead, because it was shot at Cape Palliser, and 2) Pet some seals. The cape is well known for its seals, and we decided on the car ride there that we were going to pet them. May not have been the best impulsive decision I've ever made. More on that later. 

Leaving Wellington city going East involves traveling through about 30 minutes of slow, tedious roads curving around a large mountain range. The mountains themselves are rather breathtaking, as they are completely covered with nothing but bright yellow flowers. This was breathtaking until about 10 minutes into the curvy roads when the combination of left-side driving, intense curves and the reading-in-the-car that I had been engaging in while reading the map all combined to make me the most nautious human being in the history of time. I remember mumbling something to Fabien to pull over, and we all took a breather. I remember not even being able to feel my feet. After sitting still for about five minutes and doing some jumping jacks (they're called "star jumps" here, haha) to get the blood going, we continued on.

I'm in the process of running in place here.

'

This was a great road experience. It was a nice, peaceful Sunday (although not the nicest weather day). The weather actually added to the great atmosphere of the isolated, geographically intense area that we were going to. I actually forgot to bring my camera, so I'm going to use other people's facebook photos. A few wrong turns led us to discover a very cool beach area with a fish and chips place close to the shore. It was sort of a bed and breakfast type of place, very isolated on the beach front. It was a beacon of warmth and shelter in an otherwise humanless area. We ended up going back to this place after our cape experience was over, and it was the best part of the day. Everything happens for a reason. In any case, the beach was really unique looking. It sort of had an inlet where the sand bar reached around both sides in front of you and started to come back together in the distance. Surrounding the coastline to the right was the tall, green mountains that you see in the road pictures. To the left and behind the coast were tall, intimidating desert-like mountains that stretched back inside of themselves with gaping caverns and strange erosion-based rock formations. This was the shooting location for the Dimholt Dale and the Paths of the Dead. We didn't end up having time to check it out, but I'll be going back before I leave. We skipped rocks here for a while and then moved on.

This is right before the beach, so you can see the mountains that I was talking about. It was such a cool location, sort of a hybrid of the mountains, the rolling greens, and the ocean.

On the way to the cape we stopped at a few places...just because we HAD to. Every turn had amazing coastal rock jutting into the ocean. Due to the rather windy and slightly windy day, the waves were crashing onto the coast, leading to excessive wetness that nobody could care about in the least. It was a blast.

We were big on the triumphant arm-raising motif that day. It's a sure winner.

The sand on Cape Palliser is very unique and different from any sand I'd seen. It's still granular, but the grains are a bit larger than sand from home. The grains are just large enough that they don't stick to your hands, so none of the handfuls of sand that you pick up stays on your hand. It feels like holding water and being able to watch it slip through the palm of your hand in stone-form. Amazing. 

The second car was ahead of us a fair distance, mostly due to our habit of stopping every twenty feet to take in the sights. It was ahead of us, I should say, until we passed it on the side of the road with a spare tire being newly installed. I guess Kevin swerved near a one-way bridge as a dog jumped into the road. Nobody knew how to change a tire and so they had to wait until a local help then. Don't know how to change a tire. Psh. Learned how to do that the second day after getting my license. Because I popped a tire, of course.

One of our last spontaneous pit stops took place as a result of our casually looking out our side window and seeing at least ten seals just hanging out several feet from the road. It was very surreal, because you're so used to seeing seals in a self-contained area such as a zoo. I'm going to psychoanalyize these seals and say that they were, on the whole, a pretty content bunch of creatures, but they had problems with intimacy. We took it really, really slow and approached them as if we didn't notice them in the slightest. These were New Zealand seals, you see, and we weren't sure whether or not they were prone to spontaneous attack and/or possessed razor sharp seal claws/teeth. No such luck. They were, as far as I could tell, fairly normal seals. However, as we approached closer and closer and began to let our peaceful vibes go by talking at normal volumes, the seals seemed to become agitated. They did that seal-noise where it looks/sounds like they're sneezing but they're really just annoyed. I backed off, but a few of them stayed near the seal and kept taking pictures. Next thing we know, they were getting a full court press from like three seals moving faster than I ever knew seals might be able to move. They basically chased us off. So now, added to the peril of mighty wind, splashing water, and often difficult roadwork on the coast of the ocean was a coordinated seal attack. Not a bad time at all. Something else to check off my list of  "things I've never done before", I suppose.

So finally we all got there, to the lighthouse and Cape Palliser. The lighthouse is built alongside a tall, long rocky mountain that continues up into unseen heights long after the lighthouse itself. However, the steps involved to get to the lighthouse numbered well over 200. It was ridiculous, took us about 15 minutes to climb up. At this point, the wind had become ridiculous and it was really starting to feel like an epic adventure novel. Our first goal was to scale the stairs. More motivation would follow. Observe the ridiculous amount of stairs:

Upon reaching the Lighthouse, I took a few hazardous liberties with standing on the brink of the abyss that I found before me. Because why not? It was basically an untold drop into the rocky ocean, and It was exhilarating to feel the powerful wind attempt to push me from my precarious balance and throw me off. I suppose it was a small taste of what it must feel like to go skydiving or bungy jumping, one of which I will definitely cross off of my list before I leave here. It was like surfing, but instead of water there to catch you, it's just the air. Lots and lots of air.

You know the feeling when you stick your head out of a car window and the wind makes your cheeks flap? It was like that, but you didn't need to be moving at 70 mph to get the wind. Fantastic.

The adventurous mood is easily discontented. Upon reaching the lighthouse, I just wanted to climb higher. Four others joined me, and we decided to climb the rocky peaks as high as we could. Into the clouds, if necessary. Because why not? The wind was fierce and ocean was violent and we were having a fantastic time. I wasn't even wearing hiking shoes. It was a very spontaneous mountain scaling experience. 

We began to climb so high that the low-flying cloudy mist enveloped us. The houses looked like ants and we could see the  clouds swiftly creeping up the sides of the mountains around us. It was very, very quiet, save for the soft crashing of the ocean somewhere in the distance. I felt very happy up there. I felt very connected with the world and society didn't seem as important or pressing as it usually does. 

Yes, there was a palm tree on top of the mountain. Don't ask me why. I don't know.

As we got higher we began to feel a collective achievement, and posed for some triumphant photos. I have to take a moment here to thank my Uncle Jim for the fantastic, extremely high quality rain jacket that he got me for my trip here in New Zealand. This excursion to the coast is a great example of how invaluable it's been to me in my journeys and everyday life in Wellington. I don't think a drop of water so much as touched my upper torso. Except my head, but that's only because I took my hood off for the thrill of it. You look cooler and more world-weary with a wet head.

When one climbs a mountain, one obviously desires to reach the summit. Otherwise it wouldn't make a great story. The thing about this particular mountain is that it always created the illusion that you were "almost there". It always looked like the summit was just over that ledge there, just beyond your line of sight. We climbed for about an hour and never actually got to "the top". Somehow, it never got old or tiring. We figured we should get going in order to get back down before it was dark.  I only got tired on the way down. It was probably the exhilaration of being inside of a low-flying cloud. Quite an experience. 

Getting down as a lot harder than climbing up, probably due to the slippery, wet grass that we were using for footholds on the upward climb. It ended up being mainly a half-climb half-sit/slide descent, and all of our pants were very dirty when we got to the lighthouse. Worth it.

The car ride back home was absolute exhaustion. You know the feeling when you're driving home from the beach? I felt like that but twice as tired. We stopped at the fish and chips place that we had accidentally ran into on our way there. It was a very warm, welcoming place with a pool table and a large piano in the corner. I'm a big fan of fish and chips, if I haven't already said that. It needs to be more popular in America. I also got the most delicious hot chocolate that I've ever tasted in my life. It came with a Cantebury fish, which is basically the standard New Zealand candy. It's strawberry marshmallow dipped in milk chocolate, and obviously shaped like a fish.It was, in fact, the same candy that I was given in "The Deep Places of the World" back in early July. It's all coming full-circle, friends. 

We were all pretty cold and wet, and there was only a space heater warming the large room. This resulted in us taking turns warming our feet above the space heater like a fire. Space heaters need to be more popular in America. I've grown fond of them for some reason.

You can almost see the space heater

We put it on self-timer and rested it on the piano. 

Hanging out in a warm, home-y environment after scaling a mountainside in the toiling in the mighty wind and rain all day long was extremely cathartic and I don't think it gets much more enjoyable than our dinner experience there. The beach where we had skipped stones earlier in the day lay right outside the window, and I would've skipped some more if it wasn't raining so hard.

The ride back consisted of mainly napping, and the path back to Wellington seemed much longer than the one away from it. Due to the fact that we had a car and we still had a few hours on the rental, we drove to Pak n' Save, the cheapest grocery in Wellington, usually inaccessable due to its distance. It was fantastic not having to worry about what I was going to carry, and I bought about 3 weeks worth of groceries. Successful ending to a great day. 

I went to the Rivendell shooting locations this last week as well, so I'll be putting another post up on that soon.

Hope all is well with everyone,

Bill