5/27 Cafe Last Day

Last night was Jess' last cooking class. There was a large turnout for the Middle Eastern themed food and the celebratory wine. The woofers(Trey, Danielle, Hen, & I) sat at the kids table and finished a couple bottles of wine and whatever was left over from the bottles on the adult table. The food was delicious and the night was fun. I woke up the next morning in pretty bad shape. I wasn't able to hold anything down and I woke up three different times and went back to bed, not finally staying out of bed until 6pm. :(

I was finally going to ride the Driving Creek Railway up the mountain, but hangover wouldn't allow it. Oh, well......NEXT TIME! :)

5/20 - Mirrored West

It was Wednesday and we knew we were going to head east, we just weren't sure how. I called Ashley and she was nice enough to let us use her car for the day. She informed me that it wasn't insured and that it was a manual transmission. Two things I didn't want to have to worry about while trying to learn the reflection of everything I knew about driving. As I hung the phone up on the receiver it gave the clouds the go ahead to release every raindrop it had in its grasps. Ashley called back in a matter minutes, explaining that she would need the car to run some errands, so we were force to create a plan B.

Henriette, Louisa and I had already toyed with the idea of hiring a car to see some of the Peninsula outside of Coromandel Town, so we made the appropriate phone call. Putting the phone down on the receiver again was the sun's queue to enter stage left. We walked into town and onto the road out of it. We were walking along the sidewalk in the middle of nowhere when we came upon 3 chopped fish. We ignored this omen and continued on to Strongman's Vehicle Rentals. We were greeted by two large Germans Sheppard guard dogs. The less relaxed of the two ignored the girls and watched my like a hawk. I wasn't sure what to do with my hands. If I looked too tense he would be sure to attack. I stood in scarecrow formation until the owners came out to greet us.

Because I was the one who was going to hire the car, I had to follow one of the employees into a caravan full of cardboard boxes, mixed paperwork and a 1987 computer. I helped her fill in all the required fields with my sensitive information, only to find out the one we were after had an expired certificate of fitness. Because of this alert, I had to sit on a stack of papers and refill all the proper fields. The car we were after this time was considered hired out by the computer, so of course it wouldn't let us hire an already hired car so the entry fields cleared again. I left my id and credit card with the lady and decided to join the girls in the kitchen caravan for cheap instant coffee and the opportunity to laugh at all the knickknacks on the shelves and walls.

They eventually cured the temporary y2k and handed us the keys to a studly silver Nissan with a slow air leak in one of the tires. Time to saddle up!. I entered what would normally be the passenger seat and pulled out of the drive way. To signal my turn out of the driveway, I warned with waving windshield wipers. The entire journey was like learning how to drive all over again. I had to forget all my instincts and pray that any traffic signs wouldn't ask too much out of me. We took an alternate route to the east coast town of Whitianga. A scenic,windy, unsealed mountain road that took us by waterfalls, deciduous trees reminding us of the seasons, and the occasional wild pig.

We arrived in Whitianga with the need of food so we grab some takeaway chips and headed for the beach. When buying chips(fries) who have to buy dipping sauce separate. This place didn't have ketchup but instead had a small tin can of tomato sauce. We took our various forms of chips and dipping canisters down to the beach and ate and discussed different English to German translations, German to American stereotypes(which I mostly found hard to argue against.) From there we drove over to Hot water beach to watch some surfers and realized the tide was too high to be mining for hot water in the sand. From there it was to Cathedral Cove. It was my second time hiking in to the Cove, but being with friends adds a whole new angle to it. The sun was falling to the horizon so we hiked with haste, getting there to enjoy Cathedral Cove painted with the magic hours palette of pinks and oranges.

I drove the Silver Mullet back in the dark with the confidence of a seasoned student driver. I signaled my blinker when I intended to and excused the rain from the windshield on the first try. But the sacrifice for this efficiency was seen on my speedometer. I was overtaken(passed) with regularity, but I delivered the WWOOFing staff to the cafe all in one piece and safe to wash dishes another day.

If.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

No matter what is going on
Never give up
Develop the heart
Too much energy in your country
Is spent developing the mind
Instead of the heart
Be compassionate
Not just to your friends
But to everyone
Be compassionate
Work for peace
In your heart and in the world
Work for peace
And I say again
Never give up
No matter what is going on around you
Never give up

H.H. The XIV Dalai Lama

Wandering Thoughts #1

Even angry people are nice here.
There was a construction worker crossing the road in Auckland as a BMW driven by an Urbanite in a hurry almost ran him down on a left turn. The young blue collar who managed to avoid a young death stood firm in front of the vehicle and articulately yelled through the windshield, "If you are going to treat people like that, you deserve to be punched in the face!"

5/18 You've Been Served

Every Monday night Jess teaches a cooking class here at the cafe. A bunch of middle aged and older women congregate here to learn how to cook a vegetarian 3 course meal from start to finish. The girls and I usually sit in the other room and hang around the fire and take our place at the table to enjoy the finished product. The first Monday I was here the meal was ratatouille, polenta, and some fancy bean dips. Tonight it is winter sushi. I had the option of sitting in on the class, but the fire had me caught in its tractor beam so I had Henriette fill in and document it with my camera.

The best part of the evening aside from the food is sitting around the dinner table with a bunch of Kiwi women and listening to a variety of ridiculous, mundane and hilarious conversations. Last week there was talk of beans making you expel gas and this week we touched on the ethics of tourists smuggling in potential harmful critters. Tonight one of the older women was talking about one of her American wwoofers that brought in raw, untreated wool from the states in hopes of spinning it and making a hat. The two old women talked about how dangerous it was to bring raw wool into NZ in the fear up it carrying some parasite or disease that could take down the New Zealand wool industry. I tried to assure them that American put so many parasites on everything, so the chances of something harmful being alive were slim. One of the women, an obvious European descendant responded with a "damn foreigners!" where I casually inserted a, "So what Maori tribe are you from?" Then the conversation died...

5/17 - Man on Beach

I woke up and gave Jona(Yo-Nuh) a call to see if he wanted to hike up the river or maybe trek to
a beach. It is Jona's last day so I thought is would be fun to find some adventure. He recommended a beach called New Chums Beach in Whangapou. I walked up to his Aunt Petra's pottery studio and Jona, Petra, Holly, the dog and I all hopped in the car and headed east over the hills. You have to park at a beach and hike about 300 meters along the rocks and through some bush to reach New Chums. Passing through the beach front bush, I couldn't help but scout the trees and open areas to see where I would build my shelter if I was a castaway. The trail opens up onto an amazing beach with great cliffs, white sand and a nice break. There were four peeps sitting around an acoustic guitar so we said our "g'days" and walked up the beach to find our own plot. The women stripped down to their bikinis(eventually less, for Petra) and that's when I realized I had forgotten my shorts. I wasn't going to let whether or not I had the appropriate wardrobe stand between me swimming in the ocean or not. I stripped down to my knickers and swam in the big blue. The beach was amazing and to ourelves, and it made me glad I was here during the off season.

I got dropped off at the Cafe just as Mehow was setting up for movie night at the cafe. He sets up the white wall and projector and seating for the community come and eat dinner(Dahl) and follow that with some cinema. Tonight it was Man on Wire. You've all seen it and liked it so I don't have to talk about it. I enjoyed it as well and appreciated the passion Dude lived with. I wonder what additional loss he feels after the towers were gone. Seeing that he had a life long emotional connection and personal relationship to those structures.

5/15 - I'm Big in Japan

I was eating breakfast outside on the deck so the sun could find me. I was enjoying my book while i caught a very mature(old) praying mantis dragging himself to within 8" from my right hand. He stood there dazed for a bit and proceeded to lay his head down, pick it up for a few and lay it back down. It appeared he was just sharing the warmth of the sun with me until I noticed that he hadn't moved for about 15 minutes. That was is it. His life was over. I was both saddened and honored that he chose me as a witness for the end. I would have tried to revive him, but Ms. Louis didn't cover insect resuscitation in 5th period health. I also thought it would be classier to let him die with dignity in the warmth provided by that which gives all things life.....so i stayed on the sidelines and took photos and posted them to the web.

People around here don't seem to sweat the details so I won't either. A Japanese film crew and actors/hosts came into the Cafe today and ordered everything on the menu. It appeared that they were doing a travel food show on organic vegetarian cuisine. Before eating the dishes, they filmed each culinary delight in their makeshift set over in the corner of the room. Then proceeded to film everything little strange thing throughout the cafe. It was a wonder to watch and a blast trying to get in the background of every frame. Fingers crossed! :)

5/14 Day Off

Beautiful day and not working. There is supposedly a river/creek about 2 minutes walk from here so I found bank access and rock hopped upstream for about an hour before the channel became too narrow and by this time the good weather fairy had fallen asleep, so I headed back to the Cafe.

5/13

I was in the cafe today. There were a couple of times where it rained so hard, you drop what you are doing and walk to the nearest exit or window and just watch the wash. Today is Jona's birthday so Henriette made some lovely cupcakes. Louisa made a cake for him last night but we ate it all within a few hours of its departure from the oven. OOPS!

We were waiting for Jona to call us to go up the his place, so we killed time with wine and a board game. You would think I would have the upper hand in a game such as this when playing and English language game against two Germans. No such advantage present. If all Germans at the table played within the confines of the English language and the perameters of the game board, I would have dominated.

We got the call from Jona and walked the 200 meters up an unlit, unsealed, mountain road with a cupcake and a half enjoyed bottle of wine as a celebretory gesture.

5/10 Mission: Cathederal Cove

Today was a day off and I wanted to make the most of it. I got out of bed later than I wanted to, per usual. My first day off I saw what "downtown" Coromandel had to offer and I knew for this one I wanted to see something else on the peninsula. Everyone has been telling me to check out hot water beach and the pictures I have seen of Cathedral Cove have been telling my eyes to tell my brain that I wanted to go there. I was on the west coast and I know I needed to get to the east coast. Mehow drew me up a map and I walked into town. I was rocking the hitch thumb on the way in, but got no love. I was a little concerned about the time, because Hot Water Beach is only in its glory if you are there at low tide. Low tide was at 2:00 and you can get away with being there 2 hours on either side of that. I stopped in at the info center in Coromandel to see if there was a bus or shuttle heading that direction. The lady behind the counter advised me that there was a one-way shuttle heading to Whitianga leaving in 10 minutes. Whitianga wasn't quite where I needed to get, but it was closer to Hahei(home of both Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach) so I booked it. I met a couple of Vancouver, Canadians waiting for the van as well. They were staying in Whitianga and expressed interest in doing the Cove and the Beach as well. The van came and we did the windy, scenic drive over the mountains and into Whitianga. I had the driver drop me off at the info center and I asked Info to point me in the direction of the ferry.

I walked the couple kilos over to the pedestrian ferry and floated across the water to where I was suppose to hitch to my sites. I waited on the destination side for a navigation opportunity, but there was nadda. I saw a scooter rental place on top of the hill and decided that it would be a stylin' way to pull up to the Cove. I hired(rented) the beast for 3 hours and did my best not to kill myself along the way. It was about a 10 kilometer ride to Cathedral Cove. The sun was poking through the clouds when I got there. You can only reach the cove by hiking in, or by boat. I hiked the 40 minutes in and it was way worth it. There weren't many peeps on the beach. The people who were there were all coupled up and being all Hallmark with each other and shit, which kinda bummed me out. I spent about 45 minutes there, taking the equivalent of 2 rolls of film of amazing cliffs and years of erosion. It started to hint at rain so I decided to hike out. The entire time I was sorta racing the time trying to stay within that 2 hour window of low tide. By the time I got to the parking lot it was too late to drive the extra 8 kilometers to Hot Water and there was a storm coming for sure and I was not prepared wardrobe wise. I hovered back towards the ferry landing during mid storm, rain drops hitting my face like hundreds of miniature liquid fists. I squinted as much as possible to avoid unwanted eye drops. Just a notch above losing the important sense of sight. At this point it was getting dark and I was getting concerned about finding a ride back to Coromandel. I had to work in the morning and I knew they would start to worry if i didn't let them know I wasn't in a ditch somewhere. I got to the other side and scurried, soaking wet and freezing to the Coromandel turn off. The thumb went out and the first 8 cars that went by continued in the direction they were pointed. Tail lights meant they were leaving.

A local walked by and informed me that I was at a low traffic crossroads and would be better off about a kilometer up the road. I stood shivering with my arm out to the few and far between autos. After about 20 minutes a white van pulled over to save me. She was a young striking German women who was traveling from a cafe where she worked in Whitianga on her way home to Kuaotunu. A town about at the half way point between Whitianga and Coromandel. When I opened the passenger side door to get in I heard the sound of Justin Vernon singing the lyrics to Skinny Love. Music to my ears! She was only going as far as her home(Kuaotunu) so she dropped me off at a spot under a street light on a dark empty road in the rain. I was thinking I would have been better off just declining her offer for a ride and staying within the comfort of city light and my fellow man, but here I was in the hood of night. There were noooooo cars going by. It was a rainy Sunday night and no one passed me. A slight hiccup in the game of hitch hiking.

I waited for about a half an hour and decided that I didn't want to die of hypothermia or worse, so i felt my way through the night for a backpackers. I saw some lights in the distance and let its glow reel me in. It was a convenience store that was just about to close. I asked if she knew of any backpackers and she directed me to one that was just 40 meters away! When I got there the office was closed so I went to the side door and knocked on the sliding glass door to the residents surprise. They weren't really open, but I explained my case and they opened a room for me in their vacant abode. I called my hosts at the cafe and Jessica answered with relief and offered to come pick me up. I declined and told her I was safe and warm for the night and I would resume my journey in the morning. She switched me to the 10am shift and just told me to get there when I could.

I woke up bright and early to check out. I went back to the spot I was standing 12 hours earlier to hitch. Now dressed in sunlight, it might as well been somewhere entirely different. It took 4 cars before a man picked me up. I told him Coromandel and he agreed. We exchanged formalities and he asked what is typically the first question out of a rides mouth, "where you from?" It's also amazing how many people that have given me rides have connections to the American NW. His wife was from Eugene and he lived in Newberg way back when. He talked about the monthly trips he had to take to Auckland for his mother's cancer treatment and I listened. It is a cool thing to be in a temporary arrangement with a good willed stranger. People let guards down and real conversations flow.

I got dropped off at the crossroads in Coromandel and walked up the hill out of downtown and on towards the Cafe. Arriving just in time for work.

:)

5/9 - First Working Day!

So I woke up on time and walked the 30' from the sleeping quarters to the cafe. A seriously tough commute. The cafe was pretty slow so I mainly just did some dishes, cleared a few tables and brought some foods out to patrons. Most of my day was listening to Mehow(an owner) and the chef Ashley arguing about business philosophy, customer service, etc.

awkwaaaaaaaard.....

In the evening the wwoofers went over to an extension of the Art Walk and listened to some local live music and socialized with the locals. Beaver was the headliner. Apparently she played Woodstock back in the day, not bad.

5/8

My first day at the Cafe is my day off! I woke up at 6am and everyone was already out of the bunk house. I laid in bed till the clock said 7am. I went into the cafe and made myself some breakfast and sat at one of the computers to check my email. I looked at the computer's clock all squinty eyed and read it 11am! I had a mini panic and packed up my day gear and started walking towards town to see what Coromandel Township was all about.

5/7 - Arriving at the Cafe

I left the City of Sails today. The ride from Thames to Coromandel was a beaut! Sooooo gnarly though. If you never get carsick, you would on that ride. I was sure I was gonna spew. I had my Dixie cup ready just in case. Mehow from the cafe picked me up from the info center and dropped me off at the cafe. There were 3 other wwoofers there hanging out. Alaina from Alaska, Louisa from Germany and Henriette from Germany. They were doing some girly oatmeal facemask stuff while I got adjusted and tested my patience with some slow cyberwebs.

5/6 - Ink, Humps & Beats

I woke up today and decided it would be a good day to get a tattoo. I walked down to Ballistic Tattoo on Queen Street and payed $80NZ for a nice little piece. After walking around a bit, I decided to head back to the hostel. As I walked into the lobby I saw Vicki(a Fat Camel employee) wearing a camel costume. She immediately started pleading with me to help her out for a couple hours. I said "NO!" consecutively about 20 times, before I decided that saying yes would make for a better story. The first 10 minutes in that damn suit made me deeply regret my decision. "Baby" Jack was the head and the front legs and I was the back legs and arse. I couldn't see shit! I had to watch the back of Jack's feet the entire time. All I could do was hear the passing cries of laughter and the occasional drunkard poking his/her head up into the middle of jack and I. We did get some funny video of Jack getting fake beaten up on a busy intersection on Queen St.

At 8 o'clock I went up to Whammy! bar on K Rd. to see Matt & Kim. The astmosphere in that room reminding me so much of Portland. The bartender, Caroline was from Seattle and had been living in NZ for the last 3 years. She declared NZ being a lot like home, just condensed and mostly just the good parts.

5/5

When you check into the Fat Camel they give you a free city tour through Stray. I booked it for today. We started out by going up to the Sky Tower. The guide played a round of heads and tails amongst the passengers and the winner got a free ticket to the Sky Tower free fall. I was half jealous and half relieved when I lost my round. From there we drove to the top of an active volcano and stared down the loaded barrel of Ms. Nature's shotgun. We hit a pub for lunch and to talk amongst ourselves. I sat next to an English girl who had just arrived from visiting Portland. She talked about her favorite band, Death Cab for Cutie and I talked to her about bands that were better. We were short on time so we cut out the pier trip and headed down to the Harbour Bridge. There is a bungee company that operates a jump from the underside of the bridges pinnacle. We strapped on harnesses and walked out to the jump to witness one of the dudes on the tour take a leap. It was pretty sweet, but aderenaline costs 100$ for essentially 2 minutes under this bridge. When they asked if anyone else wanted to go, the word "yes" was on the tip of my tongue, but it hung on for dear life.

5/4

Today Micheal took me into Auckland, back to the Fat Camel where this whole thing started. I was in the lobby when some familiar faces walked by and yelled, "Ian Johnson is back in the house!" Auckland loves me.

Leaving the Sanctuary

It has been an amazing stay here in Matakana. I am hitching into Auckland with Micheal in the morning. I am thinking about staying in Auckland for a couple nights to catch some live music before I head up into the Coromandel. I'll be working at a vegetarian cafe called The Driving Creek Cafe in the Coromandel Township starting the 8th of May. I hear the whole peninsula is amazing. After that I am gonna start migrating south. Waitomo Caves, Palmerston North and Wellington before I jump the puddle to the South Island. I'm not sure how frequent my internet use will be so be patient and stay tuned! Love you all! :)

5/3-Into the Wild

Today I woke up and helped build a compost bin for all this shit I've collected. After that, I grabbed a paintbrush and applied some weather proofing to the stables. When that was done, I decided that I was going to find this waterfall that I had failed to track down a week previous. I passed Micheal on the way up and he gave me some navigation guidelines to prevent another mission failure.

It was a little sketch on the way in. The bush is really dense and the trail is marked by the occasional orange, spray painted dot on a tree trunk. It took about 45 minutes to get into the falls. My initial reactions was, "Yay, I found it!" followed by, "It's a lot smaller than I expected." It turns out, there is a baby falls above the bigger one, so the first one was just a teaser. I baptized myself, dressed as I came into this world in the chilled waters below. The sun was starting to duck towards the horizon so I decided to head back.

I followed the blue marker to the the orange markers and started heading up the hills through the forest. After passing a few markers I couldn't find the next one and I didn't recognize the terrain from that angle. I thought I could just use my stellar internal compass and keep the sun to my left. It didn't take me long to realize that I was lost. Climbing through densely vegetated topography, sometimes on all fours, breaking through spider silk ribbons, like finishing a thousand races. I knew if I hiked with the edge of the tree line in my sights, I would eventually come out at the trail head. The worst part is seeing where you need or want to go but not being able to get your body there. The problem was the deep, unscalable canyon that stood in the middle.

I walked along it until I came upon a fallen tree that sort of bridge the gap. I started walking across and I looked down past the log beneath my feet and it occurred to me how messed up I'd be if I fell that distance. I did some inventory on my footing and decided to turn back. While spending the next 70 minutes tripping over branches, slipping down embankments and narrowly escaping branch impalement every ten feet, I started to feel a sense of vulnerable desperation. I wanted to stop and regain some strength, but I knew if the sun set before I got out of there, I'd be screwed.

I eventually came across some shit from the cows I saw on the trail a week previous and I knew I was getting close, or at least I was on the right track. I was never happier in my life to see poo. I exited the woods just as the daylight was closing its eye. Happy to be alive. :)

5/2

Cold and miserable was the story of the day. I do love the rain though. The weather here is so unpredictable. I cut wood by saw until my arms were jello. I watched Back to the Future 2 and became grateful of how far special effects have come. During said film, I sampled some gorse wine, made from the yellow flowers it blooms. It was a tad syrupy, but good. The end result was me passed out on the couch so you be the judge.

5/1

Today I woke up and did another Manure Tour, collecting the black gold. I actually enjoy doing this. You just walk around the country side with a scooper, feed sack and the jams pumpin' in my headphones. My next task was to pull up some gorse. Gorse is a very prickly shrub/tree that some genius brought over with himself from Scotland way back when. This invasive species can stay dormant for up to 100 years before it sprouts, waiting for the right conditions. After I mowed the lawn(which is like zen to me) I tagged along with Micheal while he visited his client in Mangawhai. While he was doing his thing, I walked about a kilometer into town. I needed to kill some time so I found a pub and had a few quiet ones.

The bartender was a nice dude with plenty to talk about. He was from down south and despised Auckland, calling it a virus. Our hour long talk covered...

• Permaculture-When all of the resources are gone, will you eat your money?
• 9/11 conspiracies- He lost me on some of these
• The scariness of the American Bible Belt/his willingness to debate the bible with Christians
• Marijuana laws/the war on drugs
• Obama and the restored faith that the rest of the world has in the US
• Teachers from within "the System" teaching young ones how to be a part of "the System"
• Taking advantage of the opportunities life gives you
• How the victors write the history books
• The advantages of using a point system instead of money, etc, etc....

It was a very entertaining way to spend a couple of my hours. A few beers and a colorful local.

4/26-4/30

I'm still at the sanctuary. :) Last night Shawn, Micheal and I went into Auckland to have dinner with their daughter and her husband and Sara(from the Sanctuary) and her boyfriend. We ate some bomb Thai at a place called (cough, cough)Monsoon Poon. Shawn is leaving for the states in the morning so she is staying behind and Micheal and I heading back to the hills.



Other things I did with a smile these last few days were...

• Manure Tour '09-Picked up a lot of shit, aka black gold.


• Operation Take Too Many Photos of Animals. PS. With all the talk I've heard about New Zealand being loaded with sheep, I haven't seen one up close. I guess I'm just respecting that restraining order. ;)


• I've continued to eat a Vegetarian's diet. We had 2 for 1 pizzas at the Rusty Pelican in Matakana. PS. If you say "I'm a Vegetarian, but I eat fish sometimes." You aren't really a vegetarian, sorry. :(


• I filled potholes in the driveway. PS. When a road is gravel they call it "unsealed"