pictures say a thousand words? since the start of this year, eric and i have tramped (overnight with packs - this does not count day walks...) over 240km! here's a bit of a view of what we saw...

we started in the summertime with our tent!
cape reinga walkway: 45km




then we journeyed into the mountains - of a volcanic variety.
tongariro national park: 45km




once hitting the south island we headed back to the beach.
abel tasman national park: 57km

the west coast has hidden surprises - natural hot pools just outside the hut!
welcome flats tramp: 34km




and then there was the 50km of hitch-hiking to the road end.
mount aspiring national park: 23km + 1000m vertical above the bushline




to stewart island on an 8 seater plane (i sat next to the pilot!) and to a place where the forest has never been touched since the dawning of time!
rakiura track: 36km

ouch.
my apologies.
for the serious time lapse.
but let's be serious.
when internet time is $2 for 10 minutes,
and when there are glaciers to be climbed,
keas to stalk,
fjords to float through,
8-seater flights with me sitting next to the pilot to stewart island to be taken,
kiwis to be spotted,
mountains to marvel at,
games of cheat to be played,
roads to be driven,
penguins and sealions to be photographed,
and life to be lived...
well.
sometimes computer typing has to take second seat.

there is more to come. i promise.

ONE

"My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now."

Robert Frost: After Apple-Picking (1914)

TWO

a maths problem for someone mathematical to solve:

each day i wear a bag that i put apples into. once when i was bored i counted how many apples it took to fill that bag. 100. once my bag is full i put it into a big bin. it takes about 20 bags to fill that bin. eric and i fill the bin together. over a day we would average about 9 bins. our record was 11. weve been doing this for 5 or 6 days a week for nearly two months now. thats a lot of apples eh?

how many?

heh.

THREE

so my orchard days are drawing to a close. its been a good experience - weve met lots of fun people from all sorts of walks of life who are all picking apples for very different reasons. weve worked in the hot sun, the rain and nearly in a frost (apparantly it was nothing like a frost but there was snow in the mountains behind us, i could see my breath on the air and the apples felt like ice cubes - or ice spheres i suppose). its been fun - ive learnt all about apples (how they sunburn and bruise and get punctured from stems and grow 1mm a day) and will never see them in the same light again! i will also never buy an apple from a supermarket again - they are in bad condition there! for casual work the pay is decent too - wed average $15 an hour easily, if not more like $18 an hour which isnt bad at all for my first experience on an orchard.

two days left! then eric and i head down the west coast to experience some real west coast wilderness and rain!

happy birthday dad and caisey!

where to begin, where to begin? okay the plan of attack for updating you all is as follows: today i will tell you day one of me and eric's 4 day journey up through tongariro national park with some help from my diary. then on another day i will tell you about our current employment on an apple orchard. and then on another day i will tell you about our abel tasman walk (which actually doesn't start until tomorrow).

day one:

"i sit just outside the oturere hut and when i look up I see mt ngarahoe! how serene and grandious - this weather, this scenery but most importantly - the vibe... it began on wednesday night as the sun dipped below the horizon, mt taranki rose from the mist until he dominated and cast his shadow upon the plains. then turning to the east, the full moon rose between the saddle of tongariro and ngarahoe, a bulb of glowing light separating and joining the mountains with a strange pulsing luminescence...

i felt like i was walking through a calender setting of new zealand's most beautiful landscapes - a boardwalk taking us across a meandering stream that trickled and moved at will... and then onwards and upwards to the dreaded satan's staircase - a 50 minute vertical climb and clamber over rocks and up to the saddle the moon had easily sauntered over the night before... the south crater lay eerily quiet and flat - a moonscape with a brown lake steaming with gas. on reaching the red crater - a detour was in order and we walked to the peak of tongariro - my tribe's mountain - my mountain - the first mountain i have ever climbed! upwards and into the land of mordor, the land of the orcs. i could picture it all so clearly - the landscape so desolate and smoking, so alien, the plateaus, the desert rock and sand, the harsh environment with no plant life, no animal life - the only life? small specks of people following a windy track to their final destination...

then we turned, downwards passed the incredible emerald lakes - downwards along a steep ridge and into an even stranger and bold landscape of large rock formations shaped like lions and apes, turtles and weird creatures - all frozen to stone at some time thousands of years before. everywhere was sand - moving and shaped into rivers and torrents, trickles and pools. boulders dumped unceremoniously by volcanic giants that still showed their power behind me. these boulders stood tall amidst the sand, proud and yet abandoned and deserted and cast into a land of dirt. the rocky desertscape continued but finally oturere hut appeared...

walking through this area - through the saddle of ngarahoe and tongariro, up tongariro, around the edge of these volcanoes, and through the pass between ruapehu and ngarahoe was a humbling experience and i would gladly walk it again."

caving in waitomo with absolute adventures:

6 hours, 4 of which were underground, ropes, harnesses, abseiling into deep pits of unknown darkness, crawling, climbing rock walls, scrambling up waterfalls. just me, eric and our instructor simon.

photos anyone?

title: the northland experience
author: rebekah merriman

after two great mammoth christmas feasts - one out at parakai at rachel and regans, and another down in hamilton, eric and i headed to pak'n'save to stock up on a slightly different meal plan to take tramping with us on our four day hike.

we journeyed up to waitiki landing, the last pitstop before the very tip of new zealand. here we met up with approximately 4 million mosquitoes who greeted me with far more fondness and hospitality than i wanted.

the four day hike itself was a real highlight - to see completely deserted beaches with massive sand dunes on the horizon, to walk from sea level up huge cliffs around headlands and down into valleys, to clamber over such different environments from rock hard sand to farmland to gorse-scattered bush. the whole way we saw the sea, and the sea saw us.

backcountry camping involves boiling your own water, finding your own tent space out of the prevailing wind, watching the stars come out, and dealing with more mosquitoes. i thought mosquitoes didnt like the beach? i thought wrong. we met a couple who taught us how to make the local bush manuka tea - easy to do and handy as we would spend 5 hours a day walking past manuka to our next location.

a highlight that needs its own paragraph. the dolphins. after a 6 hour trek or so we finally came upon our destination for that day - a little beach called pandoras bay. erics first encounter with sea-life - a stingray floating past in ankle-deep water. but it was the next day when we were out in the breakers - about waist-deep - that we saw the teenage dolphins - having left their pod (which we could se further out at sea) - coming in to practice their surfing technique. only 10m ahead of us, on the next set of breakers, they dove, flapped their tails, leapt into the air, splashed and surfed the incoming waves with such graceful ease.

once back in civilisation where i could buy allergy medicine to stop the now 200 mosquito bites from winning over my sanity, we continued on our nothland adventure - visiting the hokianga harbour (where we rode horses), waitangi, paihia, kai iwi lakes and whangarei heads. we picked up my cousin brenda from whangarei and drove back to auckland, stopping in at goat island for a swim and a peek at the fish swimming around in the marine reserve.

i write this from auckland, but before the day is over we will have headed south towards tauranga... might as well make the most of this excellent summertime weather!

until next time...

the unofficial guide of bex, eric and smurf

24th december: eric returns to auckland, albeit more tanned, fit and tired of the smell and taste of mandarins.
25th december: christmas is spent at rachel and regan's new house with my family and regan's family.
26th december: we head south to hamilton to spend boxing day with dad's side of the family.
28th december - onwards: eric and i head north to camp and walk the cape reinga coastal walkway for 4 days before continuing around northland.
january 15th: i return to auckland to go to the wedding of a good family friend.
onwards: we head to east cape, tongario, waitomo and then across to raglan.
february 4th-6th: waitangi weekend soundsplash reggae fest in raglan
onwards: head south to wellington then jump the fence into the south island.

i think this is the longest i have gone without writing on here. this causes quite the catch-22 (which, i might add in a timely aside, is a superb book that i thoroughly recommend to you all to read one day) because on the one hand i don't want to write because it seems so long since i last wrote and this means that lots has happened and how do i brilliantly conduct such excerpts of life into paragraphs that will be entertaining to you all, and then on the other hand, if i don't write, then that will continue to lengthen the amount of time i haven't written and hence increase the amount of interesting snippets of things that have been and gone and hence make the dilema to write in the future even bigger than it is already.

already the whole situation feels so big and grandious and out of hand that i'm almost compelled to quit while i'm ahead. but am i ahead? this is the real question, though the catch-22 is most certainly a valid question as well. though maybe an even more real (if such a statement can exist) question should be, am i a quitter? well no. quite frankly, i am not.

so here i am. and hurrah - two paragraphs have appeared and i suddenly feel like i am winning the race. for the moment. until i actually have to start chatting about the last couple of months and life and what is happening. but when all else fails i have the perfect remedy and that is known as "the list theory". i have often fallen on this in the past, and now comes the time to once more revert back to the classic bullet point style...

bullet point one: the job. i finished my job on the 17th of november, and despite warning my boss of this 3 months in advance, i was busy training a new replacement as of half an hour before i left. leaving things to the last minute is my secret motto for the place. since then i have been rung on several occasions to discover that those whom i had trained had departed without warning, and i was needed urgently to train new people. i was not back in auckland until yesterday when i kindly offered my services (for a generous hourly rate) and returned to work for two days to do training. this complete, i resume my holiday.

bullet point two: the boy. eric arrived in auckland (much to his surprise that my country did in fact exist) on the 18th of november and has been enjoying such kiwi luxuries as drinking l&p, buying fish and chips for $2, lounging on deserted beaches, listening to live kiwi reggae, catching fish off the rocks and being overwhelmed by such wonderful sports as rugby, league and cricket. currently he has headed north without me to work for ten days thinning mandarin trees.

bullet point three: the trip. so far we have travelled just north of auckland, and then south along the coromandel pensinsula and through to rotorua. this brought with it highlights of beaches and coastlines, volcanic activity bubbling up from geysers and mud pools and throughout parks randomly strewn through town, and hanging out with a school group all night as the southern cross slowly came up over the horizon - all of which stunned someone who comes from a land-locked, volcanco-inactive town that will never see some of the stars we have on offer.

bullet point four: the car. smurf (my toyota starlett) has been doing fantastically and is officially a well loved and well driven car. eric has yet to take the drivers seat, but i'm sure this will be changing in the new year. the sad news is that smurf had a run-in with some villains who broke his window and proceeded to take $1200 of cds... this saga is still in the process of being sorted but it put a dent in our plans as i returned to auckland to try and get things fixed up.

now i will separately post our unofficial camping guide.

yes. i know. it looks different.
it is not just your computer screen.
it is the real thing.


my webpage is two now after all.
and two year olds look a lot different from one year olds.
so it is time to grow up a little in appearances.


more changes will be occuring.
but as we all know.
that takes time.

soooo.

i am now 25.

as of yesterday.

happy birthday to me!

:)

hi folks.
for those with sharp vision, you will notice that my website is looking just a tad bit different at the moment.
all those comments you left for me have disappeared!!
this is due to the fact that the commenting system i was using is finishing up at the end of the month.
and so ive changed over and onto a different commenting system now.
a big thanks to rachel for doing this for me and for exporting all the old comments so i have them all saved and on record.

so - to answer your question aunty sue (you are officially the last person to leave me a message before we closed down that comments system!) - my website is definitely still up and running and a new commenting system is in place...

so feel free to test it out!

thanks!!

"happy birthday"

today my webpage turns two!

exactly two years ago i wrote my very first entry and announced my webpage to the world - check it out under archives on the right!

i just remembered i was going to tell a funny story but then i forgot to. so the title for todays entry shall be "a fun story i forgot to tell you about".

"a fun story that i forgot to tell you about"

a few weeks ago dad and i decided to go and catch a fish or two. a catch was made. but it wasnt by us. the tide caught us and we found ourselves surrounded by water on a little island. of course it wasnt an island when we walked onto it. but it quickly became one without us realising. maybe the title should be "the big catch" instead? i dont know. that might be more catchy. hahaha. okay, have obviously inherited dads humour. oops. anyway that was the story. pretty short really. but a fun story all the same and one i had wanted to share. and no real need to elaborate further unless there are questions.

the end

and so i have a job!

because i only wanted to work until eric arrives around the middle-ish of november, i finally realised the best way to get a job was to join the temping world... so i signed up with a temp agency (drake) in west auckland, did a few tests to see how fast i can type, whether i know how to use word and excel and had an interview... and the very next day i woke to the phone ringing at 8am - did i want to start that morning on an assignment?!

im working as a receptionist for a printing business - only a ten minute drive from home - thats two sets of traffic lights, and one roundabout, no traffic, and free parking right outside on the street... so its perfect. the job is straightforward - answering phones, sorting out couriers and mail, and helping out wherever else im needed. im working 45 hours a week - and after finishing my first week, im a little tired! still, i enjoy it, its good to be earning again and getting together the funds i need for a new car. and time is ticking along a bit faster now which is good too.

so for those of you out there that are thinking about the temping business - i say, go for it! drake was founded in canada but now is a large-scale international organisation and i have been very impressed! i suppose it helped that i have nearly 5 years of secretarial skills from when i worked at auckland university, but just the professionalism and quick response has been brilliant. and money has already been deposited into my bank account!

hi.

two things.

1) i added a few more photos over there on the right of your screen...

2) i was just wondering who actually read this these days... so, if you are reading this, would you mind leaving me a comment?

thanks!

hello.

todays entry shall be named "today i have a cold".

why? because (duhnduhnduhnnn) today i have a cold. sad but true. not a bad cold mind you, but bad enough to make me want to wear my bathrobe over my clothes for extra warmth and comfort.

i love my bathrobe. rachel and i were given them as christmas presents years ago... fluffy and white and made of thick towelling. its an item of clothing i wear every single day when im at home, and the only item of clothing i cant take with me overseas because it would take up half my suitcase! so its lucky i didnt have a cold when i was overseas or i would have felt decidedly homesick for my robe.

auckland continues to impress me with its "four seasons in one day" attitude. lets take today for example. there i am, lying on my bed, and i look out my window and its raining and grey as far as my window lets me see. then i happen to glance up and look out my skylight above me - and its all bright blue sky. an interesting phenomena indeed.

the job hunt has so far been unsuccessful. i suppose its a bit tricky when i only want to have work until the end of the year. so ive decided to try going through a temp agency. that way i can get contract and temporary work instead of trying to get a fulltime permanent position - that i know i will have to leave. so tomorrow im having an interview and doing some tests (word and excel) for an agency. then hopefully they can find me work. this is the plan. hopefully i wont have to blow my nose too many times during the typing test as this will slow me down. heh heh.

its odd being home and having some of my closest friends scattered across the globe instead of on the same street as me, like when i was a kid... naomi is in london, frank is in turkey, sandra and eric are in ottawa, karin is in peru, benn is in melbourne, brenda is in nelson, stella and aashish are in wellington... and i miss you guys a lot! but i am going to make a huge statement that i plan to see all of you at some point within the next two years.

have run out of tissues so must go in search of another box. from stephens room perhaps. heh heh heh.

in retrospect i suppose this entry should in fact be called "today i have a cold and other stories".

so here i am. back in auckland and last night i was finally able to watch the all blacks win over the lions in the last test, despite the linesman making bad judgement calls...

but lets return to canada for a moment:

friday 24th june: alex, jackie, eric and i begin our roadtrip out east (see map). highlight - making up a camping song to "i will survive" on the streets of quebec city.

saturday 25th june: to gaspe peninsula we drove, the last 40km being on a gravel road that allowed for a 5 moose and 1 white-tail deer spotting within half an hour of each other. we are higher up in the mountains here so its colder in the evenings.

sunday 26th june: we climbed mount Jacques Cartier (1268m) which was an incredible climb leading to an incredible view! a bus dropped us off about 800m up and we hiked the rest of the way, up out of the treeline and into a tundra environment with patches of snow still left from the winter. didnt see any caribou (there are only about 160 left in the park) but did see their tracks and droppings.

monday 27th june: drove to perce rock for a wander out to the famous stack and arch and then onwards to forillon national park right on the edge of the gulf of the st laurence. such a luxurious feeling at the ocean - the crashing of the waves, the breath of the wind, the galaxy looking down upon us.

tuesday 28th june: eric and i spent the day exploring the beach, and making seal figures out of stones. it was very hot but the water was so frigidly ridiculously cold that my foot automatically started getting hypothermia once submerged.

wednesday 29th june: spent the morning sea kayaking with seals, and the afternoon hiking the forests. saw whales out at sea, braved the ocean for a very very quick splash and then as eric and i ate fish and chips, alex and jackie proceeded to amuse us with the delicacies of eating lobster...

thursday 30th june: awoke at 4am to see the sunrise over the ocean, the lobster boat the only other soul up and about at such an hour. and then the 14.5 hour drive back to ottawa commenced, with me driving for over 4 hours! :) yay! and now i feel comfortable being on that side of the car and road!! highlight - stopping in montreal for dinner at this giant orange ball that served us burgers and fries. a place where girls get dressed up, guys show off their cars, and the music is pumping... reminded me of scenes from grease!

the rest of my time in canada was spent in ottawa and up at erics cottage. then i boarded a plane and came home, via atlanta, los angeles and tahiti.

eeeek, much to say and no time to write. i leave tomorrow for the big trek home to auckland. so the recap of my last week or so will have to happen once i land back on southern soil (soggy soil from the sounds of it too!)... but for those too eager and wanting a little insight into the happenings, heres a v quick list of some things:

- saw five moose on one road within half an hour of each other.
- saw three different types of whales from the shore.
- got up at 4am to see the sunrise over the gulf of the st laurence.
- hiked kilometres across gapse bay penisula including going up a v tall mountain that goes up past the treeline into tundra.
- i drove for about four hours on the other side of the road and now feel v comfortable doing this.
- saw biggest daddy black bear ive ever seen, towering above me with a curious demeanour.
- watched fireworks here in ottawa for canada day.
- sunny sunny sunny everywhere here!

see you in auckland!!