En Zed Vocab Lesson

Move to new Zealand from the USA and you are likely to understand the language...that's because they speak english here! You 'll feel right at home. Haha, jk. Aside from the different accent you are for sure gonna be reminded daily that you are in a foreign land because of the strange new words...yes English is spoken here, but there is a bit of language learning involved as well- perhaps simply and extension of English? Nah, it's a completely different english language :)

Ok, let me explain.

Lesson #1 Egg laying clucking birds.

The owner of the house where I am staying has those little cluckity cluck cluck animals that lay eggs. And what do you call these birds? Well, you would say: I have to go out back to see if the chooks laid eggs yet.

Lesson #2 swim break

If you go to the beach, you don't want to forget the thing you swim in, or the slip on shoes that protect your feet from the hot hot hot sand. "ooooh, the sand is so hot, I better put on my jandals," and "this isn't a nude beach, so we better wear ours togs."

Lesson #3

Mmmm, I Love coffee. Most shops don't sell straight up drip coffee...although the local(?) Starbuck's does. Hmm. But French press style works just as well- if you've got one of these in your home, though, it's not a french press. Nope. You make coffee by plunging it with your plunger...that's right, the same name as the item we unclog our toilets with. Pleasant.

Ok, you're at any place that serves nondrip coffee- what on earth do you order???

*you want an americano? The espresso style most like drip coffee? Yeah you can order that, but it's also called a long black.

*straight up espresso- order a short black.

*flat white is like a mini latte.

*you don't want a skinny latte - or with skim milk. Instead, you'll order a trim latte with trim milk.

*cappaccino, latte, macchiato are more or less the same...

Lesson #4 how bout them roots?

Oh my goodness, I need to die my hair again cause the regrowth is as long as the Nile.

Bad example- but regrowth is roots from died hair. Makes sense. Roots do, too.

Lesson #5 the last letter.

How would you say the last letter of the alphabet? Or how would you spell ooze?

Ok, here goes: oh-oh-zed-eee

Yeah, the last letter of the alphabet is 'zed' not 'zee.' cool,huh?

Lesson #6

you tinkle on a bog, apparently. Not a toilet.

Lesson #7 in the kitchen

Haha...this learning moment strongly influenced my decision to peace out of my job.

Don't put the cup on the bench.

Haha...I guess you had to be there to find humor in that sentence. But that translates to: Don't put the mug on the countertop.

I was asking my ex-boss to hand me a mug. I pointed to it and said it again a few times. He's puzzled. Ding ding ding, lightbulb! He realizes I'm talking about the device to serve coffee drinks in...he states rather rudely "NO, it's a CUP! You're not in the US anymore, you're in New Zealand! You have to call it a CUP!" then he shakes his head in disgust at my ignorance and stupidity. Quite literally. K, buddy. I've got ZERO problem with calling this item a cup. None. But I have to have the knowledge to call it that first. Way to go for understanding of language barriers and cultural differences...

Lesson learned. And there were plenty of other rude and disrespectful situations, not just that.

Enough ranting. Moving on to our next lesson...bare with me, we're almost done.

Lesson #8

you need to grab some snackies or a soda, or maybe an ice cream at one of those super duper tiny grocery stores but not really grocery stores cause all they sell is junk food stores? It's a dairy versus a convenience store.

Hmm what else. Oh yeah, if you come here from the States, remember that the left side of the road is the right side of the road. So don't drive on the right side unless you're down with head on collision (and really, you shouldn't be).

That's a biggie.

Enough learning for the day. If you feel like learning more today, I'd suggest reading a book.

Aloha! (that's Hawaiian for 'hello' and 'goodbye'. :)

Motivation for Creation

Unfortunately my new job was a fail...it was too good to be true, as my mom so correctly put it. I can tolerate a lot of work place drama and crap, which there was plenty of, but I pretty much have zero tolerance for disrespect. So I quit. Less than a week after I started - never have I done this before. Ever. It felt weird for me to do that and just a bad bad situation overall. I even noticed the red flags, too and thought I'd be able to just deal with it for two months... But fortunately I value my own self worth quite a lot to realize it truly wasn't worth it. Nobody should put up with disrespect, imho...especially when it's in your face the entire shift.

But moving forward. This, of course, leaves me currently jobless but full of options again as well. I have spent the day applying for employment, though a bit more choosy this go around. I may have to pick up and move to a fruitpicking region...and that's all g. I'm looking more into the outdoor adventure tour and/or retail industry. Hoping the summer season around the corner will help.

Ooooooh, I also reserved a spot at an art market to sell (or try to) my earrings and bracelets. This is incredibly motivating. I may even try to draw a mandala or two as well. Motivation for creation, yeah!

So there is good to come out of this ultra crappy situation, as there often is.

Not a fan of disrespect. So peace out, Ephesus.

Let's take a run, shall we?

Whakarewarewa Forest is in my temporary backyard, and for this I am grateful. I can enter the forest less than 1/2 a mile from my current residence. Enter it, and you are taken to another world. Much of the time, I half expect fairies to pop out and sprinkle fairy dust on my head. Maybe I will fly one day - one of my childhood desires. I wouldn't be surprised if this forest had healing qualities, too - especially since my achilles has been sore for the past several months and now it is no longer. Though, to be fair, I have avoided super steep, long inclines for a while (the cause of the bum achilles) and have been wearing a brace everytime I ride and run to allow blood circulation, which supposedly helps. I also think the ride from Auckland to here helped strangthen the tissue surrounding it...this is all speculation, of course...but it feels loads better and I don't have a shooting pain if I step the slightest bit off.

Onto the forest. The land is part of the forest service here and is actually used for logging. They only log a section at a time, though and large areas not being logged are used for recreation: mountain biking, horseback riding, running, walking, hiking, etc. According to http://www.redwoods.co.nz/history.php, the California Redwoods in the park were planted in 1901 due to much of the land being cleared beforehand for timber. Though the trees are young in comparison to their California relatives, they are still magnificent and awe-inspiring. If you haven't already, and you have a chance, definitely check out the Redwoods in California. One of my fave places ever.

All the pics are from one of my runs - I ended up being out for nearly two hours - though much of the time I was snapping away.




Yes, this plant is no longer living, but the leaves of the ferns create a beautiful pattern that I find quite inspiring. If you don't know already, I LOVE super-macro camera settings!












I still can't get over the massiveness and quantity of trees and plants and all the various shades of green.
















































Look who I ran into early on during my run. I'll have to name him because I'm sure we'll meet again...though he looks pretty aged and probably has a name already.





I have a cool panarama feature on my camera. I love how this photo illustrates that one side of the trail is more ferny type trees while the other side of the trail is mostly dominated by Redwoods.

Note for the future: for more efficient running, don't take the camera, Steph. Again, I am so grateful to have such a beautiful place to play. And I love how a walk in these woods is pure entertainment and costs nothing, like so many of the Earth's natural wonders.

Looking forward to the next run...thanks for joining me on this one!

Made in New Zealand

I've been making heaps of earrings while I've been in Rotorua. I'm hoping it can be a second job and/or a way to make a little extra income on the road. Plus, it's pure entertainment. Check these out - and critique if you please. Working on an Etsy page - perfect timing for the holiday season, huh? Enjoy!

My first made in New Zealand earrings - from a collection of handpicked shells found on the beaches of Tauranga while I stayed in Mt Maunganui.

Designed and made in Rotorua from seed beads and a necklace (round wood pieces) from an estate sale in Georgia.

Same as above, with copper colored wire, instead.

Shells from the same beach as the first set. Made in Rotorua.

Beads from a chain craft store in Georgia. Made in Rotorua.

I actually made these on the flight from Honolulu to Fiji...not in NZ. oops.

I designed the earrings below in Georgia before my thru-hike, but gave the first pair away. They remind me of a flower - upsidedown. The "petals are a plum color. Made In Rotorua.

The beads are actually seeds from a plant that grows near streams in Hawaii. Handpicked. They are very hard and glass-like. Beautiful. First set made in Hawaii, but I made these in Rotorua along with a bracelet in the same style.

Two sets of earrings and a bracelet with the same style of glass bead. I still have to figure out a simple and nice way to clasp the bracelet together.

I remade the earrings below here in Rotorua because I didn't like the original wiring method I used. The large beads are from a bead shop in Duncannon, PA that I picked up on my hike.

Beads from Brazil. First pair made in Hawaii...this is the second pair made here.

The longer set with the copper wire was made in Hawaii, the shorter set with the darker wire was made here in Rotorua - I've been inspired to make smaller earrings lately - trying to have a larger variety

Beads without a match, yet...but the matches will come. I tend to make/design earrings one at a time because I usually am on a roll. The first earring is the most time consuming and the second usually takes a fraction on the time to make than the first.

I love these - made them a couple days ago. They are green zebra-esque striped beads from a chain craft store somewhere.

K, I'll post some "made in Hawaii" and "made in Georgia" earrings soon and hopefully get the etsy page up and running, cause these are fairly tame compared to what I've mostly made in the past :)

Deja vu and missed tea parties...

I'm employed! YEAH!! and it's deja vu style at a middle eastern restaurant...called Cafe Ephesus. The owner is Turkish, though he has never been to Ephesus - a land of many, many, fascinating ruins that I really don't know too much about...even though I did go there once...back in my teenage youth. My hiring process was even deja vu - saw the 'now hiring" sign (same as pyramids), applied (same as pyramids), interview 34.58 seconds (just 5 min 34.58 seconds at pyramids), I get hired and work A LOT (just like pyramids)...

Wow, what a drastic difference - not only the eating out/waiting tables w/ no tips concept...but in management as well. This guy is all over the place, and I have to remind myself of the various factors invlolved (language barriers, cultural differences, etc) so I don't get upset and storm out. I've been sooo incredibly fortunate in the last two years to have such low key management. We often worked by ourselves at Pyramids and once the owner trusted you, it was very much an honor system sort of deal. We were expected to do a good job, and we did. I've got to remember that most managers/owners are a bit more nitpicky and even flat out rude and condescending to their employees at times. K, two months, Steph. You can do this! :/ hmm


K, onto more happy thoughts. My housing situation for the next two months seems to be panning out quite nicely. I met Byrdie through www.warmshowers.com - a couchsurfing sort of concept but strictly for cycling tourist. She has toured a whole lot and owns a house here that she very often opens up for tourists in New Zealand to stay while they are in Rotorua. Long story short, she has a small room connected to the dining room that she is letting me rent out for the next two months at a very reasonable rate. I lucked out cause renting a room in a house via the NZ version of craiglist - or even at a hostel - would have been 2-4x the amount that i am paying...I feel like I won the lottery.

Check out some of the tasty delights that Byrdie and her housemate Mishel (from Alaska - she was the first USA-ian I met after a week of being here) made for Byrdie's tea party. Sadly, I had to miss it because I had to work my brand new job on a busy night :( But I did help out as a little beforehand and I was in awe cause they whipped most of this up homemade style the morning of with a little prep work the night before... (I made the puffy pink merengue things below - well I dalloped them - and poured the fillings into the mini-quiches - ooooohh go me!)




Yummy!

Yes, smooth sailing this far. And Kate gets here in less than two months. Defintely getting the 'time flies' sort of feeling inside :) I've got to start planning which sort of routes we are going to take. We will be completely geared to go off-road - and we want to...but coming about these routes and getting from point A to point B will be much more varied and a bit harder to come by than an all out paved tour. I'll be expecting to take paved roads at some points...but it would be super cool if we didn't have to.

gotta peace out to work :( but I get to PLAY tomorrow! :)

Pics from the road...

Putting my BOB together at the airport. The flight was a little hope over the Pacific Ocean from Fiji. I'm still in awe that the airport has a place set aside to build your bike...and free computers with internet access...what?!


Leaving the airport - on my way to my warmshowers hosts just a few kilometres away for day 1.
Playing a conquer Europe with trains game with Belinda, Marcus, Liam and Roland...Belinda and Roland recently finished a 1.5 year tour on a tandem riding from Alaska to Patagonia! Wow!


Belinda snapped this pic of me officially heading off...to who knows where :)
My first home. Topopokanga Regional Park (the following three photos below).
I stayed in Katikati two nights after some gastro issues. hm. But the small town is dotted with murals - painted in the 90's and early 2000's to try and boost tourism. This is just one mural of probably 30 throughout the town. Apparently, it's working. A lot of people come to this town/area to find work picking fruit.
Beach just east of Katikati - shoreline covered with shells!

Ancient imprints? They looked pretty cool. These are platered (naturally) on some rocks at Mt. Mauranganui near the city of Tauranga.

Me on top of Mt Maunganui. Just to the left of this pic is where the giant oil spill occured not too long ago and there are still massive efforts to clean up the beaches. Swimming was not recommended and in fact, several of the less populated beached further south were closed entirely. So sad...this dependence of oil.



My first made in NZ earrings - and the shells were found on the very beach I made them on...cool, huh?
I am almost to Rotorua!


more pics to come...trying to keep in a theme-y...maybe "Super-Macro NZ" will be next!

A few pics to start off...

Barely missed getting dumped with hail! Enjoy the pics... (going backwards)


I finally made it to Kuirau Park just outside the city center of Rotorua where bubbling thermal pools and steam vents dot the park. You don't wanna fall into one of these suckers. Most people really don't enjoy the eggy sulphur smell, but I find that I really don't mind it.


I'm staying in a neighborhood in Rotorua just next to the Redwood Park that has over 100 km of mt bike trails. Cassandra (left), Isabel (middle) - both from Germany and also on Working Holiday, and I spent a couple hours riding in the park. They were also staying at the same house for almost a week and were able to give me the lowdown of the wonders of this place. I'm so excited to explore more of these trails because we only rode not even a handful of what is offered...It's such an extensive network of trails and each one is marked beginner/intermediate/difficult, much like a ski area. And there are dedicated mtb trails and walking trails. Perfect!




K, I'll try to load more cause this is just from the past couple of days.

Aloha!

Home sweet temporary home...

My new home base for the next two months to live/work/play smells like rotten eggs. Mmmm hmmm, that's right...like the kind that go bad. It's all g, though, y'all cause it's not real eggs stinkin up the place.. Yucky egg smell often indicates sulphur is lurking in the air - and this town has lots of it...geothermal vent style steaming from inside the earth to grace us humans with it's eggy presence. Fascinating. I love the fact that very active and live earth is just beneath my feet!

Not only is this area volcanically active, but -oh my gosh- it has such a gigantic system of dedicated mountain bike trails. Seriously, I have a different sort of paradise in my backyard for the next several weeks. St. Louis, I love you and will forever be grateful for your existence to introduce me to my first, and thus far only, true love of mountain biking.

But this trail system is like St. Louis on some serious steroids- the trail network spans over 100km of varying difficulty and then you mix in baby redwoods (though ginormous, they are quite small by california's standards), crystal clear streams and lakes, super fresh air, palm tree looking ferns, Maori carvings, pure beauty...really I never knew such a place existed.

Also class V rapids to 'float' and plenty of rocks to climb and Maori culture to discover and trails to run and lakes to swim in...

I've just seen the tip of the iceberg of what this wondrous country has to offer...

And now the job hunt begins so I can enjoy these fun ventures to the max :)

6 days down...359 to go!

Tomorrow will complete my first New Zealand week. I currently reside in the town of Katikati for two nights while my insides heal. Since my arrival, I have ridden through lovely pastures, rolling hills, quiet shorelines, the outskirts of Auckland, rails to trails of the Karangahake Gorge, tiny towns, the birthplace of lemon and paeoria soda (world famous in NZ)...through sunny skies and chilly enough rain for me to pull out my ski pants.

Advised by incredibly wonderful warmshowers hosts, Belinda and Roland, I stayed my first night at a beach named Topopokanga Regional Park. Only three other campervans, along with me-my-bike-and-my-trailer resided at this gorgeous site for the night...towering orange cliffs, a crystal clear bay with the very green and mountainous coromandel peninsula in the distance, and glorious load of new types of sea shells for me to sift through...and I was greeted by a pasture of 100's of recently sheered sheep who seemed to be curiously wondering and yet obviously avoiding my slightly overpacked trailer.

This would be my third night in the country. I was walking back to my tent on the deserted beach at sunset when an older gentleman approaches me asking what I know about RV's being allowed at this site. They weren't allowed, but we talked a bit more and I said maybe twice that I had just arrived in town a couple days earlier so I really didn't know the rules. Then I mentioned I was on a bike- the pedaling kind...and then you could see a light bulb go off in this guys head.

We had an encounter, though brief, at the airport a few days prior. He's a taxi driver for the executive types so he was in a fancy uniform...which is why I didn't recognize him at the beach. He questioned what I was doing as I was building my bike and trailer and when he found out why (to ride around the country- from the airport) the two simple words he uttered were "you're crazy!". Haha, more than likely true.

I figure running into him at the beach was a fun chance encounter and let's me know I am starting my kiwi experience in the right direction...because i do believe in that sort of thing. After I finally could pinpoint which stranger he was to approach me at the bike building area of the airport, I went to his parked for the night RV and met his wife, Sally...he told her the story and brought me along so she would believe him...

Did I mention how beautiful this beach is...and the shells! Oh my...I so look forward to making my first set of NZ made earrings :) I'll mail a pair to the first person who responds (if you want a pair).

Next stop: Tauranga

Big aloha!

The joys of being poisoned :) <--- sarcastic smile

My first rest day since being on the bike. I had a bit of an issue, gastrointestinally, due to ingestion of Milo... Which I had believed to be a chocolatey drink. Though the terrain was relatively easy and distance not very far, I arrived into Katikati purely fatigued and utterly exhausted. Strength thrown out the window. If it were up to me I would have hopped off my bike and slept for ten days in the open grassy fields - perhaps even curled next to sheep doo doo. Not an option.

Though my intent was to push on a bit and pitch the tent somewhere, I was incredibly grateful for the hostel in town. And the laundry machines.

A very short and exhausting meandering through town had me bypass a department store with a large can of Milo advertised through the window. Curious as to what the chocolately ingredients were, I tried to eye the listing only to find the giant words "MALTED BARLEY" screaming back at me. Oh sh*t. Damnit, steph, when are you gonna learn to triple check any unknown food to prevent essentially poisoning your body.

Today I am eating nothing but whole foods and am gradually getting my strength and clarity back. The sinus pressure is slowly dissapating, too, as is the other yucky gastrointestinal stuff...live and learn, Steph. Life is much to precious to live life the way I've felt the past two days. I guess I'm just surprised how it has yet to hit me 100% how much gluten rips apart my insides quite literally...and prob figuratively... and how much it deteriorates my quality of life. Not worth it.

Happy to get back on the bike tomorrow...with a healthier mind body and spirit :)

Fannie's in Auckland!

Ohhhh myyyy, how happy am I! I spent four wonderful days on the island of Fiji. Thank you Iva, Mili (x2), Seni, Orisi, Seru, Fulori, Isei, Bandi, and Manu for your wonderful hospitality and showing me what Fiji is all about. I really can't express my gratitude. And oohhh my, the food was wonderful. Fijian grown veges and meats cooked in simple yet delightful ways. Midi (raw coconut mile with diced onions and tomatoes), mmmmm mmmmm good. And thank you, Seni, for showing me around Sigatoka and Suva. I love you all! Vinaka!!!

I've since flown into Auckland. Built my bike and trailer at the airport (where they have a bike building area, and free internet kiosks!), and rode into Manurewa (just a few miles from the airport) where I am staying now with fellow tourist Belinda and Roland (they rode from Alaska to Argentina) and their family. So far, New Zealand is so lovely and I'm so happy and grateful to be here. I'm just gonna get my bearings a little bit more, pop into a bike shop, get some contact solution, repack my trailer and take off tomorrow towards Rotorua, I think :)

Let the adventures begin!