G'day Mate! Put another shrimp on the barbie!

It's been a long time since I've written but I'm pumped to be finally getting down and updating my blog. Life is pretty cruisy at the moment. I'm in Cronulla (Sydney), Australia at the moment and it's gorgeous! It's about an hour south of the heart of Sydney on the train. My friends Nick and Lara that I met in Banff live here and they've been super sweet with me staying with them. The day I flew in we went to an Aussie league football game. It was the Sydney Swans verses a team from Adelaide and we schooled them! It's a pretty cool game, kinda like a mixture of rugby, football and soccer. Since then I've been down to the Sydney harbour and had a good look at the Opera House....Wowoweeewowoweeee! It's pretty stunning! The same day I did a tour of the botanical gardens, this sweet older lady showed me and a few others around. I got to learn about tonnes of cool Aussie plants!

The tales of how it's a lot more relaxed and slow in Australia and New Zealand are true! The time seems to stand still. I can get up, watch the news, have a coffee, go to the beach, take a yoga class all before noon! I know, I know I'm living on a bit of a cloud over here....I'm going ride it out as long as possible!!! :) :)
In my last blog I had written up to when we were leaving the South Island of New Zealand. Well, it took us awhile but we managed to make our way up to New Plymouth on the North Island to volunteer at the WOMAD festival (http://www.womad.co.nz/new-plymouth.htm ). It's a festival of music, art and dance. The musicians were amazing! They were exactly that world class! Courtney, Mahal and I were volunteering at the information booth for the festival which was perfect for us. We got the inside track on what was going on, not to mention we got free accommodation in the Maori, Marai beds. One of the biggest highlights was seeing the Kiwi famous Fat Freddy's drop!!! Not only did we get to see them once we got to see him twice! Plus Court talked to the lead singer, which left her with trembly knees! Their music is real good, check them out- http://www.myspace.com/fatfreddysdropnz.After the festival was over we knew we needed to work asap! But, as fate would have it we would end up in a van soon to be known as the P-Bus...Party Bus that is! Our friends were on their way out of New Plymouth so we jumped in with them. They were also wanting to find work, but they were not at all in a rush to do so. They were more concerned with finding a good beach. The three of us with our rubber arms being twisted were easily persuaded to join them on their beach mission. It took us over 2 days to get about 60km.....let me tell you that we saw some nice beaches! hahaha! Not only that but we got real stuck finding one and then ended up getting pulled out by this amazing Maori man who told us where we could go to camp. We ended up staying by the ocean with a view of a gorgeous Mountain called Taranaki. It was a sweet night! The man came back with his son and we had a great chat about the history of the land and some real good laughs!We ended up having to bail on the P-bus once we got to the town of Wangonui as we could tell they were going nowhere near work any time soon. We were super lucky to get to Wangonui as my friend Steph's mom (I lived with her in Ottawa) lives in Wangonui. We called her up and she let us stay with her for a couple nights. She was so sweet, she gave us a tour of where Steph grew up and took us out to see her horses. Another great example of how sweet people are down here.

We made a clean break from Wangonui and went straight across and a bit north to a town called Napier. We were assured that we would find work around this area as it is the 'fruit bowl' of New Zealand. Unfortunately, like everywhere else in the world jobs were scarce. We were real discouraged as we found out that the fruit was late and therefore there were NO jobs. AHHHH!!! Getting a bit down on ourselves we managed to find a sweet hostel and we headed to a few beaches to cheer us up! In the end we got real desperate and called every single number we could find that may have had apple picking or packing jobs. I got through to one man named Phil and he ended up being our Angel and in the end a bit of a devil for us. He had a small orchard and they were starting to pick on the following Tuesday. So, we got ourselves some jobs and place to live. We stayed in our sh.&%^ ass tent outside of the house on the orchard. It was great though because we had a hot tub, full kitchen, clean bathroom and a freaking sauna! Sweet az bro!

We picked and picked and picked some more. It was real tough but we managed to make enough money to get by and do some fun stuff. By fun stuff I mean I went SKYDIVING! Yeah, Courtney and I jumped out of a plane from 12,000 feet and free fell for 45 seconds! It was f-ing unreal! The entire experience was pretty wild. Court and I weren't sure if we were actually going to do it as we drank the night before for our bosses son 18th birthday. In the morning they woke us up at 8:30 (we stayed at our bosses summer home in a town called Taupo). They were so hyped up and ready to go...they convinced us that we should really skydive as we may never have another chance...so we went for it! We were still half drunk and so I think that made the decision easier!
It was so seamless as it's tandem, you basically get into a small plane and sit as crammed together as possible. The views from the plane were amazing and once again I could see Mount Taranaki! We got to a certain elevation and you could feel the buzz of all the flight instructors getting ready to go. So, the guy I was with says ok, sit on my lap!!! To which I replied 'wow, didn't know we were getting this intimate' (he got a good kick out of it). I asked him to triple check that I was attached to him! I wasn't really scared until the thought went through my head that I would just pop off the guy and go plummeting to the ground! That thought passed quickly and then all of a sudden it was time. The door slid open and BOOM out the camera man was hanging on the edge of the plane and then BOOM one of our friends was gone down....I was 4th in line and when it came time I asked the guy if we could do as many flips as possible! Ha! He was like 'Is this your first time?' to which I said 'Yes, and probably my last so let's make it good!'.
Then it happened we scooted over to the edge and on the count of three we were out. We free fell for about 45 seconds. 45 seconds of pure exhilaration! It was such a rush! I loved every second of it! Then he grabbed me around the waist and shhhwoop, he pulled open the shoot! We soared down the rest of the way. He did some loops around which were a bit of a thrill but mostly it was super relaxing! (If you know Courtney you'll have to ask her about her experience, oh Miller...Miller...Miller...Miller...)

After our wild weekend we picked apples for a few more weeks and then decided we should head all the way north as that's where the next fruit and jobs would be ready. A side note here would be to mention that yet anohter one of our electronics got messed up here....you would not believe it, but a tractor ran over Mahalia's purse and her cell phone, which at the time was like our life line!!! It all worked itself out, but what a freaking nightmare!

On to the next fruit on our journey and how appropriate that right before we leave we come into the world of KIWI FRUIT!!! I've never seen more of one fruit in my entire life!!!

We headed North stopping in Taupo for the long weekend to do one of the New Zealand famous walks. The Tongariro crossing is one of the World Heritage Sites. The trek included the volcano "Mount Doom" that was in the "Lord of the Ring". Not to mention 3 gorgeous blue sulphur pools and a huge lake. Just when we thought that we saw the most beautiful thing on the hike something else would be over the edge!

Taupo was great we went out after the hike and ended up meeting some awesome guys and partied up big time. We dominated one of the bars dance floor as we later noticed we were the only ones on :)

North bound also lead us to Auckland for a night. We were lucky to stay with one of Mahalia's friends, Erin. We hung out and checked out little India and ate some wicked food!

The last leg of our trip as I mentioned brought us almost to the top of the North island. We went to a small town called Keri Keri. We were promised by the owner of a hostel that he could get us jobs and accomadation. PERFECT! So, we rocked up to a semi-sketchy backpackers and within about 5 days got work. The place was ok at first but after awhile it was just plain dumpy! But, on the first day of work we ended up getting a ride with these girls from Auckland. Nina and Serena would soon become our best mates in New Zealand. They are super funny and having them around saved us from bailing on the entire situation.

On to the packhouse....oh the pakchouse!!! Unfortunately (or fortunately), we couldn't get kiwi picking jobs but instead we got kiwi packing jobs. Basically, we showed up at this big packhouse (like a kiwi factory) and it was luck of the draw of what position you got. Court, Mahal and I huddled together to make sure we were on the same job. However, somehow both Court and Mahal got labelling jobs and I went to the kiwi line. Courtney was in charge (actually she's still there and I fear if a cute kiwi boy sweeps her off her feet we may never see her again) of the machines of kiwi lables that went on each individual label. So, she would be known as the 'label supervisor'. Mahalia was in charge of putting the bar code stickers on the kiwi boxes after they were packed. Serena, Nina and I were among the many that were in charge of putting the kiwis in the boxes!!! So, picture this- a converyor belt of kiwis going down a line and they get spit down a shoot where then you have to put them in a tray or in a box. Sounds simple, Yes, it's very simple! BUT...it's so hard on the body and it's super brain numbing! I cried after my first shift. I was so sad for all the people in the world that work in factories on lines day in and day out.
We powered through two weeks of twelve hour days before we decided to start on the night shift. That meant that we were working 5-1AM. It was perfect! Not only did we get off twelve hours but Nina, Serena and the three of us moved out of the dumpy backpackers we were staying in to a gorgeous pagoda! Our friends told us about this place that normally never lets backpackers stay but because it was the off season we were allowed to stay there. It was like being at the ritz considering the place we had been staying at!

The other great things about going to the night shift was that we all got better jobs and we got to really know the people of Kerikeri. We were working with some real interesting characters that made for some real interesting stories!

Our time in Kerikeri was pretty good in the sense that we were making money, meeting cool people and living in a sweet pad! Not only all that but one of the weekends our friend Daniel (Steph my old roomie from Ottawa, her boyfriend) came up to take us on a tour of the Northland. He's from a town called Kaikohe that was only 30 minutes from our town. It was such a treat to have him show us around up there. It was a locals tour for sure! First we went to the site where the belief is that the first Mauri's came to New Zealand by. It's this huge cliff out cropping where the sea comes into an inlet. Then we went to his mom's house for some traditional fried bread, his mom was super sweet. After that it was onto see these massive indigenous Kauri trees. They were so big!!! We also got to some beautiful beaches, his families land on the ocean, the best fish and chips in New Zealand, the site of the Rainbow warrior, waterfalls, a traditional murrai and to spot where they signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Pretty good for two days eh!

The other sweet thing that happened was that my friends Jess and Pk who I had met in South Korea, came to New Zealand. They ended up coming up and staying at the pagoda lodge as well. The first day they got there I called in sick to work and took them to this wicked Reggae show (http://www.myspace.com/1814official). It was a sick night! We met this wicked guy Mark and danced our bums off all night! We would then go back to that same bar again the next night only to win a dance competition! Good times!

It was hard to leave Kerikeri in the end. I thought it would be easy as the work at the kiwi packhouse was at first real daunting. In the end though it was great. We finally had a sweet home, a decent enough job but the clincher was that we had some good friends!

I left Kerikeri a few weeks after Mahalia had left. I flew out of Auckland but before that I finally had the chance to visit with Steph. Steph is the wicked kiwi chick that I lived and worked with in Ottawa. She was one of th reasons why I went to New Zealand. It was a perfect end to my time in New Zealand. We really just hung out and she showed me around Aukland, brought me to a rugny game and some other really nice spots in Auckland. It was so great to see her again!

Sigh, wow that was a mouth full! I'm going to end this here and I'll write another update about my Aussie adventures!

I'll be home in less then a week and I can even wait! Both my sisters have babies now and I'm so excited to spend some time with them and the rest of my family! As well, the week after I get home is the OM festival so I get to catch up with all my friends in the forest! WOOHOO!!!

Peace, love and smiles from the land down under!