What´s Next?

So what´s next for these intrepid travelers, shirkers of responsibility, arrestedly developed weirdos? Well, once we can extricate ourselves from the oh, so comfortable world of free room, internet, tv, heat, use of car, etc., etc. at Michiel´s dads home, we are moving on to Spain for several months of volunteer work.

We described WWOOFing in an earlier post. That´s what we´re planning on doing for the next several months. For us, it´s a great way to practice Spanish, test out different regions in Spain and learn some farming and construction skills while not worrying about the expenses of room and board.

Certain Spanish provinces have more hosts than others and luckily, there are some intriguing opportunities in the areas we are considering. During the hot summer months, we plan on staying in the northern section of Spain, focusing on the Costa Verde (the green coast), then moving south in the fall.

If you´re interested in seeing the type of establishments involved in WWOOF Espana, check out: www.wwoof.es and click on Distribution Map to see this map. Each by mousing over the provinces, you can see how many hosts are available.



In conjunction with WWOOF, we are also using HelpX as a means of identifying volunteer opportunities. www.helpx.net Click on Europe. We decided to become HelpX members rather than WWOOF members as there seem to be more hosts in Spain in that organization.

Feel free to comment with any towns, regions, or people, that you think we need to visit while we´re there.

At this point, we have three possible gigs lined up in Asturias. The first will involve helping to build a yurt, the second is with a small market garden (we´ll assist in preparing the boxes of produce for sale) and the third is helping out on a small family´s property. They are Spaniards with children, so it will be an excellent opportunity to improve our language skills.

All of these plans are fluid and most hosts give you the opportunity to extend your stay if you´re enjoying yourself, so it´s impossible to have a set itinerary. For now, it looks like we have a pretty set plan until August.

Biking through the tulips

When the weather is good, there is no better place to be in April than the Netherlands. When I saw the weatherman doing his weather forecast from the tulip fields, I knew what we needed to do. We took a bus with hundreds of giddy tourists to the Keukenhof, the most famous flower garden in the world. From here, we rented bicycles and biked around the periphery of the gardens which is a terrific way to see the fields full of tulips, daffodils (earlier in the spring) and hyacinths. These pics were incredibly hard to choose as Michiel got at least 70 beautiful shots. (I took a couple of nice ones, as well!)

Chillin´with the homeys in New York

We had an unenviable itinerary...Christchurch, New Zealand to Auckland to Los Angeles to New York with a couple of hours layover in each location. Much to my delight, I was mysteriously upgraded to Business Class. WOOOOO HOOOOO!! I´d always wondered what life was like upstairs in a 747.

Despite my request to upgrade him as well, poor Michiel had to suffer with an exit row in economy while I drank champagne, ate gourmet food and drank port, watched a movie with good headphones and slept nearly horizontally in Qantas pajamas. It made me wish I was rich enough to always travel that way, but more importantly, I realized that there is a missed opportunity for airlines to offer better seats for more money without all the extra frills. I would have been willing to pay extra for just the seat, nevermind the hand creams, shaving kit, white tablecloths and 3 flight attendants dedicated to my small section that come with a Business Class ticket that costs thousands of dollars more than economy class. Managers of airlines, feel free to steal the idea - upgraded seats without the upgraded service for less money than business class.

We spent a week in New York visiting my family and mom was good enough to fly up from Florida for the occasion. We did lots of resting, catching up with American television and some sightseeing. We spent a day driving up the Hudson River and visited the Moorish home of Frederic Church of the Hudson River School of landscape painting and (the highlight of the day) took a tour of the world famous Culinary Institute of America (known as the other CIA). We even got to sample several decadent desserts that had just been pulled out of the oven by student bakers.

The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park


With Lisa, Mom and Michiel at Olana, Frederick Church´s home on the Hudson River




With Lisa and the Hudson River in the background

WWOOF!

We had an extra week in New Zealand and decided to save our money by becoming WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) volunteers. WWOOF is an international organization of organic (or wanna be organic) farmers and homesteaders who require assistance. In return for 5, 6 or 7 hours of labor per day, volunteers receive a place to stay, three meals and sometimes extras, such as the use of a car or swimming pool. The labor can range from weeding and planting to construction, animal care, and even childcare. Every WWOOF host offers a unique opportunity to experience rural life in whichever region they´re located in.

We contacted some hosts on the Banks Peninsula based on very positive feedback from our friends, Mike and Ali, who had done some WWOOFing there. Though the listed hosts did not have availability, they did refer us to a lady who needed assistance. Through email contact, we arranged our stay.

We stayed in Little River for a week and had a pretty luxurious WWOOFing assignment. Our accommodation was in a separate "sleep-out", a room off the garage with heat and wireless internet and our hostess (or Michiel) made us three meals per day as well as a coffee break with bread or cake. Most of the meals were centered around fruit and veg from her garden with the addition of store-bought items like sausage or fish or oatmeal for breakfast. She had apple, pear, lemon and lime trees, berry and grape plants and a decent-sized organic garden with companion planting.

One of the things I´ve taken with me from this experience is her recipe for a refreshing herbal tea:

Steep 3-4 leaves of lemon verbena, a slice of fresh ginger root and a slice of lemon in hot water for 3-5 minutes. Serve.

Our room and the grapes


The side yard


Our tasks included removing some non-producing berry plants, making a planter box, mulching around trees and shrubs, mowing, cleaning the pool (a new skill to add to my resume), chainsawing and clearing a downed tree that fell across the driveway during a storm, bringing rubbish to the dump and washing windows when the wild winds prohibited us from working outside.

The berries have been removed and Michiel has built a planter box for next year´s tomato plants


We did some travel around the Banks Peninsula after our week was up, then spent a wonderful weekend with our friends, Anna and Chris.

Scenic drive on the Peninsula





With Anna on the Godley Head trail.

Can I get a witness?

Timing is everything.

The day we went to the storage facility in Christchurch to pick up our left luggage, we bumped into DJ and Karen, friends from the ice. "Are you busy this afternoon?", DJ asked. Since we were only slowly heading out to the Banks Peninsula to start our WWOOFing assignment, we certainly could spare 15 minutes to witness their marriage ceremony. Which was a lucky thing, because DJ had a TO DO list that included stuff like: find witnesses, whack hair off, get married, email a friend and other items.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Our love affair with the Bay continues

Tossin' bales with Mike and Ali gave us a great opportunity to get to know these wonderful people better, so when our workshop ended and we felt kinda lost, we all decided that it would be a great idea to go on a backpacking trip. First, though, we did some serious relaxation. The construction work was physically demanding and being wall captains on the final weekend was mentally challenging, as well. We celebrated our success with a cookout on the beach featuring freshly harvested cockles (small clams) and New Zealand's famous green-lipped mussels. The following week, Michiel and I did our own mussel harvesting in terrifically rich hunting grounds!

The Anatoki River Hike - a long but not difficult hike through a river valley and then up onto a ridge, to descend, finally, into farmland.

Our hut - night 2


From the ridge


Looking down into the valley from Kill Devil Hill


After the 3 day backpacking trip, Michiel and I went out to Abel Tasman National Park for camping and a day hike. The beach sand was the most amazing color orange and the sunsets were stupendous...but, alas, the sandflies are so horrific that it's nearly impossible to stay still for too long. In fact, I will sheepishly admit that we spent both evenings reading in the car...I know, I know.....how lame! But have YOU ever experienced sandfly bites??! They itch for weeks...really.

The beach at Totaranui


Wainui Bay - Abel Tasman


We had a good hike, all the same but were quite keen to retreat back to our little bungalow in Collingwood and a day hike out at Cape Farewell.

Panorama at Cape Farewell


The motherlode!


Michiel works our bounty into a green curry mussel stew. Not all of the mussels were as big as his hand, but this one was!


The view from Collingwood


Sigh...the area is so beautiful, the beaches are gorgeous, the people are so laid back, friendly and liberal and the mussels are just there for the taking...If Golden Bay weren't so far away, we'd move there in a second.

Tossin´ bales in Golden Bay

During the summer season in Antarctica, I decided to put together an interactive workshop in order to learn more about a subject I am very interested in learning more about: living off the grid. Once a week, a different person volunteered to make a presentation on a topic they had researched or knew something about first-hand. Topics ranged from alternative contruction technologies (Earthships (houses made from pounded earth-filled tires), strawbale, and structural insulated panels) to solar, wind and geothermal energy and food preservation and hydroponics. I facilitated the speakers and sent out weekly minutes and additional information that I was finding on various topics on the internet. It was quite well attended and the enthusiasm was terrific. Some time in the middle of the season, I decided that it would be fun to participate in a strawbale construction workshop, where I could get some real experience working with making bale walls. Workshops are held all over the world, but as we were going to be in Australasia in autumn (pleasant temperatures) and the dollar was strong, it made sense to look for a workshop in New Zealand or Australia.

I made contact with Michael Thomas at the Sustainable Building Alliance in Golden Bay, New Zealand (NZ). Michael is an American who has been building strawbale homes in the Pacific Northwest for many years. He and his wife, Spring, decided to move to NZ in order to "bring the strawbale gospel" (my words, not his) to the Kiwis.
Michael was building the first major strawbale building structure to the South Island and he had already spent several months working with the owner, Kevin, on getting approval from the building authorities for this new technology.

Kevin's home is a 2 story structure with views of the farmland in front and the mountains beyond. The house is an infill type structure, in which the structural elements of the house are traditional stick frame (wood) and the infill between the posts is straw helpd in place with heavy chicken wire on the interior and exterior sufaces. The wire is sewn together through the strawbale using a big needle and galvanized wire (a very entertaining part of the process).

Along with Michiel and two other participants in the Living Off the Grid workshop from the ice and a lovely couple from Englad, we spent 9 days learning from Michael about everything from the foundation to the final plaster work (which, incidentally keeps out any moisture and rodents). The weekends on either end of the week were dedicated to wall raising and they were terrific events. On both weekends (one weekend per story of the house), nearly 25 people from the community and beyond acted as laborers. We were successful in getting nearly the entire second story completed and started on the first plaster layer (scratch coat) during the first weekend and the 6 of us who were participating in the full workshop acted as wall captains for the second weekend in which we completed the first story and started plastering, as well.

The best part for me (other than chainsawing the bales, which was super!) was the incredible feeling of community. Putting up a strawbale home is achievable for almost anyone (at least the wall construction aspect of it) and it was so amazing to see the walls go up so fast. Savoring the hard work at the end of each weekend (not to mention Kevin's homebrew), you couldn't help but feel that you'd been a part of something special.

Here's what the house looked like when we arrived. Notice the lack of actual walls



Nothing like sportin' a chainsaw!


Michiel is using a pneumatic stapler to attach the chicken wire to the top beam


Sometimes, the work involves simply stuffing straw


Once the walls are complete, they need to be trimmed with a (non-sparking chainsaw) or, as in these images, with an electric hedge trimmer or sheep shearer.



Michael and owner, Kevin, demonstrate how plastering is done


Closing ceremony on the last weekend. Notice that the second story is plastered (first coat)

Tonga without Tracy...sniff

Tracy left us despondent and lonely on Tapana Island but we consoled ourselves with more snorkeling and swimming. That night, though, we had a visitor. A large rat had been hanging out in the bungalow. He'd been gnawing on the soap bar and leaving his droppings behind, but on this night, he wasn't satisfied with soap. He went for anything plastic or rubber her could sink his teeth into, like the snorkel mask, the nose pieces on Michiel's glasses AND sunglasses, and various other items that we are still discovering to this day.

We'd been warned about the Tongans' flexible definition of borrowing from tourists (you know, like stealing, only not as frowned upon). In fact, we had no problems with any human behavior at all. We found the Tongans to be friendly and exceptionally laid back. So laid back, that they really didn't enjoy working much and if they ended up working in the tourism industry, they liked to tell everyone how hard they worked and how tired they were. Those few Tongans involved with tourists did work hard compared to their countrymen and women. Since Tongans have a communal spirit, all possessions within a family can be claimed by any family member. It's a system that doesn't lend itself much to working hard, innovation, entrepreneurship or capitalism for that matter. Most of the people working in the tourism industry are foreigners.

In the case of Taina, a Tongan lady who is running her own accommodation establishment on the island of Eua, she was married to a German and lived in Germany for many years, where she must have learned something about capitalism. Unfortunately for Taina, her kids and nieces don't necessarily have the same drive so not only does she run the homestay and cook for the tourists (not to mention the awesome service she provided us by tracking us down at the bank to tell us that we could catch an earlier flight) but she cooks and cleans for the family, too. Her place is lovely, though, and we enjoyed our day hike through the National Park with her son, Michael. He's the gangsta looking one in the photo with the machete and the fan (tee hee).



Taina's Place





Hiking on Eua


Eua Landscape






Our plane to Eua was broken and none of the employees of the airline company had thought to check to see if our flight was actually going to depart. It wasn't that they were lazy per se, more that they just didn't think of taking that extra step. We ferried by boat to the island instead and flew back the 8 minutes by special medevac flight which was necessitated by a domestic stabbing. Pretty gruesome sitting in the airplane with the sobbing woman, her bleeding wounds and her IV...no attendant, no nothing. They even dropped her while transferring her from the ambulance into the 8 seater prop plane.

Eua Airstrip



It all sounds pretty grim, but we had a surprisingly good time. Almost everywhere we went, we bumped into happy ice people who were fun to be with and the slow pace suited our temperament. Other than post-ice trauma, I'm sure it was the heat that slowed us down to a crawl. When I now think back on those 2 weeks, I don't think about the humidity, the mosquitos, the dengue-fever lite that Michiel got (it's carried by mosquitos; there's no vaccine; there's no real cure; it's like a bad flu), the lack of motivation of Tongans or the cockroaches. I think about the Lysol blue water that is so warm that we could snorkel for hours, the markets with their woven baskets of taro, the tropical fruit, the enormous umu feasts and traditional dancing performance, the boisterous preaching and loud singing in Sunday churches, the steady pounding of mallets against wood as women prepare leaves for tapa cloth, the South Pacific version of Mormon missionaries in their woven skirts (the men!), white button-down shirts and flip flops, the pigs roaming freely and even swimming at the beaches, the Tongans with gold teeth (most of them have at least one), and most of all, the good times we had with Tracy, Barb, Steve, and lots of other ice people (and even some fun people who weren't from the ice!)

The market in Nuku'alofa


The root vegetable in the woven baskets is taro and/or sweet potato. Taro is the plant in front of the baskets, above



Steve (in yellow) and Barb at a Tongan feast and dace performance at Hina Cave


Tongan dancers


Stuffing my face with guava