i took the bus to the beachouse in time for 5 pm volleyball with the staff (i was the only non-staffer on my team the first day -  very sore after the match. game 3 tie-breaker went to 30 points!)...
the staff collapse into giggles whether they win or lose a point and they are really really good.

banana smoothies
750 ml long necks of fiji bitter
coconut craft table -  cups, bracelets, can any of this get through customs?
scones every afternoon for tea!

snorkeling: (according to the couple from new caldeonia, the coral here is mostly dead), giant clams, incredible  variety of colorful textured fish, and they all manage to find pockets in the coral where they blend right in...

meals are expensive by fiji standards, but pretty good and hefty...
i went to koralevu to the little market and bought some provisions to make some meals myself in the backpackers kitchen, and stopped on the way home for fruit: 4 pawpaw for $1, 10 lemons for $1 on the side of the road.

this resort was the set for mtv's reality show: love island.

gecko in the shower
toad in the bar

after marlin poached in coconut milk served up by a true fijian queen (not the royal kind)...
we sat around a table and played this:
everyone writes the name of famous person/character on a piece of paper and passes it to someone who, without looking at it, licks it and sticks it on their forehead.  we go around and each person asks everyone else yes or no questions to figure out who they are stuck with.  a yes answer gives you another turn, a no ends your turn....
one night i had samuel colt, mr. bean, and pink panther: hard, harder, hardest!! another night i had madonna. easy peasy.

toads on the road
gecko on my bedspread

from the small world desk:
turns out libby from ohio is the best college friend of marina from barrytown! i know marina from barrytown!! 
we love her and can't get over this randomness!

went on a jungle trek with jutah which revealed great insight about the local plant life and fiji humor. i scribbled down notes about medicinal uses of plants as we squished through mud, climbed over roots, and waded across streams. 

tapioca/cassava tree grows like sumac does in ontario, along roadsides, and with red flowers.
duruca looks like sugar cane but is harvested only in may for the sponge-like fruit inside the flower. salt it or add coconut milk to it and serve it with fish.
"don't give your ulgy face to the mud. smile and say 'bula' and the mud will release your shoes.  otherwise you will get stuck in the mud".
the roots of the duva vine, when bundled and banged against a rock produce milky fluid that in 10-15 minutes will drug fish and make them very easy to catch, like yaqona does for people.
evie is a tree, the nut of which can be boiled and eaten like a cracker
dawa has a green fruit to be eaten raw
pandana tree fronds are used for weaving. the yellow/orange fruit is inedible
mara nibulu makau leaves are torn and applied to deep wounds, then bound, to coagulate the blood.

we arrived at a big waterfall and had a prolonged photo session beneath the pounding water as jutah posed and reposed us, shooting multiple frames with our 4 cameras, until he was satisfied he had a good shot for everyone.

jutah also led a yoqona a.k.a. kava ceremony on saturday night (kava means tin in melanesian/fijian, but is the western and polynesian way of saying yaqona).  the chief (the person sitting directly opposite from the kava serving bowl) drinks first, followed by a representative from each country in the circle.  i was the only rep from the u.s., so i drank in the first round. powdered kava is steeped in water, and then served in a coconut bowl (low tide, high tide, or tsunami portions, depending on how full the coconut is). the women tend to have the option of choosing their portion size, whereas the men are expected to go for high tide....as was i, because after the jungle trek and the volleyball court, jutah had deemed me "strong woman"...

28 hours left...more to come....

this cinco de mayo celebrated change.

it's a treat it to arrive in cygnet and be welcomed into the world of tongola goat cheeses and esther and hans from switzerland.
it's dark but i already know it's a farm, there are possoms in the trees, goats, lamb and wine for dinner, apple strudel for dessert. i get a sleeping hut of my own, just next to the goat sheds! i can hardly wait to see what the morning brings.

esther and han's only rule regarding wwoofers is that they allow them a breakfast to themselves.  when i wake up there is a sight for sore eyes on the long walnut dining table, awash in sunlight: local creamed honey and butter, homemade preserves and muesli, hearty bread, goat's milk, soft goat cheese, yogurt, and tea.

their house, designed and constructed hans, sits partway up a hill, astride a young eucalyptus forest, with fields above, and a beautiful view of blue mountains across the river through plateglass windows on the north side of the house. the living area is one large open L-shaped kitchen/dining/living room full of beautiful wooden furnishings from esther's family in switzerland, a wood stove, a large bathroom, and two small bedrooms.the goat and hay sheds and wwoofer huts are clustered together beneath the eucalyptus trees just downhill from the house.  the pristine cheese-making facility shares the ground floor of the house with han's workshop and a large kitchen pantry.

my day one of wwoofing happens to be the day cheese is prepped for delivery, so i learn what types of cheese ester and hans produce, and how to package them: capris is their softest cheese, mildly salted, very spreadable. bloom is their white mould cheese, a bit like camembert. curdly is goat's milk curd. billy (their silver medal winner) is aged and has a rind, is a slicing cheese with great flavor, and florest floor (a happy accident) is a billy that turned out a bit different.  it has a rind that looks like a knobly tree trunk, and is very "goaty" as esther says.
they are all good. the softer ones are my favorites.

i start dough for the new york times' "no knead" bread on a daily basis so there is no need to buy bread for most of my stay...these swiss go through a lot of bread!  it is great with their cheese.

hills and valleys and the winding huon river
misty clouds and rains across the river
bright sun lights up the water and the green paddocks
framed by thin eucalyptus trunks reaching high overhead

oppossoms scuttle around during the night. one of the goats has made a habit of rubbing her horns along a piece of corrugated iron somewhere, producing an eerie scraping noise periodically after we're all in bed. moonlight floods the paddock outside my cozy wooden hut. 3 of the interior walls are painted sky blue, at the end of my bed,  a wall of recycled mismatched wooden windows, the ceiling is painted ochre, which almost matches the honey hue of the wooden floor and loom and door. i complimented hans on the harmony of this unlikely color combo and he thought his colorblindness was responsible. in the morning i'd wake up to 26 tinkling bells as esther called the goats, by name, for breakfast, and milking....her goats are her children and it is very sweet to witness the interaction she has with them.

i take a couple of bike rides during the week which means coasting downhill for ages and then climbing steeply home.

hans and esther's neighbor jeremy is in the process of relocating from perth and when he's flush he flys from western australia and works on constructing his shed (antique car restoration workshop and home) just up the road. he and hans help eachother out with projects and he joins us for a few meals, providing some aussie perspective on tasmania and tasmanians. his best mate ben drops in from hobart as well and the three of them go into mechanic overdrive trying to get hans' vintage motorbike running.

wwoofer tasks include shoveling goat manure out of feeding areas and moving it to future garden areas, planting acacia trees to reforest an area the goats got to before it was fenced off, cooking, washing up, breaking and boxing up kindling, cheesemaking, and organizing canning jars (sweet on one shelf, savory on the other) - glass retains more odor than i realized!

when i was clearing the straw and manure out of the baby goat shed, i took wheelbarrow loads uphill to an embankment that will eventually be a garden bed. coming back down i yelled out, "hi kids" and 5 baby goats bleated back. it was great.

528a sunday hill road
rockettes on a monday night
snacking on spec
making yogurt
potato leek gratin for dinner
forest floor/billy hard cheese melted on top

hans' haircut is called a camel
and his round glasses are reminiscent of arthur (the children's book character)
esther smokes "fags" on a bench on the porch outside the kitchen and reads voraciously.
she and hans have no faith whatever in their ability to work with plants.it is a persective i have a hard time getting my head around after months with gardeners...funny.
they are both simpatico characters and i enjoy their company immensely.

on my last night i go to the local high school with hans to watch the badminton tournament season get underway.badminton is big in tasmania. who knew?

jeremy gives me a lift back to hobart to catch my flight to melbourne. tassie, i'll be back.

leaving new zealand was bittersweet - it was getting cold and i was looking forward to the warmth of sydney, the visit with friends...but new zealand has taken hold and i shall be back...

getting to sydney was pungent - sat next to a farting american dude on the flight and was very happy to touch down....

justine picked me up at the airport in the same little car she had 8 years ago when i visited - still with the maroubra sticker on the back windshield...

she filled me in on ed henck's visit, formula one, and her soccer team. we stopped off in kings cross for an aussie wwoof membership book for my trip to tasmania, and then chilled in paddington (new orleans meets paris in the southern hemisphere). after new zealand which is decidedly british, sydney feels continental.
the day after i arrived, justine and geraldine had to drive up to their grandmother's funeral.
i spent the whole day uploading photos for me friends :)

i spent almost a week in sydney before flying to hobart and got a much better sense of neighborhoods this trip.

my little hot pink "slingshot" anarchist organizer (thank you carolita) lists addresses around the globe "to help you connect with radical people and projects when you're traveling around." i used it in wellington, sydney, and melbourne. loved where it led me....in sydney, tracking down the black rose anarchist bookshop brought me to a neighborhood called newtown which i might not have seen otherwise...

my dad has been friending artists on facebook and one of these contacts lives on cronulla beach outside of sydney. he hooked me up with her and she and i met for coffee, lunch, and an afternoon tour through her creative process.  she is in the midst of making a leather purse, painting, drawing, and photographing the ever changing light on the ocean outside her window. she is generous and friendly. originally from south america, she's been living in new south wales for the last 20 years, has two grown children and a four year old. we talked about her family and mine, jobs and realtionships, dreams and ways of looking at the world. just recently, her life has taken a major turn and she is now enrolled full time at art school in sydney.

saturday in sydney was anzac day.  i set my alarm for 4:30 am and turned on the TV to witness a few minutes of the dawn service taking place a couple miles away, and then fell back to sleep. justine and i went out for lunch, walked through the market in paddington and over to sydney football stadium to see the roosters get burned by saint george's dragons 29-0 (rugby league isn't as much fun to watch as union, but the whole experience was memorable - anzac day meant a lot of hoopla before the game, including a helicopter touchdown mid-field).

after the game, pubs were packed...everyone coming from the races is dressed to the nines, everyone coming from the game is wearing something representing their team, and it is shoulder to shoulder.

i read the biography of florence broadhurst, a lady of many guises who ended up in sydney designing textiles and wallpaper and was mysteriously murdered in her showroom just down the road from justine's house...

before heading to the airport i get coffee and a book at the ampersand cafe and 3 story bookshop on oxford street. the traveller by eric newby is full of autobiographical travellogues including a great cycle touring caper from the uk to italy via france.

i left wellington knowing i'd return, so not regretting missed outings, like the wildlife sanctuary right around the corner from koromiko. it was time to go. once the koromiko wwoof crew disbanded it just wasn't the same.

so, off on the bus to meet clyde (wwoof host and owner of epicurean supplies, the largest farm i worked on, specializing in providing top notch veg to retaurants and markets in hawkes bay). the micro greens, i was told, were not to be missed. clyde picked me up by the fountain in the middle of hastings and we stopped at the supermarket to pick up groceries the wwoofers requested. back at the farm, the wwoof lounge/kitchen was humming with bad american TV shows and slow internet...three young wwoofer gals: two irish and one canadian, and three irish lads were sitting around when i got there.

hastings was hard work after highbury. there was a more structured regimen than at koromiko, and it took adjusting to: chilly early mornings of repetitive work: weeding rows of golden beets, dill and coriander with a knife (not pulling up the weeds, but cutting them just below the surface of the soil), picking baby pumpkins and potatoes, and planting kale.

there wasn't much to do in the evenings on the farm and the nightlife in hastings wasn't recommended. the slow internet crashed and burned. i ended up watching some pretty shockingly bad tv (i got momentarily drawn back into the crazy web of LOST), and cooking up hot curries.

the food rewards were top notch: baby aubergines, micro basil, lemongrass, bok choy, rocket, coriander, pumpkin, delicata squash, garlic, shallots....
the clear night sky was breathtaking, as was the low autumn sunlight through golden fig leaves, and i enjoyed them both from the deck of my little wwoofer cabin.

unfortunatley my short visit coincided with clyde's weekend so i didn't get much of an opportunity to get to know him...next time?

nelson. at last!

again, at jean's recommendation -  so far, they have all been great - i check in to accents on the park, probably the cleanest hostel i have ever stayed in.  shower feels great.  i realize that i will want to spend some quality time here in nelson, so i start researching wwoofing places in town. full monty is on in the hostel bar.

such a great day!  i go over to nile street, where julie, a potential wwoof host, lives with her husband nihkil, to check out their place, and talk with her about it.  she is originally from LA, he from england, and they have just returned from a couple weeks away.  they'd love to have me do some gardening, install shelves, landscape, etc.   they are older, and having some difficulty doing thse sorts of things themselves.  i have already paid for another night at the hostel, but agree to return tomorrow to start.  they lend me a bike.

i ride over to founders park, where there's a bakery and brewery.  julie's son has just taken over responsibility for the bakery, it having been julie's business for several years.  i meet him and his wifie briefly, offering to help them out with the farmer's market held there on friday if they need it.

i ride around town (all flat and easy) and see a cafe called lambretta's that looks too freaking cool for school -  italian scooter style -  i'm a sucker.  i park the bike and order an iced coffee inside, then find a stool outside next to two afghan dogs who are waiting for their owner.  my coffee comes out looking like an ice cream float - and huge! and then the owner of the dogs emerges: a really sweet widower named laurie, who lives in golden bay.  after talking about his recent travels and mine, and wwoofing and couchsurfing culture, he invites me to come and stay in golden bay. 

positively humming from the coffee and feeling in perfect alignment with the universe, i hop back on the bike and ride out to the beach. i watch kite surfers and look around for jess and gary who i thought might be camping out there.

i take a bone carving workshop with stephan, the fastest talking german jeweler in new zealand.  he is amazing.  we all produce finished pendants in about 5 hours.  he tells us about maori traditions and mana, and places our necklaces around our necks for us -  as they should be given to us, imbued with our mana, and then passed on to someone.

after the workshop, i ride the bike with my heavy backpack on, over to julie and nikhil's. i work in the garden in the afternoon, and then go out to bridge stret to meet up with a couple of the irish girls from the workshop who are having a big last night out before driving south....but i don't find them for a while.  instead i meet one, then three, then five... members of the matamata (home of hobbiton) rugby team who are in nelson to play an exhibition game on saturday.  we do a bit of a pub crawl and eventually we land in the bar where emer and joanne are drinking....we stay out dancing for a while, and then - suprise suprise - we find our way to the local kebab shop.  here, i somehow get talking to a brit from brixton who is winding up a bike tour of nz....he has to catch a bus in 5 hours and talks me in to staying up with him.  i hit the hay at 8 and get up at 1:30....julie and nikhil have gone out and left a note saying "why not call this a day off".  i meet them at the founder's park farmer's market around 4.  riding back from there, i stop in at a health food store, just to check it out, and run into jean (jean from maine). serendipity.  we go find some local brew: mac's sassy red, and make a plan to meet at the saturday market.

market. op shops....some hostel put on a scavenger hunt for the backpackers theree and we aran into some of them in wigs and costumes at a thruift shop. jean and i considered joining them but i went.in search of the matamata rugby game instead, and came up short....i found another one though and watched that. jean dressed in drag, well: a woman dressed as a man dressed as a woman...and brought a little flavor to nelson's sleepy saturday scene.

gardening in the afternoon and  kingfish for dinner with julie and nikhil and a friend, john, from golden bay.  back to bridge street for another night of debauchery.  found matamata at the bar for a pre-st. patty's party, more pub crawling and dancing.

sunday: markets, parks, hardware store. installed kitchen shelving for julie and nikhil to take some strain off their limited counterspace...rearranged the furniture int he guestr oom, landscaped the backyard, adding a pathway and then had an early night: burgers for dinner and bananagrams for dessert.