I was attacked with hugs by Fritha and Rowan when the bus arrived in Hastings. It has been so good to be with family and I find that extending beyond the two of them to everyone who calls the farm home. Right now Fritha, Rowan, Kelli and Katrina have all moved into the main house. David has been MIA since I arrived, but we hope he'll be home from Auckland soon.

Almost as soon as I arrived I fell hopelessly ill. There were several days when I couldn't even make it out of bed and found myself so well cared for by Fritha and Rowan. I am still not completely recovered. I can trick myself into thinking I'm well but then a wave of dizziness or nausea will creep up on me and I'm off my feet again. This has made it difficult to fully appreciate the scale and wonder of the farm but I have been exploring slowly. There are more fruit trees than I could imagine or locate. So far I've found plum, grapefruit, avocado, orange, olive, pear, apple, feijoa, tamarillo and fig. Some of the harvests I've already missed but many of the trees are still bearing or ripening fruit. As soon as my camera comes back from being repaired in Auckland I will have lots of photos to post.

We are in the midst of doing significant work in and around the main house. Tomorrow the new satellite internet is going in, about which I am thrilled. It has been an hour long process just to send an email and I am looking forward to being more connected.

Until then...

Here, Somehow

It is always a welcome sight when the sun rises after nearly twenty hours on various planes in total darkness. In those long hours only the occasional brilliantly illuminated ship and then, eventually, a tiny Pacific island would send a beam of confirmation that the earth was still beneath us. The dawn began to blush past the tip of the wing. The clouds cleared except for a cluster of pink meringues seemingly swimming in the muted silvery grey of the ocean. The coast of Queensland was just beyond that cloak.

I transferred to Air New Zealand in Sydney and was off to Wellington. I guess it's strange that I always fly into Wellington instead of Auckland but I can not resist the view down the south island. First it's the stretch of the Tasman Sea crashing against the sand down the west coast. Then the mountain ranges come into view, dominated by Mount Cook, always topped with the long white clouds that Aotearoa is named for. Then we swing around over the Marlborough Sound and the rough waters of Cook Strait. The whole progression just makes me very happy.

Totally exhausted from two days without sleep I passed effortlessly through immigration and customs, though I did put 22.1.2009 as my birth date. I promised myself I would not sleep until at least 21:00 so I geared up for the windy day outside. I spent some time in Te Papa, the free national museum, but all the dark exhibits were encouraging my comatose state. After some exploration along the pier and down Cuba Street it started to rain and I went back to the hostel to read, stupidly choosing my comfy bunk instead of a common area chair.

Five hours later I woke up. This did not aid in my acclimating and resetting my internal clock.

I feel strange, in a lot of ways, to be here. It felt wrong for the first time to be leaving New England. Hopefully a plan for my future here will emerge and I will begin to feel more certain and enthuiastic. Maybe I'm just jetlagged and a dose of family time with Fritha and Rowan will do me good. On to Hastings tomorrow!

homemade sushi travels quite well

The rest of our time in New Zealand was so lovely. We hopped around the coast, visiting lighthouses and small hidden cottages. Every kilometer brought us closer to Fritha and Rowan and suddenly we were in Napier, hearing their voices on a payphone!

Fritha treated us like queens and it was nice to be with family once again. It's been quite a trip for that. Rowan was large and in charge, as Gwill had promised, and I treasured those moments with him. He is wise and excitable and musical and thoughtful.

We organized a two day tramp through the ethereal Whirinaki forest. This involved driving several hours to the national park and then having a guy drive us to the start of the trail and bringing our car to meet us at the end. Sort of complicated but well worth it. There was a bit of a late start and much of our tramp to the bunk house was in the dusk and darkness. While moderately frightening, this allowed for a peaceful moonlit time in the woods and the sighting of a rare owl. Arriving at the hut we found a group of hunters having a blokely time. They were alarmed by our homemade sushi dinner and tried to get all of us to eat venison. As I lay on my bunk trying to turn the snores from below into soothing lullabies, Maggie and Stacey (Fritha's sister and her husband) arrived! They had left well after dark and clung to the narrow path walls the whole three hours. We had been sure they wouldn't arrive at all as they had just flown in from Chile and had to make quite a journey to meet us. Incredible to see them again! The next day we all high tailed it to the end of the trail to meet our pick up.



Jessica and I had a day of rest back at gorgeous Tauroa farm in Fritha's precious cottage then headed back to Wellington to catch our flight back to the states. On the way I got a speeding ticket. Bollocks.

It is surreal to be back in America. I am living in Winter Harbor and commuting an hour to Bar Harbor most days. Forgetting what it means to sleep quickly... It's good to be near family but hard to be away from my favourite hemisphere. Counting down the days until November 23rd.

All photos from this trip should be up so until next departure, be well and happy!

Please come to LA to live forever
California life alone is just too hard to build

cooooooooooooooooold.

it has been at record lows in new england this past week or so. the wind chills have put many days at a negative 30 to 50 degrees (i'm not talking celsius, southern hemisphere people).

fritha and i drove up to maine with her six year old son to inherit a dying computer from my mum. for the last hour of the drive there was something caught in the vent and it shot burning rubber flakes and smoke at us, which had to be tolerated or we would have frozen!

it was so good to see mum. she adored rowan, as did nana. in the morning mum took us around schoodic point. the air was colder than the arctic atlantic and it steamed above the waves. the shoreline was covered in sheets of crusty, salty ice. the clouds rose into cyclones on the horizon. rocks and trees were shining with the crystals of ice and snow. i have never seen such an intense winter display.

our ride home was uneventful. the heater had worked out it's issues and kept us relatively warm as we battled weekend traffic.

wishing i was living in california. or australia.