Firsts

New Zealand, land of contrasts. Beautifully varied forests, horrendously invaded by pests. Possums are the sworn enemy here, not Aussies, as I'd suspected. New Zealand is 3rd on the Human Development Index, yet the country also has the highest per capita usage of meth (or "P" in local parlance). Auckland has been rated 2nd best city in the world, yet most of the country can't stand all the Jafa's (just another freakin Aucklander). Auckland is the city of sails, with some of the highest boat ownership ratios in the world, yet you don't need any license or certification to operate one. Sub tropical climate in the north, penguins in the south. The country supposedly produces 90% of its own food (unverified), yet the organic selection is weak at best. "Perceived" government corruption is tied for the lowest in the world, yet teen pregnancy rates are second only to the U.S. Ok, those last two facts probably aren't related, but I'd run out of juxtapositions.

Well here we in Northland, the northernmost region of the country. Famed for pristine beaches, it also has some really picturesque rolling pastures, the largest natural harbour south of the equator, and is the birthplace of the country, as well as a traditional stronghold for the Maori. Not particularly economically developed, but there are a few tourist hotspots. We've bummed around a few farms and hitched along the scenic routes, but we'll be heading south fairly soon, as we're eager to give the south island our full attention.

Weather. We'd worried about stumbling off the plane, jet-lagged and blasted by tropical heat, but the time change is only 3hrs (plus a day) and the temperatures have been quite agreeable, ranging from about 15-25 Celcius during the day, although often windy. Took me a few days of questioning my bearings before realizing why the sun always seemed to be at the wrong end of the sky. The UV index is off the charts here. Nobody here seems to pay attention to it, thought they'll always warn you about their hole in the ozone. The only day I checked, the UV was 11. Australia has the world record at 14. The highest I've seen in Canada is 8. New Zealand stretches the equivalent latitudes of Seattle to Los Angeles.

The hitchhiking has been excellent. Aside from a few waits of up to an hour, our times are usually no more than ten minutes to catch a ride. Lots of short rides, which is only worrisome because there are very few shoulders wide enough to hitch from in this country so far, so a good spot isn't something you wanna give up. Still, baggers can't be juicers, am I right? We were worried that with two of us, and two big packs, we'd be hard to fit, but whatever disadvantage that gives us is made up for by the sympathy we get for being backpackers, so the packs help in a sense. Locals just don't seem as exciting to pick up, apparently. I expected that all vehicles on the road would be smaller than back home, but there are plenty of small vans, small trucks, and small SUV's. And compact cars here aren't any smaller than back home, so the only thing missing is our oversize jacked up Dodge Rams and Ford Excursions.

Our only couchsurfing experience so far went well. Two self-described anarcho-syndicalists surrounded by amazing forest. They believe in unionism as a means to an end. Lots of interesting things I'd never known about unions, especially how unions in each country differ from each other. Unions in NZ used ot be mandatory. Everyone had to be a member of some union or another. That's long gone now, but apparently it still survives in Australia, which is why their wages are higher. Also, there's no such thing as a closed shop in NZ, meaning that not all the employers in a company have to be part of a union. It's voluntary. Seniority is nowhere near as powerful in NZ unions either. It was good to talk radical politics for a little while and especially with someone who's job it is to know this stuff and who actively lives it. We spoke of anarchy and activism and it's helped me realize that being surrounded by centrists and apathetics has polarized me a little and it's actually been my chats with dear friends that has reeled me in a bit.

One of our main reasons for farmstays is to eat well. Unfortunately that wasn't the case at our first farm. Three meals a day is not enough for us weakling vegetarians. Eight hours between meals isn't my cup of tea. We also want to be taught and hopefully work alongside our hosts and this wasn't the case either. We were attracted to the fact that it's a long-standing eco-village on 160 acres (each family has 2 acres for private cultivation), but if we hadn't known it was an "eco-village", there wouldn't have been anything there to give it away. It costs only $50,000 to buy your way into the place (similar real estate would go for $250,000+), but the kicker and the disincentive for would-be real-estate flippers, is that you can only sell for 1/7th of the $50,000 plus inflation and the improvements you've put in. So not really much of an investment, which is sort've the point, I guess. The family's main focus was an NGO they'd started, but Amy will talked more about that. In the end, despite the fact that they'd hosted over 350 WWOOFers over 10 years, they didn't seem to have much to offer. Still the forest and beach walks certainly weren't a waste. I spent a day setting up a fence and two days polishing a yacht they use for their NGO, which is actually one of the boats used in training by Jessica Watson, the youngest girl to sail unassisted around the world (earlier this year).

Some kiwi humor for you. Whether we're laughing with them or at them is up for grabs.
Beached As

 -Dan

Dan's Prologue

Here's the long-winded, redundant, introduction to our trip, from my point of view. I just wanted to highlight some of the ideas and modes of travel that we'll be exploring.

So what makes this trip different, besides the fact that I'm not going alone? Well, New Zealand being an English-speaking developed country is a bit of a break from the 7 previous months in India I've accumulated. This means several things: I'll be able to relate to people immediately, once I start to catch on to kiwi slang. It means in-depth conversations with locals, not just other travelers. Being so similar to BC (or so everyone always imagines), means we won't feel so much like tourists and will be able to be much more independent than in a country where we don't know the language, the customs, or even how to find answers. Instead of simply escaping to a seemingly exotic Asian country and bumming around for a while, I'll be able to actively engage and expand a little, keeping things relevant to my life in Canada. Which brings me to the themes of our trip, the way I see it:

Green Living - Is it possible to be green while traveling? Having a water purifier saved me from buying plastic bottled water every day on previous trips, but what about recycling? Will I be able to recycle, reduce and reuse while on the road? It will probably be challenging in some ways. We plan on hitchhiking everywhere that we can. That means my carbon footprint goes from that of a pizza delivery driver to that of a pedestrian. I'm interested in seeing how easy it will be to reuse things on the road, like plastic bags, and if it'll be practical to avoid excess packaging, and that sort of thing. Not to mention all the unforeseen challenges of trying to not overconsume while abroad.

Hospitality Exchange - We really embraced couchsurfing this summer (mostly just to have some sort of social life), and we racked up a number of good references, which hopefully makes it easy to find hosts along the way. This of course means we won't have to pay for accommodation (combining with our tent hammocks when we want to sleep a bit closer to the ocean). I have a lot of thoughts on Couchsurfing (big surprise), but overall it seems like a great way to stay grounded on a trip. In fact, instead of planning an itinerary of stops and sights, we're going to especially rely on CS hosts to tell us what is and isn't worth checking out. CS will mostly be used in transit though. The big hospitality exchange will be working on farms, via WWOOFing and HelpX.

Like-minded folks - After 6 months in Whitehorse, seemingly void of all interesting people, I'm going to actively seek out people I share common interests with. I want to eat with vegetarians, shoot the shit with Anarchists, and farm with environmentalists. By narrowing my searches on CS, it should be pretty easy to pick out sympathizers.

Farming - I'd really like to grow as much of my food as possible. I'd love to get off the grid. In fact, I'm really interested in scouting out some eco-villages and investigating alternate ways of organizing societies on small scales. How practical is all this? How much of it is pie-in-the-sky? That's what I'd like to figure out.

Camping and Tramping - We're not gonna stay in hostels and we're probably not going to stay in too many campgrounds. We're gonna try low-impact random camping anywhere that it seems practical. The country's population density isn't too high. Trees shouldn't be hard to find with a bit of forethought (google maps satellite view). Fresh water and private beaches. It just makes sense to try a little renegade camping and see how it goes. Tramping/trekking is going to a bit different than back home. With nearly 1000 huts along the trail systems of the country, we won't need tents. Our hammocks should do us just fine down low, and when we're hiking up high, we should be able to stay in a hut almost every night, especially if we avoid the weekends. For around $100 each, we can get passes allowing us free stays in almost all of the huts and campgrounds in the country.

So that's the gist of it. Trying to figure out new ways forward. Get inspiration from like-minded folks, try out some new methods (hammocks!), and try to figure out how to live a better life back home.

We leave November 17 and are scheduled to fly back March 24.