Due to the lack of good secondhand book stores, we had to start hoarding books, but before we knew it, we ended up 11 books....
Another hike, but one with only a few highlights, including Amy's vehement refusal when faced with a 3-wire bridge...
More hitchhiking, weather as yet unsettled...
Got a nice and cheap ride from the mail man, who's turned the mail delivery vehicle into a bit of a sightseeing venture, bringing along tourists who want to see the scenic side of the peninsula we've been WWOOFing on. But since he knew the farm we were going to, he gave us a deal.
Our current farm, slightly elevated. The view from our room...
And an observation. Most houses we've been in here seem out of date compared to Canada. Not that they are necessarily older, but that they have such things as separate hot and cold faucets, coupled with sinks too small to wash your hands in. No bug screens on any windows, despite the pravelence of houseflies and sandflies. No insulation in the walls and no double-paned windows.
So we're halfway through the trip now and one of our themes to explore was what it means to try to travel green. Sometimes it's best to bounce off extremes to find your balance point, so we decided to really try to see all travel aspects through a green lens.
By hitchhiking I believe that even more so than taking public transportation, we're reducing our carbon footprint. This certainly isn't the only reason we're hitchhiking, but few people here seem to even consider the notion when asking why we're hitchhiking. It's more social, more environmental, it's more of an adventure, and I needed a break from driving for a while.
We made it our goal to recycle everything recyclable that we consumed. This caused us to ask questions and figure out how recycling works in New Zealand. Recycling is run much the same as in Canada, with rural areas unable to recycle nearly as much as rural areas. A few interesting recycling non-profits have a policy of not sending anything to China, so as not to completely negate the positive aspects of recycling by shipping things across the ocean for no reason. We've opted not to compost as this of course would stink us up a bit, but we have been good about rinsing out humus containers and keeping receipts, plus reusing all our grocery bags until they're tattered. We've been using only rechargeable batteries, which I don't find to be any more of a hassle than buying them new, and certainly means less batteries being consumed. I like how the grocery stores here give out resealable bulk bin bags. Makes them more easily reusable, there's a little opaque patch to write the bin code on (doing away with twist-ties), and they're thick enough that they're less likely to spring a leak over repeated uses. We haven't bought a single bottle of water. And we've actually stopped buying granola bars for all their useless packaging and started seeking out tea that isn't individually packaged. This is the first time I've ever really made consumer choices based solely on reducing packaging and it actually feels pretty good.
So trying to be pedantic about all this green stuff of course makes it a bit weird to do housekeeping in exchange for a dorm bed, because we're forced to throw out bars of soap that have been used once, spray chemicals non-stop, watch water getting wasted by the sheer amount of laundry being done all day in order to keep up, and replace rolls of toilet paper that are far from empty.
In a place like this, with as much sun exposure as we're getting between hitchhiking, farming, and hiking, we've gone through a lot of sunscreen and it's made us both want to start slipping on a shirt rather than slopping on some sticky, polluting, expensive, high-maintenance, potentially leaky, carcinogen-filled sunscreen. Using cancer-causing agents to reduce cancer causing agents. Fight that fire with fire!
In Canada, if you've got a washing machine, you've probably got a dryer too, but that's not the case here. Dryers, as they probably should be, are a real last resort and while it's certainly made me want to get a drying line when I get home if it's not against the local dinosaur aged bylaws, it's still not all that convenient for travel. I highly suggest wearing mostly synthetic clothing when traveling, because cotton, my friends, just doesn't dry fast enough.
-Dan
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