April 1, 2003
There are some days that I feel like I am on vacation. Today is one of those days. I know people think I am on vacation every day. I guess I am, but there are those that I actually work, at hiking anyways.
I read in bed til 8:00, such a luxury that I never seemed to have time to do when I was home. We got on the road about 9:00. We drove to the longest swing bridge in New Zealand. It was just a tourist thing. It cost $5.00 to walk across. We decided to skip it. You can also go over on some kind of Indian Jones type swing. We just got back on the road. We thought the weather was going to clear when we first got out, but we were wrong. It started raining and it was pretty steady.
We picked up a hitch hiker. He was a German man named Martin. He was on holiday for 8 weeks in New Zealand. He was a police officer in Germany. He had been basically traveling by the Kiwi Bus. This is a bus service that you buy for a certain area or all areas depending on when you want to travel. The cost depends where you want to go. The bus stops in all major places, so you get off and get on at these stops whenever you want. I think the bus pass is good for a year. It is a pretty good way to travel for some people. Martin didn't care for it because it was mostly young people interested in partying. He also said that you get in late in the afternoon which doesn't give one a lot of time. Martin gave us his email address and told us that when we are in Germany he might be able to help us. He lives in Frankfurt or is it Hamburg. I know it is some American delicacy. Really, it is Frankfurt. We dropped him off at the youth hostel in St. Arnaud. We were going to check out some hikes, but decided we didn't want to get wet. We continued driving. We decided to go straight to Nelson and do the best thing when it rains, go to the movies. Driving into Nelson was so much easier than Christ Church. We found one of the hostels in the book. It was great, clean, nice, and small. It has a pool and grill. The name of the place is the Almand House. It is amazing how many nice places we have stayed in. I guess I am comparing them to hostels on the AT. I think the hostels on the AT aren't as nice because they are used to the young partier AT hikers, where things tend to get ruined.
We checked in and picked the movie we wanted to see. We also decided to turn the car in a day earlier and save $49. So we had to empty all of the stuff out of the car. It is amazing what you can accumulate when you have a car for 9 days. Once the car was empty we turned the car in and walked to the movies. We decided to see "The Whale Rider". One of the reasons we picked this was just because it was the right time. The woman who runs the hostel also told us it was good. It is a New Zealand movie which will probably never come to the states. It probably wouldn't mean as much to others as it does to New Zealanders and people visiting New Zealand. It was a story about a family, legend and culture of Maori's. The movie was great and taught me a little about the Maori's. It was very moving and also had some good scenery. As I said it meant more to me just because I get a little bit of insight to the Mauri's. When we get to the North Island we will go to Roturna and learn a lot about the Maori's. I don't really know if I really have mentioned much about the Maori's, but they are the original inhabitants of the islands and they came from Polynesia. They are like the Indians of America with somewhat the same kind of history except that I feel that the Maori's is keeping alive some of their culture and passing it down to their kids. Anyway, it was great and I am glad I picked that movie because I would never get to see it in the states.
After the movie we used the internet and went shopping. I know I may go on a little about shopping but the grocery store in Nelson was fantastic, the best we have been to. Even better than the Big Y (that is for my mother who thinks the Big Y is the best).
I am back at the hostel. We are staying here two nights. Our room is filled with stuff we have to figure out what we are going to do with it now since we are carless. The day after tomorrow we will be hiking for 3 days on the Abel Tasmas Track. It is suppose to be spectacular for scenery. I certainly hope the sun comes out for it. We haven't done too much serious hiking lately, so this will be good for us. We are doing 51 kilometers in 3 days.
Tomorrow Laurie and I are going to a bone carving workshop. This will be interesting. I get to make my own souvenir.
April 2, 2003
Woke up to a clear, sunny, blue sky. It feels good.
Stephan, our chauffer, teacher, and host picked us up at 9:25 on the dot. He then picked up a couple of other people at a hostel on the next street. Their names were Pat and Caroline, both from England, but they were not traveling together. There were also two other people that were to join us at the workshop. Stephan came from Germany and migrated to New Zealand about seven years ago. In Germany, he made guitars and did other wood working. When he came to New Zealand he got interested in the bone carving. He said he preferred bone to jade, which is big in New Zealand, because it has a warm feel to it. He teaches workshops in the summer months and does his own work in the winter months. He does some beautiful work. Stephan started us by looking at some basic designs. Since this is a Maori art, the designs have meaning. The piece usually has more than one design, therefore has multiple meaning. We started sketching our design on paper which is very intimidating to someone that has no artistic ability. So I picked a design and drew something on paper, then drew it on a piece of bone. The bone that is used is a cow femur. Once we drew it on the bone we began cutting, then sanding, drilling, sanding, more sanding, fine sanding, then polishing--and voila I had a beautiful (modest, aren't I) and meaningful piece of art that I wear aroung my neck. It was amazing to see this piece of bone transform into my finished piece. Of course we had lots of help and direction from Stephan.
When it was finished he put it on a coated nylon cord to make a necklace. As tradition goes, someone is suppose to place it around your neck and tell you the Maori meaning of the symbols. I told him I felt like I was getting baptised. One part of my design symbolises infinity, eternity as well as bonds of friendship. That same symbol is also seen for continuous flow of energy between spiritual and material world. Another symbol I have represents the sea's importance and fascination and the spiral depicts the unfolding of life, permanent growth and new beginnings.
I was very happy with this workshop. I would love to go back and make another. It is much more meaningful than one I could have bought because I made it.
That was pretty much my day. Tomorrow we head out for Abel Tasman. Heard beautiful things about it. It will be a three day trek.
