Advertisement
Published: June 16th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Kahikatea Eco-art Village
To tell you all the honest truth there's not an awful lot to report this fortnight. I stayed at the Kahikatea eco-art village place an extra week after we last spoke and ran the kitchen for the festival they put on. We did foor for 300 people or so. I spent 3 days buying and making the food and by the saturday morning we had this beautiful, sleek food making machine ready to go and serve all the people who flooded through, we even had a couple contingency plans for when we sold out. Alas and alack, no one came; well not no one, but no where near enough people to make it worth our time and money (not my money, others' money, but a lot of my time as i was head chef) so that was frustrating.
On the monday however, i had the great privileged and pleasure of being taken on a spiritual journey to find my power animal by a shaman (although you'd never know he was one by his demeanor) called Cody who lives in the village. Especially interesting, as that really isn't my thing. But i did it with another resident called Angel
Mt Taranaki
A photo i did not take and a view i did not see, but you can and it was good. My power animal is the wolf and there was some interesting stuff kicked up, but it's probably one of those things i'll tell you about when i see you.
Savita Community
The other eco-village i was supposed to be going to in New Plymouth was a bit of a lie; well, a misrepresentation anyway. However, the hitching to and from was rather more interesting. On the way down i got a lift with two strippers (Tiffany and Roxy) who work in Hamilton and were picking up a puppy from New Plymouth, they insisted i take my brother to see one of their shows when we pass through town in early july and gave me their phone numbers. Who am i to turn down an invite from a lady? On the way back north i got a lift with a really interesting truck driver called Lee who had been to Afgahnistan and Iraq in the army (and killed people there). It was good to get a soldier's perspective on a conflict i've thought so much about, and apparently the army is just as sure as the rest of us that they're there for oil; except they're watching their friends die for it...
Rather than being a group of people i was working for at the community in New Plymouth, it was a rather odd middle-aged couple who were in the process of building a community and essentially got me to be their dogs-body for the 4 days i was there (move that, hoover that, wash that up etc) although i did learn to use a chain-saw and i got to see the 'up and coming' (meaning its crap at the moment i guess) town of New Plymouth. It was nothing too special to be honest, no different to most of the other semi-rural NZ towns, and i was unfortunately unable to see the famous Mt Taranaki because it spent the 6 days i was their veiled in cloud.
So i beat a hasty retreat back to Auckland, and the Kahikatea eco-village where i have made so many friends. And on sunday richard arrived...
Hello all
Sean and I arrived here sunday afternoon, after 6 flights (5 of which were delayed) and 36 hours in Singapore. I think I spent all together roughly 30 hours flying to get here, big effort! Met Sean in Surrey last wednesday and then came through there, Dubai and Sydney to get here. 36 hours in Singapore was brilliant. We went to Sentosa Island, basically a resort with beaches, hotels and attractions, the weather was great and I went for a swim with Indonesia and Malaysia out in the distance. Our hostel was fine, although a bit cramped and we took another overnight flight through to New Zealand, transiting through Brisbane early in the morning to ariive here.
New Zealand is great so far, although it hasn't really stopped raining and I havn't left Auckland yet! We're staying here till thursday and then flying down to Christchurch where we'll pick up a van to start our road trippin. Apparantly it never normally rains this much. We went to a massive museum today, which included a really interesting mock hours where you can feel what it would be like to get caught up in an earthquake and volcanic eruption.
Anyway, enough for now. I'll probably add on to Kit's next blog too.
Rich
p.s the song 'brother' is by the much under-rated band Murder By Death, check it out
Advertisement
Tot: 0.129s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0677s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb