Van? Maybe?

Well folks… today just might be the big day. John and I, after lunch, are heading out with a mechanic to check out a van that we have found (or should I say was found for us). If it seems to be okay we will pay the guy and bring it home. The plan is to convert this little van into a camper van that we can travel the country in and park at night and sleep in it. Now when I say van you need to think van like Volkswagon vans. The one we are looking at is a Toyota but shaped like a VW van. Anyways… I’ll do my best to post some pictures if everything works out.

Since the last time I posted I don’t feel like much has happened, we really have been kinda playing a waiting game while we looked for a vehicle. I am feeling quite restless and so is John. We both just want to get this van going and get going. For all you BC residents we booked our ferry crossing the other day to go from the North Island down to the south, which books up really fast because we want to go right before Christmas, and the cost is… $218 NZD. That is for a undersize vehicle and two adults. Crazy hey? Makes the what? $70 look not to bad hey?

One thing we did do was go to hot water beach last weekend, which is on the cost of the Cormandel Peninsula on the east coast of New Zealand. It was a rainy weekend so it wasn't as good as it could be but we still enjoyed seeing the area, which is very pretty. There are a lot of nice beaches that reminded me of the Oregon coast with large rocks and boulders sitting way out from the beach randomly scattered around. Peter (John’s brother) recommended hot water beach to us and it was pretty cool. Basically there is a hot water spring under the beach that is fed into the ocean. All you have to do is dig a shallow hole in the sand and it will fill up with hot water, really hot water. We planned it right with the tides and got to the beach just as the tide was going out (and there wasn't too many people there yet). We picked our spot and John and Quintin started digging. I watched while putting on sunscreen. :) We got quite a big hole and it was really, really nice to sit on a beach in our little pool filled with hot water. About an hour and a half later the beach was crowded with people who were all trying to dig little holes to sit in. Unfortunately the spring is only in a small area and so if you don't get a good spot, the water is just cold. Our spot however continued to get hotter and hotter the lower the tide got. At low tide there were crowds of people digging pools and getting cold water while we were being forced out of our pool because the water was too hot. We got a pail and started hauling cold ocean water into our little pool but that only helped for a short time before it got too hot again. We had a good chuckle of the irony of this. After 3 hours of sitting in hot water we decided we'd had enough and headed back to the car where we ate lunch and examined our sunburns.

The differences half a world away...

Well we are getting adjusted to life in yet another culture. New Zealand is beautiful. Very similar to Vancouver Island in that it’s very green, but different kinds of plants grow here. We got over the bit of jetlag quickly and are enjoying our time here at Finlay Park Adventure Camp. Quintin and the other people here are being so helpful in getting us started. We have a whole network of people looking out for a good vehicle for us, particularly a guy here named Ian who used to do upholstery. He has offered to help us make a plain van into a campervan, we’ll just have to wait and see. Much is different over here. Let me explain some of the differences. Let’s start with breakfast. This morning in the kitchen I was surprised to see beans, like pork ‘n’ beans without the pork. To them that is a breakfast item, to be eaten, get this… on toast. Also for breakfast, pancakes and waffles are non-existent; instead it is cold breakfast like cereal and porridge, and granola, with the exception of the beans on the toast. John put peanut butter and jam on his toast and they all grimaced because to them jam and peanut butter should not be mixed. Crazy hey? Driving was another interesting difference to experience. We borrowed Quintin’s car the other day and went into Caimbridge. It really throws you for a loop when all you are used to is opposite not to mention that Quintin’s car is a standard (you try shifting with your left hand and driving with your right). John and I both drove because we both wanted to try, but I got really nervous driving in town. I was so scared that I would forget something and crash. One thing that was a funny difference is because the hands are switched when driving, the little lever that you push to signal right or left is on the opposite side and on the other side is the windshield wipers. Both of us, every corner, the windshield wipers came on, then the signal light… on a perfectly sunny day. Oops. Another difference is the intensity of the sun. Since I have my hair in braids, I currently have a lobster red scalp, take that back… a peeling, chunky scalp, I also burnt my neck and a bit of my back, when we were just out and about one afternoon. I have to make sure I call it a boot not a trunk, jandles not flip-flop’s, tog’s not swimsuit, tah not your welcome and so on. I just laugh when we are speaking the same language but I can’t understand what’s being said.

Quintin had Monday off this week so he took us on our first sight seeing trip. We went to Rotarua (row – tah – rew – ah) to see the thermal activity. There is just all kinds of geysers and boiling mud pots and sulfur lakes etc. We really enjoyed walking around and seeing it all, we also got to tour a Maori village and see a concert. These are the New Zealand natives, and it brought up a bunch of other differences between North American Natives and Kiwi Natives. For instance, the songs they sang were in harmony, songs like hymns but not in English rather than rhythmic chanting and drumming. They did a Hakka, which in their culture was traditionally used as intimidation before a battle. The hope was to scare the enemy away and avoid battle all together. It is quite intimidating. They also did a poi demonstration and some stick games. All of it was quite unique. The sounds that they use in their language are very different than any language I’ve ever heard. Wh = F and the sound whaka (smile) is used in combinations in many of the words. I can’t bring myself to say half the words or town names because they sound like I’m swearing. Oh well. After that we got to go luge-ing. It was so fun. Think luge like in Canada but instead of snow and ice, they have pavement, and instead of a sled with runners a cart with wheels. It was crazy. You are ripping down this hill on a curvy course on a little sled with wheels and a steering wheel. So fun. You go back up the hill on a chair lift and do it again! We went out for supper where I had a BLET (a BLT with egg in it) it was really good! Then we found a little natural hot stream that mixes with a cold stream and where they meet it’s really nice to swim. That was so nice. Mmmm, what a perfect ending to a good day.

Don’t worry we have worked a bit now too at this camp, so we are not being completely lazy, not completely… However the fun continues and tonight we are going out on the Kayaks to see the glow worms in a near by gorge. Sounds like fun.

Austrailian Sunrise and First Glimpse of NZ

We have arrived in New Zealand. Once again we are quite tired as we flew through the night but we are here and safe. We even managed to make it through customs with all the wierd things we bought in Indonesia. We were so worried that they would take some of it away from us.

Anyways, got to go! I'll post more later

Andrea

Goodbye Indonesia

Alas, the time has come for us to say goodbye to this country we have enjoyed for the last 3 and a half weeks. Tomorrow we embark on a new leg of our adventure. Since our last post we have enjoyed the orphanage and a lot of shopping and just hanging out with the Janzens. We are enjoying the culture and learning some new words. I can officially count from 1-10 in English, French, German, Spanish, and now Indonesian! It’s a little sketchy with me remembering how to say them but I sort of can. This first picture was the best we could do to capture the useage of bicycles (and motorbike's too) here in Indonesia. We were asked to take a picture of snake fruit so if you are wondering what that is… it’s a fruit.We really have enjoyed our time here. It has been so good to see and experience. We have been mostly healthy and God has blessed us with safety. We have another long flight ahead of us on Wednesday, about 12 hours of flying and a 6 hour layover in Singapore, but not before we enjoy another night on the beaches of a tropical country. Hmmmm, life is tough.

P.S. I know it's been a while since we posted on 'Click' so for those of you who don't check it anymore, there are a bunch of new photo's there too! :)

-Andrea and John

The Adventure Continues

We’ve been in Indonesia for just over two weeks now and we are loving it. I haven’t got this much sleep in years. I’m getting like more than 9 hours per night on a regular basis. Rinus and Sheralyn say it’s the heat and being in a strange culture so I’ll take that excuse I guess. The last two days we’ve been in an area of Indonesia that was hit really hard by the earthquake a few months ago. They are still only barely started to get on their feet and rebuild.It was a very interesting time as we went to help them, to contribute to their efforts of rebuilding. We went with an organization called GenAssist, and they basically empower the people to do their own reconstruction work. They provide the supplies, train supervisors in building codes to make the buildings more durable if there is another earthquake, and then divide up the people into crews that help their neighbors, one house at a time. I really appreciate the way they are doing it. When we got there the people associated us with GenAssist, so to them we were the face of the organization, thus they all thanked us a million times for helping them even though we hadn’t done anything yet. The first day they let us help at first but when our jobs ran out they never really assigned us to new things. After a while I gave up and made efforts to play with the kids that were around. This was challenging, as they are extremely shy of white people. I got all smart and thought I would try and teach them a game. So I drew on the cement a hopscotch game. They were too shy to play it with me but when I would walk away and turn my back they would try it out. After a while they got less shy of me and I tried to teach them some English. I thought I would start with numbers so I drew 1,2,3 on the cement and said them very slowly. I could see them mouthing it with me but they wouldn’t say it out loud. After a while I gave up and just as I walked away I heard one of the girls count out loud in English from 1 -12. Obviously they already knew their numbers. After that I decided that they could maybe teach me numbers in Indonesian. It took a while but we got it figured and I learned one to ten, sort of. I got them to write down their names and how old they were and some other Indonesian words like bicycle and house and body parts. It was quite neat to have them teaching me.

That evening we met up with a doctor and nurse who were associated with GenAssist. They took us out for supper to a restaurant that was on a lake…literally. It was a floating restaurant. To get to it there was a pull bridge or trolley. Like they only build part of a floating bridge and then use ropes to pull the bridge from one side to the other. We had fish and fish and rice and spinach. It was very good! The house that we slept in that night was very nice and the next morning I had chicken soup for breakfast and John had chicken curry. Mmm Mmmm We both passed on the Cow Lung.
That day we wanted to start working but every time we indicated this they would offer us a snack or show us more things. This could have been frustrating if we had been really determined to do some work. In the end we let it slide and it was a good day. An Indonesian that spoke some English came around and did some translating for us. He said that the Indonesians felt like it would be mean to make us work and that’s why it wasn’t working out. We told him to tell them that’s why we came and after that they let us work a little bit. The biggest thing that came of that was that they ladies asked me to come into the kitchen and help prepare lunch. I fried Tempe and Tofu and made Sambal. Tempe is made from Soy Beans and is pretty good, Tofu when deep-fried is actually quite good if you can get over the consistency, and Sambal is basically hot sauce to the extreme. I actually got to make the Sambal so I am excited to make some for my dad and brother when I get home. The recipe goes something like this… 2 cups broken up jalapeño peppers, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 baby purple or red onions and 1 tsp salt. The peppers, garlic and onion are deep fried for about 5 minutes. Then I used a stone bowl and stone tool to crush them all together with the salt. In Canada I think I would use a blender on a slow speed for about 2 minutes, you want it to still be quite chunky. That’s it… I think I may have offended her by not wanting to try the thing I made, John tried it and he said it was VERY hot. After lunch I also got to go on a motorbike ride that day, me and three other girls…on one bike. What an experience. In Indonesia, motorbikes are the cheapest form of transportation, cars are too expensive for most Indonesians, and many families use their bike to do anything and everything. Think of things that we would do with trucks, cars and vans and then put all that onto a motorbike. We saw someone the other day hauling chickens, about 50 – 60 of them, on his motorbike. They were all tied by their feet in bundles and then draped over the bike, we’re pretty sure he couldn’t see his speedometer because there was chickens on the front and the back. People use motorbikes to haul bales of rice or tobacco, whole families, or anything else they can strap to the bike. The thing that gets me is the babies that are tied to their moms, like a baby carrier, and then the moms can drive or ride and still have use of their hands. I couldn’t imagine riding on a motorbike with my baby, let alone not holding on to him…

Tomorrow we are going to an orphanage about an hour from where we are. I’m excited about this although we’ve been warned that the kids are very shy so they won’t seem excited to see us at first. I’m still looking forward to it.

On a special note…we’re now able to give a more firm idea of when we will be returning to Canada. John’s brother Peter emailed us to let us know that him and his girlfriend Mel will be getting married in May next year. We think we will try and be home for that. CONGRATULATIONS PETE AND MEL!!

John and Andrea