photo links...

here are a couple of links to my facebook photo albums--the "auckland/nelson" album is not yet complete, more photos to come...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59079&id=520444603&l=42181

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59462&id=520444603&l=9a067

peace,
jill

a long over-due entry

hi friends,

it feels much longer ago than a week since we were in hawaii and now we are much, much further from home. we are currently in nelson, which is a smallish town on the south island of new zealand. our next host will pick us up on tuesday to take us to their farm in cissy bay, which is in the marlborough sounds area (prime wine country, well-known for their sauvignon blancs). we enjoyed a beautiful summer day here--sunny with very low humidity, which was a welcome change from the muggy fiji weather (not complaining by the way). we'll be at this farm for about two weeks and the lifestyle sounds much more laid back than the previous farm. if anyone is interested in checking out the farm the website is: cairnhill.ws

so after we left kona on the big island we ended up in the honolulu airport for a very sleepless night spent on the airport floor. the next morning we flew to nadi, fiji and were instantly blasted by hot, humid air as we walked off the plane. we were there during the off-season and our "resort" was all but deserted--i think one day the handful of other guests had all gone into town and we were the only ones on the property. it was kind-of weird until we realized it was awesome. we had the pool to ourselves (the ocean water was about 90 degrees so the pool was much more refreshing). we had planned to just hang out at the this resort for the two days we were there until some other guests highly recommended checking out one of the smaller islands. the location of our resort was not straight out of one of those gorgeous pictures you typically see of fiji, but that was okay with us. but after looking into the tours we decided on a day cruise to a 6.5 acre island called mala mala--and it was by far the highlight of our time in fiji. it was ridiculous--there were only four other people on the tour with us--a couple from canada and a couple from australia and they were lots of fun. we went on two guided snorkeling adventures, which were amazing!! we even saw a white tip shark--the guide advised us to just say "bula!" to the shark if we saw it b/c it's harmless ("bula" means "hello" in their language). i also saw a stingray briefly but it quickly swam under some coral, which was fine as i wasn't too keen on it sticking around for long anyway. the tour crew prepared a fabulous meal for us and challenged us to a scrappy game of sand volleyball before heading back to the main island.

then we arrived in auckland on feb. 12th and made it safely to the home of the mom of a friend of tom's (got that?) who is working in the city for about 16 months or so. she lives in a really cool part of the city called ponsonby. she was extremely hospitable and we felt very fortunate to have to opportunity to spend time with her. we had one very nice day in the city just wandering around and taking the ferry to another part of the city called devenport. it rained most of the next day, but we forged ahead with our plan to take the ferry to a nearby island called waiheke where there are about 30 vineyards and some very nice beaches. in our soggy state we still managed to visit a couple of wineries for some lovely wine tastings and we found a funkalicious cafe where we escaped the rain a couple of times. and, go figure, the sun graced us just as we were leaving the island :) it was a great day regardless--beautiful scenery for sure.

we'll hopefully have some wi-fi available at the next farm so i should be able to send some updates over the next couple of weeks. i'll send the links to the most recent facebook albums soon. with much love....jill

final week in hawaii

manini beach--yep, the one with the donkey, can't miss it

the view from "the coffee shack" a fantasic little local breakfast joint

only the finest fresh-squeezed orange juice

first sea turtle sighting--two step beach

ho'okena beach--very popular family-type beach

another of ho'okena

another chameleon, horned this time

tom and caleb (another wwoofer) hangin' out with the chameleon

we now have less than a week left in hawaii and, upon reflection, we came up with a list of some of the quirky, unexpected things we've encountered during our time here:

* a shocking number of children and adults with mullets--now, i'm not just talking about the typical short-long, particularly when it comes to the kids--the parents have actually shaved their children's heads, save for a long layer at the bottom that may flow down below their shoulders...or it may be braided into the ever-impressive "rat tail"

* huge trucks with lifts and giGANtic tires--we hitched a ride in one of these bad boys and i could barely make it into the thing, it wasn't pretty

* frequent usage of the "hang loose" gesture--it is alive and well here and can mean anything from "be cool, catcha later" to "no, we're not going to pick you up from the side of the road even if it is raining and getting dark, but take it easy anyway"

* drinking while driving--this one is more than a little disturbing, but doesn't seem to be all that uncommon.

* over-priced coffee--appartently, the u.s. labor costs drive up the price of 100% kona coffe, making the going price around $30 per pound--but it is quite delicious

* the sheer number of coffee farms in the area where our farm is located--they're practically on top of one another, some organic and some not which makes certification difficult as sprays and produce easily cross boundaries

* beaches with donkeys roaming around, eating people's food sometimes, but generally minding their business (see above)

* ridiculously steep driveways that necessitate 4-wheel drive

* wacky water shoes (picture a shoe where your big toe is separated from your other toes, the sole resembles a s.o.s pad, and a green and yellow striped knee sock fits snugly around your calf) and equally wacky wet suits (unfortunately don't have any pictures)

these are just a few--we'll share more later. good times!!

sending love...jill

a bit more about hitch-hiking

so i think i mentioned that our main mode of transportation is hitch hiking, which is a fairly new experience for both of us but happens to be extremely common here in hawaii. for the most part we've had good fortune in the world of hitching, with the average wait being about 5 minutes or so. there have been the discouraging instances where we're a good 10-15 miles away from home and the sun is setting and we're still waiting for a ride after about 20 minutes or so. morale not so high at those times...but then something always works out miraculously.

hitching is certainly a good chance to meet some of the local folks and most people are happy to chat and find out what on earth we're doing in hawaii. we've met some real characters and get a good laugh out of some of the wacky conversations that ensue. turns out there a good number of chilled out older folks who have gotten out of the rat race and moved to hawaii to start farms and surf and whatnot. we've gotten some good suggestions from these people about places to see around the island. so some rides are from locals, but a surprising percentage of people who pick us up are visitors in oh-so-obvious rental cars (we can spot 'em a mile away) and apparently these tourists just love to pick up strangers, which we can't quite figure out but from whom we are more than happy to accept a ride. sometimes we even end up giving them advice on places to visit even though we've only been here, what, three weeks :)

this one young woman picked us up one day and we were doing the typical chit-chat "so where are you from? what brings you to hawaii?" yada, yada... but this time she said that she too was from indiana...bloomington, in fact...knows where paoli is and happens to know my friends darren and esprit who have a farm in paoli...and has actually been to the farm. weird to say the least. she wasn't going in exactly the same direction as we were but once she knew we were fellow hoosiers she demonstrated that winning hospitality and took us right home. we hope to meet up with her again before we leave.

we've noted how different our concept of time and space is without a car to rely on. our pace has certainly slowed down significantly and we comment much more on our surroundings than we might if we just hopped in a car and found our destination in five minutes rather than a half hour of meandering down the road--we find ourselves checking out coffee trees along the way(now that we've picked coffee a couple of times), or mac nuts on the ground, or noticing the sun setting or the clouds rolling in...we've been surprised by the homes we pass by, as a good number of them are pretty run-down with cars rusting in the front yard. at times we really do feel that we're in another country, such as the ones we visited during SST. but life really is fairly simple here, people don't seem to exhibit a lifestyle of excess or extravagance.

we have about two more weeks to explore this area and there are certainly more things to see and do than we have time to accomplish. our stay here will be over before we know it. i'll try to post more pictures soon. i hope all is well at home and that you all are staying warm!...much love, jill

link to photos

hey there--this is the updated link for the most recent photos--the last link was incorrect.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53760&l=1265c&id=520444603

some more photos...

hi folks! i'm trying something new for this post because people seem to really want to see pictures mostly. check out the link below--it's a facebook album...i'll write more later. take care!


http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1205388&l=93171&id=520444603

big island week 1

so it's now been about one week since arriving at the farm on the big island we now call home. and an interesting week it has been. after a five hour delay at the portland airport, we had great flights all the way to the kona region of the big island. we got to the farm in the dark so waking up in the morning to the beautiful farm was a fascinating experience. bonnie, the main farmer, gave us a walking tour of the 8 acre farm the first morning to get us oriented. i was mostly just in awe at that point...i'm not sure much information was really absorbed and bonnie had, and always has, a lot to say about her farm :) she is extremely knowledgeable and loves to share information about the way the farm operates. the main crops are kona coffee and macadamia nuts, but the farm is full of other wonderful produce including avocados, papaya, pineapple, breadfruit, persimmons, five kinds of bananas, and lots of oranges. we've really enjoyed having fresh squeezed orange juice every morning.

so a typical day on the farm involves getting up around 6:15am for some breakfast, juice, and sometimes coffee (which we still need to perfect). we work for two hours 7-9am doing various things--sometimes raking mulch and scattering it under trees, weeding the gardens, picking up fallen fruit, etc. then almost every morning so far (after a half hour break) we pick up macadamia nuts. this involves strapping on some fairly awkward knee pad things, covering up almost every inch of ones body to avoid mosquitoes, and crawling on our hands and knees on the ground gathering mac nuts. my back has had to adjust to this hunched over position--it's still not very fond of the activity. so that's three hours of picking nuts, which can get long but is much improved by the use of an iPod, which the hosts strongly encourage us to use. then we have the afternoons free--12:30 on. we've checked out some beaches, some stores, bummed around on the farm figuring out what to make for dinner (this is a constant topic of conversation and we've come up with some very creative, though not always tasty, concoctions!)

so internet access is not what one might call convenient (or cheap in these parts it turns out). we have to hitch rides most of the time to get anywhere so we're never sure how long it will take to make a trip anywhere. so i may not be posting all that often, but i'll try to at least update the blog once a week.

hope all is well!! much love--jill