mariacalirfs-blog

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Goodbye New Zealand!

And just like that, it’s done. My 4 months in New Zealand have come to a close. Three weeks in Thailand await, and then back home. Feels both like it’s been ages and like it’s been only a second, but I think that’s just how these things go. 

After Howard and Sandra’s, I rolled around the vastly remote East Cape, and popped up to the Coromandel for a quick soak at Hot Water Beach and a lovely stroll down to Cathedral Cove. If I remember correctly, last time we were at Hot Water Beach, it was quite chilly outside of the water, and we didn’t have a shovel to dig a hole so we just used our feet to get in as we could. Toasty warm feet, quite chilly bodies. But a fun experience with the very hot water just a few inches below the sand (I’ve loved all the ways I’ve experienced NZ’s geothermal activity). 

I then headed up to Northland, where I wwoofed for 5 days in Whangarei. Pretty cool that my uncle Joby was here many years ago! This was my first wwoofing with other people, and it was fun to have the social group of the 4 other girls while we worked and when we were off having fun. 2 from Germany, 1 from Singapore, and 1 from France. This was also the first time I was really doing organic farming. Nye, the host, runs a vegetable farm called Starlight Organics, about a 25 minute drive outside of Whangarei city. I dived right into the work, starting at 4:30 for the Saturday farmer’s market after a Friday evening arrival. Energy was always high at the house, the work varied (harvesting, weeding, stacking firewood, transplanting banana trees, and digging clay), and the company entertaining. Nye took us all sorts of cool local spots. We hiked a mountain, saw glass blowing and other art galleries, walked to a giant Kauri tree, and saw a two man show touring from Northern UK that’s a modern twist on the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice involving a Bruce Springsteen sing-a-long (was actually quite a cool piece of theater). We cooked together every day, played many games of cards, and had a good time. 

When I left Nye’s, I headed up further North, enjoying the coastline and small fishing towns, eventually ending up in Kaitaia, homebase for my next day’s bus exploration. I took a tour to 90 mile beach and Cape Reinga lighthouse. Pretty cool to have been at the most southern point of the country a few months ago, and now at the tippy top north. My driver was a local who shared all kinds of stories as we drove the area, pointing out the bridge where he used to fish with his dad, and the campground him and his siblings would hang out at every summer. It was nice to be driven for once, and be able to sit back and fully enjoy the sights and the cool histories, personal and otherwise, that the driver shared. Turns out 90 mile beach is actually only 55 miles long, but named so by European explorer Abel Tasman who thought that the average horse walks 30 miles in a day so the three days it took by horse must mean 90 miles. Cape Reinga is a stunning lookout over the water, and you can see the place where the Tasman sea meets the Pacific Ocean. It’s also the spot where Maori believe souls depart from, moving on fully to the afterlife. 

I am now back in Auckland, and have been for about 6 days. I successfully sold my car, despite showing up to the car fair woefully unprepared, being the only car quite caked in dirt. I also had dinner with one of my friends who I worked with at the hostel in Dunedin. So, so good to see her again and catch up on all that’d been happening. I am now finishing up the last bits and pieces of preparing to head off to Thailand. Flight departs at 6 am, so an early morning for me. It was cheaper to come back to Auckland and stick with my original departure ticket rather than leaving right from Bangkok, which means I am able to leave unneccessary items here, like tent, sleeping bag, winter coat (100 degrees and humid in my future). Also means I’m not bringing my computer, so may be a bit until next blog post. You can always check out instagram or send an email where I may be more active. 

All in all, I am really glad I took this trip. New Zealand has been great to me in many ways. I’m proud of myself for taking this leap and sticking it out when things were challenging. I’m grateful for all the people and animals and landscapes who brightened my days and shared stories with me and helped add to the experiences of this trip. I’m excited to know that while travelling solo may not always be my first preference, I’m totally okay doing it again if I want to go somewhere, and I know now that it opens up doors I wouldn’t think to open if I was with someone else. And I’m also really eager to fully enjoy Thailand (ready for a cultural change, and super amped for the food), and looking forward to coming home. Love to you back home. 

Cape Reinga lighthouse

Boogie Boarding down sand dunes

View from Mt. Manaia

Cathedral Cove

Wwoofing friends!

[mariacalirfs-blog]

Back North

Writing from the cozy couch at Howard and Sandra’s house, planning out my last 2.5 weeks in NZ, and waiting for Game of Thrones to begin. I’ve had some cool adventures since I last updated. I headed North to Abel Tasman National Park, an area with lovely beaches, big tidal zones, and curious wildlife. I’m really glad I did the three day backpacking trip, but it felt a bit like a comedy of errors. The weather was decent, fairly chilly for beach days but not bad for hiking. It had been a while since I’d carried all my supplies on my back, and I was feeling it by the end of my walk on the first day. The trail itself wasn’t so hard, but always a little struggle when you’re carrying that extra weight. Still, I had a great first day of walking, seeing beautiful coastline and water carved cliffs. I ended up getting to my campsite quite a bit sooner than expected, and had a lot of time to kill before I’d head to bed. I set up my tent and saw cute wild black pigs hanging around my spot near the water, went for a cold swim, and observed some of the native, flightless birds sitting nearby. There wasn’t much company or community at the campsite, but I had my kindle and so kept myself occupied for the next few hours reading and journaling. After dinner, I started walking back to my tent, when I saw a group heading towards the beach right by where I was set up. They had been drinking, and one of them fell on my tent for a second before laughing and carrying on. I didn’t think much of it as the tent was fine, but imagine my surprise and slight despair when I opened my kindle a bit later to see that the screen was totally messed up and unreadable. I can only assume that girl stepped on it when she fell, since the kindle was sitting right at the edge. Definitely felt like a big “oh crap” moment, since the kindle has been so, so valuable to me on this trip but especially when out in the bush going solo. As I sat there sad laughing at myself, I also realized that I had forgotten the cinnamon and sugar in the car, so I was going to have to eat plain oatmeal for my breakfasts, after nights with no books! Had a slightly grumpy start the next day, but I’ve found that whenever I feel particularly low or lonely or whatever on this trip, something or someone comes into my space and reminds me why this trip has been great or important. It’s ranged from beautiful lanscapes to funny road signs to quick hellos with a stranger, but I’m grateful that something always comes in to pick me back up. My grumps quickly went away as I walked across a big stretch of land that had just been opened up as the tide went out. It felt special, and I came across two Maori women who were doing the hike who had found the freshest oysters, just barely uncovered, smashing open the shells with their hiking poles, and enjoying a feast. We chatted for a while and shared stories, and it was such a special shared moment to have. 

I puttered about on the South Island for a few more days before catching the ferry back over to the North Island. Felt really weird to be leaving the South and know I’m not coming back (on this trip at least), made the fact that I’m only here for a bit longer more real. Had a few fun days with a hippie artist (and hoarder!) and her family on the southwest coast of the North Island. Met her through wwoofing, and had a positive experience exploring that way again. It can be a great way to meet locals, see sights you wouldn’t know about otherwise, and be involved in a family for a bit when my own is far away!

Next stop was near Taupo, a gorgeous lake by one of the main centers of geothermal activity in the country. I saw a phenomenally blue waterfall, and had a comfortable soak in the natural hot area of a local river. I also wwoofed here for a few days, which was a decent enough experience, but this family was not quite as welcoming or open to having me interact with them often, which was a bit of a bummer. On the flipside, the grandpa popped in one day while I was gardening to pick something up, and invited me to his weekly wednesday lunch at the Cosmopolitan Club with a friend. So Bob and Rob and I had seafood chowder and french fries, and watched the line dancing in one corner and Bingo in the other. Quite an experience, and fun company. 

I also did a big hike in the Taupo area, 7 hours on the Tongariro Crossing, NZ’s most popular and harder one day hikes. It goes past the volcano that was Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings (big moment for a LOTR geek like me), a strikingly red crater, and brightly colored thermal lakes. It was not the easiest, especially during the long slog up the Devil’s Staircase, and down the very steep skree section descending towards the lakes, but it was definitely doable and worth every moment. It’s an area notorious for poor weather, and I had just about the perfect day, with gorgeous sunshine, full visibility, and no risk of rain or very high winds. I also had more fun with it since I did it with a new friend, a French girl named Justine who I had met at a hostel a few days before. Won’t be seeing her again, but glad to have had a buddy on this big walk. 

I’m now back at Alaska friends’ house (Sandra and Howard), which is just as lovely as the first time. We’ve been catching up and eating good food and chatting about future adventures. Doing my best to savor these last bits and pieces of my time in NZ.

Abel Tasman low tide views

View from my campsite

RIP Kindle :(

kid pals making the best sandcastle!

Beautiful fall day for this hike!

Mt Doom

Not for swimming !

[mariacalirfs-blog]

Over Halfway

Hello! It’s been a bit since I wrote. Last time I posted, I had just settled into my spot in Dunedin. It ended up being a tremendous choice, and I’m so glad I had a month there. I really loved the city and its energy, and had my favorite cafes, bookshops, and street art locations. Lots of good feelings of belonging and appreciation for Dunedin. 

Before I left home, I had a dinner out with Jessie, Mom, and Dad, where we all shared hopes for me and my trip. One of those was being in one place long enough to build community and relationships. That hope was most definitely met while being in Dunedin. It had its ups and downs, but I had a solid group of friends in the hostel who I became really close with, and a strong sense of connection to the Dunedin community. My days were filled with lots and lots of vacuuming, hiking, city exploring, and tea and TimTams (a classic NZ cookie); my nights were filled with Uno games, movie nights, restaurant work, jazz cafes, and lots and lots of belly laughs. 

It was pretty hard to leave that place and that sense of comfort and belonging, but when my first month was up (which is how long I initially agreed to) I decided to take it as a cue to keep exploring the country. I headed off a few days ago, after a last meal of lasagna, garlic bread, ice cream, and brownies (mile lactose intolerance who?) with three of my best pals. 

First stop was the Moeraki boulders, a collection of rocks which are incredibly round. It’s always a bit funny when I come across places I remember from when the whole family came in 2013, and this is one of those spots! I tried to recreate a photo, but was sadly missing the most essential component: Jessie.  Next location was Oamaru, a small town that has been reinvigorated with art and artisans in the last decade. In and around Oamaru, I saw both the rare yellow penguins and the tiny blue penguins! No great photos of either, but they’re special animals to see.  I also saw a bunch of sea lions, and one rock that looked very much like a sea lion! 

Timaru was my next destination, only about an hour drive from Oamaru. There I stayed with Neil and Sue, the brother and sister-in-law of Howard, my friend I met in Alaska. They are absolutely lovely and loving people, and it was so wonderful to stay with them. Our conversation never stopped flowing, covering all kinds of topics. They were really interested to hear about Unitarian Universalism and that community space, and would love more of that in their city. 

The next day, I explored the Banks peninsula outside of Christchurch with a German friend from the hostel, named Mel, who I may travel to Thailand with in May! We went to the town of Akaroa, the last bit of land in New Zealand that the French tried to hold a claim on. All of the streets are Rue such and such, and all the restaurants have names like “Le Thai” and “Ratatouille.” My French friend wanted to ensure I realized it was nothing like France, but it is interesting to see the French influence in a country where I mostly see Maori, British, and Scottish infleunces. The peninsula was beautiful, and I spent a nice night camping by the ocean. Camping alone definitely makes me wish my camping buddies were with me, though! An activity I find much more fun with family and friends. 

I spent a boring day in Christchurch working on taxes from far away (thanks Mama for your help!), and working out some plans for Thailand. I also drove past one of the mosques that was attacked, where there is still a heavy police presence. This was an incredibly heartbreaking event, and I have had some challenging experiences talking with people who are reacting in ways I don’t expect they would if the group attacked was white, rather than Muslim communities. Still, there has overall been a tremendous outpouring of love and support and solidarity. The call to prayer was played in Auckland and over all radio stations before a two minute silence on Friday, and women around the country wore headscarves as a mark of solidarity requested by some leaders in the NZ Muslim community. There were immediate actions taken to ban assault rifles in the country, and it has just been such a different experience witnessing how the leaders of this country have responded to a terrible shooting event. Every city I’ve been in has had huge areas of signs, chalk messages, and other expressions of support and love, which has been important to see.

I headed west, on a slightly harrowing drive with gale-force winds and high rains. I had hoped the storm was settling down, which is why I still headed that way, but the odds were not in my favor. Still had some decent views of Arthur’s Pass, and will hopefully have slightly better weather heading up the west coast, but rain is common over here and I’m happy to take it in stride! I’ll be doing three days of backpacking in the Abel Tasman park soon, so will be off the grid Thursday-Sunday. 

I am over halfway though my trip now, and it feels like it’s been both less time and way more time than that? A mixed sensation to be sure. Likely plan is NZ until the end of April, Thailand in May, and then home for two weeks before heading down to Nashville, my home for the next year! I’ve officially accepted my admission at Vanderbilt. Not excited about the very quick turnaround time, but excited for that next chapter in my life. 

Scrambled up this hike to be atop the Organ Pipes!

Sunrise over Dunedin

One of the pieces of street art I walked by most days in Dunedin

Sea lion waves hello!

Hogwartz pals on last night <3 

Moeraki boulders. Where is Jessie??

Penguins and sea lions hiding down on the beach

[mariacalirfs-blog]

Yes, I’m still alive and still in NZ!

Hello hello, this is a very belated blog post. I had two weeks of very limited wifi, and have been all kinds of busy over the last three weeks. I am currently writing from Dunedin, which will be home for the next little while, on the southeast coast of the South Island. 

Since I last wrote, I had two exciting, non-NZ-related pieces of news. I have been accepted to both Vanderbilt and Stanford for my Master’s in Elementary Education! I’ll be making my choice (Penn is on the list too, just waiting to hear back) in the next few weeks, but regardless, I’ll be starting a Master’s program in June! Nice to have something set up for when I return at the end of May. 

I left Danielle and Eliza after a very fun few days in Queenstown, filled with dancing, eating, kayaking, hiking, and adventuring with our new Dutch friend Tom. Also spent a few nights gaining bits of wisdom from Mama Mo, a 52 year old Dutch woman who had never traveled far from home, but decided she was gonna pursue a whim and spend three months traveling solo in New Zealand. She was happy to be heading home to her husband and daughter, but was all for pursuing your dreams at any age.

When I was back solo, I headed down to the southernmost point of NZ. It’s in a beautiful area called the Catlins, which has loads of little spots to stop at on your drive through the remote southeast coast of the country. Waterfalls, dolphins, petrified forests, oh my! I spent two nights in Dunedin after some very windy, rainy camping in the Catlins, at a hostel called Hogwartz.

Next stop was heading back towards the west coast for my first WWOOFing experience! I stayed at Nancy’s place outside of Wanaka, a beautiful little lake town. She has a gorgeous piece of property, 360 panoramas, and an amazing night sky. Her land is really rocky, so pretty tricky to grow on, but she’s doing her best. I stayed with her and her son James, who was visiting from England. The arrangement of WOOFING is 4-5 hours work per day in exchange for food and accommodation. My work varied greatly, from filling in rabbit holes, to making beds for the airbnb room she runs, to snagging horse poo for manure from the neighbor’s horses. Nancy was just about the quirkiest woman I’ve met, and while a little hard to keep up with, she was incredibly kind and welcoming, and shared so many bits and pieces of her life and NZ culture. James helped me get a grasp on cricket as we watched NZ beat India in a three game run. All in all, it was a great place to stay, get some hard work in, and do a form of cultural exchange in a beautiful place. 

I spent one night downtown in Wanaka, hanging out with a friend from Germany I met in Dunedin. It’s nice to see people more than once, since so often my friendships on this trip have been just for a day or a night, and then we all go our separate ways. After spending some time with Lukas, I drove down to Manapouri, which is right on the edge of Fiordland. I had a lovely week there, catching up with Maryam, my old roommate and a dear friend who I’ve been too far from for too long! We aren’t great at keeping in touch long distance, but this was a nice reminder that we’ve got the base of friendship that holds out strong regardless of time in between. We watched movies, took walks by the lake, and just chatted for ages. I went on some lovely hikes while she was working, including one where I stopped and read for an hour on some moss, just surrounded by the sounds of all the birds, sun shining down on me. 

I’ve been in Dunedin since, and will be here for around a month, possibly longer if it’s feeling right! I was feeling ready to settle in for a bit, and hopefully work (going to a trial shift at a restaurant tonight, fingers crossed!). The rental market in Wellington, where I was originally planning to go, is pretty much impossible to break into (rooms get listed and are gone within the hour). Dunedin was tricky as well, especially for the amount of time I’m looking for, but I’ve found an option for long term at the Hogwartz hostel where I stayed before. I do housekeeping work for two hours a day (mostly vacuuming so far) in exchange for a free bed in a dorm with 4 other longterm girls. The beds are great (not bunks!!) and the people are nice, and it’s a great money saver!

Before this, I was crashing in the living room of the flat of an old friend from high school youth group. She is studying abroad at Dunedin’s big university, the university of Otago, so I got a taste of college life again. I went to my first rugby game, a very big event at this big school, and watched the Highlanders win! I turned 23 and had a fun day with the girls from Gabrielle’s flat. Slowly but surely  I’m building a little community here in Dunedin (including a girl from Boston who I plan to hang with when I get back!). I get to walk by beautiful old churches every day, and enjoy a vibrant city, and will hopefully be reaping the exercise benefits of the neverending hills! Looking forward to a bit of stability after a month and a half of movement.

Danielle on a kayak on lake Wanaka

Southern most point!

Nugget point in the Catlins

Horse pal next to Nancy’s house

Some sheep helping me out on Roy’s Peak hike near Wanaka

Clouds hanging low over lake Manapouri

Dunedin Train Station

Birthday museum explorations with new pals!

[mariacalirfs-blog]

Exploring the South Island

Currently writing from Queenstown on the South Island. If you’re a bit unfamiliar with NZ geography, the country is (mainly) made up of two large islands, the North and the South. They’ve got slightly different cultures and environments, and I’m excited to see what’s going on down here in the south. It’s a bit chillier, and more rain for sure, but some very beautiful mountains and lakes. 

I left Danielle and Eliza in Wellington while they headed South to do a hike on their own (the Routeburn trek, which me and the fam did in 2013 when we came!). I had one more night in Welly, then took the ferry across the Cook Strait to arrive in Picton on the south island. The ferry ride is around 4 hours, and it was a perfect day for it. Blue water as far as you can see, some lovely sunshine and a cool breeze, and no choppy waves to make me sick. 

I’ve spent the last week or so meandering my way down to Queenstown to meet back up with D & E, and it’s been quite a journey! On the first part of my drive, I came across a rocky area next to the highway (which is right on the coast) absolutely covered with sea lions, including a bunch of little ones! Adorable and an awesome side of the road discovery. About an hour later, I decided to eat my lunch on the beach in this little town called Kaikoura. As I sat there, I got a text from my old college roommate. She is in NZ as well, and though we hadn’t seen each other in a few years (she moved to Alaska after sophomore year), we knew we’d be in NZ at the same time, and I plan to visit her in a few weeks. However, we did not plan to meet in this random town on the northern part of the South Island, but had both happened to stop for lunch at this one part of a very large beach. She’s heading north, I’m heading south, but fate pushed us together at this random spot! It was so fun to see her, so unexpected, and we enjoyed an hour or so before heading our separate ways. Gotta love a huge coincidence. 

I spent an incredibly windy night in a poorly staked tent in Hanmer Springs, and so quickly headed down to Christchurch the next day for a more comfortable, indoor sleeping situation to avoid the coming heavy rain and more wind. Christchurch was hit with a huge earthquake in 2011, and is still in the process of rebuilding. It’s a fairly small, quiet city (or at least was while I was there), but has some cool reworkings of urban spaces post-earthquake. When we were here in 2013 they had a shipping container mall, but more permanent locations have been built since and the mall closed down. They also decided to restore the central cathedral, a beautiful building, but which will remain at risk during future earthquakes. 

After leaving Christchurch, I spent two nights in Lake Tekapo. It is an incredibly blue, glacial lake, and was such a peaceful spot to exist in. Tekapo is in a part of NZ called the Mackenzie region, which is a protected dark sky reserve. There are limits to the amount of artificial light that can be produced, which leads to incredible night skies. My first night was cloudy, which is why I stayed the extra day in Tekapo, and it was fully worth it. My second night was full of an immense, star filled sky, and the band of the milky way passing through the center. It was a very special night laying out under the stars, and I kept the rainfly off my tent so that even when I was sleeping it was right under the beautiful night sky. Moments like these are ones that I’m keeping close to my heart during this trip. Nature is darn incredible.

I also did some hiking around Tekapo, which got me beautiful views of lakes and mountains. During one hike, I accidentally veered off into horse territory, and had to hop a barbed wire fence to get back to the human path and off the private property--sorry horse farmers! Laughed at myself the rest of the way down :) I also hiked around the bottom of Mt Cook glacier, a NZ icon. The trail was packed but it was a really fantastic day to check out the glaciers.

I’ve now met back up with D & E in the much busier, more touristy Queenstown. It’s still a beautiful spot, overlooking Lake Wakatipu, but a big change from my very quiet nights traveling solo. I think I really need both though, and was fully enoying the live music last night (first a bagpipe performance by the lakefront, then some local singers in a pub) and the range of food options available in the city. Here for a few days, then playing it by ear for the next little while! Hope no one is freezing too badly back home!

Sea lions near Kaikoura!

Hello Maryam!!! Old Roomate

Views looking over Hanmer Springs. Quite nice when wind isn’t keeping you up all night!

Tekapo monument to sheepdogs, the region is big area for sheep farming

The last of the lupines on the edge of Lake Tekapo

Sunset in Tekapo (and obligatory selfie to show I’m here too!)

I love this lake so much!

Monument to those who have died while climbing in the glaciers of Mt Cook and surrounding area. Humbling reminder to proceed with caution, that nature is a powerful force. 

Clouds making it look like a glacial eruption!

[mariacalirfs-blog]

When Earth doesn’t feel like Earth anymore

Hi! Currently writing in a room of an airbnb in Wellington, high on a windy hill. I’m with two of my friends from high school, Danielle and Eliza, and we’ve been traveling together for 4 days. I said goodbye to Howard and Sandra, after a lovely visit and a swim in the Pacific Ocean--much warmer than swimming in Boston any time of year--and headed back to Auckland to pick up D & E. 

We headed straight to Rotorua from the airport, an area known for its geothermal activity. After settling in at our airbnb, we went for a small hike in an area between two lakes, one blue one green, which you can slightly see in an image below (different colors related to depth and mineral accumulations in each body of water). The next morning we explored Wai-o-Tapu, an active geothermal area which was one of the wildest natural sights I’ve seen. The whole area has the scent of sulfur, and around each bend are fantastic and otherworldly steaming, colorful craters and lakes and holes. It’s a bit mind-blowing and I’m so glad we got the chance to go. A few photos below. 

When we had finished looking at the steaming waters, we decided we wanted to get into some, so we found a natural hotspring called Kerosene creek. There were a bunch of folks swimming around this long creek, but lots of space for everyone. It feels a lot like being in a hottub, except you’re in a pretty large creek with multiple small waterfalls and surrounded by forest. Very relaxing while slightly disconcerting. 

Next stop was Waitomo glowworm caves. We booked too late to go through a smaller organization, so we did end up at the main tourist cave, which wasn’t ideal, but still a slightly magical experience. Our guide was a direct descendent of the Maori chief who first explored these caves, and his family has been guiding ever since, considering themselves protectors of the caves. I learned that glowworms hang out on rocks and shoot down strings similar to spider webs to catch insects that fly through, attracted by the light. The glowing part is essentially the poo, but wow is that poo beautiful! One part of the tour is on a boat looking up at worms on the cave roof, and it feels like you’re looking up at a galaxy. A special feeling for sure. No photos came out well (see my instagram for a little joke on that), but the sight was great.

We intended to hike the challenging Tongariro Alpine Crossing, but immensely high winds made that impossible. We’ve now made it to Wellington, where we’ll be for a bit before heading to the South Island. So far it is a hip, creative, very windy city, and I’m looking forward to exploring more. It’s been really nice to have some friends to share this experience with, so I’m grateful D & E could make it work to come by on their way to Australia. A little bummed they won’t be staying in NZ like they planned to, but enjoying this time together now. Stay warm and safe from the snow friends back home! 

Eliza (left) and Danielle (right) and I hiking around the blue and green lakes

two lakes!!

Lady Knox Geyser at Wai-o-Tapu

This spot is called the Artist’s Palette

Champagne Pool

This seemed impossibly neon green, but there it was!

Wellington Harbor at sunset

[mariacalirfs-blog]

Friends Around the World

I’m writing this post from Hastings, a town in the Hawke’s Bay region, known for its wineries, agriculture, and rolling hills. Why here for my second week? It’s the home of a couple we met while on the boat in Alaska last summer, who are kind enough to welcome me into their home and lives for the next week or so. Howard and Sandra were a delight to know when were up in Alaska, and it’s a special thing to be here with them around the world, getting a glimpse into their lives. Thank goodness for friends around the world!

I don’t have much to share about the rest of my time in Auckland. My days were mostly filled with walking around various parks and waterfronts, reading and people watching, and taking in the sun (I do now have sunscreen thank goodness!). I had brunch with a bunch of women living in Auckland, though most are from other spots in the world, so I’ve got a few more connections in my belt. The night before brunch I stayed downtown in a hostel, just to have more access to conversation, and I’m glad I took the initiative to get myself the human contact I needed rather than staying secluded up on the Northshore suburb where I was. It was great to have a place to be, but I’m learning that travelling on my own means I have to be proactive in meeting people and striking up conversations in order to have the engagement I want. I’m excited for where that will lead me, and for future travel buddies to come, and am glad I could be honest with people about the reality of travel loneliness. 

I left Auckland two days ago, and drove down to Hastings where I will be for about a week. Yes, you read that correctly, I drove! Myself! In my adorable new car, which does not yet have a name but certainly should, since it’s bright yellow and super fun (pictures below). The car is great and will help me get to many adventures, and driving on the other side of the road went quite well! There are definitely mistakes that I make--my wipers come on all the time instead of my turn signal--but it was a safe and comfortable experience getting here. 

When I arrived, Howard took me up to Te Mata Peak, which overlooks Hawke’s bay region. It was a bit foggy at the top, but still very cool to see the land and rivers. Howard explained that Maori communities partly identify themselves by important geographic features (folks will introduce themselves in part by mentioning their mountain and river), and Te Mata is an important landmark for local Maori families. 

Today I explored Napier, a town right by Hastings, which was decimated by an earthquake in 1931. The town rebuilt in art deco style and has become the art deco capital of the world, so I’m told. Really interesting to see the archutectural style with very modern shops, but it was quite a lovely spot, right on the water. It was cool to read about and see how the community rebuilt after a truly devastating disaster. 

There is an avocado tree at Howard and Sandra’s house, and I have been begged to eat as many as I can since it produces so rapidly (challenge accepted!). Fresh fruit is in abundance and I am thoroughly enjoying summer’s bounty. We may head out to a spot on the beach this weekend, but wherever our plans take us, I am sure it will be fantastic. The two of them are great conversationalists and have been very welcoming since I arrived. Looking forward to the rest of our time together, and then to see two friends from high school who I’ll travel with a bit before they head off to Australia. Missing home, but happy to be here and excited for all that’s still to come. 

My car!! I love it already

Lovely roadside view on my drive down to Hastings

Decided I should be in a few of my photos from NZ, so I am attempting more selfies. Beach by Napier with a string of peaks in the background

Art deco in Napier

More napier architecture

A powerful exhibit in the Napier museum of ocean scenes recreated with plastic water bottles

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Hello New Zealand

I made it! I’m in New Zealand safe and sound, writing this from the sunny porch of a friend of my grandparent’s who I have yet to meet. He was kind enough to let me stay in his house in a suburb of Auckland, but won’t be back from his own travels until early next week. The house and neighborhood are lovely and lush, but very quiet since it’s just me in the house and the neighbors are mostly on vacation (summer just started over here). 

The flights went well, it was a long 29 hours or so of travel (including a layover in Houston), and a very long time waiting for my tent to be examined for pests or other biohazards, but I made it. It’s really nice to have some sunshine, although the sun is very strong here and I need to get some sunscreen ASAP. Had some dairy free ice cream sitting on the beach yesterday, a long shot from chilly Boston just a few days ago. 

Jetlag is not too bad since my internal clock was all thrown off by the traveling anyways, and I forced myself to stay up the whole first day. Still at the tail end of the cold I picked up right before I left, but all in all, happy and healthy and excited to start meeting people and exploring the country! More updates to come as I keep on adventuring. 

Palm trees were a welcome sight my first morning.

PB and Oreo Ice Cream, waves in the distance

Some of the greenery covering the back porch

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the blog is back

hello! If any of you get email updates on this still, welcome back. This post is mainly a test to make sure this thing still works. I’ll be bringing this blog back to keep folks updated on my adventures in New Zealand, where I’ll be from January-May. Yes, I am going just for fun. Yes, I am going by myself. Yes, I have very little plan (more chance for adventure!). And, yes, I am very excited and a bit nervous. 

I’ll be posting updates when I can to this blog, and will still have email and whatsapp available if you ever want to get in touch (or drop me a comment here). Stay tuned for beautiful photos of New Zealand mountains, and little tidbits about my trip. 

P.S. I’m emailing the link to this blog for all those who asked to stay in touch while I’m gone. Feel free to share via email to anyone else who’s curious about my journey

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A final post

I’m writing from my home in the US, where I’ve been for a week now. It’s borth wonderful and weird to be in this home with my family and not my 17 peers. Italy continued to be wonderful, we spent a lot of time visiting farms, learning about ways people are combatting food waste, and working on final projects. I presented about gender roles and women’s participation in food systems with my comparative inquiry project group, a presentation which was a whole semester in the making. I also made a ‘zine for my POLI final as a proposal for increasing justice in food systems through the ways zines allow people to produce and distribute different forms of knowledge, and for emphasizing storytelling and narrative as necessary for valuing food cultures and communities. The zine also had an article about agroecology, which was my proposal for increasing sustainbility in food systems (ask me more if you’re curious, it wasn’t a term I’d heard before this semester). 

We also spent our last week at a retreat, where we enjoyed our last days together but also started looking ahead, about how to move forward with this experience. We looked at skills we had gained or improved on, talked about ways to communicate this experience to different audiences, wondered about how hard it might be to be away from each other and to be sedentary, not always on the move. We also talked about the different ways we can all participate in food systems change, whether as activisits, teachers, politicians, networkers, eaters, or any combination of anything! We were a pretty varied group and are going on very different paths, but I think this trip provided real value to each person and changed something about how we think, however small a change. And that’s what learning opportunities should do! We were most definitely there as students. 

For a bit of self reflection, I think my skills as a facilitator increased on this trip as I took on facilitation roles within and outside our group. I think I will continue on a teacher path for the near future, and hope to incorporate food systems change into my teaching and my own eating. I also know that I’m more interested in local, community level work right now than I am in big, international level work. 

I’m off to see my sister graduate tomorrow morning, and then spend part of the summer teaching a classroom of middle schoolers in boston (TBD on what subject I get to teach, but I hope history or english). That experience will help me determine whether in-classroom teaching is something I want to actively pursue.  

It’s been one heck of a journey. It was exhausting, and joyful, and challenging, and educational. At the end of the day, I can confidently say I’m glad I went. Excited to see how I change and grow from this time, and excited to brainstorm how I can bring what I learned into my other spheres of life. 

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Ciao!

I’m sitting here, writing from the rooftop garden of my Torino homestay family, overlooking the beautiful city, surrounded in the distance by the Alps. Not a bad place to be. Italy’s been a big change for us. Two weeks ago, I was sweating just standing, and yesterday I was wearing a fleece and a light down coat.

We started our time in Rome, for a rapid-fire 4 days interacting with international organizations, like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which we’ve been talking about all semester. It was a great opportunity to be able to talk with people whose decision making has significant effects in the countries we were visiting previously. We got quite a rounded array of opinions and expertise (12 lecturers in 2 days), and were provided a perfect opportunity for comparative analysis of our trip and the information we hear in each place. Interesting to note, we often heard from the people speaking to us that it was great we had “been in the field” while in Tanzania and India. What they seemed not to realize was that our visit to them, and all our programming here in Italy, is still us in the field. Italy is as much a complicated part of the global food system as the other two countries, and has its own unique set of actors and dynamics for us to learn about and synthesize.

We’re now in Torino, home until May 12th (happy then birthday mom!). I’m really happy to be in the home of this family (three daughters, mom, and dad), and have already been swept in to a foosball rivalry. We’ve been having quite a few classes, having met our in-country Environmental Science and Anthropology professors for the first time this week. We visited a major market, Porta Palazzo, with farmers on one side and retailers on the other. The next morning (is 4 am really morning?), we arose bright and early to see the fruit and vegetable wholesale facility where the retailers from Porta Palazzo bought their goods. A 12 hour day had us exploring the different areas of the wholesale market, touring through an industrial food processing facility (fruits and vegetables again), and meeting with a small farmer’s cooperative in the foothills, sharing a delicious lunch with them to hear about the ways in which they hope to revitalize small-scale, local production.

One big theme we’re exploring while here is the impact of migration on Torino and its food system. A Fiat factory led to mass migration from southern Italy in the 1960s-1980s, and overtime, immigration from Albania and Morocco increased greatly as well. We saw many of these immigrants working in the markets, and the plethora of Kebab Pizza restaurants shows the influence of these immigrants, and their ways of both celebrating their own food cultures, and entering into the Torinian communities here. My host dad is an architect, and is playing a big role in Torino to build and renovate spaces for refugee immigrants to find homes here, but he’s expressed that, as is true throughout Europe (and in the US!) not all people from Torino are on board with this migration and support for refugees.

We’re being kept immensely busy with our daily work and our long term projects, but it wouldn’t make sense to come on this program and not keep it jam packed. We have so much to learn, and are only getting the briefest sliver. Small though it is, it’s been a wonderful and complicated experience, learning new things every day, adding nuance to my prior knowledge. Wild to think that we are coming to a close. A lot to think about as we head into the home stretch, but also a lot to simply enjoy.

Sitting in Italy’s seat at the FAO!

Can’t walk through fruit processing plants without the full gear

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Some wifi to post some pics! Enjoying my week in Rome, eating delicious cheese, drinking wine, and finally getting to hear the persepctive of international organizations we’ve been talking about this whole semester. More on Italy once I’ve been here more than two days.

1. Hiking with friends to a waterfall during our vacation, in Vashisht, Himachal Pradesh at the foothills of the Himalayas

2. A piece of salt from the salt pans in Little Rann of Kutch

3. A stepwell in Ahmedabad, gorgeous combination of Jain, Hindu, and Muslim arhcitecture, and a respite from the heat!

4. A weaver and his son, reviving the handmade art form

5. Felix running through the White Desert, all salt

6. My homestay parents, Amita and Nikunj, and Julia my homestay partner

7. The beautiful mountains seen from our hike

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Two down, one to go

I’m typing this from New Delhi, the final point of my one week spring break. Very grateful for the fan in my hotel room keeping me from the heat (95 right now, a cooler spell than I’ve experienced actually). Most of this past week was up in Manali, a small city in Himachal Pradesh near the Himalayas. I saw gorgeous mountain views, loved the cool temperatures (50s/60s and down to 30s at night), went on an awesome hike through a pine forest to a waterfall, and ate some delicious Tibetan cuisine. Manali made the twice-taken 14 hour overnight  mountain bus ride worth it, which is saying something. Bar the bus ride, a much needed rest from the constant exhausation that is this program. Still had work to do over the break, but some time off was just what we all needed. 

It’s so strange to think that we’ve finished with two countries. On Monday morning I’ll be heading off to Italy, the last stop of the trip. 5 days in Rome and then up to Torino and the Piedmont region. What we’ll be doing there I’m not sure, because our mantra here is “the schedule is subject to change until it’s over.” I’m certainly excited, and am curious to see how our comparative research projects play out in such a different context. It’ll be a big change, moving to Italy, and there’s predictions for some reverse culture shock. 

India, despite the challenges it threw at me, has been fantastic, as was Tanzania. I survived the heat (including 106 in the middle of a desert two weeks ago), which was truly one of my biggest concerns. The group eventually got over being sick, thought it took some time, and being all together helped restore our group dynamic, which got a little shaky being sick and apart. 

We took a 10 day field visit trip for the end of our program, to the region of Kutch in western Gujarat. In the Lower Rann of Kutch, we visited salt pan workers, some of the most marginalized members of this society. For 8 months of the year, the salt farmers labor in the hot sun, collecting salt for incredibly low fees. They work in the center of a desert, actually part of a wild donkey sanctuary, with no food or water access. The government brings fresh water, but one worker I spoke with said his water only comes every 15 days, and even using it only for drinking purposes (leaving out cleaning, washing salt off body, other water use), he can barely make it last 10 days. He has to supplement by traveling 12km to the nearest village to meet his water needs. A member of my group asked if there was any sort of union/organizing among salt workers to demand higher incomes/more effective services, but they responded that there’s no ability to organize if you are struggling to even survive. The workers need what they can get, and are not in a position to push back against that without legitimately risking their lives. It reminded me of when we were back in Berkeley learning about the Black Panther’s Breakfast Program, and how the organizers of that movement recognized that people could not mobilize and revolt if they were too hungry to move through the day. I think this is a part of organizing that can be easily ignored, but is really important for community action. Help people get basic resources right off the bat, and then work together to mobilize. 

We saw salt again a week later, though in a different context. My group visited the White Desert in the Greater Rann of Kutch, an entirely salt desert. During monsoon season, ocean flooding covers the area, but when summer comes it dries completely, leaving a thick layer of sea salt. So cool to see such a vast area, and to imagine how different it will be in a few months when the rains start. Some of my friends attempted to make salt angels, an unsuccessful and rather painful venture, but all in all a very fun time. 

During that part of our visit to the greater rann, we also had the chance to visit a family of artisan weavers and dyers, who make really beautiful pieces of cloth. They revived the artisan tradition that had died out during clothing industrialization, and have helped boost organic cotton production, vegetable dyes, and support for craftsmanship. I had just had a conversation with Abby (hey sis!) about art as activism the day before, in the context of really cool screenprinters, and it was fun to see this work through that lens as well. While the weaving work is not very affordable, and so is limited in some forms of activism, the family is consciously trying to combat the intense industrailization present in Gujarat, and support pesticide-free production. They’re also pushing back against the Bt cotton that has spread its grip in India and has caused, through its promises and following failures, enormous numbers of farmer suicides, a real tragedy still going on right now. During this time I’ve met so many people doing so much good work to support the people of this area, mobilize across identity, combat the pressures of public/private partnership that is causing displacement and loss of livelihoods. There are a lot of challenges here, as there is in any community or country, but also a lot of wonderful people putting in the work to fight for their rights and for the world they are envisioning, and that’s inspirational. 

Excited to learn more in Italy, excited to return home and use some of what I’ve learned here in my work there, excited to see how everyone on my program takes our experience and uses it to fuel a whole variety of passions. Also, excited for some delicious pizza! Italy, here we come. 

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India!

We’re already halfway through India and that is so hard to believe. So far, we’ve been primarily in Ahmedabad, a big city in Gujarat, a state in west India. I’ve been in a homestay with Nikunj and Amita, a very sweet older couple whose sons are both grown and living in Europe, and who wanted someone in the house for a little bit. They have taken on the task of showing us all kinds of Gujarati and Indian foods, making sure we sampled as much as we could in the 10 days we live with them. Amita is an excellent cook, and we have been loving every meal, although they always expect us to eat about 5 times as much as our bodies can handle.

Our first week was filled with classes and guest lecturers, learning about new development in India, Indian history and food history, the caste system and its powerful hold, and how globalization is affecting India intensely. Themes of globalization and neoliberalism are a main focus in our time in this country, and the effects of push for globalized development are clear. Our first night driving back from the airport, our country coordinator Sonal pointed out a large river we drove over. Gujarat is a desert state, and the river is essentially a fake one. It used to only have water during 2 months of monsoon season, and during that time was a communal area, with people of all castes doing all kind of activities (clothes washing, bathing, playing) at the water. However, the Gujarat government decided a curated waterfront was needed to accompany the rapidly developing city, and so diverted water hundreds of miles to fill the fake river, constantly pumping it in. Thousands of people have been displaced to divert that water and build the infrastructure necessary to do so, and these people are still fighting for any kind of compensation.

After an education filled week one, we had Holi over our first weekend, a Hindu festival celebrating color, light, and the triumph of good over evil. I attended a holi fire (and made it onto page two of the Times of India the next day when a newspaper photographer was surprised to find Americans at the farmer—see my mom’s Facebook for the evidence) on Sunday night, and was looking forward to playing with colors on Monday. Unfortunately, Sunday late night was the start of a week where 19/20 of my group (traveling staff included) got hit by a rough bout of sickness, all coming down with it various days. The sickness made the week one of our strangest, as it was our longest time spent away from everyone that we’ve had yet.

Thirteen of us were semi-well enough to take a three day trip up to Amand, a city home to one of the Amul dairy plants. Amul is a dairy cooperative, but one that rivals most multinational corporations in size. Thousands of village cooperatives supply milk to the Amul plants (which are impressively curated campuses), and there processed and packaged. Amul is one of the major reasons India is now the world’s largest milk producer, a fact I did not know until recently. However, Amul’s “cooperative” format is only in milk production, and other employees are managed in a noncooperative form. Additionally, inputs like sugar and cocoa used in chocolate production (one of their big sellers) are not from Gujarat or even India, and Amul doesn’t prioritize collaborating working with other cooperatives to source these added inputs. Amul provides an interesting contrast to the notion of cooperative, which we’ve been viewing mostly on a small scale.

A small scale cooperative visit did happen on our trip as well, to a women’s vegetable cooperative in a small village. These women were being ripped off by middlemen taking their produce to the market, a common theme in small scale agriculture as we’ve noticed. Thus, they decided to form their own group, support one another’s production, and facilitate transport into Ahmedabad to access larger markets. When they first showed up, the female sellers had fruit thrown at them, words of aggression yelled, and a general sense of complete unwelcomeness to the male-dominated city market. However, they’ve persisted and remained, and through the cooperative have been able to acquire greater economic independence.

While we were sharing a meal with the women of the coop, Joe and Alyshia, our program director and US/Berkeley country coordinator, came wandering down the dirt path, much to our happy surprise. It was like a big family reunion, and a very happy time to have them back with us, even though they’ll only be here for a short week.

Sorry no photos again, but hopefully some soon with different wifi!

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Goodbye Tanzania, Hello India

India here we are! After an exhausting two days with 1.5 hours of sleep and almost not being able to get on one of the plans, the group made it to Ahmedabad, a city in the state of Gujarat. We’ve been warmly welcomed by our country team, and have a lot of really cool stuff ahead. It’s wild that Tanzania is over, but India will be a fantastic experience as well.

The rest of our time in Tanzania was incredible. I lived with the kindest homestay I could have hoped for, and felt so connected with every member of the family. Head of the house was Mama, a primary school Kiswahili teacher, and a woman with a lot of love and joy to spread. Her daughters Angel and Sylvia were our main English speakers. Angel is a farmer but studied gender and development and wants to pursue a career in that field if an opportunity allows for it. Sylvia works in micro-finance. Both are already working on us to return to Tanzania to spend more time with them. We also had Gisbet, Olivia, and Olympia in the house, the kid cousins, a really sweet, fun bunch. It was great to feel so at home when we pulled up in front of the house, especially for such a short visit, only 10 days. Definitely hard to say goodbye.

A 15 hour bus ride got us up north to Arusha, with a full packed week for the end of our time in Tanzania. We had some lectures on land tenure and land grabbing in Tanzania, and then headed off to Ngorongoro Conservation area. We spent our first day there on safari, which was definitely a complicated experience. It was really cool to see so many animals, and we learned a lot about the area from our knowledgeable guide. And I can now say thanks to motion sickness that I’ve thrown up in the Conservation Area! But we had done some readings the day before to prepare for our visit, and knew about the history of displacement that allowed for the creation of the conservation area. The Maasai, a pastoral indigenous group, primarily in Tanzania and Kenya, were initially closed off from their historical land in the Serengeti area to allow for conservation at the bequest of European colonial powers, and so sent to the Ngorongoro crater, promised they would be allowed to stay and graze their. While the Maasai have maintained environmentally friendly land stewardship throughout their history, conservationists again closed them out of their land, and to this day increasing measures have prevented the Maasai from living and grazing in the crater. We spent our next two days living in a Maasai boma (community in a circle format with houses and animal pens), talking with them about the immense challenges they face in maintaining their nomadic pastoral lifestyle. Access to grazing lands is limited, and those grazing lands that are still available have been hit hard by climate change induced drought, and so cattle health is at a low, forcing many Maasai to participate in other cash economy measures to eat.

Though living with the Maasai was a multisided experience, and we discussed in detail the history that even allowed us to be there, it was a wonderful time, in a beautiful piece of land. I had a lot of interesting conversations with a warrior named Emanuel, who is the brother of the “chief” and is currently studying Veterinary Medicine at university so he can best support his community. He has another brother studying as well, though for education, and the two of them hope to build a school for their community, because government schools are far from their lands, and the schools rarely provide food.

When we returned back to Arusha, we visited a very cool organization called Farm Radio International. They work in a bunch of different countries, and exist as a managerial organization, connecting farmers and radio networks. Radio is one of the most accessible forms of communication to rural smallholder farmers, and so information and dialogue can be promoted on this format if radio stations have some support in how to create programming. Farmers determine what topics they want to hear about, and new calling platforms allow for increased communication between these stations/Farm Radio and the farmers themselves.

A few days here in India will be spent getting to know the area, and then we will move into our homestays. Looking forward to everything except the intense heat!

(P.S. Photos won’t load with the post on this wifi, but hopefully some photos up soon!)

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Elephant seen driving through Mikumi National Park!

Mama Singo, a goat farmer in the mountain town of Mgeta.

The group (most of us) at a coastal communities class at the beach.

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Tanzania

Hello from Tanzania! Our wifi access is pretty limited, but we’ve been plenty busy. Pictures will come soon, but too much for this wifi to handle. Our second week in California was as packed as the first, though with slightly less visits and more group workshops and trainings. In one of our last days, we had back to back lectures about the benefits of Agroecology versus GMOs in agriculture. This sparked a discussion that we’ve returned to many times since and will continue to do so, about what the future of food security looks like. Is a return to traditionalism a romanticization of the past? Can you effectively (economically and ecologically) build a system that marries technological innovation and traditional knowledge? We’ve had various lecturers talk about the third wave, neotraditionalization, and post-modernity, but have yet to determine what those look like and if they are all the same. Food for thought.

After two full days of travel from Berkeley, we landed in Dar es Salaam, meeting with two members of our Tanzanian country team, both professors at a university of agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania. We spent our time in Dar learning about some history of Tanzania, including the agricultural impacts of colonialism, and the current state of food security. Tanzania struggles with some in-country food insecurity, but also exports large quantities of food (corn, wheat, and rice mostly) to the nearby countries, who are struggling far more to feed the population. It was interesting to reframe my earlier concepts of foreign aid, as Tanzania both receives and provides aid. Dar also allowed us to look into food systems of coastal communities, especially regarding fishing. We attended the country’s largest fish market, a vibrant, stinky, bustling place, where we were able to (with translation assistance) talk to vendors, auctioneers, and buyers about the various roles in the fish market. The conversations we had at the market were, in most ways, reiterated the next day when we visited a very small fishing town some ways outside the city. This community was one strong example of how many of the people who produce food are often the most food insecure, a situation we saw on California farms as well. None of the fishers owned their own boats or nets, but rented from wealthier Dar citizens. The fishers are almost all men, with some women participating in the shallow water activities. We also noticed that more women were buyers, but more men were sellers (sellers being, especially in the big market, different from the fishers themselves). I’ll be looking at gender dynamics in household food decisions over the course of the semester, for a group inquiry project, so it will be interesting to see how these roles play out in farming and other food communities.

In reflection on the coastal interactions, I find myself struggling with the intersections of economic, ecological, and social justice. I can call to preserve ocean waters and prevent overfishing, but at what cost to the community who only just survives off the fishing of these waters? What balance can be found, and when?

We are now in Morogoro, a much smaller town, where we are having classes and lectures at the Agriculture University, covering a whole range of topics. I moved in with my homestay, a really kind family with some cute kids. I was sick our first free day together, so my roommate and I haven’t had the chance to see the town with people from here, but we hope to soon. Feeling hot but happy!