The Contacts Disaster

You learn by making mistakes.  I always think of that saying when I attempt a new creation in the kitchen and something inevitably goes awry.  Do I wish I could learn these lessons without the mistake? You bet!  Ordering contacts from the United States and having them shipped to New Zealand is one of those mistakes.

It seemed innocuous enough.  I needed contacts, and they were going to be twice as expensive to buy them in here v. at home.   “Even if I have to pay for shipping, I’ll come out ahead,” I thought.  Ah, lessons.

My mom generously offered to call my eye doctor, have the contacts ordered and shipped to Verona, where she could then send them on to me in NZ.  A year’s worth of contacts arrived and left Verona with ~$135 worth of shipping costs ($15 from Osceola where my old eye doctor resides, and $120 to NZ).  I was crushed- how could it be that expensive to ship them here?  I think insurance is the answer to that question.  Little did I know what was ahead…

When the contacts arrived in New Zealand, my mom got the call from FedEx that they were being held by customs.  After literally five calls, I was assured that they would be leaving customs and headed to Rangiwahia, NZ.  Oh, and I did I mention that there was a roughly $80 charge added for an import tax since the value of the goods exceeded NZ$500?  And an additional $40 for administrative fees?  All in all, my $500 contacts ended up costing ~$750. It was an eye opening experience on shipping goods around the world.  What’s even more surprising that it still was roughly the same price of buying the contacts in NZ in the first place.   Sigh.

The moral of the story is that the cheaper option isn’t always the best option.  Also, get over your fear of laser surgery.

My New Job!

You never know when something you’ve learned will come in handy.

I am so excited to report that I have a new job starting May 7^th!  One fateful day last week, I decided I should probably start looking for a job, considering I only had 6 weeks to go with my current family.  That day, I found two jobs that interested me, and I contacted them.  By the next day, one of the families had written me, and by the day after that, an Skype interview was scheduled.  By the end of the interview, I was offered the job!

I cannot tell you how grateful and thrilled I am to be moving on.  I’ll be living in an amazing location right on the coast.  The family is French, which is why I’m glad I studied French all those years ago.  It’s been six years since I’ve lived in France (I studied abroad there in 2006), and it’s been that long since I’ve spoken the language.  I’m looking forward to practicing again, but thankfully they want me to speak to their son in English!

The green square north of Palmerston North is where I'm currently living; the pink square north of Wellington is where I'll be moving 

 They need someone 4 days a week (perfect) for their 18 month old son.  He looks like a joy.  I’ll be close enough to Wellington, the capital city, to take him in to the zoo, museums, etc.  We also will have daily trips to the beach as their family home is right near the water. 

This also means that I’ll be very close to Wellington (aka civilization), and I couldn’t be happier.  The village I’ll be living in is called Paekakariki (pronounced “pie-ka-ka-riki”) has several shops and cafes as well, so I’ll have places to go after work.  The community is laid back and artsy, and there are concerts in the park on weekends.  The father is a musician/writer, and the mother is an architect.  She’s lived in NZ for 12 years.  The family also has a flatmate (roommate) who is a violinist/conductor.  Seeing the music theme?  They asked me if I was musical as their son loves being sang too…ohh, they’re in for a treat J  Does playing the oboe for two years count?  At least I’ll be able to enjoy some great music from them!

I am trying to organize a trip down to meet them in person; it’s about three hours from where I’m currently living.  In the meantime, I am just about to finish up this week and only 4 remain before I’m officially finished here.  Counting down?  Yup J  I will be spending the week in between the two jobs volunteering in the kitchens at the local bakery, so I have some fun ahead!

Mt. Doom and more pictures

So, remember that volcano that I climbed (Mt. Ngauruhoe)?   I just learned that it was actually Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings! Awesome!  I can't wait to watch those movies when I get home to see what I recognize.

Here's the rest of the photos as promised from my Flying Fox experience.  The pictures were accidently left off the DVD they sent us home with, so I just got them recently.

Week 12 Odds and Ends

- I have two more favorites to share.  I just had the privilege of trying cape gooseberries, and let me tell ya- amazing!!!   So unlike any fruit I’ve had before.  And I decided to sample some fancy yogurt recently, and that also tops my favorite list of best yogurt I’ve ever had.  I love food.  And I love that I’m finding such good stuff here!

-Biscuit has been weaned this week.  I’m a little sad to lose my fun morning chore; her gallop towards me always made me start my day with a smile.  She still bellers at me when she sees me walk from the cottage to the house to start work in the morning, but I’ve been letting her know I still love her but can’t feed her.  Yes, she is my little buddy.

-If you still have my old cell phone number, you can delete it.  As much as I loved that number, I’ll start fresh with a new one when I get home!

-My last day with this family is officially set- April 27^th! 

-This is my favorite picture so far.  Joy was captured in this moment while climbing the volcano with Marie (it was still early enough in the climb where fear hadn’t completely kicked in yet).  I get moments where I stop and marvel “I am in New Zealand.  I did it.”  This was one of them where I thought to myself how incredible it is that I’m having this experience right now, and it just so happened to be caught on camera.

The Tongariro Crossing and Listening to your Instincts

I climbed a volcano this weekend. 

In the shuttle bus from our hostel, I took a look around.  Everyone was well equip with hiking gear and had serious “I’ve done this a million times” looks on their faces.  Then there’s me, sporting my high school Jansport backpack and wearing jogging clothes.  Yup, I’m ready.

I wish I could tell this innocent, smiling face at the start of my 12 mile Tongariro Crossing hike (known to be one of the best day hikes in the world) that 11 hours later, you would be nursing a sore toes, a swollen and bleeding palm from falling on a rock, and basically ache all over.  But you’d survive.

Have you noticed that since I’ve met Marie, I’ve posted twice about surviving?  Yes, it seems that I’ve done two incredibly scary things in the past two weekends.  I will not be doing anything scary for a long time;  I promise, Aunt Betty!  Frankly, my body couldn’t even if I wanted to J  Today at Ashleigh’s playgroup, I sat with a woman who is a week from giving birth, and neither of us moved for a long time.  That made me realize I’m doing a good job here fully appreciating what NZ has to offer!

Generally speaking, hiking the Tongariro Crossing takes between 7-9 hours, depending on how fast you walk and if you take any side trips along the way.  It took us 11 because Marie took one look at a giant volcano and thought we should climb it.  My first instinct was “No way in h*ll.”  After thinking about it for a little while and feeling bad for keeping Marie from something she wanted to do, I decided to give it a try.  Looking back at Ngauruhoe from the vantage point of safely from the ground, I could not believe that we had ever even thought it was a remotely good idea.

I was okay for a while.  After about two hours, I started to panic a bit.  It was unlike any terrain I had ever experienced.  Basically, you climbed the entire time at a 45 degree angle, and as you got closer to the top, the rocks to grab on to became less and less.  The surface was all sand-like volcanic ash, so you had no solid footing, and only some of the rocks were secure enough to use to hold.  Granted, you wouldn’t have done much if you slipped besides sliding down a few feet.  However, to me, it felt like I’d basically fall off the side and not stop until I hit the bottom.  Hard. 

Have I mentioned before I don’t like heights?  Because I still don’t.

After my initial panic, I pushed through and was determined to get to the top.  I think I had about two more fear attacks in the hour that followed before Marie and I finally decided enough was enough.  The clouds were rolling in, and we still had an hour to go to get to the top.  While she was doing fine, I was clearly not feeling comfortable.  I had a hard time admitting defeat when we had come so far, but I reminded myself that not trying at all would have been the real failure.  Actually, not trying at all would have been smart, in this case, but you learn to trust your instincts in situations where you don’t listen J 

Coming down was my favorite part, and ironically, the part that made Marie nervous.  I flew down once I got the hang of “sand skiing”- all you had to do was lean back, dig your heels in, and basically glide down.

After three+ hours on the volcano, we took a much needed lunch break before carrying on.  The landscape is very surreal; we joked we were on Jupiter.   By the time we reached the hut that marked out two hours from the parking lot, we realized we were well past making our return shuttle.  How Marie had any energy left at this point, I don’t know, but she ran the rest of the way to see if she could catch a second bus.  I opted to walk.  It was a very peaceful part of the trip.  The last hour was spent on a forest path sounded by trees, a stream, and the sounds of a nature.   At this point, every step hurt because my toes had been pushing against the tops of my hiking boots for too long.  A lovely trio of Germans overheard our plight and asked me if we’d like a ride.  I eagerly said yes, and then tried to keep up with them despite the pain.  They nicely told me not to worry about keeping pace with them and said they’d wait for me at the bottom with Marie.  Okay J  When I was about 30 minutes out, I passed a woman sitting on the trail.  I stopped and said hi, and she was traveling from North Carolina and said that she separated from her friend so he could meet the shuttle and come back with the car.  At that point I really needed someone to whine to, and we compared stories.  I pushed on, and I walked the rest of the way with a Canadian couple who stumbled on me gingerly pulling off my socks to see if I had toenails left.  (I did, and still do).

Hopping in the car with the Germans was the best part of the day ;)  I enjoyed a celebratory Hokey Pokey ice cream cone (a Kiwi flavor similar to toffee that I had to try at some point) in front of the fire at the hostel before driving back to my cottage for the night. 

Pretty amazing!

My arrival

I have been meaning to go back to my arrival here and write about what I experienced for a while.  Better late than not at all!

The flight was great.  It seemed to fly by in a daze.  I took the bus from Madison to Chicago, and then had a 5 hr flight to Los Angeles.  From there, I had a 12 hour flight to Fiji.  I had the good fortune of having a really cool guy from Michigan sitting next to me, and we chatted (and napped) the whole way there.  There was also no one sitting between us, so we could both spread out.  Much appreciated!!

I do have some wise words of advice to share- don’t panic if you’re carrying food.  Because NZ is an island, they are very concerned about what enters the country.  They scare you with all kinds of places to discard your fresh fruit and vegetables before entering the country, and they threaten you with fines if you don’t declare everything you have on you.  After arriving, my arrival ticket was marked with a big red “C” which I assumed meant "Check this woman's luggage!  She's been around animals, and she's harboring food!" I ate two bags of dried fruit while I waited in line to get through customs because I was convinced they were going to confiscate all my food.  Minutes later and after the equivalent of ~6 pears and ~20 cherries, it was deemed that my riding boots were fine, my chocolate bars, granola bars, and nuts acceptable, and my animal contact was never brought up.  Later, I learned that “C” meant the agricultural line because you’ve had contact with animals.  Lesson learned.

Since my flight had a layover in Fiji, I opted to spend a day there before arriving on New Year’s Eve in Auckland, New Zealand.  Let me tell you, there was something really special about ringing in the New Year here.  When waiting for transport to my hostel for the night, I met a Canadian-Bermudian woman, and we spent the day together reading on the beach and soaking up the sun.  And did I mention trying to stay cool?  It was intense leaving WI in December to arrive in Fiji with temps in the 80’s and HUMID.  I did get tricked into a fresh coconut from a local man, and that was amazing to be reading on the beach drinking fresh coconut water out of one chopped open before my eyes.  

I’m glad I was able to spend some time in Fiji, but I don’t think it was worth it in the end.  I was so jetlagged that I ended up missing the sunset because I accidently fell asleep at 6pm….yeah, that’s pretty much the reason you go to Fiji!  I arrived at 5am after a 12 hour flight, so I suppose it's understandable.  

So there you go- my one picture of Fiji, taken from my bedroom window upon arrival.

A Lovely Cooking Day!

I got the day off today which freed me up for my first cooking day at the church kitchens.  I was exhausted by the end of it- I think I peeled tomatoes for about three hours!  We made a delicious tomato soup with fresh ingredients, and I enjoyed that with the preschool children and other staff along with foccaccia bread and fresh vegetables.  After lunch, I helped make homemade crackers and an amaranth museli.  The food they make at this place truly nourishes the soul!

I ended my day of assisting and learning in the kitchens with a massage from one of the friends I made there who is currently studying massage therapy.  I will happily be her guinea pig!

My heart and belly are very full today. 

A cloudy shot of the Ruahine range as I drove home this evening

My terrifying, extreme, crazy Saturday!

OH MY GOSH.

This was by far the craziest, most fun day I’ve had here!  FINALLY I’ve met the kind of girlfriend I was hoping for since my arrival!  Marie and I had a wild adrenaline filled day.

 When you think of me, you usually think of a dangerous adrenaline junky, right?  HA.  I am terrified of heights, the kind of girl who threw up on a tire swing when I was little and still gets motion sick on playground swings.  Somehow my best friend convinced me that we should sky dive in college, and that was huge.

On Saturday, Marie and I could both check off extreme sports in New Zealand.  NZ is known for attracting thrill seekers with Queenstown (in the South Island) dubbed “the extreme sports capital of the world.”  We ventured to Taihape (about 40 minutes north) to partake in Gravity Canyon adventures.  A little fun fact- scenes from the Lord of the Rings were filmed just downstream on the Rangitikei River.

The view of the canyon from the Flying Fox 

I survived the Flying Fox, a zipline 574ft (175m) above the river achieving speeds of 100mph.  Screamed like a girl, but it was quite fun after the initial drop.  We joked that we felt like rescued whales being hauled back to the sea because of the garb we needed to wear.  We were harnessed in laying on our stomachs.

Then we did the bridge swing, a 164ft (50m) freefall followed by swinging to a stop in the canyon.  I found myself clutching my celery on the drive home in a death grip, and I was shaken up the whole rest of the evening.  This was the most terrifying experience of my life, even worse than skydiving.  Skydiving was so surreal that my brain couldn’t really process it.  This was me dangling over a river in a canyon waiting for a free fall.  As we were falling, I could feel my body raising out of my harness, and at that point I started kicking like mad, fighting for my life, as if that was going to propel me to safety.  There’s no doubt in my mind after that moment that I wanted to live!  I was so relieved to get to the nice swing part, and even more so to be back to the safety of solid ground.  I am glad I did it, but I don’t need to do it EVER again.

Amanda Schaller, survivor.

- more pictures to follow! -

Friends week

This week was a good week for friends new and old.

On Wednesday, I met up with a girl I met on the bus back in January.  She sat in the seat behind me from Auckland on my way to meeting my family for the first time at Lake Taupo.   It was a chance meeting- she dropped her phone and couldn’t find it, so she asked me to call it for her.  I did, she found it, and we talked for the next three hours!  Brittany and I met for dinner in Palmerston North, a college town an hour away.  It was a great reunion chat, and I feel lucky to have met her.

The square in Palmerston North 

Last night, Fiona (the mom) and I went out to our second movie.  It was a Woody Allen movie called “Midnight in Paris,” and I must say I appreciated the French interspersed throughout.  I really am fascinated by the fact that I seem to be better at French since arriving here.  I think simply travelling again has helped to awaken my latent French abilities!

This week we had a new arrival on the farm- a temporary farm worker who just happened to be a girl around my age from England with a background in sheep farming.  Marie is awesome!  We’ve had some good chats already and are looking forward to visiting and a picnic tomorrow.

Lastly, on Sunday I'm meeting up with a group of other au pairs!  I happened to strike up a conversation with a mom at the pool when chauffeuring Ashleigh to swim lesson two weeks ago.  This week, the woman (who I learned was named Jeanette) actually called in to the swimming pool to have one of the pool staff take a message for me.  She knew I was looking for people to meet up with and somehow found the number of an au pair in the area.  Bless this woman!!  When talking about it over dinner that evening, Fiona commented "There must be something about your smile."  I agreed, and said "Yes- it screams 'please be my friend!'"

I’ve noticed a few things that are rubbing off on me- I’ve been saying things like “mum” and “ay.”  Also, when I’ve been writing words like “behavior,”  that British extra “u” (behaviour) is sneaking in which is creeping me out a bit.  I thought I might pick up an accent while here, but I’ve realized now that I’ll likely just walk away with some new vocabulary words and expressions.  The vowels are different here, and that’s not something I’ll pick up like a drawl visiting the South in the USA.   For instance, the letter “e” is pronounced more like the letter “i.”

In animal news, I’ve had to break twice now for cattle in the road, another New Zealand “must” that I can now check off my list.  Also, I woke up one morning to a hedgehog in my yard.  Now that’s a great way to start a day!  Fiona and I had a chat about pets, and I learned that they don’t have pet snakes or pet tarantulas here because they are not currently found in NZ.  I am not complaining. 

Sheep dogs

The Morton’s have 6 sheep dogs.  When they are working with them, they use 2-3 at a time.  There are two types:  herding and huntaway.  The herding dogs keep silent and direct the stock, and the huntaways bark to drive the sheep forward.

I’ve enjoyed watching Andrew, the children’s father, working with his dogs on a few occasions since I’ve been here.  For situations when he’s close to the dogs, he uses voice commands to guide them to do what he wants with the sheep.  When he needs to direct them from a distance, he uses a whistle to give commands.

It’s so cool to see working animals in action.  When  I used to have horses on the farm, I made a few attempts to round up the cattle with my snotty Appaloosa mare.   I’d hop on bareback which meant she wouldn’t listen to me at all, and we’d walk the cows from the pasture to the barn in the summer.  She would inevitably forget she was a horse and I’d have to rein her in from walking straight into the barn with them.  See Dad, Moe wasn’t a hay burner, she earned her keep!  Ha ;)

Month 2 Reflections

This past month provided the greatest highs and the greatest lows of my adventure so far.  I’ve had many big revelations- my time away in a beautiful secluded location has proved to be a wonderful teacher.  At the time I wrote this, I was curled up in front of a fireplace during a power outage due to gale force winds/rain.  The Fall season decided to start off in a big way.   It was the perfect time to reflect on what I’ve been through this past month.

Emotionally, I was struggling this month.  Instead of being patient with myself and all that I had accomplished, I internalized my mounting frustrations and loneliness.    I had been feeling like I wanted to come back to the US, and I was devastated because I didn’t expect to feel that way.  I was overwhelmed by my health/diet, lack of good friendships, challenges with the children, and too much “me” time, and I couldn’t see how I was going to be able to make it another two months here.  Of course, finally breaking under the pressure led me to talk to the family, and they have been so kind.  I’m shocked by what a significant impact our conversation has already made on my happiness, and as usual, I’m reminded of how important it is for me to be honest with how I’m feeling even when it’s hard to admit.

After my breakthrough (aka breakdown), a huge weight was lifted.  I feared the family would be mad when I talked to them, and instead they reacted with unexpected compassion.  I’m no longer concerned about my next two months here, and I’m happy to be feeling more like myself again.  When I think about what I’ve overcame in this short time, my heightened emotions make perfect sense.  I moved half way around the world away from family/friends/pets, moved into someone else’s house disciplining someone else’s kids and all with little contact with people here. "Being selfish is not selfish"- I'm finally able to fully open up with the family, and things are better for all of us.

Thank you to everyone who offered their support during the past two months, especially my sister who put up with more than her fair share of teary phone calls.  Positive thoughts, calls, and emails are what have carried me through, and I cannot stress enough how lucky and grateful I am to have such an amazing support network at home.  I love you guys!

I feel like I’ve made the tough transition now from the United States to New Zealand, and I’m excited to see what my remaining 10 months will bring.  I plan to enjoy myself- I’m certain there will be challenges, but nothing I can’t overcome!