Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

"Tripping Billies" by Dave Matthews Band just came on while shuffling my songs. It's the song of Waiheke, really. I eat beautiful local food, drink all I want (don't get your knickers in a twist, I'm legal here), and feel as if I exude merriness. The "you, me, and all our friends" part is probably my favorite part, because it's so easy to make friends here. The local hostel is right around the corner, and most nights I hang out on the bean bag chairs outside the hostel talking to strangers. I've met Kiwis, Scots, Mexicans, Canadians, Argentinians, a French guy, and an Indian guy, ages 19 to 50. This place is just so cool.

Yesterday was the Onetangi Beach Races, a Rotary fundraiser attended by most of the island community. It consisted of wheelbarrow races, tractor races, horse races, sandcastle building contests, and a stretch of road consumed by street market vendors selling food, clothes, drinks, hair wraps, more food...everything Waiheke. I had a fabulous time manning the Rotary booth with Kristen, my wwoof host, selling water and ice cream and candy. I even got (or sort of inconspicuously took) a stuffed doggy I named Waiheke, or Wai for short, which means water in Maori.

Wai is now my official New Zealand travel buddy. We're best friends.

Wild on Waiheke

I'm currently sitting in Wild on Waiheke cafe eating drunken pear something or other salad and sipping Waiheke cider, literally sitting on a wine vineyard. Not too sure it gets much better than this.

Yesterday I took the ferry from Auckland to the island, where I was met by Thomas and Kristin, my wwoofing hosts. They're wonderful, all about their rescued chickens, cats, and eco-friendliness. I don't think they even have a garbage can. We took the five minute walk to the breathtaking beach, swam in perfect water, and went back to the house to enjoy omeletes made from their chickens' eggs and a salad straight from the garden.

I spent the morning wandering around aimlessly, and I ended up making friends with the staff at a local winery. The scenery is simply stunning everywhere, the people as friendly as could be. I could certainly get used to this place.

So I've Fallen in Love...

...with New Zealand, that is.

I've only been here twenty-four hours, but already I love it. An old friend of my grandmother's, Judit, picked me up from the airport and is allowing me to stay with her and her family for my first two nights. She's absolutely amazing and sweet, and her family has been welcoming and so very warm. To use her words about New Zealand, "the blues are bluer and the greens are greener." Everything is vibrant, memorable, striking. They live a five minute's walk from this drop-dead gorgeous beach, and the phrase I kept repeating when I first arrived in Scotland echoed in my head: "I cannot believe you live here."

Shakespeare Regional Park, Auckland

In the afternoon I got to hang out with Judit's daughter and two of her friends, who were sleeping over in honor of the American girl in town. Kiwi thirteen-year-olds are uncannily similar to thirteen-year-olds in the States, except with cooler accents and much greater interest in Lord of the Rings (they speak all the dialects of Elvish, to give you some idea). The Kiwi accent, by the way, is extremely charming. If you're ever having a bad day, I highly recommend listening to a New Zealander speak on YouTube or something. Automatic happiness.

Apparently when Judit was living in New Jersey, she met my mom and me at my grandma's house. No one remembers but Judit, though, so we all kind of doubted that the event actually happened until Judit pulled out, in a devilishly excited sort of way, a photo album with these...

Tell me I wasn't freaking adorable

I was two at the time, and now she sees me all grown up and without those awful bangs (or fringe, as she'd say). Small world, right?

Sorry, Mom :)

It's New Zealand Time! (almost)

As my next and final trip approaches, I've been reflecting a lot on what the hell I'm doing taking a year off, why I did what I did, and what I got out of it.

The problem in the beginning was that I never really decided why I'm taking a gap year. My rationale was always, "Well, I could go to college, or I could do cool shit for a year and then go to college." It was a no-brainer. I didn't seek to save the world, find myself, become one with nature, make tons of money, or accomplish any other specific goals like travelers sometimes seem to have. I couldn't even think of a blog thread, something to make all my posts coherent. I was entirely directionless, so choosing where I'd go and what I'd do was tough.

My plan ended up being a cocktail of trips, of experiences, I thought might be "good" or "fun" or "rewarding" or...something. Yoga teacher training was the practical one. Now I can make money anywhere I go as a trained professional even if I lose my day job. Thailand was the "save the world" approach, and I left knowing that I changed the lives of 60 or so Thai babies.

New Zealand's classification is probably "finding myself" with an itty bitty side dish of "partying on the beach with foreign boys." But to be perfectly honest, New Zealand came about after discovering the existence of zorbing last summer in Switzerland. We never got a chance to do it in the land of cheese and chocolate, but some combination of wanting to zorb and a profound respect for whoever came up with such a preposterously genius idea made me fixated on New Zealand.

Zorbing

There are lots of different gap year options within the plan to "go to New Zealand," many of which were expensive and chaperoned gap year programs. I, however, wanted to be unsupervised and not broke afterwards. Somehow the Kiwi Experience website popped up in my Google searching, a travel company that runs hop-on, hop-off bus trips. It seemed perfect: I could meet other travelers, get guidance from Kiwi Experience, and still have total freedom to do as I pleased (any given pass lasts I year, so I could theoretically stay at a given stop for a night, a three weeks, or ten months). So, after a convincing powerpoint and much negotiation/begging, my parents approved a Kiwi Experience lack-of-plan plan (that was, if I called my mother every day and assured my father I'd apply sunscreen religiously).

Here I am, six months later, with a Kiwi Experience bus pass and a one-way plane ticket to Auckland. I absolutely cannot wait. I don't know what kind of trip it will be...hopefully an everything trip.