J's Outward Bound Experience

Earlier this month, J went on an eight-day Outward Bound course. Outward Bound (in NZ, as I know that there are different programs with the same name in other countries) is a leadership training slash physical challenge course that pushes you out of your comfort zone and encourages you to trust yourself. You can read about the organization here if you're interested: http://www.outwardbound.co.nz/

J didn't take any pictures on the trip, being more focused on maintaining consciousness during the most physically strenuous eight days he's experienced, but fortunately, other people in his group did, and they've shared them with us. You're going to get my explanation of what J has told me about the trip, but I'll have him proof read it, so it will be accurate.

J flew to the South Island (for the first time) and got on the Outward Bound bus toward Anakiwa. But before they got to their training location, they stopped, got out of the bus, and did a challenge activity (the first of many, as it turned out). Then they were told, "We're four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the camp. See you there!" And they drove away, and the participants had to jog into camp, and then jump into the icy cold ocean! Good thing J had been training beforehand, but it was still an intense first day. Although he said that by the end of it, that run would have been relaxing.

This is the view near their training location on the South Island.

This is the cliff face that J had to climb. Blindfolded. Yes, blindfolded. And he got off easy, because one guy had to climb it blindfolded with one arm tied behind his back!

For two days of the trip, all nine people in J's group lived and slept on this boat! Notice that it is not that big, and that there is no "inside." 

They did some sailing, but also lots of rowing. They are in the Sounds, which are a series of sea-drowned valleys. So they're the ocean, only not quite. Apparently, and not surprisingly, they are freezing cold. Which becomes important, given that they had to jump into them every day! And don't be fooled by the sunny day, J said it was 7 C (44.5 F) most nights. Cold!

It's still funny to me to think that this looks like a lake, but is part of the ocean.

After the boat part of the trip, they were told to jump into the ocean, wade to shore, pick up a pack, and each find their own secluded campsite. They then spent two days completely alone in the woods. This is not J's campsite, but his looked a lot like this, but more inclined. Also, his was very full of wasps, so he pulled down his tarp during the day and stayed under it.

They did lots and lots of hiking, including peaking two mountains! J's pack weighed about 40 kilos (88 lbs). No wonder he came home tired!

You can see the bend in this photo; that's because the person used a GoPro camera, which is all the rage here. It's wide screen and on an arm so that you can take pictures of yourself doing all kinds of crazy things.

Pretty lovely scenery! I can't wait to go to the South Island some day.

Again with the GoPro curve, but I love these trees!

On the last day, before flying home, J had to jog a very mountainous 12.5 km (7.8 miles), which is by far the longest jog he has ever done. He got off the plane exhausted but happy and proud, and I've loved listening to him talk about all his adventures, and telling our friends about them. He seems to have gotten a lot out of it, not the least of which is the knowledge that he is capable of rising to the occasion when it comes to physical challenges.

Also, the leadership teacher gave each person feedback on their leadership before they left, and J's feedback was extremely positive, so that's always nice to hear.

Visiting Patty on the Farm: Part 2

On my first day at the farm, in addition to all of the fabulous things in my first post, I got to go horseback riding! I love to ride horses, even though I don't have many equestrian skills. I have been told that my comfort and confidence around horses helps them to respond well to me even though I don't know what I'm doing, for which I am truly thankful.

This is Chevy, the beautiful and gentle horse who kindly carried me through the pine forests. I had a great ride with one of the owners, who explained to me that eventually, she'd like to take small groups of people from the city for rides like this, as part of the way to keep the farm profitable. I think that's a great idea, as she has lovely horses and a beautiful place to ride!

The next day, after visiting all the animals again and making sure Patty's donkey friends were safe and happy after the rain in the night, we got to help with an awesome job - making friends with the foals and getting them used to human contact! We went up to their big field, and lead the three friendly mothers down the hill into little paddocks, with the flighty foals following their mothers while staying a little ways away from us at all times.

This is Patty with one of the fillies, getting her used to being touched on the shoulder, where eventually a rope would go. The owner coached her in gently increasing the pressure, and in watching the filly's eyes to judge when she was getting too stressed. The goal, she explained, used to be to "break" horses into submission, but now it is to gently help them to learn to be comfortable around people and to obey out of respect for the relationship. Sounds much better to me.

Also, I was excited because the owner asked me to name this young horse. I suggested Lizzie, which has always been one of my favourite names, and she loved it, so Lizzie it is.

After watching Patty and the owner work with Lizzie for quite a while, I decided to say hello to one of the other mother-daughter pairs. I figured that the filly would hide behind her mum, as she had been doing, but that I could hang out with the mare until it was their turn. The filly had started limping on the way down the hill, so I was hoping to be able to see if there was anything visible hurting her. The owner had said she'd just have to leave her, because she wasn't tame enough to get a good look yet.

To my amazement and excitement, as soon as I walked into the paddock, the filly walked right up to me and put her beautiful, soft nose on my chest! Wow! She stayed there for a bit while I petted her, and the owner looked up and saw her being so friendly and was thrilled!

The owner suggested that I take advantage of the moment to look at her leg if she'd let me, and she did! She stood so calmly and let me run my hand up and down her legs, on which I found no hurts of any kind (although admittedly, would I recognize a horse injury if I felt one? Probably not).

After we hung out for a bit, it was her turn to go into the small training paddock with her mum, but she wouldn't go unless I gave her little pushes and walked along next to her. We're close friends now, clearly! Lucky me!

Also, I got to help name her as well, and then owner and I settled on Duchess, which is appropriate for such a lovely little horse! Also, I am now friends with nobility.

I also made friends with this miniature pony name Smokey, who had just arrived at the farm a few days before I did. I adored him, because while he was very nervous around people, he was also determined to make friends, and would come right over whenever Patty and I came to his paddock. He would stick out his nose and want to be touched, but any sudden movement would cause him to pull away... but only for a second, because he'd come right back and try to make friends. I found this irresistibly endearing, and wish that I had more time to become friends with him.

For a break between farming adventures, Patty and I sat down with the other boarder at the farm (with whom Patty had become great friends) and drank tea and worked on a puzzle.

In all modesty, I would like to share that I have inherited my mother's penchant for puzzles, and made fantastic progress in the time I worked on it!

That evening I said goodbye to Patty, wished her well on the next leg of her journey (to India), received an open invitation to visit the farm again, and drove home. I stopped on the way because I thought this view was too beautiful not to photograph.

Although I didn't know this at the time, I can now tell you that the next leg of Patty's journey did not end up taking her to India, as visa issues prevented that flight, so she is still in NZ. She has left the farm and traveled up to a new Helpx site in Kerikeri, which is north of Auckland and has amazing beaches. She seems to be doing well and enjoying the extra time in the amazing country - and who wouldn't?

Visiting Patty on the Farm: Part 1

I got a lovely surprise the other day when I checked my email and got an invitation from Patty to come and stay with her on the farm where she was Helpxing! How cool!

I drove about four hours north to a farm outside Thames, owned by a lovely couple who bought it about a year ago and are fixing it up. The farm is quite old and charming and reminded Patty and me of Grandma and Grandpa Denner's farm in Iowa. It was a fantastic place to spend my weekend, and I understand why Patty extended her stay there instead of moving on to other Helpx locations.

Patty had been feeding the Dexter cows pears from the tree every day, and by the time I got there, they came over when she called. In fact, if she didn't come and feed them, they started mooing for pears! This particular one was very greedy, so we had to be sneaky to get pears to the others.

Patty made friends with the two donkeys which the owners had inherited with the farm. They were a bit skittish at first, but they warmed to Patty and became quite lovely - especially this one.

The first day, this donkey seemed to have something in its teeth, and kept sticking out its tongue to the side, and Patty was so entertained that she joined in the fun. She also took pity on it and tried to get whatever it was out of its teeth; she never found anything, but it stopped looking uncomfortable, so we were happy.

Patty had jumped right into farm life, and even learned to drive a tractor!

These are peaches from their peach tree. Notice that they are fuchsia! I thought they were very beautiful looking, but didn't get to try one, as they weren't actually ripe yet. Maybe next time.

One of the jobs Patty had been doing was making dinner each night, which the couple really appreciated (as would I). She was directing me through boiling potatoes, making cold apple salad, and cooking silver-beet (swiss chard) and squash when it started to rain. She immediately dropped what she was doing and ran to get her donkey friends out of the rain, leaving me in charge of the kitchen. In case anyone has forgotten, I should never be left in charge of the kitchen; I don't know what I'm doing!

Luckily, I managed not to destroy anything while Patty was gone, and we ended up with a quite delicious dinner of things almost entirely produced on the farm, and resembling the delicious food that Grandma Denner used to make. I didn't contribute any skill to the process, but I also didn't actively ruin it. A resounding success!

After dinner, Patty and I took the cow dog (one of 5 or 6 dogs on the farm) on a walk through the cedar forest.

As it started to get dark, Patty told me how she'd gotten lost in the dark while walking the other night, and how it had been a bit scary. But the woods were so beautiful, and we were enjoying wandering...

... and we got lost. In the dark. Good thing Patty had brought her head lamp. Patty was a bit worried about being lost, but I was still feeling invincible after my non-destructive exploits in the kitchen. Perhaps a busy kitchen should actually be less scary than a forest at night, but I would pick it any time! So we kept walking and chatting until we found our way out. The only downside was that we had to climb over a barbed wire fence, and I tore my jacket. But I've stitched it up and it looks okay, so no harm done. Also, we weren't lost for long, because Patty came up with the good idea of finding the river bed and following it back to the lake near the farm. 

So ended a very lovely day on the farm, with another one coming.

Views from Paritutu

I'm sorry (as I always seem to be, lately) for the long gap between posts. I have had some terribly stressful things going on at work, which in addition to exhausting me during the day, are causing me recurring "stressmares" so that I don't get rested at night. The result is not pretty, although fortunately for me, J is a superhero and brings me tea, gives me hugs, and tells me everything will be alright. Which it will, of course. In addition, however, my year-long contract for my current job (a position opened up by someone on maternity leave) is up in three weeks. I know, it's hard to believe that it's been a year already! I still don't know whether the person is coming back, so I am in uncertain territory with the unsettling threat of unemployment hanging over me. While my job is currently horribly stress, I still love it overall, adore my children, and would rather not lose it, even aside from my total inability to be sane while unemployed.

The point of all this rambling is to explain that the combination of stress and fatigue is not conducive to writing blog posts, resulting in longer gaps between posts. I will try to rectify that, and I really believe that things will de-stress soon, so one way or another I should be back to weekly posts in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I would love to share with you a truly wonderful afternoon I spent with J and one of his friends the other weekend. J is training to get in shape for a wilderness adventure and leadership course called Outward Bound, which is on the South Island in a beautiful, remote area, and is going to be amazing for him. Actually, he leaves the day after tomorrow, so it's very exciting!

Anyway, one thing he decided to do to train was to climb Paritutu, which is this huge rock right next to the ocean. I came with him and his friend for fun, and the views were absolutely incredibly stunning! I'll give you some background pictures beforehand, but be prepared for gorgeousness soon.

This is from the car, as we're driving up to Paritutu. See how it looks like someone just dropped a huge rock in the middle of flat land? 

Looking up at Paritutu from the parking lot.

Yes, that's the path. It's hard to get perspective on the incline of this picture, but I thought I'd show you the jagged rockiness of it. 

This one, thanks to the lovely J, gives you a better idea of the incline. In a word: steep! And as you can see from the parking lot straight below him, it is steep the whole way. You just climb straight up until you get to the top.

But man, oh man, is it worth it! Take a look at that view! I'm telling you, it was so beautiful I could barely stand it.

All seven of the little islands you can see from Paritutu are called the Sugarloaf Islands, according to J's friend who came on the hike and couldn't understand why I cared what the islands were called. Given his apathy, I did fact-check that, and discovered that he was correct, if not enthusiastic. I also discovered that the Sugarloaf Islands are the eroded stumps of an ancient volcanic crater. Pretty cool.

I don't know that I've ever been this high up and yet this close to the beach. It's cool to see the curve of the shoreline, and I love the waves from up above.

The water is such a mesmerizing colour!

Can you spot the amazing thing about this picture? 

That's right - the mountain and the ocean in the same shot! Mount Taranaki looks a bit small, especially next to the big white cloud, but it's there, tantalizingly close to the gorgeous ocean. We live in such an amazing place!

Monster Slide Down Main Street

Well, this weekend J and I had quite the novel experience: We slid 300 metres (.2 miles) down main street (Devon Street) New Plymouth on a water slide! Pretty cool, I think!

Monster Slide is a NZ company that travels around the country setting up these slides, which range from 100 to 600 metres. We paid $22 each to slide three times, which seemed a bit pricey, but worth it for such a unique and fun experience.

Sunday was sunny and hot, perfect for a water event. We went downtown and did a walk-around to take some pictures before getting our inflatables and leaving the camera in the car. Tons of people took their phones or cameras down the slide with them so they could take pictures of themselves sliding, but J and I have managed to retain just the slightest understanding that the moment should be enjoyed rather than photographed, so we did not join them.

It is impossible to get a picture of the slide that captures the coolness of it being down the middle of what is usually a busy street, but oh well.

At the beginning of the slide they had built a raised platform to get you going, but after that the slide relied on the natural descent of the road. J and I slid almost all the way to the bottom without stopping, but many people (especially lightweight children) kept stopping in the middle because they didn't have enough momentum. That seems to be the thing that people were most upset about, but fortunately J and I didn't have a problem.

There were people along the way to give you a push if you were slowing down, which was helpful. 

This is the view from the end, where there was a huge puffy lake of suds to land in (if you made it that far). 

Unfortunately, those suds also clogged some pump or another, which resulted in us waiting in an unmoving line for 45 minutes, which was not particularly endearing.

I found this picture online - it's not from the one in New Plymouth, and I did not take it (obviously), but I thought I'd include it since it gives you so much better perspective from up high.

PHOTO CREDIT: Taranaki Daily News

I also included this picture from the newspaper, because these two people were right in front of us in line when the pump broke, so I got to watch their gradual transition from "This is so fun!" to "Waiting is not so fun" to "I'm not happy now" to "Something must be wrong." To their credit, (especially for being teenagers, who are not known for their forbearance) they stayed calm and waited patiently. I am glad to see in this picture that when they finally got their turn to slide, that it was every bit as fun as they thought it would be.

(Note: The newspaper also got permission and took pictures of J and I, but clearly decided that these lovely kids were way more photogenic. A wise choice.)