Jenny's Trek Down Under

To make a long long long story short...I am officially done with my volunteer stint at Tararu Valley Sanctuary. This whole past week I had been debating whether or not to leave earlier in the week or hold out until Sunday when Pippa was also going to leave...but really what was causing me so much indecisiveness was the fact that as ready as I was to be done with this whole experience and move onto the next leg of my journey...the comfort in knowing the routine of the valley was making leaving that much harder. Now compare that with 4 months of no routine, galavanting all over new zealand and australia with no set agenda and total freedom...for most people the decision would be easy--move on, leave, get out,etc. but for me I was definitely a bit nervous--transition in general seems to do that to me--as much as I look forward to the future...the being in limbo state is definitely no fun.
So, let's fast forward to yesterday...woke up anxious as usual and headed into the lounge where I was assigned weeding for the day--which involved waging war on honeysuckle, attempting to pull out pampras which is a huge feather like weed...mind you this weed's root is like 3 feet by 3 feet and burried 2 feet in the ground...so it was no simple task. That afternoon I went down to the bottom orchard and mulched/maneured the avocado trees and finally made my way back up to the middle orchard where I started to weed around the vegetable garden. In the midst of weeding one second I was standing picking at some thistle, the next I was lying on the ground in the opposite direction and completely out of it...in other words I fainted...the only warnings I had had prior to that moment were the last few days my vision had been slightly blacking out and I had been pretty dizzy...not that fainting is anything extraordinary or anything, but it definitely caught me offguard and shook me up a bit--seeing as nobody else was anywhere in sight--but it did give me an excuse to chill that afternoon and take it easy.
So, anyways let's skip ahead to the juicy stuff...Pippa and I decided to leave wednesday (instead of our supposed saturday departure) and spend tuesday doing laundry , errands, packing, etc...now mind you we decided this all, but had yet to inform Dagmar and Jon...little did we know what we were setting ourselves up for...dun dun dun que some scary threatening music and sit back and hold your seats folks...this ride is going to be a bumpy one. Anyways upon our rather informal yet assertive declaration of our plans we were met with an immediate request...more like demand for a "talk"...whenever people say 'talk' you know it's going to be interesting...anyways as we sat around the table Jon and Dagmar let both Pippa and I have it...saying that we were leaving them in a lurch, that it wasn't fair that we were ducking out a couple days early and that they wouldn't have it...mind you we are PAYING THEM and we are doing MANUAL LABOR for THEM...so in reality they had no justifications whatsoever for their reactions...but as tension mounted, words were exchanged...and well instead of stooping to their pathetic level of arrogant condescension...I decided to laugh off the whole thing and not let them realize that their words were affecting me in the slightest...which of course only further fueled their rage and led to their immediate 'dismissal' of us...in other words I followed true Lewis tradition and got kicked out of 'volunteering'...how good am I? The funny thing is I did absolutely nothing wrong except save them 3 days worth of feeding me and housing me..I know I'm such a bitch. Anyways they told us to pack our stuff up immediately and we would be dropped off in town...just to give you some insight into what class acts these people are...they told pippa she should be greatful for this experience because she was getting a reduced rate since she was on scholarship...i mean seriously what assholes...just because someone can't fully pay for something they make you feel inferior...oh and they told me that they didn't appreciate my indecisiveness about whether I was planning to stay at the valley or not...funny isn't it...considering they left me waiting till about a week before i was planning to travel in the south island to tell me that there would be no volunteers coming in may and that if i stayed i would be doing administrative work...
now this is where things get interesting...so we packed up, I laughed some more just to put a little more salt in the wounds...the funny thing was the second I was packed and in the van headed to downtown thames...all the mounted tension, stress, anxiety I had been feeling since being at the valley completely lifted...no joke--not to be all hokey or what not, but it reassured me that us leaving was definitely the right thing to do...anyways during the drive down we had to listen to jon spew some bullshit yogie mumbo jumbo about how everything happens for a reason and hopefully we won't let what happened that morning color our whole experience and bla bla...all the while I was happily humming to myself the michael jackson 'free willy' theme song...don't ask me why...but well it just felt right...also you'll note the only words I know to that song are..'hold me like the river jordan...' so i'm not exactly too sure how it fit the mood...but somehow someway it did. anyways in town we did some laundry and decided to attempt to hitch a ride to auckland instead of taking a bus...side note mom just appreciate that i'm telling you this instead of pretending otherwise...anyways after hauling three bags that weighed i'd say near 80 pounds a little over a mile we parked our stuff at the side of the road and did our best to look desperate and in dire need of a ride...apparently it worked because we got a ride in less than 10 min. so the guy who picked us up...middle aged and on his way to pick up his "wife" in auckland from the airport...so sketch points so far = 1...then add the fact that we took the scenic route to auckland instead of the regular route add another point, then there was the whole pretend calls made to hotels in town to book for him and his 'wife' add one more...then the whole comment about only picking up attractive young girls...add 1 again...and finally the icing on the cake was the whole 'well, girls seeing as how you guys say you haven't had a proper shower in 2 months you are more than welcome to come to my hotel room and have one'...alrighty this is the point when doors were checked as to whether they were locked or not, awkward silence filled the air and I scooted as close as possible to the door handle...long story short we made it safe and sound to our hostel said goodbye to paul our hitchiking pedophile and called it a night....
now I will be in auckland until friday when I plan to take the bus and start making my way south towards wellington, then all along the west coast of the south island up along the east coast of the south island back up to the north island and then all along the northernmost tip of the north island...so will keep you posted...in the meantime love and miss you all and tell me how you're doing!

This past week has been all about transition in the valley--after losing Owen, Rachel and Mike we were down to 3 volunteers, an overabundance of estrogen and that uneasy feeling that starts in your stomach, gets caught in your throat, silences your voice and leaves your jaw in a constant state of tenseness--as the anxiety and fear as to how things will change in valley life rears its ugly head. Saturday morning began with Dagmar informing us that she would be leaving at the end of March seeing as how she was pregnant. As my jaw dropped to the floor and the words of congratulations started to form at my lips...I picked up on the unnerving feeling that maybe those words weren't appropriate for the occasion and that letting her finish with what she had to say might prove to be the better idea. Although my curiousity did happen to get the best of me as I construed elaborate paternity stories in my head that it was in fact Jon's baby and that's why Mike abruptly left the valley or that maybe she had eyes for my Kevin and Paul...who knows.
It has been pretty evident from day one here that the future of the valley is anything but secure. It's funny sometimes I find myself walking through the orchards or old volunteer cottage at the base of the valley and can see at one time what life, excitement and energy this place used to exude, but now between the lack of volunteers and the uncomfortable tension between past lovers/co-owners Jon and Dagmar has slowly been drained.
Jon, the other founder of the valley program has been on hiatus ever since I arrived taking off on spiritual/emotional journeys every week or so to regroup and refocus his energy with regards to what direction he wants to take with his life and the valley. This would be the first time in 7 years that Jon has gotten away from the valley. So between an MIA Jon and a pregnant Dagmar the future of the valley seemed very much up in the air.
What further fueled my anxiety was the fact that I have yet to get a clear idea as to how many volunteers will be coming in may when I return from my travels. Because in early April Pippa will be leaving and Jen the other volunteer will most likely be departing at the end of april...so the idea of being here by myself with just Jon the 7 ft bearded man that pines after 21 year olds didn't really get me excited to say the least. Although rumor has it that 3 blokes will be arriving in early may.
On top of all that valley tension has been on the up and up with living and working in such close quarters with 3 other women starting to take its toll. Dagmar (whose emotions are already on hormonal overload between the pregnancy and her confusion about whether to stay in New Zealand or go back to Germany) and Pippa have been having daily spats and just sapping the energy right out of me. There is only so much third party mediation I can do. With loyalties to both I found myself sparking up exciting talks about the weather and weeds--basically any neutral topic I could think of as not to unleash the claws of either party involved.
But alas, yesterday afternoon things just got to their boiling point for me and although we had all been scheduled to go on a hike that afternoon everyone opted out except for me and Dagmar. The hike began really awkward and uncomfortable because I have been on guard ever since all the tension came up between her and pippa-- anyways midway through the hike i found myself just getting more and more emotional to the point where I just felt like I was going to breakdown so I encouraged her to finish the hike while I waited for her...long story short we ended up having a really deep talk about everything-- after that talk i found my spirits lifted and it was really just what i needed. i didn't realize just how disconnected i was from everything till after we talked...it was really refreshing and just what the doctor ordered for my soul.
So, although where these next couple of months will take me in my travels I can't say for sure, I can rest a little easier at night knowing that I have spoken my peace and that in the short term I have my exciting trip to the South Island to look forward to. Don't let this blog confuse you I am definitely enjoying myself, it's just this past week where all this stress arose.
Anyways this next week we will be heading to Rotorua for a day or two and later in the week will drive all along the north tip of the north island and hit up bay of islands and all the places along the way for a week long trip--involving plenty of beaching, some trekking, maybe horsebackriding and some dune surfing.

It's around 7 am and I find myself awake alone in the living room of the shared bunkhouse all the volunteers reside in. Normally we would all be up by now, scarfing down some breakfast and getting ready to head out into the rainforest for two 4 hour shifts of work, but alas after not getting into the valley until a little after 11 last night they have afforded us the rare opportunity of getting to sleep in. It was amazing to wakeup this morning and get my first real glimpse of the valley and where I will be spending the next 5 months seeing as it was too dark out last night to get any real sense of what the valley looked like. Last night as our van drove up the steep, ever-winding, bumpy "road" to the valley inbetween thoughts of 'i hope our van loaded with kayaks (filled with seaweed nonetheless) and about 1000 pounds of gear and people doesn't topple over' all I could think was I've arrived...this is it and I couldn't have felt anymore at ease at the notion of the direction my life would be taking for the next 6 months. It's funny how many people told me how easy my transition would be considering it is an English speaking country--apparently they didn't realize English through the mouths of the British, Germans and New Zealanders sounds a heck of a lot more foreign to me than Spanish..between all the knickers, blokes, cheers, watles and sippers I find myself nodding my head, smiling and relishing in the fact that for once I'm not the only one who appears to make no sense. I can't get over just how friendly New Zealanders are and how if you show the least bit of acknowledgement of them, a nod of the head, a smile you are most definitely guarenteeing yourself an hour long conversation consisting of their life story, some random anecdote about America and 'the hood' and ending with both of you feeling a bit more connected and the world a friendlier place (and yes just like Miss America, I too want world peace.) The volunteers range in age from 18 to 25, three from England and two from the U.S. (myself included.) There are also the three leaders which consist of Jon, Dagma (a red-haired German woman who reminds me of a younger Miss Frazzle or whatever her name was from the popculture 'classic' "The Magic School Bus,") and Mike (an overly muscle inflated short asian man who continues to whine about a jaw ache, but refuses painkillers on principle alone.) The hardest thing thus far about being here is that there is nobody who shares my same passion for trashy American popculture--to think these people actually want to talk about politics, the future of the environment and how they can make a difference. Personally, I'd much rather kick back and watch the latest Paris Hilton drama unfold. Till next time, cheers, chip chap cheerio, groovey, and all that other mumbo jumbo!