Taupo//Huka Falls

This is experimental-forgive me.

 

   The sun pours in through the open slit of your curtains. They’re curtains you took from the common room when management sent up new ones. You hate the new ones, not because they are new, ( even though that is a reason you hate a lot of things) it’s because they are thick like an overnight workers black out bedroom curtains. Thick so as to block all the sunlight except the bits that bleed through around the edges like puss on a bandaged wound.  But you aren’t thinking about the curtains in the common room. You’re waking up gently to the lofi hip hop jam pulsating from Sebastien’s phone, he doesn’t stir, alarms don’t wake him up unless they are hanging in corners of buildings telling everyone to evacuate or die.  You squeeze his shoulder and rock his torso back and forth. “ we gotta get up, we gotta go” you say, even though there is no rush. It’s your “weekend”, sure you have plans but the hostel won’t let you check in until two and it’s only an hours drive.  Plus the sun feels nice, warming up the room from a cold night.  Instead you lay there, back against the wall next to the person you love, listening to the sounds of your four other flatmates clink cutlery against porcelain bowls and teacups talking about their dreams and preparing for their work we all share. You feel yourself pleasantly drifting…slowly fading…

   It’s Twelve:Thirty and you’re laughing because Sebastien has taken your camera and started to take silly nothingness photos of the roads and moving cars and signs while you’re driving. A man on a scooter driving down the sidewalk, a dump truck, a large painting on a road train that says “ WE WANT YOU” in large white pasty letters. You’re reminded of all the american insignia of Uncle Sam and the second world war.  Sebastien then turns the lens toward you, you cringe. But you quickly get over it. They are just photos, and you’re just a skin sack that holds water, and tea, and some nights-wine.

 You two are on your way to Huka Falls, one of the most famous waterfalls in New Zealand. You had a picture of the famous falls as your phone background in the months before you left. You remember reading that “Huka” means “foam” in Maori language. When you arrive at the falls you finally understand why they have names it so. The falls were created after the great volcano eruption of Oruanui in Taupo about 26,000 years ago.  The Waikato river ( the river that is apart of the Huka falls) was dramatically narrowed from its original one hundred meter width to fifteen, creating a rush of tumbling turquoise water falling over and over itself for twenty meters until a sudden eleven meter drop into a deep circular basin. Water churns itself like the churn cycle of a washing machine. (what is that?) You stand on the bridge that crosses the falls and stare into to hypnotic churn of the cascading river. Somehow you hear the click of a shutter. Sebastien has procured your camera once again and is snapping photos of you staring into the abyss.

 

  You laugh and motion to him to give the camera back. He obliges. You tell him to stand in where you were standing and you pull the camera up to your good eye. He rests his elbows on the railing and does a quarter turn to his right to look over his shoulder. He gives you a ridiculous face that catches you off guard. You aren’t sure if you should snap the photo now or wait for him to make a normal face.  He doesn’t, and you realise that he will not-he never does, at least not for photos.  It’s a silly trait but you really love it. *click* it’s adorable.

      You let Sebastien hold on to your camera while you explore the surrounding areas. You tell him there is a lens attachment that allows you to take macro shots. You watch as he trots away with your camera, happy and excited. He spends time exploring the edges of the walking path. It’s fun to see the world through his eyes. It’s like- and don’t read this the wrong way- a child grabbing the family home video camera from dads hands and running through out the family pool party. What you mean is; he has a way of taking photos that feels so real- up close, imperfect but creative and without bounds. It’s like he is thinking outside of a box that no one ever told him was a cube.  Rules don’t matter,  just pure child like experimentation-innocence, beauty.

   The sun is setting and your sitting across from Sebastien, a small wooden table that looks like it was salvaged and lacquered- but only just enough to make it useable for sitting wet glasses and tin food trays on- sits between you two. A metal pole with a rusting number tag sits in the middle of the table. You aim your camera through the edges of the numbers that are carved out of the rusting metal. While you adjust your aperture and shutter.

  You and Sebastien talk about traveling and being so far away from home. You talk about how it’s different than he thought it would be.  It’s harder, in a scraping out the inside of your soul-your being- kind of way.  In a ripping your heart out and placing it in front of you to examine kind of way.  In the this is the best thing you could be doing kind of way. You talk about how it’s exactly what it’s meant to be. Being so far from the things you used to blame your problems on- you are left with only you, and the problems that never left.  You talk about the rough waters that have been and the rougher seas to come, but on the walk back to your hostel you both hold hands and smile.  Everything is just as it needs to be, just as it should be, just as it will be.

                                                              *************

  Have you ever pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of the country to gauke at rainbow nestled in the jagged, rolling vertebrae of the once split earth?  Somewhere between National Park (pop. 174) and Te Kuiti(pop.4,640) you do just that. It’s a half day later and the two of you are a little hung over but the road is long straight, which is unusual for this part of the world. You feel safe-at last- to leave the car resting, engine off, so that you may step out and breathe in the wet valley air.  Sebastien opens the passenger side door and rests his chin on the fold of his arms in the open window gazing just ahead. You smile to yourself,  and to his sleepy eyes, and to the world around you. You pull the camera up to your good eye and adjust the aperture and shutter to allow just the right amount of light into your camera lens.  You half push in the small silver shutter release to focus on the scene at hand, knowing full well that the photo that will be captured will only be a distorted perception of what you are seeing, there will never be a photo taken that can express or accurately mimic what you preserve at reality. *click*
It’s shit, but oh well.

Rangitoto: “Blood Red Sky”

 

      On our 5th day in Auckland we bought tickets to take a ferry to Rangitoto and Motutapu-two islands located about 10 km North East from Auckland City Centre. Rangitoto is Auckland’s youngest and largest volcano ( I think Auckland only has a couple Volcanos). Rangitoto started his journey about six hundred years ago under a “blood red sky”. The island was originally used a lookout point and a working camp from prisoners. By the late 1800’s the land was the leased out as camping and stayed that way until the 1930’s. Since then the island has been curated for short day treks and conservation work. The Ferry ride only took about 30 minutes. We watched the harbour fade behind us under a mid morning sun.

The morning sun after a short shower

Looking back at Auckland.

Small island on the way to Rangitoto

   The whole trek takes about 3 or more hours to complete depending on fitness level, or if you are me- distractibility. As the hike begins we were confronted with what felt like miles of hot ebony obsidian boulders. As my friend later put it when I was recounting Sebastien and my journey: “ It seems like the volcano just erupted yesterday when you’re walking through that stuff! It’s out of this world”  

” out of this world”

A view of the summit from the bottom

 As we made it to the halfway point the mountain turned from sweltering blackened earth into a lush green forest. There was a small look out carved into the mountain where you can sit and look across the Auckland harbour. I am always struck by views like this; the act of looking over an expanse and seeing a place you once stood. It’s as if being in two places at once for me. While I sat on a nicely curated bench on Rangitoto,  I am also standing under the Auckland Sky Tower ( the tallest pillar you see in the landscape photo below) staring straight up, feeling a sort of reverse vertigo. I am in both places, contemplating what it means to be in either place. As I sat looking over the harbour I realized- quite comically in a way I hadn’t yet- that we were in New Zealand. We were walking around in a country that we spent a year talking about, and planning for. We had finally made it to one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I thought about the days I had spent in Portland, ME snowed in the apartment researching New Zealand. I now stood up feeling fragmented into three parts. I felt sadness for the person who stood under the tower, un aware of the person who stood looking back at her. I felt anxiety for the girl who sat on a couch pining for the day she makes it to New Zealand, completely unaware of the girl who is now 5 days into her trip. A bit overwhelmed I grabbed my camera and took this picture, swearing to be more aware of what I’m doing, where I am going and to appreciate what I’m doing

Looking back at Auckland 

Sebastien, unaware of my mental backflips placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. “ Hey! Lets go to the lava caves” As I followed Sebastien I felt such deep gratitude for his presence. He is able to walk through life with optimism and a head held high, greeting everything with warmth and a witty retort.  Sebastien led the way to the lava caves explaining while we walked that they were formed when the volcano erupted the first time. Most eruptions aren’t clean and leave lasting marks on and underneath the landscape. In this case the molten rock created tunnels about 600 years ago. As parts of the cave ceiling collapsed life began the slow and arduous journey into full fruition. Sebastien and I climbed into the dark caves. We slowly moved forward through the blackness, inching our way toward a small light in the distance.  As we approached the hole in the cave ceiling where the light spilled into the tunnle in an almost offensivly beautiful way.  I exclaimed to Sebastien that “THIS is what I imagined New Zealand looking like, THIS is what I want to see”

Sebastien in the lava caves

We finished the hike without much trouble and clamoured our way down the truck route taking time to examine rocks and the subtle decrease of plant life back into black boulders back into ashy shores back into the blue green ocean. Sebastien settled into a bench to read while I settled into the lagoon. I swam until I couldn’t touch the bottom and then  I let the distant wakes of passing ferries rock my body back and forth. I stared at the sky watching the clouds float above me. I felt excitement for what is to come in the next year. I felt proud of the girl who will step forward a year from now with new experiences and new talents. I felt happy knowing that the new girl a year from now will know that the girl floating in the lagoon was thinking of her.

Another view of the summit from the bottom

The blue green lagoon

It’s Been a While…

Hello friends, family, and strangers.


   I am writing to you from a little city called Rotorua. It is situated slightly inland from the Bay of Plenty. Rotorua is renowned as the heartland of the Maori culture. The city itself it situated among an array of lakes that all formed inside of the craters of extinct volcanoes. Lake Rotorua is the lake nearest where we are staying right now.  The volcano’s last eruption was some 240,000 years ago. But that hasn’t stopped this land from being extremely active. We have been told that every so often there will be a new eruption from the ground of boiling hot mud. This surfacing of mud creates a small mud pool, the texture of quicksand. Needless to say they tend to block any new mud formations off quickly so no one boils to death. Along with boiling mud sand there are also a bunch of beautiful hot lakes and rivers surrounding us. Imagine the geyser lakes of Yellowstone park, but all around you. There are small areas you can walk around these formations and let yourself be completely engulfed in breathing, moving earth.  We have decided the settle down in Rotorua for the next 3-4 months for a couple of reasons; I am really interested in learning more about the Maori culture/language and the city is just central enough to make transportation to other places easy/cheap.

      However,  we don’t need to worry about  taking buses or trains anymore. While walking around the block of the first hostel we stayed at we saw that a little red car for sale in the lot of a local auto repair shop. We had been talked about buying a car for a little while now. New Zealand is quite small but, there are a lot of things to see-and places to explore (Most of which wouldn’t be accessible by bus or train). Franny ( the granny) is  a 1989 Honda Concerto. At first, the idea of buying a car that is older than I am felt like it might be a bad choice. However, after some research, advice from a car savvy brother and a test drive we knew she was the one. Buying cars for one year of traveling is a lot different than buying cars for years of use back home. After a year we will be able to sell this car for as much, or more than what we bought it at( depending on what kind of upgrades happen to it along the way).

            But enough about cars, let’s talk about the trip thus far. We have been in New Zealand for nearly two months now.  The trip out here was the longest I have ever spent in transit-nearly 48 hours -2/3rd of which was spent scrunched up in a tiny seat swaying in and out of a melatonin haze.  Once we landed in Auckland the details get a bit vague for me. I know that we got a hostel room in Mount Eden, just outside Auckland centre. We slept for a couple days, waking only for hunger or bathrooms. After the 2-day- fugue  we finally started to adventure around the city.  Auckland isn’t huge, but it is quite hilly. Every corner we turned it was either a battle against gravity as we climbed the steep and endless hills to our hostel, or a fight for footing as we coreened down the other side after fresh rainfall.

      After Auckland we spent a week in Mount Maunganui -which is about 3 hours South East of Auckland- to  re unite with an old friend of mine from Australia. She is a Canadian lady who did her two years in Australia and then went straight to New Zealand and is now working on her residencey/citizenship.  She opened up her home to us and let us use her address to set up bank accounts so we could get an IRD number from the government.   After a week working out everything we needed to start our journey she drove us to Rotorua-where we still are.

   So many things have happened since we set foot in Rotorua, however I’ll make this post a little shorter. There truly is too much to explain in a single post about what has been going on since we left the states.  But I want to let all of you know that we are safe, ( no one has kidnapped us- they haven’t even tried…) we have been doing some fun things, and we are starting to settle into a life over here- however brief this chapter of the journey will be. Stay tuned for my pictures of Rangitoto island, Te Pua Quarry Park, Wai-o-Tapu, and The Buried Village. Our experience working in NZ, our current living situation, loads of prevalent history lessons as well as my battle with C-PTSD and ED while finding my footing in a new place. Don’t worry I will be more regular, I might even annoy.

Thank you for your patience
Thank you for being here
Thank you for listening.

The Shape of Florida

   We arrived in Florida on January 23rd, after a 22in snow storm in Maine. As Andres drove Sebastien and I to his, and Elena’s new apartment I was awestruck by the color green.  The trees and grass, all varying shades of a green. I couldn’t help but feel like I’ve cheated the season. The absolute contrast from where we had been, to where we were, was shocking;Not only in color but also in shape.  Before we left for Florida we spent 3 days couped up in Gen’s ( Sebastien’s mom) house for what was meant to be The Storm of The Season. We spent  3 days watching snow pile up in front of the sliding glass door, playing board games, watching bad movies, and seeking warmth from a pellet stove.

     When we arrived in Florida it was  20c (above 70f) balmy and humid. The palm leaves cut the skies into geometric shapes. The tiny neighborhoods thick with foliage so green it almost seemed blue. Each tree, and bush, and vine bunch taking up it’s own unique space creating a puzzle of shrubbary and life.  This is where I drew the inspiration for “The Shape of Florida”.  I want to  expand upon my photography skills, but to do that I need to keep challenging myself. I need to look at the world differntly than I already to do in order to take pictures I haven’t taken before.

      With that in mind I chose to only take photos in B&W while in Florida. I wanted to challenge myself to see the world through shapes (something less obvious) rather than color ( something very obvious).  There is one photo towards the middle in color, but that is only because in order to capture the shape, I needed color. You’ll get it.  A lot of these photos are more artistic than you might be looking for. Dont worry,  I will also do a segment of photos I took on my phone while I was in Florida, to give you a more “home video” feel of the first leg of our trip.

Thanks for being here,
Let me know what you think.

Sebastien took this picture while Elena and I waited in line to ride the “Hydro Shock” at the  South Florida Fair

Sebastien at the dog park being beautiful

For Elena’s birthday we went to a resturant called “The Alchemist” this is a still of their bean roasting process

Taken abour 20min. after arrive in Florida, everyone patiently awaiting to be picked up

The photo you will understand.

Brunch at a Spanish-American diner

Walking through Taylor Birch State Park

Taylor Birch State Park

Taylor Birch State Park

Local greenhouse

Florists

A lamp shop along Las Olas

Quarelling duck on the river walk

A look at the night life scene

The End

The Hot Sauce Diaries

Hello,

I think it might be fun to introduce a new and recurring segment called “The Hot Sauce Diaries”. I’ll have a new post every time we finish a bottle of the local spicy flavours. This first post will be longer than most because I will be sharing our first bottle selection as well as giving you a run down on what to expect in these posts. I will go into depth about the hot sauce that we chose by giving information on the makers of the sauce; Their history, their mission as well as any fun origin stories I can find. I will give my review on the sauce. Then I will share my favourite recipe inspired by the sauce. Hopefully I will create a fun anthology of hot sauce and local culture around the world!

First I want to set some rules about how we will be choosing the sauces

1: Sauce must have local origins to where we are, when we buy it

2: We need to come up with a creative way to consume it and post the recipe.

3: Every new hot sauce needs to offer something new and exciting that we haven’t had before.

Florida’s Hot Sauce Special: Captain (red beard) Foods, Chocolate Habanero

About the Company:
Captain Foods have been around for about 20 years. They are now based in Central Florida but distribute to grocery stores, specialty markets, food service companies, and are available for private label. “Captain Doug” the founder of Captain Foods said he came from a foodie family who loved spicy food. He continued the tradition by creating his own line of flavourful hot sauces.

*****
My Thoughts:
This particular hot sauce was rated at a 7 out of 10 on the “Captain Foods” richter scale. I couldn’t find any Scoville Heat Units( SHU) on Chocolate Habanero. However, I could find a list of SHU on the Captain Foods website where they represented some of their more famous sauces:

The hottest sauce that Captain foods has is Scorpion Pepper Hot Sauce coming in at a whopping 2,000,000 SHU ( for reference Tabasco is 8,000 SHU). On their website they list Scorpion Pepper Hot Sauce a 10 out of 10 on the heat scale. With that information I am going to guess that Chocolate Habanero is between 25,000 and 40,000 SHU.
*****
With that out-of-the-way, I didn’t think that this hot sauce was all that spicy. It was a bit heavy on the vinegar up front, in the middle the heat bloomed lightly , and finished with smooth chocolate while leaving you with a slight buzzy feeling on your lips and tongue for a little while. All of these feature combined I found made the sauce versatile and friendly to being playful.
*****
Getting Creative:
Because of the chocolate aspect and the light heat, I thought it would be fun to do something with lemon and maple syrup. So I made a mixed drink!

Recipe:
½ tsp. Of maple syrup
Chocolate Habanero to taste.
3 oz. Whiskey ( whatever you want)
1 oz. Triple Sec (or bitters)
3 oz. Unsweetened Ice Tea
A squeeze of a lemon slice.

I mixed the ingredients in order and then made three more for good measure. I haven’t come up with a name for this drink, so if you have any suggestions let me know!

In Closing:
All in all, I really enjoyed this sauce, I thought it was fun, and a better everyday-on-my-eggs hot sauce than Sriracha. But I think its true purpose is to be mixed in alcoholic drinks, or sprinkled on pineapple chunks, or as a dipping sauce for salty foods like olives and feta cheese.

That is all for this time friends, family, and strangers. Thank you for reading, have a beautiful day.

All photos that were used came from the Captain Foods websitem which can be accessed by clicking here.

Fluff Post

Okay, okay, I’m terrible at posting “selfies” or pictures of me doing things in the world. However, I took this photo earlier this evening while a top a rickety, convulsive-when-it-moves, ferris wheel at the local Greek festival. I love this photo because the colors came out so bizarre. When I looked through the lens it glowed cobalt. I’m always delighted by camera light reception, and the way it perceives the world so differently from me. I thought you all might enjoy this picture.

Okay

Uhh, thanks.

P.s. ily

Carmen Knoll- Chopin Free Concert Series

     One of my favourite things to do when I get into a new city is check out their public library. I’ve been doing this since I got my first apartment in Augusta, Maine all the way to Geraldton, Australia.  I like to see what it takes to get a library card as well. There seems to be endless possibility inside a library- any question can be answered, without google, without ads tailored from your previous searches and without pop ups.
  
   On one of our first days in Fort Lauderdale, South Florida Sebastien and I took a day and walked around the city. We were dropped off at the Art Museum, right around the bend from the Science and Discovery Museum. We weren’t sure where to go, so we meandered. About 5 minutes into our journey the skies opened and it started to monsoon. We found cover under a red and white tile outcove across the street from a parking garage. Checking out my surroundings I noticed that we were meters away from the opening to the Fort Lauderdale Broward County Public Library.

     The Library was 6 floors tall. The first floor was the auditorium which lead into a large in door wishing well. The second floor was mostly introductory: a reference desk,  some seating and a large display of Library events. All of the events are free, and take place at different library branches across the city. The third through 5th floor is ALL books and the duodecimal system, no flare only books. The sixth floor was dedicated to only black and white photography, life size models of space suites, live video feed of NASA T.V, and a piece of moon rock. It was beautiful, and exciting but without a library card- not accessible. Instead we focused on the list of free events.

                                                                  [one week later] 

         A small woman with effervescent gray hair handed me a white pamphlet  and smiled. On the front of the pamphlet was a portrait of Carmen Knoll, a young internationally recognized pianist who got a full ride to Julliard when she was 17. Reading the pamphlet I grew more and more exciting to watch her perform. We arrived forty five minutes early to insure we would have good seats. When we entered the auditorium I was amazed at the sheer size of it; the seating capacity seemed to be about 200. Nearly every seat was all ready filled. We scanned the audience for two empty seats near one another. It was then, that Sebastien and I looked at eachother and started to laugh. We were the youngest people there, by between 40 to 60 years. A sea of gray hair, nana perms, and therapeutic casual shoes. So we did what we know best, found a seat, put on my reading glasses, and read our kindles for 45 minutes while occasionally making polite conversation with the retirees around us.

    All in all it was a really great time, Carmen  was an incredible pianist who I hope to see a lot more of in the future. And Sebastien and I have come to terms with the fact that we have transcended our 20’s, blew past our 40’s and  landed at a cool 65. The tells have always been there to be honest. We are now just accepting it. If you need us we will be yelling at Jeopardy  and experiencing some hard-core juvenoia. Just call on the landline.

South Florida Fair

Hello,

It’s the end of January and I have been laying on a couch all day letting my introverted self recover from an exhilarating night at the South Florida Fair. When I was growing up, my home town put on their own fair. It always seemed magical to me as a child. A sleepy agriculture town with more cows than people and more apple orchards than cows puts on a real fair. We always went after the sun went down on an early August weekend. The ferris wheel acted like a homing beacon-guiding our way to adventure. Last night felt an awful lot like those last summer evenings back in Maine.

    Andre’s sister drove the five of us in her car an hour north to West Palm Beach. The sun set to the left of us, and the South Florida Fair ferris wheel  lit up the sky to our right.Even more than riding the rides I love to watch the vendors and the ticket buyers interact with the fair and its surroundings. Since I’ve gotten a camera taking pictures at fairs and festivals has been one of my favorite things to photograph. I decided to go B&W for the Florida leg of the trip. I think that it is a fun way to challenge myself.

Okay, Have fun looking.

.

This Is the Beginning

Hey, Hello, and welcome, this is the beginning. Think of it like a tutorial.

The last week and half Sebastien and I have been traversing the state of Maine; saying our goodbyes to friends, family and the occasional friendly Lyft driver. Some stays were longer than we expected and others fell through (sorry Andrew and Victoria).  We have felt so grateful for all of our friends who came together to say goodbye at the Great Lost Bear on the eleventh. I never expected to invite over thirty people and then in return have over thirty people show up. I suppose that says more about my perception of myself than of anyone else. So thank you to all who made it and to all who have housed us over the past week.

    When I last ventured out to the otherside of the world I left without so much as a whisper. I went without fanfare or a goodbye party. I felt it was important to fade into obscurity quietly without eyes on me. I don’t regret it. I feel that it was important for me back then. But this time I pushed for the party and I wanted to spend a lot of time with many people before we left. I have a community: we  have a community. We have friends who cry when they hug goodbye. We have friends who throw going away parties. We have friends that let us hang around their house all day drinking beer and playing scrabble. We have friends who make beds in the living room for late night cuddles and chats about mortality and our eventual deaths. We have family who open their home to us to watch movies late into the night while we eat their food. We have parents of friends who housed us last minute on a Tuesday afternoon when our flight was cancelled.  We are greatful for all of you.

Sometimes it seems a little counterintuitive to leave that now. But I think that is the exact reason to leave it. We are always growing and changing and we need to push past comfortable into the uncomfortable. I know that not everyone has the kind of opportunities we have right now. I know that many times it’s not possible to save up enough money to move to a different country. We are privlaged in many way.  We have had opportunities a lot have not, we are also in a special place: Our brains have or are about  to lock into place, we can make less risky decisions with a fully formed frontal cortex. We have little responsibility ( no kids, or college loan debt)and we have had the opportunity to work and save for the past year without many bills.

    I think that it is important to be honest. Frankly- I feel weird about documenting our trip through a blog. I’ve never been a fan of attention, or putting myself out there. I want to be authentic because I hate the trappings of social media other blogs included. The way we only broadcast the best parts of our existence as if that is all there is.  Writing this blog makes me feel uncomfortable, and that is exactly why I want to do it. I want to write with honesty. Honesty about the good, the bad and the minutiae of living. So that is about what you can expect from this blog. My observations and feelings of this new journey, also photos and videos and silly stories. 

    Thank you for following and for listening.

 

55 DAYS

In 55 days Sebatien and I will be embarking on the first stop of our [Enter amount of time] long journey!  We are bother really excited, nervous, terrified, and over joyed to be doing this together.  I probably wont be posting much until everything kicks off on January 22nd.  I will just be too busy finishing up the semester, getting rid of almost everything I own and smooshing whats left over into a 60L backpack. (while crossing my fingers that it wont be lost in transit) Ill will post again when there is something worth talking about.

So, stay close.