Alright, the dramatic moments are over. I may have gotten a little carried away, but I'm feeling back to myself now. After all the changes in the last two days my itinerary has made yet another change. I'm leaving New Zealand on the 4th and heading to Buenos Aires. I'm a bit nervous about the whole not knowing any spanish, but being somewhere where I know nothing is seeming exciting and right. With any luck I'll find a spanish school in the first few days and throw myself into it. And with any more luck I'll find a tango school right afterwards. Then again, if I learn how to tango do I really need to know how to speak spanish?

On the other side of things, Jen is going back to the states, and I've been asked not to make any contact. Sort of strange, but I suppose that's the way it goes. Our contact over the past month has been pretty minimal so I was at least eased in. And now it's time to get used to being single again. I think it will be good. In fact, it already feels quite good and right and what was well needed and overdue.

I hope you are all celebrating a fabulous New Year. Have a good time. Love you all!

Things are a changin.

So, things have taken such a dramatic turn over the course of the day that I'm feeling a bit lost. I think this is the first time on this trip that I really wished I was home and with friends. I miss you all. A lot. Jen and I meet back up today, but after talking and crying and talking while crying, it looks like she's leaving tomorrow. New years is called off, Fiji is called off, it looks like friendship may be called off. I'm not sure what I'll do for New Years, but it looks like it's just me and the rest of Auckland. Maybe somebody else will be in the poor state that I'm in. Maybe nobody ever gave me the advice that sometimes people don't want to hear the truth. I still can't decide if the truth is good or bad. I'm off for a sad sad night. If all of you that I love on the other side of the world can send me some positive energy, that'd be great. I'd be forever grateful. Oh, and don't worry. I'll be okay.

Fiji?

Remember all that business about going to Fiji? Well, it's all been called off. Jen and I are spending New Years together in Auckland and then going our own ways for good. I'm booking my ticket to Argentina tonight, and I can't wait. It's all happened pretty quick, but something about Fiji seemed so dreadfully wrong that I don't care. So, spanish and tango are happening sooner rather than later.

Happy New Years everyone!

Merry Christmas!!!

It's a beautiful Christmas morning, and there is everything around me to remind me that I'm in New Zealand. Yesterday Rosemary and I went out into the forest and chopped down a Christmas tree. I'm used to going to the Christmas tree lot and scrutinizing all the Douglas Firs. (Except of course for the last few years when I've gotten a pointsetta and called that in that spirit) I don't know what kind of tree it is, but after we put all the decorations on last night, it was no doubt meant for Christmas.

Before we got to the tree decorating last night, the group of women at the Waihoihoi Lodge piled into cars and went down to the annual Waipu Christmas parade. Everything about the parade lets you know that it's Christmas, but at the same time lets you know that it's summer.... A Christmas parade with a wheelbarrow race, people in shorts and beach lifesavers, and it's in the evening but the sun is still shining. Weird.

And now it's Christmas morning and the sun is shining, and it's likely to be a glorius day at the beach. I am crossing my fingers to hope that I can make it there sometime today. Some sad news about today is that I scratched my Christmas scratch ticket, and I did not win $10,000. But I'll live, and I am sure that whatever present I end up with in the yankee swap will be enough.

I hope you all enjoy your Christmas and are able to spend it with your family and friends, eat lots and lots of food and relax all day. I'll be thinking of all of you today (and when I say thinking, I really mean terribly missing). Merry Christmas!!!

Women and weeding

I'm off of the Lavender Farm and onto a women's lodge in Waipu. I spent last night in Auckland, and it seems much better than any of the other New Zeland cities. It's certainly much larger. It actually feels like a city. I look forward to getting back to Auckland for New Years. I have a feeling that they know how to celebrate there...

Waihoihoi Lodge is were I'm staying now, doing more WWOOFing. So far, so good. It's great to be around lesbians again. Just great. Somehow very relaxing. I think the next 10 days will be just fine. Today I did a bit of weeding, and I think I'll be doing a good deal more weeding. I also get to ride around on a little quad bike and shower without my jandals on. Now that's good. I'll update again as soon as something exciting happens. Oh, and the title is a link to the lodge webpage, in case you hadn't figured that out.

Lavender

Lavender farms are absolutely lovely. Beautiful purple flowers everywhere and the scent of lavender is on absolutely everything. Even after a day on my knees picking lavender it still seems lovely. Maybe after a few years of the work it wouldn't seem quite so lovely, but lucky me doesn't have to worry about that.

My week at Our Patch Lavender has been great. My hosts Michael and Marion are of the personable and funny sort, which suits me just fine. But alas, it is time to move on. Tomorrow evening I will head up to Auckland and stay for only one night before heading up to the Waihoihoi Lodge in Waipu. This I where I'll be spending almost all the rest of my time in New Zealand, including Christmas. It's an all women's lodge, and I'm not quite sure what exactly that implies yet.

I hope all of you are not going too crazy in this holiday season. If you are, I recommend a trip to New Zealand. While everyone is still running around getting ready for Christmas, it's hard to get too caught up in it because of the weather. Seeing santa in board shorts and having the sun shining puts me in good spirits, but not necesarily of the holiday sort. Happy shopping and I promise to think of you while I'm on the beach, if you promise to think of me while eating your delicious turkey.

Tongariro Crossing

Yesterday I hiked the Tongariro Crossing, which is supposed to be the most spectacular day-walk in New Zealand. The walk goes along all sorts of volcanic craters and amazing sulphuric hot springs and lakes. I would love to be able to tell you just how amazing and beautiful it was and how I've never seen views like those before, but it rained through most of the walk and the majority of my views were blankets of fog in all directions. After climbing up for an hour and half the winds were strong enough that I had to make a choice between crouching down or being blown over. Needless to say, I was unable to take a peek at the edge of the crater and examine it's depth. If I did, I would be in the crater right now instead of writing this blog. Fortunately, I did get a fabulous glimpse of the Emerald Lakes, which are a striking, vibrant green and just came out of nowhere. You could smell the sulphur much sooner than you could see the lakes. By the end of the day, the sun made an appearance, my pants dried and we were so far from the craters that it was hopeless. But seeing the Emerald Lakes made it all worth it. Though I don't have a picture to show you...

In other news, this is my new blog for obvious reasons. Jen should have her new blog up and running soon. I think. She's at a new WWOOF host in Northland, and I presume it depends on whether or not they have internet access. She's WWOOFing at a huge cattle farm. I'm leaving National Park today to go WWOOFing at a Lavender Farm. Doesn't that just show how different we are.