When Bri and I were in Australia, I realised that if I was going to make it back to the sheep farm, it would have to be that weekend. Wal, one of the guys who owns the vineyard where we worked over the original farm weekend, lives in CHCH and had offered me a ride back down to Oamaru anytime. Bri and I got back to CHCH on Wednesday night and I called Wal on Thursday. He said the earliest he would pick us up was 9 am Friday morning, so I had to finish my 1,500-word Russian history essay by then. Of course I spent Thursday doing laundry, cleaning my room, etc. All the stuff we do when we’re trying to procrastinate. I didn’t sit down to seriously start my essay till 9 that night, and I finished to the sound of birds chirping in the fresh sunlight at 6 am. The reforms of Alexander II (or was it III?) are actually pretty interesting, so at least I wasn’t bored. And Rachel was a complete lifesaver—she wrote on the same topic and let me use her library books, and then she printed out and turned in our essays the next morning, and she also biked to the grocery store around 7 am to get provisions for the weekend, because she is awesome. I got to sleep for a whole hour!
By 9 am we were headed to the UCSA building, where Wal was supposed to pick us up. We got coffee and breakfast inside, then ended up waiting four hours for Wal. We had a really long talk, which was great, and then we fell asleep on some couches. Rachel and I were both a little nervous about making conversation for four hours with this guy we barely knew, but he is very friendly and easy to talk to. He told us about the time he’d been in Charlotte, NC and completely blown away by the Southern accents. We could imagine. I tried to stay awake, but it was impossible, so Rachel put me in the backseat with Wal’s dog Dolly so I could nap. Wal took us the scenic way; he drove us down so we could see the Waitaki River and then through the little town of Kurow. He bought us ice cream too.
Two of Wal’s co-investors, Arthur and Jocelyn, are in the process of moving from CHCH to Oamaru, so we helped them move stuff in to their new house for a bit. Those two are a trip. Arthur shoots his mouth off all the time and refers to Jocelyn as “She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.” She is pretty quiet in contrast, but one time he was giving her a lot of sass and she flipped him the bird. Wal’s response was, “Aren’t they just a great advertisement for love and marriage?”
Unfortunately Keith and Kaye, the owners of Glenmac, were out of town for the weekend, but they still graciously allowed us to stay at their house. Rachel and I took the room Alex and Dale had stayed in last time. We spent Saturday tearing apart the plastic guards that go around vines and stacking them together, an activity that we’d dubbed New Zealand Wine Vine Sheath Consolidation back in September. I also helped Jocelyn and Arthur spray the vines with sulphur to prevent mildew.
When we got back to Glenmac, Wal took us into the sheep-shearing sheds to see heaps of discarded wool, the table they spread the wool on to evaluate its quality, the old shearers and the new ones. It was very educational. Then that night, Jocelyn made roast for dinner while Arthur told her what she was doing wrong. Typical. Then we did Tim Tam slams. If I haven’t explained that yet, there’s a type of chocolate Australian cookie called a Tim Tam that you bite both ends off and then suck coffee or hot chocolate through like a straw, and then when the cookie is saturated and melting, you eat it and it is amazing. Afterwards, Rachel and I ended up having a long talk with Wal about just about everything—relationships, religion, drinking, you name it. We crashed by eleven.
On our way back to the vineyard Sunday morning, Arthur showed us his neighbours’ vines and the drastic consequences that tiny differences in altitude, wind power and sunshine can have on the crop. Vine growers are supposed to grow grapes in very poor soil, because in such conditions the vines will focus on producing a few quality grapes rather than a lot of mediocre ones. When we made it up to our vineyard, we helped weed the vines and timed Arthur on the tractor. We only stayed for an hour or so, and then back at Glenmac, Arthur and Jocelyn gave us a bag of lamb chops from their own sheep and a bottle of Riesling (my favourite) to thank us for helping them. Arthur is undergoing chemo right now and unable to do a lot of the work on the vineyard, so I think Rachel and I were more help to them than we realised.
We exchanged email addresses and that sort of thing, and then we headed back to CHCH with Wal. He took us by the Waitaki Power Station on the way home. I spent the whole trip just gazing out the window at the green hills and the sheep. New Zealand just doesn’t look real; it seems idealised, like Arcadia. No photograph can do it justice, although Rachel’s come pretty close.
The past week went by in a blur. Rachel and I cooked our lamb chops for everyone returning from their tramp at Abel Tasman on Monday night. Tuesday I absolutely nailed my ancient epics final. On Friday night Emily and Rob flew in from Sydney and spent two nights here. They’ll be back on Wednesday and then again on Friday and Saturday. Kiwis don’t celebrate Halloween, but we did the other night, which was a lot of fun. Last night Nora and I went to church at the Cathedral downtown, which was super cool because four priests got ordained. There were sparkly mitres everywhere. Then I came home and watched The Emperor’s New Groove with Sina, who’s moving out today. Moey is leaving on Friday, so my last week here will be pretty quiet, which is sad. However, in addition to Emily and Rob, Ellen from farm weekend is coming to visit! I’m meeting her in the city in a few hours. Somehow I need to make time to study for my Nazi history and Roman myth exams, which are on Saturday and Monday.
Sorry about the super-long posts. Consider reading them practice for when I’m a writer someday.
much love-
Carie Mac
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Better Than New Zealand
As I predicted, October was a busy month, so it’s story time. The last week of classes I had two essays and a test. Of course I procrastinated horribly and finished my 2,000-word paper on the myth of Cleopatra at 2:30 am on the morning of Saturday the 17th. The fun part is, I slept for about 45 minutes and then got up at 3:30 to take a shower and pack in time to catch a cab to the airport with Briana at 4:45 because we had a 6:30 flight to AUSTRALIA! My friend Emily from Wake is studying at the University of Sydney and invited us to stay with her for a few days. Here’s a secret: in a lot of ways, Australia is actually better than New Zealand. Shhhh.
Being a bit of an idiot, I forgot that you can’t carry on liquids, so airport security took my shampoo etc. (but left me my razor???), which gave Briana no end of amusement. I also accidentally marked my customs card to indicate that I was a convict with tuberculosis. But it’s ok, because I forgot to turn it in.
Somehow we managed to make it to Emily’s flat by 10 for breakfast. Then Emily and her boyfriend Rob took us to the market at the Rocks for some shopping. We checked out the Circular Quay and the Opera House, and then we went to the Botanic Gardens. There was a tree full of bats, which was really interesting, and there was a guy in a plane skywriting about Jesus. Super cool. After we had lunch at a café in the Gardens, all four of us fell asleep on the bus back, so we decided to take a nap. Emily very generously turned her room over to us and we passed out for a good three hours. At dinner we discovered that Australia has legit pizza, unlike New Zealand. That night Emily and Rob took us out to a club called Argyle, which totally dazzled us because Christchurch nightlife has nothing like it. Emily asked for four glasses of water and the bartender looked at her like she was nuts.
The skies Sunday morning looked like rain, and we decided to go to the aquarium. We took our sweet time to get down to the Quay, though, getting distracted by the tall buildings, a cupcake bakery and a Krispy Kreme. I was extra excited about that last one because they do NOT have it in New Zealand. It was Briana’s first Krispy Kreme doughnut. I was so proud of her. We stopped by the Opera House to see if we could catch a show while we were in Sydney, but it’s hard to find a good one on such short notice that’s not too expensive. We missed a whole string of great orchestra concerts they played the week before we came. Oh, we also went back the Rocks to do some more shopping. Then we went to the Aquarium, which was awesome. It had two underwater tunnels with sharks and stingrays and dugongs and sea turtles and everything… so cool. I love aquariums. Afterwards Briana and I walked along the Sydney Harbour Bridge and took pictures from the top.
On Monday we had breakfast at the Museum of Sydney Café, on Rachel’s advice, which was great. I sniped a roll of toilet paper from their bathroom to give to Emily. Then Bri and I walked to the Quay and took a ferry to Manly Beach. We decided on Manly pretty much because Rachel told us about this great chocolate place there—Chocolate by the Bald Man, Max Brenner. And it was so nice to actually have warm weather! It’s November now, supposed to be quite summery but stupid Christchurch is cold and rainy and the wind will almost pick you up sometimes. Fantastic. So yeah, we got sunburned and freckled and maybe even a little tanned, and swam around the jellyfish and loved every minute of it. That evening we met up with Emma, my friend from high school, for Mexican food—I mean real Mexican food, the likes of which Christchurch has never seen—and gelato. It was really nice to catch up with Emma; I hadn’t seen her in a year at least. But it’s a small world, so we met up down under rather than in North Carolina.
Tuesday, our last full day in Sydney, we debated between Bondi Beach, the really famous one, and the Blue Mountains. We opted for the mountains, because I would have been disappointed if we hadn’t seen them because everyone makes such a big deal about them. Plus for some reason I like trains as much as your average five-year-old boy does, so I was psyched to take the two-hour train ride to Katoomba. We walked from the train station to the mountain lookouts and laughed at the ridiculously overdressed tourists. We stopped laughing when we got to the Mountains. The thing is, we’ve spent the past four months in Middle-Earth, living among some of the world’s most breathtaking scenery, and the Blue Mountains look like, well, Arizona. Lame. It wasn’t a total write-off, because we got to go walking on the trails and check out some pretty waterfalls, but still. The walk from my flat to the grocery store is more interesting than what we saw of the Blue Mountains.
The next day we were up at seven and psyched for the ZOO. The highlight of Taronga Zoo is definitely the “Australian Walkabout” (John Locke anyone?) wherein the kangaroos and wallabies and emus run free and you can pet them. It’s like the petting zoo at the state fair, only a million times more amazing. I made a mental note that when I have kids, I’m taking them to Sydney just so that they can pet a kangaroo. Because Bri and I did and it was super cool. What was NOT cool was the wallaby. We spent about ten minutes watching it and had the following exchange:
“Does that wallaby have a hole in its tummy?”
“What is that thing sticking out?”
“Maybe it’s a boy wallaby, if you catch my drift.”
“Oh-my-gosh it’s a baby. It has a BABY in there!”
“Oh, disgusting!” etc.
Moving on from the momma wallaby and the tiny pink hairless wallaby junior, we saw gorillas, tigers, giraffes, sea turtles, ostriches, zebras, all manner of creepy crawly things, and so on. After the kangaroos, the elephants were my favourite. We watched a zookeeper hose them down for a while, which was too funny because some of the elephants absolutely loved the water and others would have none of it. The baby nearly tripped over his ears trying to get out of Dodge. Speaking of little ones, I found a small Australian kid who was too short to see the lions, so I held him up to the glass while his mom had her hands full with his sister. The lions were too far back to see, so he amused himself by smashing flies on the glass. Then we went to check out the meerkats together. It was nice to spend some time with a little kid again, and his Australian accent was precious. We also saw koalas, which are almost as disappointing as the Blue Mountains. All they do is lie around in the trees and snooze. After we had seen everything there was to see, we rode a gondola back down to the ferry, which afforded a great view of the Sydney skyline. Christchurch doesn’t have any real skyscrapers, and Sydney’s massive buildings reminded us so much of the States. It was like a preview of home.
I think I’ve already established that I do not travel well. Actually, Bri and I do not travel well together. (It’s a good thing we aren’t flying to LA together next week. Oh, wait…) So at the airport, they had trouble with our Australian visas, and then we were almost late for our plane because of course our gate was at the very end of terminal, but then we got there and weren’t sure if this WAS our gate so we had to go find out, and all this rushing went on with me huffing and puffing to keep up with Bri who is six inches taller than I am. By the time we sat down, we were both grumpy and hot and hungry, and then it turned out that out plane was delayed. How lovely. Bri had plans to go on a five-day hiking trip the next day, and I had an essay to write that was 40% of my grade, so neither of us were real keen on cooling our heels in the Sydney airport with nothing to do besides gripe and listen to our stomachs growl. When we did board the plane, however, we found ourselves seated near a little boy with Buzz Lightyear and Jessie action figures who were dive-bombing each other. I was very tempted to lean over and holler, “To infinity—and beyond!” but I resisted the urge. I had bought some Reese’s in Syndey, because guess what ELSE New Zealand doesn’t have, and Bri and I ate them for dinner during the three-hour plane ride. Delicious.
So we got home in one piece, our friend Sam picked us up at the airport, Bri got off on her tramping trip ok, and I got my essay done. This only brings us up to 21st, but it’s almost 2 am so I will continue tomorrow, or something. Rachel went on a ten-day tour of the north island last month and right now she is on a road trip down south, and when she gets back I would love for her to have a bunch of messages demanding that she post on the blog. Thank you.
To be continued.
love-
Carie
Being a bit of an idiot, I forgot that you can’t carry on liquids, so airport security took my shampoo etc. (but left me my razor???), which gave Briana no end of amusement. I also accidentally marked my customs card to indicate that I was a convict with tuberculosis. But it’s ok, because I forgot to turn it in.
Somehow we managed to make it to Emily’s flat by 10 for breakfast. Then Emily and her boyfriend Rob took us to the market at the Rocks for some shopping. We checked out the Circular Quay and the Opera House, and then we went to the Botanic Gardens. There was a tree full of bats, which was really interesting, and there was a guy in a plane skywriting about Jesus. Super cool. After we had lunch at a café in the Gardens, all four of us fell asleep on the bus back, so we decided to take a nap. Emily very generously turned her room over to us and we passed out for a good three hours. At dinner we discovered that Australia has legit pizza, unlike New Zealand. That night Emily and Rob took us out to a club called Argyle, which totally dazzled us because Christchurch nightlife has nothing like it. Emily asked for four glasses of water and the bartender looked at her like she was nuts.
The skies Sunday morning looked like rain, and we decided to go to the aquarium. We took our sweet time to get down to the Quay, though, getting distracted by the tall buildings, a cupcake bakery and a Krispy Kreme. I was extra excited about that last one because they do NOT have it in New Zealand. It was Briana’s first Krispy Kreme doughnut. I was so proud of her. We stopped by the Opera House to see if we could catch a show while we were in Sydney, but it’s hard to find a good one on such short notice that’s not too expensive. We missed a whole string of great orchestra concerts they played the week before we came. Oh, we also went back the Rocks to do some more shopping. Then we went to the Aquarium, which was awesome. It had two underwater tunnels with sharks and stingrays and dugongs and sea turtles and everything… so cool. I love aquariums. Afterwards Briana and I walked along the Sydney Harbour Bridge and took pictures from the top.
On Monday we had breakfast at the Museum of Sydney Café, on Rachel’s advice, which was great. I sniped a roll of toilet paper from their bathroom to give to Emily. Then Bri and I walked to the Quay and took a ferry to Manly Beach. We decided on Manly pretty much because Rachel told us about this great chocolate place there—Chocolate by the Bald Man, Max Brenner. And it was so nice to actually have warm weather! It’s November now, supposed to be quite summery but stupid Christchurch is cold and rainy and the wind will almost pick you up sometimes. Fantastic. So yeah, we got sunburned and freckled and maybe even a little tanned, and swam around the jellyfish and loved every minute of it. That evening we met up with Emma, my friend from high school, for Mexican food—I mean real Mexican food, the likes of which Christchurch has never seen—and gelato. It was really nice to catch up with Emma; I hadn’t seen her in a year at least. But it’s a small world, so we met up down under rather than in North Carolina.
Tuesday, our last full day in Sydney, we debated between Bondi Beach, the really famous one, and the Blue Mountains. We opted for the mountains, because I would have been disappointed if we hadn’t seen them because everyone makes such a big deal about them. Plus for some reason I like trains as much as your average five-year-old boy does, so I was psyched to take the two-hour train ride to Katoomba. We walked from the train station to the mountain lookouts and laughed at the ridiculously overdressed tourists. We stopped laughing when we got to the Mountains. The thing is, we’ve spent the past four months in Middle-Earth, living among some of the world’s most breathtaking scenery, and the Blue Mountains look like, well, Arizona. Lame. It wasn’t a total write-off, because we got to go walking on the trails and check out some pretty waterfalls, but still. The walk from my flat to the grocery store is more interesting than what we saw of the Blue Mountains.
The next day we were up at seven and psyched for the ZOO. The highlight of Taronga Zoo is definitely the “Australian Walkabout” (John Locke anyone?) wherein the kangaroos and wallabies and emus run free and you can pet them. It’s like the petting zoo at the state fair, only a million times more amazing. I made a mental note that when I have kids, I’m taking them to Sydney just so that they can pet a kangaroo. Because Bri and I did and it was super cool. What was NOT cool was the wallaby. We spent about ten minutes watching it and had the following exchange:
“Does that wallaby have a hole in its tummy?”
“What is that thing sticking out?”
“Maybe it’s a boy wallaby, if you catch my drift.”
“Oh-my-gosh it’s a baby. It has a BABY in there!”
“Oh, disgusting!” etc.
Moving on from the momma wallaby and the tiny pink hairless wallaby junior, we saw gorillas, tigers, giraffes, sea turtles, ostriches, zebras, all manner of creepy crawly things, and so on. After the kangaroos, the elephants were my favourite. We watched a zookeeper hose them down for a while, which was too funny because some of the elephants absolutely loved the water and others would have none of it. The baby nearly tripped over his ears trying to get out of Dodge. Speaking of little ones, I found a small Australian kid who was too short to see the lions, so I held him up to the glass while his mom had her hands full with his sister. The lions were too far back to see, so he amused himself by smashing flies on the glass. Then we went to check out the meerkats together. It was nice to spend some time with a little kid again, and his Australian accent was precious. We also saw koalas, which are almost as disappointing as the Blue Mountains. All they do is lie around in the trees and snooze. After we had seen everything there was to see, we rode a gondola back down to the ferry, which afforded a great view of the Sydney skyline. Christchurch doesn’t have any real skyscrapers, and Sydney’s massive buildings reminded us so much of the States. It was like a preview of home.
I think I’ve already established that I do not travel well. Actually, Bri and I do not travel well together. (It’s a good thing we aren’t flying to LA together next week. Oh, wait…) So at the airport, they had trouble with our Australian visas, and then we were almost late for our plane because of course our gate was at the very end of terminal, but then we got there and weren’t sure if this WAS our gate so we had to go find out, and all this rushing went on with me huffing and puffing to keep up with Bri who is six inches taller than I am. By the time we sat down, we were both grumpy and hot and hungry, and then it turned out that out plane was delayed. How lovely. Bri had plans to go on a five-day hiking trip the next day, and I had an essay to write that was 40% of my grade, so neither of us were real keen on cooling our heels in the Sydney airport with nothing to do besides gripe and listen to our stomachs growl. When we did board the plane, however, we found ourselves seated near a little boy with Buzz Lightyear and Jessie action figures who were dive-bombing each other. I was very tempted to lean over and holler, “To infinity—and beyond!” but I resisted the urge. I had bought some Reese’s in Syndey, because guess what ELSE New Zealand doesn’t have, and Bri and I ate them for dinner during the three-hour plane ride. Delicious.
So we got home in one piece, our friend Sam picked us up at the airport, Bri got off on her tramping trip ok, and I got my essay done. This only brings us up to 21st, but it’s almost 2 am so I will continue tomorrow, or something. Rachel went on a ten-day tour of the north island last month and right now she is on a road trip down south, and when she gets back I would love for her to have a bunch of messages demanding that she post on the blog. Thank you.
To be continued.
love-
Carie
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