Heading In

Hey all,

Just wanted to briefly check in before I embark on my ten day trek to Annapurna Base Camp tomorrow. I made the decision about a week ago to leave my volunteering early to be able to get a long trek in to the base camp of the worlds 10th tallest peak! It was a hard decision, but I think it was the right one for me.

This afternoon, I finished up all of my volunteering duties here in Nepal. Wow, that sounds pretty wild. Time has really flown here. In my time here I feel have a made a difference in these kids lives! But its crazy how much they have done for me. I am forever in debt to them and will cherish all the memories we have collected together for the rest of my life. A warm shout out goes to the didis at Garden daycare center, without you to guide me I would have been even more lost. It is sad for this chapter in my travels to end but I will always look back on it very fondly.

Tomorrow at 10am, I am hitting the trail! Pretty pumped for my ten day trek you could say... I will fill you in more upon my return. As always, check my flickr for the most up to date pictures! Hope this post finds everyone in good health and spirits.

Sending out positive energy from Nepal,
Arthur

Himalayan Times

Well hello all!

After getting settled in during my first week here, I think I am ready to get back on my blogging game! I promise I will do better than last time...or at least try too.
Anyways, here I am again, thousands of miles away from home set off on my very own adventure...of a gap year nature, of course. I am currently sitting in a internet cafe in Pokhara, Nepal! After what felt like an eternity of traveling, including 11 hour layover in Hong Kong, where I enjoyed some delicious food and stretched my legs a bit around the city, a night in Kathmandu, and a 7 hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Pokhara, I finally made it! I met up with my in country GVI staff, and here I am, in the middle of my second week volunteering in Nepal!
I am staying with a host family in Male Patan, an area of Pokhara just outside Lakeside(the touristy area, where all the trekkers relax after there hikes). My family is absolutely amazing, they make the best Dhal Bhat, the traditional Nepali dish, which I eat twice a day. It is rice, lentil curry, and some vegetables, usually nice and spicy! They love there chilis here. My day to schedule is as follows: Wake up and have a cup of tea around 6:30am, go to work at a street kids rehab center from 7-9:30 helping with english, and also teaching them how to play soccer! I come home for dhal bhat around 10am, then head off to a daycare center from 11-3, I act an as extra pair of hands, and also attempt to teach the kids english, however they are all very little, so it is really basic stuff. This week we are teaching them fruits, today we taught them how to say "apple" in english. They all pretty much got it which was nice. I then go into lakeside, use the internet or relax until 4:30 when I go to Conversation club. It is a club where we get local kids to come down and we lead discussions all in english. It is a lot of fun and I think we are going to have them make some cool dreamcatchers with the materials I brought soon! I then return home for Dhal Bhat around 6 or 6:30, falling asleep easily by around 8pm. Days are exhausting, but very rewarding!
The other volunteers with my organization that are here with me now are from all over the place! one from Germany, Switzerland, and Singapore! It is really cool being around such a diverse group.

Well I must run to Conversation club, don't forget to check my Flickr(http://www.flickr.com/photos/amoss-hawkinsphotos/) for picture updates on my trip. For a teaser, here is the view from my porch at my homestay. 

The End of Middle Earth

Greetings all!

I am so sorry I have not been able to check in for quite some time, New Zealand was super busy and I could never get to an internet cafe for long enough to update my blog. Today, I have an afternoon set aside to put up pictures and get my blog caught up, here we go!

After our awesome week WWOOFing at Tom & Pj's farm(feels so long ago), we embarked west to the small town of National Park, located in Tongariro National Park. Interesting name for a town, I know. We had one free day in National Park before we started our work with Blue Mountain Adventure Center. Beans, Lucy, Brooke, Tara, and I decided to go for a hike to Taranaki Falls in located in Tongariro Nat'l Park. The hike was splendid and these falls were a film site location for the Lord of The Rings, The waterfall where Ferramir initially brings Frodo and Sam after there capture. It was really cool to see something like that in person. The next day, we started our stay with BMAC! BMAC was jam packed full of adventure acvitivites designed to make you push yourself. WE started the first day on some high ropes courses where some of our group members, me included, were forced to face our fear of heights, which was quite scary. The second day we the traveled underground to do some caving! We put on our headlamps and crawled through some spaces that I had no idea I was able to fit through, it was an experience. A ceiling full of glow worms made it all worth it though, and by the end I was having fun puzzling my body through small crevices. The third day, We did some more ropes courses, followed by some repelling in the afternoon. Every single one of us repelled off of a 60 foot sheer cliff, which definitely got the blood flowing. We climaxed in our last two days with some intensive white water rafting. We had the chance to go with an instructor on a level 3 rapids, and I actually by ourselves on a level 2 rapids. Jamo and i navigated the rapids like pro's, I only fell out once or twice... BMAC was a super cool experience, it was nice to push my bodies limits and try new things in the outdoors that I had never done before!

After BMAC we overlayed in Hastings, a small city, for a day. Jamo and I attempted to summit Te Mata peak, a small mountain 10 minutes away from Hastings. We ultimately failed but it was nice to get out explore a bit. We then headed back to the east coast of the north island to spend a week in a cultural exchange with the indigenous Maori people. During these 5 days we were completely immersed in Maori culture, while at the same time teaching them about American culture, completing the exchange. While we were there we weaved baskets from Flax plant, climbed the longest place name in New Zealand, and performed a welcoming "haka." A haka is there ritual dance/chant that the Maori are known for, look up the New Zealand rugby team doing one, its pretty cool. We also sang the star spangled banner for them numerous time, and threw a Halloween party for all of the kids, reciprocating the exchange. It was so cool to learn about another culture, it makes you think about how we treat the indigenous people of America, not the best... Overall it was a awesome eye opening experience, a huge thanks to the Maori people who hosted us, we were treated with amazing hospitality.

From the Maori, we overlayed in Wellington for one day. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, it is smaller than Auckland, but just as cool. I spent the day exploring the city with the guys, witnessing numerous interesting things. Including a small squabble/fight outside of one of the malls, very interesting. We dined at Sweet Mothers Kitchen on delicious Southwestern food. We then saw the movie "Argo" which was INTENSE, Ben Affleck does really well, I highly recommend it.

Saturday November 3rd, a long awaited day for me, we boarded the Ferry from Wellington, pointed towards the South Island. The ferry arrived through a series of small islands that reminded me of the San Juan Islands outside of Seattle. We then arrived in Picton, quickly busing to the northern hub of the South Island, the hip town of Nelson. Our hostel was awesome, we had a whole house to ourselves! The next day, our free travel week began! It began with a free day in Nelson, where I spent half the day getting stuff ready for the trek, then the next half taking a hike up a hill outside of Nelson getting a nice view of the city and the bay. Some of the guys of the group went to play croquet, which is super cool, they had a great time. The next morning, we embarked up the northwest coast to Golden Bay to do are overnight sea kayak! Well most of us anyway, three of the group members stayed behind, Brooke, Bailly, and Rebecca. The rest of us rented our sea kayaks, and skimmed along the coastline of Abel Tasman National Park for an afternoon before making camp at Taupo Point, a small peninsula. We then spent the night under tarps set up by Jamo, Alex, and I. Eating a dinner of veggie and hummus wraps. It was so nice and refreshing to sleep outside. The next day we kayaked back to our rental place, dropped them off, and headed back down a bus destined for St. Arnaud, the gateway to Nelson Lakes National Park. The subsequent day we embarked on our three day, two night, beautiful trek around Lake Rotoiti. The first day we hiked along the east side of the lake all the way to the base, staying at Lakehead hut the first night. We had beautiful views of the lake with the beautiful  snow capped ridges bursting up from either bank, it was truly spectacular. On day 2, we started the morning with a frigid river crossing, really woke everyone up! and saved 4 hours of hiking. We then backtracked up the west bank of the lake, passing Whisky Falls, a 120 foot stunning waterfall. Soon after Whisky Falls, we started to climb up the Roberts Ridge, pulling steeply up from the lakeside. After ascending a grueling 800-900 meters, we emerged from the treeline to Bushline hut, where we spent our second night. There was no water at the hut so Jamo and I hiked back down to the closest water source to replenish our supply. The last day was spent hiking onto the top of Roberts Ridge and exploring. Some of us even made it all the way to the 1690 meter tall Flagtop Summit, with stunning views of snow covered Angelus Ridge and the St.Arnaud range. The view truly took your breath away. We then hiked out and got shuttled back to St.Arnaud for the night. The next day we then spent the whole day getting down into Christchurch just in time to spend 8 hours in the airport before departing New Zealand at 4:45am the next morning.

Word cannot describe how much I love New Zealand, it is such a beautiful and friendly country. (Next family vacation mom?? I think yes)

I am now currently in Brisbane Australia, but more on that later. I hope everyone is doing well. Get better soon Rico!

Stay Tuned!

-Arthur

P.S. I added some new photos to my Flickr and will continue to add photos over the next day or so, it just takes along time. but go check it out anyway! www.Flickr.com/amosshawkins

WWOOFing

Hi all,

Sorry about that last post, it was rushed and I actually forgot to add the Flickr link! My apologies about that. The link to my Flickr is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amoss-hawkinsphotos/. I am uploading photos as we speak! Hopefully I can get all the ones I want up because I really want to share them with you.

I am curretnly sitting on a computer in our Hostel just south of Tongariro State Park, we are headed to the Blue Mountain Adventure Center Tomorrow. Super excited for that.

WWOOFing the past week was absolutely amazing. I don't have much time on the computer, Lord of The Rings Two Towers starts in about 30 minutes. But here his a quick day by day of my wonderful farm experience.
Day 1: Arrive at around 5pm to Tom and PJ White's beatiful farm. They mainly raise cattle and sell them for profit. Which involves having cows that they milk in order to raise the calves. They also have free range pigs and sheep, a very cool farm. It is tucked east of the Ruahine Mountains, providing wonderful views of there snowcapped summits. This evening was spent hanging out with the family, Tom and PJ have three little kids, Ben, George, and Rosie. Who are all super cool. We then dined on an amzing feast of Lasagna, which after our diet of fried breads and indian food in Rabulu, was a wonderful change of pace, which I'm sure my colon was quite happy about. Sam, Beans(Colin T), and I are acutally staying in a trailer outside of the house called big blue. However, we have renamed it Bag End, after Bilbo Baggins Hobbit hole from the Lord of The Rings.
Day 2: This morning Jamo, Dylan, and I removed thistles from one of the grazing fields on their farm. It was a nice walk throughn there property with some bush removal as well, a fun morning. The afternoon we fixed some holes in the fences surrounding some of the cow pens on the farm. I am not very good at nailing, but we got it done. We dined on some delish morrocan chicken cooked by some of the Carpe group!
Day 3: Spent the morning thistle grubbing again on a different grazing field, there farm is 500 acres, so there is plenty of thistle grubbing to go around. In the afternoon I helped weigh and sort some of the calves. This involved wrangling them onto a scale, weighing them, then sorting them by weight. This was fun because it was my first handson experience with animals, only got pooped and kicked on once, so I consider that a good first go. We dined on juicy hamburgers with potatoe wedges grilled up by the kitchen crew.
Day 4: This morning, beans and I helped Tom with the process of dehorning some of the calves on the farm. This involved having two specialists come in to help us, Bob and Stuey. Beans and I would grab the cattle by the neck and the tail and wrastle them into a cage sort of thing where stuey or bob would then clamp down there head securely, then they would take a specialized blow torch and burn off the cows hair around their horns, the coterize there horns. It was a very painful proccess for the cows and really hard work to wrastle them into the contraptions. However it is a needed part of farm life, for a bull with horns cannot sell and is dangerous. All in all, we helped dehorn 204 calves in 3 hours. Hard work! We got the rest of the day off except for some cow herding into different pastures in the late afternoon. Dined on some make your own sushi, nothing like the stuff we make...
Day 5: Kitchen duty day! In the Kitchen with Beans, Brooke, and Rebecca. We made standard oatmeal for breakfast. Heated up leftovers for lunch, and I took the reigns of grillmaster for dinner with some beef kabobs. Something that happened today that was interesting was that we were able to see a pig slaughter. Tom and Pj hired a slaughterer to come over and kill two of there pigs. He did it by first shooting them between the eyes, killing them instantly, then cutting there neck to make them bleed out. Then second pig did not die on the first shot however, he took two shots. This was a interesting experience for me. It definetly has made me more grateful for my meat and I am more aware of what has to happen for that piece of bacon to end up on my plate. I encourage any meat eater that has not seen a slaughter to contemplate seeing one, I am still processing my feelings about it, I am in no danger of going vegetarian though.
Day 6: Early Morning Duty! got up at 5:30 am with Jamo and Lydia to go help Tom bring in and milk the cows. They have 55 cows that they milk twice a day to provide milk for there calves. This still isn't enough to feed all of there calves though, they also have to mix up some powdered milk. I am willing to do the milking work, but I cannot say it is my favorite. We then spent the rest of the morning feeding the calves and pigs. Came in for lunch, then repeated it all again. Did not get pooped on today. Dinner was delish corned beef and mashed potatoes, these meals never dissapoint!
Day 7: Final Day! Early morning duty again, this time with Dylan and Lucy, did the same thing as I did on day six, except Tom allowed me to drive the quad bike today. They have a quad bike with what a container of milk traling behind, and today he let me drive it, it was pretty easy and VERY fun! We dined to wonderful last meal of roast pork, from the pig that was slaughtered two days ago, so it was nice and fresh. This whole time we have been having fresh raw milk, which has been so good, going three weeks without milk was a challenge for me.
Day 8: left early in the morning by bus and got to National park in the late afternoon where we are for one night before heading to BMAC!

My next Check in will probably in another week or so. Since I'm not going to post until after, just gotta give a little shout out to my sister G, who is turning 21 in three days! SO crazy!! Enjoy it you old geezer, missing you more than expected.

Hope everyone is well,\

-Arthur

P.S> Fun fact: PJ and Tom's farm is actually not certified organic, they are still working towards it, it takes a lot of money to become certified in New Zealand.

The End Of Fiji/The Beginning of New Zealand

Kia Ora all!

My apologies for not being able to check in before I left Fiji, I was unable to get internet access.

The last week in Fiji was amazing. I think it was because we all hit the point of turning from guests in our homes, to becoming part of our homes. We spent the last week finishing up the concrete path and hanging out with are families. We also had the opportunity to visit the Fiji water factory, which is only one town over from Rabulu. It amazes me the amount of waste, both in plastic and fossil fuels, that is created to ship essentially Fijian tap water all the way from Fiji to America, then to wherever its headed. Is the water that much better? All that aside, it was kind of cool to see the factory and visit the place that all Fiji water comes from.

After a teary goodbye, we left Rabulu, heading to Nadi for one day. Though the tears were sad, it shows how much of a part of the community we had become, I know I will always have a welcome place to stay in Rabulu. Nadi was great, we were only there for a day, so I did not get a complete feel of the place. I did make it to an outdoor market however, where I was able to get my barter on, something I always enjoy doing.

I am sitting now in an internet cafe in beautiful downtown Auckland New Zealand. We arrived two days ago, just in time to get to our hostel in downtown, go out to Dinner for Colin Tutelian's 19th birthday dinner, and eat some celebratory cake(this hostel has a kitchen). Yesterday, I spent the morning wandering the city with Lydia, then we met up with Colin T. and Tara, and we all took a short ferry to Davenport island. Davenport Island is a cute little island right in the bay, kind of a similar feel to the San Juans in Washington. It had a cute lsmall historic downtown where we got a nice lunch and enjoyed some homemade Davenport chocolates. We then hiked up two small hills on the island, soaking in some great views of the bay area and the city of Auckland. The second hill actually used to be a navy outpost and they have old ruins that you can explore, which was a lot of fun. After our exploration we took a ferry back and returned to the Hostel, hungout, did some laundry(my khakis are going to be like gens sweats, still haven't washed em', and ate some delicious homecooked spaghetti. Today, Jamo, Sam, Nick, Lucy, and I visited the Auckland Musuem in the morning and saw an awesome free photo exhibit! It was a wildlife/landscape photo contest run by National New Zealand!(similar to nat geo) So we actually got to look at all the finalist photos, and vote for our favorite ones, it was a really fun time. The Auckland museum is very impressive, three floors of exhibits. We have also begun to plan our free travel week, and I am in charge of planning a 3 day-2 night trek, so I started my research on that, it is looking awesome. Then in the afternoon we took a bus to a beach town 15 minutes out of the city called Mission Bay for some lunch and relaxation. Returning back to the city in time to check out the awesome Auckland art gallery. It is a free gallery that shows artists work from all over New Zealand, picked up some postcards to send y'all in there gift shop.That leads me up to where I am right now, sitting in a netcafe about three blocks from our hostel. Dad, I bet you could find a map of Auckland online or on google, we are staying at a hostel on the intersection of Albert Street and Victoria Street West. Queen Street is the main strip of Auckland, especially in the area down by the wharf. I'm sure you could find and trace all of my steps so far, if you are interested. Mission bay is North of Auckland. I really love Auckland, I wish we had some more time, its a beautiful and very clean city. It is made up of a very diverse population of about 1 million, which leads to having a wide range of delicious eats to gorge myself at! Great introduction to New Zealand.

Next stop, WWOOFing!

-Arthur

P.S. Enjoy these photos! I am now using a Flickr because the uploading is faster. Click this link and have a look at some of my pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amoss-hawkinsphotos/

Random Jumble of Fiji Pictures

 Figured out how to get pictures on the computer! Sorry that they are sop jumbled, but here are some pictures from my trip so far. Expect one more post before I disembark from Fiji!

-Arthur

Beetu, My pup away from home, nothin compared to rico though

Colin Martin(from California) and I with Homestay Family

Making mats with Mama Nancy

The Church

Inside of the Church

Me drinking Kava(traditional drink) with my homestay uncle, aunt, and friends

James, yoga on top of the mountain

Me, Lydia, James, Colin, and Lucy on top of the mountain

our friend Jimmy on the mountain watching the sunset

The boat we took through the mangroves

Through the mangroves!

Api, our village guide of sorts(sorry its a little dark)

Sunset from the ocean

Colin Tutelian(Dubbed Beans) and James on a hike at Mango Bay

On top of the Hindu Temple overlooking Sigatoka, the Village near Mango Bay

Colin Martin and Sam on our way to a rugby Game in Sigatoka

The Nadi Rugby team, big boys

Mango Bay Resort

Work site, pre-concrete

Mango Bay Resort

Welcoming committee at Rabulu

Welcoming kava ceremony

Mango Bay Hammock, the site of many naps

Sigatoka, from the hindu temple

Dormitory style huts at mango Bay

Colin Martin on t5he mountain at sunset

Fiji Time

Bula!

Unfortunately, most Fijian computers are unable to upload my pictures, so the visuals on this blog will not start until New Zealand and Australia.But do not worry, I have been taking a lot of pictures.

We had an amazing four days of orientation in Mango Bay, on the southern coast of Fiji. Activities included beach volleyball, swimming, a scavenger hunt in town, long beach walks, frisbee(a group member brought one, much to my excitement), going to a Rugby game in town, which was unbelievable, and getting to know eachother and start to devolop as a group.

On Monday, we embarked on a long journey via public buses to the north coast of the island to our homestays at Rabulu village! The village itself is breathtaking, tucked in the valley of two mountains, only a few minutes walk to the coastline. We were greeted by a warm welcoming ceremony in there community center. We participated in a traditional Kava ceremony. Kava is their traditional drink, made from a root, it tastes like I imagine dirt tasting. But, to be polite, we all indulged in cup after cup. It also makes you relaxed and turns your mouth numb, fun stuff... I am in this homestay with fellow group member Colin Martin. He is from San Francisco and is really good with kids, he is great to be around. My homestay family is really nice, it is a husband and wife, with two daughters who each have one or two kids, I am not sure. On Tuesday, we started our project of building a cement pathway through the village for the villagers to walk on when the ground floods during monsoon season. It is hard work. Today, we had to take a break from work because of a torrential downpour, now we can see why they need the pathway, it completely floods with any amount of rain. The kids are amazing as always, so friendly and outgoing. They know a surprising amount of American pop songs, we are really enjoying spending time with them. We eat each meal in the community center, on homemade mats, similar to tatami. The food is all fresh, homemade, and delicious. However, I am struggling to sit in criss-cross applesauce at each meal.

I will be able to check in one more time before I leave Fiji. I am so happy here, it has blown away all of my expectations.

I hope you all are enjoying getting your respective fall plans underway! Welcome back from Japan, G&G!

Stay Tuned!

-Arthur