Monday, January 31, 2011

Singapore--First Impressions of the Lion City

A curtain of thick humid air fell on my face and engulfed my nostrils, carrying with it an exotic twinge that snapped me out of my travel trance as I filed off the plane. The streamlined immigration process consisted of a glance at my declaration form and a stamp in my passport—the death penalty that they threaten for trafficking drugs into the country is apparently self-policing. Baggage claim and it was into a cab bound for our downtown hotel. Scooting along a smooth five lane highway I gazed out through the rainy darkness at a jungle of illuminated high-rise apartment buildings sporting hard, geometric lines that would make Le Corbusier proud. Even at 10pm the streets ushered a heavy flow of traffic, our driver jumped lanes often to keep momentum through the madness. Despite the rain sidewalks crawled with pedestrians, umbrellas bouncing backlit by the neon lights of the retail storefronts. Pulling up to the hotel the concierge opened my door allowing that thick sticky air to again rush my senses, this time with more of a distinctive scent identity, unidentifiable and foreign. A smiling face greeted me with a “hello sir” riding a heavy accent as I stepped out into the night. The atmosphere pulsed with energy, there were people moving everywhere—Asian and Indian faces predominantly, shuffling along the promenade and seeking refuge on the steps of the lobby. Occasional decipherable words floated in the sea of overlapping conversations, the excited hum was overwhelming after the long day of travel. I shouldered my pack and made my way up the stairs, the mellow vibe of New Zealand was fleeting as I begun entraining to my new environment.     

Sunday, January 30, 2011

On the move...

After being in NZ a month I met up with my parents and we traveled around the country in a camper van for a few weeks. Here are some shots of life on the road...
Our camper van Takahe--the flightless bird 


A glassy morning after a very windy night. We had this pond to ourselves with the Southern Alps in the distance.

Function stacking--salmon farm in the hydro-canal between two lakes

"Free Camping" they call it--setting up shop outside of designated camping areas. The farmer was more than obliging to let us stay on his land a stone's throw from the river.  

Campfire trout dinner

Coffee never taste better than when camping

Yet another kind farmer letting us squat on his prime trout water--gotta love it. 

Weka--these dinosaur-like flightless birds commonly peruse campsites looking for goodies. 

One of the many swing-bridges 

Kiwi orchard 

Young fruit

Gold kiwis are the dank dank, I don't know why we don't have them in the States.  

They grow heaps of hops but don't seem to put enough them in their beer. 

Deer farms are super common.

Venison steaks and baked potatoes anyone? 

Rush hour 

Local crush--cheers!

Oregon love downunder?



Despite the clean, green and pure image NZ likes to exude to the rest of the world it throws some very nasty shit in its forest in the name of pest control. The use of the poison 1080 is banned in all other developed countries, NZ is quite fond of the stuff much to the dismay of some of its citizens.  


Opie-Seager Family--Manuka Farm

I spent two great weeks with the Opie-Seager family in Marahau, a small coastal town on the northern edge of the South Island. The family has two veg patches, a large orchard, chickens, cows and bees which provide them with an abundance of tasty organic yields--I ate incredibly well during my stay. A Qigong session set the tone each morning before the days work on the homestead, which I think both contributed to and amplified the experience of the ambient tranquility to the place that was truly exceptional. The family was a wealth of knowledge on a wide range of topics from health to finances, to charting how the world really works--great conversation was non-stop and forever changed how I perceive the world in which we live.   

The family had their house built in the mid-1990s: extreme care was taken when choosing material to create a non-toxic environment using locally sourced inputs. The hills behind the house from which their domestic water flows is Able Tasman National Park...hard to beat!

Looking down the driveway to the ocean

Upper garden

Garlic harvest drying...look at it all!!!

Compost--my beautiful creation 

Suited up for the annual honey harvest which I was STOKED to experience! 

Capped comb fresh out of the hive

Rhonnie uncapping the combs

Uncapped

Super high-tech apparatus for spinning honey out of combs powered by a hand-turned crank.  

Ah yeah, look at that golden goodness--one hive yielded 17 gallons...talk about homegrown abundance with next to no inputs once the system is established! 

Red Pole cows--small-scale beef production for their personal consumption

Freshly weeded and planted

Alchemy: turning waste to resource--my second compost mountain

Great folks: Rhonnie, Anthony and son Tim with a possum he trapped and ate as an experiment in locavorism...there a non-native species reeking havoc on the endemic bird population, why not turn them into something tasty!   

Manuka Farm is quite a special spot

Things of Beauty