Adventures in NZ

Sorry for the long time in between posts - I forgot I had a blog and you all probably did too : ).  Here is a little bit about my trip - I broke it down into days because it was all such a lovely blur that I had to concentrate to remember what we did when so this was the easiest way for me to do that. 


I had a very very enjoyable time in New Zealand - it was quite a charming place! Jen Smith and I did a LOT of driving all over - I think we put 2000 km on our rental car! but we got to see quite a bit.  I wish I could have stayed longer than 10 days - it seemed like each place we stopped had more to do than we thought at first.  So we both flew into Auckland and arrived on the Fri before Christmas and met at the bus station.  Auckland is the largest city there and it was pretty spread out - kind of like Phoenix how it keeps expanding outwards and not really upwards.  Jen's flight got her there much earlier in the day so she spent the day touring the city but I didn't get in until around 5 and we were catching a bus around 8 so I had to head straight over.  

The bus took us to Rotorua which is a city known for its hot springs and spas.  Once you arrive in the city you can confirm that that is true because it smells pretty strongly of sulphur.  I am not sure how people live there year round... We rented a car and then on Sat we drove out to the Waitomo caves.  These caves are famous because they have a lot of glowworms that live in them.  We got to walk through several caves and the formations as well as the glowworms were pretty cool.  On Sun for Christmas we found a chapel nearby and went to church then we took advantage of the spas - lovely! We also did a Maori experience in town - it had a lot on the history and culture of the Maori and then they had a performance including of course the haka and then they fed us.  It was delightful! I was so excited to have my choice of veggies that I hit the salad bar 2x with very loaded plates.  

Mon we hopped on a plane and flew to Christchurch on the south island which is when we found out that they had had another earthquake 2 days earlier.  Apparently since the big one they had in Feb they've been having aftershocks and earthquakes on a regular basis at least once a month but usually more often.  Sad! They are having a hard time recovering because of this.  From what New Zealanders (or Kiwis which is what they call themselves) told us later a lot of people have just abandoned Christchurch - just simply walked away.  So, Christchurch looked like it had been a very charming town but most of what had made it charming was off limits because of earthquake damage.  There were whole areas that looked like a ghost town.  It wasn't our favorite stop to say the least.  We did find a cool garden and spent the day pretty much there - lucky it was a nice day out! but it was hard to find anything else standing that anyone had recommended for us to do.

Tues we checked out of Christchurch and headed down to Queenstown the adventure capital of NZ.  That was a pretty long driving day but some gorgeous scenery on the way.  We stopped at Mt Cook and walked around there for a little bit.  We also hit a few other scenic spots along the way and thoroughly enjoyed the day.  We were very ready to find our hotel though by the end of the day!

Wed we were ready to explore Queenstown and surrounding area.  We decided to head out to a place called Milford Sound.  It was a 4 hour drive through some of the loveliest scenery you can imagine.  When we got to Milford we grabbed a boat tour of the sound which is really the only way you can see anything.  It was very nice - of course we took lots of pictures and enjoyed ourselves to no end.  You should look up Milford Sound to see better pictures than the ones I will eventually post or email to anyone.  Gorgeous.  

Thurs we continued in Queenstown and decided to do something adventurous.  After looking at the options that the city offers though we quickly decided we were not that adventurous - no thanks to bungy jumping, rolling down a hill in a hamster ball, cliff jumping, cave rafting, and I am not even sure what else there was.  We opted to do the luge - that was about our speed.  You know, those sled things like we did in Vermont once or twice? Very fun! We also decided that since we were in NZ, we needed to have a closer brush with some Lord of the Rings so we took a tour.  That was pretty fun - our guide took us out to filming locations and gave us some background info about filming etc.  He has been working with them on filming of The Hobbit so he had some insider perspective which was pretty cool.  He also had some props from the movie that he let us play with so Jen and I threw capes on and had a blast.  You might as well! After the tour was over we hopped back into the car and headed to Haast which is on the west coast of the island.

Fri we spent driving up the west coast of NZ headed for Greymouth.  I think it is marked as an official scenic route or something but it was very lovely.  We stopped at 2 glaciers - one, the Fox glacier we hiked to the bottom of (which sounds like we were trailblazing but of course there was a well marked pathway) and then did the lookout for the Franz Josef glacier.  We also stopped at beaches and other pretty bits along the way.  You can pretty much stop and hike wherever you like.  There are trails everywhere and a lot of trailheads are well labeled with signs on the road letting you know they are coming up.  Tramping is what they call it there not hiking and tramping is a very popular thing to do.  Lots of people, natives and tourists, spend their holiday just tramping around with trails that cater to all levels of ability.  Most will tell you how long it will take to go to the end of the trail and return so you can be a sample tramper like us or a serious one and do the days long hikes.  Lots of people camp too - there were tents pitched at every camp site we passed.  Like I said, popular.  

Sat we drove from Greymouth to Abel Tasman National Park of course stopping along the way for photo ops.  Again, look up the pictures on the internet - mine will not do it justice.  We spent New Year's Eve in a chalet in the park.  It was a really nice hotel! We celebrated by actually going to bed before midnight.  

Sun we headed into Abel Tasman.  We opted to do a sea kayaking and then tramp tour.  They take you in a water taxi into the park and then you slide into your kayaks and paddle around looking at seals and ocean and then you land at a beach where they feed you lunch and then off you go on your tramp.  Let's just say I have discovered I don't like sea kayaking and I was very happy to put the paddle down at journey's end.  It was cool to see the seals though - you could get fairly close to them and of course there were cute little babies hopping around.  The tramp through the park was a lot of fun.  It took us a little over 2 hours to complete it (which I'll have you know is what they said it would take before you judge our abilities) and it kicked our can! There were a lot up uphill switchbacks so I'm not going to lie, there were a few "hey let's stop and look at the view" moments! The trail ended at this perfect beach which we were going to swim at but then we felt how cold the water was and so we opted just for the sun bathing.  Then a water taxi picked us back up, took us back to our starting point and we were off headed for Richmond where we collapsed into bed at 6 pm.  We deserved it.

Mon we drove to Nelson and hopped on a plane back to Auckland.  We walked around the city for the day and then put Jen on her plane USA bound.  I stayed in a hotel close to the airport and then headed back here on Tues.  It was sad to have our adventures come to an end but I suppose that all good things must do that.  Sigh. I guess I'll just have to go back and spend more time!

Two posts in one week?! I know, crazy! So I thought I would describe a little better where I live since most of you haven't been out here yet.  First of all, everything is so green! Palm trees grow here along with breadfruit trees, mango, papaya, banana, and coconut trees too.  There are all kinds of flowers everywhere that I just don't know the names for yet but fill the spaces with pinks and reds and oranges.  Up the hill from my house you can see the ocean off in the distance and if it is a clear day you can also see Aunu'u - another island that is close by.  There are mountains right behind my house and we have to go up them to get to my school.  Finding things here is rather interesting mainly because there are no street names and houses don't have numbers on them.  Not only is the island not on a grid but it is not even close to being laid out logically.  Most roads that you see look like dirt roads that you would not want to be on but in fact lead to whole villages tucked away out of sight from the main road.  To give directions you really have to know the area well because it literally is like "turn left at that big dead tree" or "do you know where _____ is? It is right by that." Since I don't know the area very well most of these directions are lost on me but the longer I've been here the more that these make sense.  Good thing I never learned which way is north because it would do me no good here! LOL! You can't mail something to someone's house as there is no postal service to your house.  Everything goes to the post office and you can go and pick up your mail only if they are currently open.  Right now that is the only thing I hate about living here - these post office hours are the most frustrating I've ever dealt with! If someone wants to know where you live you tell them your village first and then you describe what landmarks/stores/buildings you live near.  Then you figure out if they know that landmark/store/building so that they can picture what your house looks like.  If they can't picture what you are describing you have to start again describing something else that is nearby.  Just in case you ever need to find my house, I live between the Small Business Development Center and a Mormon church building.  My house is white and there is usually a sign in front telling about the other spots for rent near me.  So stop by, it's easy to get to - just head for Mesepa and look for the big tree : ).

A day in the life of...

So I've been a little occupied lately and haven't been good about keeping up with posting - sorry! Then I realized that the thing that occupies most of my time I haven't even written about! So, welcome to Ta'iala Academy.  My school is in its 2nd year of operation and from all accounts is running much smoother than last year.  We have about 64 students enrolled which is double last year so that's good - no chance of closing in the middle of the year or anything like that.  Job stability!! I teach reading and writing to the 3-8 grades.  I have the 7/8 graders first for 90 min, then the 3/4 grade, then the 5/6 graders after lunch.  My day moves along pretty quickly.  For the most part behavior is not a problem and I know that I really lucked out! Night and day from my last classroom!! We discuss poetry and literature every day and also have time to write (usually).  I don't have many books in my classroom so we take the poems and stories that we read from my college lit textbooks.  Good thing I lugged those around for the past 12 years!! The kids seem happy - and they should be because I have informed them all that I am their favorite teacher and that my class is their favorite.  If they ever disagree with me I very quickly tell them how wrong they are and how great my class is.  I love brainwashing children!! I will have to post pictures of the school when I've taken them so you can see where I spent most of my day.  The building itself used to be a house and they've converted it into more of a proper school.  The construction that I worked around this summer added some classrooms and a cafeteria but it is still a pretty small school.  My classroom was the front entrance for the original house and I've got the only doorway that has sort of a porch roof.  That is nice on the rainy days of which there are plenty.  My door faces the play area field or malai where they play tetherball, football, or just run around.  We don't have a lot of playground equipment and what little we do have is not really up for some rough playing children (we need industrial strength equipment for some of these kids!) so needless to say there is less for them to play with every day.  I get there around 7:30 (amazing I can get there that early huh?!), the school day starts at 8, and is over at 2:30 so it's not a bad length of time.  Once 2:30 hits it is time for us to start the after school program which runs until 5.  There are 3 of us teachers there; we feed the kids a snack, then have them do homework for an hour, then we do some kind of activity with them.  We just barely started the program 2 weeks ago.  The first week we studied Leonardo da Vinci and last week we learned first aid.  This upcoming week we will be studying Christopher Columbus.  It requires a lot of prep by myself and the other 2 teachers but it is usually worth it - the kids focus better and the time goes faster when it is all well organized.  When we just let them play I swear we are there forever! We have 25 kids enrolled so far and so it can be a little chaotic but it is usually fun.  I am generally there until 5:30 because there is always at least 1 parent that can't come on time to pick up their kid - grrr...  I don't have any breaks in the day as I have to be on duty for every recess and lunchtime and we don't have any extra people to cover this stuff.  I really miss going out for lunch(!) and I wouldn't mind 5 seconds away from children but that is what I signed up for so I can't complain too much.  At least the day usually goes by quickly.  With only having each class for 90 minutes there is no time to get sick of them or have something drag on forever.  I enjoy teaching only the 1 subject as well - teaching all subjects is for suckers - j/k! So that is pretty much my day and I thank you for joining me on this tour of my teaching day.

Now that I've been here for almost two months, it's time to settle in a little and become more of a resident of AS. That sounds really easy but government and the way things are here will get you every time! First of all, if you want to get something issued (i.e. get a driver's license, or be allowed to work in a school) the last place you want to head is the office that issues those things! Second of all, if you are government you open at 9, take an hour and a half lunch, and close at 3. Oh, and you are for sure not open on weekends, holidays, bank holidays, your mother's birthday, or really stormy days. This means that you have a very finite amount of time that you can run back and forth between offices to get anything done which makes for some very interesting times.

So, how do you get a driver's license? Well, first of all you don't start out at the Office of Motor Vehicles, that's for sure! The first place to go is the courthouse. You need to get a paper stating that you haven't been convicted of any crimes in American Samoa. How they determine this I don't really know. As far as I could tell they signed the paper stating this when I asked them for it, not after an extensive search in the system or actually any search in the system. Maybe they just remember every criminal they've met? Next you would head to the OMV but only if their machine is working. If you want, you could probably bring your own picture (glamour shots anyone??) but I think they need the machine for the whole thing. Otherwise you need to wait the weeks (months) that it will take to get repaired. I still don't have mine, as I have no idea when the machine will be fixed.

What about working in a school? In order to work at a school, you need a health card. This one is really fun. First, you go to the office and you ask for the health card appointment. Then, they argue with you for 10 minutes and tell you that you are getting a food handler's card which is apparently the same thing as a health card. Pointing out that the only food you will be handling is the food going into your mouth is not recommended - this office is not allowed to have a sense of humor. It is better to just agree with everything they say or you will be there for another 10 minutes. Once it is established what you are there for, you have to make the appointment. BUT, you can't make an appt until you have your hospital card. So, across the street to the hospital you go where they issue a hospital card. If for any reason anyone from the office hands you any paperwork, for the love! don't give it to anyone else! Carry it with you to the hospital for no reason that you can see and then bring it back!! Those who don't are verbally tarred and feathered. Now you can make your appointment. In a few weeks you return with a stool sample and a host of other people. This appt is a very important one in which they test to see how long you can wait in a lobby and not be embarrassed about the sample you have in the "discreet" paper bag. Then when they figure you have had enough, they take your blood pressure, do a tb test and send you back to the hospital to turn in your sample to the lab. Make sure you go straight to the lab - that is where they will explain to you that you have to pay in the front and provide proof of payment to them. Off you go, back to the lobby to wait in line to pay. That is where you discover that they filled your hospital card out wrong and you have to wait for it to be fixed. Once that is done you get to go back to the lab and drop off your sample (finally!). Now you get to come back in 2 days. When you come back, you get to be tested on waiting in the lobby again and then they finally call you up. They check your height and weight and then it is time to pay for the doctor "exam". This is when they tell you that they only accept cash. The next thing you get to do is go home for your bankcard which you never carry with you because the banks don't want there to be problems with their ATM's so they only have 2 or 3 working ones on the entire island. They also want to prevent long lines at the ATM so they usually let them run out of money so that no one has to wait there, they can go to the bank instead. Once you get your bankcard, you stop at the only one you know of only to find that it is one of the conveniently closed ones. Luckily friendly people will direct you to another one which happens to be at the hospital. That one of course is in the process of being repaired so you have to wait but at least you will be at the hospital close to where you need to eventually be. Once you have your cash you are back at the office for the doctor "exam". An exam of this sort consists of the doctor chatting you up all the while sitting in the chair farthest away from you. He will not worry about checking your tb test, your pulse, or your lungs, and will only ask cursory questions about your general health. He takes your picture, prints the card, and voila! you are cleared to handle food at the school. The best part about this card is that it expires in 1 year so if I stay for another school year, I get to do it all again!

How do you get security clearance to work in a school? Head to the police station to get fingerprinted of course. In this waiting area they have conveniently taken all the back off the chairs (wouldn't want to get too comfortable!) and you get a nice view of the bustling four cops that seem to be all that the police force consists of. I am sure there are more but I didn't really see evidence of that. You pay for your fingerprints which can cost you $1 or $4 depending on who is at the counter and then they ask if you want them to keep it or if you want to take it. For some reason you need to take it with you. I am sure that if a crime is committed and fingerprints are found at the scene the most reasonable thing to do would be to call all the schools to find out if they have a match. They don't even keep a copy - you just take the whole thing.

So, now I'm more settled in, I am criminally free enough to drive, I've been declared healthy enough to handle food and children, and if I ever commit a crime I've got my fingerprints in my file at school I direct the police to. I think I'm pretty set!

Well, I've been here almost 2 weeks now and am starting to get used to life here in AS. The island is fairly small (no clue about sq footage) with a mountain ridge right down the middle. There is one main road (road 001) that goes along the coast and is what you take from here to anywhere on this side of the island. That road does not go all the way around the island so if you want to see something on the other side you have to take the one road that crosses the mountain (road 104). As far as I know these are the main roads and they have with no plans to build more. Why they couldn't be Hwy 1 and Hwy 2 is beyond me. The speed limit on these roads might top out at 25 but it is usually 20 which means there is always plenty of time for darting in front of someone because they aren't going that fast. Oh, did I mention all of the roads are only 2 lanes? So if you want to get where you are going you will have to join the queue. It is ok to let people ride in the back of your pickup and seatbelts are nice to have but not required by all riders. In fact, most people get chairs and other things like that for the back of their pickup so that riding in the back is as comfortable as possible. The roads are very bad - there are a lot of potholes and areas where there is no real shoulder - (a four wheel drive with a higher bed seems to be a must as what I am describing are the good roads!) this makes riding in the back of the truck even more interesting as you might be balanced rather precariously in the first place! Also there are a lot of ambulances racing by at all hours so you might have to pull off the road several times on your trip into town and slam on your brakes -again, this makes riding in the bed of the truck even better. I don't think there are more accidents than usual here, I just think the ambulance drivers don't want to wait their turn to get through the traffic. Pedestrians have the right of way mostly because they just walk out in front of you without looking - there are crosswalks but those are really just a suggestion. If you hit one you can get out to assist, unless it is a child. If you hit a child you'd better get out of there fast and head to your nearest police station to tell them what happened - if you stick around the villagers will chase you down and stone you. Luckily though you are only going 20 mph so there should be plenty of time for you to stop for everything that might cross your path. The thing to not stop for (apparently although I do not agree) are the dogs. These are everywhere and are a pretty sad looking lot. Some people keep them as pets but they are not spayed or neutered so there are a lot of generations upon generations around. The puppies hide really well - you usually only see the adult dogs looking for a meal. They are pretty smart and seem like they have a lot of practice avoiding the cars that may or may not be aiming for them. There are also a lot of chickens and cats around but both of those seem to avoid the road altogether which is good so you don't have to try and avoid them. At night there are not a lot of streetlights so you take all of the above and throw in the fact that you can't really see anything before it looms in front of your headlights. All in all, driving here can keep you on your toes!

This has been a week of encounters with the local wildlife. Let's start off by saying that things are not just bigger and better in Texas. My first encounter happened while I was helping set up the new teaching supply store (which is almost all ready, they are planning on having the grand opening this upcoming Fri). My job of the moment was to take backpacks out of a box and hang them on the hooks. I looked in a box to see if there was anything else left to hang when I saw a stuffed spider at the bottom of the box. I thought that it was an odd size for a toy - it was the shape of the spider on a spider ring but I could tell it was not that and I could see that it was not really big enough to cuddle. I glanced around the store really fast to see where we were displaying this toy and then looked back into the box to grab it. That's when I realized that it had moved and that it was not in fact a toy but a huge 6" (at least!) spider -- the living breathing kind that you see in horror films. I jumped and tossed the box. I believe there was probably some yelling in there too so of course everyone wanted to know what I had just seen. I told them and of course everyone wanted to see what I had just seen. I took them to the box, looked in to point out the spider - AND COULDN'T SEE IT ANYMORE!! At that point we all jumped back and searched frantically for the spider. Luckily we spotted it almost right away and hurried the box out of the store. There were some workmen nearby and they very kindly (with not too many comments about the scared palagi (white lady)) took the box off somewhere.
That evening I talked Karen into going swimming at the local beach. Once we were in the water and happily bobbing about Karen tells me about the time a shark was beached on that very same beach. They cut the shark open and found a ton of babies inside of her almost ready to be born. Karen took one home to her kids so they could see it and then let it live in her bathtub for a short while. She also told of how they stuck a pencil inside the tub near the sharks mouth and how the shark bit it in half. Thanks Karen - now it is dark out and it is hard to see whatever it is that just wrapped itself around your leg. Ah! That swimming didn't last long!!
Sometime later in the week we came back to the apt unexpectedly to grab some stuff on our way from one meeting to the next. I walked in the bedroom and saw something skitter across the floor out of the corner of my eye but I didn't think much of it because the night before I had seen a giant cockroach near my stuff (which yes, I had freaked out about but we didn't manage to kill it before it hid somewhere and I didn't think I was going to be able to smash it this time either) so I just thought it was that and kept going. The light switch is all the way across the room so I got almost all the way there when I realized that it was not a roach, it was a rat!! I jumped and yes, once again there was probably yelling. Karen came running in, the rat went running out. No clue where it went to ground so now there are several friends that I know of who live in the darkness that I hope not to encounter again.
I also have some daddy longleg type spiders that share my shower with me as well as ants everywhere I look. I think that it will be impossible for me to get lonely here - there will always be millions of friends ready to share my space with me! I just would like them to not be so unnaturally sized!!!

My first day

I made it to American Samoa safe & sound. Somehow I managed to lug all 7 million pounds (and that was just the carry-ons!! ((thanks to some great friends who helped me get it that full!!))) from Phoenix to Pago Pago and not die with the effort! We landed early and then had to wait for 45 min for them to move 4 Australian fighter jets off the runway. They were told they could park there because air traffic control didn't remember the 1 of 3 international flights that land weekly was happening. Mind you, the air traffic control tower is in Apia which is in an entirely different country. Not sure how they can be in charge over here but I guess that is just the way it is. We made it to bed around midnight finally which by the way was 4 am AZ time so I was very happy to throw myself down! I am currently staying in Karen's apt over their teaching supply and hardware stores. This is right next to the little fitness center they run here so I got to wake up at 5 am to some exciting zumba tunes and some serious booty (and floor) shaking. Luckily it only held my interest for a song or two and then I was able to fall back asleep. Today I got to meet the principal who I hadn't met before and the vice principal who I had. I also met the vice chair of the board of directors, the head of the government center for childhood development, got a tour of the school (which is still being renovated but we are assured they will be done in time for school), discovered that there is only 1 post office on the entire island, and got a tour of the new, almost ready to open teaching supply store that I will be working in tomorrow. It has been a pretty full day and I think that there is a bunch of stuff that we are going to work on tonight. They are still figuring out where they are going to put me so for this week I am in Karen's apt with her and then both of us move to her daughter Tracy's house either this weekend or the beginning of next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me that they will find me someplace good : ). Right now it is sunny, warm, and humid but with a very nice breeze off the ocean. Don't be too jealous!