“I’m too involved in my dream-world,” he thought while still in the middle of this one. “They’ve spilled over into reality. They’re a flood that’s sweeping me away.” Spring Snow- Yukio Mishima

Very soon we will have been in New Zealand for five months. We have travelled thousands of kilometers in our van, climbed mountains, seen more sheep than I can wrap my head around and had a many grand adventure. We’ve managed to end up back here in Christchurch, the place where we landed, after a full day of flying, five months ago.

My last newsletter left off just before we were headed to the mountains, and before we saw what everyone really comes to NZ to see, mountains, lakes and wildness. Our first journey out into that wilderness came as a gift from Marilyn, who allowed us to use her holiday home in the mountains free of charge for two weeks. I have never been so impressed by a home before in all of my life. To get there, you climb up through hours of dried and cracked, brown rocky mountains along a winding road, getting farther and farther from the ocean cliffs of the coast. The final thirty kilometers of the drive is a dead end road that leads to just one small second home community, and a small ski hill open in the winter. Cows simultaneously turn their heads and sheep scurry away as you pass by their fences. You reach the community which consists of perhaps 20 homes and finally get to open the door to the home. It is unassuming on the outside, with modern tin paneling and square angles, but as you turn the corner into the living room you can’t help but stand open jawed and be awed by the view. The entire living room is folding glass which allows you to open basically the entire side of the home up and freely move from the kitchen living room space to the deck to soak in the Iroquois lake and snow covered mountains that stand before you.

Over the two weeks we were there, and even though Chika was sick for most of it, we couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest people in the world waking March 29th, 2016 up to that view every morning and having our whole day revolve around wonder. I would sleep some nights outside on moonless nights and let the Milky Way seep into me. The home stand on the edge of a huge dark sky reserve and it was the first time I could enjoy the stars with literally not a single other light in my view. Marilyn warned us that the isolation could get to some people but we didn’t seem to mind being up there all alone and in fact I personally really enjoyed it. I was a time to study, read and enjoy making a fire at night and slowly drinking my coffee.

We left that wonderful home and made our way to the west coast where we had scheduled another HelpX host. They were a very nice older couple who ran a vacation lodge for 6 months out of the year during the busy summer months and would then return to Australia where their children and family was located. We were quickly shown our routine which would consist of redoing the rooms every morning after guests left. We had heard legends about the west coast and its sand fly population but could never had expected how tiring and bothersome they would be. Growing up in Wisconsin I had my fair share of moments with packs of mosquitoes and figured sand flies would be similar. They are not. They swarm like bees and leave stings that last for days. They obsess your thoughts when you sleep and take all joy away from being outdoors. Luckily they only come out in full from dusk, so we had most of our days, after doing our couple of hours of work for the hotel, to be able to use their free kayaks to explore Lake Paringa and make short day trips to see the glaciers which were just a short drive away. I would have loved to see both of these glaciers even 100 years ago because now they are just a sliver of what they used to be. You park your car about an hour walk from the glacier and a sign indicates that 100 years ago the glacier used to come up to that point. I remember having a similar experience in Peru climbing up to see a glacier and having a friend point to barren mountain tops that up until a few years prior had always been covered in snow. In a way this experience was even more extreme because you can stand in the canyon that these glaciers used to consume and look up at the towering walls above you, cut from the power of the slow moving ice. That power is just a memory now in that canyon. We had nice moments for sure on the shore of lake Paringa but I think we were both a bit relieved to leave when we did after 10 days there. We hopped in our van and continued to see the rest of the south island.

This took us to more incredible lakes with mountain views and crystal blue rivers. The whole center of the island is riddled with lakes and beautiful scenery and it is very easy to drive, camp, eat and relax by each and every one of them. It is all very well organized and set up for camping so you can pull out your iphone, check the nearest campground and the only real decision is if you want to spend the extra 10$ to have access to a clean bathroom and shower, or if you can rough it one more night with no shower and using the classic concrete bunker bathroom. Most of our little fights were about that extra 10$ every night, as my very clean Japanese Chika loves her shower that I felt we could do without for one more night.

After a few weeks of hiking and seeking refuge from the insane rocket winds of the far south we were happy to come back to Dunedin where we had secured a place to stay and a job that would pay for our grocery bill for a month.

A woman that we had been introduced to owned many properties that were all in desperate need of gardening and general maintenance and she was more than eager to put the pair of us up to be in the garden everyday trimming and caring for that space. We actually had very little contact with our employer and after we were settled in and had been explained our job we saw her perhaps a dozen times only over the next month. We had our own room perched on a hill above the city and had the most fabulous view of the port and surrounding countryside. We were basically our own bosses so we would leisurely wake up and work hard until lunchtime after which we had the whole day free to explore the city and create our own life there. We lived very near the university and had access to the most spectacular library where we went a few times a week to study our respective second languages. It had an enormous section of Japanese learning books and I loved bringing over the huge stack that I had assembled and leafing through them for hours. I bought a little thermos and filled it up with coffee and we would sip away in the enormous most completely empty space. Other nights, mostly Tuesdays because it was less than 20$ for the two of us, we would go to the movies in this old movie theater. The whole city reminded me so much of Milwaukee with its architecture and slightly industrial layout. Quickly we discovered the incredible peninsula jutting out from the city which led us to beaches, and mountain vistas. I have rarely felt so comfortable and safe in a city. It had everything we wanted within walking distance and enough short drive adventures to keep us feeling like we were still adventuring out into the world. If we had not promised to Dan that we would return and help out with the café again, I think I would be writing this letter from there and not from here in Christchurch for sure.

At the end of our time in Dunedin, Chika’s mother, father and two family friends came all the way from Japan to visit us. I love planning for people to visit and we had quite the time when they were here. We had a small mini-van booked to rent for their visit, but when we arrived to pick it up, we were informed that since they had double booked the van, we would upgraded for free to a 18 passenger mini tour bus. It was the perfect vehicle to usher around 4 Japanese visitors, and everyone had their own bench seat to make the drive more comfortable.

It was pretty ridiculous and quite frightening in the beginning to drive for sure. Of course the very first time I arrive at the hotel to pick everyone up and tell them that I am an experienced driver and not to worry, I turn around and smack my face into a telephone poll and break my sunglasses. Hop in folks. We had saved a few of the more touristy sightseeing spots for their visit and some turned out to be really interesting. One of my favorite was an old castle at the end of that beautiful peninsula. They had the most beautifully manicured gardens overlooking the ocean and the drive there couldn’t have been more spectacular. After a few days of debauchery in Dunedin, we all flew to Auckland which is New Zealand’s largest city, and is located at the top of the north island. In all truthfulness we spend most our time there looking for gifts for everyone to bring back to Japan with them for their friends and family. Gift giving is a very important part of Japanese culture and these people really went out of their way to buy very nice things for people back in the motherland. One of the best meals we had was actually at a Japanese restaurant that we stumbled upon on one of our walks.

The whole place was staffed with Japanese people and you could just see the whole show come to life when everyone was able to order in Japanese and interact with the staff. Mama was cracking jokes and papa was shouting for more whisky and the whole scene brought back so many good memories from Japan. We were sad to see everyone leave and we were on a flight back to Dunedin the day after to start our next adventure back in the south island. Auckland is a very nice city and has a lot of interesting things, like a beautiful free art museum and a wonderful food and café culture but we were ready to go back to the slower surroundings of the south island after just a few days.

We said our goodbye to Dunedin and drove up over the next two days back to Christchurch to start the next phase of our life here. Dan had invited us back to work at the café and live with him and we were very grateful for the opportunity. The place had been fairly neglected over the past two months and we have spent the past month slowly building up the place and filling it with life. As I’ve said before we make juice and smoothies and serve up healthy vegan food. I put up a sign on a whim informing the neighborhood that we were willing to barter if they would bring in their local fruits and veggies and that little sign has had such a huge effect. One of my favorite women is at least 80 years old, dresses like a rainbow on speed and dances in fresh flowers to us every day. Our little home here has already seen lots of people come and go and it seems like there is always someone new showing up. At one point we had 10 people living here which made just cooking dinner and keeping the kitchen stocked with food an ambitious operation. We have a massive wooden table outside and we would fill it up every night with something someone had whipped up. We have had the opportunity so far to eat dumplings from Poland, crepes from France and good old roasted potatoes from our English roommate. At the moment we are down to just three of us in the house, and while we don’t get those big fun meals every night, dishes are much easier and we aren’t having to buy 100 eggs per week.

We have our schedule worked out a bit more sensibly now, and Chika and I get two days off per week which is really great. We are able to explore the city a bit more and have gone on little trips every week to see different sides of the city. We have seen more of the damage left by the earthquake, gone to beautiful hidden beaches and found a few cute cafes where we get to be customers instead of staff for a change. One of my favorite recent memories was going to Dan’s mother’s home and being able to collect honey from her bees. They had a bee suit that fit me just right and no one to hop in, so I was a natural volunteer. It was an exercise in zen for sure because even though you have a suit that you can reasonably trust, the bees are still only an eyelash away from your face and believe me a hundreds bees by your head make quite the terrific racket. Outside of reigning in your nerves, the whole process is very simple. You open the big box up, lift out a tray, cut out the honeycomb and then eventually heat up and strain the honey into some sort of container. Not having any training or explanation beforehand, I obviously could have improved on my method but despite being quite messy and inefficient, the mission was accomplished and we ended up with quite a number of canning jars full of beautiful raw honey. I can’t wait till the next harvest to suit up again and channel my inner king bee.

I think the plan so far is to be here in Christchurch until the middle of May and then make our way up north to meet my parents in the north island at the beginning of June when they make the long trek over here to visit for almost three weeks. We love being here and being part of a really interesting and corky community. It is a relaxing break from the constant life on the road but part of me is itching to get back out there amongst those sheep and stars, cooking our food on that little stove. I’m sure that day will come all too soon.