Invercargill's AmericaRna!

I left the U.S. with an education project for work unfinished.  It has been a month since Jeff and I arrived, and have been easily distracted from finishing it (by zombies, spectacular regions, etc.).  Also, internet access is sporadic, and when not in a city it is quite costly (paying by the MB).  So I decided to imprison myself in a hostel in a city called Invercargill.  Mind you, I was aware this city has a reputation for minor crimes and unsavoury characters – similar to Lewiston, Maine.  I chose this location on purpose – less distractions!  Or so I thought.

I arrived on Friday afternoon, got lost (which is rather unusual) and kept driving around town in circles, and accidentally entered a street that was closed off to traffic.  Just then, I noticed all these shiny, older model cars around and in front of me.  A police officer gestured for me to stop.  When he saw my sheepish grin, he smiled and asked where I was trying to go.  Seems I was on the wrong side of the street (literally) – the hostel I was seeking was on the other side of the closed-off road (no access).  So, I pulled off the “no non-American car zone road), parked Millie, and attempted to walk to the hostel.  When I got to the main drag, I was startled to see HUNDREDS of these cars on parade, with the passengers waving AMERICAN FLAGS!  Vertigo set in – you are now entering…THE TWILIGHT ZONE.  The streets had American flag banners floating across them, even Confederate flags were waving and Dukes of Hazzard car horns were blaring, and even a 1978 Minnesota State Patrol car was parading!  I asked a spectator what was going on.  He explained this was NZ’s annual AmeriCARna festival, held every year in Invercargill.  Kiwis who own American cars drive down to Invercargill from all over the country to participate in this event!  (I was miffed – here I’m trying to take a short break from the culture of my homeland, only to be thrown right back into it!)   I was in shock: just could not wipe this wide grin off my face for at least two hours (not that I was trying to!), and took LOTS of pictures and videos.  (These are all in the updated Week 4 Photos - link at the top of the blog.  Notice that several of the drivers are on the LEFT side of the vehicle in these American cars - it is apparently legal to drive on this side in NZ.)  I actually stuck out my thumb and got a fun ride in a ’58 Ford Fairlane!  Whoo hoo!

So, AGAIN distractions were dangling in front of me – a weekend Americarna festival where even Americans would be tolerated more than usual as they celebrate decades of "great" cars.  I did socialize a bit on Friday and Saturday evenings in the pubs next door to the hostel, saw one fight and did feel a bit like prey a couple of times.  But, safety in numbers and I met lots and lots more friendly, cool people too!  AND – I FINALLY finished my project.  YAY!

Tomorrow morning, I am off to Rakiura (Stewart) Island, to backpack the Rakiura Track.  It is a 3-day hike, one of the Great Walks of NZ.  I’ll be staying in backcountry huts, maybe seeing kiwis (bird version) and other rare birds, native forests……

The Catlins, Southland (Chapter 4-2)

Rugged, remote, windswept, choc-a-bloc filled with sheep – that is the Catlins.  My most favourite spot is Nugget Point and its lighthouse – it is a vortex just crackling with good vibes!  Just right to balance the undead zombie stuff.  ;)  It was so powerful and awesome to have the whole place to myself at sunset – not a single human soul within at least a 1km radius (they were preoccupied with the yellow-eyed penguins down the road).  Woke up the next morning to a dazzling sunrise over a gorgeous beach hugged by steep cliffs, had fun poking around a funky gypsy gallery/”theatre” filled with the eccentric owner’s creations, FINALLY figured out how to order coffee the way I like it (“Flat White Extra Shot One Sugar, Please!”), poked around more gorgeous geographic wonders (Cathedral Caves and a 170mya petrified forest), then headed for the city and connection with the outside world once more.  Enough already of being so easily distracted by this panoramic vista-filled land and its zombie tribes – I have some work from home to finish once and for all!

How to Make an Instant Kiwi Family? Just Add ZOMBIES! (Chapter 4-1)

I have an entirely new respect for the acting and movie-making biz.  Three days on the set, mostly milling around in makeup with fellow zombie extras, was plenty enough for me. And I was surprised to learn that, on average, a 12-13 hour day of take after take after take after take produced THREE MINUTES of actual footage used in the final cut!  And that’s a B-movie, where expectations are somewhat lower than the big Hollywood films!  Actors and crew have MUCH patience, that’s for sure!  (No wonder actors come across as rude or even go berserk sometimes! : ) 

Note:  other than one German I met on the third day, there were no other foreigners involved with the making of this film.  Just wonderful Kiwis, who welcomed me into the fold in very short order!  In fact, it wasn’t long at all before a fellow zombie extra (Wendy) invited me to stay at her nearby home.  Instant Kiwi family!

On Day 2, I was chosen to be a “Special Effects Zombie,” e.g. one whose slaughtering is filmed up close!  (Not just the milling-around-in-the-background faceless sort who may not even make the final cut.)  And not just any old special effects zombie (like getting shot (boring)) – I’m to be taken out with the ultimate in special effects – HAVE MY HEAD SLICED OPEN WITH A MACHETE! WHOO HOO!!!!! The two uber-cool make-up artists (one being Julie – the one who I serendipitously connected with while dancing the previous Saturday night in Dunedin) spent close to TWO HOURS fixing the machete to my face and decorating it with blood and guts – the end result was apparently awesome, because EVERYONE on set was admiring and taking photos of Machete Van. Instant movie star! (Although, I give all the credit to the makeup artists.) Even the stars of the film were admiring and taking photos of me.  I had to be guided around by hand by the makeup artists, as the machete through my left eye limited my vision tremendously (I don’t see very well out of my right eye – very blurry, and the machete limited the angle of vision to about 75 degrees).  Besides, if the machete whacked against anything, it would start to pull away from my face, and back to the make-up drawing board! And there were LOADS of things on which to trip.

So, with all eyes of cast, crew, and cameras on me (acting solo – I was a little nervous!), I acted out the part of the typical old-school zombie who’s just been whacked in the face with a machete.   Aaaaaaaand, action!  “AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH”! [Fall backward.]  It took about twenty minutes – not bad (the scene will probably be about 3-4 seconds in length).   Then, the make-up artists guided me to a place in the back of the barn and I was instructed to lie down on a mattress (to protect the machete special effects from gravity) because I was to be in another scene to be filmed later in the day.  I proceeded to lie down and stayed in that position for FIVE HOURS (with one quick trip to the loo)!  Had a few catnaps, listened to the filming going on in the background, had more photos taken of me – the usual.  Turned out there was not enough time to film the next scene (it was 8pm at this time), so all those special effects preservation efforts weren’t necessary.  No worries – I was having a blast just being a part of the film!  But as I was hand-led out of the barn, the director opened up a big cheer and applause for “Machete Vanessa!”   Several cast and crew approached me with kudos for how patient and high spirited I was for bearing a machete in my head for so many hours (Blush!).

Day 3:  Back to the drawing board.  This time, 45-minute make-up job, as they were running out of wax and this is a low budget film and I was just going to be in the background anyway.  SIX MORE HOURS of machete-head existence – at least I could stand up and move around this time.  It took at least three hours on the set, doing the same actions over and over and over and over and over and over and OVER) to film about 1 minute of footage.  Look for Machete Van feeling up hot male star Mike’s huge, sexy bicep in that scene.  :) :) :)

I spent another laughter-filled evening with Wendy and her mum, Sharon, at their home in the nearby town of Waikouaiti.  (Sharon was also a zombie extra, having acted several days the previous week.)  The next morning, Sharon and I and awesome horses General and Girlie went for a ride on the beach!  I absolutely love my new Kiwi family – the whole UNDEAD lot of them!

P.S.  I cannot post photos, as this movie-making stuff is all top-secret and we have signed paperwork swearing we will not post this stuff on social networking sites.  However, the name of the film is "I Survived a Zombie Holocaust" - try this link for some photos   http://www.facebook.com/isazh?sk=photos  What's also really cool is the film location is at an old lunatic asylum in a village with a spooky-horror-film-like name of Seacliff.  More info about the film, like articles and such, can be found on Google by using keywords such as Dunedin zombie film and the movie title.  The movie will be out in theatres (in NZ - maybe U.S.!  What am I saying, of COURSE it will be in U.S. theatres,  with a superstar like me in it! ;) ) and on DVD in a year or so - you better believe we'll have a copy at our home in Rockland, Maine, if you ever wanna check it out!

ZOMBIELAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 1 of 3 in Zombieland, NZ...can't communicate any longer...zombiefied.....BRAAAAAAAAINS!

Donkeys & Dancing Zombies!

 Farewell, Akaroa! I love you, your farm hostel and your equine residents!

Down to Dunedin in the Southland - southeast corner of the South Island. Paused for a spell in Oamaru to spy on some Yellow-eyed Penguins - a rare species. They are as cute as puffins, waddling across the beach and feeding their young, which are as big as the adults now at the end of summer! The weirdest thing is that penguins hang out with rabbits in sand burrows. It was so cute, seeing two bunnies fearlessly hopping around an adult penguin feeding its chick!

I picked up a hitchhiker on my way from Oamaru - Mike is a resident of Dunedin, so when we arrived in his hometown, he offered guide me and Millie around the city. How terrific! Who needs info centres when you have a local to show you the ropes?

Last night was AWESOME - there was a rugby game, so the town was hoppin' until 3am. Met an expat from Oregon & Wisconsin and her NZ husband (Misty & Chris), now Christchurch residents, who are coping with the stress of both earthquakes. (Chris has two streaks of gray in his beard because of the stress of the past several months-lack of sleep included.) They invited me to join them and attend a folk music concert (a Christchurch band). What an absolute blast! Misty and I danced and danced and danced and danced some more...drew some shy folks out of the seated crowd to dance with us! And whew! Four hours of dancing was my EXTREMELY FUN exercise for the day.

Tomorrow? WE HAVE BEEN ASKED TO ACT AS EXTRAS IN A B-RATED ZOMBIE MOVIE! WHOO HOO - MY DREAM COME TRUE! ;)

Onuku Farm Hostel - Paradise!

Beautiful surrounds, beautiful people from all over the world sharing this wonderful space. For $11 a day! I'm the only U.S. resident here: other homelands include The Netherlands, Germany (lots of them!), England, Scotland, Switzerland, France, New Zealand (a couple guys from Christchurch regularly stay here to get away from it all!), Thailand, and Israel. Loads of lively conversations well into the evening...and wee hours of the morn! Tonight is my fourth night here - Onuku Farm Hostel is hard to leave! Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/mainelyvanessa/2011NZWeek03#

The First Three Weeks' Adventures! (Including several get-back-in shape excursions!)

Off we go...into the wild blue yonder! New Quote! (from a plaque on the bathroom wall of the Ranfurly Lion Hotel, on the Otago Rail Trail: “LIVE AS THOUGH HEAVEN IS ON EARTH”!

Jeff, Millie the Magnificent, and I did a whirlwind road trip of many corners of the country of New Zealand in fifteen days. We're talking north end of the north island to the south end of the south island, and lots of stuff in between (3500 km ~ 1400 mi, driving our awesome camper van, Millie!). Highlights of the past 2.5 weeks:
~ Acquiring Millie from wonderful folk, Jordan and Susanna from NH (1988 Mitsubishi L300 – hippie van all the way, baby!) and learning how to drive a manual column shifter! Getting comfortable camping in any roadside designated picnic area (which are very common) for free!

~ Mountain hiking with Jeff amongst active volcanoes and gassy (rotten egg smelly) sulfur pits. Whew! Get in shape, girl!

~ Rotorua: Maori heritage site and cultural performance, geysers, more sulfur gas pits, cool hostel experience, cool town walk
~Wellington: downtown camping (museum parking lot) in Millie, in the middle of a HUGE waterfront NZ bands concert (6 bands), in the middle of a rain-and-wind storm. Awesome!

~ SPECTACULAR 3-day drive (and ferry) from Rotorua (north end of the north island) to the Te Anau, Fjordlands (south end of the south island). Millie is my HERO! (So is Jeff :) ) Hitchhikers galore on the South Island – we assisted 4 inspiring, passionate individuals in the past 10 days. Native homelands: Italy, England, and France (2 FULL-OF-LIFE femmes being the most recent car mates!) .

~ Flying in a prop plane over Milford Sound!

~ Glow worm cave! Unbelievable! Seemed at first like it might touristy, but was actually jaw-droppingly awesome.

~ Kayaking in much less visited (but every bit as impressive) Doubtful Sound (fjord)! Really great guide, and wonderful fellow kayakers from all over the globe.

~ Otago Central Rail Trail 1.5 day bicycle trek…150 km (90 miles)…on a TANDEM hybrid bike…GRAVEL/muddy track…horrific cushy springy seats (really bad on the nether regions)…MOUNTAIN pass…lots of sheep and cows and not much else…but it brought Jeff & me closer together! (Ain’t it grand how things work out like that?) We relaxed our tired, cramped muscles and nerves with an under-the-stars private hot tub in a nearby town.

~ Now, Jeff has flown home, is safe and sound and more than a bit jet-lagged. I miss him very much. I am regrouping in a wonderful little farm hostel on the Banks Peninsula in a town called Akaroa, just SE of Christchurch. Magic! Here’s why: many fellow international, very social and friendly travelers (predominately German – reasons unknown), gorgeous view of the harbour (a volcanic crater), wild hikes on hillsides even sheep can barely tolerate, peahens and peachicks to clean up cooking refuse (same niche as dogs!)…