Diving the Sky (DO IT!), Groovy Spiritual Stuff, Chest Bumps, and Tales of Hitchhiking

OK, so now where were we… OH YES, SKY DIVING!   Wonderful, amazing, exhilarating, buzzy, happy adreneline-inducing experience-of-a-lifetime. I was flying (or should I say, falling) in my dreams that night, and was still buzzy/happy/ecstatic the next morning!  So, it’s more than the 6 minutes in the air…it will last a lifetime in memory!  Everyone, DO IT.  Save up your loose change and DO IT.  Let’s see… 45 cups of Starbucks (or Dunkin Donuts) coffee, or SKY DIVE (and a daily buzz from those memories)?

Then, continue the long drive from one end of the South Island to the other, picking up two hitchhikers (Nikka from Czech Republic an Nao from Spain) along the way.  Interesting conversation, and new perspectives on NZ and Australia from seasoned world travelers.  Apparently from their experiences, NZ has changed in the last decade in their openness towards travelers.  Hitchhiking, for example, is much more difficult now – they often are waiting for hours before someone stops.  However, in their experience, Australians are quick to pick up hitchhikers.   This conversation has solidified my plans for Australia (three weeks from now)– I’m hitching rides and learning much from the locals, not buying a train pass and isolating myself!  Exciting!!!!

My first WWOOFing (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) experience was at Sunset Valley Vineyards in Upper Moutere, Nelson.  Lovely family of 4:  Ian and Ros and their daughter Kate (11) and son Kim (14).  Great kids – we had fun doing crafty things together and Kim impressed the heck out of me with his mountain biking skills!  In addition to assisting with home improvement projects, I chased birds out of the netted rows of grape vines.  Gem, the Border Collie, was a big help – she’d walk up the row adjacent to me so the birds would move up and out the netting!  Evening meals were served with their own organic wine, which was very good.   I did cut the exchange short, however:  I felt more of a burden than a help (busy family with precious evening hours together), and also I am into the WWOOFing experience to learn organic farming and sustainable living techniques, not hours and hours of home improvement tasks of which I am all too familiar (staining and painting).  Our own home needs that!

This weekend was magical.  More so than Stewart Island!  From the WWOOFing farm, I headed north to Takaka:  I heard rumour this town was a hippy/spiritual crowd hotspot.  Sure enough, I wasn’t there more than a few hours and I met (at an exponential rate) like-minded people with whom I had many groovy, loving, dance-and-laughter filled exchanges!  Oh, and chest bumps, too.  Not explaining that one unless you ask me. ;)   It began with meeting two new soul mates at a totally awesome local hangout called the Mussel Inn…first was a deep, soulful conversation by fire with Marius, energy healer in his 60s, originally from The Netherlands who clearly projects a wise Native American elder.  (He agreed with this – it’s not just his outward appearance, he feels so inside as well.)  A choir was performing at the pub that evening, and through dancing that involved hand-holding, I met Elizabeth: a lover-of-life and civil rights attorney from Hawaii who is traveling wherever the wind takes her (sound familiar?).  She had just heard about a World Music Festival that would take place the following day at a Buddhist Meditation Retreat 75 km away (which just so happened to be only 1 km from the WWOOF farm I just left…so ironic, as I was running away from there, only to be drawn back again!)  So we carpooled down there in her camper van, had such a blast dancing and laughing and singing and making new friends all day through, and a bit of meditating in front of a campfire (with puppies!) well into the evening.  And NO, there was no hashish or alcohol involved (I bet you were speculating!), yet one would think there was because of how high we were feeling at the end of the day!

Elizabeth and I were pretty tired and weren’t really feeling up to driving all the way back to Takaka (the road over Takaka Hill is “stomach-churning”, very windy).  Our new friend, Gaylen, originally lived Northern California but now calls Planet Earth his homeland, who just so happened to be picked up hitchhiking by Elizabeth a few days beforehand and just so happened to be at this festival too (Forrest Gump says…we go together like peas and carrots…), was couchsurfing with a fellow music festival-goers (Ian and his son Julian) and suggested maybe Ian would be open to 2 more couch surfers.  Indeed he was, crazy guy…took in THREE Americans at once!  Look out!  More laughter, stories and chest bumping well into the night…and into the next day.  And acupuncture, too.  Bonus!

On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again!  Elizabeth was to meet with a kayak guide with whom she kayaked several years ago, in a town off the main road to Takaka.  So, she dropped me off at the turnoff from the main road, and I was mentally preparing myself for a couple hours of thumb-in-the-air to get back to Millie the Magnificent.   Extremely unnecessary…A CAR PULLED OVER EVEN BEFORE I STUCK UP MY THUMB!  Talk about great hitchhiker karmic returns! (I’ve been picking up any hitchhiker headed in the same direction as I’m traveling – and Jeff too when he was here.)  OK, so there had been another hitchhiker at that turnoff, but that is a record!  I had to run from Elizabeth’s van to 84-year-old Elizabeth’s car (yes, also named Elizabeth), and when the new Elizabeth told me to hop in, I gleefully gave the thumbs-up to Hawaiian Elizabeth and drove off into the wild blue crazy-stomach-churning Takaka Hill yonder!  Deep conversation along the way – Takaka Liz (who’ll be 85 next month and jokingly(?) declared she is a waste of space, which I repeatedly dismissed and made light of!) is quite a wonderful character.  Once I thought we were going off the road (AAAAAAAAAH! Already went sky diving, thanks anyway, Liz!), but we made it, safely and soundly!

The past two days, I have been exploring myself and nature via hikes and Tibetan Buddhist readings on the Farewell Spit, the northernmost point on the South Island.  OHM.