Diving with dumpsters

Having quite got used to enjoying creation and taking in beautiful views since our last visit to an intentional community (in San Francisco) it was strange to have to refocus ourselves as we caught the train to Waikanae, a short distance up the West coast from Wellington. There we were met by Jenny, who at once made us feel very welcome, showing us around Ngatiawa camp, introducing us to those currently residing there, both human and animal (we never quite got used to the goat, who liked to nuzzle firmly/butt whenever the opportunity was available, though we loved the dogs and cow and calf) and telling us a little of what UV is all about.

The camp serves as a sort of HQ, but is also a space where team members may stay for a while, perhaps before joining one of the city teams. They provide an excellent facility and resource for other groups wishing to do something away from the city - our first night's meal was provided by a youth group staying the night: hopefully you can see Katharine cooking a type of bread on the end of a stick over the fire! As folk who try to reach and include people on the margins they make sure that there is also a bed or two available for people who for whatever reason might just benefit from a stay there.

The whole UV team had arranged their twice yearly big get together (hui) in Porirua, between the camp and the city and had kindly been permitted to use the Maori marae (meeting place) there. We felt privileged to have been included and the next day waited outside with everyone else until we were sung to as an invitation to enter the building (inside and outside on pics). Having been officially welcomed by the local dignitary, who told us a bit about the history of the meeting place and their hopes for its future, we were left to our own devices. UV is big on bi-culturism and, even though we were all English speaking, each had to introduce themselves in Maori and say where they were from. We wrote down our brief script and said our bit too. The weekend consisted of chatting with many of the UV-ers, eating, praying and finishing with communion on Sunday. Much of the Saturday was devoted to rehearsals for Oliver Twist which the commnity (with great help from various folks, old and young that the various teams have got to know) are putting on at Christmas to raise money for a project in Burma. It should be absolutely brilliant.

We were also glad to be able to spend some time with a couple of the teams in the city as it is there that the rubber hits the road and they try to put their beliefs into practice. Chris's help was required by one of the guys who is assisting some of the schoolkids with their baton passing in preparation for an athletics meeting. This was a dubious choice given Great Britain's relay performance in the last Olympics! However progress was made, he assured us. Katharine spent time at a multicultural playgroup where carpet time with the kids was in Mandarin, Hindi, Maori and English!

All in all a very challenging and inspiring week as we spent time with people who have made some very radical and sacrificial choices in order to live among and alongside the poor and marginalised in their community. Everyone works part-time so that they have more time to spend in the community. That means that they have low incomes and need to live very simply. Everyone in Urban Vision is also conscious of living with as light an impact on the environment and global neighbours as possible. Many grow their own veg, keep chickens and have renounced buying any food from non-sustainable or unethical sources. Chris looked a little worried at some of the dietary restrictions this would mean if we adopted a similar approach!! One way of making ends meet that can bring unexpected luxuries for these guys is dumpster diving...see photo above. This involves heading out after dark to the bins at the back of large grocery stores and rummaging around for rich pickings. It is amazing what gets thrown out from delicious fresh baked bread to fresh fruit, expensive cheese and smoked chickens. We are quite seriously considering get into this practice once we are home and skint from our travels!

I guess the most important thing that we take away from our time with Urban Vision is a reminder that all the fruit seen in the lives of the people (both team and local community) is because of the time spent in prayer before God and the love and grace God will pour through his children as a result of that.

Diving with dolphins

We headed down the eastern coast road to Kaikoura where (as has increasingly become our custom) we pitched our tent in the dark and after the camp site staff had retired for the night. The next day (having of course paid for our pitch) we did the headland walk, observing seals basking on the rocks and getting excited about the prospect of hopefuly seeing, if not swimming with dolphins later in the day. We usually pride ourselves (yes, a mistake in itself) on walking faster than the estimated times given in the guide book. So, having walked fairly quickly, we thought, we were surprised to find ourselves with only 15 minutes to get to the embarkation point for the dolphin trip, and nowhere near where we needed to be. Alas, there was only one thing for it - we would have to run! And hard as it is to imagine, this is what we did - arriving at the office covered in sweat and gasping for air - but on time.

The trip was advertised as being the opportunity to swim with dolphins, but all the passengers happily agreed when the captain said he could see a couple of whales and did we want to go and check them out? As it turned out they were a couple of Orca (killer whales) and we were able to see them quite close. What was most amazing was that a couple of dolphins joined them so we could see two sets of different sized dorsal fins slowly appearing and then disappearing through the waves. The crew said the dolphins were dicing with death as the Orca are known to eat dolphins for dinner. After this unexpected and wonderful diversion, we headed off to where we hoped to find a larger pod of dolphins. What we encountered was beyond our expectations - according to the crew there were about 200 dusky dolphins, and they were jumping around and seemed generally to be having a lot of fun. Appropriately robed - in our wetsuits, masks and flippers, we jumped in a short distance away and swam towards them to see if they would like to play. We had been told by the crew to sing songs through our snorkels as this might interest the dolphins and increase the chances of them coming to investigate us. We are still not sure whether this was actually for the crew's amusement or not, but sing we did, and come and play they did. It was truly amazing - they would swim by us and around us and under us. It was absolutely glorious. And when they swam on, we'd get back in the boat and motor on a bit and then jump in again. We did this five times and every time they joined us , often swimming from behind us and appearing under us as we swam, giving us eye contact and giving us the impression they were enjoying it as much as we were.

It really was the most incredible afternoon. It quite took our breath away and we even saw the whales again on the way back. Happy days indeed.

Tramping the Abel Tasman way

After driving along the famous Whanganui river road we ferried it over to South Island, hoping for better weather than we'd had for Tongariro as we planned our second classic NZ tramp - the Abel Tasman Way. This would be the first time we would do a three day walk while carrying our food and our camping/sleeping gear. C wanted to know why there weren't any cafe's or pubs to ease the load of carrying our own food, but soon got into the stride. The first day and a half were not what we had hoped for weatherwise, but the scenery and being out in the wilderness were reward enough. The first night we sat around a camp fire with some others to keep warm until it got dark and we retired to our now proven tent to see what the weather would be like the next day:

Even wetter, though it got better as the day went on. It was dry by the time we had to ford a river - though we had to get wet as the river was up to our waists at one stage! We had to take our shoes and socks off, not to mention K's trousers(!) and C carried the rucksacks on his shoulders...

Day three was glorious and made it all worth while, as did the speed boat trip back to base at the end. (Note to Kiwi's: How come none of your walks are circular?)

One of the best day hikes in the world?

Next stop was Taupo, a massive lake which is actually a giant volcano, where we had another couple of hours sailing on a yacht that once belonged to Errol Flynn! Sadly there was very little wind and so the motor had to be used. K has sailed quite a bit in her youth but for me, C, our first sail up in the Bay of Islands (see earlier blog) had been quite breathtaking - zipping along quite quietly with only the wind for propulsion is really quite special, and changing from side to side of the boat when we change tack is great fun.

On the edge of the lake the water steamed hot due to the volcanic element and the area is quite beautiful, but we were really only stopping by here - our destination was the Tongariro crossing, according to the guide book, one of the great walks of New Z, if not the world. We tried to book transport to pick us up from the end of the trail but were told that due to the bad weather conditions the crossing was closed. So we decided we'd drive down to the area anyway with a view to doing a low level walk the next day and seeing if the weather cleared up the following day. When we arrived at the camp site to register we were immediately asked if we wanted to do the crossing tomorrow, to which we replied that we thought it was closed. We were told that the weather could have changed by the next morning and that if we wanted to do the crossing we should come to reception at 0700 and see if it was a go-er. The next morning came, and with it very heavy clouds and wind. We presented ourselves and were told that it would indeed be possible to do the walk and so we paid our money for the transport back afterwards. The pictures tell what the weather turned out to be...

Out of 14 people who set out for the trail head with us, 6 turned back shortly before the summit. A group of four it has to be said much older folk were just in front of us and though it seemed as if we might be blown off the mountain at any minute and though the rain was lashing into us frequently, they seemed quite calm about the whole enterprise. So, we decided to stick with them, and (I think) we are glad we did. We lived to tell the tale, though we descended very, very wet and a few degrees cooler than is generally desired. Our tent, when we returned, had survived its first major test. For 24 hours it had taken a bit of a pasting, but when we climbed in that evening, it was warm and dry. This was after we had rewarded ourselves at the pub across the road with a very fine leg of lamb shank indeed.

Aotearoa - part one

From Chile we flew across the International Dateline, totally missing Wednesday 29th October which was a little disconcerting, and arrived in Auckland before dawn on 30th October. We were happy to be back in a land selling good coffee. It's pretty odd that in lands of coffee production like Peru the coffee they serve is rank and yucky!

Having had almost continually great weather for as long as we could remember, it was a bit of a surprise to find Auckland, wait for it, cloudy! And windy, and on the cool side. We quickly learned that typical Aotearoan weather includes all four seasons in one day (sound familiar, Brits?). Anyway, we jumped in our hire car and headed North for the Bay of Islands where we stayed in backpackers hostel where we could see Russell across the water. The hostel was clean and friendly and we were to find that in general New Zealand backpackers hostels are run by decent folk committed to providing a quality, if basic, service. Many people cook in the kitchens provided (though we usually chose to eat out, often having had bread and cheese for breakfast and lunch) and everyone seems happy to chat and exchange stories.

The next day we went out to the islands in a yacht which previously had been a racing yacht (once winner of the Sydney - Hobart race) and owned and skippered by a really nice bloke who made the trip really enjoyable - as did a few dolphins and the sun!

After this we began to make our way back down the coast, camping at a bird sanctuary near Goat Island. Needless to say, the dawn chorus that greeted us the next morning was even more rowdy than usual! The plan had been to snorkel around the very rocky coast there, but the weather was quite cold, so we thought we might do it in the following morning. We did see various fish and a couple or rays just by clambering around the rocks and by the time tomorrow came we reckoned we needed to get a few miles under our belt, so the fish (not to mention humanity) were spared the sight of the pair of us in wet suits and masks! At least for the time being...

Yeah well, so much for promising a blog update soon eh?! Shortly after the last post we discovered we'd had a little miscommunication with the folk at Urban Vision and weren't expected for another week...this turned out to be a blessing in disguise all round as the guys at Ngatiawa (the community) were all down with a bug and we had been hankering after a little more time to see South Island. So, we hopped on a ferry and hot-footed it across the Cook Strait to Picton where we picked up a car and began a week of adventures, starting with one of New Zealand's famous tramps in Abel Tasman national park.

Before we get into that perhaps it would be good to fill in the gaps from the past month...after our last real entry in Arica, Chile we have covered quite a few miles. From Arica we headed down to the Atacama desert on another overnight bus (these were quite a feature of that week!) and arrived a little jaded in San Pedro in the middle of the Atacama salt flats - the most arid place in the world but not the driest. In case you are confused we can pass on the little lesson we had on the difference between the two! We made the most of our 36 hours there visiting the Valley of the Moon and Death Valley as well as bubbling geysers at dawn, hot springs and lakes with flamingo. From there we spent 24 hours on the bus to Santiago (yes, 24 hours; yes, one bus!) where we were welcomed by cousin Guy and his lovely family. The next four days were full of eating delicious food, drinking great wine and generally relaxing. It was great to sleep in a proper bed as well! Guy showed us around the winery where he works and we even got a serendipitous 'vertical' tasting of the vintage cabernet sauvignon! ('Vertical' refers to the comparison of various wines of the exact same type, but of differing years, and not to the position of the taster!) Fortunately or unfortunately we had to move on before we could get too accustomed to this way of life...Many thanks to all the Hooper Herreros for a wonderful few days.

Still alive...

Hmmm...what can we say on the lack of blog entries these past days? We are now in New Zealand and hope to write a better update when we get to the Urban Vision community over the weekend and can also upload photos. We are doing well and feel pretty hard core since we have been camping and hiking in wild, wet and windy conditions these past few days. Anyway, like I said, more later...