Xmas and other animals

... on the subject of other animals, have we told you how crap New Zealand's native animals are? They had a bird like an ostrich that became extinct because it would walk into hunter's camps to be friendly... But most of their birds are incapable of competing with rats, mice, stoats and possums on account of having lost their ability to fly..

Let's take the Kea (Alpine parrot). Kara had to just usher one off the STATE HIGHWAY as it was waddling across (this thing is the size of a rabbit). She got it to safety where it then FLEW into a tree.... we then see a sign saying not to feed them but you can educate them to go away by throwing water at them as they are scared of water...what kind of a rubbish animal is scared of water?!? (cats count as rubbish animals).

Anyway, most birds here waddle out of the road and always do it at the very last minute...sigh.

So, Xmas was great. We spent it with Suzanne, had a BBQ, played Monopoly, walked on the beach.

Unfortunately, the day we left our luxury B&B the weather turned and it has been overcast most of the time. Except when we went to a beautiful lakeside campsite, where we got to swim in the lake. And discovered that the only creatures in NZ that are highly evolved are sand flies... they literally swarmed us. We spent a miserable evening in our van killing the zillions that had flown in, then woke up to rain. We're now not so much scratching the bites as caressing the unbitten skin, as this is such a novelty!

A very random day
So, we woke up to pouring rain. Note: pouring rain does not in anyway mean a lack of sandfly activity. That's okay we thought! we'll do something that is rain proof! We went to the nearest town, ate cake and had tea (!!) and then booked ourselves on some whitewater rafting. Great fun!!! We did have the nutter guide, who sent us sideways down rapids, took us other routes to the others just for a laugh, and got us grounded in the middle of the river at one point.... it was all pretty fun (and funny).

The sun had come out by now. We'd been hearing rumours of something called the Rainbow Gathering. A guy we'd picked up (hitch hiker not in any other way) was heading there. A woman and her boyfriend who we rafted with had gone there... then we picked another hitcher up who was heading there...

So we went to investigate...

You follow ribbons tied to trees and get to a little sign saying "Parking", having driven down a dirt track for 10km. You are met by two lovely Americans (one of whom was a presidential candidate you didn't hear about) saying "Welcome Home!" Turns out this unadvertised gaterhing takes place all over the world and you just ruck up. So we parked the van in a field, had an "orientation" (which consisted of "walk that way!") and we walked down a track in the fading sun for about an hour. Along the way we met Stripey, who was leaving but hugged us anyway and welcomed us to the land in Maori (native language of NZ tribes folk), a dude who was sawing a tree, a woman who had spent 2 years living on a commune in California, and other folk. We also saw lots of mice.

Finally got to the most beautiful valley, as the sun was going down and the moon was rising. Think Glastonbury without the middle class people, the music, the hotdog stands and about 158,000 less people...

There were about 400 people, playing instruments, singing, dancing, doing acrobatics, juggling, playing football, keeping the sacred fire going, eating (gallingly we missed dinner so someone gave us some bread) and hanging out. The festival is alcohol, meat and drug free, but we think that they must class Canabis as a herb in that case....

It was very laid back, very alternative, lots of people from all over the world, all calling each other brother and sister as the Rainbow is called a family.

we then walked back to our van in the dark (over creeks and through one river) to spend a happy half hour chatting to Becky and Vermin (the US welcomers) who had stayed up to check we got back ok (Aw! Bless!!).

So. The question we have is: Would you have enjoyed it? :-)
If you've been thinking "Sounds like a bunch of hippies, where was the nearest Spa hotel/ Burger King" then perhaps not for you.

If you have been thiniking "Great to spend time with the global family in a beautiful spot and not shower for a while and use the self dug shitters" then we recommend it.

Note: Martin kept his views on self sustaining organic food to himself.

New Year's Eve plans
So, we headed to a campsite near Lake Brunner with the plan of spending the 30th and 31st there. As we waited for Suzanne (who had been camping in the wilderness) to rejoin us, it became apparent we had parked up in the middle of a youth club. Teenagers everywhere!! Drinking! Shouting! And playing really, really bad music.

To be fair, last night they all quieted down by 10.30pm and didn't seem disrespectful or troublesome. It's just the air was thick with teenage hormones and cheap beer...

So, we shot off this morning.

We are now in the middle of the Southern Alps. There is a DOC (Dept of Conservation) campsite (with a shelter to go inside and cook in!! Woohoo!!), a DOC centre, this internet, and ... a PUB!

Our NYE plan is thus:
- go eat some lunch. Something warm as it is friggin freezing here
- go do the walk until we find the 150kmph winds, then turn back down the mountain
- remember to sign back in as we filled in a form saying where we were going
- eat dinner
- attend DOC lecture at 7.30pm on something. It will be inside. And warm. And the DOC officers looked really cool to hang out with (like most Kiwis, dead friendly)
- drink as much booze from off license as we can to forget how cold it is. Some of you may have spotted the irony in leaving a bunch of teenagers to go do this
- go to pub
- all sleep in the camper van tonight as it would be too cruel to make Suzanne sleep in a tent in this weather while we have "In Cod we trust" to sleep in.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!