FANZ (Fiji - Australia - New Zealand)

Underwater, overwater, home

2010-12-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

Hello Hongi blog followers,

Three months of planes, cars, buses, farms, villages, hostels, pastoral settings, bustling cities, inside jokes, and constant wearing of flannel have come to an end. Team Hongi is home. The last week of our odyssey found us in Port Douglas, a rather quaint vacation spot about 60 kilometers from Cairns, the coastal access point for the Great Barrier Reef. Our dive hub. After lugging around dive texts and spending an impressive number of hours submerged in a swimming pool, everyone made it out to the reef and completed their open water certification.

Prior to leaving for Port Douglas, the group shared a tearful 4am goodbye with Catherine, who left a few days early to attend orientation at USC (Good Luck Catherine!). What started as a group of 11 was, in the end, whittled down to a mere seven. We could all even fit into a single taxi! We returned to Cairns on the 6th and consumed a brain jarring quantity of energy drinks, to help aid in the effort of staying up all night to catch the airport taxi at 4am. Our last hours together officially as a group were spent sharing our admiration and respect for one another, as well as remembering aloud all of the funny and memorable moments from the past three months. At 4 the group said goodbye to Stefan and took off for a marathon travel journey back to LAX, and then on to their respective home states and cities and, finally, families and friends (ie you folks, the readers).

It was a glorious time, team ramrod, and i will miss you all. Best of luck in the future.

Stefan.

Good Bye Fanz

2010-05-04T03:35:00.000-07:00

What a trip! A few shout outs too our whole group for either getting Certified to open water dive *Becca C. Becca O. Sarah, Jordin, Shelby, Coco, Maxx* and to Andy for getting his Advance, Suz for continuing her diving! And Matt getting to snorkel the reef!

As our trip comes to a close we all wanted to think back about some of our favorite parts of our 3 month long adventure

Sarah: Marama organics with Graham and Giselle. Our stay there was fun filled, educational and purposeful

CoCo: I loved our neon CVA vests and the OPC wetsuits, also the time we spent in them, even if some of it was type three fun!

Jordin: I loved all the people we met on this trip. We got really lucky with all of them. Without them my trip would not be what it was. Thank you Kali, Graham, Juliane, Giselle, Steve, Ethan, Patrick, and everyone else who made our trip what it was.

Becca C: ill never forget dance parties and kava ceremonies in Nananu. I will always remember my Fijian family and friends and hope to return some day. ROLLER BLADING AND POWER WALKING FOR LIFE!

Becca O: POWER WALKING AND ROLLER BLADING 4 LYFE DOG!

Matt: I will never forget fulfilling my goal of this trip of seeing and touching Koala’s. Also making some money playing my guitar on the streets of Cairns.

Shelby: ill never forget our adventures in Nananu and playing volleyball with all those strong Fijian men. Kava dance parties. New Zealand home stays. The OPC zip lining and caving and abseiling. I had a blast shearing sheep and painting the woolshed with Graham and Giselle. And I’m totally stoked on being SCUBA certified! The people we’ve met are unforgettable. Kali, Graham, Julian, Steve, Ethan; all of them have made this trip a bit more memorable.

Andy: fresh coconut milk from Fijian palms. Mangoes, guavas, waterfalls and crystalline springs. So many beautiful botanical gardens! Outback sunsets, early morning yoga. Sheep herding, cave exploring and breathing underwater. Chess playin, Frisbee throwin, balderdash and bufords of fun!

Suzanne: oh what a trip. So many memories. Dancing our buts off with all the Nananu folk, cooking and eating yummy meals at Graham’s. Exploring the caves at the OPC and laughing hysterically when reflecting on our sleepless camping adventure. Milford sound, yoga, wombats( need I say more) WOMBAT WARRIORS! Along with wombat jobby of course. Sleeping under the stars, grooving the grape with steve and diving WOW! I will forever remember each one of you and our crazy adventures. XoXo

Maxx: What a trip. When I think of my favorite moments on this trip I think of OPC adventures doing things I never would have thought I could do (climbing threw sewers, jumping high ropes, and adventuring in caves!) I will never forget any of the amazing people that I have met throughout this trip and the things I have learnt I will take with me for the rest of my life. Thank you all so much.

Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible

and helped us along the way

Groovy Grape and Beyond!

2010-04-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

Hello again family and friends!

We have just arrived in Cairns, Australia. Which means a few things; we have safely made it out of the Outback and from the treacherous beach community of Noosa! During our Outback adventure with the Groovy Grape, we spent seven days and six nights traveling to many of the well known destinations such as Uluru, Coober Pedy, Kings Canyon, The Garden of Eden, and several other beautiful sights. During our stop at Uluru our group did the walk around the base, and as a group decided to respect the Aboriginal peoples culture and not do the walk up the side. During our stay in Coober Pedy we had a tour of an old opal mine and enjoyed a nights stay inside underground caves! Within the city almost the entire population lives underground in cave homes. The reason for this is that they stay at a constant 25 degrees Celsius year round while the land above them is extremely hot. On our last day with Groovy Grape tours, we did a canyon hike through Kings Canyon to the Garden of Eden. It was remarkable having hiked through such hot dry land and stumbling onto a small valley of green plans and pools of water. As a group we stopped here and took a dip. After Groovy Grape we jumped on our last flight together as a full group to Brisbane. After a two hour bus ride we reached our beach destination of Noosa and began our three day stay in a very relaxing community. Some of the activities we got involved in during our stay consists of Becca O. teaching Sarah and Matt how to surf and me*Maxx* watching and passing on helpful words. Matt got up on some waves on his first day surfing! Other members of our group had fun lounging on the beach and doing morning yoga. After Noosa we embarked on our 35 hour train trip from Noosa to Cairns. Even though our trip is coming to an end, we are all looking forward to a week of scuba diving classes, diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and many more great adventures to come!

~Maxx F.

Back from the Bush

2010-04-15T23:09:00.001-07:00

We our back from the Bush!
Hello family and friends its your friendly Bilbo bloggins here again to tell you about our adventures in wombat land!
Our merry group got to spend five fun filled, and at times quite goofy, days at the Brookfield Conservation Park. We joined a group called the CVA or Conservation Volunteers of Australia who took us out to lovely Brookfield to help find and record wombat warrens.
A warren is basically a giant mole hill dug out by wombats. For those of you who do not know what a wombat is, it is basically a giant hamster that lives in the brush of Australia.
Our days at Brookfiled consisted of the group splitting up during the day and tramping through the bush for several kilometers looking for the warrens in the ground. As i am sure you can imagine this activity would get very boring very fast so we came up with all kinds of games and dances to do to keep us having fun.
Suzanne made up a entertaining wombat dance for us all to do and a beautiful goat dance as well.
Becca.O came up with a great idea to help us when we got a bit frustrated. She had us come up with what our own ideal personal raincoat would be so that when we got frustrated all we had to do was "put on"our raincoats and have the frustrations just slide off us. This came in handy when the GPS systems were not working as well as it could have been and as a result we all got a little lost in the bush. Along with our new "raincoats" Sarah was there to help us all keep our heads.
Becca.C helped us pass the time by singing songs by Death Cab for Cutie.
In the late afternoon the group met back up at base camp. We all took turns every night making dinner for the whole group. Coco and Becca made us all a delicious spaghetti one of the nights followed by some fun rounds of balderdash thanks to Maxx.
Matt kept us entertained at night strumming on his guitar. Shelby made sure none of us died in the night by being our constant spider lookout. This was put to the test when she found a rather large red back spider in the bathroom, which we later discovered is quite poisonious and can make you very sick.
Andy helped us relax and laugh after a particularly stressful day of warren hunting by attempting to learn to Irish Step Dance taught to him by me (Jordin). On our last day with CVA we all got up extra early, part from CoCo and Andy who had to go into town early to make sure CoCo's ear was not infected (Don't worry all! her ear is just fine and will be able to join us all in scuba diving later in the trip), and the rest of us were in for a treat as we headed off to visit some wombats up close and personal. We went to the home of a woman named Brigit who ran a wombat rescue out of her home. Their work is all nonprofit and to be honest its quite amazing. They currently have fourteen wombats, one dog, one cat, two owls, one echidna, and two opossums all living with them. These woman even shared their bed with these forteen wombats!The whole group took turns cuddling up with these adorable marsupials and holding them in our laps. It was quite an amazing experience that not many get to enjoy.
Now the group is reunited back at Adelaide before we head out again on our next big adventure in the Outback. So keep your eyes peeled for our next blog and keep your fingers crossed as we trek across the big Outback!
Lots of love from us all over here in backwards land!
Jordin and Becca.C

G'day Mates!

2010-04-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

We're here to deliver you a little ditty
From this wonderful place called Adelaide
It's Australia's fifth largest city
Near the world's largest uranium reserve, where much of Oz's money gets made!

It's hard to imagine that four days ago
We were at Govinda Valley exploring our spiritual sides
At first bummed to not be studying Buddhism,
We soon found ourselves pleasantly surprised

To learn how to access our kundalini energy
From Patrick, our compassionate yoga teacher
We even got to analyze our astrological charts
From Andre, our very own vedic philosophy preacher

From Matt's chart, he received confirmation
That he'd pursue a career in the film biz
While Maxx became pretty adventurous
Tasting all sorts of new vegetarian dishes

Sarah and Coco really got into the yoga
Contorting themselves in all sorts of poses
They even enjoyed the breathing exercises
Letting the prana flow in and out of their noses

Shelby sure did love all the yoga
But was definitely the most thrilled
When she discovered a rugby ball
And got to play with it in the Aussie hills

The two Beccas rose before the sun
To check out the visiting Vedanta clan
They sat and listened to Sanskrit chanting
Language barrier and all, they maintained a good attention span

We even got to celebrate Jordin's birthday
At our beautifully peaceful retreat
The group and the generous staff there
Got together and made her a delicious treat

One day after class with Andre
Patrick drove us all to the zoo
Where we finally got to see it,
Our very first kangaroo!

Govinda Valley came in perfect time
As our nomadism was starting to take a toll
We were feeling a bit stressed out and tired
But now we're relaxed, rejuvenated, and ready to roll

Back to Sydney we then went
To explore a world famous city
Botanical gardens, opera house, harbour cruise
That we had to leave so soon was really a pity

We are only hours away
From our intense outback excursion
Where we work to save Australia's wombats
What a cool conservational immersion

You may or may not have realized
That there's been a bit of a swap
Your previous rhymers have been replaced
Those originals, of course we can't top!

Becca.C and Jordin

2010-04-01T16:23:00.000-07:00

We've finally made it to the land Down Under,
Which means we got through free travel without too many a blunder.
Tekapo, site of the world's best stars,
Was covered in clouds, which made viewing them hard.
At Mount Cook the next day the weather was nice,
We hiked near a glacier and tried to touch the ice!
To Wanaka next our caravan drove,
And into our hostel's hot tub we dove.
At the Rob Roy Glacier rain once again foiled our plans,
But rainforests and rivers were seen by our clan.
Then back in the van to Queenstown we went,
Where "Dennis" was returned with only one dent!
The next day we hopped on a bus to Milford Sound,
where on top of our cruise ship the waterfalls did pound.
While in the fjords the mountains surrounded,
and by the foggy views we were astounded.
Yesterday we jetted to the land of OZ,
and almost missed our flight--april fools was the cause.
And this morning one of ranks joins the Crimson Class
and next fall through the Harvard gates she will pass.
Of her all of us couldn't be prouder
but we would've died last night had our hostel been louder.
Today to govinda we take the train at two,
And after a week of yoga, we'll report back to you.

Ode to Lyttelton

2010-03-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

There once was a woman in Lyttelton

Named Dee whose house we are livin' in

Tonight she's having a barbie for us all

and since she's in charge we know we'll have a ball.

Dee has a neighbor named Sue,

Who's hosting some of our crew,

And also a bestie named Ann,

Who's housing the rest of our clan.

Lyttelton harbor is a picturesque place

located near an old volcano's base.

Here we work with fences and dirt,

to restore the land is our main effort.

On Monday we went to help out Yvette,

And Maxx and Gavin made a fence for her piggy pet (s).

She taught us all about Maori culture and tradition,

And with Jordin's help cooked us lunch in her kitchen.

On Tuesday we hiked to a house on the hill,

Where Peter showed us which invasive plants we could kill.

Armed with deadly blue goo and clippers alike,

We made the land much more pleasurable to hike.

While we hacked away at weeds galore,

stinging nettles attacked and gave Matt a sore.

On Wednesday we went out to Godley Head,

and through this old army post we were led.

We planted some grass and ripped out a fence,

Andy and Shelby made sure a pinecone war commence (d).

Come Thursday to Godley Head we went back,

and the Beccas, in style, moved brush into stacks.

Decked out in weird hats, they were quite a sight,

wearing 3-D glasses to block out sunlight.

Suze, meanwhile, remained reliable and funny,

though the outlook on her parasites isn't so sunny.

And today, it's Friday (but thursday for you)

We're having fun in Christchurch, but we miss you too.

Tomorrow we leave on our free travel trip,

to Mt. Cook and Wanaka after a Tekapo dip.

With Andy and Suze at the wheel of our van,

We'll end up in Queenstown, or at least that's the plan.

So now you've reached the end of this blog,

and we've run out of rhymes, our minds are afog.

And if we make it through free travel without going loco,

there will be an update next week from Sarah and Coco.

OPC

2010-03-20T15:53:00.001-07:00

Hello again everybody!
We just got into Christchurch after a week at the Outdoor Pursuits Center and a full day of travel. I know we're all glad to finally be off that six hour bus and into Christchurch. Our time at the OPC was sweet as though! I know many of us arrived at the OPC with some less than enthusiastic attitudes, but our leader, Julian, changed those attitudes right quick. Between abseiling (rappelling), the high ropes course, caving at night, and a seriously cold overnight, I think our time there was something we'll never forget. On our overnight, the weather was all great until Wednesday night when we all basically froze. It got down in the negatives and none of us were ready for that one. Overall though our time at the OPC was an awesome experience. Friday we headed out back to Wellington for the night, but our hostel reservation got slightly messed up so we had to scrounge up a place to stay for the night. Everything worked out fine in the end though. Saturday was spent completely in travel. A huge two hour ferry ride and then a six hour bus ride to get to Christchurch. Starting tomorrow we're with our Kiwi families for a week long home stay here. I know we're all very excited to be staying with our families and are looking forward to our free travel plans next week.

Love to all our families and friends!
- Shelby

Check out our photobucket for new photos!

http://s1044.photobucket.com/albums/b442/FANZ_2010/

Wellington

2010-03-13T13:22:00.001-08:00

Hello again everyone!
As we say our goodbyes to Graham and Giselle and all of Marama Organics, we look forward to Wellington and Sir Edmund Hilary's Outdoor Pursuits Center. We'll definitely all miss the fun we had on the farm. Flying out of Dunedin, Wellington was having a spot of rough weather. Despite the weather, I know many of us were more than happy to be back in the city. Friday and Saturday nights in Wellington are crazy. Lots of things going on and the city is awake all night. Saturday, being our only full day in this city, was full of activity. Most of us made it over to the Te Papa museum at some point during the day. Matt organized a sweet tour for anyone who wanted to go. Becca C, Jordin, Matt, and I ended up having a blast re-enacting scenes from The Lord if the Rings for a few hours, just your average day being a Hobbit. Tody we're off to the Outdoor Pursuits Center (OPC) for a week of ropes courses and rock climbing and hiking and who knows what else is in store for us! Wish us luck as we take on the challenging activities at the OPC!

Game on.

- Shelby

Check Out Pictures on Photobucket!

2010-03-08T23:53:00.000-08:00

http://s1044.photobucket.com/albums/b442/FANZ_2010/

Marama Organics!

2010-03-08T22:33:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! The group arrived safely in Dunedin last Thursday after a very early morning flight out of Auckland. It was a bittersweet goodbye as we said farewell to a fantastic city as well as two of our friends, Ethan and Kyle. We hope they are doing well! After a few fun shopping stops and a lunch in Dunedin, we snagged a bus out to Marama. The bus actually dropped us off at some remote intersection. From there, Graham and Sonya picked us up in a couple trucks to take as to our home for the week, Marama Organics. All week we've been doing various jobs from weighing thousands of sheep to painting an entire wool shed! It's been very exciting. We've been pairing up into teams cooking and clean up the meals everyday. Gavin and Jordin are always eager to work with the sheep. Becca C. spent some time being lifted on a tractor to paint the high parts onthe wool shed. Matt and Maxx have become quite good painters during our time here. Sarah has been letting us eat her amazing cooking. Coco and Becca O always seem to be finding new things for us to do on our free travel (which is coming up in a few weeks here). Everyone is working hard and having tons of fun while we're at it!

Love to all of our families!

-Shelby

Sail City

2010-03-01T01:05:00.000-08:00

The work is finished! The group pulled together and worked hard until the much needed pathway was finished. At completion there was a small gathering where the minister of the local church came, a nice conclusion to a fun project. In the following days we did various activities including horseback rides to the nearby waterfall which we could slide down and jump off, a tour of the Fiji water plant, a trip to the beach, and time to bond with out host families. Overall the things that we experiences and the knowledge we gained about their way of life was priceless.
The final nights were filled with dance parties, performances, and lots of food. The village kids prepared various performances for us each night and in the end we shared one of our own with them. The final day was one of mixed feeling. Sad to leave but excited to be continuing on our travels to New Zealand. After a slue of goodbye kisses from our sad host mothers and waiting for a van in Fiji time we were finally back on the road. The first stop that we made was the Mc Donalds in Nadi, a tasty little reminder of what we all left behind in the states. Then we were off to the airport for another length of goodbyes and photographs taking in the last moments of Fiji with the villagers that accompanied us to the airport. With spirits high and not knowing what to expect we were off the ground in Fiji, in a very luxurious plane, and well on our way to New Zealand.
Auckland, I don't even know where to start from the moment we all touched down here knew that this was going to be a great city. A big change of pace after sleeping in mosquito nets and washing clothing in the local river and taking bucket showers. getting in late we went straight to our hostel and after a pleasant and comfortable night we were all ready to get out and go explore the city of sails. Some people raced of to find the nearest fast food, some people raced off to find the nearest TV and catch the USA versus Canada game, but one thing was the same, everyone loved this city and after a day packed full of exploring and immersing in a new culture we can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us.

Again, Gavin & Becca

Taki-Taki

2010-02-19T18:13:00.000-08:00

Hello again guys, gavin and becca here blogging from tavua. We've been away from internet and telephones for a while in the beautiful classical fijian village of nananu. Working under the hot sun and getting to know the amazing generous people of the village while also getting alot of down time in the shade getting to know each other better, this down time is called what the people like to call "fiji time".
so this is what we have been up to...
After a long and interesting system of public buses and sitting in the back of trucks we finally arrived to the village. we were welcomed by a colorful party of children dancing laughing and singing and host mothers embracing us and giving us fat sloppy kisses even though they never meet us before, just a small example of how warm and welcoming everyone here is. The group was split up into pairs and after the welcoming ceremony had come to a close we were handed over to our host mothers and quickly swept away to meet our host families. The group was slightly skeptical about the living conditions at first but it was all put to rest when we found out there was running water and showers and the food was certainly nothing short of incredible.
We have been treated to four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, tea, and diner. Breakfast is a combination of kinds of cakes, pancake like things cut in the shape lightning bolt, and fresh fruits. The favorites are usually the rainbow cake (multi-colored cake with frosting on top) and bananas (in which we put penut better that we bought in town).These are the same kinds of food also found at tea time. We also try the mystery meat of the day at lunch and dinner loaded with their version of ketchup (which we place on everything) Oh but the highlight of one of our days is when a fan was installed by Collie in the dining room, its not exactly winter over here it reached a peak of 103 one day.
During the day we work on building a cement road that goes through the village. We collect small rocks from outside the village, mix cement, dig some dirt, or a large amount of time napping in the shade. After our work is done we go soak ourselves in the river trying to get cool. One day we were rewarded for our hard work and the villagers took us up to a waterfall right out of national geographic.
The people here are very spirited, the nights are never quiet. On special accosions they will offer us an ancient Fijian tradition of kava. It was interesting to gain insight into their culture through this age old tradition. During this time music is a large part, they listen to Chris Brown and other popular American artists along with a lot of native island music, while they dance to the early hours of the morning.

Till next time....

Gavin and Becca

BULA

2010-02-14T00:47:00.000-08:00

A warm hello from FIJI!!! With new Fijian words flowing from our mouths and sweat dripping down our faces from the beautiful sunny days, we are finally all together as a group. After our long yet exciting journey, we reached Nadi at 5:30 am on Feb 13th. Since then,we have been busy learning important information for our semester, scavenger hunting around the city, buying sulus (a sarong that will soon be our main attire in the village), watching rugby while eating breakfast, learning about "fiji time", swimming in the pristine postcard perfect beach water but most importantly, beginning to get to know each other. Tomorrow we head to Nananu for our first homestay, where we will be for almost 2 weeks. (we will be out of touch during this time but will write as soon as we can).
Sending lots of love**

Moce mada (bye for now)

Andy & Suzanne

It's some sort of miracle

2010-02-11T19:05:00.000-08:00

It's some sort of miracle that we managed to get everyone, from the East Coast, from the West Coast ... well ... everyone! Despite cancellations from weather in NH, MA, and NY, we pulled some sort of rabbit out of our hat and sure enough everyone is together, safe and sound, in LAX.

Thank you all (especially the East coasters) for your perseverance and communication as we navigated one heck of a last 48 hours.

Stay tuned and check back often for more group posts,

Yours in spirit,

Ethan Knight

Executive Director

FANZ Spring 2010!

2010-02-05T15:10:00.000-08:00

Dear FANZtastic crew 2010 Kyle, Rebecca, Ethan, Jordin, Shelby, Maxx, Cordelia, Sarah, Rebecca, Mathew, and Gavin....

We hope you have all been enjoying your winter breaks and are getting excited for an amazing semester down South! We are super pumped to meet you all and begin our adventures together! Expect a call from one of us in the next few days to introduce ourselves and answer any last minute questions you might have. Guess what...we fly in 6 days!

This is our travel blog where all of our friends and family back home can keep up with our adventures. Each week one of you will be our official "blogger" and will get to write our travel tales for our dedicated followers around the globe. We encourage you to peruse past blogs to get an idea of what they might look like. Also, please inform your family and friends of this site, and show them how to log in, so they will know what an amazing and authentic experience we are having. In addition to gaining responsibility of the blog, there will be other roles assigned and rotated every 1-2 weeks to help you take ownership of our trip and get the most out of the semester. Contemplate which one you are most enthusiastic about taking charge of for the first couple weeks of the semester...

Cribs: Organizes any sleeping accommodations we need. ie: hotel/hostel/camping

Hotwheels: Coordinates our transportation to and from cities, activities, hostels, etc.

Captain: The leader of our team who creates the overall vision for the following week, makes sure we are getting places on time, staying within budget, and ensuring that others are accomplishing their roles.

Regulator: One of the most important roles, the regulator makes sure we are leaving places cleaner than when we arrived, organizes games and other activities during down time, coordinates displays of our gratitude to communities we visit like thank you letters, gifts, performances, etc.

Clark Kent: News reporter for the group, Clark Kent helps us stay up to date on local, national and global news by giving brief presentations on current happenings.

Bilbo Bloggins: Blogs our adventures for friends and family back home.

Fun Finder: Researches and presents to the group potential activities and fun stuff to do during free time.

National Geographic: Researches and keeps the group informed about people, place, culture, language, cuisine, etc. of the unique cultures and communities we visit.

We are so excited to head to summer time in the South Pacific and hope you are too! Be sure and enjoy all of your favorite things at home before we head into the unknown :)

Peace.

Suz & Andy

A Scuba Finale

2009-11-30T22:51:00.000-08:00

Our last few days and the resulting last blog, oh how far we have come...
On the heels of Meghan's last post, we had just finished the scuba classes and tests in Cairns, and our next (and ultimate) adventure was on a "liveaboard" boat, scouring the depths of the Great Barrier Reef! Following a two hour shuttle boat ride out to the liveaboard, we got settled into our rooms, had a quick lunch, and were straight into our scuba gear for our first afternoon dive. Conditions were sunny, the water was relatively calm, and we were positioned over one of the best dive spots on the GBR, and surely in the world, Milln Reef. Split into two groups of six, and of course buddied up, we had a quick snorkel around the side of the boat to an anchored rope at the front to guide us to the ocean floor during our first descent. On the surface of the water, our senses were flooded with the hum of the boat, the ever-present lap of waves, and constant bobbing in the currents. However, once underneath the chaotic exterior, we were enveloped by a blue serenity. I was personally nervous about being out in open water, yet my mind was changed completely once floating peacefully, weightless through a calmer world. This was different from the snorkeling-like nightmare I had predicted. In fact, within seconds of submerging, we spotted a white tip reef shark just 10 meters in the distance. Somewhat like a fox encountered in his own forest habitat, the shark gliding coolly away. Conquer shark phobia, Check! From then on we went through our routine test of removing and collecting our regulators (mouthpieces), filling up and clearing our masks, and trying to calm ourselves in order to steady our breathing. Upon returning to the surface, we all agreed the dive was a resounding success.
A couple hours later we embarked on our second dive, which consisted of descending free of a guide rope, running through more tests like shared breathing, and gear removal. We also made more wildlife spots like a giant clam, Titan Trigger fish, and Sea Cucumber.
Exhausted, and full from a good dinner, many of us called it a night and relaxed up on the sundeck, while a brave few (James, Katie V, Connor, Joseph, Adam, and Heather) chose to go out on a night dive. Along with miles of courage they brought underwater flashlights with them to not only guide their way but to also direct a gang of red bass to their evening meal (illuminated smaller fish).
Waking early the next morning (5:30!), we all engaged in dives at six in the morning and again at eight. On these we explored the reef further and observed some more awesome marine animals like sea turtles and a moray eel! Additionally, on the latter of these dives we had a camera man come along to film us perform underwater stunts and show messages we had written beforehand to our families. Later in the day we all got to watch it a have a good laugh.
We were finally awarded our certified Open Water Diver cards by our Instructor, Ethan, and some chose to do a final, unsupervised, dive in a new spot. Bravo! Ready for dry land, we boarded the shuttle boat back to Cairns certified diving Extraordinaires. Getting back to the city in the early evening, we got our own dinners and ended the day with one of our final group meetings back at the Caravella hostel. Sad!
Our last day as a group we spent lounging on a nearby beach and tying up loose ends around Cairns, culminating with a group dinner out. Those of us flying back to the States will make for the airport at 2 am tonight, eager to reunite with our loved ones.

Fanzcarpediem, we have loved ye
As for everyone in this wonderful group, its a definite "see you later"

-Gordie

Cairns!

2009-11-27T23:43:00.000-08:00

BULA(bringing that one back)family and friends!

Since our last post,we have finished up a relaxing week at the Chenrezig Buddhist Retreat Center, where we learned about the various teachings and traditions of the Buddhist religion. Once we ascended "the hill", a(very steep)hill which set the boundaries of the center, we were asked to adhere to a set of Buddhist guidelines:
1. Avoid killing (all creatures - including ants)
2. Avoid stealing (that which was not specifically given to you)
3. Avoid lying
4. No sexual contact(including hugs)
5. No intoxicants
Though seemingly obvious social guidelines, the rules were surprisingly hard to follow - the mosquitos taunted us as if they knew they would not be swatted.

Daily activites at the center included gardening, maufacturing miniature "stupas"(holy artifacts meant to be a physical manisfestation of Buddha's mind), and yoga with our incredibly serene and patient hungarian teacher Tiag. Our vegetarian (eek!) meals at Chenrezig consisted of a light breakfast and dinner, with a filling and delicious lunch. At night we laid relatively low, watching Buddhist themed films, reading, and once attempting to follow an advanced lesson in Buddhist theory,taught by the centers "geshe", an enlightened Tibetan monk. We also partook in a two day seminar focused on creating better relationships, inspired by and following Buddhist teachings. Through meditations and examples from her own life, our teacher Alyse showed to us how to eliminate anger and destructive feelings from our lives, asking us to take and value people for who they are, rather than who we expect them to be.

After our relaxing stay at Chenrezig, wedeparted for Cairns on our 30 hour (yes, you read correctly) train ride. Staying on an overnight train has been a dream of mine, ever since I saw "Some like it Hot". I was pumped, and the ride did not dissapoint. Though mildly claustrophobic at first, our triple-sleeper train compartments proved cozy habitats, accomodated with a bench that folded into three bunk beds, a sink, and a trash can. Train activities included reading, card games, college essay writing, and filling the tiny rooms way past their capacity for rediculous hangout sessions. The rare half hour stops were almost comical, our group bursting out of the train doors, spilling out onto the train platform to stretch, walk, do pushups, and dance to Michael Jackson tunes. We made it though our cabin fever however, to arrive safe and sound in Cairns, our final destination of the trip.

Our first day in Cairns was spent milling around the boardwalks of this seaside city, peering into the various shops and restaurants. The following two days were spent in "scuba school", where, you will be happy to learn, we all passed our written and underwater tests. Tomorrow we ship off on a scuba overnight aboard the Cairns Diving Center's dive ship, to explore the Great Barrier Reef, and earn our "open water dive" certifications.

Looking forward to a great last week, but also to seeing our families once again!
Cheers to the last leg of our incredible trip!
-Meghan

Beach time at Noosa

2009-11-17T15:18:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
We arrived in Noosa four days ago. The first day we were all just getting settled in from a long week at groovy grape. Once we got to the beach we were all just relieved to have some down time to relax from two long weeks of waking up early. The second day we got a chance to sleep in, but most of us woke up around 8 because everyone was so excited to go check out the beach and swim in the amazingly warm ocean water. We spent most of the day laying on the beach sun tanning and walking around the little town. The weather was perfect for swimming in the ocean, it was a awesome way to cool down from the hot weather. Some of us got a little sunburned but not too bad. That night we had pizza for dinner, which was amazing and by the end of the day everyone was starving. The hostil we are staying at is the YHA and its around a 3 minute walk to the beach. The hostil looks like a little beach house. Its blue and kind of old fashioned. At night they light the Tiki torches and they have colored Christmas lights around the hostil. The third day a bunch of us took surfing lessons and had an amazing time. Those that did it said the instructor was great and was willing to take them out later in the day for a second time for free! Lets just say they jumped at that opprotunity. After spending some more time at the beach some of us went into town to the internet cafe to upload pictures onto facebook and we all ended up around the computer laughing at all the pictures we have taken over the course of the trip. Today we are heading to Chen Rezig, the Buddhist monastery, for a week of yoga, meditation, and Steve Irwin's zoo!

Some information we learned about Chenrezig was that the land was first purchased in the 70's as an overgrazed pasture and was completely barren. Today, thanks to the many monks that live there, it is a lush rainforest, covered in trees and exotic plants. (Thanks Brandon, our trivia master).

Cheers,
Katie B.

P.S.
We will upload photos in a week, sorry for the delay!

Our Groovy/ Grapey Adventure

2009-11-13T23:21:00.000-08:00

Hey FANZ families, and fans, this is Connor trying to update you on our groovy recent trip happenings. So our first day of the Groovy Grape, we woke up early, and met our wacky driver Robert, a purple haired Jack Sparrow look alike. We also met 3 Germans, Hanz, Franz, and Ahnold, just kidding, Henrick, Sabina & Yens, 2 Swedish girls, Jo and Jenny, and 2 Scottish girls, Hannah and Vikki. Each group was a team, we, of course, TEAM America, Team Germany, etc. And then we were off. The first day we stopped at a WWII memorial for lunch, and then took a short hike to look at some Aboriginal cave art. After that we headed to our lodging for the night, a refurbished infirmary that was originally used for tuberculosis. We had an amazing barbecue; kangaroo, beef, sausages, salads, and the veggie kebabs for Heather.
Next day, we woke up somewhat early, and took a hike on the main road, while some road bikes. Robert picked us up afterwards, and we stopped at a hostel that had a shady pool and we made our lunch for the day. We drove some more into the wild wild Outback and we arrived at our oasis in the desert, a famous bar with many driver's licenses, business cards, assorted women's underwears, that were along the walls. There was even a business card from someone at Fordham University in NYC! That night we made a huge bonfire out of old railroad ties, and slept under the stars in comfortable swags, I'll explain those later.

We woke up to the sun rising and flies on our faces, what a nice wake up. We then headed off to Cooper Pedy, a mining town that was widely known for it's opal mines. We went to the mining mueseum and saw the thrilling movie The Story of Opal, award winning to say the least. We toured through the mines, and then went to a kangaroo rescue, where we got to feed older kangaroos, and hold younger ones. That night we went to the famous pizza place, John's Pizza, where we were greeted with a barrage of pizza pies that filled the whole group up. Some headed off to the underground hotel and some went to our underground hostel built into the side of a mountain.

We woke up early the next day, 4:30 to be exact, ouch, and went up to a lookout point that Rob knew about to see the sunrise. We were in for a long drive, since we were headed to Uluru, formerly Ayer's Rock. We arrived in the afternoon after lunch on the road, and we quickly unpacked and hopped into the pool. That night we watched the sunset on Uluru, with cheese, crackers, carrots, and hummus. We slept another night under the stars.

Next morning was another early one, 4:45, to see the sunrise on one of the adjacent large pebbles. We hauled up coolers, and had pancakes, cereal, and coffee as the sun rose. After that we headed to our hike of the day, which was a 6k walk around the base of Uluru. We got up close and more personal with the rock later when Robert took us to some of the notable Aboriginal ceremonial spots. After the hike, we went back to the site, to prep it for the other Groovy Grape driver's birthday, who would be staying there that night as well. Then we went on a secret mission, to sneak into the local resort's pool. To say the least, no one was wounded in action and the mission was a great success, very NICE. That night, we had another huge barbecue, sung happy birthday to J.P., the other driver, and had a great time with our fellow Grapers. Before we fell asleep though, we hauled our sleeping gear, swags and sleeping bags, up to another lookout point to see the sunrise on Uluru.

The sun rose really early, some of us might not exactly remember, but it was a beautiful sight. We came back, ate breakfast, and set out for an 8k hike through a series of large rock formations, the most famous of which is Kata Tjuta. Robert informed us of how they formed, and the legends that were behind various areas of it. He also told us about the local plant and animal life that lived around our hiking trail.

We had an uneventful evening in Alice Springs last night. We rested up, got most of the dirt from the outback off our bods, and had a last group meal. Some of the group went out to a bar, Bojangles (to have gingerbeers of course) and some headed back to the hostel for an early night.

Tomorrow we head for the beach at Noosa!

A Group Divided

2009-11-06T03:25:00.000-08:00

Hello fellow FANZ followers. Here to report another exciting week is Blogman Brandon, giving you the latest updates on our recent happenings.

Halloween night proved to be an interesting one at that, where our female group members dressed up in whatever exuberant articles of clothing they had while the males choose more simple costumes like cop, cowboy, detective and a duplicate Nick. Sydney was hopping with characters to say the least and it was just as exciting as watching all the city-goers as it was to get dressed up ourselves.

The next morning we woke up early to board our flight to Adelaide where we met our representitive from CVA (Conservation Volunteers of Australia). After a brief safety and information meeting at the CVA office, the moment we had been dreading arrived. For the first time during our trip, the group would be split in half to persue two different projects and not see each other for the rest of the week. We said our goodbyes and parted ways.

My group consisted of Myself, Meghan, James, Katie V, Joseph, Mike, Nick, and Heather. We had a 3 hour car ride to Mt. Remarkable camp site where we would be camping for the week. During this time our campsite was visited by 2 emus, nicknames Tony and Bernice, a family of kangaroo, Cookaburrows, and a giant lizard. During the days we would work in fields getting rid of predominetly 2 invasive species, The Boxthorn and the Iceplant. Both from South Africa, these species of pants are competing with native plants and are causing much harm. We all adorned flynets and giant hats to shield us from the bugs and sun. We were a sight for sore eyes.

The other group (aka Team Hard Core), consisting of Gordie, Wyatt, Conor, Kathleen, Katie B, and Adam had a 7 hour drive to their homestay. There, their project was to survey the number of plants in a given area. This consisted of walking up steep hills and slippery slopes to get the job done. This groups accomodation was much different then the campsite and needless to say we had two different experiences.

We are reuinited and back in Adelaide safe and sound! Now onto the Groovy Grape and our tour through the Outback!

Trivia from the week:
-Flinder's Ranges (mountains in South Australia) have "heaps" of fossils (called ediacaran for those intrigued) from over 550 million years ago. They are the first forms of multi cellular life. Very few other places around the world have these.
-In South Australia, most of the rivers run inland. Therefore, due to the buildup of salt (and iron) on the land, there's a red coloring--picturesque!
-Australia is one of the oldest continents
-South Australia is the driest state in the driest continent in the world.
-And, believe it or not, Australia is the same size as North America
-"Kathleen" is a Greek name, meaning pure, and is also the name of the best trivia master EVER.

Hollaaaaaa!

This is Blogman Brandon signing off, untill next weeks addition of FANZ Carpe Diem.

Allo from Sunny Sydney!

2009-10-30T14:01:00.001-07:00

So sorry about the delay everyone on the blog, we have been "in transit" for a little longer than I expected. This is Mike Dour, and I will be your Bilbo Bloggins on this post, leading you on a journey with my words...right.

SO, we pick up with our Friday journey to Christchurch. We arrived and assembled in the town square, I guess you would call it, and saw the many vendors, street performers, as well as the beautiful church that was the "centerpiece". After a few hours of people running off and grabbing lunches, souvenirs, we finally got our gear. We shopped for our food supplies for the trek we were about to embark on, as well as got many thermals, and assorted rain gear. All came in handy in the coming days. Friday night, we had a bountiful feast at one of the homestays for our last night party.

Saturday morning was full of goodbyes, and presents from the homestay hosts. We departed and headed off to Queenstown. Now Queenstown, I would compare to Aspen really, a "ski town", tons of outlet stores, fancy restaurants, and an amazing view of the surrounding mountains. Many of the group enjoyed amazing hamburgers at Fergburger, one of the above mentioned restaurants. Now I might have to go into more detail about these hamburgers, but I'll save that for a little later. We unpacked all unnecessary items from our bags that night and loaded up the gear and food. The divide among the food did take some figuring out, but we eventually accomplished this. We stayed at the Black Sheep hostel, which had a hot tub! YAY!, which was inviting, and seemed somewhat..well we decided no on that. Sleep time, we depart tomorrow for the trek!

Sunday morning was an early wakeup, getting all the clothes and assorted items into the storage at the hostel we would be visiting again after our trek. We then headed into town to grab breakfast and afterwards headed to our pickup site. After a short busride with a stop to grab a couple nice camera snaps, we were at the trail.With some nice weather and no rain in sight, we were off. (Start of Trek, Day 1)We started off at a nice pace, and our hike took us through the valley and slightly on the side of the mountains. I'm not talking hiking up huge mountains here, not the Himalayas, the inclines were just enough though to tire the group out. After a couple hours of hiking we arrived at our first cabin, which already had a number of occupants, 8 to be exact. And we were 14..the cabin was not prepared for the amount of people about to be in it. The first night had people sleeping side by side in some larger beds, but not large enough. And that was the first day on the Greenstone trail!

Monday(Trek Day 2) Now this was our longest hiking day here. The time proposed by the trail signs said a hike of 4 & 1/2 to 6 & 1/2 hours...wow. This day will live in infamy...just kidding. Ask around and maybe some will say it will. Despite the rain, which was just a drizzle really, almost everyone had an amazing time that day. We were all geared up in our rain gear and we conquered that path, hiking over metal suspension bridges, through huge expanses of fields, as well as some very very rocky parts. I'm not talking about stepping over rocks, we were on rocks, just rocks. It must have been caused from avalanches from long ago in the area, but it was huge areas of rocks, no ground below your feet for a long ways. Oh, I knew I forgot something, for everyone now worrying about me mentioning avalanches, we did not have any run ins with them, though I've heard they can be a hassle at times. After our long hike, we arrived at our cabin, and relaxed like we've never relaxed before. Hot drinks, a hot fire, we were feeling good after a short time. The couple that rode on the bus to the trail shared the cabin with us that night, and we had some very good conversations with them. The sleeping situation was alot nicer but one last cabin was in our future...

Tuesday(Trek Day 3) So we left this cabin relatively later because this day was one of our shortest days of hiking, headed to the nicest cabin we'd stayed at the whole trek, flush toilets, supplied gas and even lights! *GASP*! This walk was nice, a sunny day after our cloudy and wet day, and we took many a photo at many spots. This day was the first day I also played our newest game introduced to the group, Contact. Basically a hiking game which is a word guessing game. I would go into more details but for the sake of people's reading and me not wanting to cause mass confusion I won't, put it on the list of things to ask about when we all get back. After our short hike and everyone being in good spirits, we arrived at our last hut. Large and with many beds, the above mentioned commodities, we settled in and decided what to do with the rest of our day. Some went on a summit hike, which I was told was breathtaking, a view that you only can see on postcards, few postcards. The warden that was residing at the hut was a friendly man, who had visited the States when he was younger and we exchanged various stories with him. Early sleep in everyone's own bunk (WOW!) that night because of what was to come the next day, an early morning and a kayaking romp on the glorious Milford Sound.

Wednesday(Last & 4th Trek Day) We woke up, well me and the "El Capitan" of the week, Connor, woke up at 5:10 to prepare breakfast. No sun up yet..very early. We left this cabin at around 6:30 to make our pickup time of 8 at the end of the trail. Another short hike, with an early morning view of the surrounding area, which was very...well foggy. Another cloudy day sad to say. We annihilated that trail that morning, we arrived early at the pickup, to say...we trail blazed. We met our driver Rosco, of Rosco's Milford Sound Kayaking. Wow! The namesake of the company has picked us up, I felt somewhat like a VIP! On our drive to the sound, he pointed out many things, mainly avalanche sites, where the "wind blast", the gust of wind that an avalanche generates from coming down, had snapped the trees caught in it like "toothpicks" as he put it. We made one stop to see an amazing rock formation that had been formed by the river running through it and kept on driving. We drove through an avalanche..not that it came down on us, but the road was cleared where it had been. An icy corridor, ice, snow, dirt, rocks, surrounded us on both sides, it was intimidating. A little time passed, and we arrived at the Sound. Now, sadly whilst on the Sound, the rain that was scheduled for that day...started. It still didn't ruin the kayaking. It was breathtaking, surrounded by huge cliffs, waterfalls from the runoff in many places, and we saw penguins! WOO! Everyone loves penguins..or maybe just myself, anyways, so after paddling around in our double kayaks for around 3 hours in the Sound, we headed in to dry off our soaked bottoms, tops, sides, feets...you get the idea. After a thorough drying we were off to Teanu( need some spelling checked on that), a small town that we ran around in while waiting for our bus back to Queenstown. The bus ride, back to Queenstown took us past many nice sights, and finally after 6 hours..or so, we arrived back at the Black Sheep. I finally had my Fergburger and let me tell you, a glorious symphony of meat, and vegetables greeted me. When I say this was an amazing burger, it's an understatement. I now have made a top 5 burger list which this holds a steady numero 3 on. Time for sleep because tomorrow we depart for Sydney!

Thursday, well an early wakeup to get to the airport to wait for our flight, an hour or so, standard airport practices. We flew out of Queenstown to Auckland for a little bit of a layover, which was followed by our flight to Sydney. Another time zone change greeted us, and after a little bit of a wait for our transport( I think this guy had no legs because he was in the parking lot walking to us for about 20 minutes) we were immersed in Sydney! Now how can I say this, this city is unique. Ferrari, Maserati, Lotus, Lamborghini dealerships on one block, which I drooled at, while a plethora of coffee shops and restaurants on all the others, and the random money exchanges dabbled in there. We arrived at our hostel, the Great Aussie Backpackers Hostel, and settled in.

Friday was a full day. We had our Sydney scavenger hunt, a huge all day walk about ( some Aussie slang there, walk about means a hike..I think, check that later). ANYWAYS, this consisted of the group checking out all the historic sites of Sydney, the Mint, the Opera House, the Botanical Gardens, the Art Museum, among other sites of interest. Now some went with groups, others went by themselves. Myself, went alone. I had a grand time, until me and the Botanical Gardens met up. Now, this place is huge, and I mean HUGE. I wish I could say the size of this place, but it's ginormous. After wandering here for a couple hours, and almost being eaten by some very large plants, I stumbled out and headed back. We concluded our scavenger hunt, awarding prizes and such and had an awesome barbecue supplied by the hostel later that night, kangaroo and beef on the barbie. Kangaroo is interesting, very tough meat, but very much like beef.

And that brings us to today! Saturday, the 31st, Halloween! I'm not sure what is planned for the All Hallow's Eve festivities, or who is dressing up as who, but it is sure to be a fun filled night. Sadly, photos from me cannot be supplied at this time..sorry all, hopefully I can update this later today with them.
And now for some fun facts about the Milford Sound! The rainfall here is 6000 mm, 256 inches, and that is alot, more than any place in New Zealand. This was of course solidified by the rain that pelted us on our kayaking. Well that's it for me, Mike Dour, Bilbo Bloggins, signing off for now! Pictures to come!

Joy from South Island!

2009-10-22T04:32:00.000-07:00

Faithful blog followers, rejoice, its time for another. Here's the update from the past week...

We began this Sunday with an early, three hour long ferry ride from Wellington to a little town, I can't quite think of the name though. Though it sounds quaint, the ferry was far from that, it was extremely rocky and shook up a couple uneasy stomachs within the group. A lot of green faces. An interesting experience. Stepping onto solid ground was a lovely relief, to say the least. That was followed by a long bus ride, finally ending our day's travel in Christchurch, where we were warmly greeted by a couple of the homestay-arrangers. Helloooo, South Island!

The group then split up (groups of either 3 or 4) for new homestays in Lyttleton, a town about a half hour drive from Christchurch. That evening was spent getting to know our individual homestay families.

Monday morning the group reunited bright and early to begin the environmental conservation work we'd be doing over the next couple days. This day, we had "clippers" to chop down growing Sycamore trees (an invasive species to New Zealand plants, which are currently being revegetated), "herbiciders" to follow them with blue goo, and others who helped chop down real trees with chainsaws. Intense. It was a cold but productive first day! Again, after work we separated to our homestays to relax for the evening.

Tuesday morning was similar, just some different work (mostly planting native New Zealand baby trees). Another lovely, productive day of volunteering. Afterwards, we split again, many taking advantage of the cute little coffee shops on the main street. Later that night, some of us convened to be total Americans and watch the movie "Baby Mama" (props to Katie B for providing it, as quotes from it have been dropped all trip). So funny.

Wednesday, we finished up the work asked of us by planting the rest of the baby trees (which was a lot!). For the most part, this went smoothly, but with some mishaps, like Meghan (who accidentally sat on/brushed against a dried up thornbush--another invasive species by the way--and as a result had thorns stuck to her basically from the neck down, very pokey... Hahaha... Poor thing. We all had a good laugh). Overall, we're quite proud of the work we've done! :)

Then, Thursday (today) was a nice change of pace. Accompanied by Ivette (hopefully I'm spelling her name correctly, if not, apologies! My other guess would be Yvette), a Maori homestay mother, we hiked up the Bridle Trail (in the old days, settlers traveled up this to get to Christchurch, on the other side of the mountain). We spent the majority of the day hiking, soaking up unforgettable sceneries, and listening to Ivette tell many stories, both Maori tales and about New Zealand history. Following the hike, we went down to the dock and almost all of us (minus two wimps who will go unnamed) jumped into the harbour water, carrying on the precedent set by the previous 6 groups. IT WAS ICE COLD. Luckily, the day ended at Ivette's house, where we cozied up with a great meal.

Tomorrow will be spent in Christchurch, shopping and preparing for our upcoming free travel time! Woo! Then in the evening we'll have a goodbye party, as Saturday morning we'll depart to Queenstown.

Overall, its been another fabulous week. I know some of us started to have some homesick-ness spouts recently, so this fun and comfortable homestay experience definitely came at the perfect time. Sickness cured. Thus far, South Island is a wonderful place! Surprisingly, I was able to figure out picture uploading, so you all can check out some shots from New Zealand below! I'm sure there will be more once other cameras are accesible.

Trivia master (and my roomie for the week) Katie V has provided some New Zealand words that are totally different from our typical vocabulary:
dinner=big, hot meal
but supper=post dinner tea with biscuits (=cookies)
tea=a light dinner
pudding=dessert
(obviously it has been difficult getting our meals straight!)
togs=a bathing suit
bench=countertop
bunfight=a party (a fun one)
pram=baby stroller
barbie=grill (but saying "shrimp on the barbie," so cliché , rookie mistake!)
and I'm sure there's many more...

We'll be checking in again asap after tramping near Queenstown!
Hollaaaaa,
Bilbo Bloggins of the week (aka Kathleen)

PS. Please pardon any grammatical/spelling errors (a vast amount, I'm sure) within this blog. There is no spell check. Its been like 5 months since school, its the first time I've had to write correctly, obviously:)

Cheese!

2009-10-22T03:55:00.000-07:00

Picture time! Woo! New Zealand thus far...
(PS. Sorry they're all out of order, I lack computer skills.)

Part of the group eating lunch on top of a mountain! This was during our hike today.

The view from the mountain top...

And the view from our homestay family's porch...

Our first glance of Christchurch! Though someone's head was in the way, oops.

At the Marae we visited with local high school students, trying our best "haka" faces. Key word--trying.

The boys' "haka" faces (they were allowed to stick out their tounges, so not fair)

The girls after kayaking at OPC, we all got to experience amazing and relaxing hot springs (basically pool sized hot tubs, heaven).

In Auckland one night, before going to listen to a local singer perform.

During free time in Auckland, a lovely city.

Some of us at Anne's farm (before going to see the glowworms!)

Post-kayak trip at OPC

Our leader Julian hopped into this one!

Hahaha, Brandon pulled off the wet suit the best, by far. (He'll hate me for posting this. Hehe)

2009-10-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we left Anne's farm at 9 in the morning and made our way to Outdoor Pursuit Center, or OPC.(they like acronyms there) It was approximately a 6-7 hour shuttle ride but as we approached our destination three enourmous snow capped mountains loomed in the distance, one of which being the infamous "Mt. Doom" from Lord of the Rings. We were given the corporate accomodations on the OPC grounds which was perfect becuase half of our group came down with a stomach parasite and the plush leather couches and fireplace were perfect for recovery. Our first two days there were basic team building activities, things like trust falls and low ropes courses. On the second day our instructor, Julian Malcolm, showed us how to use maps and compasses and gave us a real location within the area to locate. To get to where we needed to go we had to tramp through the bush, which was very diffacult but the end location was a flyingfox, or zipline, and we had a bit of fun to end the day. The next day, Wednesday, we did a kayak trip through a stream and then into a lake which was surrounded in gorgeous dark green mountains. After our journey we got to relax in a nearby natural springs hot pool, which was the perfect relaxer for a tough kayak session in windy, rainy conditions. Before we left we chopped varios vegetables and took them to a hot spring location nearby where we would leave them in the ground to cook in traditional Maori fashion. We had them with our lunch and they were the perfect side to ham sandwiches. Instead of our nightly presentation Julian showed us the basics to belaying and tying figure-8 knots for rock climbing. Thursday was our last full day and in the morning Julian had us do a one hour orienteering race, where we had to use a map and find locations on the map for points within an hour. It was cold and rainy, but extrememly fun and in the end Gordie a and Meghan came out victorious, with myself and James a close second. In the afternoon we hit the high ropes course, so our belaying had to be on point so no one got hurt. We chose three obstacles on the course, the high up sideways skull monkey climbing wall of death, the monkey tails, and the blindfolded draw bridge. All were challenges, and we were all challenged which was the point and we all had a lot of fun. That night we camped out in tents and the next day we headed south to Marton were we would spend last night and today in a Morae with some locals from the village. Today we even learned the Haka, which is the Maori war dance, we got a video of it and although it is a serious dance, the video is hilarious. I am currently using the internet in our hostel in Wellington and tomorrow we are headed to the south island for our final week or so in New Zealand. Also did you know that OPC had New Zealand's first manmade rock climbing wall, wow, I did not know that thank you James Flood, this weeks trivia master. From all of us on the FANZ trip, this is Wyatt Good signing off, another blog next week.

Greetings from the Farm!

2009-10-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Greetings from Warkworth, New Zealand!

First off, we wanted to let everyone know that we haven't had much internet access this past week. Don't worry if you haven't recieved any individual emails in the last few days. If you do need to contact any of the students, feel free to email Fanzcarpediem@yahoo.com. Heather and Adam check this as much as possible and will be able to relay the message. Also, from here, we are heading to OPC and most likely wouln't have much internet for another week. Thanks for understanding!

We are currently working and playing on Anne Verdonk's beautiful Organic Farm. We are on the last full day here. The farm is absolutely picturesque- acres of lush green rolling hills, gorgeous skylines, and tons of life. The mornings have been filled with various work. Our major project(completed on Thursday) was the revegitation of a hillside with native New Zealand trees We planted more than 500 baby trees, adding to the mini Carpe Diem forest that has been started by past groups. Other jobs include grubbing thistles, mothering orphaned calves onto suragate mothers, checking and repairing waterlines and fences, and so on. After working we have had down time to relax and enjoy eachothers company. We have been openly welcomed into Anne's family and feel very at home. Getting to know Anne and her relatives has allowed us a taste of life as a WWOFer (Willing workers on organic farms). A few other highlights of our time here include: going to see the glow worms down the road, stargazing after the rain cleared out, learning a Maori song, seeing baby calves(they're extremely cute!) peacocks and an emu.

Trivia:
-Blackberries(which we spent some mornings grubbing out) were originally from England.
-There were no natural land animals in New Zealand, other than birds. The ones that live here were all brought in.

Hope all is well back in the States,
Katie

Pictures

2009-10-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

Enjoy some pics of our time in Fiji-
Orientation in Nadi, Fiji:

Hindu Temple in Nadi(the largest on the Viti Levu island:

Buddhist Tree on the grounds of the Hindu Temple (gift from Sri Lanka, women who want to be married tie a yellow string around it):

Nananu Village:

Meaghan, Kathleen, Mike, and Brandon on the last night in the village:

Katie with her Nananu siblings and cousins on Family Day:

View from our first hike around Nananu:

The one and only Fiji Water Plant:

Pine Forrest Hike to a lookout house:

Beachouse on the Coral Coast, it was beautiful!:

There's more to come!
-Katie

All safe and sound in NZ!

2009-09-30T22:17:00.001-07:00

Greetings folks from the Southern Hemisphere. We just wanted to let everyone that we are all safe and sound in Auckland, New Zealand. We have been totally unaffected by the tsunami/earthquake that has caused so much devastation to the Samoan islands. We are all hoping that the people of those islands are receiving the aid they need at this moment. Tomorrow, We are preparing to head out north of Auckland to a town called Warkworth for some sweet organic farming! Stay tuned we are in the midst of attempting to upload photos of our first couple of weeks. Much love from Fanz.

Goodbye Fiji Hello Kiwi's!

2009-09-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

In the past week and a half we the travelers of the Carpe Diem Fanz group have experienced alot! Our village in Ninannu had setup one of the most unforgetable goodbyes and going away ceremonies I or anyone could have imagined. Tears were shed by every villager and host family member in the village. We were very choked up when they asked for forgiveness that they did not have more to offer when they had truely loved us all and given us if anything too much. Calle our village guide gave a speech and we recieved our Kava in reluctance rather than excitement all to the fact that we were leaving. After this painful goodbye and exchanging of gifts the group headed over to the luxurious Beach house resort in the Coral Coast of Fiji and decided to unwind; Warm showers, Warm beds, palm trees, easy beaches , and ofcourse a big juicy steak were just some of what was indulged in after two weeks in the village. This resort was very cheap and one of the most beautiful spots anyone on this trips has ever been too and I can personally attest to the fact that every male on the trip did flips into the pools within seconds of checking in. The relaxation was short lived because before we new it we were loading our packs into vans and on our way to the airport. One short day later here we are reporting to all you parents and future readers from Auckland New Zealand and boy is it a different place than our humble village of fiji. I am sad and happy to say we are once again in the world of skyscrapers, cityscapes, suits, and starbucks were instead of waking to the sound of roosters, we awake to the hustle and bustle of taxis / business men. In the back of my mind as a member of this group I am releived but also sad to see probably one of the harder parts of the trip over with. With Much Love from everyone on the FANZ trip this is James Flood writing from NZ. Talk to you soon!

Hello from the village

2009-09-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

For the last week we have been working in the village and living with our homesteads. Upon arrival, we were introduced to our new family. That night we participated in the Fijian ritual of kava drinking. Over the next couple of days we lifted sandbags, learned to make cement, and hammered shoveled and wheelbarrowed. In other words we learned to really appreciate modern machinery. We also celebrated Kathleen's birthday. After work she was adorned like a queen, set at the head of the table, a sung to by many of the locals. However, for the last couple of days it has been very rainy, and thus we were forced indoors many times. Overall, the last week has been a change of pace for most of us who are used to our cozy American lives.

First update from the land down under!

2009-09-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family of carpe diem travelers!
This is the first of what I'm sure will be many updates from our trip on the blogosphere. There is really only good news to report thus far. We arrived in Nadi, Fiji at about 5 AM the morning of September 10th. Its not often that one is struck by natural beauty when stepping out of an airport, in fact I would say that it was the first time it has ever happened to me. It was cool and breezy that morning, and the sun was just rising, creating a red glow behind the hills. I knew then that I was going to have a very good trip in this place, and my premonition has proved true thus far.
We spent the first day mostly getting to know one another, playing ice breaker games and recovering from our long journey. By the end of the day, our group already felt tight, and that feeling has only increased since then. Our leaders are on the ball, and have laid out very reasonable guidelines for travel, along with good pointers on health and safety.
Yesterday we spent the day exploring Nadi. We split into groups of three and wandered the city, trying to take in all that we could. We met back at the hostel that afternoon and discussed our findings on the local customs, the people and the food. It is a common agreement among the group members that Fijians are righteously awesome. Sometimes their friendlyness is feigned in an effort to get us gringos to buy things. But often, it is completely legitimate, exemplified by big smiles and the many shouts of bula! (hello!) from people we walk past.
Each of these blogs will include a little fun fact or history about the place we find ourselves. In Fiji, Christianity became so widely accepted because of similarities to their traditional forms of worship: mana (meaning spiritual power) and taboo (sacred prohibitions). There are a number of interesting Taboos in Fijian culture that we have been learning. My favorite so far has to be that sitting in doorways is discouraged, because if a spirit should want to enter the house, their way should not be blocked. Fijians do still worship in traditional ways, including the Kava ceremony that the next blog will likely mention. There is going to be a Kava ceremony welcoming us to our next port of call, a northern village called Nannanu, where we will be volunteering for the next two weeks.
The food in Nadi so far has been great, strongly influenced by Indian cuisine which is a favorite of mine. It is going to be a little different in the village we are going to next, no doubt, but the group is excited about getting a taste of authentic Fijian cuisine and culture.
Today we spent the day in Newtown, the more touristy section of the city. The beach there was beautiful. The clear, warm water and palm trees along the shore are the evidence of my facebook status: "fiji: a true paradise." We swam and hung out for a few hours, and headed back downtown.
There is not much more to report, thus far. The group gets along really well together, and we are excited about getting the real itinerary of the trip underway since orientation has gone so well.
On a personal note, our arrival in Fiji reminded me of a part in book that I just read by one of my literary heroes, Hunter S. Thompson. He lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1958, before the place became a haven of tourists and rich americans. Some of his descriptions of the landscape of San Juan remind me a good deal of Nadi, but what really spoke to me in his writing was his sense of freedom and awe in a new and beautiful part of the world. Thus I'm going to end this post with a direct quote from The Rum Diary. I hope that all is well stateside.
"I was feeling better now, warm and sleepy and absolutely free, with the palms waving and the big sun burning down on the road ahead, I had a flash of something I hadn't had since my first days in Europe: a mixture of ignorance and a loose kind of what-the-hell confidence that comes to a man when the wind picks up, and he begins to move in a hard, straight line, toward an unknown horizon."

It's official ... let this journey begin!

2009-09-08T20:31:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to report that I just got off the phone with our staff and the group is officially together and checked in for their international flight to Fiji. As for how things portend for this coming semester this is as smooth a union as I've seen and I'm sure this will be a transformative and enlivening semester for all!

... stay tuned for more blogs from the students starting once they land and running roughly every week.

Yours in spirit,

Ethan

2009-08-31T17:05:00.000-07:00

Hello FANZers! This is Heather and Adam writing from Portland OR. We are here at Carpe HQ, taking care of final preparations for our upcoming adventure together through the South Pacific. We are looking forward to meeting you all very soon...Sept 8th at LAX. We are also looking forward to meeting all the wonderful people of the South Pacific who will be hosting us along the way and sharing their lives and cultures with us. We will be speaking with all of you on the phone before we leave, but also feel free to email us with any other questions you might have. Aside from that, enjoy your last week at home and we will see you soon!

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." -- Jawaharal Nehru

Under The Sea

2009-05-04T00:12:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! It's Tyler and Kay-Lin again, bringing you the latest update on our adventures from the Great Barrier Reef. After our final dive yesterday, we all became certified divers! Accquiriing our licenses included starting a 4 day course with Cairns Dive Center. Our instructor Lance had us watch instructional videos and even gave us homework, something most of us haven't done in a while! He and Mel, his assistant instructor, were really thoruogh in teaching us all the underwater technical skills that go along with scuba diving. At first some us were a little nervous about going underwater but once we got the hang of it, we were swimming around the pool like dolphins! After two days of training in the pool, we had a pretty intense boat ride out to the Great Barrier Reef. Our group was well prepared with sea-sickness pills but the other people on the boat were not so lucky. For two hours we were surrounded by people throwing up everywhere. It was defintiely a crazy experience. We were relieved to finally get to the Kangaroo Explorer, our liveaboard boat. Lance wasted no time in getting us into the ocean with our first open water dive. It was freaky while descending down into the murky water. At 15 meters down, we reached the sandy bottom where Lance had us practice our mask removal and regulator retrieval skills. We then swam around to look at the coral and abundant sea life. After returning to the boat, we had a 2 hour break before our next dive. The Kangaroo Explorer was on it's way to a new reef location when the waters got extremely choppy and we were violently tossed around the dining room. At 4 pm, we had our second dive of the day. The visibility was much better this time and everyone was more comfortable in the open water. Us two, Dawn and Reid even managed to go on a night dive! It was a little scary at first while jumping into the dark water but once we were below the surface everything seemed really calm and relaxing. The sea life at night is totally different from that during the day. There was a lot of red bass, cleaner shrimp, poisonous lionfish, a moray eel and a sting ray. It was definitly something we'll never forget. The whole group was pretty exhausted and collasped into their beds once we were done diving. At 5:30 am the next day, we were woken up by Mel screaming and banging on our doors. We forgot to mention that Lance and Mel are absolutely insane once they're out on the ocean, acting like two crazy kids! We had to suit up and get ready for our 6 am dive, which is when we saw a school of Maori Wrasse and even more lionfish. After that dive, we only needed one more dive to complete our certificatiions. On our final dive with our instructors we swam with a sea turtle and a sting ray! Shelby even had a sea cucumber attach itself to her hand. Don't worry parents, she's still fully intact. Before leaving the reef, we got to do one solo dive with our buddies. We got to rent an underwater camera and you can see the photos below. Shelby and Marissa even found a nemo, which apparently can change their sex in case the female is eaten or abandons her anemone.

Now that diving is over, we are trying to enjoy our last two days together. So this is our last post and we've loved sharing all our memories and experiences with you these past three months. Can you believe its over!? We can't wait to see you in a few days!

With lots of love to everyone,
-Kay-Lin, Tyler, Chelsea, Marissa, Reid, Elizabeth, Blake, and Shelby

Om Mani Padme Hum Everyone, Om Mani Padme Hum

2009-04-30T04:12:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, this is Tyler and Kay-lin giving you all an update (if you remember the amazing blog post way back from Auckland, you should be excited).

Anyways, we spent our last few days in alice springs hanging out by the pool and watching good movies at night. It was all very relaxing and peaceful UNTIL the morning of our departure, two girls (Chelsea and Elizabeth) woke up with a surprise. The girls were covered in bed-bug bites, Chelsea had 72 alone on her left forearm. At first this little turn of events was hilarious to all of us, but hours later it turned into a serious nightmare. Slowly it began to spread throughout the entire group (excluding your dear bloggers- thank god). Luckily Kay-Lin stopped by the hospital and found heavy duty anti-ich/numbing cream. A few days later, once the epidemic (much worse than the Swine Flu) had spread to others, Marissa had had enough and went on a mass cleaning frenzy and exterminated the bed-bugs once and for all. So don't worry, the critters are gone and we'll be a bunch of clean kids coming back to our homes.

Thankfully, the meditation at Chenrezig Buddhist Institute helped a lot of the infected group memebers deal with their itching and scratching. Our week at Chenrezig was filled with yoga, meditation, Buddhist lectures, and great food! We got to pick the brain of Sonam- the coolest nun ever, for an hour each night. Sonam was eloquent and intellectual in answering our endless questions on the philosophy of meditation and Buddhism. We also were able to challenge our flexibility, balance, and minds with multiple yoga sessions with our wonderful teacher Lorie. We think we speak for everyone when we say that we definitely want to explore more yoga and meditation when we get home. Additionally, there was a Mani Retreat happening while we were staying at CI. We were able to partake in a Mani session. This meant repeating Om Mani Padme Hum 108 times while counting prayer beads and then repeating the 108 cycle as many times as possible in an alotted amount of time. We also learned a lot about the situation in Tibet with the Chinese occupation. We got some time away from Chenrezig when we visited the Eummundi markets and the Australian zoo. The markets were ridiculously huge with free food samples galore (including the best banana smoothie ever). And for those of you who didn't know, the Australian Zoo was famously funded by the Irwin family. Everyone that went (Tyler, Blake, and Drew stayed back at Chenrezig) took the opportunity to see the famous crodidile show and loved it.

We were all sad to leave Chenrezig but at the same time all very excited to start scuba diving. But before we could start that, we had to endure the longest, meaning 41 hour, train ride of our lives. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong did, but we still managed to make the best of it and we all had a great time and it was an interesting experience. This included horrible stomach aches for those who ate the "bangers-and-mash" (sausage and mashed potatoes) and they had a hard time sleeping in their triple-bunk claustrophobic rooms.

We're now in Cairns for our last week of the trip (crazy i know) and today was our first day learning how to scuba dive. It involved sitting and watching instructional videos, swim tests, and actually practicing skills in the pool. We have one more day of pool diving and then we finaly get out onto the Great Barrier Reef! We'll spend two days diving and a night on the boat, some of us are nervous for the open water but we all know it will be an amazing experience. There's even going to be an optional night dive (which Tyler and Kay-Lin are for sure doing)!

We'll plan on updating you one last time before we say our goodbyes. So until then, we miss you and love you all, see you in a week! ahhh!

-Kay-Lin and Tyler

P.S. we'll post photos of Alice Springs, Chenrezig, the train, and some UNDERWATER PHOTOS (we're all chipping in to rent an underwater camera) in our next post.

Swine Flu - Update from Carpe Diem HQ

2009-04-28T08:59:00.001-07:00

The following is a post recently made to our FAQ page that we wanted to include to all of you who might be reading this blog.

Swine flu has recently been confirmed throughout Mexico and parts of the US. A few other countries have also reported possible infections. While we're in touch with the CDC and monitoring all of the international news we can put our hands on, we also feel we are uniquely placed to handle the situation given that all of our field staff are trained in Wilderness Medicine; two of our office staff are currently Emergency Room nurses; and the other is a Wilderness EMT. We also have contact with a variety of local doctors (including a few with advanced training in international and tropical medicines) that should needs require we can reach out to.

Our spring & fall 2009 programs will continue to run as scheduled although we plan on requiring flu shots for our fall programs as they have been proven (with Avian Flu for instance) to much reduce any severity of infection. We may also choose to outfit our medical kits with extra supplies such as extra hand sanitizer and the like.

Swine Flu is an offshoot of the 1918-19 flu: just as every flu since then has been. In that strain of flu as well as most that have followed including Swine, Pneumonia has been the actual concern and the one we're most on guard for. The good news is that once recognized there are very good treatments for Pneumonia and we are very familiar with good doctors in the areas our students travel. Of course we plan on continuing to take the proactive approach and deal with any medical potentialities quickly and professionally. Since that initial pandemic in 1918, the subsequent strains have historically been more and more benign. The Swine Flu is presenting thankfully as a low-mortality flu (currently, in the US as an example, there have been 50 suspected cases and only one took an overnight in the hospital before being discharged in good health). So, while this particular flu strain is stronger than the typical seasonal flu, we are hopeful that it will continue to be as easily treatable as it has been.

Groovy Grape/ Alice Springs

2009-04-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

Hello folks!

Marissa and Chelsea checking in again. So our last post left off with us about to head to our Groovy Grape experience. In case all of you are wondering "Groovy Grape" is a tour bus experience- in which a group of about 20 people (including the ten of us) sightsee the outback. Over the coarse of a few days our bus added on the miles- as we traveled to some of Australias top tourist attractions (Such as Ayers rock). At first, some of us were not to keen on the idea of participating in such a touristy trip- but with the help of our lovely (as well as hysterical) 6'7" tour guide Aubrey aka- Aubs, Orbit, etc, we happily adjusted (or at least the girls did). Within our outback adventure we visited many sights including- Uluru (Ayers Rock), William Creek (AU's smallest town), numerous Aboriginal cave paintings, Cooper Pedy (where 80% of the world's opals come from), and King's Canyon (where we participated in a hike). During the course of this week we also celebrated Dawns birthday- which we started the day off waking up at 5' to watch the sunrise (which Dawn thoroughly enjoyed).

Easter was celebrated with lots of chocolate and long hours in the bus (and one special Easter Bunny suprise!). Overall we ended up really enjoying our trip and were sad to see our new friends go (especially our hottie of a tour guide...)

But things were looking up when we remembered that we had a week of relaxation in Alice Springs ahead of us. After being lazy bums for a day, we rented bikes and pedaled to a desert park 7 kilos from the hostel. Our hostel, by the way, is frickin cool. There is a pool, music is always blastin, and we have officially made ourselves at home.

Soon enough we'll say goodbye to Alice Springs and spend our last roughly 15 real days (Can you believe it?!, we sure as hell cant) in Australia on a yogic retreat just outside of Brisbane and scuba diving the Great Barrier reef.

Overall we are looking forward into making these last few weeks in the land down under extrodinary.

and with that,

Adios!

Chelsea and Marissa ;)

So many pictures!

2009-04-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, sorry its taken so long for pictures, but here's a huge recap of everything going all the way back to the Routeburn Track. Enjoy!

Shelby jumping over Ayers Rock

Reid, Marissa, Kay-Lin and Tyler watching the sun rise on Dawn's Birthday

Aubry, our crazy tour guide on the Groovy Grape (you'll hear more about this in the next post)

Looking for wombats!

Lunch break in the desert while monitoring wombat holes

The whole group after seeing a show at the opera house

The BEST ice cream any of us have ever had, our last day in Queenstown

Kayaking in Milford Sound

Jumping for joy on the Routeburn Track

Hiking on the Routeburn

2009-04-09T03:10:00.000-07:00

Hello from Australia! Chelsea and Marissa checking-in! Sorry it took so long for us to post since the sheep farm but we have just been so busy with our travels.

After the sheep farm we spent two fabulous nights in Queenstown, NZ preparing for the upcoming Routeburn Trek. The trek was 32 kilometers (around 20 miles) and took us only 3 days. Through the trek we were surrounded by a variety of beautiful scenery- woods, mountains, waterfalls GALORE. After each long, eventful day of busting our asses we were pleased with the cleanliness and friendliness of our cabins. One of the biggest pieces of the trek was planning group meals, which eventually (and unfortunately) led to the up-chucking of Reid Miller. Our ten hour/15 mile journey on the second day finally ended with the best cup of Milo we'd ever had. The third day we all awoke at 5 in the pitch-black morning to hike out and finish our journey, some of us without a headlamp... Chelsea and Elizabeth... Which led us directly into a tough day of kayaking the Milford Sound. The day of kayaking started off easy-breezy; all of us enjoying our beautiful surroundings with big open smiles. Yet as the hours passed, the forces of nature grew stronger. For some of us those big open smiles quickly turned into angry frustrated grit teeth as we battled those forces of nature. Some of us were quickly taken away at sea, needing the assistance of our trusty guide Oly, as he harnessed Kay-Lin and Chelsea's kayak to his. But thankfully we all reached land safely.

The rest of the day and the next was spent at the only accommodation in the Milford Sound (the Milford Sound Lodge). April Fool's Day was not forgotten either.

We spent our last day in NZ in Queenstown again, where we enjoyed a family meal followed by the most massive, mouth-watering gelato cone anyone had ever had. With very full bellies we slept all having very good dreams knowing that Australia was "just around the river bend..."

SYDNEY!! Carpe Diem was in da house. Kings Cross, where we stayed within the city, was dirty but we still had a good time. The Botanical Gardens, Opera House, and Hyde Park were all fab-u-lous. Our first day we were given a super cool SCAVENGER HUNT CHALLENGE!! We got into, real into it. The hunt nearly ended friendships as the teams competed for the romantic dinner prize. The next day, the group split up according to which markets they wished to visit. Tyler, Shelby, and Marissa all had plans of hitting up a few. After walking through Paddy's market, and purchasing a fluorescent pink wig on Marissa's part, things went wrong. Marissa was left behind on the train, and had to fend for herself for the rest of the day... all whist wearing the fluorescent wig.

Our last night, we all attended a play at the Opera House called "The Alchemist." We all enjoyed the play except for poor soul (Chelsea). Again the night ended with ice cream.

Then we hit up Adelaide, where the group settled in chilling with the kangaroos and wombats. There we spent the next few days there working on a Australian conservation project counting wombat burrows in order to count there population (very important in helping protect these cute cuddly creatures). For all of you that didn't know what the wombat creature is - it is a marsupial that looks like a cross between a guinea pig, pig, and a chinchilla- overall a cute little bugger. Our guide Katie became our new best friend as we begged her to cook us more pancakes, and with here eagle eyes she even pointed out two wild wombats, a emu, and a plentyfull amount of kangaroos. Today (April 9th) we left our house in the outback into travel back to civilization to prepare for our next adventure on Groovy Grape where we will be touring the outback. Till next time! Love the fab 10.

Chelsea
Marissa

WWOOFing pictures

2009-03-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

drenching

more drenching

Snow with his dogs early in the morning.

Elizabeth, Marissa and Walter (an austrian working on the farm) fenching.

Dawn, Tyler, Elizabeth and Chelsea before work.

Reid (in the back) getting ready to draft some sheep.

WWOOFing it up!

2009-03-26T02:39:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Tonight is our last night at the WWOOFing farm and, I must say, we are all a little sad to be leaving. We've had such a fun time getting back to our cowboy/farming roots. :D Our stay at Graham's farm has been very interesting and eventful. There are a variety of jobs here that we all participated in. Some days a group of us would ride around the farm, fixing fences as we went, while the other group got down and dirty with the sheep. I think most of the group would agree when I say that working with the sheep was a blast. My personal favorite sheep activity was drenching. Let me paint a picture for you. First everyone chases the sheep into a long, narrow pen. When they're all packed in like sardines two people hop into the pen with them. One person [the drencher] is wearing a ghost buster-like backpack complete with a squirt nozzle gun. The backpack is filled with a rich yellow liquid that supposedly contains key nutrients for the sheep. So, the drencher has to get a sheep in between his or her legs, grab the sheep's mouth, shove the squirt gun into it's mouth, and spray the nutrients into the back of it's throat. The other person [we'll call them the yanker] stands behind the drencher and pulls the sheep that have been done back behind them. Now, mind you, sheep are quite stupid and stubborn animals. On top of that, when they get into panic mode anything could happen. Elizabeth got taken down by one within the first 20 minutes of working with them [dangerous stuff! ;)]. Back to the drenching, you basically have to struggle to get them in a headlock position while they are fighting for their lives, trying to wriggle away. One tactic some of the sheep used, that got annoying quickly, was hiding their heads or their entire bodies underneath other sheep! The best part, however, was getting to climb on/crowd surf the sheep just to get the job done. Oh! And the entire time this was going on you could also be getting peed on [or in Chelsea's case pooed on] or somehow manage to get poo in your mouth [Kay-Lin] haha. In simpler terms you and the poo became attached at the hip, literally. We were all definitely dirty boys and girls. It was intense!

On an even more disgusting note, a few of us had the pleasure of witnessing a a sheep slaughter. Now, they didn't get to see the sheep get killed, but they did have the pleasure of witnessing a horrific and stomach churning skinning, hanging, and gutting of a sheep. I also heard that Snow, the man performing these deeds, was throwing various parts of the dead sheep at people as a joke. Drew was the receiver of that one haha oh man.

Another really cool thing about staying at this farm was that there was another family staying here as well. The family is made up of a couple, PJ and Tom, and their three kids: George, 8; Ben, 6; and Rosie, 4. They are the sweetest and cutest family ever with matching red hair. I feel like they definitely welcomed us into their family. PJ gave a lot of us good pointers on cooking, while Tom turned us into handymen. It was awesome :).

We are off to Queenstown in the morning to start prepping for our big hike coming up. I'll keep you guys posted on our groups crazy adventures, but it's getting late and I still need to pack! So goodnight and I'll ttyl!

- Shelby

Picture update

2009-03-20T14:43:00.001-07:00

All of us at our work site plus Peter.

An example of our professional level cooking at our last youth hostile.

Forest walk with Stephen King (not the one you're thinking of).

We still are going to post a few pictures from OPC and our extreme 2 day hike. We'll probably do that later today.
-Tyler

2009-03-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Christchurch! It's Shelby and Blake writing to you now. We got off to a rough start this week when Mac and Sean made the decision to go home from Picton. The mood was gloomy, to say the least, but our time in Lyttelton has been worthwhile. We spent the week clearing a historical site of invasive plants, while working with the Department of Conservation and a local Maori group. Conservation in the form of cutting down trees seemed like a paradox, but we had fun and the DOC was grateful. The best part was the fact that we made a difference :D. Another adventure we had was preparing all of our own meals. We have all transformed into iron chefs and are eternally thankful for the help and guidance of Dawn and Drew. Basically, we are relaxed, recharged, and in high spirits! We are ready to take on whatever greets us at the WOOFing farm tomorrow.

And now we're off to enjoy our free day in Christchurch!

Cheers!

New Zealand - North to South

2009-03-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

Kia'ora everyone! It's been a couple weeks since we've updated the blog, so I'm going to do my best to catch everyone up. During our last blog, we were deep in the urban jungle known as Auckland. We have experienced a TON since then so let me get started. On the morning of our last day in Auckland, our tour guide Des for the Indigenous Trails program picked us up in a big van and we tucked in for a 3-hour drive up into the Northern regions of New Zealand. The drive was smooth and a lot of us got to catch up on some much needed rest and relaxation time. As we got farther North, the scenery started to change. We were soon driving through rolling green hills that were dotted white with thousands of sheep (there are more sheep than people in NZ, fun fact). The views were gorgeous, and our excitement started to grow as we got closer and closer to our destination. We finally arrived at a Marae, which is a type of "community hall" for the local Maori tribe. We were greeted by the elders with songs and the famed Hongi, which is the traditional greeting through the Maori culture (touching foreheads and noses, which you might have seen in pictures before). After our Fiji experience, most of us were expecting a more rugged lifestyle, but the Maori's have kept up with modernization as much as any of us. They have their own TV channel and possess about 150 spots in the New Zealand Parliament, among other things. From there, one of the Maori elders, Koro, took it upon himself to show us around and set up activities for us to do. One our first day, we viewed a plot of land that the Maori tribe was planning to make into a park. We took a walk around, and then returned to the Marae to brainstorm some park designs and ideas. We came up with some good ideas (in our opinions, at least) and Koro seemed pretty enthusiastic about implementing some of them. After our daily activies, we occupied ourselves with trying to down all the food the threw at us and playing with the kids who lived in the nearby area. On our 2nd day, Koro took us into the Kauri (pronounced Kodi) forests that were nearby. These forests are really cool, and are home to the largest trees in New Zealand, which also happen to be some of the largest in the world. Our group had the distinct privilege to witness the actual tallest tree in New Zealand, named "Tane Mahuta," or "God of the Forest." Let's just say, seeing this tree left all of us speechless. Words cannot even describe the size and majesty of this tree. The Maori's worship this tree and our experienced was heightened (no pun intended) by the singing and storytelling of Koru. It was truly a humbling experience. Our next activity was probably the most enjoyable one of our time there. We spent all day with Jim who was a local bonecarver who had been carving for almost 14 years. We spend all day designing, cutting, sanding, and polishing our own bone-necklaces. It was really fun and totally cool to see some of the finished products that we came up with. Jim and his wife Char were so nice too. They let us into their homes and fed us lunch and talked with us all day. That night, we took a night-walk into the forest again. We walked about 15 minutes in until we came upon another Kauri tree that, again, took all of our breaths away. We were standing in the presence of Te Matua Ngahere, also known as "the father of the forest." Tane Mahuta was taller, but this tree was freakin' HUGE. The trunk was so large and the tree seemed to disappear into the sky. Koru informed us that the tree was over 4,000 years old. For perspective, it was germinating 2,000 years before the birth of Christ. We all sat in silence for 30 minutes under the tree, completely entranced by it's beauty. I can understand why the Maoris worship these trees. As we walked out of the forest, all of us felt at peace, almost like the tree had weaved some kind of spell into us. I can speak for us all when I say that I will remember this tree for as long as I live. On our last night, the Maori people prepared a large feast for us and we sang songs and had a great last night. All in all, the experience was a great one, although we had hoped to get a better glimpse of the culture (hopefully we will in the coming weeks). After we left the Marae, Des and the Indigenous Trails crew drove us 9 hours south to the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoors Pursuit Center. After meeting our instructor Chris and going over our plans for the next couple days, we realized that this was going to be a definite change of pace. We did catch a spot of luck from the beginning. A local school was also there, and the 60 students had filled the normal accommodations, so we were moved into the corporate lodge. The lodge was beautiful and spacious, with tons of our own bathrooms with hot water. It was nice to be able to come back to a quiet lodge after some hard days in the wilderness, where we could sit in front of the wood fire and play cards and relax. Our OPC experience kicked off with a day of team-building exercises. Our fantastic group dynamic made itself evident in these exercises. We all get along really well, so we were able to work together and complete the challenges. We also got to hit up the "flying fox," which is the NZ equivalent of a zip-line. We had fun and also got a great view of the valley below us. Our 2nd day put us in canoes out in one of the local lakes. It was fun for us to learn how to canoe and work together to explore the lake. There is something really relaxing about being on the water, especially in canoes that we got to slowly paddle around. Our 3rd day would turn out to be the most challenging for our group. We embarked on a 2 day 1 night hike that would take us to the summit of one of the nearby mountains. Many of us had never camped or hiked before, so we were being thrown completely out of our comfort zones. Chris helped us to use the maps and compasses accurately to find our way to the top and then back down to our campsite. Our group pushed through dense brush, not even following a trail or anything. It was an experience unlike anything we had done before, and it even though it was challenging we all felt accomplished after we had made it to the top. Our group helped eachother to push on through and make it to our campsite. We pitched camp, and basically collapsed in exhaustion. We had been hiking for around 10 hours. We woke up early and headed back down the mountain to OPC. When the day was through, we all felt good but many of us agreed that we could continue to live well without doing something like that again. On our last day, we were given the opportunity to go caving, but most of us were tired still from the hike so we didn't take it. Personally, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity so I begged Chris to take me in. He agreed, and I had one heck of time squeezing through tiny passages and wading through water. The caves were really cool, and I wish the whole group had been able to experience it. We finally left OPC tired but content, and headed to Wellington for a couple days to recharge. Wellington was a pretty cool city, and we got the chance to check out the famed Te Papa museum and also a live music festival that was happening. We left Wellington today, and took a 3 hour ferry to the South island of NZ. We arrived here in Picton, and decided to shack up for the night. Tomorrow we will make the 6-hour journey to Christchurch, and than continue on to do some conservation work with another local Maori tribe. We are all looking forward to the experience, and all of us are so happy with what we have done in the past couple weeks. Thanks everyone for reading, and we will be posting again shortly! Also, the pictures will be uploaded ASAP. Peace

Mac and the Carpe Diem crew

Free Time in Auckland

2009-03-03T13:18:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,
We're about to leave Auckland today for a Marae visit, none of us (including our trip leaders) really know what we'll be doing, but it will be a good surprise! We've had the last few days to relax and explore the city. We've all got to catch up on sleep (most of us) and emails and little errands. The first night we were able to catch a movie, we saw Gran Torino (don't see it in Kay-Lin and Tyler's opinion). Yesterday we went to Rangitoto Island and hiked to the top of an extinct volcano and took in the amazing views of Auckland and its beautiful surroundings.We've stayed in a very nice youth hostel although the state we left it in this morning was not very clean...
That's all for now, we'll update you again next week hopefully.
-Tyler and Kay-Lin

Here are a few pictures from our stay in Auckland:

Sean, Chelsea, Shelby, Blake, Reid
Elizabeth, Dawn, Marissa, Tyler

Long story...

Drew doing an interpretive dance for the tour bus before our hike.

Last Week in Nananu

2009-03-01T13:25:00.000-08:00

We finally arrived in Auckland last night but we'll never forget our amazing last week in Nananu. We started off the week by finishing our part of the road. Hopefully, another group will be able to come next semester and complete it. Ideally, the road should go through the entire village. We celebrated that night with one of MANY dance parties with the villagers. The next day we rode horseback to an awesome natural waterslide/waterfall outside of the village. We can all agree that it was one of the best days we had in Fiji. We spent about five hours trying crazy jumps and combinations off the slide and rocks. We were all amazed by how daring the Fijians were! It was great to see them let loose and just enjoy themselves. They have a FANZtastic work ethic and they certainly deserved a day of sun and play. We may have a had a little too much fun though. When we returned to the village we were exhausted and in pain from riding horseback. On Wednesday morning, we visited the Fiji Water Plant. The tour was pretty short but it definitely showed the positive impact it has on Vatukaloko, an area made up of the five surrounding villages, including Nananu. Fiji Water pays for these villages' electricity and water bills as well as employing 480 Fijians at a time. Many of our maqus and uncles even worked at the plant making $5 per hour, one the highest paying jobs in the country. We also managed to go to Tavua, the nearest town, to buy supplies for the suprise we had been planning for the villagers. With some cloth and paint, we were able to make two banners for them to hang up in their soon-to-be built community hall. We didn't have any paintburshes so it was definitely interesting fingerpainting the entire thing. Our final day in the village was Family Day. Some of us went back to the first waterfall we visited and some of us just spent the day lounging by the river with our families. That night we had one last dance party. We were all pretty tired but when the Fjiians want to dance, they will make you dance. Some of us retired early while others stayed up until 4:30 AM dancing and drinking kava. It was a great way to spend our last night in such a beautiful country. Our final morning was a bittersweet one. While we couldn't wait to move on to the next part of our trip, we didn't want to say goodbye to our new families either. There was a little more kava, a little more dancing and lots of tears. While we thought we would never see them again, four of our closest Fijian friends had a little trick up their sleeve by surprising us at the Nadi Airport. We were all really excited and touched by their affection for us. We'll never forget the love the whole village had for us!

P.S. - This is Tyler and Kay-Lin. The last three posts were made by Elizabeth and Reid. We'll be rotating various duties throughout the trip. Keep checkung back for more on our adventures!!

Update on pictures

2009-03-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

We thought we'd post a few pictures that we have so far. We have a ton of photos already and these are just a few, we'll probably post more later!

Group photo from when they surprised us at the airport. For those of you who don't know who everyone in the group is (probably most of you) starting in the top left row its: Kali, Blake, Shelby, Elizabeth, Chelsea, Kay-Lin, Bill, Mac, Max, Sean. The bottom row starting from the left: Tyler, Dawn, Marissa, Drew, Isei, Reid.

A semi group photo on the CB (the cement block in Nananu, it became very significant to us over the two weeks). Its Reid, Chelsea, Shelby, Sean, Kay-Lin, Mac, Elizabeth, Marissa, Tyler.

Our last dinner in the village.

In Tavua, going from the left again; Blake, Shelby, Tyler, Chelsea, Elizabeth, Marissa, Reid, Drew is in the back and Kay-Lin and Sean are in the front.

All of us after planting cassava.

Mac smoothing the cement.

Shelby working on the road.

Nananu Village

2009-02-20T16:05:00.000-08:00

We have been in the village for a week now, today (saturday) we were given the nice surprise of going into town. Naturally we all ran for the nearest computer...
The Village is tucked between green mountains scattered with horses and cows.
There are two students to a house where we live with our mangoo (dad) and nao (mom), everyone has many siblings but I don't know the word for that. Everyone is so happy to have us, so accomodating, opening their homes to us, cooking for us, washing our clothes we are very grateful to our loving hosts.
We eat all of our meals together as a group in a community house where we enjoy delish meals while sitting on the floor. The meals are always yummy. My personal favorite being breakfast, who wouldn't love cake for breakfast??
We have been working on building a road to go throughout the village. The men of the village are such strong workers, the road is really coming along nicely (us carpe diem students are pretty good workers as well).
Two days ago we went for a hike up the mountains, it was more difficult for some of us. Some of the group decided to hike to the top while others went to the source of water for the village, a beautiful and huge waterfall. Jumping into the cold water made the whole, hot hike worth it. Then on our way down it started to rain, pour actually. Everyone was soaked but we just had so much fun making our way back to the village. It was so beautiful with wild horses all around. We had to swim cross several rivers on our way back, without the help of the Fijian men, there for sure would be less of us here today. That day will definitely stick out as a favorite of the trip for some of us.
Everything is going well, the group is getting along, enjoying the sun and the love of the Nananu people...
we will post some awesome pictures when we can!!

Mode! (mo-day, bye in Fijian)

Fiji Day Uno

2009-02-12T13:37:00.000-08:00

BULA! BULA! BULA!
We arrived at the Nadi airport at 5:30 am yesterday, it was very humid. We crammed into a tiny bus that took us to the Nadi Downtown backpackers Inn. The group is getting to know each other very well, no one hates each other (yet). The leaders took a nap for 5 hours while the students went wild on the town (actually we just stayed in our rooms and talked). The city of Nadi is busy and the people are all very friendly. We went to an open air market and bought ourselves local produce to make a communal lunch. The star fruit was fanztastic, we got 8 for 1 Fijian dollar- what a deal. We learned a little bit about bargaining. After our lunch, a certain somebody clogged the toilet...still doesn't work. But it was a great ice breaker!
We went out to dinner at a pizza place, which was WAY better than American pizza surprisingly. So far everything is great, everyone is having a good time - although it is very hot and humid.
BULA! that's all for now!

2009-02-12T07:35:00.000-08:00

The FANZ eagle has landed! Bula (welcome) to Fiji!

The group arrived in one piece yesterday, although quite jet lagged I'm sure. They will be learning the ins and outs of the semester and getting to know each other during their orientation in Nadi.

Rumor has it that all of the students were sent out to email their families of their safe arrival. So, if you haven't received word, well, this is why our blog exist. So, keep checking back!

Let the adventure begin...
Carpe Diem HQ

They're leavin' on a jet plane...

2009-02-10T19:46:00.000-08:00

It's official! All 12 FANZers are together in LAX awaiting their outbound flight. After a few hours of get-to-know you games and scavenger hunts, they will be enroute to Nadi, Fiji. That crazy phenomenon known as the international date line means that they will actually land on the 12th of February. So, everybody sit back, check back (to the blog that is) and let's enjoy the ride!

The FANZ group will take over the blog entries from here so you can share in their adventure. Give them a good 36 hours though. It takes a while to get your legs beneath you after all the twilight travel!

Until then, Bula Vinaka from Carpe Headquarters and the South Pacific!

-Amy Berg
Program Director

Hellos

2009-02-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

Well Hi Thar:)
It's your future co-leaders, Drew and Dawn, just checking in with you, sending out warm welcomes. We have just spent the day together running around Portland doing last minute errands, talking Heaps about our upcoming adventure and how truly excited we are to meet all of you very very soon. We've been going over our itinerary, finalizing a few things as well. Anyhow.
So this is the first of many Blogs to come, which you guys will eventually be taking over; it is a way to share with friends, family, and loved ones what we are all up to. You may notice that there are previous entries from the last group who were on this trip...we want to keep these old Blogs as an ongoing way for everyone to access past memories and to see what future groups are up to!
We are sooooo very excited to meet you guys, and to have the opportunity to share such amazing and magical moments with you all.
Yippee Kye Aye,
Drew and Dawn

Welcome back

2008-12-06T08:52:00.000-08:00

And all of a sudden we're back home... in a way our FANZ journey can all seem like a dream, eh? From dripping sweat in the heat and humidity of Cairns to back into the chill and Christmas lights of winter, our reality has changed rather abruptly. I trust you're all enjoying soft towels, your own beds, and a good home-cooked 'feed'. Take it easy on yourself over the next several days as you go through the 'fog' of transition. Enjoy revisiting the pictures that ignite your mind to all the memories of being together. And be in touch... our FANZ family continues on, though we've dispersed through the country. Be well, be happy and continue to be open to the amazing journey before you:)

Amanda & Steven

Curtain falling

2008-11-29T00:05:00.000-08:00

It seems to be that it’s already time for that final blog entry. I figured I would start this blog and end it as well. But before we say our final goodbyes, here’s the recap of our latest adventures. After we left Adelaide we got picked up by the desert outback patrol. Which I’m pretty sure I can say was one of the more weirdly interesting parts of the trip. The program consisted of the group + 3 German girls + 1 Dutch guy stuck on a bus for SEVEN days straight, driving from Adelaide to Alice Springs. From stopping at every bathroom ever opened in that part of the outback, to visiting a man that can tell who you are as a person by the letters in your name, to watching the sunset at the most touristy place at Uluru, and being flooded in at all main roads and being stuck with sleeping in the rain or camping out in the magical place that some call… the Landry room. I’m sure you could only imagine how excited we were to get to the Alice Springs YHA.

With never staying in one place to long we packed up our bags once again and hoped on a plane from Alice Springs to Sydney, then to Sydney to Brisbane, spent one night there then jumped on a train to Chenrezig Buddhist Monastery. It was equipped with beautiful gardens and trees, a breath taking Gompa, nice and comfy bedrooms, and the biggest spiders and other insects some of us (Me) have ever seen in our lives! We learned about the basics of the Buddhist culture, did some yoga, eat some good (vegan) meals, and went to the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo.

And last but not least (after an excruciatingly long 30 hour train ride) we arrived to the Bohemian Central hostel in Cairns and is in the process of getting Scuba certified. Everyone is thrilled (even Kara) to go Scuba diving but is even more excited to get back home to see their families.

Into the land of Irwin, Jackman, and Ledger...

2008-11-08T02:02:00.000-08:00

We have finally arrived in the last leg of our journey....AUSTRALIA!!! We flew into Sydney and spent two days. We went to the Aquarium and walked through a tunnel of sharks and huge sting rays. The last night in Sydney we all got dressed up and went to the legendery Opera House to see a performance of Mozart. One of the days in Sydney we went to Bondi beach and there was an art exhibit called "scultputes by the sea." All of the sculptures were really cool and intricate. After sydney we came to Adelaide and after a day at the really sweet yha (with a ping pong table!!) we found out that the group would be splitting up for a week. Everyone was really upset and worried because we have been together for two months straight. We each went our seperate ways with CVA (Conservations Volunteers Australia) off to different parts of the outback. Kim, Steven, Anna, Gaelen, and Becky traveled 3 hours away to survey wombats. From what i've heard it was very interesting. The house they stayed at had no electricity or water so it was almost like being in the fijian village all over again. They found out Obama was elected only because They were all huddled in the car listening to the radio. My group traveled 7 HOURS away to Leigh Creek to pull weeds and collect seeds. We saw lots of wallabies and kangaroos up close. On the last night we had a "barbie" (bbq) and roasted up some fresh "roo" (kangaroo that is!) When our work was done ww reunnited back at the sweet hostel in Adelaide to swap stories. We're induldging ourselves with target visits (!!), christmas parades, ping pong tournaments, and bike rides before heading back to the outback in 4 days. All is well here.

--Kara & Kim

ps. Sorry this is the worst blog ever... we made a really cool videoblog but we couldn't figure out how to put it up.

WWOOFing in New Zealand

2008-11-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

Compliments of Graham--WWOOF host extraordinaire!

Hello from the WWOOFers!

2008-10-28T02:58:00.000-07:00

So its official we are all WWOOFers now :).
WWOOF stands for willing workers on organic farm. The farm we have been working on the last week is called Marama farm. Marama farm is a sheep farm on the south island of New Zealand. Our time spent here has been a whirlwind of new experiences and has definitely brought our already cozy group even closer together. For starters we ate the most delicious sausages i have ever has in my life made from sheep from Marama farm. The owner Graham Clarke has been a fantastic host and we have learned so much about what it means to run a farm in the past week. If it werent for all the new adventures waiting for us in Australia I would say that I would love to stay here longer and learn more. Graham has been working on this farm since he was 20 years old and has been farming his entire life. On this particular farm there are 10,000 or more lambs born every year. More than 6,500 of these end up at the butcher :/. Amazing how shepards used to tend to and make a living off of only one flock of sheep. Our first day was spent removing the tails and castrating lambs. The process involves stretching a super tight rubber band around each appendage to cut off blood flow so they will fall off. The sheep are often full of feces and are visibly shaking and terrified. This type of work involved holding each lamb against ones chest so that the bands could be applied. The level of intimacy required to do this job properly was certainly slighty out of my comfort zone but I, like my wonderful group members, was able to embrace it. Our group rose to the ocasion and we were able to get through 1000 lambs in one day of work. The remainder of our stay here involved building about a half mile of fence and doing some gardening work. As you can imagine a farm as large as this one has hundreds of miles of fence. The fence we tore down and replaced was more than 70 years old. Fencing is far less mentally and emotionally draining than taling sheep and is actually very theraputic. Spending hours with the gorgeous New Zealand landscape in the background hammering in staples to string up wire between fence posts is very rewarding and neccesary work. I find myself stopping several times a day to marvel at the breathtaking and often 360 degrees of beautiful landscape in any given place in this marvelous country. The gardening project was a success as having a garden available on a farm is very ideal. I tried parsnips for the first time that I can remember. They are delicious and go very well with lamb. We are off to Queenstown tomorrow and then to Sydney after that! All is well
-Dan

Ki Ora!

2008-10-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

Out from OPC and on to the Bay of Islands for some r & r. A few days in we took a tour to some sights in the Bay of Islands. Our first stop was to hug a huge tree that is supposed to bring the hugger happiness. A later stop was to go dune surfing. Under good conditions a surfer can get up to around 30 mph. The speed resulted in some nice wipeouts from a few of us. The days after that were spent parasailing, kayaking, and relaxing at the hostel. We drove back to Auckland after that to hit the town for a little bit then caught a plane to the South Island where we've been living on a Maori reservation. We spent most of the time rooting out invasive species to clear up a mountain trail. Amanda, Steven, and a few of the boys kept tradition alive by jumping off the dock at a mudai during a tour we were given. One night we all got to witness the intensity that was rugby in the semifinal between Cantebury and Hawk's Bay. Next we're taking a bus down to a farm for more work.

Carpe Diem

O.P.C. Maori's and more!

2008-10-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! The group is currently enjoying some much needed downtime in the beautiful bay of islands!
After arriving in New Zealand and staying in Auckland for a few days, the group set out for the Sir Edmund Hilary Outdoor Pursuits Center. Little did we know, everyone was in for quite an experience. Though we spent the week hiking mountains, climbing ropes courses, and camping in the bush, we were not spared from bad weather. The group had to tough it through hurricane gusts of wind and horizontal rain for the duration of the stay, needless to say everyone got soaked to the bone! But with the help of our grizzly guide, Brett and a little team spirit we all pulled through and felt a little bit stronger afterwards.
After O.P.C. was behind us we set our sights on the Maori restoration project, which was located outside of Roturura. Aided with beautiful weather, the group helped clean up an incredible nature reserve. There was plenty of lawn mowing, weed wacking, and trail cleaning to go around. In between work the gropu got to learn small pieces of Maori culture and tradition, even the traditional war dance, the hakka.
So that brings us back to Paihia (in the Bay of islands) where the group is taking a quick breather and spending the days hiking, sailing, swimming, biking, and anything else the imagination can conjure.
From a Foreign Land,
the carpe diem crew

ello friends.

2008-10-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

oh hey you! FANZ has been traveling up a storm. One country down, two more to go! Our last day in Fiji we went to a white sand beach. Some of the boys rented surfboards and "attempted" to take on the gnarly waves. The beach was really nice and secluded (...the 7th best beach in the world apparently) We were delayed at the Fijian airport for quite a while, but the flight over to New Zealand was really nice. The view flying in was breathtaking, greeneverywhere and gorgeous rolling hills. Right now we're staying in a hostel in the center of Auckland. The hostel is really nice... with a lounge, clean showers (that aren't buckets!!), and a kitchen. We are all feeling a huge culture shock, coming from a very underdeveloped country to a very vibrant fastpaced city.

The other night Gaby and I cooked everyone pasta and we went to a comedy club. There were 10 comedians and they were all hysterical, everyone had a great time. Auckland is amazing, everyone has said at least once that they want to move here. We are sort of running around the city like chickens without heads. I'm speaking for all the girls when I say it's a good thing we are leaving Auckland tomorrow, because we have spent way too much money shopping. The shopping here is great, no wonder everyone in New Zealand is so stylish. Last night Amanda took us up to the top of the sky tower (the tallest structure in the south pacific) and it was ridiculous. It was a great view of the city. Tomorrow we leave Auckland and are headed to the Edmund Hilary outdoor center. Everyone is very excited. It should be fun (and very cold). Hope all is well back home. We're crossing our fingers for the US economy...but on the bright side...the US dollar is really strong here in New Zealand!

--Kim

Moce Fiji, It's Been Lovely!

2008-09-27T01:11:00.000-07:00

Hey there Family & Friends, its Becky the token Canadian writing to you this week! So lets get straight into this update, we are currently in Suva on our second free travel day in Fiji. In the past week we have finished the Togovere driveway, Climbed a mountain, Trekked through the Fijian Rain Forrest and of course made tons of new friends. The Highlights have been on Sunday which was "Maqu Day" the North American equivalent to Father's Day. It was basically a day to spend with your hot family, relax, eat lots of food and take even more naps. And not to be forgotten was Kim's extremely memorable 18th birthday celebrated in the village, she was dressed head to toe in traditional clothing, the pictures are priceless. We finished up the driveway on Monday so we had the rest of the week for activities. On Tuesday majority of the group braved the Strong winds and climbed Mt. Nakovandra (that's a 5 hour trek there and back!!) Lots of stories and laughs from that trip. On Wednesday we were fortunate enough to go to the Fiji Water plant for a tour in the morning then to Drauniivi Public School in the afternoon. I'll never forget how the children swarmed us as we got out of the truck. We were overwhelmed with smiling faces, whispering kids and loud laughter. In the classroom the kids were so happy just to play a couple rounds of "Heads Up, 7 Up" with us. That night we put on visitor night for our village. Boy! Do we know how to show them a night of fun! Thanks to Kara's organization we SUCCESSFULLY put on a fashion show demonstrating all the different ways to wear a sarong, a couple musical performances by our very own FANZ-tastic band consisting of the guitar stylings of Stephen, Myself (Becky) on vocals, and the man with the rhythm, Ben J. on drums. It was a night to remember. On the following night was the villages farewell to us. I'm happy to say I think I've drank my last bowl of Kava. For those that don't know (like I didn't) Kava is a traditional drink made from pepper root. Its served at the traditional welcoming and farewell ceremonies, lets just say its an acquired taste! After a night of Kava and dancing we were off to sleep for our last night in Togovere. With an emotional send off on Friday morning, saying goodbye to our loving host families, our Nau & Maqus (Mom & Dads), we were off to Suva, Fiji's capital. We are now at the Rain tree Lodge just outside of Suva soaking up the last little bit of Fijian Culture that we can till we are off once again to New Zealand. To give our group a Triangle Check (as Amanda would say)
Our Minds- are with the ones we love and yet thinking of the next leg in our adventure, Auckland NZ

Bodies - Mosquito bitten, a little burnt (and peeling in some cases) but feeling refreshed.

Spirits - optimistic, hopeful and encouraged.

The end this lovely view into our days, I leave you with some Fijian words of wisdom.
"Wele Mele" meaning Chill out!! :)

Till next time,
Becky Vandekleut

Fijian Village

2008-09-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

Bula,
Fiji is awesome! We are all having the time of our lives, and we hope that all is going well at home, wherever that is. This week we were introduced to our village and our Fijian families. I think we all feel right at home as we were welcomed very warmly and enthusiastically. Everyone is extremely nice, sometimes overwhelmingly so, and we have found that the kids fallow us everywhere.
The work we are doing is good honest work but does not seem this way because the atmosphere is lots of fun. Who knew building a driveway was so slow and so much work. What would take a day with a cement truck and proper materials takes weeks here. It is alright though we are learning to appreciate even the smallest bits of infrastructure in a small village like this.
Houses are small and the food is different but i, and i think the whole group, find it very enjoyable. I dont think many of us even miss most of the small luxuries that are taken for granted in everyday living in the US. All is well.

Bula from Fiji

2008-09-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

Bula! Hello! Gaby here-
What a dream it has been over the last few days! (Besides for the 10 hour plane ride of course.) All of us met safely at LAX and were ready to start our adventure. After the exhausting plane ride and the experience at customs we were ready to see our beach side paradise. After one car ride of driving on the wrong side of the road and a relaxing boat ride in the crystal clear blue water, we arrived at the Bekana Gardens (which i must say completely exceeded all of our expectations.) From the breath taking beautiful beach (that is 10 steps away from our room), to the magnificently friendly staff, to the exquisite food and luscious plants that surround the island, we couldn't have dreamed of a more heavenly place to get to know each other and start what is seeming to be a life changing trip. All of us are getting along great, like we have been friends forever. Our talks only seem to get more interesting and we all get a little bit closer with every one. So for all those parents (including mine) who are worried for even the smallest reason about your baby; were great. The next adventure we are about to embark on is in a small village where we are going to be staying with Fijian families for about a week or so. We most likely wont be able to write when we are there. However the next possible chance we get you will be receiving more info. Well thats all for now!

Sincerely,
The newly claimed Fijian,
Gaby Fusco

Notes from the airport

2008-09-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official, they're together and ready! The group leaders just gave me a call and they have their full group - yes, everyone is there! In about three hours they'll be airborne and embarking on a journey of three-months and a thousand experiences.

Yours in spirit and adventure,
Ethan

2008-09-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Amanda and Steven!!!

The sky is blue and spirits high here in Portland as we prepare for our upcoming trip. There are so many great adventures ahead of us, and we are so psyched to get to know each fellow adventurer and dig into our team journey through the South Pacific.

If you're feeling the pre-trip butterflies, enjoy them! Excitement comes in many flavors, and we appreciate them all.

Look for posts here about once a week as we soak in the Fijian culture, farm and haka in New Zealand, and melt through the Outback of Australia!

Cheers,
FANZ crew