Yeah I did just say that... all about those cheesy puns right now because I'm bored out of my mind; anything to entertain myself. Without Sawyer, and positioned in the midst of miles and miles and miles of grape rows, in Blenheim there is even less to do than in Hastings. I've even started studying liquid thermodynamics in hopes that my brain doesn't go to mush before I get to WPI, if it's not too late already... What? Studying by choice on my gap year? I have no idea either. The Germans, Scot, and Brit I eat dinner with also think I'm kind of weird.
On the contrary, my ten days of bliss in Takaka were far from boring. Aside from feeling a tad weaker than my normal self (by my calculations, since arriving on the South Island and staying with two vegetarian WWOOF hosts, I hadn't eaten any meat in three weeks), I was fed and treated as wonderfully as any WWOOFer might desire while traveling in New Zealand. Debbie and Mark own a beautifully established block of land full of citrus, feijoa (similar to kiwifruit), avocado, olive, apple, pear, quince, and walnut trees. Other earthly bounty included rhubarb, grapes, Chilean guava (like a very sweet cranberry), passionfruit, cape gooseberries (looks like a yellow cherry tomato, tastes like a sour mango, heavenly), and of course lots of vegetables and herbs to choose from, even being towards the end of the harvest season. I became addicted to a citrus variety called the lemonade fruit, which is the size of and as sweet as an orange, but the color and flavor of a lemon. Perfect. Combination.
I almost felt like I was at my own house, digging potatoes in the garden, stewing and freezing batches of rhubarb, thinning carrots, making smoothies for breakfast and pesto for lunch. I taught Debbie how to braid garlic, how to make kale salad, and that you can eat the leaves off a sweet potato/kumara plant. She shared her endless knowledge about medicinal and edible plants, herbs, and weeds. One night we went to a talk by Stephanie Jackson on microflora, gut health, and probiotics. She's a dietitian, and fermented foods specialist or something among many other technical titles, from Vancouver. A lot of the information she threw at us was hard for me to understand without a large enough base of chemistry knowledge, so I left with a lot of questions and desire to learn more. Debbie also makes her own hydrosols, tinctures, and creams, and is now responsible for my obsession with the biochemistry of potentially medicinal organisms in Vermont forests. I have so many ideas for when I return home, so many projects I want to pursue and experiments I'd like to try. I think this thirst is partly a result of feeling utterly useless walking down row after row to snip off rotten grapes.
As college approaches, I'm thinking less and less about the act of traveling and spending more time on my future in the USA. I'm just working in Blenheim right now which gives me time to multitask until May, at which point I will have a little over two weeks to freely explore the rest of the South Island on a much bigger budget. I'll be able to savor every one of those days, hiking, relaxing, (and bungy jumping!!) in the most beautiful parts of the world, not thinking about costs and knowing that I have a lot to look forward to at home.
