Maaike-World: let's mingle...

Kayaking...scary new hobby!

2010-12-16T20:42:00.006+13:00

I've started a diploma in teaching this year. It is fun but a lot of work, especially since I'm also working full time. So this last term I decided NOT to take a third teaching paper, but learn how to kayak instead with the local kayaking club. Great club who put a lot of effort into newbies!

The course was very intense for 2 weeks (3x pool, 1x beach, 2x lake/river and 2x river) and it has been amazing to see how quickly everyone learned. Started off being shit scared even getting into the kayak (you feel 'stuck') from being nervous about being up side down under water, till superduper focussed getting down a grade 2 river. I learned heaps, got very very tired, got adrenaline pumped but generally loved it. Since then I haven't been out because work took over again (finishing my job to start a new one in 2011) but I'm hoping to pick it up again in the new year!

Pictures are all Susan Cornahs: it is funny to see how I discovered on the last day that my seat wasn't adjusted well enough for my posture...I constantly felt like I had to pull myself up...which shows in the pictures I reckon!

P.S. The grade 2 bit has not been 'evidenced' since it was quite hands-on...:)

3 boxes on Hyundai Busan...

2010-11-27T10:40:00.005+13:00

When I decided to move out of my lovely house to go travelling around the world in 2007, I moved all of my stuff from my flat to my parents. Since then friends have bought some of the quality stuff, my brother has taken a lot of furniture, my sister is using the odd bit and when I was in Europe last my parents asked me to go through all my 25 odd boxes of stuff...and get rid of it. It was quite fun actually. Most of my stuff I gave to the neighbours: their daughter was about to go to uni so she could do with some basics!

Of course I still had all my papers from uni: first assignment I wrote, first mini- linguistic research I did (following kids in the train and analyse their speech!) and lots of notes. Most notes I had no idea what I was on about (I mean, I could see it was my handwriting, but honestly...No clue whatsoever!), but some notes I would say I master that now. Probably about 5-10%. Quite shocking isn't it?! And about 3 folders of data for my masters. Needless to say I chucked it all out. Autsj. There is no point is keeping it. So by the end of my sneezing time going through the boxes (and the giggles and the moments of 'oh no, yes I remember that') I was left with 3 half full boxes. My European life, 27 years of gathering ... reduced to 3 boxes.

I arranged for the boxes to be shipped out to NZ by Seven Seas. So far they have been amazingly well organised: they delivered new sturdy boxes for free, their paper work was clear, they arranged the NZ custom papers and warned of common mistakes, they rang to remind you of the pick up etc etc. Brilliant. Exactly what a well organised Dutch girl on the other side of the world wants! So my mother re-packed the boxes, put some liquorice in to fill up the load (YAY!!!) and off they went. It can take up to 3 months. So. Fun. So I logged into my account to see whether the payment went through (I told you I was well organised: daughter of my father!) and I found out on which boat my boxes are. How cool! So I googled the boat and it gets even better: you can see where Hyunadai Busan is and what route it has taken. It is near Taiwan at the moment.

And the best bit is that I'm not paying for it, work is!

Oeps...

2010-11-05T22:03:00.003+13:00

What is that with blogs and me?

...

No adventures to write about? Eh no.
No computer or Internet at home? Ah, well, no.
People not reading the blog? Ahah, they were, but maybe not anymore!
Am I lazy? Mmm, no, but yes computer lazy.
Don't I have stories to tell about NZ, my friends, my whanau, my house or work? No...
Don't I take pictures? Yes, No. (very kiwi thing...)

Anyway, new action: more blog posts. My friends Amy and Michelle always make lists of things they have to do after they have their birthday. Amy turned 31 a while ago and on her list was re-instating her blog. Good one. Since I'm 31, I thought I should do the same...

So here we are. First post is about...Amy, Michelle and I doing Spring Challenge (multisport event). And yes I'm taking the lazy way out because I'm busy kayaking: go here to see Amy's post!

Fun...mucho fun

2009-12-28T18:57:00.004+13:00

It seems to become a tradition; once in a while I will do a big update instead of tiny ones here and there. Life has been eventful, too much fun playing outside and no rest for the wicked. Or at least no time for computers. Obviously...

The last 3 weeks I have been spending my evenings on a circus course...which was totally exciting. I have to refer you to Patrick's blog for some fun movies...

Christmas has been spend with Patrick's family in Palmerston North. His aunt Mary has taken us in her house and we spend the last 5 days meeting the family, eating nice food, drinking delicious wine, having good chats, playing lots of games and doing some sight seeing. And we laughed a lot: Mary has a great sense of humour (and she doesn't mind some crazy people like us!)

It was also about time to put some effort in my lovely lonely blog: some Maaike stories and kiwi pictures! I think there are about 10...'Lekker leesvoer'... And after today I will be on a proper long holiday with my mother: travelling around the North Island, showing her why I love NZ that much!!

And finally, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a healthy, happy and an amazing 2010. I hope to see you in April/May (if not before...!)

Work...

2009-12-27T18:54:00.000+13:00

Work is challenging and joyful good, but just amazingly busy...I suppose to finish my contract mid 2010. I wonder. I mean, I will have it done, but there might be more… Or not: all fun and games (true kiwi expression!) In the meantime, since I was asked, I wrote an article about embedding literacy and numeracy into Adult Community Education (ACE) programmes. Literacy and numeracy is my thing, I don’t really know much about ACE. If you would like to read it, click here. Good thing is that I already got one teaching contract out of it. Not that I have time, but hey... U vraagt, wij draaien...

Maori

2009-12-10T18:49:00.000+13:00

One new and exciting thing I picked up since my last post, is Maori class. I know I’m a true language nerd, however, doing a class 6-9 on a Thursday evening made me feel a bit hesitant. Being the only non-kiwi made me aware that I would probably have the least prior knowledge to the language. How wrong could I be. On all levels!
The classes are in Maori style, so we start off with Karakia (prayers), Waiata (songs) and some meditation. Then the 3 hours are basically full of interactive learning with practising in pairs, doing songs, learning vocabulary while doing ‘haka’ like movements, doing hand/foot coordination and clapping rhythms while learning word combinations. We do games, we push each other, moreover we have fun. Lots of fun, it is totally cool. We are a very supportive team, I think!

Our group is interesting and you can sort off divide us in 3 categories. First category are people from Ngai Tahu descent (South Island tribe) who never learned Maori and now they want to learn it. Some youngsters and some wiser older people. Secondly, there is a big bunch of primary school teachers: Maori language and culture is part of the curriculum nowadays, so they feel the need to improve their language skills. And lastly, there is this group of random people who are just keen on learning Maori. I’m one of the random ones...

On an educational level it is very interesting to see how Hoani, my teacher, teaches. He is good at what he does. And honestly, the diversity is massive!! Some people have a huge bank of vocabulary and excellent pronunciation (mostly the Maori participants) and then you have me: nil knowledge nor pronunciation skills. You have people without any education and people who are highly educated. You have linguistic freaks like me and you have the rest of the group who are monolingual all their lives (Kiwi’s are basically shocking at learning languages) and barely understand the concept of how languages are constructed. The fact that I don’t know kiwi songs, is an immense shock for some.

But we have found our merry ways in it. If we start a song the entire class has their eyes (and ears) on me and starts laughing because I sing whatever I think the tune is...I attack my fellow learners with a zillion questions ‘ what does x mean, what does y mean’ and they are not surprised about even the most simple question: they know I have no basics. Then again, sometimes the English speakers find the pronunciation very hard, I find it easypeasy because I have that thing for languages. If sentence structures are completely not like English, the class struggles, I’m comfortable with it. Since I have always learned languages by the use of grammar and textbooks, Hoani sometimes gives me some grammar to please me. If Hoani doesn’t get the English grammar, I explain how it works. Or like Hoani says: I teach you Maori and you can teach me English. And he says that with the biggest grin on his face: he thinks I’m hilarious...little language nerd...

So yes, my Maori classes are really superb. Having exams every 5 weeks is quite full on, but they are very accommodating. You do them in pairs, lots is verbal and you never fail...just not yet achieved...!

Queen Charlotte track - late November

2009-11-30T16:36:00.000+13:00

So. Last one with pictures. I still owe you my pictures from an amazing cool trip to Marlborough Sounds: biking the Queen Charlotte track with Amy, Michelle (aka Mighty Midgets) and Steve. It is a walking track but you can also bike it; we took a lazy-ish 3 days for it which meant about 3-4 hours of biking per day, then pitch up our tent, and give our legs and bums a well deserved rest. Biking was up and down....and up. Steep cliffs, amazing views and lots of learning. I improved my balancing act: going steep up is going much better now! Downhill was crazy and cool and I only fell off once at a switchback. No biggie. Then, nutters as we are, Amy, Michelle and I decided to bike back the last 25 km to the starting point. As you do.

I loved this trip so much more than I expected: the biking was awesome. I sound like a teenager. I know. But it was awesome! More pictures soon if I get them from the others...!

Wellington - Glynn and Jayne - in November

2009-11-23T16:34:00.001+13:00

Finally I went to see the capital of New Zealand: Wellington. I heard lots about it, but unfortunately work has never taken me there. Auckland is more the hype for that...Anyway, one of Patrick’s best friends, Glynn, lives there with Jayne. So they had a spare bed for us and they showed me around. We visited some great musea (definitely a miss in Christchurch), went for walks and city-coffees!

Lake Chrisssstabel in late October

2009-10-30T16:38:00.000+13:00

A three day weekend was spent around Lake Christabel and Robinson Valley. First big hike of the season... that backpack on your back is a familiar feeling, but still, it slows you down considerably! It was a great trip, lovely camping, nice chats with people and especially the second day over the tops in the snow was amazingly fantastic: really loved it!! Thanks to Patrick for the pictures...

And, finally, a lovely panorama which Patrick made!

Happy 29!

2009-10-19T16:41:00.000+13:00

I don’t celebrate birthdays but since my 29th year turned out to be such a good one, I decide to celebrate it in style...A kiwi pot luck dinner with great friends...Special credits to Rachel who made the lovely truffle 30!
Go figure, 30 but still in need to ID myself to buy alcohol...!

Lake coleridge in early October

2009-10-05T16:37:00.001+13:00

An easy weekend escape: 1,5 hours away from Christchurch is Lake Coleridge. Some undemanding hiking with stunning views. Fresh snow made the spring hike a bit tricky (I lost count after 5 falls...) but we enjoyed taking pictures...So close to home and it feels like a holiday!

Spring Challenge in September

2009-09-10T16:33:00.000+12:00

The great Spring challenge: an all women’s adventure race (rafting, biking and walking/running) for teams of three...It all happened in September!! 'The Mighty Midgets' (aka Michelle, Amy and myself) had done some good Wednesday evening walks and biking and/or walking in the weekends. Steve, Hamish and Patrick kept on saying we weren’t doing enough, which is probably true, but we were going for no glory, but maximum fun!

Before we started we discussed that the main thing was that we should enjoy the race, so we classified ourselves as non-competitive. While looking at the map, the route and the day itself I suggested that we should aim for a race time of 8 hours and Michelle and Amy ‘mightly’ agreed.

We started with a hard 3 km tedious raft challenge across a lake: we paddled hard (we actually did...) and we were the 10th boat into the river (out of 40 boats so 80 teams). The river turned out to be an annoying bumpy 11 km run where 9 boats passed us...All that hard effort for nothing. Garumph...

Anyhow, Patrick and Steve were our heroes for the day: they made sure we had a smooth shift from wetsuits to bike gear, from empty bellies to filled muffin stomachs! Muscles were a bit cold, but Amy set the pace for the first 10 km mountainbiking! Next was hiking up the hill; the beautiful day had become a quite hot day and my body decided to go against that. I needed to go one gear lower, which was totally fine with Michelle who lead the way, but it frustrated me for a while....

After some excellent navigation (definitely our strong side compared to the other teams!) and a quick descent it was biking again. Still a happy trio, making fun along the way and not tempted to go crazy on the bike: some cool downhill bits made us pass several teams. This time I showed off the tricks, smoothly followed by the other 2. After a warm welcome at the transition spot, some more food in our body, it was off to do the last walking and navigation bit. And this is where the Mighty Midgets became more competitive than we thought we were. Steve reckoned we could not do it within an hour and although we promised each other that we would NOT run at all, we noticed that we were being overtaken by a few teams. Knowing we were good at the navigation we decided to run at strategic points. Amy up front, me happy following and Michelle struggling but damn serious! It resulted in taking back our position, keeping the last leg within the hour and we finished within less than 7 hours in total...We came 30th and they classify the first 40 as competitive teams... Great achievement!
However the real amazing thing about this event is, that there are competitive teams, but also teams who are in their sixties and who have never done this before. Someone took this picture below: it's a classic!

Very tired though extremely satisfied we, the Mighty Midgets, realised that we were a well balanced team: every time one of us felt extremely good and that person set the pace for the other 2. The training beforehand was never a boring moment and during the race there was no spark of frustration within the team (Amy didn’t need to use the ‘happy lollies’). We are definitely in for next year, this time as a better trained team with still maximum fun. And the best thing now is that we keep training together...

And finally, one of my favourite pictures: mighty Michelle and Amy...

Girls weekend in August

2009-08-15T16:39:00.000+12:00

I know this bunch of outdoorsy girls and once in a while one of us gets an itch and organises a girls weekend with some proper challenges! Cheviot was the plan this time round but no outdoors stuff...So it turned out to be a real girls weekend...lots of lazying, zipping wine and eating food. And silly chats and silly moods.

Simone and I sneaked off at one point to a nearby beach and I did my best to copy Simone at taking photographs. I didn't do too bad, but in all fairness, Simone is a professional photographer...Check her blog for random and gorgeous pictures!

These pictures are mine though...

Winter: miss daredevil!!

2009-08-05T16:30:00.000+12:00

Somewhere in August Patrick and I went away on a wee little trip into Mackenzie country: the beautiful area of Twizel. Some people say there is nothing in Twizel. Those 'some people' should definitely stay away so Twizel stays like Twizel!

The mountains are amazing: they look strong, powerful and invincible. There is solitude. Quietness. Real people live here. Patrick and I went there to relax, away from the mad place called work, but in reality we ‘slaved’ away on the snowfield of Ohau and mountainbiked around the lower mountain range. Good food, nice wine and early bed. Enjoy the pictures...

Some other weekends have been used for the close by snowboarding (meaning daytrips from Christchurch: superb!); this winter I've been enjoying some off piste trips. Conquering some really scary icy parts, but totally worth the fresh snow, the views and the adrenaline of going of the main route. I become miss daredevil as soon as powder snow kicks in. Bless the inventor of the helmet. Especially my helmet...

Some catching up to do...

2009-08-04T22:14:00.006+12:00

Favourite past time: work
My work has been very busy. Good busy, but some days were a bit 'mad'. Working at a school means that I have to go along with term breaks. So when teachers teach, I teach as well and when they have holiday (term breaks) I can catch up on developing sessions, project administration and just breath. At the moment we have 4 groups of tutors doing the professional development and jeesz, I’m juggling my time.
Work has been good though; my teaching has really kicked in and I love it. It will always be challenging: tutors are known to be the worst students to have. And hey, I know, I am one of them. But, in all honesty: I do love it!
We also organised a big conference about adult community education; or better said I helped out. It was all in accordance with Maori culture; so my first powhiri (welcoming ceremony) with one woman from one tribe welcoming (singing/talking) the other tribe and in the meantime checking out whether you are friend or foe. When both tribes sat down, some stories were shared and finally it was time for the hongi (pressing the noses) to personally say hi to everyone. New to it all I had decided to be on the visiting tribe, although my tribe(our school) was hosting it. So when I did the hongi, I was jokingly told off by the Maori tutors I work with...I was of course suppose to be on their tribe...
Besides this amazing experience, the conference was a big hit. Lots of it was in Maori, very interesting workshops and my workshop was well visited (probably due to the news that the new government cut all funding for 'hobby' courses if it hasn't got literacy or numeracy in it....yes, literacy is the flavour of the month). I stayed over at the Marae (Maori community centre...sort of) and helped out there too: I have learned so much, I met so many interesting and warm people. Afterwards I really felt (again) that I really need to know more about Maori language and their culture. Don't get me wrong: I have already learned heaps in the last year. I cannot get around not knowing some language but also the philosophy around it, is very essential within education. Anyway, it has resulted in signing up for a certificate in Maori Language...

Another rogaine
My ankle has revived a bit since the last 24 hour rogaine. My physio has given me some exercises after she told me 1) I was getting older (meaning: you don't revive that quickly after a long event) and 2) I totally walk 'un straight'. So good that I am a 'good girl': I was already doing yoga, I got orthotics for in my shoes and I started my strengthening exercises. Result is that I'm constantly aware of how I walk and now my back is bloody sore...

Anyhow, another rogaine (6 hours) was still to be done. This time with Patrick, on a freezing cold winter day with the regular cloud/mist, frosty rain and slippery, very slippery slopes. I really enjoyed it, even more so that I could show Patrick that I can indeed navigate. For some reason he always thought I was hitching along with others (even though I told him otherwise)...I showed him right...lovely! (expect comments from him...)

Spring challenge
Amy, Michelle and I have entered the spring challenge which is in 2 months (team event which entails biking, running and rafting). We are going for maximum fun and no glory, but to maximise the fun, we have started some action. Sort of. Action in the sense that we went for one Wednesday eve walk and a long bike ride in the weekend....we are getting there...
On the bike front I have shocking news: my finally well equipped commuter bike got stolen....While I was in the supermarket for 5 minutes, even though it was connected to the bike stand. I felt like being home again. Bloody hell. So, I needed to buy a new racer. Which I did: a nice second hand hybrid bike (mountainbike frame and slick tyres) and I must say I have never biked that fast. It’s great, I’m very jealous.

Snowboarding
The snow is back: and it is great! I had 2 attempts in the last month but the weather wasn't out to play. Weekdays of snowboarding seem to be the way to go though. So when friends ask 'hey...weather is looking good...what do you think...wanna go...boarding?' I am happy to say yes with my arms wide open. Result: I had amazing days!! And due to the previous mentioned amount of work (meaning: overtime) it was easy to plan in without taking days off!!

This winter time I decided that I should get my own board and boots. A world of difference: Patrick's old board is 14 cm taller than what I should have. Ok ok, I could still have used his board, but going down a blue field takes some effort and skill and trust me: with my new board taking turns is smooth like butter!! And immediately I noticed that I have learned some bad habits last year due to the too tall board...ah well. Live and learn!!

And with a little bit of luck and hard work this week, I will be taking a week off next week to enjoy the snow even more. Yay!

Homeless
Homeless...Not very surprisingly, but bad timing; Susan (my flatmate) has decided to move in with her boyfriend. She was basically living there already for the past 4 months (with every month a week in our house) and they have now decided to stop pretend they don’t live together. So, since this is Susan’s house and it is basically too expensive for individual tenants, she has come to the conclusion to rent it out. Don't get my sarcasm wrong: I totally understand her point of view and I've been asking about her plans for some weeks now, but it is just bad timing: my brains are just overflowing with work already...Anyhow, what are the solutions?! I can move with them to the sea side (bit far for me to bike to work every day), so I think I prefer to stay on this side of town, close to the hills. Thank God this is not the Netherlands: plenty of nice houses and rooms to find. It is just a matter of finding a nice, cosy one at the right place. To be continued...

Auckland
Last weekend Val, Dom, Patrick and I went to Auckland. The main reason was to see Circus du Soleil, but –maybe, don’t tell Patrick- I enjoyed hanging out with Val, Dom and Patrick more. It was just an amazing weekend; we stayed at Dom’s mother and she is a very warm, smart and cheerful woman with a fantastic smile. Staying with a family, having nice wine (even in the hot tub!) and enjoying good food and engaging chats made me miss my family. In a good way. Happy way. And yes the circus was cool too, but maybe....maybe the best bit at the circus was having Patrick sitting next to me shouting out phrases like ‘no way’, ‘that’s amazing’, ‘wauw, look at that!’...Like a 5 year old. That definitely made me laugh!!

So, wee little catch up. I end by saying that I got residence as well, so yay I can stay in the country even if I lose my job (which I am not, but still...)...all good!!

Kirwans track

2009-06-09T18:35:00.007+12:00

Last weekend Berit, Maria, Patrick and I headed up to the West Coast, Reefton, to avoid the shitty weather. Brilliant plan (thanks Berit!) and it turned out to be beautiful. On our way to there we jumped into some hotpools along side the road (to leave the final work stress behind!) and we stayed in this hostel from the early 50's where we played scrabble. Chocolate scrabble...

The track was lovely: from the start till the hut...slowly...going...up...hill...Needless to say I was knackered at the top.

It was frosty frosty cold higher up and Mr Winter makes the sunlight lovely. And ice stars on the huts windows!

All pictures are taken by above three; and as you can see I was using walking poles and I'm in a lot of pictures: I was an easy slow target. First time with poles. For the snow that wasn't really there. But thank God I had them...The first minute I put my walking shoes on I noticed there was something wrong with my foot.

Result: autjs during the entire hike.

Post-hiking result: a physio who tells me I'm getting old (WHAT?), who has given me some exercises to do which really help and who got me into doing Spring Challenge in September...

Needless to say she reckons I will be fine...!

24 hour Rogaine...

2009-05-26T18:09:00.008+12:00

About 2 weekends ago, I think, I participated in a 24 hour rogaine. Michelle, Patrick, Steve, Hamish and I already did some 3 hour rogaining on Wednesdays, so when Berit asked me to join her together with Clare and Katrin on a 24 hour one, I was totally in.

Rogaining is like orienteering (you get a map, you get locations to find, you need compass and common sense...). The only differences are that in rogaining you can skip locations if you cannot find them and in general rogaines take longer. In this case much longer!

The 24 hour rogaine was organised by the University Tramping Club so everybody needed to get dressed up. We weren't that inspirational, however, good Rachel wanted to do some sowing...and it happened to be Swine Flu break out, so we decide to go as Swine Flu carriers.

Lovely Clare

Amazing Berit

Crazy Maaike

Dropped off around Mt Somers we had the most gorgeous weather: blue skies, warm during the first day and absolutely frosty cold at night. We slept near a barn from 12 till 6 (we are not that die-hard) and all the other hours we were hiking up and down the mountains, looking for the specific locations: I had a great time!

Katrin was the best navigator I think, but we all had our Eureka moments when the others couldn't understand where to go. On the long bits we sang songs, national anthems and lullabies: to get ourselves distracted from the cold and hunger...!

The last hours in the morning were absolutely beautiful; I was more enjoying the hiking than looking for the locations...I admit!

I got so distracted with my camera that I took these lovely pictures:

All other pictures are taken by either Berit or myself!

Flock Hill Weekend

2009-05-26T17:37:00.003+12:00

I finally got the girls weekend pictures sorted (thanks to Berit): lots from mountainbiking!! The bike up took us (Rachel, Clare, Berit and myself) less than an hour, but it was pretty tough...We could see where we had to get up to...

After a deserved break we could also see where we needed to get down to...steep bits, scree (loose sand, little stones...) and huge drops:

And the second day we did some orienteering; see all the rocks? Really hard for navigation!!

Weekends away...no 3!

2009-04-20T18:39:00.004+12:00

Veronica's 30th....

Veronica is one of my friends with whom I go biking and climbing: I don't see her much at all, but she is really good company to be with. So, she turned 30 and instead of organising a party, she organised a weekend away. Excellent!

Veronica booked a bach and about 30 people came out to play. Since her boyfriend Charlie is a rediculous good mountainbiker (Veronica is not too bad either!) they took most of us out on some cool tracks. Loved it. Again. Also discovered that the 'oh so modest' Patrick is quite capable of biking too (he is better at it than me!). So he is busted and he will be dragged onto the mountains more often. Before you think he was modest in saying he wasn't good enough...No, he is just lazy and he fooled me by saying he couldn't do it. Oooh, does he probably wish he didn't show his skills...loser. My revenge will be sweet...

While driving to the bach I was complaining to Patrick that I love having so many outdoor friends in NZ but that I miss the dancing, clubbing and wicked friends from home sometimes (you can fill in the names yourself!). I only been dancing once here...

And as if everybody heard me say that: we had a superb party in the evening!! Everybody made some food, loads of drinks were drunk, happy chats were held and some excellent dancing was shown. My crazy dancing needs were fulfilled!

I love dancing. I can never have enough of it. Nice to see some kiwi's here love it too... ;-)

[all pictures taken by Patrick: they show the 'gezelligheid' don't they...Is there an English word for 'gezelligheid'...Don't know]

Weekends away...no 2!

2009-04-20T18:01:00.007+12:00

Easter weekend was in charge by Steve. Steve and his sister have bought a property of land up on the North Island, 3 hours north from Wellington, and as he calls it, it is 'in the wop-wops'. Meaning: in the middle of nothing. We drove over and took the ferry: lovely trip on it self!

He (and family and Michelle) have built their own little cabin. Absolutely amazing if you think of the fact that they had never done it before. It is really nice and cosy. No electricity, no running water. But an improvised fridge, hot shower (yes!) and toilets with excellent views. ;-)

This is our natural fridge!

Anyway, back to the property. Main purpose of the land is to have native trees and enjoy nature.

The area which is still a paddock at the moment is going to be converted into a forestry patch. Sort of their retirement fund...If the non-native goats won't eat it...

Plants will be planted shortly, but before that fencing needed to be done. Or better said: old fencing needed to be removed so new and hopefully better ones will be put in. Our job was to help out with the fencing. Pretty tough job, especially since some of the old posts just refused to come out. Nasty buggers...

We also came over to shoot goats: goats are a pest in NZ (they are non-native: bloody European brought them over...) and eat everything they can get their teeth into. Unfortunately we tried to find some, but we didn't. So we shot some pieces of wood... Night time was used to play games, eat and sleep. Which I did a lot. I had one of those weekends again: sleep as much as I can...lovely!

It was lovely to see Steve's place but it did make me realise that having a property like it, is not as romantic as it first seems. It's a lot of work (especially because they live so far away), you have to be quite knowledgeable and it costs a lot of money...Maybe I will stick to my dream of renovating a little country side house...to get a wee little head start!

Speaking of sticking: loads of stick insects (wandelende tak!) live with Steve on the land...Pretty cool

[all pictures taken by Patrick, except the 2nd!]

Weekends away...no 1!

2009-04-20T17:39:00.004+12:00

It is not just NZ that is fantastic, it is also the way of living which is really appealing in NZ! An example. If you would have asked me back home to go on a girls weekend I would have said 'yes, sure' but I would have thought 'ugh, as long as it is not too much girly stuff like shopping and doing nails/make-up and the lot'

When somebody asks me here to go on a girls weekend, Im saying 'hell yeah, great!' because here it means biking, hiking, exercise and getting sweaty and dirty. Of course the giggles, nice food, wine and girls talk is part of it too...

So 3 weeks ago Berit organised a 'girls only' weekend: we did an amazingly fun mountainbike track up Craigieburn Valley. I heard some nasty stories about it (I even bought a new bike helmet because of it...), but it turned out to be quite alright. The one hour uphill was pretty tough, but going downhill (the part I mostly not enjoy that much: yes Im a chicken!) was nice. Very nice. Im getting better at leaning back (meaning: sitting above your back wheel) and my balance is improving. Sure, I got off at some tricky spots (Im not that mad!), but I truly loved it!
The next day we did some orienteering (running a certain route while being guided by your compass). I have done some rogaining (sort of same thing but then you can decide the route and collect as many points as possible), but Clare, Rachel and I decided to team up. We were planning on MaXiMuM fun and no competition: we had fun, I did most of the running, but 3 teachers in one group....not a good idea, we ALL knew better. Ah well, we came 14th. And we had fun. Most of the time...;-)

As soon as Berit sorts out the pictures I will put them on!

Baby boom...

2009-04-09T15:46:00.002+12:00

Friends and babies. Babies’ friends. Friends’ babies. Friendly babies… Very confusing from a distance, I can tell you that!

The time that your friends are starting to have babies while you cannot seem to fit anyone else but yourself in your life, is a bit strange. It has been lovely strange, especially if you are very close to your friends when they make this life changing decision. Before I went travelling, my time with Petra and Lex when they had Roos and Toon has been very mindblowing (never learned so much about babies!), very loving and emotional. I saw Petra almost every day; I reckon those 9 months preparation are not just for the parents-to-be but also for people around them. Seeing Petra ‘grow and glow’ made me part of that. It has been very very special.

Last year when I was travelling my friends Inge Judith and Fried were pregnant (yes, another one of my theories: you are both pregnant. Last time I checked you need man and woman to get pregnant. So there). When I was home in May I saw Inge Judith’s belly (6 months). Bit new, bit different, but yes, it fitted fine; I got used to it. Now that Sjoerd is born, it is very hard to imagine that Inge Judith and Fried are parents. I have never met Sjoerd, nor have I met Inge Judith and Fried as parents. Pictures and stories are great, fantastic and a must (hint), but they don’t give you the full image.

So now I get to the stage that friends are having babies without me seeing any phase of that. I know, I choose to live here, and I love it, but still. It is hard to imagine your (best) friends having those tiny little creatures which are cute…and more importantly… theirs. And it all happened in this last month…I wonder what was going on in Europe, 9 months ago…

So congratulations to Emma and Anthony; Irish friends I met in Australia in 2001 and whom I obviously saw much in Drogheda and Cork when I was living in Ireland. No more late nights drinking Guinness/Bulmers and dancing to Anthony’s Ska band…Little Luke will make sure they will get sleep deprivation though!

Then my friend Miranda and her husband Harro. Little did I know 5 years ago that while Miranda and I loved nice dinners after work and a few glasses of excellent wine, that Miranda’s quitting cigarettes actually meant that she wanted to get married and buy a house. Happy days for their family now they have Dante, their 3rd child…

Then last, but definitely not least: my best friends Catherine and Floor. Catherine and I went to uni together. We loved dancing, and beer, our bike rides to the beach (that damned tram behind me…), the tattoos (does it hurt….euh yeah), city girl versus country side girl, the festivals (Lowlands: first introduction to…Floor) and off to Australia together. They both took great care of me when I got back from Australia and I absolutely didn’t want to be in the Netherlands. So I know they will be great parents for little Jip who is now part of that sublime match.

So wauw, babies. It is honestly hard to imagine that while I go biking, climbing, running and snowboarding that my friends are taking care of their children. I wish I could just hop over to see them. Im sure I would 'click'.
And sorry (dad): I’m still not convinced that I should go back to Europe nor that I want children. Yes mum, I know you can put children on your back while you go hiking. And yes everybody, I’m sure I would be a great mum, but I had my share over Christmas…I love kids, especially because I can give them back to their parents…

And I heard more friends are expecting…joyful news!

bits and bobs...

2009-03-30T18:08:00.007+13:00

I so don't like that expression, but nothing else came to mind when writing this post...

Last weekend Patrick and I headed up to Marlborough Sound because Glynn and Jayne were getting married. Proper wedding of about 4 days...pfieuw! I think we all had a great time because of the location, the people, the 'getting to know each other' and the happiness of a wedding in general. Of course! I spend most of my time doing hikes, going kayaking with millions of dolphins, chat with new lovely people, play volleyball and admittedly I also got dressed up like a girl. And we danced...lots!

Loads of pictures are taken, none of them are mine. Patrick has some nice ones on his blog (and none of those are his...) Have a look and enjoy.

Then, finally, this weekend was a lazy one. Yes. A weekend in Christchurch! I made some nice dinners for friends as a thank you for always picking me up by car for all those wednesday walkies. Gin and tonic master was in the house as well...mjummie.
We (Steve, Patrick and myself) did some biking the next day and on Sunday Patrick arranged my Christmas present: a picnic. Lovely if I may say so! Nice fresh bread, good champagne and he even scored some Dutch cheese!

And on a more geeky note: I could not get around it anymore...communication to Europe is seriously failing so...I bought a laptop. Which meant that Patrick did the proper research online (geek as he is...), we went into several shops (read: he chats with the sales person while I drink my smoothie quietly next to them and try not to look to puzzled) and at the end I was more than happy to get the card and pay. And the next step was very predictable and recognisable too....Patrick wanted to play...Looks familiar, doesn't it Sjoerd??

Don't get me wrong though: I love it that way. Get the stupid thing going the way I would like to and then I will use it. Whoever wants to play...be my guest. Next step Internet at home...what a mission...

Inland pack track

2009-03-23T17:43:00.011+13:00

Two weeks ago we (a bunch of 8) took off for a nice beautiful (easy) hiking trip on the West Coast. The Inland Pack track. Sort of fairy tale scenery: secret side tracks, little and big caves, good weather, pitoresque camping site next to the river and a lot of hiking through the river itself. Good stuff.

Water from everywhere...where are the gnomes?

Funny water gnome...

Secret track...

Nice lunch spots...

Great food...and great people

Bums...and men doing the dishes...

Fantastic camping!

All pictures are taken by Berit: thanks!

Katrina has send me some excellent pictures of ice climbing from a few weeks ago. So I thought I would put them up to prove that I did it...(not that you can see it is me...but still) In all honesty it looks more scary on the picture than it really is...Let's say Katrina is a good action photographer!!

Ice climbing

2009-03-05T17:44:00.009+13:00

In July 2008 I went on a hike with some friends and I made some really nice 'icy pictures'. During that freezing, snowy hike I learned that Paul and Bronwyn love ice climbing.

'Wauw' did I think back then. Since that time I've been dropping hints on how amazing that must be. I mean, ice climbing on a glacier: I have never been on a glacier before (when travelling around with Eefje last year, I saw it for the first time), let alone climb one...crampons, ice axes and just 'walk up' an ice wall...

So again, I was planning on having a cruizy weekend, but when Paul asked me whether I wanted to join them, I was totally excited to give it a go!

On Friday we took off to Franz Josef glacier, to climb it the next day. An hour walk to the glacier, and then an hour walking on the glacier to find that perfect first ice wall to climb. The walk itself was interesting enough: I love the ice (mind you: it is summer here!)

First climb was very interesting. Paul and Bronwyn explained to me what to do and off I went. First meter up was fine, and then adrenaline kicked in. Honestly? I haven't been that scared in a long time...I was just hammering those ice axes in, pulling myself up thinking '...must...get...up...there...'. Totally forgot about the technique, my feet, my hands etc: it was just purely using my arm power to get up.

Half way through I stopped to catch my breath and I thought about going down and never ever do it again or continue and do better next time. One guess what I did...However, not surprisingly that I was completely pumped when I finally reached the top.

Paul and Bronwyn must have giggled though...

So before the second climb I went through the technique again with Bronwyn and this time I absolutely loved it: it went great, I was thinking clearly and it was absolutely cool. I really liked it. When I got down, Bronwyn was smiling. Probably very satisfied.

No pictures of me climbing up the wall (will check with Katrina or Rebecca if they have any...)

Ahum...Hello, anybody?

2009-02-23T20:07:00.002+13:00

I know I know, what is keeping me with an update. In all fairness, there are several reasons, all with their own solution...
1) I do so many fun activities during weekends. Even if I think I will have a quiet(ish) weekend it turns into an active one. 'We are going kayaking, grade 2, down the Hurunui river, wanna come?' or 'We are going hiking to the West Coast for 3 days and you are coming with us' or 'There is a place free in our car to go ice-climbing, are you interested?'.
Solution: just go and enjoy. Live now, is my NZ motto!

2) I realise not having a computer is starting to become a nuisance. I cannot write the amount of emails I would like to do, nor do I have time to blog at work (obviously). Furthermore, skype would be useful to keep in touch, but if there is no computer, talking into cyberspace becomes quite difficult...
Solution: buy a laptop as soon as I have a free weekend to look into those horrible gadgets (can you see the paradox between point 1 and 2 appearing...I can...)

3) I hate to say it, I am crawling away in shame, but after 6 month in my exhilarating job, my lovely job has recently taken over. My project was kicking off in February (the actually launch and the first teaching sessions) and that has taken more time than I wanted. Last minute budget changes, adjustments to the workshops and just first time teaching takes way more preparation time than the next ones. Working 12 hours per day became more than 'incidental'. And, as you probably know, this is my biggest fear...falling back into that old rhythm of working my ass off. The good thing about my job is (although, this happened in my former job too: I just like working...), that the project is doing well. My parents always call me a 'regeltrien' and that is a good characteristic to have when doing project management. And the teaching: I truly, absolutely love it. And even though I say so myself, I am good at it. Of course there is always room for improvement (life would be boring otherwise!), but it went amazingly well. So the solution to this issue is simple, though extremely tricky for me:
Solution: cut back on hours... Sounds simple, but for those who have been there before: it is absolutely not easy to do. So good thing I have climbing buddies who want to climb at 5.30, Wednesday Walkies at 7 (which I have been cancelling...) biking buddies who want to be ready to go at 6, a boss who gets seriously angry at me for working to much, a lovely Patrick who verbally assaults me if I stay in work too late and in general friends who do the things I mentioned in the first reason of not updating the blog regularly.

Enough excuses though. Behold: the last 6 weeks in 'vogelvlucht' [bird view: I like the Dutch word, sorry!]. Enjoy!

1 week ago... and last weekend while I am at it!

2009-02-23T19:38:00.005+13:00

A week ago the most significant thing that happened was that Warrick, a good friend of Patricks, decided to drag Patrick in his kayak off the Hurunui River. Being the only one who never done proper kayaking, I got myself a 'sit-on-top' kayak and I went along with the cool people.

Thank God I'm comfortable in water and that I learned so much on the rafting trip in November, otherwise I would not have been as relaxed as last week. Result: I'm afraid I have another hobby to add to my list...It was great!

And this weekend Patrick had enough of my work ethics and he forceful dragged me to Akaroa where we had a relaxing weekend. The weather was crap on Saturday so it turned out to be lazy easily (for some people it comes more natural than others ;-)
So I finally had time to read. Some old Dutch newspapers my mum send me ages ago...I do love those proper newspapers. Ever thinking of sending me something: send me your old 'zaterdag Volkskrant' and I’m happy.

Of course we played some games and finally I got my act together: I won most of them. I think my brains were too tired from work lately to beat Patrick. Good to know I am back! (except for Penté, I'm still learning the tricks...)

All pictures from the past 6 weeks are stolen of Patrick's blog (although some of them are taken by me, thank you very much...).

2 weeks ago...

2009-02-23T19:24:00.005+13:00

The great thing about being friends with Steve is that he is a fantastic hiking organiser. With 8 of us we went over to the West Coast, where I hadn't been since my first time in NZ. I had forgotten how beautiful it was. We camped near some extraordinary hot pools and the second day we did a 10 hour ish day walk. Beautiful, knackered but if you are having fun with the people around you, it's truly blissful.

Since I was absolutely tired from work, knackered from the walk and I had eaten some food which didn't agree with me, I got sick overnight (I couldn't walk, I felt miserable and I had a fever). Yes, the body is a great system of telling you that you do too much!

Luckily it was gone by the next day, so going back was fine!

4 and 3 weeks ago...

2009-02-23T19:08:00.005+13:00

The lovely Patrick turned 30. Massive shock for him, but strangely enough the world just continued as it did before...But I have to admit that his English Garden party was a big hit. Fantastic hit.

Loads of great pictures (see his blog), but this one is lovely because it shows Berit and myself. Berit is mostly a climbing buddy, but basically a 'everything-else-too' buddy.

So difficult to buy something for the birthday boy, so I decide to take the easy way out and organise a weekend away with a theme. Turning 30 means that you are getting old, so what can you do to stay young? Exactly: do a competition, do something you have never done before and do some exercise.

As you might know, Patrick and I both have got a golf fetish, so when we noticed a sign 'Dutch Golf' a few months before, we had to do that. Which is basically 'boerengolf'. It was really fun. Let's keep it at that. Yes I lost with 1 point, but I did get to be the new 'course champion'. Damned proud I was (not)...

The something new element was horseback riding. I loved it, and I almost wet my pants by watching Patrick do his best not to fall off. It was hilarious. Poor Patrick, he is never going to do it again. But he tried which keeps him young...!

And bad luck for us, all the mountainbike tracks at Hamner were closed due to fire danger...Or good luck for the lazy among us...

5 weeks ago...

2009-02-23T19:06:00.006+13:00

Véronique, my parents best friends daughter (are you still with me??) who I never met before, was on holiday in NZ. Of course both our parents just wanted us to get to know each other, but we saw through it.

My parents wanted her to check up on me and my life here, and her parents liked the thought of having a familiar person in NZ who maybe could hang out with their daughter.

Luck of the draw: we got on really really well! So, what do you do? Exactly, take her on all the trips I would do. I took her to Wednesday Walkies (she was knackered), it took her mountainbiking (bruise no 1), we went surfing (bruise no 2) and Steve, Patrick and I took her hiking for the weekend (helicopter ride no 1).

Yes, the hike was brilliant and lovely, but twist of faith (in this case twist of ankle) let Véronique brake her ankle. And of course: we were in a remote area, non accessible and still quite some mountain saddles to go. No other solution than a helicopter. Guess who was made to sit in the front all the way back to Christchurch...for 45 minutes!

6 weeks ago...

2009-02-23T19:00:00.000+13:00

Having not seen each other for 2 weeks, and straight back into work, Patrick and I went for wee hiking weekend to Ohau.
We were lucky with the fantastic weather, we did a nice and easy hike, beautiful scenery and lots of time for games.

Maaike as a mum...

2009-01-12T18:12:00.006+13:00

[When Josie still thought I was 100% fun...]

And, does the title freak you out? No? Well, it did freak me out a wee bit when I went to Darwin, Australia, to visit my lovely cousin Imke and her two kids Josie (5, almost 6) and Liam (almost 2) and Imke turned sick the day I arrived. Very sick. Sick like being knocked out, sleeping 24/7, high fever and just looking like an absolute stone head.

[I know Im not allowed to touch boys till Im married, but Liam was a big lovely soft cute teddy bear]

So yes, from full time hard working academic specialist (well, that's what they call me anyway) to full time no minute rest 'fake' mum. And did I tell you it was Darwin, monsoon season so every day 35 degrees plus high humidity? Thank God for pools, fountains and waterhoses...

[big boys eat chicken from the bone]

Anyhow, so holiday in Darwin with Imke and the kids. I have truly enjoyed the kids because -as you know- I like to be a little bit crazy and do fun (childish)stuff at times and the good thing about kids is that you can act like a kid around them...Kids justify your craziness!

[I have adapted my mum's way of dealing with Liams climbing fetish like she did with mine: just don't look where the kid is going...]

So chasing them like mad was fun, playing in the sand making castles was great, playing hide and seek in the supermarket was hilarious (I never said I was a good role model!), playing all sorts of (educatief verantwoord!) games with Josie was interesting (and also combining it with Liam...little destructive 2 year old as he is...)going for little picnics (so that Imke would have some real quietness) and walks was, mmm, scary.

[Thank God Josie knows how to deal with the crocs!]

Why? Well, Outback Australia: snakes, spiders and just scary animals don't bother me that much, but if you are responsible for kids, I can tell you that you are more aware. Josie pointed out a snake above my head which obviously scared her and me but she was mistaken: it was a stick. But then again, little Liam was covered in massive gigantic ants within minutes...

[Funny buggers those dinosaurs]

We had some good communication going on too; as soon as Liam's nappy was 'full' he would get a new one and give that one to me, indicating 'new one please, dear fake mum'. First time Josie talked me through it: 'Mum does always this with the powder'...

[Santa gave Josie goggles: I think she got abducted by aliens and than transformed her to this...]

Josie would be honest when Imke gave me the car keys to go for a drive with the kids: 'Maaike, can you drive?' (no, but Imke still gives me the keys...) and while driving Josie would tell me that I was driving too fast. Which I wasn't, but she was indirectly telling me that I missed a turn...And when we went to the lagoon for a walk, Josie pointed out for me where to go because she didn't know the difference between left and right (and I didn't know the route to the lagoon). So get this: kids in the back, me driving and not being able to look at Josie...We had some tricks to get us there!
And Josie, lovely as she is, would tell me every day that I either looked pretty or not! I think I have discovered a pattern: Looking girlish is good, non-girly is bad...

[Adrian (Imke's boyfriend) and Liam had a beer, euh, milk competition; guess who won?]

So confirmed what I already knew: I love kids, but if I ever decide to have kids (seriously reconsidering it...) Im probably going to be a strict mum (Josie: you clear the table, tidy up the living room and then we can play another game before bed...) but for now Im still too selfish. I love my outdoor life in New Zealand too much. So absolutely knackered, exhausted and 'overcooked' I returned after 2 weeks to -what very much feels like- home in Christchurch!

[Superbaby: Josie made the cape...]

Little things...

2008-12-23T18:16:00.001+13:00

Just a post with various little things.

Some weeks ago I went for a wee tiny hike with Paul and Katrina: just to get out of Christchurch for the weekend. Not much walking, but more time for games! And a lovely view...Basically, this is my back yard (yes, I have a huge imagination...)

And then, Christmas lunch with my colleagues in our 4 person team. It's a bit funny, because I am in a team, but I only work with Diana. And I work with loads of other people outside my team. But Diana, Heather T, Heather C and I are called a team (and for the summer we have Jamie, the student!)...I think they have a good (academic) theory why we should be in 1 team...My theory is that we are all a bit nuts, so that matches quite well! Anyhow, we went for lunch at a nice cafe and we all worn some of Hilary's clothes (Diana's 6-year old). Why? I don't know but we had loads of fun...and laughs, good food and mjummie dessert. And honestly, I'm sharing my cake with Jamie, I'm not taking it of his plate...

Heather C made me do it (honestly dad, ofcourse I wouldn't misbehave while you are not here!!)

Boss Diana, although she hates it if I call her that...Doesn't she loose all credibility with the wings and tiara?

Jamie: we made him choose the last item...pink of course!

Heather T: tiny wings but she can truly fly!

Heather C: my office partner...absolutely loves pink. Just as me!

Me and the wizard hat...

Now I'm so prepared for 10 days with my cousin Imke and 5 year old Josie and 1,5 year old Liam in Darwin...!

Rafting the Clarence

2008-12-21T18:30:00.002+13:00

Question: what did I do in my previous job if I was really busy?
Answer: work my ass off and cancel fun stuff to catch up on sleep...

Question: what do I do now when I'm busy at work?
Answer: I go rafting!

One of my friends, Steve, and some friends of his arrange this rafting trip down the Clarence River almost every second year or so: they hire 3 boats from university, get the gear, arrange transport and get us going. 16 people in total, 3 rafts, Pinky, Red Sofie and Grey Ghost with our 3 amazing captains Steve, Stuart and Mike. And camping along the river on otherwise not so accessible beautiful spots...

From day 1 it was amazing. Long days on the river (one day 9 till 9), being absolutely knackered, having nice food (Steve is the chef (mjummie!) and sleeping like a baby. Great people (some new, some old), cool river surroundings, interesting rapids, easy, hard and freaking unexpected hard rapids...but very cool, very cool indeed. We even had a puncture...

I got a go at steering of the raft too. Twice. First on the first day which felt absolutely disastrous: it's quite hard to steer the boat, get a good line, find the fast water, see how the river curls around the gorges and riverbeds and co-ordinate the other people (I love the shouting though...) But amazing how much you learn by watching the others, getting to know the raft and the skills with it. So second time was on the last day and it went much better. Jill, my Canadian friend, who is mad into kayaking, is trying to get me on a course, and after this trip she might have a new kayak partner...

See, that's the down side of NZ: there is so much fun stuff to do. Besides my climbing, mountainbiking, snowboarding, I want to start diving again (my new flatmate James is into that too!) and maybe potentially surf with Susan and Julia and now kayak...Not too forget my biggest hobby hiking...

Loads of pictures, all not taken by me (no waterproof camera) but by Berit, Volker, Simone, Kylie, Steve, Vern, Katrin, Heather and Mike. I tried to put some on, but the computer and I just had a massive fight, so I suggest you go to Patrick's or Simone's site...

Computers....grgr

Sinterklaas

2008-12-09T19:35:00.003+13:00

As all Dutch people know Sinterklaas is very important in our society. I'm not very patriotic, I don't really feel Dutch (colleagues call me a 'wannabe kiwi with an Irish accent'), people don't guess me as Dutch (different accent and I am not tall enough...) but I love Sinterklaas, the Zwarte Pieten and the culture around it. I love the things we do in our family with the teasing poems, the fake presents and of course a real present at the end.

Naturally I told my friends about it, handed out chocolate 'Sinterklaas' [yes, they have it in the supermarket, at the Dutch section...'is there a Dutch section?' I can hear people think? Yes there is. So what's in that Dutch section? Well, speculaas, Dutch mayonaise, Dutch pickles, knakworsten (yup, the real ones), stroopwafels (yup, the real ones) and now chocolate Sinterklaas]. And of course I told some of my colleagues, I got some pictures of the Internet and summarised it in an email (for the non-Dutch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas)

Now. So what. Well, get this. The past few Mondays I have been co-ordinating some development work with some tutors. I don't really know them, I'm just guiding them in the innovative process, but we get on quite well. This Monday, Kirsten says at the end that she has something for me...Much to my surprise, she reads out a Sinterklaas poem!

Maaike is an outdoors woman,
she really knows her stuff.
Rafting, hiking, camping, tramping,
she's no Paddy's piece of fluff!

To NCALE, she's dedicated,
she's thorough and she's committed.
But without 5 decent coffees a day,
she smiles, but through teeth gritted!

This Christmas away from her Dutch home-land,
missing family and friends too.
Merry Christmas from us all at CPIT,
to Maaike,a new kiwi true-blue!

I felt really special, or better said: I still do. To make it even better, Kirsten sends it to my manager, her head of school and some of my colleagues. My office partner Heather response was this:

Maaike is a rafter,
a biker, and a hiker...
Maaike's eating speculaas, dancing jigs, doing Haka!

Maaike tells us that she likes,
to eat a lot of bread.
If she can't get any,
it makes her crazy in the head!

Maaike was a tomboy,
climbing all the trees.
Clamboring up the roof tops,
with a monkey-like ease.

Maaike thinks she's Irish,
but I bet she never met at dawn,
a wee green mischievous man,
we call a leprechaun.

Perhaps that is because
she's really one of them
in heart and soul and accent
a true multi cultural gem!

I have fantastic colleagues...again!

Arthur's Pass

2008-12-06T19:02:00.000+13:00

to be a bit more precise: somewhere around Edwards hut and Hawden hut!

About a month ago [yes, I know, I should update more, but I hate sitting behind the computer!]I went hiking with Steve and Michelle, Myra and Graham and Patrick and I. Three days of nature, camping, steady walking pace, great company, fantastic weather, freezing water (and river crossing of course) and yes snow.

I truly enjoyed it: we had some good laughs, some scary moments (we had to climb almost vertical up a slope with little to hold on to, just grass...) and some painfull moments: do you see the picture where Patrick jumps on a mini gletser above a river? We had to cross it later on and I reckon his jumping sabotaged the snow, because I fell through. In a 'extremely agonizing' way (I'm joking...a bit...): just one leg, heavy backpack on my back and no way to get out. Thankfully there were people around me to help me out after they stopped laughing ... and after Myra took pictures...

Anyhow, pictures are better than words. The one picture of Steve on his knees: Steve is a entemologist (let's call him Dr. Bug). He just found a rare species...

Did you know...

2008-11-30T19:01:00.001+13:00

- that most people in NZ I know don't have health insurance? Yes, NZ has ACC which means that if you are in an accident (road, mountains, work etc) the state will cover medical help. Furthermore the public health sector will help with all creepy and scary diseases as well, but with a 6 months waiting list it might be too late...
- that I am still very Dutch so I like to be insured
- and that my insurance will cost me only 15 euro per month. Isnt that hilarious? Back home it was 120 euro's!

- you can do free language courses at my school, and handy creative courses for 16 dollars (8 euro)...but not me, because Im not a resident. Or summerschool courses for 100 dollars, but for me 500 dollars, because I am not a resident.
- that a visit to the doctor is 6x more expensive for me because I am not a resident
- that getting some medication for a resident is 5 dollar but for me 55 dollar? Because I am not a resident...

So that, and because I just really really like it here (no surprises there I guess?), made me decide to get residence. I just heard that my application is accepted and that I now have to prove everything I claimed to be. Don't you love paperwork?

Castle Hill

2008-11-25T19:12:00.002+13:00

Time flies when you are having fun!! So just a brief post about 3 weeks ago when I went bouldering at Castle Hill with Hamish, Amy, Steve, Michelle, Belinda and Patrick. Bouldering is climbing without a rope (I can read my sisters and my mums mind now: 'and WHY would you do that, you fool?').

Basically it is climbing but you stay low at the ground and you focus a lot on your technique: so you don't really climb high up, but more short climbs while someone can still catch you if you fall. Which I did of course, and I cut my hands open. I managed to do some great stuff and got stuck at the end at this rock which just did not agree with me...damn. Have to go back.

Truly a great sunday: Steve, Michelle and Belinda were hilarous (one picture Steve is helping Michelle...as good boyfriends do!) and especially Hamish -and yes also Patrick- were in great form. Im such a beginner...But hey, they might be better rock climbers, I'm better at climbing trees and houses...

Cass Saddle / Lagoon Saddle

2008-11-03T19:05:00.018+13:00

The other weekend New Zealand had a long weekend (three days off!) so Berit and I decided to make the most of it and head out of town for a overnight tramping trip. The day before we left the weather was horrible which made me feel like cooking which resulted in a culinaire feast on the tramp itself. Berit nor I ever had a home made 3 course meal while tramping and I think some of the people in the hut were very surprised too to say the least (if not jealous...!) Especially when I took out the bottle of wine (ok ok, for this occasion in a plastic bottle to keep the weight down)

The trip was in one word superb. Since it was really bad weather the day before, we had heaps of snow and it was freezing on the first day and almost summer on the second day. The rivers were quite high, so we got to practise our rivercrossing skills...The track was very diverse (forrest, tussock, riverbeds etc) and I was in great company: Berit and I had some good chats and great laughs.

But I guess pictures say it all...And considering that the sun was too bright to see what pictures you were taking I think we did pretty good!

Wednesday-Walkies

2008-11-03T18:00:00.009+13:00

I have been raving about the fact that Christchurch is so close to the hills, Port Hills to be exact, but it's time for some visual help to understand why I love it that much.

One initiative which is definitely worth mentioning is Wednesday Walkies. The mother of a friend of my friend Michelle organises a 2 hour walk every Wednesday (that explains the name!) around the Port Hills. We gather at 7 PM and every week I get to see a new part of the hills. Most of the people in this group are my parents age, except Michelle, Steve, Michelle's flatmates Amy and Hamish and I. But don't be fooled: we sometimes have to run to keep up and while the 'older' bunch is cheerfully chatting and laughing away during the hike, we are often gasping for air and focussing on the walk...I have never met such fit people!

Last week we went to Diamond Harbour and I have taken some pictures of the bay, Lyttelton harbour, the sunset (yes, we hike with a head torch!) and one of the beautiful dogs which accompany us along the trip.

Have I told you lately that I'm in love with New Zealand? Well, I am. Deeply. Very much. And I think New Zealand loves me too...

Marloes...

2008-10-29T09:25:00.003+13:00

Sometimes you meet people who stick to you and you cannot get rid off. After my year in Ireland I played soccer at university again and I met Marloes. We were both in the first team: We got on, we weren't the best friends, just nice and casual.

After working a year at CINOP, I asked Marloes to do some work as a freelancer for one of my projects. She was good, she loved the work and the company so she decided to do an internship there. She applied for a position at a different team and she got in. Good stuff.
We got to know each other much better then. We had the odd trainride together, we biked together, we gossiped about certain people (oh what's his name again, my biggest allergy?), we giggled and eventually we even did this massive new project together at this very religuous school where we had to wear skirts. For those who don't know Marloes (or me for that matter)...Marloes and I don't do skirts....we are soccer girls, we do a lot, but not skirts...The first time we had to wear skirts I think we were both very shy and afraid to come across people we knew...

Anyhow, all this makes Marloes great, but there is another thing that makes Marloes special. During my final year at CINOP we did a course together about competencies and skills (we mainly did that course so we could teach it ourselves later on). As a final assignment we had to think about our own workfuture and what we would like to change and of course how. I did my presentation about my struggle with balance between work and life. At the end of that presentation Marloes got emotional and upset because although I was quite honest about me not having a balance, Marloes reckoned I was not honest enough. I can still see her pointing at me and saying that getting home at 8 or 9PM and switching on my computer to do some more work is not normal...

It sounds rediculous now, but I needed Marloes to say that and I am absolutely grateful that she did. Time has passed and I have noticed while I was travelling last year that Marloes was getting busier and busier at work and I was starting to get worried that she would do the same as me (which I think she was doing a bit...)Needless to say that I am damn proud of her that she quit her job too, to become a VSO volunteer in Nigeria. Check out her blog if you are curious.

Marloes rocks!

Important stuff in life...

2008-10-16T18:16:00.003+13:00

One of my best friends, Eefje, is doing her PhD in mediaval literature. I travelled with her the first time I was in NZ and I discovered then that she has an absolute fetish for gossip magazines. The really bad ones...She even read some stories to me while we were in bed...Is this important? No not at all, but I think it is hilarious that a literature researcher actually is addicted to gossip magazines...Can you see the paradox here? Anyway, besides all this, Eefje is also a famous actress in Belgium. At least she will be in the next 5 years. Why? Because I say so. You want proof? Well go to www.sinthome.be, click on 'kortfilm', and then click on Eefje (the angry woman: bottom row, in the middle - with the red earrings). Sorry, no subtitles for the monolingual people...

Less important but massively important to me personally are my teeth. I'm not sure whether you can comprehend what my teeth's well-being mean to me. I have been told that I am a 'cool' girl, I'm tough and Im a dare devil [I've been told...]. There is only one thing I am really really really -from the bottom of my heart- scared off and that is the dentist. Why? I don't know, because I am 28 and I never had anything done to my teeth: no braces, no fillings, no nothing. My teeth are fine.
But since I was a kid I would seriously stay awake for hours knowing that I had to go to the dentist the next month. I would have total stress moments knowing I had to go into the office and SMELL the dentist. I would seriously question every single move the dentist made to be sure I was prepared...for nothing in those 28 years. Was that dentist horrible then? I don't know, because he never did anything...

And this week the moment had arrived of which I have been utterly terrified for, for seriously YEARS and YEARS! I had a tooth ache and it needed to be fixed...So what do you do? Exactly, you ask every single person you know about their dentist: what is he/she like, will they be gentle, would you recommend them, why, why not....please help! So Nigel turned out to be the ultimate dentist (3 people praised him!) and today was the day.
Result: the tooth that was aching probably had a tiny hole 5 years ago and now turned into a massive one. Before you guys start screaming 'you should have gone to a dentist earlier!', I have. The last time was just before I started travelling and nobody picked it up...So now Mr. Nigel repaired that tooth and seriously, I feel so stupid, because get this: it did NOT hurt (ok ok with anesthetic of course). I have been terrified for something, crying myself to sleep since I was 5 (no jokes there) for something that is not a big deal?! For fuck sake, get a life Maaike...I know, I am pathetic. But thank God I found it out now, so I can happily live my life without that fear...

Or....maybe there is still a little bit of fear...My best friend Nigel may have repaired that tooth without any tears on my side, but...he is not sure whether it did not effect my nerves, so I might need a root canal treatment...

[oeeeeeeeeehhhhhhh] [that's you in the background]

Don't worry, it's ok. It's going to be horrible if needed, but Nigel and I go a long way back (8 hours to be precise) and I trust him completely. So, in 2 weeks time I will go back, I will have a filling done on the other side of my mouth (a filling: piece of cake!) and he will check the other one.

So like every Greek myth, I want to end this story with some wise words (In dutch 'het moraal van dit verhaal'). Please tell every 5 year old that going to the dentist is not scary and that getting a filling does not hurt. If only I knew back then what I know since today...

[and if you now think that my parents didn't tell me that...Of course they did, but I was too terrified to listen...]

Climbing!

2008-10-07T17:47:00.011+13:00

In my last post I think I was raving about the quality of my life. Or better said, the fact that I actually have a life...So for those who are sceptical, some proof.

I mean, having more spare time in the hills sounds much better than 'flat country' So to give you a better idea, look at the picture on the left. I'm on the Port Hills (climbing), you can see Christchurch down below and you can see the snowy mountains in the back...Isn't it great?

Or here you can even see the ocean...Fantastic...The guys I'm climbing with are Volker (in black) and Tom (in red). Tom doesn't know that I secretly have a competition going on: whenever he can do a climb, I feel I have to be able to do it as well. Pathetic I know, but for some reason it gets me going better...

So far we are even...I think...Volker is much better, so I won't compete with him. Not on the picture is Ivor, who I actually know from home and he is doing an outdoor educator course at CPIT (my school...) so he taught me some lead climbing things. Funny thing is that we did it in English: our Dutch climbing vocabulary is just not available...

Last weekend I was suppose to go hiking, but the weather messed it up. So I went mountainbiking instead with my new bike, accompanied by Michelle, Steve and Hamish. Really good fun. Of course, I wanted to keep up with the guys in front of me (I might get lost, you know...) so maybe I have done a few 'oh shit I'm going to hit that tree' screams. In silence of course, because I'm cool...But it was good. And yes, I forgot to take pictures...

The other week I went to a kiwi band 'the Shot Band' with 3 friends and I had one of those giggly girls nights. You laugh so much that you have to cry. Or pee your pants. Or both. But I only cried, honestly. Check their site (www.theshotband.co.nz) to listen to some songs. Bit folk or country, I don't know. But they were good. And funny...

And if you want to know what I have been doing the past Tuesdays, check this website out...It's hilarious! www.bugpolo.com

Working bee or fun bee...

2008-09-22T19:45:00.008+12:00

It may surprise you all, but so far I am considering myself as a fun working bee, with still the emphasise on fun! However, I do have to apologise for the fact that I have absolutely neglected my blogger duties in the past months. In 'pre-travelling-for-year-Maaike' terminology that would have meant that I was working my ass off... The new and improved working Maaike is besides working also trying to have a nice social life (and so far with reasonable success! Can I have an applause?!)

Die Arbeit
I know everyone is dying to know how that is going. I mean, you only know the crazy-'oh so important'-no-time-for-fun-because-I-have-a-superduper-career-Maaike. Or perhaps that is the only person I know...Well, you can see: that was my biggest fear after travelling for a year and finding that new joyfull job again: would I dive into it again and loose track of the important fun things. Verdict after 6 weeks of work: work is really fun, I have great colleagues (who already offered to help me move!) and amazing (not to mention huge...) projects but so far no scary late nights! I had and will have a few business trips up to Auckland, I did some teaching already (really love that!), I'm doing some curriculum design, I'm getting my head around all the literacy and numeracy issues and I will be doing some courses. First one is about Maori culture and history. Fantastic!

The fun things
Where do I start? I'm climbing twice a week with different people. With Berit, with whom I introduced 'last climb with one arm', or with Julia, who forces me to climb the fire ladder on a time schedule or with Volker and Ivor who won't let me get down if I think I can't do a climb...
Val introduced me to Salsa dancing which I tried before in South America and absolutely sucked at...I'm still no good, but I like it that much that I will take lessons in a few weeks time!
And the good thing about Christchurch is that the hills are that close, so last week I went for a 2 hour hike up the hills after work! Great, no flat country can win that one...

My weekends have been filled with the outdoors (that's why I am here!!): I went snowboarding almost every weekend (see pictures) which results in the fact that I am now feeling confident enough to go down a blue one nicely (and a black one with hesitance and swearing...). But the other week I even went off piste (with Steve who basically said I was an absolute wooz if I didn't...Yes, I am a sucker for peer pressure (meaning: no one tells me I am too scared to do something!)

Then I went along with Berit on a girls weekend to Hanmer Springs where a normal 'girls weekend' would have been spend in the hotpools. We went mountainbiking instead: I absolutely loved it and I even wanted to go along with the advanced girls but they talked me out it...Since it was my first time, they reckoned it wasn't a smart idea. I totally agreed (after some persuasion of course). But I decided to buy a bike though, so I am a proud owner of an amazing fancy super bike (and that's about all I know about the bike...). So as soon as we have day light savings it's biking in the hills after work!

Anything else?
Well yes, some things (at work for instance!) were giving me more pleasure and energy than others. After some 'heart feeling' (here we go again...) I knew it was my house: it was too modern, not cosy, very boring and the guys were ok, but not fun. So putting 1 and 2 together I have decided to move in with Suzie who just bought an amazing nice character house: wooden floor, beautiful garden and just a superb house. Suzie likes mountainbiking too and apparently she is a reasonable surfer...I hope she can teach me a thing or two!
Anyhow, I moved last weekend in a record speed. It took me (and Jill and Julia: thanks!!) 2 hours to move my dear belongings (amazing how much you collect in 3 months...)...

What's next?
So, I will try to do my best in updating. Next time I will tell you more about the culture differences in work (the Dutch and being direct...my gosh, Im asking for trouble!), the fact that I'm by far the youngest at work and that people tell me about that one time they were in Ireland (and if I tell them I'm Dutch they don't know whether to laugh or say sorry...or just blink)
I promise to take some nice pictures of the house, my bike, 'my' hills...but the snow pictures will have to do for now!

Oh, and if this isn't convincing enough that you have to come and visit...I will throw in a treat next time. Not telling you what it is though just yet, and Eefje is NOT allowed to tell either!

Update time...

2008-07-30T12:50:00.006+12:00

Many things happen in a month. Friends have babies (please welcome Sjoerd in the world!), my brother finds a new job in the Netherlands this time, I had job interviews (yes plural!) and a presentation to do, Patrick leaves for a month to go to Ireland, I happily quit my contact centre job (YAY!) after having 2 cool job offers and decisions needed to be made. So as of August 11 I will be working as part of the academic staff at CPIT (Polytech in Christchurch, for the Dutch among us: compare it with a MBO/HBO) doing a 2 year project regarding integrated literacy.

Cool? Absolutely!
Impressed? Hell yeah!
Happy? Over the moon!

At the moment I need my time to arrange all the paperwork. Work regulation in NZ are so much different than back home, so I am reading every single paragraph of the agreement. Little things that make me happy: no more work in weekends, 36 hours is a full work week, I will get a teaching qualification and I am allowed to do courses at the institute itself...

I am also the lucky girl who can arrange a proper visa now. Which means a police record, a medical with X-rays, new passport, loads of papers to fill in, birth certificate, but, yes that will give me a 'Talent' Visa. I didn't know I had talent, but there you go. If it gives me a visa, I am more than happy to be talented!

I also need to get my NZ driving license so I can 'steal' Patrick's car again. Although they fully understand what a Dutch category B license means, they want to have it translated...even though it says 'driving license' on the front. Just another way to get some extra cash out of me!!

For the time being I have added 3 other posts:
- Mount Richardson: A day trip from 4 weeks ago
- Icy pictures from last weekend
- Mount Summer: 2 day trip last weekend

And yes: me, blogs and pictures don't go that well together, but I cannot be bothered to get the pictures right (I know some people who would spend hours on getting it right...I won't say full names but it starts with a P and ends in atrick... ;-)

Mount Summer

2008-07-30T12:00:00.000+12:00

What is the best thing to do if you just quit your job? Right, go hiking! So while Patrick is away, some of his friends invited me along on a two day trip to Mount Summer, as a Mid Winter Christmas thing. There was snow (loads!), there was cold,

there were fun people, there were presents (the puppets are the result!) and yes there was good food and even better drinks (Will's home brew stuff was fantastic!) so very much like Christmas! Thanks to all of them for the great weekend!

And I still love playing with my camera so here is a selection!

1)

1) Our hut for the night: seems so close by, right? It took us an hour to get there: finding the track in the snow was difficult but hiking in snow is even harder. Especially for Paul who was upfront...
2) Partners in crime: Katrina, Paul and Cloe (don't think it wasn't cold because of Cloe's short sleeves: it was cold and I was wearing thermo's and a warm fleece jacket!)
3) Me in front of DOC sign: just to indicate how much snow there was...we didn't see the sign at first!
4) One of the presents was clay: everyone made something, who says it is just for kids?
5) Along the way we saw some giant icicles: I reckoned they were good murder weapons but Paul used them as an tooth pick...

2)

3)

4)

5)

Icy pictures

2008-07-30T11:18:00.003+12:00

On the hike we came across a waterfall which made everything around it frosty and icy...Narnia country: amazing if you ask me...

Mount Richardson

2008-07-28T18:13:00.004+12:00

Just a day trip, but truly excellent. Mark (Patrick's flatmate) took Christine, Patrick and me into the mountains. Pictures say it all. And due to the fact that some people were complaining about the absence of pictures of Patrick, I post this one. Gnagna, I think nobody meant it like this and both you as well as Patrick won't like it...Tough luck, you are all in Europe, so come and get me if you dare...

Me struggling to get up the hill: whoever invented walking poles did a great job!

A freezing Patrick who is only smiling because he knows he is having lunch after the picture moment..

The working life

2008-06-30T13:59:00.000+12:00

Although it is officially winter, NZ is taking it easy on me to let me settle in nicely. The other weekend Patrick and I went for a day hike and we were treated with lovely weather. We had excellent views over Christchurch and the bay on the other side. Doesn't the water look tempting to jump in?

The weekend after Jill and I went for a long walk along a windy beach, more like winter this time...Jill took some really nice pictures, which of course, I don't have...Jill has a proper job at the moment so we are both thrilled with the fact that her visa got extended. In the meantime, Jill has surrounded herself with Dutch people. Me of course, her boss and her girlfriend has Dutch blood in her. Good on her: the Dutch rule!! (since when did I become patriotic...I'm not, but it is weird to see how many (semi-) Dutch people I bump into).

And how about my job hunting? Well, I am doing my best and I am sure I will find that perfect job. The moment that you have a nice chat with a company and they say 'ahah, your credentials sound great, but you are not a resident so we are not even looking at your resume...' you feel pretty cheated. I mean, being rejected AFTER they look at your resume, ok. But not even taking a glance at my amazing CV...autsj, that hurts. To be honest, it's their loss, but as long as I don't have a work permit it is unfortunately also my loss!
But I do understand; who says I am that committed to stay as I say I am. I know I am, but how do they know? It's Murphy's Law: all those immigrants in the Netherlands who had difficulties entering the country, are now punishing me by making it hard for me to stay in NZ...

But in the meantime my contract at the company got extended so I must be doing something good. It's still ok work, but I would like to use my brains a bit more. I mean, since I have them, I might as well use them!! Customers can be friendly, but you have some weird ones...A tip of the iceberg:
- one lady rang to complain about her bill. She transferred from another company to us 2 months ago and now she had to pay 2 bills of 200 dollars. I looked into the matter and advised that the bills were correct for the services she had. And she was amazed, I quote 'I transferred to you because that would mean I did not have to pay any bills'. When I explained to her that you always have to pay for services no matter where you are, she hung up. I'm sad to say that this person was Dutch. Bloody Dutch, always complaining about money...
- one woman called me a 'silly cow' after I said 'Goodmorning, you're speaking with Maaike' and she kept abusing me till I transferred her to the department she wanted to speak to (I found out later that the abusing kept going even though that person wasn't a customer with us...)
- an old man rang to ask whether our digital TV channels had any sex movies. No hesitation or shame whatsoever, just straight forward...
- one guy went totally crazy when I couldn't find him in the system (he was already annoyed because his phone at home wasn't working). The thing was that he didn't know his customer number (understandable) nor his own phone number (hmmm) and when I tried finding his account with his name, he told me different names 3 times...So he wanted to speak to my supervisor and I was just laughing because he was so ridiculous insane. And guess what, he rang back a week later to apologize...to me...personally. Imagine being in a contact centre and someone rings back a week later just to say ' I was wrong, sorry'. Is that customer service or what?!

My supervisor already mentioned vaguely 'we should keep you'...That freaked me out: I mean, I am more than happy to do a job which isn't within my area and I will do my best for ANY job, but customer service...Naaaaah, not my future career!

Busy bee...

2008-06-09T15:33:00.000+12:00

After travelling little bit less than a year, it makes sense that reality hits you. Luckily I have been there before (twice!) so I know how realities feels like(quite soft to be honest).

Sure thing, I miss the travelling, I miss the different cultures, I miss my absolute freedom to wander off whenever I feel like it. But do I want to be a traveller non-stop? No way. And no better place to 'settle down' than New Zealand!

So, busy bee as I am, I'm all organised already. Bank account, IRD number and my precious (yes, I got one too) green mountain which was lend to me by David who I met in Peru. House search was funny: it can take you several months to find a place in the Netherlands, and here it took me a week...I had a look at a few places. One was nice, but the tenants were a bit racial... They were complaining about foreigners, so I looked at the guy thinking 'I'm a foreigner' and then he quickly said he meant 'Asians'. As you can imagine the decision to NOT take that house was easypeasy. So thanks to Patrick who did some pre-arrival search for places to life, I have a nice room in an absolutely luxurious house (2 bathrooms, dishwasher...) with 2 guys, Matt and Hamish. Both lovely and I made them 'stamppot': I guessed that was the only proper way to introduce them to my Dutch side. I also bought a bed via Internet for 100 dollars and I still cannot believe how nice the bed is.

And work...Well, that's the reason it took me 3 weeks to write something on my blog. Since it's my first time ever of being unemployed, I dived into job ads in papers and Internet. My friend Jill, who is looking for a job as well, and I are having serious meetings about 'How to get a Canadian and a Dutch a proper cool job' and we send each other job ads (Thank God we are not in the same area!). And thanks to Patrick's friend Julie I have one killer NZ proof-resume.

I started writing cover letters and ringing people. Result: nice chats with friendly people on the phone who all wanted to have my resume, some interesting applications are still 'in the air' (fingers crossed) and at the moment I am working at a contact centre for a telecom company. Answering the phone, talking to customers and helping them sort out their stuff. And you know me: I like it! I think every job has its challenging aspects and within this position I get more acquaint with customer services in English. So far I had one angry(ish) customer who wasn't angry any more after we finished the talk. I don't know whether it was my 'telecom' expertise (I can hear you think 'Maaike, do you know anything about telecom?' Answer is no...) or my 'cute' accent: main thing is that it worked. And how much fun is it to help out a 75 year old lady to work out what the cheapest way is for her to ring her daughter in Australia and her son in the UK? Seriously, I like it!

The only down side is that I have to work on Saturday too. So while the people of the good life enjoyed hiking outside the city, I was working. And writing cover letters...But I'm not complaining; I'm actually happy to work again, yay!

The added pictures are from previous weekend: mountainbiking and hiking with Hannah, Warrick and Patrick...

The Dutch 'me'

2008-05-16T10:39:00.000+12:00

The dutch things: the Dom, the canals and my bike for the week. Can it get any more Dutch than that: an orange bike! (with special thanks to Sara!!)

My 2 weeks in the Netherlands involved a lot of eating, drinking and having excellent BBQ's with VIP's from the Netherlands (meet the vibrant Guusje) and Belgium (meet the lovely Eefje). And yes, I must admit I choose that beer because of its name...Am I a 'flierefluiter'?

The main reason of my 'Dutch trip': to see my family (sorry no pictures there...) and friends. My dad always says 'Maaike, you have too many friends': for once I agree because I didn't have enough time to see everyone. So yes many friends and many friends in different generations...Some wise men (Thomas and Jan) who think they are getting older, but I disagree. They also think they are getting wiser... My best friend from university, Catherine and boyfriend Floor who do scary grown-up things like having a mortgage, doing a phd and having a steady job. And last but certainly not least: My good friend Petra with her gorgeous son Toon who I adore (he already likes olives...repect!)

My two weeks have flown by: it was fun, I enjoyed it but I'm happy to go. I will not miss the Netherlands, but I will miss the people who live here. I have started a pro New Zealand PR and EVERYone has said that they will come and visit...

With both feet in the Netherlands...

2008-05-03T09:52:00.000+12:00

After an absolute brilliant trip around the world, I am back at the start: the Netherlands. In the last 10 months I have tried to describe what I enjoy about travelling, the countries I visited and the lovely people I met. I have often thought 'damn, I'm the luckiest person in the world' and I'm truly fortunate that I kept thinking that till the end, and to be honest I still think that now. Perhaps this picture of my last weekend in Suriname gives it away: Neirude and I, absolutely enjoying each others company, having fun by wrestling in the grass in Suriname. Ever wondered about true happiness: I definately found it!

So before I start meeting up with everyone, some future frequently asked questions (FFAQ's!)

- Ever wondered whether quitting your job was the right decision?
Nope. Never ever doubted it, not for a minute. I can highly recommend it...
- What was your favourite country? (Petra's husband Lex was to quick for me: he already asked me that...)
I have no idea. Cliché enough I truly enjoyed every single step of my trip.
- Do you wish you had done something else along your trip?
Nope. For me this trip was excellent: culture, nature, travelling alone and sometimes with friends and a 'Western' break in the middle.
- Did you miss 'home'?
Euh no, but I sometimes wished I could go for a coffee, or have dinner and a nice glass of wine with my parents or friends. But miss...no, sorry, if you do what you enjoy most, it's difficult to really miss something.
- So the one million euro question: what's next?
Well, a holiday in the Netherlands and then back to New Zealand on May 16th where I do have to get 'serious' again and find a job, get a house and some 'normality' in my life. Sounds absolutely scary at the moment, but I know I will enjoy it...till I start dancing in the rain again and decide to put my travelshoes back on!

Het binnenland: ‘the inner country’

2008-04-29T07:33:00.001+12:00

Brownsberg
Since I didn’t want to stay in the city constantly while Neirude and Romeo were both at work, I went on some trips.

I went to Brownsberg which is a national park. Great scenery, nice waterfall, but because the rest of the group couldn’t walk that much and 2 of them didn’t like the rain (hello, Amazone, rainforest?) we didn’t do as much hiking as I was hoping for. The views of the Brokopondo Stuwmeer were amazing though: it looks like the forest is ‘breathing’! And this green frog was ‘the catch of the day’!

Matapika
Since Romeo works outside the city he knows heaps of people. One of his patients told him about Matapika where you can see endangered sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach sand and then swim away again. It’s difficult to get there because first you have to cross the Commewijne River, then go through an amazing swamp by tiny boat to finally get to the beach, so most tourists go to the more accessible Galibi.

But of course, Romeo, Neirude and I went to the less touristy Matapika where we camped next to the sea, we swam, we played like kids in the sand and best of all: we saw a Leatherback turtle lay her eggs on the beach during the day which is very rare, because normally they come during the night! The good thing of seeing a turtle during the day is that you can see everything very clear which is truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The approach of the turtle, the digging, the slimy eggs, the noise and the ‘tears’ of the turtles. And the turtle was a giant…

Raleigh Falls
Last week I went (again on my own) on a truly excellent trip to the Raleigh Falls, a national park as well. The trip to the remote area by plane was absolute terror. Only 3 weeks ago there was plane crash with a similar plane and our flight was filled with turbulence and bad weather…So when we got to the ground, there was group bonding straight away! My group existed out of 3 couples and me, but honestly, it was one of the nicest groups I ever been with. All 9 of us (7 tourists plus guide and the cook) got on really well and we had remarkably deep and interesting talks about work, life in general and happiness, both in Suriname as in the Netherlands.

And we all enjoyed the long walks in the rain, the great views and the lovely waterfalls. We saw tarantulas and cute monkeys (Doodshoofd aapjes: I don’t know the English name), we heard Brulapen (don’t know the English again…) and we met the most dangerous snake in Suriname: the bushmaster. The last one apparently kills humans within 5 minutes and it attacked me and another girl. Not funny and the local guide should have known better than to hit the snake with a stick…Even I know that that is not a smart idea…
And we had a great laugh the final night when the locals played music and we all danced and drank beer. And as ‘slagroom op het toetje’, the next day we had to fly back in a smaller plane than planned. Only 8 people could fit in, so since we were with 9, one person had to sit in front next to the pilot. I knew all 3 girls were terrified of the trip back and of course, good boyfriends as the lads were, they had to sit next to the girls, I was the lucky girl to sit next to the pilot! It was amazing and the pilot even gave me the opportunity to take over the plane. But I didn’t do that: not because of the 3 pair of very jealous eyes of the boys but because of the terrified eyes of the girls…Imagine being shit scared and than this ‘linguist’ takes over…Nah, not a good idea.

Babunhol and Bergendal
For my final weekend in Suriname Neirude arranged a trip with her good friends Bernadette and her son Brandon, Ame, Martin and Suzan. We organized the trip while drinking nice wine the week before, Martin and I did the shopping on Friday and we were off to Babunhol on Saturday. It’s a place next to the Suriname River, more inland. The trip to the place was shocking (literally flying up and down) but I managed to sleep the entire drive. When we got there we pitched up our tents and after Neirude and I wrestled a bit in the grass which gave us both an allergic reaction, we ran into the water. We chilled, we chatted, I slept again and we had a nice BBQ and yes more wine…

Early morning we got up to go to Bergendal which is an adventure eco park. Again, we did something I had never done before: we went into the canopy of the rainforest and we went ‘canopy gliding’ (‘kabelbaan’ ) from one tree top to the other and finally we even crossed the Suriname River. It was really cool, Neirude and Romeo even went up-side-down while I went with only one hand to make a video with the other hand…
Next was quite an interesting historical hike. Well, honestly, it wasn’t much of a hike but more talking, but it was really interesting, especially the part about the slaves, the abolishment of slavery and just how things were back then. Bad thing to be Dutch in that time. We also came across a slave cemetery, in the middle of the jungle. Pretty amazing.
And last we went kayaking on the Suriname River. It wasn’t really exciting, but I did enjoy it. We weren’t allowed to swim because of the strong current and perhaps the piranha’s (?) but we went anyway. Nice for the cooling down…

To finish off this brillant weekend Romeo, Neirude and I went for a nice dinner with Romeo's family.

Can it get any better than this? I wonder...

Passionate Suriname…

2008-04-29T07:03:00.000+12:00

Now back to the good life. For those who are not Dutch and for those who don’t know Neirude, it’s time for a bit of theory.

Suriname is located in South America but I have noticed that most South Americans don’t know it, together with the rest of the world... It’s part of the Caribbean and it is situated in between British and French Guyana and it’s north from Brasil. It’s tropical, which basically means it’s too hot for me. So I have adjusted to Romeo’s and Neirude’s habits: I drink loads, I take showers almost 4 times a day, I sleep with the fan on, I use factor 45 to protect me from the sun and I just go with the flow.

Back to history. Suriname was colonized first by the English but the Dutch traded New York for Suriname. The Dutch stayed for quite a while and Suriname became independent in 1975. It is interesting to see how much influence the Dutch left behind. The historical buildings in Paramaribo still look very Dutch to me, the official language is Dutch but the more widely spoken language is Sranan Tongo which is, of course, very much influenced by English and Dutch as well. Linguist as I am, I try to understand bits and pieces. If Neirude speaks it slowly, I can understand it, if Romeo speaks it rapidly (which is just normal speed of course), I am lost. Suriname uses the school system they have used since 1975 which includes the Dutch HAVO and VWO, but also the MULO which doesn’t exist anymore in the Netherlands. Nowadays they use their own schoolbooks, but before they used Dutch ones. And how can one forget the massive amount of Dutch interns in Paramaribo…It comes down to ‘if you see a white person, it’s an Dutch intern, and if you see that person, they are mostly blond and on a bike’. How stereotypical, but it’s true. So I am not allowed to cycle, because I’m not an intern…;-)

So how do I know Neirude? Neirude is born in Suriname (she is part Dutch, part Surinaams), but her family moved to the Netherlands when she was 6 I think. Neirude and I were in the same class in secondary school and we became very close friends. We are very different though: Neirude loves pink, glitter, glamour, girly stuff and I don’t. Neirude loves shopping, and I don’t. Neirude always studied really hard, I didn’t (take note of the past tense here…!). Neirude always knew she wanted to become a paediatrician (kinderarts) like her dad, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But all this never stopped us from becoming good friends. We are both a bit nuts (no shocker there…), we like our sports, we love hugs and we both like giving them, we like being active and see and do stuff. And we love teasing each other and guess what, we are both good at it too!
So after secondary school Neirude went to study medicine in Maastricht and I went to Utrecht. When I was abroad, doing what I do best (travel!), Neirude was in the Netherlands. Whenever Neirude was at her second home Suriname, I was in the Netherlands. So we haven’t seen much of each other the last few years, but we always said I should come and visit her in Suriname since we were, well I guess 13. So here I am!
And who is Romeo? Well, Romeo is her lovely boyfriend who I met 2 years ago. But this time I really got to know him. And I think he is even more lovely now. He is a GP (huisarts) and he does great work. He has told me loads of stories about his work and the surroundings where his clinic is. Interesting I might say, so it was very impressive to go to his clinic outside the city. Less important, but definitely relevant: he is an excellent cook. So after these 3,5 weeks we all do what we do best. Neirude saves little children, Romeo saves grown-ups and cooks, and I do the dishes and laundry. Excellent agreement. Mind you, it does feel like I have done a course in ‘medical degree for dummies’ the last few weeks: I’ve learned a lot!

So Neirude and Romeo both had to work during the week, and sometimes evenings or weekends. So I was as free as a bird. Romeo gave me the house keys, I got a mobile so they could ‘check up’ on me and I had to learn how to switch on and off their house alarm…Freaky machines, but I managed…And I got to know Nero and Caesar, their guard dogs. Nero is a massive scary rottweiler, but my theory is that they haven’t been raised properly because both Nero and Caesar just want to play with me. Am I not suppose to be a stranger??? So it happened that only after 2 days I called their home, my home too.

I enjoyed myself by walking around Paramaribo, doing the usual sightseeing, going for coffees, go to the cinema and read my book. As soon as Neirude and Romeo got home we did loads of stuff. I met most of the family, from both sides, I met heaps of friends of Neirude who I knew by name, but now I know how they are: and they are a great laugh! Neirude loves going to the gym, so I went along where Neirude’s best friend Bernadette tortured us with aerobic lessons (seriously, one morning I woke up because of muscle pain…). We went bowling, swimming and of course we went shopping and we ate loads of nice food. So finally a country where I am not loosing weight, but gaining it!

Glorious Suriname!

2008-04-29T07:00:00.000+12:00

I’m getting slack at the end, I’m sorry. So much to tell, so much to write, but where to start?

Shall I start with the only negative story of my trip? I prefer to tell only the lovely things, so if you see me next just ask me how my trip from Peru via Venezuela to Suriname was like and I will tell you about how I spend the night at the domestic airport in Caracas, alone, by my self, feeling truly unsafe, I will tell you how I solved it by talking to all the security guards in Spanish to make sure they would help me if needed. I will elaborate about the horrible Venezuelan airline Conviasa who ripped me off and moreover annoyed the hell out of me. I will tell you how it feels to be awake for 48 hours, how annoying airport taxes are and how my tired face helped me with the customs when I just didn’t have hat 50 US dollars anymore to pay the 5th airport tax. I will tell you how scary it is when that dodgy airline lets everyone disembark the plane due to technical reasons, 2 hours later they get everyone on again and then during take off (yes, take off) the plane makes an emergency stop and we go back to the airport to disembark again. After another 2 hours we get on the SAME plane to finally go to Porlamar, luckily without any problems, but with an huge delay so I’m afraid I will miss my connection to Trinidad…but of course that plane was delayed for several hours as well, so I could start worrying about missing my connection to Suriname…And did I say I didn’t sleep for 48 hours? And then on all the planes nobody spoke English, so I was doing everything in Spanish, but when we got to Trinidad where everyone speaks English, all the Spanish speaking people wanted me to help them translate everything. And when I finally arrived in Suriname, I could have spoken Dutch to the custom officer because in Suriname the official language is Dutch, but the officer looked at me and said although I had a Dutch passport that he could not understand me. ‘What language are you speaking?’ he asked. And then I realized I was still speaking Spanish with a mix of Dutch words…Being awake for 48 hours does not work for me…

So I was extremely happy, which is basically a huge understatement, I mean it was a glorious event to get to Suriname in one piece and getting the most lovely and warm hugs and kisses from my good friend Neirude and her boyfriend Romeo.

Something hot and something even hotter...

2008-04-05T14:46:00.000+13:00

After my splendid graduation of Spanish classes I treated myself on a trip to the jungle: Manu National Park. At first I hesitated to go on the trip since I already went to the jungle in Laos and Papua New Guinea, but I can tell you now: each jungle is completely different again!

The biggest difference compaired with the first two trips was that we went by boat into the jungle to get to an even more remote area. That entire experience was unique on it´s own. I really felt like I was in a National Geografic documentary about the Amazone. Besides that we had a guide, Ryse, who grew up in that part of the jungle and he literally knew everything about the wildlife, the flora and fauna.

You could see us stare into the trees many times (like Beat and Martina are demonstrating nicely!). And if you are on a real expedition like we were, you might bump into unexpected things...Ever wondered where cocaine is made off...Behold, an illegal coca plantation!

Our group was a bit tame to my liking, but then again Ryse found a partner in crime to do the most challenging things. We went insect hunting so we could seduce the giant spiders to come out of their little holes. Mind you, spiders the size of my hand (even a tarantula!)...
Ryse discovered I love climbing trees, so I tried everything he suggested...the papaya tree, the tarzan swinging and the hollow tree. Too bad most of my climbing was not as succesfull as the monkey-like acts of the locals. But I had fun, that was the most important part!

Because it was very hot and humid (of course, it´s the jungle) and I was not used to the heath anymore, I wanted to go swimming. Nobody else wanted to come, so no worries, I go on my own. But Ryse didn´t let me: he figured the river was not what I was used to. And I am not ashamed to say: yes, the river compensated for the quiet group...We decided to cross the river, but the current dragged me along for half a mile...Little miss arrogant, thinking that she could easily cross it...Needless to say that I loved it! And lateron it turned out that one of the locals loved my bikini, because it got stolen while hanging outside to dry...

The last night we went for another walk and we did a miserable attempt in fishing. We found a turtle though and literally several dozens of baby crocodiles. Martina and I were allowed to hold some of them and you know what...If you squeeze them just a little too hard, they make the funniest sound like [ounk ounk]. Yes, the jungle is fabulous!

After that trip we headed back to Cusco and since the Peruvian family I stayed with before, liked me, they offered I could stay with them again. For free...The next day Martina and I took off to Huacachina to try something new (and hot, very hot): sandboarding!

It´s the same like snowboarding except that there is no snow but you board on massive sanddunes. Martina -being Swiss- went downhill flawless, I on the other hand have had only one week of snowboard experience. But I went surprisingly smooth and fast. Of course I fell a few times, but well, that´s what goggles are for!

After all that excitement it´s time for the big city. Lima is a massive city with more than 8 million people (did I mention before I prefer the countryside?). Martina and I have enjoyed good food: ceviche (raw fish mmmm) and cheap sangria. After a tearfull goodbye, Martina headed to Equador this morning I went into the city ´to sniff around´. I walked for ages and now I have seen enough of Lima. Too big for my liking...

So tomorrow morning I leave early, taking 5 planes (oh my God, what a pollution...) via Venezuela and Trinidad to hopefully get 2 days later to my final destination of my trip around the world: Suriname! My reward will be sweet though: I will see one of my best friends from secondairy school again whom I haven´t seen since 2 years.

Two stories

2008-03-27T12:11:00.001+13:00

Behold, two stories for you to read. The easy-read story Peru in a nutshell and the Maaike-is-frustrated story called Me, robbers and the police.

Skip the last one if you just want to read the fun stories!!

For now; I´m off to the jungle on Saturday with 2 Swiss friends Martina and Beat and then next week I will head to Lima with Martina. From there, Suriname it is!!! (fingers crossed that I will actually arrive in Paramaribo because I don´t trust the Venezuelan flight company...at all...)

Peru in a nutshell...

2008-03-27T11:12:00.000+13:00

So many things to tell, so I will do it in different headlines...it´s like an essay, I know...

Mi español
As expected I am the absolute nerd in my class. I love practising my spanish everywhere and any time. I do my homework every day and much more, I learn all the verbs and words by heart constantly. In class I am one of those annoying people who whispers all the answers to the questions. I´m the one who asks ´when do we get past tense, what is the rule for superlatives, I need to know the possessive pronouns´. According to my fellow students I am a walking dictionairy and even if I dont know the word, I´ll take a French word and make it sound Spanish. And often that works too.
Conclusion; I love learning Spanish! And sorry if my English is getting worse...

Spare time
At school there are 2 kind of students. The ones who are early 20, first time away from home and absolutely love going out. And you have the students who are in their late 20´s and 30´s, doing their spanish seriously and enjoy doing cultural things and see all the musea. Guess where I belong to...
By now I have seen most of all the historical places around Cusco (and there are a lot!) and I enjoyed some good hikes and busrides (not all...). And I went to see a Peruvian ´futbol´ match; a qualification match for the Copa Libertadores de America. I learned some rude words there while watching the most slow and boring soccer ever. It´s no Brasil or Argentina...The most excitement happened when the match ended (Cusco won with 1-0) and about 10 militairy police in full armour ran onto the field to protect the referees from angry hooligans...
Furthermore I enjoyed the salsa lessons with Dave (a friend of Patricks from NZ)...To be honest, Dave and I both suck at it...I went rockclimbing (yes Eefje!!) with Dave, Martina and Fiona. I hadn´t done it since Ireland (5 years ago); Back then I saw a friend of mine fall 10 metres down while climbing on cliffs...not good for my courage...But Martina made me come with her and I absolutely loved it. I did 3 climbs with Dave and it was amazing. Very promissing for NZ!!
Rafting (class III-IV) had to be done as well of course and, I am repeating myself, that was fabulous too. Marleene, Rudolf and I tried to go mountainbiking as well, but Dutch cycling experts as we are, we backed out after seeing the bikes (just when we got to our destination...). I mean, you don´t want to go biking when the brakes are not excisting, the gears are playing up that bad that you just cannot cycle and if the wheel is toughing the frame that firm that it makes it hard to go forward...No, even non Dutch would say no to that...

My Peruvian family
My family is very nice and friendly and I feel very welcome. Because of them my Spanish is improving quicker than most of my fellow students who all stay at the campus at school. I understand way more, but speaking is still a bit difficult at times. The mother of the family is a great cook and a ´real´ mother. The kind I never had and the kind that would drive me absolutely mad if it was my own mother. She straightens my cloths in the morning, she walks me to the door, she always checks whether I have enough money and every time I get up in the morning my breakfast awaits me.
At lunch I always tease the dad, and the daughters enjoy that of course. Whenever the dad tries to tease me back, I say annoyingly ´No entiendo´ which means ´I don´t understand´. You understand that we laugh a lot.

Religious Peru
Because of Easter there are a lot of festivities in town. There are many processions and heaps of praying. In some processions the people are traditionally dressed and they sing in Quechua (the language of the indigenous people). Very beautiful and it gave me goozebumps. Do I have a video of it? Yes, I have. But you better read the next story then...
On the monday before Easter they celebrate another thing as well. They have a massive procession for ´El Señor de los Temblores´. El Señor is the protector of Cusco and mainly the protector for the earthquakes. They organise a procession and carry El Señor on their back. To me it was just like Jesus on his cross except for the fact that he was black and he had indigenous features. Very interesting and to be honest moving as well to see so many people praying on the streets.

Me, robbers and the police...

2008-03-25T09:50:00.000+13:00

I jinxed myself. Just the other day I was thinking ´Aren´t I lucky, traveling for such a long time and I have never been robbed´...

So what happened? Two things actually. Two weeks ago I was on the phone to someone in Venezuela about my plane ticket to Suriname (yes, complicated, I will not bore you with the full story). You have those closed off phone booths here in Peru; very handy. So I was on the phone, my bag between my legs and I was getting pretty agitated with the people on the other line when I felt something touching my leg. I looked down and I saw a guy trying to grab my bag. In an impulse I half kicked him and yelled in Spanish (yes, I am integrating pretty well) ´Fuera´ which literally means ´get out´ but it has the connotation of ´piss off´...I was pretty amuzed with myself lateron that I responded in Spanish...So 1 point for me, 0 for the robbers and 0 for the police...(Maaike 1 - Robber 0 - Police 0)

Then the revenge of the robbers community...On sunday I was in a local bus with 2 of my friends. Marleene and I were sitting at the back of the bus, both holding our bags on our lap. On the left hand side there was a Peruvian guy sitting as well. No problem, we had some small talk (that´s as far as I get in Spanish) and we got off at Cusco. Marleene, Rudolf and I went for coffee and when I wanted to pay I noticed my wallet and my camera were gone...Damn. Maaike 1 - Robber 1 - Police 0

To be honest I wasn´t really angry. The guy obviously was an expert, I mean; my bag on my lap AND I was hugging it! I hope he will spend the money well. On school fees for his children, or a nice present for his wife, some good food or on some repairs on his house (this is my story, so I can think what I want and I like to think positive!!)

So what to do when you get robbed? Exactly, I rang my bank and cancelled my ATM-card. Luckily I left my credit card, more cash, pasport and driving license at home. Next step: the lovely Peruvian police. Marleene joined me to help me out with the Spanish if needed. So off we went, Tourist Police here we come. We walked in, and first I asked whether they spoke English. Nope. Maaike 1 - Robber 1 - Police 1

Ok, Spanish it is. I explained what happened and what got stolen. The policewoman looked at my suspiciously. A very macho man joined her and asked me again what happened and persisted that I showed him how I was holding my bag in the bus. So I did and then he said he didn´t believe me and he walked off. Maaike 1 - Robber 1 - Police 2
It gets worse. So I say it´s true (¡Es verdad!) and the man starts laughing about it. What the fuck?! Maaike 1 - Robber 1 - Police 3
Then the lady says I have to prove I was in the bus. But I cannot, because the mountainbike guide paid the busdriver...But ok, if they want to play it like that; I will ring Percy and ask for the freaking ticket. Don´t mess with Maaike... Maaike 2 - Robber 1 - Police 3
Half an hour later I´m back with Percy and he tells his story. Yes, mister police, we were all in a public bus...Percy translates some additional stuff and they sort of believe me (not willingly though!). Time to make a report. Maaike 3 - Robber 1 - Police 3
Name, nationality, pasport number and address in Peru please. ´The exact adddress´ I ask, because I know the street name, but the full address of my family was on a piece of paper in, exactly, my stolen wallet. ´Si, senorita, no es possible sin direccion´ and why did I live with a Peruvian family anyway (very very suspicious looks at me again...) Maaike 3 - Robber 1 - Police 4
So I ask if it´s possible to arrange everything for the police report except my address because at least now Percy is there to help me out with the Spanish. Nope, they cannot do that...Maaike 3 - Robber 1 - Police 5
So Percy jumps in and says he will come back with me tomorrow when I have the address. You got to love Percy!!! And guess what, both the policeman and woman swith to English...freaking losers! Maaike 5 - Robber 1 - Police 5 (yes, I think I deserve 2 points for that!!)

After this episode I told my Peruvian family and my Peruvian mother went wild. Who does the police think they are in not believing me! Great mum, so she wrote down the address, phone number and everything she could think off on a piece of paper and she even offered to go with me.
The next day I head to the police. I´m in a different world. There is a friendly, English speaking, policeman taking down my story, without doubting me. Maaike 6 - Robber 1 - Police 5
Ok, all is done. I only needed to go to the bank to pay 3 soles 50 (almost 1 euro) to get the report the next day...What, I need to pay for this? Maaike 6 - Robber 1 - Police 6
Percy shows me where to get the ticket and the next day I hop back to the police station to meet the same rude policemen again who now have to hand over my ´hot-wanted´ police report...

Final score: Maaike 7 - Robber 1 - Police 6

Going with the score: a Maaike with loads of frustation, a full Peruvian experience and without wallet and camera...And anyone who dears to suggest that I should put some lively pictures with this story, I will personaly kick his or her ass as soon as I see that person...

Pictures from South America

2008-03-10T01:46:00.000+13:00

Outdoor Peru

2008-03-09T13:12:00.000+13:00

The last 2 weeks have been absolutely exhausting; going to bed absolutely knackered at 8 PM were a regular thing...

From Bolivia we took a bus to Arequipa were we had arranged a 3 day horseback riding trip. Sara is a great rider, I lied a bit about the amount of experience I had to get on the trip; but it was worth it! And besides, our guide was more into riding donkeys so she was the slow one of the three of us...
We started off near the Colca Canyon; the most lovely horseman was waiting for us with his best 4 horses. He had put the saddles on already, but sara and I made sure he didn´t do that anymore. If he was getting up at 6AM to get the horses ready, then we were getting up at that time. No special treatment ´you are rich tourists and you paid for everything´. Oh no, we were in this together! And besides, Sara and I had lots to learn, because Peruvian horses have a different way of saddling them up (can you say it this way in English?)
The tracks itself were through remote villages, lovely to see the houses, the kids, the countryside and not see any tourists. It was just me and Morena (that was my horse...!) An absolute feeling of freedom and the feeling ´I am the luckiest person in the world´ returned again in my blood. (did it leave at all....euh, no, not really!)

After this wonderful trip we headed to Cusco to do some serious hiking. Most people walk the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, but since Sara and I don´t consider us as ´most people´ we wanted to do a different track. So we decided to do the challenging Lares Track. Three days hiking and camping and the fourth day at Machu Picchu. Great, we couldn´t wait! We met our guide José the day before and he seemed to know what he was talking about. He told us that because the Inca Trail was closed for another day, that the Lares Track might be a bit more busy as usual. Ah well, we´ll see....Little did we know...
The next morning at 4.30AM José picked us up with....another guide. José couldn´t come (for some unexplained reason) so his friend Brain would take us. Sara and I quickly looked at each other (do you trust this? Yes, no? Yes, we just want to go!). So off we went to the most dodgy busstation I ever been and there we met our cooking lady who turned out not to be able to cook, but she was lovely. And we met Brain´s lovely assissant Eric...we still wonder what his job description was...With the bus we went into the countryside, off to Lares where we met our horseman who took along 2 horses to carry all the stuff. Peruvians have never heard of ultralight packaging...
From the moment we started hiking we had the BEST time. The scenery was truly amazing, Brain was ok, the mountains were stunning, the snow was still present, the ´even-more-remote-villages-than-Arequipa´ were absolutely impressive and best of all; we didn´t meet ANY tourists...Weird hey?! That´s what Sara and I thought as well, so we figured we walked the best track ever, but it was just not the Lares track... Especially because we ended in a village where were not suppose to end...Hilarious!
Anyhow, the hike was fabulous. We crossed villages without electricity, without running water, just a freezing cold river and no place to go to the toilet (great, open air toilets, we love them!). Men and women wearing traditional clothing (they were even playing soccer in them!) and we met the cutest kids you can imagine. In the freezing cold they walk on sandels or barefoot, girls wear skirts without covering their cold legs and while handing out our candy you could feel their ice cold fingers but they just don´t seem to mind. Different world.
On the fourth day Machu Picchu was impressive. We climbed one of the mountains to have a great view over the place; when we got there it was cloudy, so we decided to sit down and wait. The Gods had a positive attitude that morning, because we got the best surprise while waiting. First bits and pieces of the clouds vanished and eventually it was a clear blue sky.

In short: the best ´goodbye´ trip for Sara who has returned home already. Although I was sorry for Sara to leave (great month!) I am quite happy on my own again, enjoying some good sleep-ins till 8AM, interesting musea and finally arranging heaps of stuff I needed to be doing for ages (like figuring out how on earth I am getting to Suriname in 4 weeks time...)
So what´s next. Well, since I noticed that my Spanish is too limited to understand the people, I have decided to go back to school. As of this monday I am taking Spanish lessons!! My plan is to be the absolute language nerd and to make more progress than the rest of my class I am going to stay with a Peruvian family. So Spanish it is from morning till evening!!

Friendly Bolivia!!!

2008-02-24T13:01:00.000+13:00

If there is one thing that pops into my mind about the last weeks, it is that the Bolivian people are friendly people. Although we don´t understand each other often because of my lack of Spanish, I always get the biggest smiles of beautifull happy people. They seem genuinely more happy than a lot of other people, although they have absolutely less material things in life.
The second thing is altitude sickness. Knock on wood, but I was really worried about getting it because I heard so many horror stories, but the only thing I´ve experienced is a ´high´ feeling while waiting at the Bolivian border at 3600 metres and a light head ache the next morning at the same height. In the meantime we´ve been to more than 5000 metres and no worries...thanks to the coca leaves probably!!

Sara and I have been discovering Bolivia in a steady paste. We started of in the South, at Uyuni. We did a trip to the Salt Lakes, the impressive vulcanoes, their colourfull lagoons, the flamingo´s and that was an amazing start. The scenery was stunning, the people in the villages were shy but lovely and the people in our tourgroup (yes, the only way to get around...) were hilarous. Not to forget our excellent tour guide. So we were very lucky all together.

Next stop was Potosi; one of Bolivians most important miners towns. There we took a look deep down. An old miner told us about the ins and outs of the mines, he showed us the rituals and took us down to the fourth level which meant crawling on our hands and knees in pitch darkness...Absolutely irresponsible of course (yes, dad, I know!), but very impressive and interesting. Life expectanty of an average miner; 45 years...

After that we headed to Sucre, one of Bolivians most beautiful cities. Well, that´s what they say. Sara and I have our doubts. Maybe it had to do with the fact that everything was closed on Sunday (so all the amazing musea, the stunning cathedrals etcetc were shut) so don´t be culturally active in Bolivia on a Sunday. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that both sara´s stomach and mine decided to go on strike. Who knows, but we were happy to go to La Paz!!

La Paz was relaxed. My stomach was playing up badly but stomach expert as I am after China and Cambodia, I decided wisely that my body was not coping on its own (yes, Guusje, I am learning!!). So after having three days of medication, my food stays in for longer than an hour. Thank God for the miracle-powder (whatever it was...)
Anyway, La Paz. Since we used coca leaves while being at a high altitude, Sara and I wanted to know more about it and after the interesting visit to the coca museum we have decided that we better not chew too much anymore...we didn´t really realise the leaves are the basics for cocaine...Ignorant or stupid, or just plain Dutch?

And how could we not mountainbike in La Paz. Sara raced the famous ´Death Road´ as a true maniac (ok ok, a very experienced maniac) and I followed her ofcourse, but in a more Maaike-paste. Absolutely loved it, I can truly recommend it!

We left Bolivia via the magnificent Lake Titicaca to arrive safely in Peru where the people are less friendly (10 points for the Bolivians!) but we found the most generous hostel owner who makes up for the grumpy Peruvians we met so far. The next 2 weeks are full of outdoor activities, but more about that in 2 weeks!

Sorry no pictures, but I hope Sara is willing to be a guestwriter in 2 weeks time when she is back in the Netherlands!

Chile now, Bolivia next

2008-02-09T10:19:00.001+13:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know I arrived safely in South America. One day later as planned (after spending a night in a very posh hotel in Auckland) but happy to be on the road!!

My friend Sara and I were reunited in Santiago: after the big hugs we went off arranging stuff straight away. Santiago was ok, but not nice enough to stay long. Moreover, it´s Bolivia we want to go to!!
So no time for the lazy: it took us several hours and several busstations later to find a ticket to Calama, a city near the border. Happy with the ticket we had a next challenge: book a hotel room. So I rang (yes, people, I rang) a hotel and arrange a room IN SPANISH!!! I am so damned proud of myself...Sara and I notice that although our Spanish is probably not grammatical correct, we all seem to understand each other. Great stuff!

First impressions of Chile are great. Loads of men with long hair (remember my fetish for guys with ling hair when I was 16...) and all the women dress very very sexy. Besides that we are just cruising along and heading to Bolvia this sunday. Probably no or slow email there, so no news is good news! (take note to that, dad...)

Change of plans...

2008-02-05T12:00:00.000+13:00

New Zealand is coming to an end...With a huge stone in my stomach I am packing my bag. Yes, I am truly looking forward to move on, but I am sad to leave. So you might read some sadness in between the lines in my two new posts although I have very much enjoyed both Hopewell as my last trip!

So what's the plan Maaike? Well, I was suppose to be in Tahiti at this very moment, but I am not...I changed my ticket because it turned out I could fly straight to Chile instead of via Tahiti. And I didn't like the sound of Tahiti to begin with (honeymoon island, very expensive and wrong season to go). So new plan: I am flying to Santiago tomorrow where I will start my South American adventure. Hopefully with enough Spanish (I can say my name, say what I do for a living, order drinks, ask for directions and say how many children I have...) but certainly with heaps of energy and excitement!

So next post: either Chile or Bolivia!!

Last trip...in New Zealand

2008-02-05T11:00:00.000+13:00

After spending 6 weeks in the middle of nowhere in Marlborough Sounds, coming back to Christchurch came with a package of mixed feelings: I hated the smell of the city, the crowdedness, the concrete...but I loved watching people, going to the art gallery and cinema, admire the cathedral and drinking nice coffees. But I was not staying for that long because as a goodbye trip, I went on another hiking trip with Patrick to some wonderful hot pools along the Otehake River near Arthur's Pass.

The hot pools were completely different than the ones on Welcome Flat (with Eefje); the pools just happened to be in the middle of the river...Quite incredible and very very hot...(can you see the 'boiling' water?)

While being in the pools it rained a lot (who cares?!) and the trip to and from the pools was very pleasant too. We had to cross some rivers (see picture: I am about to go in and the water came ABOVE my waist) and along the way there were some classic New Zealand picture moments...I guess you understand why I am going to miss New Zealand a lot...

On our way back Patrick decided to do some caving too: we went into Cave Stream. It was truly impressive. Getting into the caves you had to go through water, again halfway my waist, and then we had to continue walking in water, climbing up here and there, falling here and there and all this in pitch darkness (thank God for head torches!). And leaving the cave on hands and knees...I wasn't sure whether I was claustrophobic: turns out I am not...I never knew caving was that much fun!

Mmmm, yeah, New Zealand is a keeper...

Hopewell in a pictureframe...

2008-02-05T10:45:00.000+13:00

View from the house...

View of musselfarm in sound (one of my mountainbike trips!)

One of many kayaktrips...

'Flessenpost' sounds so much better than 'messages in a bottle'...Anyhow: the view of Marlborough Sounds at Pete's Peak (one of the hikingtrips)

How is that for a sunset?

Collecting mussels from a musselfarm: Phil (Mike's brother)

Musselnight: the green shelled mussels after I attacked them...

Result after an evening fishing with Sam, one of the locals. My catch: red gurnard, snapper and a blue cod. How is that for a first time?!

Part of Hopewells scenic reserve: their 'back yard'

Itchy feet

2008-01-12T17:14:00.000+13:00

Hopewell is treating me well. Cleaning is a very productive and 'rewarding' job. Everyone loves your work, including me when I take a shower in a sparkling clean bathroom! Besides that the surroundings still give me peace and tranquility. Actually, too much probably, because my Spanish is not improving very much. I am too occupied with loads of reading, some serious mountain biking, pleasurable kayak trips and, much to the disgust of my coworkers, I go night swimming each evening before I go to bed. Only my friends the jellyfish stick to me...Literally. But I still love it! Furthermore I still get totally excited when Mike shouts 'Mussels tonight'...Yes Hopewell is a keeper!

Christmas and New Year were joy full; nice food and company, an amazingly dull New Year's party at the locals from which Jill (coworker) and me escape from to hide and celebrate 2008 in the hot tub. My friends Mark and Ellie decided to come over to enjoy Hopewell, and see me of course. It was lovely having them over, even though Mark pushed me in the sea while kayaking...Yes, Mark, this is my story and I am sticking to it! Patrick decided to have a look at this gorgeous place too. Since it was raining a lot, we played a lot of ' vier op een rij' [sorry don't know the English word for it]. Patrick is still devastated by my one golden game...The look on his 'losing' face was priceless. And yes, all the other times I lost horribly.

Another highlight was January 2nd. It was my special day and I made sure everyone around me was as happy as I was: we had some nice wine to celebrate the occasion. 'Why' you might wonder. Well, officially, if I had decided to take the unpaid leave which was offered to me by my boss (well, offered, I forced it upon them, I guess) I would have been back at work on January 2nd. And I truly count my blessings that I am not back in the Netherlands nor back at work. I am really not ready yet. But do I think about work? Yes, in a nice way actually. I am starting to 'fantasize' about my work options, I'm analysing what I love in work and I am excited about all the options and possibilities which 'fly' through my head. So it's all good!

So why the itchy feet? Well, since the end of my travels in New Zealand are nearing (leaving at the end of January) I am starting to realize I truly love New Zealand: the 'dangerous' Ireland-vibrations are going through my body again! On the other hand while organising my Tahiti trip and looking into Bolivia and Peru (and even some interesting reading about Suriname) I cannot wait to move on. So much more to explore!

But for the next 2 weeks I will be staying at Hopewell, making sure that I am definitely not pursuing a career in cleaning after that...

My new career!

2007-12-20T16:05:00.000+13:00

As long as I can remember my deepest desire has been that I wanted to become a cleaning lady when I was a grown-up. I wrote that in all 'vriendenboekjes' and for some reason I lost track of that. Apparently becoming a teacher and later on a consultant seemed more appealing. Thank God I got my act together and I am absolutely loving my new career: I am finally a cleaning lady!!! And I am damned good at it as well if I may say so myself... (I already 'earned' a bottle of wine for working that hard...)

My welcome at the Hopewell Hostel in Marlborough Sounds has been more than great. My bosses, Lynley and Mike, are absolutely relaxed and lovely, the surroundings are superb and my extra benefits (let's call them 'secundaire arbeidsvoorwaarden') are in one word fantastic. I work in the mornings (cleaning, making beds etc.) and in the afternoons I can 'play'. Considering the fact that I love being outdoor, the kayaking, the mountain biking, the hiking, the beach, the outside air and the beautiful nature are amazing. Besides that, there are lovely people staying here and for some reason people are constantly offering to make me dinners (great, thanks!) and the best benefit of all is that Mike loves seafood and he makes the most delicious mussels ever...And we have them every third night or so...How is that for a benefit, who needs a laptop, a mobile, an OV card (free public transport) or a bonus at the end of a year? Not me, I'll take the mussels!! No other job can EVER top that.

And even though it has been raining quite a lot over the last few days, I have not been bored, because I bought myself a Spanish course to learn a bit of Spanish before heading to South America. I haven't learnt a new language since I was 13, so picking up the Spanish is great: it keeps my brain active!

And sorry, no pictures: the computer is too slow...well, the hopewell website says it all...

Proper updating alert!

2007-12-10T20:00:00.000+13:00

Behold: an update on the previous 6 weeks in New Zealand. Grab a chair, get a coffee, some biscuits and enjoy the reading. Unfortunately Eefje has troubles with her computer sending me some nice pictures, so I will only have a few now. Hopefully I will add some more in the next days or so.

If you want to go chronological, read it in this order:
First Winter,
Then Fall,
Spring,
Summer,
Travelling with Mark and Ellie,
Back to the ‘real’ world,

Enjoy!

Back to the ‘real’ world

2007-12-10T19:46:00.000+13:00

I returned to Christchurch via the nice town Dunedin where I spend a day going to an interesting museum and a beautiful art gallery. Back in Christchurch I’m using Patrick’s welcomeness (yes, that’s a new word) again and I’ll stay with him until I find a job. Most of you will find the next thing strange, but little workaholic and career woman as I am, after 5 months of travelling I still don’t feel like working. Yes, get back on your chairs again: I do not feel like working! I am completely cured and it’s great!!
However, there are loads of jobs here though, but all for 3 months or more and I am only here for 2 months. And since I do not really have to earn money (lucky me!), just not spending any money in the next few weeks, I found a really nice job in the North of the South Island. As of the end of this week I will be working in a hostel, just doing general work for 3-4 hours a day and then I have the rest of the day off to do the things you do in the middle of nowhere in a beautiful place like Marlborough: hiking, swimming, reading, meeting people and hopefully some exciting activities (check their website if you are not jealous of me yet… www.hopewell.co.nz)

But of course before work comes pleasure and Patrick wanted to go on a ‘proper’ hike with me, so he took me to his best hike in New Zealand…And I have to admit: it’s a winner. On Friday we took off to Kaikoura to start the hike to Mount Fyffe the next day. Bloody hell, the first 4 hours were absolutely terror: going straight up the mountain till 1602 meters. That was Patrick’s trick to let me know I was not as fit as I thought as was. I needed to take more breaks than I expected (I was very annoyed about that to be honest), but the views were excellent. Well, I shocked Patrick when I told him that the highest ‘mountain’ in the Netherlands is 322 meters, so he was quiet after that…We continued along a scary edge (mum: you would have died instantly…Femke too for that matter) and we were literally sliding down rocky landslides. I loved it, especially with the views of the snowy mountains. Coming down till the Kowhai Saddle, after that we had to hop up and down along the river: really looking for a path at some times.

After 8,5 hours walk we got to the hut where the cold creek was awaiting us for a cold dip. Mind you, Patrick chickened out, so it was just me being fresh afterwards. Patrick crashed at that point (so who is the fit one now, hey?!), so I was enjoying myself getting the firewood and making dinner. No, to be honest, the sun got to Patrick’s fair Irish skin and he looked like a nicely cooked shrimp so he was out for the day.
The next day was like ‘whipped cream on an ice cream’: we had several river crossings to do which I had done before with Eefje, but not as many and ‘wild’ ones as these. It was great fun, I really enjoyed it. The gorges were beautiful, the track was hardly visible at times, the weather was excellent (too bad I do not have a picture of Patrick being completely covered up with gloves and my towel to keep the sun of him…), the variety of the scenery; it all made the track the best hike so far in New Zealand (sorry Eefje, Mark and Ellie…). So Patrick’s hike is a winner!

After returning to Kaikoura, having an ice cream and a coffee, I did another two hour walk along the peninsula enjoying the seals, the weather and the scenery. Patrick stayed in the Van, keeping out of the sun, because he still looked pretty cooked to me and he preferred to be cooked instead of getting roasted as well. Fair enough I reckon!

So, how about this for a proper update! I hope you enjoyed the stories, I surely did in real time. I will, with a bit of luck, update regularly in Marlborough, perhaps with even better episodes (as if that’s possible…)

Travelling with Mark and Ellie

2007-12-10T19:33:00.000+13:00

After Eefje left for Belgium again, I drove back to Christchurch because in all fairness the Van wanted to go home because he was a bit tired. And his brakes seem to malfunction a bit, so time for a pit stop. The next days were ‘all Irish’: catching up with Patrick and later on with Mark and Ellie. Irish as they are (of course I would never do that) it involved some nice wine and beers and loads of talking. Great stuff!

Then Mark, Ellie and me headed of to the South again to do one of the Great Walks: the Routeburn Track.

I hadn’t seen Mark in about 4 years and I had never met Ellie before, but it was one of those incredible matches from the start. We got on very well and I think we were all very happy to spend a week together. Mark informed me about all the people back in Dublin (oooeeei, I wanted to say back home…sorry) and he was quickly reminded again that I always teased the hell out of him. Well, Mark got me back as well, don’t worry. Then again, I think Ellie and I annoyed Mark a bit sometimes because while hiking we were chatting too much and he thought we should walk a bit quicker.

But on the other hand, Mark and I really wanted to have apples during our hikes, which Ellie could not understand (weight wise and its bulkiness), so Mark and I had to team up against Ellie for that.

But in fairness, I think the only reason Mark and Ellie asked me along on the trip was because I had the biggest bag so I could take most of the food…As you can tell; we had the best time together! The track was lovely (see pictures, and no, the one on which we are jumping is not fake…), the weather was excellent and the company was an absolute bonus.

After the track we decided to keep Eefje and my tradition alive, so we had lamb and Ellie made apple crumble…Splendid! The next day we literally spend the entire day drinking coffee in the sun (yeah, they are addicts just like me!!!) and after that we had to say goodbye because they were going to do another track and I needed to find myself a job…

Summer

2007-12-10T19:24:00.001+13:00

One season was still left out: summer! As soon as we arrived at the North of the South Island, at a town called Nelson, summer had arrived. There we arranged our 4 day track to the popular Abel Tasman National Park. It’s an area where the first European set foot on land, and yes he is Dutch. Go figure. So the theme of that hike was ‘Goh, die Abeltje toch’ [sorry, only sounds nice in Dutch…].

Anyway, we planned to do one day of kayaking on the sea and then 3 days hiking. Everything was very well arranged and to get away from the tourists we decided to go camping which was absolutely fantastic; nice camping spots along the sea.

The kayaking and hiking was easy compared to everything we did before, but we thought we sort of deserved an easy walk. And because of the nice weather, the sea was very appealing! We saw a cool seal colony and we spied on them for hours! And on our way back with the water taxi we saw dolphins; we had never seen them in a natural habitat before, so that was truly amazing to watch.

After this hike, we went for a nice dinner in a great pub where loads of people recommended us to go to. And since they brew their own beer (mjummie!) we asked whether we could park the Van at their car park for the night so I could have some beers as well. And of course they said yes (you got to love the Kiwi’s!) so we had a fun evening playing games and drinking excellent beer. That night we decided to go crazy so we went hang gliding a few days later…

It was cool to see everything in the air and just enjoying cruising down. The last days Eefje and I spend walking along the dunes and beach near Farewell Spit where we both had the fantastic feeling of being the happiest person in the world. And we were: running through the sea, splashing each other, getting wet, laughing and just being very happy to have spend a month with each other in a lovely country like New Zealand. So saying good bye to Eefje was sad, but then again we felt amazingly happy with the previous month: thanks to Patrick who lend us his Van we truly had the most amazing time we could have had. So once again Patrick: Eefje and I are genuinely thankful for the Van. It would have been completely different without!

Spring

2007-12-10T19:20:00.000+13:00

New Zealand is quite special; after Fall comes Spring. It’s great. Spring had a theme for Eefje and me: have a lot of ‘first time ever’. We saw penguins in the wild, we saw and heard avalanches, both snow and rock (quite scary), we’ve been in natural hot pools, we saw a massive glacier, well 2 actually, and Eefje was drunk for the first time ever (oeps sorry Eefje).

Anyhow, we did our third walk in beautiful spring weather; a three day hike to the hot pools of the Welcome Flat. Great hike and especially the reward of the natural hot pools were fantastic: you could jump in the nice hot water to refresh yourself after a sweaty day. Great! Eefje also tested my reflex skills several times: she almost fainted halfway the track on the middle of a pretty rocky area. Luckily I was walking behind her so I could grab her backpack and push her towards the side. Another time I was walking a bit further up the track when I realised Eefje was not there anymore. She got stuck on a landslide, meaning whenever she moved, all the rocks and stones around her moved as well: naturally going down. Eventually she got out by moving very slowly and holding on to me as soon as she could. Pure survival skills and a good story to tell later on…
After some nice walks along the West Coast, we did a really cool walk (Alex Knob track) near Franz Joseph Glacier. But unpredictable as spring can be, we had rainy weather and no views whatsoever. Except excellent views of New Zealand’s best clouds…but if you’re freezing, wet and cold, you just want to get down the mountain as soon as possible anyway…to have that well deserved coffee and hot chocolate for Eefje (even though Eefje doesn’t share my love for coffee she was quite considered for my addiction!)

Fall

2007-12-10T19:19:00.000+13:00

In New Zealand after Winter comes Fall. Yes, it’s true. We had a wet day on a boat on a fjord or was it as sound…Anyway we got wet, soaking wet, but it might have been the waterfalls throwing as much water on us as they could…all together it was quite reviving. Our next hiking trip was quite challenging: we wanted to do as much in 2 days of the Caples and Greenstone track which normally takes for about 4 days or so. We did -the way I like to call it- the best out of both: we designed our own track, walked quite a lot of hours (8-9 hours a day) and since it was fall, we had wet undergrounds, a little bit of rain and lovely formed clouds.

After that we wanted to head via the West Coast more up north. But the Van wanted to have a pedicure (Patrick neglects him a bit, if you ask me…) so we decided that his current tyres were -as the petrol guy said it nicely- pretty dangerous and we got him brand new ones. But, same as with new shoes, sometimes you get blisters. So after a days drive we had to get them re-adjusted. If you wondering how come Eefje and I know ssooooo much about cars; well, the Van taught us everything. Filling air in the tyres, topping up the oil, Eefje learned how to get petrol (she doesn’t have a driving licence…), checking the water levels and just everything the Van wanted, we served for. As good owners, euh I mean borrowers do.

Winter

2007-12-10T19:14:00.000+13:00

It seems such a long time ago that Eefje (my friend from Belgium) and I started our travels with our beloved Van (beware of the capital!) at the end of October. The Van, Eefje and me had enough time to get to know each other better; he told us all about New Zealand, his previous adventures and the good life. Eefje and I told him loads about our lives and it was great to catch up on everything which had happened in the last months.

While leaving Christchurch, heading South, our first day was beautiful: nice weather, great views of Lake Tekapo and were we genuinely screaming out ‘waaauuuuuw, look at that!!’ (well, in Dutch of course…). The second day we had horrible weather; loads of rain. Upon entering the small town of Te Anau where Eefje and I wanted to do the Kepler Track (4 days) we got the sad news that the track was partially closed due to avalanche danger and bad snow circumstances. Big disappointment, but positive as we all were (and the Van liked to have some unsupervised evenings in town…) we decided to go anyway, but only half way. Especially because the Department of Conservation (DOC) said it was going to be miserable weather all the way through, we were well prepared with loads of nice food and hot cloths. The next day we took off in the cold, freezing cold to be honest. And it was wet, and the track was pretty much going up the first hours…But still, the feeling you have when you get to the hut: great. And amazingly the sky cleared up and we had a magnificent view of the mountains around us! Since it was still really nice weather the next day we decided to ‘ignore’ the avalanche danger sign (sorry dad) and go up the mountain top. Snow up till our waists, hiking became falling and a snow fight was inevitable. The views were excellent and ‘worth’ the danger!
In the meantime the Van and we got on very well. If we weren’t hiking, we slept in the Van, just somewhere along the river or road or where ever the Van wanted to lay down his head and feet. We made dinners on a stove, we had nice wine (even the Van had some!) and only when the Van said we smelt too bad we pulled in for a shower at a camping site. Imagine how wonderful the showers are after one week without…just fantastic…

So far for the Winter episode…

What about...

2007-11-28T17:11:00.000+13:00

updating your damned blog, Maaike...???

Sorry sorry, I am genuinely sorry for not keeping in touch for more than a month and not emailing anyone at all. Have I forgotten about 'home'? Yes, to be honest I have. I just had an amazing month with Eefje together with our lovely van (yes, Patrick, our van), cruising along the Southern Island having an excellent time: hiking, kayaking and doing heaps of 'fun' stuff. Last weekend I was back in Christchurch (Eefje has left already...) to hand over the van to Patrick, but no time for the lazy people: Patrick and I went on a wee trip straight away and had some genuine good catching up to do!

On Monday my Irish friends Mark and Ellie came down to Christchurch as well. In the category 'small world' I have told you that story before. Ellie and Patrick have known each other from way back when they were little, so Ellie and Mark (they're a couple) were checking out Patricks weblog a couple of months ago and Mark saw my name. Patrick does not know Mark, but I know Mark from the diving club in Dublin. So we had a weird reunion on Monday: Mark knowing me, Ellie knowing Patrick, Patrick knowing me, Mark (obviously!) knowing Ellie...So we had a lovely day with the four of us yesterday and today I took off with Mark and Ellie to the South to do another multiple day walk. Great people, great environment and great weather!!!

So, anyway, to keep it short: I'm doing just excellent, absolutely loving it (yes, dangerously loving it...) and if Eefje sends me some nice pictures this weekend (hint...) I will write some nice stories about my previous weeks!!

Reunion in Auckland and Christchurch

2007-10-28T18:31:00.000+13:00

After enjoying the Auckland scenery and the vulcanos, doing loads of nice walks, meeting nice people in my tiny hostel I went to pick up my friend from Belgium, Eefje. Eefje and I got to know each other at the climbing club in Dublin. Although we are living in a small world, this was less of a coincidence because Eefje planned to get out here to do some nice hiking with me for a month!! Our reunion was full of good hugs, a lot of laughter and a nice bottle of wine to end the day!

On Saturday we flew straight to Christchurch because people were telling us that the South Island is way more beautiful for hiking. And there we had another quite enjoyable reunion with a friend from Ireland, Patrick. We got to know Patrick at the climbing club as well. Patrick moved over to New Zealand 4 years ago and never left the place. Again, we exchanged big hugs, we smiled and talked and since Patrick had 2 parties to go to, we just went along as well!

Halloween parties to be exact so this is what we looked liked after trashing Patricks wardrobe:

Eefje, the perfect housewife and Maaike, sleepy in her pyjama's...Patrick was Polypro-Superman. No questions asked, but let's say the reunion was just splendid!

The next day Eefje and I did some serious hiking planning, figuring out where to go and what to do. We have three four day tracks ahead of us, some kayakking, a lot of stunning views and excellent company. And now here it comes, just as we wanted to get a rental car for these four weeks,

Patrick chipped in the offer again (which I had forgotten) that we could use his mini van for the next four weeks! So, great great great, we have a car!!! We have a tent also, but there is a matrass in the back, so we can sleep in there too. Nice and cosy... So big, massive thank you for Mister Patrick himself: he is the best!

And of course, the car needs to smell nice during our travels, so I put Guusjes present in: a vanilla scented thingy with a very nice message! (just in case: not all who wander are lost...) So not many blogs for the next weeks or so, but loads of stories and pictures afterwards...WAUW!

Small world...truly!

2007-10-23T17:33:00.000+13:00

First blog in another new country: New Zealand. I arrived on Saturday, I took the bus to town and I had the nicest bus driver ever. He showed me around the city when all the rest of the people got off.

The next day I walked to town (I am staying at a very cosy, wee little hostel outside town) and I 'sniffed' the city to get a feel of the place. Although everyone is telling me to go to the South Island straight away because it is much nicer, my conclusion of that day was (and I am sticking to it!): New Zealand has a great VIBE, even Auckland. I don't know why, but I had the same feeling when I got to Ireland 5 years ago. So that is very promissing!

No pictures yet, because well, taking pictures of the town is not really appealing. But I have 2 stories though:

story one:
I went to the Auckland Museum yesterday to learn more about the Maori people. Great museum, good exhibition. They had a display on all the Melanesian and Polynesian art, language, customes and cultures: they were saying people from Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea and all the tiny Islands in the Pacific have huge similarities within several areas of their culture. People travelling from as West as Papua New Guinea to as far East as Tahiti should be able to see the similarities. But they were saying, not many people are actually going to all those places.... As if I knew this when I was planning my world trip: I was in Papua New Guinea, I am here now (=NZ) and I'm heading to Tahiti in three months...So my planning turns out to be 'culturally correct'!

'weird' story two:
Several months ago an Irish friend of mine, Mark, who I know from the diving club in Dublin, tracked me down via my friend Patrick in Christchurh who I know from the climbing club. Mark turns out to be travelling around the world as well and next month he is going to be in NZ too, so great to meet up. That for one is bizar. To make it more bizar; he knew I know Carole, another friend of mine from Dublin with whom I lost contact. Turns out that Carole is leaving NZ today to go home (!) and that she is leaving from Auckland. So I just spend the day with her in Auckland and it was great talking to her again! Small world, really. And she gave me her SIM card, so as of today I have a number in NZ. First I have to figure out how it works though....I hate mobiles...

A brand new experience!

2007-10-17T23:22:00.000+13:00

After travelling and working on the farm the past few weeks I am in a completely different but exciting new world...I am in a terribly sweaty Darwin, at my cousin Imke. Imke and I didn't know each other that well until 6 years ago. Around that time I was working in a pub in the Outback near Darwin: we knew that we were both in Australia, but we did not have each others email addresses. By weird coincidence we ran into each other in Darwin (20 million people in Australia and you run into someone you know...). Since then we kept in touch and 2,5 years ago Imke was in the Netherlands with her daughter Josie. We had an incredible nice time, so meeting up here would be great fun guaranteed.

Imke still lives near Darwin, in a place called Humpty Doo (see sunset at a nearby lagoon). Josie is 4 years now and Josie has a little brother, 7 months old Liam. And that's where the new world starts: until now I have not spend more than one day with really young kids or even babies. Yes, I have lots of experience with bigger kids (yes mum, I know, I can still be a kid), but the tiny ones...Oh no, I am too afraid to 'brake' them.

So my cousin warned me that it would be full on. And guess what, I surprised my cousin and myself; I absolutely love spending all my time here. Of course the kids are no perfect angels, but that makes it all more lively! On the right you can see the moment Imke decided to dump 'het pierebadje' and get a bigger pool.

At first Josie was shy, but that went away quickly. Now I can wrestle with her without a problem, I can eat her alive (always screaming big time when I chase her), I can throw her away in the pool, I can steal some kisses of her and I can get a little bit angry with her if she does something naughty. She even calls me ' mum' sometimes. Of course by accident; Imke and I have to laugh and Josie gets really shy then.

Liam deserted even quicker. In the beginning when he cried, I could pick him up, but I could not get him quiet. The next step was that I could get him to calm down as long as his mum was close by and now, I can 'hush' him to sleep, he follows me around when he's looking for 'a mum' and he gives the biggest hugs anyone can ever give me.

In the meantime I'm spending lots of quality time with Imke as well. I am teaching her a bit about her new computer, we wrote a letter of interest for a job Imke would like to have (and they have already called her for an interview: great stuff!) and I am just helping Imke around the house to give her a sense of holiday as well.

We do a lot of walking, swimming and once in a while we go to the pub to have a nice ice cold beer...Being with small kids you have to watch what you are doing though...See picture above how I got confused...In the meantime Josie is picking up a habit almost every young kid does: finishing the beer bottle...

Anyway, after 2 weeks of babies and kids (I held a 3 day old baby today even though I told the mother better not too, because I am not used to the little ones...I'm learning though!) I am off to New Zealand on Saturday. But before that some kids logic (true story!)

Setting: Maaike and 4 kids of each 4 years old in the pool (of course all the mothers were taking advantage of my energy and they were taking a relaxing day off with Imke next to the pool...)

Kid 1: Maaike, who's mum are you?
Kid 2: Yeah, who is your baby?
Me: I do not have a baby.
[silence and 3 pairs of weird eyes and one normal pair-Josie- were looking at me]
Kid 1 (definitely the most rude one): But you are old!
Me: Well yes, I am old enough to have a baby, but I don't have one yet.
Kid 2: Ok, so you are a kid still.
Kid 1: Yes you're a kid!!
Me: No, not really, I am a grown-up without kids.
[Mumbling]
Kid 1: Ok, I get it, you are a big kid!

Kids logic: you've got to love it. And it's true, totally true!

Herberton: the relaxing place

2007-10-09T17:18:00.000+13:00

The world is treating me well. More than 2 weeks ago my friend Helen (left) came down to hot Cairns to pick me up and she took me to their place. Six years ago I worked for Helen and Duncan at their organic farm; then I planned on staying for 2 weeks, I ended up staying for 2 months so that says enough about how Helen, Duncan and I got on!

We were reunited at their new home near Herberton (semi-Outback) and we just picked up our friendship where we left it 6 years ago. Of course some things were still the same, some things were different.

Things which were the same:
- We talked a lot, and if I say a lot, I mean constantly… (sorry Helen for keeping you off work…)
- Helen and Duncan made me feel very very welcome. Perhaps these pictures give you a clue about the indescribable nice atmosphere at their place.

- I did not use a computer for the entire time, I did not watch TV (except 2 movies…) but I did listen to a lot of real Australian music, thanks to Duncan. AC DC rules…

- Duncan’s cooking qualities (left) have not changed, so every single meal was a big hit!
- I worked in and around their farm doing loads of things like taking care of the animals (horses, goats, chickens), cleaning the stables, creating new gardens, cleaning in and around the house. In short: making myself use full after travelling for some months made me feel good!!
- I slept like a baby, every single night. Fresh air, good food, casual work and excellent company wear you out…
- I met loads of their good friends which (by no surprise) turned out to be lovely and inspirational people.
- I have laughed a lot. Again… Still.

Things which have changed:
- Well obviously their house: they have bought a piece of land (bush) and they are planning on building their own house. For the moment they are living in a ‘shed’. Well, that’s the official name, but I genuinely think it’s one of the most romantic spots I have ever been.

- Almost every second day we went horseback riding. Yeah! It was great, really great. Trotting along in the bush, going for long and short rides and I even had a lesson from a good riding instructor. (Picture shows Duncan, Helen and Viola)

- I slept in a caravan next to their house, their shower was very idyllic (open views into the bush) and their toilet was optional: either wee behind a little tree and get great views late at night or use ‘the hole in the ground’ with, well to be honest, another great view!

- I made some good new friends: Roger (the dog) and the horses Rocky (I knew him already), Condor and Spot (‘my’ horse, see picture).

- Duncan and Helen wanted to do some preventive fire burning so if there is a real fire threat, they are safe. They decided to wait until I was there. Best decision ever! They did not know I am a little pyromaniac…So off I went on their four wheeler (a quad) and burned the place. And then sit back close to the fire to watch it and listen to it. GREAT!

Anyway, I really relaxed at their home, their land and their bush. Their company and their animals gave me the ultimate relaxing feeling. Well, I was already very relaxed, but I did some good thinking about living in remote areas and why I am so much enjoying my travelling and just loving the little things in life. Sounds tacky, but I still feel I am one of the luckiest people in the world…

In the meanwhile I am in Darwin, in another very enjoyable place where I feel very welcome again: at my cousin, Imke! More stories will follow soon(ish)!

Australia: like it or not...

2007-09-21T13:04:00.000+12:00

After 6 years of me being away of Australia several things have changed...

- Cairns has built a beautiful lagoon at the Esplanade where everyone can swim for free (since the sea is covered in deadly jelly fish you need a pool...)
- Australia has been taken over by millions of Germans...
- Backpackers only drink shitloads, every day, and the next day they hang around the tv room and complain about how tired they are...
- While they are at it they complain about not having any money...
- 6 years ago I had the average age, now I am old...Or at least I feel old...
- The weather has not changed however, so there is an absolutely lovely sun out there now!
- There is cheap, I mean 'free' Internet at the hostel which is excellent after having no Internet or very slow Internet

But to be honest; I'm having a 'reverse cultural shock'. I'm terribly annoyed by all the lazy backpackers and I know it is me now who is complaining. So time to change that mood!!! I've seen everything in Australia that I wanted to see 6 years ago, so I rang my friends Helen and Duncan yesterday. I worked at their farm 6 years ago and I absolutely loved it, so it will be great to see them again. Talking to them on the phone made me already feel really welcome!! Helen is picking me up tomorrow, great!
And I rang my cousin in Darwin who is delighted to see me as much as I am to see her (and I cannot wait to see her 6 month old baby Liam and Josie who is 4!), so it's all good.

So I'm off now to buy a ticket to Darwin, take a dip in the lagoon, read my book and tonight I am going to see a movie at the cinema (Guusje and I were talking about going to the cinema since Thailand, so I am finally going!)

Back home in the Netherlands...

2007-09-20T18:33:00.000+12:00

Just a quick 'none' traveling message:

A friend of mine is participating in a tv-show 'Op zoek naar Evita' to become 'the new Evita' for the musical Evita (it all makes sense...). She is very tiny (even smaller than me...gnagna) but she has a miraculous voice. My sister tells me she gets great criticism from the jury, so check it out:

Nederland 1- AVRO: 'Op zoek naar Evita'
Her name is Suzan Seegers...

Be amazed...

Em tasol…

2007-09-17T14:32:00.000+12:00

Spending a week in Madang has been great; really relaxing. Moreover, it gave me some time to get to know Sjoerd’s future home, his friends, his new work environment (Divine Word University: he is going to be head of Physiotherapy Department there) and of course Elina and her lovely family. Especially Elina’s family have made a great effort to show us around, introduce me to as much things I had not seen or done before and we had some nice dinners together. So our goodbye on Wednesday was tearful…

But no time for sorrow, because we had cool stuff ahead of us. Laura (another volunteer in Madang) decided to go with us to Goroka, to see a bit of the Highlands and of course to experience the Goroka show (different tribes showing their traditional costumes and singing and dancing).

Laura works for a creative self help centre: she does disability awareness. Special about Laura is that she has a superb personality, she is a great laugh and she is blind. Basically I think being a volunteer in PNG is quite an experience and their lives are sometimes pretty mindblowing, but doing what Laura is doing is truly amazing and I really enjoyed spending more time with her, because I genuinely think she is one of a kind.

Anyway, we got to Goroka on Thursday and we were staying at Marcels, another volunteer. He was doing a workshop that week at his Physiotherapy Department in Goroka Hospital and us three helped him out a bit in the preparation. We even joined him the next day at the workshop which was quite interesting to do because I had not seen a professional setting like this in PNG yet.

The Goroka Show over the weekend was just great: seeing all the different tribes, talking to them, getting to know the story behind the dances was excellent. I took loads of wonderful pictures as you can (hopefully) see.

Laura has a degree in music so she decided to join a tribe when they asked her. Lateron, one of the tribes stayed at Marcels place where we had dinner together. It was a really really wonderful experience for both sides, because the tribe had never experienced that white people were so friendly to invite them into their home.

Yesterday we took the PMV home to Mount Hagen, together with Robert and Mark who ended up spending the night at our place. Today is laundry day again and tomorrow, well the title of this message says it all: em tasol [this is it]. I had the best experience ever in PNG, all the different things we did, made the trip exhilarating. I really enjoyed my time with Sjoerd and Femke, and I will be sad to say goodbye to Sjoerd, because I am probably not going to see him for the next three years. Learning a bit of Tok Pidgin has been challenging, meeting all Sjoerds friends made my trip even more fun because every single one of them is special. But on the other hand, I am happy to travel further to Australia, to be on my own again and see how I like Australia again after 6 years…

Some pictures:

This is a tribe from Mount Hagen.

Unknown tribe: some kids taking it easy...

Unknown tribe: their bilas were great! Covered in grass, moss and weeds!

Goroka tribe: this woman is chewing 'buai' and she really liked my blue eyes. I said I was happy to change them for her beautifull brown eyes...

Oncemore unknown tribe: the tribe is showing a Snake dance

Relaxing Madang!

2007-09-12T12:41:00.000+12:00

After the exhilarating Highlands the three musketeers took the PMV to Madang via Goroka. The trip was , how to say it properly, NOT nice. The driver drove to quickly and the mountains and its drops came too close by...If you know what I mean. Femke and I have taught Sjoerd a new trick how to avoid to get scared: just put your head down, pretend to be asleep and what you do not see is not there...Yes, we are just like an emu, but it works for us...

Madang is nothing like the highlands: it's warm (bloody, sweaty warm!), tropical, nice sea and very mellow. Well, you have to with this warmth. We decided to go mellow as well, so we went to an island to do some swimming and snorkeling and 2 days we hired kayaks to go on the sea. Very relaxing. Again, we met some of Sjoerds friends who are all very lovely.

Of course we met Elina as well, Sjoerds girlfriend. She is very nice and she kicks Sjoerds ass, so Femke and I are very happy with her. It means that someone is taking care of Sjoerds manners when Femke and I are not around!
Elina took us to her village as well, or actually: her mothers village. It was really nice to see a sea village as well compared to the Highlands villages we've seen before. Elina's aunt has got the clear blue sea in her back garden...how cool is that!
Elina's mother helped me to try 'buai': it's a beetle nut PNG people chew. You chew on the nut, add some white stuff with it on a green stick and you get an aw full looking red mouth. While chewing, you spit it out. Sjoerd chews it a lot, and for me it was a one time experience...it was quite strong and I was sort of high for 5 minutes. Imagine that, even small kids chew it here...

In the meantime we did some more swimming, played tennis with some of Sjoerds friends, had nice meals and yesterday Sjoerd and I went diving! I hadn't dived in 4 years so being in the water like a fish was GREAT! We even saw a shark, but of course I did not see it. But everyone else did...

Anyway, Femke has left the country: we had the best holiday ever! Sjoerd and I are heading to Goroka this weekend for the Goroka show: all sorts of tribes will be there in their traditional dress. Should be good.
I just tried to put up some pictures but it does not work. Check out Sjoerds website for the visuals...

Southern Highlands

2007-09-03T22:46:00.000+12:00

Since my brother likes to have more hits on his website, please have a look at his blog: there is a new (quite shocking) story to read...

[no, Internet is too slow, so we decided to publish it only once...]

We're in Goroka now, tomorrow off to Madang to meet Sjoerds girlfriend....coolness...!

Country of contradictions

2007-08-27T14:52:00.000+12:00

Although my brother thinks it is stupid to write that PNG is a country of contradictions, I think it is true.

PNG people are one of the most welcoming people I have ever met: they're genuinely happy to see us, they love to shake hands, my sister and I get massive hugs from women and they all want to talk to us. They share their fruits with us while we are sitting on the bus (PMV), they are impressed whenever my sister and I understand a bit of Tok Pisin and they are very interested in what we do. And they absolutely love laughing out loud! Sjoerds Wantoks like seeing us around, we got really nice bilums (colourful handbags). I really feel welcome and the people are really, honestly nice.

While writing this, there is a massive fight on the streets next to this building: people throwing stones, men shouting (sounds really frighting to be honest) and loads of noise. Sjoerd just took off with a friend to collect two other white people to make sure they are safe.
During the weekend we were in Kundiawa where we saw two ' meri fights' in other words: two women fighting because of men. And not a girly fight, but a proper fight: there is blood involved. The arguments are often about a man who has several women. The big fight on the streets is about a woman being raped: one tribe is taking revenge on another tribe.

I was planning on telling you what we did the past 5 days, going to Minj- a local village- and seeing Dutch friends in Kundiawa where we did some nice hillwalking, but I am really distracted by the noise on the streets so I am not going to. Don't get me wrong: I still ABSOLUTELY love it here, but the fight puts me off for now...And don't worry: tribes are not interested in harming whites, it's revenge they want...

And on the good side: Sjoerd, Femke and I are really enjoying each others company so there is no fighting on this side of the table...Anyway, tomorrow we will go with some other wantoks to the Southern Highlands where we will do some hillwalking and camping. Should be good!

Mount Hagen

2007-08-22T22:46:00.000+12:00

Since we all love to eat a lot, we go to the local food market every day. We're eating loads of 'weird' fruits which taste delicious! My sister is starting to feel left out, because more and more people recognise me as Sjoerd's sister and they think Femke is ' just' family. We hug her more to feel part of the gang...

We're meeting up with some of Sjoerd friends (all volunteers from Mount Hagen or surrounding areas), great to hear all their stories although many of those stories are not all happy ones. Well, it gives us a better view of the PNG culture....

The first day we got to meet Sjoerd's neighbours/securitygard/friends/cleaner: lovely family who are going to take us to the Southern Highlands next week. Great stuff, just with the locals! On the picture to the right you can see my brother with Linet, a kid 'from the block', eating fruit. Femke would say the cutest kid, but they all look gorgeous....

After that we went to see one of Sjoerds wantoks (family, not the ones like we have, but just friends who will help you out if needed). They are taking care of Sjoerds pig. Yes, a pig. A respectable (marry-able) man in PNG should have a pig so he can ' buy' a wife. The pigs name is Bell (from Jingle Bell, don't ask me why...) His other pig Jingle (there we go...) died recently.

Sjoerd is putting my sister and me on the market as well, so he can become a rich man...Yeah, right. I will kick your ass, big brother...

So far my first impressions: great to be here, Sjoerds is making spectacular travelplans for the upcoming weeks, so it should be great fun!!

Check out Sjoerds website for his version!

First day Papua New Guinea!

2007-08-20T23:13:00.000+12:00

The famous three Jongerii:

From left to right: Maaike - Sjoerd - Femke

Don't we look alike....(except Femke). A friend of my brother actually recognised me as being his sister...weird stuff.

pictures

2007-08-19T04:43:00.000+12:00

Picture 1: Guusje (left) and me: aren't we a pair...

Picture 2: Kbal Spean: lingas in the water

Picture 3: Me on the back of the moto: practising my 'fake' smile

Picture 4: Angkor Thom: Bayon temple

For more pictures and a tiny movie: take a look a Guusje's website!! And now I am off to have a final beer with Guusje (although my pinky pills don't allow alcohol...but well, this is an exception)

off to Papua New Guinea

2007-08-19T04:27:00.000+12:00

Just a quick preview of what is next: Sunday (tomorrow) I am off to see my brother in Papua New Guinea (in sort: PNG) . I haven't seen him for 2 years, so it should be fun!

My sister has decided to join us for 2 weeks, so I am meeting her on Monday in Sydney. Together we will try to go to PNG. With an emphasis on ' try' ...

- according to my brother the flights in PNG are often cancelled or delayed without reason...
- in July PNG had elections. Due to the results of those elections, a man who lost the elections is threatening to set fire to the airport in Mount Hagen (that's were my brother lives...)
- my expat friend in Laos said he had gotten a warning (just as all expats) not to travel to PNG due to the dangers...
- my brother wants to travel to the South West with us; an area which has been very unsafe...He likes to give it a try now.

Needless to say that I am really looking forward to going. PNG was the reason of my travelling around the world!!! Seriously; see my brother again, see what he has been doing, see the country, meet his friends: great stuff!

And, bare in mind, my brother, my sister and I have not spend more than 3 days in a row since 1997 and we are all very stubborn and we have a strong mind of our own (good self reflection, I know...), so I think we do not have to watch out for PNG, but PNG has to watch out for us...Or at least our quarrels...

gumpfff... to be continued!!

Cambodia continues!

2007-08-19T03:05:00.000+12:00

Siem Reap

Siem Reap was in one word 'magnificent'. All the different temples of Angkor Wat are truly amazing. Yes, every temple is another mind blowing image of a creative architect, using different shapes, divers faces, local animals and worshipping ancient Kings and religious Gods and Buddhas. Bare in mind that most of the temples are build in the 12th century: Europe was still living in tiny castles and wooden houses at that time...

The most interesting temples, at least that's what I think, were the Bayon (Angkor Thom) with its amazing large heads on the temple which follow you wherever you walk: freaky but really cool. Secondly, the Kbal Spean: this is actually not a temple, but lingas carves IN a river which flows in the jungle. You have to walk for about 2 km to get there and when you stand there you're sort of looking 'and yes, what am I looking for'...After a minute or so you see the carvings and it is truly amazing: you wonder who ever thought of the idea of making them IN the river and secondly who ever found them again after so many years (because everything was covered up by the jungle...). Yes, Angkor Wat deserves to be a World Heritage. (I hope to add some pictures later on so you can judge yourself!)

Seeing the temples around Siem Reap were interesting, but our transportation for those 3 days was very divers as well. The first day we took a tuk-tuk with a young driver, Rin, who just could not stop talking to us. The second day, since we are still Dutch, we hired bikes and cycled around (30-40 km). The last day -and please show some respect- we had two motorbikes with two young drivers (one was the tuk-tuk driver from the first day). For those who do not know me that well: I hate motorbikes since I had a wee-little accident in Australia six years ago. I knew Guusje really wanted to go on one, and I reckoned I should not be a 'wooz' and just get over myself...The first hour I sat frozen on that damned thing...And after a while Rin told me (Guusje was on his bike) that his cousin who was driving my moto was actually still learning how to drive a moto....Cheers, Rin, good work. But I managed, Guusje was impressed with my guts (although she could see I was lying whenever I said I was fine...) and Guusje even had her go on the moto as the driver herself....

On top of that my diarrhoea got back, with renewed energy...Perfect, when you are on a moto...

Sihanoukville
After those cultural days we decided to do a cooling down at a beach and get some sun on our white bodies, catch up with our reading and relax. Enough said: we arranged a local bus to the South of Cambodia: Sihanoukville. A trip to remember... We took the bus early morning, packed with Khmer people, luggage, food, equipment and all the stuff you will not see on a bus back home. After one hours drive, there was a little fuzz on the road, people gathering and our bus slowed down. All the people in the bus looked to the right (with paparazzi Guusje on top of them!) and there we saw what the fuzz was about: there was a dead body lying next to the road...one police cop standing nervously next to the body keeping the crowd to a distance (say 2 meters...) Blood everywhere and obviously the blood poored out of his head. Absolutely horrifying. Guusje, as a true journalist, did some investigation and found out that the man was murdered the day before (seriously, leave a body for an entire day in the stinking heat!!) and that the murderer (or two) escape to the woods. Reason for the killing: unknown...
The bus continued and after a couple of hours we were driving along side some mountains, a lot of curves on the road, when a car drove directly at us with an enormous speed (Guusje and I sat in front so we saw it all...)...Our bus driver used his claxon, reduced speed and the car in front of us just changed direction in time to fly off the road...Big shock, but it turned out the be okay (-ish). Arriving in Sihanoukville was very pleasant, as you can imagine...

Relaxing on the beach was really nice: swim, read and talk to all the Khmer kids who are very nosy (and same for us, 'coz we are very nosy as well!!). My white skin (except my face and arms...) was as white as snow until then: after the first day it was flaming red even though we put sunscreen on it...Ah well, we learned it the hard way...My sister can have a blast peeling my old skin off...

Back to Bangkok (Thailand)
After those relaxing days we had to go back to Bangkok, because Guusje is flying home this Sunday and I am flying to Papua New Guinea. We had two options to go to the border: take a horrible 5 hour bus ride on a bumpy road or take the scenic 5 hour boat trip via beautiful little islands. Exactly, we did what every sane person would do: take the boat. This boat trip would have been fantastic, if not for (no, no dead bodies or bad traffic this time) the awful bad weather... I was the first to vomit, luckily in a bin thanks to Guusje's quick response, many followed including Guusje. I lost track after the 10th time, but I vomited non-stop. The old man who was taking care of the people on the boat came apologizing to us for the bad weather (as if he could help it...), kept rubbing 'tiger balm' on our neck and head and gave me the entire stack of his 'vomit-bags' when I asked him for the third time whether I could have more bags... 'again?' was his reply...
Guusje and I have never been so happy to get to our destination, Koh Kong...

The next day we crossed the border without any hiccups: it was a bigger bordercrossing than before and more possibilities afterwards. We got a reverse culture shock: everything went so smooth in Thailand...We did not have to think at all: people just arranged everything for us, roads were excellent, buses were luxurious with just people on it and before we knew it we were in Bangkok. Because we were still shaken up by the day before, we kind of liked it...

Finally, some peculiarities (it's becoming a theme!!):
- we had mais yoghurt with our muesli. Disgusting, they even put red beans with it.
- the diarrhoea came back for the third time in Sihanoukville and I had a craving for beans on toast...
- for all my former colleagues who were always worried about my drinking habits (no, people, not the alcohol, but my coffee addiction). I have had 6 cups of coffee in the last 6 weeks...No problems here!
- I have some living creatures in my body at the moment
- no I am not pregnant, but I have bacteria in my stomach. Due to that I am taking horrible pinkish pills and my stomach is a battlefield at the moment...

So far so good. Let's see about those pictures!

Discovering Cambodia

2007-08-09T02:23:00.000+12:00

We made it to Cambodia!!

Last Friday we hopped on the bus to the (unofficial) border crossing Laos-Cambodia. Crossing it was an experience on its own: a bus dropped us in a forest, near a small hut: Lao Border. We signed some papers, paid $1 and walked (!) 1 km through the forest to the Cambodian Border: tiny hut was the place to be! There again: we filled in some forms even though we had visas and paid $1...Sounds not to bad: and it wasn't if you compare it with the day before that someone got robbed in the forest and that sometimes people have to pay $30-40-50 just to cross the border...Why that much? Don't know, just because they can I presume...

We hopped on another bus to Kratie (we had to changes buses another 3 times...) where we spend the night. Tiny town, hardly any tourists (great!), so we spend the night playing cards with some schoolboys (age 15-16) who wanted to practise their English while playing cards with us. Great evening!!

The next day we took a local bus to Phnom Penh (capital). During the stops we saw quite some disabled people begging for money; most of them got disabled because of landmines. And Cambodia does not have a good health system, so we give them money every time we see one. It's really shocking to see so many of them.
As most of you know Cambodia has a terrible history (Khmer Rouge / Pol Pot Regime: 1975-1979); Guusje and I both read the History Chapter in the Lonely Planet twice to understand the History, but it is quite confusing. We talked to loads of people, but our questions seem to confuse them as well. After 2 movies and an excellent book ('First they killed my father' by Loung Ung: I recommend it!) I sort of get it now. The most shocking thing to realise is that most people of my age and definately the ones a bit older than me, have all experienced the horrors. Everyone you meet on the streets has lost a relative...And the landmines are still their legacy.

Phnom Penh: absolutely lovely city! Great ambiance, nice people, beautiful buildings and just a great place to be (especially compared to Vientiane). Definately a cool place to live. Moreover, the S21 museum (old prison during Khmer Rouge) and the Killing Fields outside the city centre were truly interesting: we spend the entire day there.

Update on the belly: After 6 days severe diarrhoea (it got worse at the end...) and quite some 'shrinking' on my side, Guusje put pressure on me: either go to hospital or take medicine. So I took the easy way out: medicine. I am okay now, still bit stomach ache. Even gained some weight again. (and I always say: the more of Maaike, the better...)

Again some peculiarities:
- it has happened again: a Lao man asked me why I did not eat meat. Was it because I am pregnant...Cheers, thanks man...
- Cambodian people speak better English than Lao people
- Khmer food is superb!
- a guy we met on the bus thought Guusje and I were a couple. We found out three days later when we met him in the city by accident. It was hilarious: it was actually our first time someone thought that. When he found out we weren't, he started hitting on me...Go figure...
- Latest fashion for women in Cambodia is wearing pyjama's during day time. No kidding.

And now: Siem Reap. Place to be to check out the next World Heritage location: Anchor Wat. We just had a quick preview during sunset. Looks amazing. Suske & Wiske in Cambodia is nothing compared to the real thing...

Thanks for all the comments by the way: it is lovely to read them all!

last message from Laos

2007-08-01T23:01:00.000+12:00

Travelling is so excellent...we were on a night bus from Vientiane to Pakse (south Laos), arrived at 6 Am. We wanted to head for the Cambodian border straight away, but just before the border we decided to get off, take a boat and relax on ' the four thousands islands'...Millions of islands on the Mekong River, only accessible by tiny boats, little houses to sleep in...Briljant...

Vientiane turned out to be a less nice city as Luang Prabang. We walked loads, saw some temples, monuments etc. We had dinner with my former colleague, Marco. We had an interesting evening, great to hear his (expat) stories and we both had different hangovers the next morning. He had a beer hangover, and I, suprise surprise, am having a belly-hangover...I've been eating at street stalls for 2 weeks: no problem with my stomach. One evening a proper restaurant, and yes, diarrhoea... So a rice and ORS diet for me since 2 days...

So we have just decided to stay another day, and head for Cambodia the day after tomorrow. Now I am off to see the sunset (and I want to say good food, but it is rice for me this evening...). Damned, I am really enjoying every single bit!!

pictures from up North

2007-07-28T20:20:00.000+12:00

Crossing the border by tiny boat: you can see Laos in a distance!

The rice fields during our trip up North

Maaike and Guusje on the 2nd day of the trekking, we arrived in the Hmong village. We just got out of our trekking pants and we, as women, had to wear a sarong...

Don't we look appealing...

The road stopped suddenly during our mointain biking trip: we had to put the bike on our back to cross the strong current river!

Laos: an adventure!

2007-07-28T19:23:00.000+12:00

After an absolutely luxurious train trip to ChiangMai (North Thailand), we took the bus straight away to Chiang Khong, a village at the Thai border. The next morning we crossed the Mekong River and we arrived in Laos!

Most people took the slow boat heading south, however, we decided to head North by bus. After a beautiful bus ride which supposed to be the worst road in Laos (which was not the case, because the Chinese just fixed it!) we got to Luang Nam Tha (grab an atlas). Gorgeous place: not many tourists and it looks like Papua New Guinea from what I know from pictures of my brother...I know, that does not help many people to visualise, just my mum and Sjoerd...

Anyway, from there we decided to do a three day trekking in the jungle. Three days of hiking in the jungle, crossing rice fields, walking through bamboo forests, mud, loads of mud and sleeping in the homes of the local Hmong people. The walks were amazing, but staying at the villages was truly excellent. Sleeping on the ground, no toilets (just an hole in the ground), no running water, no electricity, all the curious kids dropping by. The villages were really poor: just wooden houses, pigs, chickens etc running around. Kids not wearing any clothes, or just really dirty ones. The villages could only be reached by foot (after hours of walking).

Our group was quite interesting as well. Of course we are two very direct Dutch girls, so we were accompanied by a socially incapable Finnish guy who could not stop talking about diving (wrong country my friend...), an 1.50 tall Canadian gay guy who felt he was going to die after the first day ( I quote: I feel like a punctured ball), a guy from the UK who always wanted to overtake us somehow and while doing that he fell an awful lot of times and finally a posh UK expat who was hiking in one of his work shirts...Needless to say we had an excellent time with them: it was hilarious! We even drank homemade Lao Whiskey with the village chief!

After the three days we did some mountain biking as well (beautiful!) and a couple of days ago we took a bus to Luang Prabang: World Heritage City because of its beautiful temples. Here we are kicking back (its really hot here, and as most of you know: I cannot take the heat that well...), do some kayaking, sightseeing etc.

But to keep a long story short, some Lao peculiarities:
- Loas has a curfew, so everything is silent after 23.30...
- we have seen butterflies as large as small birds...
- the Hmong villages are very very poor, but they did have cellphones...
- during the trekking we encountered loads of leeches (bloedzuigers): everyone had them, but apparently they do not like me...great!
- Guusje cannot count and using Bath (Thailand), Kip (Laos) and dollars is too confusing for her... - when taking a bus, all your luggage has to be taken with you of course. So if you want to transport your scooter to a different city, you just put the scooter in the aisle of the bus. And if your friend wants to take his as well, you put that one in the aisle as well...
- if the bus stops along the way and you need to pee: just go out of the bus, drop your pants and do your thing...
- needles to say that Guusje and I adapt perfectly to the above Lao manner...
- Lao money notes show the president. He looks like a combination of Boris Jeltsin and Mao Zedong. Seriously, I am NOT joking: weird psychology tricks perhaps?
- Guusje sang to the Hmong children and they sang Lao songs. Very touching...
- The reason why I did not sing with her was because I truly did not know ANY of the songs she sang. I am shocked: I have no knowledge of any songs, just Kortjakje perhaps. I blame my parents...
- Guusje taught me some Dutch lullabies and THEN I sang with her...

Next stop: Vientiane, the capital of Laos!

Finland and Bangkok

2007-07-17T21:31:00.000+12:00

What do you do if you have 9 hours in Finland? Exactly, you meet up with your best Finnish friends from Turku, Finland, who you haven't seen in 4 years (since Ireland). Seeing them again at the airport was loads of fun and we gave each other big Finnish-Dutch hugs. After that we went to Helsinki where we all were tourists, so Laura put on her ' tour guide hat' and she showed us around. We chatted about the last 4 years, but also about the good things in life. To make it unforgettable we ate an awful looking grey ice cream: salmiakki ice cream...! Yummie!

After a tearful goodbye we took off to Thailand. Guusje and I are good travelling partners: I could not stay awake in the plane, Guusje fell asleep in the taxi from the airport to the city. Either way: there was always a clear mind awake! But seriously: travelling with Guusje is easypeasy.

Bangkok has not changed one bit since I was here 6 years ago (except the airport: mayor shock!). Same crowdedness, loads of backpackers with their Loney Planet and same touristy stuff for sale. We are trying to see the tiny bits of Thailand without the LP...experienced as we are...Not to worry, we have an LP from Laos and Cambodia!
Guusje and I took our time to see the city: we saw some temples, the Grand Palace, boat ride through the city etc. Since we are very good at sleeping: that's what we did the last couple of days to get rid off the jetlag. We ate delicious food on the streets, we drank some Thai beer and cheered that we (but especially me...) will not get sick. Last time in China, I was sick within 2 days...

Anyhow, just a quick note to let you know all is very well. Travelling feels good! Tonight we are off to Chiangmai by train and then tomorrow we take a bus to Laos. We will cross the border there and we are still thinking about what is next. Either go up north to do some hiking and visit tribes or take the 2 day boat to Luang Prabang and do stuff there.
We will probably be in Vientiane (Capital of Laos) in 2 weeks, and hopefully meet up with an old colleague of mine who is working for Unicef right now. Should be really interesting!

No pictures this time, haven't got the right cable here...

Thai greetings,
Maaike (and Guusje of course who just had her birthday

Get ready, set, and she is off...

2007-07-11T13:16:00.000+12:00

I came across the happiest woman on earth today. She was glooming and frolicing at the same time. You could see she set her mind on something, something good and exciting. So, I stopped her and asked her what she was up to. It turned out to be me in the mirror!!

I had an excellent 2 weeks, seeing everyone, chatting and drinking coffee. But now I am off! Totally excited and anxious to go.

So chronological:

Finland (yes, for 9 hours!)

Thailand

Laos

Cambodia

Papua New Guinea

Australia

New Zealand

Tahiti

Chile

Bolivia

Peru

and last but not least Surinam!

I am a lucky bastard, I know....

Bye for now!