taking the plunge...

I've been to the beach with the Bradleys several times since getting here, in fact usually a couple of times a week. They go for a swim and the closest I get is plodging along the edge with Cammi. She's got a decent excuse, ickle legs and doggy paddle aren't really designed for Ninety Mile Beach surf. me? I'm just a wuss...

I have got a reasonable(ish) excuse in that I grew up well away from the beach, in Britain where holidays by the beach meant building sandcastles, burrying each other and playing cricket, hardly going in the water at all - we're mainly talking the Irish Sea here and Gulf Stream Current or not it certainly isn't the Mediteranean. Also I'm decidedly wary of the surf here having found myself pounded down by it and totally disoriented as to which way was up at the Coromandel 3 years ago.

But it's getting to the point where I really am going to have to go in beyond my knees, even if that does mean leaving Cammi behind. There's only so many times you can be shown up by 9yr olds before you start feeling silly! I guess this means I'll have to open up the last box as I suspect that's where my togs are, not having seen them since Wellington...

It's a bit scary really - but I'll not be on my own and Ann has literally offered to hold my hand if I need it... I can do it, I know I can, I just have to get it over and done with...

The other thing I need to do is book mine and Sarah's tickets - something that is really scary for both of us. The idea of booking a flight way from here literally makes me feel sick, I'll be booking a return trip but with no certainty of being able to come back on the same flight as Sarah as so far Immigration aren't playing ball. Having psyched each other up to do this on the phone the Air New Zealand site decided it was on overload and won't let me book... grrrr. I need to go back now and try again, before I lose my nerve.

Deep breath and go for it.........

pootling about

It's funny how the days seem to disappear without actually doing very much with them! Well it feels like I don't, altho I have made my way along about a footsworth of Sam's bookshelves which could explain where a lot of the time has gone...

It's quite strange having no pressure to do things, it's a bit like that feeling you get (well I got!) after leaving school or uni when the realisation hits you that there's no outstanding homework to be doing as it's too late now.

Having said that I've got play rehearsals lined up for what looks like 4 nights a week for the rest of the month - I'm the production assistant, which means I get to ding a bell, read out cue lines and prompt when people forget their words. Much better doing that from the sidelines than being on stage I reckon =) It's good fun, a good play and funny too - and getting funnier as the actors get to grips with their roles. Also it's a way of getting to know a few more people here, not that I'm short of company when I want/need it. It's obviously becoming part of my subconcious though as when I got home last night to a pile of clean towels needing folded that had been grabbed in off the line before dashing out, I found myself folding them the 'proper way' instead of how I would normally - the towel folding scene in the play is just priceless!

I'm no closer to working out what comes next in life yet - altho' Sarah and I are busy planning our trip to the UK in October, I'm just hoping I get to come back with her! She says I've got to as she doesn't want to have to fly back on her own... can't see Immigration falling for that one though somehow, methinks they'll need something more than that.

I'm loving it here, even though the various flying bitey things seem to love me being here too - I'm hanging in there for that immunity that eventually comes with time... despite the uncertainty about life I'm finding I've got a sense of calm about it all and am simply enjoying time to just be.

would you like climate change with that?

Akin to the world's leaders current preoccupation, much of YF Camp was spent discussing climate change, what it means and our response to it. Whilst we can't personally do much about factory or agricultural emissions that doesn't mean we can't lead the way within our own community. We came up with (amongst others) the following Minute:

To Yearly Meeting, we strongly advocate and offer our assistance to the formation of an Aotearoa NZ Testimony to Sustainability and the Earth. We also call for the development of YM policies on sustainable codes and practices in Quaker buildings, gatherings and events. We ask that time be allocated to these issues at Yearly Meeting 2007.

We've also established our own Climate Change group, started work on guidelines towards improving the sustainability of our own YF Camps (both this YF Camp and the last Summer Gathering have been carbon neutralised as best we can), started discussions on possible future sustainable property options and made some headway with an article on the sustainable codes we're asking YM for (working on which is on my 'to do' list...).

Several YFs went away from Camp determind to reduce their carbon footprints by reducing the amount of meat they eat, if not cutting it out altogether. Sarah and Mim decided in the car home to combine the skills learned at Bridget's printing workshop with the climate change message (and Grace's catchy slogan!) - as Cat would say think it do it... the photo is above!

Living here with so much fresh fruit, eggs and veg around plus all the time I need for baking my own bread and making meals from scratch it would be easy to get complacent about my dietary impact on the world. But my ricemilk comes from Australia in unrecyclable tetrapaks, chick peas are from heaven knows where, you can buy NZ grown lentils but I'm not sure if you can in Kaitaia yet, my tea and coffee are imported (albeit organic and fairly traded) and no matter how hard I try I still seem to use a fair number of products in unrecyclable packinging.

I don't drive, and still don't intend to learn (for many reasons including environmental) however there is only so far, and so often, I can get on the bike but I'm trying to keep to a minimum the number of extra journeys others have to make on my behalf - luckily for me the road to Ahipara is commonly used by those happy to give me a ride.

At camp we were urged to 'be patterns, be examples' on this issue, it's not so much a case of 'what canst thou say?' but what canst thou do?

strange fruit

Apologies to anyone who was getting worried... I'm ok! Just managing to get a few other things ticked off my to do list now I've actually got more hours in the day than things I have to do to fill it rather than visa versa. No chance of me getting bored though - lots to photograph (even though I've yet to figure out how to upload them given this machine sulks and turns off if you use the usb port...), ooodles of great books to read, my quilting stuff arrives tomorrow and there's the garden, chooks and Cammi to look after....

Having lived in this country now for 18 months and been visiting for over 3 years the number of occassions when it hits me hard that I'm a comer-in rather than a local had been gradually diminishing. Until I got here when everything stepped back up a gear. Ok, so how do you know when a tamarillo is ripe? (and then what do you do with them?!), what about figs (I've only ever eaten them dried!), guavas - both red and yellow, persimons (spelling?), and how come limes turn yellow? The apples I can cope with, mandarins I got used to in Wellington but the rest of the fruit I'm far more used to seeing on the greengrocers shelves - if there!

The chickens are having to put up with just getting their coop moved as far as I can pull in one go rather than the distance they should be but that's getting further each day. I've not (yet) fallen off the bike and John fixed it to the right height for me rather than the basketball player height M&Q's spare was set at (my elbow has healed over now, but the bruise on my bum from where the sadle hit me is still a corker!).

YF Camp is already feeling like a distant memory, yet it was only a week ago that we started heading north from Wanganui round the Taranaki coast to Auckland. It's almost two weeks now since I left Wellington behind with GFH now in Alan & John's capable hands. It feels like there ought to be lots of reflection going on about the last 18 months, and the months to come, but right now I'm happily content living in the moment, taking each day as it comes and enjoying simply being here.

mission accomplished, over and out

well, almost.

By the end of YF Camp it really did feel like time to hang up my boots as a YF. Not for any negative reasons, I had a great time and felt very much a part of things - in fact I was possibly the only one there who had met every single one of the 52 present before. But 20 years of YF events (even with a long break part way through!) is I feel enough. Not only that but I got a sense by the end of Camp that Aotearoa New Zealand Young Friends Meeting had really found it's feet. Sure I'll carry on helping support the Committee, but from the sidelines.

Leaving Wellington had a similar feel on the YF front, there are others who will make sure YFs meet regularly between the monthly SOYFA evenings, there are others who will make sure no-one drifts off and gets lost unwittingly. I'm not able to say the same about the rest of the Meeting, that I feel I left with a long way to go and no real sense of how what is needed can happen, but at least some things are being talked about openly that haven't really been addressed for some time if at all.

Having shifted now from Te Ūpoko o Te Ika to Te Hiku o Te Ika a Maui - from the head of the fish to the tail of the fish of Maui (ie North Island - confusingly the tail is at the top!) there are new opportunities, new challenges, a new mission?