Fiji, Australia, New Zealand ALUMNUS BLOGS
Spring 2008 FANZ Semester
Monday, May 5, 2008
3-2-1 countdown!
SO welcome to my views on our FANZTASTIC trip
short end!!!
OK well we just finished getting Scuba open
water certified today! we finished our fourth open
water dive and even had enough time to do a nice adventure dive as our fifth
dive, after we officially became certified! We learned to set up uor own rigs ( tank, BCD( boyancy control device) and hwo to control
where we are in the water. Even all the fun safety mesures
both above and under water. we learned how to
dive with buddies and what to look for when diving and what u can and cannot
touch!
so the Great
Barrier Reef was AMAZING and just as beautifull as pictured on discovery
channel, but what they don't tell u is the farther down u go the less colors
there are! yea u lose red and yellows and all sort
till things are all pretty much the same color but it was still amazing!
so i bet all u
moms and dads cant wait to see all your darlings smiling faces when we get
home? well we cant wait either, as much as we all have
loved and enjoyed this trip home sickness finally crept its head in on the last
2 days... but don't worry cause we all are still having a amazing time with
each other!
CANT WAIT TO TELL U ALL THE STORIES
!!!
CANT WAIT TO LISTNE TO YOURS!!!!
CANT WAIT TO JSUT BE
WITH YOU!!!!
From all of us to you thanks for the chance and
experience of a lifetime!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Chenrezig
This past week has been mostly occupied by our
time at the Buddhist retreat center, but was punctuated with a few interesting
outings. Chenrezig was an interesting experience, we learned about Buddhism,
meditation, and yoga. Some people also decided to take a day of silence, which
was, well, quiet. Our first outing was to the beach, where we were met with
some gigantic waves. And by gigantic I mean 8 or 9 feet. So
much fun. A couple people almost got injured, as one of those waves
breaking on you is about the equivalent of having a swimming pool dumped on
you, but with a bit of luck we managed to pull through with nothing serious.
Our second outing was to the Australia zoo. There we got to see some Aussie
natives, roos, echidnas, snakes (the most poisonous ones in the world) koalas,
and salt water crocs. We also got to see some other fun animals like tigers
(including 3 tiger cubs, who behaved like overgrown kittens), elephants, komodo
dragons and more. Oh, another exiting point. We got to see a wild echidna at
Chenrezig, quite a rare sight indeed. After Chenrezig we had a 30 hour train ride up to Cairns, where we currently are. Got
to see some good sites to the window, but more importantly we got to play a lot
of cards. Off to th home stretch of the trip!
Saturday, April 19, 2008
CVA and Adelaide
hey everyone!
This blog details our final conservation
project on the trip and our time in Adelaide. I have to say, it was awesome!
The eight days we were in South Australia had been paid for and all of our
meals and accommodations were taken care of by the lovely folks of Conservation
Volunteers of Australia or CVA for short. We spent the first two days relaxing
and exploring the city of Adelaide. For the most part though, the group spent
the majority of this time at the hostel because we were all sick. Amy and I had
spread our head cold to most of the group so we ended up at the hostel for most
of the 1st day. But we kept entertained with movies, card games, sleep and an
extremely long game of Monopoly. The 2nd day we found out what our jobs were
for CVA. The group was split up for two separate projects; one at Deep Creek
Conservation Park and the other at a Heritage farm in a small local town which
i don't know the name of.
The groups were split as such, group 1 (the
totally awesome group): Rob, Robert, Sara, Amy and me, Sean group 2 (the less
awesome group): Niles, Paul, Larsen, Chloe and Adam. This was the first time
the group had split up the whole trip and it was a refreshing and interesting
experience. Normally, the group is split up for the WWOOF farm and the Maori
experience but we were the first group in a while to be all
together for most activities. So we set off to our respective work sites
and switched work sites and staff members halfway through. The two staff
members Bill and Martin were so cool. Bill was an energetic, charismatic, young
guy who had just finished 3 1/2 years of globe trotting
and Martin was a wise, caring and dedicated old man who had been working with
CVA for more than 15 years.
With Bill, we camped in a trailer park and
worked on setting up fences. which were sometimes
followed by delicious Barbeques with Heather, the owner of the farm we worked
on. With Martin, we stayed in an old cabin and did trail maintenance in the
park. Oh and we also worked with two Aussies, Lisa and Gabriel who only worked
for two days each. But back to the work, basically it consisted of killing
anything within arms reach of the path so as to keep the path clean so that
people would stick to the path and not make their own and so it could we could
be used as a safe route to escape forest fires that sometimes plague the area.
Finally, we finished off our time with CVA and then headed back to Adelaide to
relax and get ready for our flight which was earlier
today.
Tomorrow we are going up to surfers paradise
for some beach time and to try out surfin and then its
off to the Buddhist retreat but all thats for another blog.
Much love,
-Sean
Friday, April 11, 2008
ramblin in oz
This week regrettably marked the beginning of
the end: A month of bushwacking, crocodile wrestling, koala chasing, buddhist
education, surfing, scuba diving, and whatever else we can manifest in our
twisted minds to occupy our final month together in the versatile climes of
Australia.
We spent our first four days relaxing and
recovering from the gorgeous Routeburn Trek in the gigantic metropolis of
Sydney. Our activities included wandering aimlessly, a delightfully challenging
scavenger hunt of random facts and landmarks of the city, wandering aimlessly,
marvelling at some of the most incredible marine life in the world at the Sydney
aquarium, and wandering aimlessly some more.
Now, we are spending more time in the less
hectic Adelaide awaiting our time with CVA. No word
exactly on what our jobs are to be. More on that later.
Hope everything back home is alright. We sure are
doin' fine.
Love Larsen
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Greetings from New Zealand!
Here in Christchurch, we are currently staying
in a hostel that was formerly a prison. It's very nice and bonus: warm showers.
We leave for the Maori village in just a few short hours.
Over the past week, we have ventured out into
the city for a few exciting activities. We went to the Wild Animal Park and
were fortunate enough to see a kiwi feeding. We also visited the Akaroa harbor
and went on a boat tour to see the native New Zealand dolphins, also known as
sea pandas. Later in the week, we went to The Antarctic Center to see a penguin
feeding and to learn more about this cold, cold place. During our visit, we
withstood an arctic chill that took place in one of the exhibits. Although simulated,
it was freezing and very windy (some of us even lost our shoes). This concludes
the major events of the week.
We are off to the Whakanue now.
Peace out & keep it real.
Friday, March 21, 2008
WWOOF Farm!!!!!! New Zealand
Well what a fabulous trip it has been so far.
The last couple of weeks in New Zealand have been absolutely amazing and it
will be sad to leave. Today is March 21st, 2008, and we had a break from
working to spend the entire day at the beach. We arrived late on the 14th. On
the 15th, Anne, the owner of the farm, introduced us to our jobs. These
consisted of preparing meals, washing dishes, herding cattle, taking out the
garbage, and best of all cleaning the toilets ;)
Are main project for the week was to plant
trees on the hills of the farm. We did about two days of awesome work with the
help of Anne and her mother Nana. Unfortunately because of the drought, this
project was cut short. We worked on her sisters yard aswell as gardening around
Anne's farm.
Some of the highlights of this week were: TC
and his grub eating!!!!!!!! YOU KNOW IT, Hackett saving a man at the beach, and
the girls brutal attempt at a midnight prank!!! I'm
sure they will have something to say about this on the next blog.
Overall this week has been very memorable for
everyone. We look forward to having our last dinner and celebrating Sean and
Paul's 19th Birthdays!!
Cheers
from your Token Canadian!!
TC
Saturday, March 15, 2008
After the group spent a few days in Wellington
we zipped off to the Outdoor Pursuit Center. We did some fun activities. WE
arrived on Sunday the 9th, and had a day to get situated and move into our
rooms. We spent the 2nd day in an amazingly beautiful gorge
which included zip lining, climbing and alot of swimming; and let me
tell you, the plunge was COOOOLD! We managed to survive. The next day on the
11th, we were fortunate enough to climb to the summit of Mount Doom. It was
incredibly difficult and took us almost 8 hours to complete. I'll
speak for the group on this one, it felt great to
finish. The next day we spent time working on our team buliding/
leadership skills. This included many group activites and we finished the day
with some time on the high ropes course. On our last day, we went off into the
bush and got lost. We had to navigate our way out and set up camp. Afterwards,
we set off to the Limestone caves to do a spot of caving. Everyone pushed
themselves past their limits and siezed the day. After our adventure in the
bush, we left OPC and had an epic car ride to the WWOOF farm which is the most
beatuiful place in the world.......it's the shire
Rob
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
So free travel is the way to go when in Fiji! as relaxing as it is to scrape a school roof both morning
and night we finish that task, and now the school is a nice chassy red color
(tho it dried like five different shades once we finished). We now strated our
more adventurous part of Fiji where we take our travels in our own hands!
Through many days of tip towing around the issue we all decided what to do and
when, all of which revolved around a nice hostel along the beach(which
became our pattern for Fiji) near the city of Nadi. We thought of many thing to do hikes, zoos, rafting down a river, the list went
on and on, but due to certain circumstances we have only done the zoo trip so
far.... Fiji is a cruel mistress but a rewarding one in that no matter where u
are its completed and amazing gorgeous so chillin on the beach was never seen
as a bad way to spend a day. Counting our Fiji days left the energy of the
group shifted and everyone is pretty pumped to our next destination Wellington
New Zealand!!!! both for the milder climate and the
endless possibilities for our next try at free travel. well
cant spend all day in a nice air conditioned Internet cafe can we of to the
warm (by warm i mean boiling) streets of Nadi to grab some grub! tune in next time for another episode with your host ME ( me
can pertain to any and all of the Carpe Diem staff or students)
Friday, February 22, 2008
Bula from Namatakula!
After a week of hard work in the village of
Namatakula we have a day to relax and explore Sigatoka. In the village we are
staying with Fijian families, and getting some great food (lots of fish, some
chicken, and plenty of vegetables). During the day we have been not only
working on our volunteer project, which consists of scraping and paint the roof
of the nearby primary school), but also learned more about the Fijian lifestyle
by going out and farming and fishing. This isn't the usual fishing with a rod
though... in Fiji you fish by setting up a net and then scaring the fish by
splashing, and basically herding them into the net. The one bad thing here is
the sun. It gets extremely hot, and most everybody has gotten sunburnt, despite
the excessive amount of sunscreen we put on. Well, its
off to another week of hard (but rewarding) work!
Friday, February 15, 2008
Greeting from Fiji !!!!!!
It's official our adventure has started. After
spending a long time preparing, sitting in a plane, and losing Valentine's day
:(. We are in Fiji, about 1 hour east of the town of Sigatoka. The weather and
sun are very hot, but luckily we have the Pacific to cool us down. We have
started orientation and getting to know one another. We move onto our village
homestay on Monday, we will be making a stop in town next weekend to use internet and just enjoy the amenities offered there. Until
then we wish y'all the best (especially if you are dealing with the snowy and
dreary condition of a north American winter).
Much Love
FANZ spring 08.
Today we got to check out a really cool
waterfall! IT ROCKED!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
FANZ is United!
Well, it's official,
the group is together and going through security as we speak. There were no
major hiccups to speak of, and only one delay of a half-hour. ... this is about as smooth as it goes. In fact, it never
escapes me how much of a miracle it is that so many people can come from so
many different regions, arrive within a few hour window, and depart as one to
Fiji.
And so it begins!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Bula Sara, Robert, Niles, Larsen, Chloe, Paul,
Sean and Rob!
We, Adam and Amy, have arrived in Portland for
training and we get to initiate the first blog for FANZ Spring of 2008!! We are
going to be joining you for a sweet adventure in the South Pacific! We're
working very hard this week so we can hit the ground running when we first
arrive in Nadi, Fiji! Can you believe you are going to Fiji?
We just had the chance to go over the
itinerary, and we're both really excited! This trip is going to rock! Did we
mention that we will be hiking through Mordor with
views of Mt. Doom? (Is anyone not a Lord of the Rings fan?)
We'll be calling everyone in the next couple of
days to answer any last minute questions and go over any details that need
clarifying.
We can't wait to meet y'all! By the way, if
your parents don't know about the blog, show them how to get here! It's going
to be a great way for them to know what's been happening on your travels!
Peace out,
A & A
“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business,
Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your
feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”