So, with the loss of gainful employment from Meetup this past week, I got to thinking about two basic questions about where to go from here.
1) What can I do now?
2) What would totally rock to do now?
Out of all the answers I came up with, none intersected quite so well as the idea that I'm carrying out now. I've decided to go to New Zealand and volunteer on various organic farms throughout the country, participating in the farmstay program known as
WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms, and it's pronounced "woof", which is totally awesome, dogg). The way that it usually works:
1) I, as a participating WWOOFer, have a directory of participating host farms available (and there are hundreds in New Zealand), with addresses, phone numbers, and what each farm specializes in and what their need is
2) I call a farm that interests me 1-2 weeks in advance and find out if they're in need of someone to help them out
3) If they need someone, I travel to the farm. Then, in exchange for working 5-6 hours a day, I get food and drink, and a bed to sleep in. Usually it's for at least a week since the learning curve on farms may vary.
4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 for as long as desired, intersperse with touristy activities such as
viewing penguins along the coastline:
exploring the beaches and coves:
hanging with this dude:
The nice thing about this is that it enables one to take a very long trip in beautiful areas while spending very little money. So while I currently know next to nothing about organic farming or any kind of farming, really (I did milk a cow once when I was 11 or so), it's something that I could definitely learn, and is probably a very good thing to learn (who couldn't benefit from having a better idea of where their food comes from? I mean, what the hell is high fructose corn syrup, really? corn juice? wait, maybe that's another blog entry...)
Still working out all the details on this trip. I have 3 weeks to work most of them out, and will probably be figuring out many of them as I go. Yesterday, I booked my flight to Auckland and am leaving the afternoon of March 1st. I'll arrive in Auckland March 3rd (since crossing the international date line enables one to go into the future or the past one day! the awesomeness!), and will fly into Christchurch on the south island the following day after giving myself a day to rest (time travel wears you out). In March, fall will just be beginning there, so I'll be heading as far south as I can at the start, so I can see it before it gets too cold down there. I'll then work my way back northward towards the more temperate climes as winter gets closer. Estimated time of journey is around 3 months, though do not yet have an end date in mind, and may well decide to extend beyond that if I'm having a good enough time and finances permit.
I will update semi-frequently before my departure date, and will attempt to update as often as I can when I'm over there.
Cheers!
