21. April 2009

It’s been a while that I have written here anything and people already have started writing my what has happened what I have done. So I’ll try to put down something, tho it actually can’t be really described real well, you have to experience it.

As I wrote in last blog, then we were heading to Hervey Bay to spend some time. And we really did literally spend time there. The place was quite nice, there was free breakfast and we paid like 8 dollars a night each, because we were staying in a tent. The backpackers was away from town centre, but there was courtesy bus going and coming regularly. But there wasn’t much to do in the town centre too :P, it was quite small town. So most of the days we were just doing nothing, reading books, takings some sun, swimming in the pool or in the sea, played tennis and so on. We spent there around a week or 8 days, which doesn’t matter actually.

After that we headed to Pomona to participate in meditation and silence course for 10 days. We didn’t do much of research about it, but we had quite a motivation, which actually came in useful later on :P. I really can’t explain everything in here and there isn’t actually much point for doing that either. There were and are few things that I could argue with concerning the theoretical part, but the most important part is acceptable. And these are sila, samadhi and panna, which in translation are morality, concentration/ mastery of the mind and wisdom/insight that purifies the mind. Can’t argue with that.

Another things that I actually knew before, but in there was reminded me. All things and beings are just atoms and molecules. I knew that and know that only on theoretical level, I haven’t seen or experienced it myself, so even though I really know and believe that it is that way, something inside me is trying to argue with me, cause there are no touchable proof for that. And this meditation is suppose to help actually experience and see it yourself, it didn’t happen in those 10 days, but I really hope so that one day I will see the world THE WAY IT IS. And all that should conclude that everything is changing, because atoms and molecules are all the time moving, vibrating, raising and passing as are all the sensations that humans feel, sooner or later all comes to an end. Maybe seems pessimistic, but if you think about it, it isn’t actually, it’s just the way it is, the reality. As you should realize that everything is changing and everything is just atoms and molecules, there should be no more I, me and mine.

As there are so many people there are so many different opinions, so there are also different ways. No one can tell me what is right and what is wrong way to live, that is probably the most important lesson I got from there, I have to experience it my self and that’s what Goenka, the teacher was saying too. As I am young there are so much more to learn and see, but till I find something better I will stick to this meditation and try to keep meditating regularly, as I am travelling, moving from one place to another and humans tend to not try to change, go with the change.

After the course it has been really hard to write a blog, because it is hard to find thoughts, but I guess I’m doing alright.

One thing that I came up to my mind while meditating (among lot of other weird, cool, embarrassing, motivating and so on things) was that there has been so many people that have affected my life directly and indirectly, good way or not so good way. I would like to say big thank you to all those people, because thanks to you I am here where I am, I have experienced so many things because of who you are and what you have done. Though all haven’t been the way I wanted to be, all haven’t been good always, but still I am where I am today because all of that. In the same time I want to apologize to all those people who’s lives I have affected negatively, because I’m not easy person to always be around and sometimes make life a hell, even if I haven’t done it deliberately. It sounds weird, but I am weird and I am proud of it :P. Under this would go the saying be the change you want to see in the world. I know that I have been a fool sometimes, but that’s the person who I have been and now I will try to change, not to make other people suffer. I haven’t been a best son, brother, friend, relative and so on, but can’t change things that have already been. I will try to change and I care about everyone who have been, are and will be in my life, even my “enemies”.

If someone is interested of this course, check it out: http://www.dhamma.org/

May everyone live a happy life…

29. March 2009

Hmm… where to start. Maybe I start with saying that I have gotten to the point that I am growing indifferent of travelling and seeing new places. It is a bit the same with writing all this down. Luckily I have Kaupo with me and he keeps me going, when I don’t feel like it. So I think it is good thing about travelling together and also something one lady told us who gave us a ride that, when you are with someone things look different, because then when you see something beautiful and get motivated with it you affect the other person too and then you would like the whole world to see what you see. I guess there is truth in that.

I guess I am not gonna talk as specifically what we have done as I have done so far, rather concentrate about other, hopefully, interesting stuff. Like at the moment I have only 70 NZ cents in my wallet. Tho I am not totally broke, I have some money to live a bit in Australia, but then again I owe some money to Kaupo now too, because I didn’t want to get some more money out at the moment. Who knows me, then you know that I hate borrowing money, but I guess this is way to help me grow a bit too.

We met quite interesting people today, but about that bit later. First few words what has happened. In these approx 10 days we have travelled from pretty much from the bottom of the New Zealand to almost very top to Auckland. On our way up here we have had stops in Queenstown, Franz Joseph, Hokatika, Nelson, Wellington, Feilding, Torangi and now in Auckland (that’s mostly to just remind myself where we have been and what we have done :P)

Queenstown was just one night stop on our way from Te Anau to Franz Joseph. Our bus trip from Queenstown to FJ was actually really awesome, because the road was going up and down the mountains, through narrow roads, over rivers, through forests, next to sea and other awesome stuff on our way. The trip was sight worth seeing itself. In Franz Joseph we wanted to see the glacier and Kaupo wanted to touch it. Going to touch the glacier by yourself is considered to be dangerous and I actually understand it now, but the guided tours are quite expensive. After not getting to an agreement some girls we were staying in the room with recommended to do the tour, so that’s what we did next day, the full day tour on the glacier. Nothing special I recon, big block of ice and not worth the money, but at least we can say, been there, done that. When we would have gone there alone we probably would have gotten even wetter, had some trouble getting to the walking tracks and walking on the ice, especially climbing up the ice mountain would have been pain in the ass without crampons. In Franz Joseph, the night before the tour we had also quite interesting night in the bar, where we were approached one Canadian, who started talking to us and we ended up sharing the table with girl from England and guy from Netherlands, there we got some interesting information about New Zealand and had just good time.

From Franz Joseph we decided to hitchhike, because money was running low and all the buses left early in the morning. We didn’t know where to go, but when we got on the road leading north we found someone’s sign who was also hitchhiking, which said Hokitika, so that’s were we were going too then. Didn’t take long time, when we were picked up by a French guy and a girl who were going there, quite long drive but it was relaxed drive and I got to sleep in the car :P. Spent a night in the Hokitika and decided to get a bus next day out of there, to Nelson. There was nothing special about that town, small country town, called jade capital of New Zealand, good for peace and quiet and maybe cheap jade stuff.

Next day got on bus to Nelson, another day full of sitting. Got to Nelson quite late, the backpackers we wanted to go, which we found on a brochure, turned out to be not existing anymore and the other backpackers was full we went to. So we headed to the holiday park that wasn’t actually not very close to town centre. Spent a night in the tent, it actually got amazingly cold in the early morning, so far the coldest I have ever camped. In the morning went to the information site, booked a bus and ferry to Wellington and also backpackers in there. We had few hours, so we enjoyed, ok mostly me, because Kaupo didn’t get it, enjoyed unlimited refills in Burger King, which meant that I drank so much lemonade that I was almost going to throw up. After that we went to library and used the free internet.

The bus ride didn’t take that much time, but when we arrived to Picton we were told that our ferry is late, only for like 3 hours or so and they gave us a voucher for free coffee in the café that was actually closed, how stupid. Waited our ferry there, got on ferry, waited on ferry to arrive, got on firm ground and were almost thrown out from the terminal, because everyone wanted to go home. The free shuttle they told to be there wasn’t there, so we had to take a taxi. We were approached by a girl from Japan and guy from Spain who wanted to share the taxi ride to the city, which we didn’t mind at all. Anyways we got to the backpackers, got one more night, bought breakfast vouchers and went to bed.

Next day we hanged around in Wellington, mostly in Te Papa, which is kind of museum, but quite interesting one. You could actually try and do stuff in there, like try to how it feels to be in the room where there is an earthquake. Also lot of wisdom in there, but because it is so big, it is impossible to remember everything there and actually try everything, so if you want to go there take couple of days, few hours a day. In there I learned for example that there are small earthquakes pretty much every day in New Zealand, wow. And it is a place for quite a few active volcanoes and one of the worlds most biggest ones under lake Taupo. We didn’t do much after that in Wellington, just looked around and spending time.

Later I will write how we got to Feilding and all the way up to Auckland, also about interesting people we met on our way up here, but now I gotta go wake up Kaupo, to catch a bus to Airport. It’s 2:20 am and our plane leaves around 6 am.


31. March 2009

Last day of March, tomorrow’s gonna be the funny day, at least it should be, we’ll see how it goes.

I left off where we were going to leave Wellington. After spending a night there we wanted to leave Wellington, we wanted to hitchhike around North Island, but thing was that Wellington is quite big city and we needed to get out of the city. But as we already needed to get out of the city anyways we got the bus to North Palmerson, which turned out to be big city also when we got there and the backpackers we saw there was full and next one quite far away. So we went back to bus station and looked where the buses went and decided to go on place near there, which seemed to be small and had holiday park, so we went to Fielding.

In there we started looking for the holiday park, but as we were following the signs it turned out to be around 2 km away, but we didn’t have anywhere else to go either, but good thing was that in the morning didn’t have that much to go to get to the highway.

While we were looking around the holiday park one French girl offered us a beer, so how we could refuse, only had to keep her company (and her boyfriend :P). Turned out that they were working in New Zealand, picking squash, they were not picking exactly, but they were working with it still. Later on one Maori guy joined us, he was their tractor driver, funny guy, but smoked lot of pot. They offered us job also, but we didn’t have the working holiday visa, so we couldn’t do that anyway. Later on one guy from Fiji joined us. Interesting and a bit weird guy. From what he said I could say that he had been doing farm job for quite long time. He also had lot of pictures of different people he had been working with, also of Estonian girl. Later he talked about one book, that I would like to read now, but don’t remember what was the name. He said that it was about kind of prophecy and about other life forms in universe. Things kind of made sense, but I wouldn’t believe it that easily, so I would like to read the book too. Anyways if I figure it out, then I’ll write it up.

Next morning we headed up on the highway and started hitching to Taupo. Didn’t take very long till we got a ride, but not to Taupo, but a bit further on to one crossing, one kiwi picked us up. There we ate and continued to try to get a ride. Waited there for around half an hour when 2 girls (more kind of ladies :P) picked us up and they went to Taupo, actually even further up north. But as we got near Taupo we made a stop in town before it, which was close to quite a few volcanoes, dormant and active, we decided to stay there. They gave us a lift to kind of holiday park where we picked to stay in dorm, where actually only me and Kaupo stayed. We booked a ride to one crossing there (Turangi I think) for next day, which went past and on top of active and dormant volcanoes, supposed to be best one day walk in NZ. In the beginning I didn’t like that town much, but later on I actually started liking it.

So next day we went to do the crossing. We had to get up before 7, to get on the bus up there. We were told that it is going to be nice day, but turned out to be cloudy and rainy day. As we got to the drop off point, started walking we were quite wet already and when we started going up the mountains it got really cold and windy. Some summits were over 2000 m, so sometimes it snows there, even in the summer. But unfortunately for us it rained, but was still cold as hell. My ass froze there going up the mountain and had to almost run up the mountain to get some warmth. Kaupo was with shorts, so I couldn’t imagine how he felt. Didn’t see shit, but in general was quite good walk. At least we smell the volcano :P, touched warm water and saw smoke. It was interesting experience definitely, walking on active volcano. We used internet in there and checked out the ticket prices to Australia, but didn’t find any good offer, so we decided to go to airport and see what’s the thing with last minute flights.

After spending one more night in Turangi we started hitchhiking again to Taupo. After a while we were picked up by one police officer (not on police car :P), women police officer, who was punched on the face last night and was on her way to Taupo hospital to take an x-ray. Interesting women I would say. She chose to be police officer, because she wanted to work in Turangi and wanted exiting job. She worked in Taupo before, but don’t remember what she was doing. And before that she used to be flight attendant. What a woman. She dropped us of in Taupo and headed to the hospital. And we had to walk to the other side of Taupo to continue hitching.

There we were picked up by most amazing lady I have met on my trip so far. But about that later, gotta catch a train now.

I’m on the train now, on my way to Hawks Bay. Time to continue with writing.

Like I said we had to walk to the other side of the town to continue. We made a stop near information site and had lunch, actually breakfast, cause we didn’t have one. In there we remembered that Marika, my dad’s friends, who is making around the world trip, told me that she did one meditation course near Auckland and we wanted to get information about it, so we asked where it is. Turned out that it was north of Auckland and there was a bus going there on dates the courses started. But we didn’t ask for more information.

When we got outside of the city we started hitching again. We didn’t have to wait long again. One lady picked us up, she didn’t have much room in her car, but we managed to fit in. She wasn’t going all the way to Auckland, she was going to Hamilton, which is one bigger city just before Auckland. On our way up there we got to hear more about her and heard lot of interesting things. She was Brazilian, who had moved to NZ, because she got married with a kiwi. She was a photographer, who was on her way to Hamilton and next day to Auckland to fly to some island near India to spend her NZ winter there, because she didn’t like cold weather. She told lots of stuff about New Zealand to us. Very positive lady she was. She also made me realize that we are mostly picked up by women. Really interesting actually. We also talked with her regular stuff like what we were doing, what we did and what we were going to do. Somehow I ended up telling her that I am not sure what I am going to do and what I want to do. And that my dad wants me to go to Uni and stuff like that. Then she said that education isn’t always the most important thing, like she learned to be lawyer, her dad had to pay a lot for it and now she can’t even use it, because she learned American and Roman law, not commonwealth law like in NZ. Then she continue talking about different peoples stories she knows, how people have lost all and the found what they really liked and became rich. And gave me something to think about, like becoming teacher and teach English to people in different countries, so I could give something to people and travel at the same time. Later on we somehow got to Buddhism and talked about the same meditation course. Turned out that she had done it too, but said that it might not suit to everyone, but it has helped a lot and maybe it will help me too, as I don’t know what I want to do. Anyways it was the best ride I have ever gotten when hitchhiking. She even dropped us off to the other side of Hamilton, on the highway, so we could get a ride easier. Just don’t have enough words for it.

In Hamilton we maybe waited 5 minutes or so and we were picked up by another kiwi, who gave us a ride to Auckland. And that was a guy :P. He was on his way to airport to go on holiday in Australia, but he still dropped us off to the town centre. There we didn’t have much trouble finding a backpackers. Checked in and decided to walk around, see if we find free internet and get something to eat. We ate some shitty Chinese food and found a café, which said that if we buy something in there we get to use internet, so we chilled there for a while and were looking information about the course. It turned out that there was around 10 days till next course and we were thinking what to do. We saw that there were different meditation centres all over the world, so we checked Australia too and saw that there was one near Brisbane too. Thought for a while, if it would be better to do it in NZ or in Oz. We checked the plane tickets again and after long thought we bought plane tickets to Brisbane for next morning, 6 am, so it was actually quite pointless paying for the night for backpackers. Later Kaupo went to bed, but I decided to stay awake. That was the time I read one book I found there and wrote the blog. Around 2:30 am I woke Kaupo up, he took a shower then and got ready and I packed my last things. 3 am we were picked up by a shuttle to take us to airport.

We got to the airport just before check in started. We went to check in and turned out that we had to have our electronic ticket printed, so we went to wait for New Zealand Airlines service desk to be opened. When it opened, we got our ticket and then went back to continue with check in. Then it turned out that the girl couldn’t find my visa from the computer. Everything was ok with Kaupo, so he continued check in and she checked in my baggage on Kaupo’s name. On service desk she didn’t have any problem of finding my visa, she printed it out and I went back to check in. But as I got back the lady that was servicing us had left, so I had to go other one. She checked me in, but also had to go see her supervisor to activate my visa like she said. It all took around 2 hours to get me checked in. In the end I was quite frustrated, but I was laughing that it would be funny if my bag would get checked through, especially because it was really full. At the gates, I had to take some stuff out of my bag, cause they couldn’t see all. When I went through the gates it started beeping and I was checked through. As I was almost finished with backing all my stuff back to bag, I was approached by another security guard. I thought wtf now. He told me to step back there. I was thinking about the time, damn. He wanted to check if I had touched drugs anywhere. I kind of started laughing by myself, thinking that it is actually happening, I am getting all the shit :P. He used some kind of machine for it, the one they used in USA. I was clean of course. We finally got to our gate. Plane was late of course. Finally got on plane, waited there also for a while, but luckily the plane had small screens, so we could watch movies. I watched “Bedtime stories” and later “Marley and me”. First one wasn’t nothing special, nothing surprising, not worth going to see in the cinema. The other one actually was quite alright, quite sad.

Finally we got to Brisbane. We had to fill some papers there. Everything went quite well, till… We went through customs gate, where they check if we don’t have anything that could be harmful for Australian environment, like dangerous plants, animals and stuff like that. They wanted to check our tent, I didn’t have any problem with that. As he opened up the tent it was still wet and grassy from our tenting night in Feidling. So it had to be cleaned, which took awhile. After that we were free.

We went to the airport information to ask about transportation to city and turned out that they ha already backpackers numbers and free phone to them right there. We called few of them till we found the cheapest one. Brisbane also has a shuttle for quite reasonable price to everywhere in Brisbane. As the time was so early we didn’t have a point going to backpackers, as check out time was 10 am and it was earlier than that and in phone they told that we couldn’t check in before 2 pm. We decided to wait in the airport till 10 and then go there. So I slept there a bit. 10 am went to backpackers and turned out that we could go in right a way, which was awesome. I wanted to go to sleep, Kaupo wanted to go to library to use the internet. But soon I decided to go to library too and then sleeping. We registered for the meditation course, I looked out the migration office is (I thought that I was going to ask, if they want me in Australia) and just spent time (looked for information about migration and schools, not much good news there, so don’t wanna talk about it). There we were till they closed and got back to our dorm after 9 pm. I was off to bed straight away.

In the morning I woke up amazingly early myself, had a shower, while Kaupo was still in bed. Got ready, packed stuff, went downstairs, waited for the bus. We went to the transit center, where we got to decision, that it is not easy to travel around with each other and other stuff. After a while we decided still to move on, Kaupo wanted a beach, so we were going near a beach. He first thought about some bay (don’t remember the name), but now we are going to Hawks Bay, near Fraser Island. At the moment we are sitting in the train on our way there.

More to come, I’ll keep ya updated.