E-I-E-I-Ooooooooo...

Yesterday Facebook reminded me that May 5, 2013 was the two-year anniversary of the last day of our very first WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) gig.

Which means that basically, two years and two weeks ago, we showed up on a fairly random doorstep on Gabriola Island, British Columbia, and two strangers welcomed us into their home (or in this case, their RV) and started teaching us about farming... And we never turned back.

We'd done our research and exchanged emails with this first couple a few times so we thought it would be fine. Free food and lodging for 5-6 hours of work a day for a few weeks - what could go wrong?

It turned out to be AMAZING. We absolutely could not have asked for a better intro to WWOOFing and we are eternally grateful to our hosts Linda and Peter; their lovely sheep Thelma, Louisa, Maiden Marian and her fellow lambs; their adorable Kune Kunes Tane, Kyra and Moana (who have since had babies!); and all those beautiful chickens!

Big Roo finding worms for his girlfriend

ladykiller Tane

and let's not forget nature's lawnmowers

We learned so much from this first experience alone. We really had no idea what we were getting into with this whole WWOOF thing but after our time with Peter and Linda we were so excited about what was to come...

Canada's and Australia's WWOOF programs were well worth the annual membership cost, and the international work exchange web site HelpX helped us find some additional awesome learning opportunities around the world.  Two years and more than a dozen farms later, we have so many fond memories:

Just Another Weed Patch -

our intro to nut trees,

chicken tractors and bees

Buffalo Horn Ranch

where these gentle, amazing bison roamed

Apple Road Nubians

where our love (/obsession) for goats was forged

Earth's Harvest -
inspiration beyond belief

Richard's vineyard in the Czech Republic

where we stomped grapes by foot 
and made the best plum jam on the planet

 John and Yuki's farm and homestay near Chiang Mai
where almost everything comes straight from the land

Chittering Acres, home to eco-friendly lessons galore and

the coolest RV we will probably ever stay in 

Harris Organic Wines where we learned grapevine tending

and wine bottling from master vintner Duncan

Humpty Doo Apiaries, where Tas taught us
beekeeping skills, honey extraction and knot-tying

Julia and Dylan's self-sustaining farm in Lorrina, Tasmania 
featuring some of our favorite chooks

permaculturist and landscape architect Stuart

who taught us so much about designing our own home

Earth Matters farmer Greg, our first Hawaiian WWOOF host

with absolutely the most - we hope to see you again soon!

and Kula Mana Farms 
featuring "Kona snow" and all the mac nuts you care to eat

Hours (and hours of hours) of amazing experiences and farm-fresh meals intermixed with lots (and lots and lots) of tedious weeding/planting/harvesting/mulching/fence-mending later, we are still so eternally grateful to all our wonderful hosts. We look forward to adding more experiences to our WWOOF and HelpX resumes soon. (Can anyone teach us to make cheese? Will work for food and lodging, just sayin'...)

In the meantime, we hope that our extended families, barnyard friends and gardens are prospering this spring, and we really look forward to seeing everyone again someday!

Three months in Hawaii on $27/person/day.

One housesitting gig and two HelpX farmstays later, we managed to spend 86 days in Hawaii without totally breaking the bank. We still spent a lot of money, but not as much as we would have visiting New Zealand and getting back to the mainland - and that was the whole point.

Well, almost the whole point. The other point was to have fun! This was our last "overseas" stay before hitting the mainland, after all. So perhaps we indulged a bit. Whatever. We're okay with that.

Here's the lowdown...

Initial budget: as little as humanly possible
Actual cost: 86 days at $4637 ($54/day, $27/person/day)

mahalo!

• Lodging: $334 - one night in Hilo and three AirB&B nights in the southernmost US city, otherwise we spent 70 nights on farms and 12 nights housesitting
• Transportation: $2066 - includes our flights from Melbourne to Honolulu and Honolulu to Kona, plus 7 days of car rentals on the Big Island
• Groceries: $826 - groceries in Hawaii are EXPENSIVE! one third of this accounted for food costs not provided at our second farmstay and we bought all food for the initial housesitting gig
• Meals: $249 - one unfortunate meal at Zippy's, one awesome meal at Tanioka's, two delicious meals at Puka Puka Kitchen, and various snacks from food carts and farmer stands on the Big Island (meals on the islands are also EXPENSIVE!)
• Tours: $458 - Big Island manta ray night dive (EXPENSIVE but soooooo worth it!), annual national parks pass, plus a few dollars here and there for other tourist attractions
• Alcohol: $506 - because there's nothing like a cold beer after a hard day at the farm... especially when all you want to do is cry your eyes out because your 2-year around-the-world trip is coming to what appears to be an end
  
  
  

for the record, this beer is delicious
(and hoppy!)

and this beer is alright too

and a few of these were pretty good

and we were thrilled to have these options again

but we couldn't even bring ourselves to purchase this one

• Gear: $10 - running shorts for Jen because Hawaii is hot
• Miscellaneous: $189 - gifts for various hosts, renewing our HelpX membership, an ill-advised NYE viewing of The Hobbit Part Three, a GroupOn wine tasting on Oahu, mailing unneeded items home, various other bits and pieces

Other fun Hawaii facts...

• Islands visited: 2 (Oahu, the Big Island)
• Sea turtles viewed while snorkeling: 1
• Gallons of Kona coffee consumed: too many
• Pounds of fresh papaya, palmelo, lemon, avocado, bananas, and organic veggies and herbs consumed: one hundred billion
• National parks/historic sites visited: 1 (Volcanoes National Park) but with only 2 national parks on the islands, we can claim 50% on this one
• UNESCO World Heritage Sites visited: 1 (Volcanoes National Park)
• Level of sadness that our international travel has ended, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being saddest: 593

I would bet that most people probably spend $4600 per person on a single week in Hawaii, so I would definitely call this a success.

And now the mainland... with whatever that brings. We're trying to get excited about it. Really, we are...

but does the mainland have this?

or this?

or how about this?

We don't think so...

Our Big Island "vacation" - part three (Volcanoes National Park).

Hopefully you've already read and enjoyed part one and part two of our Big Island "vacation." Now we're going to give some proper attention to Volcanoes National Park, where we spent two days during part two.

In four words: we LOVED this park. In a lot more words: we hope we can properly convey our love through a handful of pictures and just a bit of blah blah blah, and if you aren't ready to hop on a plane to Kona after reading this, we will send you $5... (Just kidding, we won't really send you $5 but we'll be very, very sad. And you don't want that, do you?)

Anyway. Volcanoes National Park is small but extensive - and like everything on the Big Island, driving distances and hikes take longer than you might expect. Here's a play-by-play of how we maximized our two days.

Day One, 8:00am: we purchased a National Parks annual pass in prep for our southern road trip this spring/summer.

(note to selves: don't lose this)

Quick aside - hey, America! Did you know that just $80 gets your car and up to four people in your car into any National Park for an entire year? Thanks for nothing, expensive Canadian National Parks pass! (Just kidding, you know we loved you too.)

Day One, 8:15am: we stopped by the visitor center to get recommendations on hikes for the day but realized they don't open until 9:00am, so we headed to the Volcano House (a really posh hotel overlooking the crater) to check out the views.

and what views they were

Hawaii's islands were formed from volcanoes over the last 70 million years and the lava is still flowing today. They've recently discovered that a new island is forming under the ocean. Crazy!

Pictured above is Kilauea Volcano and the Halema'uma'u Crater, where daily activity includes fluctuating lava levels and occasional small explosive events. This is what causes the "vog" (volcanic smog) that makes those beautiful hazy sunsets - and causes respiratory issues.

We stood there for a while and took it all in, leaving only when we couldn't stand the background noise from a kid's Frogger game anymore.  (Guess active volcanoes aren't that exciting to some 7-year-olds?)

Day One, 9:00am: we barraged the ranger as soon as the visitor center opened and got our marching orders for the day. First stop was the Mauna Ulu parking lot so that we could hike the Napau Trail to Makaopuhi Crater. This 10-mile return hike along 1973 and 1974 lava flows gave us awesome perspective on the vastness of the park. We passed steam vents, walked over lumpy terrain, and admired a variety of foliage trying to make a comeback.

sitting in a lava lake

ohi'a lehua

slow regrowth

abundant succulents

standing in a former lava flow

admiring Makaopuhi Crater

mind the gap

It was a really nice hike, flat most of the way, and we only saw four people the entire time.  Ranger recommendation for the win!

Day One, 1:45pm: on the way back, we walked through a rainforest to climb the short trail to Pu'u Huluhulu, a 400-year-old cinder cone. The views were not that great that day but on a clear day you can see Kilauea, Mauna Ulu, Pu'u O'o, the Pacific Ocean, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.

we saw fiddleheads

Day One, 2:15pm: we stopped by the fissure right near the Mauna Ulu trailhead.

green where lava once spurted

look for Patrick for perspective

Day One, 3:00pm: we took the 20-minute drive down to the southernmost point of the park. (I'd seen the petroglyphs when I was here in January so we skipped that and headed straight to the arch, but I do recommend that short walk if you have time.)

Holei Sea Arch

The sea arch was impressive... if you've never seen a sea arch before. We've had our fill over the last few years so we didn't stay long.

the sea-carved caves by the arch lookout were cool though

Day One, 4:30pm: we stopped at a few more viewpoints on the way up, then hiked the quick 1-mile-return Devastation Trail to see Pu'u Pua'i (formed in 1959 by the highest recorded lava foundation eruption in Kilauea's history) and called it a day.

the hill in the background = Pu'u Pua'i

Day Two, 8:00am: we headed straight for the Kilauea Iki trailhead and descended through lush rainforest into the Kilauea Iki lava lake, formed in 1959. (This is one of the most popular trails in the park but we got there early enough that we only started to see crowds as we were nearing the end.)

crater-o-rama

still steaming after all these years

lumpy lava

I said mind the gap!

opposite end view

Day Two, 9:45am: we took a stroll along the Byron Ledge Trail and admired the ginormous fiddleheads. (The pulu - also known as "golden wool" - keeps the plants from drying out; soft pulu can also be used as a dressing for wounds.)

but can you eat them?

Then we returned to the trailhead parking lot via Crater Rim Trail and stopped a hundred billion times for photo ops of Kilauea Caldera and Kilauea Iki Crater.

Kilauea Caldera from Crater Rim Trail

Kilauea Iki Crater from the Crater Rim Trail

Day Two, 11:00am: we walked through the Thurston Lava Tube. (It's pretty dark so our pictures didn't turn out, and this is one spot everyone definitely visits, but you kinda have to do it.)

Day Two, 11:45am: we stopped back by the visitor center for a picnic lunch, then went inside to watch the two free 20-minute movies. One was a little cheesy but it gave some insight into some of the native beliefs about island gods/goddesses and respect for the land. The other gave an update on the Pu'u O'o lava flow, currently inching its way toward Pahao.

Day Two, 1:00pm: we took a break from the hoardes of tour buses and schoolchildren by visiting Kipukapuaulu across the highway. This "hot spot of biological diversity" has more native tree species per acre than any other forest in the park. It also supposedly has tons of birds and butterflies, but the day was pretty cold and overcast so we didn't see much wildlife at all. (We also drove up to the Mauna Loa lookout but there was absolutely no view... bet it's great on a clear day though!)

Kipukapuaulu awesome tree #1

(for #2 and #3 go here and here)

"tree molds" near Kipukapuaulu
(where lava flowed past trees and the tree burned out)

Day Two, 4:00pm: we headed back into the park and stopped by the "steaming bluffs" on the way to Jagger Museum.

it's like a sauna in here

After checking out the museum we ate a picnic dinner, then claimed our spot for the big show...

take a really good camera and a tripod

So glad we stuck around to watch the evening glow. We hung out next to some 7-year-olds who were thankfully not playing Frogger, and I was pretty amused to listen to their amazed questions and comments about the park and the lava glow.

So there you have it, two jam-packed days and no regrets. Are you ready to hop on that plane yet?

mahalo!

Really looking forward to our road trip to see if any of the mainland parks come close to topping this one...