Day 44

THOUGHTS- Pride. I landed in New Zealand yesterday and today it was pouring with rain we drove for about five hours to get to where we were staying for the next school. Even though it was raining I could see the beautiful countryside. It’s such a lovely country. And they are so proud of their heritage. Almost every place you go it has the name written in English and in Moari as well. Mad me think that we don’t have anything like that in Australia and I got in touch with my good friend Liana to put me in touch with one of her indigenous friends. I found that even if Australia had the disire to start writing town names in our indigenous language it would be near impossible as each tribe has it’s own language and there are very few left as it stands and when we Europeans came over we tore them apart spread them across the country side, killed, enslaved them and stole their children.

So it was great for me to see a country that holds so much pride in it’s heritage and would be great if more countries would be the same instead of the way most countries are. We all know about James cook and the white settlers but how much do we really know about who was here before that? If you are reading this from overseas… Welcome. Now think to yourself how much do you know about your country’s heritage? And are you proud of it? Because I am proud to be an Australian. I’m not so proud of some of the events that took place in the history of this great land but I am proud of who I am now and where I live. I still however was overwhelmed by the pride of New Zealand. Though it’s only a few hours by plane and geographically less than half the size of Australia the pride that they have could outweigh our own. And to that I say good on them. Well done New Zealand for being a cool little country thanks for letting me visit. And thanks to my guide Claire. I hope to be able to return again soon.

CHALLENGES- Being in another country and seeing all the cool vegan foods and restaurants they had and not being able to try them out because non of them were earthy. Did have a few juices due to depleating energy levels. Very hard to find something healthy and vegan that I was able to just heat up as we were staying at a backpackers and it was toooooo cold for me to try eating raw for the night. So I did my best with what was available.

TRIUMPHS- Finding good Earthy foods that I could have

WHAT I ATE-

BREAKFAST- 3 slices of tofu (Certified organic soybeans, filtered water, natural coagulant- Nigari), cooked in olive oil, seasoned with pepper.
Soy latte
Organic Rice Milk (Water, brown rice, sunflower oil, sea salt)

LUNCH- Last nights left overs- Chickpea and vegetable dish.
Phoenix organic apple and pear juice- apple juice NZ, imported pear juice, natural aroma and vitamin C
Just Juice Tropical- fruit juice, apple, orange, pineapple, mango, passionfruit, vitamin C.

SNACK- Packet of pecans
Mother Earth deluxe mix- cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, pecans, macadamias.
Just Juice orange and mango- apple, orange and mango juice, vitamin C
Rice Milk

DINNER- Sun rice brown rice packet- Brown rice, water, vegetable oil (sunflower oil, antioxidants) distilled monglyceride.
Pam’s chickpeas (canned)- chickpeas, water, salt.

EXERCISE- Doing childrens show lots of running around and lifting big boxes.