Chasing the moon into the subtropical wilderness land

So, unexpected to me; I ended up on the west coast instead of in the farm; since my new friends were driving up there anyways. I saw an incredible gargantuan arch - one of those things that is so big you can't fit more than a corner of it in the camera frame... which was very impressive. At its smalest point it was 50x50x200 meters in size; and from different points along its round conic shape you could hear different subtle tones from the stream of water that flowed through it. Very magical and meditative.

Other places I saw near Karamea was a trail that led to wild fundergrowths, caves you hike through to the other side in a sub-tropical landscape straight out of a fairy tale book. The only sounds here are the colnstant dripping of water off the moss and stones with the odd passing bird. It's pure unending wilderness of silence.

From Karamea its a dead end road - 85 kilometers of moiuntains seperate it from the north coast of the south island and there is no road connecting the two points; which meant that I needed to back track and make a big circle to get to the golden bay [where I am performing and where the farms are that I want to work at]... however I soon found out that there was another option...

Stuff the back pack in a bus; gather supplies, and walk it [or tramp it, as they say here]

So I went tramping and covered 85km in 4 days time by foot over mountains, through countless woods, countless rope brdiges, fords and streams. I watched the sun set while the clouds roll in between the mountains, then stayed longer to watch the first stars appear at night while the clouds turn to mist and encircle me. I've been kept awake by kiwi birds squaking at my lodge's door and searched for them with flashlight only to see nothing in the dence evening mist [except shadows that scared me].

Countless hours to contemplate contemplation as your shoulders ache and your feet trowel forward. Way too many sand flies, Bugger the beasts! And the heavy packs too...

From mountain peaks I climbed one could see arching views of both bays in all directions, or climb into lime stone caves lined with 20 varieties of green moss; all in wonderus shades of emerald green and palm ferns.

After 4 days on the road though, I was completly exausted. It's my first day out and I am guilty of vanity - for I chose a place to stay that had a heated pool and private room; a little taste of luxury for a day [or as walter would call it a little taste of "disney"].

Before the hike I had several dreams with the moon and then on the 5th night the moon dreams stopped; there was only one other person hiking the trail in my direction [95% of all people hike the trail the other direction]; and her name was, moon...
;-)

A sweet but overly timed girl from China.

So here I was, a few km behind moon, then walkign ahead of her, then she would pass me, and I her... it's all rather comical.

And if any of you have read the alchemist [this is more for Suzanne I supose]; let mew assure you that I have already found my treasure! While pracning about one evening in the emerald forest, I came upon a cave, and inside this cave, up on a rock shelf, I found a tall steel safe - lit from above by a hole in the cave wall... it was straight out of india jones or something! I didn;t try to open it; it was scary enough being there; logic would say it was nothing interesting in that chest; but it sure was symbolic!

So on the other-side: Golden bay. It's significantly warmer here - its actually summer now; which must mean its Christmas time. A happy holiday greeting to all of you! in about a week I'll be in a festival here [where I'll be performing] - until then its a few days to relax and then some possible wwoof work leading up to the festivities.

Environmental spiel:
Other than that, I heard some disturbing news about polar bears [and other animals]. Polar's are now often drowning because the land they used to live on [thats all of northern canada] has broken up so extensivly from global warming, that the distances they need to swim are becoming too vast to cross in search of the ever diminussing food supply. Predictions are polar bears will be extinct in less than 10 years time. Other animals on the risk list from global warming are: bengal tiger, tiger beatle, caribean turtles and all pinguins. Just this last year the golden tree frog is now extinct from excessive heat in the tropics.

I knew bio fuel was a good thing [heck enough of my eco friends have been ranting] - but what I didn't know [maybe cause I wasn't listening] is that bio fuel would also alleviate global warming indirectly because more grain to make fuel means more plant mass that converts carbon dioxide into oxygen. Apparently we are now up to 480 CO2 parts per million, it should be only 320. Current conservative estimates on temperature increase is another 5-10 more deg. celius over the next 10 years... [thats even more rapid heating than we were expecting just 5 years ago! so figures are being moved upwards! not a good sign...] - so far we have heated 1 degree and already 2005 had the hotest summer on record [our records go back 250 thousand years].

while no one knows for sure what more heat will mean to many [currently stable] weather systems, what it has done so far is make dry areas even drier [persistent drought in africa and australia sound familiar?] and make wet areas even more wet. More heat means roughly more weather-energy. More weather-energy means more dramatic weather changes, weather system shifts, less predictable changes and more extremes.

so bio-fuel is a real good option, the best one I have heard so far, since it kills two birds with one stone [no more CO2 from fosil fuel burning, and a system which reduces CO2 in the air] - but it would need to be adopted immediately... a 10 degree increase in global temperature is serious-serious business which would have extreem consequences for everyone.

What can you and I do to help make a difference?

Some ideas:
- if you can see any way to get bio-fuel adopted in your government, make sure you take the steps necessary to push this forward... write letters to news papers, goverments etc.
- consume as little as possible luxury / high-tech goods until there is a good solution to the current global warming issue. [high-tech goods use countless other resources to create the commodity; which means lots of energy to make; which means lot of CO2]
- don't use planes when you can use other methods [i am oh so guilty of this one!]
- buy local produce [transportation uses fuel!], never buy stuff from overseas if you can get anything moderatly similar from home.