Earthsong

We stayed at a cohousing project last night (written on the 17th of July) - a first for me. Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood is half an hour or so from the center of Auckland, and comprises some 32 rammed earth residences, plus a beautiful "common house" containing a kitchen and large dining area for the communal meals (held twice a week), lounge, meditation/quiet room, children's and teenagers' rooms, guest room, and laundry.

We had a tour of the community, and were impressed with the forward-thinking that went into the design of the houses (for example, there is cabling for solar PV on each roof should the price of panels become affordable for residents), the can-do attitude and general friendliness of people, and the overwhelming positivity towards the project. While no project is perfect, this one seems pretty close, and the colour-card voting system they have in meetings apparently works very well. There is a food co-op, rotas and rosters for cooking, cleaning, gardening and the like; they have a "green dollar" scheme where people trade their time and skills for others', as well as good community outreach, a couple of beehives, and fruit trees.

What a good mix!

We borrowed a book called simply "Cohousing" (Amazon link) which was written in the 1980's, examining this kind of living in Denmark. It seems obvious to me, now, that this kind of living - which is perfectly compatible with city living - is much more healthy for people. Cohousing communities seem to be designed to keep cars on the outskirts of the development, leaving plenty of safe play space for children, and the fact that you know and eat with your neighbours regularly means you are much happier leaving your children in their care, and vice versa. It's a win-win scenario!

We are very grateful to Glenys for the tour, and to Robin, and especially Cathy and John, for taking the time to talk with us at great length about the project.

Sydney and Auckland

After our lovely, easy time in Katoomba, we returned to Sydney one last time to stay with cousin Vali + family for a couple of days. We had a great time, though the days went very quickly!

We saw the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the Manly ferry; played didge a little; Kara went surfing and loved it. We went whale watching which was very cool. And I fixed Vali's computer a bit... typical!

Now we're in Auckland, just bumming around til we pick up our camper van tomorrow. Auckland seems really nice - not too big, but full of interesting things. I'm sat in Central Cafe on K Road (Karangahape Road, but everyone just calls it K), using the free wireless internet while drinking a latte.. mmmm!

Better go.. I've been sat here ages and only bought one $4 drink!!

A week in the mountains

We've just spent the better part of a week in the Blue Mountains, doing a good amount of walking. On some of the days it's been really nice, but for the last few it's been really misty and quite wet.

A read Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" a few weeks back, and I kept remembering as we were walking through the rainforests here how "this is what walkers do" (Bryson was on the Appalachian Trail for weeks on end - we were just doing day hikes from our hostel, but I'm sure some similarities exist!).

Walking is actually a lovely way to spend the day, clambering about wet rocks and muddy paths, seeing the occasional beautiful cockatoo or parrot overhead, beautiful waterfalls, and lovely hot tea from our vacuum flask.

So we've been putting in 4-6 hours of walking a day (with one day off for laundry and generally lazing about), then spending the afternoons and evenings watching films, reading, and playing cards.

The hostel we've been in, the Flying Fox in Katoomba, has been great - really friendly people, not stressful at all - even for me, who gets quite nervous around new people, usually. Free "brekkie" every day is nice, with mulled wine brewed up by the owner, Ross, most evenings. Fantastic!

I do feel we're on easy street here - Australia is beautiful, and entirely comfortable. Not so much to relate in terms of heart wrenching moral conflicts or poverty or whatnot. Oz is lovely, clean, friendly and happy, from what I've seen of it.

God and a better me

I had a mini revelation last night as I was drifting off to sleep. It was about why I don't believe in God, and why organised religions annoy me so much.

I think it's because my concept of God is, to my mind, very pure, or simple. Not mixed with human needs or values.

My vision of God, my understanding of the word God, is of absoluteness. Of a single pure bright point of being, omnipotent and omniscient. Perfect in every way.

But I see my personal growth NOT as a way to become more Godlike - I am human, entirely human, absolutely different from this concept of an infinite God. I don't even believe my idea of God can exist (though I'm not denying the possibility of higher life forms on other planes, or universes smaller than an electron, or that our universe could be a tiny part of something like an electron - little is impossible when you look at things in that way. Who can possibly know?).

I feel the religions of the world have tried to humanise their idea of God to make it more digestable, turning it all into a story. And then treating the stories as absolute fact.

Maybe, who knows, the true wish of the guy called Jesus was to give people better ideas on how to live more happily together, related through his stories.

I feel that's what the core of most religions are - good ideas on how to live more harmonious lives, which have become over time a rulebook with which to beat each other up. Religions have become our judgement systems, rather than accepting responsibility for ourselves.

"God" is so far outside my capabilites of knowledge that it becomes irrelevant. But I can breathe in, release, and accept what I am and what I have done; I can accept what is. And from there, I can go forward.

The Problem

A trip like this gives plenty of time for thought. In my case, it's often fragmented - ideas pop up, float around for a bit, then submerge again. Some things resurface, though, or other thoughts lead to one central thought.

Perhaps the core thought that others bring up most often is one of scale. I can do my bit - I can stop flying, stop driving, grow my own food and reduce consumption drastically, and live a "one earth lifestyle". I can send emails, write blog posts, contact politicians. But for each "me" doing this, there are others pretty much directly opposed, and many more apathetically opposed (as in, as long as there's petrol at the pump, and food on the shelves of the supermarket, and their wage - or credit card - covers those costs, they don't care) to any significant change towards sustainability.

And even if all we Westerners did our bit, there is the rest of the world's population to think of - China and India being the giants, but the other countries are far from insignificant. They want television and mobile phones and cars and and and... How we can convince them that simple living can be much more rewarding, and much less destructive, I don't know.

Since being in Australia, I have become much more aware of how comfortable our Western comforts actually make us. A few times I borrowed Max's little car to take "stuff" down to look after his cows or work on his lime trees, when I could have walked down. We rented a car to get from Brisbane to Sydney, where we could have taken a train or bus.

But then, what is the point of guilt over these little things when the scale of the problem is so large?! I could buy a 4x4 vehicle and drive up and down the UK all day long, and it would make virtually no impact on anything (except my bank balance, of course!). It's when we all do such things as commuting, every day, that it adds up.

So this is the stick that I'm constantly beating myself with - that the problem is too big, and I'm too small and insignificant.

Of course, that doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing what I'm doing, and just go back into the mainstream - that's no fun at all. In the grand scheme of things (should there even be such a thing), we're pretty small. Just to see each day is an extraordinary blessing! And I'd much rather be learning and growing, than cooped up inside a stuffy office all day long.

It gives me great comfort to look up into the night sky, and get some sense of how small we are. Perhaps the solution is simple - accept what I am, a tiny part of a huge Universe, and get on with doing what I can, what I enjoy, and what I care about. And hope that, along the way, some other people will become interested and inspired.

Youth Hostels Australia!

We've been travelling down the East Coast of Australia for the last few days. After getting a bus from Maleny, where Trudi kindly dropped us, to Nambour, then bus and train down to Brisbane, we picked up a hire car and began our drive.

Getting out of Brisbane was easy, and we were soon on the Pacific Highway. The first night we got to Byron Bay just in time to walk down to the beach for a truly magnificent sunset. The hostel there was large, and well organised - except for a few people two doors down being noisy at 3am, and the fact they clean the bathrooms at 8am!

Then we continued down the coast to Coffs Harbour, and had a lovely walk up onto a little nature reserve/bird breeding ground. By this point I was really beginning to see why people abandon the UK to live here, it is truly truly beautiful.

After Coffs Harbour we drove on to Port Macquarie, and arrived after dark. The hostel here was much more laid back than the one in Byron Bay, but perfectly cosy. In the morning we went to the local koala hospital, then to the Billabong Koala and Wildlife Park.

I'm not too keen on zoos, and the Park brought up these conflicting feelings, but one of the staff members told me the animals were very well looked after... so I just relaxed and enjoyed it. We were able to hand feed kangaroos (and give one a good scratch on his neck!), stroke a koala, and look at all the fascinating unique-to-Australia wildlife that is usually elusive. I was particularly impressed with the wombats!

We took a slow drive down through the Great Lakes, and eventually reached what I think was the end of the Pacific Highway - the end of that road number, anyway, and headed inland a little to the Hunter Valley wine region.

Here our plans have changed somewhat - our WWOOF host for the next week has cancelled on us, so we are staying in the Hunter Valley an extra day and figuring out what we want to do from here on! Possibly heading up to the Blue Mountains on train, which are supposed to be lovely.

Goodbye, Crystal Waters

Our time with Max and Trudi at Crystal Waters flew by. We spent the first few days helping Max with his cattle, weeding, watering, and doing some learning with him - about his time designing ecovillages, and Crystal Waters specifically. But to begin with, I wasn't blown away by Crystal Waters - it was nice, great to be in our own space and cooking for ourselves, and enjoyable being outside working.

Over time, I started to really appreciate the place. We have barely seen a kangaroo outside CW, but inside they just loll around in the heat, don't mind at all when you walk by. The wallabies are a lot more jumpy, but even so! And the abundance of food at Max's place is incredible - all manner of vegetables, plus oranges, kumquats, passion fruit, honey, eggs. And the place is so peaceful - blue skies and sun most days, birds, working in the garden.. aah, paradise. It really is.

We went to a couple of film nights, one market (missing Crystal Waters market, sadly), and read a very small section of Max's extensive library. We were lazy; we drank plenty of tea, rooibos, lemongrass (all sweetened with honey); we went for walks and bike rides, a trip out to the local cheeserie and ice cream shop in Kenilworth.

So what thoughts about ecovillage design did CW bring up? Well, a lot. Firstly that taking a project from inception to people living on the site is a long, arduous, and fraught process - I'm guesstimating 12 years. Secondly, that I can't wait that long before I settle somewhere - I want to get started with a permaculture garden, chickens, and bees as soon as possible. I don't want to get pulled back into a 37.5 hour a week office job. This led us to thinking about cohousing, and looking at 2+ acre lots in Canada.

Talking to Max also brought home how damned hard it is to get one of these projects through the many layers of bureaucracy there can be. Of his projects, a good percentage have got past the design stages, and then failed due to a change in political incumbency, local opposition, or other reasons. And Crystal Waters itself is far from perfect - various projects that could make the community as a whole more prosperous get stopped due to the slow process that is community decision making. There are no entry restrictions on people buying into CW, meaning that many of the lots have owners that aren't the least bit interested in permaculture, and may not take an active role in the community at all. This seems a shame, when CW is known globally as one of "the" ecovillages to go and see.

But.. boy, am I glad I went to see it. It is lovely, really really lovely. And despite any shortcomings it may have, the people are warm and friendly, there is a strong community there.

Perhaps we need to work on a form of community where meetings and procedure don't bog everything down. Or perhaps we just need to accept a much slower pace of everything in our "villages of the future".

So we had a fantastic time. It raised lots more questions than it answered, though!