hello friends!

wow... this feels great! i finally have a computer that works at a reasonable pace!
so i just came from a trip through taupo and the tongariro national park. lovely, but the weather was a bit rubbish. we stayed in an amzingly luxurious hostel lodge, complete with roaring fire and the most comfortable bed i''ve ever slept in. i decided to spice up our night there by yelling "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!" in my sleep, much to the dismay of my hostel mates. have i mentioned how amazing i am with first impressions? unbelievable. i was a little embarrassed of that one, i'm not gonna lie.
yesterday we made the trek to wellington, which is at the bottom of the north island, and my favorite new zealand place so far. the whole city has an artsy, osbourne village-esque feeling to it. my friend andre and i took the cable car up to the top of the botanical garden hill and walked around all afternoon. it was quite brilliant seeing everything- there's large market squares everywhere.
i applied for a few jobs here, in hopes i can settle and stay awhile. you can say a prayer for that one. i also became part of the mobile world and got my very first (hate to admit this) cell phone. that's right, becki bergen has a cell phone. eek.
so that is the adventure as it stands. no farms at this time, but i'm actually ready for a little city now. i went to starbucks today and drank christmas coffee to remind me of home and christmas. there were carols playing and everything. it was lovely.
i love everybody and hope you are all doing well
be warm and filled with december Christmas JOY!
becki

hello from Beautiful Bay of Plenty!

so i am currently living on a farm just outside the town of opotiki in the bay of plenty. it's paradise...
yesterday we went to move cows (a 2 hour hike beginning at 6:30am!). to accomplish this, we first had to quad down to the river in the backyard, cross it by boat, then hike into the surrounding mountains. sounds good eh? and i did it all in a sexy pair of hip waders. don't worry mom, i'm not wasting away... my host mike likes to feed me man-sized meals of meat and potatoes. i don't think i've ever eaten that much of a deer at one time.
to add to my list of new things, i pierced a calf's ear yesterday. and learned a lot about cows. i mean a lot. dad, i'm coming to the coffee shop with you when i get home and i'll wow all those farmers with my extensive knowledge of the cow species.
i live in a little building that used to be a cafe on a yard with ten, yes 10, lovely dogs, a horse, and 15 chickens. there were 16 till yesterday, when the new dog decided to try its chicken catching skills. they worked.
today we poured concrete onto a ramp for the cows. my skills out here have become quite varied. mike says i'll have to castrate a calf before i go, and then tell all my future boyfriends to watch their step [insert evil-sounding laugh here]. we'll have to see about this one.
during the last section of my bus trip i got to go caving- swimming, tubing, climbing, falling (or was that just me?) through underground tunnels and caves. it was so cool! pretty much have bruises all over my body as the last part of the caving adventure was called "the pinball". i was the pinball. enough said. just to make sure i made a good impression on my caving mates, i managed to get stuck in a front float on the last section of the cave. i was floating beside my friend phil (who was walking by now, like everyone else) and i was like "phil! i can't put my feet down! help!" apparently i have a buoyant bottom. so while laughing at me, he yanked me to a standing position. that's right, i rock. it was such a good time though. i also managed to meet some friends from my other bus tour in rotorua, where we stayed for night.
the computer at home is deathly slow, so i am currently posting on an internet cafe comp. so if emails are a bit sparse, it's because i can only write about 1 in half an hour.
i still love hearing from you though! keep me posted
love to you all from down under
becki

word to my homies on the north side!

yeah, so that was cheesy. what did you expect really? so i had no access to a computer this past week, so therefore no blogs. thank you to those who consistently emailed me anyways! i feel so loved! so yea, this next week i'm planning to head to bay of plenty, where i will have a computer. hooray! then ican write in more detail about all my adventures (including working on a horse farm, braiding horses tails, riding horses, helping the judge at a horse show, etc.) there was a lot of horse business. but i'll write more on thursday hopefully when i've got more internet time! i love you all, you are such an encouragement to me! now we are headed to the pub to get real english shepherds pie...mmmm. talk to you soon, big love to all!
becki

kia ora!
yeah, not really sure what that means exactly but it's some sort of greeting.
so it is midafternoon and i have already worked three hours, talked with my lovely parents on the phone, and ate a monstrous smorgasborg sandwich for lunch....mmmm. so it's been a good day so far.
just before i came to the computer i noticed one of our cute little lambs... under the stairway. it wasn't long before i noticed his brother in there with him. i thought to myself, how cute! then i realized that they were in the house but didn't seem scared or lost. then i noticed margaret the sheep's beastly haunches poking out from behind her lambs. she had managed to find the sheep treats and was blithely helping herself. she wouldn't be moved as i pulled on her bum, so i went around through the little outside door on the other end of the food. i lunged for her, crushing the beloved sheep treats and perhaps a loaf of bread under my feet as i went. she beat a hasty retreat into the living room, where i shoved her out the open door. i thought i had closed all the doors (an unusual thing to do) when i heard yet another bumbling gait in the living room. this time aussie, with her two lambs, decided to check the place out. no patience this time, i flipped out and started running toward her, hollering all the way. she was easily convinced to hightail it back outside, her offspring beside her. i hope none of the sheep left any particular remnants, since that is what janosche has been using as his bedroom.... oh well, what he doesn't know can't hurt him, so i never said anything. teehee.
anyway, i think it's time to go out and enjoy the lovely day we're having
hope everyone is wonderful (particularly steph's mom;) i love your emails and updates!
love to you all!
becki

guess where I went today...

my first dive into the genuine new zealand salty ocean waters- woohoo!
all we wanted was to get juanita's mp3 player from elisha, but it turned out that she wanted to go to the beach instead of school- go figure. so we were her accomplices as she "wagged" class and came with us to marawae beach. the girls adjusted me to the water temperature quickly (by dunking me in the water and then throwing sand at me, of course) it was lovely...
the waves were great and i definitely got some good frolicking action in. first time i've ever been to a black sand beach- nice for lying on after you get out of the chilly water!
on the way back home, the girls thought it would be a good idea to let me drive. they may have been rethinking their encouragement as i promptly began to drive on the right hand side of the road. don't worry though, as soon as i figured out that the logging truck was not in my lane but i was actually in his, i moved over. after i finally made it left, i almost hit the ditch on that side. something tells me they will be happy to drive after this.
anyway, that was the adventure du jour.... what are you guys all up to? love to hear from you
till then, love love love to everyone
becki