The First Adventure Of Travelling Donkey

A Day Trip To Cromwell, New Zealand

I recently took a small day trip with my friends to Cromwell in Central Otago. Two of my best friends, Tyler and Emily were heading up there for a day trip. They knew I'd be doing nothing... So asked me along for the ride. I'm quite a big fan of car rides, I love letting my mind wander and just listen to music and daydream. It was also really nice to hang out and catch up with my friends.

Me. Emily and Tyler taking a selfie (I know embarrassing) in front of the giant fruit in Cromwell.

 I love travelling through Central Otago. I have done it many times before as my Nana lives in Wanaka so the trip is full of nostalgia. Recently, I've found a love of scenery and New Zealand is full of that kind of beauty. It's quite novel to really appreciate the beauty of the land that you had always taken for granted. 

Looking back towards Clyde, along the Clyde River
Photo taken by Emily

Along Clyde River, between Clyde Dam and Cromwell.
Photo taken by Me

My favourite part of the journey has always been the Clyde Dam. It's one of the industrial structures that I think has this unique beauty, that I just love. I always marvel at it. Dams are just so grand. I hope one day I can visit the Three Gorge Dam in China as it's the biggest Dam in the world. 

Clyde Dam
Photo taken by me

When Emily, Tyler and I made it to Cromwell we went to the historic part to explore. I really enjoyed this, it was interesting seeing some of the equipment and then recognising some that I had seen during my archaeological dig at field school. I also enjoyed going through the art galleries. I only wish I could afford to but some of the art. One day, one day. While in Old Cromwell I spied a second-hand book store (we nearly missed it!). I, of course had to check it out. There weren't any books I was super keen on but They had these awesome cards and postcards of old photos. The photos had been taken by the owner's father in the 1920s. I thought they were really cool so I had to buy a few.

Postcards made from photos taken in the 1920s.

Next, we went and got lunch at a Turkish place, which was nice if classically greasy. After that we headed to a cherry farm where we could pick our own cherries. I hadn't done this since I was a kid so I was quite excited. There's something quite novel about picking your own berries. Though, I imagine people who do it for a living would not feel the same, the work must be quite grueling. However, for us it was a fun way to obtain some yummy fruit. I'm also kinda picky about my fruit not having blemishes or bruises so I really liked picking the best. Emily proved to be the most efficient berry picker, while Tyler ate most he picked and I enjoyed making jokes about popping out cherries... In the end we picked ourselves a lot of cherries, too much in my case (NZL$20 worth...). They were really good though.

The Yummy Cherries
Photo taken by Emily

 We headed home after that, all of us rather tuckered out, despite sitting down most of the day. We were really lucky as a thunder storm hit Dunedin and Otago during the day and we managed to miss it all except for a small shower. We enjoyed a lovely summery day, I love it when the weather works in my favour. 

Thanks Emily and Tyler for inviting me out on your adventure, especially to Tyler for driving the whole way and for enduring Emily and my music. I hope I didn't cramp a romantic trip! Hahaha

Jenny

Picture Maker by Penina Spinka

2015 Reading Challenge

2. A book with more than 500 pages: Picture Maker by Penina Spinka 

I took this picture, I want to redo it but I've finished my hot chocolate now and don't want another. Does the chocolate on the cup annoy anyone else or is that just me being nitpicky? Hah

 Picture Maker is the first book in Penina Spinka's Norse/Mohawk trilogy. I initially bought this book at a second-hand book store and mistakenly thought it was a Jean Auel book. I have been meaning to read her books for awhile. However, this book was from another author entirely, which I stupidly didn't realise from looking at the cover... I know, I know, don't judge. I was interested by the blurb on the back so after making sure it was the first book in the series I bought it and started another book journey. AKA it sat on my shelf for a couple of months, I then started reading it halfway through last year, read it haphazardly until this year when I focussed all my attention on it. You know, that kind of journey.

Spinka's Picture Maker documents the journey Gahrahstah or Picture Maker (Actually she has dozens of names throughout the story. She's given a new one at every new culture she meets.) takes after she is kidnapped by the Algonquin tribe, an enemy to her Ganeogaono tribe. Gahrahstah is the daughter of a powerful warrior and was given the name 'Picture Maker' because of her ability to foretell the future in her drawings. Gahrahstah's journey is a grand epic that shows her amazing ability to survive and adapt to new cultures but still holding onto her own tribal values. Picture Maker is set in North America and Greenland in roughly the 1300s, the dates aren't specific but Spinka's Author's Note suggests that date.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book but it did take a bit of effort to read. This book had great description of each culture you meet along the journey with Gahrahstah. Each culture was obviously thoroughly researched and I assume accurate. However, I am not the best judge of this as I have never studied North American history other than the Black Civil Rights movement. Spinka mention the research she undertook, so I'm assuming, if not a bit ignorantly; that it is accurate. That being said, I loved learning about each culture and Spinka did an excellent job of keeping the reader interested in each culture and the description. I have a terrible tendency to skim read long descriptive passages which is why I'm really struggling with Lord of the Rings but I didn't skim the descriptive passages in Picture Maker, I found it fascinating. I also enjoyed learning the differences between the different Native American tribes, I think there's this rather pervasive stereotype of Native Americans but in fact all the tribes were quite unique in their own way. Spinka illustrated this really well.

The plot of the story is really good, it rises and falls throughout, helping to depict a realistic journey. Various upsetting and happy things happy to Gahrahstah throughout her journey but she shows herself to be a strong protagonist but most importantly a survivor. She struggles so much on her journey but she keeps on moving forward and picking herself up. It's quite inspirational. This story is more plot based than character based. We learn a lot about Gahrahstah and a bit about the other characters but for the most part it is about the events and the journey. Usually I'm more of a fan of character based work but I really enjoyed this.

There's a part in the book I really want to discuss because I loved it but I can't because I would be ruining parts of the plot so I'm just going to leave it... *Sigh. Picture Maker was a fascinating book that had a great plot and depicted the cultures really well. However, I did struggle in keeping motivated to read it, that was probably down to my mood because it is quite an intense read and it was quite long. However, that is my main reason I am giving it a 4 out of 5 stars rather than 5. The book has to be crazy good to get a 5 out of me. I'm looking forward to reading Dream Weaver which is the second installment in the trilogy but I think I'll have a wee break first and save my pennies too.

Thanks for reading, I hope you are still enjoying my wee book rambles.

Jenny