Alice's Renaissance study

It wasn't planned but it happened that we arrived in Florence a few days before Alice's class began a 3-week study of the Rennaisance. Their focus was Florence, the Duomo, and the work and art of the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo and others. We were very fortunate, through my colleagues at the University of Florence, to get reservations for visits to the Uffizi and Acadamia Galleries. The latter was built specifically to house Michaelangelo's 'David'. So we had one very full day going to these two galleries and climbing to the top of the Duomo dome. Alice was totally absorbed, awake to it's significance to her education and also very aware that she was in a living classroom while her classmates back in New Zealand were studying what she was experiencing and seeing. This was a very exciting time for her class teacher, Johnny, who was able to bring the subject to life much more by sharing some of what Alice was seeing and experiencing. These photos capture some of this.

Following our intensive cultural day we also managed a trip to Pisa to see the tower and then, on our way back to Florence, visiting the small village of Vinci. The home of Leonardo (his name literally means 'Leonardo from Vinci'. There is a small museum there with models of many of his designs. It was a real privilege to share all of this with Alice. Later in our journey through Switzerland and France we came across other places of relevance ... the old city of Basel has Renaissance period buildings, Chenonceaux in the Loire Valley is a wonderful example of French Renaissance architecture, landscape design and with period furniture inside, and at Le Louvre of course we saw a number of da Vinci's paintings including his most famous, Mona Lisa.

Alice's Renaissance slide show

The Trek by Alice

The first day trekking was very hard. As everyone knows we had all got food poisoning in Kathmandu and that was not cool. So anyway the first day was the worst for me!!

As the days went by I got used to the environment and where I was and it helped me feel better as well to think that I was following in my teachers footsteps. As the landscape changed and we got to higher altitude, we experienced swelling on all our fingers and Dad's were the worst. We began to see snowy mountains and beautiful clear blue sky.

Along the way we saw lots of donkeys with heavy loads. Going over Thorong La was totally awesome and I just remember thinking, just keep on walking, one step in front of the other and slowly but surely we reached the top. I have to say, I felt like being sick, but I didn't. Then I place a stone on the pile at the top and Dad took a photo of me and Lena placing it on there.

Then we slowly made our way down the other side. For the rest of the journey I kept at a good pace. In Jomsom we met up with Mum and it was cool to see her again. From all the time we have been trekking we met some really cool people.

Trekking in the end was definitely my highlight of this journey and there's going to be way more stuff that is going to be really cool, but trekking was definitely the first for me. Now I know I can do anything and I believe in myself more for that.

Alice's email to her teacher

Hi Mr Ryan

It is amazing to be here. I am so excited now to be going trekking in a few days time. Karma Lama is a very nice man and is looking after us well already. This morning he took me, Lena and Dad shopping for some extra shorts and polyprops. He was very patient with me and Lena as we went to different shops and walked from the tourist area then to the local market area and then back again, Finally we found something!!

Here in Kathmandu we are staying in Thamel, the main tourist area, which you probably already figured out. Yesterday afternoon Dad took us to Durbar Square where you now have to pay 200R to be able to walk around and see everything there. Dad says it is much busier and way more crowded than it was 24 years ago. All the shops in Thamel are amazing. I got really upset yesterday when I discovered that someone must have stolen US$40 from my wallet. It was a hard lesson for me, and must have happened one time when I left my bag with my money in my room. I worked so hard delivering pamphlets to earn that money and I just hope the person who stole it does some good with it.

I hope everything over there is going well. I miss my friends, my great teacher, my own bed, our dog and cat, but I know already that I'm a different person. It is amazing to think of all the places I've already seen and the things I've done. Sometimes it has been so fast that it has seemed unreal to me, but afterwards I stop and think about it all and I just really appreciate having such great parents. I also really appreciate so much more how lucky we are in New Zealand and how important it is for us to look after our environment.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have heaps to say to you when I come back from trekking. I already have so much I could say from everything we've done, almost so much that I don't know where to start!!

Take care and very warm wishes, and please say hi to the class from me and if they are ever giving you trouble you please say from me just to stop for a minute and think about how lucky we all are to live in such a beautiful country and with such a good life compared to what I have seen.

Love
Alice
(Thanks Alice for giving me permission to post this email to your teacher at Taikura Rudolf Steiner School in Hastings NZ - Michael - received earlier this evening )

From Alice in Ho Chi Min City

It's our last day in Viet Nam now and then we're off to Singapore for two days then to India. Well I have to say, Viet Nam has been good and fun, but not as good as Thailand. It has been hard to get stuff to do with interviewing and filming, but in the end it has been nice just seeing this different country. My highlight was going on the Mekong river on a boat trip. The scenery that we saw from the boat was really interesting, I noticed that there was a lot of erosion happening along the banks, but it was good to see that people had planted trees, built brick walls and placed sandbags along the bank to try and prevent this from occurring.

Alice talkng to Emma

Alice, from our hotel in Ho Chi Minh city, talking to Emma in Switzerland

Blog stuff from Alice :)

My impressions of 3 weeks in Thailand:

Two days ago we were still in Thailand and busy with filming and going around meeting farmers in different parts. It's all a bit of a blur because we did so much stuff in such a small space of time. But some of the things we did stand out clearly and I know I'll have these memories for the rest of my life.

Some of the highlights were going to see the ruins in the old city of Ayutthaya; going to see the temples in Bangkok, including the golden Buddha and emerald Buddha and the black Buddha in Ayutthaya; staying by the Mekong river on Lena's birthday; going to the movies with Kris and his girlfriend; interviewing the lady farmer who had been planting rice since she was 10 years old.

Seeing the old ruins in Ayutthaya was just stunning and so amazing. We got to go down under one of the tall buildings and you could feel this whole weight pressing down on you from above. To get down to the bottom you had to go down these really steep stairs and we had to leave Mum at the top cos she's afraid of heights. Down below Lena got a bit claustrophobic and she ran up the stairs too fast and smacked her head on a very solid piece of rock that was hanging over the stairs.

Also fascinating were all these Buddha figures with heads missing lined up along many of the walls. On our last night staying in Ayutthaya we filmed the sunset in one of the old city ruins and it just looked beautiful. The sunsets are more stunning because of all the pollution hanging on the horizon.

On the second day we were there we met two girls. One was 17 and the other was 16. They invited us to stay that night with them at one of their houses. In the morning we walked down to a local shop to have freshly squeezed juice and some mango for breakfast. After that we went to a special temple to give food to the monks as an offering.

Well that's about all for now take care and I'll try and send more stuff to put on the blog page when I can.

Bangkok 11:36 AM local time

learning on the job

We've just finished packing. I'm pretty excited to go now, I just want to leave. My friends are all back at school today and I heard that Mr Ryan said I was going away and people were saying like "but Alice isn't going to learn anything". Mr Ryan said "Alice will be learning heaps while she's away". I think that I will be learning heaps of things because it's just going to be a great experience for me and I'm going to study some of the places we're going to, because Mr Ryan wants me to, so I can come back and tell the whole class. Not really anything more to say now. Well bye for now, Ali.

Alice has the honour of offering us our 40th posting on the eve of the big adventure - all the best to the travellers. (Michael)

Hawke's Bay Today

A reporter and photographer from the local paper, Hawke's Bay Today, have also just been here and will probably be running a story in tomorrow's paper. We'll be on our way to Brisbane by then. The final day has flown by. I was hoping to do some final work with the film gear but no time yet, maybe a bit later.

Early birthday party for Alice

For Alice: 14 classmates say an early happy birthday/safe travels.

Ali had her party today, with 14 girls from her class (all of the girls except Rosalie were here)... they went to a movie and then came back here to open pressies and then have some food. Ali got some nice pressies... quite a few sets of earings and other things. ( Quoting Gavin in an email to Emma )

The name is Kenny ..!!

Family dinner

One of our last family meals together for the next twenty weeks.

Te Puia Lodge

Gavin, Alice and I went tramping for 3 days in the Kaweka Ranges to try out the new packs, tramping boots and the video gear. It was a great opportunity to get away, even though we all found out exactly how unfit we are. Gavin did most of the filming, and we got some good footage and helpful feedback about it. The second night we spent at Te Puia Lodge and Ali and I were so tired after that day's tough downhill climb we just wanted to blob out and read our books.

Meet the team - Alice

Alice Kenny (13) is the youngest in the family. She is a very determined and focused young lady and is very excited at the opportunity this journey will provide. She is likely to become our sound technician when we are filming.