Lena - Egypt & Italy

Egypt was interesting. It was the one country where none of us had any idea what to expect there. We went and saw the Pyramids and for me it wasn't all that it's cracked up to be, personally I didn't see what the big deal was. But it was mind blowing to think that they accomplished such amazing architecture that long ago and that it lasted for so long.

Going to Bahariya Oasis was really worthwhile, we connected with some really nice people who were doing good things with the environment. Staying one night in the desert was also interesting, though I kept on expecting to see the sea over the next hill because of the sand. Ha! And after vowing never to spend another night sleeping on sand, here I found myself sleeping on the sand yet again. I had a pretty good sleep though. I know I shouldn't but nothing compares to staying on the beach in New Zealand, not even the desert.

At Sekem we also did some really good interviews. The teacher that we interviewed said that at home his children each have a special role to play. One is the Minister for Electricity and has to make sure that lights that aren't being used are switched off and the other is the Minister for Water and makes sure that everyone uses the water ecologically. I thought it was such a cool way to educate children in a way that is fun and interesting for them.

Well after 3 ½ months our whole family is all back together. Emma came and met us in Milan. It was kind of weird at first because we had been apart for so long and so much has happened in that time, but now it's all good. In Rome we got to go see the Colosseum for free because it was cultural week, that was awesome. It might just have been because there were so many people there at the time, but it was smaller than I imagined, maybe because it's a ruin; it would have been magnificent when it had just been finished. We also stumbled across the place where Julius Caesar was cremated. Rome has so many layers; all the different people who have lived there left a mark, and in places like the Colosseum, you can feel it is just so old. I know now what people mean when they say that New Zealand is still a young country in comparison.

Right now we are staying in lovely little place looking over a valley in the region of Umbria. For the first time since we left NZ we get to cook our own meals and are staying in a homely place. It's been so good just to relax as well even though we've gone out almost every day to explore around the area.

Lena - The Trek

Before we left New Zealand, we were interviewed by the Hawkes Bay Today. The lady who talked to us asked me what I was most looking forward to on the trip and I said: seeing the Pyramids in Egypt. Well I'm still looking forward to that, we'll be in Egypt on Thursday, but the highlight for me so far has definitely been trekking around the Annapurna circuit for three weeks.

Before we left home we did a three day walk to try out all our gear and I was so unfit and got really worried about how I'd handle walking for three whole weeks.

I never imagined that it would be such a struggle and we'd go through so much, but it wouldn't have been the same without all the hardships. The worst for me was having all these people pass us on the third day walking, but we caught up in the end. I had been fighting the food poisoning that we got in Kathmandu the day before we left and it caught up on me big time; I could barely walk, let alone carry a bag, or walk up the hills! I was so grateful that I had Dad and Ali there to support me, as well as our guide, Karma, and the two porters who carried our packs, I couldn't have done it without them all.

At times it was like walking through a fairytale landscape from stories, it was so beautiful and magical, the photos we took honestly don't do justice to it. It wasn't just the landscape, but all the weird and wonderful people we met along the way. You know who you are. Mwahaha, just kidding....hehe

Anyway back to the story. First I walked slow because I was sick, and then once I was better I was still walking slow because we were getting into higher altitudes. It felt so surreal when Dad said we were at the same height as Ruapehu and walking along flat at that height. I even ran a bit just to say that I'd run at that altitude.

All the walking was leading up to going over Thorong La pass and once we were over, it was kind of like, Ok, now what? Sweet, we'll just have to keep on walking out the other side then.

The first side was way more special to me than the second side, not to say that we didn't have really awesome experiences there too, but once we left the mountains behind, nothing compared to having been amongst such magnificent presence.

The road was definitely a mood killer and we all were really angry and upset by it, but just focus on the good things right? I'm just glad we were able to do it before it was completed. All in all this is one thing I'll never forget for the rest of my life and wouldn't change it for the world.

Lena rowing on the Ganges at Varanasi

Lena is, of course, a rower having represented Hawkes Bay at Lake Karapiro two years running.

There are more Varanasi photos here ....

India

From Lena in Ho Chi Min City

After Thailand we all knew that Viet Nam would be hard in comparison because we didn't have as many connections or any set itinerary. Even though we didn't meet as many good people to interview and film, it was still worthwhile to come here.

The last couple of days we spent further south of Ho Chi Min City, formerly Saigon, in the Mekong Delta area. I liked it heaps cos it wasn't as hot and humid and even if it was, we usually had a breeze to cool down. We had a guide and driver and it was basically like in Hue, just taking our chances when meeting farmers.

Dad especially had to work real hard to get the right sort of information out of people. We noticed that although a lot of farmers were noticing changes in terms of hotter weather, we didn't meet anyone who was doing anything about it. Yesterday, our last day there, we talked with a guy who grew fruit trees along with his mother.

His mother said it was hard for farmers to find solutions to their problems because whenever they went to the government with their problems, the government people wouldn't listen to them. So the farmers don't go to the government anymore and nothing is really done about the problems they are experiencing.

From Lena in Hue

We arrived in Hue this morning on the night train from Hanoi; what an adventure we had, so much fun! Ali thought it might be a bit like on the Hogworts Express in the Harry Potter books, but it took longer than it takes them to reach Hogworts.

We haven't done much filming, yet, in Viet Nam because it's taken a while to get organized and try and connect with people. I think we're all feeling frustrated with this, but hopefully we can get some good footage in the rest of our time here.

When we were up in Thai Nguyen we met with Mao (a former student of Dad's) and her family - it was really nice to see them, especially Thuy Linh because we all remember when she celebrated her birthday at Grandma's place all those years ago.

Anyway, Mao took us to meet her in-laws and we all got to go traipsing up the hill behind their house, as her Father-in-law showed us various plants and trees; some with medicine/healing qualities. He was a real character and looked at all of our hands and told us what he could see; I can't repeat what he said though cos that would be telling too much. However, what I can tell you is he said Dad has good hands and people are going to listen to what he has to say.

He also gave Dad a ring with an engraved character on top which means 'Happy'; it's going to be Dad's good-luck charm. It was very emotional and special.

We also went and filmed their family, who were planting trees that day and Mum joined and helped them for a bit. After that we went and meet her Mother, who was very honoured that we visited her; she was a lovely lady.

The only downer on that day was seeing this huge open coal mine towering above all there rice paddie. It created a real scar on the beautiful landscape and this was really sad to see.

Reflections from Hanoi

We're in Hanoi now and I think I like it more than Bangkok because it's a lot cooler and we can walk around way more, even though mum stresses out with crossing the roads with all these motorbikes swerving round you and everyone seeming to toot for the hell of it. The first night here we all went wandering around and it's real cool cos they've got like a whole street dedicated to a particular thing, for example silk street and paint street; plus other little dinky shops selling all sorts of interesting things.

Because of the French influence here in the past, they have a lot of bakeries and restaurants even a supermarket! So its been good for a change from rice, cabbage and mushroom which we had in the north of Thailand. Sad to say i miss Thailand but on with the adventure! It's not as organised here, but we all have faith that things will happen, they always do. Trekking in Nepal has been a bit hummm de haaaa for a while, but it's all gonna happen now, 21 days and, no, the two porters with us are not going to carry my pack for me, cos it won't feel like such a big accomplishment otherwise.

Last week, the 1st, 2nd and morning of the 3rd we were in Ayutthaya, the old city, and we went around these old as ruins and recorded the sunset over them, which was incredibly beautiful. On our last night there Ali and I were invited to stay the night with these 2 Thai girls (16 and 17) and that was cool; they spoke pretty good English. They both want to be doctors or dentists, cos it's a good paying job and they work real hard in school, much harder than i did i think, and in the holidays they pretty much do nothing but study!

Another interesting moment was on the 21st, when we travelled by boat up the Mekong and met the old fisherman. We were in the middle of interviewing him when suddenly he leapt up and raced down the bank. I was filming and dad told me: "quick something's happening here, lets film it!" so we raced down the bank after him, jumped in the boat and he paddled out to where the fish was on the line. we almost tipped the boat over when dad told me to try lean over and get a better view of him. but when we got out of the boat again dad was real excited about capturing some action on film and poor old me all i could think about was the bit of mud that had got on my trousers! hopefully we use it for the end doco cos it was such a cool, spontaneous moment and i'm glad we got tape of it.

From Lena in Thailand 11:06AM

Flying over Bangkok at night was really beautiful; just the shiny lights outlining the streets and buildings and everywhere else just blackness. As soon as we got off the plane the humidity hit me, I couldn't believe that people were walking around wearing jeans!! I suppose they're used to it though.

The hotel we arrived and are staying at looked a bit shabby from the outside, but as the owner explained to us, that's cos they use recycled wood. All the people who work here are really nice and polite and most of them speak at least a bit of English and Rose (the owner) speaks English very well.

It takes a while to get used to the smell and the food, well lets just say it's more of a challenge than usual for me.

We visited the Grand Palace, it was massive. We weren't allowed in most of the buildings because they were tombs for deceased royalty. I felt that we were kind of intruding on a sacred place; a bit tapu. there were so many tourists, I think it should just be a place left in peace.

We also went and saw the Emerald Buddha. As soon as I walked in I felt like there was real energy and power, and again, I felt we were intruding.

The Reclining Buddha in another temple we visited was, what's the word for it? Amazing? Spectacular? Breath-taking? A combination of all three. Hollow and gold-plated, it was there before the temple that was built around it. On its feet were mother-of -pearl pictures of elephants, people, gods.

Dad and I did some filming around Chumphon Cabana Resort with Varasorn (the owner) and it was real interesting cos on the outside it's just a holiday place for people, but if you go out back or know where to look, you see all this amazing stuff going on like they've created a wetland and grow rice and try to do heapsa stuff organically. Also they have this Play + learn = Plearn philosophy which is making it a pleasant environment the workers to work in.

Yesterday we went out to this forest tribe and interviewed the leader of the tribe and he had some really interesting stuff to say about climate change both on a local and global scale. But what amazed me was when we interviewed his two teenage daughters - they had such wisdom about how the world should be, I couldn't believe that they were only 16/17!

Chumphon Cabana 5:06 PM local time

We are now at Chumphon Cabana resort. What an amazing place and we are being so well looked after by our host Khun Varasorn. We nearly didn't make it, caught in Bangkok traffic and arriving barely a minute or so before the train left. We then had a 6 hour train journey to Chumphon and then were taken straight to a village to see a diverse tree cropping organic farm. We were straight into filming on the fly and made plenty of mistakes, but hopefully got some good information.

4:06 PM Tuesday the 13th of February 2007
There is a fascinating case study of community development and resilience here, with interaction between Chumphon Cabana, local farmers and others aimed at creating a truly sustainable future that cares for both land and people.

Bangkok 11:36 AM local time

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.

The Logo, the TShirt and...

In the previous post and at the top of the right hand column is our new logo, designed by the family with some great input and final artwork by Margot Macphail from mmdesign. We've had a few T-shirts made up with another version on the back with IMAGINE... under the question Earth Limited?

Love the haircut! (Michael)

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 - Lena

Lena Kenny (18) has just finished High School, graduating from Taikura Steiner School in Hastings at the end of 2006. Lena has interests in art, the environment, people and is thinking of pursuing a BA in Environmental Studies. For now she is dedicated to working with her family on this project and then spending some time in the UK.