Starting back with a bang...

My second week back from the South Island trip has begun and it’s done so with a bang.  And by ‘bang’ I mean assignment overload.  I have 7 assignments due in the next 4 weeks, so the stress level has been pretty high lately.  Earlier this week I experienced the ultimate duo: stress mixed with homesickness… or maybe the stress caused the homesickness..?  Anyway, after some tears, conversations with my mom, and plan of action, I’m back at it.  On the bright side, for one of the essays that I have to write for my geography class, we have to choose between the topics of food, music, or sport.  I’m sure you could guess which one I chose.  So from that, we have to narrow it down further, so I am writing my 2000 words on baseball and the stadium atmosphere!  I was overwhelmed by the 2000 words at first, but then I found myself having NO problem reaching it, the problem will be cutting it down!  This is the most fun essay I’ve ever written, that’s for sure!

Speaking of sports, the Rugby World Cup, which NZ is hosting this year, has begun!  I sat in the commons of my dorm with some other Uni kids to watch the opening ceremonies and cheered on the All Blacks as they beat Tonga on Friday.  Then on Sunday I watched the USA lose to Ireland, ouch.  The best part of that game was definitely singing along with the national anthem :)  I’m still actively working on learning the rules to rugby, but I always find myself intertwining football rules with rugby rules.  This usually results in me almost saying out loud something like, ‘Wait, he was already down! Why are they still going?’  I have learned a lot already though and hopefully by the time the world cup is over I will have a good grasp on it all!  Since the rugby games are on so frequently (and everyone here is all about rugby), they’ve put a TV in the dining hall to show the games.  However, tonight I walked in and ESPN Sportcenter was on.  WHAT?! I guess I just assumed that because I hadn’t seen it on TV, that NZ didn’t get ESPN.  That was probably a really ignorant thought, but that’s what happens when I don’t have easy access to a TV over here!  I did a double take when I saw NFL highlights being shown.  Yes please! Naturally, I got my food and sat right smack in front of the TV for about 50 minutes (sidenote: it usually only takes me about 20 minutes max in the dining hall for dinner).  On one of the highlights, they showed a guy that ran 99.5 yards for a touchdown and when the girl next to me heard the distance “99.5 yards” she turned to me and said, “wow, that’s like over half the field isn’t it?!”  Yes, actually it’s the whole field.  Why can’t the whole world just use the same measurements?

Also, I finally got my first WWOOFing experience set up!  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click HERE for more info.  I will be visiting a family with 2 kids, an organic vegetable garden, and a baby lamb that is fed from a bottle for a week in mid October after my classes end and before my exams start.  I am excited to spend 24/7 with a kiwi family on a farm.  Oh and it’s on the coast right outside of Auckland, so that means the beaches are only a short walk from the house!  It is SO crazy to me that after this week, I only have 4, FOUR, weeks of actual class left.  After that, only 2 exams and then more free time!  Time sure is flying!

This weekend I am headed to Pukekohe to visit some more lost long relatives that I’m not actually related to, so I’m sure I’ll have some fun info to report back!

Interesting Observations:

-“far out” = “dang” Example: “Far out! That car is mean as!” or sometimes it’s dragged out… “Faaaaar out, there are heeeaps of sheep here!”

-There were little yellow signs with a name on it at every creek or river that we passed over in the south island.

-They don’t have dasani or aquafina water here, instead, the main bottled water brand is PUMP.

-The 2 girls on my trip had never heard of a woman’s maiden name being kept as her middle name when she gets married.  I had to explain this about 3 times because they didn’t understand.  Who knew that wasn’t common in all parts of the country? Is that a southern thing?

-The cokes in the vending machines are cheaper than the ones sold in actual stores.  Since when does that ever happen?!

-Saying ma’am and sir over here is seen as kind of demeaning and not appropriate.  I have been having a very hard time with this one.  I get weird looks when it slips out, which is often, but I guess my accent helps some. (Mom and Dad you taught me well!)

-New Zealand’s Labor Day is October 24^th

Days 12-16 of Mid-Semester Break!

WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD.

KAIKOURA

Day 12 (Nelson):

After eating breakfast on a picnic next to the trampoline in the motor home park, we headed out to spend the day roaming around the city of Nelson for the day.  I walked around the city, stopping in every shop that I found interesting.  There were tons of jewelry shops so I definitely stopped in all of those.  I headed over to the Wednesday farmer’s market and met the group there.  Best purchase in Nelson: 4 apples for ONE DOLLAR at the farmer’s market.  Yes please!  And then I met the 2^nd mean person in NZ.  We went into a little shop to get gelato and naturally I sampled a few flavors before deciding.  After seeing how small the portions were that he was giving to other customers, I decided that it wasn’t really worth the money and I could just get some ice cream at another shop down the street than I had seen.  I guess I must’ve given off an expression that made him think I had changed my mind because he glared at me and said in a mean tone, “So are you really not going to get any??”  Um actually, sir, NO I’m not because you are mean and grumpy and I don’t want to give you $4 for a tablespoon of ice cream.  No, I didn’t actually say that; instead, I turned around and walked right out of the store and into the NICE café down the street to get my ice cream.  Sheesh!

That night, after showering and doing laundry, we started cooking the meal that we had planned for our last camping supper :(  Our plan was to have eggs, sausage, tomatoes and bread.  Kelsey and I were the cookers, but we didn’t exactly know how to cook the sausage, which were literally all linked together and frozen.  We ended up just ripping each one apart and it wound up looking kind of like ground beef.  Oh well!  I scrambled the eggs and we put the two together, added tomatoes, cheese, and bread and ate up!  We had also gotten a tub of ice cream to share, but luckily we didn’t eat it all that night…

the finished product! yum! 

Day 13 (Nelson-->Kaikoura-->Christchurch):

We left Nelson around 7am and ate breakfast in the van on the way to Kaikoura.  We drove right up next to the east coast and saw a seal colony that lasted for at least 3km or so.  It’s SO weird to me that in the US I would have to go to a zoo or an aquarium to see these kinds of things, but in NZ they’re just on the side of the road (but I guess that’s because the road is next to the ocean)!  Anyway, everything was going great until about 10am.  We were just riding along in good ol’ Jezze when all of a sudden there was a huge kerplunk.  In shock, but still driving, the van started to sound like a motorcycle revving up.  Megan pulled over, turned it off, and started it up again.  The noise continued and we had NO idea what was going on, but we were scared to drive any more.  I called Jucy and AA, which is basically the equivalent to AAA in the US, and about an hour later an old man (with Velcro sneakers) showed up, checked a few things out, and told us to follow him into town to the AA shop.  Let me just say… if we were to breakdown anywhere and anytime on this trip, this was absolutely ideal timing.  THANK YOU GOD.  First of all, we were pulled over on the side of the road next to horses and pastures with the mountains in the distance ahead and the ocean in the distance behind.  Also, I am SO thankful that we had cell phone service, were near a town, and this was the last day of our trip.  I LOVE the way the Lord plans things out!  Oh AND we had leftover ice cream, so you better believe that we ate that up on the side of the road while we were waiting for the AA guy to show up!  YUM!

the Jucy breakdown

After about an hour of working on Jezze while we checked out Kaikoura, we found out that we wouldn’t be able to get the van back until the next morning.  Ahhhh!  Thankfully, Jucy came through and paid for bus tickets for us to get to Christchurch that evening (and we didn’t have to worry about turning the van in or anything).  After we got all of our stuff out of the van and repacked our bags in the mechanic garage, we walked about 15 minutes into town to the bus stop.  We got some interesting looks as we were walking with ALL of our luggage.  We waited at a bus stop that was RIGHT next to the ocean with a rock shore.  I was SO tired by this point, but NO WAY was I going to sleep on the bus ride.  I practically got a crick in my next from looking out the window at the scenery the whole time! 

I had been in touch with my long lost cousin, Dani, who we were staying with for our 2 days in Christchurch and she was waiting for us at where the bus let us off.  It was about 6:30pm, dark, and rainy when we got off the bus.  I had no idea what Dani looked like, and I admit that I looked at this girl who got out of a car parked behind the bus and gave her a hopeful hey-are-you-the-person-I’m-meeting-here look.  Unfortunately she went to hug a girl behind me. Shucks.  Eventually I found Dani, we piled our things in her car, and she took us to her house!  We met Dani’s 5 roommates, who were hilarious and VERY entertaining, set up some mattresses in the “lounge”, hung out for a bit, then crashed!

the view during the drive to Kaikoura!

Day 14 (Christchurch):

Our plan for today was to go to a little town on the bay outside of ChCh called Akaroa.  Dani generously let us borrow her car (the bus tickets were $50! Dang!).  She warned us that the transmission wasn’t in the best condition (whatever that means…), but we put some gas in it and were on our way!  Sidenote: this was the smallest, oldest (1985), and squeakiest car I have ever driven.  Luckily we got to Akaroa without any problems!  We spent the day walking around the bay area, taking in all the beautifulness, checking out the cute little shops and art galleries, and getting a CHEAP double scoop ice cream (from a NICE guy).  We decided to head back to ChCh around 3ish and we were golden until about 5 minutes in when the accelerator gave out on me.  I pulled over and when I came to a stop, the car shut off.  In my experience with breaking down cars, I’ve never been the driver, always the passenger, so this was a new and WEIRD feeling.  Ahhhh!  I called Dani and told her what was going on to see if there were any tricks or anything that she ever used, but she didn’t really have much advice.  All I could picture was us piling into a tow truck.  After a few minutes, I started it again.  Nothing.  Again.  Nothing. The third time I started it and immediately put it in drive and hit the accelerator.  YES!  Off we went, slooooowly. I didn’t push it to go fast, but it was going!  Luckily, we made it over the winding roads of the mountain (I should’ve counted how many cars passed us ha!) and on our way back into the city.  As son as we hit the first red light, I stopped and the car turned off.  Ahhhh!  I waited until it turned green, turned the key, put it in drive, and accelerated FAST.  This got REALLY stressful REALLY fast, so I called Dani.  Her and her mom came to pick us up from a parking lot I had drifted into.  Basically, it was just a matter of time until this happened.  PHEW!!! 2 breakdowns in 24 hours, dang!

AKAROA

waiting for Dani and her mom in the broken down car :(

Later that afternoon, Dani showed us around the University of Canterbury campus, which was actually really weird for me.  I don’t think I have explained this on here yet, but up until about a week before my departure date, I was all set up to go to the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.  There was an earthquake (smaller than the Sept 2011 and the Feb 2 ones) in June and that’s when my parents pulled the plug and insisted that I switch.  I didn’t resist, but worked with a high school teacher of mine that conveniently now works for Australearn to switch EVERYTHING.  I definitely did NOT understand the affect that the Feb 22^nd earthquake had on the city of ChCh.  I’ll expand a little more in the next day’s slot, but just being in that city made me appreciate SO much God’s plan for me not going to Univ. of Canterbury in Christchurch and His plan of putting the fear of me being in that city in my Mom and Dad’s heads to initiate the switch. 

Anyways, we went up to a SUPER GOOD and CHEAP fish’n’chips shop near Dani’s house for dinner.  Then we went back for a “chocolate explosion jam donut”… translation = a cinnamon sugar donut filled with jam with a chocolate bar melted in te middle. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Day 15 (Christchurch-->Auckland):

In the morning, Louise, one of Dani’s roommates, dropped us off at Hagley Park and the botanical gardens and we walked through them to the city.  It was SO sad to see the city of Christchurch.  There were fences up around most all of the building and you couldn’t even get into the city center.  We walked past some strips where shops and businesses were and it literally looked like the scene of a movie.  Most of the business owners have not been able to get back into their shops because it’s still not safe, so NOTHING had been touched since the Feb 22^nd earthquake.  We passed a coffee shop where all the chairs had fallen over on the ground, mugs and plates were broken on the ground, the dishwasher was full and open, silverware and napkins were scattered throughout the whole place, and a Feb 22^nd newspaper was on the ground.  Next to that coffee shop was an insurance company where the computer screens were sideways on the desks, papers were on the floor, and phones were off the hook.  It was so unreal to see.  There were HUGE cracks and crevices in the sidewalks and on the buildings and bumps everywhere in the roads.  It seemed that nothing in the city center was open.  I was SO naïve to think that this city would be totally back to normal and up and running.  Although Christchurch is probably an amazing city and would have given me a great experience in New Zealand, I am, again, SO thankful that I am not living there.  Sidenote: apparently there was an earthquake the night before.  The others felt it, but said that I sat up in my sleeping bag, looked around, and then laid back down.  I don’t remember one single second of that. I learned that there have been at least 1000 aftershocks since Feb.  It would be SO scary to live with the fear that another earthquake could happen any moment of any day.  THANK YOU MOM AND DAD FOR MAKING ME SWITCH CITIES!!!!

a coffee shop 

Anyways, Dani and her brother picked us up and took us to two cities, Lyttelton and Sumner (a cute little beach town), right outside of ChCh.  Dani was SO sweet to spend her day driving and showing us around and I am so glad that I was provided this semi-cousin connection!! 

Dani and I

We ended up missing the bus to the airport, but Louise just happen to drive by and see us waiting, so she took us to the airport (where I found soft serve ice cream for 60 CENTS! CENTS. Naturally, I got two). We boarded our plane and were back in Auckland around 8:30!  Paul, one the Australearn leaders, picked us up at the airport and tok us back to his house for the night.  His sweet wife made the most delicious dessert for us, we chatted for a bit, and then headed to bed!  After 2 weeks away, it sure felt good to be back in the North Island!

outside the airport in ChCh

Day 16 (Auckland-->Hamilton):

New Zealand’s Father’s Day was today (which at first put a lump in my throat because I thought it was the US’s too), so we celebrated Paul being a Dad to his adorable 15 month old daughter!  His wife prepared a delicious homemade breakfast: English muffins, poached eggs, and bacon (ham). Y-U-M!  Paul took us into town and drove us around a bit and then dropped us off at the bus stop where we caught the NakedBus back to Hamilton.  This trip was absolutely incredible and definitely the best trip (within the best experience) of my life so far, but I don’t think I have ever been so excited to see my little, cozy, single room in Hamilton!  I immediately showered, put laundry in, ate CHICKEN for dinner in the dining hall and drank hot chocolate!!!

DONE!

Days 9, 10 & 11 of Mid-Semester Break!

Tasman Sea

Day 9 (Franz Josef-->Murchison-->Totaranui):

Our glacier hike was scheduled for 8:45, so I woke up at 6:45.  I walked out to the shore of the TASMAN SEA and just stood in awe.  The TASMAN SEA.  Ask me a year ago if I thought I would ever get to see the Tasman Sea in my lifetime and I would’ve told you no.  So cool!  After I ate breakfast on a picnic table watching the sun rise over the ocean, we headed back into FJ for the glacier hike.  We signed in and went through the maze around the building to get our gear for the day.  First stop was the boots.  Cue freak out.  Their directions: tell us your country and your size, grab some of our wooly socks, take your socks off, put on the wooly socks, and put the boots on.  What I did: told them USA, size 7.5, picked up the wooly socks successfully touching as little of them as I had to, kept my own socks on (duh!), put the used wooly socks on over mine, put the chunky boots on.  No way was I about to take my own socks off and wear those gross germy wooly socks against my bare feet!  This probably explains why I had two blisters by the end of the day, but I’d much rather have blisters than germs—anything for peace of mind.  The boots they gave us were so hardcore… you know the old neighbor guy in Home Alone who shovels snow and sits with Kevin in the church?  Remember hit huge boots? That’s who I felt like.  They must’ve weighed 10 lbs each.  Ok enough about the boots… rain pants, jackets, fanny pack, and we’re off!

The glacier hike was one of most incredible things I’ve ever done!  We bussed out to the national park area, walked on the rocky terrain for about 45 mins, and then started hiking up the rocky/gravel-y hills.  We stopped to put our crampons on, which are spikey things that attach to the bottom of the boots to help you walk on the ice.  They divided us into groups and we headed out onto the actual glacier!  We followed a path that the guides have to carve out with pick axes every single morning.  We made our way through crevices and up and down carved-out stairs, ate lunch on the glacier, drank glacier water from a glacier waterfall, and loved every last second of it!  I wish I could put into words how awesome this hike was, but I just can’t!

drinking glacier water from a glacier waterfall! 

Then the loooong night began, and it wasn’t even night yet.  Our plan was to get halfway up to Abel Tasman, spending the night in Murchison (about 4 hours away), but after a stop at the pancake rocks (so cool!) in Punakaiki, I suggested that we just drive all the way tonight… why not, right?! ROADTRIP! Well, we got to Abel Tasman around 9, but we needed to get to the DOC site, which was we thought was about 2 more hours.  After we got to where we thought was about halfway there, we stopped at the i-site, which was obviously closed because everything in this country closes at like 3pm, and luckily there were maps outside the door with phone numbers and everything!  We got scared that we would get out to the middle of no where and no be able to find the DOC site (sidenote: the fine for free-camping in NZ is $2,600).  By this time, it was 11:30pm, so we called one of the holiday parks.  I seemed to always be the one nominated to talk to people, so made the call.  Unfortunately, this guy was the very first mean person I exchanged words with in NZ.   His greeting was, “Do you even know what time it is?!”  Eventually he told us to park in the back.  I made the mistake of asking him how much it was per person and he replied with, “Oh if you’re calling at this hour to discuss prices, don’t even bother coming.  You disgust me!”  I hung up.  Sheesh!  Long story longer, Kelsey was a persistent driver and we ended up reaching the DOC site in Totaranui, via super winding roads, around 1:00am.  Phew!

Day 10 (Totaranui):

We slid the van door open and immediately heard the sound of the ocean!  The bright side to reaching campsites in the dark is that the morning is such an awesome surprise!  I jumped out of the van, followed the noise of the crashing waves, and walked on the golden sand of the beach for about an hour (in my pajamas).  Could life get any better?!  I topped the morning off by eating granola and yogurt while reading some psalms at a picnic table overlooking the sea. 

We headed out for a 4 hour return hike to Mutten Cove through bush and jungle-type terrain, along the perimeter of the ocean.  We could see the ocean through the trees and the track even came out onto 2 shorelines on the way.  We explored some at these shores, finding seals and even 2 PENGUINS!!  I climbed up on a huge boulder that the waves were crashing against and ate lunch.  Yesterday lunch on a glacier, today on a beach!

I ended the day sitting on a log on the shore at the campsite reading, journaling, and drinking some tea (thanks Milford Sound cruise!).  It started to rain, so we all piled back into the van, stuffed our stuff in, and just hung out.  We got to talking about home and Christmas and our families (cue tears).  We played some Christmas music and thought about how close Christmas seems, I guess since it’s not long at all after I get home from NZ!  I ate some chicken soup, which was the first meat I’d had in 10 days, and then headed off to bed!

penguins!

me and a bird on the beach 

Day 11 (Totaranui-->Nelson):

After walking on the beach a bit in the morning, we left for Nelson around 9am.  We had planned to stop and do some hikes in Abel Tasman on our way out, so we stopped at Lookout Summit, which was a 1 hour return.  This track was SUPER STEEP.  We realized that we had been going at a pretty strong pace for about 35 minutes, so we should have probably reached the summit at least 5 minutes ago.  After another 5 minutes and still searching for the turn around point, we decided to head back.  After we got down and back to the van, we realized that the Lookout Summit track actually started on the other side of the road and we had been going on the 5 hr return.  Great job team!  We laughed it off and kept chuggin’ along in good ol’ Jezze. 

After passing 2 hitchhikers on our way out of Totarauni, Kelsey and I demanded that Nate turn the van around so we could give them a ride! Who am I over here, seriously?!  Picking up hitchhikers?! Anyways, they were backpacking and just on their way to another city up the coast.  They were from Germany and their names were Lydia and I actually have NO earthly idea what the guy said his name was but I just nodded my head and said ok when he said it.  They smelled pretty bad, but it was too hilarious to even matter. After I asked them a billion questions, we dropped them off and made our way to Nelson!  Oh wait, after we waited about 2 minutes down the road for cows to be herded across the street.  So cool!

me and the hitchhikers!

We arrived in Nelson, which I’d have to say was my favorite city, not place in general, but city.  We spent all afternoon exploring the city and found some cute little bead/jewelry shops.  Then it happened.  We found the most exciting/best campsite yet!  Matai Valley Motor Camp.  It was only $6 per person (!) and had showers, laundry, a kitchen, AND A TRAMPOLINE!!!!!  Any doubts that the first thing we did was jump on the trampoline? Yep, we did.  The showers cost $2 for 8 minutes.  I timed it perfectly and savored every single second of the 480 that it gave me :)

That night I ate chicken and vegetable soup along with literally half a loaf of bread, just straight bread.  Obviously the bakery bread here is delicious.  Delicious enough to eat half a loaf in one night? Yes.

More to come!

PS: The Rugby World Cup, which is being hosted by New Zealand kicks off tomorrow!!!!!

Days 7 & 8 of Mid-Semester Break!

Wanaka

Day 7 (Queenstown-->Wanaka):

I woke up to the snorer snoring once again, but I decided that I’d yelled enough at him/her so I just took one for the team and got up.  In order for my recently washed hair to last for the next 4 days without getting unbearably greasy and gross, I decided to put my feather boa on and be a diva camper.  I straightened it and that did the trick; I was good to go for the next 4 days.  Who knew straightened hair lasted longer?

We took the windy roads up over the mountains to Wanaka, got there before 10am, and headed out on a track around the lake!  Wanaka seemed to be a cute little town full of “holiday houses” and this lake was absolutely picture perfect with the hills and snow-capped mountains surrounding it.  We had gotten some advice to do the Millenium Track, so that’s where we headed!  This track took us up and down hills right along the edge of the lake.  A few hours later we found a hidden shore with rocks, big and little, all around.  After eating lunch and exploring a little bit, we headed back and checked out town centre.  I had a bee in my bonnet for some earplugs, so 2 days too late, I finally got some. FINALLY.

Wanaka

We drove about 5 minutes out of town to Mt. Iron where we hiked up the super steep 1.5 hour return, which had a BEAUTIFUL view of pretty much ALL of Wanaka from the top! Ahhh it was incredible!  Houses, town, mountains, snow, lake, hills, farmland, everything!  We found a DOC site about an hour out of Wanaka on our way to our next stop, so we took advantage and settled there for the night.  It had started to rain when we got there so after a long day of walking, we all just sat there contently, journaled, named all the states and capitals (except for Nebraska, which it took us about 4 days to think of!), talked about southern stereotypes (SO interesting to hear from non-southerners’ perspective, don’t worry I’ll elaborate later), and listened to country music (aka my ipod).  We were the only ones in this campsite, but it still felt totally safe.  Sidenote: we never locked the doors when we went to bed.  That was probably pretty stupid, but it worked out fine!  I finally faced the drizzley rain, babywiped, got ready for bed, put my earplugs in, and happily dozed off, not to be woken by anything but the New Zealand sun in the morning :)

The campsite

Day 8 (Wanaka-->Franz Josef):

The only thing on today’s agenda was driving, so we stopped and explored whatever we found along the way to Franz Josef.  Also, I would just like to add that this morning, I ate breakfast (a broken up granola bar mixed in my tub of yogurt) at a picnic table overlooking the land of no where, NZ.  Literally, it was miles and miles of mountains, creeks/river, land, and ONE road running through it all.  What an amazing way to start another great day!  We made our way to Franz Josef and hit up 5 hikes on the way, 3 that ended at waterfalls.  One of them was called Roaring Billy (interesting name right?) and it was a 25 minute return, however we ended up staying at the end for forever.  It landed us at a winding river with acres of rocky shore and a waterfall coming down from a mountain.  I think I just sat on one of the boulders and looked around for at least 20 minutes just thinking about what an amazing creator we have!  It was humbling to be in such a huge landscape and feel so small.  We ended up driving right along to west coast, super high up above sea level.  The horizon line was the farthest away that I’d ever seen it and it looked as if the sky was dropping, about to touch the ocean.  I’m trying my best to explain these views, but I just can’t!  This is pretty funny though:  we stopped to take some pictures along the way and I guess I was just so in awe of how much ocean there was and how beautiful it all looked that Megan, in all seriousness, asked, “So is this the first time you’ve ever seen the ocean?” I must’ve seemed really excited about it or something haha!

Roaring Billy

We invested in some sandfly repellent when we got to Franz Josef and booked our glacier hike for the next day.  Our glacier hike came with tickets to the hot pools in FJ, but we weren’t too excited about going to them since we hadn’t brought bathing suits and it was getting dark pretty soon.  I tried to talk my way out of having it included in the cost, but failed.  Since we already paid for it, we figured we’d go and check it out.  Best decision of the day.  There were showers in the changing rooms!  I walked in with ALL of my shower stuff, including flip flops, towel, and pajamas to put on after.  These showers were definitely not meant for full showers... I only know that because I had to press the button about 25 times because the water timed out every 30 seconds or so.  I definitely got some funny looks when I walked by the reception desk of the high class hot pools in my bright red long johns.  Oh well, congrats to us for beating the system.  Gotta get those showers when you can!

We had to find our campgroud in the dark, which we had already learned is not really ever a good idea.  Long story short, we never found it, but did find one on the SHORELINE OF THE TASMAN SEA. Yes please!  It was a little farther out of FJ, but SO worth it!  This is the point where I think I realized that I was getting used to camp food: I ate a pack of instant noodles (aka ramen) raw.  Uncooked.  They’re actually really good like that!  I topped it off with some pb&j camping style, pictured below.

pb&j camping style

I would start Day 9, but its pretty filled and I’ve got an essay to write (on American baseball!!), so I’ll have to save it for the next post!  Sheesh this is going to take a month to write about!

Days 5 and 6 of Mid-Semester Break!

a glimpse of what it's like to drive down there :)

Day 5 (Te Anau-->Milford Sound-->Queenstown):

We woke up to the beauty of Lake Gunn once again!  We had booked our Milford Sound cruise for today, so we headed up that way and did a few short hikes/walks on the way.  We thought our cruise was at 10:45, but it turned out that it was at 11:45.  Better early than late though, right? Right.  We hung out at the little café where I did not buy any of the $5 coffee or $18 breakfast buffet, but instead I sat at a table eating peanut butter and apples (the staple diet of this trip) and worked on some assignments I had brought just in case of down time like this (you know you go to Furman when…).  11:45 finally rolled around and we headed out to the cruise!  The weather was misty/foggy and a bit sprinkley (sprinkley is a sophisticated NZ weather word… just kidding, I just made it up), but it turned out to be better that way because the only time the waterfalls come down the fiords is when it is raining!  The cruise was nothing short of stunning AND there was FREE, I repeat FREE, coffee and tea provided on the boat!  You bet I took advantage of that and had 2 cups of tea and 4 cups of coffee.  Also I may have taken a few, or 7, tea bags for the road as well... oops :)   Gotta take advantage of free jonesers in this country when you can!  The fiords were so high that they pierced the clouds and came out above them.  We passed by a huge waterfall and a patch of seals out there as well!  Absolutely incredible. 

After the cruise, we headed to Queenstown but stopped in town centre at Te Anau to check out the cute little shops real quick.  Souvenir success!  The drive to Queenstown was literally the most gorgeous drive ever.  I feel like I’m going to say that about every drive.  It is just so crazy to me that the scenery and nature here is REAL LIFE.  It looks straight out of a movie backdrop or a calendar.  It felt like a road in the middle of nowhere.  We passed about 3 other cars every 25 km or so.  The sun was setting as we got closer to Queenstown, so naturally we had to stop and do 30 second photo opps pretty often along the way.  Mountains with snow on them, roads winding along the edge of the hills and a huge lake, clouds lit up by the sun that was setting behind the mountains... Picture perfect.  I can’t even put into words how gorgeous it was so I’m not even going to try. 

me taking a photo opp on the way to Queenstown

We got into Queenstown around 6pm, went to the i-site (aka the city information center, there is usually one in every city and they are very helpful), double checked the bungy booking, yes I said BUNGY(!), and headed out to the DOC site.  We started up the side of the mountain where we thought the DOC site was but we reached point where there was a dead end ahead, private property to the right, and a road to the left with cliffs on either side... no thank you, it was dark and we were in a huge van.  We turned around and followed another campervan with high hopes that it was headed to where we needed to go as well.  Success! Thank you fellow campers with good directions who didn’t know we were caravanning behind, you rock!  This campsite had good bathrooms too, yes!  I ate frozen yogurt (literally, apparently the mini fridge was set at too low of a temperature) and some of the instant noodles, babywiped, washed my face with lake water, and called it a night.  Or so I thought.  This night was super cold, so we piled all 4 of us in the bottom of the van in a double bed (thank goodness for my sleeping bag, that’s 4 unshowered bodies in one double bed, ew).  WORST IDEA EVER!  I’m not sure if it was the excitement of the bungy the next morning, the 4 cups of free coffee I had on the Milford sound cruise, or the snoring of one of the other people who shall remain unnamed, but I think I only slept about 3 hours that night.  I spent most the night screaming the name of the snorer every other minute to wake him/her up (sorry I’m not sorry) and then proceeded to demand that someone hit/kick him/her.  Let’s just say my investment in earplugs a few days later worked wonders... a few days later.

successful face washing!

Day 6 (Queenstown):

After waking up to another beautiful lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains, we headed out to the BUNGY place!  Kelsey and I were the only ones jumping off the 134 meter (439 ft, 147 yd, .08 mile) high ledge that morning, so the others just hung out in the city.  After signing our lives away, we boarded the rickety bungy bus and rode about 45 minutes out of the city, up the side of a mountain that I was convinced we were going to tumble off of.  The weather was perfecto up there!  Kelsey and I rode out to the little hut via a pulley cart, which was stationed in the middle of mountains and above a river, which actually looked more like a measly little stream from up there.  We were in the first group, but I was about 8^th to go.  With these kinds of things, I am usually always more than willing to do it.  Don’t get me wrong, I did get nervous, but I knew that I would do it.  The guy put the jonesers on my ankles (in conversation I learned he had been to Savannah before! I love Georgia connections over here, of course), I watched Kelsey jump (and survive), and then it was my turn!  They had me sit in a chair in order to get all the cords and such strapped on to me.  I was harnessed in around my waist as well as my feet, no worries!  The guy explained that I was supposed to pull the red cord near my ankle in order to sit up on the way back up.  I made him listen to me as I repeated his instructions to make sure I had it right.  I got up out of the chair (this must be where people start to freak out because he hurried me to the ledge pretty quickly) and felt that my harness was not very tight.  I said, “Wait, is this tight enough?” yes “Wait, are you sure it doesn’t need to be tighter?” it’s good “Do you promise?” yes.  That could have been my last conversation ever.  I shimmied out to the ledge, they counted down, and I JUMPED!  I started to scream but then decided to just take it all in on the way down.  Not gonna lie, it was kind of scary to literally be free-falling with the feeling of landing splat in the river below.  The bungy rope eventually caught me in time, I went back up, back down, back up again, pulled the cord, and just sat there.  It was most definitely the biggest adrenaline rush I have ever experienced!!!  The ride back up was equally as awesome though.  I felt like I was on top of the whole world.  AMAZING!

We came back down to the bungy building in Queenstown where they had about 12 computers set up for bungy-ers to use, probably to email parents to tell them they survived.  I actually think they are there to look at photos and videos of the bungy, but I sure took advantage of it and used it for both!  Did I mention I got a free t-shirt and keychain?! FREE! Yes please!

on the way back up!

Click here to see the bungy video! 

Still on a bungy high, I walked around Queenstown and checked out the shops.  Queenstown is a cute little ski town that is pretty high class compared to the other cities I have seen so far.  I made my way out to the lake-front, which had snow-capped mountains in the background of course, and did a little walk around a portion of it. 

Tonight was a holiday park night aka shower time!  (Sidenote: DOC sites have at most a toilet and sink and range from $5-$10 per night per person, but holiday parks have laundry, showers, bathrooms, kitchens and usually range from $15-$20 per night per person.  We used DOC sites when they were available in the area, but holiday parks only twice.  Therefore, only 2 showers.  2.)  SHOWER. A REAL SHOWER.  I had a minor .5 sec freakout while I was in the shower that I had accidentally used body wash as shampoo, but no worries, it turned out to be shampoo indeed!  You better bet I savored every last second of that glorious shower. 

I ate a mushroom and ham fritatta that I had picked up at our grocery run for dinner.  YUM! Real food!  One of my favorite things was to make friends wherever we went and our neighbors (a couple in their late 20’s) turned out to be very interesting to say the least.  I made conversation and asked where they were from, what they were up to in the south island, etc… this is how it went between the girl and I:

“So where are yall from?”

--“Bay of Plenty region in the north island.”

“Oh so what brings you down here?”

--“We got a good deal on a new van and we’re trying to sell our car.  We’ve been here at this holiday park about a week or so.  Also I’m a politician.”

“Oh really? What do you mean?” (If this hippie girl qualified as a politician I’m pretty sure I could pass as a doctor)

--“I’m about to go on tour in New Zealand to legalize cannabis.”

She came over and showed me her itinerary for the next few months.  I later learned that cannabis is marijuana.  Good luck lady... And good luck selling your car in a motor home parking lot as well.  Hope that works out well for ya.  Let’s just say the Germans in the Jucy van on the other side of us were a bit more normal.  Oh and then this self-proclaimed politician asked us if we knew where to get any weed around Queenstown.  Um no.  “I thought you might know since there was a group of you here” was her reasoning for asking.  Do groups of people equal marijuana dealer knowledge? Again, no. 

our holiday park set up

These posts are more detailed than I thought they would be… phew! More to come another day!

Days 1-4 of Mid-Semester Break!

Me and the Fiords!

After 16 days, 15 nights, 9 cities, over 3000 kilometers, 4 showers, 2 laundry loads, 3 jars of peanut butter, 15 apples, 3 earplugs, 4 boxes of granola bars, 3 bus rides, 3 blisters, at least 12 hikes, 7 campsites, 19 baby wipes (yes, baby wipes), 828 pictures, and a million memories… I’m back in my cozy room in Hamilton!

Just for the record, I am overwhelmingly overwhelmed by the thought of reporting back all that has happened the past 2 weeks.  Of course I am going to attempt to explain as much as I can, but my words and even my pictures will not do justice to how amazing the last 16 days were.  Just a warning.  Here it goes…

I decided to split it up into a few posts for time’s sake, just fyi.

Day 1 (Hamilton-->Christchurch-->Dunedin):

Megan (from Oregon), Kelsey (from Pennsylvania), Nate (also from Pennsylvania), and I took the NakedBus to the Auckland airport.  Being American, we planned to get there at least 2 hours in advance, but little did we know there were only 2 domestic gates.  Luckily I brought a book and found some computer stand with free internet (I didn’t know the word free was in NZ’s vocab).  I absolutely love everything about flying, minus the seats and seatbelts on the planes that are full of germs, so I was super excited!  It was so interesting to see NZ from above, especially when we got to Christchurch.  Out one window were the alps covered in snow and out the other window was the east coast of the south island.  How crazy is that?!

yes, this is real.

A Jucy van picked us up from the airport and took us to their Jucy-land the pick up our van.  The guy who dealt with us, who was really sarcastic and made me feel really stupid, suggested we rent snow chains just in case we run into snow in the more southern areas.  After he showed us how to put them on, I asked a few questions for clarification and he got sassy.  Excuse me sir, sorry I’m from GEORGIA and don’t know how to work SNOW CHAINS (don't worry, we didn't need them).  Anyway, I started off driving and we were headed to Dunedin!  There is literally ONE highway from ChCh to Dunedin, so no worries about getting lost!  We pulled into Katharine’s (a friend from Furman) flat around 9:30, hung out a bit, and then crashed.

Day 2 (Dunedin):

We got up on Sunday and headed straight to the Dunedin Train Station with Katharine.  This building was really neat!  If only the train actually went somewhere other than on a scenic tour…  Katharine left for church and the 4 of us walked out to Baldwin Street aka the steepest street in the world.  We walked up it (phew!) and then back down.  I felt really out of shape as there were people running and biking up it, slowly though… but still!  Next, we took the Jucy van out to the Otago Peninsula.  This drive was gorgeous!  I was driving again and it was super scary as the edge of the road was literally a cliff into the water.  Not such a great feeling for someone who is used to driving on the other side of the road.  No sweat though, we made it to the point and back!  We took the mountain road back, but that was still cliffs through the rolling hills, sheesh. Scary business right there. 

Katharine and I outside the train station

After some cheap sushi and ice cream and a tour of campus, we called it a night again in Dunedin.  It was so fun and refreshing to spend time catching up with Katharine and I am SO thankful that we got to stay with her!  I loved seeing where she is and get a glimpse of what her experience is like.  We spent a lot of time talking and sort of broke down our individual situations.  It is so comforting that she seems to be loving where she is and that I am loving where I am, although we are at 2 totally different places.  Just goes to show that the Lord really knows what He’s doing when he puts us in certain places.  Dunedin and Hamilton are VERY different cities, but both seem to offer what each of us enjoys and desires to take away from this whole experience.  Ok back to the trip…

Day 3 (Dunedin-->Te Anau):

The 4 of us Waikato-ers (they don’t have college mascots here, what the heck!) drove out around 7am and made our way across the bottom of the south island to Te Anau.  Let me just go ahead and say that the driving on the trip was one of my favorite parts.  As tired as I usually was, no way was I going to let my eyes close more than to blink.  The scenery we drove through was absolutely incredible.  Rolling hills, sheep, cows, pastures, deer, snow covered mountains, snow capped mountains… just picture all of that ahead, behind, to the left and the right.  This country is ridiculously beautiful.  Passing through the NZ capital of country music (wait what?), we got to Te Anau/Fiordland National Park, did a few short hikes, and then went to find our first campsite!  We took advantage of the Department of Conservation (DOC) campgrounds whenever we could, even though the amenities were minimal.  This campsite was on the shore of Lake Gunn and it was— surprise surprise— stunning.  This was probably my favorite campsite out of them all. The fiords were surrounding the lake and were the tallest mountains I’ve ever seen.  The snow capped tips of them cam out above the clouds.  It seriously could have been a movie scene, just like this whole country.  I ate dinner (aka pb&j with an apple & pb), showered (aka wiped down with baby wipes), brushed my teeth (using my water bottle as a faucet), and washed my face (in Lake Gunn!), played some cards, journaled, and headed to bed!  The bathroom was grosser than using good old nature, so that’s what it came down to. 

This hike was covered in snow!

By the end of day 3 I was feeling VERY granola (aka outdoorsy).  My tennis shoes and boots had become slippers, my sleeping bag was now my changing room, my jacket was my pillow, my headlamp was permanently attached to my forehead by 6:30pm, my water bottle now served as a faucet, leaves were now toilet paper (sorry if that was too much info), cell phones were useless, and my bed was made of fold out planks in a campervan.  Hello nature!  Loving life and it’s only day 3!

Kelsey, me, and Megan in the campervan

Day 4 (Te Anau):

Well, I thought the campervan was going to be absolutely freezing at night, but I was pleasantly surprised that I actually woke up warmer than I did the night before in Katharine’s flat.  We left around 9am for out first hike, the Hidden Falls track.  It was a 5 hour return of walking through bush and rocks, over creeks and bridges.  We ate lunch at the turn around.  We took a pit stop at some rocks on the shore of a big creek and while we were sitting there a helicopter carrying a bridge landed about 100 yards away!  Some guys got out and the outgoing NZ version of me went to talk to them.  Apparently they were just bringing the bridge in to replace another one.  I almost asked if we could have a helicopter ride, but I thought that would be aggressive of me.  I’m still kind of mad at myself for not asking though… oh well.

When we got back to the campsite, we made friends (of course) with the 3 50-ish year old couples that had showed up.  They were celebrating one of the guys birthdays by campervan-ing around the south island… with a little more intense camper than ours.  They had 3 separate campers, dang!  Hello retirement money, or I guess that would be goodbye!  Anyway, they came over to check out our Jucy set up and felt so bad for us that they gave us some instant noodles.  Thanks generous middle-aged fellow campers!  I washed my face in the lake, brushed my teeth, babywiped, and headed to bed!  Had to go a little farther in the woods to go to the bathroom since the classy campers had joined us…

More to come soon!