dreamtime

I don’t even know where to start with this update because it has been long since the last one.  Today is my last day in the south island and I am excited but nervous to move north.  I’ve heard the north isn’t nearly as beautiful and mountainous as the south but It’s hotter and beachy-er.

Some cool things i’ve seen recently:

Lake tekapo

Tasman Glacial Lake

Moeraki Boulders

Elephant rocks

I spent my last week WWOOFING at this not-farm.  They had a bunch of chickens but didn’t kill them or eat their eggs, so they were basically pets.  This really aggravated me when I was assigned to clean the chicken house.  The chicken house had a layer of maggots, and then a layer of poop covering most of it’s surfaces.  In 5 hours managed to shovel the thick layers of poo and maggots out, and the scrub every surface until there wasn’t any trace of poop at all.  By the end of the 5 hours my arms and legs were coated in a thin layer of poop-water.  The family I stayed with was crazy they were “allergic” to every kind of food and basically solely ate rice and vegetables- I have since severed relations with rice and vegetables, I need a break.  The grandpa and I got along the best, he educated me for hours on Maori (indigenous people of nz) history, medical paradigms of mental health, and new technology for wind turbines.  He was a crazy guy, but had a really refreshingly curious view of the world. This wwoofing experience was hard work, and I have now escaped surprisingly unscathed.

I’m in Dunedin now traveling with this Norwegian guy.  That’s how things work when everyone is traveling alone.  Everyone is desperate to make friends and traveling with someone else is always more fun so even if you barely know someone you can ask them to travel with you and they will most likely say yes.  Dunedin is a quaint city by the ocean, the cafes are good, there are soy chai lattes readily available at every corner, and the nightlife is so fun due to the fact that it’s the home of NZ’s biggest university.  At every hour of the day you can see university students passed out drunk on the street, vomiting. I saw a girl passed out in the middle of the sidewalk in a native american costume foaming at the mouth at 2pm, and at 9am I saw piss drunk girls who were basically nude running into traffic AT 9AM for godsake 9AM!!!!  Last night I went to a bar with my friend Carrie and had some wine (which i bought with my real ID- so fucking cool!!) a band with a kurt cobain wannabe started playing and they were so bad that I had to leave.  We then went to this 70’s style disco club called “Fever Club.”  It was basically the best place on earth, like a huge bar mitzvah where they don’t play rap songs, only “Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight” and no one is Jewish.  I was busting moves like the peace signs over eyes, the running man, and I danced with a 90 year old man in a tweed suit.  I love life right now.  I am getting on a bus soon to Queenstown where I hopefully will indulge in a tofu curry fergburger, and tomorrow I have a flight to Auckland on the North Island.  Will update soon-ish.

Two French guys arrived at the wwoofing house in Clinton. They were huge hippies, I came to this conclusion because of their lack of deodorant use, dreadlocks, and mohawk. They werent the ostentatious type of hippies that are unapproachable, one was really awesome and played the guitar and sang French songs, and the other one was shy and sketched silently to himself (still a cool guy.) The farm owner made me plow weeds for 4 hours straight and I thought I killed my back forever. I was psyched to shower and sleep until I remembered that I was sleeping in a freezing cold house truck. During the night a strong wind storm came across the farm and the truck almost tipped over. I thought it was the end of my life. I ran to the house and slept with my German friend lotta, gripping her hand tightly every time a strong wind rattled the windows. She was not happy. The next day we finished work early and went on a walk through the rolling hills of Clinton, NZ (population 420.) we climbed to the top of a big wildflower-covered hill and did yoga until an angry farm owner drove up to us and asked us what the fuck we were doing, he’d never heard of yoga before and to him we looked like stoned imbesoles. On the walk back the French guy with a Mohawk and I got cornered by thorn bushes in a forest and spent quite a while manuevering ourselves out of it, I ended up with lashes all across my back and arms ah! We returned for dinner and the farm owners Shaun and Pia made us a lovely dinner of curry and beetroot salad, all from their garden! We slept in the cold truck and in the morning hit the road for Te Anau. Our first day in Te Anau we hiked about 6 hours on the beautiful routeburn track to Ley Summit (google it!) there were little glacial pools and a great view of lake Te Anau. The next day hos and jacob wanted to hike more but I didnt so I stayed at the hostel and read books and slept all day. I woke up to hos and Jacob handing me a bowl of brown rice bi bim bop (Korean food) oh how spoiled I am! The next day we had a 10 hour hike to and from mount luxemore (google it!) on the Kepler track. Beautiful but really tiring. It seems like no one gets tired from tramping (hiking) too much here but me, I feel like such a wimp. This post is getting long. Long story short I love new Zealand, I’m meeting so many cool people (no Americans anywhere, it’s weird), doing great things, and loving life! Miss y’all at home. :)

I ended up going skydiving on my birthday. I would have chickened out if it wasn’t for the manager of my backpackers booking the trip without telling me. He is a really funny/rediculous guy. He wears the same wool hat and suspenders every day and gave me free stuff because he said I was his girlfriend and if he charged his gf for stuff then people would make judgements. Skydiving wasnt as scary as I thought it would be, we got our gear on, went up in a tiny plane for about 20 minutes, and then casually scooted over to the gaping hole of the plane and jumped out for a 45 second free fall. Falling was a magnificent experience and I didn’t have time to process the fact that I was potentially so close to death so I only felt stoked, not scared. After skydiving we ate at a place called fergburger (sounds like the opposite of my taste) and I had this ridiculously amazing tofu curry burger. After dinner we went to a few bars and clubs and it was so cool showing my 18 year old ID to get drinks and get into places. Queenstown nightlife can be a bit sleazy in certain places, some clubs are basically grind fests with people wearing no clothes and listening to music like the “I put my hands up in the air sometimes” song, and some bars are good places to meet people and have genuine conversations-I enjoyed those more. The day after my birthday we stayed in Queenstown and basically walked around and bummed out, it was great. Hos went to watch the cricket tournament and I became good friends with a few norwegian, Austrian, German, and Canadian people at the backpackers. We got lots of this really good type of beer and drank (not illegal! I’m of age to drink here!) and then we all went out together to this bar called the Cowboy and I must have rode the mechanical bull 20 times, I got so good at it. The next day hos and I drove to Clinton which is basically bumble fuck and now we are wwoofing at an organic farm. I love it here! There is a girl from Germany, a guy from Texas, a guy from Utah, and a guy from korea here. We all work 4.5 hours a day (today I pulled weeds for 4.5 hours straight
:-o) and make meals out of the veggies they grow her. At night the farm owner comes down to our hang out station and brings us wine, pie, and some great herbs if ya catch my drift. It’s basically heaven here but I am sleeping in a bed that probably hasn’t been washed since 1956. I gotta go make dinner and lead a yoga class (to the best of my ability.) will update soon!

Hi! 
Im writing this blog to let everyone know how and what I’m doing in NZ. First of all, (and so you don’t get offended) I miss my peeps back in hp so much, so how about you jump on a plane to NZ? Seriously, come visit! The natural beauty of this country is beyond comprehension. There are the grandest, most dramatic mountains, hot springs, glaciers, rain forests, glaciers in rain forests, etc…

I spent my first day jetlaggedly walking through the Christchurch botanic gardens which were mildly cool and quaint with some manicured lawns and flower gardens.  I  spent the night at a YHA hostel and got an early nights sleep. The next morning I was woken up by a wretched stomach ache. Naturally, I freaked out. I paced the halls of the hostel for a good hour until my stomach miraculously settled. Hos and I spent the day in the Christchurch information center trying to figure out a plan for the next 5 weeks which was… Daunting. After a few hours stressing out in the visitors center we decided to leave the planning behind and enjoy the city of Christchurch. I tried my first NZ fish and chips, which were sadly nothing special, sat at this creepy bar called saints and sinners (wtf), and walked barefoot (not uncommon for kiwis) thorough the entire city until I stepped on a small piece of glass and demanded to go back to the hostel. Christchurch is a beautiful city, it’s as quaint as city’s get! It reminds me a bit of Seattle without the rain. 

The next day we drove to Arthurs pass national park. We hiked for about 5 hours through forests, cliffs looking out to rainforest valleys, and a bunch of wildflowers until we got to this little log hut with 6 plastic mattresses inside. We were stoked that we didn’t have to set up a tent, and chucked our backpacks aside to climb to the top of the mountain. We reached the top of the mountain as the sun was going down which made our view of most of the park hazy and dream-like. I sat in the mountain breeze for a while and did some yoga because it seemed appropriate in the zen surroundings. Back at the hut we met some cool Israelis who lent me a pair of pants because I was too stupid not to pack anything but shorts and it was freezing! The next morning I woke up sweating and hos woke up freezing because he had a crap sleeping bag. So I, being the kind hearted person I am, offered to switch sleeping bags with him for the remainder of the morning. We hiked back down to the township of Arthurs pass and despite my beautiful surroundings, I felt like (excuse me) shit! I came down with a bad cold/throat ache/cough etc…
 Because I was feeling so terrible we drive to this town called greymouth and I slept and hung out with the friendly hostel kitten all night. The next day was lame.. Went to the supermarket, did laundry, drove to franz Josef glacier. 

We arrived at franz Josef glacier mid-day and checked into our hostel and made a delicious tortellini and salad dinner. When it got dark we walked on a rainforest path that was illuminated solely my glowing worms (coolest thing ever) there was a cave-like opening that I laid under and looked up at the glow worms like stars. Seriously one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. The next day we woke up painfully early to go ice climbing on franz josef glacier which was cancelled because of rain. In lieu of ice climbing we opted for a guided hike inside the glacier. We hiked 2 hours through dense rainforest until we got to the glacier. Ive seen a lot of ice in my life but this was something else. A massive light blue wedge of ice that extended beyond the mountains. I then put my clampons (shoes with spikes on the bottom) and hiked up the glacier. There were huge crevasses in the ice and we had to hold on to a rope clamped into the ice to not fall in. Our guide knew everything about how the glacier formed and onthe walk back I chatted with him about quartz as we picked up fallen pieces on the ground. The glacier hike was probably my favorite thing I’ve done in NZ thus far. After the glacier we swam in glacial hot pools and chatted with 2 Germans who were super friendly and funny. We drove 5 hrs to Wanaka in torrential rain and a deer jumped in front of car giving us barely enough time to break before it. It was uncomfortable and scary.

In Wanaka we kayaked the calm waters of Lake Wanaka underneath the rainforesty green mountains and looming misty clouds. After I was done kayaking I waited inside for hos to be done. I chatted with the kayak store owner and the building began to sway… I said “are we shaking?” he looked surprised, laughed, and said, “yup, we are in an earthquake!” I didn’t believe it, the building was swaying back and forth in a surprisingly graceful manner, and I kept my balance by gripping to the wooden counter. The earthquake wasn’t bad, I was 6 hrs from the epicenter Christchurch which is in shambles now. :( after the quake we decided to drive to Queenstowm, picked up a friendly French hitchhiker, and settled into our hostel. I ate an entire alarmingly huge tofu curry burger. That’s all thus far! Tomorrow is my birthday and I’m gonna skydive if the weather is suitable (sorry mom!!!)

Miss you all! Will continue to update!