The Beginning of the End (NZ Part 8)

Bec and I have officially left Palmy for the infamous journey to America... That's right, Bec has to go through heaps of paperwork, etc. to be allowed into the States. Once again, we are making our own road trip. :) But first, more time with my beloved Kiwi family. On Friday, I spent the day with Bec at her school where there was a luncheon celebration for her graduation. Yummy food made by the cooking students. Her Mum came as well. That evening the four kids (Bec, Leighton, Chloe, and I) went to the movies to see "Prince Caspian." It was pretty good, worth the watch, we decided.


A real Kiwi hamburger, topped with all the fixings. Huge - definitely the best burger ever, and homemade. Bec's Mum began making these so the kids would stop asking for McDonald's burgers. Apparently, she also made KFC chicken and Fish 'n' Chips. I've been eating the best foods ever. More on food later...

The following pictures are from the movie theatre. From the left: Leighton, Bec, Me, Chloe







The weather has been very kind to us while I've been here. It was due time for a rain. So that's what it did... all day on Saturday. We were really looking forward to going on another ride, but it was so rainy! We spent most of the day inside, but we were desperate to be outside and play. During a break in the rain, we decided that we were going to go for our road ride after all. So while we were gathering the horses, it started to rain. All of us are pretty stubborn, however, so we kept it up, groomed (as best we could), got dirty (of course), tacked up quickly, and began the most memorable ride ever. That's according to Chloe. "At least we'll never forget it!" It was pouring. We rode out on the road (haha) for a ways, got really cold and wet, and finally decided to go home because it was so miserable. Changed and warm, we had tea (dinner), and remembered the glow worms. You can only see them at night, and this was our last chance. We drove out to the place where we knew we could see them... without a torch (flashlight). Real dumb, right? We get to the spot, and it ends up being a hike up a creek. Fortunately we were wearing gumboots (rubber rain boots). Bec and I used her Mum's cell phone as a light and hiked up the creek in the woods to where we could see the glow worms along the gorge walls. It was cool. :) They're basically little bugs that glow in the dark, little dots all over. But you can't take a picture because they die when the light is too bright.

Sunday afternoon, after church, Bec and I began our journey north. We drove from Palmy to Hamilton, where we stayed at Ness's parents' house (Ness wasn't with us, sadly). We had a bit of trouble finding it. We kept looking for Avalon Street. Eventually, while looking all over the place, we looked up at a road sign and simultaneously said, "Avalon!" We were ON Avalon... somehow... Anyway, we found their house and slept very well. The Curtis family was very welcoming, and Ness's Mum even had all the breakfast food set out for us in the morning. It was quite sweet. :)

The next morning we drove from Hamilton to Aukland. This is where the purpose of the road trip comes in. Bec has to go for a personal interview thing at the American Consolate, which is in Aukland, to get her visa approved. The latest she can go is 3 days before her flight, so we had to go up this week. On Monday morning we arrived in Aukland, but were a bit early for her meeting. We parked the car on the street, but we only paid for an hour, so we walked around for a little while, I closed my bank account, etc. Then we had to move the car so we wouldn't get (another) parking ticket. We were aiming for one of the 15 minute spots where I could just sit in the car and wait for her. It doesn't take long, just a pain. Anyway, so somehow Bec took a wrong turn and we ended up in what was obviously a private car park (parking lot). Well we couldn't have that, so we turned around, but the gate (there's a GATE???) started to close, and we were trapped!!! This was doubly bad, because Bec had to be at the Embassy AND we were trapped. I figured there had to be a way out for people, so I opened the Fire Exit door and we ran out towards the Embassy. She handed me the key and said I should stay with the car just in case our car got caught. I headed back to the car park, but I couldn't even walk into it. I saw a worker and asked him to help. As we walked over to the gate it began to open. I said, "Oh great! How do I know it will stay open?" He goes, "I have no idea. I'll just stand here." So I ran to the car, and had to rush my heart attack, since this is a manual car AND I'm driving on the left side of the road. This lady put her key card in to make sure the gate stayed open, since she was the one who had opened it, and I drove out onto a one way street where another worker told me I had to turn around. So I went back, drove around the block a few times, trying not to shake (relax, meditate, breathe) and found a 15 minute park across the street from the Embassy that was for buses only. Bec came out the door and I honked and she came running across the street, thankful that our car was back safely!! Actually, it's her Mum's car, who so kindly let us use it for our trip, since it's the better car of the ones in their driveway. Whew! What an adventure. Off to Kerikeri!

Kerikeri is the home of Bec's aunt and uncle who, along with 5 other kids, also house Bec's brother Joel. They own a motel, which is pretty cool. The weather here is lovely, it's very green and sunny, and it's a pleasure to be with such good people.

Today Bec and I went to Waitangi, which is the historical site of the treaty signing between the British and the Maori. It's quite cool.


This is a waka, a conoe used by the Mauri, mostly for war.


The Mauri love adorning with wood carvings, and are quite good at it. It's a tradition passed down, and each tribe has its own particular wood carving symbols.


This is the top of a mari, a house, which is basically a big room in which the Mauri people lived. This particular one we visited was made for all Mauri tribes included in the peace treaty signed at Waitangi.


This is one wood carving from a tribe. I'm not sure which one... Anyway, they had representatives from each tribe come in and do a wood carving for this mari. Because they knew that there would be tribes from all over there, and that lots of people would be seeing it, they did amazing work. The carvings are often decorated with inlain paua shell.

After visiting the historical sites at Waitangi, we decided to take the coastal walk, which, as it says, follows the coast line along the bay. It was lovely weather, so sunny, blue skies, almost no wind, and warm. We had a few adventures along the way. :)


I decided to climb down a ledge to the coast to get a better view. This is Bec pointing off somewhere in the distance.


This is the Bay of Islands, where we took our walk. Isn't it beautiful? Imagine this as your backyard... Not that my backyard is all that bad. :)

We stopped in a field of green green grass. It naturally made me want to do cartwheels. Bec and I decided to practice our cartwheels, handstands, headstands, etc. There are videos to accompany, but they take too long to upload. So this is Bec after a headstand.



Somewhere else along the way we climbed down to the rocks (we think they are volcanic rock, since NZ was made from volcanoes). I'm not sure what I was doing, but Bec thought it looked like a sillouette.



I told her to do the same thing for a sillouette of her. She decided a teapot would be best. This is why I love her. :)



Because of the erosion, trees are growing sideways out of a cliff that basically falls down to a pile of rocks next to the water. Of course, I thought they looked like fun. So we climbed them. Well, we had to climb over to them a bit through the bush, and then we could climb across them, sort of.


I think this picture is precious of Bec sitting in her little nook. We were about 4 meters, or maybe 15 or 20 feet above the rocks.


I'm not quite sure what I'm doing here, but it's a cool tree, huh? :)

For lunch we sat on the rocks right by the water and had a little ocean biology lesson after we ate. We found some cool living things... not really sure what they are...


This little guy was inside one of those curly shells. We think he was a sea snail. Very cute.


This might be either a sea urchin or a banacle, but we really don't know. It was stuck to the rocks. The longer it was out, the smaller it got. We think we killed it. We also found mussels, one of which Bec successfully pried off the rocks. Strong tongues. It's still alive. As it dies, it will open up. We're thinking of steaming it so we can eat it.

Other Kiwi foods I have eaten:
- New Zealand Oysters
- Mince Pies: Kiwis like to make pies. Mostly mince (that's my favorite), sometimes it's just pastry crust, sometimes it's potato top. (Mince is ground chuck, but they always flavor it.)
- Possum Pie: Possums are an introduced animal to NZ, and they are devestating for the natural environment here. Typical Kiwi ingenuity, they kill as many as they can to save the land, and then they put them in a pie so they don't waste it.
- Pavlova (creamy goodness)
- Becker's Slice (Bec's own yummy desserts)
- Chocolate Self Sauce Pudding (kind of like a cake... only better)
- Apple Crumble
- Kumura (a vegetable kind of like a potato, only better)
- Pumpkin Soup
- Roast Pumpkin
- Sausages (like hot dogs, only bigger, and different)
- Kiwi burgers (shown above)
- Hokey Pokey Ice Cream (my new favorite)
- Cadbury Chocolate Bars: Crunchy, Picnic, Flake, Time Out, etc.
- Pineapple Lumps (When God was giving out stuff, New Zealand slept in. When they got there, they were a bit groggy and weren't fast enough for the gold. After realizing the dire nature of getting first dibs as God called out the item, and as soon as God spoke, "Pine-" NZ buzzed in. God finished with "-apple Lumps," and handed NZ the chocolate candy. It tastes pretty good - and it's as good as gold.)
- Wheat Bix (think Wheat Biscuits, only with more grains)
- Vegemite
- Fijoa (a fruit)
- Sweet Milo (kind of like hot chocolate)
- I WILL try Rice Pudding and Tamarillos (another fruit)

That's all for now, folks. :) Hope all is well! Take care.

Back to Real Kiwi Life (NZ Part 7)

My South Island trip began (apparently) and ended with quite a fiasco. I'll tell you about both.

A week prior to this past Sunday, Bec drove me down to Wellington, as you may already know, where we stayed at a backpacker hostel for the night. Normally, Bec is very responsible and calls her Mum to check in. However, we were quite forgetful at this time to do simple things like, bring the phone in from the car. So around 11:30, while Bec and I were enjoying a movie and microwaved Pineapple Lumps, her Mum was having a panic attack because the hostel called her to inform her that Bec and I had not arrived at the hostel. Naturally, Mrs. McLeay called the police to send out a search party. Her and Mr. McLeay then decided to take a slow drive to Wellington to see if we had gone off the road anywhere. First they called back the hostel to see if we came in. The new person on the phone then assured her that we had checked in at 6:00 that evening. Mrs. McLeay got very little sleep that night, and in the morning we found her texts on Bec's phone, along with a parking ticket. Woops...

Ten days later I returned to Wellington by Ferry to take (yet another) bus up to Palmy. In Picton, before getting on the ferry, I met a guy from California, Nick, who was WWOOFing around NZ (Willing Workers On Organic Farms - works for room and board in different places). We hung out on the ferry, then went to the railway station to get a bus, though he wasn't going to be on a bus until the next morning. So he booked into the only hostel I knew about, which was across the street, the same backpackers we had stayed at before. I stuck around to wait for my bus, which was supposed to leave at 7:50 that evening. I didn't even see a bus until 8:30, at which point the driver told me that no more buses were leaving that night. He had barely gotten through the roads because of the weather. So I was stuck. I went over to the hostel and booked a night there, where I ran into Nick again. Stayed the night, radda radda ra, booked a bus in the morning, and headed back over to the station to wait. Oddly enough, Nick shows up to get on the same bus north. He was headed to Auckland, however, so we said our final (or who knows?) goodbyes (again) when I switched buses to get to Palmy. Whew. So I reach Palmy, a city I fortunately know my way around in, at least partly, and there are no coin operated pay phones. So I walk to the square and hope that there's one in the mall. No such luck. I decided to eat first, then decide what to do. After the most unhealthy meal I've eaten since Bec and I made dessert for dinner (Burger King... I am ashamed), I remembered that Mrs. McLeay works downtown. I walked to her office to find her gone at lunch with Bec. Another guy in the office rung her up and told me where to meet her and Bec. I left my gear and made my way up the street, greeted by Bec running down the sidewalk. It was an excellent homecoming. :)

Well, this is Bec's last day of school, and on Sunday we are headed north since Bec has to be in Auckland at the consolate on Monday to sort out her visa. Only 2 more days with my Kiwi family. :( Tonight we are all going to the movies together to see "Prince Caspian." Tomorrow I think we are going to see the glow worms. They know a little spot that most people don't know about, so we can just walk in. This is cool, because when I was on the South Island they were charging people to go see them. I thought, no way, I can go for free with Bec! Anywho, no pictures today, sad to say, but I may not be on for another week or more - who knows? We'll be doing a bit of traveling, so I may not be able to get online until Los Angeles, or even NYC, which is a week away.

Take care, all. And happy early birthday, Auntie Rie!! I hope you have a good one!! :)

Too Much to Remember (NZ Part 6)

Make sure you read the previous blog - it's much more interesting than this next one. Mostly, I'm just trying to keep up with all the traveling I'm doing lately. There is so much information about what I've seen, I will never remember everything. Something about history and reasons and government... It may come back to me. Anyway, mostly it's been driving from place to place. Yesterday I was in Dunedin, which was actually quite a big city. Well, "big." I bought a book by a New Zealand author, Diane Brown, called Here Comes Another Vital Moment. It's nonfiction, about things she noticed, basically, as she travelled. It's quite good. I like it. Anyway, I was kind of hoping that I might run into her while I was in Dunedin, as she lives there, but alas, it's much too big. And very hilly. It's home to the world's steepest street, as well as the 3rd and 4th steepest streets in the world. The 2nd steepest street in the world is in San Francisco. Why we have streets that bloody steep, I don't know. Anyhow. I'm in Lake Takepo right now, which thankfully is a very small town. I spent the afternoon walking along the lake shore, enjoying the lovely weather and the heavenly view of the Southern Alps, as they call them.


This is Baldwin Street - the world's steepest street. Magic Bus riders enjoyed a nice stroll up to the top. It really is quite steep. The bus wouldn't have made it.


These are some really round boulders on the beach. I don't actually know why they are significant, something to do with the Maori. I didn't read the thing. They look cool though, eh? This is one of our stops along the way.

While in Dunedin, I did do one pretty cool thing, and that was go on the Elm Wildlife tour. I meant to do the kayaking, as well. But that would have required staying an extra night, and I just don't have time to do that. I'm quite bummed - I just can't get to a kayak on this trip. Every attempt has fallen through... Anyway, it was really fascinating anyway, and my childhood love for animals resurfaced.

First we went to see if we could see some Royal Albatross. It isn't quite the season for them to be around, however, so we had no luck. Albatross are huge birds, and Royals can have a wingspan of about 3 meters, which is over 10 feet. Crazy! They basically glide over the ocean, filling themselves up with (dead) fish until mating season (they mate for life) and breeding season. Female Albatross spend most of their time feeding their little ones, of course, and it can take quite a toll on their bodies. They have only one baby, and they can only do it every 2 years. Fortunately, the average life span of this bird is about 40 years, and the longest known Albatross in this area lived to at least 62. Unreal! We did see some smaller Albatross, but they were so far away I couldn't get a picture of them.

Our next stop was the Sealions, to which we were very close, walking right near them as they slept, although they were aware of us. They aren't afraid of people, which is good, but can also be dangerous. If this video loads, you can see some of the males in their little social group, two of them fighting (play and practice), and in the middle is the biggest one, guarding his little guy (female substitute). We didn't see any females. They get sick of the boys pretty quick. Even the boys get sick of the boys.


No video, unfortunately, but we were quite close to them, as you can see! Very cool, very huge animals. They can get up to 300 or 400 kgs, which is about 800-900 pounds!

We also got to see yellow eyed penguins, which are pretty rare, but have a safe haven at this private beach saved for the conservatory. They are afraid of humans, but since there is a group there every day and goes to the places and acts the same, they are used to people, and tolerate us. We did get really close to one. They are very small and very cute. No wonder Amanda loves these little guys!



Lastly we went to a fur seal colony. Unfortunately, although they are nocturnal animals, they weren't very active. There were some pups there, and these are mostly females, but they were too comfortable on the rocks to move yet. That's alright. They are allowed to be comfortable. :) Our guide was very nice and seemed to take an interest in my interest, which was cool. She asked me lots of questions, though, about sea mammals in Alaska. Unfortunately, I don't know a whole lot. I only know that seals have fur that's spotted because we wear them and eat them. She seemed a bit concerned that natives are still allowed to hunt sea mammals (Maori are no longer allowed to in NZ), but I assured her that it is still quite traditional in that the whole of the animal is used in most cases. Anyway, I guess I need to brush up on my Alaskan sea mammal knowledge.



I'm running out of time online, so I'm going to wrap up. Yesterday and today I have been spending more time with one lady who has been on the bus with me for a few days. I've been in my own world, as she has been, so we've been reluctant to become more friendly. She's very nice, from Finland, and is actually looking to move to Australia, but is holidaying in NZ. It's been cool chatting with her. She speaks broken English, but works with computer programming and statistics, which is all in English, so that is how she learned. She said she can do alright with that part of the language, but she has a hard time with everyday words. So she can talk about politics, but she can't bake bread. I thought that was funny. :) Anyway, I have one more minute. I hope all is well with you all. Take care.

That was so totally WICKED! (NZ Part 5)

Stay with me on this blog. It's going to be full of pictures of random sights I've seen on my South Island trip. But the best is saved for last - so just hang in there. :) And trust me, it's definitely wicked - this is turning out to be a pretty freakin' sweet trip!

The Magic Bus is pretty cool. We make lots of sightseeing stops on the long drive from town to town. On Monday I went from Picton to Nelson, of course. That was already covered. In each town we go to, travelers have the option of staying as many nights as they want, and then catching the next Magic Bus that comes. Since my time is limited, I've been staying only one night in each town, which is fine - I don't spend as much money, but I still get to do most things that I want to do. Anyway, I digress. From Nelson we went on to Greymouth. The only thing to do there was the brewery tour and BBQ combo, which was pretty cheap, considering what you get. I went ahead and spend the evening with other travelers, which was great fun.




Look closely, and you can see some seals laying in the sun. This is an official seal colony in New Zealand.


This is a Weka bird, one of the many breeds of flightless birds in NZ. Unlike the Kiwi bird, which is a rare sight, the Weka is quite bold. I saw a lot of them, and they seemed unafraid of humans, walking right near me. Pretty cool.


View from the top of a hill at one of our stops on the road.



From Greymouth we moved onto Franz Josef, which was beautiful. It is home to the Franz Josef Glacier. Pretty cool. I had originally planned on doing the glacier kayaking trip, which I was pretty stoked for, and quite keen on doing. Unfortunately, I was the only person interested, and I'm just not enough people. So that fell through. Instead I went for indoor ice climbing. I've done some rock climbing, and I love it. This is a bit different, of course. It was pretty sweet. I went up the first three walls pretty quickly. By the third wall my arms were getting a little weak at using muscles I don't normally use. I fell a little, but recovered quickly and easily. I rested for a bit after that. It was time for something a little more challenging. Unfortunately, my unused muscles were too tired for the overhang, and I just couldn't go on. Well, I didn't want to hurt myself, either. I lost one of the picks in the ice above me when I fell (don't worry, I was on a rope) - haha - so, with the help of the guy at the other end of the rope (boulay? boulet? belay? I don't know how to spell it) I climbed back up to grab it before heading back down the wall. Shockingly, I wasn't terribly sore the following days.


South Island west coast




These are called the Pancake Rocks because, although you can't see it very well because of the picture's size, the rocks look as though they are stacked like pancakes. There is a cafe across the street from this park that serves pancakes. Shocker.


This is the Franz Josef Glacier. There was an option to go hiking through the glacier, but I didn't budget for that. Maybe I'll do this sometime when I'm back home in Alaska.


I should also go ice climbing again - on real ice next time, though. It was pretty cool to learn how to do it. This is the "classic" pose, according to the instructor. I just went with it. :)

From Franz Josef we drove down to Queenstown. This was a very long drive, but we stopped quite a few places for some beautiful scenery. I think you will agree.


They call these the Mirror Lakes because they reflect so clearly. I was supposed to kayak on a similar lake, but I'm not bitter about that... Anyway, another stop along the way.


At the cafe we stopped at, where we were, it was quite crisp outside. It made for nice walking weather. Anyway, another woman and I walked the path first, then headed back to the cafe. She was looking forward to warmth. But when I walked in I found it uncomfortably hot. I chose to stand outside instead, and this is the view. Isn't it lovely? Unbelievable.


We stopped at a beautiful waterfall. I posed Carrie's question to a couple of people: "Why does everyone like waterfalls?" I got some interesting answers. They agreed, of course, that everyone loves waterfalls. One guy said it had to do with the fact that moving water is sterile, totally clean, untouched. He also talked about its power, how it can shape rocks, etc. Both people basically decided that it's unexplainable, so magnificent it cannot be described in words, and maybe that's what draws us. I don't know if there will ever be a final answer. But at least we know there is no wrong answer.


This is Charlene, a girl from Molta - her and I have been traveling on Magic together for the last few days. She will be staying in Queenstown without me, however. But it has been fun to get to know her!


We also stopped at a bungy bridge. Not just any bungy bridge - the first commercial bungy bridge in the world, founded by two crazy guys, one of which stayed up all night so that he could bungy off the Eiffel Tower without notice of the police. He did it in the morning, and was arrested not long after. I don't think he cared. Anyway, a few people from our bus did it. I had thought before that I would never bungy jump. But after watching a few people do it, it kind of looks like fun. I might just change my mind. :)

Queenstown is very pretty - it's surrounded by mountains. We didn't get here until the evening time (I'm still here), so I am two nights here. Today was my day for action. I am trying to mix up my adventures with busy and relaxing. But there are a few things that I have budgeted for and definitely wanted to do. The glacier kayaking fell through. And I was afraid this next one might also. It didn't, however, and today I fulfilled one of my longtime goals. Well, almost. It was tandem, and hopefully I'll be able to do it on my own someday. Anyway, I went Hang Gliding!!! That's right, I was hang gliding. Pretty sweet, huh?? Yep, totally wicked. I definitely have to do it again!



Basically, I strapped on a harness, my guy hooked me onto the glider, and then we ran off a bloody mountain. I believe those were his exact words. "You just ran off a bloody mountain." Yes, yes I did. And I definitely want to do it again! We were in the air for about 7-10 minutes, I reckon, though I wasn't keeping time. Literally flying - so cool. It's interesting to see the world from that point of view. It's unreal. The landing was my favorite, I think. Just sort of rolled onto the ground... What's funny, I wasn't even scared when we ran off the mountain. I was so stoked to get out there - I was more scared driving up the mountain than jumping off of it. Anyway, it was fantastic.


This is me at almost 4,000 feet on a mountain in the Remarkables (the mountain range in Queenstown) getting ready to jump off of it. Isn't it lovely?


Yep, I'm flying! Wee!


This is my guide, Dave. Basically, this was the sweetest experience ever. I'm totally getting one of those things... not that there are many mountains to jump off of in Unalakleet... But someday, I have to learn how to do this myself.

These last couple of days have felt very lazy to me. I am on holiday, so I suppose that's alright. Tomorrow I am hoping to kayak - ugh, I hope it goes through. We are driving to Dunedin, and the afternoon I am hoping will be spent taking a tour of the Elm Wildlife and then kayaking through it, as well.

Traveling alone is great - I highly recommend it. It's a good chance to get to know yourself better. I feel like this is selfish, but I reckon that's okay for now, even if it is selfish. I'm learning a lot about myself, and I reckon this whole adventure is making me a better, stronger, more confident person. I have never been more comfortable with being alone than I am now. In fact, at this point, I'd almost rather be alone. I'd rather spend my evening watching a movie on my own than hoofing around town with a group of people that I will probably never see again. I'd rather hike a trail by myself than have to make conversation with someone I've never met. I guess I'm just not here to meet people - I'm here to see New Zealand. And although this whole bus trip is rather touristy, I suppose it's a good way to introduce myself to the island anyway. And the rest of my trip is more Kiwi than this is anyhow - living with a family, learning about actual life in this country, understanding the economy and the people and the lifestyle. There's a lot that the tour guides don't tell us about life in NZ, and all we see are the places that are generally crowded with people from other countries looking for a thrill somewhere other than where they live. I've had the strangest feeling lately. I've actually missed home - home, as in Unalakleet. Generally, I dread the idea of leaving holiday and going back to the normal. But lately I've actually been looking forward to it. I don't want to leave NZ, that's for sure, and I want my holiday to last as long as possible here, as much for the experience as for the time with Bec. But I'm also looking forward to being back in my own space, in my own community, with my own friends, and of course, my own dog(s). Yeah, I have a puppy now, so technically I have 2 dogs. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the little one yet. I may just end up with 2 dogs. Not so bad, I suppose.

Well anyway, lots of droning on and on. Not really holiday sort of blogging, that last part. But then again, this is my blog. And if you haven't noticed my worldview ClusterMap, I've had a lot of hits. :) Make sure you leave me some comments!!

Moving Along (NZ Part 4)

Welp, I'm sitting here in a hostel in Nelson. My South Island trip has officially started. But let me do a little update from my last few days in Palmy. (Don't worry, I'm going back there.) On Friday (I think - it must have been Friday), Bec and I went on the gorge walk. It reckons that the walk takes about 4 hours each way - so you start at one end, go to the other, and then walk back. Some people just get picked up at the other end, but we wanted to do the whole thing. That's 8 hours, right? Nah, we hoofed it in 6 hours. :) We were pretty wicked sore afterwards, of course. It was beautiful walking, really shady, and really hilly. Up and down, up and down. It basically was a big hill up, little hill down, little hill up, big hill down - one way - then back again. We do these things (3 hours riding on the beach, 4.5 hours biking, 6 hours hiking, etc.), and then we go home and watch TV, shows like "The Biggest Loser," and then we decided that we do these things so we don't ever have to be on "The Biggest Loser." Mostly, it's enjoyable.


The view from one of the lookouts at the top of the hill on the gorge walk - so beautiful! It was quite windy up there outside of the forest. But it was just gorgeous.


Bec takes a break after walking up the giant hill on our way back. We were in our 4th or 5th hour of hiking at this point, including a 20-minute lunch break, so our legs were feeling a little rubbery...


Enjoying the walk - the foliage is so green and lovely - perfect! This is winter?!?!?

Saturday was the steeplechase race, and we definitely wanted to go see that. We had decided earlier on to bike to it, but we were both so tired from the previous day's hike. Reluctantly at first, we hopped onto our bikes and began the 45-minute ride to the track. We were both pleasantly surprised at how easy it seemed to go up and down the hills and move so quickly, even in the wind. It was probably my fastest biking to town. We took the BMX detour, of course, for some first grade mountain biking. Then we made our way to the track to meet Ants and her friend for some steeplchase fun!



We were lucky - we were able to walk right in and watch for free, and then we got to stand right next to one of the jumps. If you don't know what steeplechase is, basically it's like a regular horse race, only the horses also jump over brush - in this case they had 19 jumps - as fast as they can. It's very fast, and very dangerous. I would guess there is at least one fall at every race. I would definitely love to try it some day. Maybe not race, but at least run the course. :) (If you've ever seen the movie "National Velvet," the race in that movie is steeplechase.)



It was fast, of course, but really cool to watch. There was one fall, which was interesting. When they were showing the horses at the beginning, Ants called the guy who would fall off, and I called the winner. We were both right. It was one of the last jumps, and the horse skimmed the brush and flipped over. Fortunately he was near the end of the group, so no one was trampled. I wasn't sure the horse was going to get up at first, but he did eventually, complete with bloody flanks and a bloody nose. I'm sure he was lame the next day. The jockey was okay, but injured. Of course we flocked over to take a look. :) Races are fun to go to, because the horses that lose races usually go for really cheap. There are tons of thoroughbreds in NZ, all bred for racing, but if they don't do well they are sold for cheap ($500) or put on the dog truck. Steeplechase horses are especially cool, I think, because they could probably make good eventers.

Anyway, enough about horses. Sorry - once I get going! Sunday was supposed to be a foursome trip to Wellington, but the girl who was going to drive backed out. It ended up just being Bec and I, which was okay, just more expensive. Anyway, we drove down together on Sunday afternoon for our own little road trip! We stopped at an ice cream place along the way, which is never a bad idea. You choose your ice cream, choose up to three fruits and they mix it all up into a soft serve and give you this sweet as ice cream cone. They were huge!



We had a great time at the hostel, watching movies and attempting to make our own dinner in the kitchen. It was a cheap meal that we fenagled from the supermarket, but the oven didn't work... Ah well. Anyway, the next morning I got on the ferry to the South Island. Let me tell you, big boats are not all they're cracked up to be. I was not comfortable. It was pretty, and it was alright, and I'm doing it again because I have to get back, and it's the cheapest way, but I tried to sleep as much as possible.



What I saw, though, was heavenly. I just wish we could have stayed still a little longer...

I pulled into Picton and made my way to the Magic Bus, my ride for the next 10 days. The driver is pretty cool. We came to Nelson and I checked into the hosel. A couple guys in my room and I decided to walk up to the geographical center of New Zealand. Pretty cool view, though the hike was crazy uphill. But we made it. My calves were a little sore from the gorge walk still, but we're all good.







So beautiful from on top of the hill! Imagine this as your backyard view. :) Anyway, we went to the supermarket, so now I'm fed for the next few days, including my new favorite candy: Pineapple Lumps.

My online time is running out - I only bought 1 hour for this evening. But I wanted to update now before things get really fast. I will be in Nelson this evening, then driving to Greymouth tomorrow. One night there, then Franz Josef the next day, hopefully for some glacier kayaking. More fun to come!! Peace to you all - take care!