Appalachia Rising

September 25-27 marks a HUGE gathering of amazing people from all over the Appalachian Mountains to come together against mountaintop removal (MTR). MTR is a devastating practice of extracting coal that was invented to effectively cut coal miners out of the process.

Instead of digging out a mine and having miners go in there and extract coal themselves, huge coal companies (ie Massey, those douchebags/penis pumps) just blow up the mountain, layer by layer, taking the coal out each time. This is a really terrible practice because the idea of it is to just cut the tops of mountains off, then fill the hollers (read: hollow, valley) with all the rock and rubble from the blasts. This leads to toxins in water sources, flooding because streams have just been buried underneath leftover mountain, and scars all over the earth. Furthermore, it is a highly unsustainable practice because all the coal is extracted with a few blasts, whereas traditional mines take years and years and years to empty. So even though this might be a cheaper way of doing things, only HUGE corporations and CEOs (I hate Don Blankenship) are the ones who profit, no one else. This video explains everything better, although it has the feel of something made in the early 90s.

What we're doing at Appalachia Rising is a number of workshops focused on things from community organizing to field work and corporate campaigning to media work. Our work together is really unique because it combines skills from all walks of life. I'm from California, I now live in DC, and I'm committed to the environmental movement and will rejoice when the day comes that we stop destroying our planet. Countless other people I met yesterday were from all across Appalachia, some from Kentucky, some from West Virginia, some from Georgia, all being directly affected by MTR. Other people were from Utah, New York, even San Francisco, there to show their solidarity with the movement. What we learn will culminate in a day of action, where we will rally together as one, march to the White House, and ask that MTR is stopped.

You can find out more about Appalachia Rising by checking out their website, and I also encourage you to take a look at Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, I Love Mountains, and Appalachian Voices. There are a lot of other organizations out there, but those are some good ones to start with.

For the Mountains,

Harmony

So it's been almost a half a year since NZ....

And I'll hafta say, life's been interesting. For starters, there have been some obvious changes since I've been back. Ean and I have changed, I'm a senior in college now, I'll be participating in DC, and one of my brothers is moving up to Alaska. Talk about some crazy occurrences. But, through all of this, it has been incredibly important for me to constantly keep focused on the positives. Currently I'm looking for an internship for my UCDC thing, I'm working for Greenpeace, and I'm trying to stay on top of my schoolwork (I'm taking my senior seminar this quarter!). New Zealand was a great way to take a step away from my life as a whole and view it from a different angle. I'm really glad I did it.

But now it's on to bigger and better adventures. Especially with my schooling wrapping up for the next couple of years (before I go to grad school), now more than ever will my life present me with new opportunities. However, this does not mean that I am just going to leave family and friends behind.... and those in between. I love them all and I'm so glad they are part of my life. As always, time is trudging on, which means things I wanted to arrive faster a year ago are closer than ever, and it's really crazy to think that finally they will come to pass. Not for a while, but in time. The important thing is that I'm not frozen in a space-time continuum, like oftentimes I feel like.

Things I'm excited for:

-my brother's move

-visiting him once he's moved

-Sasquatch! lineup

-Devotchka, Bon Iver, Animal Collective, Passion Pit cds

-seeing Ean... eventually

-UCDC

-graduating

-life beyond school

I'll keep you posted on all of these. Hope everything is going well.

Much love.

My last days in New Zealand.

Well everyone, the time has finally come to say goodbye to New Zealand.  Yesterday was my last full day here, and it really made me realize how much I'm going to miss being over here.  Anyway, I'll give you a debriefing on yesterday.

I woke up around 11a, hung out in the room and did some stuff on the internet, then around 130pish, headed towards downtown to (hopefully) find this Japanese restaurant called Renkon that's supposed to be reaaaaaaally good.  After carefully reading every cross street ( I was looking for Kingston), I finally decided to go into a souvenir shop to look for stuff I wanted and hopefully get some directions.  On my list to get for today before I fly back to the US was one of those round ball sheep, a kiwi bird (both stuffed animals), some Rotorua soap that my mom had asked for, and, approximately, a ton of Tim Tams.  So I go into this first place and find a (kinda) reasonably priced sheep, and (not so reasonably priced) soap, yay!!  So I buy it, and ask for directions, to which the girl looks at me funny and says, "sorry, I don't know street."  Umm, what?  It seems like if you lived in a city, you'd kinda have a grasp of the streets.  Whatever.  So onto the next place, which didn't have anything I wanted, so whatever.  I turn the corner, and in a distance I see "A Okay Souvenir Shop," so I figured I might as well check it out.  Upon entry, I realize it's a bit more than "okay," in fact it's really nice, and they have the a kiwi!  Not exactly the one I wanted, which I should've bought in Akorua (the only place I've seen it), but oh well, this one's adorable, even if it's not completely accurate (the Kiwi has tiny wings, and real Kiwi don't have wings at all [not even the remnant bones of them, like you know how whales still have "feet" or whatever]).

At this point it's around 230p, maybe later, and yesterday Mom said that I should go on one of the sailing tours that's offered by the company that raced in America's Cup, so I decided to head over there and check it out.  Unfortunately I had already missed the sailing trip on the actual America's Cup boat, but they still had the Coffee Tour available that was departing in 4 minutes, and I could get it with a 10% discount if I don't have any brownies.  It would still be on a sailboat, just not the America's Cup one, which was fine with me (the boat was a 50+ foot beautiful sailboat.... I want one [wood please! hah]).  So I hop on, am told the coffee and tea is free, sweet! get a cup of tea, and we depart from the harbour.  On the boat with me was a couple from Spain (I'm pretty sure it was Spain....), another couple from Houston, Texas (but had been traveling around for so long that they basically said that most recently they were from Australia) that had two little boys, a guy from North Carolina, a woman from Australia, and another couple from Australia.  After leaving the docks and getting out into the harbour and open water, they released the sails and turned off the engine, and for the next hour or so, we were coasting purely by wind.  It was amazing.  They asked for a volunteer, and after no one responded I said, "Um, I mean I'll do it."  And thus was how I became the first person on the boat to steer, woot!  It was totally awesome and I didn't even think of taking a picture I was so stoked, how lame!  But I could definitely get used to sailing.... maybe I'll take that sailing class offered by UCSC this quarter or something.

Anyway, I'm totally glad I decided to go on the sailing tour because I definitely was a bit apprehensive, but it was soooo worth it and I had a really good time.  Thank you Mom and Dad!  After getting off the boat, I headed back towards a bus stop that would take me to a Pak 'N Save (the 312), and on the way there saw a great souvenir shop that only sold stuff made in NZ, apparently.  So I went in and had a look around, at which time I stumbled upon honey.  Now, honey is kinda a big deal in NZ, and most books will tell you that you HAVE to try/buy some honey while over here, so I decided to buy a little pot of each flavor: Manuka (the healing one, and most famous in NZ), Rewarewa, Kamahi (I think), and just some good ol' clover honey.  So, I'm excited about trying each one, even though they've added some weight to my checked luggage.... I hope I'm not over the weight limit, I'm dreading checking my luggage in tonight!!  At the same store I also got one of those balance wine holder things.  The Paua (abalone) options for inlays were the Kiwi bird, the silver fern, a map of NZ, a dot, or the koru.  I went with the silver fern because I don't think I've gotten anything with it on it yet, and it's crazy how much the silver fern represents NZ and how much you see it every day over here.  So yeah, I got that as well, and I found the MOST AMAZING greenstone piece, that I was IMMEDIATELY drawn to.  It was crazy, I was just like, OH MY GOD, I need that.  I'm not sure who I'm going to give it to yet (definitely a boy, but I don't think Brad would want it, and Dad doesn't wear necklaces haha, and I already got a fishhook for Taylor.... if he likes this one more he can have it.  Maybe Ean).  So yeah I definitely went over the checklist thing, but oh well, I like what I got and think everyone who gets something will too.

After the souvenir place I headed towards the bus stop that the 312 passed, and on the way there I saw the 312 stopping at a bus stop that was literally 10 feet away, so I jumped on, yay less walking! haha.  I had not clue which stop would be mine, so I told the bus driver I was goign to the Pak 'N Save in Royal Oak, and he said, "no problem!  Jump on!"  After about a 30 minute bus ride (I was getting anxious that I might miss my stop, hah) the bus driver told me the next stop would be mine.  I got off, crossed the street to the Pak 'N Save, bought two Mangosteen, then hunted down the Tim Tams.  It's crazy how much you save by not buying them at tiny little corner stores; usually the single row ones cost something like $3.50-$4, but at Pak 'N Save, they were like $3.20 or something for a double row one.  So yeah, I got five. hahahahahah.  My bags are stuffed to the fluff, it's hilarious, but sooooo worth it.  Then I walked down three bus stops just because the bus wasn't going to there for another 20 minutes and I didn't really wanna stand around that long, then caught the 19- Midtown around 6:30 or 7p.  Finally I got back to Queen St. and immediately headed to the Indian food restaurant that has the best Indian food in the world.  I ordered a Samosa Chat (not sure what the Chat means), chicken korma (medium heat), garlic paratha, and a glass of Gisborne Gewürztraminer.  The food was delicious, albeit a bit too hot, but I definitely enjoyed it and took the other half (along with another order of garlic paratha) for lunch the next day.  After that I headed back to the hostel and did some more stuff online, read a magazine, talked with my roommates, and just hung out for the rest of the night.

Now today, Friday, I've already checked out and am just hanging out, waiting for my shuttle to pick me up around 3p.  I'm looking forward to lunch ( :  I leave AKL at 7:30 pm today, and arrive in SFO at 12:45 pm..... today. haha.  So I'll have fun time traveling today.

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL!!  SEE YOU IN JUST A FEW DAYS ( :

From Greymouth to Christchurch to Auckland!

Since my last post I've done quite a bit of traveling in quite a limited amount of time.  So, yesterday morning I woke up at 9a to pack all of my things up, then checked out of the best hostel ever.  This hostel is obviously the best because Steve was just like, "yeah you can put your bags in the lounge and hang out or just take a walk.  Just make sure you're back here at 1230 and we'll drive you to the train station."  Seeing as I had bought a week's worth of internet from IAC (the provider that is YHA's and the best hostel ever's provider), I hung around in the lounge and did some stuff online that needed doing.  Once 1230p rolled around, I headed outside to wait for Steve and Charlie to get ready; as soon as I stepped outside, I realized that it was POURING rain (well, not really pouring), which I definitely wasn't expecting.  So, on my coat went, and then it was time to load up my bags and go to the station.  Once there, Steve pointed me in the right direction and I thanked him for everything, then I went and checked my bags and waited for the train.  After about an hour of waiting, I boarded the train, and off we went.  The TranzScenic rail on the specific line I was traveling on is, apparently, one of the most beautiful train rides in the world.  It really was beautiful, and we passed through fields, mountains, hills, rivers-- everything, and it was incredibly beautiful.  The snow-capped mountains and the cow-dotted fields were incredible, as were the ghost towns and ex-railway boom towns that we passed.  After a 20 minute ride through a tunnel we came to Arthur's Pass, then started our descent to the other side of the Alps.  This side was mostly farm land and brownish fields (in parts), and felt quite familiar to me, as my family and I traveled through country like this on our way down to Christchurch.  Anyway, the closer we got to Christchurch, the darker it became; by the time we arrived, night had fallen.  Once there, I hopped on a $5 shuttle to X Base, at which point I met up with Gemma.  After talking for a while, we headed out to eat and ended up at an Indian food restaurant, which was quite yummy ( :  After dinner we headed back to Base, figured out the bus situation to the airport for me, then we watched my skydiving video.  We were about to watch the bungy video when we realized that is was 838p and the bus would be leaving the stop in two minutes, yikes!  So we ran down the stairs, got my bags, and started our run across Cathedral Square to the bus stop.  Luckily, I got to the bus right as it had shut its doors, and was able to get on the bus, thanks to the nice bus driver.  After a bunch of goodbyes, a hug, and $7, I was off on my way to CHC.  I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, thankfully, checked in, checked my luggage, then checked through security and sat at my gate until it was time to board.  My flight was pretty good, a bit ghetto fabulous, considering I was flying Jet Star (only $39!), and albeit the complete BRAT that sat behind me and kicked my seat and yelled in my face the entire time, mostly peaceful.  hah.  I switched seats a few times to avoid the kid, but I swear, she was on me like the plague, and the worst part-- THE MOM DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!!  I hate bad parents, I mean, keep your kids in check, man.  Anyway, I was starting to doze off when we started to make our descent, so I stayed up.  After landing, getting my luggage, and finding the shuttle I was booked with, I was headed towards Auckland.  The driver kinda messed up my dropoff and I ended up being the last off the shuttle, even though we had already passed the city, but he was really sorry about it and helped me right to the door of the YHA- City.  A really nice guy was working the front desk of the YHA at 120a, and was helpful in opening the door and checking me in and everything.  Anyway, I got to my room, made my bed, got ready for bed, and hopped in for some much needed sleep.

The next day my roommates got up early, but I tried to sleep in.  Finally, thinking it was probably around 1p, I woke up, only to find out it was like, 1040a.  What a rip off!  After hanging out on the internet for awhile talking to Mom and Dad, I headed out to have a walk around downtown Auckland.  I walked down to the harbour, checked out some souvenir shops, and stumbled on an AWESOME (by NZ standards) music shop called "Real Groovy," where I spent waaaaaaaaaaaay too much money, but oh well, I've been deprived.  I bought re-arrange us by Mates of State, Puzzles like you by Mojave 3, Fur and Gold by Bat for Lashes, March of the Zapotec and realpeople Holland by Beirut, and Oracular Spectacular by MGMT.  After that I headed back to the YHA, skyped Ean, talked with my roommates, then went out to find something to eat.  I ended eating at the self-acclaimed best Turkish place in all of Auckland, haha, which was actually pretty good, but definitely wasn't the best souvlaki I've had before (Christchurch, you win).  Anyway, now I've mostly been hanging out at the hostel, and am going to go to bed soon.  Tomorrow is my last full day in New Zealand, I can't believe it!  It's crazy, and definitely a bit depressing, but I'm ready to come home.  I love you all.

fire alarms and one more note about Franz Josef, oh and the best hostel EVER!

Alright, we'll start off with fire alarms.  Since I've been in New Zealand, the grand total of unnecessary fire alarms set off where I'm staying is THREE.  That's crazy; I don't think I have ever experienced this high of a fire alarm frequency, ever.  The first one, as aforementioned in another post, was while I was staying at the YHA Wellington with my parents and Brad.  That sucked; it was super early, and I was tired.  The second one happened just about a week ago at the X Base Queenstown, at around 1 or 2a; luckily I had just gotten back from a bar or something and was hanging out with everyone in the room, so I wasn't quite asleep yet (though on the verge, I will say).  This was probably the most funny one, just because Robert the security guard was INCREDIBLY pissed that someone had pulled it, and was walking up the stairs yelling, "WHOEVER DID THIS IS GOING TO GET IT, I SWEAR.  WE'LL GET YOU."  Then, when they told us we could go back inside (30-45 minutes later, lame), they yelled that they needed to speak to whoever was in 303.  Apparently after that they arrested some guy that had pulled it, which is hilarious, and totally deserving.  My theory is that he was affiliated with Ferg Burger and the only reason it was pulled was for Ferg to get more business that night, seeing as how a ridiculous amount of people that were woken up and shoved out of Base immediately went over there (hilarious).  And now (and definitely the most random/ridiculous) was two days ago at the Rainforest Retreat.  I had just gotten into Franz Josef, checked into my room and gone to the bathroom, when, lo and behold, the fire alarm goes off?  I was like, really?  Reeeeeeeally?  It was only something like 3p, so it was totally random and out of left field.  Everyone was just like, what's going on? and were completely not taking it seriously, it was actually pretty funny.  I walked outside onto the balcony (I was on the second floor) and the owner is out there going from room to room, in a hunt to find out where the off-switch was.  So, I went downstairs, walked over to the kitchen while he went upstairs to turn it off, and after about a minute, it was all over.  It was hilarious, just because everyone knew it wasn't real, no fire trucks showed up anyway, and the owner was just great.  So yeah.  Maybe I'll get one last one before I leave on Friday.  That'd be great.

Oh, and I remembered one thing about my glacier hike at Franz Josef; right as we were coming up to the actual glacier from the valley and sitting down to strap on our crampons, a HUGE chunk of ice decided to just fall of the front of the glacier.  It was nuts.  It made such a loud craaaaack prghhhhhhh! sound, I literally jumped back and yelled, haha.  Then AJ was like, yeah that probably weighs a couple of tons, easily, which is why you'll be following me today and not just running about on the glacier on your own.  It was NUTS.  Seriously.  But totally awesome and one of the best parts about the hike, I just wish I had it on video.

So today I arrived in Greymouth at around 1230p, where the bus driver told me that this "good guy" that owns Neptune's Hostel has a shuttle and should be here in a few minutes.  So I waited for the Neptune guy, whose name is Steve (and his girlfriend? wife? sister? business associate? Charlie), who took me to his hostel.  This hostel is seriously THE BEST HOSTEL I've stayed in so far.  For starters, there's no bunk beds, just regular beds, which seems like something small, but when you're a backpacker for an extended period of time, is so nice.  The next thing on the list is the fact that Steve is AWESOME, totally hilarious and a really likable guy.  Thirdly, it's only $23, which is great, especially seeing as how I'm DEFINITELY running out of money, and fast (I blame you, Queenstown).  There's also a free hot tub, a VAST amount of movies, a FREE SHUTTLE TO THE TRAIN STATION (awesome, if you couldn't tell already), a beautiful view out the window, and free towels!  Oh, and the best part?  At 4p, Steve brings back bakery items from some connection, haha, every weekday.  And it's FREE.  So yeah, there's also free food here.  Which is awesome.  I haven't paid for any food for something like the past 3 days.  Which is great (well, I paid for it at the grocery store.... I just haven't gone out to eat).

Oh and by the way, how did the Ice Queen or whatever from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe lure that kid into her with Turkish Delight?  Because they sell it over here, and I finally bought a bar today, and I can tell you right now, it's HORRIBLE.  What a dumb kid.

Franz Josef Glacier

HOLY BUJESUS.  Okay I'm gonna start from the beginning.  I woke up this morning at about 810a so I would have plenty of time to get ready and make a sandwich and whatnot, which I did (the sandwich was bomb.com).  Then I walked over to the main street of Franz Josef and hung out with a girl I had met on the bus yesterday that ended up on the same hike as me.  Once they started getting the 915a group ready we went over to the store.  I was then outfitted with rain pants ("trousers"), a big blue windbreaker (Smurf!), some wool socks, and some super soaked boots (size 5? weird).  So yeah, I was basically looking pretty freaking hot.  You'll see in the pictures, which will be soon in the coming (less than a week, I promises).  After we were all geared up and had signed a waiver or the likes we all hopped on a bus, which took us to a national park where the hike commenced.  After veering off the main path to one that said "Danger, do not go past this point if unguided or inexperienced," we finally came out to the valley floor of where the glacier was (some 2.4km away from us at that point).  There was a stream/river running through it and the mountains rising up on either sides were covered in rainforest and waterfalls.  It was beautiful, especially with a giant glacier staring me in the face a distance away.  At this point we broke up into three groups: Group 1- faster pace, smaller steps, for people in good condition and whatnot; Group 2- a bit slower, wider steps, for people somewhere in the middle; and Group 3- slow pace, wide steps, for people not feeling so great today.  I immediately thought, crap man, I am absolutely POSITIVE that I am not in good condition, but then the Canadian girl (Ashley, I believe) was like, let's be in Group 1 because I hear the other two groups suck to be in.  So it was decided.  I would be in Group 1, which was only about 10 or so people large.  We met our guide for the day, AJ, who talked a bit about what we would be doing, then we took off ahead of Groups 2 and 3 at a pretty good clip to reach the glacier before them.  Once at the glacier, we strapped on our crampons, aka chunky spikes, to our feet, had a snack, then started our climb up the glacier face, which at that point was mostly just rubble and rock.  It was really steep and, for me, pretty hard as far as physicality goes.  Finally we made it up on the ice, where we kept climbing, climbing, climbing, until we reached the "ice flats," where we broke for lunch.  At this point it was about 1230p, so we had already been hiking for two hours, at least.  It was nuts, and I have absolutely no problem in telling you that I had a very very difficult time and that the first half of it sucked.  Like, absolutely sucked.  After about 30 minutes (maybe more) of lunch, we packed up and headed towards the really blue stuff, which was higher up the glacier.  For the next four hours we hiked up a bit beyond the halfway point of the glacier (it's something like 220 meters deep at that point-- nuts), and then hiked back down, which didn't take more than an hour.  However, the four hours after lunch were absolutely incredible; the ice was so blue, and our group took a path that, apparently, only one other group had ever taken, then veered off even that path and started cutting our own steps.  AJ was a great guide and I'm definitely glad I had him.  On the hikes after lunch we crawled through a TINY ice cave, which was super wet (and ended the use of my gloves, COLDNESS!), were constantly between huge, sheer ice cliffs that formed tiny passageways for us to walk through, and were climbing up and over, then across, huge ice valleys.  It was so amazing.  At one point we had to stand around for about 20 minutes while AJ cut an entire new stairway for us to use (with a rope, of course) which was super steep and crazy, but it all worked out in the end, and once we got moving again we all were able to warm up our toesies.  After about 20 more minutes of hiking since the delay, we finally came out beyond the point that most full-day hikes go.  The views were absolutely incredible and the massiveness, power and strength of the glacier could never be put into words or shown in a picture, it's just that impressive.  The walk back down was super easy-- totally not hard at ALL.  I'm so so so glad that I pushed myself and decided to be in Group 1 because it was totally worth it and I'm still alive, albeit a bit tired and sore.  Yeah, I was in the back for the most part during the first half, but who cares?  Once up in the higher parts it was fine.  What amazed me was, once we made it up to the top, how far we had actually come since lunch.  I have a picture of our guide (kinda) pointing to where we ate lunch, and it's just soooo far down and far away from where we ended up, I was really quite amazed as to how high we had climbed and how much glacier we had covered, especially since I thought the second half of the trip was about a bazillion times easier.  So yeah, the physical strain was totally worth it and felt SO rewarding, I'm really quite proud of myself for accomplishing this.  I'm definitely looking forward to relaxing in the hot tub tonight at the hostel, and will have advil close at hand tomorrow during my ride up to Greymouth, haha.  I hope everyone is doing well!

Goodbye Queenstown, you stole my heart.

So, Queenstown is basically the San Francisco of New Zealand; I'm completely in love with that city.  If I was to move to New Zealand, I would hands down move to Queenstown or the surrounding area.  Obviously I haven't posted any pictures of the area (besides the skydiving and bungy jumping) but I'll be able to post them, I'm guessing, on Wednesday (when my cd arrives in Christchurch, fingers crossed!).  Anyway, last night I had my last Ferg Burger (Cockadoodle Oink with fries and sweet chili sauce and barbecue sauce, yes, I was full) and enjoyed every bite ( :  Then this morning I woke up bright and early (645a!) and got all my things in order, checked out of X Base Queenstown, and headed down the road to my bus stop.  The bus I was on was more like a shuttle, which kinda sucked 'cause there wasn't a whole lot of leg room, especially when two other people sat right next to me, but everyone on the bus turned out to be really friendly.  Oh and this is pretty weird: the last two nights a guy from California has been staying in the same room as me at Base-- he's from Sacramento and his little brother just graduated from UCSC this past year in filmography or something.  Then on the bus today, there was a guy who was originally from Chicago but has lived in Palo Alto for the past 7 years, who also knew where Redding was and, obviously, UCSC.  It's such a piece of home when other people know that you're a banana slug, it's really quite weird.  What's even more weird is how, the closer I get to coming home, the more people I'm meeting that are from my area (these are literally the only other people from California that I've met my entire two months in New Zealand).  Anyway, after a seven hour bus (shuttle) ride, we all finally arrived in Franz Josef, which is basically a tiny city with a few hostels and cafes, one market, and a few motels/lodges.  The main attraction of the city (and probably the only reason why it even exists) is the Franz Josef Glacier, which, I believe, is the biggest (or maybe best, Fox might be biggest) glacier on the west coast of New Zealand.  Tomorrow I'm going on a full day glacial hike (up to 8 hours, yikes!) that I've been recommended to do by numerous friends that I've made while on my travels.  Tonight and tomorrow night I'll be staying at the Rainforest Retreat, which people have also recommended for me, and is so far awesome AND cheaper than the YHA just down the road (plus, there's a free hot tub, woot! perfect for after the hike tomorrow).  After my hike tomorrow, as aforementioned, I'll stay in Franz for one more night, then the next morning take a bus up to Greymouth where I've been recommended to stay at the Global Village hostel.  The morning after that I'll be taking a train from Greymouth to Christchurch, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful train rides in the world, then I'll be jumping on a plane four hours after arrival to head up to Auckland.  I'll be in Auckland for two days, then fly home to SFO on Friday.  I'm so excited to see everyone again; I love and miss you all so much!  On the final leg, let's hope I can make it (the hardest part-- leaving Queenstown-- is behind me, so it should be too much trouble).

Oh, and also, this is such a tragedy: I LOST MY KLEAN KANTEEN ) :  So, for the first time in something like 6 or 7 years, I'm without a water bottle.  I bought a "pump" bottle, which is a decent size, but is NO Klean Kanteen (not even a Nalgene!).  So yeah.  I need another Klean Kanteen once I get back to California.  If anyone was thinking about buying me a coming home present (hah, sure/hint hint mom!!) feel FREE to purchase the 40 oz Klean Kanteen with a hook lid (the kind suitable for a caribineer).  If not, I understand.... sniff sniff.  I love you!!