finally, leaving Christchurch!

Okay, Christchurch is pretty cool, but honestly, when you're working for accommodation at X Base there, it's pretty freaking easy to get bored of it, and quickly.  I mean, it doesn't seem like working until 1p would blow any plans for your day, but it seriously does, especially when it gets dark at 530p.  I met some nice people here, and it was kinda nice to get into a routine, but it's DEFINITELY time to move on.  Oh, and I've also talked with two of the same girls who shared a room with me in Wellington at X Base, which is a little embarrassing because that was the night I was bawling my eyes out.  So, Queenstown, here I come!  I'm pretty excited about finally getting down to Queenstown, and I think tomorrow I'm going to book a skydiving thing, it should be pretty awesome.  I'm still completely terrified of the bungy jumping, so I might not do that.  I feel like once I get down to Queenstown, things will start picking up speed, so I'm pretty stoked about that because it means I'll be home on no time.  In fact, I only have 16 more days here!  I definitely need to call Air New Zealand about a return flight though.  Also, today I went to Akaroa, a little French-influenced city about an hour and a half drives away from Christchurch, and hung out for a few hours.  It was nice to finally get out of the city, and it makes me even more excited to move on from Christchurch.  Anyway, this is just a small update of what I've been doing for the past few days, I hope everything's going well back home.  I love you all.

19 Days!!

Hi everyone!  Tomorrow will be my sixth day working here at X Base Christchurch, and boy, can I tell you how much working until 1p totally blows up your plans for the day when it gets dark at 530p!!  I haven't much gotten out and about around the city, but luckily I did a bunch of the cool stuff when my parents and Brad were here, so I feel like I'm not missing out on too much.  All the people I work with are great and make the job easier.  Today Mia got fired for basically moving a sweatshirt out of a room (she was accused of stealing), so that was kinda lame and all of us are feeling pretty negative about how the Base treats us (we don't even get free laundry!!).  This week all of us workers, more or less, are leaving X Base and moving on; Mia is going to Queenstown Friday, José is going to India tomorrow, Antony is leaving for god knows what on the 3rd (maybe back to England, I can't remember), Merl (I always thought it was Mel, luckily I was only around the guy misnaming him for a day) left 4 or 5 days ago, Nicole is moving to another hostel tomorrow, and I'm leaving for Queenstown on Saturday.  I plan on quiting on Thursday so I can go and to Akorua on Friday, which will be cool.  So yeah, they're definitely gonna be experiencing a shortage of staff soon, haha.  Christchurch is pretty cool, but I feel like I would like Queenstown about a hundred times more and am soooo excited about it.  Basically, my plan until I come home (which is in 19 days!) is to go to Queenstown on Saturday, hang out there and check out LOTR, bungy jumping (Nevis Bungy), and skydiving (NZone) activities until Wednesday, then do a day trip out to Milford Sound on Thursday and come back to Queenstown on Friday for one more day.  On Saturday I'm going to Fox Glacier and staying there until when I leave for Punakaiki on Monday.  At Fox Glacier I'm going on a half-day hike, it was recommended to me and I figure NZD$89 isn't too expensive to do something pretty cool.  As I said, on Monday I will be going to Punakaiki, which is where the Pancake Rocks and blowholes are; I'll be going to Dolomite Point that same day.  The next day I'm taking a bus to Greymouth to check out the town for an afternoon, then taking a train (which is supposed to be the most amazing train ride ever) from Greymouth back here to Christchurch, where I'll be flying out to Auckland the next day (for, get this, NZD$39).  I'll spend a day in Auckland, then fly home the next day.  It's gonna be a crazy next 19 days, but honestly I need to keep my mind off of everything that's going on in my life right now, or at least as much as I can so I don't get too depressed.  Oh and when I get back I might head up to Calgary to go on a roadtrip through British Columbia with my friend Lisa I met in Wellington, that'll be pretty awesome if I can manage it.  I hope everything is going well back home, I miss and love you all, and can't wait to see everyone!!

Jesus Town

Today was my first day of work here at X Base Christchurch.  I've definitely never made as many bed in the threeish hours that I worked today than any other threeish hours in my entire life.  But, it wasn't that bad and I get to stay here for free now yay!  I'm guessing I'll be here for about 2 weeks or something, just going around checking out everything and the surrounding areas.  After that I'm probably gonna head over to Greymouth and do the Fox Glaciers and whatnot, then head down the coast to Queenstown and Milford Sound for maybe a week or something.  When I'm in Queenstown, if my funds haven't run too low, I think I'm gonna skydive or bungy jump or something, who knows!  Possibly both, possibly neither, I haven't really made up my mind yet.  The people I'm working with are pretty cool and there's someone from Chile so maybe I'll Spanish it up with them or something, probably not though 'cause I'm embarrassed of how god awful my Spanish is compared to, well, native Spanish speakers.  Anyway, apparently the library has free wifi so I'm pretty stoked about that, it'll nice to finally not have to pay for internet.  Oh, and the Indian food place next door totally sucks, like really really disappointing.  Absolutely the worst I've had ever, even worse than that stuff that I was kinda raw in Monterey, Ean. haha.  But when I get back I'm gonna totally bring huge amounts of Tim Tams, ginger beer (for Brad!), afghan cookies, and Kinder Bars.  I expect delicious beer in return, seeing as how NZ has completely deprived me of anything remotely amazing.  Okay, I hope you all have lots and lots of fun this coming weekend (only one more day for you all!) and I love you and miss you bunches!!

Further Christchurch-iness

So today I walked around and went to the Southern Encounter exhibition type thingy, it was pretty freaking amazing, because I finally got to SEE A KIWI!!  Oh my gosh, they are probably the ABSOLUTE most adorable bird of all time.  Just imagine a fuzzy basketball with cute eyes and a long beak, and BAM! you've got a kiwi!!  I'll post a picture (not one I've taken, it wasn't allowed) of what exactly they look like.  Anyway, I've walked around a bit, and oh my gosh Kassi, I totally found that energy drink Cocaine!!  I took a picture just for you, and as soon as I can, I'll totally post it.  I'm staying at X Base again, and hopefully within the next few days I'll be able to do the work for accommodation thing that they offer.  I still need to talk to them about it, but seeing as how it's my first day in Christchurch, I kinda wanted a break.  Oh, and just so everyone knows, there's disgusting couples in New Zealand as well!  It's not restricted to Europe anymore.  Today I saw the first couple that were totally eating each other's faces, and now the girl's sitting on top of his lap.  It's just like, really?  No one wants to see that, I almost threw up.

On a side note, Afghan cookies are SO BOMB.COM!  Everyone should look a recipe up and try them if you haven't (I don't think they're really offered in the States), but it will totally be worth the labor.  And don't be afraid of the cornflakes-- embrace them!!  Okay I'm outtie, mostly 'cause I don't really have anything else to say, other than I hope I find a market that sells chicken and rice, otherwise I might be eating out again!

OH!!  And I think I'm gonna try bungy-jumping or sky-diving.  I think it would be totally fun and definitely worth the money, but I've still gonna have to think about whether or not I'm completely okay with just kinda potentially throwing my life away (at this point, probably!), so yeah.  I'll keep you all posted.  Have a good night.

Here's a kiwi!  Adorable!  The ferret of birds, seriously.  Except ferrets apparently kill them.

So while I was trying to fall asleep last night, I kept hearing this gurgling sound from under me.  I was like, my god, this girl's snoring sounds like a pigeon!  It was really really weird.  Anyway, I woke up this morning and opened the curtains to get some sunlight, and lo and behold, there's a ledge outside with a bunch of bird poop on it.  I was like, ohhhhhhhh I'm an idiot.  So that's basically what's happened to me so far in Christchurch.  Exciting, right?

So a few things I've forgotten to mention:

On the way to Wellington, I saw a sign that said "Horse Poo for sale, $1 per bag."

I'm currently waiting for my plane in the airport, and they just announced that there's been some "kiddy spillage," on the airplane.

There was something else but I totally forget, I'll try to let you know if I remember.  Oh and my friend I met in Wellington, Lisa, introduced me to "totes," as in totally.  I think it's hilarious.  She said it's from some movie, but I forget which one.  It was Mall Cop or Knocked Up or that other one that guy just did (the one from Knocked Up, Super Bad, etc).  Anyone know?

Oh, and by they way, a glass room is not the best place to find an outlet.  Oh well.

Wellington and various other subjects

So today I got up and checked out of YHA, went to X Base and locked up my stuff, then proceeded to go on a 6 hour walk around the harbour.  At the end, my feet and back hurt a lot, I was hot, tired, and excited to talk to Mom and Ean.  Well the talk with Ean didn't go so well, but Mom helped.  So basically since the walk I've been sitting in my room at X Base on the internet.

In the last few days I've been thinking about leaving early, the problems with the passport and visa and stuff are annoying, I'm lonely (even more so now) and miss my family, friends, and babies, and NZ is expensive.  But now it's just like, mehhhhhh I wanna come home now.  So I'm flying down to Christchurch tomorrow to check out Queenstown and Milford Sound and whatnot for about a week, and I'll make my mind up within that time frame.  New Zealand is cool and I have a great opportunity right now, but I don't know, I never really wanted to come down here all by myself, it's just various friends couldn't come, and Ean couldn't, and all this other crap, so I don't know. 

Anyway, the walk around the harbour was cool, even if tiring.  I forgot my camera so I shot a few pictures with my cellphone, I'll upload them so you guys can see.  But tomorrow I think I'll take a similar walk (this time with the camera!), but definitely shorter, and I'm gonna wear better shoes too!

Before I go, I just wanna say thanks to the friends I've talked to tonight, and of course my Mom, you guys really helped me feel better, and even got a smile out of me a couple of times!  I love you guys and will love you forevers!

Oh and never mind about the pictures, I thought I had Blue Tooth on this phone but I don't, so I'll just upload the good ones I'll get tomorrow!!

ALONE!

The past few days have been crazy.  For starters, my parents left yesterday morningish, and now I'm here all alone!  Definitely yikes for me.  But Tauranga and "the Mount" (I forget what it's name actually is, it's something like Mangauriro or some other crazy Maori name) were nice.  I especially liked "the Mount's" town, and my mom finally found a greenstone for me!  Pretty exciting, it's super pretty and I really like it ( :  Oh, and if you ever go to the Mount, definitely check out the park that's across the street from the beach, it's totally insanely awesome, and by far my favorite park in New Zealand so far.  Also, since you'll already be at the Mount, go into Tauranga and eat at Zeytín, this Turkish place on "the Strand."  Oh my gosh talk about delicious food!  Like seriously, soooooo good.  And get their límonata, it's amazing.  Anyway, my bus ride was, besides long, not that bad, and there was a cute little girl in front of me that liked to watch me make goofy faces at her.  Once I got to the railway station in Wellington, I took a bus to Courtenay Place without any problems, which was definitely relieving.  So now I'm sitting here in the YHA hanging out, gonna watch the All Blacks play tonight at 715p (I'll tell you all about it, Dad!).  Tomorrow I'll be off looking for a job, wish me luck!

Okay for starters, check this video out.  It's a commercial that talks about the dangers of drunk driving.  I think you guys will enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RDLnj1iTpk

Wow it's been long time since I've written something!  Since Nelson, we've been to Kaikaura, Christchurch, back up to Auckland, Whitianga, and now we're in Tauranga.  So, I'll tell you a little bit about each.

 

From Nelson we went down to Kaikura, which is a little town where you can go whale watching (for sperm whales, apparently they live off the coast here) and walk to a seal colony.  We skipped the whale watching because the ocean was crazy rough and it cost waaaay too much to do something we've already done (Hawaii, thank you).  So instead we hung out at our hotel, seeing as how there's not much else to do, and had an AMAZING crayfish (lobster) dinner.  Like AMAZING.  Seriously.  The lobster was probably as big as my torso.  We split it between the four of us and it was super yummy ( :  The next day we went to the seal colony and saw some pretty cool seals (and a bunch of babies!).  Oh and on the way to Kaikura we also saw some seals like 4 feet from the road just chilling, and a bunch of baby seals down farther playing in pools and sliding and being adorable.  Anyway, the mountains at Kaikura were not showing because it was all cloudy, which was really disappointing.  After the seal colony we had a disappointing abalone burger thing, then left and headed to Christchurch.

 

The road from Kaikura to Christchurch, of course, was beautiful, and Christchurch was pretty awesome as well.  Unfortunately I caught a cold while down there, so that was kinda lame.  The first night we got there we went out to the this Souvlaki place and had kebabs, but not really 'cause it was more a platter without the pita bread wrapped around it so yeah.....  Anyway, the chicken here, I don't think it gets much better than this chicken.  It was crazy delicious.  Dinner was sooo good that night.  The next day we switched motels to this nice one over in Riccarton, then went to this old mansion thing that had "the Bush" and a stream next to it.  While my parents were checking out the house and Brad was reading, I decided I'd go sit down by the stream where a bench was and ducks.  It had just rained, so I brought my poncho with me and was seriously two feet away from the bench when WHAM!  FALL NUMBER THREE!  Awesome, right?  Yeah, totally bitchin' (but not so much).  So, I finally had fall number three.  But apparently the bush was cool (they preserved it and nothing had been cut down since settlers came, so it was basically what New Zealand looked like before settlers, which is apparently crazy), so my parents had a good time.  We then went to the Botanical Gardens, where my parents and I walked around while Brad went downtown to check out a record store.  The Botanic Gardens were pretty sweet, they had this huge greenhouse that had some amazing plants (and sooo many orchids, Ean!), and these really cute displays for kids that I thought were great.  We then walked around and checked out the ducks, swans, and birds around a bond, then went and waited in the car for Brad (we barely made it out of the park before the locked the gates—our car woulda been locked in for the night!).  For dinner we went to a “secret pizza place” my parents found, but it turned out to be the same place we went to while in Auckland, hah, either way it was delicious!  That night I FINALLY learned how to play poker (betting noodles), it was great but I definitely didn’t win; my advice, don’t always try to go for flushes, that’s dumb.  The next day we went to some museums and art galleries, which were fun, then decided to book a flight up to Auckland for the next day.  All in all, Christchurch is a really beautiful place, but we went there during a school holiday so no students were really there and I guess I didn’t get the full view (plus, I was sick, lame).

 

Auckland was our next stop, and after a plane ride with beauuuuuuutiful views of the country (it was clear that day!) we ended up lost on our way from the rental car place to the YHA, during rush hour.  Finally we got there, hung out, then headed out for dinner.  We stopped by this pharmacy and picked up NZ’s equivalent to Nyquil, where the pharmacy’s owner assured me I didn’t have swine flu (definitely a relief) then recommended we go to Satya, an South Indian food restaurant just down the street.  We walked down there and immediately got a table, which was great ‘cause right after we came the place didn’t have a table open, it was amazing.  BUT OH MY GOSH!!  Seriously, this was by FAR the absolute BEST Indian food I’ve ever had, and brad said it was in his top three favorite places.  OH MY GOSH.  Again, AMAZING.  Like totally out of sight how amazing this stuff was.  Brad had this crazy awesome spicy dry curry chicken dish, Mom had an awesome dola (? Pretty sure that’s wrong) thing, which was more or less a giant samosa, Dad had chicken tikka masala (Ean, seriously the most amazing thing ever) and I had chicken korma, which was INCREDIBLE!!  Okkay okay okay I’ll stop about the Indian food (AMAZING! Haha).  The next day we tried to find an observatory, which definitely didn’t happen, so we checked out Auckland’s indoor winter garden, which was fun.  That night Brad and I went out to this pub that had nobody in it, then the bartender’s friend came, then another friend, then this couple from NZ.  They all ended up sitting with us and we did some drinking and talking and it was pretty sweet, everyone was really nice and we had fun.  We got back to the hostel and I got my water bottle from my parents room (it was like 1a, I was definitely drunk), then Brad and I went to our room and played music from his laptop as loud as possible, and apparently I sang and danced.  I guess our neighbors were pissed (Brad told me when he came back from the bathroom), so I decided it’d be a good idea to hit my metal water bottle up against their wall.  Whateeeeever.  The next day was pretttttty lame, and Brad and I mostly slept.  The next day we headed out to Bay of Plenty and stayed in Whitianga for the next couple of days.  We tried to go to Hot Water Beach, but that didn’t work out so well because the waves were way to big and the low tide wasn’t very low.  The second day Brad and I went out to lunch and ended up at this Chinese food place, which was the worst food I’ve ever tasted.  That place is dead to us, we don’t talk about it.  Then we went and got a caramel milkshake and some fries and a fried chicken butt (that’s what mom said), so we ended up not eating the chicken.  The rest of the day we hung out, went to dinner (which was pretty meh, and the waitress was all dumb), and the next day (which is today!) we looked for some greenstone, then left.  Now we’re in Tauranga, which is a decent-sized city.  We’re about to go out to dinner, so Ima bail.  I hope everything’s going well over there, and I miss you all.  I’m sorry this is so long, but apparently that’s just how it is, so get used to it, haha.  Hope you have a good day.

 

Streaky bacon!  Yeah so the delicious kind of bacon that you all are accustomed to in the US doesn't exist in NZ, it totally sucks.  This is the closest thing I could find.
This little bird follows you around trying to get bugs and worms that you kick up by walking.  It fans out it's tail as well.  The stalker bird is pretty sweet.

My shortcut to mushrooms was pretty messy.

mom and I at a beach in Wellington, looking cute.
my parents and I at sunset in Pahia.
Dad, Brad and me on the ferry in the north island.
Brad and I at Huka Falls, the water is such a beautiful color here.

Dad, Brad and me at the largest crescent water fall in NZ, which is in the Bay of Islands.

me (and my clean canteen, hah) at the Polynesian Baths in Rotorua, it was awesome!
This waterfall was created when a volcano erupted, burying an entire Maori village and killing about 150 people.
I like holding hands with this guy, he's hot (just kidding Ean!).
Me in front of the monument for the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace boat that the French blew up because gp was totally not down with the nuclear testing the French were doing near NZ. 

me and dad eating chicken pies in Wellington, they were pretty good.

Hobbiton!
Brad as a hobbit, me as a troll.
Hobbit door handle!
oh, yeah.
me upon arrival.

me at Bridal Veil Falls, it was cool!
me at Kawhia's beach; there's thermal activity under the beach so it heats up the salt water that fills a hole when you dig into it, so here's our handmade hot tub!
This Kaori tree is the biggest by volume in NZ; for perspective, it's about 50 ft behind me ( the tiny purple person at the bottom).
Dad's shrimp cocktail was NOT a shrimp cocktail, just shrimp and mayonnaise!
Dad and I at a beach in Wellington, we found bunches of abalone shells here.

Here's the crazy pine trees that are all over NZ.
Some cows in the road, stopping traffic.
Cockburn Chapel, classic.
Chicken bone next to Brad's bed!
me, buying my first beers from a tap!

Napier, Wellington, Nelson

Hi!  It's been awhile so I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post.  Anyway, happy 4th everyone, have lots of fun and stay safe!  We spent some time in Wellington, which was awesome, but before that we went to Napier.  Napier is a cool little coastal town in wine country, so we did some wine tasting.  During this time, Brad saw some punks and asked them if they knew of any shows; they didn't, but it happened to be one of the guys' birthdays so they invited him to that.  Brad and I got some Cooper's and went there that night, which was fun.  We met some cool people and it was fun to talk about the difference in countries and whatnot.  After Napier we headed towards Wellington via this little sheepskin store that we'd been recommended.  The lady running the store was a total bitch, like hardcore, so we only bought some socks, gloves, and hat from her (the socks are mine, which are possum and sheep).  We ended up staying about an hour and a half outside of Wellington, but the next morning we headed straight there, which turned out to be an awesome city.  The first day we hung out around the YHA (we stayed at a hostel).  After checking into the hostel, we made lunch and then headed over to Weta Cave which is basically Weta Workshop's "gallery."  There was so much awesome stuff there, and I took lots of pictures.  FOr those of you who aren't Adrienne and maybe Ean, Weta Workshop is a place that makes miniatures, special effects (cg), swords, arms, and other awesome stuff.  Weta did all that kind of stuff for LOTR, and in those years basically revolutionized their industry into a new age.  After Weta Cave we went to the Mount Victoria lookout point.  Now, it's crazy-windy in Wellington, so going up to a lookout on top of a mountain at dusk probably wasn't the brightest idea, but we went anyway, which was super rewarding.  There is SUCH an amazing view up there, it's absolutely incredible.  You can see all of Wellington and the surrounding area, but it is a  chilly bin up there!  After the lookout we ate dinner at Niccolini's, which was a super delicious Italian restaurant.  After dinner, we went back to the YHA and had a few beers and games of pool, then Brad and I went out to this Irish pub that had overpriced drinks but was the only open place that sold alcohol.  We hung out there and drank, but after being poured half-shots, we left.  On the way back to the YHA we stopped at "The Establishment" and had one more beer.  There were some douches there (they're everywhere in the world-- no escape!) so we left and went back to the room.  I took a shower and then passed out, silly.  The next day we went out to hunt for the spot where Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin fall down the hill to mushrooms and are "sniffed" by the Ringwraith-- a "shortcut to mushrooms."  This location is on some trail on Mount Victoria that I found directions for in a LOTR book; the scene where Frodo shouts, "get off the road!", where they fall down the hill to mushrooms, and where they hide under a tree from the Ringwraith.  The directions I had said the trail "plunges," but I had no clue to what a degree.  And boy, was it a degree!  Within five minutes of being on this road, I tried to monkey-swing/get support and balance from a branch in a mudslick, but it turned out not to be so sturdy.  I slipped and was dangling from the branch with zero traction, let go and immediately face-planted into the mud.  Awesome, now I'm all muddy.  ANother five minutes pass and we're trying to get down to the main path when I try the tree-support idea again, which was a mistake and ended with me on the ground, again.  But it turns out I really did take a shortcut to mushrooms because I landed in the exact spot Frodo and the gang landed, it was great ( :  We continued on the path and saw the hill they took their tumble down and the root system they hid under.  All in all, it was quite the adventure.  After it we went to a shoe warehouse that was having a buy-one-get-one-free sale on boots, so Brad and I both scored a pair.  Afterwards we headed back to the YHA and hung out and cooked yummy Mexican food (how I miss you, mexican food!), then went to sleep.  At around 6a that morning, we were awoken by a LOUD alarm.  I immediately realize that it's the fire alarm, but my parents and Brad all thought it was the phone alarm, it was hilarious.  So the entire hostel was evacuated while the firefighters (their station was literally directly across the street) came over and checked it out.  It turned out to be a false alarm and everything was okay.  That day we also went to the Te Papa museum, which was really cool but had a TON of stuff to look at.  The next day we left for the South Island (and almost didn't make it on the bus to the ferry if it hadn't been for Mom coming to get her things in the room and realizing we were all still asleep ten minutes before the bus was due to come!) via a three hour ferry ride from Wellington to Picton.  We met a really nice girl on the ferry, and also were forced to listen to probably the worst single-man band I've ever encountered.  Upon arrival, we got a rental car and headed towards Nelson via the scenic route, which was really pretty but super windy, probably the last time we take the scenic route down here, haha.  Nelson is awesome!  It's much like Napier, so it's great.  Yesterday we went to Abel Tasman National Park on a boat ride (I'm on a boat!) which was fun, then came back and went out for pizza and beer.  Later that night I threw up, it was totally NOT bitchin'.  Today, Mom and I went to the Saturday farmer's market and had a waffle and looked around, then went coat shopping for me and sock shopping for her (I totally found a great coat, but mom wasn't so lucky with the socks....?).  After shopping we all hung around the room for a bit, Brad went to happy hour at a bar, which my parents and I joined him about an hour later ($5 jugs of Speight's, hellsa!)  Then we had yummy Thai food, then came back to the room.  Brad and I just watched Blade 3 I think? and Hellboy, but now he's asleep in the front room and I'm getting sleepy, so I think I'll go now that I'm up to date.

Again, sooooooo sorry for the length, we've had really in-and-out internet the past few days,  I apologize and will really try to work on making these things shorter.  In the mean time, enjoy the pictures!  Much love.