Back Home

I have been back in Jersey for a week now. After I left New Zealand I went to Fiji for a week which was great. I didn't leave the main island but I did go into town lots. Let's face it though, mostly I just laid out by the pool and enjoyed the sunshine and the heat. I was still staying at a hostel but I booked a room for myself which was a nice little treat for the end of my trip. It was cool because most of the people there were either beginning their trips or ending it so everyone just sat around and shared stories or asked questions. I also tried kava which is a ground up root mixed with water. It tastes like bad medicine but it makes your tongue numb and if you drink enough of it you will drool with knowing it. Any amount of kava results in a great night's sleep. A good time was had. When I got off of the plane in NY, not only were my mom, dad, and bro there but Aunt Lynn and my cousins J and Jenna were waiting for me too! It was a great surprise. Many hugs were given and I even got some Queens bagels to take home (whoopee!). Being home is good. I have just spent the week catching up with people and enjoying the fact that I am not living out of a backpack anymore. So what's next? For the time being I am just hanging in Jerz enjoying being home and catching up with everyone. At the end of May I am moving back to UMass. I got my summer job back and I get to live with my friends and just chill back at college. Not a bad deal. I got accepted to the math grad program at UC San Diego, but I am going to defer for a year. I am not ready to move to the west coast yet. Essentially (that one's for you Ed) I have no idea what I am doing from Sept 2006 to Sept 2007. I'm not worrying about it though because it will all work out. Who knows? Maybe I'll just pack my bags again and travel some more (with my imaginary money). The blog will stay up but I don't think I will add much until I travel again. If I haven't seen you yet we must get together because I have missed everyone and I want to know what's going on in everyone's lives. That is all I have to say (for now). The end.

Goodbye NZ

Before I say goodbye to NZ let me back up and fill you in on what I have done for the past week. St Patrick's Day was pretty fun. It was no NY with a parade but I did drink lots and sing Irish songs and just hang out with a good group of people that I met on my East Cape trip. When Sunday rolled around I hopped on the bus and headed to Auckland. The plan was to only spend the night in Auckland and the next day head further north to the Bay of Islands. Well the bus to the Bay of Islands was full so I was stuck in Auckland for a day. And I had a pretty bad cold. Combine these two things and I was one cranky girl. To add to the crankiness I checked my flight info and found out that my flight to LA from Fiji had been canceled and I had been booked onto one for the day before. This is all fine and good except for the fact that I still wasn't leaving LA to go to NY until the 2nd which meant one night in LA. Let me tell you, I don't want a night in LA. I want to be home in my bed. Finally today I was able to straighten everything out so it's all good now. I will be in NY at 1230am on Sunday, April 2.

Anyway, I sulked my way through my day in Auckland and hopped to the Bay of Islands the next day. When we got to the Bay we drove another half hour to Nafu springs. These were natural mineral baths. Basically it's a mud pit full of bubbly hot water that comes from underground naturally and you spread the mud all over you as an exfoliant. Since the earth's crust is so thin in the north island these natural springs are abundant...but these were the only ones that were free. The only downside is that the springs give off a strong sulfur smell which in turn sticks to your swim suit, even after washing. So for the rest of this trip, including fiji, my swim suit is going to smell like rotten eggs. I think I will live, I may not make many friends but I will survive.

The only other thing I did in the Bay of Islands was take a day trip to Cape Reinga. The cape is the northwestern corner of NZ and it is where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet. The bus left at 7:15am and we headed north. We drove along 90 mile beach which is a beach but also a highway. It's not really 90 miles and if you want to know how they thought it was 90 miles I'll explain in person. It was pretty cool to drive along the beach. Once we got down the beach enough to make sure we could get off before tide came in we hopped off and waded in the water. The driver showed us how to pick shellfish and we had a nice little snack of raw shellfish on the beach. We hopped back on the bus and got off of the beach via a stream.

Halfway up the stream we stopped to look at some really high sand dunes. When I say really high I mean 80 meters (about 240ft) and when I say stopped to look at I mean we walked up the dune and used a boogie board to ride back down. It was a pretty cool ride and sand got everywhere. It was a good way to spend an hour. Afterwards we hopped back on the bus and headed to a beach for lunch. We hung out again and then finally made our way to the Cape.

The Maori's believe the cape is the departure point for spirits to head home so usually there are some families grieving. It is a very spiritual place. You can actually see where the two bodies of water meet. The tasman sea is very green and the pacific ocean is very blue so when they mix it's a pretty cool site.

Seeing the Cape was very important to me. It marked the end of my trip in NZ. It was the last thing that wanted to do. I have spent much time in the Tasman Sea and much time in the Pacific Ocean since being here and I finally saw them both meet. It meant a lot.

Now I am back in Auckland and I am staying at Ana's place again. That's where I stayed for Big Day Out. Today is Friday and I fly to Fiji on Sunday. Tomorrow, I am going to see The Living End play one more time. One of Ana's flatmate's sisters is going and she said she would give me a ride. So I am going to spend my last full day in NZ seeing my favorite band play again. Not a bad gig.

The plan for Fiji is to work on my tan so everyone is jealous when they see me for the first time. The rumor is that internet in Fiji is pretty expensive so most likely this is my last blog until I am home. I can't really process this trip yet, that's what I hope Fiji is for.

I am looking foward to seeing familiar faces and hearing familiar voices and just being around everyone again. I can't wait to not live out of a backpack or sleep in bunk beds. I am sad that this trip in NZ is over but I am thankful for the time I had here and I can't wait to be in Jerz.

Here are some pics:

A car on 90 mile beach that didn't make it out before the tide came in. It's been there for two months and all of the damage done is due to the Tasman Sea.

The bus takin a break on the beach/highway

The dunes and us boarding down them

The streamwe drove through to get to the dunes and off of the beach

The Tasman Sea

The Pacific Ocean

Where they meet. The white water is the different waves from the two bodies of water meeting

The final thing I wanted to see can now be crossed off

See you soon!!

What a week it has been

I left Taupo on Monday to begin my trip around the East Cape. The East Cape is probably one of the most beautiful spots that I have seen in NZ. The bus was nice because instead of being 35 of us there were only 20 so we were all able to just relax and get to know each other. The first night we stopped in Gisborne which is the surfing capital of NZ. Unfortuanetly the weather was crap so no surfing was done, just lots of wine drinking. I was sitting at the table eating dinner when I turn around and see my friend Andrew. I hadn't seen Andrew since my first week in Auckland but we had kept in touch via text messages. It was great to see him since we were able to catch up on all of our experiences over the past six months. It definetly felt to me with seeing Andrew that I had gone full circle on this trip which was nice.

From Gisborn we went to a farm in Rangituka. We stayed at the farm overnight and had a blast. I rode a horse for the first time. His name was War Lord and he was fantastic. We rode on the beach and up in the hills for about two hours before dinner. It was so relaxing and I had a smile on my face the whole time thinking how great it was that I was finally riding a horse. Les, the horse guy, told me that me and War Lord fit each other and it was totally true. I felt completely comfortable on him even when he started to gallop. The only awkward part was getting on the horse. I am not very graceful when it comes to stepping up onto high things. It was a sad sight that involved me basically leaning over the horse and then Al, the kiwi bus driver, pushing my butt onto the saddle. Not graceful I admit but it got the job done. After the horseback ride we sat around a fire on the farm and just chilled out. It was really relaxing. We were at the easternmost point of NZ which means that we saw the sun rise first in the hemisphere. Well we would have saw it first if it wasn't foggy, but we were the first to know that the weather was going to be crap all day in the southern hemisphere.

The next day we went to possibly my most favorite place. It was a home stay in Te Kaha. This guy Paul O'Brien is half Maori and half Irish and he opened up his home to us to enjoy. It was beautiful. The house is set right on the shore and there is a hot tub that sit right on the beach so you can fish and watch the sun set all from the hot tub. I swam in the Pacific and then warmed up in the hot tub until after sunset. Then ate a delicious meal that Paul's mom made for us. It was so good. Al, the bus driver, went out fishing and caught snappers which we had for breakfast. It turns out that I love fish. I woke up and had my coffee (instant, boo) down by the beach and then had some fish. It was a perfect end to my east cape trip.

I am back in Taupo to celebrate St. Patty's day tomorrow. Then I am off to Auckland for a day and then off to my last stop on this trip, the Bay of Islands. It should be good. This trip is almost over but I am not processing any of it right now. I am just enjoying the moments and I figure I will think about it all when I am in Fiji. Here are pics from this past week. Happy St. Patty's Day!!

My horse War Lord

The lovely beach that I swam at.

Another view of the beach

The view of the hot tub from the top part of the backyard

Sunset from a hot tub. Sweet as.

The Kiwi crew in the backyard.

What I did on my birthday

On my birthday I woke up at 5am and by 7am I was walking up a mountain. Seriously. I was doing the Tongariro Crossing. It's considered on of the best day walks in New Zealand. The walk takes you through a valley between mountains and then up the side and into a crater. On top of the crater it is possible to see mount doom, real name mount nagarua(maybe), and also it's supposed to give some great views of the whole park and area. And when NZer's say day walk they mean day walk. The walk took me 7 hours and at points I was on all fours climbing up rocks.

The first part of the walk takes about an hour and is a slight incline. This slight incline leads to the devil's staircase. Let me tell you it's not called the devil's staircase for nothing. It's just a piles of stacked rocks going up the side of mountain. It's windy and very steep at points. I took my time and many breaks and after an hour I was finally off the staircase. I must admit that most of the time that I was on the staircase I was thinking to myself that I sure know how to pick a crappy brithday present for myself.

After the staircase I found myself inside of crater. It was completely flat which was a nice change. It took about a half hour to walk across the crater and I was able to catch my breath and talk to the two girls that I had walkedup the staircase with. By the time we made it across the crater a cloud had settled in on top of the next incline. The next incline was the ridge of the red crater. It was basically up hill for a half hour but the really difficult part was that now that the cloud was sitting on the hill the wind was really strong and it was really cold. The ground was frozen and the two girls I was with decided to turn around. So I walked up the ridge by myself. I was kind of nervous because I couldn't see very far in front of me and the wind does push you around. It's not like the ridge is very wide either. If two people walked side by side up it, one would eventually fall. But I made sure that I could see people in front of me and behind me so that if anything happened someone would see. I also had my cell phone and an emergency number....just in case.

After about a half hour I made it up the ridge and to the top of the red crater. This is where I was supposed to be able to see all of these great views. Unfortunately the cloud was still sitting there so all I could see was cloud and I was cold so I kept walking.

Walking down the other side of the crater was fun. It's all gravelly so the fastest and funnest way to get down is to just dig your heels in let yourself slide down. As I was doing this I could see the cloud moving so every now and then I could get a good view. Luckily I was able to take some pictures but I couldn't see Mount Doom.

Once I got down the crater I was in the spot called Emerald lakes. The entire Tongariro Park is a volcanic area and the lakes inside of the park are all emerald colored or deep blue because of the sulfur and acid that rises up from the ground. I had lunch at emerald lakes but then decided I was cold so I kept walking.

The rest of the walk was downhill. There were points where you could take a break and enjoy the view but I was freezing so I kept walking. The last hour of the walk was inside of a beach forest. There were waterfalls and other good things but it was the last hour of a 7 hour walk so I was more interested in finishing than enjoying the scenery.

Surprisingly my legs don't hurt too much. I am ridiculously tired still but other than that I am fine. This walk has taught me many things for me: I don't like 7 hour hikes (they are way too long) and hiking on your birthday no matter what your age will make you feel old by the end of it(my knees were killing me). I am very proud of myself for doing the Crossing. It was the last thing that I wanted to do in New Zealand and to be honest I didn't know if I was going to be able to do it. We all know that me and exercise aren't friends but I enjoyed the challenge of the Crossing. Bearing that in mind I will never do anything again that uses the words devil and staircase in the same sentence to describe it.

After the hike I met up with a girl that I had met on my bus. We went out for a drink, which turned into a couple since it was my birthday. It was a good time. We met up with another girl and we just sat around talking. I laughed a lot and then we went to the dance club I busted out all of my corny moves (the lawnmower, the sprinkler) and had a good time. All in all it was def a memorable birthday and I guess if I couldn't spend it with my friends and family then I might as well have climbed a mountain to pass the time.

I leave Taupo in a couple of days to venture onto the east cape of NZ. I will be passing through Napier again and seeing some great beaches. There are no more adventures for this trip, just relaxing and seeing the sites. Here are the pics from the crossing. Enjoy!

A view of one of the mountains when I started the walk

Just a small part of the devil's staircase. It's blurry but you can make out the zig zag that is the path.

This is supposed to be the picturesque spot with the views but instead there was cloud, but this was the highest point and I just climbed up to it on my 23rd birthday so I wanted a picture. The people around sang happy birthday to me and I even got a cookie. Good times with strangers.

Emerald Lakes through the cloud

One of the pics I took as I was sliding down the crater and as the cloud opened for a bit.

Emerald lakes as the clouds opened a bit

I don't know if I will ever be eye level with clouds again. Depsite the lack of a view the fact that I was walking through clouds is pretty amazing to me.

Unfortunately the wind caused my camera to think that it's brand new batteries were dead so that's it for the crossing pics. It was a good day. Oh and one more thing:

I LOVE PIMENTO LOAF!

Goodbye South Island

After I left Christchurch I headed to Kaikoura. I was only in Kaikoura for a day but it is a beautiful little spot. I was able to go whale watching in Kaikoura which was an experience. The said that there was a strong motion sickness warning so I took one of my magic pills and figured that would be the end of it. Oh no. While the boat is moving you have to seat inside and all of the doors are closed, which means no air movement. Heading out to where the whales were meant that we had to break over some waves. So for twenty minutes it felt like you were on a roller coaster. We spotted the first whale. It was a sperm whale and it was a pretty amazing site. We were no more than 50 meters from this massive whale. When it surfaces it only shows about 1/3 of its body but the money shot is when it gets ready to dive again. That's when their tale flips out into the air. I was standing there feeling the motion of the ocean and not feeling good about it when the whale went for its dive. I was speechless. I got a huge smile on my face and decided that this trip was worth it. Then we all had to get back into our seats so we could go see if we could find another whale. Another 20 minutes of the ocean and I wasn't feeling great and people around me were getting sick and I was thinking again that it wasn't worth it. Then we got out and saw another whale that yet again made it all worth it.

At this point we had been on the water for about an hour and a half. They had said that usually they see about two whales per trip. So I was thinking that we were going to head back to land. Instead they said that there was a dusky dolphin sighting around here and that we were going to check it out. For another half hour we traveled around and I sat there having a serious debate with myself. I was feeling ill but I had taken the medicine so the illness I was feeling was probably not physical but mental. So I just sat there and put my head down and took a nap for a bit. When I woke up I felt much better and the boat was surrounded by 100 or so dusky dolphins. I went out onto the deck and the crew members played "What a Wonderful World" over the loudspeaker as we all took in the magic of seeing 100plus dolphins swimming around and jumping in their natural habitat. It was a really great experience that brought a huge smile to my face. All in all despite the motion sickness it was worth it. It was a nice way to end my trip to the South Island.

Yesterday I took the ferry and today I am back in Wellington. I am staying at Ed's house and took today to meet up with the cleaner's from Base and hang out at Eat. While I was at Base I ran into some of the people I had cleaned with and we caught up on each other's travels. It was really good. Unfortunately my stay in Wellington is really short. I leave tomorrow for Taupo. I have already been to Taupo but the reason for going this time is that there is a day walk there that is considered one of the Great Walks of NZ. It is called the Tongariro Crossing. It takes between 6-8 hours and the terrain can be quite steep at times but the benefit is that the environments you cross over are amazing. You go from flatland to walking inside a giant crater to getting a view of some lakes and seeing the Mountain that was Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. A lot of travelers have done this walk and have raved about it so I am excited to finally do it. I will be doing it with another girl a met so it's a bonus that I won't be doing it alone.

So the next blog will be after the Crossing. The Crossing is the last big thing that I have planned for NZ. After that I am just cruising with the bus. Here are some pics to keep you going.

A place we stopped at between Christchurch and Kaikoura.


The wizard!

A whale surfacing


The money shot

One of the many Dusky Dolphins jumping (I feel he was just jumping for me)

The Kaikoura mountain range

All of these pictures make me feel like a very luck girl for having the chance to travel to New Zealand and take them. It's starting to hit that I will be leaving this beautiful country in less than a month. I am excited to see everyone but I am starting to get a little sad that this experience is winding down. But I will not think about it all yet. That's what Fiji is for. For now I will enjoy the rest of my time here and soak up as much of this beautiful scenery as I can. Peace out.

Christchurch

I made it to Christchurch and I think it is my favorite city in NZ. It's the most populated city in the South Island and it is full of characters. The main gathering place in the city is Cathedral Square. There is (of course) a cathedral but there are also vendors and street acts all around. It was a fairly nice day out yesterday so I hung out in the square...and I met the Wizard. The Wizard is mentioned in my lonely planet tour book and he is def a celebrity here. Everyday at around 1pm he blows a horn and stands up on a green ladder in the square and starts a speech. He wears a black robe and a black wizard hat. The speech I heard yesterday from him was quite entertaining.

According to him, religion is just a form of baby farming. Also women are the cause of all of the worlds problems. As he puts it women are a pain in the ass but we can't help it because it's just in our nature. Also before priests were in control men were hunters and gatherers. After the priests were in control men had to become farmers and interested in agriculture. And the women domesticated these men, hence animal husbandry. Also motherhood is the cause of all war since if every mother has more than two babies they need more space and the only way to get that space is to go to war with their neighbors for their land.

Also the Greeks invented "motherbloody nature!" which according to the wizard is a worse thing than gods. So essentially, gods were invented by priests, nature was invented by greek businessmen, therefore everything is bull designed by rulers.

According to the wizard he is the official wizard of NZ. Apparently he has a piece of paper from the Prime Minister saying it. And if you have a piece of paper saying something it must be true. The wizard then went on to explain how he was going to turn the Earth upside down. Essentially he wants to turn all of the maps south side at the top. It was pretty interesting.

The wizard is about 70years old and he is quite an interesting guy. Whats great is he takes himself completely seriously so when he talks he conveys his ideas with great conviction. It really does captivate you.

Tomorrow I am going to a rugby game. For 20 bucks I get two free beers at a bar, a ticket to the game and a return bus. Not a bad deal. The next day I am leaving Christchurch for Kaikoura which is my last stop in the South Island. It's sad to think that this trip is almost over but I will be glad to get out of the South Island. It's getting cold here. The north should still be warm though since it is farther away from antartica. After Kaikoura it's back up to Wellington for a couple of days and then I start to slowly make my way back up to Auckland to fly out.

But for the rest of this afternoon I am going back to Cathedral Square and I am going to listen to the wizard again. Peace out

No Penguins

Before I explain why I didn't see any penguins check out my favorite picture from the bungy:

That's the view from the cable car about five minutes before I jumped.

Ok back to the penguins. After Dunedin I got back on the bus and headed to Curio Bay. On the way to Curio Bay we stopped at a beach and walked around. We turned this corner and all of a sudden there were sea lions no less than 20ft from us just chillin on the beach. Our driver told us that there was no worries as long as we didn't get between the lions and the water. Also if they started moving around or roaring at us we should really move away since they can run faster than us any day of the week. Here's one pic from that excursion (no zoom was used either, this was how close I was to them):
I was really amazed at how calm everything was. I would never had imagined that I would be able to get this close to wildlife outside of a zoo. And that's part of the beauty of New Zealand. They respect their animals and they want to protect them and they understand how to cohabitate with them without either side being caged in.

After we got back on the bus we drove for a little bit until there was a traffic jam,

hahah it was bound to happen in NZ. We had to share the road with the sheep and slowly make our way through them. It definetly put a smile on my face.

After the sheep fiasco we made it to Curio Bay. Curio Bay is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It's on the bottom of the South Island which means that it's close to Antartica. That means that despite the fact that Curio Bay is a beach it is freezing! Swimming in the bay were Hector's dolphins, the smallest in world. If you braved the cold water you could go in and they would swim around you. I didn't go in because I was on a mission to see the Yellow-Eyed Penguins which had a colony about a five minute walk from where we were.

The thing with nature is that it is not on a very strict time schedule. I got to Curio Bay at 5 and was told that the penguins could come ashore anytime between now and dusk, which is around 9. So I decided to just hang out at the colony and wait. The only problem was that a Southerly was coming in. A Southerly is like a Noreaster for us. There was wind, hail, and rain to be expected. So here I was standing in the mist of the rain, freezing waiting for the penguins when a rainbow appeared and I decided to take a picture of it:

When I was done taking the picture, my camera crapped out. The cold and damp conditions made it just shut off and refused to turn back on. So I sat there in the cold thinking if it was worth it to wait out here for possibly another 2 hours to see penguins that I would have no hope of capturing in a picture. The idea of a hot shower won and in I went so no penguins. I figured that I would probably see them at Milford Sound which is where I was going the next day.

Milford Sound is not actually a sound but rather a fjord. The difference is that a fjord is carved out by a glacier and that a sound is carved out by an eroding river bed. Anyway Milford Sound is located in the fjordland national park which is a huge park in which nature is untouched. Milford Sound is the most accesible fjord and the most touristy. I was staying here for two nights at the local(and only) hostel which operated on a generator that turned off every night at 11p and didn't turn back on until 6am. I was pretty much as far away from civilization as i ever have been. The first day at Milford I took a cruise around the sound. To see all of these cliffs rising out of the water and tower over you and to see all of the waterfalls is a very humbling experience. It made me feel very small in the grand scheme of things and I was in awe of how nature by itself can create such phenominal things. During the cruise some bottlenose dolphins swam around the boat and were doing jumps and flips. I also saw more seals, but the penguins were no where to be seen. it was still a great cruise. Here are some of the pics.

The next day I went back onto the Milford Sound but from a different angle. I tried kayaking for the first time. The weather was just as beautiful as the day before and the whole experience was really relaxing. We kayaked for about two hours and then went ashore in the sound and had lunch. The wind was picking up so our guide had us hold our kayaks next to each other and we put up a sail and sailed our back to where we started. Then we just kayaked around some more and enjoyed the beautiful day. Milford Sound gets about 8 meters of rain a year so the fact that I had two beautiful days in a row is pretty lucky. Also the more rain it gets the more waterfalls sprout out so next time I am in NZ I will def come back and hope that it's raining so I can see more waterfalls.

Retelling this to everyone I realize that I have done a lot in a week. I guess that's why I feel so tired. This is the kind of pace I am going to have for the rest of this trip. I am back in Queenstown right now for a day and then I am heading to Christchurch. I think I am going to stop there for four days. There is a really good rugby game that is being played on March 4th. I want to go to it so I am going to try and get a ticket.

I hope everyone had a good week and enjoys the pics!

After the bungy

Since my last post I have hopped back onto the bus and made my way to Dunedin. The bus ticket I am using right now is the one that I bought off of a girl for $200 less than what it was selling for. We ran into some problems with the transfer of the ticket though so for the next week I am Natalie Roper (which is fine because it makes me think of Threes Company). Anyway, on the way to Dunedin we stopped at a place called Tunnel Beach. Basically in the 1800s this guy owned the land. The beach was and still is surrounded by sandstone cliffs, making acces to the beach impossible. So the guy carved a 10m tunnel through the sandstone to get to the beach. He then gave the beach to his daughter for her birthday so she would have her own private beach (Daddy'll do it). The beach is now public and even though there is a tunnel it is still pretty hard to get to. It's a 20 minute walk downhill to get to the beach and then to get back up the hill it takes about another 40 minutes. Crazy.

After the tunnel beach walk our driver took us to Baldwin St. Baldwin St is in the guiness book of world records for being the worlds steepest street. It didn't look that steep but I didn't try to walk up it since I had just walked uphill for the past 40 minutes. After Baldwin St. I went to the Cadbury factory and took a tour. I enjoyed free chocolate and I got to see all of the cadbury chocolates that we don't get in the US. I had no idea that they made more than the eggs that I get at Easter. It turns out they make loads of chocolate but they only sell certain types where there is no competition. So since in the US we already have Mars bars we don't Cadbury's Moro's (which I think are better).

Yesterday I went to the Speights beer brewery for a tour. Speights is THE beer in the south and it was cool to get a tour and some free samples. They are very proud of their beer here. The great thing is that both the Speights brewery and the Cadbury factory are only a five minute walk from my hostel.

Dunedin is the third largest city in NZ and it contains the University of Otago, which is the largest Uni in NZ. It's got some really cool architecture and things like that. I'll post pics soon.

Tomorrow is the day my family has been waiting for. I will be seeing penguins. And if the weather is nice I will be able to swim with some dolphins. I am heading to a place called Curio Bay. It's population is 11 people (no lie). After Curio Bay I am heading to Invercargill which is as close as I am going to get to Antartica and the southernmost point that I am travelling to. By the end of the week I will be in Milford Sound. Milford Sound is actually a fjiord and is supposedly something that you have to see when in NZ. My plans are to stay there for a couple of days and kayak the sound. Then it's back to Queenstown.

I don't think I will have cheap internet access until I get back into Queenstown about a week from now so yet again this is goodbye. But don't worry I will have tons of pictures to share!

Thanks for all the comments about the bungy jump. They all made me smile and made me realize that I can't wait to come home and see everyone!

Molly's Right!

When I was in Auckland for the Big Day Out I bought a ticket for the Nevis Bungy jump in Queenstown. I bought it in Auckland because I knew that if I waited until I was in Queenstown to buy it I would chicken out. Up until about a month ago the Nevis Bungy Jump in Queenstown was the tallest bungy jump in the world at 134m(440ft). It was created by the guy who created the whole idea of bungy jumping AJ Hacket. In fact bungy jumping was created in Queenstown so what better place to do it. And since my motto is go big or go home I had to do the biggest.

So to get to the place where I jumped we had to hop in a car and drive 45 minutes into the mountains. You actually jump from a cable car that is suspended between two cliffs and you get to the cable car via a gondola. I was so nervous last night that I had to have a few drinks which turned into a lot of drinks because it turns out that everytime we told the bar tender that my Kiwi bus driver has big boobs we would get free beer until the keg runs out. I booked the jump for 8am because I wanted to get it over with. Anyone who has waited in line with me for a roller coaster knows how anxious I can get so I didn't want to spend a whole day worrying about the jump. By 9:30 I was harnessed in and in the cable car. Let me tell you, 134m is HIGH. We were suspended over a river that was so clear you could see the rocks at the bottom. I knew no one in the cable car with me but that didn't stop me from freaking everyone out. I started mumbling to myself how stupid this is and asking myself why I was doing it and then I turned to the other people and asked them if they realized how stupid we were all being right now. I was about to chicken out when the bungy guy chose to tell me that there were no refunds. So I was jumping.

I was third to go and the first girl. They have you sit down and they start strapping you ankles together and hooking everything up(oy I am getting anxious just writing this down!). They asked me if I had ever done this before and I laughed and said no and I will never do it again. Everyone was looking at me and I could tell by their faces that I must have had a very worried look on my face. Then I stood up and hobbled(because my ankles were now connected to bungy cord) over to the edge. Some choice expletives escaped my mouth and then I made the mistake of looking down. I stopped dead in my tracks and said there's no way I can do this it is too guy. Luckily the guy told me to just look straight ahead which helped. I hobbled to the edge and started bugging out because I wanted to hold onto something as I jumped. I had a shoulder harness on and asked the guy if it was ok if I held onto it for dear life as I fell. It was all a go and then the countdown from five began. The thing is at this point, even if I didn't jump I would have been pushed. They don't mess around. So as they said one I jumped. Albeit I didn't jump gracefully with my arms out. I jumped with my arms gripping my harness like they grip the shoulder pads of my backpack and my legs never fully unbent. It looked like I fell sitting.

Yes I did scream and it was loud. The freefall lasts for about 8 seconds and you actually bungy twice since the nevis is so high. You rebound back up about 40 m after the intial 134m drop and then you fall the 40m again (the first bungy was only 43m fyi). By the end of the 8 seconds my scream of fear had turned into a "whoo hoo!" scream. The fun wasn't yet over. Because the Nevis is so high they can't lower you down. Instead after you jump you have to be raised back up to the cable car. So here I am hanging upside down. There is a cord that you can pull so your legs are released and you get pulled up in a sort of sitting up position. But my hands were firmly glued to my harness so I just hung there spinning around repeating to myself "pull me up pull me up pull me up." At this point I had to keep my eyes closed because all of the spinning around was not helping my stomach. Finally I was pulled back up the 134m upside down and deposited back onto the cable car. I immediately went over to the trash bucket and thought I was going to throw up. The fact that the cable car swings after every jump wasn't helping things either so they put me onto the gondola and I arrived safely onto land where I watched my dvd and finally felt relieved that I had did it and that it was all over.

I will never bungy again. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I loved but will never ever do again. I got my free t-shirt and I splurged on a cute sweatshirt and that's it. 8 seconds of freefall is a loooong time.

On a completely different note, before I left Wanaka I went to this place called Puzzle World. It is full of optical illusions but the best part is that the cafe had all of these mind games that we could do. So I sat there with my cup of coffee and played all of these great games. It reminded me of going to Northhampton and playing in the toy store there. Good times.

ps...I bungy jumped!!! Who would have thought I would ever do that? No worries. The rest of this trip will be spent with my feet planted on the ground (until I fly to Fiji).

Wanaka update and random pics

There really isn't much to do in Wanaka besides sit by the lake and enjoy the view. I did a walk around the lake which was nice. Another thing that I have done is go to the local movie theater. It is called cinema paradiso and is great. There are no movie seats, just couches and they back cookies that you can buy at intermission. That's right. Each movie has an intermission where you can chug on some free water or buy a beer. Me I just stick with the cookies. They are delicious.

There is another girl that got off of the Kiwi bus and is leaving tomorrow. Her name is Beatrice. We were talking in the kitchen today when one of the receptionists walks in and asks if either of us wants to work for accomodation today since they are understaffed. I said sure but that I had to finish my coffee first. Before she left the reception just asked my name and I told her. Then i turned to Beatrice and said that it wouldn't be the first time I worked for accomodation, I had done it in Wellington at Base Backpackers. Beatrice's eyes lit up and she said "So you're the Elyse!" I was a little confused. She explained that she had worked for accomodation at Base right after I left and that everyone had kept on asking her if she knew me. Apparently they talked about me and told her my plans and everything. And every time she met someone knew they asked if she knew elyse. Hahah it even turns out that when we were in Franz Josef someone asked if she knew me! In Germany there is a drinking song that has the chorus "Who the F* is Alice?" Beatrice is German and as she was relaying to me how popular I was she ended by singing the chorus of the song. We both laughed a lot and then I thanked her for giving my ego a huge boost. We then started talking about the people back in Wellington and it turns out my window war guy is still in Wellington and still closing the window every night.

I leave Wanaka tomorrow and head for Queenstown. Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of the world so use your imaginations to figure out what I am going to there! (Hint: I haven't done it before). After Queenstown I will see penguins and take lots of pictures I swear. Here are just some pics from the last couple of months. Peace out!

My Christmas Card for next year.

Ed and Kirstee

The view from my tent at the first camp site that I stayed at for a night.

My tent at my campsite in Napier where I stayed for two weeks

The beach in Napier where I soaked up the sun

Mike from the tent pegs story

The first Mainfreight truck that gave me a free ride to Auckland for the Big Day Out

Me feeling very excited and wicked cool that I am going to ride in the front of a truck

A glacier in a rainforest

Before I could walk on the glacier I had to get to it. On the way from Greymouth to the Franz Josef glacier there is a place called Cape Foulwind. After about a 20 minute walk around the cape not only did I find a sign letting me know that I am never really that far from home but I also found a fur seal colony. This is just one of the pics I took but it gives you an idea. The seals just chill on these rocks that are surrounded by beach and the Tasman Sea.

After we saw the seals just chillin by the sea we (the bus) got jealous and decided to chill out on a little alcove beach for a bit. It was pretty nice and basically epitomizes my trip, I walk and I sit on beaches.

Once we were on our way past the fur seal colony we stopped for a night at Lake Mahinipua. There is nothing at this lake besides a pub with an 80 year old named Les who loves the Kiwi bus and for the past 20 years has let them stay there and cook them a bbq. Every night is a different theme for the bar. Our theme was guys in drag girls in trash bags. Needless to say the whole point of the night was to take advantage of the great drink deals (I got a free pitcher for doing the dishes after the bbq). It was pretty fun. I met these three girls while there and we had a good time. Belinda, the girl that has low cost written all over her, did the glacier hike with me.

Still not to the glacier yet. Before we got to Franz Josef we stopped at a place called the Bushman's Center. It's basically a place dedicated to honoring the hunters of NZ. NZ has no native mammals. All mammals that are here currently, like deer, were introduced by the English settlers in the 1800s. Deer are actually a pest in NZ since they eat the natural vegetation and destroy the balance. So it became legal in the 70s to openly hunt deer. After awhile the bushman realized that there was money in deer meat and decided to start deer farms. Now instead of killing the deer they just had to capture them. Before net guns were invented they captured the deer by chasing them with a helicopter and having the passenger in the helicopter jump out of the copter and onto the deer. It sounds a little barbaric but it was also really braveto jump out of a copter. Anyway at the center they have a wild boar. He was pretty tame but his teeth are wicked sharp.

Now onto the glacier. I was very nervous about doing a glacier hike. The full day hike takes 8 hours with about 6 hours of ice time. The extent of me actually walking for 8 hours straight is nil so I was a little worried if I could do it. But the motto for this trip is go big or go home so I signed up for the full day hike. It was completely worth it. The interesting thing about the franz josef glacier is that it is one of only three glaciers in the world that is situated in a rain forest. Fox glacier is another one, which is only 26km from franz and the last one is somewhere in South America so this hike was very unique. Franz Josef is also moving at its fastest rate in 10 years. So basically I walked on this moving thing and I paid for my guides to carve out steps so we could climb up it. When I get home I can explain better how a glacier winds up in a rain forest. The gist is that since the Southern Alps are on the west coast of NZ they cause the clouds to have to move over them to get into the middle of NZ. For clouds to get higher they have to dump rain, hence the rain forest. When the get even higher the rain turns to snow and this snow gets compacted into the valley causing the glacier to be created and sustained for thousands and thousands of years. So basically you look to one side and there is this huge block of ice and when you look to the other side there is this huge beautiful rain forest. This oddity made it possible for me to hike a glacier in shorts. When we were starting out it was hot and by the time we made it to the highest we were going to go, which turned out to be around 450 meters, it was cold and windy. And by the time we started to walk back down the glacier the wind had turned warm again. It was definetely a surreal experience.

Once we were on the glacier our guide took us to these narrow crevices. We all climbed in and shimmied along and then climbed back out. It was amazing to realize that I was completely surrounded by ice. And when I say these crevices were narrow I mean that we had to turn sideways to get through them.

I have lost a little weight since I have been in NZ. Because of this, my pants started to droop as we were walking along. At one point my shorts, which at first ended at my knees, were now ending at mid shin. I didn't have time to stop and fix them so I just kept going. Well to get out of one of the crevices you had to basically stradle the hole and take a big step up with your right leg. I did it and heard a rip. Yep that's right. I tore a hole in the crotch of my pants while on a glacier. No it wasn't breezy. Luckily no one noticed since we were all too busy worrying about falling on the ice and subsequently down

deep crevices. Walking on the glacier was definetly on of my top experiences while in NZ. Theres so much more to write about it but I think it will be conveyed better when I am at home and explain it in person.

I am now in Lake Wanaka. I am going to spend a

few nights here since there are some walks around the lake that I want to do. Also I am planning on letting my legs rehab from the climbing of the glacier for a couple of days and just enjoy the lake by way of the beach. Since I found a place that can post pics I will post some pics from the past couple of months too. So enjoy the glacier pics and look foward to some random pics. I miss you all!!