Now with added detail!

I took a LOT of pictures while I was traveling, probably about 5,000 or so, but not all of those made it on to Flickr (I deleted about a thousand of them that didn't turn out or that I just didn't like) and only a tiny portion of them made it on to the blog (the incredibly slow internet speed in some places would've made it impossible). The other night I was looking through some of the pictures with a friend who didn't read my blog or look at my Flickr page while I was away. How do you share nearly 4,000 pictures with a person without making them comatose with boredom? Well, if you're me, you go straight to the Personal Faves set. It only has 92 pictures in it. :-)


What I realized looking through this set, besides the fact that there are SO many good memories just in that album alone, is that a lot of those pictures were posted without a whole lot of additional information. A shot might be labeled "Fraser Island" and appear in the Australia set as well, but that's it. So I thought I'd share some of the background info on some of my favorite pictures, just to add a little something to the picture.

The picture above was taken three days into the beginning of my trip and was the first shot I took of myself (included in this blog post originally). Oh, okay, there may have been one that someone else took and one other that I took, but this was the only good one. I'd been wandering around this park in Barcelona, saw this cool tree, and decided that I wanted to take a picture with it. What I love about this picture is that I look so damn happy (and look at how short my hair was back then!). Everything was still pretty surreal then and I had to pinch myself to be sure that I wasn't dreaming. It was around the time of this picture that I really started to enjoy myself.


This next picture was taken while I was lost. I know, surprise surprise, right? I'd gotten turned around in Athens on my way to the Acropolis. There was a big main road leading to the Acropolis that I'd seen from a distance, but I had trouble finding it and instead found myself in this little village. The houses and narrow, winding paths themselves were very cool, but thinking about how people had lived in those very houses for thousands of years kind of took my breath away a little. The houses were whitewashed with brightly painted doors and gardens were growing out of every nook and cranny. I was enjoying being lost on this particular day, but what sealed it and made it a personal-fave- worthy photo opportunity was the handwritten sign giving directions to the Acropolis:

One more for today and since I started with surrealism, I'll end with surrealism, too. The day that I left Queenstown, New Zealand for Franz Josef Glacier was an early, foggy start. After about an hour, maybe less, we made our first "comfort stop." I was kind of grumbling to myself about how if we kept making stops like this, it was going to take us forever to get there and jeez, why couldn't we just get a move on? But then I looked up and saw this outside the bus window: 

It was so pretty and ethereal looking that I couldn't help but not be mad. It made me remember that the journey is part of the trip, if that makes any sense at all. It also reminded me that attitude is a choice. I could choose to be annoyed at the number of stops we were making, or I could choose to sit back and enjoy the ride. My choice this day was the latter.

Sweet as

I love all of the various sayings that New Zealanders have, so much so that I'm positive some of them will make it into my regular repertoire even after I'm home. There are some that are British or Australian influenced. Examples include chuffed (meaning pleased or happy), zed (as in the final letter of the alphabet), knackered (really tired), rubbish (and the "bin" it goes into), take the piss (when someone is teased or ridiculed), whinge (aka whine), and good on ya. Others are Kiwi through and through and I like them, but I'd probably never use them: pack a sad (meaning moody or uh, sad, but it can also mean something is broken, i.e. "my car packed a sad"), sparrow fart (very early in the morning), and dairy (a convenience store).

Then there are the ones I like AND use, the ones I'm already trying to slip into conversation every chance I get. Eh (rhymes with pay) I already say, but I use it more like a Canadian uses it, like a question. Kiwis say it at the end of nearly every sentence (or so it seems) and it's definitely not a question. There's "heaps" which is a more fun way to say a lot and "wop wops," the Kiwi equivalent of the boonies. Cheers is the NZ version of aloha in that it has multiple meanings. It can mean thank you, you're welcome, and enjoy your drink. Jandals are flip flops, but what I really like is the phrase "you can't handle the jandal!" I looked for a proper definition online, but didn't come up with anything that seemed dead-on to me. The closest I can come to an explanation is that it refers to a threatened punishment or is another way to say get out of the kitchen if you can't stand the heat.

My absolute favorite is "sweet as." At first I thought it was meant like "sweet as ___" with the blank being whatever you wanted it to be because what's really good to me may be different for someone else, but no. Essentially it means that something is very good and no, nothing follows it, it comes at the end of the sentence. It's really versatile, too, because practically any adjective can have 'as' follow it for the same effect, with the 'as' taking on the meaning 'very.' Therefore, expensive as means very expensive, hot as means very hot, and new as means very new. Urban Dictionary has some other explanations, but you'll have to see for yourself because I don't want to confuse things more than I probably already have.

And that's about it for my lesson of the day. I do have lots to say to bring everyone up to speed on my last few days of exploration and adventure, but it will have to wait because I'm totally knackered right now. :-)

Crickets

Now that I'm in Auckland and have the base I've been waiting for, I'm off to explore for a bit. This means that you're going to be hearing crickets around here for the next few days or so because I'll be out of pocket and nowhere near a computer. I promise I'll be back soon, though!


Have you been to my Flickr page recently? Lots of pics over there, so that should keep you busy for awhile. :-)

Bird poo

Since I plan to be here in Auckland for awhile, I'm taking it pretty easy so far. As proof: I arrived in Auckland on Tuesday around midday and met up right away with James, my CS host. He was on his way to visit his 93 year old grandmother and asked me if I wanted to come with. Sure, why not? Within a few hours of my arrival, I'd met James, his cousin, and his grandmother, all Kiwis through and through (well, except for grandma, but she's lived here for more than 50 years, so that's close enough). James had other couchsurfers staying with him, but they were out when we returned to his house so we spent the night listening to music and talking about our various travels. It was a chill, low-key, but still fun way to spend the evening.


Low-key was just what I needed since I woke up Wednesday morning and went for an adrenaline rush first thing. If you've been around here for awhile then maybe you've figured out by now that the bird poo title is in reference to my father's thoughts on bungee jumping and, if you've gotten that far, you've probably also figured out that I did another bungee jump.

I hadn't planned on it, actually, but the Marshes told me that there was a winter special and you could jump off the Auckland Harbour Bridge two times for the price of one. So it was their fault (and with their encouragement) that I decided to go ahead and make it three bungee jumps in three weeks time. :-)


These two jumps were from one-third the height as the last one, but I jumped in different ways each time, so all three jumps were totally different. I got the added bonus of walking up the bridge to the jump off pod, getting views of the Auckland skyline along the way. It was first thing in the morning, it was crisp and clear, and I was the only one jumping; what a way to start the day!


Afterwards, when my legs were no longer jelly, I walked to the area of city center known as Sky City where the Sky Tower is located. Sky Tower is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere (328m) which means that I've now seen the tallest structures in both hemispheres (although one is actually the tallest in the world and beats out the Sky Tower by quite a bit). I had fun snapping pics and had the same happy I'm-in-a-city feeling that I had last week in Wellington.

Like I said, I'm taking it pretty easy, so not much else exciting was on the agenda for the rest of the day. I ran a couple of errands and hung out with James and a couple of other couchsurfers. Oh! And I tried hokey pokey ice cream, a New Zealand tradition!

Eggy

Rotorua is nicknamed Sulphur City and for good reason. There's heaps of geothermal activity happening and that means that there's a distinct eggy smell throughout town. When it doesn't smell like eggs, it smells like. . .smoked meat? Odd, for sure, but not altogether unpleasant, I suppose.


I head to Auckland tomorrow so I wanted to fit in as much as possible today AND not spend too much money. I was g-chatting with my CS host in Auckland last night and he referred to Rotorua as Rotovegas which isn't too far from the truth as there are all kinds of ways to spend your money here. You can: white-water raft, kayak, climb an indoor rock wall, sky-dive, take a scenic flight, ride a luge, go zorbing, or bungee jump, just to name a few. 


I'm feeling cheap (ahem, frugal), though, so I decided on a walking tour instead. I started out with a walk through Kuirau Park because I'd read that it's one area where you can soak your feet in thermal pools for free. I ended up not doing that because the water wasn't quite as warm as I'd hoped, but I still got steamy, bubbly water pictures. You should be glad these don't come to you via smell-avision!

(Steamy thermal waters at Kuirau Park)

From there I walked to St. Faith's Anglican Church and the Tamatekapua Meeting House to see some traditional Maori carvings. Both are located on Lake Rotorua and by then the previously cloudy day was clearing up and getting sunny, so it was really quite nice.

(One of the carvings at the meeting house)

(St. Faith's Anglican Church)

Right around that time I was feeling peckish and started thinking about lunch. That's when I came across a chocolate shop. I figured I could either have lunch OR some expensive chocolates and tea, but not both because I didn't feel like spending the money. Hmmm. What do you think I chose? Here's a hint. Yeah, that wasn't a hard call at all! :-)

(Chocolates for lunch!)

My energy back up, I made my way to the Government Gardens. The gardens borrow some English concepts and have croquet lawns and bowling greens (where you play the game bowls, but I have no idea what that is!). The Bath House, opened in the early 1900's, and the Blue Pool, swimming pools dating back to the 1930's, are both here, as is the Rotorua Museum of Art & History. I briefly considered going into the museum, but seeing all the pools and spas was getting me in a relaxing kind of mood.


I haven't stopped my DIY run, apparently. I headed back to my hostel, changed into my swimsuit, and got into the "spa pool," aka hot tub, there (for free!). I also did a mud face mask courtesy of a souvenir that I bought for myself last night. I spent a grand total of $13 on today's DIY spa treatment rather than the $50+ I would've spent at one of the spas in town.


And now? Well, now I go on a search for dinner and have a quiet night since I have an early bus to Auckland tomorrow.

Mish-mash

I've had another couple of days in a row where not much happened and it was kind of just what I was looking for. There's not a whole lot of coherency in how I can recap it all, so I think bullets are in order.


* My whole point of going to Napier was for the wine. It's serious wine country there and there are wineries all over the place. It's really easy to get from winery to winery by bicycle and that woulda been a great thing to do. . .if it was summer rather than winter. Besides, it rained all day on Saturday AND I figured I didn't really need to spend another $100 on a wine tour. So what did I do? DIY wine tastings, that's what! I went to the Pak 'n Save, the cheapie grocery store here, and bought a couple of bottles to share with Joe and Paul, my CS hosts. Both bottles were from the Hawkes Bay area (where Napier is located) and I gotta say, I had just as much fun with this tasting as I did with the last one.


* I've had a lot of couchsurfing firsts recently. I'm sure Grandma was happy to read about Diane, my first ever female host. Then there were the Marshes, the first family I ever surfed with. And finally, Joe and Paul were the first gay couple to host me. Everyone was great, as usual; it's just cool that even after all the traveling and surfing I've done so far, I can still experience some firsts.


* This has nothing to do with the last few days, but. . .my hair fits in a ponytail now! Remember when it didn't?


* I went out for breakfast this morning before leaving Napier for Rotorua. At my table were an American (me!), an Aussie (Joe), and a Kiwi (Paul), plus Nico (French) and Ruth (Taiwanese), two other couchsurfers. How cool is it that there were five nationalities represented? And how come this doesn't happen to me more often in the US? Is it just because as a traveler I'm hanging out in traveler circles? 


And, uh, I don't know. I guess that's all I got.

East is east

Sometimes you have to go to a place just because of what it is and not necessarily because there's a lot to see or do there. The last time I did this was in India when I went to Kanyakumari because it was the southernmost tip of the country and a convergence of three waterways. That turned out to be not so great, so I was a bit hesitant about my latest plans for a special trip.


[As an aside, there were actually two potential special trips that I could choose from. The one I didn't pick was a trip to the place with the world's longest name: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.]


The trip I did choose was to Gisborne which has the distinction of being the very first city to see the sunrise every day. If you're going to try to fact check me on this by Googling or looking at a map, you'll probably notice that there are other places farther east than Gisborne**, in particular the Chatham Islands, also part of New Zealand. I noticed the same thing and asked Sean about it when I was in Christchurch. His answer (and the one I'm going with, too) is that sure, there are other places east of Gisborne. But you wouldn't exactly call them "cities." With a population of about 35,000, Gisborne is a proper city, at least by NZ standards, and that was good enough for me. 


The bus ride from Wellington to Gisborne was a long one, about nine hours. It was rainy and gray the whole day and I was beginning to think that this special trip o' mine wasn't turning out to be such a good idea. After all, there are no spectacular sunrises on rainy days. But I'd checked the weather ahead of time and saw that it was supposed to clear up, so I just kept my fingers crossed.


I checked into the Flying Nun Backpackers, a former convent with heaps of character. (If I didn't already have a CS host lined up in Napier, my next stop, I'd stay at a place that used to be a prison as recently as 1993. Talk about character!) During a walk around the city in search of dinner, it didn't take me long to be glad that I was only staying one night in Gisborne; there was not much of anything to see or do. Before I went to bed, I looked out the window and saw that the skies were clearing up. My hopes for a photo-worthy sunrise looked promising. . .


And, well, not too shabby. I didn't have the absolute best vantage point because that would've required a car, so I made do with a 30 minute walk to the beach instead. My pictures are just so-so, not at all fabulous, but that's okay because the point was more about being able to say that I'd seen the first sunrise of the day, rather than photograph it. 

**In doing some fact checking of my own, Wikipedia has another explanation entirely, but I'm still gonna stick with what I already had.

Revival in the city

Everyone probably knows by now that I'm a city girl through and through. And yet, I still seem to be surprised by it myself occasionally. Since leaving Christchurch I've been in "cities" that have fewer than 10,000 people. Today, walking around Wellington, I felt revived and rejuvenated. (Guys, it's a city of less than 400,000. It doesn't take much for me, really, I just like when it's a proper city.) I had an extra spring in my step that had been missing the last few days. I was taking pictures for the first time since my glacier walk. While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and be cheesy about it, too: I was happy to be alive and walking around (yet another) brand new, never-before-seen-by-me city.


One of the reasons why I think I like it so much is because it reminds me a lot of Seattle, on a smaller scale of course. They have a cafe culture like you wouldn't believe - more coffee shops per capita than NYC which, I think, puts it at the top of the list. Like Seattle, Wellington is a city built on a hill. Here, take a look for yourself:

And, oh, I don't know, I guess those are the only two reasons why it reminds me of Seattle. Maybe because I was in such a good mood that I couldn't help but think of other places that make me happy and Seattle is a place that I like so much I'd move to in a heartbeat?


Anyway, I took a bus into town from the Marsh's house. I checked out the parliamentary buildings for awhile and then I met up with Lefki Marsh for coffee and a cheese scone because she works in the area. More wandering followed, into and out of shops, just kind of going where things looked interesting. (And, by the way, not getting lost at all even without the help of a map! I've come so far!) I had lunch at a kebab shop run by an Iraqi guy who was very intrigued by the idea of traveling by myself for so long ("why didn't you ask a friend to come with you?") and who was also a bit surprised when I thanked him in Arabic as I left. :-)


I wrapped up my wandering with stops in two museums. The first was a tattoo museum that I'd been very keen to visit because I wanted to find out more about moko, Maori tribal tattoos that are commonly inked on the face. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a letdown because they've recently moved locations and are still in the process of putting everything back in place. It was kind of a hassle looking through everything, so I didn't end up spending much time there at all (but at least it was free!). I didn't arrive at the second museum, Te Papa (all about NZ history and culture), til about 4:30pm. I knew I wouldn't have enough time to look around before they closed, but I wanted to check out the museum shop and also get an idea of a game plan for my visit there tomorrow. Yes, a game plan is actually needed. There are six or seven levels and I've heard that a whole day can be spent on one level alone. I only have one day, so I have to be choosy about the exhibits I go to.


Afterwards I made my way back to my adopted-for-the-next-few-days home and well, hung out with the family. We had dinner, cleaned up the dinner mess, chatted, and watched television. A good, full, happy day and now I must sleep.

Base

I've been on the move quite a bit for the last few days, so much so that I've barely had time to even mention them. Ready for the rundown? (ToadMama, are your tracker map listening ears strapped on, lol? The SPOT updates just are NOT working!)

(A terrible picture, really, taken through a moving bus window, but goes to show that not all of NZ's mountains are snow-covered.)


As I already mentioned, I spent a night in Greymouth, a total of less than 24 hours actually. There's not a whole lot to do there, really, it was just a good stopping point on my way from Franz Josef to Nelson. What I did manage to do was a brewery tour. I figured since I did my first winery tour on the road, why not add a brewery tour to the list also? For $25 I got a brewery tour, seven beer tastings and one cider tasting, a glass of beer of my choosing, and a meal afterwards. We could choose one of three restaurants to go to, but I'm pretty sure my entire group went to the same place. I met a bunch of people and had a lot of conversations, but there was one really funny conversation to tell about. (Background info for this story is that as one of the few females present, I was getting quite a bit of attention.) Olly, who I believe was one of the owners, kept introducing me to people. At one point he introduced me to a group of old guys. One of them, who had to be at least 80, shook my hand, kissed my cheek, and asked me if I was from Greymouth. I told him I wasn't, I was from the US. His response? "Oh! I thought you were from around here. Ah, well, you're still pretty cute anyway!" I was cracking up!


From Greymouth I went to Nelson where couchsurfer Diane picked me up for the night. Diane is from the States and just moved to NZ about a month ago. We didn't do a whole lot during my stay, but she showed me around a bit and pointed out the very center of New Zealand. The day was crisp and sunny, so perfect for being out and about and walking. For my second night in Nelson I checked into a hostel. Diane mentioned that she's been late to work every day since she's started her new job and I figured I wouldn't add to her morning stress. :-)


The next morning, today, I left Nelson and headed to Picton. I was only in Picton as a transfer spot for the ferry, so I spent all of three hours there. Good thing, too, because it didn't look like there was much to it! After a four hour ferry ride, I landed in Wellington where I was met by the Marshes, a couchsurfing family that will be hosting me for the next few days.


I'm looking forward to being in Auckland and having a base for a few weeks. Not that I'm not looking forward to the places I'm going to hit leading up to it or anything. But having Auckland as a base will allow me to feel a little more settled than I've felt recently and I will still be able to take weekend (or - heck, I'm on vacation - mid-week!) trips to explore.

Population. . .2?

One of the things that makes traveling in NZ different from anywhere else I've traveled so far is the population size. There are just over four million people living here (and about 36 million sheep!). Don't quote me on those numbers because I'm pulling them from memory based on what I've been told or have read, and I'm too lazy to go look it up. You may be wondering why this affects travel and I'm about to tell you.


With so few people spread out over a comparatively large space, it means that cities and towns tend towards the small side. Let me give some examples. Approximately one-quarter of the population lives in the capital of Auckland. Greymouth, where I just spent one night, is the largest city on the west coast of the southern island with 8,500 inhabitants. And on the drive from Franz Josef Glacier (pop. 321) to Greymouth, our bus stopped in a place called Pukekara. Population: 2. (Yes, only 2! A husband and wife.)


Did you catch that? Our bus stopped in a place that only has two people living there. And this is what makes travel different. I think New Zealanders figure that if busloads of people are making their way from one end of the country to the other, they might as well capitalize on it. Because although these stops are called "comfort stops," they should really be called what they are: encouragements for you to spend your money on snacks, hot food, coffee, souvenirs, pellets to feed goats, pellets to feed salmon, and whatever else is on offer. After all, with a toilet on the bus there's really no reason to stop once (and in a few instances twice!) an hour. The amount of time the bus is stopped ranges from just a few minutes for a photo opp up to about 45 minutes for a meal break. As you can probably imagine, all of this stopping lengthens a trip quite a bit, usually making it about twice as long as it would be if driven by car. The buses I'm referring to, by the way, aren't even tour buses per se; they are public transport buses similar to Greyhound.


Don't get me wrong. I'm not exactly saying that I prefer the crowded-with-people-and-livestock buses of India or the treacherous road conditions of Indonesia. The buses are comfortable and the roads are in great shape. It's just that every now and then I'd like to shake the driver and tell him "We JUST stopped! Do NOT stop again! KEEP driving!" Oh, and there was that one driver who took a breath, started talking (over the P.A.), and didn't stop for almost four hours. Yeah, I wanted to shake him, too.

Glacial

Yeah, so, about that glacier walk. I arrived at the Franz Josef Glacier Guide center at 12:30pm, got geared up with rain jacket, over trousers, boots, and crampons, got on the bus, and made the 10 minute journey to the starting point of the hike. You can see the glacier from across the valley and it doesn't look that far away, perhaps a 10 minute walk. It's an optical illusion, though, as it's actually 2.5 kilometers and about a 35-40 minute walk.

I chose to do a half day walk, so I had about two hours of ice time. I was hoping for photo opportunities to rival those of someone else I know, but - to be perfectly honest - I felt kind of meh about the glacier itself. I actually thought the surrounding scenery of the glacier valley and the glacier guide was much superior! It was fun tramping around on the ice, though, glad I wore two pairs of socks. :-) Seeing the blue color of the ice and knowing that the water was clean enough to drink were pretty neat, too.

Franz Josef Glacier

My internet time is just about expired, so I'm just going to share some photos from the glacier walk that I did today and I can tell more about it at another time.

Southern Alps

As I said before, the drive from Christchurch to Queenstown was lovely. The day was crisp and the skies were blue. The conditions were perfect for viewing Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in Australia and New Zealand at 3755m (12,319ft). Also seen along the way were lakes (including the largest one in NZ), lots of sheep, and of course the Southern Alps, a mountain range running along the west coast of NZ.

Queenstown itself is a quintessential ski town. It's cute and quaint and the streets are filled with tourists going into and out of the overpriced shops. It's very pretty, though, and everywhere you look you can see snow-capped mountains. My hostel is a bit further out of the town center than I'd like, but the price was right and I'm only staying for two nights so it's not a big deal.


Today I slept in after being kept awake for two hours by a drunken roommate who made her appearance at 4am this morning. Dorm life is grand, eh? Then I. . .well, actually, this is where fathers and grandmothers - or at least MY father and MY grandmother - might want to stop reading or skip ahead quite a bit. Queenstown, after all, is the extreme sports capital of the world.


It's the extreme sports capital of the world AND the birthplace of the bungee jump. Which means that I did what my father couldn't comprehend and "emulate[d] bird poo." I took a 40 minute drive out to the Nevis river and the world's first gondola bungee jump. It also happens to be one of the tallest jumps in the world at 134m/440ft. There were two guys riding out with me who were clearly very nervous and they kept asking me if I was scared or anxious. And actually, considering that I do have a little fear of heights, I wasn't really nervous at all. That is, until I was standing on the ledge, about to make the leap overboard. I may have uttered a few words that are blog-inappropriate. I may have screamed my head off. Then I was falling and bouncing and the skies were blue today also so the scenery was amazing. It was perhaps one of the craziest things I've ever done and I can't wait to do it again sometime.

(That's me!)


Once back in town, I treated myself to a glass of mulled wine to take in the scenery. Oh, okay - and bring my heart rate back down, too. It's an early night for me because I have an 8am bus tomorrow to Franz Josef Glacier. I've never seen a glacier in real life before, so I'm looking forward to some good photo opportunities.

Catching up on Christchurch

Hey, so, I'm in Queenstown! I barely managed to say anything at all about Christchurch and I've already left. Unfortunately, that's how it's going to be for the next week or so as I make my way around the south island because I'll be on the move quite a bit.


So let's catch up on Christchurch (CCH), shall we? It shouldn't take much to cover my days there because I didn't do a whole lot. I kind of feel like just picking a city in NZ, hunkering down, and staying awhile. In fact, if I didn't know that I'd hate myself for doing it, I'd fly straight to Auckland and do just that. But the south island is pretty and nature-y and stuff like that, so I'm here for a little while at least. Anyway. . .

My first full day in CCH got off to a late start because I didn't wake up until almost 11am. I hadn't been sleeping well my last few days in Melbourne, so I guess my body was catching itself up. Then it took me awhile to get out of the house because I was trying to time my leaving in between rain showers. I was staying with couchsurfers near Lincoln University which meant I had about a 1km walk to the bus stop followed by a 40 minute ride into the city center. (Oops! Forgot to mention I was surfing. My hosts this time were Sean (Kiwi), Merf (British), and Christine (German)). Once into the city, I followed Sean's advice and hit up some of the more popular sightseeing destinations: CCH Cathedral, Canterbury Museum, and CCH Art Gallery. I wandered around a bit, too, taking a few pictures, even though it was cold. In the evening I met up with Sean so that he could help me experience some of the CCH nightlife. It was quite fun. We went to a lot of pubs that had heaps of character and then wrapped up the night with cheap and tasty falafel sandwiches.


Saturday I didn't leave the house. That's it. That about says it all. (And no, I wasn't hungover. I was just feeling lazy. It was cold outside and the fire inside was warm and cozy.) Oh, well, wait a minute. Merf and Christine had a bunch of friends over for brunch on Saturday and I was welcomed into the fold. Most everyone in the group were expats, but there was one Kiwi to balance things out. It was interesting to learn people's reasons for moving to a far-off country and the french toast and bacon was yummy, so it was a good time.


Sunday I almost didn't leave the house again. Then I came to my senses and realized how silly that would be. Around 1pm Merf and Christine went out to run errands and Sean was doing some work on his car (his "ute"), so I figured I might as well get out, too. I ended up just hanging out in a coffee shop, doing some writing and people watching. I thought I might meet up with a friend, but she never showed and I just assumed she didn't get my email. After a couple of hours, I met Sean at the bus station because we were going to go to a little town outside of CCH called Lyttelton. Guess who wandered over while we were waiting for the bus? None other than Marina! No, it wasn't totally coincidental, I'd told her I would be there at that time, but I was having my doubts that she'd show. Unfortunately, she couldn't join us for our trip to Lyttelton because she had other plans, but at least we got to see each other, however brief it was. We also forced Sean to take a commemorative picture, lol - five countries now! He probably felt a bit like Will did, listening to us blather on and then be all goofy waving goodbye from the bus, but oh well. There's not much to Lyttelton except a harbor, but it was pretty and I got to see another kitschy, character-y kind of bar, too.


Finally, today, Monday. The plan had been to wake up early, super early, like 5:30am early, to go into town with Sean to watch the World Cup final game between Spain and the Netherlands. I was scheduled to be on a bus at 8:30am, so it was the only way I'd be able to see most of the game. The waking up was painful, but I managed it. Everything was going according to plan. Then. . .the car wouldn't start. Grrr. The car is more than 20 years old and I think it was just too cold for it. Sean and I grudgingly conceded defeat and went back inside to watch the game there instead. I stayed as long as I possibly could before I had to catch the bus into town and Sean figured he'd give the car one more try. Damn thing started up right away, wouldn't it figure? We were in town early enough to pop into a place that was showing the game, but couldn't stay til the end (don't worry, I heard on the bus that Spain won. Yay, that's who I was rooting for!).


I made it onto the bus - with a hot coffee in hand (legally!) - and settled in for an eight hour trip south to Queenstown, where I am now. It was a lovely ride, but more on that later. . .

What's left of the plan

I made it to New Zealand! I'm officially on the other side of the planet from home!

I was g-chatting with ToadMama the other day and she commented that she enjoyed seeing my "map points getting closer and closer to North America" on the tracker map. It made me realize that I haven't updated anyone with my itinerary recently, so I thought I'd do that now. 

I will be in New Zealand for seven or eight weeks, spending the majority of my time on the northern island, most likely in Auckland (the biggest city in NZ). From there I will spent about two weeks in Fiji before heading back to the States (flying in to San Francisco). I haven't quite decided how much time to spend in California. Part of me really wants to do a two week driving tour of the California coast and also hit up Napa and Sonoma valleys for more wine tastings. But the other part of me knows that California isn't going anywhere and I can do that trip any time. So, it's still up in the air, but either way I'll spend at least a few days in San Fran before heading back to B-more.

And there you have it, what's left of my plan. Is anyone else kind of amazed that after all this time, there's only weeks left to my trip instead of months? I know I am.