Finale

I have returned to the Tejas. It's really friggin' hot and all anyone can talk about is how much we need rain. Ah, home...

As promised, a few final pictures of New Zealand.


So Oamaru actually did have some things to take pictures of apart from trying to covertly photograph penguins at night, which I was unsuccessful at. This is the strange little Victorian market that is quasi-restored and full of oddities.


If only I'd brought a couple of friends with me...


What market is complete without really old bicycles and a scary army poster?


See the little black and white blobs? Those are penguins! Rare yellow-eyed penguins that only live in New Zealand. I saw three of them. They were very loud even down on their secluded beach. There were also fur seals getting in a fight. And THEN we went to see the blue penguins that are only a foot tall and cross the road from the beach in little herds called rafts. They were super-cute! I love penguins!


Then it was time for the Red Carpet party. We stoked the fire, as Fall had made a sudden and unexpected entrance on the scene--


--hung a rimaculous number of balloons--


--we even put up a wall of fame!--


--and everyone dressed to the nines. Paul, Dan, Nic, and Nicky. My flatmates. T'was an excellent do, with most everyone putting in a costume effort. Kevin gets props for wearing lycra-spandex all night. And you can all thank me later for not posting that picture.


Spent the next few days picking up my odds and ends. Went for a bit of a shop downtown with Dan and he randomly ran into someone he knew. I just had to take a picture, as this is what invariably happens when you go to the city center with Daniel. Why does he know everyone?


My last night a few people came out for drinks at the Twisted Hop, appropriately the place where most of us had met. Steve and Leela on either side of me.


And there was Pork Pie, and more importantly gluten-free beer. And it was good.


So I say farewell New Zealand. I'll miss you and your pretty money and funny accents. But mostly I'll miss the gluten-free beer.

What would Vicky say?

Oh man, it was so cool. Victoria Square, not 10 minutes' walk from my house, was turned into a Chinese Lantern Festival this weekend. There were pandas and turtles and fish and flowers and bees and a moving giraffe and really bad food and even worse karaoke! You just thought it was bad in a smoky bar, imagine if the same disharmonies were being broadcast across an entire park. There were children there, for heaven's sake!


All that aside, it was really cool. I think I liked the fish and the lily pond best because of the reflections. And if you can spot the obligatory punter in the background, he's just there to remind you that it's in Christchurch. They love punting on the Thames around here.


These are the lilies, see above.


Upon studying the dragon for a bit I came to the realization that someone, somewhere, stitched all these together, probably by hand. That is neat beyond words-- I may have found a new hobby. Who wants a Chinese lantern for Christmas? C'mon, you know you do!


Oh yeah, I gotta try my hand at this. The giant bees were mildly spooky, but mostly charming.


They lived in this garden!


The weekend's festivities were made doubly exciting by Erin's arrival! We laughed, we cried, we confused those around us by speaking mostly in movie references. And we took some really bad pictures in front of the lanterns. Erin liked the pandas. She did not like that we were cheated out of our own little paper lanterns to carry around and potentially light things on fire with. And neither, I must confess, did I. I'm going to find me a lantern, and I'm gonna carry it around on a stick anyway-- all by myself! So there!


They're turtles... but they're playing musical instruments. OF COURSE! It all makes sense. Note how rimaculously more tanned Erin is than me. Turns out the north island is warmer and sunnier than here.Turns out.

So I leave New Zealand in just over a week! Craziness. I'm sure you're all sad that this sporadically updated blog will become of historical significance only. But you'll be able to stop being disappointed when you check up on me and find I haven't done anything! So that's nice.

Hopefully my last post will involve some pictures from my going away party (Red Carpet theme. does anyone have some suggestions for velvet ropes? I don't know anyone who works at a movie theater, unfortunately) and some wise saws and modern instances and wit and wisdom and other important things like that.

I'm going to Oamaru tomorrow to see the penguins, at long last. I'll try to think up some clever things to say while I'm there. Just for you guys. In the meantime...



I managed to capture everyone's reaction when I postulated that this Cosco lantern must be representative of their corporate sponsor-ship...
Thank you! Thank you! I'll be here all week!

Cricket-astic

There was some sadness at Derby St when Steve, Dave and Hamish moved away from next door. But all was forgiven when they held a Cricket-themed housewarming at their new place downtown this weekend! So much white, and so much zinc, so much knocking of balls around inside the house.



Nicky takes her turn at bat, protecting her beer-- wickets! I meant wickets.




Our lovely hosts on the left in the back.



Two man-y DJs.

Serious Fun

Hello, and welcome to the North Island. Those of you who frequent my blog have been here before, but let me assure that this experience is wholly different from the first. For one, we went to different places. For another, we nearly destroyed ourselves with over-extertion (being defined as hiking and caving). Let's watch!


This is actually in Blenheim the day before we caught the ferry north. The Keg and Cork was an "English-Style" pub and microbrew. Really nice cider and beer. And a very bizarre book on London pubs. I think it was supposed to be funny, but I'm not sure.


At the hostel in Blenheim. Good thing we had to wake up so early, because I managed to make it through the night without having to stumble out of bed and find the bathroom. It might have been a lethal arrangement otherwise. Ironically, a similarly induced injury would prove to be the most serious on the trip. But more on that later.


A nice man took this for us on the ferry ride, since our self-timer abilities were severally lacking. Completely different from my first ride, partially because we were going a different direction, and partially because it wasn't bitterly bitterly cold out on the deck. I didn't manage to spot my house in the hills unfortunately.


We spent the day in Wellington after our early ferry got in. This is the boardwalk they built over a busy road to connect the government buildings to the waterfront. Good times, good times.


So, industrious tourists that we are, we decided to undertake the Tongariro Crossing, a 17km hike lasting 6-7 (or in some cases 8) hours and winding its way between two active volcanoes. One is in the background. We believe it to be Mt. Doom, so there's our obligatory LOTR stop taken care of!


It is preported to be the most popular walk in NZ, and we had to believe it considering how many people were on the walk with us, although the fog kept them covered for much of the time. Still, it was a strange scene to be so far into nature with so many other people. I had to feel a small sense of comraderie with them by the time we were all passed out on the grass at the end waiting for our buses to pick us up.


Stopped at the Red Crater to eat lunch in the sulfurous mist. Not suprisingly, we were undeterred from eating. Our normal propensity for snacking aside, we'd just hiked up about three of the rock faces from the picture before this one.


The changes in landscape over the course of the 8 hours is really amazing. By the time we got past the StrongSad rest stop with more grumpy and morose looking people than we'd seen all day, and into the forest, our smiles (and feet, back, knees) were wearing thin as well.


But we made it. In relatively good form and with just enough time to collapse before the bus arrived, despite Kelly pulling an Ansel Adams. That pack? It's mostly camera.

The next day, just for good measure, we went to the Waitomo Caves to see the glow worms. We abseiled, caved, and our Texan training came in handy when we sat in inner-tubes and floated through the stream. Adjustements had to be made for the inclusion of wetsuits and miner's hats in the activity, and the absence of beer. But all in all it went down pretty well. And the worms were definitely worth the frigid water and soaking wet gumboots. Even though the mood was slightly wrecked when we were informed that what we were actually staring at was glowing maggot poo. Did I mention how great our guide was?

The rest of the vacation was spent recovering on a beach in the Coromandel. I couldn't be bothered to take pictures. It was pretty. And we spent a day in Auckland with my friend Gina and her flatmate Natalie who were super-cool and put up with all three of us and our internet addiction. It was rainy and cold the last day, so we went to the aquarium and saw the sharks and sting rays and PENGUINS! They are so cool.

-In Conclusion



God Bless this little car. It took us all over--mostly in 2nd gear, but still-- put up with our confusion about sides of the road, and carried our rimaculously increasing amounts of luggage and food.


This is it, the most serious injury of the trip. I missed the second to last rung on my bunkbed ladder in Wellington and banged my shin on the last rung. Nice, huh? I'm sure you're all proud to know me.


But otherwise our legs were greatly improved by the trip. Oooooo, aaaaaaah...

So,



New Zealand is neat--


but it will kick your bum.

The South Island, in 15 photos or less

So we found the sketchiest internet hook-up ever, which was at some guy's house that doubles as a hostel and an internet cafe. It was a strange scene, but they let me plug my laptop in, so here are pictures!


So we spent a few days in Christchurch hanging out with my flatmates and unwinding after the joy of the holidays. New Years' we went to Cathedral Square for fireworks and a couple of new clubs in town. But mostly we ate, slept, learned to play cricket, and rocked out in the band room.


Oh, and took silly pictures. Nicky and Dan (my flatties) chilling in Hagley Park after a busy afternoon of arty photo-taking. It's a rough life.


Then we began the car trip in earnest. The 3 of us and our stuff in a 1.5L Toyota Echo. Go, little car, go!


We stopped at Hanna's dairy farm for some 4-wheeler action and lunch. She showed us how they milk the cows on this crazy carousel contraption, and then Kelly spent about 15 minutes trying to take pictures of these sheep. She didn't get the one she wanted, but I nearly got run over trying to herd them. Turns out I was less intimidating to sheep than the other ladies. Who knew?


This is us at Lake Tekapo. Emily is actually trying to set-up the timer on her camera, not orchestrate an ambush. Look at the preetty blue water!


This is what we did in Queenstown. Half a world away from Texas, a few kilometres from the majestic U-shaped valleys of Fjordlands National Park, and we're watching football. Hook 'em Horns!


Then on to the Fox Glacier! It was a massive river of ice, I'm not sure what else a person can say about it. Awe-inspiring in its grandeur, but we managed to mock it anyway. Go team!


Then we drove to Punakaiki and the Pancake Rocks, but high tide wasn't until the evening so we spent the afternoon kayaking on an easy river for "children and non-swimmers." Spirits high, we set out for an easy and scenic afternoon. Several kayak tumps and one near-loss of the cameras later...


And we were beaten. It was time to eat (as it so often is on this trip). Turns out paddling upstream is not as easy as it looks. And those wetsuit shoes? They don't actually keep the water out. Actually, they hold it in pretty effectively. But it was pretty though.


I feel you should all know that we barely made it to the Pancake Rocks in time for high tide because we were playing Scrabble. I mean really, if we'd forgotten for 5 more minutes we probably would have missed it. This would have been a shame as they are pretty impressive, the sound actually more than the sight. But really, is anyone shocked? No, not really.


In New Zealand they like to maximize greenspace by minimizing road space. This one-lane bridge on a two lane "major" highway is also shared with a train. "Why not put in a runway for air traffic as well?!" Kelly calmly mused as we navigated the treacherous motorway. But all of our nerves and senses of reality and reason would be put to the test a few kms later when the road narrowed to one lane around a cliff, and we were given two of those anti-theft mirrors they have in convenience stores to navigate the 180 degree turn. Sorry, no pictures of that one, we were too busy bracing for impact.


But we made it to the Golden Bay, and our kayaking trip through the Abel Tasman National Park went off without a hitch. There were seals and stingrays and I got to go swimming on a secluded beach! The water was... refreshing.


We do a lot of eating on this trip, but this picture is of particular significance because that is the last stick of string cheese that the girls brought with them from the US. It had not been refridgerated for 14 days. Turns out, string cheese doesn't actually have to be refridgerated. Turns out.