Mid-Semester Break

This post is long overdue - I'm really sorry, but I have been pretty terrible at keeping this blog. So here's me trying to catch up.

On Friday August 22, I caught the 8 AM Atomic Shuttle bus to Christchurch which left from the Railway Station, and which I came somewhat close to missing due to the desire to sleep an extra 10 minutes or so because I stayed up ridiculously late out with friends the night before. My ride consisted of that strange mix of excitement and exhaustion that leaves you unable to sleep, but really wishing you could, and absolutely no leg room as I had to sit next to someone and Atomic Shuttles are pretty cramped anyway. However, I was able to enjoy the scenery but almost too tired to take pictures of it. I did get this in Timaru:


I finally arrived in downtown Christchurch after a chocolate-chip-muffin break in Oamaru and Vidhi picked me up. Driving to her farm in Rangiora, we had the sort of awkward conversation any adult and extremely-tired twenty-year-old would have when said twenty-year-old is coming to live with them for a little under a week. Finally we arrived at Ancova Farm, a lovely tree-filled property almost entirely surrounded by other farms, most of them containing cows. I was ushered to my room - in the stable - and shown around, meeting the animals, and eating some lunch. There were 2 dogs - Rocky and Tika; 3 cats: Big Puss, Oscar, and Milo; lots of chooks [chickens]; one goat (Gabby); one sheep (Lambie/Georgie); one cow (Sarah Jane); and 11 horses: Bergie (Haflinger stallion), Piccalo (Welsh stallion), Mollie (mini), Ted (30 year old ex-grand-prix showjumper), Rianna (Haflinger mare), Lainey (NZ Riding Pony young mare), Flick (NZ Riding Pony mare), Bella (paint mare with only one tiny white spot and a blue eye), Fred (NZ Riding Pony yearling colt), Florrie (NZ Riding Pony yearling filly and full sis of Fred), and Albert (Haflinger yearling colt).


Rocky


Gabby


Molly


Oscar and Big Puss


My room

That night I just did some feeding, and watched movies with Bianca, Vidhi's 16 year old daughter who had just had a dental operation (ouch). The second day I helped do the morning feeding, groomed the yearlings, rode around the roads with Bianca (I rode Bella, she rode Ted who is actually quite feisty), did some mucking out, and groomed Lainey. Monday and Tuesday it rained, Wednesday it was overcast and still too wet for much of anything. My job changed to one of mostly sweeping, cleaning tack, and feeding the animals. It was still a good time, the family was nice, they were excellent cooks and fed me a lot of food, they liked Flight of the Conchords. It was relaxing, a beautiful area, and great to be around animals for a while. I am so happy I did it, and also happy I invested in gumboots [rainboots] beforehand. I actually miss the Marshalls now, and the farm and all the horses, and the food. I wish I had stayed a bit longer, because I really liked them but tended to be pretty quiet until near the end of my stay. Also, their house was more or less my dream house: a small but open log cabin with huge windows and a very cosy atmosphere.


A reason to love the Marshalls' house.

Thursday it was lovely out but it was time for me to move on. Vidhi took me into Rangiora so I could take the bus into Christchurch. The bus cost $5, and I sat awkwardly surrounded by all my luggage taking up approximately 4 seats. I got into the city and checked into the YHA. I immediately liked the YHA, it was clean and had great facilities. I then went out in search of lunch, and ended up getting a chicken sandwich from a really great little bakery. I then walked around the city and meanwhile discovered that Amy and her sister would be there that night. I walked through the Botanical Gardens and checked out the Canterbury Museum. I went into the cathedral as well. I kind of fell in love with the city, and did souvenir shopping as well. Maybe it was the warm, spring-like air, or the chocolate peppermint ice cream I ate, or the guy juggling in Cathedral Square, but I was completely hooked by the end of my wanderings. I then had dinner at Burger Wisconsin, feeding my terrible addiction to those kind of burger places, which are all approximately the same, and can be found in any New Zealand city of decent size. At least they're delicious. I read the book I found in the hostel book exchange, Oil by Upton Sinclair, until it was time to meet with Amy and her sister at their hostel around the corner. We talked for a while, but I had to get up to catch a bus to Picton at 7 so I had to call it a night.


statue

giant chess board in Cathedral Square

Botanic Gardens

Canterbury Museum

Christchurch Cathedral

I was somehow a bit less exhausted for the bus in the morning than I had been the previous Friday, despite getting less sleep. I was able to enjoy the rugged Pacific shoreline and take lots of pictures of it. Here's one:


We stopped in Kaikoura for a 30 minute break, and I wandered around and ate a bagel. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure that's going to be my only experience in Kaikoura: I'd love to go there and whale watch, but it doesn't look like it will work out.

Finally I arrived in Picton (on a very empty bus, by the way, with tons of everything room) and found Jane and Daryl and Jack and Ally and it was the start of the Abel Tasman weekend. We loaded into the van and drove to Nelson to pick up Becky and Karin and the Auckland girls. Then on to Motueka for groceries. Then Marahau for our accomodation, The Barn. There were cool Māori carvings nearby that we checked out, such as this one:

We also checked out the nearby beach, which started to recede with the tide at an alarming rate.


We then went in and were served gigantic amounts of pesto pasta and garlic bread by Jane. Delicious!

The next morning we were up early and on the water taxi. It showed us Split Apple Rock (the name should be abundantly clear in just one second).

We also went by the Tonga Island seal colony.

We were dropped off on a lovely beach and then hiked to another beach and had lunch. Then we continued on until some of us did the low tide track and some the high tide. I had the distinct pleasure of walking barefoot through small amounts of freezing water and over pointy shells on the low tide track. No one knows why we decided to go barefoot. Anyway, we ended up on a beach near where our accommodation for the night was anchored. It was this boat:

It is known as an 'aquapackers.' They served us a lovely barbeque and we slept in tiny bunks in a dark hole down below. Well, I thought they were cosy.

The next morning we got up to kayak back to Marahau. Unfortunately it was raining and cold. This didn't seem to register with me as a problem until a little while kayaking. It was cold... and raining... and kind of miserable. Also I'm not used to having to match my stroke to another person's, but Karin and I made a pretty good team. Anyway, we were nearly frozen by the time we got back, and soaked, so we stripped in the parking lot and put on some dry clothes. We went immediately back to Nelson where I got out of the van to go home with Becky and Karin, and Gavin, Austin, and Hannah.

So, it was 6 people in a 5 person car for an 11 hour drive. AWESOME! Gavin and I shared one seat for most of the time, we took turns sitting in the floor. Bear in mind Gavin is some six feet tall... anyway, yes it was cramped, but it saved me time and money. Austin managed to fit all the luggage in the trunk and also drove the entire way. There was some angriness going on, but we tried to be positive. We got back to Dunedin at 2 in the morning. I say, awesome mid-semester break!!!


Cramped in the car

Te Anau and Milford Sound Weekend

After a week of the fresher flu (it wasn't the flu, that's just a catchall term), I finally got out of Dunners, which was good because I was getting a little bit of cabin fever, if you will. I went with Karin and Becky to Te Anau. Our original plan was to do a day of the Kepler Track. However, Becky and I having been sick all week, and having a slight desire to be touristy, we changed our plans. Karin and I booked the bus and the hostel a mere 2 hours before the bus was leaving. There were actually only a few seats left, so we were pretty lucky. It is the off season so I guess it's a bit more reasonable to do that (except in Queenstown and Wanaka which are at the height of ski season). We hopped on the bus at 1:55 PM after getting lost on the way to the Intercity office. We couldn't sit together. I ate my Subway sub on the bus, despite rules against food (no one really cared). There was a 30 minute 'break' not long before changing buses at Gore at a cafe. We got into Te Anau after 7, so it was dark. We got pointed in the direction of our Backpackers (it was the Lakefront Backpackers, so not too hard to find) and checked in (there was a bit of confusion when we found out our first room didn't have enough beds left but we got some beds eventually). Then we set off in search of food. Of course, it being the middle of winter and an extremely small town, the supermarkets close at 7. There were about 3 or 4 restaurants actually open, some exorbitantly priced and some moderately priced but not cheap ($15 meals). We ended up going to an Italian place called La Toscana. I got pasta with spinach and cream sauce with pine nuts, it was extremely delicious. Then we walked back to the hostel to try to plan our activities for the next day. The hostel was really nice compared to our flats - it had some heat and the common rooms had a fireplace! Using the internet, we decided we would do a Milford Sound cruise and then the Te Anau glowworm caves, and we booked online. We then talked to some people in the lounge and discovered that the glowworm caves were geologically unsound.

The next morning, our Taiwanese roommate left an hour before we had planned to get up. This disrupted my sleep and I was not entirely thrilled. I need to remember my sleep mask whenever I go places. We got up and walked to the Info Centre to see if our bookings were through. It was just in time for the coach to Milford Sound to take people to the Pop Inn Cafe, which is where we, too, got breakfast. We then boarded the coach. It was more crowded than I'd expected but we were each able to get a window seat and not have anyone sitting beside us. The bus was shaped weirdly and the seats were angled toward the windows for maximum viewing. It was quite foggy/cloudy when we set off, and we couldn't really see the Murchison Mountains by Lake Te Anau. We were going through a beech forest just as the fog was clearing (right around when we entered Fiordland National Park). Eventually the bus stopped at the short track by the Mirror Lakes, which beautifully reflect the Earl Mountains. We then continued on, stopping also at Lyttle Flat (by a river), an area by a dramatically huge peak (Christina's Peak, I think?), The Chasm (where the Cleddau River has carved its way down through soft rock, an amazing sight), and at the entrance to the Homer Tunnel (which is somewhat terrifying, by the way). We finally got to Milford Sound after an absolutely amazing tour of Fiordland (at least the part along Milford Road). It was raining by this point but vision was not really obscured. Mitre Peak stuck out in its iconic shape. It's absolutely breathtaking, and I read that the Maori see it as a symbol of manliness. We climbed aboard our blue three-masted ship, the Fiordland Navigator, and claimed our free picnic lunches. We had time to eat before the boat departed. It was a two-hour cruise, and we saw many stunning waterfalls (a bonus of being there in the rain - most of the waterfalls are only there when it rains), fur seals napping on the rocks, and simply beautiful terrain. We got almost all the way out to the Tasman Sea. We stood out on deck in the rain for a large part of the journey, soaking in the views. The captain steered the boat right up under some of the bigger waterfalls (because Milford Sound is actually a fiord, carved out by glaciers, it is deep all the way up to land). This was one of the most amazing experiences I've had so far. I even got a sticker and put it on my Kathmandu water bottle. We got completely soaked, but it was worth it. The coach didn't stop on the way back, but the area was still stunning. We got back into Te Anau at about 5 pm. It was a 7 hour journey and truly incredible! We went out to the Chinese place for dinner, and hung out with people at the hostel, notably Caroline (who studied abroad in Sydney last semester and was my age and traveling for a couple weeks in NZ) and Jill (who was from Nebraska but had worked in Hawaii for a while on a cruise ship and was road tripping with a friend she had worked with on the cruise ship) and that weird guy (he was Kiwi... not much else known other than that). The English guy from the night before had left, pity, he was cool. We attempted to put together a puzzle that had come out of a bag and had no picture. Well, I just sat there looking through my guidebook to make my list of places-to-go-to (there's way too many). They actually made a surprising amount of progress, and by the time Karin and I called it a night (Becky was on the phone somewhere) it had been discovered that it was a castle of some sort.

We woke up early (7 am) to catch the 8 am bus back to Dunners. The bus trip was uneventful, except the driver, Robin, decided it would be a good idea to tell us all about every feature we passed (prisons, airports, nonexistent railroad tracks), which was annoying since I and everyone else around me was attempting to sleep. THANKS DUDE. Also we stopped for lunch and everything I ate was nasty. Other than that, not much to say. We got back in Dunners at about 1 pm, just in time to put down my stuff and then go straight to look at Greg's car in the North East Valley. That turned out to not take as long to walk to as I thought. We test drove the 1992 Nissan Bluebird (that's right, I drove!) and I don't want to get into it too specifically, but we have not bought it yet and it seems unlikely that we will. Seems like a good car though.