Mid-Semester Break!

So I returned from mid-semester break on Monday night... this marks the halfway (a little over halfway actually) point of my experience abroad. I have one more month of actual classes and then a month for finals... I have finals on June 10, 20, and 24. and then I am done and kicked out of my housing. Over a lovely Thai dinner last night, a couple of friends and I discussed this craziness. We decided that we still wanted to travel the north island and australia before this time was up... so I think we are all going to stay till mid-late july and travel (we have to look at money and all of the logistics still). I'm not ready to come home yet! I miss all of my friends and family, but I am having the time of my life. I probably won't find work at home in this economy and I don't want to sit around for 2 months... so yea, ill keep you posted on my post-travel plans!

For mid-semester break, Lynsey and I took a bus up to Christchurch for a night. We went and had a couple of drinks at our hostel bar and met some funny people! This was the night before good friday, so many people were out because they did not have work the next day. We asked a man if Easter was big in new zealand because everyone was off of work on Friday. He said, "well, easter is a three days off of work. big barbeques and games going on this weekend" So different than home. I would not have known it was around easter if the cadbury factory was not in dunedin. I have been surrounded with chocolate eggs for a month now. haha We met a guy with a mohawk who was just traveling. I asked him how long he has been traveling and he said, "about three years now". crazy! he just picked up and left England and has been working/traveling. Talk about living day to day and check to check.

The next day we got back on a bus and traveled to Nelson, which is on the northern coast of the south island. We met Lynsey's boyfriend, chris, at the bus station (he is studying in wellington and took a ferry to the south island). The three of us went to our hostel, Bridgestreet Backpackers.. which was a little sketchy, but cheap! We went to get dehydrated meals for the 6 days we were going to be in the wilderness... and found out that all the camping stores were closed for good friday! We also discovered that I had left my debit card in dunedin at MacPac (a camping store that I was shopping at on thursday)... so I was without money and without a bank and we were all without food for our trip due to good friday! The supermarket isn't even open on good friday, but my kiwihost told me they were open on christmas. We went out to eat and the place charged an extra 15% because it was a holiday. It's cool that employs have off on holidays and are not overworked, but in our situation, it wasn't so cool!

We woke up the next morning and ran to the supermarket at 7 am before our bus at 7:30... they didn't have dehydrated meals, so we got some other stuff and took a bus to the start of the Abel Tasman National Park. We stopped at a convience store to see if they had dehydrated meals... no such luck- but we found some other stuff for the last couple of meals. Then we finally started hiking! We hiked for a good four hours and the track is right along the coast. It was in a rainforest and beaches were over our shoulder. Sometimes the track went along the beaches, which seems like a cool idea- till you walk with 30 pounds on your back wobbling all over and sliding... haha We camped at torrent bay and went to play on an island at low tide. The three of us squeezed into a 2 person tent all week... it was quite the close quarters.

The next morning (Easter!) we had some oatmeal and then started hiking. The tide came in and now the island was back to being... an island. the tides here are insane! we had to plan our trip so that we would hit certain parts at low tide or we would have to wait hours because the tides came and filled up bays with waist deep water. This was our longer day. We ran into a couple friends doing the track hte opposite way and they got stuck by a tide and didnt start until 4 pm... needless to say they still had along way to go and the sun was about to set. We also met four boys studying in dunedin (from the states) while hiking. at our campsite at night, we cooked an easter dinner of rice and mexican spiced meat ( I missed the traditional big ham dinner!) there was a family staying at our campsite and the little kids invited us to their bonfire. it was so fun to hang out with a family from new zealand, they were so nice and the kids were hiking the track for a couple days and loved it- they even had little backpacks.

The next morning, I enjoyed breakfast on the beach and we headed off. We had an easy day today, as we were only going to the end of the track (about 3.5 hours). We hiked to our next campsite which was on Mutton Cove and we were the only ones there. We had all afternoon to hang out, so we went swimming (in the freezing water!) because we felt dirty and smelly... and I read while lynsey and chris hiked a little further to separation point. At night, the moon lit up the entire beach it was crazy! I tried to capture it with my camera, but it didn't work. We thought someone was there with a flashlight it was so bright. We were camping right on the beach. It was so nice to go to sleep hearing the waves crash... In the middle of the night chris heard something and woke up to find a wild boar on our campsite. haha.

We had some time to kill the next morning becasue we only had a two hour back track hike to catch the water taxi. We went swimming again and hung out. We were on the beach and there were sea lions swimming right infront of us! We hiked for a little while and then ran into some friends also waiting for a taxi and made plans to meet up later in the week. The water taxi was fun. It was just a boat that took us to the start of the track. When we got to the end, a tractor with a boat lift pulled us out of the water (it was lowtide) and drove on the street to the little taxi office... we got a sweet ride in a boat... on land. haha it was funny. We spent the night at Old McDonald Farm and made oodles of noodles (ramen noodles) for dinner... for some reason they tasted amazing! The farm had all kinds of animals and birds, we went on a walk to look at them all. We opted to stay in a three bed cabin to give ourselves some space for a night haha.

the next day, we were set to start kayaking. After our briefing, repacking, etc. etc. we were back on the track, only this time we were in the water! It was beautiful. There were a couple islands that we paddled out to and we listened to the birds, and watched sea lions play on the rocks. It was fun to be on the water, I thought i was in a completely different place. We got to our campsite at night and there were 6 more guys from dunedin staying there as well. They were also from the states- so we hung out with them for the evening. It was a blast. we sat around talking. I talked with a boy who biked across america with his members of the same fraternity from all over the states and raised all this money for his philanthrophy. I love hearing stories about what other people do... definitely makes my before-i-die-list extremely long though. haha. That is my favorite part about traveling, meeting all these cool people. At night we heard these loud crying sounds, so we decided to grab our torches and go explore. We went in a cave on the beach and there were glowworms! and then we figured out the crying sound were penguins!! We were on the beach in the middle of nature watching penguins... it was awesome.

The next day we got back in our kayaks and it was rainy and windy. The swells were over 2 feet and hard to paddle in. We did out best in the rain and had fun, but Chris had a lot of trouble keeping balance in the single kayak. He went to the beach and we continued kayaking because we wanted to go to split apple rock. Going there was easy, but as soon as we took a picture, lynsey and I turned around and saw a black sky, pouring rain, and white caps (4 ft swells)... oh no. we just looked at eaachother in pure panic. We did our best and maneuvered back... haha it took awhile and we were exhausted, cold, and wet. haha. At night, we were back in nelson and we took warm showers. Much appreciated after 6 days without one. then we went out to eat and had delicious, real food. yummm... There is nothing like the feeling of enjoying a good meal after camping.

The next day we went east to picton. Lynsey and I took a mailboat cruise in the marlborough sounds. It was fun, we delivered mail to people living in this remote area. People lived in these houses, without neighbors, and no road to drive out of... all by boat! talk about isolation... We got to see dolphins on our way back in. At night, we styaed at the sweetest hostel with our friends david, john and laura. We had a blast. We all cooked dinner and just hung around listening to music. At 8 the hostel gave us free chocolate pudding (it was more like cake) and then we went in the hot tub. We had a big sleepover in our room and stayed up talking, it was a blast to hang out with them.

Lynsey and I were headed to Blenheim to do a wine tour the next day. We found a hostel and started our wine tour by bike around 1. We had four hours and hundreds of wineries on a map. We visited seven in that time. It was a blast! The wineries were beautiful, the wine was amazing, and the people were great. The vineyards were right infront of the mountains, and it was so sunny! We actually ran into the four boys from dunedin that we met in the beginning of our hike... they were doing the tours by bike as well! haha. small place. We didnt feel the effects of our alcohol intake because we biked so much inbetween, but it sure was a blast.

At night we went out to eat and hung out at our hostel. We met people that were living/working in the area... they were all travelers, but they have been in new zealand for awhile, just working for a week and then traveling to the next place. It is crazy to think about all these people just leaving for a couple years to explore a new place. I asked a guy if he liked doiing it and he said, "yea, its great... sometimes its lonely and i wish my friends were here, but they will be there when I get back and i wouldnt exchange this experience for anything." Its not like these people are just traveling, they are living by traveling. Lynsey and I had a good laugh that we had an itinerary for a 12 day vaca and these people don't have one for years. haha...

The next day we took a bus to kaikoura. It was really foggy out and windy. We went and swam with the dolphins. There is a huge crater in the ocean floor, producing nutrients, which brings all the large mammals closer to the shore. We were in wet suits (once again, the ocean water is FREEZING!) and we would sit on the back of the boat. The captain would toot a little horn and we woudl jump in the water. We swam in circles, sang songs, and attracted the dolphins. They would swim right past us or in circles around us. It wasn't like sea world, we didnt grab their fins or touch them. These were wild dolphins, unfed, untrained, living in their natural habitat! It was awesome. at one point, I had three dolphins just swimming around me! haha... at night, lynsey and I went out for thai food and then watched a movie- we were exhausted!

And that concludes my amazing break! I came back and told my kiwihost that I needed to catch up on life. a phrase, I often use... she laughed and said, "it seems to me that you were just living life and now you need to catch up on all your sh*t. this isn't life. what you were doing the past week was life."

i'll end on that note!

Pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075908&id=21105072&l=4b9a0627bb

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075912&id=21105072&l=61dd79ce80