Dunedin, Christchurch, Blenheim, and Nelson (again)

I walked up the steepest street in the world. It's so steep that cars can't park on it and walking up it was just as hard as Ben Lomond's peak. It took me forever to find it too, I walked around for about two hours. Then I was walking up when I saw a guy coming towards me. This French guy introduced himself to me, and we decided we would walk up together. He told me that he wanted to drive up but he didn't think his little ford fiesta or whatever, would make it. We walked down and then decided that we should try and drive up. It was like the little engine that could. Going down was scarier though, I though the brakes were going to go out. Thank god I met him because he gave me a ride back to my hostel and I really didn't want to walk all the way back.

The next day I left Dunedin and headed to Christchurch (I've never heard a more Christian name for a city). On the way I met the oldest traveler so far. She was an 80 year old retired school teacher from Missouri. Although I haven't met too many Americans, there is a much wider spectrum of them, if that makes sense. The youngest traveler I met was 17 (American), and now the oldest was American as well.

I immediately liked Christchurch, I'm not sure why. The city is pretty, green, and there are a lot of sights to see. It might have helped that the weather was beautiful. A beautiful river cuts through the city on which you can kayak, canoe, or be awkwardly paddled along in a gondola.

Since I only had a day there (or so I thought), I didn't do much. I went to the farmers market and just enjoyed the day before my bus ride at 2 pm. I went to wait for the bus, where I met another backpacker named Marina from Germany. She was on her way to Blenheim to get a job at a vineyard. We were both waiting for the naked bus, but neither of us had been on it before...we waited and waited. 2pm rolled by, 2:15, finally at around 2:30 we went to the information centre and asked where our bus was. Of course we missed it. But we didn't understand! We were standing right there, how could we miss an entire bus? Then we find out that naked bus buys tickets from southern link, which is the actual bus company, and sells tickets for cheap. Thanks a lot naked bus for telling us that important fact. I was so mad, but there was nothing we could do. So we bought tickets for the next day and went back to the hostel where Marina stayed the night before.

It turned out to be a bad bus day. First we miss our bus, then when Marina and I try to get on the free circuit bus to the supermarket, the bus driver closed the doors in our face and drove away! Then after we got on the next one, the hobo in the back kept burping and farting. Ugh. After that inconvenient day we both got up early to catch our 7 am bus. Ironically, there are many prostitutes in Christchurch, and they work long hours. I counted at least 5.

So I was on my way back to Nelson to meet my friend Jota at the Paradiso hostel. We had a stopover in Blenheim and Marina and I said our goodbyes. I get to Paradiso, and Jota says we have to go back to Blenheim because he needs to work in a Persian rug store for three days for his Pakistani boss and future hammock selling business partner. Makes sense. So we went back to Blenheim. At least I got to hang out with Marina for a couple more days.

So after helping sell rugs for a couple days, we are back in Nelson, at the Paradiso. I've just been hanging out, sleeping, and reading. A good life. Tomorrow Jota, the other Brazilians, and I will go to Abel Tasman again and camp for a night.

The last couple days I spent in Queenstown waiting for Laura. I met some other Americans who have been studying in Auckland, John and Josh. It seems that the few other Americans I do meet are always from California. I think I've met only one other eastcoaster. We played a lot of cards. I've come to really like gin and rummy and spoons. The last night I spent in Queenstown we decided to play spoons, only instead of having them right in front of us, we put them across the room. We were only able to play one round because we all were injured and bloody from rug burns and pushing each other.

A really good day was the day I decided to hike the Ben Lomond trail. It was supposed to be really hard and take 6-8 hours. I have realized something about myself though, I really like hiking more than any other activity I've done here. It clears you mind. So I started up the trail which is actually a mountain. It was pretty much uphill the whole way (which is hard on your lungs), and then downhill the whole way back (which is hard on you knees). But it was worth it. At the top of Ben Lomond's peak, I met a Japanese girl named Mika. She is in New Zealand studying English and she works at Fergburger (bless her soul). Fergburger, by the way, is a legendary burger place in Queenstown. My real reason for climbing the mountain was so I could justify eating a whole burger and fries there. The night before my hike though I found out that Fergburger was closing for a couple days to renovate. I was eating dinner at the time when Josh and John told me, so I had to throw dinner away, and we all rushed over to Fergburger. I really wanted the Little Lamby, but all they had left was the Bambi burger. So I settled for that.

Anyways, so I was talking to Mika, and we decided to hike down together. It was a long hard hike, so we went to get a beer. Mika then invited me to have dinner at her house. So later that night she picked me up with her friend Naho. She said there was a change of plans: her house was too small so we had to go on her friends yacht and eat tacos. She asked me if I was okay with that, and I was. :) So I met Louie, a Kiwi fly fisherman who owns a yacht that originally comes from Washington D.C. We drank rum and cokes and ate hokey pokey gelato (which is a NZ flavor of ice cream: creamy vanilla with butterscotch pieces). Then Louie invited us to the yacht club for more drinks. Little did I know what was about to go down. I met the bartender, Blake, a kiwi who also works on yachts and paraglides. Laura had just gotten back from her hike, so I invited her to come to the bar. Blake and her really hit it off, and I decided to go home since we would be leaving in the morning. So I get back, and Josh, John, two of their friends who had joined them Evan and Kayln, and Danish guy were like WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN. And then we decided to go out and drink some more. So we did. I may or may not have gone swimming in the lake that night.

The next day I found out that Laura and Blake hit it off more than expected, so my ride to Dunedin was delayed. But we still had fun, we went on a rope swing and jumped in to the lake, bummed around Queenstown another day, and Laura agreed that we would leave the next day. Yeah right. She's still in Queenstown and I'm in Dunedin now. All because I met a Japenese girl on a mountain. Sigh.

Dunedin is an okay city. A lot of Scottish influence. I just got back from the Cadbury chocolate factory. I ate all my chocolate samples already. I'm so sick. Next I think I will go walk up the steepest road in the world and maybe go see some penguins.

Punakaiki, Franz Josef/Fox Glacier, Queenstown

Queenstown is nice. I think it thinks it's a little more awesome than it actually is. It's a cute ski town though. Home of the first commercial bungy, Queenstown attracts so many people looking for crazy activities like bungy, sky-diving, rafting, etc. I did luging with Johnny, Jamey, Laura, and Anna, which was fun. I would have done bungy but it's just too expensive. I swear I'm not scared.
The nightlife here is really good too.

It was miserable when Johnny, Jamey and I left the glaciers. The day before, we went on a hike in a tunnel (after I was assured that I wouldn't get my only pair of shoes wet). The upside is that we got to see a ton of glowworms (for free!). That's another thing that irritates me about New Zealand. Everything has a price tag. Even holidays! On Labour Day, if you go buy something there's a surcharge. Happy Holiday - you get to pay more money! But anyways, the weather was terrible at Franz Josef. apparently it gets 7 m of rainfall a year, which is second most in the world. I believe it too. I was happy to leave because I was stuck on the glacier in my flip flops, excuse me, my jandals.

Traveling with the bros has been good overall. It's always nice to be with family, even though that are embarrassing (Johnny asking for American cheese at restaurants, Jamey telling a random German guy he sounds like Arnold Swchwartzenegger). But it's been good. Johnny and I drove to the Milford Sound yesterday which was absolutely beautiful. Plus I got to drive probably the best road in the world. Perfect combination of curvy, fast, remote, and scenic. If only I got to drive on the right side it would have been better. But you get used to it relatively fast. I will be here a couple more days, till Laura gets back from her hike, then we will go to Dunedin.

Abel Tasman

I wrote this on Oct 29-30. It is so cold right now. Jamey and I are at Bark's bay. We hiked, or "tramped", for 7 hours yesterday in the Abel Tasman National Park. Our bus driver was in a very talkative mood. I have to admit, most of the time I like people to just shut up in the morning, but he was interesting so it was okay. We started hiking and we realized we didn't really have that much food...6 granola bars for each of us, a sleeve of ritz crackers, and a lemon. I was in charge of the food so I guess it was my fault. But whatever, we will be hungry, but we won't starve. My other problem is that I am developing some serious blisters. I walked barefoot for a good part of the trail because my sandals hurt too much. Later I found out Jamey had a first aid kit the whole time.

Walking the Abel Tasman is strange. The landscape changes rapidly. One minute your in a marsh, then a desert, then jungle, then beach. It's very pretty, and the water is so blue.

I will not camp again though. I thought it would be sufficient to unzip Jamey's sleeping bag, use half his thermal pad, and layer up but it wasn't. Probably the worst decision I've ever made in my life. The ground gets so cold whether you are on it or not and just sucks the heat from your body. And even with 4 layers of clothes, not moving and going to sleep lowers your body temperature anyways. Another mishap is that we thought we could get away with just setting the tent down without pre-booking the site for 12 dollars each. But nope, a ranger came by so we ended up paying 15 dollars each as a penalty. What a rip off. How can they charge per person for a camp site. So that was Jamey's fault.

Then we had to go back the next day. It was extra hard coming back. My blisters re-opened, plus my muscles felt like they were about to tear. Plus we did double time so we could get on the bus by 5:30pm. So instead of a 7-8 hour hike, we did it in 5. We got the same crazy bus driver. Jamey and the bus driver started talking about how much citrus grows on the trees in the area (Jamey has been stealing lemons left and right), and then the bus driver was just like "there's some!" and he pulled over and ran out and grabbed some oranges from someone's yard. He said that's how they used to do it in his day. He also told us about how he shoots cats. Only the feral ones though so I guess that's cool.

We got back to Nelson and we were starving. Nelson is weird though. From about 2-5pm all the restaurants close till dinner. So the only places that were open was good old fast food chains. So we went to Burger King and spent like 30 dollars. It was delicious. Our host at the hostel was really nice too, she gave us the camping discount for a room because she insisted we needed a bed that night. Thank god.