Wow, this is why you should never plan anything more than a couple days when you travel. We ended up spending the next week at Paradiso. Ayelet left on Wednesday because she was tired of waiting for the car to be fixed. Understandable. But it was still sad to see her go. I hate goodbyes. Sometimes I don't even say goodbye to people just to avoid it. I spent most of my days lounging around by the pool. Nights were spent meeting more characters. Sebastian G. was one of them. (I originally had his full name, but I feel like he is the type of guy to google himself). He was a large German man who referred to himself as Sea Bass. He even put "sea bass" on all his belongings, just like my mother did on my tupperware for summer camp. He wanted to apply to the Department of Conservation in NZ and forced me to read his hand written cover letter. Ugh. Then he arrogantly self-proclaimed himself as the "Indiana Jones of the forest" (whatever that means). What a nerd.


Anyways, Paradiso is always nice, but enough is enough. After the Saturday market in Nelson, we all got in the supposedly fixed car, and headed for Christchurch. We didn't make it much further than Blenheim when the water pump blew. Unfortunately I had already booked my flight from Christchurch to Auckland, so I had to get to Christchurch somehow in a couple days. I unexpectedly had to say goodbye to Diego because he wanted to stay in Blenheim to pick grapes and Jota and I wanted to go to Picton. I am going to miss Diego more than I thought. He's a good friend with an extreme love for Borat, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and cigarettes. And he thinks my accent is really funny. Imagine that.

So Jota and I went to Picton and stayed at a really nice hostel called the villa. We just spent our last couple days relaxing, selling hammocks, mountain biking (which I am terrible at. and by terrible I mean i fell in to several thorn bushes), and eating subway. It's strange how I really love subway now. No wait, I always loved subway. I just never had anyone to go with me as much as people do here. There are a lot of things here in NZ that I will miss though: Tim tams, being able to walk around barefoot in stores, flat whites, i'm sure there is more. I will make a list.

Today I said goodbye to Jota. It was unbelievably hard. On a good note, he has asked me to come to Brazil in May, so I think I will spend less time in Greece than originally planned, but I will still be gone for a year. Right now I am in Christchurch. It's my last day and night in the south island. I have a flight to Auckland tomorrow. It's getting tough now. I've just realized how comfortable I am in New Zealand. A little too comfortable...