Woowwwww, what a crazy week it's been. Bus tour is turning out to be amazing, made some fantastic friends through it and had an absolutely hilarious week. Did some hiking in Abel Tasman National Park (beautiful golden beaches), went to a Monteith's Brewery Tour (they make my favorite NZ beer, flavored with lemon and lime), where they basically told us: "you have 40 minutes. drink as much as you can." haha. ridiculous night, that was. Carved a bone necklace in Hokitika. Went to Franz Josef and did a 7 hour guided hike on the glacier, through ice caves and crevasses. Had the most amazing night ever in a tiny little town called Makarora with my tour mates (that's where the subject quote come from...one guy saying it to another). Now I'm in Queenstown and I'm couch surfing here for the next 4 or 5 days or so, before heading to Wanaka to meet up with some friends of a friend of a friend, who I think might actually be throwing me a party to welcome me. Haha. Maybe they just want an excuse for a party. Queenstown is basically the adrenaline capital of NZ---anything you can possibly imagine to get your blood pumping is done here. Today we went to the site of the very first commercial bungy jump in the world, and at the last minute my friend and I decided to go. I hadn't wanted to do it before today but once I got there and saw everyone doing it, I just decided and pressured her into going with me. So we jumped 43 meters (quite small, actually) together over the river and dunked in the top half of our bodies. It was amazing. And I'm going to go skydiving again on Thursday with 3 people from my group. I shouldn't because I really can't afford it but I can't help it, I lovvveeeed it and I just want to go all the time.
Best week ever!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
I have so many funny stories to tell about the woman I was WWOOFing with, but as usual I don't have much time so I'll just sum it up like this. This woman believed the following things:
-Global warming is not real, it's just an excuse to make money (I agree with the money part, actually, but I do think global warming is real).
-The best laundry detergent is your own urine.
-Cancer has nothing to do with diet, exercise, genetics, or pollution: you get cancer because you suffer from a shock.
-She has a friend in Germany that made a machine which from moment to moment measures the "female energy of the universe".
-The universe is steadily becoming more female (interesting).
-She believed whole heartedly in parthenogenesis, which is virgin birth. But not the Virgin Mary.
She was quite a winner, this lady was.
So anyway, after leaving Kiriwai I went back to Wellington, stayed with Tara and Ben for a few more days, went back to the huge free museum, then took the ferry over to the South Island. It was a gorgeous, calm day, which was really nice. I'm in the South Island now and I managed to find a job working in a vineyard pruning grape trees, which was lucky because the pruning season is almost over. But I've actually only worked like 2.25 days out of the last 4 because it's been raining and they don't actually have very much to do. This kind of sucks because I'd rather go traveling somewhere else than stay in this little small town not working, but it's worked out okay, really. I met some really cool people through the vineyard and I'm currently sleeping for free in a spare room of a house with a bunch of other people: 4 guys (Scottish, Tongan, Samoan, and Maori) and two Welsh girls. It's been a lot of fun, quite a lot of drinking (although not really for me, I have to wake up at like 530 to go to work). Also met some really nice Brazilian people and I'm going over to their house for dinner tonight and then they are taking me to Lake Tekapo on Saturday. There isn't really a whole lot to do in Blenheim, it's mostly just vineyards and wineries, but I like it because it's soooo much more multicultural than the rest of NZ. I've seen more people from other countries here in this town in a few days than I think I did the last 4 months. It's a refreshing change from the white bread North Island. Plus people seem a lot friendlier down here, I think.
So I'm here until Monday and then I'm taking off on a bus tour throughout the rest of the South Island, for about a month or so. I would really rather do it on my own in my car, but I want to give her a rest for a little while, and since I only have a couple months left here, I want to make sure I see everything as quickly as possible. So I'll do the one month tour thingy, and then probably do some more WWOOFing somewhere that I liked when I passed through. Then selling the car, off to Australia, then San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Juneau! Ah! It's getting so close to going home, it feels strange. The first few months really dragged on but the last month flew by, and now it seems like I'll be leaving before I know it. But I am excited to go home, to have a permanent bed, and mostly to see my friends and family.
Okay, time to go! Love you all.
-Global warming is not real, it's just an excuse to make money (I agree with the money part, actually, but I do think global warming is real).
-The best laundry detergent is your own urine.
-Cancer has nothing to do with diet, exercise, genetics, or pollution: you get cancer because you suffer from a shock.
-She has a friend in Germany that made a machine which from moment to moment measures the "female energy of the universe".
-The universe is steadily becoming more female (interesting).
-She believed whole heartedly in parthenogenesis, which is virgin birth. But not the Virgin Mary.
She was quite a winner, this lady was.
So anyway, after leaving Kiriwai I went back to Wellington, stayed with Tara and Ben for a few more days, went back to the huge free museum, then took the ferry over to the South Island. It was a gorgeous, calm day, which was really nice. I'm in the South Island now and I managed to find a job working in a vineyard pruning grape trees, which was lucky because the pruning season is almost over. But I've actually only worked like 2.25 days out of the last 4 because it's been raining and they don't actually have very much to do. This kind of sucks because I'd rather go traveling somewhere else than stay in this little small town not working, but it's worked out okay, really. I met some really cool people through the vineyard and I'm currently sleeping for free in a spare room of a house with a bunch of other people: 4 guys (Scottish, Tongan, Samoan, and Maori) and two Welsh girls. It's been a lot of fun, quite a lot of drinking (although not really for me, I have to wake up at like 530 to go to work). Also met some really nice Brazilian people and I'm going over to their house for dinner tonight and then they are taking me to Lake Tekapo on Saturday. There isn't really a whole lot to do in Blenheim, it's mostly just vineyards and wineries, but I like it because it's soooo much more multicultural than the rest of NZ. I've seen more people from other countries here in this town in a few days than I think I did the last 4 months. It's a refreshing change from the white bread North Island. Plus people seem a lot friendlier down here, I think.
So I'm here until Monday and then I'm taking off on a bus tour throughout the rest of the South Island, for about a month or so. I would really rather do it on my own in my car, but I want to give her a rest for a little while, and since I only have a couple months left here, I want to make sure I see everything as quickly as possible. So I'll do the one month tour thingy, and then probably do some more WWOOFing somewhere that I liked when I passed through. Then selling the car, off to Australia, then San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Juneau! Ah! It's getting so close to going home, it feels strange. The first few months really dragged on but the last month flew by, and now it seems like I'll be leaving before I know it. But I am excited to go home, to have a permanent bed, and mostly to see my friends and family.
Okay, time to go! Love you all.
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