South Island one - Auckland to Otago

The SOUTH ISLAND

Pree, Rachael, Paurakh, myself. To paraphrase Andrew Merrill, I don’t know who’s reading, or what you’ll think, but, to keep from paralyzing myself, I’m going to say whatever I like. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry. The plan for the South Island: start in Christchurch (Chch), drive south and east to Mount Cook, drive south and west to bottom of Island, go to Stewart Island, drive north up west coast, loop around top and back down to ChCh.

Day one. Saturday. Travel to Christchurch.

The airport was small and ghetto. We saw two guys from AustraLearn who were doing more or less the same trip as us, though they hadn’t really planned anything, etc. Didn’t have hostel booked. They said they were going to do mushrooms in Milford Sound. I was left thinking (tip my hat to Andrew) “Is this the best my generation can come up with?” The flight was quick and uneventful. We flew over mountains and Pree kept excitedly hitting me and saying “It’s the South Island!” Yes, yes it was.

We took a bus from the airport, and it’s very lucky two girls overheard us being unsure about where our hostel was, because they were natives and were able to draw the route on our map.

The hostel was old, with no elevator and steep stairs. I just about died with my suitcase – why didn’t I bring a duffel bag? Not the last time I would wonder that! The whole place smelled oddly like bees-wax. We had a room to just the four of us. It was clean and nice.

Christchurch is just about the cutest city ever, except maybe Dunedin. There were huge metal sculptures just to make the city pretty, and a cute park around the Avon “River.” On the way back we saw a guy spinning around sticks on fire. It was sort of hokey, his CD player kept skipping, but it was still cool.

We borrowed some cards from the front desk and played a game that I’m pretty sure Paurakh made up while drinking beer. I had Monteith’s Celtic Red. It’s now my favorite.

Day two. Sunday.

Pree did my make up that morning, which was flattering, but I didn’t really look like myself all day.

It took forever to get the van, because the rental place didn’t open when they said they would, and they had more renters than they thought they would, and then they brought around the wrong van. It was all very shady, but I wasn’t really surprised, since  they  had been willing to rent to us on such short notice. We finally, finally got the van. It was pretty sweet: fold out bed in the back, and a sink in the back as well, and also a propane tank with a burner on top, and plates, pots, pans, silverware. We went to pick up a tent we had rented; the journey wasn’t so good because some random girl who looked about 12 years old, had silver pom poms in her hair, and looked stoned threw a rock at our van. It made a huge noise and a dent, and it was weird and scary.

The guy we’d rented the tent from was this nice little old man. His back shed was filled very tidily with camping equipment. We also rented a sort of mattress pad to sleep on. I couldn’t believe how tiny the tent folded down to.

Then we went grocery shopping. The most notable thing about it is that we got boxed milk that didn’t have to be refrigerated until you opened it. Genius.

We ate Indian food at the food court and then finally, finally were on our way. Well, sort of. We stopped at a beach just outside of Christchurch. A dog beach, it turned out! Much playing with puppies ensued.

We finally left Chch and spent the night literally right next to Lake Tekapo. We cooked some bean and rice burritos and drank beer and stargazed. The stars were too bright, and the lake made ocean noises.  were too lazy to set up the tent, so Paurakh slept across the front seat, and the girls slept in the back.

Day three. Monday.

We woke up to a GORGEOUS sunrise over Lake Tekapo. That day we drove to Mount Cook. The idea was to hike Hooker Valley pass- what a bad idea! It started raining freezing cold rain, and the wind blew so hard that it sucked off my beanie and the back of Rachael’s earring, and ripped my and P.Rock’s ponchos to ribbons. We crossed two swing bridges, and each time I thought I would be sucked off. The wind occasionally blew us off the path, and the rain came so hard that it felt like it was going into my pores. At the end of the hike, we saw an iceberg, the big payoff, but I was too miserable to care, and spend the time huddling behind a big rock. We sat, soaking wet, in the back of the van and tried to warm up and decide what to do. While we were sitting there, the rain literally blew through the seal of the closed window. We hung our stuff to dry in the back, but there wasn’t enough hanging room by far.

We outran the rain by going east to Canterbury near Otago. We camped near a lake again. That night Pree and P.Rock slept in the tent. With only two people in the back, it was cold. Not for the last time!

Kapa Haka final

June 5^th, 10:04 am.

Last night I had nightmares, and this morning I woke up very tired, sad, and pensive.

Even though I have a month left in Auckland, yesterday signaled the end in many ways. It was my last day of classes at Auckland University: all that’s left now are exams. Did I learn everything I could? Did I take good enough notes to be able to study? And did I talk to enough people, the right people, the ones who wanted to be my friends, who would help me grow?

Yesterday was my last logic test. I will never do logic again, not even in the final. What’s weird is I started out hating that class, but now it’s one of my favorites, possibly my one favorite. I started with no friends in it but now I know Sam and Ben. I wish I’d known them longer! I tried to copy and paste some logic here, but it uses symbols that blogger can't handle. :(

Yesterday was also my final Kapa Haka performance. I put my poi away sadly this morning. I know I’ll use it again, to show people at home and to teach my mom, but then I’ll be the expert, which is just wrong in so many ways. We’re probably never again going to stand in our kitchen and practice together.

Going to the final performance was so cool. I didn’t think anyone I knew would be there (in the audience). But I looked out and saw Paurakh, Brent, even Brent’s best friend Gui, Kevin, Eric and Chris (think way back to the beginning of the year), Alyse’s boyfriend David, and, surprisingly enough, Liam, because he hates Maori “culture”. I didn’t see everyone because it was so packed, but afterwards, I saw Pree and Amanda (think way back again). Obviously some of these people were primarily there to see someone else, like David to see Alyse, but they didn’t ignore me at all! I was expecting afterwards to be like after the plays at Catholic high, where people were only interested in talking to the person they’d come to see, but it wasn’t like that at all. I talked to everyone I knew, even those people who had been in the performance as well, such as my flatmates, Britta, Meaghan, Scott, Alyssa from AustraLearn….

So today is sort of a let down. Well, it shouldn’t be, because I still have a test to do today, and Hollywood Bakery with the Timlins, and I get my Philosophy essay back today. But… not to be overdramatic, but it is the beginning of the end.

I do wish I could go back and tell myself things: Learn to surf now! The water will be much too cold soon! I guess I have learned things, but not the things I thought I would

Two random notes

April 27. I’m sitting in Albert Park under the shade of a big tree, drinking Taro milk tea with bubbles and trying to decide if I should eat leftover tortellini or stir fry with rice. The fountain is going, there’s a group of school children shouting at the tops of their voices, and seagulls keep wheeling past. The wind just blew all the leaves about – there’s some on the ground now, since it’s nearly fall. It was cold and rainy yesterday, but today it’s hot and slightly muggy. I was up yesterday until 2 am finishing an essay on the rubber industry in Malaya in the late 19^th century and early 20^th century. I have a tutorial in an hour and a half, and I know if I nap, I’ll never go to it. So instead I drink bubble tea, listen to children holler, and muse as to when I plan to do the dishes.

 

May 24. It’s cold and rainy today. Things I miss most about the states: Friends and family, Denali, Disneyland, Garden State, Moulin Rouge, calling people on my cell, having a comforter instead of a sleeping bag, having my hair cut, no tourist shops, consistent internet, central heating, my bike, understanding slang.

Things I love most about New Zealand: The attitude that you can do anything, safety, my flatmates, Japanese and Thai restaurants, learning to cook, traveling, learning to take pictures, sheep, the beaches in the summer, being able to walk anywhere, difficult classes, public transport, the exchange rate, Kiwi accents and slang.

 

Taupo

This post is going to be weird. Here are my notes about it, so you have an idea of structure for the trip:

 

Taupo

Characters: Pree, Alyssa, Rachael, Jo Dee

Thursday – We leave right after Kapa Haka, the others already in the rental car picking up Rachael and I. The trip was decently long, and with three of us in the back, and me in the middle, it wasn’t very comfortable. I looked back as far as I could though the back window and saw about a million stars. After that, we all stargazed out our windows. The hostel was very nice, almost decorated in a Spanish style, with red and yellow tiles. For some reason, there were four bunks and one queen sized bed. Pree took the queen bed, and we all teased her relentlessly for it.

Friday – up at 6 to be at mountain, to hike the Tongoriro Crossing by 8 am. The pass is a 19 km (12 mile) day hike on various terrain. I was wearing my jeans and a wool sweater. After the bus driver’s dire warnings of chaffed legs and freezing body, I gladly rented fleece pants and a rain jacket from him. I also bought a thick wool beanie for $8, which I thought was quite a steal. It was bizarre reflecting that in my (very small camera) backpack, I had 2 liters of water, enough food to last me for a day, and almost an entire change of clothes. It gave me a strange idea of independence. Feeling of being alive – so much exercise that I stopped being sore. My new boots held up very well. At the end of the day, I had only two small blisters.

Up the mountain – Mount Doom, actually.  Crater. Up another mountain. Fall down. Emerald lakes. Grasslands and sulfur. We fall a lot. The end of the track is a forest that seems to go on forever. We hike it with Canadians. On the way out we passed a crying girl- her boots were too small. It sort of ruined the whole mood.

Other group arrives and skydives. That night was David’s birthday. Those of us who had hiked ate Italian food but were too tired to go out that night for David's. Crash at hostel.

Saturday – Cruise around Lake Taupo, where we saw some awesome Maori carvings dating back to ... 1980. Pree and I go to Craters of the moon – others go to beach. Craters of the moon was like a park to see huge amounts of steam coming out of the ground. Drive to rotorua – everything closed. FINISH A BEER. (Lion red)

Sunday – Thermal wonderland, come home. Thermal wonderland was pretty sweet. I can't describe the combination of sulfur and water... hopefully I can put pictures up on facebook, though that's been sort of dicey. 

Yeah, I think that summarizes it nicely. More later.

St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick’s is noteworthy just because of the number of places I went and people I saw!
The bar on campus is called Shadows – I went down there at 4-ish with Liam and Rachael to meet up with Sean and Duncan. We sat around for a few hours, chatting, taking stupid pictures, drinking beer. Duncan got a free hat for having a Guinness. The beers were served in water pitchers, which I thought was funny.
Then we all went back to our place. The idea was – I think- to get food, but we didn’t want to cook for all three Timlins, so that didn’t happen. Then we realized it was time to go over to Danny’s.
Over to Danny’s – green punch in a bucket. Yup. It was almost all girls, sort of loud pandemonium.
I’d been invited down to 10D (Carl’s - a guy from AustraLearn) so I headed down there with the Timlin boys in tow (their choice not mine). Did I say Danny’s was pandemonium? No. It was like a bomb of people and noise and alcohol in that room! I saw tons of AustraLearn kids, and I think that’s where I saw Tommy too (random). Oddly enough, we found Laura, who happily followed us:
Back up to Danny’s, where I got a text from Abby about going to the Irish pub. I was down for it, and she told me to come -
Up to 13D (Paurakh’s, Brent’s and Chris’s). Timlins and Rachael came with me. Also met another flatmate, Kirk, who is apparently in Kapa Haka with me. The mood was totally different, very laid back and quiet, not as many people, but Abby, Chris and Brent had green dye in their hair and they had the fixings for Irish car bombs (which we of course helped them with) and BRENT HAS GUITAR HERO. Of course I played it! Of course I was awful!
We finally went 0ut to Father Ted’s, but everyone else had the same idea as us, so it was full to the point of there being a line down the street. Walking along we passed Laura again and then most of the people from 10D. Pretty much everyone we knew.
The Timlins were still hungry, so we stopped at Wendy’s (their choice not mine) and then Sean and Duncan decided to take the bus home (since they live with their dad, not in the dorms).
I was tired, so I went home, passing several people I knew on the way, including Carl, who was extremely drunk and told me that I absolutely had to go skydiving, and also Scott, another AustraLearn guy who had lost his ATM card that night. All in all an exhausting night!

Rangitoto

Last Sunday (15th) we decided to go to Rangitoto, an extinct volcano which blew it's top a long time ago. It was going to be Pree, Rachael, Laura and me, but Pree had an essay, so it was just us 3 flatmates. The ferry ride was shorter than to Waiheke, but full of peril – Rachael nearly lost her lens cap overboard.
During WWII this island was used as a military base because it's high up and you get a good view of Auckland and the surrounding water and islands. This is humorous because a "bach" here is a beach house, and usually means someone's personal beach house - traditionally like a basic cabin, but now they're actual houses. During WWII though the basic cabin definition was applicable, so there are signs on the island pointing you towards "historic baches."
There's no water on the island, just a bathroom near the port where the ferry lands with tap water if you get really desperate (but no soap).
Somehow, I always have in my mind that volcanic rock is smooth, since it's hardened lava, and lava is liquid. NOT SO. It was very hard and sharp - I could feel it through my tennis shoes.
The hike was pretty intense to my mind because the sun was brutal, and the volcanic rock was hot too. I would stop to take pictures then run to catch up to Laura and Rachael. Sweat was dripping off of me, and I was feeling pretty tough and accomplished – but then a family, complete with a little kid, would hike by. Dang it, the kids put me to shame.
The top of the volcano was a gaping crater, softened by the plants which filled it to the brim and distorted its size – trees at the bottom were so close together that they looked like bushes, but you knew if you thought about it that under that bush was a 10-foot tall (at least) trunk.
We wandered in pursuit of the lava tubes (tubes sound smooth, right? NO!). Luckily there was an American family just coming out of the tubes as we wanted to go in, because they weren’t marked, so I don’t know that I would have had the nerve to go in very far without knowing that this was actually what we were supposed to go in to. Laura sat and talked with the family, since she was scared of dark/enclosed spaces, and Rachael and I went in. It was a tight fit at first, but then it opened up into a large room, large enough to stand it. Long cords of roots hung from the ceiling, with drops of water suspended from them. When I swung the flashlight past them, they sparkled like a chandelier over us. The room sloped up gently, then abruptly came to a hole up to the ground, which involved a bit of rock climbing to get out of (AND there were spiderwebs). We stopped by one of the baches (although I hadn’t realized that’s what it was). It was decidedly creepy, the perfect set for a horror movie- not over the top, just industrial and remote, etc. The hike down was pretty fast because Laura had to pee. (I hadn’t brought enough water but she let me have some of hers, so I didn’t desperately have to pee, since I was nearly dehydrated). When we got to the bathrooms at the bottom of the mountain, she did a little dance. All told the hike was about 3 hours, I think. Not more than that.
Then we got back on the ferry. On the way up I'd felt very positive, but on the way down, and back, I felt really... frustrated? Disappointed? Probably because I was dehydrated!

Quick note - about the present

Hi, this isn't about a trip or anything cool. I'm just sitting in my room. 

I can hear Cassie and her friend talking through a dance for their Polynesian (?) dance class - an indistinct murmur that I could pick the words out if I wanted to, rising and falling, reminding me very much of dinners in Montana, when the aunts and uncles would sit and talk and the cousins would wander off. Every once and a while I can hear Laura laughing on Skype. Outside the window, the sun is setting behind a crane, which is weird but still pretty because it's making a lattice-work silhouette. The clouds are thin, purple, edged with rose and orange-pink and gold. The sky literally looks like melted butter. It's setting more now, even as I type this. The sky looks dusty blue, like it's blue with gold dust sprinkled on it, and the edges of the clouds are white-gold now, almost painful to look at, and a darker grey-purple on the inside. The breeze is blowing the trees about and cars are intermittently turning down the street. Most don't have their lights on yet and the blinkers shine deep gold like a continuation of the sunset. 

All the glory is in the clouds now. The gold dust on the sky is being filtered into rays by the clouds, and the edges are copper, strawberry blonde, straw yellow, as you go down. As you get closer to where the sun must be, the distinction between dark and light in the clouds gets more intense; at the lowest level, they are purple mountains with gold snow.

I wish you were here. 

The clouds are becoming fuzzy, less distinct; the edging is mostly dark pink, and the dark purple is more dominant. People are walking on the sidewalk; some fast, some slow. In the opposite apartment, the TV is on, and a huge seagull just flew by.