Last port in NZ

Cruise is going well, weather is cooler so not as much laying out. Just more eating, movies, cards, sleeping, reading, gym, eating, rinse and repeat! Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good night!

Second Cruise

SHARKS!

feeding sting rays

Karie, Kelly, Roberta, Kristen, Brianna, Julie

First Cruise

Table mates

Snorkeling

Trying to stay regular

pics

beach shot

sand dunes

surfer chick?

hee haw

one is me

NZ Week 3

Tuesday I flew to Auckland, met up with David and Garrett, rented a car, stayed the night in Auckland. Got up and drove north on Wednesdat, Garrett wanted to do a 3 day hike along the northern coast. Drove most of the day, dropped Garrett off, went to the beach, found a camping spot. Thursday David and I went to some huge sand dunes where you can rent a boogie board and slide down them. Lots of fun, good pics. Camped near the beach where Garrett was to finish the hike, cooked a great dinner and then figured out if you put a little butter on English muffins and fry them on a pan, then add chocolate or honey, you get donuts. Yum. Friday Garrett arrived and we headed south again, via a burger joint. The BBs, well mainly Garrett, only want to hike (he hiked half the Applachian trail...1000+ miles, quit cuz his Grpa was sick)...so their plan is to get to the south part of the island today to start another 3 days hike tonight. Yesterday we made it to Auckland by midafternoon and met up with all the other people that are cruising on this 3rd cruise that leaves today. Roberta and Bryan (both RCT tour directors who were on the 2nd cruise), me and the MBs (Nate, Cramer, Adam) and then Vinnie (RCT tour director who was planning on just being in NZ til March, hasn't cruised with us yet) and the 2 Hawaii/Idaho girls we met on the last cruise who were "moving" to NZ via ship and Matt, another guy we met on the 2nd cruise who was with his godfather planning to hang out for the winter in NZ. So 3 rooms with a total of 10 people, it should be fun. We all have been bopping around NZ for 3 weeks so everyone has good stories to share. Should be a great cruise, I'm ready to eat free food and be a fat kid for a couple more weeks. If only the pedicure place was open on Sunday mornings...

NZ Week 2

Last Tuesday I did a pretty good hike...took 5 hours total, I was sore all over for 3 days. I thought the guys had done it while I was skydiving and said "oh about an hour" but turns out they had done a different hike and my hike was a lot more difficult...I'm glad I didn't know when I started. Pic on facebook is from the peak. After the hike I checked email to find that my friend Pierre was staying at a hostel accross the street and I found him in the lobby about to go eat dinner. So I went for pizza with him and his travelmate Kristin, they had just done a 4 day hike. Wednesday I met them for breakfast, did some shopping and whatnot, then left around noon to go to the end of the trail the guys were hiking. Our meeting time was 5 pm but I told them I would get them cheesy breads from the pizza place and come early, hiking in to meet them. However, after the 1.5 hour drive, I was just getting ready to start hiking towards them and there the stinky boys came. They got done by 2, hiking around 35 miles in 3 days. We drove immediately to some showers and got fresh and clean. We drove that night to Te Anau, a nice little town close to Milford Sound. We always find good hiding places for our tacky van so that we can camp for free. This night we parked by a river, near a boat launch. The next morning we drove the scenic (redundant for NZ) drive through mountains (waterfalls upon waterfalls...so high up you can see the top of them cuz they're in the clouds). We got to Milford Sound and hung out for awhile, seeing if the weather would clear up. We will be back cruising through this acclaimed fiord on the ship in a couple of weeks but the guys wanted to do a 1.5 hour cruise anyway. We finally got on in the afternoon, it was like a similar tour we do in AK. Pretty enough. We drove back to Te Anau to camp in the same spot. The next morning we did laundry, charged our electronics, used internet, got gas, water and groceries and headed south. The boys like to see everything so we spent about an hour looking for a forest with 1000 year old trees (I got annoyed and put on my headphones after about an hour of u-turns on private land in obviously the wrong area...they are STUBBORN!). That day we strapped on our headlamps and explored a limestone cave for about an hour (got just a little lost at one point), not for the claustrophobic! We ended up that night in a town on the southern part of the island called Riverton. We pulled up to the shore to watch the sunset and ended up meeting some men who were diving for abalone, which is a clam-like delicacy here. The shell from the abalone is called paua and lots of souvenirs are made of it. The men gave us some abalone and told us how to cook it, but it seemed complicated so we kept the shells and gave the 'meat' away to some other locals. The men invited us to have a drink at the local pub so we went and they already had bought several beers for us before the MBs could tell them they don't drink. So I had one and the guys had Cokes. We camped on the beach that night in Riverton and the next morning met some more locals fishing for flounder along the shore with big nets. They invited us to help them but we got on the road instead. Locals are very friendly, inviting, animated and enthusiastic. I like it. We drove a lot that day after getting more gas, more water and more groceries...I think it was Saturday...looked at some different scenic stuff...blowholes, waterfalls (blah blah blah), etc. We arrived in Dunedin, the biggest town we'd been in with 100,000 people. We decided to pay to camp at a campground (ie Holiday Park here) and for $20 US total, we got showers, use of the kitchen (we cooked burgers) and a legal place to sleep. Right next to the beach as well. Sunday we went to Mormon Church and got invited to dinner at someone's house. In the afternoon we drove out onto the Otago Peninsula which was supposed to be amazing ("unless you hate animals" says the guidebook). Well there was a small aquarium, penguin tours ($30 no thanks), albatross colony (no tours cuz of mating season), 2 seals (blah), seagulls, etc. I'm bored with scenery. Dinner was awesome though. There was chicken curry and had a ton of chocolate cake for dessert. We camped right outside the campground for free last night, played some frisbee on the beach, some cards in the van, the usual. This morning at 5 am was when it started to rain...and thats around the same time the 2 guys sleeping outside piled on top of us in the van. We tried to sleep with all 4 of us in a space decently uncomfortable for 3. Can we say spooning? The alarm was set for 7 cuz I had a bus to catch to get to Christchurch. The boys will be headed to Christchurch, flying out to Wellington Wednesday, then driving up to Auckland. My flight to Auckland is tomorrow so I took the 6 hour bus ride, got here just fine and the weather is once again perfect like it has been the whole trip, save this AM and one or two other days.
I picked a females only hostel from my guidebook and I think it may be my most favorite hostel I've ever stayed at. You decide. I show up and am given a tour of a garden (for our pickins') with fresh herbs and mints (chocolate, lemon, etc), there are guinea pigs and cats to hold, a goldfish pond, fresh mineral spring water, free coffee and tea and a well stocked kitchen, free phones for local calls or receiving calls, HAIRDRYERS in the bathrooms, full length mirrors, huge DVD collection, book exchange, comfy couches, FREE laundry (soap for 30 cents), FREE bikes to use and FREE raspberries to be picked and eaten by me (I got Special K cereal and milk for dinner and breakfast tomorrow...gotta pick some berries!). I'm currently doing laundry, charging my camera battery, crossing things like blogging off my to do list, and plan to dye my hair later and pretty much live the life of luxury. All for $16.20. Trying to get everything done before my flight to meet David and Garrett (the Bama Boys (BBs)) tomorrow. I'm going to go with them in their rental ? to visit ? where we will ? before I get back to Auckland via ? in time to board the ship on Sunday. The End.

Queenstown

I left off in Wanaka, where we camped close to the lake (one of the prettiest places I've ever seen). We cooked chicken quesadillas on our camp stove that came with the van and the boys play frisbee whenever we have downtime (kinda like marking their territory?). The next day we stole showers from a camp ground (the boys were starting to grow moldy) and then drove out in a valley of Mt. Aspiringly National Park to do a hike up to a glacier. It was another gorgeous day. After the hike we drove back to town to our camping spot from the night before. I think we cooked chili dogs. We got kicked out of our camping spot at 5 am by a security officer, but since I'm the girl, I got to keep sleeping while one of the guys (I assume) drove us to another spot. We stole another shower in the morning and drove down to Queenstown. Another big lake and mountain setting. Adam and Cramer went hiking while Nate and I went skydiving. It was just a little too easy and an hour after walking into the place we were on our way. Queenstown is kinda the adrenline, adventure capital of the world, having invented bungy jumping in the 80s, they have several of the tallest in the world, also parasailing, jetboating, rafting, etc. So the skydiving place was definitely busy! They have 2 planes taking people up constantly, every hour there are about 10 people going. Nate had been before a couple of times and said this time was the shortest safety speech ("Fall like a banana, arch your back") and the most traffic he'd seen. They really send a lot of people through, very organized and efficient. I was scared up until I paid to go, then I wasn't scared again until we were in the plane and at 3,000 ft I thought we were pretty high. We climbed to 15,000 ft and could see about every mountain in the southern hemisphere, it was a completely clear day. We were very high. I began to feel a little odd about falling out of an airplane. (Next time you fly, picture the side of the plane opening up like a sliding door and try telling yourself its okay to sit on the edge with your feet below the plane). I was scared when I saw the people in front of me fall out of the plane. That was more strange than me actually getting ready to fall. Supposedly we (tandem jump master and I) fell 60 sec. of freefall at 120 mph. It seemed shorter. There's enough wind resistance that it didn't make my stomach feel as crazy as when I bungy jumped. I just tried to enjoy the scenery and breathe and keep my goggles from flying off. I can't wait to do it again. Much less scary than bungying. Problem is that its an expensive 2 minutes!
Sunday morning the MBs took me to Mormon church. They try to go every Sunday, no matter where we are. The church meets in a funeral home and only had about 25 members. It was the smallest branch the guys had been to. Afterwards they invited us to a potluck so that was lucky (no wonder the guys like to try church out everywhere). The speaker that day actually manages a penguin colony on the east coast and invited us to come and take a special tour with the scientists, getting to take pictures up close when usually no photography is allowed. Its only on Tuesdays that the scientists come in though, so I will miss it. I'll miss it because I'm headed back up to the north island by next Tuesday to meet David and his friend Garrett when they fly into Auckland. After the potluck Cramer wanted to drive up the road to one of the nearby ski resorts (of course its closed cuz the snow is gone but Cramer is a sponsored snowboarder who is obsessed with snow..."I just want to touch some snow"). We did that then drove out of town about 45 minutes to camp, so that we were closer to the trailhead this morning. The guys are doing a 3 day hike but I decided to be a girl and spend the time shopping and communicating. Yesterday when they were getting permits and food, it was pouring all day, reassuring me I had made the right decision. There are huts to stay in, but I would have had to rent a sleeping bag and the odds are good that there would be a lot of rain. I'm pretty much a fairweather dayhiker. I dropped them off at one end of the trail and will pick them up at the other end, about 20-25 miles away on Wednesday. They were thankful for my transportation services but also made me feel welcome to come. I would have struggled to keep up the whole time and they had long days planned. So I came back to Queenstown, paid $5 to a hostel for a shower and to charge our electronics (ipod, speakers, camera). I cooked Ramen noodles for lunch on our stove. Then I did a short hike up a hill with a view and laid in the warm sun for awhile before heading down, washed my 2 pair of socks in a bowl (I expected to wear sandals more often!) and have been working on logistics for the latter part of the day (flights, possible free car rental, whats cheaper, what day to go, which of my friends will be where, etc). Planning to grab some groceries, then head to a camping spot from a couple of days ago, do some reading, go to bed early, get up and do a pretty hard hike tomorrow. Might have a friend coming into town tomorrow, a tour director at RCT who has been on a 4 day hike.

This trip is working out really well, I'm enjoying all aspects of it. However, writing all these details was annoying and I'm glad its over.

New Zealand pics

after skydiving

before

typical vista

Boys going on a 3 day hike
Queenstown
Fox Glacier
Our homestrange rocks

Wanaka

Greetings from me as a 29 year old! I love birthdays! The guys surprised me by buying me a bunch of sweets (everything I pointed out while hungry grocery shopping) and had candles and a card. We used the kitchen at a hostel to cook dinner that night and found out another girl from Japan was having a birthday too so had a spontaneous mini celebration. We've been camping in our minivan, lays down into a bed in the back. Not very big though, and we have sleeping bags for one of us to sleep outside (its cold) so three of us sleep in the van. I sleep in the middle and lay with my feet by the boys heads so as to fit better laying the opposite way. We bot groceries and eat PBJ for lunch and cook dinner on our little camp stove. We've had quesidillas, hot dogs and pasta.

New Zealand is surpassing anything we expected. Its like a backpackers paradise filled with cows and sheep, glaciers and mountains, lakes and cute little towns, and trails everywhere. Just off the highway you can walk 2 minutes or 10 days, there are really good signs and plenty to see. We've seen glow worms, glaciers, penguins, caves, a salmon farm, waterfalls, beaches, seals, clear blue lakes and more. Weather has been great the past two days, sunny yet ALaska temps. The boys don't really come up with a plan. We just wake up and start driving and read our Lonely Planet travel guide. Mostly we pull off to look at everything (patience Karie) and "check it out" anytime there's a pull out. Today we did a 3 hour hike to a cool glacier. Tomorrow..who knows...where we camp tonight...who knows....I try very hard not to ask questions. As much as the whole place seems set up for backpackers (tons of backpacker hostels/lodges and campervans everywhere), we don't feel overrun with people whenever we go places. Its really strange actually. Wanaka is a town of 3,500 on a beautiful lake in the mountains. Its really peaceful, most towns are pretty quiet. Just a lot of sheep and scenery and some cows.

Hopefully I'll have gone skydiving within the next couple of days.

Happy Birthday to me

I bot a new camera in Auckland. Its a Canon. I like it so far.

We flew to Christchurch and rented a minivan with a sink, fridge, stove and seats that turn into a bed. We drove an amazing drive from Christchurch west to Arthur's pass, camped the first night. Three of us squeezed in the van and scott slept outside. Yesterday it rained all day but we did some cool walks and saw some cool stuff anyway. I stayed in a hostel last night cuz of the weather and because 4 of us don't fit in the van anyway. Today we went to a couple of glaciers. I wished, for my birthday, for it not to rain at the glaciers. So instead it hailed, sleeted and snowed on us. Its super windy and rainy on this western edge of the island, as most of the weather and precip comes in from the Tasman Sea. Tonight we are going for dinner for my birthday and heading on down the road tomorrow. I'm having a great time with the MBs. They're happy and fun and you'll be glad to know they pray for us every morning and before meals. We're in Fox Glacier village tonight and plan to camp here.

Christchurch

Auckland is a great place, but I'm flying to Christchurch with the MBs this afternoon. Don't know what the plan is after that, I don't ask questions. Just along for the ride.