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.