Franz Josef Glacier

Firstly, I just discovered today that I've been spelling it wrong this whole time, it's Josef, not Joseph. So anyway, this morning I woke up at 7:30, super super tired, and considering bagging the whole 'climbing a glacier' thing- except I'd already paid for it, and it wasn't cheap. I chose the half day hike, versus the full day hike, and I'm very happy with my choice. There were 50 of us, split into 4 groups, according to fitness. I chose to be in group 3 (1 being the most fit) because I'm tired, and it's not like once you're up there you can just be like, oh you know what, I think I'm going to turn around and go back. So in group 3 (the fast-slow group, as we called our selves) I was very comfortable, and there were several people far slower than I, which I was glad about (you never want to be the one holding everyone up). It was supposed to rain all day, but it ended up being an absolutely gorgeous day. Aaand I didn't get a sunburn! Miracles do happen. My camera died about halfway up the glacier, and I still managed to take around 20 pictures. I have got to get this picture taking thing under control. I took around 200 in Milford Sound (which I have since whittled down to around 100) and I know if my camera battery hadn't died, I would have been somewhere around that again with the glacier. Franz Joseph (and Fox glacier, a bit south of Franz) are one of only two places in the world where a glacier is receeding into a rainforest, the other in Patagonia, Argentina, so it was quite a special thing to see. All in all the hike was around 4 or 5 hours, and about 6 miles (10 km). I chatted with a nice young Irish couple for most of the day, they were on their honeymoon. Tomorrow I leave for Greymouth, which I've heard from A LOT of people sucks, but it's a stop over on the way to I think Takaka, possibly Nelson again but I'm trying to avoid that since I've already spent so much time there. I decided to forgo the train because it just requires too much backtracking, and I can feel the money/time slipping away as it is. I start camping tomorrow too- hopefully the rain will stay away for a few more days. I'm excited to get the tent out and put it to some good use! I'm also trying to line up some couch surfing and another wwoofer placement- I'll keep you updated!

Franz Joseph and Queenstown

Today I took a 9 hour bus ride from Queenstown to Franz Joseph, with the most annoying bus driver ever! Dad you need to come down here and show them what professional driving is all about! I'm so tired, but I wanted to get this in, especially since this internet cafe has a minimum charge so I want to get my money's worth. Tomorrow I am hiking the Franz Joseph glacier, but just the half day hike. I didnt' feel like paying for the full day plus it's supposed to rain, and I'm not gonna lie I'm a little scared of walking on a glacier in the rain. Two guys died a few months ago because they ignored the signs and were caught in some kind of ice fall. It's safe with the groups but still, it's no joke. Yesterday I went to Milford Sound, a day trip that took a total of 13 hours. I would have liked to stay longer in that area, but as I wasn't doing one of the walks it didn't really make sense. It was beautiful though. I have updated the pictures as well, so you can see at least some of what I'm talking about (not Milford Sound yet, where I took waaay too many pictures) and from the Gondola I took up to the top of one of the mountains surrounding Queenstown. I rode in my little gondola alone and nearly had a heart attack. I have unfortunately inherited my mother's immense fear of heights. I had to latch myself on to three older British folk because there was no way I would be able to ride that again by myself. Luckily one of the gentlemen was scared as well, so he and I just chatted with one another to distract ourselves from what was going on. It was beautiful, too bad I wasn't able to enjoy it more. And to add insult to injury, one of the women on their tour paraglided down off the mountain. She's 70. Alright well time for me to go eat dinner, then bed. I'm wiped out and I need my strength for tomorrow!

Marley and Me

Do not watch without tissues! I just watched "Marley and Me" and proceeded to cry (sob is more acturate, but I'm trying to maintain some dignity). I think if you have ever had a dog, or even a pet, it's pretty much a must see. Not that it's some great movie, because it's not, but I think everyone can connect with the message.

Queenstown & Pictures

Today I made it to Queenstown, barely. I overslept and just barely made my bus, I had to run out in pjs and ask them to wait! The bus was supposed to pick me up at my hostel (thank god because I could not do that walk again, especially at 6:30 in the morning!) Then I grabbed my stuff (thank GOD I packed the night before!) and hopped on the bus, still in pjs, all the way to Queenstown, 8 hours. I'm back at a YHA, mainly because I didn't like the looks of any other place in Queenstown, and I knew at least the YHA would be clean and relatively close to town. Now I have showered, put on real clothes, and feel much better. I wanted to post some photos and a video of the whale watch I did in Kaikoura, so I'm just doing it in this post because I'm too lazy to go back and edit an old one.

Christchurch was great, I really liked it. I've found that I really like all the cities in New Zealand, I think partially because none of them are too big. Even the big cities really aren't. I still can't decide if I want to bungy or not... I'm leaning towards no. I just think I'd be able to step off the platform! I couldn't even walk over the glass at the SkyTower in Auckland. Oh well, we'll see. After here, I'm off the Te Anau to see the fiords and Milford Sound, then it's back through Queenstown on the way to Fran Joseph Glacier, then it will be time to find work for a bit, either a hostel or wwoofing. A really great hostel in Picton was hiring but I was headed in the opposite direction. The manager told me to touch base with her again though when I make my way back up so we'll see! Anyway it's great to know you guys are following me and I love the feedback!!

Next couple of days

So I'm still in Christchurch, trying to wait out some of this rain! (There is a literally a rain cloud of the entire south island right now on the weather map) but tomorrow I head for Queenstown. This should be interesting! I need to make up my mind about whether or not to bungy jump. If I do, I'm going to do it on the Kawarau Bridge, because one, it's over water which is less scary to me, and two it's one of the shorter ones! There's one that's 134 meters long or something insane like that. ABSOLUTELY NOT. After Queenstown, I'm going to go to Te Anau to chill out in nature and do a day or two in the fiords. Theennnn up to Franz Joseph, and I think back over to Christchurch and then up. There's a hostel that I might work at too, assuming the timing works out. We'll see.

Kaikoura

Today it's rainy and cold, so I figured why not update the blog! I left Nelson yesterday, to my dismay. I had such a good time there, and met some really great people, including Andrew, who is from Ovid, NY, who's been to Burlington many times! Today I'm in Kaikoura, where I was supposed to do a whale watch but it was called off due to weather, so I'm doing it tomorrow. I'm here for two more nights then it's off to Christchurch for a few nights, followed by Greymouth, which I am getting to via transalpine, one of the 'world's geatest train journeys' so I've heard.

Pictures!

Ok everyone I have uploaded pictures- as of right now they're on flickr but I got tired of captioning, etc. so I stopped about half way through. I'll try and finish that this week, and upload any new pictures. Sorry it took so long!

WWOOFing, take one

OK so my first wwoofing experience started on Saturday, and for anyone not aware, that stands for willing workers on organic farms. It's now Tuesday and I have since left the farm. This place was not the place for me. Aside from being weird, it was out in the boonies and their house was really dirty. It was like a barn/house. And it's supposed to be 4-6 hours of work a day in exchange for work and board, this was like 8-10 hours. Sorry but I am not free manual labor. Also, it was around 90+ degrees every day I was there. And we (me and a very nice Japanese girl) were yelled at when we did something incorrectly. Aand I was supposed to show the very nice, non English speaking Japanese girl, Fukoko, what to do so if she did it wrong it was my fault. So overall, not my kinda place. I got out first chance I got, which was today, to a place called Motueka, where there's not a whole lot more going on but I've got a clean hostel bed, internet (pictures!) and some food that wasn't shot that morning (the poor bunnies never saw it coming...). You can ask my parents/rebecca how I felt about that one. I have taken a vow never to eat rabbit or I will lose a very dear friend. I am going back to Nelson tomorrow, about an hour away. I think I will stay there for a few days (it's a great little place with a really laid back vibe, reminds me of Burlington a bit) and then on to wine country in Blenheim and whale watching inKaikoura. At least that's the plan. Robert, I'm glad to hear you've been following the blog! I think next time I want to go somewhere where they just take their guns for walks, and not actually use them. Do you know of a place like that?

Nelson

So I think I am officially the palest pale girl ever. I have a sunburn. Just on my face, but still, it hurts. Today I took the ferry from Wellington, which was amazing by the way, to Picton, then a bus to Nelson, where I start WWOOFing tomorrow. Right now I'm at a really great hostel, the kind I like. It's very homey, only around 12 rooms, a hammock, etc. It's in the suburbs of Nelson which means the walk to get here was around 1 1/2 miles (and that's with the 4 blocks that I walked out the way factored in) with all my stuff, but at least it was a nice day (hence the sunburn). Hope everyone's well! (You guys know you can leave comments right???)

feed a cold, starve a fever?

Or is it vice versa? I'm going with the second since I feel even crappier after I ate breakfast. Yup, I have a cold. A nasty one. I'm blaming the plane ride. It sucks to because I really want to explore Wellington since I'm only here for last night and today but I have no energy. The whole town is booked because of this huge rugby tournament. That means I'm taking the ferry across to Picton tomorrow morning, which is fine. I think I'm going to go to Marlborough Sounds and crash there for a few days, I figure a quiet, becautiful place can only help. Also, the Wellington YHA (where I'm staying) is right across the street for a (HUGE) supermarket, so I went and stocked up on meds/fruit/etc.

It's weird, I'm only used to backpacking in Central America, where things are never easy- throat losenges you say? nope. A nice neat little prepared fruit bowl in the refridgerated section of the grocery store? surely not. Razor blade replacements for the exact razor I have? You've got. It almost makes me nervous, like why is it so easy to do things here??

I'm in an internet cafe just a few blocks from the hostel. The Wellington City YHA has won best hostel in Oceania- and it's not hard to see why. It's very clean, very well run, and Huge. I'm still getting used to this hostel the size of college dorms thing. I'm used to my little, 30 bed places. I think YHA Welly has several hundred. I'm on the fourth floor, in a 6 bed all girls shared room. This morning, just like in Auckland, everyone who was there last night checked out. One woman there was on business (and staying in the dorms? she needs to get a raise...) but she is Maori, the native people of New Zealand, and so we had a long talk about this big holiday tomorrow, Waitangi Day, that celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840, except apparently the British man who was translating for the Maori lied about what was in the treaty, and they basically forfeited all rights to their land, etc. It was myself, the Maori woman, a British woman and French woman. It was a good ending to a long day.

Yesterday I took the train from Auckland to Wellington, 12 hours. It was a beautiful ride, and as always when traveling, I met some fun people to hang out with on the train. In the back rows of the back car there was myself, a german girl next to me, and a Kiwi, an Aussie, and a Chinese girl. Also, two boys but they slept most of the time so I didn't find out much about them. There's another train that crosses the north part of the South Island East to West (and vice versa) that I want to take, it's supposed to be really beautiful. The Southern Hemisphere Alps is what they like to call them.

Well that ought to do for now, if the internet at the hostel goes back up today I'll try and post some pictures. Again I have some great pictures to share but I forgot to bring my USB cord to the cafe with me so another time.

The longest day ever

So on Saturday morning, at 7:45 am I officially left VT. 28 hours later, I touched down in Auckland, New Zealand. Everything went very smoothly, and I sat next to a really nice Kiwi girl on the plane who was coming home for 3 weeks for her sister's wedding. She hadn't been home in three years! Rachel gave me her number and contact info in case I need anything while she's here. She now lives in London with her Kiwi boyfriend, as a teacher.

For anyone curious, New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of VT and that has made calling home a little tricky.

The shuttle from the airport dropped me off about 2 blocks from my hostel, but of course I went the wrong way and it was about 12 blocks before I finally found it (partially because I was scared to walk down the steepest street I have ever seen with my heavy pack on and me being so sleep deprived). I'm staying at the Auckland International YHA and it's pretty nice. It's much bigger than the hostels I'm used to (170 beds or so) and so it's a little more impersonal than I'm used to (the one in Tam where I basically lived was about 30 beds). Last night the room was full and this morning they all checked out! There's another girl in there already though, Abby from D.C. She's here for a month, doing a tour.

Tomorrow I take the train to Wellington (12 hours) and then I'm going to try and stay there for the rest of the week. There's this Rugby thing there this weekend, called Sevens, which sounds really cool except the whole town is just about booked up! I have a hostel booked for Wed/Thurs night but after that I'm out!

I have also arranged to start wwoofing at a farm in Nelson next Monday. This is of course assuming I can get accomodation for Sevens.

Yesterday I walked around Auckland, just trying to get my bearings. I went to Sky Tower, all the way up to the 60th floor, which is 220 m high and the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. Mom, I took some lovely pictures of the glass floor just for you! Then I walked up to K Rd and ate at a Little Turkish Cafe, it was really good (or I was really hungry). Then I walked around this really cute little park across the street from my hostel, and ate lunch/walked around the New Zealand New Art Gallery.

Ok I realize this post is totally out of order, which I will fix later (Diana I will teach you how to edit posts) and add pictures too. The computers at the hostel weren't letting me add them and I'm now too tired to fight it anymore.