Hey everyone!
I’m so excited to finally have news about my life in NZ—the second week of spring break was much more interesting than the first. The trampers came back Saturday afternoon, and they had their rental van for one more day, so we went on an adventure. We had lunch and beer samples at a brewery called Brew Moon, and further on up the road was Waipara Springs Winery, where we sampled maybe five wines. It was such a beautiful day to sit outside, be with friends and contemplate the characteristics of wine. I’m getting so educated in this country. Later that afternoon, Rachel’s dad flew in for a visit. He was in Sydney on business and it’s only a three-hour flight to Christchurch, so he stayed here for a few days. Bill is an excellent example of why I love it when other people’s parents come visit them: they buy stuff for everyone. Sunday night we went to a pub quiz and Bill treated us to dinner and drinks. (Disclaimer: it’s not normal for me to drink so much in a day, ok. Don’t judge.) We didn’t win the pub quiz—not even close—but it was really fun. There was one round where we had to match the pictures of dinosaurs to their names, which I dominated thanks to Scott’s childhood obsession. Okay, actually Matt dominated. I’m sure he went through his own dinosaur phase as a kid. However, had he not been there, I would have been the dinosaur champion.
Bill had rented a car, and on Monday he took Matt, Rachel and me to Akaroa, which is a historic French settlement on Banks Peninsula, further out than Diamond Harbour. It was so gorgeous! We walked around for a few hours and I took too many pictures, which may eventually reach the blog. But seeing as how my computer is probably lost somewhere in the wilds of New Zealand on its way to Auckland for the second time, don’t hold your breath. They are up on Facebook though.
The best part of break was the ROAD TRIP WITH RACHEL AND BRIANA! We drove around the northern coast of the south island and it was so much fun. I just want to point out two good things about road tripping with girls: no one cares that we stop for a bathroom break every hour, and everyone is totally fine to pull over for photo-ops every ten minutes because the country is too beautiful to be wasted. We left on Thursday morning in our rental car, named Milton (we vetoed Norbert), and drove to Kaikoura. We ate lunch there and then went on to Picton, which is a small town that sees a lot of backpackers coming through. We spent the night at a cute hostel called the Villa. We cooked pasta and Briana and I shared a nine-dollar bottle of wine, having made it our goal to find THE cheapest wine at the store. It wasn’t too bad, actually. Also, I should point out that the reason Rachel chose the Villa over other hostels was that they served free apple crumble. Win. We were all asleep by ten. Rachel got this creepy bedspread with a pattern of clown heads. Naturally Bri and I found this hilarious. So we took a picture.
The next morning we went to the shops in Picton and then down to the bay. Since Rachel of course wanted to interact with nature, we drove to Nelson Lakes National Park for a walk in the woods. We stopped for PB&J at a little spot next to the lake, which was gorgeous. We took a ton of pictures. From the park I drove (yes, I drove, and no one died) to the town of Nelson, which is bigger than Picton. We stayed at a sweet as hostel called the Paradiso, which has a pool! I want to go back to Nelson and stay there when the weather is warmer. Also, every time we walked past the reception desk, the radio was playing Bad Company or Journey or something. You can’t go wrong with this place. We made stir fry for dinner and Bri and I shared another cheap as bottle of wine. Whether or not one of us had more than her fair share of the wine and got a little buzzed is not part of this story.
The reason we stayed in Nelson Friday night was to shop at the market on Saturday morning! It was huge and we were there for probably three hours. I bought a bunch of Christmas presents. We met an Irish guy selling muffins, and when we told him were from North Carolina, he said he’d met James Taylor a couple times. How cool is that? We also ran into a group of kids we know from Canterbury who were on their way home from hiking. After we finished at the market, we took our giant bag of food to the beach and had a picnic on the sand. The colour of the ocean in New Zealand is a far cry from our muddy green Atlantic—it’s bright turquoise and breathtaking. Then we got on the road again and drove back to Kaikoura, where we spent the night at a hostel called the Lazy Shag. We had dinner at place called the Whaler, which we chose solely because Briana likes the beer they serve. The beer was definitely good, but the food was crummy—we all got steaks and they messed up our order. Plus when we’d been there for maybe fifteen minutes, this giant group of Aryans descended on the bar and apparently had some kind of family reunion. I don’t know about you but I had never seen a baby in a bar before. So we sat around and talked til we got sick of Club Copenhagen and went back to the hostel. We crashed early and Rachel and Bri went to the beach to watch the sunrise. I do not care for sunrises because if I’m seeing one, it means I’m up too early. Plus I saw their photos so it’s like I was there, right? Except I was warm in bed, so that actually makes me the winner.
After said sunrise, we checked out the shops in Kaikoura, then went on walk along a cliff and down to the beach. We saw a ton of cows and seals. Only in New Zealand do they live a stone’s throw from each other. We had PB&J on a giant rock out in the water, which afforded the most beautiful view of blue sea, blue mountains and blue sky. It has to be seen to be believed, which is why I came home from the trip with 440 pictures. After deleting the crummy ones, I still have 360. Thank goodness for external hard drives.
Today classes started back—six weeks to go!—and I rang in the new term by skipping Russian history to track down my computer. I think it’s in Auckland. Fingers crossed.
Everyone email Rachel and tell her to post the tale of her tramping trip, which is highly entertaining. Do it now.
love-
Carie
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