There's Platinum in These Hills!

My oh my.  How the time is speeding by.  It’s June!!  It’s just surreal to me.  What do you mean I’ve been here for four months?  What kind of joke is that?  *sigh*  As you can probably tell I’m just a little frazzled by the complete lack of time I have left here.  22 days.  The past 31 have gone by in the blink of an eye!  And I can tell you already that this next month is going to do the same. 

Tomorrow is the last day of classes here at Massey Palmerston North.  Next week is a full week dedicated to studying and the two weeks following belong to exams.  You know what that means?  I have exactly three days within the next three weeks that I have plans.  June 14, June 16, and June 18.  The last two on which I have two exams a piece.  This free time would be absolutely awesome except for my complete and utter lack of money.  That’s alright though; it just means spontaneous activities are more plausible now.  Oh!  And I need to pack.  I guess I’ll devote my last two days here to that.

To steer away from that depressing (at least to me) topic, I will tell you about my most recent weekend.  On Saturday May 28 I went with a portion of MUAC (Massey University Alpine Club) and did a tramp into the nearby wilderness.  If you can call it wilderness…  Anyways, we walked the Sledge Track, about 20 minutes from campus. 

I don’t have a whole lot to say about the whole trip.  I can tell you there were around 700 stairs one way (yes I counted), it was super muddy, and it took us around 6 hours to complete the circuit.  The first stopping point of the trek was at a river.  There were some really nice boulders there, which I decided to climb.  I was doing well until I slipped and bashed my knee on the top of it.  That would have lasting effects throughout the day.  I had a nice view of the river, though.

Pacific Polar Plunge

4/27/11     Bluff -> Milford Sound -> Te Anau

Our poor planning once again affected our day.  We awoke around 8 or so, donned our togs (bathing suits) and headed for the coast.  It was time for our version of a polar plunge.  We were hoping to find some sort of dock or pier for total, immediate immersion, but we couldn’t.  Instead we found a spot to climb down to the beach and run in.  We were split evenly as a group, 3 diving and 3 spectating.  Travis, Kaleb, and I were the brave ones jumping in.  So we shed our clothes, handed away our cameras and went for it.  We waded in and dove under a wave.  We were off the coast of one of the southernmost locations of the South Island, in April, at 8:30 in the morning.  Basically, it was really cold.

After that first submersion it actually wasn’t too bad.  However, knowing how cold it actually was, I walked back out almost immediately.  What a way to start the day!

Our delusions that we were doing well on time lasted about another hour before shattering.  After showering off the salt water and packing up the van once more we were quickly informed by Bertha (the GPS) that we had a 4.5 hour drive to reach Milford Sound, which we needed to be at in 4.5 hours to catch our boat.  This led to the decision to skip the viewing of Stirling Point, a location I really wanted to go to.  Why, you ask?  Because Stirling Point has one of those posts with signs and distances pointing to locations all over the world, including the South Pole.  Sadly it was a no go.

Would You Like a Little Wine With that Cheese?

4/25/11     Wanaka -> Queenstown -> Dunedin

Today was utterly jam packed with action.  Well, not really.  We did a lot, though.  Today was Easter Monday and ANZAC Day.  (For those of you who don’t know about ANZAC Day, you can investigate here- ANZAC Day)  Basically it just screwed up timing for shops and everything.  There were parades and such too, but we didn’t see any.

Our first stop today was Stuart Landsborough’s Puzzling World.  This place was awesome.  There were illusion rooms, a puzzle room, a two story outdoor maze, and the Leaning Tower of Wanaka.  Due to time limits we could only stay for about an hour.  I could have easily stayed for two or three.

A quick drive then led us up to the Wanaka airfield where we picked up a fellow Kiwi traveler who went skydiving.  From there we were off to AJ Hackett’s Kawarau Bungy Centre.  We watched a film on the history of bungy and then went out back to the Kawarau Bridge and watched people bungy.  Some of them were even from our bus.  Four to be exact.  Two girls and two guys.  This jump is 43 meters (142 feet).  AJ Hackett also does the Nevis Highwire Bungy which is 134 meters (440 feet), which Nora is doing on Thursday afternoon.

A Poltergeist is Afoot...

Alright everyone, I’m back.  Back from the South Island and two weeks of fun and carefree travel.  So what I’m going to do to chronicle my journey is the same thing I did for Fiji.  I kept a journal, this time actually writing every day, and I’m just going to write here what I did there.  So let’s get this started…

4/18/11     Palmy -> Welly -> Picton -> Nelson

Our mid-semester break began yesterday with a journey to Wellington.  For some (Kristen, Tony, and Travis) the trip began at nine in the morning.  They caught the bus to town at 9:10, then a bus to Bulls at 10:50, where they waited until about 4:00 to catch the Kiwi Experience bus to Wellington.  For others (Kaleb and myself), the trip began at 3:00 when we hopped into the car of a lovely Kiwi bloke by the name of Nic.  You may be asking, “Why didn’t you all drive?”  The answer is convoluted.  I will leave it by saying that the car ride was a favor we thought of asking for after booking the bus.  Plus, the car was not big enough for everyone plus two weeks of gear.

After rejoining and purchasing ferry tickets, we headed over to Cuba Street to grab some grub.  Cuba Street is this awesome, basically pedestrian, street with a boat load of restaurants, cafés, shops, and bars.  We decided on Indian, against my better judgment.  I only say that because I had curry the night before and it gave me heartburn for most of the night.  I should have listened to myself because again, heartburn all night and into this morning.  The food was absolutely delicious though, so I only slightly regret it.

After trekking up multiple hills to reach our friend Neil’s place (he was kind enough to house five of us for the night) we set about to playing Bananagrams (our new favorite group game).  After almost total domination by Kaleb we gave up and set about sleeping. 

Today began early, 6am to specify.  We were out of the flat by 6:30.  The boys hoofed it through the rain while Nic was again awesome and drove Kristen and myself and all the gear to the YHA hostel.  There we caught the bus to the ferry, upon which we were joined by Nora and Tifah.  The ferry crossing took about three hours.  Of those three hours I slept for about two.  The ride began quite rough, but once we reached the South Island the sea was super calm.

Another two to three hours found us and the Kiwi Experience bus in Nelson.  We’re currently staying in the Fern Lodge, which is connected to the Prince Albert bar.  Great place.