Insanity and Fun

The two can easily be mixed as I'm sure many of you know haha. The combination is much easier when you are in a car for long periods of time, not really having a set agenda, weird sleep schedules, and spending A TON of time with the same people. For example, a road trip down the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand with your flat-mates, another international student from France, and a crazy Kiwi. But before I discuss our trip briefly (because I really am too lazy to type 5 semi-witty pages worth of adventures) I would just like to apologize in advance for any massive grammatical errors ... it happens.

OK! So back to insane fun, or insanity funny, or was it insanity and fun... whatever, you get the idea. So on Saturday of last week (a.k.a the 28th of August) the parties named above, and I, embarked on a long long car ride up the 1 Highway. And from now on everything will be super duper short.

Day 1

• Stopped at the Moeraki Boudlers and took way too many pictures
• Drove over 9 hours up the east coast, through Arthur's pass (aka a massive movie setting for LOTR) and into Greymouth
• Had (a delirious) dinner at a nice pizzeria, played card games, passed out

Day 2

• Had breakfast, drove up the West Coast to Punakaiki to look at the pancake rocks and go on a hike. Again, took too many pictures.
• Went to Monteith's Brewery, after changing at the hostel, and took a tour/beer tasting. I have never liked beer until I tried Monteith's... just sayin'
• Dinner at an Indian restaurant. It may sound boring but it really was hilarious. Then we went back and played card games and a knockoff version of Jenga again before passing out.

Day 3

• Packed up after breakfast and headed down the west coast. We stopped in Hokitika for a few hours and enjoyed the beach and local artists' shops.
• Stopped at the Bushman Centre in Pukekura (population: 2). Stopped at the Waitaha River and searched for hot pools to dig. Then we stopped at a small ton with amazing jade and whalebone carvings
• Went on a Kiwi stalk in Okarito!! We got to see a female kiwi in the wild and we heard 4of a specific subspecies of Kiwi of which only 250 still exist (the female we saw was of the same group). It was crazy awesome. And we saw a ton of baby possums. The tour guide was pretty pissed we were kind of late, but he got over it. I think he is just overly passionate about this kind of Kiwi. He used to work for the national conservation group so I guess I can understand.
• Then we finally got to our hostel in Franz Joseph and went out to eat. That was a super long day, but was so worth it.

Day 4

• We drove over to the Glacier tracks and then went on a nice hike up to a view point. Then we took another trek as close to the glacier as possible while still being free (you can hike the glacier... but it's way too expensive and we'd rather save our money for other ventures)
• Then Dan, Marion, and I went back to Okarito (which isn't far) and Dan and I ran the trails (at completely different paces because he is in the middle of training for a marathon) while Marion took photos and went to a nice lookout point. The scenery was breathtaking and the run was a great personal challenge but at the end of the trail I twisted my ankle pretty badly.
• Went back to the hostel, cooked a massive plate of tortellini and a head of broccoli, rested my foot. Arely, Kelsey and I went to a local bar after their failed glow-worm-spelunking and played pool. Tanya, I need another lesson because my skills are severely lacking.

Day 5

• Packed up and headed out to see Fox Glacier. The water was blue! Literally. It was very very ...cool (ahahaha! I am so very clever. Ok not, I wish)
• Stopped at a nice beach, a salmon farm and a pebble beach that was supposed to have penguins on it, but they were not there when we arrived. (I'm assuming it's because we got to the beach around high-tide time) Regardless, the scenery and ocean were beautiful.
• Then we finally made it to Queenstown! Where we got delicious Fergburgers (Velvet burger is better) and some amazing hot chocolate with fresh CookieTime cookies. We met up with some of Marion's friends who are living in town until the snowboard season is over and then going back to Europe. They let us stay at their (super nice and huge) flat for the night, so we dropped off our stuff and then headed out to a bar. We almost got into a bar fight, but decided that dancing was better.
• After the long and hilarious night was finally over we went back to the flat, hung out, laughed, and ate more delicious cookies. then we passed out.

Day 6

• We got up, and got prepared for the bungy day!! Arely, Dan and Marion all went bungy jumping at the Nevis center, and I went on the Nevis Arc, which is a massive swing (twice!). We all had so so so much fun. In the mean time Kelsey explored the beauty of Queenstown.
• Headed back to the flat, packed up our stuff, went to get some lunch, bought our hosts a present, and then we began the long drive back to Dunedin.

The rest of the weekend I was pretty much a bum. I caught up on some sleep, some TV shows, and some schoolwork in between posting and commenting on the hundreds of photos that we all have from the trip. And of course I watched the USC TROJANS BEAT THE WARRIORS!! I found a way to watch it live, albeit of poor quality. Sorry I'm so late in updating you all on the trip. But anyways, it's back to work this week because all of my term papers are due within the next 3 weeks. YAY! But I am trying to figure out if I can go skydiving this month so I will keep you all posted on that.

Since I am 19 hours ahead of the Golden Coast and only 16 hours ahead of the Big East Coast, you guys should skype me, because then we are talking in real time... which would make you a time traveler. And who doesn't want to time travel? You can tell all your friends and be cool.

Love and praying for you all.

♥Joshua 1:9