Kaikoura Coast

Flying Kiwi: Tuesday 22.01.08

So on our first full day in the South Island, we drove along the east coast (no longer in our awesome ol' reliable blue bus called "Lola," but some sad excuse for a coach bus that leaked - yes, leaked inside because of the bad A/C system). But besides that, it was a nice day, drying and warming up under the sun after a night of heavy rain, as we traveled along the Kaikoura Coast. We stopped at some point to look at a seal colony. The smell ain't so nice, and they move very clumsily on the rocks - they looked like lumbering blobs - but they swim very gracefully, and there must have been at least 20 of them.

Along the drive we also passed through several towns with greenstone (jade) factories, and I got my necklace at one of those stores, but I can't remember the name of the town or the store, unfortunately. And according to Maori, it's considered horribly taboo or unlucky, almost sacrilegious even (Maori say "tapu"), to buy a greenstone or bone carving for yourself, so Sam bought mine for me. The Maori word for greenstone is "pounamu."

Later on that day, there was supposed to be a whale-watching activity available, but during this time, a massive storm had moved all throughout New Zealand, starting up north and was just in the process of passing through Kaikoura. Setting up tents that night was incredibly interesting. Because of the storm, the winds were intense, taking me at least 30 minutes, maybe a full hour, to do what should have only taken me 10 minutes max.

Oh, and by the way, Kaikoura literally means "to eat crayfish."
     kai = to eat
     koura = crayfish
So as you would guess, Kaikoura is known for having great seafood. And no, Sam and I didn't get to try any, sorry.

To recap:
     pounamu = greenstone/jade
     tapu = forbidden
     kai = to eat
     koura = crayfish

Hope you liked your Maori lesson.

(This is where I got my necklace. And yes, I just realized the name of the store is in the picture. Silly me. Also interesting: there's a USA flag flying in the corner; I wonder why.)

I just loved the Kaikoura Coast. Absolutely beautiful.

Crossing Between Two Islands

Flying Kiwi: Monday 21.01.08

[Sorry for not updating about my tour; I'm getting really lazy about it. I'll try to do better this week!]

So we arrived in Wellington where we had to remove all our luggage from the bus because once we crossed on the ferry into the South Island, we'd be traveling on a different bus. It was such a hassle to lug it over to the nearest backpacker to store it for a couple hours while we wandered the capital of New Zealand. Even worse, there wasn't much to do in the four hours we had because it happened to be a bank holiday, and most of the stores were closed. I did get to buy a couple of used books at Arty Bee's, and go through a couple shops. I even lost my sweater in one store, and I was more than a 15-min-walk away when I realized it was gone, so I just bought another one. Didn't do much else, besides using the internet. Sam didn't want to keep wandering, so he left to go take a nap at the backpacker.

Wellington is a nice city. It's not like Auckland where all the stores can be found on one street and half of them are souvenir shops. They also have nice museums and such, but I didn't bother going to any, although I should have. I think it's one of the things I really regret not doing here in New Zealand: visiting museums and exhibits about the country, the people, their history. Someone back home told me that I should really make an effort to immerse myself into kiwi culture, that it's an important aspect and reason for traveling, and I think I have in some areas, but I could have done more. But yeah, I like Wellington. It's shaped like a bowl, where the main central business district is right at the bottom, and the homes and residental areas are in the surrounding areas.

At 4pm, everyone had to go get our stuff out of storage and make our way over to the ferry. That also happened to be a hassle, because the schedules of the shuttles was off, due to the bank holiday, and we were waiting for quite a while. The ferry was huge - the one other time I was on a ferry was across Lake Michigan when I was like 8, and since our family was driving, we stayed down on the vehicle area, so I don't even remember how big that one was or what it was like. But this ferry had nice lounges, televisions, couches, cafes, etc etc. I felt a bit seasick, so I basically just took a nap. The ride was 3 hours, which felt really long, since we take a break every 1.5 hours for a rest stop when we're on the bus.

There wasn't much else to do that day - we got to our backpacker at 9:30pm - but Sam and I did indulge ourselves late that night with some ramyun. Yum.

Other Thoughts:

- It's Easter Weekend. How did you spend your Good Friday? How will you spend your Easter Sunday? I find it extremely ironic and sad that New Zealanders take this history-altering event seriously, but not in the way that they should. No one works on Good Friday, and on Easter Sunday, and some even get Easter Monday off (yes, I have a 4-day weekend). It's actually illegal here for most places to be operating on those days (Fri&Sun). But as I listened to my co-workers talk about their plans for the weekend, I realized that no one saw it as being more than a short vacation. No profound meaning for any of them. One of them even laughed when church was mentioned. For me, let's just say that I am taking this weekend more seriously than I have ever done, and that God is good.

- Can't wait for this week to be over. After that, Australia to see our friends, and then our homecoming back into Chicago. Work has been horribly slow, and I feel like this last week will be even harder, since we've been having a lot of early clock-outs, so much so that now I expect work to be over by 3pm. That's not bound to continue.

- Talking about work, this past year has made me realize that I don't want to continue my studies into a career that I couldn't care less about. I picked mechanical engineering simply because I didn't think there was anything else I could pick. It just seemed to fit because I'm good at math and physics, and engineers make a good living, but I'm certainly not gung-ho about it. The job I'm at now is so easy, but so monotonous and tedious. So many of the ladies I work with have done this for most of their lives. That's not a bad thing. A lot of parents, mine included, have worked at jobs that they didn't enjoy or bring in a lot of money, but they worked hard in order to support their families. Makes me realize that money really isn't everything, that life can be so simple. Life can still be good, fulfilling, satisfying, without the luxuries the world tells us we need. It's Christ, and caring for others, that brings purpose and meaning into my life. But I figure that if I'm going to be doing something for the rest of my life, I might as well do something I would enjoy. Isn't that one of the biggest things people wish for? To have a career that isn't work, but something that you enjoy? So the big conclusion I came to is that I'm not returning to Boston University. I'm not going through with my mechanical engineering degree. You're probably wondering what I've got in mind in lieu of this, and I have some things in mind, but it's all in the air. Sooner or later God will let me know exactly what He wants. I am trusting in that.

One Year Gone...

I miss you Cindy.

Tongariro NP & Current Update

Flying Kiwi: Sunday 21.01.08

On this day most people woke up early (like 5am) to go on one of the most famous walks in New Zealand called Tongariro Crossing, which goes through Tongariro National Park. It's a full day's walk, which takes about 6-8 hours (although you can do it in about 4.5 hours if you're going at a quick pace). Sam and I opted out, wanting to have a lie-in. Most days we have to be up by 6:30 or 7:00, so it was greatly appreciated. Well, it was, until Brad started blasting his kiwi music out of the bus at 9:00, haha.

Anyway, the hikers left early because they didn't want to be out in the harsh sun at midday, so it was a good idea to start that early. You would think that at the hottest time of the year they'd only need a tank and shorts, but on Tongariro the weather changes drastically as you go up and down different altitudes and across the park. Maybe if I didn't have to get up so early I would have gone, cause it sounded pretty cool. At least Sam and I got to walk through some parts of the national park when we were headed down with Alex and Stuart. We had gone on the Silica Rapids Walk, which was about a 2-hour walk. There we got to see Mount Doom in the Land of Mordor. Choice, eh? I would show some pictures of those, but I didn't have my camera (just my camcorder). Maybe I can steal photos off Alex or Stuart.

For the time being, here's just one picture from Alex's camera of us at Tongariro National Park.

Update:

I know that all I've been doing lately is blogging about our travels, and therefore not updating about our current status, so I'll do it now. Our tour ended in the middle of February, with mixed feelings of relief (from the constant traveling, activities, and company of others), disbelief (the entire 28 days just zoomed by), and sadness (saying farewell awesome mates).

We took a bus back down to Te Puke, and are now staying at the familiar Hairy Berry Bunkhouse. We also got a job at the same packhouse as before - I love those guys! But work has been really tedious. Kiwifruit is our usual product, but as we're out of season, they've got us working on this new fruit called kiwiberries. It's basically kiwifruit, but in the size and shape of grapes. Seriously. They only started growing and selling this new genetically-modified fruit last year. Tiny, bite-sized, hairless kiwifruit. Fun to eat, and deliciously sweet, but a devil when it comes to grading and packing them. There are like eight different kinds, but I've only seen three, and one of them is red. Delicious!


Crazy, ain't it?

Anywho, other news:

- Leap Year. Totally forgot it, but what the hey.

- There was a huge story going around on the news here in New Zealand last week concerning an NZ resident, and I'm assuming you guys have heard about it too, because it took place near Atlanta. The basic gist of it is that there was a Chinese man, Nai Yin Xue, living in Auckland with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. He murdered his wife and stuffed her into the trunk of his car in September in New Zealand, and then abandoned his daughter in a train station in Melbourne, Australia. The girl was nicknamed Pumpkin because that was the label on her clothing when they found her. He was on the run for 5 months, and was finally captured in Georgia. Apparently, he'd been on America's Most Wanted a couple of times, but what led to his arrest was the Chinese newspaper in the area. Someone from the community recognized him from a picture in the paper, checked it out on AMW's website, and then got 5 other guys to go with him to ambush, hogtie, and sit on him. Then they called the police. Everyone here in NZ was ecstatic over his capture. Go Americans!

- I'm homesick. Really. I keep thinking about the people I'm going to see, the things I'm going to do, the places I'll visit, the food I'll eat, etc. I know it's still about 1.5 months off, but seeing as I'm just working (grading kiwiberries all day long), there's nothing much else to occupy my mind. Plus it's getting cold fast for autumn/winter (they call it the cold snap, 'cause it happens in an instant), so there's no fun in going to the beach or anywhere outside. Got so many plans for when I come home!! I miss you guys. Hope you're all doing well.

- Plans for the rest of holiday: work until the end of March. Fly out to Sydney beginning of April. Hang out with Ebang. Hang out with Kate and Amy (FlyingKiwi) in Canberra. Hang out with Christine (BC) in Melbourne. Hang out with Matt, Sarah, and Ben (FlyingKiwi) in Woori Yallock. If we're lucky, we won't have to pay for accommodation the entire time we're in the land down under. The only problem is figuring out how to get to all these places (at least the two small towns are in between Sydney and Melbourne). My license expires in 15 days (which means I probably can't rent a car), and Sam can't rent one because he's under 21. Crap (what to do?). But after that it's off to Auckland only to catch our ride home. Yay!

- Lastly, please leave a comment if you read these posts. Even if it's just to say hi. Otherwise I feel like no one is reading them, and that there's no point in posting about my travels and pictures. Take care!

Waikato Region

Flying Kiwi: Saturday 19.01.08

We started off this morning by going to look at Wai-O-Tapu, where the mud pools are. Smelled really bad, and looked really disgusting, but in an odd satisfying way as you watched the mud bubble and spit due to the gases that constantly rise to the surface.

The next stop was Huka Falls, an incredible rapid with incredibly blue water. Sam and I saw those with Stuart and Alex before as well, so we skipped the 2-hr walk and decided to wander around Taupo instead. If you remember any of the info from my previous posts, you might recall that Lake Taupo is the largest lake in New Zealand. The city is located right at the bottom tip.

We also decided to skip the walk because once the others finished it, they'd have 2 hours to explore the town, but the skydiving we had booked occurred during that time. Which meant we would have had to go skydiving right after the walk and miss out on seeing the city. Unfortunately, it turns out that it didn't matter either way, because the skydiving was canceled. Really unfortunate, considering that it was a beautiful sunny day, but they said the wind was far too strong (30 knots = 35mph).

I wish now that I had gone on the walk, because halfway along the path there's a bridge where people can bungy-jump. Two people from our tour group decided to go. The first guy literally took 7 minutes to get up the courage to jump (I saw the entire video on someone's camera - he really did wait 7 minutes!). The second, a girl, jumped off almost immediately, but she was so nervous that her form was a bit off, all rigid, and she jumped feet first. I wonder if that caused any backlash or something. I haven't gone bungy-jumping yet, but when I do (not if), I want to go to one where I get to hit the water below (approx. 45m). Sam said that he would rather go on one that has a long drop (approx 135m).