Last Monday, Amanda and I set out on a road trip to the north of the south island. Our destination: Abel Tasman National Park. I've come to this island packed to the brim with my camping gear and was determined to use it as soon as possible. We set our sites on a little town called Nelson on the first day, the gateway to the park. We drove (on the wrong side of the road) through the plains of Canterbury into the rolling hills that make up the tail end of the Southern Alps. Everything is impeccably green and neat. The farmlands are patchworked through the hills and the sheep...oh yes, there are quite a lot of sheep here. It is true what they all say.
I got my first shot at driving while heading up north. Amanda's car is a manual, and although I'm used to that, driving on the right side of the car and shifting with my left hand proved to be a little hard to get used to. No worries, I got loads of practice and didn't hurt her baby. My first lefthand turn was a little on the sketchy side, as I zoomed the car into the wrong lane afterwards. But luckily I was in a little town, and going very slow. No one was injured, except for some of the million sandflies that buzz around your head everywhere....which I was happy to take out anyway.
We got to Nelson on Monday night and ended up having to go to quite a few hostels before finding one. We had our hearts set on camping, but with the ever present downpour, it just didn't sound like fun. So we holed ourselves up in a hostel near the beach for the night and made our way up the penninsula the next day. We arrived in Marahau on the beautiful, sunny day that Tuesday was and set up camp in a holiday park just a block from the beach. Being the first time I'd seen sun since I got here, I was all about a beach day, which is exactly what it turned out to be.
First off, let me say that the sun here is intense! You cannot, I repeat, CANNOT go outside without a good sunblock on. I noticed it the first day I was here when my chest got red in ten minutes while standing in the backyard. We're slowly destroying our world at this point and the ozone does not exist down here. I was talking to a guy who said he got such a bad sunburn on his nose that it bled. This does not sound very attractive. Therefore, I was a little wary of laying on the beach all day, but I did anyway...consistantly applying SPF 30 to every exposed part of my body.
The water here is the most incredible, tropical looking blue. And laying on the beach with the sun beaming down on you just makes you want to scramble in every five minutes. The problem here, is that the water is like ice. I'm pretty sure that big ice cube of Antarctica just south of here has something to do with it. I can't say that I'll be doing as much swimming on the south island as I would've liked. Not without a wetsuit anyway.
Back to camping... Amanda and I stayed in the Abel Tasman area for two nights. We had our beach time, took a hike in the park, dug up clams for dinner each night and just generally had a great time. On our first night in the campground, I had the most incredible run in of my travels so far. All of you know, that I met my friend, Kitty, while on a train in Italy. We had an apartment there for a couple of days and learned that we would both be in Peru at the same time. We traveled for a week together in Peru and made plans for me to visit at her home in Auckland at some point on my trip to New Zealand. Of all of the crazy things that can happen in this world, I was standing near the bathroom at this campground in the tiny town of Marahau, and who came walking out, but Kitty! I think we were both in shock. I had just emailed her before we left to tell her I was heading to Auckland. She hadn't gotten that email yet, nor did she know where I'd be camping and there she was standing in front of me on the south island of New Zealand. She was catching a bus quickly, but we had a chance to catch up for a minute. It was a most excellent surprise! It really is such a small world.
After our days of beach and sand in Abel Tasman, Amanda and I headed back down State Highway One towards the coast. California, I love you, but really, you've got nothing on this. We were driving through the vineyards in Marlborough, comparing the yellow rolling hills to that of the states, when all of the sudden we came over a hill and saw the most gorgeous blue water imaginable. I had to stop the car. It took my breath away. Continuing further along, it turned into green, lush cliffs spilling into a turquiose ocean with fur seals frolicking on rocks. It was a truly magical drive.
On our last road trip night, we stayed in the coastal town of Kaikoura. A very cute town, and definitely a place I will consider going back to. We ate crayfish as big as lobsters and met people in the hostel. I need these hostel moments every now and again to talk to people about where to go and what to do. In the morning, before we left for Christchurch we took a hike along the water and got up close and personal with the local wildife. There was this seal just sitting there posing for us tourists. We were able to get about two meters from him before I got scared when I saw some teeth. We walked a little further along to a seagull colony, and quickly got run out of that area by some birds defending their young. Literally, this thing came at us just screeching! It was not pleasant. Thinking of The Birds, I put my sunglasses on and ran! Being attacked by seagulls was not something I wanted to blog about. :)
We came back into Christchurch on Friday night and had a lazy night in with Flight of the Concords. I have become obsessed with the hilarity of this show since I got here. It is awesome! Something about two Kiwis in New York City just makes me laugh. If you haven't seen it, you should definitely be checking it out. Saturday was my first bout with the water here in New Zealand as we decided to do some body boarding on a beach nearby. One of my main goals here is to try out surfing, and that was the originaly plan for the day, but with swells over five feet, I just didn't feel ready for it.
On the way to the beach I was bundled in a couple of shirts, warm fuzzy pants, and some woolen socks. It was in no way warm that day. I think I saw something like 12 degrees celcius. Not my idea of a beach day. I was sure I was going to chicken out by the time we got there but I surprised myself once again when I put on Amanda's wetsuit, grabbed the body board and went running into the frigid water with Neil and one of his friends. The current was so strong and there were little jellyfish all through the water (apparently not the stinging kind) but I managed to play around like a kid for over an hour while the rain drizzled down from the sky. I had so much fun and caught a few really good waves. There are some pictures of my smiling face somewhere out there, I'll need to get them and post sometime very soon. It was a great day.
The rest of the weekend was just that, the weekend. We had people to Amanda's on Saturday night and things got a little crazy. Sunday was spent wandering through the gardens and eating Thai food in town. Christchurch is known as the Garden City, and it is well deserved. There are parks everywhere and beautiful botanical gardens with the Avon river flowing through it all. It's very picturesque, and would be even better if the sun would come out at some point while I'm here.
Yesterday I took a bus down the Banks Penninsula to go swimming with some Hector dolphins. They are the world's smallest dolphin and on the endangered species list. There are currently only about 7000 of them now and the majority of them live in the waters in the bays near Akaroa. I was hoping to get in the water with these cute little creatures and it would cure some of my phobias about swimming with large objects. Unfortunately, we saw lots of dolphins, but none felt like playing with us, so swimming did not occur. It was still a great day though, and I got some good photos of them. Akaroa is a perfect little beach town near here...yet another place I'd like to see again when I return to the south island.
As for today, I have a ticket up to Auckland tonight. Again, I have a ride from the airport and a place to stay, so I'm not on my own quite yet, but will be in a couple of days when I start heading north to the Bay of Islands. I have also changed my travel plans out of New Zealand at this point as well. I had my heart set on going back to South America, but it's just going to have to wait. I cannot be on this side of the world and skip Asia. So I'll fly home from New Zealand in late April, but not before spending seven weeks in SE Asia. It's the trip I had originally planned, and I'm sticking to it. We'll see what the next four months will bring me.
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