Feb 20, Week 2 in NZ

Finishing Round the Bays 7km on Sunday, always wanted

one of these photos
8 Durham Crescent, new apartment, off the road, this is part of the little path that goes up
This way to number 8 Durham Crescent, no way to miss it
The side yard with the view to the harbor behind me, my room looks out on this yard.
The view of the harbor from the living room, its the reward

for the steep climb up the hill.
Sad to leave Marlborough Sounds on the first gorgeous

day since I arrived there
I'm on a BOAT.....
Twenty nine! The Irish staff at the hotel all gasped when I said I was 29 which I took

to mean a) 29 is old, and b) I'm so youthful
Celebrating 29 with champagne
And another rainbow at sundown on my birthday, that was number 28
First thing I saw on my birthday, a rainbow - my Mom said

there was a rainbow the day I was born, awwww
My dinner after my hike, they gave me all these condiments

without me asking! I was still 28, fries and beer acceptable

dinner after hiking 23km
In case I was feeling so good I wanted to walk/swim all

the way back to Wellington.

Thought this was a kiwi, got real excited, then the biker

yelled that there were plenty, at which point I deduced it was a weka.

The birds walk on the ground here because there are no native predators. A young lady back home told me to beware of bears, but there are none, not even any snakes here...makes tramping and camping pretty worry free

View from the top, maybe along km #10, not sure,

all gorgeous
23km, needless to say I was nervous, but also notice

how it says 9 hours, well I did in 5.5, take that QCT
Sunset on Marlborough Sounds, this in addition

to the spa, really made my day
Kayaking around Marlborough Sounds, this is called the Gap, its about 20m wide between the two bays, so back in the day they could carry canoes through here instead of going around the point

Made it to the top of day one, QCT, about 15km
First stop, Portage Resort on Queen Charlotte's Track in Marlborough Sounds, luxury tramping since they transport your bags by boat along the way

Pot Belly in Kaikora! Checked and no mushroom

melt unfortunately...
First time with toes in Pacific from this Hemisphere,

in Kaikora, South Island, not as cold as I was expecting.
My valentine, on the Peninsula Walk in Kaikora on V-day.
Enjoying some Sauvignon Blanc, sun, and music, at

the Marlborough Wine Festival.
Rocks in a gumball machine, some things

aren't as awesome in NZ
Pulling into Picton, South Island
The ferry crossing to the South Island
Hey Munros! Thinking of you while eating this ice cream
Leaving Wellington behind for a few days.

So since I last posted about ten days ago, I went to the South Island, the Marlborough Wine Festival, Kaikora, hiked part of the Queen Charlotte's Track, became a year older, moved into my new flat, and did a 7km run to benefit heart disease called Round the Bays in Wellington.

Here's a bit about my adventures over the week and few new things I've learned-

There's a few things that spending so much time alone will teach you:

-Your back will be perpetually sunburned in a weird finger splotchy way in the areas you can't quite reach

-NZ law prohibits you from renting a sea kayak alone (I know you're excited Mom), so you have to find a buddy (I convinced a chef at the resort to go with me)

-Spending so much time alone, you end up laughing it your own jokes which makes you think you're really funny (dangerous in my case), but hey they say if you don't like spending time with yourself, who will. Well, I've determined I'm a blast

-I've realized I need to think things through a bit better especially in terms of packing. For instance, hair dryer never needs to be included for weekend trips, did I ever use a hair dryer in the U.S.?, no, so who knows why I packed it for my last week away. Also, not a good idea to pack the sheets you're going to return in a backpack to run 7km (when you don't run at all normally), just because it will be more efficient. And now that I've finally unpacked at my new place, I'm really unclear what I'm going to wear once its not summer, hopefully I can find some wool around here......but good news, I did finally get a towel, actually have two now

-I've had crazy dreams every night that I've been here. Its like a parade of all the people who've been in my life every night, so its been good to see you all, at least while I'm sleeping. This might also be why I'm sleeping 12 hours a night, I'm too entertained.....

-What I love about New Zealand the most so far - how few people are here! Its really wonderful how uncrowded and how much open space there is. I'd be willing to add a few more if you all were here...Oh and I love how cheap avocados are here.

-What's been most shocking about New Zealand - how little culture shock there is and just how easy of a country it is to live in (so far, and I know I've been mostly vacationing rather than real "living", so we'll see how this goes)

-Most frustrating thing is how expensive certain things are - like books ($45), and the worldwide web ($2 for 10 minutes or 20$ per day, or $15 for 2MB of use), but hopefully this will grow less so since I got a library card and now I have a home where monthly internet is much cheaper

Here's a brief synopsis of the photos you saw above and the week in review:

-Took the ferry from Wellington with 2 other Fulbrighters, Brad and Rachel, takes 3.5 hours to the South Island, about $50 each way.

-Stayed in Blenheim for the Marlborough Wine Festival, Blenheim sort of looks like it got hit by a strip mall on fast forward, but there are some cuter parts. The backpackers (like a hostel) we stayed at was nice, on a river with free canoes and nice Irish people who were in our same room

-Wine festival, great, but you pay $50 just for the bands (Ladi6, Gin Wigmore, Liam Finn, etc) not for anything else, so all tastings are at least 3$ and glasses are 6$. By the end of the day it also sort of becomes a mess. People on the shuttle back to town were singing Know When to Hold Em and the national anthem of New Zealand. There was also a girl sitting behind me threatening to throw up the whole time.

-Kaikora, about 1.5 hours south of Blenheim, for Valentines Day, good walk along the coast and up around the peninsula, saw seals, orca, and had my first fish and chips here. Other Fulbrighters went back to Wellington.

-Water taxi from Picton to Queen Charlotte’s Track, luxury tramping where the boat takes your luggage from point to point

-Hiked about 15km, kayaked, swam, met some American guys who'd just spent four months in Antarctica, made me realize I was less isolated than I thought

-Hiked 24km to the next lodge, supposed to take 9 hours, took me 5.5, cause I’m a champ

-On my birthday, I slept 12 hours cause I can, woke up to rain and sun and many rainbows, and a full day of showers mixed with sun and rainbows. My Mom said there was a rainbow the day I was born, well Mom I think I counted 29 today, fitting J.

-Woke up to a rainbow, but also to someone stealing my food. Good experiences at backpackers till now....and still overall not bad, basically had the place to myself the second night.

-Rained all day, could have been depressing and lonely, but I used the time to organize pictures so it was like you all were with me....

-Had some bubbles and cake with the staff here and stuck a match in the cake to wish myself happy birthday and called it a night

-Woke up to a gorgeous day, unfortunately had to go back, but had a good boat ride back to Picton, ate some green shell mussels and got on the ferry back to Wellington

-Moved into my new flat, found out I needed to buy linen for my bed, really wishing that bedding made it now

-Ran 7km Round the Bays in Wellington on Sunday, finished in 45 minutes which I was pretty happy with. Got my bedding, went to farmers market, went to dinner at new roomates' parents house, made lunch for tomorrow, headed to bed. Good week

You may be wondering when I'm actually going to start working on what the Fulbright (aka you taxpayers) are paying for me to be here for, well don't worry, I get down to work tomorrow, so this next week I promise many pictures of me working away ......still to come pictures of my new roommates Alice and Aaron, and now that I have a home, I'm going to work on buying a car....