Arrival in Oz

... well, I'm ready to go home yet again.

Travel day yesterday was not so nice... We arrived in Sydney around 8pm and I didn't get to my hostel until 11pm or later. (which was really 1am or later NZ time) Customs took FOREVER. Literally stood in line for 2 hours or so and there was only one person checking in all the international passports. REALLY?!?

Travel in Sydney is SO complicated. It probably isn't really that bad if you know what you're doing, but I HAVE NO CLUE. I'm not used to bus/train/taxi travel. (Yes, I made the mistake of taking a taxi to the hostel)

It's all the little things that keep adding up that make my time here more stressful and less enjoyable. I've been asking questions from the very beginning...(i.e. how do you from point A to point B, what do you recommend, etc.)  People have been very nice and are always trying to help, but they're help hasn't been very helpful. ESPECIALLY when it comes to directions/transportation.

And some things that were supposed to be a "safety net" for me have failed/haven't worked out... which hasn't been a HUGE deal, but its caused enough damage...

This trip has been such a roller coaster.

Day 1: HORRIBLE. Emotional wreck and wanted to go home. (thankfully this only lasted a day)
Day 2-22: GREAT, LOVELY... time was flying
Day 23-25: PROBLEMS
Day 26-34: GREAT, LOVELY
Day 34-36: VERY HOME SICK
Day 36-43: GOOD, BUT EXHAUSTED
Day 44-45: MORE PROBLEMS

And there are 15 days left. I'm sure there will be some good days in there. I'm confident in that. The nice thing about this experience is that once I'm home, I'll forget about the not-so-fun things. Memories are convenient that way... you can filter out the bad parts. :)

Sorry for such a depressing post, but I think there will be a really good (post) coming in the near future. Very near future!

ONE DAY LEFT IN NEW ZEALAND

I know I just posted recently, but TOMORROW IS MY LAST FULL DAY IN NEW ZEALAND.

WHAT?!

WHAT?!??!

I'm actually excited to be heading to Australia... I think it'll be good. I'm a little more on top of planning in Oz so I think that'll be a nice change for me instead of relying on "wake up and plan the day" routine.  :)

We leave from Auckland Airport on the 28th and arrive in Sydney that evening. THANKFULLY I have found a nice hostel (it's a chain that we've stayed with before) that has availability for the first few days I'm there. *Which includes Easter!

I'll be staying at the hostel, which is right in the city center, until Carla leaves on the 2nd. They also have some nice packages to go and do different tours so it should make things easier and more relaxed for me. YAY! I CAN BREATHE!

Carla leaves on the 2nd to go back to Germany and a friend from back home is coming on the 3rd.  The Cincinnati friend has an uncle who lives in Sydney so we'll be able to stay with him as soon as she arrives.

Basically:

March 28-April 7 SYDNEY
April 7-12 OUTBACK
April 13 HOME!


STOKED.

LOVE.

G'DAY.

Cultural Perspective

So.... I know I'm not in school anymore, but I kind of want to attempt to write about cultural differences between New Zealand and the U.S.

The girl I'm traveling with has to write a paper for university about the subject and that got me thinking about our own cultural differences.

I know I've commented before on how friendly everyone is. (I think New Zealand was recently rated by Forbes as the top friendliest country in the world!)  I've talked to some Kiwi's about this and one said that the people of New Zealand have to be nice since they rely so heavily on tourism. If they don't have tourists they have no livelihood. I don't really like that answer. I understand where he's coming from, but I'd rather say it was because Kiwi's are just all around nice people.... not because they're forced into it. (Everyone seems so genuine too)

It's amazing though how the country can get every on board with one idea... literally, that's their culture. There's friendly and then there's going above and beyond to help someone out. Most of them fall into the latter category.

New Zealand is also very clean. VERY clean. Very big on recycling and picking up after themselves. I remember walking in Abel Tasman National Park and there were NO garbage cans ANYWHERE. People packed food and drinks to take with them (since most hikes last all day to 2 or 3 days)... and I was so surprised that people actually carried their garbage around with them! No littering! The park has no garbage cans because they don't want to attract all the nasty bugs and critters...  Again, how do you get everyone on board with something like that?!

Something else that has really struck me involves the concept of "holiday" (vacation)...  "Holidays" are big everywhere but the U.S. (at least that's my take on it)  Some people don't even have a definitve return date to their home country. They take off on holiday and have no real plan about anything.

People in the U.S. seem to always have a plan... usually it's a week.... 2 weeks max. That's the American way of doing things. Pick a destination, sign up for a tour (maybe), and don't stray from the plan. At least, that's what I'm used to.

I keep thinking back to the day we did the kayak tour and we walked up the hill (45 minute walk)... As we're going up we see a bus full of tourists going down. The Kiwi's I was with called it the American tour because that's the American way of doing things. I guess it makes sense because Americans like to cram everything in to a short period of time since they don't take off for long periods of time.

When I came to New Zealand last time we had a week to do north and south island. A week in Australia and a week in New Zealand. Now THAT'S the classic American tour... which is why I came back to New Zealand in the first place. I wanted to spend more time!

And I think this goes without saying, but everyone knows about American everything. Even our stupid news stories make radio talk shows over here. (i.e. some girl who went to court over attacking her boyfriend with a furby)

Yeah... lovely.

And here are some classic kiwi words that I'm hoping to use when I get home:

Sweet As (instead of cool or awesome)   **This is my favorite, by far. :)
Heaps
Eh
Good on ya mate
No worries
Jandal

So that's my entry for today...  OH! And we went to the beach yesterday- one of the top 20 beaches of the world. We practically had it to ourselves.  :)

Goodbye Sandfly

Well, we're back in the north island.

I'm not quite sure what all happened since I last wrote... everything is such a blur.

We were in Queenstown, did a quick tour of Milford Sounds, and then went to Catlins Forest and did a few walks there. We also went to Dunedin and did a chocolate factory tour, visited the railway station, and saw tunnel beach.

Did the math for our time in the south island and I drove over 2,000 miles in 10 days... on the left side of the road!  I'm quite proud of that.  :)

Yesterday we flew from Queenstown back to Auckland and we're currently in the Coromandel area. (with yet another rental car)

These past few days have been a little difficult-- still super exhausted... but I have 3 weeks left. I think it'll be a good last few weeks...hopefully.  :)

The title, for those of you wondering, refers to an obnoxious bug which was everywhere in the south island. Itchy, itchy bug!

So... since this blog entry is a little boring, I'll write something I wasn't planning on ever tellng anyone (especially you, mom!) 

The first week I arrived in Auckland, Carla and I did the Te Henga walk. (which was super beautiful!) I wanted to turn around halfway into the walk (2 hours in) because otherwise I knew we wouldn't get back in time. AKA the longer you walk, the longer it takes to get back since it's only one way.  I didn't know how long the walk was going to be and I didn't know where the road was or how we were going to get home. Carla wanted to keep going though since she thought we were close to the end. (HA!) We ended up walking for a good 4 or 5 hours and ended up at some beach which was a 45 minute drive from the place we were staying.

We didn't want to call our host because he warned us about the walk and told us to make sure we could walk back. (TOLD HER!)  Turns out we didn't have cell phone service where we were anyway... so the only thing we could do was ask someone for a ride. YES, HITCHHIKE.

An older man was leaving the beach the same time we were and said he could take us to the city where we were staying.... so we rode with him. He was really nice... and about 10 minutes into the ride he asked if we wanted to have dinner. AND IT GETS BETTER... we were still no where near to where we wanted to go. (thankfully, we were 20 minutes closer and headed in the right direction) We get to this sushi place (again, who knows where) and he pays for us. He ordered a $90 dinner for all of us to share.

The whole time we were sitting there, I was trying to keep a straight face. I couldn't believe it. My first time hitchhiking and I was about ready to strangle Carla. At the same time I thought, this will be such a great story to tell. 

So now I told it... and everyone can yell at me about hitchhiking. I feel like I'm far enough removed from the situation now I can laugh about it... it was so last month. Plus, we have a car now so no more hitchhiking.  :)

Thrillogy!

On Friday I FINALLY got my bungy jumpS in!! Yes, multiple ones!

The first one I did was the Kawarau Bungy (world home of bungy jumping) and it was 141 ft. As I got to the bridge and was getting harnessed up, I noticed the two ladies in front of me. The first lady got counted down and was supposed to jump, but didn’t. They counted her down 2 or 3 times before she finally jumped. They say the worst thing you can do is hesitate once you’re up there. The longer you stand there, the worse it gets. Thankfully I don’t have a problem with hesitating. I just jump.  :)  The guys had asked me earlier if I had ever jumped before and, since I had, they asked if I wanted to go off backwards. Didn't take much to convince me... so I jumped off backwards!  Easy as pie. :)

Actually, it was a little more scary going off backwards. I grabbed hold of the bugy on the way down (like that was going to help me) … but it was really fun. Might even be my favorite of the jumps.  The only part I didn’t like about it was all the blood rushing to my head. I dangled there for a while before the raft could come get me…. It didn’t hurt, but you know if you’re upside down for a long period of time  you can feel everything rush to your head.

OH! And I was even a mini celebrity for a while. There was a crowd on the platform watching people jump… and about 15 minutes later I met some lady in the restroom and she said, “I watched you jump… backwards!! You made it look so easy. How do you do it?!”  

The second jump was the Nevis which was 439 ft. It's Australasia's highest bungy. This one I had to dive in head first.  After I bounced twice I had to pull a strap near my foot. This allowed me to turn right side up again. **I LIKED THIS!! It was better than hanging from my feet the whole time. And while I was waiting to get pulled back up I got to swing back and forth a little bit. Kind of nice. J  Have to say though… as I was swinging I got a little sad. My last and final stunt was the canyon swing and I felt like I got some of that already with this jump.

The third jump (errr canyon swing) was my least favorite and the least thrilling of them all.  The only plus side was that they let me go off backwards… (I should have gone upside down) …. The other cool thing was that they told me to look at the camera for a picture and then BOOM I was off. That startled me a little bit because I had no control over it. So that was a little exciting… but swinging made me sleepy. I started yawning midway through.

So… that was my excitement for Friday. 

Oh, and we hung out with another guide (paragliding guide!) Friday night. His name is Petr. (not a typo… his name is spelled Petr)  Haven’t laughed so hard in who knows how long … it was a really fun night. Ask me for the Cat Stevens/pants story upon return. 

Shout out to my lovely place of employment for having a memorial wall of me. That's sweet, guys. <3  I can't wait to see everyone when I get back!

Less than 2 weeks left in New Zealand. CRAZY!!!!

1 Month Down... 1 Month To Go!

I'm trying to decide if this trip is flying by or not.... in the beginning it was. When we were staying with host families (usually for a week at a time) it seemed to go by rather quickly. Now that we're on our own and running out of plan, it's a little more complicated. 

Ever since we left the Lazy Fish (Picton) we've been staying in hostels. We usually do our planning for the next day in the evenings and don't figure out a place to stay until day of. Anyone who knows me, knows that's a little nerve wracking as I always like to plan WAY in advance.  

This is one of the reasons why I thought this trip would be good for me. I'm so used to having a plan every second of every day and I knew that when I got here it would be a totally different experience. Some of the things you can't plan until you get here which makes it even more difficult.

It's also hard with 2 people traveling together who are COMPLETELY different and want different things. Thankfully we've been pretty good together.  Yes, we have our differences and we have our moments, but its been good. I'd much rather travel with someone than on my own. 

So yes... I've been here for a month now and I still have another month to go.  Staying with families a week at a time helped in a number of ways. 1. Free accomodation. 2. Free food (yummy!)  3. Kiwi interaction 4. less stressful ... which is why time seemed to pass so quickly. Here and now as we're living on a day to day plan it seems like April 13th will never get here.  I'm still enjoying my time here, but I'm exhausted.  I'm tired of planning things and booking things and paying for things (even internet)... blagh.  If I hadn't purchased flights and tours and everything, I would probably come home earlier. 

But hey, that's just how I'm feeling at the moment. 

In other news.... 

We drove one of the world's top 10 scenic drives the other day. (Greymouth to Westport)  And then Tuesday was glacier day. Walked up to Franz Josef Glacier and took some pictures and then we drove to Fox Glacier and did a guided tour. Walking on the glacier was a lot easier than I thought. It helped that it wasn't slippery. :)

^^Should have ditched the glasses

AND MY FAVORITE NEWS OF ALL:

Tomorrow or Friday should be BUNGY DAY!!! I'm so pumped! I think I'm going to do the Thrillogy where I can pick 3 different jumps! You know there will be a whole post dedicated to that so stay tuned.  :)


Also, here's a map of JUST the south island. We started at point A (Mar 8) and are somewhere between F & H at the moment.

sore legs

Walked Abel Tasman National Park yesterday. It was EXHAUSTING.  We started around 10am and finished a little before 7:30.  (yes, we walked the ENTIRE time with a few rest stops in between) I think it was a little over 12.5 miles. Afterwards I could barely walk. My legs have never been in such pain before! I literally could not straighten my legs and it was kind of freaky! Still feeling some pain today, but it's not as bad. Feels like I pulled all my muscles in both legs. AGH.

But it was pretty and I'm glad I can say that I did it. :)

Today we went to a beach at Golden Bay and that was also nice. We got to see some seal pups play in the water and it was really neat to watch them swim and jump. ANDDD! There was a creepy older man who greeted us. He was all excited that I was from the states (most people are from Germany) ... so he leaped up and gave me the longest hug ever. (he kind of reminds me of one of my homeless friends)  He also wanted to come back to Ohio with me. 

^SEAL PUP!

Also went to see Waikoropupu Springs which apparently has the clearest spring water in the world. (SO CLEAR!) 

Quick update!

Okay, sorry... still no pictures.  Bad internet here.  

The last few days at the Lazy Fish were good! Worked on cleaning, gardening, painting and then most afternoons we just relaxed, kayaked, laid out by the water...  :) 

Another thing I liked about staying at the Lazy Fish was the company. Steve and Jenny (who run the retreat) were really great. Jenny made all the meals for us  (so good!) and then we would all eat together.  We had some great conversations. I think that’s my favorite thing about this trip.

Yes, we’ve done some cool things and seen some beautiful places, but I love the people more than anything. Kiwi Hospitality is TOP NOTCH and I love being able to talk to people about their life, their country and answer questions about my own country. J    

We got up early today and did a dolphin watch. It was cool. We got to see some hector dolphins and they were so happy. They kept jumping out of the water to see us. 

We met some German guys on the tour (go figure… everyone who is on holiday here is from Germany!!) but we went out for pizza with them afterwards.  We then went to get our rental car and had a lovely time chatting with the guy at the car rental place. It literally took us at least 30-40 minutes to get our car because we kept talking about… a lot. He was really nice though and offered me a job! bahhaa And was also trying to set me up with a Kiwi man!  YESSSSSS!

We’re now in a hostel near Abel Tasman…. No longer staying with host families (which I’m bummed about) but it also offers us greater flexibility. (And costs more $)  L 

Tomorrow we’re going to do a portion of the walk at the park and then hopefully drive to our next destination, Golden Bay. 

OH! And another highlight! We had McDonalds today! HAHA First McDonalds we’ve had since we’ve been here.

last few days in Rotorua...

Sorry about the delay in pictures, but this our kiwi dad, Hamish, who took us out on the boat!

Also did some kayaking and white water rafting before we left Rotorua. The waterfall we went over is the highest commerically rafted waterfall in the world. (Grade 5)

So... for everyone who has had red flags about anything I've posted, here's the scoop: 

(people expressed concern about taking a boat ride from a stranger) 

I am usually always skeptical of people. I don't trust people easily.  Over the past couple of years I've had to (re)build confidence in myself and have even built up more trust and faith in God. (He got me here, didn't He?!)  

The one thing that was lacking was trust in other people. This whole trip is based on trust and faith. It has to be. Living with complete strangers, trusting that they're going to treat you well, etc.  My travel companion is a bit more trusting than I... she'll hitch hike and hang out with complete strangers. 

I think part of the (backpacking) experience is that a lot of people are in the same boat you are. If you don't trust other people, you're in deep trouble. You can't do it on your own. 

My creeper alert is always on.... just ask Carla. I'm a lot more cautious, but I have yet to experience any creepish activity or red flags. Well, I take that back.... there was one instance, but it ended up being totally fine.  

So basically... I don't know what I'm trying to say.  People are a lot more trusting over here and things are done a little differently as well. Hamish, the guy with the boat, has a house in the south island. His wife said they would give us a key and we could stay there if it was on the way. WHO DOES THAT??! Some random person you just met.... giving them access to your rental house?  

I don't know... I think part of it is you have to come and experience kiwi culture for yourself.  But don't worry... I'm being careful! Trust me. :)

SO.... yesterday was a long, horrible, travel day. (Horrible as in no fun)  We were on the bus from Rotorua to Wellington and that took about 7 hours. We then took the ferry from Wellington to Picton (another 3 hours or so) .... 

We spent the night in a hostel (AH, first time) ... and that was okay. Woke up this morning and took a nice long walk to the bay (again, we're good at that!) ... and now we're sitting at this amazing place in Picton called the Lazy Fish. (only accessible by boat) We'll be helping out here for a few days in exchange for meals and accomodation. It's SUPER nice. Rooms are $680 or something a night and we have it for free (because we're working) 

I'll post pictures in the coming days.