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.  :)