the dates are all wrong

i knew it, the dates on this blog are all wrong - they're listed as the date/time in chicago at time of posting rather than the date/time in new zealand. no wonder it looks like i keep posting in the middle of the night. my last post says thursday, 26 march, 11.00 pm, but it's actually friday, 27 march, 6.00 pm - ignore the dates/times, i guess. i don't know how to fix that.

forget about the dates, i can't remember

• so after kayaking half the day, i was exhausted - the next day was sunday, so i went to a flea market and then to church at the anglican cathedral in nelson - a gorgeous building on a hill overlooking the city and surrounded by gardens. the service felt very familiar, though it's been years since i attended the anglican church in northern ireland.
• i wasn't feeling very well, so i lay low for most of the day, did a little grocery shopping, and read for most of the afternoon. in the evening i had dinner at the stingray cafe, a place recommended by the kayaking guide - quiet, dim, low-key, off the main restaurant/cafe strip and not too crowded. the bartender was quite friendly (i was the first customer of the night) and a couple of kiwis came in after me - we joked about charging to each others' tabs. i was so comfortable and cozy there, i didn't want to leave, but i had to catch a flight at 6.50 the next morning - somehow i've convinced myself on this trip that i'm a morning person, but i don't expect it to last. next stop: queenstown!
• i should have reversed my plans for the south island, because you can't fly directly from nelson to queenstown - you have to go through christchurch, which i was planning to visit anyway. i don't remember why i decided to stick with my nelson-to-queenstown plan, but anyway, it was still a lot quicker than taking the bus: three hours versus two days. when i arrived in queenstown, i booked myself a few activities: gondola, luge, haka show, canyoning, and - the best part - a trip to doubtful sound. i was running around pretty much the whole two and a half days i was there.
• when i got to the backpackers where i was staying, i rooted through my luggage to find my contact lenses (i always wear glasses when i fly) - and i didn't find them. i tore through everything twice, and then i realized i must have left them in nelson. what i had to say about that is not the sort of thing i can record here for public viewing. the guy at the reception desk was really nice about the whole thing, helped me call the place i stayed in nelson, and was very sympathetic when they said they looked around but couldn't find them. he even found an optometrist for me in queenstown, though i decided it would be too expensive and time consuming to try to replace my contact lenses in nz. so any pictures of me from this point forward - i'll be squinting through my glasses, or awkwardly wearing my sunglasses OVER my glasses . . . good thing i got a small frame.

• monday afternoon, i took the gondola to the top of the hill overlooking queenstown and lake wakatipu - gorgeous views of the remarkable mountains (that's the name of the mountain range, the remarkable mountains - and they are, too) and the deep blue lake. the gondola is kind of like a ski lift, but with enclosed cars that look a bit like space-age bubbles. it's a steep ride; i tried not to think about what it would be like if the cable broke! at the top, they have this luge track - like a sort of go-cart ride. i figured i'd give it a try, and it was heaps of fun: you get in this little three-wheeled cart and hurtle around the track, controlling speed and direction by pulling on or turning the bicycle-style handle bars. i went five times - it was a short track, once just wasn't enough. then i went to the kiwi haka show, a short maori cultural presentation - hard to describe, really, not like anything i've ever seen before. there were five people presenting, traditionally dressed and tatooed (or made up to look as if they were tattooed) and chanting examples of maori challenges, music and story telling.
• tuesday i went canyoning - i really didn't know what i was getting into, because i'd only read a short description in a tourist brochure about queenstown. the brochure mentioned abseiling (rappeling) and swimming and climbing, all of which sounded like fun to me . . . either it wasn't mentioned or i missed the part about jumping . . . anyway, there were seven of us, three germans and four americans, plus two guides and a photographer. after driving about an hour, we wriggled into wet suits and diving boots and hiked twenty minutes or so across a stream, through the forest, and into routeburne canyon. the forest was beautiful: green and lush, with both pine and deciduous trees - it looked just like that part in lord of the rings where the elves are leaving middle earth, walking single-file through the forest to the grey havens.
• i enjoyed the day quite a bit, initially, but then we got to the canyoning part . . . sliding backwards down a fifteen or twenty foot natural rock chute into an icy river pool wasn't so bad (we wore helmets), but then we were supposed to jump a good twenty feet or so into another pool (land on your bum in that narrow spot between the white water and that big rock or you'll break something, was what the guide said) . . . i didn't jump, i went down on a rope, but i knew i was in trouble at that point. i'm afraid of heights! i had no idea what i was getting into! i should have known, queenstown is the adrenalin capital of new zealand, probably the adrenalin capital of the world (did i mention the numerous bungy, sky-diving and hang-gliding options in town?).
• the rest of the canyoning trip was partly fun - rappeling, climbing, sliding, and one short zip line (they call it a 'flying fox' here in nz) and also partly awful - i felt like a real pansy. i just couldn't make myself jump farther than four or five feet, but a couple times i didn't have much choice (no rope option - or they let you down part way on a rope, but drop you a good ten or fifteen feet above the water). luckily there was one other woman who was almost as chicken as i was (i take it she didn't know what she was getting into, either - she did the first jump, which i refused, but she was shaking like a leaf for a good half hour afterwards, and she protested all the others). the german guys (three of them, all about 21) went twice off some of the jumps. crazy kids. i think i'm just too old for that sort of thing. 'course i wouldn't have done it at 21, either, so . . . maybe i'm just a pansy by nature.
• i survived the canyoning trip in spite of my embarrassment, but i wish i'd caught the bus out there and gone hiking instead. it was hard to enjoy the gorgeous surroundings while trying not to wet my wet suit. but, now i know - i don't like canyoning.
• i was really glad to get back to my room that night . . . unfortunately, the population had shifted, and it was now occupied by me, an english woman, a young dutch guy, and a middle-aged man of unknown nationality who went to bed at 8.30 and snored like a freight train going through a tunnel all night long. i'm pretty sure he was the only one who got any sleep - in the morning, the other woman and i compared notes as we were leaving for the day, and she said he'd kept her awake even through her ear plugs. i could hear him loud and clear over U2 and the cranberries on my i-pod, which i played for five hours till the battery burned out. i was never so glad for morning to come - and it was an early one, i got up at 5.45 for my doubtful sound trip.
• well, you're probably getting bored with my long post, so i'll leave doubtful sound for the next one . . . i'm still having a good time, in spite of having lost the most expensive thing i brought with me, scared/embarrassed myself silly, and lost a whole night's sleep.

what day is this, anyway?

• ok, i have a little more time now, though of course i forgot my card reader, so there might not be any photos, but here's what i've been doing the last few days . . .
• anyway - i enjoyed staying at that place. oh, except when i first arrived, i was tired and sweaty from traveling, so i dumped my stuff in my room (a six-bed dorm) and went straight to the shower. i came back wrapped in my towel to find a french guy sitting on the bed! i think he was as surprised as i was. i'd thought the room was all women. needless to say, i grabbed my clothes and went straight back to the bathroom.
• 
• friday i did get up early and go for a hike before i got on the bus to nelson. it took me a while to find the trailhead - things like that don't tend to be very well marked here, and though i had a map, the streets weren't all signposted, either! i didn't see anyone else on the way up, and the views from the top were terrific, looking out over picton, the harbor, and marlborough sound, which i'd passed through two days earlier on the ferry.
• there's nothing to say about the bus ride to nelson, except that it was shorter than i expected - never a bad thing. the bus conveniently dropped me off right in front of the i-site, which is where you can find all kinds of tourist information and book activities, travel, and accomodation. every town seems to have one, anyway, all the towns i've been in. it's a great service.
• so from nelson i was hoping to get to the heaphy track - but there was nothing going that worked on the time i had, and i was kind of disappointed. it turns out you can't really just go and come back in one day - i mean, i knew it was a four to six day walk to do the whole thing, and for that you book in advance, but they don't really have day-hike options, which is what i wanted. i was kind of bummed about that.
• however - since that didn't work out, i said to myself, my dad would never miss a chance to get on a boat! so i booked a water-taxi and sea-kayaking trip in the abel tasman national park instead. that was all day saturday - the bus picked me up at 6.50 am (yeah, that's right, ten to seven - i got up, voluntarily, well before dawn). it was loads of fun. we took the bus to the beach in kaiteriteri (a good hour-long drive) and from there a water-taxi to another beach where we launched our kayaks.
• it was a tiny group - me, the kiwi guide, and a german couple. we used double kayaks, so since i was traveling by myself, i ended up with the guide, who was very friendly and kind of flirty with me all day (i tried to enjoy the attention, but i'm not so good at that sort of thing). we kayaked for some time, towards a tiny bay where we found three baby seals playing among the rocks and tide pools. i got some good pictures - they were right next to and swimming under the kayak! that was a real highlight.
• after some additional kayaking, we stopped at a beach for lunch - i was pretty cold even sitting in the sun, i guess from stopping the hard work of paddling - but it looked like something off a postcard: golden sand, sparkling blue water, the occasional small island visible here and there, and hardly another person in sight. the place was gorgeous. after lunch, we paddled a short way back to the beach we started on, where we waited a few minutes for the water-taxi to take us back to kaiteriteri and the bus. i was really tired and my left arm was so sore - like tennis elbow or something, from paddling - but i'd had so much fun.
• and - that's all for now folks, i'm pretty much out of time . . . more to follow.

short update!

• hey guys - i broke down and bought a card reader today, since i'm having trouble finding internet cafes where the computers have sd card slots. i just added a few photos to my earlier posts, so you can go back and check them out. uploading photos takes forever, so there's not very many yet - i'm running out of coins for the internet. more to come, though - enjoy! i've taken hundreds (well, a little over 200) so you'll have to wait til i can put them into a slide show or something to see them all - if i put them all on this blog, it would take forever to load. and it's only been a couple weeks . . .
• so, still having a good time here. i'm in nelson now. yesterday i went on a sea-kayaking trip up the coast of the abel tasman national park. we saw a bunch of baby seals - so cute! i'm really tired after the kayaking and begin out in the sun all day, so i didn't do much today.
• right, i'm out of time, so . . . til later!

days eleven, twelve & thirteen (i think!)

• i'm totally losing track of time here - i think that's a good thing, so long as i don't miss my bus to the next town.
• so tuesday - day eleven - eilidh and i went to te papa, the national museum in wellington. they have exhibits on new zealand geology, wildlife, and natural distasters/events, including a simulated earthquake in a model house. my favorite parts were the exhibits on the maori people and also the more recent immigrants to the country. the maori exhibit is really cool - all kinds of things on the history of the maori in new zealand complete with canoes, an assortment of tools, and displays showing the routes through the pacific that these first settlers likely used. the section on more recent immigrants told a number of moving stories about all the reasons people have come to new zealand, among them chinese gold miners who left their families to try to work their way out of poverty and european jews fleeing the holocaust. i wish we'd had a couple of days to look around the museum - we only saw maybe a third of the exhibits, and i could have spent more time at most of what i did see.
• wednesday - day twelve - eilidh and i headed to town again so i could catch the ferry to picton (on the south island). the ferry hauls everything you can think of - trucks, cars, buses, even train cars - i've been on some big ferries in the seattle area, but i think this one has those ones beat. the trip is a little over three hours, most of which i spent out on the observation decks taking in the cook strait and marlborough sound. the last hour or so - through marlborough sound - was the best part. the sound is pretty narrow in places, with smaller green islands dotted all around and coves and bays tucked here and there - beautiful, like a little slice of paradise. we left wellington in the sun, but it was overcast and rainy by the time we reached the sound - the weather and the views reminded me of ferry trips in the san juan islands. of course, walking to my hostel in the rain wasn't ideal, but it wasn't too far, and if i'd been thinking, i could have called to have them pick me up . . .
• today, thursday - day thirteen - i've been taking it easy. i slept in a little, did some laundry, booked the next few legs of my trip, and walked around town for a while. picton is pretty cute, and as usual, the people are friendly and helpful. tonight i'm going to make some soup for dinner (there's cooking gear in the hostel kitchen) and repack my bags.
• tomorrow i'm planning to get up a little earlier and take a long walk around the outskirts of town before my bus ride to nelson. i hear this is the best way to find out about the heaphy track, which was my dad's favorite place in new zealand when he was here back in the seventies. i don't have time to walk it - five days! - but i'd like to see the trailhead, at least. maybe when i come back to new zealand, i'll make sure i have the time and equipment for that trek. yeah, i'm already thinking about how to get back here; there's so much to see and do that i just can't imagine feeling like i've finished with the place after three and a half weeks. i can see why people move here.