Sometimes photos don't do justice... Day 95

Today was fairly ordinary for a school day, although I did wake up an entire hour and a half before my class was due to start, which is unheard of. I usually will wait until I cannot possibly wait any longer to wake up. My classes were alright today, Anatomy & Physiology was boring, but that's nothing new. The weather today was absolutely gorgeous, the wind was blowing, but it wasn't cold at all, just cool and breezy. I love days like today, it smells like a nice fall day, a lot like the beginning of October. While walking across campus, I looked up at the top of the library, as there were people staring and pointing. I did not expect what I saw, there were people abseiling (read: rappelling) down the side of the building. That's something you don't see every day. But I always see things here that you don't see every day. I realized something else kind of cool today, NZ has a very high tolerance for skateboarding. Everyone seems to do it and they don't get a bad rep like they do at home, where there are signs everywhere against skateboarding. Here people do it all over the place and no one bats an eyelash. After classes today, I ran up to Countdown to grab a few items for dinner. When I got back to my flat (read: apartment), the sunset was absolutely amazing. I really wish I had taken better photos, because mine really do not do it justice, but I'll put up what I've got.

In search of Courtenay... Day 94

Today started off very early... 6:46am to be precise. It was a horrible time to wake up, but I had been having a very involved dream involving airports and such. It felt as though I had not gotten to sleep at all, which is not conducive to actually waking up. I fell right back asleep and woke up about once an hour after that, until 10:30, when I finally willed myself out of bed. I moped around for a bit, since I still did not want to be awake, but eventually I got it together and Heather and I went on a small adventure, west of the city. We were looking for Courtenay, NZ. As some of you may know, one of my best friends is Coop... also known as Courtenay Cooper. I bet a few of you didn't realize she had a name besides Coop. Either way, you may have noticed that it looks like I spelled her name wrong... nope, that's how it is supposed to be, although we don't hold that against her. Anyways, I found out that there was a town in NZ (which I should tell you is pronounced N-Zed, not NZ) with the same name. Upon reaching it, we found that it was in fact a bunch of farms all lined up next to each other. Anyways, we drove on Old West Coast Road for about 25 miles after we found Courtenay, as we decided to go on a road sign hunting trip. It turned out to be super, since the road was pretty deserted... we could stop the car whenever we wanted to and get out and take pictures. We may or may not have abused that power. You decide. We also found copious amounts of sheep... And of course, when you see sheep on the side of the road, you need to stop and take photos with them. Who knew sheep scared so easily?

In other news, I would just like to reiterate the fact that even though I am a world away, doing things I never saw myself doing in a million years, I miss everyone so much! I guess the whole thing about taking your life for granted is really true, you don't know what you have until it's gone... or until you temporarily abandon it to pursue your education in a foreign land.

The Abel Tasman Adventure... Days 92-93

I didn't do much on Friday, we had an Audiology test that I am actually quite confident about, so that's a change. Saturday, on the other hand, was fabulous. Jeff, Heather and I went on a road trip to Abel Tasman National Park, which is on the top of the south island. The drive there was a lot of fun, we had a quick stop in Kaikoura to take photos, then we continued on through the craziness that is Highway 1. This is the absolute hilliest, curviest road I've ever been on. You are never driving in a straight line for more than a few minutes. Oh, and did I mention that we left around 7:20am. Yeah, that's early. About halfway into our journey, we stopped at a McDonalds and Heather tried the Kiwi Burger. Ewww. It looked so unappetizing... but it was fun to watch. Anyways, we got to Nelson, the nearest city to Abel Tasman, so that we could get a hostel for the night, then continue on our way to the park. We got slightly lost, due to my poor sense of direction, but moments later, all was well. We continued on to Abel Tasman, only to find that there wasn't much more than a really humongous beach, unless you wanted to tramp (read: hike) far into the woods. Nah. So we ended up walking the beach for an hour, which was pretty nice in itself. We wound up taking some slightly ridiculous photos, I'm not going to lie about it. After Abel Tasman, which took loads less time than we expected, we drove back to Nelson to turn our room key in and drive back to Chch, so we didn't have to spend the money on a room if we didn't need to. It worked out nicely, we drove for a bit, then we found an electronics store so that we could get a converter for the radio, so we could listen to someone's Ipod. The trip became loads more fun then, since we actually had music to sing along to, instead of having to make our own. Sidenote: Riding in the back seat is horrible on these mountain roads, you get thrown around like nobodies business. On a slightly better note, my camera worked for part of this trip! Anyways, we arrived back in Chch around 11pm and I promptly went to sleep. Oh and this is what it looks like when you eat a Kiwi Burger. You have to put all of it in your mouth at once to get the full effect.

Sumner in the Winter... Days 90-91

Yesterday was quite a bore, I didn't do that much other than going to class. I did get some great news though, I was speaking with Gia (pronounced with a hard 'G'), previously noted surrogate mother, and told her of our upcoming road trip. She offered up her spare car like it was nothing! I am so excited, this is saving Heather and I at least $100, as car rentals aren't that cheap. Gia is such a sweet heart. Anyways, I didn't do much else, save studying a little bit for my upcoming Audiology exam.

Today I was quite burnt out on studying, so Heather and I went to Sumner Beach to hang out, since she had not been there thus far. It was a lot of fun, although I realized that my camera might be completely tits up (read: broken beyond repair). Every time that I go to take a picture, I press the button, then the camera shuts off. It's not so good. I've changed the batteries too, but I'll do it one more time before I completely disregard it. I felt slightly bad, but Heather's camera had to perform double duty. We walked around the town for a while, which was pretty cool, we went to a store that reminded me of Archie McPhee's, in Seattle, on a much smaller scale. We ended up getting some fish and chips (pronounced by some Kiwis as: fush 'n' chups), then walking down to this huge rock that's just sitting in the middle of the ocean. I don't think we got a picture of it, I'm going to have to go back before I leave and take one, it looks so bizarre. Anyways, I may have purchased a small souvenir for myself... I couldn't help it, I bought a purse. I know, I know, I have enough purses to last me a lifetime. I really couldn't help myself. It's just so pretty. I'll take a picture when I have a working camera.

Look at this cool picture: We're shadow people. I've never thought to take a picture like this. Although next time I'll make sure that there are no awkwardly placed sea shells, like there is in this one. Yeah, I know you're going to look for it now, I'm sorry. I'm on the right, by the way.

Okay, I have one more observation, then I'm off to sleep. I've noticed, whilst traveling, that you kind of make friends really fast. You pretty much skip all the normal friend making experiences and just dive right in to hanging out in a new city, like I did in Kaikoura, or going on road trips, like I'm doing now. While doing the crazy stuff you sort of fit in the normal sort of stuff, like having actual conversations. Everywhere I've gone, I've done this and it is pretty cool, I have good friends that I've made in a lot of new places.

The Great and Mysterious Kiwi Burger... Day 89

Today started off early... for me anyways, I was awake no later than 8:30. Well... then I went back to sleep, but really, it wasn't for that long. I had to go to an Anatomy & Physiology lab today, which proved to be extremely boring. Later on, I decided that I needed to go on an adventure to the thrift store. I ended up getting Heather to go with me and we walked around the thrift store for a bit, I got a few shirts and that. Then we went down to the pier, which was super cold, since it's only about 10 degrees Celsius, so that's somewhere around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, plus the wind off the ocean was freezing. My right eye was crying the entire time... stupid wind. We were ridiculous... I now have a photo of myself posing with a giant fake whale. There's another item off of my list of things to do before I die. We got back to the flats about an hour later... but not before seeing a sign (on the back of a bus) for the famed Kiwi Burger. The Kiwi Burger is an iconic NZ food... though I am thoroughly afraid to try it. It consists of a regular burger (and no, it's not the highly endangered kiwi bird) with lettuce, tomato and cheese... then come the bizarre contents... beetroot (read: beets), pineapple and a fried egg. I can deal with the pineapple... I think I could even deal with the beetroot on a good day... but fried egg? There is no way I could get that down. I don't think I will be trying one of these... I will go so far as to watch one of my friends eat it... maybe. McDonald's is even selling a version of this burger, minus the pineapple. So take the level of disgusting that the original Kiwi Burger is at and compound it infinitely.

Looks like the destination for the upcoming road trip has been changed from Dunedin to Abel Tasman National Park. It seems a lot nicer there and as a bonus, it is still relatively warm, since it is quite a bit closer to the equator than we are now. I'm excited... we might be going this weekend. Woohoo!