The Jardines

Dec 9,
Woke up this morning in our big, quiet, heavenly bed It was very late in the morning too! Matt and I found ourselves alone today so we did all the dishes that were filling the kitchen and that led to us cleaning everything in the kitchen as well as the living and dining room, the entrance and the stairs and downstairs hall. It was really fun and we both thought of it as a thank you and Christmas gift for Mira and Reese. We walked to town along a lovely path on the lake and wandered around looking at christmasy stuff in the hot sunshine. While we were waiting for a pickup we indulged in a “Fergburger” which was enormous and seriously the best burger I have ever eaten! My stomach was sooo full! We also listened to some live New Zealand music in the town square until Mira picked us up. Then the three of us went to the Jardines and we met up with Reese. The Jardines are large boulders (erratics) lying in a sheep field at the base of Mordor (the remarkables) and are fun to climb. I eventually scaled the easy climb after three tries. Apparently outdoor climbing is harder-especially after not climbing at all for six months!

Christmas-i-fy-ing

Dec 10,
Mira had the day off so we all got up around 9 and had a lazy morning before going Christmas tree and decoration shopping! We got a little two foot tree and some mini decorations and lights for under $30! It is the cutest tree ever! We were planning on going climbing after, but it rained too much so instead we went for a walk/hike. On the way there we had a bit of a scare in the car but we all survived and I didn’t even pee myself (i really had to pee beforehand and almost crashing didn’t help). We completed a three hour circuit along a beautiful river/waterfalls and even discovered an old gold-panning cabin. We left the path at one point and climbed up along side some waterfalls, following the river. At one point I managed to fall in and found the water quite refreshing! We found these beautiful serene swimming pools that were waterfall fed and would be gorgeous to swim in in a hot day. The walk had a lot of up-hill (I found that challenging as my right leg is still bothering me), but was really beautiful. On our way home my parents called my cell and we talked for more than twenty minutes! They are going to pick us up at the airport! Yay! Matt and I had a yummy stir fry fir dinner. G’night

Mira’s Home-Base!

Dec 8,
Took an 8 hour bus (woke up at 7) to Queenstown and Matt was feeling pretty sick. Despite this we (at least I) saw some incredible views! Everything is like LOTR here and we saw glacier-fed lakes that were unreal colours of baby blue and aqua! The bus driver kept saying how lucky we were because this was as good as it gets in term of weather and views. We even saw Mount Cook! I got a pomegranate at a little fruit market during one stop and think I will share it with everyone once we are in Queenstown. Speaking of Queenstown, we got in around 4:30 and were overjoyed to find out that Reese could pick us up! He found us around 5 pm and gave us a brief driven tour of the town and then took us to his and Mira’s place. They have an absolutely lovely place with an extra guest room and views overlooking the lake and Remarkables Mountain Range. It is amazing! Matt quickly put himself to bed to rest and Reese and I headed off to the grocery store to buy dinner etc. Reese (with my prep help) made us a wonderful curry during which Mira came home from work. It was so good to see her Matt woke up and joined us for dinner and we all indulged in some Stones Ginger Wine and talked (Matt felt a bit better and claimed the Ginger Wine was helping). It was a lovely evening and so good to have a temporary home-base

Ferries and Trains and Shuttles Oh My!

Dec 7,
We got up at 6:15 to catch the 8:30 ferry from Wellington to Picton. The ferry was much like ours at home except it had 10 decks, was really short, and didn’t have a large outside area. The passage was 2.5 hours long and during it Matt started to feel really sick with head-cold symptoms. In Picton we had a little time to window-shop and Matt might have found his dad’s gift! Then we got our train to Christchurch and played lots of card games (on this train we sat facing one another with a table between). We even invented a new card game that would make a good drinking game! Matt was feeling pretty crummy by the time we reached our YHA so I made a good dinner of garlic mashed potato, sausage and chicken noodle soup and we went to bed early. So far I feel fine so fingers crossed that I don’t get sick too!

Sneezing our way to Wellington

Dec 6,
Woke up before 6 am this morning (eep!) and took the train to Wellington. It took about 12 hours and was actually really nice. The view was fantastic with rolling hills covered in sheep as well as huge panoramas of mountains everywhere. The train had an outdoor viewing platform from which you could take pictures as well as suffer major pasture-induced hay fever! Matt and I quickly became overwhelmed by allergies and had to take some antihistamines. Once in Wellington we caught a shuttle to our YHA and Matt was really tired so I made dinner. After dinner we went on a quest to find a pharmacy for more antihistamines and eventually found one open at 10 pm. This was very good since we had run out and are apparently allergic to New Zealand!

Sailing, Cookies and Other Good Stuff

Dec 5,
After realizing that I have forgotten the pin number for my credit card I tried to figure it out by contacting my credit card help line. To do this I had to call the New Zealand operator and place a collect call to my credit card. I had to wait an eternity on hold with said operator and the pay phone dropped the call the first time. Eventually I reached my credit card but found out that they don’t know my pin; only the computer knows and they can only mail it to me. I asked them to do this and hung up. Then I called home and got my dad to call me back. Dad was extremely helpful in looking for that little piece of paper with my pin on it and he looked everywhere! He found a few of my old pins and one that was undated but despite his help we couldn’t figure it out. He promised to call when the number arrived in the mail and we said goodbye. I love dads!
After a long and rather unsuccessful morning (during which Matt waited very patiently) Matt and I finally set out for the day towards the Maritime Museum. We went sailing on their “Gaff-Rigged Ketch” (a big sailboat) and it was really neat. The wind was perfect and the sun was shining and we even got to watch people bungie jump off the bridge! Matt helped a bit but mostly we just looked at the view and took pictures. Afterwords, we stocked up on some uber yummy cookies that have been taunting us every time we walked by for our train rides. Matt got some fancy hiking underwear which is made of merino wool and is pretty sweet. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Matt Heaven

Dec 4,
This morning Matt was forced to get up a little earlier because we had to switch rooms and thus had to put our bags in storage for the day after temporarily ‘checking out’. We had planned on visiting the Maritime Museum first but on the way we spent a considerable amount of time at an outdoor gallery. It consisted of about fifty large arial shots with information about each written below and had a strong, and sometimes biased, environmental message. Then we continued on our way to the museum. I wasn’t sure what to expect and was pleasantly surprised with it’s content. It had displays about the arrivals of man to NZ from the first Maori to the European settlers. They had a large collection of old and remade boats and then a modern sailing section. The modern section was very interactive and I got to design my own sailboat, dock a ferry and sail. Matt was in heaven! After we finished we returned to our hostel and discovered that we have the camper van! The only bad news was that Mira can’t pick us up where she thought she could so we have to book another bus… Oh well. yay free camper!