Leaving Christchurch...

... is very different than leaving Las Vegas. Speaking of which, my friend Olivia is getting married there today, perhaps as I write. Congrats! Hope everyone there is having fun. I wish I could have been there.

I got to Christchurch after a 7 hour bus ride from Dunedin and checked into the Base Backpacker hostel, literally next to the cathedral. (Which I still haven't visited yet. Should probably get there today...) On the way I passed a Dutch guy who had stayed in my hostel in Queenstown and walking from the reception desk to my room I bumped into two Danish guys I had met through other people in Queenstown. Apparently this is very common, but because I'm doing a bit more of the independent route, it's new for me. A lot of people travel on the "hop on hop off" buses that loop the country and they all meet up with each other here and there. I purposely didn't select this method of transportation, both for cost and for the fact that I'm easily 10 years older than the oldest person on those buses!

I settled into my room, which was the nicest by far. I was able to get into the "Sanctuary" area, which is women only, and only costs an extra few $$. The beds and linen are nicer, there's a lounge area with leather couches and we get free Aveda shampoo/conditioner and use of hair dryers. Oh, it smells quite a bit nicer too! And luxury of all luxuries, there's a big drawer under each bed so I was able to unpack for the first time in weeks. When I get to Wellington tonight I'm staying at the same hostel chain!

My 3 roommates in Christchurch were Kiwis - probably the only ones I've really met since I got here! Really nice women, and actually my age! They were in town for a friend's wedding.

That night I met an eclectic group of people in the hostel's bar (a Canadian living in Sydney, an Aussie and a Californian living in NZ) . They twisted my arm to stay out with them all night because the Canadian had to get on a shuttle to the airport at 3:30am and figured there was no point in going to bed. So it was our job to make sure he stayed awake! We ended up going to a bar with a live cover band that was fantastic, so the job was bearable, I suppose.

The next day I was invited to visit the hot springs about 1 1/2 hours outside of town by my 3 roommates who had rented a car. So nice of them!!!! We had a great time at the springs and the view along the way was amazing. On the way back we stopped at a winery for a few samples.

The next two days I spent wandering the city, at the International Antarctic Center and at a local rugby game. The game was Canterbury (Christchurch's county) vs. Auckland. Unfortunately, the home team lost but watching the interaction between the Auckland and Canterbury fans was perhaps more entertaining than the game anyway! Today I'm going to the local craft fair they have on weekends and then I catch a 5 hour bus to Picton and then a 3 hour ferry to Wellington, on the North Island. Whew. This is where budget travel is a pain. I could fly for NZ$209 (approx. $160) and get there in 45 minutes, but my budget is a little to tight for that, so I'm taking the VERY LONG $50 route. What's frustrating is that I actually found a $50 flight, but I needed my mobile number to book online and I didn't know it so I went back to my room to get the number. When I came back, all the computers were in use and by the time I got online again, the fare was up to $209. UGH. I wish I'd never known that option was available! Or that I had just made up a number. To make it worse, I just realized I had sent the phone number to my parents, so I could have gotten it from my sent email folder. Grrr. Oh, well. Hopefully the scenery enroute is good!

Sorry for the long post.... I haven't written much lately. I just checked out and the hostel messed up my reservation and only charged me half of what they should have. I kept trying to rectify it, but I'm only going to argue for so long in their favor. So I ended up paying US$10/night. Can't get cheaper than that!!! Makes up for the fact that someone rummaged through my food and stole my crackers and fruit! Now if I can just shake this terrible cold! I have almost no voice, so needless to say email and text messages are my friend right now. I'm hoping the sun of Sydney will cure this cold, if it's not gone by then.

Dunedin wildlife (and I don't mean rugby players)

Not a whole lot of exciting news to report, especially after the whirlwind that was Queenstown. The weather was terrible the entire time I was in Dunedin, but apparently it was like that all over the South Island, so I won't hold it against the city.

I did make my trek out to see wildlife which required wearing pretty much every item of clothing I brought with me. Short-sleeve t-shirt, long sleeve t-shirt, sweater, black fleece, red waterproof jacket, black gloves, yellow pashmina.... sounds gorgeous, doesn't it??? Luckily there are no photos to speak of. The seals were predictably cute and while it was amazing to get so close to the sea lions in their natural environment (about 10 feet away), they were snoozing. Perhaps that's ok - I hear they are one of the few animals not afraid of humans and like to charge them while roaring. So perhaps snoozing is ok... The highlight was by far the penguins. The breed that lives in that area is the Yellow Eyed Penguin, which looks like it's wearing a Lone Ranger type mask, but in yellow, as well as they yellow eyes (which are a little freaky). They actually live in the wooded areas, not on the beach or on ice like I'd expect. As we were walking down to the beach, one passed us on the grassy path. I guess it was a two-lane path. It paid absolutely no attention to us. So weird to see it just waddling past us. I felt like I should at least wave and give it a "how's it going". Then we got down to the beach and could watch the penguins walking to and from the water and up and down the hill. Now that is hysterical. Watching a penguin basically jump its way up a hill, avoiding the sheep enroute. Another bizarre thing to see. A penguin standing next to a sheep. My brain kept having the "does not compute" reaction - aren't these little guys supposed to live on ice?

Funny Kiwi Stuff and notes of the trip

• a "dairy" is a convenience store, like the local 7-11. No idea why.
  
• most toilets have 2 flush buttons. I finally was able to ask someone at the hostel in Queenstown why and apparently one uses less water, to be ecologically friendly when there is, ahem, less water required on that particular occasion
• there is a broad range in how much clothing Kiwis wear. For example, it was a very chilly day today and I was still cold in long pants, long sleeve shirt, fleece, waterproof jacket, socks and tennis shoes. Many Kiwis were dressed similarly, but there were also just as many wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops. It can only be a fashion thing, since their body parts were red raw and many of them were shivering. I just don't get it.
  
• my best meal so far: 2 samosas I bought for NZ$3 at a street festival in Auckland on a very sunny Saturday.
• It's hard to shake the standard 2 week vacation ritual. I started feeling a few days ago like I needed to get to Christchurch quickly so I could spend a few days there and in Wellington before heading off to Auckland. Then I realized I have two weeks left and am in fact only half way through the NZ part of the trip. So I stayed an extra day in Queenstown and added a FOUR day stop in Dunedin and still have plenty of time to see what I wanted to see before I fly out of Auckland. Such a different way of thinking. But I will definitely be ready for Australia, if only to head to the warmer weather!!!
  

Not yet done with Dunedin

These past few days have been very different from the rest of the trip, as I'm in a city I hadn't planned to go to. I had planned to go directly from Queenstown to Christchurch, but when I saw the 9 hour bus ride that entailed, I decided to make another stop along the way. I'd never even heard of this city before arriving in NZ, which I find so strange given that so many people have heard of Queenstown, a city of 18,000 people, but not Dunedin, whose population is over 100,000. I guess that's the power of the invention of the bungy jump.

My first night was definitely off the tourist track! After a few hours at the local Irish pub with a few Brits, Canadians and Germans, we were dragged to the next spot by a Kiwi who promised "it's a bar, not really a nightclub." Not. We spent the rest of the evening dancing at the cheesiest 70's themed nightclub we'd ever seen, avoiding eye contact with the inbred, social skill-less men and aging, put-away-wet women. One guy decided a good way to get my attention was to dance wildly, flinging his elbows to poke me in the back as much as possible. Yikes. But it did give our group plenty to talk about.

Today I took a walking tour of the city. The best part of the day may have been running across across a student magazine whose main article was about the fabulousness off the Minnesota State Fair! One of the lines..."I suddenly realized - to my abject horror - that I had not yet sampled the most sought-after delicacy in the entire Midwest: fried Wisconsin chese curds." I was happy to see the author had had a fantastic time.

Tomorrow I'm off to see pengins, seals and sea lions, or at least I hope so - assuming both weather and the animal kingdom cooperate.

The concept of traveling alone...

It's odd how my view of traveling on my own seems to change on an hourly basis. In Auckland, I went back and forth on it - I occasionally felt a bit lonely, but I really enjoyed seeing the city on my own terms. I also wasn't so concerned with meeting people there, since I knew I was off to Mt. Maunganui for my home exchange and didn't figure anyone would be heading that way. Then in the Mount, I was REALLY alone for 6 straight days and loved it. I even found myself wishing I had decided to stay longer. I never craved any company at all and made only half hearted attempts to talk to people the one night I was in Rotorua. By the time I got to Queenstown, though, I was thrilled to meet great people in my hostel, especially since I'll see some of them later on my route. One of the guys, Gavin, is a 33 yr old Melbournite who was here on his own for a few days between leaving his last job and starting his new one. Given his age, I had the most in common with him. We plan to meet up when I get to Melbourne. I met a really nice British couple who are traveling the world for a year and will be in many parts of Australia while I'm there so me may try to meet up too. Now they've all left Queenstown and I don't leave until tomorrow afternoon. No one else has checked in to the hostel, so I have to admit I'm feeling a bit lonely tonight, but I was with people almost 24/7 all week so maybe it's just the withdrawl! I wonder how I'll continue to feel as the trip goes along. Susan and Aileen - I'll definitely be glad to meet up with you!!!!

Age is the other thing that's funny. I've met a few people my age, but the vast majority are at least 8 years younger. Sometimes it makes me feel young that I'm doing "young things" and sometimes it makes me feel REALLY OLD, especially when I see myself in their eyes as ancient. It probably won't help that my next stop is a university down (Dunedin). This is definitely going to be a journey of self discovery as well as just travel! Sorry to end on somewhat of a downer - it's not as bad as it probably sounds and tomorrow I'll likely feel completely different again!!

Amazing Queenstown

Since my last edition, I spent the rainy evening in Rotorua being psychoanalyzed by a German engineer in my hostel (for those who don't know the "Cube" game you visualize a desert with items in it and it supposedly tells you how you see yourself and your relationships) and then spent the next gorgeous, sunny day flying to Queenstown. Such a shame to spend the beautiful day in an airport and airplane, but at least I got great views at takeoff and landing.

Queenstown is an amazingly gorgeous place. A small town on a huge lake surrounded by mountains where snowboarding is king. There's only a week left in the season, so there's lots of turnover in people. Many come for the winter months and pick up odd jobs to finance their snowboarding. I've been spoiled with amazing weather since I got here and have met some great people in the hostel. Last night I went out with 2 Australians and a Brit and met up with some Scots along the way. Tuesday was jetboating and today I did something I never thought I would do... I went skydiving! Absolutely unbelievable. The view was out of this world - I won't even try to describe it because I couldn't possibly do it justice. The funny thing is a guy in my hostel signed up to do it and convinced me to go, but then got too sick to do it! I pick up my pictures and a DVD of it tonight. Can't wait to see them! Tomorrow I head off to Milford Sound for a long day trip. I found a place in town that will burn my pictures to CD so I'll do that on Friday and get another load of pictures posted. But I definitely need to head off to the next place soon - it's ridiculous how fast you can burn through money here!!!!!!

The trials and tribulations of being an American in New Zealand...

Ah, it's tough sometimes. George Bush was in Australia at the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) conference all last week. The most memorable moments were him referring to it as OPEC (uh, that's something a LITTLE different) and and thanking the Austrians for their help in Iraq. The Austrians will be quite surprised to find out that they've sent troups and would probably wonder why the thanks were given at an Asia Pacific conference. Sigh. Is he turning into Dan Quayle? It's made all the news, and I've had a few people comment to me about it. Then on top on that the US Dollar is continually dropping, even within the week I've been here, quite dramatically. I hope it goes up again before I hit the next ATM! Many people here have asked if I'm Canadian. That's mostly because of the tried and true statement that you can't offend an American by calling them Canadian, but the same is not true vice versa. However, a few people have told me that I distinctly sound Canadian, so maybe that's the Minnesota coming through.

I'm in Rotorua for a super quick 26 hour stop after my last few sunny and active days in Mt. Maunganui, including my first jet boat ride. So much fun! Unfortunately, the good luck gave out again and I spent an incredibly rainy day at the Maori "theme park". My impressions may have been better if I wasn't getting soaked, if the exhibits and tour guides hadn't been drowned out by the packs of Japanese visitors with their own guides who shouted over everything else and if the geysers which make this place famous hadn't just quit erupting, and were dormant for the rest of my visit. Apparently the large one erupts about 20 minutes for every hour, but I still managed to miss all of them. But I did get to see 2 kiwi birds, which are very hard to see as they are both endangered and nocturnal.

Tomorrow I fly to Queenstown where I plan to stay for the rest of the week, and then work my way back to Auckland via bus and ferry for my October 5 flight to Sydney.

Here comes the sun again!

Now at stop number two along the way (pictures to be posted momentarily as soon as they figure out the card reader here...)

I'm in Mt. Maunganui which the locals thankfully refer to just as "The Mount". (The smaller stepchild of neighboring busy port Tauranga.) It's on the Bay of Plenty and is the sunniest part of New Zealand, so that one day in Auckland was an abberation. It's been gorgeously sunny and about 65 degrees. Warm in the sun and when walking, cold in the shade and when sitting.

I'd highly recommend this place in the high season - there's hiking, boating, surfing, swimming with dolphins, numerous day tours. However, most of that stuff (except for the hiking) doesn't happen in the off season. It's perfect for me though - I needed a week of pure relaxation before the hectic travel months ahead.

My last few days in a nutshell:

• wander Tauranga and have fish and chips at at fish market literally on the pier where they catch the fish. Can't get much fresher than that.
• walk the 7km into town on the beach, then hike up Mt. Maunganui. Whew. I kept telling myself that if I could hike the Inca Trail, I could certainly do this. The difference - I COULDN'T go back on the Inca Trail. Here, I could just turn around go back down and have a diet coke at the local cafe. But I persevered and the view was worth it. I may lose some weight on this vacation yet!
• Reading, reading, reading.
• Window shopping. Can't afford to buy and certainly don't want to start dragging around souveniers yet!
• Relaxing a the Hot Salt Water Baths. So amazing. Like massive hot tubs, but salt water so it's easy to float. Followed by a massage. Very different but enjoyable. At one point she climbed on my back and kneeled on my butt. A little odd, but it actually felt good. And I'm here to try new things, right?

Off to the apartment again to make dinner and lounge some more. And watch really bad New Zealand television. Yikes!

A Rainy Day in Auckland

Day 3 in Auckland, and the weather has finally stopped cooperating. I suppose I can't complain, since it is spring and the first few days were quite sunny and pleasant.

Friday night I spent at the "Dog's Bollix" and thanks to the smoking ban in New Zealand, didn't go home smelling like, well, the name might suggest. And when I get back to Chicago, the smoking ban will have gone into effect there! Yippee! It's especially nice when traveling, as a few hours in a smoky bar can contaminate all the clothing in your bag. I meant to get to the pub for the 9pm live music, but misread my watch and ended up there before 8pm. At least I dodged the $10 cover! I managed to stay awake until midnight, which I felt was quite an accomplishment!

A few things I've noticed so far...

• the local burger place is called "Burger Wisconsin" with the specialties so popular in Wisconsin, such as "chicken breast with cream cheese and apricot sauce" and "bacon & beef with coconut mayonaise".
• the Kiwi accents aren't nearly as strong as I would have expected. Some don't even appear to have accents dissimilar to the American/Canadian accent.
• NZ is taken over by rugby every 4 years. The Rugby World Cup is currently on in France, which means the games are on here between midnight and 6am and it's all you hear in the newspaper, on TV and on billboards. In addition, it's also the National Rugby League playoffs which includes teams in New Zealand and Australia.
• It's impossible to tell one team from another in the National Rugby League as the team jerseys are covered in logos only. I had to ask my neighbors at the pub. The rule of thumb is that if they're wearing black, it's probably a NZ team.

In the hostel this morning we watched the replays of the Rugby World Cup games. NZ trounced Italy, something like 79-14. Australia/Japan was even worse: 91-3. Then again, it's hard to picture the Japanese excelling at rugby. The US lost to England 28-10, which is practically like winning! I wonder who, if anyone, was watching this game in the US, and where these players came from. But I was happy my countrymen didn't embarass me. In fact, if you hadn't seen the score you would have thought England had lost, they were clearly so upset about the game being somewhat close. I forget what the games are tonight - I know one of them is Ireland vs. Namibia. Namibia??? If it hadn't been for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, most people wouldn't even have heard of it. Suppose that has anything to do with it???

May head off to the movies now, since there's not much else to do on a very rainy Sunday. I'm already regretting not bringing my hiking shoes. I decided I only had enough room for my tennis shoes OR my hiking shoes and apparently made the wrong choice as I'll now be wearing wet tennis shoes for the next few days. Yuck. Shopping may also be in store this afternoon....

And we're off!

After all that planning, I'm finally DOING the traveling. I arrived at 5am this morning (Kiwi time) after very uneventful and surprisingly pleasant flights. Right before I was going to purchase my round-the-world ticket I found the fine print on American's website about purchasing a similar ticket with frequent flier miles. Turns out, I had enough to do my entire trip in business class, except for the LAX - Auckland leg that was already sold out. So needless to say, portions of my trip are not very "backpacker". I arrived at O'Hare with hours to spare, and was able to visit the Admiral's Club with a combination of my international boarding pass and Platinum status. Upon entry I received a drink coupon which I naively tried to use to buy a Diet Coke - thereby announcing the novelty of this visit. Apparently Diet Coke is free at these clubs. So I ordered a Diet Coke AND a Corona and toasted my last drink in Chicago. The flight to LA was amazing - I was in first class on a 474 with so much leg room I couldn't reach the seat in front of me. Instead of the measly blanket and paper covered tiny pillow, I got my own personal comforter and full-size pillow. It was wonderful, but made the thought of economy on my next 13 hour flight even less appealing. Again at the Admiral's Club in LA, I was presented with FOUR drink tickets. How much do these people think I drink??? And again, I made another faux pax by talking on my cell phone in the "quiet area". Whooops. Now I know.

After stealing a few apples and cookies, I headed off to my next flight. Luckily, there was a seat open next to me and my seat mate was a pleasant woman, but it also makes for boring stories. I arrived in Auckland at 5am without a hitch and made my way to the hostel which luckily had a bed ready (the joys of traveling off-season) so I took a quick nap and headed into town. My hostel is in Ponsonby, which they call a suburb, but is really pretty urban. I would compare it to Bucktown in Chicago - it's apparently was recently very rundown and is curently in the process of going from grunge to sleek and hip. It's an cool to see, but makes finding places problematic as most places in the guidebook have already been shut down and replaced with something "cooler". It's a nice combination of hominess and foreigness for me - some of it reminds me of Dublin or Chicago, but it's different enought to be interesting. I spent the day wandering around downtown (about 25 minute walk from Ponsonby). The weather is cool but sunny and this afternoon I experienced sunshowers, which I' ve rarely seen since Colorado. At one point I thought, wow it's very sunny for being so late in the day, thinking it was around 5pm. I looked at my watch and it was only 1:30pm! Days are long when they start at 5am! I'm now back at the hostel to whip up some dinner in the kitchen and rest a bit before heading out to the "Dog's Bollix" Irish pub for live music tonight. I know, I know, so out of character for me!

Bizarre side note: I seem to be noticing the names of stores a lot here. So far my favorites are "Cyco", a bike store, and "Holy Sheet!", a bedding store.

So far, so good, but no fascinating stories to report yet, so sorry for the slightly boring post. Hopefully there will be more to report after the weekend. Monday I head off to Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty.