The last two weeks have been full of school. It has been an interesting transition for me, and I've had to get back into the routine of class and the long hours spent reading textbooks in the library. This past weekend, Andrew, Katie (both from BC), Sami, Marie, and I went on a weekend trip to Milford Sound. On Friday night, we packed up the car and headed westward, driving the 5 hour trip across the South Island. It's interesting in New Zealand-- there aren't really any fast food places around as you go from town to town. In some of the larger towns you might find a Subway or McDonalds, but most towns simply have, what I would call, a greasy food room. These places are the equivalent of a fast food place at home. They are small shops where you can order dinner for very cheap, but you are taking a high risk to your stomach because you don't know how the food will come out. Just about everything is fried (from fish/chips to squid rings) and sometimes it's very delicious. Sometimes not. I elected to go with the Subway option on Friday night and was happy with my choice. Note to self: bring tanks of water wherever I go, because places like Subway and McDonalds do not serve any kind of free water from the fountain machine. The cheapest water has to be bought in bottled form and costs 2.50, which is more expensive than coffee. Hmm. Well anyway, I was fortunate enough to ask the workers at Subway if I could step behind the counter and fill up my bottle using the sink. They said yes. Score one for NZ friendliness.
We arrived at a campsite in Fjordland National Park and had to set up our tent in the dark. This proved to be quite a challenge, especially because two of the poles had been previously snapped. Our tent-ish thing was able to hold and we were able to slumber. Since NZ doesn't have any crawling animals or pests or anything like that, I actually found myself waking up very often because it was too quiet. I almost wanted to hear an animal sniffing around or, like in my past CO experiences, have a brown bear sniff around my tent for some honey packets that were left out (I'm looking at YOU, Peter Anderson, if you're still alive).
The next morning we got up and headed to the sound. Milford Sound is a fjord, which means that it is a valley that has been carved out by a glacier and filled with water. It has been rated as the top travel destination in the world, according to TripAdvisor, and boy was it something else. Milford receives rain about 200 days out of the year, and can receive as much as 10 inches in a span of 24 hours. There are benefits for going regardless of the conditions though: a sunny day means great weather and a rainy day means hundreds of great waterfalls. We ended up having a very sunny and clear day, which I couldn't complain about, and met our guide, Harlan. He was a very friendly guy and actually reminded me of a hobbit, which was nice. Since I was the odd man out, I partnered up in a kayak with a man named Rich, who sat behind me. Rich was from the UK. When I asked him what he did for a career, he replied, "I'm the jelly man. I'm quite famous in England." I pried a bit deeper. "I travel to all the music festivals in England in the summer and sell vodka jello shots to everyone, and then I travel in the winter with the proceeds I make." Rich was a traveling man. Whether he lived in England (in his camper) or in NZ (in his camper) or Argentina (camper), he was always on the move. Later, he mentioned that he has an additional stream of income from a restaurant and bar he owns in Guatemala. I didn't pry much further. Our group of 8 really enjoyed the trip with Harlan though. He told us that he lives with 9 other guides in Milford Sound, and everybody knows everybody (pop. of 250) and who they work for. Since it is government property, everyone has to be working for a company that operates out of Milford. The fisherman are friends with the kayakers who are friends with the sight-seeing ships who are friends with the owner of the one bar, called The Dirty Goose or something like that. It would be an awesome opportunity, though, to have the sound in your backyard.
After our kayaking trip, we elected to stop by a few other cool places in Fjordland National Park. We stopped at a place called 'The Chasm' and followed Harlan's advice, which had us walking down this unmarked trail to this incredible swimming hole along one of the rivers that ran through the place. The rock walls were covered with green moss and the water was vividly blue - exactly the water that would exist in the Bahamas. Pure. Untouched. Drinkable! We had a nice lunch and Andrew and I took to some cliff jumping! The water was very deep in this pool, and we enjoyed a couple jumps from about 15 and 30 feet. Nothing too extreme, but a ton of fun. Anyway, we made the road trip back on Sat. night and arrived in one piece, ready for bed. My road tripping skills are getting a good workout, which I am really enjoying. I think it will put me in the perfect mood for some more drives across and around America upon my return in the summer. Hopefully Kerouac is smiling at me somewhere, ten toes up.
The weekend before, Andrew, Colyer (Hamilton College, lives in CO too), and I went fly fishing out by Gore. I didn't catch jack-diddly. Hopefully things will change for the better in that respect, because Colyer caught two trouts that looked like straight-up sharks. The ecstasy from such an experience must be riveting. I guess I'll never know. I finally included my pictures from the beginning of March when I caught that trout. I guess I gotta brag somehow.
A week from Friday, I will be headed to Fiji for my semester break. Ruth and I had wanted to work out a visit of some sorts while I am abroad, and it just so happens that our breaks coincided. The closest compromise between the US and NZ we could come up with was Fiji, and it seems like a freakin' cool place to go visit. I am excited by the things I hear - apparently the food is delish, the music and singing is wondrous, and the water is blue. I look forward to blogging about it.
As the days go by here, I am impressed by the amount of things that I do not know. It has been a big gut-check time for me--a time to think about how much learning there is to be done in a lifetime. If I were to call myself an expert in anything at this age, I'd be lying. It's certainly nice to see God's light shine though people here - hopefully by the time this experience is finished, I will have been able to imprint my last name on the backs of people close to me. I want them to feel that my hands extend to them as a member of my family, no matter what they think or who they are. That's become the mission at this point, and that's plenty for one person to take on. Until then, Roll Tide.
Funny Kiwi Sayings, etc:
Wee - another word for little, used all the time... "let's take a wee break"
Have a yarn - it means to have a conversation, to shoot the breeze... "they were havin' a wee yarn"
Take the piss - to be the one that is being made fun of... "Johnny was taking the piss earlier when he couldn't pronounce bologna"
Photos:
(Click on first photo to start full screen slideshow...recommended)
Living vicariously through you! Love it all! Have fun in Fuji! OMG
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