Day 23

I woke up at 1 to puke. It was distressing, and my roommates went and slept in different beds, which I felt bad about. I woke at 7 to take my final. The final had two essays and a really long short answer sections. I didn't do too badly though. Then we had a free afternoon. The snow shut the city down, so most of the activities that we could have participated in were closed. We walked around Re:Start, which is an upscale mall made entirely of shipping containers.

We had a very nice dinner and a heartfelt farewell to our resident professor who was with us the entire trip. We sang him the Waiata he taught us during the trip.

That night we went out to the Casino. I wasn't allowed in, because I'm not 20. I tried though. I gave the bouncer my passport and hoped he would notice. But he did. I waited in the lobby until the next group got there. Instead a smaller group of us went out to the bars. We went to Smash Palace, which was an outside bar. The bar itself was in a bus, and there were trashcan fires and heaters all around. They played very nice old beatles music, and it wasn't to loud or crowded. My perfect bar.

And what cute topiary animals

The rule was 5 push ups for every swear

Then part of the group got to cold for a super awesome bar, so we walked to the gay bar down the street. The decor was really neat, and on the tv's on the wall they played an old creepy puppet show. Stingray? It was louder and more crowded, but I dance and had fun. Then one of the guys got yelly and we got thrown out, and that was the end of the night for us.

Day 22

Today we were supposed to do a service project. At first I was really excited to help rebuild Christchurch. Then I got bummed, because I learned we were painting pianos and shoveling gravel, which has nothing to do with my image of rebuilding houses. And then I got excited again, because I learned what those pianos were for. When Christchurch had it's big earthquake, lots and lots of the building had to come down. This leaves just empty lots everywhere in the city. So they're doing this thing called "Gap fillers" where they put gardens and whimsical activities in the lots. One lot has a refrigerator full of books that people can take for free. Another has a large dancefloor and laundry machine. When you put in a dollar coin and the dance machine will light up and project music. The pianos were going to be weather treated and put outside, and the gravel was for a gap filler garden.

But the weather had other plans.

The Snow!

That morning we woke to snow. The third time there has been such a snow fall in twenty years. The city shut down, along with our service projects. Instead, we watched a documentary about the earthquake and took a tour of the city. We had a review session for our final the next day.
We made a snowman.

We named him Sean. He had a mohawk.

I ate dinner at the accommodations, then walked to town and had a lovely lemon tart while the rest of my group ate dinner.

It had a nice berry compote.

Day 21

We left Kaikoura and headed to Christchurch. We got there late enough that there wasn't much time to do stuff before class. We walked to the local town mall. We're kinda in the suburbs and far away from town, so thats what we could get too. The mall had the normal fare. I had na'an and ice cream for lunch which was very acceptable. We had a guest lecturer and we ended the day with thai food and a dip in the heated pool. There isn't much in terms of regional or national food in NZ, so I don't feel bad about eating outside of the region. I haven't eaten at all in any chain restaurants. No McDonalds for me this trip.

Day 20

At 7:30 this morning everyone sat around our faculty member, with a pill in our hands, waiting with baited breath. We were supposed to go on a dolphin swim today, and at 7:30 exactly we find out if the trip can go on or not, depending on the weather. And so we waited with anticipation. Waiting to know if we will have to take our Dramamines for motion sickness, or whether we will not be going on a boat that morning. And... she gives the thumbs up. We are go. We each take our pill and let up a cheer. We arrive at the dolphin encounters store front, and are fitted out with very tight very thick wet suits.

The Picture of Sexiness right there.

On the whole, they were not very comfortable. I couldn't stand up straight. My skinned itched. Someone pondered allowed "I wonder how many people have peed in this suit". And then theres that image. But I managed to squeeze in, feeling very badass, and lugged all my stuff to the bus. They warned us that while we would get on the boat and go see what we could find, we might not get in the water. And if we could get in the water, the dolphins might not come to us. It was all very up in the air, subject to change at a moments notice. But we loaded the bus and set sail. The ocean was filled with swells. While I get car sick, I rarely get boat sick, and I enjoyed the boat diving into the surf immensely. Some other people on our boat? Not so much. As we raced to where the dolphins were, I saw tons of sea birds, and a seal leaping from the water. And then there was the signal. Dolphins were in the area, so we were to jump in and sing in attempts to attract them. And I jumped in. And then immediately wanted to jump out. The water floods the wet suit, squeezing your veins, making your entire body feel like one big brain freeze. But I'm supposed to be singing! Oh right. I start singing random folk songs with my constricted breath. And I'm supposed to put my face in the water! I do so. Oh thats so much worse. As I become more acclimated to the water there goes the signal. Everyone back on the boat. We haul ourselves up and they drive on towards the dolphins again. We can only go in the water five times, we better make this one count. On our second dive I had a Giant Petrel fly right over my head and land really close. On our third dive I had two dolphins swim under me. On our fourth dive a group of seven swam right next to me. It was truly amazing. But all to soon, we're back on the boat, stripping our wet suits and putting on dry clothes. They apologized profusely that the dolphins weren't more social. That was silly though, because I had dolphins right up close. I was very content. I got some hot chocolate and a cookie and went to the bow, where tons of dolphins were swimming along side the boat, doing jumps and backflips.

Look at them!

Look at them frolic!

God damn

Ungrateful little frolicers

Also, albatross

I also found pretty flowers.

 Oh, now you like us. And then we headed back to shore. Swimming with a wet suit, especially in 11degree water, is tiring. We had a nice panini lunch at the dolphin encounters cafe, and I was falling asleep over the meal. We got dismissed for a free afternoon. I disembarked and walked down the beach to see what I could find. I'm typing this on a very nice pebble beach with the surf before me, and my legs being attacked by sand flys. You win some you lose some.

And then the helicopter blew sand in my face.

Day 19

We got up pretty early today, with me having to set up breakfast because I'm in charge of Kaikoura and Christchurch. We had a Maori cultural tour. They taught us a traditional song and our Maori names, and they taught us all about they're villages and intertribal customs.

We walked through an old village site, and through the woods where they taught us the cultural significance of the plants. We played some games, and got taught how to weave with flax.

And then they fed us a lovely morning tea, with chocolate banana bread, and kiwi, and finger sandwiches. They did a very nice job, and everything was delicious. You know whats interesting is of all the places we've been served food, none have used disposable cups. It's an interesting cultural thing. Even kayaking, they brought plastic mugs with them to serve us juice. We stopped for lunch, and we had two guest speakers, one who was entralling, and one I struggled to stay awake for. Then we had a group dinner at a sports bar. My food was pretty good. Not the worst I've had but definitely edible. However, the group as a whole didn't like their food, and didn't like the service. They're complaining and being demanding of the waiters is was darkened the meal for me. But, then dinner was over, and we walked the twenty minutes home in the rain, and then I got to sit in the hot tub and watch a movie, and it was a good night.

Day 18

 Today might have been my favorite day. We left Nelson, but not before having a lovely hot breakfast. On our drive to Kaikoura our professor in residents had us stop at a very special waterfall. We walked up a little mountain path that ran parallel to a stream. And then "Oh my god, there's a seal in the water" As we progressed up the trail we would sporadically see seal pups in the stream, playing or handing out. The seals are getting more frequent as we get highter, and then we start seeing seals in the woods. There are seals in the trees! How did they even get up there? I didn't know seals could climb! And then we rounded a corner. And it was just amazing. At the base of this waterfall was a small natural pool. And in that pool were fifty seal pups, frollicing and splashing about. I wanted to stay there and watch the pups for hours.

Look at the blurry seal!

And that smile stayed for days.

 But all too soon, we had to leave for our next destination. That's whats really striking me about New Zealand. They are so driven towards conservation here, that amazing spots like that can go on undisturbed, even with tons of tourists walking through. There were Department of Conservation (DOC) volunteers at the waterfall, educating people about the seals, and ensuring that no one got to close to the seals, or left litter that could hurt them. The DOC is really active here. I see volunteers at lots of the tourist spots and DOC cars on the roads all the time. They were the ones who shut down Fox Glacier the day we were supposed to climb it because conditions were too dangerous. They swooped in an assessed the situation and got done quickly quietly and efficiently. They're like a eco-friendly S-H-E-I-L-D. They are also the largest land owner in New Zealand, and most of the land they own is reserves or sanctuaries or nation parks. And what amazes me, is how much work DOC is putting in to protect the native vegetation and wildlife. We've been hiking a lot on this trip and all the trails have been controlled by DOC, pretty much. And all the trails have been beautifully maintained. I'm completely serious, the trails are gorgeous and they have no litter on them and they're lined with traps. Yep. In New Zealand the main danger to native species are invasive creatures like possums, rats, and stoats. The only way to protect the native birds are to murder large amounts of cute furry animals. Our professor keeps joking that "New Zealand is the only country thats conservation efforts involve killing large amounts of animals". So giant mousetraps line the trail, and most are maintained by DOC, who sends volunteers out to check and empty the traps. And apparently it's really helping. In the areas where wasp poison is spread out (wasps are another huge problem) the wasp colonies are reduced by 80%. 80% is a lot of dead wasps! The main problem that I've seen with the traps and poisons however, is that cats are a huge problem for native birds too. And apparently, if you let your cat out, and it gets caught in a trap, welp, that sucks for you. But once the pests are controlled, the native birds really pick themselves up in full force. We saw fenced off areas, where all the pests had been removed, so they set up a giant barrier so more couldn't come in. That was really cool. I wonder how long it will take New Zealand to be one giant fenced in area.


We stopped at a little farmers market where I got a 2 dollar ball of NZ yarn, and a crepe with local organic strawberries. we drove a bit more dropped our bags off very quickly at our accomidations in Kaikoura. We got back on the bus and took another hike around a peninsula. On the peninsula were lots of seals, and lots of cow poop. The hike was nice, but pretty cold, and pretty steep. I'm so exhausted I kept falling asleep while standing up. We had class and then a very nice dinner at a local resturant. I had a lamb shank. And I think I've probably had enough lamb on this trip. Now its time to work on eating lots of seafood. I watched a movie with some people,  but I kept falling asleep, so I went to bed and slept for ten hours.


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Day 17

What did we do today? We left Motueka. I got paid a dollar to help load bags onto the coach. Our TA has discovered that paying us gets jobs done. We traveled for a bit and stopped at a sea side playground. The playgrounds here are amazing. They have no real regard for all the uber-saftey of America, and thus they are extremely fun. I played on an actual see-saw today, and not a little baby one that can go an inch and just sort of bounce. I'm talking full blown up in the air see-saw, feet-dangling-fear-for-your-life see-saw. The play ground was huge and had lots of neat equipment.

It was called the Rock-topus

It was funny until he got spun so hard he fell off. Then I laughed so hard I cried.

 We then went to a bird sanctuary. We got a talk about all the traps they use in the park to catch pests. And then we took a nice leisurely hike to a stream full of waterfalls and fan-tailed birds. The birds were some of the cutest things I've ever seen, but I got pooped on twice, so I don't know how I feel about them.

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-bird poop

We got to our hotel in Nelson, which is actually very nice, with bathtubs and fluffy robes. We gave presentations on destination marketing and then it was time for dinner. I went to a very nice Indian restaurant and had lamb and naan and then a few of us went and saw Happy, Happy at the movie theater. The theaters here are cool. They're pretty small, only seat about 20 people each theater. And you get an assigned seat which was nice. The movie was odd. It was a Norwegian drama. But it wasn't bad. And then it was back to the hotel for a nice bath. Tomorrow we  head out to Kaikoura bright and early.

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