The remainder of NZ

Hello, adoring fans! Yes, I am kidding a bit there, but it fascinates me sometimes to think how avidly my blog, well...my life...is being followed. I'm a week shy of having been away from home for four months. FOUR MONTHS! Does it feel that long to you? I'm never really conscious of how long it's been, but I'm asked so often by other travelers that I end up keeping track one way or another. Life just goes on. The days continue to pass. The world keeps turning. And here we are! One third of my working holiday...done, finished, gone. But you're still missing a couple of weeks worth of the story, aren't you?

Let's see...ah, yes, I was about to embark on the journey back to Dunedin with Helen in her campervan. Now Dunedin is only a few hours drive from Queenstown; it's not a cross-country trek. I know a couple of you were excited at the prospect of this road trip, but I think my experience may fall short of your expectations! We stopped in Cromwell for supplies (a town famous for it's fresh fruit), stretched our legs at a few scenic points along the way (raging rivers, towering mountains, half naked men), and chatted about life, love, and all that jazz. Arriving into Dunedin, I checked back into the Central Backpackers hostel and Helen went to find somewhere to park and camp in her van. We met up the next day and wandered around town until it was time to go on our tour of the Otago Peninsula. With deep Scottish roots, Dunedin seems to focus on the students who attend the university in town - the Otago University, the country's second biggest university. Our timing could have been better - with the students all on holiday and Christmas and New Years not far behind us, many shops were closed, the town seemingly dormant - but it was worth having a look around.

The main attraction for me, however, was our afternoon rendezvous with Elm Wildlife Tours for "close encounters with nature". We loaded onto a bus with several other travelers and were not disappointed. The peninsula itself is beautiful enough to make the tour worthwhile, but we had the additional advantage of seeing several creatures along the way: the impressive Royal Albatross with its 3 meter-long wingspan, sealions, fur seals, yellow-eyed penguins(!), black swans, paradise shelducks, oystercatchers, royal spoonbills, plovers, herons, australasian harriers, and shags. The only creature of which I had been hoping to catch a glimpse and missed, yet again, was the elusive, little blue penguin. (But I'm told there are some near Wellington, where I've decided to settle for a while, so I'm optimistic I'll see them yet!)

We met Tomas and George for smoothies and coffee the following morning (the Czech Republic guys doing the 9 day hike). Since meeting them over Christmas, I had been in regular contact with Tomas via text messaging. I can't say I was surprised to find out that they were also in Dunedin. So we all caught up, shared stories about what we had been up to since parting ways after Christmas, and looked through George's photos - he's an awesome photographer. Helen and I were especially interested in the photos of the Moeraki boulders, since that's where we were headed that afternoon. The Moeraki boulders are huge, ancient,spherical masses of rock that sit solidly in the sand on a stretch of beautiful beach. The guys had gotten up really early one morning to get there in time for sunrise. The pictures were spectacular. Helen and I got a few of our own, although without the added atmosphere of sunrise, and had a great afternoon. It was so much fun goofing around in the sand, wadding in and out of the water, climbing on and around the rocks for to pose for pictures. I really enjoyed it.

We wandered briefly through the Dunedin Art Gallery the following morning, taking in a very dark impression in sculptural form of some of Disney's best loved characters, and with the expectation of seeing each other again, Helen and I parted ways. I wanted to finish my South Island journey with Stray, and she was feeling the financial urge to get back to the world of work. Back to Queenstown for the third time, I stayed for two more nights, this time at Deco Backpackers. I spent much of the time with "old friends", Andrea and Tim from the Butterfli Lodge, and two of Tim's friends visiting from Ireland. We mainly watched movies, but there was a bit o' dancing! At least on my part. Apparently Irish blokes can't dance and Andrea wasn't feeling the music. Personally, I couldn't resist! Early on, as I subtlely bopped about, one of Tim's friends observed how longingly I was looking at the dance floor. He kept trying to convince Tim to dance with me but, being an Irish bloke himself, he continue to cling to the same belief as the others that they couldn't dance. Ah well - their loss. They were willing to compromise, however, so we moved closer to the dance floor where atleast I could shake my tail feathers solo with friends nearby!

The unfinished portion of my bus travel took me through the centre of the South Island and up the northern east coast. Through Twizel, where I was again denied a view of Mt Cook's majestic peaks due to cloud cover, and Tekapo. Through Christchurch, where we spent a night (Base hostel, splurged for a Sanctuary room). I tried to make contact with a few people I'd met along the way who lived there (Scott and Carla, Sophie), but they were all away on holiday, traveling in other parts of New Zealand at the time. The drive along the Kaikoura coast was absolutely stunning. I was excited about our stop in Kaikoura, a town popular for the abundance of delicious crayfish meals, and an excellent chance to view and/or swim with marine life. Whales, dolphins, seals... Unfortunately, in keeping with what we'd been experiencing the last couple of weeks, accessibility and availability were dimished due to it being prime Kiwi holiday and summer vacation time. The dolphin-swim tours were booked out for at least a week, unless you wanted to take your chances on a last minute waiting list for no-shows. I was content for the present to let that one go - I had been lucky enough to swim with two dolphins for free in Northland during my first month here. I thought kayaking or snorkelling would be fantastic options, but the either the priced packages or the weather conditions didn't pan out. I was determined, however, to go whale watching. I stayed an extra night, and booked three different sailing times in my attempt, but the weather wouldn't cooperate. The conditions were too rough to allow for safe sailing. Instead, I ambled around town, ate lunch both days at a fantastic organic cafe called Hislops Cafe, watched movies in the hostel, and often found myself chatting with Martyn from Holland who shared my dorm room. We shared our views on human behaviour, shared stories about what brought us to where we were, shared some M&M peanuts and potato chips. I kept telling him I didn't want anymore of the chips, yet kept eating them. He was checking out of the hostel the second day I tried to see the whales and while I was out of the room, he put the bag of chips (or what was left of them) under my pillow! During one of our chats, he told me his analogy for whale watching, which I found incredibly amusing: whale watching is like seeing a cute girl across the room. You can see she's cute, can see she's a lot of fun, and you'd really like to talk to her, get closer to her, touch her, get to know her a little better, but you can't. You can't get to her because she's just too far away. I thought it was cute. Maybe he was trying to make me feel less disappointed about not getting out to see them. I decided not to take my chances on the weather for a third day and jumped back onto the bus the following morning. It brought me back to Picton, at the top of the South Island, where I caught the ferry back across to the North Island and the town of Wellington. I've been here for the past week and am actively seeking work! There's more to say, but I think I'll end this entry for now - it's plenty long enough! I'll post another one shortly. Talk to you again soon!