There are two more updates on my phone, including some fun pictures, but looks like the internet is too slow so my phone isn't going to publish them.s So I'll steal some pictures from the internet XD
It's been a fun few days. We've been hitchiking so we have met some pretty amazing, crazy, awesome people.
After a few days of exploring Dunedin, we headed South to check out the Catlins. We had a bit of a hard time finding a ride after a misunderstanding of the local bus system which left us at a pretty bad hitching spot. We ended up getting picked up by some super sketchy guys - after we got in the car we saw "Mongrel Mob", the local gang tatooed on the back of one of their necks - but they took us to a better spot and were nice enough, so I'm thankful. Ended up being picked up by a really nice dairy farmer who went out of his way to show us his farm, and then dropped us off at the door of our hostel in Invercargil!
We got a ride from a Chilean guy, and then a couple of German surfers into the Catlins, where we ended up staying at an amazing hostel called "The Lazy Dolphin" There was one of the only remaining pods of the worlds most rare dolphin who lived in this bay,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector%27s_dolphin and that night we only saw their fins far out in the bay, then we headed over to a different area to watch another rare animal the Yellow Eyed Penguin, play around on shore before roosting for the night. We met an amazing Kiwi couple and chatted till dawn about NZ politics, building regulation, and the future of humanity.
But the next morning was beyond incredible. I woke up early, grabbed a cup of coffee, and headed out to the beach to look for the dolphins. I didn't see any until as I headed back to the hostel, I looked out one last time far out into the bay, and saw them jumping! It was so magical. And then later, when I was back up in the hostel eating breakfast, I saw they had come up to shore and were swimming around a group of people just 10 or 15 feet in the water. It didn't take me long to be in my swimsuit and down there with them. They came right up to me, only 4 or 5 feet away!
I finally got out of the water after I started to not feel parts of my hands and feet anymore, and we caught a ride out with a really nice German couple (headed to Oregon in a couple months, so we might see them again!) We had a tea break at a beautiful lookout point, and checked out Nugget Point together.
Later that day we caught a ride with a businessman from Auckland, he picked up another 2 hitchikers not 1K after picking us up, and we all headed together for Queenstown. We decided to cook dinner together - he was from India, and I'm never going to pass up an opportunity for real curry, neither was anyone else in the car. It was way yum, but whether it was the real intense spice, or the excessive amount of boxed red wine we all had that night, the following day was a day in for me. Watched Lord of the Rings finally!
We headed back for Fiordland the next day, caught a ride in one of these...
They are all over here, and fun fact, they come with a matching blanket!
Another fun fact, the slugbug game we play in the states is also played in NZ but with tractors instead of VW bugs, and points instead of hitting. Also you get 3 points for a moving tractor.
And the next day we got a ride into Milford sound from a couple in ANOTHER Juicy van, and headed out for a boat ride which took us all the way into the Tasman Sea. I didn't take this picture but this is really what it looks like out there in Milford Sound. It's stunning.
And if we couldn't get enough of that, our ride back was headed for Manapori, a town we'd hoped to go to, but didn't really consider it possible. It was amazing luck. And on the way back we ran into some Kea. They are the world's only Alpine parrot. I'd seen them before at the aviary in Dunedin, but these were wild. And this was exactly what they were doing.
They love chewing on rubber apparently.
We found ourselves that night in Manapori, a small town south of Te Anu, the jump off point for Milford Sound. The lady running this campground was really cool, she must have been 90 years old, still doing all the cleaning and caring for the campsite herself, making beds in cabins, etc. She was originally from San Fransisco, but left during the Vietnam war because she disagreed with the US politics so much. A strongly opinionated Atheist (or Secularist as she preferred) we had a good time talking about the US and New Zealand, as well as Richard Dawkins. She set us up with a cute little cabin for the night, and a tour of the Manapori Power Station for the next day.
The Manapori power station was pretty cool. It was build underground next to a lake in the 60s to provide power for an aluminum smelter near Bluff (which they are thinking of closing in the next few years) They let the water fall down from the lake, turn turbines, then the water empties into the ocean. If the smelter was closed it could easily provide power for the entire South Island. Pretty incredible.
The tour driver was nice enough to drop us off at the driveway to our hostel for the night, unfortunately the only food we had was flour, cheese, and oil. So we got creative and made homemade noodles and cheese sauce with some milk powder we found.
And that night we tried to use the internet. The thing is, as we've been traveling around Southland, and anywhere outside a city, there is only roaming data, we don't have any laptops anyway, so we have been unable to do any of the basic internet things we are used to. On top of that, buying internet is INSANELY expensive here. Like as high as $10 for 30 minutes or $1 per 10MB (Full resolution on that Kea picture is 1.2MB) So, we compiled this list of internet things to do, bought a bit of internet, and found in front of us a late 90's Gateway computer that took 3 minutes to open a Firefox window. We had made only 3 CouchSurfing requests for Australia when we realized 2 hours had gone by. I am REALLY going to appreciate American internet when I get home. It's going to be like upgrading from dial up all over again!
Then we get to today! We'd planned to head |North for the Glaciers, then the first ride we caught (the first car that came by! - we were waiting less than 3 minutes!) was with a couple Otago Uni students who had been to Te Anu for a road trip and were planning to take the scenic route back to Dunedin. We'd been to Dunedin only 3 or 4 days before, but we loved it, and after learning you can't even go up and visit the glaciers without paying for a tour (which in the guidebook from 2001 said was $35pp) we decided we'd follow the wind, which was blowing to Dunedin! We had a really amazing day with these two guys, learned a lot about the life of a Kiwi Uni student - they party a lot harder than us.
So tomorrow I either sleep in since this post has taken so long to write up, or I show up at 10:30 to release baby butterflies from their cages at the museum. And later we go op-shopping (thrift shopping) to find Dar a pair of pants that doesn't have a 6-inch diameter hole in the crotch!
Until next time!
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