Farwell to the south island

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So, today’s blog is brought to you by Jeanette. We left Dunedin, but not before visiting the “steepest street in the world” in the Guinness Book of World Records. We walked to the top and back down, not feeling it was really any steeper than a San Francisco street, but, if they say so, I believe them. We then drove north to Mt Cook, a spectacularly high peak where we took a short hike through the snow to view its beauty. Then we drove to a town called Methven where we went snowboarding on Tuesday at a ski field called Mt Hutt. More snow than we’ve seen in New Zealand so far, and the best ski area yet…we had a good day. Tuesday night we went to Christchurch where we spent the next week at a cheap hostel with nice long term renters and one American river guide with lots of stories who kept us up until 2 every night. Over the weekend we stayed at someone’s house who we met briefly last year at Burning Man who offered us a place to stay when we came to New Zealand. True to her word, I emailed, she gave us a bed for a few days. We went skiing again on Saturday, which was a powder day, woohoo! Three out of our five days in Christchurch it was raining, so, not much in the way of outdoor sightseeing unfortunately, which the city has a lot to offer, so we stuck to the museums, and of course, shopping. The highlight of the visit was the Antarctic Center, where we rode in a Hagalund vehicle around the premises, the vehicles they use in Antarctica, which was kind of like a rollercoater ride over dirt mounds and through a pond even. Pretty fun actually. And thanks to a 2-for-1 coupon, we actually got that for free! Some other highlights of the center included playing in a mock Antarctic storm complete with snow, an igloo, an ice slide, a snow tent, and even a snowmobile. Really not all that cold, more fun to watch people in there…the Asian tour group in front of us was very fun to watch, lots of screaming, huddling, falling over and hiding in the igloo….we weren’t sure if all of them would make it out alive. The rest of the center was all very informative and made us want to go work in Antarctica even more than we already do.

After Christchurch we took the ferry to the north island on Monday morning and then drove north where we were once again delighted to go to Adventure Park! The most fantastic and dangerous playground ever built. And I did not hurt myself this time…but I did seesaw until my stomach hurt from laughing. We then drove to a town called National Park where we went snowboarding/skiing Tuesday at Whakakpapa on Mt Reuapehu, a mountain where they filmed many Mt Doom scenes from Lord of the Rings, with the more familiar Mt Doom being not to far away. It was a good day of skiing and I would have to say the chairs at this ski field were the longest and scariest chairs I have ever ridden in my life…sorry Homewood, you no longer take the prize with the Ellis chair.

We then drove about an hour to Lake Taupo to meet up with Monique and Julie, our friends from the north island who we had been staying with our first few weeks, and to stay at a friends house there who also used to live in Tahoe…little Kiwi Sarah and her husband Steve, an American she took home with her from Tahoe. Lake Taupo was big and blue, although surrounded by development and lawns up to its shoreline… Anyway, we saw the sights of Taupo, including a crazy gushing waterfall of a canyon, or canyon of a waterfall, Huka falls, where the water was ripping through the canyon so fast it looked like it could rip you in two if you fell in…pretty cool. That was really about all we saw in Taupo though besides a stroll around the lake and our friends baby. We left Taupo Wednesday and stayed in the coldest little cabin in existence last night in Hamilton. No heater, and colder inside than outside. I think we may have been better off in our tent last night actually. Today we are on our way back to Auckland to celebrate our one-year anniversary. We’re going to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant, stay in Auckland at a crappy hostel…the good life. We posted our car in the paper today. We are hoping we sell it…although no one has called yet and it is almost noon! Sunday was also the one-year anniversary of something else gone in my life…Wiley.

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