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Published: April 6th 2010
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I tend to find early travel mornings very exciting, but you probably wouldn't be able to tell from my bleary eyes and constant whining of how tired I am. But I really do think it's thrilling to get up before the sun and throw a backpack on your shoulder ready to escape to another place before the daylight can catch you in the act. We were out the door at 6:30am to catch a taxi to the ferry port in Wellington. The ferry to Picton, where we would catch our transfer bus to Christchurch, wasn't as traumatic as my ferry ride to Greece, but it was lackluster and uncomfortable as always. We ran through the many levels of the ferry to find something fun, but only found expensive movies, expensive coffee, and expensive food. We all slept for a bit in the reclining chairs and then I went to the top deck to catch the view. It was surreal to step out into a fierce wind and foggy skies after having gone to sleep in the sun. The deep blue green tinged water that lined the pine covered hills reminded me of the book Snow Falling on Cedars. Weather like that
Bush Rangers
yes there is road not too far away..but we are still badass. just always brings to mind the scenes of fishermen lost in the fog. Our bus trip felt epic and I stared out the window at the sheep and cows sauntering around. There are over five million sheep in New Zealand and that is why they get thier reputation of beastiality. Not very fair I'd say. Just because there is more sheep than people, doesn't mean the Kiwis are chasing them around. Our bus dropped us off in the middle of Christchurch. Ellie's wonderful mother picked us up and took us to the airport to pick up Ellie, who was coming back from Australia. Hadn't see my dearest Elliephant in about two years so I was overly happy to see her! When we met in Sweden, she started calling me Banana and I called her Elliephant. The names have stuck. Ellie's sister who had just arrived back from India( what a jet setting crowd ay) switched cars with us and Brennan, Hannah, Ellie, and I were off to Arthurs Pass to stay in Ellie's bach. We had the Glee soundtrack to entertain us, much to Brennan's chagrin, and we drove off singing loudly and gossiping about how hot the teacher from
Glee is.
The bach was small and red and nestled in the dark valley. There were other houses nearby, but the darkness and trees gave the illusion that we were very much alone in the wilderness. After our stuff was thrown on bunkbeds to claim them, we made some tea because I was an annoyingly sick with a cold person, and got out a game of Trivial Pursuit which we played until one am. Bad ass bitches, what! The game was horribly hard due to the fact that it was a New Zealand edition from the 80's. Questions about NZ sports teams, politics, and using terms such as West Germany and U.S.S.R gave away the absurdity of it but we kept playing because Brennan was winning and he kept throwing it in our faces. I didn't even get one piece of the pie. Damn you Brennan and your obscure knowledge. Ellie had a record player in the corner and played some Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, and the Beatles so I just listened to the music and tried to pretend that I was totally ok with losing. Who am I kidding? I love to win. We then wrapped ourselves in duvets and waddled outside to the deck looking like big slugs. As we looked at the stars Ellie showed us constelations like the Southern Cross and Orions Belt. I was also certain I saw dangerous animals stalking us in the grass, but they turned out to be rocks..
I was coming in and out of sleep, wrapped in my childrens sheets in the bunkbed, when I heard the scratch of the record player. Oh. No. I knew this was bad. As a former early riser, I used to get up hours before my friends and grow tired and hyper and soon enough I would be blasting the opera from Romeo and Juliet and jumping on thier heads. I knew what was coming, but I didn't know how ridiculous it would be.
"High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo!!"
Goddamn it was the Lonely Goatherd song from Sound of Music. I looked up with malice in my eyes and saw Hannah and Brennan writhing in agony on thier beds mumbling words that sounded like "mmmwhhaa tha FUCK!" Ellie waltzed in the room like some demented Maria and demanded in sweet tones that we get up that instant and go on a hike. We just started at her and yelled a bit so she left and the music kept going, We were up whether we liked it or not. As we stumbled around drinking tea she spoke quickly saying, "Get dressed! Eat up! I ate breakfast an hour ago, hurry!" Hannah and I chugged our hot tea and quickly ate our cereal. I'm still not sure what it tasted like. We all put on our hiking shoes, well Brennan put on Ellies moms hiking shoes loser, and drove to a short nature walk/bushwalk. It was a dirt path that came off the side of the road and turned into a wooden walkway, then went over rocks, and became dirt again going through wet grasses that cleaned our legs like a carwash and scratched Brennan's mosquito bites for him. This walk was called the Dobson nature walk and it wasn't exactly in the bush. We were 5 min walk from the road at all times and then we even ended up walking along the road. Feel the serenity.
Our next stop was at a cafe to get Ellie some chocolate. There was a kea there which I had never heard of. Kea's are large birds that eat rubber of of things and can tear peoples belongings up. They like shiny things and are really the only dangerous thing in New Zealand. Except maybe the sheep lovers.
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