brace yourself, it's a loooong one.

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Disclaimer: this travel blog is pretty much acting as my personal travel journal, so i'm going to be doing a lot of blabbling and ranting on, and on, and on.....



woooooooooooooo! so i officially suck and continue to put off writing in this thing because i'm lazy. but hmm.... let's see if i can re-cap what has happened since i left auckland.
so a group of 10 of us left the big city, two shitty cars in tow, to take an epic road trip around the North Island. And epic, it was.
first we drove to the Coromandel Pennisula, about 2 hours east of Auckland, to check out one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Cathedral Cove. apparently scenes from the Chronicles of Narnia were filmed there! all i can say is, wow. there are massive rock formations and small islands everywhere in the water, the beach is surrounded by cliff sides and mountains covered in dense tropical vegetatipn, and ah! there's a natural waterfall, and hidden caves far out in the ocean! and OH MY GOD I FINALLY SWAM OUT TO A ROCK AND SAT ON IT. i've seriously been wanting to do that since, well, forever. but at home they're always either too far or covered in sea lions that will kill you. and then my friend Marguerite and i swam over to this cave. we had to climb crazy rocks, and basically risk our lives to not get smashed by waves, but we finally made it. it was so peaceful. I had a moment where i thought to myself "wow, this must be similar to how the great explorers of the past felt, being in a place that basically no one has ever seen before." i have found my happy place. we made sand angels , and i wrote mine and Marshall's name in the sand, because he was with me in spirit. finally, we swim back and enjoy some wine and cheese with everyone else on the beach. We hiked back up to the car after dark, and i have to admit, it was a tad creepy! but the stars, oh my god oh my god oh my god!! there were just so many! not to mention how trippy it was seeing constellations that you can't see in the Northern Hemisphere!
once we get back to the van. it's not starting. so Cody, being the awesome mechanic he is, push starts the van and nearly drives off a cliff. but hey, it worked! oh and on a side note, earlier that day the front drivers side window would not go back up anymore, so we had to be super resourceful-Cody pulled the entire side of the door off, and we all stuffed it with random shit like sticks, a pair of sandals off the side of the road, a brick, and a Mcdonalds cup. that way, the window would stay up and we wouldn't get all of crap stolen out of the car!! however, now it couldn't ever be rolled down again. i'll get to that in a bit...
so, we go searching for a campsite. the only one we find is too expensive, and we're a bunch of cheap asses. so what do we do? park and camp in a parking lot on the beach. woot! i froze all night, because i didn't have a sleeping bag. oops. i didn't really sleep, so when the sun rose i walked on the beach and did some meditative yoga. it was just what i needed. the New Zealand sunrise is so special, since its one of the very first places in the world to see the new day.
that morning, we went to Hot Water beach. BIG tourist attraction, but pretty neat. right on the sand, if you dig a few inches into the ground, you hit very hot water. do-it-yourself hot springs on the beach! but really, it was almost too hot! our feet burned. oh did they burn..
later that day we starting driving again. our destination? The Waitomo region. in the mean time, we got stopped by the town drunk in this tiny ass town, telling us he had already been kicked out of the bars. it was noon. oh god and the drive. most beautful drive of my life. and we played the game "hey cow!" where you simply yell at the cows and see if they look at you. good stuff. we stocked up on more wine and cheese. pretty much, that's we lived off of. Oh, well, Kevin lived off whiskey, but that's another story.
so to get back to the window. as we're driving, the driver's side mirror snaps shut, so Cody could no longer see out of it. the thing is, that was his only way of seeing anything, as the rear view mirror's view is already completely blocked by all of our crap. yet, he couldn't fix it because he couldn't roll down his window. so what do we do? We get Cayla, who's behind him, to stick practically her entire body out of the rear window to reach out and adjust it. it was sooooo hilarious. i guess you had to be there. thankfully, we later came up with another system, where she poked the mirror with a really long stick. and even later, Cody somehow managed to keep the mirror open with some string. oh, what a shitty car.
we continued to drive through a lot of farm land, with a fuckton of sheep. and we drove by Hobbiton, aka the Shire from LOTR. and my god, this entire area of the country looks like the shire. you get the picture. Finally, after about 5 or so hours, we get to Waitomo. searching for campgrounds, we come across this AMAZING jumping pillow. essentially, that's exactly what it is. oh, and it was rainbow! so of course we got out and jumped to our hearts delight. we finally convinced the other car to join us at this campground. oh, did we make the right choice. the owners, Peter and Linda, are some of the sweetest people i've ever met. they invited us into their camper, gave us tons of advice, ate with us, and told us the story of how they met 12 years ago on the internet. Linda's from the states, and moved the NZ to be with her true love, and they've been living out of their camper since. and they're soo happy. i want to be just like them someday!!!!!!!!!!!! i want them to be my adoptive grandparents :-) o god and we made BOMB chicken quesidillas. god, how i miss Mexican food already! it was a great night.
that morning, we went to a Kiwi house! actually, it was right next door to the campsite, how convenient.
I finally saw kiwi birds! Oh, and we got the rare opportunity to witness the great spotted Kiwi, the most endangered species of them all! they're much bigger than i expected, and look like little balls with long beaks attched to them. oh boy, they are sooo adorable! then, the real adventure awaited us....
We went to Waitiomo caves!!!!!! probably one of the most memorable experiences i've ever had. we all had to dress up in wetsuits, gnarly boots, helmets, and gross pants. basically, we looked utterly ridiculous. not to mention, our tour guide was pretty rad and mmmm, attractive! we all think he has like, 20 girlfriends. ha. so first, we ascended several hundred feet by rope pully down into the caves. then, we wandered around, saw lots of eels in the water, and went deep inside to see GLOWWORMS! soooo cool! honestly, it looks like a beautiful star-filled night sky, but super close up. and then we went black water rafting through the caves, and we all gave squeezing and contorting our bodies into tiny cervices a shot. then, we all had to climb a few hundred feet back out of the caves. i finally did some REAL rock climbing. man, i thought i was going to fall and die for a moment. thankfully, we all made it safe and sound. I was definitely all smiles. :-))))) of course, as we're trying to leave the place, the van doesn't start again. we blocked everyone from getting out of the parking lot! they had to drive through the grass. ooooo boy.... and guess what? to the rescue, comes team Mazda ( the other car) right when we need them the most. so, we finally jump started the car, and off we went. we said our goodbyes to Peter and Linda. boy, that was hard! it really was almost like saying bye to your parents when you go off to college or something.
and so again, we're off. this time around to Rotorua, which is known for its famous thermal pools. not to mention it smells like shit due to all the sulfur. we camped there for a night, and were awoken in the morning by the prettiest, yet most annoying, birds ever. the lake was absolutely beautiful! later that morning, i ventured with Malia and Kayla to find Hell Pizza, which has some of the dankest pizza i've ever had, not to mention the flippin awesome name! o boy, was it good. i wanna go back to hell!! afterwards, we hit up Blue Lake, which reminds me of a smaller version of Lake Tahoe. we all just chilled out there for a few hours, swimming, drinking, eating, and the like. what a relaxing afternoon.
but not for long! we went on to see Houka falls, which isn't exactly the sterotypical waterfall. there's a large river that flows out of Lake Taupo, which i believe is the largest lake in NZ, but there's a point in the river where it narrows a lot very quickly. this has lead to some of the most intense rapids EVER! like, holy shit, you would die instantly if you ever got caught in them. it was so inspiring just watching the power that is water. absolutely breath taking. it one of those things you just have to see to really appreciate it.
next we drove through some Kauri forests, which are some of the tallest trees in NZ. they're nothing compared to a california redwood though. it's nice to know we still got something on this place. hah. and we saw Lake Taupo! god damm, it's big. oh man and then the weather got real stormy, and being in our POS car, it was a bit nerve wracking. fortunately, Cody is an excellent driver and didn't really seem to care. and then we saw MT DOOM!!!!!!!!!! you know, from Lord of the Rings. we were planning on climbing it, but the weather was shit. dissapointing! oh well, it gives me an excuse to travel back there sometime. of course, we had to make a stop there. we all got out and took some really great pictures piled on top of the Mazda. i'm surprised we didn't destroy the car with our fat asses. hah. real good times, man.
soon afterwards we pull over at a gas station. well, that what-was-supposed-to-be a quick stop turned into an hour and a half. team Mazda decided to go out to dinner without informing the Van. not chill. whatever though. Cody attempted to teach me how to drive stick in the meantime. i drove down some back ally and children laughed at us. i guess i'm just not meant to drive stick. no pun intended ;-)
shit i'm just not realizing what an incredibly long day this was!! so we kept driving, and the cars split. Team Mazda decided to go to Palmerston North for the night, as they didn't want to drive all the way to Wellington. but we, being the awesome-er car, decided to go for it. and made it, we did. at like, 2 in the morning mind you. but we made it none the less. and shit, it was windy!!!! Apparently the city is called "windy Welly" for a reason. my god, our car was rocking back and forth every time we came to a stop it was so strong! thanks to Malia, we found a Hostel that late. oh my god, it was wonderful being able to sleep in a BED again.
oh man, our day in Wellington was EPIC!!!!!!
( okay, so this section was waaaaaaay cooler, but this stupid website decided to erase it all, so here's a shortened, less exciting version) We went to a free Museum and learned lots of random facts about NZ, then went on the coolest Lord of the Rings tour!! man, it was rad. we reenacted scenes from the movie that were all filmed in this small forest right above the city. it's so crazy to think how a greenscreen can change everything!! and then we headed to the WETA workshop, which is the design production company that produced the majority of the movie, along with other epic films. god, how i would loooooove Marshall to work for them someday. then we went out clubbing that night, after getting ready in a parking lot while people stared at us. boy, there are some skanks up in here! but it was real fun. lots of dancing and drinking :-) but then, we had to get on the interislander ferry to the South island at 2:30 in the morning. it was the biggest hassle in the world, but also one of the funniest memories now looking back on it. if you wanna hear the whole story, just ask me. it was written here, but i'm too lazy to write it again. we got to Picton, this small town on the S. island, at 5:30 in the morning, and then passed out again for another 5 hours on the side of the road.
then, we continued our journey south to our respective schools. ga damm, it was beautiful, but really, it reminded me SO MUCH of California. the scenery was incredibly similar. Kevin got ridicolously drunk, again. some highlights of his shitfaced self: he offered (persistently) to suck Malia's toes, and she refused. we hit up a black sand beach, and he ran around whipping everyone with seaweed and was yelling Spanish obscenities at pretty much any person he saw, and kept saying " man, i'm buck as fuck" glorious.
FINALLY we get to our destination: Christchurch!!!! we gather over some farewell pizza, and then go our seperate ways: Malia, Cayla and I went to a Hostel, Matt went to his new place, Cody went ... i have no idea, and the Mazda went to camp out in another park somewhere.
After spending a night in the Hostel, the three of us girls hopped on a bus out to Lincoln to get to our final final desitnation: Lincoln University!!!!!! oh man, walking through thr city with all of our crap was the worst ever. but finally, we made it! i got to my room, at finally felt at ease as i settled into my new lil dorm room of a home for the next 5 months. Welcome to the buttfuckmiddleofnowhere. enjoy the sheep, retarded drunken farm boys, and open sprawling land everywhere you look.


wow, i suck. at life. seriously. this blog is WAAAAAAAY overdue. ok, maybe i should start giving a shit again. sorry guys! love you all!

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