Kaikoura

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Kaikoura- a seaside town, with black pebble beaches and a rugged mountain range spanning the horizon was a perfect package of a week. I heard through another backpacker that a hostel called the Dusky Lodge in Kaikoura offered easy work for accommodation. After a quick phone call I was on the bus, arriving at the Dusky in time fold laundry for two hours to earn my keep for the night.

The hostel was enormous and so there were actually 13 of us "cleaners" on staff. It was a really international crew (a few Germans, a Spanish couple, a lovely guy named Daniel from Chile.....). The only other American was a guy, also named Daniel, who had been living in Boulder for 4 years but was originally from Boston. I had met "him" a million times before and loved "him" every time. If I have a "type", its east coast boy gone mountain man.

We all cleaned together for two hours in the mornings (making beds, scrubbing toilets and washing dishes) and in exchange were given a room to ourselves, away from the other guests, with free use of bikes, the pool, sauna, laundry and other hostel facilities. Its amazing how the two hours of structure each morning, people to check in with throughout the day and a few shelves on which to throw my dwindling clothes made the Dusky feel like home. With the rest of the day to kill, "The Cleaners" had BBQs, played cards and went on hikes together.

It was an ideal way to give my bank account a week off while not working too hard and still participating in the traveling life.

I noticed while polishing one of 50 mirrors yesterday that I have somehow become a dirty backpacker. In the 7 days I was in Kaikoura, I showered once. My "pointer" toe nail fell off a few days ago exposing a raw, red nail bed with which I am grotesquely fascinated. I now have 9 chipped blue toenails and one red toe. What were once my classy 7 jeans are now decorated with three holes large enough to fit my hand through (with more forming) and my alternate pair of pants has no zipper but I continue to wear them, lamely attempting to match my underwear with my shirt. I didn't bring a brush to New Zealand and so I haven't brushed my hair in 4 months......imagine the tangled mess!!

I left today in what has become my normal fashion....at the drop of a hat, with an offer from a friend for a ride NORTH.

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Comments

[Esther]

Oh My Gosh!
Should I send you some money? Sounds like fun but take care of your health! Love you! Esther

[Ash]

my hero
So not only do I continue to be fascinated by you and your adventures, but I am now actually at work, bragging about my brave, open-minded cousin and her intense, life altering experiences! I adore you more and more, each time I check in on these blogs, and though I'm sure you "have to be there" your writing skills are certainly doing you justice. I saw Naama checked in too--I sent her an email about you after she found me on facebook. Keep taking care of yourself (it's VERY common for people w/ thyroid issues to be "over-medicated/radiated," and become hypo-.) Speaking of medicine--one of the docs here at work went backpacking through NZ too, and said for you to find "Arthurs Pass" somewhere a few hours (I wanna say east) of Christchurch, and then off of there some place called "creek cave" or something cave (I know, really helpful, huh??), and he said it's like the coolest little place to go hiking through by yourself if you've got a flashlight and the water's not too high. I'm sure you'll find your own adventures, but he wanted me to fill you in. XOXOXO!