The Last Supper, Time Warps and Life in Limbo

Well, it has been a while since I have written! I have been unsure of my state of everything since I have arrived home, and I have not been sure what to write. But, like every unfortunate assignment, eventually you have to put something on the paper. I still have so much processing to do. I thought that I would be able to summarize my experience when I got home, but I don't think I will be able to summarize anything for quite some time. But I can still write about the trip home!

Let's see what my memory has stored...

My last day in New Zealand made me not want to leave. Rich took us for fish and chips on the beach. It was beautiful and delicious. I truly miss the chips in NZ. Canada just can't quite figure out how to make fries. Which seems weird because all you have to do is throw them in a deep frier, but what do I know? Oh well, one more reason to return to NZ in the future.

Rich actually had a whole date night planned for us. First was 'tea' on the beach (tea is supper in NZ speak), then was cliff climbing on the beach. It was so beautiful. I am a bit scared of heights but it was still awesome. And I didn't feel so bad because I found out that Schnegg is possibly more scared of heights than me! Mwahahaaa. So we watched the sun set from atop the cliffs and had a last dip in the ocean. It was the perfect way for Rich to make us feel really bad about leaving!

And then on Thursday March 7 (the longest day in the history of my life), the taxi man came and got us and dropped us at the airport with our mountains of luggage. And Schnegg, Marit and Elisa caught their plane around lunch time. I caught mine at 11 PM. So I had a very eventful day at the airport.

First I worked on getting my bags checked. I was flying with Air New Zealand. They are sticklers for baggage weights. So good thing I was there 12 hours early. The girl made me move stuff around from bag to bag in order to make sure that they weighed 23 kgs. I had two bags to check, plus a guitar and a carry on suit case and purse. The carry on could only weigh 7 kgs. That was hard considering the suit case itself weight 5 kgs. So I essentially took everything out of it and put the stuff into my purse. I don't understand why they make people do that, but whatever. So I had an empty suit case and a purse filled with everything, including a ukulele. Fun times. But eventually it was all good and I got to go sit in the food court for about 9 hours before my plane left. Good times.

Eventually I got on the plane and I watched the Life of Pi, then I decided that it would be fun to watch all of the Lord of the Rings. I think I got 15 minutes into the first one and then I fell asleep. I got a window seat, which was awesome, and the plane was kind of fancy, and you could put up a foot rest thing, so I just curled up with that and it actually wasn't too uncomfortable. And I had my awesome eye mask so that I could sleep in darkness.

I mostly slept good, except there was a lot of turbulence, so every now and then I woke up and prayed that the plane wouldn't crash and that I wouldn't die. And I it didn't and I didn't, so that's good.

After an 11 or 12 hour flight, I made it to LAX, where I got to hang out for 5 or so more hours before the plane to Calgary left. I don't remember what I did. I think I went to the bathroom and got a Starbucks. So much fun.

The flight to Calgary was about 3 hours, and I got a whole row of seats to myself, so I curled up and slept most of the way to Calgary. And finally I got home at about 11 PM on March 7. I think that all together March 7 lasted 44 hours. It was a LONG day. But it ended well with Mom, Vicki and Gord greeting me with a welcome home sign and some Tim Hortons. Ahhhhh the taste of home.

Since I have been home I have felt really weird. I feel like everything is the same but I'm not really the same. I don't really know how to put the way I feel into words. Everyone asks "How does it feel to be home?" And I really don't know how to answer that question... Good? I guess... It is kind of like when you wake up from a dream and you find yourself in your bed and you are kind of relieved, but at the same time you wish you were still dreaming...

But I have been feeling better and better about being home as time goes on. I have been meeting up with a lot of friends which is nice, so I don't feel so alone after 6 months of constantly being surrounded by friends. And finally this past weekend I was reunited with my Jeep, Clyde.

Clyde spent the winter in my Uncle's shop up North. He was probably pretty lonely. But at least he got to be parked inside and not out on the street in the snow, which is where he would have been if he had stayed home. But, I was actually disappointed in the snow here in Calgary. There was a bit of snow when I arrived, but it was the kind of snow that is hard and sucky. The kind that has been there a while and half melted, then froze, etc. And there was a lot of grass visible. So I asked myself "where is all the snow?!?!" Well, I found it this weekend.

When I went to retrieve Clyde I found that the country up around my Grandma's house and my uncles houses has SO MUCH snow. Some of the snow drifts are as tall as me! And it is COLD up there, like -15. In Calgary it has been mostly above zero. I was glad to feel the cold on my nose and in my lungs. My favorite smell is the smell of the morning in winter. When you step outside and it is still dark out and you can see your breath and the air smells crisp and fresh. Mmmmmm. Love it. So I finally got to smell that smell and now I actually feel like I am home.

Overnight Logging Routes, Fancy Cars and A Room Full of Luggage

Time is going so FAST! It is already Wednesday, and I leave NZ on Thursday... TOMORROW! I am so excited! So excited that I actually am having fun packing. You know that you have been away from home for too long when...

On Monday we celebrated Hannah's 19th birthday! We had a lovely brunch of pancakes and such things, which I did not partake in, unfortunately. And we went on an adventure to see the Orca pod that was supposedly in the harbour, but alas, we were too late to see them. Dangalang.

In the afternoon, Hannah's amazing mother drove Marit and I to the Wellington Airport to pick up our free relocation car that she hooked us up with. It was a big, white, fancy Ford sedan of some sort with a huge hatchback to fit all of our stuff. It was beautiful. And unlike our crapmobile, Sunny, which we had on the south island, this new car could make it up hills without slowing down to 5 km per hour and we were able to go faster than the big trucks. Woah. Livin the life.

So we took off and drove about 6 hours to Taupo area, and searched for somewhere to camp near Mount Doom. We eventually found a cosy spot just off of a gravel road that appeared to be an obscure and rarely used gravel road. Kat had been wanting to freedom camp the whole trip but hadn't got the chance, so we went for it. We pulled over off of the road a few feet and pitched a tent. The ground was just perfect for tenting and sleeping on the ground. It was lumpy, with lots of random sticks and branches jabbing out and lots of random holes in the ground.

In the night, we were woken up probably ever 30 minutes by big semi trucks driving by hauling logs. We would see bright lights approaching, and the ground would shake as though there was an earthquake, and it always seemed like the truck was gonna come and run us over. Let's just say that none of us really slept. But we did learn a valuable lesson - don't tent on logging routes.

In the morning we drove by mount doom to get some photos. It was really cool. And so fitting that Mount Doom was the last site to see on our journey. I felt like Frodo at the end of his epic quest, finally seeing the end of his journey in the distance and knowing that he was almost finished. And that is the same for me. My long journey in search of God and other things has finally come to the end, of this chapter at least, and I can go home really soon. It is bitter sweet. But I think the sweet is overpowering the bitter at this moment in time.

After another many hours driving, we made it to Matamata to drop our borrowed tents off at the base and pick up the luggage that Kat was storing there. We went first to town and visited the ATM and I went to say farewell to my buddy Dublin Del and got my last delicious latte from him. We arrived at the base just in time for lunch. And we got to meet some of the new students.

It was pretty weird to be honest. But I was pretty excited because two of the youth that I worked with over outreach were supposed to be doing their DTS now. So I was so jacked. The first guy to come out and say hi was Rayner. Yay! He was one of the youth from up north that my outreach team conned into doing a DTS. And I was expecting Jackie from Fiji and I was so excited to see her, but instead another youth from the north came outside and shocked the pants off of me! Patty. He was supposed to be off somewhere else in the world doing work for God, but he ended up at Matamata. Pretty exciting!

We got to say hello and goodbye to the staff and Marit got her camera back. And then we took off to get our car to Auckland airport in time! We got the car there about 1.5 hours late, but no one seemed to notice. Praise Jesus. And then we hung out at the airport trying to decide what our next move would be. We could either stay at Kings Kids in Auckland for 2 nights, or get a ride for about an hour out to Rich's house and stay for 2 nights. We finally decided to take a taxi by Kings Kids to pick up our stored luggage and then get dropped out at Rich's house.

We got to Rich's at probably around 7:45 pm. We had assumed that although he has a job, that he would be home by 5ish. But there was no one home. So we loaded all of our luggage out onto the lawn and had a worship session on his front lawn. We worshipped for a long time. Eventually it got dark out. We got out our sleeping bags to keep us warm, and waited. Every car that approached got us all excited, and then it would drive by. We were almost ready to move all of our stuff into the back yard and sleep under the stars when a car approached, and didn't drive by...

Rich and his mom pulled up. All they saw was a pile of stuff in their yard and five bodies laying around. I think they just about had a heart attack. They thought someone robbed them and trashed their house. Nope. It was just 5 YWAMers creepily waiting around and inviting themselves to stay over for a couple of nights. Bahaha. They were relieved though, and brought us inside. All of our luggage literally took up the entire spare room. Haha.

But the highlight for sure was sleeping on the couch. I have slept on the ground every night for the past month, and that couch made my life so much better! I slept like a rock. It was beautiful. I can't even describe the amazingness that was sleeping on Rich's couch. Glorious. Praise Jesus.

And now we hang out until tomorrow when we return to the airport, for real this time. I'm so excited to get home and see my family and friends!!! My sister has been posting on my wall every now and then saying that she misses me. Now, if you knew my sister and I you would be shocked by this occurrence because mostly we fight and often I wonder if she even likes me. But she does because she misses me! Mwahahahaha. Mission complete. I miss her too and I can't wait to see her!!!! And to show her how much more tanned I am than her! :P

Trailer Park Men with Good Memories, Meat Pies and Cuba Street Performers

Time is flying here in New Zealand. Somehow we have made it from Oxford to Wellington. It all seems a blur in these last few days. All that seems to have remained in my memory is a long drive from Oxford to Picton, tenting at our campsite in Picton, a Ferry ride to Wellington and a relaxing time with the Robinsons.

In Picton we visited our old haunts. We had supper at Subway - the same subway where I had my first bite of chicken in many years. Then we went to the old ship for a beer - a ginger beer to be precise. I think that I am wishing to be a child again so that I wouldn't have to decide what to do with myself. Maybe if I continue to have ginger beer when I could have real beer I will revert back to a 10 year old. I think it could work. Then all I would have to worry about is remembering all of my beanie babies names and who to invite to my birthday party. I wouldn't have to decide what to do with my life.

We camped at the same campsite as we did a few weeks ago when we first got to the South island. There were some old hippie guys that live there and they recognized us. Hmmm. Creepy? Maybe. Good thing Schnegg sleeps outside of our tent doors like a guard dog.

On Friday we dropped off good Ol' Sunny the Nissan and took the Ferry across to Wellington. It was pretty uneventful. There were some dolphins playing around in the water by the Ferry. So I guess that was exciting. They had gluten free pies, so I decided to have my first ground beef since 2008. It wasn't all it is cracked up to be. I still don't like meat. Fancy that.

Hannah's sweetheart mom picked us up at the Ferry terminal and brought us home! We got to see Henk and Noemi and Kat! And Hannah's poor family took us all in - all 8 of us crazy YWAMers. We cooked the family some dinner that evening. It was lovely and the next day we explored Wellington. Hannah took us to her favorite street - Cuba street. It is a trendy little street with amazing coffee and good Opshops. I was amazed at the prices in the Opshops. Thrifting in Calgary is so popular/trendy that it is actually expensive to by second hand stuff at the trendy little thrift shops, but in Wellington the expensiveness has not caught on quite yet. I bought a few things that I am quite excited about. I hope they will fit in my luggage...

There were lots of random buskers out and about on Cuba street. There was this one guy who could beatbox like dubstep. It was so cool. He was so good that I gave him a dollar. Lucky guy. We also sat down for a bit to watch a performance. There were two girls performing in the street. They were like those circus performers that twirl around while hanging on ropes. We thought it would be sweet. And the beginning was, they just did some acrobatics and such, but then it got weird. One of the girls started to strip down. And there were children watching. It was so strange. She was already only wearing a skin tight body suit, then she took it off and was only wearing a bra and panties. And the other girl stripped down to a nude suit and stuffed the crotch to make it look like she was a man. It was so weird. We left. So I don't know how the performance ended. I am glad that I don't know.

Then we said our farewells to Noemi, Henk and Rebekah who caught the bus up to Aukland, and they are leaving today - the 4th. Schnegg, Marit, Elisa, Kat and I are still at Hannah's. Yesterday we went to church and then had lunch with her family. It was really fun. Then we ordered pizza and watched a movie.

Today is Hannah's birthday! She is 19 today. I actually can't believe that she is only 19. We are going to have some breakfast together soon - pancakes and scrambled eggs for everyone except for me! Haha, I get the usual oat meal. Mmmmmmm. And then this afternoon we are getting a FREE rental car to transport us up to Aukland. Sweet As, Bro. Hannah's family knows a guy who works at a car rental place and he hooked us up with a free relocation car to take from Wellington to Aukland! And it is BIG! So we can fit all our stuff. Sweet deal. So tonight we are gonna head to Taupo, stay overnight and hopefully catch a glimps of Mount doom before departing to Matamata and then to Aukland for our last days in New Zealand.

I can't help but be SUPER excited to go home. I just really really want to go home. But I think it is mostly just because I know that I am going home soon. It is like when you have to go to the bathroom. When you are not near a toilet you don't have to go AS bad, but when you get closer and closer to a toilet, you have to go worse and worse because you know that you can. It is like that for me and going home.

But the thought of going home is bringing up thoughts of the future. What will I do? Who knows really. I know that I need a job, but where? And I could take my MCAT so that I could apply for Medical school at some point in the near future... I don't know. I wish that God would tell me. But I think it is one of those things where he would be happy no matter what I do, so I should do what I want. Ughh. I guess I will be able to figure it out though...

The Steepest Road in the World, Awkward Church Barbecues, Sun Burns and a Welcome in Oxford

Steph's adventures on the South Island have almost come to a close. I have two more nights before I catch the ferry to Wellington. It is bitter/sweet I suppose. I love it here, but I am so ready to go home. But, I will be home in 8 days and I know that as soon as I arrive I will be sad to have left New Zealand. However, there are SO MANY things that I am excited for at home: SNOW, Parents, Meine Schwester, Mes Amis, My BIG BED with MEMORY FOAM (no more thermarest on the ground in a tent, which I roll off of every night and wake up with something hard jabbing into my back), REAL FOOD, Clyde, My Clothes, Snowturd, TV, UNLIMITED WiFi, So many other things mostly related to normalcy...

A few days ago (who really knows how many???) the little crap-mobile Nissan Sunny barely made it up the steepest street in the world. But he did it. And we didn't die, and the car remained relatively scratch free - however, the roller-coaster-ride spent 1/8 of a tank of gas. I guess it was worth it though.

On Sunday, we went to Church! Surprise! We went to C3 Church in Dunedin. It was such a cute little church in an old brick building, and most of the people in the church were students. I guess that Dunedin is mainly a University town. And it is so super awesome, filled with old buildings and lots of hills and lots of students! Some of the church people were having a barbecue at their house to kick off the new school year and invited us over. It was mostly awkward, but also awesome. I ate a sausage, my first sausage in many years. It was not good. Yuck. I don't like Kiwi sausages, no offense.

After quite some time sitting in a driveway eating sausage sizzles, we embarked on another long leg of our journey. All the way to Lake Tekapo. It was about a 4 hour drive. But on the way we stopped at Moeraki to see the round rocks. It's pretty weird. Just a collection of perfectly circular boulders on a beach. They are almost as tall as me, and perfectly spherical. It really looks like they were put there by extraterrestrial activity, but scientists claim that they are just rock bubbles. I'm not really sure how they made it out onto the beach, but I picture it like this: Back in the day when the volcanoes were still active (maybe they still are? I don't know), the volcano erupted and shot these massive boulders of molten lava up into the sky, and then they rolled down the hill, and hardened and landed on the beach.

And we camped at Lake Tekapo for 2 nights. It was the first time that we have been somewhere warm enough to wear shorts and a tank top since we were in Queenstown. I have come to the conclusion that if a place is far enough south for penguins to be wandering around, it is too cold for me. Lake Tekapo was lovely. We tanned all day one day. Lovely. It made up for the fact that all I had eaten in ages was gluten free pasta with tomato sause, or rice. Plain rice. Mmmmmm. And that's all that I ate in Tekapo too, but it's ok because I got to tan.

I tanned so much that I now have a very distinct line on the side of my face from my sunglasses. Sweet As, Bro.

And now we are staying at the YWAM Oxford base outside of Christchurch. It's really nice here. Way more homey than the Matamata base. And we get free WiFi and free laundry. BONUS! And the food is amazing! Last night we had chicken and potatoes. And for lunch today there was hummus and veggies (and pitas for those of us who can eat gluten). And then we went out for din din in Christchurch in a restaurant on the beach. It was good. I had steak. Weird. I haven't had steak in years. It tasted like steak.

We also went to this sweet mall in Christchurch that is made out of containers - like those train container box things. It's pretty neat. They put it up after the earthquakes. Way to go Kiwi's - making a tourist attraction out of a natural disaster. I was surprised though, there is still a lot of mess left over from the earthquakes. A LOT of the roads downtown were closed off, and there was a lot of collapsed buildings. It made it a little difficult to navigate!

Yesterday, I had an embarrassing moment. I really hope that no one noticed... When we arrived at the Oxford YWAM base, I changed out of my shorts into some India pants, just incase the shorts were not YWAM appropriate. I put on a pair of India pants that were not freshly clean. I proceeded to wear them all day, and then before bed I noticed that a pair of underwear was peaking out through the leg hole, and it had been for the WHOLE TIME. Oh man.

And tomorrow morning we drive to Kaikoura to see some whales and then on to Picton where we will spend the night before we drop our car off in the morning and catch the ferry! Woohooo!

Cold but Beautiful: Mishaps in the South

The south of the South Island of New Zealand is cold. Really cold. I am so thankful for my Raven -7 sleeping bag from MEC. Even though it is losing down quite fast, it still keeps my nice and warm. Marit is not so lucky. I think her temperature rating on her sleeping bag is +14. That's unfortunate considering it comes close to freezing over night and we sleep in tents. Last night Marit thought that she would be warmer if she snuggled up right next to me. And she was right. She was warmer. But I could literally feel her sucking the warmth out of the areas of my sleeping bag that she was touching. But on the bright side, we won't be heading any farther south. We are on our way back towards the North, and the warmth.

I think that it was on Tuesday that we left Queenstown. We picked up my shoes from the bungy jumping place and set off on the next leg of our adventure. We drove Southward-ish to Te Anau, stopped in for some information on camping, and headed West toward the Milford Sound. The Milford Sound is a Fiord. There are a bunch of Fiords on the south western coast of the south Island in NZ. I think that Milford is the only one that you can get to via roads with cars. I think there are hikes and canoe trips and such that you can do to see other Fiords, though. Anyways, we headed for the closest campsite to Milford, which was about 1 hour away from Milford. It was a pretty nice camp ground, considering it was one of the DOC sites.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) sets up little camp sites all over the place, and it costs only $6 per person, but it is not much of a campsite. Some of them have outhouses, but that is all. So this camp site was much like the others. It was on a beautiful clear mountain lake with rocky shores. We pitched our tent in the trees, and as the sun went down, it got COLD. We ate some supper and were sitting on the beach chilling (literally), when a guy walked by and said "Hey, come 'Yoin' us" and gestured towards a place where some other guys were sitting. I was intrigued by his accent, so I went over and asked where they were from. They were from Sweden. Cool! I haven't met anyone from Sweden here yet, mostly just Germans, so this was a nice change.

I sat in one of their lawn chairs (which was awesome since we always sit on the ground), and some of the Swedish guys lit a somewhat pitiful fire. But it was better than nothing. It even gave off a bit of heat once in a while, along with all of the smoke. I literally cried from all of the smoke. They had Swedish names. One guy was named Linus, when he introduced himself, though, I thought he said Lioness. Awkward. Then there was and Eric and and Isaac and Eimel or something like that. I couldn't really understand.

But the most embarrassing thing ever happened. Elisa and I had the bright idea to go star tipping. The stars were so beautiful that night, so it seemed like a fun idea. The only problem was that we were on a beach beside a freezing cold body of water. I volunteered to go first. Star tipping involves choosing a star to focus on, and spinning until you are dizzy, and then someone holds a flashlight and you try to run towards it. Generally this results in something hilarious. So I started to spin a good distance from the lake, just to be sure. Marit was the flashlight holder and insisted that I keep spinning for a ridiculously long time, until suddenly I see one of the Swedish guys jump in front of me and try to grab me. And then my feet were in the water and I was too dizzy to stop spinning so I pulled/pushed him into the water. We did an awkward little dance in the shallow water and then I landed on my but on the shore. It was SO EMBARRASSING. He was trying to save me like a gentleman and I got him all wet. Oh My. I wanted to stick my head in the sand. But instead I just laughed at myself.

Then Marit went and after she spun for a bit, I flashed the light at her and she just froze and tipped over to the side and landed on a rock. Bahahaha. And she was too embarrassed to come back to the Swedish guys, so I had to awkwardly make conversation. I was still mortaphied about getting that guy wet (he was the cutest one too). But I managed to get them to teach me a sentence in Swedish. I learned: Hej mitt namn as Steph. That is my name is steph. Swedish is pretty sweet. Anyways, eventually Marit and I made it back to the tent, and I just laughed and laughed for probably 30 minutes at the ridiculous star spinning fiasco. Oh man. So funny.

In the morning we got up nice and early and drove to Milford sound. It was a really pretty drive, through lots of mountains covered in rainforest. Then I took a ferry ride around the sound, no one else would go with me because they were too cheap. Their loss. I saw baby seals. It was so beautiful too.

Then we headed back down the road towards Te Anau, and on further towards Invercargill. And we found a really cheap (free) campsite. But the downside was that it was about 20 minutes drive off of the highway on a gravel road. But Marit had fun drifting around the corners. I think she really misses snow. The campground had minimal amenities. There was an outhouse, but no toilet paper. That is literally all that was there. It was basically a random field in the middle of nowhere. But the grass was nice and cushy so we had a good sleep.

Then we continued on our journey through Invercargill and on to Porpoise cove. Porpoise cove was so beautiful. The campground was literally right on the beach. And it was only $6.50 per person. A steal of a deal. And in the water, dolphins come and swim with you. So we got to see dolphins! But I didn't go in the water. It was SO COLD there, and SO WINDY.

And after a night there, we continued on our road trip. And we went to see the petrified forest that was just down the road from the camp site. It is basically just a bunch of rocks, but some of them have imprints from logs and such. Apparently, millions of years ago there was a big forest there and then a mudslide came and buried the forest, and now it is fossilized. Pretty neat. But the neatest part was that penguins live on the rocks there. And we got to see one! Awe yeah! But I actually felt really bad for the poor penguin. Because people go there every day and get their big cameras out and take pictures of the penguins. And that is the penguins' home. I would be so annoyed if people came to my house every day and started pointing and taking pictures.

And then we also stopped at Nugget point along our journey. It is a beautiful little peninsula (maybe?) with a light house and a bunch of nuggety rocks out in the water. So beautiful. And there were seals basking on the rocks way down below where we were standing. So much wildlife. New Zealand is perfect for animals like seals, dolphins and penguins to nest and have babies because there are no predators on NZ at all, so the babies can be safe!

And finally after Nugget point we made it to Dunedin, which is one of the bigger cities in New Zealand. It is so beautiful here. So many old buildings from the 1800's. I thought that Queenstown was my favorite place so far, but I think that Dunedin wins now. I would totally live here, except its kinda cold... says the Canadian... hahaha.

This morning we went to the Tunnel beach which is just outside of Dunedin. There is a steady downhill walk towards this beach, and near the bottom you have to walk through a tunnel to get onto the beach. It is so beautiful! We hung out there and took lotsa pictures! The beauty in New Zealand continues to blow me away every place we go! And this afternoon we are going to take Ol' Sunny for a drive on the steepest street in the world! Hopefully the poor little crap-mobile will make it...

Bungy Bungy AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So I think I wrote my last blog on Saturday… But I can’t really remember. I remember that we left Wanaka on Saturday in the late morning, looked for the Lord of the Rings river in Arrowtown. Failed. Came to Queenstown, went to the i-site. It was really busy. Marit and I wanted to shower. Marit and I were really annoyed at everyone. We had showers, which was glorious. Then I think I must have written my blog, and then we asked camp-ground-Joe which bars in town were good to check out. He mapped out a pub crawl for us.

So we got a $4 beer at the first bar in a big old building. But we didn’t realize that it was a big old building at that time. We noticed in the morning. Awkward. Then we walked to McDonalds. Of course. I don’t think we have gone more than a day without going to McDonalds. Anyways. Schnegg got some sort of barbecue bacon cheese burger thing. Apparently it is the best thing ever. I hate being gluten-dairy-egg-free.

Then we walked past this place called the ‘skybar’ and Marit liked the music, so we gave our IDs to the bouncers. We thought it a bit strange that there were bouncers at a bar… Then we got upstairs and realized that it was a club. Bahaha. But we were there pretty early, we are losers. But Schnegg and Elisa are the biggest losers because then they went home. Just kidding… I love them. Marit and I are the big time ‘partiers’ we stayed and danced for a bit. And then all of the people in the ‘club’ left. We realized that they were on a pub crawl. So we were really creepy and followed them. We followed them a few places, did some serious dancing, got bored of them and went to McDonalds. Surprise, surprise. Then we went back to the Skybar to dance more.

We met an Irish girl who was so hilarious. She was so sassy and was flipping off all of the boys. We just thought she was funny so we hung out with her for a while. Marit tried to tell her about Jesus, but she didn’t understand. And then we found out that she was a bisexual, and she thought we were lesbians. Awkward. Probably because we were the only girls in the skybar that were not showing their boobz and butts. Oh well. At least the boys left us alone.

Except for this one guy. He was super scrawny and super drunk and he looked like he must have been about 17. And he was just flail-dancing all over, and he danced with us. He was funny.

We eventually went home and crawled into the tent. It was late, but I will not reveal how late it was…

Let’s just say that on Sunday we were REALLY TIRED. But we still got up and went to church. We went to the City Impact church in Frankton. It was super fancy in there. And everyone was SO FRIENDLY. I was impressed. I think 3 people came up and said hi and welcomed us right when we got there, and then we got free coffees and chatted with another guy from the church. It was cool.

The preacher was really awesome, and I was sad because I was too tired to stay awake, so I sort of missed most of the message. I am so sorry Jesus!

After church we grabbed Rebekah at the airport. She was in Wellington for a while and now is finishing off our South island tour with us. Luckily she packed very light, or else she would have been strapped to the roof.

Then we went to the beach and I slept. It was awesome. The weather is amazing here in Queenstown. And the beach is beautiful. I just listened to some Will Reagan and tried to make it up to Jesus for sleeping in church. We spent most of the day at the beach, and then we came back to our tents and I showered and watched Community on my ipod, and then I went to bed early. It was great.

This morning I forced everyone to go walk around all of the art galleries in town. I don’t know if anyone else really enjoyed it. Rebekah and Schnegg stuck around for the whole tour, Marit and Elisa couldn’t manage it. Then we sat on the beach and contemplated our impending doom – the bungy jump.

Oh man. The bungy. Hm. Let’s talk about something else first.

I met the first Canadian in New Zealand on the South island. I thought that Canadians loved New Zealand. But I have seen barely any. And there are Germans EVERYWHERE. Literally we run into SO MANY Germans every day. Anyways, this was a guy from Canada… and guess who he was!!! The crazy scrawny super drunk kid from the club the other night!!!! He totally didn’t recognize us though. And he isn’t 17, he’s probably 19. He went to U of A! Sweet as bro.

So the bungy. It was 134 m. You take a little wire transporter car (sort of like a horizontal gondola) out to a little hut thing hangning on a wire, over the middle of a big valley. I was really scared. I was so scared that I couldn’t even manage to walk to the ledge. The guy pushed me along and told me to hold on to his arm. So I tried to reach for his arm with my hand, but since I was so scared, my motor skills were impaired and instead of grabbing him, I just awkwardly flapped my left arm at his arm. Then he listed off various Canadian stereo types (Bacon, Touque, Igloo… ) and then he pushed me off the edge. I screamed the whole way down, and then my body reverted into shock mode and I don’t really remember much. But when I got back up my facial expression must have been pretty funny. Everyone thought I was crying. I wasn’t. But I felt like crying. It was so scary. I was shaking so much that I couldn’t even stand up when I got back to the platform. And then I shook for a few hours after that.

And then there was the swing. It was the world’s largest swing. It was a 300 m wide swing. I don’t remember how high it is. Anyways, Marit and Elisa went together and Schnegg and Rebekah went together, and I went alone. I was still freaking out about the bungy, and I for some reason gave in to peer pressure to do the swing upside down and backwards. Oh Steph. I was pretty scared. But it wasn’t as bad as the bungy. I have had enough adrenaline to last me a lifetime. I can say with complete certainty that I like sky diving 1000000000000…. times better than bungy.

I also had to borrow a pair of close-toed shoes for the bungy because I was really smart and wore my orange Burkenstocks that Miranda gave me at the end of DTS. So I borrowed a black pair of Keds-ish shoes, which aren’t actually too horrible, except that they have a big 9 written in white on the toes. So half way back to town on the bus I realized that I was still wearing the black borrow shoes. Awkward. So I have to go back tomorrow and get my shoes. But they were kind and let me wear their shoes until I get mine back. Oh man.

And on our walk back to the campsite guess who we ran into! Miranda and Tasia. That is the second time in Queenstown. I think they are stalking us. But not really because we are having a sleepover with them tonight at our hilarious camp ground. It is sort of in town, but a camp ground. It’s really small, and there are little gravel slips for vehicles. And then tiny little patches of grass that are half of the size of the car parks. And we have two tents pitched on the tiny patch of grass. They JUST fit, but barely. It’s hilarious. But there are free showers and it’s cheap. Score!

And tomorrow, once we pick up my shoes, we are going to leave Queenstown (sadly) and travel to Milford Sound. I am so pumped, it’s supposed to be beautiful. I’m so pumped.

Nalgene Heaven

I don’t think I wrote about the death of my Nalgene bottle back in January in Kaitaia. I couldn’t face the fact that my dearest water bottle had bit the dust, so I have been living in denial for about a month and a half. Nalgenes are virtually indestructible. But leave it to Steph to crack it in half. So my beloved transparent green water bottle went to Nalgene heaven and joined my orange bottle from high school that mysteriously went missing, and my red one that got lost in the dish washer a few years ago. I hope that Nalgene heaven is nice. And I hope Ol’ Green knows that I will never forget him, even though I bought a new Nalgene today.

We were walking along the street in Wanaka and there was a Nalgene on display in the window. I have been living off of crappy plastic water bottles. They just aren’t the same as a Nalgene. I always accidentally throw them away or else someone else mistakes them for garbage and throws them away. So I saw my shiny new Nalgene in the window and I knew that my name was already on it. I ran inside and checked the tag. It didn’t say ‘Steph’ but it did say the price… close enough for me! So now I have a pretty new Nalgene to carry proudly with me wherever I go. It is kind of pearlescent and opaque. Super cool. It’s bright green with a purple lid. Awesome. I also love getting new Nalgenes because the mL measurements are not warn away yet. Yesssssssssssss. So happy.

I am in Queenstown now. It is so beautiful here. And so different from Hokitika. Last I wrote we were in Hokitika, and we saw some glow worms. It was pretty sweet. They look like blue/green ish stars in the forest. Just another one of God’s amazing creations, I guess. It looks pretty from afar, anyways. Actually glow worms are maggots or larva or something of some sort of flying insect. And they hang in dark places, and a string of mucus hangs from their butt. And their butt glows. And the glowing attracts poor unsuspecting insects that are just buzzing along minding their own business. And then they eat the poor little buggies. Oh nature.

After Hokitika, we drove down to Franz Joseph. The area around Hokitika and Franz Joseph is very much a rainforest. Franz Joseph was especially interesting because there is the coast, with the Tasman sea, and then rainforest-covered hills, and then rocky mountains covered in snow. So cool. In Franz Joseph, we did two super cool things. We went to hot pools on the first evening. It cost a fortune, but it was pretty neat. There were 3 pools. One was 36 degrees C, one was 38 and one was 40. And the pools were built amongst the rain forest, and the trees weren’t cut down or anything, so it was like swimming in a fancy hot tub in the middle of a rain forest. I guess that’s probably because we did swim in fancy hot tubs in the middle of the rain forest. We stayed there for many many hours and it was glorious. Marit was in love with one of the guys that was at the pool also. We think he was from South Africa, but she wouldn’t let me introduce her to him. Too bad. Maybe they would have fallen in love and gotten married. Now we will never know.

And on Friday morning… Bum bum bummmmmmmm… Schnegg, Elisa and I went skydiving over the Franz Joseph glacier. We got up super early… I think it was 6. It was still dark out and I couldn’t see anything when I got dressed, so I put my jean shirt on inside out. And we got to the skydive place by 7:30 and signed our lives away. But it was so worth it. We got taken into the air in a tiny little plane, and we lucked out and got to all go on the plane at the same time. As we flew I could see the Tasman sea, the rainforest, the mountains and the glacier. It was AMAZING. The sky was perfectly clear and the sun was shining. (It was actually a miracle from Jesus that the sky was clear because it was rainy and foggy for days and days, and right before and after our jump).

I was a bit nervous and really excited. I realized that the last time I was that excited was when I went to Disney world. No, not when I was a small child. It was about 2 years ago. Don’t be judgin’, I met Mickey Mouse.

It was kind of awkward. I got strapped to this guy, I think his name was Rhys. And I basically sat on his knee the whole time. So funny. Getting out of the plane was the most awkward part, I sat/hung out of the plane while he jumped. Oh man. So. Awkward. But totally worth it.

I think the scariest part was jumping from the plane. And I didn’t really get an option in jumping, just kind of hung there. And then we freefell for I think 45 seconds or something like that. It was so amazing. It wasn’t really scary, just fun. And then when the parachute was out I just glided around, and he let me steer a bit. It was so peaceful way up in the sky with the beautiful scenery below me. I kept saying ‘Weeeeeeeeee!’ the whole time, like a small child on the Dumbo ride, and I didn’t even realize it until the instructor said ‘Weeeeeeeeeee… HAHA!’ and made fun of me. Oh man. I’m weird. 

But I have decided that one of my career options is to be a skydive instructor. Or a skydive photographer. That would be the funnest job in the world. And I would make lotsa money… But we asked one of the instructors and he said that the minimum amount of jumps to become an instructor is 1000. How would anyone ever get the opportunity to do 1000 jumps?

After the skydive we got some brunch. Did I mention that I have been eating meat recently? Woah. It is like a whole new world of food out there. I decided that since I can’t have gluten, dairy, eggs or meat life is pretty boring and really difficult while travelling. And if I want to do any more missions in the future, it would be very much better if I could eat SOMETHING. So I am trying out meat, after 4.5 years without. It is quite liberating looking at a menu and seeing things that I CAN eat. The first day I ate meat was in Picton when we got off the ferry and went to Subway. For a person who can’t eat gluten, dairy, eggs or meat to eat at Subway it ubersucks. Because all you can have is a salad, and with no cheese or meat on it, it doesn’t fill you up at all. So I got chicken teriyaki. And I didn’t even get overly sick. I had a bit of constipation and a bit of diarrhea for a few days, but all in all it wasn’t too bad. So at brunch, I got a BLT. Crazy! Bacon is really salty. I can’t decide if I like it. It made me drink SO MUCH water.

Then we drove to Wanaka. It was a long, but eventful drive. We almost left Franz Joseph without our tents. Because we had gotten up so early, we couldn’t pack them up because they were really wet, so we left them at the campground and went skydiving. In the excitement of skydiving we completely forgot that the tents existed. But in town we ran into ‘the French guy’. ‘The French guy’ is a guy who camped at the same camp ground as us in Hokitika, and in Franz Joseph. We were pretty sure he was following us in his big yellow van with underwear for curtains. Anyways, we stopped and chatted with him, and he reminded us that our tents were still at the campsite.

So we got in the car to drive back to the campground. Part way there we heard a clunk on the roof and then on the trunk. It reminded me oddly of the many times that I left coffee mugs on the roof of my car and forgot about them, and then they fell off as I drove. “What was that!?!?” everyone asked. I said, “It sounded like something fell off the roof”. And Schnegg put is face in his hands and started saying “Crap, crap, crap, crap…”

We pulled the car over, and Schnegg confessed that he set his fancy Cannon SLR camera on the roof. Yikes. We went hunting for it in the forest at the side of the road. We found remnants of the camera scattered here and there. There was a lens on the dotted line in the middle of the road. His lens cap was in the middle of one of the lanes… But then, it was a miracle, I found the rest of the camera in tact. How the camera survived falling off of the roof of the car at 100 km/hr can only be explained by Jesus. And the camera still works - minus the broken lense. Praise Jesus. So Schnegg didn’t cry. I don’t know how, but he didn’t. How manly of him.

We drove for many hours on our way to Wanaka. We stopped at some little town to see if there was a grocery store because Schnegg wanted juice. There was no super market, so we continued on. We drove past a hitchhiker and noticed that he was laughing. Weird. Why was he laughing at us. Schnegg thought to himself ‘I didn’t know this car had a spoiler’. Ha! The trunk was open. Apparently Marit had opened it while we were stopped. Oh man. And then we drove back past the hitchhiker and found bananas and oat meal in the middle of the road. Awkward. But like I said, the ride was not boring.

Finally we made it to Wanaka and found a camp site. We were tired. We had Subway and slept. And there was no sign of ‘the French guy’.

And now we are in Queenstown. It is so beautiful here. And so different from the rainforested mountains near Franz Joseph. Here it is dry. And the mountains are rugged and rocky like the Rocky mountains in Alberta. It really reminds me of home. There are no more palm trees, just a lot of dry grass and pretty lakes. I am excited to stay here for a couple of days! And after a few nights at the cheapest of cheap camping spots, I am excited to have a shower! And the sun is out and it is HOT. Finally. Marit and I can get our tan on.

Overnight bus rides, Ferries and our new friend Sunny

I don't remember what day it was when we left Aukland... Saturday perhaps? We waited around at the Kings Kids base in Auckland why everyone left for their flights. The first to leave were Matt and Brent, my Canadian buddies. We had to wake up at 5 am to say good bye to them. They were lucky that I managed to get myself out of bed... I almost talked myself out of getting up. So we said goodbye, Brent in his suit and Matt in his sweatpants. Somehow it was perfect.

Then the next day we just sat and waited while more people left... Tiff, Sarah and Leish later in the morning. Then Dan and Kyle. Then Van, Jacob and Anne. And finally at 6 ish, Elisa, Marit, Schnegg, Henk, Noemi and I had our turn. But instead of the airport we got dropped off at the bus station. Elisa, Marit, Schnegg and my bus was earlier than Henk and Noemi's and was also at a different station. We got dropped off first. As we drove up to the station, a bus pulled in in front of the building and it said 'Wellington' on it. And Noemi said "YES! Wellington! That's your bus! YES!" And she was so unbelievably excited. But no one else was excited to see the bus we were supposed to take at the bus station where it was supposed to be. Oh Nomes...

So we said goodbye to Nomes and Henk (and Johanna who dropped us off), and we were off. We officially started our travels. And we went to the bus and Schnegg carried our massive shared bag. And I got a coffee before the bus left at 7:50 PM. It was a double decker bus. I have never seen one of those, let alone been on one. It was intense. We sat on the top floor. So cool. And we drove off into the sunset. Literally. Awe. And proceeded to have a very restless night on the bus with stops every now and again for pee breaks. And finally we got off the bus in Wellington at 6:45 AM.

I wonder if that is actually what happens in the movies when the people walk off into the sunset. They would have to sleep sometime... why would you start a journey at sunset? Weird.

Anyways, then we went to McDonalds. Guess who met us there!!! Kiwi Hannah, Hannah D and Rebekah. Long time no see... like maybe two sleeps apart. One for us. And we had a coffee. And then guess who showed up... Henk and Noemi! Long time no see again! Like 12 hours maybe! Hahaha!

Eventually, though, we had to part ways again. And it was for real this time saying goodbye to Hannah D. It was sad, but I know that I will see all of the others again... so that made it not so bad! And Elisa, Schnegg, Marit and I got on the ferry to Picton. It was pretty awesome! The ride was about 3 hours long, and the view was pretty crazy beautiful! But we didn't see any dophins :(

Chillin on the Ferry. But no WiFi :(

When we got on the ferry and found our seats, I sat down and decided that I would relax and read my kobo (Canadian Kindle). I opened my backpack to get it out, and it wasn't there. Crap. The last place I had it was on the bus. I had put it in the pocket on the back of the seat in front of me. Crap. I checked my bag again. And again. And again. And I checked my purse. But it wasn't there. I started to panic. My stomach did that weird dropping thing that you get on a roller coaster, or when you realize that you are doomed. I frantically ran around looking for a pay phone to call the bus company, but - just my luck... they weren't working. Awesome. So I went back to sit down and cry. And on the way I prayed to Jesus that I would find my kobo. And when I got back to my seat it was sitting in plain sight on my bag. Praise Jesus.

When we got off of the ferry, we waited in line for ages at the car rental place and eventually got our car. I think the guy thinks that I am an idiot blonde and that I will crash the car. Which could be right. But he doesn't know my secret... I have Jesus. So Ha!

Our car's name is Sunny. He is a Nissan. I don't know what kind of Nissan. I don't know what year. But he is gold and looks like a grandpa would drive him. Perfect. He will match my grandpa sweaters and granny skirts. He is a four door car with a trunk that is barely big enough to fit all of our stuff. It won't be fun when Rebekah comes. I hope she brings nothing. Because that is all that will fit in the car.

The first day we lounged in the sun in Picton, found a camp site, ate some subway and drank a beer on a 100 year old ship. What a life. We even got to shower. Awe yeah.

The next day, we got up and drove to Nelson. The drive was intense. The road was through the mountains and really really curvy. I almost felt car sick and I was driving. In Nelson, we found an information site and got a bunch of brochures. We asked where to cheapest campsite was and where the McDonalds was. The campsite was 6 dollars per person. Awesome! But we spent most of our day in McDonalds using the free wifi to plan out our trip, and in Warehouse and New World shopping for food and supplies. So we really didn't see much of Nelson, but I can say that the lady working at McDonalds was super nice.

In the morning we got up early for a long drive to Hokitika. We left at about 9:30 ish and finally arrived at Hokitika at around 8 PM haha! But man, the day was AWESOME! The drive from Nelson south along the West coast is AMAZING! We drove through the mountains for a while on more curvy roads until we finally reached the coast and then we drove along the curves of the mountains with the rainforest covered mountains to our left and the crashing ocean to our right. Every time we came around a bend we saw a more breathtaking landscape. The waves were huge crashing against rocky shores. And the shorelines were dotted with rock islands that have been carved out by the waves for the entirety of their existence. It was so beautiful. There were even signs marking out penguin crossings. I think every one of us was completely blown away by the beauty of God's creation! I think this is the perfect place to experience God's beauty.

We stopped in Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks and blow holes. It was beautiful. And the best part was that it was free!!! Just kidding. It was a short walk along the cliffs of the rocky coast. The rocks had horizontal lines covering their surfaces that made the cliffs look like stacks of pancakes, and there were blow holes in the rocks where the waves crashed. It was so cool.

We drove to Greymouth after that. Visited McDonalds for our daily fix on free WiFi, got some food and carried on our way to Hokitika. It was getting kind of late when we were in Greymouth, and we weren't sure if we should stay there or if we should go on to Hokitika. So we prayed to God, and Marit heard that it would be expensive if we stayed in Greymouth and that we would find cheap camping in Hokitika. So we carried on, and along the highway, just outside of Hokitika we saw a sign for camping, so we went to check it out. And we came to the awesome place that we are now. It is 10 dollars per person and you don't have to pay for showers and there is unlimited internet included. There is a little relaxation room with couches and a TV and a kitchen. And laundry. What more could we ask for? Praise Jesus.

So we stayed the night here. We put an extra cover on our tent because we heard that it might rain, and there are a few holes in the top of our tent. But Schnegg wanted to sleep outside for some reason. Men. But lucky for him it didn't rain until the early morning. The rest of us slept in. We decided to stay here one more night. So we explored a bit around Hokitika. We searched out things that are free.

By the way, there is SO MUCH stuff to do here... if you are rich. Holy. I am going to have to save up and come back to NZ someday. So much cool stuff everywhere. Including sky diving and bungee jumping. Teehee. We have booked ourselves to go sky diving on the Franz Joseph glacier on Friday... only two more sleeps! It should be amazing! We will be able to see the ocean, the rainforest, the mountains and the glacier as we fall. I am super excited! We also booked ourselves in for bungee jumping in Queenstown in a few days. So jacked! So needless to say, we don't have much more of a budget to do other things...

So we asked around about things we should do today. We ended up going out to Hokitika Gorge just out of town. It is BEAUTIFUL! It was about a 15 minute walk down to a rock gorge filled with turquoise water. And BONUS: there was a swing bridge. And we didn't have to pay. Awe yeah.

Then we went to check out a lake. Lake Kaniere. We drove towards it and found a sign that said "Lake Kaniere walk", we tried to drive further to find beach access, but we failed and decided to try the walk. The path entrance wasn't very far from the lake... One hour later (or more, I don't actually know), we had climbed quite far up the side of a mountain and were about to turn back when we found a lookout point. It was so beautiful. It literally took my breath away. We sat there for who knows how long. In silence. It was amazing. So serene. The lake was basically untouched. There were no cabins on it's edges and no beaches that we could see. No boats or anything around. That is how God created the world to be. Amazing. I think we all could feel God's presence there. And after a long time in silence, we reluctantly left, but only because we were getting really cold.

It's amazing. God has been blessing us so much on our trip already! I think it's because Elisa is on to it and has us doing worship and prayer every morning, and sometimes in the evening! It's pretty awesome!

And tonight we are planning on going to see some glow worms! Ooooooh. More free nature. Love it!

And I am so glad to be back with my European friends. Before we left, Miranda named our group "Steph and the Europeans" Hahah! And it's always entertaining. This morning as we ate our oatmeal for breakfast, I got quite the laugh. I was talking about the oatmeal, and Marit asked "What is this 'oatmeal'?" Elisa and I were confused because we have been eating oatmeal for every breakfast for the past 6 months. Oh Marit. I love her. Haha!