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.