The end of part 1

Good evening to you my lovely friends,

The time is currently 1:36am. I am writing to you from the overnight area of the Christchurch airport where Josh, Mikey and I are spending our last night in New Zealand. Doesn't get much more tragic than that my friends. Our flight leaves at 8am tomorrow so we are only just beginning the all night battle at the airport. Josh and Mike have of course already found some cute girls to flirt with and I have already managed to fall asleep only to be awakened by airport security telling me to be more vigilant with my bag watching.

Anyways on to the happier stuff, because yes, thankfully things did get better post Queenstown depression.

Some of you have said my blog has lost some of its zest and enthusiasm as of late, so here's hoping this blog entertains you guys.

As a three man crew our remaining days on Queenstown became pretty routine... Go to the casino in the morning so the boys could bet on hockey, go to the beach which was rock, not sand (aka bad) , go back to the casino so the boys could collect their winnings from the hockey bets, proceed to watch mike march over to the roulette table where he would contemplate betting on 16, would end up betting on red and proceed to lose his winnings, usually in addition to an extra 5-10$. Josh was a little more cautious with his winnings but did occasionally follow the same misguided path. Other than that, we got to watch a Canadian street performer named Billions Cobra wiggle his body through a flaming tennis racket (pretty impressive), we watched some movies with hostel buddies, and got many 60 cent Mcdonalds cones for late night treats. We also played the Queenstown frolf course which was sickkkkk but embarrassingly I got my ass whopped, even by Mike.

Now I know what your guys are thinking: "What happened to these guys? Where's the action, where is that youthful irresponsibility that they possessed before their friends left?". To that I say be patient, we are slowly working our way back and it started in the lovely city of Dunedin, our next stop.

I have to admit, when the three of us were deciding where to spend our last days in New Zealand I was horribly stubborn. I wanted to go back to sunny, amazing Nelson, and that is all I wanted. I stomped, I huffed, I puffed, I scowled, but the boys resisted my temper tantrum and out ruled me, deciding to go to Dunedin. For those of you who don't know, Dunedin is a university town in the almost very south of New Zealand, and it just so happened that we rolled in just in time for the tail end of frosh week. The city was buzzin with kids running around and I realized pretty immediately that it was going to be awesome. That being said, our hostel was not at all awesome. The hostel owner was an overweight ginger woman well beyond her prime. She was grumpy and useless and she knew it. The hostel itself was small and it gave the impression that someone had rubbed mothballs all over it. The decorations hadn't been updated in years. On the walls hung creepy folky pictures of clowns, teddy bears and the like. She had also glued a blue string across the entire room like it was wall paper.. I'm not sure if that was ever in style but I can tell you it somehow terrified me. There was also a note, clearly attempting to be funny, saying all encounters with the hostel ghost should be reported to the ginger, and Mikey got quite scared when he claimed he heard the ghost on our first night.

Dunedin actually ended up being a really beautiful place. We saw the campus and it brought us all back to our glory days. Mike was especially nostalgic. On our way to campus we walked through student housing and it honestly reminded me of fanshawe student housing post homecoming/frosh/st patty's. The kiwis definitely know how to rage, I'll give them that. We also went shopping and checked out the worlds steepest road (pictures to follow) which was actually pretty fun. It took us 2 hours to get to the road and we were starting to get delirious but thankfully found it just in time! When we got to the top we met a group of American and Canadian students who were heaps of fun and we watched people drive up the hill and rip down it which was pretty scary at times. Scary fact: 2 people have died going down, one using a garbage bin to get down. We took some scenic pics and walked back through the botanical gardens (average) then headed home. The big social event of the 3 days there ended up being the Saturday. Our roommate, a German girl named Meike, introduced us to some of her friends, 2 Chilean hostel workers named Pablo also joined us along with 2 of our new German friends, Marie and aly and we hit the town. We ended up going to this underground bar (literally under the ground) and had an awesome night dancing. The boys were disappointed by the gender ratio but I think it was a welcome anomaly.

Just saying this for the purpose of saying it and it has no relevance, but the 383994th German that we met on this trip was a 19 year old standing at 6'9". I lie to you not. Josh and mike looked like they were midgets that this guy could crush.

Another exciting thing about Dunedin was that it was crawling with All Blacks and other pro rugby players because they had a game while we were there. We ended up catching up with a few that we met at the bar in Queenstown and had a nice chat. Pretty cool, pretty cool.

On Sunday morning we hopped on another inter city bus (makes me desperately miss the kiwi) and headed to our real final stop, Christchurch. For those of you who don't know, in 2011 the city was hit by an earthquake and it pretty much ruined the middle of the city. This makes for some pretty cool sites, but also severely limits what you can do there. Yesterday we had a pretty great time walking around the "red zone" and checking out the damage. It was really kind of eerie being in such a quiet and dead place when you knew what it used to be.

Once again we got stuck in a shotty hostel with an even more annoying owner, but these things are easily bearable for one night. Today we woke up and had to check out at 10am with no plan and no place to go other than the airport by 10pm. We ended up spending most of the day in search for any food other than McDonald's, and just as mcdonalds seems to ensure will happen, we failed. When we weren't eating, we were sponging free wifi wherever we could get it to help pass the time in the boring place that is Christchurch. The highlight of the day hands down was watching Mikey get pooped on by a seagull, but he really took it in stride. Props to him for that. At 9pm we hopped on a bus to the airport and didn't look back.

Despite ending this trip in one of the worst possible places, these 5 weeks were the best of my life. I never thought I could love another country so much but New Zealand has definitely won me over.
I also never expected to meet so many amazing friends, but I did. To commemorate our time here, Ive made a bit of a list of the bests and worsts of the trip...

Best 3 places: Wellington, Nelson and Queenstown

Worst 3 places: Kaiteriteri, Waitomo and Christchurch

Best day: Mount doom hike

Worst day: today in Christchurch

Best nights out: Wellington, poo bar and 1st night in Queenstown

Best bar: El Horno

Best dance partner: Karl

Best use of a staircase: Ryley

Best Canadian accent: Annie

Worst Canadian accent: Karl (wow you made the list twice!)

Best bus driver: Gary

Best way to spend 40$/second: Nevis Bungy

Worst way to spend 120$ in a day: Milford sound

Best hostel: tie between base taupo, nomads queenstown and prince Al's in Nelson

Worst hostel: base Wellington

Best beach: cathedral cove by hot water beach

Worst beach: Queenstown rock pit

Best view: mount Victoria in Wellington

Best cook: tie between Jess, karl and wild

Cutest couple: Karl and will (followed closely by Annie and Karan and then I guess by Jess and will)

Worst coordination: Lizzie but only just barely beating out Rishi due to the tumble down mount vic

Best roommates: the super 6

Best photographer: Wild

Best nickname: the ice man

Best restaurant: far badgerz in Queenstown

The person that everyone wants to be: Eoin

Best buddy: tie between Rishi, Lizzie, Will Wild, Annie, Jess, Laura, Slinger, Ryguy, Karl & Karan <3

New Zealand, I love you and I'll never forget you, but I've got a plane ticket to Sydney that's telling me we've got to go our separate ways. I will be back, but for now it's on to the land down under!

And then there were three

Hey all

So the three originals are still in Queenstown ! We have been here for 9 nights now and have 2 more to go and I can't lie, I'm itching to be out of this party town. This is where our ffwding through the north island and the west coast of the south to stay with our friends is biting us in the ass. Too much time to burn, not enough money to go somewhere else!

Anyways let me tell you what we have been up to since we last spoke. I noticed some typos from my last post, so l will clarify that we didn't climb he biggest mountain in Queenstown this week, we climbed an average sized hill. It was, however, a lot of fun and a nice way to spend one of our last days all together. It was actually pretty high so when we got to the top we were freezing and I caught a pretty nasty cold :(.

The next day we woke up and headed off to milford sound at 730am. In total we were on the bus for 7.5 hours that day and actually at Milford for 2.. For those of you who don't know what Milford is, it is supposedly the most beautiful place on earth, and I'm sure it might be, but when we were there it was a torrential downpour with 60k winds, so any time you went out on to the deck of the boat you got hammered. Thankfully it cleared up for the last 20 mins of the trip and we got to see a bunch of dolphins playing right by the boat basically putting on a show for us. That almost made the trip and the money worth it.

We got back and hit the town for Karan and Rishi's last night. As usual it was an amazing time. When it actually came time to say goodbye I started crying like a baby, because rishi was basically with us 3 of us for a full month, way way longer than anticipated, and seeing him leave just sucked. We miss you rishi! And you too Karan, you crazy kid.

The next morning we woke up to a sad text saying Laura and Annie had an emergency and had to take off early, so we went out for a family lunch at the food court and had to say goodbye to them too. Goodbyes have proven to be the worst thing about traveling.

Thankfully the day took a turn for the better when we got tickets to go watch a professional rugby game (Auckland vs Queenstown) at a field nearby our hostel. It was such a casual thing and it was so cool to see a professional sport played like that. Rugby is also awesome to watch! Sadly Auckland won on a penalty kick after Queenstown fought hard to take the lead, but it was pretty brilliant and I now know how intense and crazy rugby players must be. Way tougher than football!!

After the game Jess directed us through our final family meal, pasta with bacon and mushrooms, and it was amazing. The 7 of us remaining went to a new bar called Winnie's (sp?) and ended up running into a few of the players from the game, including several All Blacks, and we partied with them. Some of you may not know this, but in Canada that's like the equivalent to partying with Crosby so it was a pretty big deal. Oddly enough, none of the other people in the bar recognized them (silly tourists) so thankfully it didn't turn into mayhem.

We ended the night at the famous fergbuger (best burger ever) and then said goodbye to Jess and will. We are hoping to meet up with Jess in Thailand, so that got us through that goodbye, but definitely not fun to say goodbye to the coolest couple ever.

After that it was just me, the boys, ryguy and Karl. The 5 of us entered what has been labeled the Queenstown depression where we spent 2 days loitering in parks, watching movies and eating McDonald's. 2 nights ago we had to say goodbye to them as well after watching the departed (at least they went out win a bang) and that sucked as well of course. Lots of sucking in this post. Ryley *may* come to Australia with us, but that will be a surprise come beginning of march.

Now there are only the 3 of us. For the last few days we have been in a hostel room with all Canadians which was pretty fun, despite the room being dark and dungeon like. After these 2 last nights are up here we are off to Dunedin for our last real stop on the south island, which is basically a big university town. We will be there for 3 nights (mike is really excited to see the steepest road in the world which is apparently there) and then we are off to Christchurch to fly back to Auckland and then to Sydney !

Thats all I got for now, party people. Until we meet again !

Garage sale

Fellow Canadians !

Greetings from Queenstown! It's been so hard to find any time to write anything down over the last week, so bear with me as this post promises to be sporadic and difficult to read.

So we last left off in Nelson. We woke up on Monday, watched the Super Bowl, an crammed on to a new kiwi bus with an awesome driver named Gary who has dubbed his bus the garage sale. We were all pretty panicked because there wasn't enough room on the bus and it looked like we were going to have to stay in Nelson for longer, but Gary being the stud that he is worked it out.

The first person I met on the bus was a fellow Canadian named Ryley (not riley) who loves hockey and is basically exactly like the boys. I also made my first friend from Portugal, Ricardo. He is quite lovely and quite then ladies' man.

The bus was headed for Kaiteriteri, and when we got there we realized it was going to be an awful place. The hostel room was miniature and it was in the middle of nowhere. Very thankfully, we only had to stay there one night. All we did there was go to a pretty generic beach and play a game of 21. We did however meet some new great buddies: Annie, Laura and Owen from the UK and Angelo from holland.

Next we got back on the bus and jetted off to westport. It was a cool little local town not meant for tourists and sadly we only stayed for one night but we had a bus beach bonfire and then headed to the one local bar where our new crew absolutely shredded the dance floor and established ourselves and the number one party crew on the bus (at least in our own minds).

Once again, back on the bus. This time to lake mahinapua. This was maybe a township if it could even be called that. I didn't see a single person other than our group the whole time we were there, and we stayed at the only hostel (which was actually a bar) within like 50km or something like that so we were all anticipating a pretty horrible stay. In the end it was actually an awesome night. Our bus driver made a theme for the night (called "p for p" which basically means you can be anything starting with a p) and everyone got really into it. I dressed up as a present with my new German friend Karl, josh and mike were prisoners, Annie was peace, Laura was pregnant, Karan was a piñata, and rishi was a penguin. Our new friends Jess and will (obviously from the UK like everyone else) taught us a new drinking game called arrogance and the night ended with anther dance floor shredding. I'm seeing a theme here talking only really about the nights but the truth is that we didn't really get to do much in the days because we've been doing extremely long drives every day. We did get a chance to go to the beach though where the waves were extremely aggressive (Karl ate it at one point) and Karan's bag was almost stolen by local ATVers who blew by us.

After a long long bus ride, we got to Franz Joseph. This is where the most famous glaciers are in new zealand. We stayed for 2 nights and on the 2nd day we did a kayak through this reflective lake where we were supposed to be able to see the glaciers. Sadly it was overcast and we couldn't see them but we had a great time with everyone having kayak wars and racing. In the end the champion kayaker was actually a random old guy in our group. We also went to the glacier hot pools and checked out the biggest hot tub in new zealand.

We then headed to wanaka. This place was pretty awesome and we definitely would have stayed longer if we didn't want to stay with all our buddies. Jess, Ryley, will, Karl and I went to the beach and swam out to a dock and took 100 jumping pictures. We made one of our famous giant pastas for dinner and contemplated going out. I didn't, but some did. When we woke up we went to puzzle world and we played around in there for a while. Karl and I did the maze together and it was actually very tough. Luckily he basically guided me through it using his height to look over the walls (fun fact, the average height in our group for boys is 6'3" and we have 3 who stand at 6'5"). Sadly Ryley roofed my frisbee in puzzle world and alas it is now gone forever thanks to the grumpy employee who refused to let him climb up and get it.

This leads me to Queenstown, which Is basically the tourism/adventure/party capital of the country. We've been here 3 nights now and are staying for 5 more. On our first day we went to the beach and played around there for a bit. We then had our first night at World Bar which is this massive tourist bar and we liked it so much that we have been going every night since (despite efforts to mix it up). We also reunited with will and lizzie that night and had an amazing time with them! We have also done some shopping and a lot of walking. Yesterday Karl, Karan, Rishi and I went to do the Nevis Bungy, which is the highest Bungy in the country standing at 134 meters. When we got there everyone was freaking out and we had to take a trolly from where the bus dropped us off to the platform giving us like 4 minutes to just stare at how high up we were. On the platform the music was blaring and I had to wait until the very end to go so I had maximum time to think about it. When it's your turn, they walk you out to this ledge and say "3,2,1, Bungy" and then you have to jump so there's not really any time to hesitate. It ended up rig the coolest, scariest thing I've ever done in my life and I can't wait to do another one!

Today we are climbing up the tallest hill/baby mountain in NZ and spending out last real day together as a group. Tomorrow most of us are heading to Milford sound (supposedly the most beautiful place on earth) and then having our last night out before Rishi and Karan leave. Rishi actually feels like my older brother now and I'm already dreading seeing him go :(, and then after that everyone is kind of breaking up slowly.

That's pretty much all that's coming to mind right now, so I'll leave it at that. Miss you and our beautiful homeland !

Southbound

Hey friendz

So I'm currently sitting in a hammock resting up from a long walk home from the beach with a 5$ pizza hut pizza thinking of all of you. Once again it's only been a few days since I last touched base but it already seems like a distant memory. We have now made our way to the south and are spending our last of 3 nights in Nelson.

So far if I could live anywhere in New Zealand I would definitely pick Wellington. Definitely absolutely my favorite place we have stopped thus far, which was pleasantly unexpected after hearing nothing but criticism and the labeling of it as one of the world's worst capital cities. It blew auckland out of the water and definitely helped me to understand where the term Jefa came from. Wellington was definitely "buzzin" as the brits would say. It has an amazing waterfront view and is super lively yet somehow keeps a small town vibe. The coolest part was that we got there right before the 7s rugby tournament so the city was full of people from all over the world. Sadly this also made finding accommodation almost impossible and we had to cut it a little shorter than we would have liked (only stayed 3 nights).

By day we shopped a lot. This one street called Cuba is probably the coolest street I've been on, full of all types of shops and restaurants. There were also dozens of kids performing for money. Apparently it's a pretty common way for the kids to make money on summer break and it's way more entertaining than the stuff you'd see in Toronto. We also checked out the museum (pretty cool) and jumped off this 25 foot diving board right on the edge of the water (pictures below).

We also got a chance to meet up with our cousin and his new girlfriend, which actually makes us the first people in the family to meet her. Her name is Chelsea, and she was quite lovely. Matt, you can tell your family she gets my seal of approval, and you know that I don't give that out easily...

On our last day in the city we went to the beach which was nice enough but covered in jellyfish in and out if the water. Apparently it's fun to throw them at each other and build sand castles with them, because everyone seemed to be doing that. I touched one and felt very brave.

I would also like to take a minute to acknowledge the kindness of a stranger... He was an employee at JP hifi (sp?) and when I went in to try to replace my blown camera battery he just handed me a new one for free. I haven't found kiwis to be as friendly as they're hyped up to be, but this one was a saint.

One of the more memorable parts of the trip was a trek up mount Victoria where we got to see a 360 view of the city. Halfway up was a rope swing that a few of us went on, actually so hard to get on to though. Both Glyn and Will had to hold it steady for me while I got on. Sadly that strategy only developed after Lizzie tried to get on before me, failed and fell 10 feet off of it onto her side. Lizzie, you know I love you and for a second I was so worried, but after we saw she was ok we couldn't stop laughing. Lizzie actually needs to be placed in a bubble to protect herself from herself...

The best part of Wellington though was hands down the night life. We partied our faces off. Every night we would go to the basement bar of our hostel and then to a local bar. For 3 nights we got pretty wild, despite waking up each morning and saying nothing could make us do it again that night. We also got the chance to party with some euro beauties on our bus including a gem named Thor, a giant named robert that the boys loved, and my bus crush, Emil. The second night was particularly amazing. Glyn took us to a bar called El Horno where we heard an amazing ska band play some of the best covers (thrift shop woo), and I don't think I've ever enjoyed a dance floor that much ever. We also witnessed a Local BK lounge post bar rumble which was quite a thrill. All in all, we had 3 amazing nights and it was the almost perfect way to end our time in the north, which only could have been topped if we'd gotten a chance to see Canada play in the 7s before we took off.

On Friday morning at 7am we pulled ourselves out of bed, hopped on the ferry and headed south. We were so tired that Lizzie, mike and rishi got down on the floor and slept. When we arrived the heartbreak sunk in, because we had to split off from Lizzie and Will (and Simone and elise the night before). Rishi is still with us for two more nights, but the other two are on a tighter itinerary and couldn't hang back with us. Lizzie and Will, you two are two of the greatest people I've had the pleasure of getting to know, thank you for making the last 2 weeks so great. Can't wait to catch up in Australia!

After a 3 hour bus ride, we got to Nelson. At first glance, we were regretting the decision to stay here 3 nights, but now we've come to realize it was a fantastic decision. We are staying at an amazing hostel called Prince Albert's that has free wifi (unbeatable), free breakfast, a games room and an outdoor patio with hammocks and picnic tables. It's a lot more laid back than we're used to and a bit of an older crowd, but an amazing place to regroup. The hostel owner is a guy from LA with a vancouver girlfriend, and the boys have loved talking sports with him.

Yesterday Rishi's friend got here, so im a bit outnumbered by boys, but he has been a hilarious addition. We broke him in with a bar night last night and Nelson proved it is quite a fun little city. Other than that we checked out a local watering hole (it feels weird to say that for some reason) and today we went to the beach. It was a pretty nice beach but the sand was swirling all over the place and I think it's permanently caked on to my body and face, giving me quite a grungy appeal. Looks like we're taking tonight off and having a family movie night tonight then taking off tomorrow to kaiteriteri (sp) post super bowl!

On a personal note, I have never felt so dirty for so long. The dirt hasn't come off my feet for weeks and my hair is always full of sand. I also want to burn the contents if my bag and am convinced mold is starting to grow in there. Last night I cut a huge chunk out of my thumb cutting onions and had to type this entire blog post with just my right thumb because the screen couldn't read the bandaid. I also left all my spare contacts, toothbrush and make up at an unknown location somewhere between checking out of river valley and arriving in Wellington. My towel flew off our balcony in taupo and today a pair of my shorts disappeared. I am a pretty terrible traveller, but despite it all I'm falling in love with New Zealand and never want to leave.

Bye for now friends. Lots of love!