If 10 million fireflies...

For anyone checking my blog often, I apologize that it's been a week since my last post. For those just checking in, here is a recap of all the excitement of the past week! I had just left Christchurch when I last wrote, with little idea of all that was going to happen in just 7 days. I jumped on an 8-hour bus to Queenstown and booked a room at Base for one night. Feeling a little lonely for the first time in 6 weeks, I quickly made friends with a British girl in my dorm named Sadie (pic to the right). Fun and bubbly, Sadie reminded me much of Alicia Miller (family friend) in a really crazy way! We got dinner and hung out at the bar that night, but I was exhausted and I went to bed early, knowing I had to plan my next day carefully.

Now this is where I have to pinch myself every time I think about it. Do you remember the tour I took to go to the Lord of the Rings site? Well, do you also remember that I bumped into a group of 6 young people also traveling through New Zealand in a van and that I made friends but then said goodbye to them to return to the LOTR group? Do you also remember Ben's 'yes you can, no you can't' messages to me about whether I could join then in the van? Well I heard from Ben, one of the peeps in the group, and they needed an extra person for their van to travel around New Zealand. I was a bit apprehensive as I didn't know them, but after coordinating for several days, the plans were in motion. The only downside was that I couldn't take full advantage of Queenstown. This was ok, since I'm not the jump-out-of-a-plane type, or the swing-from-a-bungy-cord-over-a-river person, and this is the essence of Queenstown. So, I caught a bus to Wanaka the next morning (February 12, Friday) to meet up with the group. (Group pic from left: Monika, Dave, Ben, Josie, Coralie and Linda).

Within 24 hours, I went from CHCH to the back backseat of a camper van next to the most adorable German girl I've ever seen named Linda (see pic to the right). Linda and I hit it off right away. The group consisted of 1 Belgian, Josie, 2 Germans, Linda and Monika, 1 American, Ben, 1 English guy, Dave, and 1 French girl, who we all called Frenchy, or Coralie (her real name). There I was, sitting in the back of a van winding its way along the beautiful and remote roads of the South Island of New Zealand. The music was on, the weather was fair, and the 7 of us were off on a big adventure.

The whole group had met in Christchurch after Ben put up an ad looking for travel companions. Turns out, Linda and Monika had been on my Melbourne flight to Christchurch! They welcomed me into the group with open arms and my dream of traveling around New Zealand with a group in a car became reality. (Left: me in front of cairns at Lindis Pass, along west coast in NZ).

Our first night we ended up in Fox Glacier with one catch - there were no hostels. Luckily, the 7 of us clever travelers knew how to blend in and look like we were paying guests, when in reality we all just picked a spot on the floor of the hostel lounge once everyone had turned in and we slept there. Ahhh the joys of traveling!

It wasn't until the end of Day 1 when we realized that the locking mechanism on the trunk of the van was broken. It was locked shut, unopenable, and all of our bags were buried inside. Have you ever imagined what it would be like to load a van from the middle seat? Well, we became quite good at it, establishing an assembly line of sorts, with Dave tasked with positioning the luggage. It turns out we managed to pack more efficiently with the trunk door welded shut, than opened, and Monika, the driver of us all, could finally see out the back.

The following day it was miserable and rainy. You couldn't see any scenery and we spent our time inside the hostel where we weren't technically guests and played games. I started to excel at Trivial Pursuit, stumping Ben, the Harvard graduate a few times. We then curled up and watched Empire Records before leaving the hostel around 5pm.

We lived night by night, calling hostels and motels the day of to ask if they had accomodation, and often we were turned away but kept on persevering.

At the end of Day 2 we hopped in the van (no easy task with 12 bags and 7 folks) and drove to Franz Josef glacier (Nina, it IS AMAZING!). We got a motel with lots of beds and couches to make up for our previous night, but first decided to check out the hike to the glacier. It was a bit nicer out so we walked for 40 minutes to investigate what our route for the following day should be. Then we went for dinner in the cute little town of FJ and found an Indian place. We were never short on conversation or laughs.

Day 3 we did the Franz Josef glacier and hiked all the way to the bottom. However, with time constraints and money constraints, we decided to forego the $100 inside-the-glacier hike and just admire it from its base. It was a good idea, as the weather wasn't the best and we had to hit the road and drive up to Nelson that night! Funnily enough, though, at the glacier I bump into Sadie, my Queenstown hostel mate! I love meeting people in random spots.

So, after the glacier we all climbed into the camper van and hit the road, but stopped at the pancake rocks for everyone to see. I was so happy to go back there and felt kinda cool as the others called me their tour guide for knowing where to go. Oh, Canadians, we know so much! I also decided that the pancake rocks undeniably needed a restaurant where they serve pancakes. It's the perfect niche market. I also decided to name this restaurant 'Pancakes Rock' and announced this brainchild idea to Ben who, although concurred, probably thought I was nuts. It really was hilarious.

Stopping for dinner in a cute little town, we cracked open the beers. Did you know that in New Zealand you are allowed to have open beers consumed in a moving vehicle, provided the driver himself isn't drinking? So we took the party on the road on the way to the next destination. Drinking also leads to needing to pee, so twice we had to pull over in the pitch blackness of the New Zealand open road and pee in the bush. Laughing hysterically and screeching at what we thought might be the odd spider, the drive took a little bit longer than planned.

We arrived in Nelson, once again hostel-less, but we knew we could probably pull off another lounge-sleep so we did that but as it was late, we only got about 5 hours of sleep before heading off again.

So that brings us into Day 4 - Abel Tasman National Park!! I'm so glad we spent more time there because it was certainly the most beautiful part. It was finally sunny, and after a quick stop over at the mechanics to fix the trunk mechanism (which earned Collin, our mechanic, a round of applause), we carried on up the mountains and down to the coast. What a beautiful day! The sun was shining, the air was warm, and we did a 3-hour beach walk along the water.

The walk consisted of many obstacles, including beaches full of rock that required extreme walking precision, but we all did it successfully and reaped the benefits of a private beach in the end. We went for a swim, too, and it was just surreal to be in the water in a private cove with my new friends and on the bottom of the planet.

Linda's favourite expression is "Ohhhhh Nooooo", spoken in her high-pitched, adorable German accent, and throughout the trip we'd frequently imitate her to everyone's amusement. Ben is a soon-to-be stand up comic and was able to practise many a joke on us, so we were never short of entertainment. He's also got a great knack for voice impressions, Smeagol is one of them and so is the Nazgul, a demonic dragon/snakelike creature that the Ringwraiths fly around on in Lord of the Rings. We'd frequently ask for his impressions and they'd send us into hysterics.

Dave is the soft spoken British bloke from Darlington with adorable feet and hair. He's also the human sand fly, as was typically the first person to get bitten by the little annoying creatures. Think mosquito, but smaller. These things come at you whenever you get out of the car. By the end, Dave was covered in bites, and after counting them, he could find 73 individual attacks on his body. Josie has a song we all like to break out and sing and it goes like "we love you Josie, we do, we love you Josie, we do, ohhhh Josie we love you!" and Dave was typically the first to initiate a sing a long. Josie also knows a lot of my music and we frequently broke out into song while waiting for the crew to get organized. Monika, mother Monika, our driver, is so fabulous, as she was in charge of transporting all of us around and she did so flawlessly along the winding, sharp corners of the New Zealand bush. Frenchy would often wander off, so we developed a game and counted how many times during the day we'd ask, "Where's Coralie?" Sometimes it would get up to 11 times.

Our theme song is.... Fireflies by OWL CITY!!!! Kate, I know, how crazy is that? "You would not believe your eyes, if 10 million fireflies..." haha. The story is that the guys love that song and sing it exactly like that band. But my story is the day I flew to Sydney from Toronto, Kate and I heard it on the radio and we both commented on how funny and stupid yet catchy it is - but also it themed my trip just by coming on the radio at that moment. Funny how it's now themed our trip.











The next day we hiked Abel Tasman through the forest and to another secluded beach. The sun was out again and the bugs weren't so bad. When we made it to the beach, it was definitely worth it. Although too cold to swim, we walked in the water, did cartwheels, took photos and had a great time.
It was 10km round trip and we were all pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the car. The next stop was the Picton ferry to Wellington, so we drove for 3 hours to make it to the 10:30pm departure time. The ferry was amazing! Although you couldn't see many sites, we had 3 hours to relax and have a glass of wine before driving to our hostel. We booked into Nomads hostel, a 6-bed dorm so we could all actually have a good sleep.

Yesterday we did Wellington but the weather wasn't so nice. It rained a bit but we walked around, discovered the greatest breakfast spot called Mr. Bun, and tried to see all we could. That night was our last night in Wellington together and we all went out, first to a really swanky place called Matterhorn and then to a bar right next door called Mighty Mighty. It was so great! I ended up dancing like a mo fo at MM before we all left to head back to the hostel around 2am.

The gang had plans to drive up the North Island, but I said I'd stay in Wellington to visit with my mom's friend Binnie. I talked to Binnie yesterday and we said we'd meet today at 1:30pm for lunch downtown. So that is where I am right now. I said goodbye to my little gang of companions, who I've known for only 7 days, but it was 7 intense and fun days of traveling together. Someone should come up with a formula for how long you can say you've known someone compared to how long you've traveled with them. Traveling with people is the easiest and fastest way to get to know someone and it already feels like I've been friends with them for years.

This morning (Thursday at 11:30am right now as I type this) I said bye to everyone and it was a little sad, but I'm meeting up with them in Auckland the day before I fly out to Sydney. It's raining out and I'm still drenched from standing in the rain and saying my goodbyes. What a whirlwind time, I can't believe still how much has happened and how far I've gone. This group of people are the best bunch I could have ever wanted to meet and it's honestly crazy to think about the series of events that have brought me here. I'm off to meet Binnie, who I'm staying with for a few days. She's taking me to a rugby game this weekend and promised to show me around - I'm so fortunate to know such great people.

New Zealand isn't over yet... stay tuned!