a few weeks

i wanted to write a post, about all sorts of things: travelling, coming to the end of my year (plus seventeen days), the upcoming elections, the iowa d.o.t. (again).  but as i am wavering between feeling fine and overwhelming nausea i fear i may have come down with some stomach thing, and i will have to keep it more brief than i intended.  (and just when i've got my rental car, too!  i hope it's short-lived.)

travelling!  i will concentrate on that because obviously i am not in wellington any longer, as that was a couple of weeks ago since i wrote that.  i went to paraparaumu, on the kapiti coast, for a few days, but was rained and wind-ed out of going to kapiti island to look at some more birds.  i didn't have my heart set on it, so i'm fine with that.  i then went to napier just in time for hawke's bay day on friday and labour day on monday.  awesome!  so i had to move hostels halfway through, and felt very lucky indeed to find one to move to.  i didn't do much there that i didn't do before, but i did go to the national aquarium.  it's very cool, and i really enjoyed looking at all of the fish. 

next i headed to taupo where i missed the good weather for the tongariro crossing waiting for it to be nicer the next day: i ought to know better, and that the weather here is so changeable.  if there is a nice day, take advantage of it!  but i didn't, so i still have not gone, but i hope there will still be time at the end.  i did however, go kayaking on lake taupo with a man from a company that does these sorts of things.  it was just a short trip, three hours to the maori rock carvings.  it was very cool, and a beautiful day!  twenty knots winds?!  it was flat as glass out there.  i do have blisters though, thank goodness they are already healing!  next whakatane.  didn't do much there, but picked up a rental car for my east cape adventure.  i return it there as well, so i'd like to do white island (an active volcano off the shore there) when i get back. 

it's a whirlwind thing, but it's good, because it keeps my mind off of my ever-nearing departure date.

and now i feel ill again, so i will post more later! 

intervention

i leave in one month from today.  but we're not here to talk about that, instead, we are here to help me get over a horrible addiction: twilight. 

i was doing so well, being completely oblivious to it's existance on the other side of the planet, but then it was mentioned to me.  and i read the back cover of the first book and was intrigued by the whole vampire bit (why wouldn't i be?  after all, i read books about necromancers with bells, and books with alternate worlds and talking polar bears.)...and then read the first half of the book in the borders in wellington. 

i thought, wow, this isn't so bad, definitely not my favorite book on the planet but i can see why it's so popular.  ugh!  i thought too soon!  the more i read, the worse it gets.  the plot twists are cliched and predictable, the lovey-dovey romance bit is certainly not my thing (perhaps because i'm not a teenage girl and totally in love with the over-controlling edward or the drama-queen bella who is constantly having hysterics of one sort of another) and now, in the final book, every time anyone says the name "renesmee" i want to puke.  and the whole one-month gestational period thing?  really?  that is so star trek!  (no, really, i can think of at least two episodes where they used a quicker-than-usual gestational period for their characters and it was explained away FAR BETTER than just as a convenient for the plot...of course, aliens were involved.)  i have been doing a lot of eye-rolling and walking away, but i always pick it back up again.

i think i need help.  or some garth nix or phillip pullman.

wellington.

not so windy, but very full of people.  lots and lots of people.

back in nelson

 

it's a little bit surreal.  but i'm glad to see fiona & co., and be back somewhere familiar.  as soon as i get myself sorted and finish a few projects i've been working on, i will head to golden bay before going up to the north island.  i'm feeling a little bit melancholic about it because it means i am getting closer to the end.  i've had such an amazing time, and the west coast is so beautiful!  i'm a bit sad to be leaving there, but i will go back some day, i'm sure of it.  (did i mention the ice climbing i did at franz josef?  at hukawai, there is a 10m/32ft ice climbing wall, and i did an hour and a half session.  it was really quite fun!)

although it was cool and rainy on the west, as it is wont to be, so it's nice to be able to ditch the fleece and quite possibly, if i am feeling brave, break out the swimsuit!

voting is fun!

sorry, dad!


but your "hippy" daughter has voted for the "wrong guy" again!

i also have a question:


would it really be an election without ralph nader on the ballot?

finally!

again, i have to leave why?  i am now in fox glacier and it's so nice
here.  i did not get to do ice climbing, it wasn't offered today, so i
just did the full day walk.  it was so beautiful!  i think i may stop
at franz josef after all.  still waiting to get north, but i don't want
to miss anything here either.  i wish ultimately that i had all the
time in the world, and that i could stay here for a few weeks.

talk about frustrating!

i fought the computer, and the computer won.

the computer and i are having an argument.  it keeps telling me to insert a disk into drive h, and i keep thinking, i did that already.  i think it is an argument that i am destined to lose.  so, sadly, i still have no new photos that i can share with you.

since i left queenstown, i have been having a grand ol' time travelling across this fantastic island.  my first stop was at lake tekapo, home to mt. john observatory, the bluest lake i have ever seen, and the church of the good shephard at which approximately one million tourist buses stop daily.  i only spent the night there, wisely thinking i would easily be bored with the town, and headed the next day to mt. cook.

i am in love with mt. cook, if that is possible with a geological feature.  it's maori name is "aoraki", which means "cloud piercer" and for good reason.  the two days i was there, it was fairly clear, but with occasional bouts of it living up to it's name.  i did two day hikes there and just admired the mountain, wishing i had the skills to partake in some of the more hardcore activities one can do in a place like that.  and on wednesday morning when it was blowing a gale and rock hard snow, i headed to the alpine center where i watched a film about mountain rescuers and another about sir ed(mund hillary).  what a guy!  there are certainly worse people one could look up to as a role model.  besides being one of the first to reach the summit of mt. everest with tenzing norgay, did you know he was also in a party to be the first to use motor vehicles to reach the south pole?  true!  he is also famous for his philanthropic work in nepal, of course.

i could have easily stayed far longer at mt. cook, but yesterday made myself (after two bus transfers) leave to come to wanaka.  it's a mini-queenstown, in that it's a hive of skiing and boarding activity, as well as being close to mt. aspiring national park.  none of which i am interested in right now.  instead i have been taking it easy, and went to puzzling world (a bit of a letdown, i must admit) and am planning for my next leg, fox glacier.  i will head up there tomorrow and on sunday i hope to do a glacier walk, or perhaps if i decide i am adventurous enough, try some ice climbing!  i am also trying to figure out how to get myself to barrytown for knife-making because it sounds interesting, and somewhere near punakaiki is a place called shantytown, which appears to be like a wild west sort of place in the states, except, of course, new zealand style! 

so i am still slo-o-o-wly working myself up to the north island.  i'm taking it cruisey though, which is the new zealand way to be!