The South Island

Hey. It's me again.

I'm writing from the South Island of New Zealand. I'll catch you up:

After my last post, I attempted to sky dive. I had the "thumbs up," the "okay," the "you'll be jumping 12,000 feet from a plane" reassurance from the desk receptionist at a local hostel. All things were looking good until the good weather decided to leave, taking with it my chances of sky diving. Needless to say I was crushed (yet at the same time a little relieved).

I caught a bus later that day down to Wellington. While on the bus I started chatting with a girl next to me who went to school at Victoria college, located in Wellington. She painted a very different picture of New Zealand than the one that the Dawsons had painted for me in Auckland.

She described a New Zealand more in line with what I was used to; more in line with reality. I was a bit disappointed, but it wasn't until we were at her apartment, listening to her friends recall the events from the past weekend that I had my big, all too perfect, coming of age moment. I'll describe it more in person if you'd like. (This online journal wasn't designed to be a philosophical dumping ground, and I hope to keep it that way).

After leaving an hour later, I met up with Sammy Joe, one of my closest friends from DePaul. Over the next two days we caught up, explored Wellington (the capital of NZ), planned our South Island road trip, and had some great laughs.

We next caught a ferry from the North to the South Island, got our rental car, and headed to a town called Blenheim where we did some (free!) wine tasting. By the third winery, I had picked up enough of the jargon, lingo, formalities, and wine tasting norms to not come off as a complete dolt.

Sammy, being the responsible one, refrained from sampling too many variations of NZ's finest wine, and won himself the position of chauffer for the first leg of our drive. The driving times we had originally planned on didn't have the "natural beauty" factor included. On more than 5 occasions we had to pull over and attempt to capture the landscape in our pathetic little view-finders. Our photos, although well-intentioned, will do those locations no justice. Ah well.

Our driving consisted of a lot of cautious U-turns around gloriously green mountains, whose occasional facades appeared to have the stubbly remains of the logging industry's last conquest. The rental car was a great idea. A lot more freedom to roam.

I eventually got a chance at the wheel and had little trouble adjusting to the opposite driving arrangements. My worst blunders consisted of switching on the windshield wipers when trying to indicate a turn, and hitting two hobbits. Luckily the little guys survived, but man were they upset! (They shouldn't have been standing there!)

We saw the pancake rocks, the blow holes, the Franz Josef glacier, some great hiking trails, hiked up the Fox Glacier, drove through the Gates of Haast, witnessed the breathtaking views of Mt. Aspring, Cook, and Tasman, picked up a hitch hiker, took a heap more photos, and have had a great time.

I'm doing well right now, besides the cold. Down here it is the type of cold that buddies up with the wet to get under all of your protective layers and hug your tender skin, making you want to move to a warm place and never look back.

We are in Wanaka for the night, a small ski town, and tomorrow we leave for Queenstown to try some bungy jumping. I start my farming in about a week, which I'm excited for, and then I come home around the 10th of August.

I hope you all miss me half as much as I miss you, so that when I come home for my birthday (you didn't forget did you?) we can celebrate our reunion.

Thanks for reading.

Casey