WHY !?!?

 

 

why, why … WHY! did no one tell me the awful horrible, painful, utterly unbelievable news!??! There are NO dill pickles in New Zealand. None, Zero, Ziltch, Nada, – the end of Kirsten is Neigh.

Oh yes, they have gross nasty “Bread and Butter” pickles, and Gherkins, but no delicious salty crunch of a delectable dill. What is wrong with the world that New Zealand doesn’t know the joy of sticking a fork into a fresh jar of pickles and fishing around until you “hook the big one” then the delightfully satisfying crunch as you bite down. *sigh*

Sadly this pickle famin seems to extend to the UK as well as none of my friends know what I’m talking about either.

Some one come and bring me pickles. please!

Beautiful, Beautiful Queenstown

I could go on and on for reasons I don’t want to leave Queenstown. It’s like a mini-Whistler, or you could even liken it to a Mini-Squamish. Boasting a modest 5,000 people (which usually balloons up to 50,000 people though winter ski season) it’s small but active. There is no end of activities to do here, where it be a nice walk around the lake, mountain bike, lazy sunny days by the trickelling river, enjoying the weekend markets.

But nothing will speak to the contentment I’ve found in this town more then it’s looks…

now if only I could tear myself away from spending relaxing days in the grass by the water and actually apply for jobs then I can make my want to stay here a reality!

Shotover Canyon Swing

so I thought a skydive was scary… boy was I way off.

I’m still alive from my Canyon Swing but it was honestly one of the scarier things I’ve ever done. I decided to do 2 jumps; first Backwards, then “Gimp boy goes to Hollywood” which is upside-down.

As you can see in the video I was absolutely freaking out about jumping off! I think the backwards was scarier then forwards because you can’t see anything. The jump-masters were excellent with a wonderful brand of “Psyche you the hell out” humour, with comments like “oh… why did you put THAT harness on her.. it looks a little too big” to “I’m not sure if this rope will hold you” you couldn’t help but try to muster out a laugh.

Halloween

For Halloween we had the pleasure of spending it at lake Mahinapua at the “poo pub”. Kiwi has been running this special stop over for about 18 years and the hostel we stayed in is run by this awesome old man named Les (he’s in his 80′s!). Les cooks up a big feed for everyone on the bus and they have a theme party at their hostel EVERY NIGHT.

Being as it was Halloween night, the theme was… yep… Halloween. but with a twist, it was “playboy Halloween”… thank you horny Irish guys at the back of the bus for that one!

basically the idea is the bus gets dropped in a little town just north of the Mahinapua pub and gets 2 hours to assemble their costume… insert crazy running around small town here… we all load back on the bus and depart to the “poo pub”

I decided I was going to be a shower… aaaaaaand be showering in it all naked, keeping with the playboy theme?

$30 and A LOT of duct tape and help from my brother constucting something to keep the shower on later we have the result…

the rest of the group and our bus driver Dylan bringing up the front

apparently the result was good enough for me to win First place! The Prize? a free Canyon Swing; New Zealand seems to be the land of a multitdue of interesting and scarey ways to try to kill yourself.

So I’m doing tha tomorrow, and i’m thinking of doing it “pin drop” style… might as well go for gold eh?

I’m in Queenstown now and the reality that soon Kiwi Experience and playing around having fun will soon be over is setting in. It’s going to be time to settle, find a job, and get moving. *sigh*

New Zealand – Just like Lord of the rings

Today we went on a Lord of the Rings Location tour (one of many I’m sure we will enjoy here). It was absolutely fantastic, our guide was very nice and very knowledgeable about the movie (His brother even worked on it with Weta!) All the sets have been removed and anything that was placed for the movie, no matter how natural for example trees, have been removed! It was still fun and lots of the scenes were still recognizable! It was imagination time!

What follows will probably be the geekiest post ever but to put in in non-geek terms I will put the photos of the scenes from the movies beside the pictures I took… because as I understand for some reason not everyone is as obsessed with Lord of the Rings as I am! 

The Kiwi Experience

What have I been up to and why have I been so horrible at updating you ask? Well, well wait no longer I shall enlighten you!

My brother and I have departed on the “Kiwi Experience” basically it’s a nice been green bus that takes you all around New Zealand. You can “hop on” the bus anywhere and “hop off” wherever you like. The other backpackers on the bus are so much fun, and the drivers are all a blast, point in case our driver Dan’s un-PC jokes such as… “How does a farmer find a sheep in long grass?  - Very satisfying”!

The pass we are doing is called the Rangi  We’re on day 7 currently which places us in Wellington – The capital of New Zealand. 

 

but I’m getting ahead of myself, lets start on day Auckland – Mercury Bay or “Getting from A to B”

 

A go for skydive

I’m having way too much fun. WAY TOO MUCH.

I don’t know where all my anxiety came from but I can defiantly say with 100% confidence that it was entirely unfounded. Traveling is the best thing I’ve ever done. Backpacking is the most fun you could ever have.

Now something I should be anxious about is coming in … oh well about an hour. I’m not anxious yet… I’m bloody well excited.

Jumping from a perfectly good airplane plummeting towards immanent doom from 12,000 feet with only a thin sheet of plastic fabric between life and becoming a pancake.

My first skydive.

So assuming everything goes as planned I will have an update for you all (with many MANY pictures) by tonight.

Travels thus far

New Zealand is simply fantastic. Driving though from the airport to the hostel all I kept thinking was “…wow this feels like home”

Green everywhere, really nice little suburbs, friendly people. Auckland doesn’t feel like Victoria, maybe like a mix of Seattle and Vancouver. The population of Auckland alone is 1.4 million, but it doesn’t feel like that. Auckland is much like Victoria in that if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.

Yesterday we went and visited the Kelly Tarlton’s Antartic Adventure, because you know, I was DYING to see penguins.

Fiji Time

My stay in Fiji consisted of one day in Nadi on the main land, then traveling though the Yasawa’s island chain visiting 4 islands over 10 days. The Islands of the Yasawa’s each have their own unique personalitlies which makes them all very interesting to visit.

 

 

Things I learned in Fiji…

1. Fiji Time - take it easy, there’s no rush.

2. Bula! – Hello, how are you, what’s up, welcome etc shouted all the time! BULA!

3. Sambuca – don’t drink it, it’s evil.

Want a Play by Play? well follow the link…

Here I am!!

Just had the BEST shower of my life, Shampoo; Conditioner; Soap; Oh My! 

it’s amazing how dirty sea water makes you feel.

 

So I’ve been gone 10 days now, Fiji was amazing but I’m defiantly getting anxious to move on to NZ and get settled. Honestly my biggest dread in the last week was coming back to the internet and seeing what’s been going on behind the scenes without me… but here I am overcoming my sudden inapplicable fear of the internet? who would have known! 

This is just a teaser as I only have 1 1/2 minutes of the internet left. When I get into Auckland tomorrow there will be a proper update and photos. 

Rejoyce.