Fording the River

Oregon Trail fans should make their way to the west coast of the South Island if they would like to experience “fording the river,” New Zealand style. Last night it rained more than 250mm in one night at the glacial village of Franz Josef, more than a quarter of the rainfall the notoriously damp city of London receives in an entire year. Rain on the west coast is no joke and can impede some sightseeing opportunities, as well as flood roads on a regular basis. Our intrepid bus driver made it through this crossing and our busload of international travelers cheered as we could venture on to the prime west coast destinations of Wanaka and Queenstown.

In other news, I hiked a glacier yesterday. No big deal, just another day here in NZ. =) The mammoth Franz Josef glacier was awe-inspiring. Being surrounded by that icy wonderland and cool air reminded me of home and wintertime.

*Note: I wrote this post about a week ago and have just now found some wireless internet so I can post. Sorry for the delay and few and far between updates. In other news, I just accepted a job in Wanaka (a town on the South Island, not far from Queenstown). I'll be working at a hostel for just a month and am looking forward to a bit of a rest from traveling. I'll be working with some great people and it's a very nice area, so I'm excited. This week I'm in Palmerston, near Dunedin WWOOFing at a very nice farm owned by a young Kiwi couple. I'm working here with two fun girls from Canada and have been enjoying some delicious food and good times, learning more about gardening and just started to knit an ear warmer with some NZ wool.

Traveling can sometimes be a drag...

Like last night, when an ATM machine in Nelson decided to eat my debit card for no apparent reason. I was supposed to leave for Greymouth and begin the west coast leg of my South Island adventure early this morning. Now I need to wait around until Tuesday, when the bank reopens, to hopefully get my card back. Frustrating. On the upside, this downtime has given me a chance to organize some of my pictures and remember why traveling is definitely worth enduring the occasional headache. So, here's a glimpse of what I've been up to for the past month. Hope you enjoy! Thanks for all the comments, e-mails, love, and support. Wishing you all a very happy 2010 and hoping your year is filled with much happiness and many adventures!

New Zealand!

http://picasaweb.google.com/natalieguarin

Fire it up on the Barbie!

Had my very first official "barbie" (insert Kiwi accent here) yesterday. Went out with the family I am WWOOFing for to a beautiful and very non-touristy beach. It was called Kina Beach; kina is the Maori word for sea urchin (we actually found a few on the beach!). We had delicious smoked fish (freshly caught yesterday), sausages, chicken, and some Speight's beer (one of New Zealand's major labels). It really was a wonderful evening and incredible to be sitting on a beach, enjoying a barbecue at the end of December! Best of all was the company-I really lucked out WWOOFing with this family. Since they are on holiday mode, I really haven't been doing to much working and have really been feasting. I'm getting ready to return to the backpacker trail tomorrow and I will be sad to leave here. Today I'm on to the Golden Bay, to a town called Takaka. Should be great!

These are a few of my favorite things

Glow worms, puppy dog, Mount Doom... The list of my favorite things in New Zealand is constantly expanding. I saw beautiful blue glow worms in the Waitomo caves on the North Island. While still up north I did the Tongariro Crossing, an eight hour hike around the infamous "Mt. Doom" from Lord of the Rings. It was a really spectacular volcanic area. I have "heaps" (Kiwis saw that word a lot:) of pictures to post, but I'm currently at a place with dial-up, so I'll have to wait until I'm somewhere with a faster connection. I'll tell you about the puppy dog in a minute...

I'm sorry that these blog posts have been few and far between. The good news is that the reason that I haven't been posting is because, generally, I've been out exploring. I have been on the South Island for the past two weeks and have been doing quite a bit a hiking and sitting in the sun. This is the sunniest region of New Zealand and the color of the ocean here is amazing (I will post pictures soon!). I am now WWOOFing at a family's farm in the Motueka valley, near Nelson. It's been really nice to spend time with a family, especially over the holidays (as well as save some cash!). They are a really great family, complete with a lively two year old and adorable 10 week old puppy. I've been helping them out with general yard work and house chores in exchange for a place to sleep and some really delicious meal. I have moved way beyond my usual hostel fare of instant noodles! We had an amazing lamb roast for Christmas. Nice treat for us, though a sad day for Thunder, the sheep that is no longer.

I have many, many stories to tell at this point, but do think that pictures will be worth more than thousands of words. I will post them soon so you can see some of the views from my hikes in the Abel Tasman park and the Kahurangi National Park.

I miss you all and am thinking of my wonderful friends and family as this new year approaches.

My New Zealand Adventure Begins!

My trip is now officially off and running. I arrived in Auckland last Sunday. It is a beautiful city with very friendly people. As I made my way into the city on the shuttle from the airport a Christmas parade was being set up downtown, right where my hostel was located, so my street was closed off. Since the bus driver wasn't going to be able to drop me off near my hostel, a friendly "Kiwi" sitting next to me offered to drive me to the nearest road possible (with my bags) as her husband was picking her up at the next stop. So, I've been introduced to Kiwi hospitality since my first moments on the ground in this country. Right now I'm in a town called Rotorua visiting a friend who is a white water rafting guide here. He was able to get me on two rafting trips here (for free!) down two amazing rivers. Really fun and thrilling rafting trips. On the first trip, on the Kaituna river, we rafted down the largest commercially rafted waterfall (7 meters) in the world! I was in a raft with 6 people from India on vacation, they definitely made the experience more fun and memorable. Yesterday I was on the Wairoa river, which is flooded every Sunday in the summer here by a dam. The river was long and windy, with many fun rapids and beautiful vegetation. At one point I was able to hop out of the raft and swim through some rapids- very fun! My friend and his girlfriend have also been showing my some great local spots here, including a geothermal creek that you can bathe in (locals love it and few tourists know about it).
So, overall my trip has been off to a great start and I feel very lucky to be here and be shown such amazing Kiwi hospitality from the get go. It's light out until 8pm here and temps are in the 80s, so it's hard to believe that it's December! The hostels are fun; just in a few days I've met people from England, Australia Ireland, South Africa, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Austria... very international and interesting crowd.
I'll post more as internet access allows. Sending much love for now. p.s. Above is the route I'll take as I tour around the two islands via bus.

LA Airport

Just about 10 minutes until I will board the plane, non-stop to Auckland (12 hour flight, as it turns out). Thanks Dolezal family for a great Thanksgiving! It was so great to see you all! I'll write more once I've arrived in Auckland. It's Friday night here... I'll arrive Sunday morning... Saturday just disappears- so weird!

Getting Ready!

To do:

Finish Packing

Drive 13 hours to Indiana

Eat tons of turkey and enjoy time with family

Make it to O'Hare by noon on Friday

New Zealand, here I come!