The Rail Trail...

This is a 120 kilometer bike ride that I didn't actually go on. I was the chauffeur to get the other bikers to the rail trail. So Lindsay and I had a lovely drive up to Queenstown (again) and got Ferg Burgers (again). We also wrote research papers we had to write for class in 2 hours for the low price of $6. We were using a computer lab. That night we drove half the way to Dunedin and parked our van on the side of the road and slept there for the night. It was just on the road in front of someones house. Cars kept on honking and waking us up throughout the night. The next morning we woke up drove 2 minutes down the road and found a pull off and rest stop area for sleeping. We were a little annoyed to say the least. Anyway then we drove to Dunedin to get these awesome striped thermals that are different striped patters on the arms and neck and sleeves, and the pants have different legs. They are pretty incredible.

Then the real adventures started. And sorry I don't have any pictures of this, but it was slightly traumatic. So. I was driving little to fast around a sharp turn and we ended up swerving slightly and hitting a ditch. We got a flat tire from said accident. So then we were stranded on the side of the road and we called the rental place and they said we were to far out to come and fix the car. Well this is indeed not good. Lindsay and I managed to get the tire out from underneath the car and then were staring in stupidity at the jack, trying to figure out how it worked.

Then luckily a lovely gentleman named Roger stopped by to help us. I kid you not he looked exactly like Bilbo Baggins. He talked like Bilbo and he was short like Bilbo and had hobbit feet. He was totally a hobbit. Which was awesome. He was super nice and funny though. He kept apologizing to us for cussing which he was doing at the cars taking the corner to fast. Very funny man and so nice and helpful. His friend helped us to change the tire as well, but I don't remember his name. They were so lovely and helpful though.

Then Lindsay and I went and picked up the others from the end of the rail trail, where they were extremely tired. They hadn't done the whole thing, because they had a limited time but they had still biked about 50 or so miles I believe? Anyway they were extremely tired. But we were too far away from Invercargill to go home on the spare so we had to see if we could get the tire fixed. We stopped in a little town called Middlemarch and were directed to the Okie Pokey and ask to see Steve. Thinking it would be an actual tire shop we turned down the road only to find a man standing in his garage, with some equipment working on tires. So I went up and asked him if he was Steve. It was super hard to understand anything he said, and the only words I really got were the cuss words. Which he said often so that was something I suppose. Anyway In his mumble he answered yes and said he'd work on the tire. It only took him 30 minutes to fix it and luckily the tire wasn't punctured, so it only cost me $30 to fix the tire.

Then if that wasn't adventurous enough, we were at a quarter of a tank of gas in Middlemarch. We should have filled up. We didn't. So we were about 25 minutes or so away from the next town when the empty light went on. Slightly panicked that we were going to run out of gas, I started to put the car in neutral whenever we were going down a hill in order to preserve gas. So we are all holding our breathes and pull into a little tiny town, pull into the one gas station, and it's closed. Extra panicked we went next door where there was a little house, hoping the owner lived there (they didn't). We did however meet a nice couple from Scotland who offered to come help us out if we ran out of gas before the next town. Luckily we made it to town, to the gas station and arrived back in Invercargill safely. It was certainly an adventure though.

Random Adventures...

So I have some random adventures that I had in New Zealand and don't have whole blog posts on them so I'll share some of them now.Queenstown: Some friends and I drove to Queenstown again because Lindsay and I wanted to have one more Ferg Burger before we left. Interestingly this was my 3rd Ferg Burger. I would subsquentially have 3 more that I was not expecting to have. : ) Love my Ferg's. Well I had to drive because I'm the only one over 21. He he he. That's right I drove on the opposite side of the road and I didn't kill anyone! It was an awesome trip. It actually was surprisingly easy to drive on the wrong side of the road. I'm a little worried to get back to American driving now. Kiwi Mask Little Mermaid Pose (note the bird)
Bluff: Bluff is a small town down south of Invercargill, and really just a quaint little fishing town mostly, but they do have this awesome sign post that points to all these different cool places on the globe. It's awesome, so we drove down there to take some pictures of it. Dunedin: We went to Dunedin because we wanted to see a Rugby game. You can't come to New Zealand without seeing a Ruby game so we went and saw the Highlanders vs. Lions. The Highlanders are from Southland (New Zealand) and the Lions are from South Africa. We won! The Southlanders did I mean. It was a good game too and there were lots of fun breakaways and steals, and even a couple of fights. Loved it.
Oh. And we also saw the world's steepest street there. And had some awesome time hiking up it and playing around on it.
Caitlins: This is a place where dolphins come and play around in the surf. I didn't see any dolphins, but other people in our group did and it's just a beautiful beach to walk around on really.

The Remarkables...

This was an interesting trip. I don't know that I would exactly say that it was remarkable in any good ways, but it wasn't the end of the world. So the interesting/horrible thing about this trip was that they split us into 2 groups. One group starts on one end and the other on the other end and we meet in the middle and trade keys for the vans. The other important fact is that one group was going downhill the whole way, while the other group was going uphill most of the way. Guess what group Missy got put in. Yep. The hard one. Go figure. And this was a backpacking trick so we were carrying all of our gear on our backs again. Fun.So our guide was Tony, who is awesome, and the New Zealand version of Steve Irwin. He knows lots of things about birds and plants and various animals.So the day starts off with me already on the hard side of things. Climbing uphill and uphill and uphill I was getting pretty tired and not happy. It wasn't so awful because fortunately the trail leveled out after awhile, so that was nice. We walked for about 3 hours that day before we made camp. That night we mostly just hung out around camp and watched the stars that night. They are truly beautiful here, and the skies are so open and clear to see them.The next morning more adventure began. We were walking a long, crashing through bush, because as I forgot to mention earlier we weren't on a trail, we were bushwacking. So as were walking along Becky falls into a hidden hole, and really hurts her ankle. Since we are in the middle of the mountains, there was no way she could walk out. So JJ and Julianne ran back to the other group (the ones going the easy way) to find Jason (our instructor) to tell him about Becky's ankle and to get a helicopter to come pick her up. Meanwhile, Heidi and Becky set up a tent so the helicopter could find them. Then the rest of the group continued on. The rest of the hike was misery that day because we had to go up this hugely STEEP rock pile to get to the top of the mountain. Not pleasant. But what I learned at that part of the trip, I can do hard things. We always joke about that in our group and say it sarcastically, but it really is amazing what you can do when you don't have a lot of choice.So we arrive at camp on the top of a mountain by a lake, where there are FREEZING strong winds and it's ice cold and starting to rain. So we all attempt to put up our tents in this crazy wind and then got into our tents, put on our dry clothes, and didn't move out of our tents until the next morning. Our water was even brought to us so we could make our dinner. Basically we were curled up in our sleeping bags from 3:00 pm on.So as we are sitting in our tents and bags freezing, we suddenly hear this whot whot whot, and we all stick our heads out of the tent and there is the helicopter and it's dropping Heidi off. So they through out her bag and she hops out all legit. So cool! Heidi got the best end of the deal because she got a free helicopter ride, without having to sprain her ankle, and she missed climbing the steep hill.That nights sleep wasn't terribly nice, because there were 4 of us crammed into to small of a tent and the wind kept blowing the tent poles down onto us. I don't think anyone in our group slept for more than a half an hour at the time. Then after a miserable nights sleep we woke up to freezing cold to find that our wet boots, are frozen solid. Rock solid. You can't put your feet into your boots solid. So we all put our feet halfway into our boots and are walking around trying to get them melted slightly enough so we could shove our feet in. It took a while for our shoes to completely melt. The rest of the day was pretty nice though. Not to rainy and cold and at the end of the hike we got to stop and get Ferg Burgers. So that was delightful and probably the highlight of this trip.

Wanaka...

Best trip of the entire New Zealand experience probably. This was our 3 day rock climbing trip up in Wanaka. It was so incredibly fun. We all hoped into the vans and drove about 4 hours to get to Wanaka. The drive itself was super fun. David, who taught us kayaking and then rock climbing, was the driver of our van and we had SO much fun. The whole ride consisted of a lot of laughing, and story telling, and pretty much culminating in us belting Disney songs at the top of our lungs. When we got to camp we were able to go out to a crag (where you go climbing). It was so different to go climbing on an actual rock wall. It was a lot harder than going indoors. Indoor rock climbing you have a path set out for you and given holds. Indoor also has a lot of jug holds, which is where you hand loops over the top very easily and you can pull yourself up. Outdoors on the other hand there isn't those given holds. You have to explore the wall a lot and be very creative in where you put your feet and how you grab holds and find holds. It was very exciting and interesting. I really liked it, because I feel like I was able to improve in rock climbing exponentially when it was outdoors because you have to work harder to find holds. It was incredible. We also spent a lot of time learning how to tie ropes and different belay devices and we also got to go abseiling again. It was fun because this time we were more in control of how we went down the cliff face. I got stuck pretty close to the top however because we were using what's called a prussic, where you have to keep slack on the rope, and if it tightens up it locks. That's to prevent you from falling if your hand slips. Well unfortunately we had to go over a big rock lip so you kinda fell a little. Well my rope got pulled tight so it was locked, and I was stuck hanging up in the air for a little bit before I figured it out. I did eventually though and got down. The rest of the trip was just spent having fun on the rock, and trying different climbs. I had differing levels of success. Some climbs I was able to do really well and other climbs were pretty hard. It was so much fun though. Just an awesome adventure. Curtis and Ann

The other fun part is that Curtis and David where there with us. They were our favorite teachers from the whole time we've been here. There both 22 and work for a place called Adventure Southland (who do climbing, kayaking, etc. for Invercargill and neighboring areas.) Anyway they are best mates and we've had each of them individually on other trips, but this trip they were together and we had a lot of fun hanging out with them when climbing. Good times.
The rest of climbing was awesome, and then the ride home was equally as fun. I was in Dave's car again and highlights included playing the sheep game, where you stick you head out the window and yell "SHEEP" at the top of your lungs at the sheep and are trying to get them to move or react. My throat was so sore by the end of our drive. We also had a Chinese fire drill at a stoplight (for construction purposes), which was very exciting around a van with a trailer. We also would give the other drivers cheesy thumbs up and smile at them and try to get a reaction. It was one of the funnest times I've ever had on a drive.
Dave's mad skills

Rock Climbing...

What a fun things to do!!!! I love rock climbing. I'd never done it before coming to New Zealand, even indoor rock climbing, so it was a total adventure. We first learned how to rock climb indoors and that was neat. The very first time I went climbing, I loved the feeling of getting to the top and feeling so accomplished. It was a little bit scary to be so up high at the same time, but it's getting better as time goes on and I go climbing more and more. We had a lot of chances to go climbing both indoors and outdoors. The first time we went outdoors we actually didn't go climbing, but we were abseiling instead. That is what they call rappelling here. It was a very interesting experience for sure, because first of all it was pouring rain, pretty much the whole time we were at Bluff (where we went to go abseil). This was another first and was terrifying for me. Basically what you have to do is lean back over a cliff, step over the edge and hope that your rope will hold you. Then you walk down a cliff face. The hardest part is when you very first step over the cliff and you have to keep leaning backwards. It was also kinda scary because it was rainy and windy. The view was beautiful though because the cliff overlooked the ocean. Rock climbing is awesome though. I really love it because it's not a lot about physical strength (although that does help at moments) but it's a lot about problem solving. You have to figure out which holds to use, and how to use them, and the best way to get up the wall. It's really interesting because you can switch the way that your body is against the wall or just move one hand or one foot to a different hold and it gives you the leverage to get up the wall. It's very interesting, and much more complicated than I ever thought. Dave - Rock climbing instructor

I really want to continue to do it back home, which is nice because rock climbing is huge in Utah so it won't even be hard to do. Oh. The only bad thing about it is that no matter what you do climbing harnesses are just not attractive. Pretty much makes anyone's butt look huge.
Dave and Curtis - Our awesome teachers. I love these guys!!

Surfing...

Surfing was incredible. I went into this thinking that I would totally hate it but I really enjoyed it. Our surfing teacher was named Wayne Hill and is a total surf bum. Literally. He lives in essentially a shack, spends his time teaching people how to surf and making his own boards. Oh and also he hasn't worn shoes in over 20 years. His feet look like hobbits feet. I'm not even joking.

So the first few days of surfing were awesome. We practiced pop-ups which is where you pop up onto a board and catch a wave and then they just threw us in the water and let us go crazy. The first few times I tried it I ate a whole lot of salt water, but then I really started to get the hang of it and it's awesome.

By the end of our surfing adventure I was able to catch a lot of waves and could even stand up! Well mostly stand up. I had one leg up and one knee bent. It takes a lot more arm strength then I really possess to pop yourself up on a surfboard while your on a wave. It's is also very hard to balance while standing up.

One not so lovely thing that happened is that I got hit in the head with another girls surfboard one day while I was surfing. She didn't have a good hold of it and a wave caught it and smashed it against my head. I got a huge goose egg from it and was out of surfing for the rest of the day.

The other awesome thing was that I wasn't scared of sharks! I was totally worried that I wouldn't be able to surf because I'm to scared of them but while I was out there all you can think about is can I catch this wave and your just worried about the board and the waves. Of course I also strategically placed myself between other people in case a shark did bite someone I wouldn't be the first one he went for.

Kayaking...

Wow. What an adventure this was. So for part of our classes with S.I.T. we got to learn how to go white water kayaking. So fun.
The first time we were in kayaks was in the swimming pool. So we got all geared up, helmets and everything and went down to the local pool and hopped in our kayaks. They basically had us practice flipping over. Well and then letting people rescue you. Basically what happens is when your white water kayaking, there is a good chance you will flip over so we had to practice what to do if we flipped over. How to rescue ourselves and other people.

The first kind of exit is called a wet exit which is where you pull the spray skirt off your kayak and swim out from underneath your boat. (The Spray skirt looks like a skirt that hooks around the edge of the kayak to prevent water from coming inside and helping you not fall out if you flip over).

Next we did a t-rescue. When you've flipped over in your kayak you feel along the side of the boat with your hands till someone gets there kayak to you and you grab the nose of their kayak and flip yourself back over.

Then the hand of god. You sit in you kayak and flip the other persons boat over with your hand. And just as a little side note you can flip yourself back over it's called an Eskimo roll, but it requires more skill than most of us were able to acquire in the short amount of time we had to practice.

So basically this is super terrifying, waiting for someone to come rescue you, and we flipped over and over and over in the pool. Lot's of water in the ears and chlorine in the nose. We also practiced paddling.

Then we got to go out in the open water the next week! We went to a place called Borland for a 3 day kayaking trip. The first day we practiced on the lake, turning, and paddling in a bigger body of water. Also we learned how to rail which is where you lean so one side of your boat is going to be against the waves. Stops you from flipping over if you do it right.

Then we got to go down the rapids. We went down a Class 2/3 rapid (on a scale of 7) and went down 4 actual white water rapids, and I only flipped over once! Which is quite an achievement. Actually it was superbly fun and I loved it. It was so different actually being on a moving body of water, but it wasn't too hard. We also got to spend some time just practicing our skills in a rapid and that was fun too.

We went on another kayaking trip again to a place called Mavora Lakes. Basically we got to more of the same fun stuff we did at Borland. The rapids at this place were only a Class 1 though so it was easier. I didn't have the best time on this trip because it was raining the whole time so you didn't really want to get in the water. Plus we were practicing our skills in this one particular area and would go in and out and I kept getting carried away by the current and had to get out of my kayak, and hike up a hill and through brush to get back to where we were practicing.

Still it was awesome to learn how to kayak and I love it! I'm going to have to try to do it when I get back to the states.

Our Kayaking Teacher - not actual facial hair, seaweed from the river.