Greymouth, NZ South Island

It's been a little while since my last post, and this one would have been up yesterday if the internet hadn't cut me off right before I hit "publish post." Oh, well.

Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to since Rotorua:

--The next stop for Cardiff and myself was Taupo, which is slightly south of Rotorua and was the site of an Ironman race while we were there. We watched for parts of it and it was impressive thinking about how some of the competitors were moving for about 14 hours in a row. The two of us decided to be active by going mountain biking at the Craters of the Moon park, which was a few km out of the city. About 2 hours, some bad directions, a wrong turn, a fall, and a lot of wind and rain later, our intrepid American duo made it to the bike paths. It was extremely worth all of the effort to get there. They had hours of pristine single track set up for us, complete with wooden obstacles at points and rating systems for the trails. The biking might be the highlight of my trip so far because of what we had to do to get there.

--After Taupo, we headed to Napier, which is on the east coast of the north island and near Hamilton, where Cardiff's job was going to begin the next day (Monday). We spent what ended up being our last day together eating and playing some hackey sack.

--The next day, after Cardiff left for work and my prospects for work in town seemed bleak, I took a walk down the beach. On my way back, I ran into a guy parked on the beach who was heading down to Wellington (where the Interislander ferry leaves for the south island) which was where I wanted to go. He said he'd give me a ride, so I got my stuff and we headed out. His name is Sean and he's from Santa Barbara! We made it down to Wellington that night after doing a little bit of wine tasting as we traveled, as the area around Napier is famous for its wine.

--We spent a few days in Wellington together waiting for our ferry to leave. I wanted to visit my friend Lindsay, who is working at a winery in a nearby town, but because of weird train scheduling, it didn't happen. Wellington felt a lot like San Francisco because it is right on the water and has some culture.

--The ferry ride was quite nice and scenic and took about 3 hours, during which time it was sunny, windy, and rainy. The conditions changed about every 15 minutes, with the exception of the wind, which was constant.

--Our next destination was Nelson, about 3 hours away on a very scenic drive along the north coast of the south island. It was so scenic that by the time we got there, we were tired of the beautiful mountain and bay views. On the ferry, we met a German tourist named Radea who was heading in the same direction that we were, so we gave her a lift.

--The hostel in Nelson was great. They had free soup for dinner, free cereal and toast for breakfast, a hot tub, a spa, a pool, and cool lofted areas throughtout the building for hanging out and using the internet that felt like tree houses.

--The next day I tried looking for a fruit picking job, which turned out to be fruitless (haha) because I needed a work permit, which I couldn't get without a bank account number, which I couldn't get without a semi permanent New Zealand address for them to send the info to. So, unless something happens, it looks like I don't have to worry about getting a job here, which is kind of nice.

Well, the timer says i have 20 seconds so I'd better go.

Talk to you soon.

Andy