It was all a dream...

Drifting from airport to airport was a daze. I am currently sitting in a hotel. It is 2:21am, central time. Leaving for North Carolina in about 10 hours. It almost feels as if my time in New Zealand had been a dream Perhaps one of those elaborate dreams people in comas sometimes have.

My last week in chch was a mix of emotions but overall lovely. I

finished all my finals, 

climbed, 

said goodbye to friends, 

packed up all my stuff,
had a lovely picnic, 

and came back to the states. 

And here I am. Back in reality... well... almost. 

Taken after our last climb at cattlestop crag. 

Final's Trip 2: Wellington

With such short days and cold weather settling across the south island, Will, Rachel, and I went up to the capital, Wellington, at the bottom tip of the North Island.

IN SHORT

THE WIND: It was nuts! I mean shit, good ol' Chicago is nothing compared to this windy city. Gale force winds are almost the norm here. 

THE BEER: Great. Craft beers all over the place. 

THE FOOD: Wonderful. We went to so many places. Mainly Asian joints. 

THE COFFEE: Now, I have always been a tea-kinda lady but this trip has made me realize how delicious coffee is. Good coffee. I'm pretty sure Wellington has more coffee shops on any given block then New York does. We did as the Wellingtonians do and attempted to drink 4-5 cups a day (we often only had 2). Starbucks has nothing on the various coffee brands here. 

THE PEOPLE: Still kiwis but heaps more artsy people. Slightly more diverse than Chch. 

THE TOWN: Wellington is a very lively place. There was live music going on somewhere almost every night. The city spans along the harbor between some hills and has its distinct sections (as any city does). Cuba street offered the most to do and had the coolest vibes. Overall the city is pretty artsy and happening. 

Day-by-day

The plane landed around 7:30am on Wednesday. We decided to make the most of our day and set off to see all of the basic touristy things. After some coffee at a cafe and a walk down cuba street, we hiked up Mt. Victoria to see the city from atop a hill. We then walked over the the parliament, saw some churches and went to Chow's for dinner. After chow's, we went next store to a hip bar called The library and worked on some puzzles while taking advantage of the 241 cocktails. 

The next day Rachel and I went on a food tour in the morning which was pretty cool. Our tour guide took as all around showed us all the cool places to check out. We had a ton of free samples and even got to go to where on cafe roast's their coffee. We met up with will later, had coffee at a cafe with a cool half outside section, and walked around town stopping at various shops and galleries. For dinner, we went to a vegetarian and vegan place for some Malaysian food. We basically got high on ginger tea and had fantastic food. In the evening, we bar hopped and danced to some live music at a place called San Fran (yes, there is a strong American presence all across NZ). 

We spent all of Friday in Te Papa, the national museum. After some coffee, we strolled around cuba trying to figure out what we wanted to eat. We settled on Maylasian/ South Indian place and again had some great food. That night we bar hopped some more. We found a real classy one that had a katie perry themed menu. Will defeated me in a card game there. We found some cool little craft beer bars later in the night. 

Saturday we went to the morning market on the boardway then went to a cafe for some coffee. After that, we took the tram to the botanic gardens and strolled through them. After coffee and lunch at the cafe in the gardens, we walked back to the hostel in the city. Rachel had to leave so she packed up and we all went out for more coffee and cake. Once we saw her off, will and I walked over to Newtown and grabbed some drinks at a Brazilian bar. Taco's were calling us so we went over to a local Mexican joint for some sangria, tacos and flan (what was absolutely amazing). We then went back to the brazilian bar for some dancing but felt a little out of place so we decided to try and catch a ska show. By the time we got there it was 11pm and the show had just started. It was sooo much fun. I had never really experienced ska (other than punk ska) but let me tell you, such great vibes. The music is so fun and up beat. The dancing was great. There was no specific dance or anything, you just moved around to the music, completely let lose, everyone had his or her own style. It was great. 

Our last day was calm and slow. We did some shopping and went from cafe to cafe absorbing the city and watching the day go by. We cooked up yellow curry in the hostel at night and chilled. 

Once again, quite a successful trip with great people. I didn't take very may pictures, however. 

Finals Trip 1: Queenstown-roadish trip

The first taste of stress I've felt here was during the last week of classes. Projects and essays and quizzes were all due the Friday of June 5th. With assignments completed and bags packed, Rachel, Andrew and I set off for a tour of the south. It would be a battle against the weather oncoming poor weather. 

After a morning at the farmer's market we drove to the glacial lake Tekapo, hiked up to Mt. John's observatory, got kicked off the premise, drank wine and scrumpy on a bench under the stars, and had an epic game of monopoly back at the hostel.

The next day we set of for Mt. Cook. The weather was not looking so good so we ended up hiking through a valley to about 1000m elevation to a super cute backcountry hut. We could hear the cracking of ice as climbed over rock avalanches, freshly deposited moraines, and saw Tasman and Hooker glaciers. At night, the stars sparkled through a clear sky as we ate "chili" and drank our wine. A greedy possum flung himself at the hut in an effort to share the warm food. The next day the beautiful weather held out for our valley as we hiked out back to the car. Off we drove to Queenstown. 

Queenstown is a magical little ski town tucked away between mountains and a huge glacial lake. Never have I seen as many rainbows as I did in my time there. We cooked up a big dinner on our arrival in qt and the next day we set out to snowboard up on Coronet Peak. The weather turned sour midday so we headed back to Andrew's place to get ready for Jiu-jitsu. We trained at the local gym then had a lovely meal at Fergburger in which I had the greatest hot chocolate of my life. 

The next day Rachel set off to helicopter onto a glacier while Andrew and I drove down to Dunedin to climb. Long beach on the peninsula of Dunedin is such a cool spot. It would be so incredible in the summer. Great climbing right a long a sandy beach with a short 5 min walk through bush. 

Once back in queenstown, we decided to hike a up a hill the qt's gondola is on. It was a nice hike through bush then snow. With the last few hours of day light we did some bouldering not too far out of town. 

The trip was a success. We (Team Gordon as we decided to call ourselves) avoided all poor weather (aside for the cold) and did all of my favorite things with some great people. Queenstown is a wonderful place. 

Last Few Weeks of Classes @UC

The end of May and first week of June was spent finishing up projects, classes, and doing various activities. Went down to Dunedin for the Queen's birthday weekend for a jiu-jitsu competition and got first out of the woman's open weight division. I've also climbed in the porthills some more, went to the Antarctica center with Rach, trained with some old buddies from the start of this semester, and  started saying goodbye to all those leaving already. If you're friends with me on Facebook, I'm sure you've seen some of the photos. 

Trading Mountains for Portillo's

Photo taken by Maddy Tank

In about six weeks I'll be heading back to the states. It's quite sad, actually. I've really grown to love it here. New Zealand is a beautiful country.

It has made me realize how HUGE the states are. Most Americans don't realize it but plenty of countries out there are significantly smaller than the USA. I would like to take some time and explore my own country some more.

WATCH this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUF_Ckv8HbE

Hitchin' Around

Well this weekend was quite eventful. Jeff and I hitched full circuit from Christchurch through Lewis pass, to Westport, to Punakiki, to Greymouth then back through Arthur's pass in four and a half days. Camped all but one night with plenty of great food and laughs.