Back to the South.
Trip Start
May 06, 2006
1
67
81
Trip End
Mar 23, 2009
Christchurch,
New Zealand
Sunday, December 9, 2007
But before all that, I'll quickly fill you in on the last few weeks of travelling! I did manage to do the Tongariro Crossing in the end after hanging around in Taupo for a week waiting for the good weather to appear! In that time I had been down to a local thermal river (yet another amazing place in New Zealand where a really warm river leads into a freezing cold one and you can just go and chill out in the park!) and ended up meeting 2 guys there called Paul and Dan. I was talking to Paul a lot and the subject of my climbing and belaying at camp came up. It turned out they were going climbing that evening and they invited me along. I had a great evening and it felt so good to be back on a climbing wall again - even if it did totally exhaust me! After over 3 hours of climbing we decided it was probably dangerous to keep belaying for eachother when we could barely feel our arms and headed back home. I spent the evening at their hostel playing drink jenga (much to the annoyance of the rest of the house!) and the next day was very tired! We had temporarily adopted the most adorable cat at the hostel though so I spent the day sleeping with it!
At around 6:30am on the Wednesday (7th) we all headed out to the crossing as the weather was finally good enough. Dan had managed to find 2 girls at the hostel who also wanted to drive rather than get the tour bus out there so we left one car at the start and one at the end and began the walk. I won't go into detail but I will say it nearly killed me as much as the walk up Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka (Gina - you should still do it 'cos it's beautiful but be prepared!), possibly more! However, the views were stunning (unlike Adam's Peak!) and it felt amazing to know it was warm at the start while we were playing in snow just a few hours walk up! The colours around were fascinating and well worth the almost heart attacks I was having on the walks uphill! There was a fun part going down hill where I fell over 5 times and the end of the walk goes on for a little bit too long but, as usual, I would've hated to have missed out! We made good time in a little over 6 hours (the guide said 7-8!) and then headed back to veg out and watch movies. Needless to say I was in agony for the next 3 days - much to the amusement of everyone else on the bus! I said bye to the boys who were heading north and made my way down to Wellington!
After looking for jobs in Welly I did the touristy things - Te Papa museum again (different section this time - that place is seriously huge!) where I saw some amazing art (and I'm not generally 'into' art!) and then up the tram ride to look over the city and walk down through the botanical gardens. I also met a fun pair called Chloe and Paul who had pretty much hitched their way around New Zealand and did a little bar tour with them one evening. We were sharing a room (named 'The Temple of the Ancients') with an 'interesting' Kiwi guy who had lived in the dorm for 2 years (!) and liked to dress as a woman, a wizard and just about anything else you can imagine. For fancy dress? No, just every day. Mmmm. He also had a lovely Jesus picture hung over the end of the bed covered in a gold shiffon material. I've certainly woken up to worse things in my travel but this was definitely worth mentioning!
Back to Christchurch where, now penniless, my friends took pity on me and let me live in their house for free for a week while I tried to find a house and a job! I found a pretty nice house - fairly cheap and a nice room with a double bed (one of the more important things to me this time!). It's close to town and to the big house the majority of my friends live in so it's perfect. I also have a very, very noisy cat who liked to come and visit me. I made the mistake of letting it in my room once and it proceeded to spend the next night bashing my window. It even brought me the lovely gift of a bird which is still outside my window... mainly 'cos I'm lazy! I don't spend much time there but it's nice to have my own place to go back to!
The job finding has been a lot more challenging. 'Cos of the time of year the students on their holidays have taken all the good jobs meaning there's no job left for me! I've had the odd day here and there doing random things - handing out free newspapers in town, working for a law firm, collecting emails for a survey and working a 13 hour night shift for 'The Press' (national newspaper) which is possibly one of the most tiring jobs so far. Next week I get to put hangers on socks at the sock factory! Joy. Nothing as glamourous as my previous travel jobs and it's making me miss my big cats even more - I had so many dreams about them last night! I have been considering going back to either Thailand or South Africa but I'm not sure if I could handle it again yet. It's possibly 'cos I've been talking to lots of people who have been there recently or who are going back and I'm SO jealous... I'll keep you posted!
Other than that we've had a few fun weekends in the house. Today we're all chilling in the garden with the BBQ going and it's another beautiful weekend (sorry to those of you on the other weather side!). I've not really been drinking or going out 'cos I don't have the cash but I'm still around for the party before they all head out! I also decided yesterday that I'm going to work New Years Eve! It'll save me a load of money and, better yet, earn me a crap load more! I've recruited a few others in the house too so it should be fun!
For now it's work the crap jobs and save money time (or just have enough to pay the rent and eat would be good!) so there probably won't be any updates for a while! I hope you're all well. I have an address and landline now so if you want the details either email me or ask my mum! Take care all!
