Farewell South Island

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  New Zealand, New Zealand
Saturday, March 15, 2008

Late night or not Kailey and I were up bright and early in order to catch the bus taking us to the fairy in Picton. The bus trip was very uneventful so we just attempted to sleep the entire time. The ferry was actually really nice. They had a movie theater on it, a tv room, multiple eating areas, and an area with reclining leather chairs to sleep in. After grabbing a bite to eat that is exactly where Kailey I headed. We sat our buts in those comfy leather chairs and didn't move the entire trip, aside from bathroom breaks. Oh...interesting note. There is no such thing as a bathroom or washroom....they are simply toilets. Haha it's still weird to us to ask where the toilet is.

Once in Wellington we headed to the nearest hostel to book a room and for the first time ran into a problem. It just so happened that there was tons of events in Wellington that weekend and soo every single hostel was booked solid. As per a suggestion we headed to the Best Western near by and ended up running into this Dutch girl by the name of Desi (pronounced Dayshe). We decided that if we were gunna have to foot a bill for a real hotel it'd be cheaper with three. Unfortunately we were told that the cheapest room that the hotel had left was $260. We almost shit a brick. So passing up that we decided to wander. After wandering for awhile and asking a few people if they knew anywhere we were preparing ourselves to have to sleep on the beach somewhere. Luckily we ended up passing this place that looked so posh and rented short-term or long-term stay appartments. Desi said that we should go in and see if they have anything. Kailey and I were like no way that we will be able to afford that. But alas, we went in and asked the guy at the desk...well Desi did. To our surprise he said that he did! He called it his backpackers special! It was only $25 each (which is a pretty standard hostel price) and that it wasn't really up to the hotels standards as it used to be a storage room that he converted to this. It was sooo nice! We had a king size bed and a single, a tv, fridge, iron, ironing board, our own grill, coffee, tea, a steaper and showers and a kitchen downstairs. Luxury. We are still shocked that that worked out. Once we were settled, we spent the night exploring and ate dinner at a Belgium pub with excellent food.

The next day was pretty chill. They were having a dragon boat festival so we went to that. That was cool. A bunch of the schools were competing so we watched that for a good while. Then we explored more and found a grocery store and got groceries. We had an easy night watching movies as Kailey and I were both sick and decided that it was about time we just chilled. By the way...Kinking Boots...rent it. Fantastic!

Today...St.Patties Day!! One of the best days of the year!!! Hoorah! We started the day with going to the museum. We couldn't find the one we wanted...we thought that we were at the right one but found out later that we sure weren't. The one that we went to was not very good. The museum was a dumb set up with an overload of information...there was just to much all at once so by the time we got through the first exhibit we were just like huh. Also, we really wanted to find out about the history behind the maori people. Mainly we wanted to know how Europeaners went about colonizing New Zealand and how this effected the maori people and their culture. This museum did such a bad job at this. They gave such fabricated explanations in the sense that they completely "forgot" to mention any resistence and conflict that occured from the maori. They said that the agreement was peaceful which we later learned they got only some tribe reps to sign and they were drunk. Also, when we asked one of the staff members about it they just told us exactly what was on the sign. This part of New Zealand's past we have found is it's dirty little secret. 

After this dissapointment we went to the pub to get a guiness and then headed back to the hotel to say good bye to Desi who was heading to Asia. After good byes we went to a pub that was right down the street from where we were staying. What an experience. To start, we walked into the pub and everybody, which were in midsong, went silent. They turned, looked at us and then started to clap and whistle. Turned out that we were one of the only girls in the pub. We were gunna go but then we saw that they made chicken fingers and fries which no body in New Zealand does. It turns out that we were in a pub that was full of English Barmy Army fans (cricket and rugby team). It was so much fun. Everybody would sing their team chant in which we learned some of. We actually have a video of it but it got screwed up on the camera so once we figure out how to fix it will be up. After chilling there for a bit we decided to head to Molly Malones Irish pub. On the way we stopped off at KFC and got fries, gravy, and cheese. Oh we made some of the best poutine ever! Mmmmm. Once we made it to the bar it was sooo packed...it was brutal. It was shoulder to shoulder and it was atleast a 15 minute wait for a drink. So we left. We wanted to go somewhere else but didn't find anywhere that we really liked. So we just went home. Another early night but meh. We had a busy day. And besides...we're good girls!

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