I think I actually have a plan for the next few weeks!! But first, I'll tell you about the last two weeks...
It all started hitch/hiking. A wonderful thing really! I met a nice lady at a hostel in Dunedin that gave me a lift up to Picton. The hitch/hiking started when she dropped me off. I didn't have much distance to cover really, check out a map from Picton to Motueka. Very pretty!!!
https://maps.google.co.nz/maps?hl=en&q=picton+to+motueka+driving+time+google+maps&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bpcl=39967673&biw=1270&bih=599&wrapid=tlif135565512894510&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
I get antsy so I started walking and about 30mins later a little red car pulled over! I got so excited!!! My first solo hitch/hiking experience! It turned out to be this super awesome guy (I totally forget his name but it started with a "W". Doesn't matter, he's cool). He's from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and he just quit his good paying job with a pharmaceutical company to travel around the world for a year and figure out what he wants to do with his life...need I say more? We had such a lovely chat for hours he drove me right up to Katerina's door to drop me off. I hope this is a good sign for my future hitch/hiking and not the best ever experience that nothing else will compare to :P I intend to test this.
A nice little lady (I swear they are all tiny in this country) requested some help with what I saw as a destruction job, naturally I responded. This is via Wwoofing, for those of you that are unfamiliar with the program, you should totally check it out! It's really big here in New Zealand and a few other countries and it's a great way to see more of the country and how people live AND to learn all the secrets of the area :) I digress. Katerina, my newest host, requested help with a gutter job (or spouts as they call them) I thought I was coming in to tear down some old ones, slap on a bit of paint and throw up some new ones.
To my dismay, the destructive part of the job was done the day I arrived by a gent hired to put up the new ones. Very nice of him I suppose. I was thrown into scraping the old paint off. NOT an easy job. Two days later Romaine from France arrived to help me out !! And two days after THAT we finally finished scraping and started to paint! Katerina, in the meantime was one of the best hosts I've had yet! She kept us fed and we had our allotted 'cuppas' every three hours just like all Kiwis do!! She was also one of the more socially active ladies I've stayed with yet! She even coerced Romaine and I to participate in a parade with her Greenpeace group! (pics to come later, connection is too slow today) or just go to facebook :P
We road all over the place on bicycles she lent us and went to the beach, toured the city, and just had a grand old time!
This past week she had a tramp planned to go through the Abel Tasman National Park with one of her good friends. She was so kind as to include us, it was awesome!! We packed up our gear (which took nearly a whole day!) we had to keep weighing our bags, mine was just too heavy. She kept telling me to get rid of stuff, but I had planned to take my tent as well instead of staying in the huts provided to the general public. Anyway...my pack was stuck at a solid 16.5kg, Romaine's was the lightest at 11kg, and Katerina's was in the middle at 13kg. not sure of the exact weight conversion but mine was somewhere around 37lbs. (they recommend 20% of your body weight to be the max). Whatever, I had a lot of good food in there!
The hike was a solid climb the first day and continued to be a nice variety of up and down for the next three days :) It gives different muscles a break, I liked it!! But we all got some solid thinking space and gorgeous views. I slept SOOO well in my tent the thought of a hut made me shudder! In my tent there's no fear of other people snoring or moving about to disturb me. In my tent the birds let you know when the sun is coming and the sun warms you right up to entice you out of bed! In my tent I can do whatever I want for as long as I want with no interruptions or distractions. Totally the way to go. Which is why I'm actually planning (I know I know...deep breath, I'm not lying!) I'm planning my next few weeks out to be able to tramp/camp my way down the west coast of the south island. There are some amazing sights to be had and I'm really excited to utilize this tent I've been carting around with me :P Now of course you need to take this planning thing with a grain of salt, it's more of a narrowed down options list.
OOOH!! Katerina, Mania (her 5yr old grandson), and I collected cockles yesterday at the beach. Best thing EVER! Free food that anyone with feet and hands can get and cook up! you even get a surprise crab in with your cockles occasionally! again there will be pictures eventually...
Katerina also taught me how to make my own camp stove...ask me for details. It's mostly free and genius!!!!
