There are no bad words for the coast today

Hey, folks! So I've got a lot of catching up to do, from the last 2 months, so here we go, I guess!

OK. First I wasn't updating because once I left Taupo, internet connections were hard to come by and also pricey. When you're paying by the 15-minutes, you want to spend those 15 minutes checking your e-mail or looking at pictures of Michelle Obama or making fun of Jim. Or I do, anyway. And then I didn't update because I didn't want to put myself in a position where I'd have to lie directly to people about how I was coming home in April. So I haven't updated. But now I am! Hooray!

So let's get this party started. And we'll start with leaving Taupo.

So I wrote here and then I left Taupo. In between there were quite a few parties, quite a few movies watched, some crepes made, and I fell on the sidewalk outside the pub. All in all, good times. So I moved out of my room and made the epic trek to...Nat's room, where I stored my stuff as I slept on the couch. Will moved into my old room because my old room kicked all kinds of ass and Will's was not as awesome. Although it had the same view. Some new guy that doesn't hang out with the flatties moved into Will's old room. I slept on the couch for a few nights, and then I took a bus to Wellington! Woo! I don't really think anything interesting happened in Wellington, because I can't remember anything interesting happening there. I probably got in late because that bus usually gets in late, so I probably got dinner and then went to bed or something. I've spent so many in-transit single nights in Wellington that they all sort of blur together. The next day (a Thursday! My memory is good) I wandered around Wellington for a while because why not, and then I grabbed all my stuff and walked to the ferry terminal. This was and forever will be a huge mistake. When I was first in Wellington and hanging out with this girl Sarah, we stayed at Nomads. And one morning Sarah was going to the South Island and she was like, “I'll just walk to the terminal because that's cheap” and I said that was crazy, it was still very far, and anyway she'd have all her stuff. A cab ride was not too much to pay. Anyway, when I walked to the ferry terminal, I was staying at the YHA, which is significantly further from the ferry terminal than Nomads. And I didn't take a cab. And I got like a third of the way there and I wanted to die. But I perservered and now whenever I need to take my bag more than like 5 feet, I get a ride. Lesson learned.

So I got to the terminal and I checked my bag and I nearly fell over from the loss of a 50-pound monkey on my back, and eventually I got on the ferry. It was really fun at first, and then kind of boring, and so I read for a while. I then caught the end of “Material Girls” starring Hilary and Haylie Duff and this isn't the sort of story you expected from New Zealand, is it? Nope. Cut ahead!

I got to Picton, and I decided to stay the night because I didn't feel like rushing. So I stayed at The Villa, which is this SUPER-ADORABLE hostel in Picton. I wanted to stay longer because it was ever so lovely, but the thing is that Picton itself if kind of a bore. So I left the next day and bid farewell to the backyard with the hammocks and the free coffee and the comfy couches. For Kaikoura!! Kaikoura is this eensy little seaside town that was a little nothing town until someone got the bright idea to start a whale-watching cruise from there. There is a bunch of marine wildlife. Also, it's all sleepy and calm and seaside, so it was kind of the perfect place to go on my vacation. That's what I called it then. So I got into Kaikoura, and checked in at my new adorable hostel and then did a bunch of walking around the town and beach. The next day, LISA arrived. Lisa is one of my favorite people in the whole world, and so when she came to New Zealand, I was very happy. That was about 3 months ago and I remain happy. Anyway, it was even better to see Lisa in Kaikoura than it had been in Christchurch because Kaikoura was sunny and warm and Christchurch in February had been rainy and cold and miserable. So once Lisa got there, we went on a little walk around town and then we walked to a SEAL COLONY. I like seals, they are adorable. There weren't that many seals to see, but it was still totally worth it. Then we had our choice of 2 walks around the Kaikoura peninsula, the beach walk or the cliff walk. We chose the cliff walk, which was awesome because you can see so far out to sea and also you get to be really high up. Sometimes we had to walk through pastures. Sometimes we had to walk around cows. Welcome to New Zealand. But it was cool. So we walked all the way around the cliffs and then we took a cut through the center of the peninsula back into town. We were both starving at this point, so we split some vegetarian nachos. Then I can't really remember what we did. Eventually we went back to the hostel, where we shocked our Dutch roommate with the amount of time we could spend sitting in a room talking. Hey! We hadn't seen each other in a while! Then we played cards with two Canadian boys who were, like, all of 12 years old. They must've been older since they were drinking beer, but they looked about 12. Lisa won, I think, and I probably came in last. I've lost a lot of card games in this country. Oh, hey, but we plated Egyptian Ratscrew, and Lisa is very, very good at it. So she should play Nich, because Nich is fast like a freak at that game. It could be a tournament of champions!

Anyway.

So the next day (Sunday), Lisa and I were supposed to swim with seals, which I was SO INCREDIBLY EXCITED ABOUT but then it was too rough. Boo. So we went to the Kaikoura iSite, which claimed to be the best iSite in New Zealand and I believe it because not only did they store my luggage, but when we were like, “Hello, iSite lady, we have about 5 hours before our bus and we were supposed to swim with seals but it got canceled, what would you recommend?” the iSite lady had tons of recommendations. We wound up kayaking out to the seal colony, which was fun, only Lisa and I had to get towed by the guide for some of it because we were not as fast paddlers as the other kayakers. Hey, we're little. But we did our best. It was really cool because the seals are all up in your grill and they swim adorable and we learned all sorts of interesting facts about seals, such as that you should never get between a seal and the water because they can run fast and knock you down. And, 1. ouch, but 2. how lame would you look if you were like, “And then I went to a hospital because a seal kicked the crap out of me”? Pretty lame. So anyway, it was really fun except I think Lisa got kind of seasick, but she was in the front of the kayak, so I didn't find this out until later. I'm sorry, Lisa! It was kind of my fault, due to my debilitating seal obsession. But on the way back, we saw a REAL LIVE PENGUIN swimming, so I think we can all agree that the trip was Totally Worth It.

OK. So we got back and then we hopped on a bus to Christchurch. We got in late and we made food (or, rather, Lisa made food. Possibly I took a shower) and then we watched 30 Rock while we ate garlic bread and corn on the cob. PS I'm running this show without the assistance of my diary and it's 2 full months later, how badass is my memory? Right. So then we inevitably stayed up too late talking and giggling (like you do) and eventually went to sleep. The next day, I wandered around Christchurch! I went to the Botanic Gardens (lovely!) and to the Canterbury Museum (informative!) and to Cathedral Square (lovely and informative!). I booked my TranzAlpine train for Wednesday because I was going on my Great South Island Adventure, so I needed to go west. Then I think Lisa made curry with some of her IES friends and at one point we had to go to Woolworth's to get more coconut milk because the curry was superspicey. The things I remember. We looked at one of Lisa's friend's skydiving video, and then she brought me to a special meeting of her Maori Studies class where we looked at the stars. It was kind of cold out, though. But we're tough. So then we went back and I can't remember what else we did. Stayed up late talking? Likely.
The next day, we hung out for a bit and then Lisa went to class while I just read. So interesting, me. We skyped with Ben! And then we went out for Indian food and I dropped some on my pants and had to do laundry before my trip. And that night we played Uno! It was a good game, even though her Uno cards cost her like $3NZ, so they were kind of crap. The directions were written in deliciously broken English, though, so in a way, everyone won.