Currently at war...

with sandflies and mosquito bites, after a 3 day/2 night kayak excursion to Borland in Fiordland National Park.

I felt like all my spare time there was spent applying insect repellent.

My efforts proved futile.

I'd see the nasty buggers burrowing through my wool socks to feast on my blood.
One morning, I awoke to find 2 snacking on my hand for who knows how long.
Apparently, my ankles are extra delicious because they now resemble kankles.

Craving a laugh from someone to ameliorate this dire situation, I even called the nasty foodchain rejects naughty names because they managed to bite me in unmentionable places...

shudder...

It took all of my mental capacities today to refrain from itching.

Right now, they are winning.

I want to die.

Tongariro National Park: Living Lord of the Rings

Now, let me just say that I planned to cram in watching Lord of the Rings over Christmas…but I got too busy hanging out with friends and family that it slipped away. I know, how UNGRATEFUL am I for my insane experiences that I can't muster the time to watch a movie about them beforehand. Sue me.

So apparently we camped in Moordoor and hiked through it. Some people even hiked ‘Mount Doom’ from the movie (which Christina discusses here), but as I don’t like hiking that much in the first place, I elected not to tack on another 3+ hours on an already 6 hour, 19.4 kilometer sojourn.

This was the view of THE Mount Doom, from our campsite!

Now, it was a gorgeous hike. So many different landscapes and colors and geologic formations, from volcanic rock to alpine tundra grasses to emerald sulphur lakes to tropical rainforests.


This first part of the hike had streams with moss that looked like the innards of a pumpkin... amazing colors.





The sulphur lakes...you get used to the smell...and it's just so unbelievable looking, juxtaposed with the volcanic rock.

Yeah, Christina took this picture and only merely saturated the color on iPhoto... the fog is ominously beautiful.

Alpine grasses.


Which segwayed into tropical rainforest...unreal.

And this sunset the night before we hiked was the most gorgeous I’ve ever seen!

The Velodrome

Interrupting my stories about the 2-week camping trip to tell you about a little experience we had this morning at The Velodrome...part of a YMCA-on-steroids health club here in Invercargill.

Let me preface by saying I never have very adventurously ambitious ideas for what to do here...when I've traveled with friends, I'm more prone to rallying them to see a museum or monument.

We bike a minimum of an hour a day to get around places, which is usually somewhere where we are going to engage in more activity. So needless to say I’m pretty wiped out at the end of the days here.

This morning I was not planning to go to the Velodrome with my roommate because I wanted to sleep a little longer, but it ended up working out that she was going later.

Mind you, I never really know what I’m getting in for, which is great, because I’m a very cautious person by nature, and I just made a pact that I’d go with the flow more instead of always needing to know everything going on.

So all I’d heard were vague explanations here-and-there like:

“an indoor cycling track…

curved in such a way that it carries you with centripetal force...

and the bikes don’t have brakes.”

The bikes don’t have brakes?! Ok. But…fair enough, I was still game.

What I didn’t know was that

-the indoor cycling track would be curved as steep as 43 degrees!

- not only do the bikes not have brakes, but the pedals are connected to the back wheel, so you CAN’T STOP PEDALING.

-and therefore, to stop you have to keep pedaling (a couple laps depending on how fast you’d been going) until you slow down enough to stop yourself with your hand on a railing.

(What have they gotten me into this time?!)

The lady instructing us throughout gave us a little shpiel at the beginning, with things like “You must get going pretty fast…you must keep up your speed…you must have courage…you must concentrate on the track…and always keep pedaling”

Crazy Kiwis. She also assured us we'd be gracing up high on the track by the end of the hour...psh, yeah right.

But after having a moment of sheer terror, I just kind of closed off my mind to thinking and told myself subconsciously that I could do it…after all, other people were and weren’t getting hurt or falling. There was no room to be cautious: in fact, in this situation it would be the more dangerous mentality to have.

Aaand…

It was actually pretty amazing.

I got up higher than I ever expected...

And the time flew! We were done after an hour, which felt like 10 minutes.

Would have kept going, but we were tired, which wouldn’t be embarrassing save for the fact that:

a) you can visibly tell when people are fatiguing on the track… and

b) the really cute (age 19…but looked about 24) New Zealand world record holder who had just won a gold medal at the world cup in Beijing had just arrived for his workout. “Oh heeey…”

And because lots of my friends are religious…the track is life, on which you must keep pedaling; the centripetal force is God, which keeps you centered and safe so long as you have the concentration to move forward, and the power and courage to move up!

Stretching

I came to many points during camping when I was absolutely out of my comfort zone. I actually remember thinking "I am changing, I know it. But I don't know how yet." And then I'd tell myself to relax, that it's okay to not figure out how you've changed while you're doing the very thing you've set out to change yourself. (That's how my brain rolls...)

Today in one of my classroom classes (there are only 2, don't feel sorry for me), I made a list of all the things I have done these past couple weeks that have been entirely new, without referencing to anything similar (i.e. a long flight is not new to me, but was for others).

I am so grateful for the life I've had, and find it funny that my "new" things that have been stretching me to new capacities would, among this outdoorsy bunch, probably be considered some of the most elementary of experiences: pitching a tent, sleeping outside in the rain, sleeping outside under the stars sans tent...

During my camping, my stresses turned from modern concerns to far more simple, down to the most archaic being getting enough water.

This kind of stress is also exhausting... good thing I'm also sleeping really well here!

(Now I'm going to take a nap, in my bed.)

Cheers!

Sunblock as a way of life

The first line of business of being Kiwi, other than to be fancy free relaxed, is to wear sunscreen. I feel like I’m a kid again, lathering up SPF every day before going out to play.

There is no ozone layer thanks to virtually no pollution (I don’t understand science very well, so that statement may not make sense), so the sun hits WASP-y skin (as opposed to the Maori) extra hard.

Apparently, NZ has the most cases of skin cancer in the world… ‘screen up Kiwi-farers!

'Black Water' Rafting in Waitomo

From Hamilton, we set off for the famous Waitomo Caves, where you lay on an innertube, in a wetsuit, with a headlamp in a dark cave to look at these wonderful glow worms that hang on the ceiling like stars in the sky.

The funny thing about law in New Zealand is that apparently no one sues each other, or their system is such that it is hard (unclear), so all of these goofy things we do (sledging, inner tubing in dark caves), we sign a sort-of waiver, but it isn't very explicit in the way that Americans know as 'signing your life away' to do extreme activities.

So first we had to practice, in the light, jumping off a 10-foot ledge, with our tube.

Apparently this is the equivalent of an ordinary walk in the park for Kiwis...


Then we had to climb down this small entryway into the cave...

We had to often float under 3 foot openings...pretty gnarly. Again, I feel/look like I'm 12...


This is what the glowworms look like...you're literally laying back in your tube just taking in the grandeur of such a wonder.

This is what they look like with a flash on them!

Mt. Maunganui and Hamilton

After Rotorua, we went to Mt. Maunganui, a little beach town with a fun little trail to hike up for scenic views (about a 20 minute climb- my kind of 'hike'!). There was a gorgeous beach with a volleyball tournament going on. At first I thought people were playing for fun and planned on jumping in, but then I saw that they were teams with matching suits on. Ah well.

Before the 'hike,' I climbed a little tree and was pretty pleased with myself. The entire trip, I've been acting like I'm 12...

Coming down the hike, seeing sheep and thinking it would be really funny if...

I could pet one!

BUT then they all ran away... my sheep farming ancestors were probably laughing.



Then we were off to Hamilton, where there is an LDS singles ward, as well as temple. I didn't know it was the second international LDS temple built (after Switzerland) back in the 40s!

With my tent-mate Makenna.

We did baptisms at the temple, and the next day we went to church at the building down the street.

After church, we had a linger-longer where we talked with the ward members. If you've read Elna Baker's book (which is hilarious- if you're Mormon, you will cry with laughter), she makes fun of them and the need for alliteration (Mix-N-Mingle, Chat-N-Chew, etc). On a whole they were really fun, although, it's true- LDS singles events are just as awkward anywhere you are in the world. Eesh.

The bishopric even pushed the 'green card' issue in Sacrament, saying "If you like something you see, go for it." Hilarious. Oh, Mormons...

At the 'Linger-Longer,' there was one notable super awkward but shamelessly forward guy who got 10 girls' information (I gave him a fake name to be funny to everyone else), and many of them received IDENTICAL emails (with names substituted) a few days later with date requests, with one of the selling points being that they probably wouldn't have any opportunities to date a lot of "indigenous people" here. Wow. We all DIED laughing.