the third post

Tuesday, January 31: (this is by Clark) Because the forecast for Sydney was rain everyday for the next few weeks, we decided to go where it is sunny. So we booked a ticket to Christchurch, New Zealand which is on the south island, then we would just work our way up to Auckland and fly out from there in a couple weeks.  We spent the morning packing up and then got a ride to the station and hopped on a train to the airport. Its pretty easy, its faster and cheaper than driving there. We got to the line to check into JetStar airlines for our flight to find out why it is so cheap. Waited in line forever : to be greeted by people who hate their jobs, charged us $160 for oversized baggage, had our multi tool taken away, waited at an empty gate for a delayed flight, and didn't even get an offer for a ginger-ale on the plane. Awesome stuff, and we get to fly with them at least two more times - can't wait. Arrived in Christchurch a little after midnight feeling pretty tired and anxious. We asked a lady at the info desk the best way to get to our room for the night and she said to either ride a taxi or a shuttle, whichever would be cheaper. Really nice lady. Went outside and taxi's greeted us and we asked about how much and they actually gave us an honest answer and said the shuttle would be cheaper. Really nice guys. Shuttle guy quickly called back a shuttle that had already headed in the direction we needed to go, and they turned around to come pick us up. Really nice guy. Shuttle driver lady told all kinds of jokes and was very considerate. Really nice lady. Stayed in a sweet little cabin type room with just a bed and TV, and down a little bit was big communal showers and toilets. It was actually really clean and nice, and we were glad to be there.

Wednesday, February 1: (Clark) In the morning I went to go check out and the lady asked what our plans were and I just said we wanted to go downtown for the day. She gave me great directions and a detailed map to the bus station and gave me some pointers for what to see in town (even showed me a box with all kinds of free stuff that other backpackers had left in order to get through security and I scored a free can of propane and some soup). Really nice lady. Got on a bus and headed to town, started to talking to an older couple about the earthquakes and what to do in town and they were happy to tell us all about it. Chatted with them all the way into town, and then they invited us to come watch the protest that was forming right outside our bus stop in front of the city council building. Really nice couple. Within a few minutes it all started with speakers and special guests making rousing comments to rally the citizens of Christchurch (it wasn't hard). Within a few minutes it was clear we were not sure what was going on, either because of the packs were were carrying or that we weren't shouting back or carrying picket signs, and a few people stopped to explain what they were doing. Here is a link to the paper to explain what it was all about (we were just barely out of the picture!). A young couple who were not taking it too seriously stayed right by us to explain who everyone was, and what the crowd kept yelling back. It was really funny and cool to be there. He even told us that this would probably be the best thing we would see in Christchurch, since everything else had been destroyed. He found out we were from Utah and instantly asked if we were Mormons and seemed entertained by that for some reason and we kind of became buddies, I think. We really liked him at least. The crowd numbered a couple thousand and was very peaceful and productive I would say - but I don't know anything. We headed out to find some food and wi-fi at a cafe right next to the YMCA. We ran into some american college students from seattle who gave us some advice on things to see and stay. They were pretty cool, and we actually booked a room there (I didn't know YMCA had rooms). We spent the rest of the day just wandering around and hanging out at the bus station, for internet, that was really nicely made out of a big shipping crate. It was pretty nuts to see the incredible damage the quake caused. It literally destroyed downtown, and they recently built a temporary new one - out of shipping crates! Shockingly, you can make a really really awesome little shopping mall out of them and a bunch of good paint. It looked very modern and permanent. We were way impressed - check out some of the pictures and video of the mall. We felt like we were in a ghost town around some of the streets because there were just entire strip malls abandoned and fenced off. Glass was all over the place, a year later, and any building above two stories was wrapped in scaffolding. Walking past one bed and breakfast we read a sign on the door that said "closed due to earthquake - we have no idea when we will reopen".  Helped me to realized how devastating something like that can be, and how ignorant I am about news around the world. I vaguely remember hearing about the big one last year, but they have been having smaller quakes nearly every day since, and I had no idea. Its crazy.
This is off topic completely, but I have realized lately how I hardly read the paper, and if I do it is just the USA Today on my phone every once in a while. There are loads of stories about bombings, natural disasters, and world politics (Australians honestly know more about our elections than I do - I discovered that in an embarrassing way) in it everyday and I just skip over them 90% of the time. On a boring day I might read the headline and think - hmm, thats a bummer. I know I am a bad guy but its true. I just keep scrolling down until I see something related to me, like breaking news in the NBA or something 'important' right? Hopefully, and I want to start trying, I can begin taking more of an interest in what's going on in the world and give it a seconds thought. I think it might help me to be a better guy. Might. . . .    
We bought some cheap sushi rolls at 5 when they were closing up shop, and headed back to the hotel room where we watched some TV about US politics and some great re-runs of Whose Line Is It Anyway and went to bed pretty happy. (Also we watched an episode of this British show called QI ? It was awesome. I just wanted to remind myself of it so I can watch more later)

Thursday, February 2: (Michelle) We are getting so close to being caught up! So Thursday morning we woke up early and caught our shuttle bus that we booked to Queenstown. It was one of those really nice  Mercedes shuttle vans so it ended up being quite comfortable. We had nice drivers (they switched out at a couple stops) and Clark and I had 3 seats to ourselves so we could lay down and sleep some. It took 7 hours including all of the potty and lunch breaks, but it went by really fast and the Dramamine kept us both motion sick free. With the way our drivers were taking the sharp turns and breaking only when absolutely necessary, I'm so glad we remembered to take some. The drive actually looked exactly like we were driving through Utah or Idaho but with a lot more sheep. We kept waiting for it to turn into New Zealand but it wasn't happening. Finally, as we started getting closer to Queenstown, we saw this bright turquoise river flowing along side the road. It was gorgeous. Then things started turning more and more green and the mountains were getting steeper and steeper. We weren't quite sure what we were expecting, Lord of the Rings, I guess. But Queenstown actually reminds me a lot of Utah. Its actually a lot like Park City, in the town with the shops and really nice landscaping and stuff. The temperature is perfect, no humidity, no bugs at all, beautiful clear giant blue glacier lake, all surrounded by mountains. (Tag- Clark) Its inhabitants are probably 90% tourists from all over the world, not just asia! (no offense to our asian readers) As we were trying to get situated and organized michelle went into an information centre and left me outside with all of our packs and belongings. It was really hot and so i put everything down to take my jacket off. I took our camera out of my breast pocket, put it on a railng and took the jacket off. Michelle came out a second later with a map so we packed up and headed to our campground. I realized a few minutes later I left the camera sitting all alone, so I dropped everything and sprinted down there and the camera was gone. Bummer. Big one. This is why we might not have pictures of everything the past few days, but we have managed by taking mental pictures and doing a few sketches. 
The campground is really really nice. There is a range of ways to stay: in an apartment, in a hotel'ish type room, camper spots, or plots of grass to pitch a tent or park a car. It is pretty full of all the above, but it feels more like a community than anything else. All of the buildings and bathrooms, which are equipped with showers, are very new. They are modern and well maintained. There is a huge dining hall full of tables and chairs and about 15 sinks and close to ten stove tops, ovens, microwaves, and a fridge. It is cool to go there at meal times and see it slammed with all kinds of different people cooking surprisingly gourmet meals. It smells delicious! A lot more delicious than the PBJ's that are becoming our staple. Seriously we have learned a thing or two about how to travel in cheap style. It is shamefully clear that we are novice campers compared to most of the people here, and once again they seem to come from all around the world. We get wi-fi for ten dollars a day and have been using that (right now) to do the blog and organize our trip and take care of things back home. 
We decided to catch a bus out of town, on the advice of the several people in town, to look for a camera. We reached a nice shopping centre and of course they were all closing up. We will never learn! The only thing we were able to do was go and buy a some more sandwich stuff from a grocery store and then pay the 12 bucks to go right back. ($24 to drive maybe 4 or 5 miles. . . ) Once we got back to the camp we started talking and realized we were both stressing a bit and not having as much fun as we would like. We weren't loving being in NZ and that was bothering us. After a while we did some investigating and thinking and discovered the idea of hitch-hiking all the way up the south island and up most of the north island, with what remains of our budget for the month, would not be easy or relaxing at all. It would have been a challenge and very memorable, but we admitted to the fact that it would not be the dream 'vacay' we had in mind. So we booked an inexpensive flight to auckland next week (which will be cheaper than the ferry at $100 each, let alone hitch-hiking for two weeks) and decided to just book a couple more nights at this sweet camp paradise and hang around here. Instantly we felt 100% better about the trip and the stress was gone! . .  minus the camera bit. 


Friday, February 3: We have officially been in the southern hemisphere 2 weeks. Time is actually going by very slowly, which is great. Can't believe it has only been that long, because it seems like we have done a lot. We woke up and worked on organizing a few things, getting in touch with some people and working on this damn thing! (sorry, but its not a swear down here) We took a break at lunch and walked down to the water and just sat on the beach for a while. Right about here. . . the girl in the bikini is michelle and one of the guys baking is me. (Pretend we took this picture, remember we dont have a camera)

Went for a swim and then walked around and looked at all of the little booths visiting artists and vendors had set up. We sat on the grass and listened to a band that was playing and then watched a magician do a show. Later that night we went back home and made some sandwiches on paper thin bread with extremely crunchy peanut butter and gourmet jam. We like it here. 


Saturday, February 4: Had a nice sleep in today, and did some stuff on the internet this morning. It is starting to get depressing sitting around all the smells and awesome looking breakfasts people are magically preparing while we eat sandwiches. In an attempt to save money we are vicariously enjoying their meals with them. Its like in the movie Hook, where they sit around and imagine a colorful feast and then eat it. If it worked for them, maybe it will work for us. I did go and get another loaf of bread while michelle blogged for a while and it turned out to be 10 times better than the last and the sandwiches actually tasted really good, and it might be because I didn't use this loaf as a pillow yet. . . (enough about our sandwiches eh?) We walked around downtown again, and roamed around the coast to a sweet spot full of perfect skipping rocks. I mean Perfect! We skipped rocks for a while, until our arms got sore, then had skipping contests with our left hands. Michelle won - easy. We read some books and played some cards until it started to get dark, then headed back. I watched some rugby in the TV lounge and Michelle made some food as we took turns writing. Now here we are. . . completely caught up and feeling good. We are heading to a little branch tomorrow for church and HOPEFULLY meet someone who will be as friendly as the rest of the people here have been and offer us a place to stay, because we have no more nights left at Lakeview Holiday Park. Hopefully. If not we will leave the church for good and look for a more 'christian' one.