Anyways, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to go at first because I got really sick this past week somehow. I just got all these weird flu symptoms and I felt awful. I was the worse on Wednesday and thought I might just not be able to go at all. I even sent an email to the coordinator. But then, on Thursday, I was feeling SIGNIFICANTLY stronger and better. So I decided to risk it. And boy am I glad.
We took a 3 hour ferry ride across the ocean from the North Island to the South Island. It wasn't a ferry though... it was like an ocean-liner. It had a cafe, food court, reclining areas, bar, etc... I mean, when I hear "ferry" I'm thinking of the Statten Island Ferry. But no, this was a ship. lol. Anyways, I tend to get a seasick: I never throw up, but I always get super nauseous and my head hurts a LOT. So I slept for a lot of the ride which helped. And when I woke up, we were pulling into the Sound, this Bay-like area. It was gorgeous. And I happened to be lucky enough to be looking at the water when three dolphins popped out of the water for air briefly!
When we got there, we took a 20 minute drive to the bottom of our first hike: a 4-hour, easy walk. It was muddy since it had rained the night before, but hey, you can't expect to not get dirty! So we walked through the most scenic places for 4 hours (which seemed like 2 at most). We walked to our lodges, which were these little cabins. The place was run off solar power, the water used to flush was recycled (treated of course), the tap water was pure enough to drink, .. it was a very GREEN place to be. And it was fun!
The next morning, we woke up to frost and none of us wanted to get out of our warm sleeping bags. But we went kayaking on the SEA! Which is so weird! My mine couldn't wrap around the fact that we were paddling through the ocean, and not just some lake. My partner was Ben, who is just awesome. haha. He is the tallest guy, I'm definitely the smallest girl. Great pair. haha.
We saw penguins floating around, all sorts of bed, seals basking in the sun, and DOLPHINS playing! I couldn't get any pictures. But there were like 7 or 8 of them, smaller ones, just playing. They are so playful and so much fun to watch. They are beautiful and graceful. Ben and I tried going really fast and a few times they chased our boat. These things were swimming under our boats, jumping out of the air like 2 feet from our boats. It was incredible and i can't believe I got to see something like that.
Finally, the last day, today, we woke up, ate breakfast, made lunch, and headed out on our 3 hour hike. This hike was very different! It was SO hilly: nature's version of Stairmaster. Seriously. The roots of the trees were so gnarly and so tangled, they created natural stairs for us to step on. It was muddy on the track later, but it was also a very steep downhill. I fell down once (and I'm surprised ONLY once!). All of us were slipping all over the place, holding onto trees nearby. It was pretty comical.
All in all, a pretty awesome weekend. :) New Zealand has got to be the closest thing to paradise on earth there is.
Okay, one word...SICK!
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