movin' on south

Well boozey people out there, I am off again. I finished up my last shifts at the Grange Road Café a few days ago, and am in the airport waiting for my flight that will take me way down south to Queenstown, New Zealand. While I am excited to move on in my travels, I am surely going to miss Tauranga and the people in it. It has been my home for the past five months, and it’s been quite a fine home. There, I was lucky enough to spend time sailboat racing with Tauranga’s “Women on Water” program. I always worked foredeck, and enjoyed every minute of it, including a few first place races. In Tauranga I also met a good friend Tim while rock climbing on the mount. Being from the UK, and in the process of obtaining his NZ residency, he shared my frustration with NZ immigration. He recently received his residency and I couldn’t be happier for him. My second to last day in Tauranga was spent with him, his girlfriend Biv, three of their friends and of course my wonderful travel mate, Taylor. We took a trip back up to the Coromandel Peninsula where we hiked an hour up a river valley, and spent the next six hours “canyoning” or “canyoneering” back down. 

This included rappelling (or abseiling as the kiwis call it) down massive waterfalls, jumping off 10 meter plus jumps into the clear pools beneath the waterfalls, sliding down natural rock waterslides, taking breaks for an emergency Tim-Tam, swimming, deep water soloing (for Taylor), and all around fun having.

It was one of the coolest things I’ve done in NZ thus far, and when I found out going with a guide and group costs around 300 dollars for the day, I consider myself even luckier for having some serious bad-ass friends who will take me on their adventures with them.

Now it’s down to the South Island for some hiking around. Ah, the South Island. Really, the main reason for me coming to NZ at all. Huge mountains, big backcountry hikes, tons of world class rock climbing, and of course, millions of sand flies…great. In all honesty, I came to the North Island of NZ and didn’t really expect much, and I am so happy my opinion has changed ten fold. I sort of got stuck on the North Island, and I am so glad for it. I have found so many amazing things here, and met amazing people. I can’t wait to someday come back here and catch up with all the people I met. For now, it’s down South I go! My American crew of Gus, Abe, Josh, Abby, and Levi will be picking me up (hopefully if they haven’t drunk too much last night) at 9 am. Keas, Milford sound and Castle Hill, here I come!

Much love.