Wanaka

Things here have been pretty quiet over the last couple days. It started to rain just as we got off the glacier and it has been raining or very overcast ever since. I am now in Wanaka, which would be a lovely and beautiful place if the sky were not so overcast. How strange that it looks like a perfect fall day here, with the trees decked out in their autumn colors, when at home spring is coming into its full flower. What fun being in the southern hemisphere!!

Sadly, there is not much to do here, which is why I am heading to Queeny (Queenstown) later this afternoon. I was incredibly excited to be staying at a hostel called "Purple Cow Backpackers". Turns out it's named after a brand of German chocolate and not my Alma mater, but it's still a wonderful thing. The signs in the hostel are even purple and gold :) Ah, it takes so little, really, to make me happy.

A bunch of people got rained out of skydiving, twice, which was a big bummer for them. We watched the videos from the 2 people who did go, and it almost made me want to go skydiving again. Over the last 8 years, I've forgotten how much fun I had.

A few nights ago we stayed in this cute A-frame chalet in Makarora, which in is the absolute middle of nowhere. It was again raining, which ruled out all the outdoor activity options... so we just hung out, drunk beer, and amused ourselves by listening to this guy Nathan from CA tell us every bad pick-up line he could remember. After dinner we played musical chairs to bad '80's music... I didn't try very hard. The guy who won did so because instead of attempting to sit on the chair and push the other person off, he would just run off with it. Not very sporting, if you ask me.

I fly tomorrow to Auckland, and the North Island. I will only have about 4 days there before I need to catch my flight back to the US. How fast this three months has gone by!! It's been wonderful and amazing, but like all good things, it eventually must come to an end.