First, quit my job in Queenstown so that I could travel around the South Island some more.
So my journey since Queenstown started with the Catlins, where I saw penguins waddling along the beach. And seals posing for pics. Then Dunedin, this student city in the south. Went to the Cadbury choc factory there, but other than that Dunedin was not that exciting. From there, however, the excitement began.
I left Dunedin for this small town called Oamaru, known for cutesy historic buildings and more importantly, penguins! I went to Oamaru to do a help exchange, which means working a couple hours a day in exchange for accommodation. Most of the time the work is farmwork or cleaning or stuff like that, however I lucked out and my job was to make a website for this hostel. The hostel is called Chillawhile, and that is definitely what everyone did, chilled awhile. When I got there, found out that there were a bunch of other people doing help exchange already, so all the helpers became this little family. And since there were so many helpers and not so much work, we ended up just hanging out all the time. My first night there got to experience stickbread, wrapping dough around a stick and cooking it over a fire. Delicious. Will be bringing that back to the US. The next nights included lots of singing/guitar jam session, campfires, potluck dinners, movies, volleyball, chilling, and a few drinks here and there.
As we were all from different countries, I decided it would be culturally important to teach my foreign friends an American tradition; flip cup. Their response to flip cup was quite amazing. They could not get over how great it is. (Although they do not have anything resembling solo cups here). But yes, they loved it so much that they will definitely be bringing this tradition back home with them. They wanted to play every night. Couldn't believe it when I said we play this multiple times a week back home. As my mom wonderfully explained, I am like Johnny Appleseed, instead of giving seeds away I am teaching everyone in the world how to play flip cup!
Anyways, so after about two weeks of chilling there, I left for Christchurch. Most travelers I meet say that Christchurch is very boring, however I actually liked it the most out of any New Zealand city. Was cute and artsy, which is all I can ask for. Definitely not as naturally beautiful as the rest of NZ, however for a city was quite nice.
So since then I have been traveling around the north island. Had to pass through Picton, the cat town as described in previous posts. Only a couple cats, and I stayed at a really cool hostel, so was a better experience. I am currently in Nelson, where I celebrated St. Patty's Day! Arrived here yesterday alone on this fine holiday, however quickly made some friends and hit the town for some good ol' irish fun.
From here I will continue traveling the south island until the beginning of April, when I will be heading to South east asia. Will be in Southeast asia-- Brunei (random almost city state country near malaysia and indonesia), Thailand, Loas, Vietnam, and Cambodia-- until mid May, and then finally back in Wisconsin!
