New Zealand: week 16- September 25-30

Friday, September 25
I'm glad a few of the people from my bus were also leaving and going the same way as me or else I'd be sad…and even worse- sad with strangers. We made a couple of stops on our way to Lake Tekapo, one of them was a view of Mt Cook. Very pretty. Our hostel had a very beautiful view of the lake. At one point, you could see the snow covered mountains in the distance, but when we made a trip into town, the clouds had started to roll in and over the mountain. It was really cool. We had dinner and basically had a really lazy evening.

Saturday, September 26
We headed into Christchurch, a city that was heavily damaged by earthquakes a few years back. The damage is still apparent especially since it doesn't seem like it's really gotten it's life back yet. When we arrived at our hostel, there was a sign outside for a Holocaust Exhibit. I was pretty stoked about checking it out since that's a part of history that really intrigues me; however, I decided to put it off until the next day because the others wanted to walk around. We walked through a very nice garden/park…flowers everywhere…and you guessed it. Daffodils! After walking around, we worked up a small appetite and ventured to get some sushi. One of my friends hadn't had sushi before so it was interesting for him. Then we went to the ReSTART Mall which is a bunch of stores made out of shipping containers, much like the Container Park in Las Vegas, if you've ever been there. We went back to the hostel and bummed around until we went out to have Thai for dinner. In the spirit of trying new things, I took a very small bite of a friend's meal which consisted of green curry. Now, if you know me, you know I LOATH curry. Mostly because the smell makes me ill. With that said, I was surprised that I actually kind of, maybe just a little bit, sorta liked that bite. I think it was because it had coconut in it and that took some of the grossness away. When we got back to the hostel for the night, we watched a really awful movie called "The Spectacular Now."

Sunday, September 27
I woke up in time to say bye to the two from my group that was continuing on their journey and also stopped by the other hostel to say bye to another girl from the group since I was leaving in the afternoon. I took a short walk in the same park as yesterday before going back to finally check out the Shoah Exhibit. Unfortunately, it wasn't working. Our best guess was it was down because of the time change. It's now spring in New Zealand so that means it's time to "spring forward" with time. Disappointment city. Oh and let me not forget to mention that yesterday I was actually overdrawn on my bank account! I had just enough money in the savings to cover the overdraft in checking. Oh, my! I went to the airport to catch my flight back to Auckland. Suz picked me up and it seemed as though I missed so much during the time I was gone. A baby born, a minor car wreck happened, two of the girls moving back in, etc. It felt good to be back...my how I've missed milos with them ;)

Monday, September 28
I met up with Ari for lunch and convinced him to come have dinner with us since I had a real hankering to cook something for the family. Time to start sorting and packing!

Tuesday, September 29
Met with Ari again for lunch before heading to Sal's to say bye to the ones who were working. I miss those kids. For my last New Zealand meal, we had fish and chips.

Wednesday, September 30

One last lunch with Ari before I leave. Suz got off early from work and Emerald came home from her grandparents' house. Last minute stuff and some time spent with them before heading to the airport. All the girls, minus Jas, were there to see me off. I tell ya. I was fortunate to have those 5 souls in my life. I can't thank them enough for opening their home and family to me. I'm going to miss them terribly. I'm grateful for everyone I met and the experiences that I had.

The fam got me this really nice Pandora bracelet with a kiwi charm...how sweet is that?!

Love you guys!