Day 4 - July 3rd -- Invercargill back to Queenstown
the next morning we had time to sleep in and relax, eat a good meal at the cafe and walk around town a little bit before heading back to Queenstown. but before we went back up north, we were headed further south. our first stop along the way was the Catlins. the "rugged" coast of new zealand. here there is a cute little light house placed on a hill with large rocks everywhere below. we could walk down onto the rocks and get pretty close to the ocean, et said that it was one of the calmest days he had seen. i guess usually there is a lot of wave action hitting the coast line. here we also saw two sea lions! they were huge, and kinda gross looking but cool to see all the same. especially in the wild.

from the Catlins we headed down to Bluff, which is where the southern most point of new zealand is located. et drove us up to the top of the mountain where we were able to get out and see a cool lookout of stewart island (the island right off the southern coast of new zealand) then we set off on an hour 15 min walk down to sterlings point. this was great because we really didn't have to walk up hill. and the view was guess it, breath taking. it was cool to get closer and closer to the water as we went, and to have the sun setting along our walk. it was a very refreshing walk, felt good to be out moving and working my legs a little bit. we got all the photo opps with the sign that tells the distance to certain countries from this point.

we came across a rock right next to the "chain" that connects sterlings point to stewart island (you'll see a photo its a sculpture there for symbolic reasons), that had a plaque with Psalm 93:4 written on it: "mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea. the Lord on high is might!" followed by "God is always greater than our troubles" it was standing there with the rocks and the ocean with some rough waves behind it and it was a much needed reminder to step back and look around and take in this beautiful earth that God has created. and on another note that verse was extremely moving, i think you had to be in that moment to really feel it but it sent a sense of humility through me another reminder of how small i am and how powerful He is, and no matter what He has an amazing plan for me. i was thankful for that moment i think it was definitely something i needed.

we had a long drive back. turned on my playlist with ray lamontagne, patty griffin and norah jones and watched the sun set, while the moon rose. actually as we were driving the flat sound with sailboats scattered along the way was to our right and the mountains were to our left, and at one moment the sun and the moon were directly across from one another. it was one of the coolest things i have ever seen.

made it into queenstown around dinner time. split a huge pizza between the five of us in "team america" headed home to rest and then headed out. our room at the base was much nicer this time because we were staying with stray so we were all really excited, and Tom stayed with us so we had a great group of six! going out was fun, and we made our way to a western themed bar when we realized it was officially the 4th of july which was cool. most exciting part of the evening though was finding a mexican truck stand right by the hostel called burrito bros. if you know me you know i literally cannot live without mexican and while it was no la parilla or el rodeo it was delicious. i was about to cry i was so happy eating it!

the Catlins.

 i then got soaked by this wave. so worth it.

 giant sea lion, wish you could see it better it was so cool.

 so close to the south pole.

 "mightier than the thunders of many waters. mightier than the waves of the sea. the Lord on high is mighty!" - Psalm 93:4 "God is always greater than our troubles"

our mexican treat. 

Day 5 - July 4th -- Queenstown 
sharing a post here because while our fourth of july was wonderful we really only went skiing. ah it was awesome though! we were rushed to catch a bus up to the slopes because we didn't realize there was a time schedule to meet, but the people at the ski rental place were super helpful and we got a little workout running while carrying all our gear.

it was the most beautiful day to go skiing, i mean absolutely perfect. the sun was shining off the slopes and warming us up so really i was never cold until the sun went down. i had a great time skiing, i realized i haven't really been since high school but its pretty easy to have a practice run and get back into it. we stuck to green and blue all day but at the end of the day we rode the lifts to the very very top of the mountain (which we should've done earlier) and rode the blue all the way down. these slopes were definitely more challenging/steep but it was so much fun!! i only fell once all day, and i'm totally blaming the patch of ice i hit on this slope. haha. needless to say i really did miss being at camp/at the beach for the fourth but i had a great day and was so happy to have the opportunity to go skiing in new zealand!

it was a wonderful fourth. made me miss America and made me grateful for everything that my country has to offer. i know we complain a lot because well there are a lot of problems at home (and in every country) but being here makes me realize how many opportunities there are in America and how much i love my country! so God Bless the USA.

Day 3 - July 2nd -- Gunn's Camp to Invercargill
woke up when the lights came on outside at Gunn's Camp to start our fire back up so we would at least have a little heat for the rest of our slumber and for when we had to force ourselves out of bed. luckily there were a few hot coals left so i was able to blow on them to get them going under some wood, and i had a piece of paper which then started our fire up. so proud of myself haha. we ate breakfast etc and said goodbye to our friends as we made the trek back up the icy dirt road back to the highway.

today was more of a travel day as we headed to Invercargill, which et described as the mullet town of the south. lots of agriculture and tractors everywhere, so kind of like our south? haha. we drove through the sausage capitol of NZ which was neat? then played a get to know you game which et called "this is your life" better known to us as "two truths and a lie." we each wrote down our two truths and a lie, then had to guess who was who as we went. then each person had to tell the story each fact they had written down. it was a good way to pass the time and a fun way to get to know everyone on the bess a little bit better.

we stopped at a few places on the way down to the deep south... first McCracken's Rest which was just a beautiful lookout over the ocean. it was a long beach with some rocks below us and then again you could see the snow covered mountains rising up in the distance. because it is called McCracken's Rest (crack) then et said we had to sit on the sign showing our cracks. funny, but only tow of the boys did it, wasn't really feeling it. but it was quite funny. then we drove through more small little towns until we came to Riverton, a quiet little coastal town that i quickly fell in love with. the beach was gorgeous and full of these awesome smooth pebbles and stones that everyone collected. i was too busy climbing the rocks and making my way closer to the ocean and enjoying the view, but thats ok.

driving through the country on this day, and every day was like i have said 5 billion times, breathtaking. and what's so interesting about new zealand is that there is the beach, farmland filled with sheep and cows, and snow capped mountain all right next to one another. its insane. and every view is different. because America is so big we're just not used (well i'm not at least) to ever seeing all of those (besides mountains and farmland i guess) so close together. along with pine trees and then palm (looking) trees all in the same place. its really neat.

anyway... we arrived in Invercargill, it kinda seemed dead. oh and it was freezingggg. but we walked through this little hardware store that had all these old cars and motorcycles in it. there's some movie called The Fastest Indian about a man who made the fastest indian motorcycle ever, anyways he was from Invercargill or something and they were all about it there. then we walked through the park and botanical gardens, and a pretty rose garden, granted we really just saw some cool trees and grass and lots of frost on the ground because all the flowers were dead but it was still nice.

we also saw Tuataras which are lizards that apparently haven't evolved since the dinosaur ages. we were walking by the back of the museum and could see them through the window. it was cool and weird to think about that they are the only animal from that time period and they are only found in new zealand.

we rested a little and some of us went out to a really yummy Indian meal. bad decision on my part but i thoroughly enjoyed my food and the company i was with. spicy food was probably not a great choice it made my back hurt just terribly and i kinda got the chills and stuff, so strange. but i survived and fell asleep while laughing at kyle and macie, which seemed to happen most evenings.

winter wonderland leaving Gunn's Camp.

 Macie MCing our game.

 McCracken's Rest...

 Riverton.

 yoga in the park in Invercargill

 sunset in Invercargill...

Day 2 - July 1st -- Start of the Stray bus tour
      Queenstown - Milford Sound - Gunn's Camp

woke up early our second day and caught the stray bus. we were lucky there were only eight of us on the tour, plus our driver ET. tom from england, maria from mexico and kyle from canada. they were all really cool and we became really good friends with tom, decided we're going to england to visit over Christmas holiday.

we made our way out of queenstown through the beautiful scenery and to te anau, where we purchased our tickets to take a tour of milford sound. here we got some groceries for dinner and snacked at a cute cafe before getting back on the bus. we made stops along the way to milford sound to do short little walks or see some great views, things like that. as i said the scenery through the mountains and snow was unbelievable. one of the coolest things was going through a tunnel that had been hand chizzles through the center of a mountain. it was a very steep hill and barely lit inside, with huge icicles hanging down. it was creepy but awesome.

milford sound was really neat. it is technically misnamed as a sound because it was formed by glaciers not by rivers or other forms of land erosion so it should be called milford fjord (just a little interesting fact). we took a big boat out and went all around the sound, and saw tons of cool waterfalls. it was beautiful, of course just like everything on this trip. hopefully my video will work, its hard to capture places like this in a photo...

after milford sound we started our treck to Gunn's Camp. gunn's camp is an old place where the men who built the roads, and chizzled the tunnel out lived with their families. it used to be a much larger town obviously to hold all of these people but now its a few cabins, a general store/souvenir shop, bathrooms and common area with a large dinning room and kitchen. everything is run off of a generator which turns off at 10:30pm and comes back on at 7:30am. it was one of the coolest places i have ever stayed in my life... but i'll get to that more in a second.

on the way to gunn's camp we pulled over right after going back through the tunnel through the mountain for an epic snowball fight. we stepped over onto the fresh snow beyond where the road had just been scrapped and the snow was up a little bit past our knees. we were all laughing so hard we could barley breathe. what a great memory! and then we decided to have a race to a huge boulder probably twenty feet or so away, well this was probably one of the hardest things i've ever done in my life haha lifting your legs that high in order to try to run and falling constantly. it was hilarious. but i made it to the rock, i was extremely proud of myself. we were all completely covered in fresh, cold, wonderful snow (that tasted amazing i might add).

as we headed back to the bus dreading being soaking wet, there were kia parrots trying to get inside of our bus. these are parrots unique to NZ and they are apparently one of the smartest birds in the world. they are a cool green color and when they fly they have this beautiful orange/red color under their wings, although they are pretty big and a little scary if you're looking right at one up close. it was funny though because people were pulling over both times we passed to try to get picture with them and see them because they love coming up close. we ran them off and really started heading to gunn's camp. we turned on some country music (keith urban - days go by, and dixie chicks - wide open spaces). we were just singing and taking in the winding, snowy mountain with the sun shining on them. perfection. i felt so alive and so lucky to be in the exact moment that i was in.

on to gunn's camp now... we drove down snowy dirt roads for about thirty minutes to get there from the main highway, we arrived and met the couple who run's gunn's camp they were so sweet! then we settled in and learned how to keep our fires going with the wood and coal to keep our cabins as warm as we could. then we headed out on a short hike to see a cool waterfall. just laughing and carrying on the whole time. it was awesome that we got to see the moon rising up over the mountain while we were there! we found a swinging bridge over a little creek there which was a lot of fun and beautiful obviously. then we all cooked a big stir fry dinner together, we had chicken and rice and tons of veggies and ate family style. it was awesome, and yummy i might add!

after dinner we walked with the man who runs the camp and saw some glow worms in the woods (just like the ones we had seen on the beach). interesting fact about new zealand, there are really like no animals here because they are so remote and so young. there are a lot of birds, but when we were walking through the woods we didn't have to be scared about snakes or any little creatures, or big creatures like bears and things like that for that matter. how strange huh? oh except for one animal which ET made sure to warn us about... wild boars (yes like in LOST). the man who took us on the walk had a pig poker/killer thing just in case. and on our walk back to camp we heard something coming from the woods and he told us to stay still right where we were. he ran up into the bush (forest here) and it sounded like he was killing a wild hog. like really sounded like it, it was so scary. and then when the noise stopped, ET jumped out from the top of the hill where they were and scared us all to death. like my heart stopped. haha it may not sound like it was scary, but standing on a path in the pitch black in the middle of the woods thinking there is a gigantic wild boar about to attack you is pretty freaky. it was a great joke though.

we found our way, still shaking, back to the common room for charades and sing-a-longs. i felt like i was back at camp! the people taking care of us were so much fun, and charades was hilarious because we played using new zealand sayings, so some of them were confusing and we had no idea what we were doing. then tom played the guitar for us some, and lynn sang to us, as well as kyle. it was a wonderful evening to end a lovely day. we went back to our warm(ish) cabins and got the fires as warm as we could, bundled up under three comforters each and our warmest clothes and dozed off. i loved this experience and i'm sure i will never really have another one like it. falling asleep right next to a beautiful snow covered mountain in a peaceful place with wonderful people, there was just this beautiful stillness in the air and although it was very crisp, it was a very refreshing rest.

stop along the way in the snow.

our bus!

 post snowball fight.

 general store at Gunn's Camp.

 our cabin.

 inside of our cabin.

 dinner with everyone.

 fireplace.

video of milford sound.

Day 1 - July 30th -- Queenstown

we flew into queenstown early on saturday morning, the flight in was not nearly as scary as i thought it would be. it was actually a very breath taking and powerful experience. we flew in as the sun was rising over the snow capped mountains. looking out the window i felt like i could reach my hand out and touch the mountain side, and grab a little snow to snack on. just beautiful. landing we realized just how much of a weather change we were in for. i can't exactly recall but i think it was something like -7 celsius when we landed. brrr. we took a bus into town found our way to our hostel (the base) and began a wonderful day of exploring queenstown.

we found a cafe where we could sit by the fire to enjoy our hot chocolate and breakfast. it was still pretty early and we just wanted to be able to relax and be warm. from here we found our way to the waterfront. ughh it was awesome. the water was so clear and the sun was shinning and the mountains were covered in snow. right along the waterfront there was a cute little market with some live music (wagon wheel was playing! how great) and booths selling wool and greenstone (i'll have to explain this later) and fun little gifts like a farmers market. after wandering around for awhile we were unsure of what we should tackle for the day so we decided to head to the gondola ride to the top of queenstown and see what was happening up there.

the gondola pretty much went straight up, a little scary for me being afraid of heights and all but the view was stunning. we made our way to a little lookout where we could see all of queenstown below us, and the mountains meeting us. it was so crazy that on the last day of june we were standing in the snow! then we took another little ski lift and did a luge down, it was different than the luge you see on tv during the olympics and stuff, didn't take nearly as much skill and was much slower, but still tons of fun!!

after hanging out at the top a little longer enjoying the warm sun in the midst of the snow, we headed back into town. we were ready to experience the famous ferg burger! everyone told me we had to eat here when we went to queenstown, it was a tiny little restaurant that was filled to the brim with people and orders being shouted out. it took us about forty-five minutes to get our burgers but it was so worth it. i played it safe and went for a falafel burger to avoid starting my acid up but it was still amazing.

we ate and rested and then headed out for our first night on the town. we befriended our roommates, two guys from australia and a girl from germany and had quite a fun crew. queenstown is full of young people, it was a lot of fun!

flying into queenstown.

first meal fresh off the plane.

 waterfront of queenstown.

lookout at the top of the gondola. 

ski lift ride to top of the luge. 

line of burger's at ferg... delish!

alrighty here we go.... excuse me if my recollections of these past two weeks seem to ramble on, i feel like my bags are full of the most amazing traveling experiences some of which i hope to be able to share and some of which will only be so precious in my memory full of laughter and joy and tranquilly and an overwhelming sense of constantly thinking "this is not real life." i hope i can capture just a little bit of what i was able to enjoy and put it into words for you. new zealand is such a gorgeous country if you ever ever get the chance to come see it, do not give it up!

hello all. wow what a fast and event filled two weeks i've had. my apologies for keeping this brief but in the past two weeks i have been to the southern most point in new zealand, had a snowball fight and gone skiing followed by visiting thermal pools, spending a day sailing in my bathing suit and traveling along the east in west coast of the north island, and well i'm exhausted.

i am buy getting all my pictures uploaded and promise to spend a good part of my day tomorrow updating you on all my south island adventures, and hopefully sometime this week i can get to my north island travels (but with starting school back i'm making no promises). needless to say i have had two of the most amazing weeks of my life and have experienced the joys of traveling. although i am looking forward to getting back into my routine and enjoying Sharleen's cooking again.

cheers! more to come tomorrow. goodnight from the other side of the world.

today ended my third week at school and the second term. all our children are so tired and definitely ready for a break, i hope they get lots of rest because we have had far too many tears and arguments the  past few days. sweet things. anyway we had an assembly with the whole school today (everyone squeezed into the gym or "hall" as they call it here for some singing and awards) and they sang the national anthem. i wanted to share it because i thought it was beautiful, and how beautiful to hear it sung by a room full of children. i almost started crying... geez looks like i need the break too. it also made me want to sing the US national athem...

the first part is sung in Maori, the native language, which i think is so neat!


tomorrow morning i leave for the south island! ah crazy, i'm so pumped! its snowing right now and is in the negative degrees (celcius that is) brrrr cold. finished packing tonight, a very small bag for one week in such cold weather if you ask me but i think it'll be just perfect. i heard landing in Queenstown can be a little scary because its in snowy mountains eek i'll just close my eyes and hope for the best.

i am feeling much better. i went to school for half the day on wednesday, drank some vitamin supplement and walked home and got a new life it seemed. my legs did feel like that were going to fall out from under me on my 10 min walk home but the fresh air and "exercise" was good for me. also i haven't thrown up any food since tuesday which is awesomeee. i was ambitious and ate pizza last night and woke up with heartburn and was pretty bummed but again, with consistent medication i'm ok. just wish my back didn't hurt when it hits but i'll survive.

hoping my energy levels keep rising. i have vitamins packed, plan on buying some snack bars and drinking lots of water. and no alcohol until this whole thing is behind me (please be gone by the 4th of july!). looking forward to some fun times with friends and seeing this beautiful country. prayers for my energy to keep building so i'll be strong enough to do all the fun activities, and the knowledge to know when i don't need to push my body any further. also for wise decisions about my food choices, sometimes i never know what could hurt. and of course for warmth and safe travels (especially on icey roads).

cheers! updates to come!