Christchurch: The Land of Gardens, Prostitutes, and Free Fudge

Our last destination on the north island was the capital of NZ, aka Wellington, where we stayed for a whopping one night before getting on the ferry to head further down under. From what we gathered, Wellington was somewhat of a sister city to San Fran. It was windy, pretty, and right on the water. So yeah, that was Wellington and our farewell to the north island.

Enjoying the Wellington rose gardens, which would have been far more scenic had we shown up while they were actually in bloom.





We continued our journey south from Wellington and hopped on a 3 hour ferry ride, followed by a 5 hour coastal train ride to Christchurch. In a nutshell, we were in transit for over 8 hours and had a rather lazy day. We managed to entertain ourselves with multiple meals, snack sessions, food related activities, and, from time to time, some photo shoots of the lovely sheep that littered the countryside outside the train window.
Christine chowing down on yet another snack right after commenting, "I'm so full, I feel ill." This pretty much sums up our journey south.







We don't know what's more pathetic: getting entertained by these sheep for 20 minutes as they escaped to the wrong side of the fence, or taking multiple pictures of them in the act



Our first night at Christchurch was spent at a rather shanty hostel, so we were more than ready to set out on out hunt for a home the next morning. By noon the next day we were no longer homeless and had found a great place on the outskirts of the city center. We moved in that night, and were ready to tackle the job search. Three days later we were all employed at popular and trendy restaurants. Christine is currently strutting her stuff as a hot foreign waitress while Nick impresses the drinking crowd as the new hot bartender, both at the Dux de Lux. Caitlin and Maggie are also working their moves and getting a work out as they carry flaming fajitas up and down the stairs of the new and "most popular restaurant in Christchurch", the Flying Burrito Brothers. So far we have had a run of fantabulously good luck and can only hope that it continues as we embark on our mission to find and make friends.

Nick finally shaving off his homeless beard. He refused to shave it off until we found a home.


















Excited about having a fridge and a home, we loaded up at the grocery store, which is quite evident in this photo. Look a little closer and note the improv use of the side pockets, more commonly used for nalgenes, but also useful as storage space for ketchup, peanut butter, dressing, wine, and many other grocery treasures.





Celebrating our new home with a feast fully prepared without any food from a hostel's free food shelf.

Kiwi Traversing the North Island

Quick apology for the lack of updates. Life as a backpacker is rough enough as we tried to scrounge up food, yet alone have internet access. So... after making the decision to leave Auckland and head to Christchurch, we signed up to travel on the MagicBus ( a backpackers bus) to Christchurch. It turns out the MagicBus is not so magical because little did we know, it is a family tour bus, where fifty percent of the travellers were over 40 or non-English speakers. Although it wasn't the fun, party bus as promised by the brochure we still found a way to enjoy the sights. And by enjoy we mean do every free activity possible because we're saving up for our return trip to the North Island (when we actually make money to be spent). On our trip we managed to find free activities in Waitomo, Rotorua, Taupo, and Wellington. We're off to Christchurch tomorrow, and the real task begins- Find a home. Find a job. Eat. Enjoy the pictures of our frugal days, and send us emails filled with love. We promise to upload photo albums as soon as we can. Mwah!

In Waitomo- enough said.

Angus aka Bunnicula. Next on the chopping block

In Rotorua- the only city that smells like poo in NZ. We can thank the tons of geothermal activity, providing lots of hot springs, boiling mud and more making the whole city reek of sulfur.

We were actually enjoying the stinky city until Hurricane Katrina made an unexpected visit to Rotorua. We made the best of the weather and took shelter in a cafe, but X's face in this picture pretty much sums up our feelilngs at the time

We made our way to Taupo where unfortunately we were unable to do the Tongariro Crossing (due to wind) but were offered a FREE ride to be the guinea pigs for a new hike along the Tarawera Lake. This is after we all succesfully finished the 18 1/2 kilometer hike.

Life is rough when you're broke and hungry

We arrived in Auckland! After losing a day of our lives, thanks to the International Date Line, we arrived in Auckland, ready to embark on our adventure! Little did we know it was to be the longest day of our lives, and although we saw a lot of Auckland, we passed out at 8:30pm, and missed the nightlife (no yoloing yet). But there was an upside, we were wide awake at 6:30am and ready to look for jobs and a home.

After a couple days of exploring Auckland- playing in parks, seeing the sites, soaking in the UV rays, and regretting it the next day, thanks to the o-zone hole, we've decided our future will be brighter on the South Island (at least we hope). We've learned that most of the adventuring is on the South Island, so it makes sense to move down there so we can start the trekking (and yoloing). So on Monday, we will take a backpackers bus South as we begin our move to ChristChurch. We hope to arrive by the weekend, and begin the house/job hunt. Until then, we hope we can live off the free food shelf in the hostels. Hugs and Kisses from down under.

PS. Our email boxes are lonely, send some love!

Goodbye LSATs, Hello Auckland!

Woot woot! Finally finished the LSATs! Don't really care about how I did, just glad I'm done now. And tomorrow begins the big adventure.... Girls, don't forget to pick up me at OAK at 10pm. That's if I make it out of Salt Lake on my connection, hehe :p

Auckland, here we come!

-n