Life, Love, and Travel

 “In Life, It’s Not Where You Go, It’s Who You Travel With” –  Charles Schulz

It has been a while since I took the time to sit down and write. Something I forgot how much I love doing. Last time I was writing this blog I was in New Zealand, today I find myself writing again…ironically enough, from New Zealand again. After 1 year of being away I find myself back. This place has been calling me back ever since I left, but we will come back to that shortly.

So, what has life thrown at me in the last year? New life choices, love and a new home town. Lets start with new life choices. I had been given a new wonderful opportunity to work for an amazing company from home. One that would give me the freedom to work from wherever as well as make a difference in the world. I was made many promises, ones I put school and other big decisions on the back burner for. Sadly, these promises turned out to be void and I found myself back at square one. I still am unsure of where I will go career wise but it is looking like going back to school is in the near future for me. Something I never thought i’d be doing at almost 30, but I don’t want my life to be mediocre where I just accept it for what it is. I am capable of way more.

When I finished my 10 months of traveling in 2016, I decided to move back to my home state of Arizona but not to my home city. I now live in Phoenix, Arizona and besides the horrible traffic I love it there. Always an abundance of things to do, fun restaurants and best part is moving in with two wonderful friends.

Lets get to my favorite part of my last year, love. I was blessed enough for the most amazing man to walk into my life this year. It was totally unexpected but couldn’t of been better timing. There was a time of my life where I was a rather broken person, I may not have always shown it but I had been chewed up and spit out so many times that I hit bottom in the confidence department. About the time I was learning to truly love myself again and see the value I can bring to a relationship, I met him. It was an instant connection and this feeling of finding someone who made me a better person was overwhelming. Six months later that feeling still overwhelms me at times, and I feel like I have known him a lifetime. Not only is he incredibly handsome, he is kind, loving, funny, smart, a hard worker, loves to travel, and best of all…he loves me. I am by no means perfect, in fact rather difficult at times but he makes me feel like even my imperfections are worth loving and that is something I would not trade for the world. If you are reading this, thank you for being who you are to me. I love you, turd.

Well, that is it for me today. I promise to try and keep up with this blog at least the remaining 2.5 weeks of my travels.

25 Kiwi slang words I say now without realizing it…

New Zealand’s native language is Maori, but only 4% of the population speaks it as their first language anymore. English(New Zealand English) is the primary language spoken today. What you will find from each English speaking country to the next (NZ, Australia, England and so on…) is the varying “slang words”. For example, the word “thong” means 3 different things between U.S., Australia and New Zealand. If you ask for thongs in Australia, you will be given a pair of flip-flops. Since getting to New Zealand, there are quite a few words I have picked up and commonly use without thinking now, so much so that my own family is laughing at me and questioning what I am saying sometimes. So, here are some of those words and their meaning in New Zealand.

1)Tramping–aka hiking

2)Togs–swimsuit

3)Dairy– corner store that stays open later than grocery stores

4)Serviette–napkin

5)Sweet as–something that is good or cool

6)Dodgy–something that is out of date, or a suspicious looking person

7)Bench–counter top

8)Biscuit–cookie

9)Boot–trunk of a vehicle

10)Ute–truck

11)Chemist–drug store/pharmacy

12)Flat out–full speed

13)Footy–rugby

14)Good on you–expression of approval

15)Heaps–a lot of something

16)Kindy–kindergarten

17)Nappies–diaper

18)Lift–elevator

19)Lolly–Candy

20)Zed–the letter ‘Z’, so ZEE-BRA is ZEB-RA in New Zealand….so wrong

21)Knackered–sleepy/exhausted

22)Pram–baby carriage

23)Suss–figuring something out, “We will suss it out.”

24)Winge–complaining

25)Tomato sauce–ketchup

The negatives of long term travel

“It’s a long ride home with nothing but me for company. I bore myself sometimes. Not often, just now and again.” 

I know what you’re thinking. “How can there be negatives? She must be selfish if she is not enjoying every single moment while the rest of us work in a dull 9-5. She’s escaped that life, she has nothing to complain about.” As I type this I am sitting staring out at the ocean, living in the beach house of the family I work for. This is my current view.

Maybe I don’t have a whole lot to complain about. But, that does not mean I am not human with basic emotions, wants, needs and desires. I’ve given up the life most of my friends have, to travel – the husband/wife, the kids, the family dog, the mortgage and the stability. While I do not regret my path in the least, not everyone understands it or why I do it.

1) “Will you ever settle down?” That is a question I am quite often asked and terrified to think about. Yes, I hope I do. I hope I can find someone who appreciates my desire to see the world and also appreciates my child-like enthusiasm when I insist I can do it all. I can have the family, the  full-time job, and still see the world.

2) “Am I willing to give up long term travel?” Heck yes I am. If I meet the right person, I will happily forego these long trips and be just as happy exploring differently. I just haven’t met anyone yet who intruiges me more than the world does. Honestly, half the time guys do not stick around long enough to realize that I am more than willing to slow down. Right now, I am planning trip after trip, so I meet a guy and all he can hear is “she’s leaving, guess this won’t work.” How about asking me what my long term goals and plans are? You may quickly realize as soon as the right person presents themself, I am more than ready to settle down. To be honest, until the last 6 months I was not ready. To my future husband: you have travel to thank for me being ready for the next chapter of my life.

 Then comes the part of it that no traveler really likes to admit.

Long term travel can be really freaking lonely. Even if you are staying in hostels where you are surrounded by energetic and outgoing people constantly, you still get lonely. My travel in New Zealand has not consisted of a whole lot of hostels as I have been an au pair (live-in nanny) most of the time I have been here. That brings its own different type of loneliness. Living with a family you have only briefly met on Skype is intimidating and scary. And while you usually are treated with great respect (usually, I have my current family to thank for restoring my faith in the au pair system) and are a huge part of the family. It is still lonely. At the end of the day, you are their employee. With my current schedule I am usually done with work by 6pm and by that point all of my friends and family back home are sleeping. That is when the loneliness really kicks in. I try to read, I try to watch Netflix but your mind has too much free time. While I am off traveling, my friends and family are moving on. Not moving on in the sense that they don’t care but most of them have families and jobs to worry about and contact is just not the same as if I were home. And that can be a very, very hard adjustment. I am 5.5 months into being gone and almost crippling homesick. I am able to smile through work but the moment I am alone I get hit with a giant wave of emotions. Thankfully that feeling comes and goes but there are times where it physically hurts not having those I love closest to me.

So, there you have it. Travel is not all puppies and kittens. Do I regret leaving home to see the world? Not in the least! I love the person I have become and incredibly proud of myself. Am I just like every other human who needs a hug from people who care about them most, once in a while? Yes.

I will never stop traveling but I think the next chapter of my life that involves settling a bit is on the horizon.

Milford and Doubtful Sound

“There is only one word for New Zealand – EPIC.” Bear Grylls

Milford Sound

When you see advertisements for New Zealand, you often will see breath taking pictures of a heavenly place called Milford Sound. Located in the South Island in Fiordland National Park. Milford Sound is located 15kms inland and fed from the Tasman Sea. I am part of a Facebook group geared towards backpackers in New Zealand, I posted an ‘ad’ in hopes to find someone who wanted to go with me and share the cost of fuel. A girl named Florence from Paris replied and came along with me. After weeks of caring  for children and no huge social life it was nice to talk to someone my age and make the drive less boring.

We arrived in Te Anau, the town about 2.5 hours outside of Milford, and the main town for people coming to see Fiordland NP. The drive into Milford is quite the treacherous one, narrow, windy roads, and full of bad tourist drivers. Fiordland NP commonly will see over 200 rainy days a year and the day we drove to Milford was no exception. It was a scary drive with the pouring rain and slippery roads. As we started getting to the towering mountains, our breath was instantly taken away. I had my GoPro mounted on the dash and remember listening to the video, us going around a corner and suddenly going “OH MY GOSH!”. We were face to face with hundreds of waterfalls coming off of the mountains, a common occurrence during rainfall. While the weather I was driving in was not fun, we couldn’t have gotten more lucky that as soon as we parked in Milford to meet up for our river cruise, the clouds parted and sun came out. We were told by the boat crew that we got the ideal Milford weather, rain to bring out the waterfalls and then sun to be able to see the peaks. I can not explain how small you feel cruising along the sound, either side of you are sky high peaks that touch the clouds. Including Mitre Peak, climbing to an impressive 5500 ft.

Doubtful Sound

This lesser known sound is much larger than Milford but equally as beautiful. Less touristy as it is much harder to get to. My day included a 45 minute bus ride, a 45 minute boat ride across Lake Manapouri and then a 1 hour bus ride to the start of Doubtful Sound. While just as beautiful, Doubtful stood out to me because of the numerous amounts of dolphins we saw. One crew member mentioned this was the biggest dolphin day she had seen in years. There were babies learning to jump from the adults and a pair of adults who insisted on riding the front of the boat for almost 2 hours. I was in heaven.

If you are ever in the South Island, I urge you to not miss these two spots. While Milford is annoyingly touristy, you quickly forget about all of the people once there.

Australia comes to New Zealand

“People don’t take trips; trips take people.” – John Steinbeck

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Sometimes life puts people in your path that are meant to be there and never leave. Troy is one of those people to me. I met him in a bar in Tamworth, Australia during their country music festival a few years ago. This was my first time in Australia and I was still swooning over the accent. Troy and I had been eyeing each other from across the bar for quite some time and after downing some liquid courage (which for me was 1 drink and I was good to go), I finally got up the nerve to talk to him. We were in a loud bar with live music, and in all honesty, I could not understand a single thing he said to me all night. But, I gave him my number. I did not see him again my entire trip. Fast forward a year with me back in the States, we had become great friends. He had never been to the U.S. before and wanted to come visit. I was excited about the prospect of what we could be. His time there came and went and it was time for him to go home. On that trip, we realized that our way of communication was bickering. Almost brother and sister like bickering, never mad at each other just annoyed and didn’t agree on much. Not to bore you all with his and my up and down friendship over the last couple of years but I don’t think I have had a friendship as emotionally exhausting as ours. Between trying to date, hurting each other a couple of times when the other person dated someone else, not talking for months because of insecure boyfriend/girlfriends, and just our general love for annoying each other…somewhere in there a beautiful friendship developed. We both have wholeheartedly agreed that we will never be more than friends, and are very okay with that. Though, I am pretty sure my Grandma is still planning our wedding, or hers to him, she had a cute little crush when he was in the U.S. He has been there for me through some of my toughest times and I would never trade the crazy ups and downs for what they turned our friendship into.

(Baby Casie and baby Troy over 2 years ago on his visit to AZ)

So, here we are in the present. 3 years since we first met. I had not seen him in a year and was so excited when he told me he was going to come to New Zealand to visit over Easter weekend. I had 5 days off of work so we decided to plan a road trip.

I picked him up in Queenstown and our adventure began! First day of driving took us to Christchurch. We made some stops along the way, including Elephant Rocks. These giant rocks were famous for being in the movie, The Chronicles of Narnia. Of which I am a huge fan, so naturally threw my camera at Troy and skipped around like an excited little school girl. After about 6 hours of driving we made it to Christchurch.

The next day we drove another couple of hours to Kaikoura, a picturesque beach town known for their incredible wildlife on land and sea. I am enamored with dolphins and how incredible they are, so I had booked us a dolphin swim I had read rave reviews about. I kept my expectations low as to not be disappointed, but they were QUICKLY surpassed. We did the sunrise swim and quickly the boat found the first pod of dolphins. The boat slowed as people quietly sank into the water. When my head first went underwater, I could feel the emotions welling up inside of me as I watched literally 50+ dolphins swim right by me. The type of dolphin in this area are Dusky dolphins, known for being exceptionally playful and curious. Over the next hour or so we found more and more pods, eventually leading us to where they all gather every day and socialize. How cute is that? After the swim, Troy and I were speechless. It was one of the most amazing experiences we had ever had.

Over the next  couple of days, we slowly made our way down towards Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. Everyone I spoke to said Tekapo is amazing, I was not impressed. Maybe it was the bad weather, but regardless, we quickly made our way to Lake Pukaki 45 minutes down the road. This stunning turquoise colored lake sits right in front of New Zealand’s highest peak, Mt. Cook. Year round, this mountain range is covered in snow. It was a post card picture moment and if falling in love with a mountain is possible, I had done that. We drove to Mt Cook village the next day and I felt tiny next to these mountains.

This is definitely the trip in a nut shell, but it was a wonderful time and I still cannot believe the beauty this country has to offer. Dropped Troy off at the airport in Queenstown and made my way back to the reality of having a job. Thankfully, my next adventure was not too far off!

The Catlins

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

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The quote above says it all. At one point, I had no idea where I was going during my road trip on this weekend adventure. That is the beauty of New Zealand, you do not freak out when you are lost in the middle of no where driving down dirt roads for miles and passing farm after farm. You embrace it. Let me go back a bit….

This weekend I decided to visit a place known as “The Catlins”. An area that comprises the southeastern corner of the South Island, abundant in waterfalls, beaches, wildlife and rainforest. Or Heaven, as I would call it. It was about a 4 hour drive (turned 5 hours thanks to getting lost) to my hostel in an area called Curio Bay. This bay is known for Hectors dolphins and penguins. After getting lost about 3 times down random dirt roads and zero cell phone service, I finally made it to my hostel the “Lazy Dolphin Lodge”. Conveniently located on the beach, I could see the water from my room. At $30 a night, I was quite happy. I was greeted by the hostel owner who immediately told me that the dolphins were in the bay, usually a daily occurrence. Hectors dolphins are found only in water around New Zealand and numbers have plummeted to around 7,000. There are two things people who know me well realize, my love for animals and my hate for the cold. Well, naturally, I drop my stuff in my room and quickly run to the beach and without thinking hop straight in….fully clothed….into 50 degree water. I soon went numb and adrenaline took over keeping me warm as soon as a dolphin swam right by me, almost hitting my foot. I enjoyed watching them swim in and out of waves and swimming up to people checking everyone out. They soon took off and I was left to walk my soggy and freezing self  back to my hostel. After a hot shower, I crawled into bed at 8pm (I have become an old lady) and soon was asleep.

The next day I decided to drive the road that goes through the Catlins area. It was about a 3 hour drive each way through beautiful rainforest and past multiple beaches. I stopped whenever I could to do little walks to waterfalls and other awesome places. I dressed for warm weather as the day started out cold but in the middle of a 2 hour hike the weather randomly decided to get about 15 degrees warmer and sunny. Resulting in me melting. Maybe fleece lined leggings, a flannel shirt and hiking boots were a terrible idea.

My last day consisted of a 2 hour drive to Invercargill, one of the southernmost cities in the world. I learned my lesson on this leg of the trip, always keep your gas tank full in New Zealand. I was at just under half of a tank, thinking I could fill up at one of the multiple little towns along the way. Little did I know, most gas stations CLOSE on Sundays in New Zealand…..okay cool. Thankfully I made it to Invercargill, but barely. It was a semi warm day, and by warm I mean 60 degrees (that is freezing to this desert girl). While in Invercargill I visited the Queens Park, a beautiful 80 hectares of trees, gardens and a petting zoo. After I made a trip out to Oreti Beach, where you can drive your  car onto the beach. I parked my car and enjoyed laying in the back of the  car looking out at the water. Sadly I was very, very windy and sand was blowing pretty badly so I did not stick around long. Then began my 4.5 hour journey back to Alexandra and back to work!

Queenstown, Glenorchy…and Ferg Burger

“In the end we only regret the chances we did not take.”

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Queenstown. This place stole my heart right from the beginning, a busy little town hosting more tourists and people from all over the world than locals. My hostel was about a 10 minute walk from the city center and my room overlooked the stunning Lake Wakatipu that is nestled among a mountain range known as The Remarkables. Walking around in Queenstown you immediately get the small mountain town feel. While the roads may be packed with people, there is an insane amount of charm. From the shops and restaurants to the wharf over looking the lake with boats and street performers. As of today, I have been in New Zealand almost 2 full months and have probably visited Queenstown upwards of 10 times now. So, I am going to bundle all of my Queenstown experiences into one post.

Queenstown is known for all of its adventurous activities. Most of which I will never do…yes, I am a chicken. One of the things I did find fun was the luge. At the top of the Queenstown gondola (insane views from here) is a long cement race track where you sit in go-kart like contraptions and quickly speed down part of the mountain. I’d like to think I won most of the races, but I think I was being delusional.

Recently my friend Troy came to visit me from Australia (those adventures to be written about later on). He did most of the adventurous things (hang gliding and bungee) while I sat back and enjoyed from the safety of the ground. We did, however, do the Shotover Jet. Jet boating started in New Zealand so it seems only fitting they would have an activity with them that is relatively dangerous. Picture narrow canyons with boulders, rushing water and one said jet boat weaving in and out of these things, doing 360 spins and hitting top speeds of 85kph. What resulted of this? A very hilarious video of me screaming and laughing. I cannot access the video at this time, but trust me, it is funny.

Glenorchy

One of my trips to Queenstown I decided to book a horseback riding tour through a town about 1 hour away called Glenorchy. This place cannot be described other than, stunning. A lot of areas around there are used for movies, commercials and of course Lord of the Rings. The tour was 6 hours of riding and while I grew up riding, my body was not ready for that long of a day in the saddle. I could barely walk the next day. However, the scenery and experience alone made it worth it. While my horse was a little jerk and made me nervous quite a bit, I still loved every second of it. How could you not love riding through ice blue rivers with giant mountains as your background?

Ferg Burger

No, that is not the name of the town. It is the name of a famous burger place in Queenstown. It is so amazing it deserved its own section. Everyone who had been to New Zealand told me “Go to Ferg Burger!”. And I will pass on that knowledge to you, GO! Thanks to my newest friend at the time, Chris, for taking me. It is freaking amazing….even with me removing half of the toppings. I can’t help that I don’t like avocado….or tomato…or mayo….or pickles….

To the man who shattered my heart; Thank You.

Three hundred and sixty-five days ago today I set foot back in the U.S. after leaving Australia early for you.

Three hundred and sixty-four days ago you blindsided me with a break up. My head was still spinning from the jet lag of a 14 hour flight just the day before. I had not slept because I was so ecstatic to see you. But here I was standing in front of you sobbing, being told it was over.

In all fairness, you never asked me to leave Australia. That was my own doing. I met you not long before leaving on a one year visa to Australia but you quickly captured my heart. I had been in multiple years long relationships before where I did not feel as strongly as I did about you. You felt the same about me, I never once doubted your words or the way you looked at me. I never doubted our future plans, or our ability to strangely understand each other without saying a word. We also never fought, we had discussions, but they never turned into fights. You were it for me, or so I thought at the time.

It took me a year to honestly be able to say this but, thank you. We have not spoken in a year so I have never been able to say that to you. That is probably why it took me so long to truly mean it, but thank you for letting me go.

While we had a lot in common and never a shortage of fun things to do around town. We were not made up of the same fiber deep down. I needed adventure and to experience new and amazing things. You needed your business and a full time job that would not allow you to travel far, even for a weekend.

Thank you for showing me I am worth loving. Because of you, I was finally able to let go of some of the demons that haunted me from my very verbal and emotionally abusive relationship.

Thank you for treating me like your equal and showing me what I desire out of the next person I date. You were a stepping stone for me to let go of my past, realizing I am worth being wanted and needed, and showing me what values and standards I will not compromise on for whoever I date next.

Because of you letting me go, I have grown an incredible amount. While I traveled a lot in the past, I never imagined moving to a country where I knew absolutely no one. When we broke up, I hit bottom. It seems pathetic to admit that, but the heart does funny things to a person. I had to learn to build myself back up again, by myself. It may have taken me a while but I did it. That gave me the courage to leave for New Zealand. I had made it through that low part of my life and now I feel like I can conqueror anything life throws at me. I am well aware there are many more struggles ahead in life, some which will be way worse than a heart break I am sure. But I am resilient and I know my worth.

Thank you for letting me go early on and recognizing we were not 100% right for each other. Thank you for not dragging it on so that whoever is right for me is not robbed of time because of me being in the wrong relationship.

Thank you for letting me go so I could continue to see the world.

Thank you.

Rob Roy Glacier; the home of Narnia and Unicorns

“If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.” – Cesare Pavese

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My next adventure led me to Wanaka, a small but beautiful mountain town about 1 hour from where I am living. I met up with a girl named Kate, I had met her through a Facebook group I am a part of. “Girls Love Travel”, is an amazing group of 30,000 (and growing) female travelers and a wonderful network to meet like minded people.

We started our drive not entirely sure what we were getting ourselves into and soon into the drive we hit a gravel road. Our 50+km drive consisted mostly of a managed gravel road winding in and out of farm land against stunning landscapes. This was my first encounter with having to drive through icy blue river after river, as there was a ton of water run off from the surrounding mountains.

We finally made it to our destination after questioning if we were even in the right place when that drive kept dragging on. We started our hike and quickly made it to a suspended swing bridge. As I made my way across the bridge with the roaring river below, the bridge bouncing under every step, I then realized I would probably never go bungee jumping. I couldn’t even cross this bridge without shaking, sweating and feeling as if I would puke. Maybe I wont get over my fear of heights on this trip after all. Soon our hike took us into lush beech forest and a steady climb up the side of the mountain and through a gorge.

After about 2 hours of hiking we had made it to the first lookout. My first glimpse of the glacier left me breathless, if only I had known what waited for us around the corner. Here at the first look out we stopped and had a quick snack, snapped a few pictures and then continued on for another 30 minutes to the main look out point.

As soon as we hit the main viewing point for the glacier one word came to mind: MAGICAL. Honestly, I was expecting to see a portal open to Narnia or fairies riding unicorns around. Kate and I found ourselves a nice, warm and flat rock to lay on and just admired the view and listen to the waterfalls crash to the ground. We counted I believe 9 waterfalls coming off of the glacier and rushing down the sides of the vibrant green mountainside. I hate that my photos do not do this place justice or encompass how small you feel next to these ginormous mountains.

We enjoyed the warm sunshine on that rock for over an hour before making the hike back. But not before enjoying some glacier water, I never thought water could taste so incredibly pure.

Thanks Kate for the photos of the two of us! Check out her blog and Instagram about her adventures in New Zealand!

Dunedin

“Oh the places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss

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Dunedin is the one of the larger cities in New Zealand with a population of about 130,000 people. That still baffles me that 130,000 people is considered….large.  With Auckland boasting about 1.3 million and being their largest populated area.

Holy crap I am driving on the left side of the road.

That thought hit me about 1 hour into my 3 hour drive towards my first weekend get away by myself. Then the thought “Oh my gosh, I am LIVING in New Zealand”, also followed soon after. I had to pull over it almost knocked the wind out of me. The reality of where I was had not fully sunk in until that moment in time. Not to sound conceited but I am INCREDIBLY proud of myself for making my dreams a reality.

WELCOME TO THE OCTAGONNNNNN

If you were with me as I typed that, I said it in a very WWE announcer voice. I mean, you hear “octagon” and think, wrestling, right? Anyways, that was what the city center of Dunedin is called. It is literally an octagon shaped area surrounded by buildings. I spent my first day walking around a giant street market they were having, resisting the urge to buy every cool thing I saw. My walking led me to an incredibly stunning church. I am an architecture nerd and especially love older buildings that have history. I spent quite a bit of time there admiring the entire property.

“The First Church of Otago, designed by the architect R A Lawson, was opened on 23 November 1873, just 25 years after the first settlers arrived in Dunedin. It had taken six years to complete. Built of creamy Oamaru stone with a base of Port Chalmers stone the church has weathered well” (http://www.firstchurchotago.org/heritage)

Penguins and Castles

My last full day in Dunedin took me out onto the Otago Peninsula. I was still new to driving on the left side and wow did this road terrify me. When heading out onto the peninsula the road is narrow, windy and has zero room between the asphalt and the water in the bay. You barely turn your wheel wrong and your car (and you) goes swimming. Due to the road the speed limit is quite slow and the peninsula is about 20 miles long, so it took me some time. I did have lots of time to explore though. I eventually needed to make it to the end the peninsula by dusk (around 8:30pm) to witness adorable little Blue Penguins coming in from sea. My first stop took me to Larnach Castle, after climbing yet another scary and narrow road up the side of a mountain. Built in 1871, this is still the only castle in New Zealand. I toured the stunning gardens that were slightly “Alice in Wonderland” themed and walked the castle. Also enjoying a climb up into the tower which gave me a phenomenal 360 view of the peninsula and Dunedin.

After Larnach castle I decided to take a locals advice and drive out to a very secluded Allens Beach. After driving down a long gravel road, only passing 1 home in 45 minutes, I made the quick hike out to the beach. First thing I noticed, I was alone and it was incredibly quiet. I decided to take a hike, climbing over a few rock structures blocking the length of the beach. Found a few sea lions basking in the sun, they seemed completely unphased by my presence. From a distance I saw an area where it looked like there had been a rock slide and then a cave at the top. Per my normal thought process I decided to climb up, not even thinking that I am in the middle of no where with no cell service, alone. As I am climbing I notice something move, I look closely and resist squealing like a school girl, A PENGUIN! Up until this point I had heard penguins frequent New Zealand but had yet to see one. I was so excited. Poor guy was not as happy to see me so I decided to sit from a distance and watch him for a few minutes.

After discovering my own penguin I moved on to the Royal Albatross Centre where I did a paid tour to see Blue Penguins. This consists of a platform with dim lights and as soon as dusk hits about 75 tiny penguins come ashore and run to shelter, some go under the platform giving you a good viewing. I was unable to get any good photos as flash is prohibited in an effort to not scare them or hurt their tiny and sensitive eyes. I made my way back along that narrow, horrible road late that night and eventually made it back to my hostel.

On my drive back towards Alexandra I stopped off at Moeraki Boulders. A bunch of unusually large and spherical bounders along the coast.