Pretty much all of the new international students have arrived now; it's brought back good memories of my arrival as I watch them excitedly running around as they try to see and do everything! The vast majority of internationals this trimester are American, including two of my four flat mates (Drew and Andrea); my other two flat mates are Dutch (Klaas) and Kiwi (Liam). They're all really nice and we had a good home made Mexican dinner and butterscotch kisses together last night to get to know each other.
I warn you now that a lot of this past week has been spent eating very good food as Liam loves to bake and Mealiny (French) has had me round for really good French food a few times. (In the above photo Juliette, Claire, Mealiny and I have just had gratin and tarte de pomme before my first taste of poker.) I've also had hardly any opportunities to cook for myself as there are constant potluck dinners or BBQs going on.
Because I'm one of the few internationals that's been here for a while I've been playing the role of tour guide for my new flat mate and loads of other Americans. I've shown them plenty of good places to eat and drink coffee, with samples along the way!
Above is a photo from our tramp along the Skyline walk from Johnsonville to Wellington. I felt very outnumbered amongst 10 Americans and one Canadian.
To the left is a photo of my new flat mates. (from left to right - Klaas, Liam, Drew and Andrea).
I'm hoping to meet even more new people over the next couple of days, hopefully some non-americans, as it's international orientation and there are some buddy events. My buddy this trimester is called Maria and is from East Timor; it's really interesting hearing about her culture as it's so different to anything I'm used to.
I'm both relieved, and very happy, to have all my flat mates hear and know that they're all great people and it's certainly nice to have permanent friends again after my months of travelling.
After three and a half absolutely incredible months, which I will never forget, I'm finally back in Wellington with a permanent bed and an address again.
My final week of travelling was filled with more exciting adventures; the highlight though was definitely swimming with dolphins.
My last couple of days wwoofing for Kerry and Tim were spent weeding, cleaning, picking up cow muck and eating wonderful food.
On Wednesday Kerry dropped me off in Blenheim and I said my goodbyes before catching the bus to Kaikoura; a town half way between Picton and Christchurch which is famous for whale watching. Here I spent 3 nights at Dolphin Lodge, a nice, small backpackers.
The next morning I walked down to 'Encounter Kaikoura' for 8.15am where the group of us going to swim were each kitted out with a wet suit, a hood, fins and a snorkel and mask.
We were extremely lucky as about 30 minutes in to the boat ride we came across a pod of orcas (killer whales); these are the largest dolphin in the world and a pod passes through Kaikoura every six - nine weeks.
The orcas came right up to us and due to the unusually clear water we could see them as they appeared from under the boat. We spent a while watching two of the orcas circling a small shark whilst albatross' swooped over head. (This is pictured to the left - you can just make out the small shark to the right of the orca.)
After about twenty minutes we moved on to find the pod of dusky dolphins which had been spotted about 10 minutes away.
Once in the middle of the pod we plopped off the back of the boat into the water, hoping the killer whales didn't decide to come this way. In order to attract the dolphin's attention we had to squeak. Mostly the dolphins would whiz past but sometimes they would take an interest and swim in circles, staring right into my eyes; such an amazing experience. We were able to go in four times; about 5 minutes for each swim. On the final swim we were joined by some Hector dolphins (the smallest dolphins in the world); apparently these are only seen on about 5 five percent of trips.
Once dry, and warmed up with hot chocolate, we watched the dolphins for a bit, leaping and doing flips out of the water, before heading back to land. I would thoroughly recommend this trip to anyone heading that way.
The rest of my time in Kaikoura was spent going for walks and drinking coffee. The walk around Kaikoura peninsular was lovely and there was a large seal colony which I stumbled across, nearly stepping on one of the hidden seals as I crossed the bay!
On Saturday I took the bus to Christchurch where I spent half a night before heading to the airport at 4.30am to catch my flight to Wellington.
I've had the most fantastic time over the past 3 and a half months and really can't believe how quickly it's all gone. Just four and a half months left now! I'll have to make sure I make the most of them and pack them full of more adventures.
I'm no longer a teenager! I started the week as a nineteen year old in Picton where I went for a few sunny day walks and munched my way through many free cheese scones provided by my backpackers.
On Tuesday I took a bus to Spring Creek, just North of Blenheim, where I was met by Kerry, one of my wwoofing hosts. She took me up to the house which is surrounded by beautiful, mature gardens; full of fruit and vegetables and a few chickens and cows. Here I met Tim, Kerry's husband, and Misty the dog.
The photo above shows my room here; I have a little holiday cottage to myself, complete with a bathroom and a kitchen which I don't need to use as Kerry cooks me lovely meals.
Each morning I work in the garden on a variety of jobs, including bonfire building, stringing up onions and garlics, compost heap turning, weeding, manure spreading, vegetable picking and mulch spreading. This is broken up with tea, coffee and cake breaks. I then have the afternoons to myself so I can take one of their bikes out for a cycle ride down to the beach, walk through the vineyards or swim in the river. As an afternoon snack I just pick whichever fruit I want from the trees. To the right is a lemonade; it tastes like a lemon but is less sour so eaten like an orange :)
In the evenings Kerry cooks us delicious meals, mainly comprised of food from the garden. After a very nice beef casserole she informed me that they were running out of beef in the freezer so their highland cow (pictured to the right) would soon have to go :( After dinner, most evenings, the three of us watch a film, generally French, before I head back to my little cottage.
On Saturday it was my 20th birthday so I spent a lot of time skyping home and replying to messages on facebook. It wasn't quite your usual 20th birthday; I spent the morning trimming the hedge, turning one of the compost heaps and stringing up garlics (all pictured above). In the evening they had some friends round for a 3 course dinner with roast pork, some very nice wine and a lovely chocolate and hazelnut birthday cake. All four friends were well over 70 so much of the time was spent discussing hearing aids and eye sight and how the youth of today has gone wild and Kerry and I were the only ones able to eat the toffees she had laid out. It was certainly a memorable birthday meal and it was very sweet of Kerry to bake a cake for me.
I've really enjoyed my time here with Tim and Kerry and I've been taught so much about organic gardening. I definitely hope that I will have space to grow my own fruit and vegetables when I'm older as the flavours are amazing and it makes eating much more rewarding.
I'm now reaching the end of my travelling time as I'll be heading back to Wellington on Sunday ready to get back to what I'm meant to be doing out here... studying.
