Fall break: Anthony in Aotearoa!!!!

Hello!!! I'm now up to the events which took place from April 9th-may 2nd: my fall break.

SIDE NOTE: I had my bottom two wisdom teeth extracted. I received no laughing gas or knock out treatment. I only got that shot you get when you have cavities. I SAW EVERYTHING. and I got to keep my teeth! really weird!

ok! so On April 9th, Anthony arrived in NZ with some complications with airport flight times. soooo i started our day out with some meat pies and giraffes! We went to the wildlife park of Christchurch, which basically is a safari. HUUUGE habitats for the animals, and we both saw our first kiwis!

kiws are actually noctoral so they have to assimulate night condition during the day so tourist can see them active.

The next day, we headed off to Dunedin. It was a beautiful drive, except we got stuck in traffic for about 2 hours right out Chch. There was an accident on a bridge. Several of the bridges here only have room for one lane, so each side must coordinate. LOST of accidents occur.

I took Anthony to the same look out cliff with the Albatross and seal colonies. It takes about 30 minutes of mind numbing driving to head out to the tip of the peninsula. But we had a splendid time searching for big birds.

Our first week was a bit intense. We had two 3-day tramps that were about 36 km each to accomplish in 7 days. After Dunedin, we rushed down to Bluff to catch a ferry over to Stewart Island. I was becoming a bit panic-y on the way down and accidentally locked the keys in the car. BUT! since everyone in NZ is lovely, we had no problem finding help to prop the door open. We were off to the island around 5 PM. We arrived about an hour later to find absolutely no vacant accommodations available. Apparently the island is a hot spot during Easter weekend...whoops. We finally looked so pathetic that the hostel allowed us to stay in a tiny room for hostel workers. Hey, whatever works.

We started the Rakiura track early the next morning. It started with gorgeous coastal tramping, followed by a two hour hike within native bush. Stewart is known for two things: bird (especially kiwi) and rain. Luckily it didn't rain at all during our tramp. There are a ton of birds since many of the invasive species haven't populated on the island. There are quite of few tom cats and some possums, but not nearly as devastating in numbers as the north and south island. Actually, if you're going to see a kiwi in the wild, it would be here. I only saw kiwi poop though..i think :-(

The entire track is pretty much on a board walk or cable bridge, which became annoying at times. LOTS of mud.
We saw some kea birds in the forest, which is New Zealand's most expensive conservation project for threatened species. Kathleen told me from her wildlife class that they spend a million dollars on habitat restoration/research per year. sounds like alot right? but it also takes one million dollars to fix a metre of road. ONE METRE. So I'm not sure what to think of that. After the 3 days, Anthony and I enjoyed a beautiful morning sunrise over the Stewart island harbour, and headed back to the main land for another 3 day hike! what was I thinking!??!?!