Alec wears a skirt.
Alec can’t find The Ring.
Alec builds a house.
…and I make a Top Gear reference in my blog introduction to avoid the continuing trend of apologizing for how long it’s been since I’ve posted! (Apologies…)
The Abel Tasman trip breakdown:
Friday
Waking up at the crack of nothingness, I headed downtown from my flat, pack on my back and camera at the ready. Our first leg of the trip was to take the Interislander Ferry from Wellington to Picton, which is on the south island. It was early in the morning, and, having not eaten breakfast, we were all feeling a bit peckish by the time we had all gotten on the boat. Rumor had it that the first hour would be smooth, the second wavy, and the third smooth. I’ve been on a few boats in my time, and waves were never a problem, so I boldly explored the levels of the ship with some friends, finishing at the top deck
and continuing on to the cafeteria. By this time we were on to the second hour of the trip, and waves were showing, 2 meter swells making the whole ship swayyyyyyyyyyy. I didn’t lose any food on this journey, but I certainly did not finish my scrambled eggs.
My only option was to stumble back to the stable part of the ship, huddle up in a corner, and try to fall asleep to some music.
Oh yeah, and the three hour bus ride through winding mountain roads was fun too. Blergh.
But that’s not the point! The point is that we ended up at The Barn just outside of Abel Tasman national park.
The Barn is a backpackers (hostel) that contained enough beds for all fifteen of us (give or take), and a delightful living space and fireplace for charades. We spent an hour or so exploring the surrounding area and beach until it got too dark to see. Being on the ocean, this beach had tides, but tides unlike any I have seen before. Instead of going up 10-15 feet- sorry, 3-4 meters, it stretched for at least a kilometer. It started as a flat beach and then, over the course of that great distance, slowwwwwly, ever so slowly, turned into the ocean. There was no distinct shoreline, and the only way I can describe walking towards the ocean is the feeling of approaching a huge body of water that feels as though it is on top of you and will rush over and envelop you at any second. Luckily it didn’t, and I made it back for a game of that charades and a good night sleep.
Saturday
When was the last time YOU hiked at a chipper pace for 7 hours? I thought so… A boat took us from The Barn up the coast to the beginning of our hike. On the way, we passed Split Apple Rock
and some seals! 
Seeing seals on NatGeo and in the zoo is a much different experience than seeing them on the rocks on the shores of New Zealand, let me tell you. They also sound cool as. (Yes, I intentionally inserted NZ slang in there in the hopes that one day it will become natural).
Our hike led us along the steep coastline. The trees along the path would every once and a while provide a clearing through which we could see some amazing views.
(That's Ben. He goes to Northwestern too!)
Some highlights were the rickety bridge
and the houses. The houses are built on property that was owned before Abel Tasman National Park became a national park in the first place. Since then, no additional property has been made available for building, thus the values of the existing ones have skyrocketed into the millions. The surrounding landscape prompts the question: “People… people LIVE here?”
Eventually we made it back to The Barn with moments of daylight to spare; collapsing in bed in fits of spontaneous exhaustion.
Sunday
I have kayaked at home around lake Calhoun, but of course, this is New Zealand, and it was the ocean. We were layered up in waterproof jackets, kayaking skirts (woot), and lifejackets to keep us warm, dry, and floating (respectively), and set off south down the coast.
We passed Split Apple rock again, got to see the seals closer this time, and played some cool kayak games. These particular 2-person kayaks had rudders that the rear-seating person would steer with pedals. That was me! It’s the closest to driving that I’ve come since getting here, and I miss it. One of the games we played was for the person steering to close their eyes while the front person shouts instructions to them in a race to a set finish line. It’s a miracle I emerged without bruises…
We kayaked for about 3 hours before it was time to head home. I was ready for the ferry this time, though, and a kind friend (Ben) leant me a Dramamine pill to calm me through the 5 meter swells on the way back to Wellington.
Another trip that Arcadia planned for us was a recent excursion to the Weta Cave. Weta Workshop is based in the Miramar suburb of Wellington. They’re most known for their digital effects, miniature, model, costume, weapon, and landscape design for Avatar, District 9, The Chronicles of Narnia, all of the Lord of the Rings movies, the upcoming Tin Tin, and many more. For “copyright and security reasons”, we could not go into any of the studio spaces themselves, but they did have a model/souvenir shop containing some original works from the movies. I proceeded to nerd out until it was time for the viewing of a specially made behind-the-scenes video when I, well, proceeded to nerd out some more. The movie was narrated by Richard Taylor (10 points to anyone besides dad who knows who that is), and I was proud/ashamed to know 90% of the other people in the video by sight and name for their work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I will have to go back again.
School has been going very well and all my classes remain quite interesting. I recently finished my first design project in one of the architecture papers I’m in. I designed a beach bach (“cabin” is the Minnesota-speak) for a sight near Wellington on Pukarua Bay. The design presentation went fairly well, with criticisms coming with compliments. Overall, I’m very happy with how far the design came in only four short weeks, and I’m excited to continue on to the next one!
Today is Monday, which means that it is less than a week until mid-trimester break. I will be travelling down to the south Island with five others to explore. We’ll be near Queenstown, traveling to the nearby Greenstone/Caples trail in Fiordland. A four day hike leads to a day at the coastline and a glacier hike a few days after. This will leave a few days afterward to catch up in Wellington and (fingers crossed), write about it before school continues on September 5th. After that, only 5 weeks of class remain, and exam month after. Where did the time go?
Words, words, words…
can’t be bothered = meh/ not right now / too lazy too / don’t want to / it’s too much work / etc,
backpackers = hostel
lakeside cabin = bach “pronounced “batch”
p.s.- it snowed today. You'd think the world was ending. I took a view photos, and here's a link to A VIDEO SOMEONE MADE of snow falling in Wellington. What if they did that in Minnesota? That'd be a lot of cheesy soundtrack to find... http://vimeo.com/27709878
