Some memorable happenings (both highlights and low points):
1. tea and conversation with the one legged man making moonshine in his rundown trailer (and his appearance seemingly out of nowhere on the dark and incredibly foggy night prior)
2. staying up until two in the morning listening to/playing music at Chillawhile Backpackers after being severely music starved during the semester. Dear Elliot Smith – how had I never heard your music before?? Rest in Peace. Also waiting an hour for this music video to load.
3. three days of good weather at Aoraki/Mt. Cook giving me a chance to tramp around near the three main glaciers (Hooker, Mueller, and Tasman) of the associated national park
4. repeatedly running into two Israeli boys I met at the first hut on my first backpacking trip (4 times now and counting!)
5 hours without seeing anyone in a valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains on the Greenstone Track (even if it was a bit rainy)
6 hours above the bushline on the Kepler Track
7 drunken fisherman showing up late in the evening on the Manapouri track forcing me and another tramper to change back into soaking wet clothes and hike another hour in pouring rain (to reach a tiny hut with a resident mouse which chewed into garbage and food during the night despite our best effort to hang the packs)
8. trading keys with the large animal lab technicians from Massey Uni at Woolshed Creek Hut. Allowed me to see the crazy extrusive rocks on the north face and them to avoid a rough eight hours on the windy south face
9. camping in Ruataniwha Conservation Area best equipped free campground ever!! (first encounter with anti-DoC graffiti as well – very interesting....)
....170 Little Blue Penguins coming in from the ocean at dusk and making a racket as they hung out around their burrows
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Today I moved to a new flat! Any letters sent to me by post should now be addressed to:
4/174 Forth St.
Dunedin, New Zealand 9016
It is a smaller place, fitting four flatmates as opposed to six. The complex features several cats which seem to expect to be let inside. I have a ground floor room but I think the view is still better than at my old flat. I am looking out at the edge of the botanic gardens and a clothesline as opposed to a birds-eye view of pavement and a bunch of other apartments. I have a nice big desk, a bookshelf, and an enormous closet. There is a cosy common area with a big sliding glass door, blankets and cooking spices left by previous residents, and one of the oldest televisions I have ever seen (only picks up one of NZ’s six TV stations ^_^).
Tomorrow Stephanie arrives!
Farewell to an especially eventful 2009 and wishing you a very happy new year!
