Flight Time

And the inevitable return home. I can't believe how many hours I've been on the plane throughout this trip. But there are some pros. There have been amazing amounts of eye candy. Also, nice strangers such as the post-grad from Georgia Tech and high school program coordinator. There was also this woman who claims she worked for Christian Dior men's fashion. Except I wasn't fortunate enough to sit next to her. Bonus at LAX: I saw two contestants from this seasons's Glee Project! They had already been eliminated: the Bieber and wheelchair girl (I didn't know their names). Of course I nabbed a photo.

I also have to give a shout out to the great bus drivers that have made my commute through NZ so pleasant. Chris and Big D, who say "awesome" and "beautiful" after every sentence, which just makes you feel that much better. They are very knowledgeable and humorous and I really appreciate that.

I got to LA with a couple hours to spare, so I bused downtown for a walk down Hollywood Boulevard and some lunch. It was so hot after coming from chilly NZ. A nice lady waiting for the bus gave me a full bar of HI-Chews. 

Oh this trip seems like a really great dream now. It was so wonderful.

Larnach Castle

Yesterday, Finy and I went to Larnach Castle, the only castle in New Zealand. It was small by the standards of most castles, but still grand in decor and architecture. There were no photos allowed inside, so as a result, many of my photos turned out slanted. But I think I got better as I progressed. I especially liked the lady's drawing room and the stark contrast between it and the mens library. They noted that the decor and paint colors were supposed to reflect femininity and masculinity (light and dark). There was also a nursery, which was cute, with the tiny little bed and a great view that a baby would probably not know how to appreciate.
I actually ended up liking the exterior of the castle more than the interior. There were many different gardens and statues, most of which were from Alice and Wonderland; the Alice and a flamingo, the Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen's roses and chair. Finy and I had a mini photo shoot with my newly discovered self-time app on the DSLR. Being both dancers, we had to do some dance moves. It was only right. I left with a scone and some jam. That was pretty much the extent of our day activities. My last night here was spent with Finy at the Metro again, which packed fewer hot guys according to her, but I think I disagree. Sadly, most were already taken, but we still had fun.

Cormorants and Seals and Penguins, Oh My!

Yesterday, I got back to Dunedin around 1:00pm. Finy and her friend Chiang picked us up and we went on a Natural Wonders tour on the Dunedin peninsula. We piled into a cool safari Argo 4WD and it was the most exciting drive I've ever been on. Our tour guide, Roy, drove us up rocky hills, and mud puddles. He was extremely good-looking, tall, had the bluest eyes. Sighs. We first saw some cormorants, which were much prettier than the ones we have at home. These had blue and white plumage with turquoise around the eyes. We saw the New Zealand fur seals next. They were SO CUTE. There were tiny tiny babies and lounging mums. And they were so close. We were in a protected area, not open to the general public without a guide, so they did not fear us. We then went to search for the famous yellow-eyed penguin. Alas, they were nowhere to be seen. Roy lingered for as long as he could, as he told us, but it seemed they were still out hunting in the ocean. As a consolation, he showed us an area, only accessible to very small groups of people, where the little blue penguin or fairy penguin (my favorite) were nesting. They were RIGHT THERE, in the wild! One even poked his head out of the little tunnel, which Roy said rarely happened. AHHHH I wanted to take it home so bad.

Finy and I went home to rest a bit and eat a quick dinner. We then set out for some night shopping. Dotti is a dangerous store. I swear, almost every time I've been in that store I've come out with a bag. Seriously, I've told Finy to restrain me from buying more clothes. They also have a Kmart here, which really cheap and better looking clothes than ours. Finy and I shared a mint chocolate shake after our shopping spree (more like my shopping spree) and it was really good. Ice cream here seems stickier.

We went back and watched Milla Jovovich be fierce and flawless in the first Resident Evil before going to sleep.

Now I'm watching the Olympics opening ceremony,  which is turning out to be pretty epic. Voldemort, Mary Poppins's, Mr. Bean, and hot athletes. It's all good. I always seem to be watching it in another country. But I'm not complaining.

Te Anau Glow worms

Alright. I'm going to start raving about this motel I'm staying at. It has earned awards in environmental awareness, comfort, and everything else out there. I have a kitchenette complete with electric stoves, fridge, microwave, compost bin, all utensils and dishware, grocery bag, OLIVE OIL, and free milk. I also have a JACUZZI and a heated towel rack. This is insane. Hands down the best place I've ever stayed at. And it's cheaper than the hotels in Queenstown. They're very clever with the toilet paper as well. They only put half a roll out so you don't use as much. Genius. I could live here forever. But not really since Te Anau is kind of a ghost town. But they do get points for lending out bikes! I borrowed this nice green one with a basket and the first thing I did was go to the grocery store. I've wanted to do this for so long. I bought some penne, eggs, tomatoes, golden kiwi and apples. I put my groceries the basket and rode the scenic route back to the motel. It was glorious.

The main attraction in Te Anau are the glow worm caves. At 2:00 I boarded the boat that sailed across Lake Te Anau, the second largest lake in NZ. The landscape was quite beautiful. We got to the caves in about half an hour and lowered into the darkness. It was so amazing. The caverns and underground rivers and waterfalls were unlike anything I've ever seen. We got on a tiny rowboat and our guide rowed us into complete darkness. I swear, I felt like it was blacker when I had my eyes open than closed. When we finally saw the glowworms, it was an amazing sight. Like tiny blueish green stars embedded into the walls. They would shimmer and fade and glow again. They were so close that I could just reach out and touch them. I felt like I had entered an entirely different world. It was truly a magical experience and a great ending to my little independent tour around the south island.

Milford Sound

 Yes! I have free internet at my last lodging in Te Anau. I'll describe all the fabulousness of this place in the next post. This one is dedicated entirely to Milford Sound, a place of unparalleled beauty. I left Queenstown to board the coach early in the morning and then a cruise boat into the fjord. The scenery was magnificent. Everywhere I turned my head was a different vantage point to the world renowned natural wonder where the mountains rise straight out of the turquoise blue ocean. Rainforests line the walls of the cliffs and waterfalls lace the faces. We got right up close under one towards the end of the cruise, so close that we got a little wet. We sailed straight out into the expansive open sea and the sun on the horizon was brilliantly reflected on the shimmering waters. It was spectacular. I couldn't get enough. We also saw some adorable New Zealand fur seals and a pod of bottle-nosed dolphins that swam right next to our boat and jumped out of the waves. It was unreal.

  There was an chance to opt out of the four hour coach ride back to Queenstown and fly instead. I thought that since I didn't get to go in a helicopter, a plane was the next best thing. And it sure was. There was only one other passenger besides me, the pilot and the co-pilot. We saw the fjord from a whole different perspective and I loved it. I got back in town and ordered a famous Fergburger from hotel, which saved me waiting time. I got the Little Lamby, and it was very good considering I'm not such a big burger fan. I walked around after and pretty much saw everything there was to see. The trek back to my hotel, the Mercure, was a long and dark one. Thank goodness for my UGGs since my feet probably would've freezed straight off by now without them.

Paragliding and LOTR

So my much anticipated helicopter tour was unavailable this morning. Sighs. Oh well, I moved on to the next option: paragliding! I went up the gondola this morning to catch the 10:00am flight. It was extremely cloudy and I was worried that I wouldn't see a thing during the flight. Thankfully, the lady at reception said to wait til the clouds cleared. When they did, I took off the mountain with my instructor Dean. It didn't hurt that he was younger, kind of cute, and looked a little like Owen Wilson, but better. It was a ~40 min ride and very pleasant. I kept bombarding him with questions about the landscape and paragliding in general. God, I'm such a dork, but I got photos and a video as proof! After that, I still had some time before my LOTR tour, so I went to the Bird and Wildlife Park right next to the Skyline. There I got to see KIWI BIRDS. They are largely nocturnal, so they were housed in the dark with the red light. They were so incredibly cute, especially when they ran and hopped. It looked like they were going to keel over any second since their little flightless bodies would bend over as they moved. Later, I went on the LOTR tour. My guide was George, a girl, and a cute young couple rode with us. Let me rant a little about the cute couples I've seen in Queenstown. It's always the guy that is extremely attractive and the girl not so much. And I'm like: why. Anyways, George was very knowledgeable and had a great sense of humor. She told us the legend of Lake Wakatipu, and about how possums are speed bumps in NZ (a roadkill possum was called a squashum). She said that one of the guides was chosen to be an elf in a battle scene and his face was visible in the movie. There had been two Korean girls who went on the tour previously with him and they almost got into a fist fight over who would sit next to him. They ended up both sitting next to him and staring at him the whole time. Too bad we didn't get to meet this famous guide. She showed us exactly where scenes from movies like LOTR, The Water Horse, Wolverine, and Narnia were shot. The Hobbit was shooting in the area just a few weeks ago. It was very cool. She also had props like the hobbit cloaks and swords for us to do some role playing and reenacting scenes from the movie. It was great.

For dinner, I went to Kappa, a Japanese restaurant recommended by George. I ordered their combination udon, which was very good. I was confused when I got to the shop at first since their closed sign was up, yet after closely studying their hours, I found out that they actually closed at 10pm. Perhaps they didn't want many customers at the time. Very clever. Only very determined and hungry customers like me were allowed to go in and eat. I have an early start tomorrow morning with a coach and cruise tour to Milford Sound that I'm really excited about. It's amazing how many awesome things I'm doing each day here in New Zealand. It is definitely the ultimate vacation. I don't think I'll have to chance to do something like this in a long long time. My global gossip minutes are running out, so it'll probably be a while till my next update.