Against The Power of Mordor There Can Be No Victory!!!

This one is for you Nick. Only the power of stoichiometry can stand a chance against the amount of sheep here. The sheep population is roughly 45 million. The human population here is about 4.5 million. Every field you look into is filled with sheep. The picture in this blog is a field of sheep, and as we were driving by they decided to all line up and march together. It was really weird but I laughed hysterically because I’ve never seen anything like it. Throughout my travels in NZ I have met a lot of people, and just like the sheep 98% of the people I meet are German. They are everywhere! (It’s like a Nazi invasion!! I swear Neil “Deer Hunter” Hirsch is planning something). If I come across an American or a Canadian I get so happy because I can finally talk to someone without slowing down my speech, and they will understand everything I’m talking about. 

On my Abel Tasman kayaking trip today I met two Americans from Denver. We got talking and the guy was a writer for the local paper (he studied journalism in college and has been writing his whole life). He writes about marijuana. I was interested and asked him more. Marijuana is medically legal in Colorado and somehow he ended up writing reviews on the licensed dealers and the quality of their weed. Things grew and now he gets everything paid for and writes articles that are related to marijuana.

My drug is candy as many of you know. NZ doesn’t have the usual candies that I am used to like Cherry Blasters or SPK’s. This is a good thing because I gave those up for lent. Unfortunately I kinda cheated because when we were in the store everyone was buying “RJ’s Strawberry White Chocolate Logs”. So I figured I’d try out the local sweet. OH MAN!! My taste buds went crazy!! It is a licorice stick with white chocolate in the center. Kinda like a “livewire”, but its licorice and chocolate. I’m gonna try to bring some home but I’m afraid I will eat them all on the long return journey.

That was just the intro to this blog. I feel my last two entries weren’t the best and didn’t have enough detail. So from now on I am going to be more detailed. With this detail comes worse grammar and sentence structure because I shall be rambling, and I apologize in advance for this.

Thursday. Today I found my utopia. I was going to try to relax today but the girls wanted me to go up to Farewell Spit with them and check out the area. I did. I figure that I can relax when I get home. I must adventure and do as much as I can while I’m here. Before we left the hostel we asked what there was to do while we were up there. The lady at the desk said to check out Te Waikoropupu Springs, Farewell Spit, and Wharariki beach. 

Our drive to the springs was kinda crazy. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but the highways here aren’t what we would consider highways. They are like Canadian back roads. One lane for each way of traffic and they twist up through mountains with no guard rails. They expect you to go relatively fast around the hair pin corners but even when we are going 40kph it feel like we are on a roller coaster getting pulled by the G-Forces. 

Te Waikoropupu Springs was a short stop. We walked around for about an hour to see what this place was about. Te Waikoropupu Springs are Australasia's largest springs and the world's clearest fresh water. The water was actually incredibly clear. Even where it was 15ft deep you could see the bottom as if the water level was ankle height. The springs are a sacred Maori site so no one is allowed to even touch the water. 

Farewell spit. It is the highest point on the south island (The tip of it is). If you look at a aerial photo of it and the surrounding area you can actually see part of a kiwi bird. We walked along the spit for a bit but had to turn back because there was too much fog and rain. Along the beach I found a starfish!! It was alive too!!!!!  I picked it up and brought it from the beach to the ocean. It was funny because before the walk I told the girls my goal was to find a starfish. Mission Accomplished. On the beach there were also a lot of washed up jelly fish. I touched the top of one and it was super slimy and weird feeling. I don't really know how to describe it. I just remember Marlin from Finding Nemo saying you can touch the tops and not get stung, so I did. We had lunch at the car before heading on to Wharariki Beach. 

Again I had no idea what we were in for when we got to the beach. I got out of the car and to my surprise there was a peacock in the parking lot just wandering around. No one was around taking care of it either. It was a little odd but I fed it some crackers. Our walk to the beach was a 3km path along a dirt road, through a field a sheep, and down through another thick forest. The dirt road was pretty simple. The field of sheep was fun because the sheep were on the track and I chased them around. They didn’t really like it that much. They are scared of humans. The forest was another regular walk but when we came out towering cliffs and a bare white sand beach greeted us. I was blown away. This is my utopia. It was incredible. There was no one around and it was just picture perfect. It’s kinda hard for me to describe this place cause I couldn’t believe was what I was seeing. 

At the beach it was low tide so we walked around and into the caves in the enormous cliffs. It was really creepy just walking into a cave that is usually underwater, and seeing all the mussels attached to the rock and creatures just chilling out on the walls. Again there were crabs. Not as big as the last bunch but there were enough of them to give me a freight. When we were in these caves we had to pull out our flash lights to see what was around us. When I spotted a crab hanging out in a little pool of water I decided to approach him with a carabiner in hand. He jumped up and attacked it, then scurried away. When it jumped I was freaking out because I didn’t know if he was going to attack me (And I didn’t have any pokemon to defend me against crabby). I ran out of the cave and moved on the next area of the beach. Walking along there were sea creatures everywhere it was really cool because some of them were just so colourful. Speaking of colour, the colours here in NZ are astonishing. The colour on everything is so vivid that it looks fake. The colours of the golden sand in Abel Tasman, the dark green forests, the bright blue waters, and everything in between. On our walk back to the beach we saw a sign saying there is a fur seal colony on the beach further down to where we didn’t walk. I was a little sad because I wanted to see a seal from close up.

Friday we woke up and went to Abel Tasman National Park. We got to the park early in the morning and the sun was shining bright. We boarded the water taxi and headed along the coast of the park up to Tonga Quarry. In the quarry we got in our kayaks and headed out to Tonga Island. Tonga island is a popular spot for fur seals. There were a few pups playing in the water and chilling on the rocks. It was really cool seeing them for the first time. I was a little disappointed though because the seals weren’t coming up to our kayaks as I thought they would. It was still worth it though kayaking in the sea, seeing the seals and large jellyfish in the water.   

Not being able to see the pups up close left me a little down but on Saturday the most amazing thing happened. I know I say that a lot but every day just gets better. I think ok what could beat whatever just happened and the next day something does. It’s not a bad thing, in fact I quite enjoy being filled with more joy everyday. Saturday we drove from Manueka to Kaikoura. There isn’t really anything interesting along the way. The scenery changes and the mountains get larger. Along the Pacific ocean we saw some seals on the rocks and decided to stop and take some photos. When we got out of the car a  gentleman told us to cross the highway and look at what was in the forest. A FUR SEAL COLONY!!!!! It was crazy. Only the pups were there because the parents are currently out fishing, and they were playing in the streams. It was the cutest best thing I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t believe I was so close to wild fur seal pups. They weren’t scared of us and they let us come close and watch them play. Some of them even showed off for us. It was adorable!!!! Even though the sign said stay back don’t touch blah blah blah, I didn’t listen. I was playing with one and started petting him. It was funny because he was on his back so I scratched his belly then when he had enough he slapped my hand with his little flippers. 

On Saturday night we relaxed at the hostel and got invited to a wine tasting event for backpackers. It was my first wine tasting event and it was really educational. We tried 5 different wines. 3 whites and 2 reds. Apparently NZ has world famous white wines. All the known and big vineyards are on the south island which is where a lot of seafood is consumed. So I am assuming that’s why they specialize in white wine. We went to bed relatively earlier because Sunday was a busy morning of swimming with wild dolphins.

One thing on most people’s bucket list is to swim with dolphins. Many people do it in florida or the caribbean, but I don’t consider that actually swimming with them because they are trained to entertain and spend time with you. Swimming in Kaikoura with wild Dusky Dolphins was an experience I will never forget. We boated out and saw a pod of dolphins. We got our snorkelling gear on, sat on the back of the boat and then when instructed got in the water and swam towards them. It’s so much different because we are entering their home. We started off relatively close but then had to swim in their direction and be on their terms. If they wanna come close and check you out that is their choice. And once I was swimming with them I really got a feeling that they are in charge. Even with big flippers on and a buoyant wetsuit on I wasn’t able to keep up with the dusky’s. They are incredibly fast and agile. It was crazy. I took a few videos and tried to get some pictures. After I put my camera away one dolphin came really close to me and I could touch him. They told us that if they circle you they are interested and the best thing to do is swim in a circle with them and keep eye contact. If you can keep up and pass the test, they will spend time with you and show off a bit.The showing off for a dolphin is spins under water, and full flips in the air once they breach the surface. So with this one dolphin I circled and dove down with it. I think I passed the test because he spent quite a while with me. The feeling of swimming with a wild dolphin and spending one on one time with them is indescribable. Looking into their eyes is incredibly amazing. I kinda felt a connection with it (I lost track of time and all my surroundings) and it is something I will never forget. (We were swimming with a pod of 250-300 Dolphins, and the Dusky’s are only found in the Southern Hemisphere.)

Tonight we are going out for some fresh seafood on the coast. I would like to try the crayfish. It is a NZ delicacy. They don’t have lobster here so they eat crayfish instead, but their crayfish are the same size as lobsters if not bigger.

The next thing to do is see some penguins. Hopefully I can accomplish my goal this week and have even better stories for you guys.