January 12

Time flies when you're having fun. I can't believe it's almost been two weeks since I last made an update. However due to not so subtle suggestions that maybe I should update my blog, I'm now here!
New Years here was... uneventful would be a nice way to put it. Everyone here went to bed before 11, so I rang in the New Year watching October Sky on the television. They didn't even have anything on TV advertising the fact it was New Years. So quite sad and maybe a little pathetic... but oh well!
The next couple days were spent in New Years mode. Lots of hanging around and doing random jobs around the property, but nothing exceedingly exciting. I decided to work outside during 35 degree weather and then was a wee bit light-headed as a consequence. On the Fourth we went to Ju and Snow's friend's place, and had a complete and utter feast. Dave had just got some scallops the morning of, and they were really good cooked on the BBQ with kababs. THey also have about eight pet eels that are at least four feet long, and they'll come right out of the water to grab food from you. So I had a good time over-feeding them. New Zealand seems to have eels in pretty much every stream, and supposedly five foot ones have been found swimming in Auckland. Personally I'd prefer to not encounter them while swimming...
The next day was quite uneventful, though we did go down to the river and have a nice little swim. The water is still really cold, but probably not nearly as bad as Canada right now... Then Dave and Kathy came to Sunhill for dinner, but it was so hot that nobody really felt like eating much. Another 35 degree day.
On Saturday the sixth, Malcolm caught the train down to Christchurch in the early afternoon. Well... he was supposed to catch the train, but it derailed, so he got stuck on a bus for a while and then forced to sit beside a new mother and a screaming infant. Yay kids! When we got back, Judith found out that one of the ewes had fly, so she had to round them all up and spray them to make sure it doesn''t die. Fly is when the maggots from the black flies basically eat a sheep from the inside out, because they burrow in through the wool and through the skin. Or something like that, I'm not too sure. Whatever it is, it's not at all pleasant for the animal. Maggie was very efficient in rounding them all up and then sat guarding them all in the pen while Judith sent them all through. She such a friendly and smart dog, it makes me want a border! As a side note, before travelling ot New Zealand, one should know that buying deoderant is very expensive (aka be prepared to spend three times as much).
On Sunday the seventh I finally got to go diving! Judith and Snow dropped me off at Dave's in the morning, and he was able to get me all the gear I needed except for a wetsuit. Considering that renting and then getting a boat for a dive costs anywhere from 150 to 225 dollars anywhere else in the country, and I was able to basically go for free, I think it was a pretty damn good deal. We launched out of Picton, and then did a couple of dives in the Marlborough Sounds. These were my first dives without an instructor, and my last dive was back in April, but I managed to remember most things and eventually dropped down to 55 feet. Dave caught a bunch of scallops, and we were both able to take 50 home so it was a very fine dinner that night. The visibilty was quite poor (but nothing as bad as Vancouver) and I lost Dave after a couple minutes, but still swam around and explored a little. Sadly, I was ''air eating'' and so had to come up a while before Dave, but for a first dive, it was pretty damn good! Dave managed to convince me to try a raw scallop, and I was actually suprised to find out they aren't that bad. A little bit fishy, but also quite sweet! When we got back to Judith's the main water pipe had burst going from the water tank to the house, but Dave managed to fix it after about an hour of running around. I was given the honourable task of bailing water.
On the Monday I finally got all the bank info I needed from back home, and so I was able to send off my Extended Visa application. I also had to send off my passport, which means I can't actually buy any booze if anyone ID's me. Yay. Then we picked a bunch of cherries for Judith to brandy (quite good I suggest everyone tries it one day) and my expert skills from my hard work before Christmas really paid off...
On Tuesday we all packed into the bus with Maggie and set out west. Judith and Snow dropped me off in Murchison and then I set out hitching down to Punakaiki and the pancake rocks! I was picked up by two Norwegian girls right away and had a good time talking to them. Hitching truly is an art. With girls, you have to draw eye-contact with them and then just as they are hesitating about whether to pick you up or not... flash them a smile. Then it's in the bag. They dropped me off just outside of Westport, where I was quickly picked up by a Wellington girl who it turned out has exactly the same plan as me. We ended up camping at teh same campsite that night, and then explored the pancake rocks and local caves around Punakaiki. The pancake rocks are limestone rocks that have been totally owned by the sea, and so are in a bunch of really cool designs. The sea continuously pounds away at caves in the area, and you can feel the power of the surf right through the ground. It's a pretty cool place, and totally reminds me of Enid Blyton (I'm pretty sure I spelled her name wrong) books and all the adventures the kids had in those with undersea caves!
The next day, Leonie (the Wellington girl) and I decided to go up Fox River and try and do some of the hikes up around it. Due to the massive rainfall the night before (incidentally, it did not stop raining the entire time I was on the West Coast) the river had risen a good couple of feet and we had to do a couple river crossings to get down the track. They were really cool, and it was lucky we were together, because it would have been nearly suicidal to attempt them solo. Supposedly failed river crossings are the number one reason for death in New Zealand bush. Anyways, we beat the river and then found these really cool caves, which were pretty much unspoilt. The main one was 200 meters deep, and was covered with formations the entire way in. The last quarter or so was flooded up to our knees, but we sloshed through and it was actually quite an amazing experience. The cave was just so magnificent, and neither of us were really expecting anything great, so we were both totally stunned by it. When we got out though, it started to pour, so on the hike back to her car we got totally soaked, though luckily the rivers hadn't risen. I was able to dry out all my clothes as the camp had lit a drying room boiler, so luckily I wasn't very wet that night in the tent.
Thursday I hitched back over about six hours. First I was picked up by some crazy religion that starts with a "b" guy and as soon as he dropped me off outside of Westport it started to pour. Then a really nice Kiwi who gave me a lot of history of the area, and then some crazy German guys who well... your stereotypical German... They dropped me off in St. Arnaud, and after a quick lunch there, two German girls picked me up after I smiled at them and gave them a wave. They were really nice and actually dropped me right off at Sunhill, where I arrived in the late afternoon.
Today, Judith and I went into Blenheim, as she had to go to a "Creative Fibre" meeting. I had to buy some new sandals (due to my old ones breaking during the plumbing fiasco) and some tent sealant (due to the leaking tent in Punakaiki fiasco). Judith and I then went out for lunch at a Thai restaurant and after a few other errands we got back home around 4, only to be shepherded back into the truck by Snow because Murray has some wood he wanted to get rid of at the cherry orchard. So after two hours of cutting wood, we drove back with a full truck and trailer load of firewood, had a couple G and T''s, and then it became now.
Next week I am planning on going down to Kaikoura and then Christchurch, and then more south. A few people have offered to let me stay at their houses, so hopefully I will update at a better rate than once every two weeks. Cheers!