An update!

Ok well I've finally got a little time to spare and so I'll do my best to fill everyone in on how everything is going. I was going to upload some pictures, but as this is a dial-up connection, decided I had better things to do then wait for 2 hours uploading 5 pictures (I was going to use the excuse that I left my USB cable at home, but then realized this computer has a card reader for the digital camera, and thus had to tweak it a bit). Anyways, where did I leave off?
So from the 13th to the 15th, we basically chopped wood fo rmost of the day and then stacked it. Very exciting! I did get stung on the neck though by a bee which was very exciting because sometimes I swell right up, and sometimes nothing happens. Luckily nothing happened this time, so you know, I didn't stop breathing or have to go to the hospital. Hayley sorted out my ticket to Fiji, and now everything is set for me to leave Auckland on the 14th of February. Getting up there however will be another problem...
I left Judith and Snow's on the 16th and they dropped me off outside of Blenheim for me to hitch down to Kaikoura. At first a very nice vinyard owner/businessman picked me up but my second ride could only be considered New Zealand's version of the redneck. Besides not being unable to understand them, their attire consisted of tight jeans and tight leather vests. There car was, well a peace of crap (but hey I don't judge people on what sort of car they drive) and they insisted on tailing and swearing at anyone who was on the road. When we stopped at a seal colony right before Kaikoura, they proceeded to spit and throw rocks at the seals. I could only shake my head in the background (hey they were my ride!) and then when a man took a picture of their license plate to report them, they contemplated whether or not to ram his car. But yeah, after that eventful ride, I was safely in Kaikoura. However I decided the dolphin swimming and whale watching wasn't quite for me, considering that we have those in BC, so I just stayed the night there and then moved on.
On the 17th, I met a German guy in the hostel and he volunteered his American Buddhist friend to drive me down to Conway Flats. The American had been studying at a monestery in Thailand, but sadly had Visa problems and had to come to New Zealand. They dropped me off, and after asking at a random house on the side of the road, I figured out that Medina (the farm of the Handysides) was about 12 kilometers down the road. So I started walking, and after about five minutes a very nice guy by the name of Andrew picked me up, and rove me up the road a bit to his house. Considering he was a bachelor of about 30, it was a little uh, messy (complete with an overpowering smell of marijuana and a big tin full o fit sitting on the coffee table) but he was very nice and gave me a cup of tea and arranged for me to get picked up by the mailman to take me up to the farm. David and Sally greeted me, and then sent me off on a three hour lon ghike aroudn their farm. They live right on the coast, and there are huge cliffs right on the coast line, and then mountains at the back of their farm (about 1500 acres). It's truly a stunning piece of land, and they actually run a track that people pay to walk on. We had venison for dinner, and I can't believe I had lived so long with out it. Better than all meat except for maybe steak :p. They put me up in a big canvas tent outside, but gave me an extra douvet so even though it was quite cold and night, I was all snug!
The next day I hung out with Peter, their oldest son, who is pretty much taking over the farm now. We zoomed around on some ATV's, chasing after cattle and sheep and moving them to the right paddocks. They use dogs for all this work, which supposedly is a unique thing about New Zealand. Then I fixed a dog kennel (exciting, I know).
Friday I hitched down to Christchurch, and wandered around town for a while. They have the International Buskers Festival going on, and some of them were actually really good. 10 foot Unicycles, juggling fire, all sorts of good stuff that one wouldn't normally see. Christchurch is a beautiful city, and is considered the most English of New Zealand cities, complete with punting on the river that winds through town. In the late afternoon I bussed out to Su and Rex's place just outside of the city center.
The next day I spent in Christchurch again, going to the museum, watching the buskers and seeing the sites. The museum is one of the best in regards to Antarctic history, and so it was actually really fascinating. I also toured teh Anglican Cathedral there, which was the first cathedral built in New Zealand ( I think.. if not, it was the first building built pretty much in Christchurch... just imagine a huge cathedral in the middle of nowhere a couple hundred years ago). I found the last Harry Potter book at Su and Rex's when I went back for dinner, and so burnt through it that evening and the next morning. Damn those books are addictive.
On Sunday, (after finishing Harry Potter) Su dropped me off and I started hitching again down to Akaroa, which is on the Banks Peninsula. It was a pretty cool town, (it was the first place that french settlers came to) and so everything has a French flair, but more or less not too exciting.
Yesterday was a fairly eventful day. After eating a delicous meal of a granola bar and some ham, I left the Holiday Park at 9, and was quickly picked up while I was walking to the main road by a family who had also stayed at the park. They had a big campervan, and gave me a bowl of cereal, so it was pretty sweet. I was dropped off on a motorway leading out to Christchurch, and thus had to hitch with traffic screaming by me, but I was quickly picked up by a Kiwi who was going inland, and so drove me for about an hour. He had spent a lot of time in Canada in his youth, working at Whistler and spending time in the Rockies, so we had numerous things to talk about. He dropped me off in the middle of a tiny town, and after ten minutes of waiting for a car to drive by, I started to get a little nervous. Tim however came to my aid, though he drove by at first and only stopped later because he saw the look of disappointment on my face... He was a stock agent or something like that, and basically drives aroudn the entire south island, visiting farms and picks out the lambs for slaughter. He took me to three farms (I figured I had the time to detour) and seemed to really enjoy giving the lambs the (pink) Mark of Death. After a couple hours of driving around with him, (which was quite scenic by the way) he dropped me off just outside of Ashburton, and a Tahiti woman picked me off and drove me a wee bit further down the road to Tekapo. After a quick lunch, John and Theresa picked me up, and after the usual small talk, (they happened to be a Elementary School teacher and High School Math teacher) we realized that John was a second cousin to Lester (whose place I am at right now) (New Zealand is a small country). So they took me to their place, where I checked my e-mail (as I hadn't had a reply from Lester and Caroline saying I could stay). Lester and Caroline weren't home though, so they ended up calling Lester's mother, who came and picked me up, and took me back to her place and fed me. Then she got a hold of Caroline, and drove me up to the farm, which was about half an hour away. So in a very round-about way, and owing to the great Kiwi sense of friendliness, I wound up at their farm in Adbury.
This morning, we did some more stock moving, and I got to run after 16 bulls to move them way down the line (this sounds more exciting then it really is, because they were all yearlings and only half the size that they will grow to be). Then we chased after some deer (3000 of them here) and move them all together as a bunch of the fawns had become seperated from their mothers. And then I did my laundry! Which brings me up to date!
Tomorrow I am going to hitch to Mount Cook, and stay a couple of nights there. Then it's down to Queenstown, and Milford Sound and the glaciers and all that.