in other news, my dear darling maria came and visited me from the home land, baring gifts of truffles and curling irons and tales of all that had come to pass since my departure so many months ago. we shared nearly two weeks of merriment in the clutches of one another's arms, traveling to akaroa and castle hill (a mystical climbing spot nestled in the valleys of arthur's pass) as well as some days apart whilst she set off for wellington and i to the southern regions of fiords and more. i am forever grateful to her for crossing hemispheres and providing some sort of grounded regularity in this absurd lifestyle i've been leading. she provided a reset button of sorts, and really allowed me to get my head on straight again. i love you darling. i have a vague idea of what your capable of, so don't tell me what i can't do.
i set off for the southern part of the south island with a car full of wonderfully jovial nymphs...constant laughs and songs to dunedin, where we arrived at a house party on top of a mountain in a ridiculously swanky house with wood floors. we marvled at things like this, full dish sets and quilted toilet paper as we had forgotten what civilization was like outside our shoestring budgets, prison cellish flats and weekend tramps. we stopped off at all the little turn-offs along the way, me and four others with the most amazing laughs, every wave inevitably leading to a chorus of high-pitched giggles & twitters as infectious as they come. we pressed onto Milford and after clomping through an early dewy farmer's market. Breakfast and lunch of a loaf of bread, apples, cheese and goon, the car ride twisting through misty mountains that tower and shock when the clouds clear. We pause along the windy mountain pass at points when twelve temporary waterfalls shoot from the valleys above. Life is so rich and i have to keep reminding myself to look at this oh so temporary home with renewed gaze, this unspeakable beauty: my trusty sidekick.
That night was rummy and soup and mad max III in the Milford hostel, the next morning we rose early to the top bunk plight of setting an alarm on a phone that will always ALWAYS plummet to the depths below, leaving no question that we were all on our feet afer a 5 minute search for the screeching mobile lost in the night. Eggs and leers and catcalls from the lecherous crowd of old British weirdos next door and we head out for our morning boat ride. The morning was crisp and the sky was deep west-coast blue. Puttering along deep turquoise waters, gliding through towering cliffs on all sides. Fur seals follow and we brush against the mist of waterfalls jetting from all directions. Strange tropical branches claw at the air above and the gulls are pterodactyls. Again, beauty was unreal and my puny mind can do nothing but surrender to these ancient forces pulsating amongst it. We leave after two hours of this, breathless and are attacked by a kea on the passenger side, gnawing at the window rubbers wiht a beak that could rip through your soft white underbelly with laughable ease. and it would. in that comically robust caw that echos from the mountains throughout the island.
That night, Queenstown. We did not venture out of hte city, so the night consisted of absurdly overpriced merriment in a typical ski-town which i honestly would not be able to distinguish from any other ritzy western likenesses. i did, however, sink my teeth into one of the best tofu burgs of my lifetime.
This past week classes have finished up and we all now have to face the exams and papers (often 75-80% of our final grades) that have been looming since arrival. Kiwis don't believe in the padding of projects and tests that exist in American universities, so the pressure is most certainly on. The answer, of course for many of us was to attend an organized and monumental weekend up north in a hot-spring moutain town, gathering around 5o of our closest comrades for a weekend of debauched hillarity and theme parties. i was posh spice, it all happened so fast. The second night set the stage for an incredibly picturesque and memorable evening in the hot springs. With the fall of twilight came the fall of my first NZ snow flurries, which rapidly accumulated around our steaming beaming bodies. This lead to a snowball fight from pool to pool, faceless enemies the air was electric.
Since return, most have left again for a six day tramp up north. yesterday was one for the books, spending a rich and lazy afternoon with a friend among old book stores and cheap indian food biking through the city so i felt human again. golden hour in the botanical gardens, and now it's time to study. i love you all, and miss you more then ever.
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