I met up with Sarah, a friend from Davis, who came to New Zealand for a few months to travel. We took a two-day road trip up to Kaikoura, a little beach town on the east coast. Its most popular with travelers for hiking, whale watching and dolphin and seal swimming. We arrived in the afternoon and decided to go on a hike under the hills of Mt. Fyffe before dinner. It was one of the hottest days I had yet to experience in NZ and of course I had nothing but pants! I definitely worked up a sweat, but the views of the coastline and peninsula were well worth it!
The next day, we went on a whale watching adventure where we saw sperm whales up the yin-yang! I always pictured sperm whales to be this elusive creature that few have ever seen. Maybe it was just the fact that they go where not many people have gone before, to depths that have never seen the light of day. In any case, I saw more sperm whales than one could ever hope to see in a lifetime! It must have a day for basking because they were all out as if they hadn't seen the sun in years (quite possible). The boat would pull up to one and we'd sit there for about 10 minutes watching it rest and expel stale air from its lungs and gather new air. 
Then it would take its last breath, point its head towards the great abyss and dive. Almost immediately, someone would spot another whale and we'd be off and racing towards it to check it out. It was an unforgettable experience!On November 5th, four of us from my house went across Arthur's Pass to the west coast on a mission to hike Franz Josef Glacier. I had been there before on a helicopter hike, but the full-day hike proved to be more than worth the effort it took to walk to the glacier's terminal and climb up the glacier itself, all in the rain! I don't know what those guide people were thinking when they said I'd see a lot more interesting formations by taking the helicopter up. Anyway, the day's adventure started around 10am. It took about an hour to get to the glacier through gravel plains (where the glacier deposits sediment as it advances and retreats), then another hour or so until we actually began exploring. During the next 4 hours, we climbed up walls of ice, descended down, into, and through blue ice caves via glacially formed ice spiral staircases, squeezed and shoved ourselves through ice crevices not much wider than myself, and tiptoed and bouldered over pools of ice water where a wrong step or slippery foothold would surely land you into knee deep water with a chilling temperature of just above freezing. I felt like a real explorer (the crampons on my feet and ice pick in hand helped).
By the end of the day, I was cold, drenched, and tired! I must have drank at least 3 cups of hot chocolate before I was fully functional again. That night, we stayed in a hostel with a spa, stuffed ourselves silly with a huge meal and downed a bottle of red wine, a perfect and relaxing ending to the day!After heading back to Christchurch for a short two days, we were off on our next adventure, Abel Tasman National Park. Here we spent 3 glorious days in the great outdoors. We pumped some iron sea kayaking against winds where I often wondered if we were actually moving forward, lounged on white sand beaches where the water was either emerald green or turquoise, paddled into bays smooth as glass, watched sunsets that turned the land, water, and sky into a brilliant gold, hiked through fern forests and sandy, secluded beaches, and walked against gale forced winds across low tide where the sand pelting my face felt like a million bee stings.
Despite the few times I had to sing at the top of my lungs or keep my head in the clouds to forget the weather's objective to challenge us in every possible way, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. And as if the week couldn't have gotten any better, Jack Johnson in concert lulled me into relaxation as my mind wandered happily back through the past few week's events.On December 3, I met up with yet more girls from Davis, Laura and Amy. We went across Arthur's Pass (That makes 5 times for me!) and headed north to Punakaiki to see weird limestone rock formations called Pancake Rocks (self-explanatory). We also explored some really dark caverns (Thank goodness for the trusty maglite) and went on a few nice hikes, one along the Pororari River through sub-tropical jungle in a limestone gorge!
It's getting much warmer now. Yesterday, it was 30C (86F). Of course, I was stuck inside working all day. I'll be spending my next day off at the beach! Unfortunately, the warm weather is making Christmas feel more like the 4th of July. I've been to two bbqs so far to celebrate the holidays and the Christmas celebration here in town involved 80,000 people going to the park to hear live bands, drink, and watch fireworks. Could that be any more like our Independence Day?!
I'm becoming much worse about writing updates which leaves bigger gaps between writing them and causes them to be much longer. I hope you've made it through this one! Three cheers to you if you have! I hope everyone has a most exciting, memorable and relaxing Christmas! May you all get what you asked for from St. Nicholas.
