i'm living on my own in a city in a foreign country!

after crouching on the floor at the farmer's market
indecisively eyeing plants for a very long time,
i picked two plants to live with me at my new place.
the lady smiled and said "finally made a decision, eh?"

view from my window. yes, a church.

got some groceries.

made some banana pancakes.
it said to use a standard australian measuring cup
for the milk, but i just eye-balled it.

i woke up very happy this morning.

i wandered outside and found myself
at the farmer's market. the cashier
automatically spoke to me in chinese
when he told me the price of my veggies.
for a split second, i almost forgot what country i was in.
"xie xie" i said as he handed me the bag.then i explored the city a bit and made
my way to the waterfront after going into a
ceramic shop, used bookstore, and grocery store.
what a lovely city.

the onuku farm hostel is my favorite place that we stayed at.
it felt like a unique intersection of different places:
remote rolling green hills with grazing sheep,
tropical flowers and bushes, polynesian seas,
near the french town of akaroa.

i could not get over this darling kitchen.

new zealand wood pigeon

hostel lobby run by a middle eastern looking british boy named anthony.

carved maori mask with inlaid shell eyes.

then for the first time in a week, i had some alone time.
i went for a walk in the hills behind the hostel..
it was the most peaceful hour of my life.

i slept in 8 different beds in the past 10 days.
we hostel hopped our nights and stayed at places
ranging from an 'all men's dorm,' remote country farmhouses,
tropical paradise french hostels and hippo lodges
with smelly barely clothed foreign men.

after a warm welcome, the owner of the farmhouse gave us a depressing lecture about new zealand farmers.
then he invited us to watch a sheep shearing contest on tv.
he has thousands of sheep and cows and a jack russel terrier mix named josh.

queenstown: a ridiculously hilly

little town nestling between canyons.
looking for an adventuresome evening?
come here. they have everything.
warning: all hills are at an upwards 45 degree tilt.
i wanted to give up and roll down the street.

milford sound; the fiordlands.
sounds are created by mountains,

fiords are created by glaciers.

at one point, ryan and i kayaked directly towards the huge waterfall.

cam, our kiwi guide told us it was okay since it
would immediately push us back out. i sat there
in our little yellow kayak which was rocking madly in the currents.
the howling wind and raging water blinded me.
i had never encountered nature at this degree of wildness.
it felt raw, pure and powerfully refreshing.

fox glacier is a year-round glacier that
moves a few meters annually.
we strapped on our crampons and hiked up it
while eating chunks of fresh ice along the way.

the six of us took a very scenic road trip
around new zealand's south island.

we were able to see so many different
types of terrains in such a condensed amount of time.
i felt so small and insignificant being enveloped in the land.

i managed to climb down mount victoria (a volcano)

in fancy shoes & a dress but i slipped and fell
down the stairs coming out from the restaurant.

i finally made myself clean up my temporary room.
i thought about how i've lived in so many
different rooms within the past year.
i like it: the concept of just getting up and go.

momo and i are taking a scenic train down the north island, dropping off our bags in windy welly, flying to christchurch and joining a few others to roadtrip through the south island to the fiordlands. we will see mountains, volcanoes, rivers, glaciers, rainforests and caves. i am excited to use my headlamp.

"linda, we're going to Christchurch."
-morgan.

today we visited tiritiri matangi island,
a bird sanctuary about 1.5 hours off the auckland habor.

"if it weren't for jenny, i wouldn't have
known what i was looking at."

jenny, our guide, led us through
the bush pointing out the island's distinctive birds,
flora, history and how the Maori used/shaped the land.

however, then jenny began her ethnocentric rants
and even called the Maori, "savages"
who "damaged 'our' beautiful island."
she kept on complaining about
how the Maori did all these "destructive" things
such as pick plants and let their dogs run loose to hunt birds.
um lady, they had to survive.

but anyways, we saw some interesting birds.

BIRDS:

this is greg. his species is the
10th most endangered bird in the world.
there are 14 of them on tiritiri.

yesterday, we visited the auckland museum to
watch a maori dance performance.
the haka send shivers down my spine.

we took off our shoes to enter
the intricately carved meeting house.
notice the eyes are made of shells.

waiheke is sweet as.