After

What a wild ride.  Towards the end of the season, work would switch from being unbearably slow to refreshingly hectic.  There was the supply vessel arrival, which brings about 90% or so of the supplies that McMurdo Station will use for the next 12 months.  I worked in the store for that time, opening boxes, counting and recording the clothes, towels, food, whatever inside, and putting it back into boxes. And then moving the boxes.  And collapsing boxes.  Etc. etc. etc…. boxes.  Luckily I still had a normal 7:30-5:30 shift, unlike much of the station which was on 12-hr shifts until it was done.  Then there were a couple of days spent stocking the store and trying not to die of boredom (I didn’t because I had NPR podcasts on my iPod) and a day where Jules stole me from the store and took me out of town to practice driving a bulldozer.  Excuse me, operating a bulldozer.  Then I had a day to pack, a weather delay day, then I flew!   And, at the end, it felt like only a few weeks had passed since I was flying out of the Boise airport, waving goodbye to my mom and Sully.  It sure was strange.  I really liked it, but it was more strange than anything else. 

After arriving in Christchurch (where the smells of life and the darkness and the humidity and the green things knocked me on my ass after so many months of sensory deprivation), Josh and I spent a day or two at Karen’s house, planning roadtrips.  We had a huge itinerary of a South Island loop planned, but we looked at the driving times and our allotted 10 days, and Josh and I both decided we’d rather do less sightseeing and driving, and do more “doing.” If that makes sense.  So we bagged the big trip for some smaller 2-3 day trips out of Christchurch.  We drove down to Dunedin, stayed for one night in the driving rain at a weird holiday park where the cement buildings were painted with Disney characters, and decided to come back to a sunnier area.  We then drove north to Kaikoura (meaning “meal of crayfish” in Maori) and stayed there for two nights.  One of our days there, actually Josh’s bday (HAPPY BDAY JOSH!!!!)  was spent hiking up the trail to Mount Fyffe, but stopping short of the summit to stay in a backcountry hut.  It was beautiful; the hut is in a tiny grassy meadow on the slopes of the seaward Kaikoura range, and from the meadow you can see the Kaikoura peninsula with its aquamarine coastline.  The hike was steep! A full mile in elevation gain, though the trail itself wasn't very long in length.  We were straining and sweating on the way up, and our legs were jelly on the way down.  On the way back into town, sweaty and dehydrated, we pulled out at the Kowhai (pronounded “Ko-fye”) River, stripped down and bathed as best we could in the late-summer trickle.  A swimming hole would have been nice, but we took what we could get.

After driving south back to Cheech we went back to our old standby, the South Brighton Motorcamp, which is situated between the New Brighton beach and the estuary of the Avon River as it meets the sea.  It’s a couple of blocks to the beach where we are, and yesterday we rented surfboards and wetsuits and had a go at the waves.  Today we’re headed there again at 11am, which is just before high tide (I’m told that halfway between high tide and halfway between low tide are the best times to go).  So we’ll hang out on the beach today, then surf tomorrow morning before lunch, when we’ll have to return the boards and wetties.  It’s supposed to be stormy anyway, but we’re gonna try.  Friday will be spent packing, doing laundry (if possible) and returning the rental car.  Hopefully we’ll then stay at Karen’s and she’ll take us to the airport on Saturday morning, where we’ll fly from Auckland back home.  We’ll leave Auckland at 3:40 pm on Saturday and get to Boise at 3:10pm on Saturday.  I love crossing time zones!

See y’all soon!

Lael