The Kiwi Experience

Well, Julie and I left Christchurch aboard the Kiwi Experience bus which is a tour bus for younger backpacker types. Younger may be the key word. :) our bus started out with 15 people and we met up with the rest of the group in Greymouth on the west coast to make a total of 42 people.

The smaller bus ride was great. Al was our bus driver and Julie and I sat up front and talked to him most of the ride. I actually had to move up to the very front passenger seat just to his left since his driving seat is on the right. the mountain passes that we were going through made me get a little car sick, not too bad, though. Al is from the North Island around the Bay of Isles. He told me how NZ typically views Americans. He said that "americans are competitive and everything that goes along with that." i asked like how and he said, "read between the lines." interesting. actually, we are basically the only americans traveling here that we've seen. come on ya'll, come to NZ!!!! they watch our TV shows and even watched the whole election process live. can you believe it? they may know more about it than i do, given my previous med student schedule. Al then started talking about religion some, so i joined in the conversation and explained to him what all i believe. he claims to be agnostic and said he really has no need for it. he said he was really burned by hypocrisy in the church. i explained unfortunately everyone is human and he should really make the decision for himself and how it helps his life. i told him it was absolutely necessary for me to believe b/c i'm so in need of it. it has changed my life miraculously! we had a great time talking and then he offered to take julie and me back on saturday again on his way back from greymouth to christchurch and we can join up with another kiwi bus. he helped me change the schedule we were on so we could get more in on our trip with the limited time we have. i'm excited he helped me skip going back to queenstown. we spent a lot of time there and don't need to go back on the kiwi route, so he said we should just stay an extra night at franz glacier instead.

so, in greymouth we got dropped off and got on ginny's bus with everyone and had a good time getting to know each other that day and night. we went to some waterfalls (Punch Bowl) and did a hike up there. I walked next to a girl named Vivian from Manchester, England. Sure enough, she is 23 and wants to go to medical school, too. she asked me all about it and that was a great way of passing our time up the brutal mountain climb! it actually was raining lightly. the falls were awesome. we spent some time in greymouth before heading to Lake Mahanapua on the west coast. the west coast has gorgeous cliffs dropping off into the brilliant blue ocean. it is the rainforest area so there is often more rainfall.

ginny told all of us that we needed to shop a little for a mixer they were having that night for everyone to get to know each other. we had a theme party. it was "things that start with the letter P" party. so, people dressed up from everything to Pocahantus, Pinnochio, two peas in a pod, piper (an english homeless person), the two popes (one english and one swiss), pirates, pussy cats (julie and john), poet, and a pink angel (me).

we had a great time shopping hurriedly to find the supplies. i went into a toy store and with the advice of the toy store owner found the angel wings. i found a stethoscope and said i could be a pediatrician. she said i needed to let my hair down and be something else, especially if i was truly going to be a pediatrician this summer. so i let my hair down and became a pink angel. i saw a pink wig and tried to incorporate that, but decided not to.

we went to a place near lake mahanapua owned by a real new zealand older man. he does this everyday for groups and loves hosting the party. a lot of people on our trip are from england. this is where they travel, for sure. there are some from other places, too, like Denmark, Slovakia, Austria, Canada, Ireland, and Scotland. it's fabulous learning different things from these people. i'm learning a lot of expressions and phrases i have never heard in english from the brits. they speak really differently. julie has gotten to the point of writing them down b/c it's so funny.

before the party that night, we went to the beach and took pictures just at sunset. the coast was surrounded by truly green pastures with sheep on them and the sand was black. it was gorgeous!!!

so, Julie, Vivian and I decided to spice pictures up by making funny poses. we thought a picture with the sheep or running after them would be great. well, let's say i was the first one that started towards the sheep and i got a surprise! basically, as i started runnning towards the sheep i came to a quick halt and to my surprise i felt several shocks run down my leg. Yes, I ran into a fence made of three tiny red strings that send electrical shocks out to keep the sheep fenced in. thankfully, it didn't hurt, it just alarmed me. all i could do was yell, "i'm getting electricuted, i'm getting electricuted!" julie immediately burst into hysterical laughter. after realizing what was happening i jumped away, but i stayed there long enough to feel two good shocks.

note to self: don't ever chase sheep!!!!!