The End is Nigh

I'm Back in Wellington
I'm going to miss the people here
I'll be back
Love Sydney

Glacial beauties

Things have happened:
1. Couch Surfing: couch surfing rocks. I couch surfed with these really cool guys in the town of Fox Glacier. Not only were they super cool hikers/climbers/mountain dudes, they were all guides or the company I was doing my glacier hike with. They were super cool, and one of them ended up guiding me the next day. I stayed with them for two nights. before moving on to Wanaka.
2. Wanaka: I was only there one night, but it's very pretty. Beautiful lake, nice mountains, blah blah blah, i found nice cafe. Big surprise there. After Wanaka, I went to..
3. Queenstown: yerch. Queenstown would be great...if i had bottomless pockets and wanted to get hammered every night. However, I have increasing shallow pockets and...don't . So i blew a great deal of money on a bungy jump (which was worth every penny), and took a day trip to Milford Sound. Milford was gorgeous, although i wish i would have stayed the night and gone diving rather than done the day trip. Too much driving in one day. There was a small pod of dolphins dolphin-ing about the bow of our boat for some time. It was really cool. After 3 nights i shoved off from Milford towards Lake Tekapo.
4. Lake Tekapo: Is the most spectacular shade of turquoise that you will ever see. And you can see Mt. Cook(new Zealand's highest peak) at the other end of the lake. Lake Tekapo is located in a wise basin, surrounded by mountains on every side. Due to it's remote located and the surrounding geography, it has New Zealand's clearest skies for star viewing. I went night time photo hunting with a guy from Trail BC. I'm not sure if any of my star shots worked out because i took them with my film camera, so I'll have to wait and find out. Today, I travelled to Mt. Cook.
5. Mt. Cook: I caught a ride with the aforementioned Trail BC guy (Kevin) to the spectacular Mt. Cook. It's beautiful from any angle. I have too many photos of Mt. Cook. I went for a short hike and managed to meet up with some other people from my lake Tekapo hostel, who gave me a ride to Wanaka, where i am now.

Well, I'm starting to run out of time and I'm in no way ready to go home...there is still so much i haven't seen or done...I suppose I'll just have to come back. :)
Love you all
Sydney :)

Foxy...

So, Christchurch...
Christchurch was...pretty. Yup. That's a good description. It is a city who's downtown core has been made to be pretty for the tourists. They had a guy dressed in ye olde english attire making announcements in the town square. However the city made me feel like a dirty tourist, so i had to leave. Rather quickly. I took the train across the country to the west coast. The train ride was very scenic. We went past rivers and lakes and over tall bridges and blah blah blah all very good, but it was rather expensive and i fell asleep along the way.
Greymouth awaited me on the other side. Not much to Greymouth. Not much at all in fact. Not to mention that it was Saturday. Meaning that the whole town shut down at 2 in the afternoon. The girl sitting across from me on the bus was staying at the same hostel as me. It's nice to have someone to walk to the hostel with. Getting lost with other people is much more fun. Not that you can really get lost in Greymouth....Christchurch on the other hand... I got myself and this guy rather lost trying to find our hostel...something about map orientation, I could never get that right. anyway...Greymouth. Our hostel was the giant purple building, so it wasn't hard to find. It Had a really weird atmosphere, really disorganized. It took several phone calls to check myself and the other girl in....anyway, the room was nice enough, and there was free soup in the evening. good enough for me.
I only stayed one night in Greymouth, because as i said, there wasn't too much happening. So i headed to the town of Hokitika the next morning. Hokitika is home to the wild foods festival. which had happened the day before. Tourists come from all over to have the chance to eat sheep testicles and live grubs and all sorts of delicious (?) bits of animal and vegetable (trees were on the menu). Hoki is a cute little beach town with a laid back atmosphere and a lot of local artisans. You can also allegedly find jade on the beach. I tried and failed. I went on a hike with a danish lady yesterday. It was quite a nice walk up to a little lake, where she taught me how to weave flax flowers. It was cool, but my flower looked a little bit like roadkill.
I'm in the town of Fox Glacier right now, which is located (you guessed it) right near fox Glacier. I'm going on a glacier tour tomorrow. Right now, I'm waiting for my couch surf host to get off work so i can drop my stuff. Fox Glacier is a general store, a cafe and a bar. A cutesy sort of town.
And that's about it really... The west coast is Beautiful, Life is good, coffee situation has improved, but I'm still on the hunt for the perfect cup...
Love you all
Sydney :)

On the Road again

Well children,
I've moved off from Wellington. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, I've made such good friends. I take solace in the fact that I'll be back through there in a few weeks. The people i have been living with have really become my family...my weird little wellington family. We had a sort of goodbye drink fest for me which meant staying up late drinking whiskey only to rise at 6 am to catch the bus to catch the shuttle to catch the ferry to catch the bus to go to Christchurch. But i like long travel days, and after sitting still for two months it felt good to move again. So I'm in Christchurch right now, back in Hostel town. It was really strange going from a house with 4 others that you know really well to a big hostel full of backpackers. My hostel is quite nice, but it's big and impersonal. I wish i would have gotten on the ball faster and looked into couch surfing. However, i still managed to get involved in a conversation about the truth of existence and how to achieve happiness. I was in the lounge and could over hear this Israeli guy talking to this Japanese girl about truth and wisdom. Then Myself and this Irish dude joined in. The Israeli talked a lot of shit and i think the poor Japanese girl had a hard time translating his words. We talked and debated for a bout an hour and a half when we were joined by a kiwi with a philosophy degree who was telling us about zen Buddhism and the reality of NOW. He had some neat ideas, but the Israeli guy (who was also a bit drunk ) kept interrupting and shooting down his ideas. It was a but exasperating to say the least.
I had lost my room key and had to wake up one of my room mates. He was less than impressed.
So Christchurch...much bigger than Welly. Less culture than Welly. It was hard to find a good coffee this morning. I didn't manage to. I found a neatish cafe, but the coffee was semi-crap...although i have lead on a better place. I miss my People's Coffee :(

I booked a train to take me to Greymouth on Saturday. I'm really looking froward to this train trip. I've never taken a train anywhere, and this is supposed to be a gorgeous trip.
So yeah, back on the road...it feels...good so far. A bit lonely, but I'm mourning wellington a bit at the moment, and I'm sure that I'll get over that soon enough.

Love you all
Sydney :)

I suppose it's been a while

So, i'll get you all caught up seeing as it has been forever an a half since i've last posted.
Things that thave changed:
1. I am not at the hostel anymore: I am staying in the spare room of a friend's house, Which is cool because it's free. The only downside is that they are all getting kicked out in two weeks. So i have a home for 2 weeks, then it's back to hosteltown. oh well, i'll take a free room while i can.
2. I am working: weekends at a bar. I find it interesting to watch people in bars get more and more tanked as the evening progresses. By evening i do of course me all horrid hours of the night because by the time i get home, the sun is rising. The upside to the job is the fact that i am getting paid. The downside is getting hit on by drunk people. But i just sing and dance all night and it helps me forget where i am working :)

3.I have a new bike: which enables me to get from my new house to the rest of town. My last bike was stolen from outside of my work sometime between 9:00 pm and 3:15 am last friday. I wanted to hurt someone. But i didn't. I got a new bike instead. My new bike came courtesy of Wellington's radical social center bike workshop (read anarchists) which was sweet, because for a donation of $20 i now have bike that is as nice is not nicer than my last bike.
so yeah, I don't have too much to say, just living folks, just living. Still loving it, but i've settled in quite comfortably so i just go about my day and listen to the buskers on Cuba st. Today there was a group of people giving out free hugs. So of course i gave out a few. It's been quite cold and rainy the last couple of days, which isn't really comman for february, but i don't mind a little rain every so often.
Love you all
Sydney

Sweet as folks, sweet as

I know that it's been forever and a half since I've posted but not too much has happened.
I bought a film camera online( her name is Eloise) and spent yesterday running around taking black and white photos of everything. Graveyards, friends, children on the street, that guy that looks like Bob Dylan. I'm looking forward to see how badly all my photos turn out. The camera is manual focus, which I've never done before, so it's all a bit of an adventure :)
I spent the last couple of days reading Sidharrtha by Herman Hesse. It's a good book. Talks a lot about teh pursuit of happiness, the discovery of self and the root of wisdom. I'm about to start reading the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I've had a lot of time to read lately. There have been a few days that have been very hot, so the most appealing thing to do is sit in the library and read for hours on end. It's been pleasant though. Very relaxing. I went to a punk concert teh other night which was so much fun! Look up Bang! Bang! Eche! They are a boatload of fabulous fun :)

Thi scoming weekend is a giant party weekend in Welly. This means that i'm being kicked out of the hostel becasue all the beds have been booked up for 6 months. Luckily I have friends in town that have couches. So i'll be couch surfing for 3 nights or so. It should be fun though. The occasion being ahuge rugby tourny. Aparently it's more of a street party and everyone dresses up and parties for 3 days. Should be good :)

I applies for a job working for Greenpeace as a fund-raiser. I should know withina couple of days if they want to hire me or not. I think it would be fun. Plus it means that i get to spend all day on Cuba st. (my favorite place) talking to people about the environment.
It'sa ll gravy here, i have new music courtesy of the wellington library, books courtesy of the used book store and good peopel to share my company...sweet as... :)

So all is well in Wellywood...i'm living and loving living.
Love you all
Sydney :)

Cuba Bob Dylan

Well my dears, I know that it's been a while since I've blogged, but i figured that most of you don;t really care how many times i had coffee this week or where i sat contemplating life. So I'll spare you the boring details (well, most of them anyway) and tell you about more interesting things...such as meeting a fellow Canadian in my hostel who is so incredibly cool it's mind blowing. He biked here from Auckland on a beat up road bike with a giant bag on his back. This is no small feat ladies and gents, this guy is hardcore. I've spent some time chilling out with him...we've both been job hunting so we can mope about our unemployed-ness to each other.

I have also fallen irrevocably and unequivocally in love with Wellington. This is the city I am supposed to live in. Everything about it is friendly and beautiful. It is perfect. Simply perfect. I want to go to school here, i want to live here for real, i want this place so badly it hurts. It hurts to know that I've found this perfect place and I'm going to have to leave it. I have yet to find a part of the city that isn't full of life and spirit.

I went to a concert in the botanical gardens yesterday. The music was great, but what made it even better were the three random hippies up on stage, occasionally shaking some maracas, or beating a drum. They danced in the back ground, waving and jumping around. They loved life so much. I thought i loved life, but watching these guys grooving away onstage, as if unaware of the crowd, was beautiful. It was impossible to be unhappy while watching them. I wish that I loved life that much.

There is a guy on Cuba street who is known as "Cuba Bob Dylan". He's this kid with a guitar who plays Dylan to a tee. Not just the music though, he's got the voice, the hair, the clothes, hell, even the shoes. You ask anyone here about Cuba Dylan and they'll get this big smile on their face. He is so cool. He loves life too.

I went to a play last week, it was nice to get out and experience some culture. I haven't seen a play since Andrew's play in the summer, so it was well past due to take in some theatre. I'm going to another play tonight with some people from the hostel, which should be good.

I bought a bike. An old road bike. I'm super excited because walking around the city gets tiresome very fast. I don't have it yet, I bought it online, so I have to wait for the seller to give me their address before I can pick it up. The Canadian guy I met said he can help me with fixing it up (he's somewhat of a bike mechanic) so I'm really stoked

I have some new music, which i pirated off a friend's flatmate's computer. I miss some of my old stuff, but now i have a whole range of new stuff to check out.

And that's about it...did I mention I want to live here forever and never leave and be a happy Wellington hippie?
I love you all
Sydney :)