Christchurch, back to Auckland

We would be driving from Queenstown to Christchurch to spend the night before our flight back to Auckland in the morning. The drive through Otago was absolutely beautiful, we took many stops to take in the views of the surrounding snowing mountains behind the golden hills.

We even got a fantastic view of Mount Cook, NZ”s highest peak from across a lake! It was truly magnificent and I wish the photos could capture how truly extraordinary the views were.

We also stopped at Lake Tekapo for a picnic lunch. We were able to see the old Church of the Good Shepherd, a gorgeous little church built right on the lake.

The view over the alter was magnificent. There is also a statue there honoring the collie and all working dogs.

He was so cute! We picnicked on almond and peanut butter and jelly, with a cookie time Afghan for dessert!

It was so chocolately and the perfect compliment to the peaceful views.

Before we knew it, we were already in Christchurch at our cute little hostel. It is a little village of houses with cute courtyards between them!

There isn’t much to do for tourists in Christchurch, but we just walked around to get an idea of the devastation. It was incredible to see the strength of the quakes were able to do to houses. Whole houses crumbled.

Whole houses slanting.

Part of the city was totally deserted and blocked off, but at the same time, life still goes on. It’s amazing how resilient people can become and not let devastation take over their lives.

We got ourselves organized for our trip back to Auckland and had dinner, repacking bags, cleaning out old yeller, and getting directions to the airport. First we had appetizers in the courtyard of leftover cheese, sundried tomatoes, and artichokes from our picnic yesterday.

Then, we heated up the rest of our pizza from Arrowtown. Still as delicious as before! We also warmed up our last cookie time for dessert, triple chocolate. Chunks of dark, milk, and white chocolate. It was my favorite flavor

After dinner, we played a few more hands of rummy and I lost less depressingly. We were surprised to see that our beds only came with a fitted sheet, pillow, and pillow case, so we had to rent a duvet for $2 at the front desk. I only had nz$3.90 in change, but the friendly woman at the front desk let it slide! Phew! I think it’s crap that they don’t provide any, it gets quite cold at night! But this hostel allows sleeping bags, which YHAs do not (the YHA in Christchurch was no longer in operation). But the hostel was really big, clean, and modern so we were happy with it.  (Just a few sparse marks proving is survived an earthquake)

In the evening, they had reserved the TV room for people who wanted to watch the Royal Wedding, so of course we joined! It was silly how there was commentary, and the New Zealand reporters were hilarious as they made fun of all the crazy hats, gossiped about the guest list, debated Kate’s commonality, and discussed traditions.

They kept talking about how the future of monarchy rested on their shoulders. Pressure! I thought her dress was beautiful (the only thing I really wanted to see) and she was perfectly poised, confident, classy, and lovely all around. I think she’ll make a great Princess (someday!). It was fun to watch it with four Brits in the room, they had some silly comments.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay up too late because we had to be up early to return our car and get to the airport. My alarm went off at 5:55am, for good lucky, and we were out the door by 6:30. We were at the rental car place at 6:50, lol. Drop off time wasn’t until 7:30! Luckily, we didn’t have to wait too long and we said goodbye to old yeller and we off in the airport van by 7:31.

At the airport, there was some error when I tried to check in at the kiosk, so we went to the help desk. We were pleased to be offered seats on the earlier flight, free of charge! That would get us home almost an hour earlier! Security was a breeze, once again (we don’t even have to take off our shoes or jackets!) and we were at the gate with 45 minutes to spare.

We were sad that our incredible trip is over, but we are itching to be back at home for stable internet, routine, private bedroom and bathrooms, and, for me at least, vegetables!

We had another fabulous plane ride with Air New Zealand.  We got coffee or tea, cookies, chips, AND candy.

(I think the blue one is supposed to read: “Fancy a gin-chur-nut, bro?”)

Then after a seamless baggage claim and bus ride, we were back in our apartment.

Journey to Wellington

(Read about my entire trip around the South Island of New Zealand!)

Waste not! I’ve been working hard the past few days, trying to whittle down our food supply so that we didn’t waste anything over break.

For example, breakfast was an egg over-easy on a toasty pita smeared with hummus.

Perfectly runny!

Also, coffee was enjoyed while last-minute blogging. Never know when I’ll be able to again!

Plus a hard-boiled egg with S&P, cause it’s almost Easter <3

I threw together a stir-fry with most of the remnants of the fridge.

(Nearly) empty!

Froze what could be kept frozen: oat milk, pasta sauce, hummus, and chocolates!

And said a little prayer for our “pantry” stash.

After some frantic, last-minute packing (Hannah.) we hopped on the Airbus Express for our 2:30pm flight to Wellington! The bus ride took a lot longer than I thought, but since we left early enough, we got to the airport by 12:30. No. Problem. At. All. Check in was as easy as swiping the credit card I used. As in, that was exactly all i had to do! However, we were pissed because BOTH of our suitcases didn’t fit into the “maximum carry-on size” box, so we had to check our bags. This was also easy, but a big pain because 1) the woman at the luggage factory told me it would work as a carry on–that’s why I bought it, and 2) Hannah’s suitcase was so small–hence the stressful packing! But, we were quickly happy again because there was literally NO LINE at security. In fact, I told the security man that it was the easiest security experience of my life, and he joked, “in that case, I’d better look in your bag!” We were at the gate by 12:50pm.

To kill time, we admired the contents of the vending machine, celebrated the water bottle refill station, and gobbled our pre-packed fried rice (with stolen plastic forks–shhh!). Once on the plane, we were offered a complimentary drink and snack! Not bad for an hour flight. I got coffee (french pressed–oh yeah baby)

And given the choice, “biscuit or sweets?” I of course went for the biscuit because I have become the Cookie Monster’s Kiwi cousin, the Biscuit Banshee.

One of the most pleasant flights that I’ve been on! We did end up getting a sweet, anyway

There was also trivia playing on the TV screens! Which actress played the voice of Charlotte in the recent Charlotte’s Web?

Before we knew it, we were landing in Wellington. It was particularly terrifying exciting because the runway was right off the beach. It looked like we were going to land on the water! We picked up our luggage, then one pleasant bus ride later, we were officially in Wellington!

What’s the best flight you’ve ever been on?

Namaste.

Kick-Butt 20-Minute Yoga

Look at this cool thing I found at Harvest Wholefoods over the weekend:

A dairy-free cookie called “Emma’s Delight!” I knew I had to get it for myself so I could be delighted.  It’s made from brown rice flour, sugar, dairy-free chocolate chips, eggs, shortening, tapioca, and baking soda.  It boasts that it’s 90% organic!  Close enough for me!

This morning, after breakfast (oatmeal with oatmilk, bananas, cinnamon, and a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter–YUM so filling) I skyped with my mom and dad for an hour and a half.  Phew!  I really needed a nice long chat with them.  While they had dinner, I was had morning tea:

The cookie wasn’t very delightful, I must admit.  It was hard, like all biscuits are here in New Zealand, and it was sort of flavorless.  It needed more chocolate flavor, the brown rice flour was pretty dominant.  It was made slightly more delightful when I dipped it in my tea!

Then it was work, work, work, work, and work some more on my literacy paper.

I only stopped to prepare a working lunch.  I quickly heated up leftovers from Sunday night by sauteeing it with chopped watercress.  I ate it on top of some cold lettuce for a warm fish salad.  That lettuce is seriously the most delicious lettuce I’ve ever had! I got it from the Framer’s Market, of course

Since the cookie was such a disappointment, I decided that I should probably have a brownie square.

Heated up and enjoyed with a fork.  Not THAT’S delightful!

Here’s a silly blogger thing I do:

For the best lighting, I often photograph my food while it’s on the windowsill in my room lol.  The sandals are there drying out (they got a bit wet over the rainy weekend) and to the right, there is some seaglass I found on the beach while kayaking!

Since I talked to my parents so long, I missed my morning run and, true to form, I didn’t feel like doing it later in the day.  I was feeling pretty anxious for some reason (probably all that researching!), so I did do an intense little yoga sesh.

It’s cramped in here, but I’m making it work!  Since most studios allow you to borrow one of their mats for class, I wasn’t planning on buying a yoga mat while I’m here in order to save a few bucks.  But I was noticing my home practice fall by the wayside, so I finally broke down and got one at the Warehouse for nz$19.99.  It’s a fine, standard Gaiam mat, but I always make sure that the side with the name, “The Firm” lol, is facing the ground.

I kicked my own butt during my home practice today. It only took 20 minutes, but I was shaking and sweating like a beast afterwords, which is a good workout in my book!  Here’s what I did:

5 Suryanamaskara A (Sun Salutation: A Form)

5 Suryanamaskara B (Sun Salutation: B Form)

5 Navasana (Boat Pose) with lifts in between (when you go back to seated, you push off the ground to lift your bum)

I spent the rest of the afternoon researching, finally stopping to make dinner: brown rice with sausage, sauteed chard, and mixed beans.  Plus salsa on the side

(Confession: I did have another small brownie square after dinner =D)

In true Tuesday night form, we headed down to Father Ted’s for Trivia Night after dinner.

lol, Hannah.  This week we came THIRD-to-last instead of the usual second-to-last!  We are moving up in the world!  But, we had a particularly good time at trivia because we met up with a lot more friends than usual!  It was good to spend some quality time with the friends we’ve made here.  We don’t know them very well, but we always have a good time when we run into each other!

In case you were curious, Hannah and I sang “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell at karaoke.  We laughed our badonkadonks off as two of our friends sang their very German hearts out to “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley.  Some lady was bringing down the house with “Love Game” by Lady Gaga and apparently she heard us singing along like crazy, because she came over and gave us the mic to us for a verse!

Forget running, a fun night out with friends is the true cure to homesickness

What song would you sing for karaoke?

Namaste.