Where's the Ark? a.k.a. Hiking in Abel Tasman National Park

After leaving the sea lions behind, the bus made its way to Picton which is in the middle of Marlbourough wine country and where the ferry terminal is located to get to the North Island. My first bus left me behind while they made their way up north. I at lunch at an amazing Dutch bakery, did some shopping and then headed out for a wine tour.

Let's start by saying that I know absolutely nothing about wine, other than white is better than red. I had tonnes of fun though. It's fun to drink about 3 bottles of wine in an afternoon. Plus all the crackers you get to 'clear your palette'. The wine was quite good too, though I honestly couldn't tell you the name of one.

 

Picton Harbor

The next day, it started to rain, and I joined my new group on the tour. They had spent the last two weeks together on the North Island. All it took was a couple of shots at the schnapps distillery and I was in with Irish crowd.

Most of the day was driving and we saw lots of what you see below. Green fields and misty mountains. There was even a moment when traffic stopped because a sheep herd.

We arrived at Abel Tasman National Park just before dark. Our camp seemed quite nice at the beginning. There were 6 bunks to a cabin. The kitchen was huge and we could all cook at the same time. There was a TV with comfy couches. We all made dinner and then played drinking games around the table. The Irish crew were the leaders and made sure that everyone participated. The one negative side effect of the drinking, was the fact that I had to go to the toilet about 16 times in the night. This was not an issue, other than the fact that it was pouring rain, and the porta-potty was about 20 m away from my cabin. Thank God I'm a teacher and have learned to hold it.

When I woke up the next morning, the rain had not stopped, but since we only had one day here, I was going to take advantage and do some hiking. It only took about 10 minutes and I was soaking wet, and the view was taken up by rain clouds, but there were still some very cool and very wet things to see on my tramping expedition.

Beautiful Mussel shells

After getting beyond drenched (is there even a word for this), I walked back to our camp to spend the afternoon watching "Four Weddings" and makeover shows with the non-crazy people who did not go hiking.

The rain continued through the night and I'm still amazed that I did not get a bladder infection from having to hold it again for the night. This time, there was nooooo way I was going out into the torrential downpour. It so, was not worth it.

I love rain. Especially when I can be inside, on a couch, watching movies. I do not like rain when it messes with my trip. In this case,  flooding of the Matakitaki River did not let us get to the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki. Instead, we were stuck in Murchison which had the highlight of a small town museum. The good news, is there was a liquor store across the street from the hostel and we had the run of the entire hostel because it was so small. Interestingly enough, this was probably one of the best days in New Zealand. A few of us checked out the flooding river and the countryside, then we spent the afternoon watching movies, playing games and, yes (surprise, surprise!), drinking. Hence, there was some Riverdance being performed.

The flooding

These friendly cows came right to fence when we went by

Real Irish Dancing

Just hanging out in the hostel

Haere mai (Welcome) to New Zealand



After my final goodbyes to friends and 'family' at the airport, I was on my way to....

Sydney.

Yup, that's right. Anywhere you want to go, you have to go through Sydney, where I was going to get to spend 4 hours just hanging around. Luckily, my friend Nina was in Sydney and decided to make the trip to the airport to keep me company. After various FaceBook messages (who knew life could be so hard without a cell phone) we finally met up at the international terminal where we shared a final drink together before I boarded my plane for Christchurch.

 

I arrived around midnight in Christchurch and made my way to my hostel (one of the few still going after the earthquakes) which was an old jail. I don't know why I continue to do this to myself. You think I would have learned after staying just metres away from Port Arthur and not getting any sleep. At least here there were no ghost stories to deal with, just my own imagination. It also helped that I was so tired that my imagination managed to stay away most of the night.

 

The next morning I caught a bus to the Antarctic centre so that I could hop on my tour bus. This was the extent of my tour of Christchurch. With all the earthquakes tours don't even go here anymore which is an absolute shame. While I was in New Zealand there was tonnes in the news about whether to re-build the cathedral and re-develop downtown or not. Apparently, most of the population has moved away with no plans to return. Here's hoping Christchurch can recover.

 

I climbed on my bus and we headed off towards Kaikoura.  The great (and not so great) about hop on and hop off tours is that you are constantly meeting new people and others are staying behind. I was joining a bunch of people who were at the end of the tour but they were more than willing to invite me in and I quickly became a member of the group.

 

When we arrived in Kaikoura we were immediately dropped off to go swimming with some dusky dolphins. It was amazing, other than the freezing cold water. Thank God for wetsuits and hot water on the boat. You'd be swimming around, looking for something and then all of sudden this shadowy shape would be bolting right towards you. I mean.... right towards you. You'd start panicking and then the dolphin would turn on a dime and blow right by. Then you'd see something flash out your periphal vision and a dolphin would fly by from behind. It was insane and manic and one of the coolest things I have every done. Check out just a little bit of what it was like below. Also, if you listen really closely, you can hear them talking and the funny noises we were supposed to make to attract them.  I really think the company just told us to do that so they could laugh at us 'cause we sounded stupid, for sure.

 

 

Just hanging on the boat

Some of my dolphin friends

Looking hot as always in the snorkel gear

The view on this coast is absolutely spectacular. Real Mountains!!!!

On the walk back to the hostel, we were able to enjoy the view as well as the sunset.

Back at the hostel, it was time for some bonding with my group. We had some amazing free soup (which really warmed me up after sub-zero water) and the best fish and chips that I have ever had EVER. Oh soooo gooood! Then it was off to the bar for some cider and Quiz Night. Even though the quizmaster was sick and they weren't going to have it, we made them do it anyway. Yay for Tui beer bottle caps. Unfortunately, my all Canadian team was a little lax on New Zealand history and pop culture, so we had to race drink beer through a straw to not be last. Talk about bloatage. It took me a few minutes to recover, but we won.

The next morning we were off to check out one of the coolest places in New Zealand. Maybe even in the world. It definitely rivalled swimming with dolphins.

Up the coast from Kaikoura, there is a little creek that goes down to the ocean. If you follow that creek up, you come to a pool with a waterfall, which is beautiful, but that's not the cool part. In this pool are seal lion pups playing and jumping around. They also like to pose for pictures. I could have stayed for hours. The pups make their way up the creek from the sea lion colony at the beach. Here at the pool, they are safe from sharks and other sea creatures that eat them. They stay until they get hungry, then go back to get food from mom.

This was my first day in New Zealand. I wrote on my FaceBook page that it could only get better. I don't think that I was entirely honest with that statement. I'm pretty sure this first day was the best one. Even though I made some good friends and had some other amazing experiences in the next 20 days, this day really made New Zealand for me.

Advance Australia Fair

My last couple of weeks in Australia were very bittersweet. It was exciting to think that I would soon be headed to New Zealand, Fiji and then home. I think I was most excited about the fact that I was only 4 weeks away from Caesars and pyrogies. It was not so exciting to be leaving the land of Oz and all the friends that I had met.

 

My last two months was very busy. This term seemed to go on and on and on, yet it felt like everything got squished together into one week. Most of the term was taken up prepping the kids for First Communion. Luckily our REC took over most of the planning, it was up to us to teach them about it. As well as teaching it as our Religion unit, we had a day of centers for the kids. The kids got to make bread, their seat place cards, meditated and participated in a Montessori type center about the Eucharist. They also practiced how to receive the host and got to 'try' the host. I think they liked the practice later that week when we used Cadbury buttons instead of actual hosts.

 

 

Practicing for Communion

A 3 days later, Michael Mangan (a Catholic musician and songwriter) came to visit our school. The kids participated in the actions and singing and had a great time. Even the staff got right into it. Actually, I think they were even more excited than the students.

You know how when you live in a place, you never really go and see the attractions nearby (like how I've lived in Innisfail for 7 years and have never gone the Discovery Wildlife Park)... Well, it was my goal to get to most of the attractions in Canberra and of course I left it all until the last minute. One Sunday was spent with Miriam at the Canberra Zoo. Though it was no Australia Zoo with Crocodile Hunters, it was pretty impressive. They even had a snow leopard, one of my favourites as a kid! I even paid $5 to have a bear lick fruit off my hand. I felt the need to do this as I had just learned that Shirley, Gayle and Chris had seen a black bear with cubs and a grizzly with cubs on their tour of the mountain parks of Alberta. I may have been a little jealous and felt the need to prove my Canadianess. Miriam was very impressed by my fearlessness.

The last month seemed to go by in a blur. There were report cards to write, Parent/Teacher Interviews to survive, packing up a year of my life (including all the souveniers I bought) and getting ready for a month long trip to the islands. (P.S. Apparently, after bringing only a travel pack and hockey bag full of clothes, I needed 5 boxes and the hockey bag to get everything home. Beware: clothing, shoes and stuff multiply like rabbits.)

Along with all that not so fun stuff, I got to do some great things with my kids in the last week of school. The last week was NAIDOC (appreciating aboriginals) and Canada Day. Some of the staff had a nice Canada Day "BBQ" for me on the Sunday of Canada Day. Unfortunately it was all inside as winter had officially hit Canberra and it was f'n cold. I told them it was just like Canada Day in Canada, even if we have it in the middle of summer. I also took the opportunity that week to do some Canadian aboriginal art (teepees and totem poles) and teach my students a little bit more about my favourite country. They also got to win prizes like Canada flags, zipper tags, boomsticks, stickers, tattoos, etc. The entire school sang O Canada on the Monday after Canada Day. Unfortunately, I had to lead the singing as our speaker system lost battery power just before O Canada. I think there was a conspiracy to hear the dulcet tones of my voice. Little did they know....  I had found some activities for the classes to do that day as well including making beavers, talking about moose ("Miss Bendfeld, what is the plural for moose?) and other stereotypical Canadian stuff.

Showing off teepees

My final day was very emotional. It all started with our Awards Ceremony. The choir, at the end of the ceremony, always performs and they did a special rendition of 'O Canada' and 'Land of the Silver Birch', with pictures of Alberta and other places in Canada. It was awesome and definitely a surprise.

Through the middle of the day we had a going away party for me and our end of term liturgy, also a farewell for me. The liturgy was amazing as well. It made me feel like I'd really made an impact on these people that I'd just spent my year with, which you don't always recognize because you are so in the moment and don't take the time to look back. When kids say that you always smile and that you are the 'best teacher ever', it makes you feel like you were important in some way. It also really hits when you have other classes come into the liturgy because they want to recognize your contributions. The best part was when they sang "Trading My Sorrows" with their special addition of 'Yeah!' throughout the bridge.

The kids and parents gave me the wonderful gift of an opal necklace. It is gorgeous.

That evening was my 'bon voyage' from the staff. They refused to call it a farewell as "You're just going on vacation for term break. See you in 2 weeks!" It's kinda nice that everyone was in denial, including myself. I was just going on holiday. No big deal.

My last round of milkshakes

We started at our regular milkshake hangout, the Labour Club. It's all about the Friday milkshakes. We then headed to the Asian Cafe for dinner where a lot of wine was drunk and lots of laughs shared. This staff was amazing and I still miss them everyday. It feels wrong to go to work and not see some of these faces everyday.

Having fun on the walk back to the car

On the Saturday, my weekend of farewells continued. This time, I met up with Nat's family for dinner at the Hogsbreath Cafe. We had dinner and again shared favourite stories from the year and talked about our plans for the next month or so. I also received a wonderful letter from Shirley, recounting my time in the Douglas family. There were memories that I had forgotten and truly made me feel like I was a part of their family. Gayle had made me a beautiful quilt (currently covering my lap as I write this) with patches that signify many of my memories of Australia. I can look at each patch and remember a place I visited or an experience that I had. It's amazing in so many ways. The best part is that it will truly keep me warm as I rest and relax this winter between hockey games.

After spending a couple more days catching up with friends, packing and shipping off my life, it was time to head for the airport.

Good-bye, Australia!