UPDATE!

Hello faithful blog readers! Unfortunately I have no pictures to show you, nor much time to spare to write this, but I wanted to let you know that I am alive and happy! The things I have seen and experienced require words that don't exist yet- words that are lightyears beyond "beautiful" and "amazing" and "incredible" and "spectacular" and "stunning" and "transformative" and "magical." Just multiply all those words by one million trillion billion and that is how things are for me right now.

I somehow ended up on this beautiful and remote bird sanctuary island at the very bottom of the South Island. I also somehow ended up finding work and an adorable hotel room for free. I work in the mornings, and hike and kayak in the afternoons. All through the day I get to listen to pretty bird noises and very few people. It is pretty great.

My last WWOOFing job was unbelievably wonderful. All the backpacking and traveling since has been unbelievably wonderful. LASTLY, I have met some of the most unbelievably wonderful people. I am the luckiest girl in the unbelievably wonderful whole wide world.

My second day on the sanctuary, I found a special email in my inbox... I got into COLUMBIA! Last night in my delirious pre sleep, while I was trying to make a decision between the two, I suddenly thought- what if I just don't go to either? What if I just stay here forever and become an amateur ornithologist? Tempting, yes. Impossible, probably. Now that I am fully awake I realize that I am better off making a decision and scooting back to the good old USA. (Any advice about which school I should attend is more than welcome.)

There will be pictures and more words to come within the next few weeks. Ta!

Goodbye to Windy Welly

For my last weekend here, I was given the parting gift of a 'Weather Bomb.' Though I am not exactly sure whether this is an actual meteorological term, warnings about the 'Weather Bomb' were all over New Zealand's new's television stations and newspapers. Though a rather dramatic and fairly comical term, it was really a quite accurate description for what actually happened. I was unable to sleep Friday night as my little room was literally shaking, and through Saturday the pouring rain was moving in a horizontal direction. It started and stopped very quickly though (hence the 'bomb' term), and wasn't all that much worse than a regular storm in Wellington.

Now, I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but Wellington, New Zealand, is very appropriately nicknamed "Windy Welly." I am from hurricane country and have never experienced gale winds there like I have here. From where we live at the very top of Wellington, one of these gale storms sounds as if there are about a dozen tornados outside of our windows. A particularly large one about a month back actually ripped the window out of my old bedroom. Even without the gale storms this place is usually fairly windy. I used to worry about the wind problem and try to avoid wearing clothes to work that had the tendency to blow up in the wind. I quickly grew tired of choosing my wardrobe according to the weather. I now wear biker shorts underneath my work skirts and dresses, so yes, not only am I one of those women who wears tennis shoes with dresses to work, but every time the wind blows passerbys get to see my snazzy biker shorts, too. 

Enough about the weather, as I said in the above paragraph this weekend was my last in Wellington. Tuesday was my last day of work, Wednesday was my last pilates and dinner date with Alice, and on Thursday night my friends had a nice little goodbye dinner for me. Due to the 'Weather Bomb' (I just love saying that), this weekend was spent mostly indoors where we watched about four movies and several hours of Louis Theroux documentaries. On a related note: I may be in love with Louis Theroux. 

Also worthy of mention: on Saturday morning I made myself a delicious celebratory grilled cheese. What was I celebrating, you ask? I GOT INTO THE SMITHSONIAN'S HISTORY OF DECORATIVE ARTS MASTERS PROGRAM! They even gave me a scholarship! Woohoo! Still waiting to hear from one more school...

Tomorrow I set off for a two month adventure with my little backpack, a fair amount of nerves, and a lot of excitement. I start in Nelson where I will WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms, an organization that trades farm work for accommodation and food) for about a week. When that week is over, I have ten days to travel through Golden Bay, down the West Coast, through Queensland, and the Catlins. I will spend the next week on a farm close to Dunedin, travel more, then a farm on Timaru, then travel more, Christchurch with Alice and her family for Easter, then a farm in Kaikoura, then travel more, then I fly to Australia for two weeks, and THEN I fly home! I am leaving my laptop with the rest of my stuff in Wellington, and probably won't have a lot of internet access. I will still try and update this thing as often as I can.

My boss and coworkers minus a few at my goodbye morning tea! Oh, they are all such wonderful people, I will miss them lots!

The view from the top of my running route. GOODBYE WELLINGTON!

Kapiti Coast

A few weekends back we went to Chris' Bach on the Kapiti Coast. We left straight after work and witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. 

Silhouetted Alice, Rachael, Chris and Sam

Alice

Chris and Sam

Frieda left her cats at home this time, and brought two dogs instead. This one was pretty cute.

Rachael 

Frieda and Rachael and Bella

you can see the South Island in the distance

It was a entertaining night, complete with an obscene amount of fish and chips, the girls' normal (but still very strange) medical conversations and gossip, the boys' normal political conversations and witty teasing banter (usually directed at Dave), and the not so normal commemorative Whitney Houston blasting and proclamations of love for her.  The next day I woke up and played basketball on their private court (I am still pretty awesome at it), and then we walked into town on the beach for coffee, beignets and shopping. 

The Kapiti coast is another New Zealand beauty; I don't think an ugly place exists in this country. 

Wellington Weekends

Some weekends I stay here. This is what we do around Wellington:

Caitlin trying to find the seals at Red Rocks

Sea plants!

 a big fat smelly (but still somehow adorable) seal 

the boys running ahead to talk of politics and foreign relations without us

Here are Alice and Rachael before the races begin. Those juice boxes may or may not be filled with a liquid other than juice. This is my only picture of the races. 

Since I completed all of my application materials, I have had a little more time to spend on my exploration of Wellington. I spent two Saturdays in Te Papa, one of the most amazing museums I have ever been inside (everything from a gigantic Squid to beautiful paintings by New Zealand artists, and interactive Earthquake exhibits to artifacts from New Zealand's first immigrants). Its a very cool place. 

I also have developed quite the taste for good coffee, so a weekend morning in Wellington usually includes some delicious coffee from one of the many great cafes. 

I am growing painfully aware that my time here is coming very quickly to an end. More on that later!