Quit Dreaming and Go Somewhere

The funniest thing happened here yesterday. Apparently there was this famous sheep named Shrek, and yesterday there was a half-hour special on TV where they sheared him.
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So we decided to rent a car in Christchurch, drive around the south island, then return it to Christchurch. We have a flight to the north island and we will do that afterwards in a shorter period of time.

We left Christchurch with our first destination being Mt. Cook. New Zealand doesn’t have that many roads, which makes it easy to navigate but sometimes you have to go around stuff to get places. In this case, Mt. Cook is actually much closer to the west side of the island, but since there are mountains, you have to get there from the east side.

Jim is the driver since I don’t have a license with me and driving on the other side of the road freaks me out.

As soon as we started driving, it was apparent that it was going to be TOTALLY AWESOME to drive outselves where ever we want, when ever we want. No more waiting for the bus to come and having to stay a night whenever you stop. We can stop somewhere for a few hours and leave. It is GREAT!!

The roads are pretty empty so Jim did just fine with the driving. After a while, we start seeing mountains ad tons of sheep, cows, and what looked like deer. The landscape was pretty cool. At one point, we go around a corner or up a hill, and when the scenery comes into view, we are just like WOW!! And we pull over and jump out to look and take photos. I have so many great pictures I can’t even decide which to show!!

Suddenly, we looked ahead and there were about a million sheep walking across the road and we drove right behind them. It was surreal. Here is a pretty neat picture of it from the car.

Take a look at the cover of our Lonely Planet guide. Pretty weird, huh?

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I have a lot to post about, since in the last couple of days we haven't had net access. We went to Lake Tekapo, Mt. Cook and are now in Dunedin. Driving is GREAT and I'm so glad ... [Continue reading this entry]

Guess what! I think we are going to rent a car here. We are both pretty excited because it will be SO much freedom... we can go where we want, when we want. It's awesome. Tons ... [Continue reading this entry]

I haven't mentioned anything about what I've read on the trip. Usually I spent a lot of time reading the guidebook, but when I'm done with that... The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison I opened a drawer in a hostel bureau ... [Continue reading this entry]

I forgot to mention in the last post that I have a terrible cold and I almost went to the doctor for it. (Jim wouldn't let me) I think it was also because I met a girl who ... [Continue reading this entry]

Two days ago I wore a tank top, shorts, and sandals. Today I wore wool socks, sneakers, thermal pants, travel pants, a t-shirt, a micro-fleece and a fleece jacket. DID YOU READ WHAT I JUST WROTE??? It's not chilly, it is COLD here!! So ... [Continue reading this entry]

So Jim returned from his diving trip yesterday and he had a great time. He saw sharks and huge turtles and lots of things. Today we went on a snorkeling trip just for me, since I can't go by myself ... [Continue reading this entry]

I went to the "Aboriginal cultural park" just north of Cairns, called Tjapukai. I had huge reservations about going because it seemed weird to have a park ...well....like that. You know? I went anyway since I don't know anything about ... [Continue reading this entry]

For today, I planned to go to either the Cairns zoo or the Aboriginal park thingy. The hostel I am staying at, Gilligan's, is awesome. When I woke up in the nice bed, with the nice blanket, I did NOT ... [Continue reading this entry]