New Zealand reminds me of Canada...

Hey there folks,
Just thought I'd update you on my travels here in New Zealand. Wellington (capital of NZ) was a blast. I hung out w/ a girl (Patti) that I met at a job interview in Australia. I went on a city tour w/ her and her b/f. Good times - the Parliament House, cable car ride up to the top of the city, and the big National Museum. Just your regular tourist fare and then I hung out w/ her other friend and they all made dinner. I contributed by washing the spinach. ;) Yes, I am VERY helpful in the kitchen. It was cool hanging out w/ Jenny (Patti's friend) who is an overseas born Chinese. Apparently, Chinese people are very consistent all over the world. Chinese people in NZ also drive champagne coloured toyota camrys. Apparently, I'm suppose to check out www.engrish.com I will when I don't have to pay $1 for 10 minutes here for internet.

Then i headed on a nice long ferry ride to Picton - sort of reminded me of going to Victoria. I had lunch in a lovely place called Picton before heading to Nelson - which apparently is the sunniest city in NZ. That's a big call... I did get some lovely sunshine during my stay there.

I went for a run on the first day and happened upon a run clinic which was cool. I joined in with them and found out that there was a 7K run on Saturday afternoon. I joined in on Saturday and it was awesome. I came pretty close to being last but hey - I was running w/ hard core runners. And it was a brutal 7K. Literally, it was up and down a freakin' mountain. I had to hike up at one part b/c I couldn't run straight up a hill.

On Friday, I went for an amazing all day kayaking trip in Abel Tasman park. Beautiful golden sands, turquoise waters, and calm seas. I love kayaking. I hope to do it again on this trip at some point. Saturday - besides the run, I went to the weekend market and ate a 1Kg bag of cherries on my own. Yum! And just hung out. I went out to check out the night life in Nelson and was pretty disappointed... but what can you expect from a city of 50,000 people. Nelson is a lovely place regardless and it's one of those places I could retire to perhaps.

Today was another hard core day. I booked a full day hike up Franz Josef glacier. Yes! You can hike all day on a glacier here. It was pretty full on. They gave us ice talons for our shoes, dressed us up in their Gortex jacket and over trousers and part way up, we had ice picks. The guide would literally be carving out steps for us to go up and down at various points. It was absolutely amazing.

I can't wait to post pictures for you.

Overall, New Zealand is a very nice place to visit. It's got great outdoors stuff to do. Everyone is friendly and it's super super easy to get around. The hostels that I've been staying at have been really decent as well. And it also helps that every dollars goes an extra 15 cents further, which has led to ridiculous amounts of shopping. The country hasn't really wowed me yet so much as my other adventures in Asia, but New Zealand is very nice, quaint, green, and sometimes miserable weather wise. Like I said before - it really reminds me of Canada, except that it's more compact. And to their credit - there is such a diversity in vegetation. It's really quite amazing.

In other news, I have obtained a full time job in Canberra. I just got notice of that by email a few days ago. I'll tell you more about it once I know the job entails. ;) I'm very excited about that. I can't wait to have income again. Now I can go shopping some more and not feel guilty. Just kidding. Sort of.

Anyway, I have to go drink beer now so I'll catch you fine folks later.