Roughin It

Queenstown is a little fancy for us but we enjoyed it, found our first Amanita Muscaria (awesome red mushies with white spots). Went to Milford Sound and kayaked for hours, wearing our gnome hats in the rain. Some Brits thought they were Santa hats...wtf....... Started the Routeburn Track and tried to keep up with Koos as we trekked along with our huge heavy backpacks. Right away we saw a little owl and were, needless to say, very stoked. The scenery was misty, magical, green and lovely, with waterfalls every 5 minutes or so. Almost got sick of em. One was like 150 meters long. My feet and shoulders and hips started to hurt from the pack but I felt like a bad ass so it was worth it. The snowy peaks, lakes, mushrooms and mountain flowers were very peaceful. We were moved to yodel and got caught by some other hikers twice. It was a trial not to shower for 3 days, and it was so cold at night it almost hurt to breathe in.
Back in Queenstown we made a friend who had a safety mtgs and Mighty Boosh, where we got hooked on "The Moon", our fave character. Youtube it right now.
Left for Lawrence, a tiny old gold mining town, to work at the Lemon Tree Cafe for a week. Spectacularly decorated German food, funny German bosses, nice coworkers and HEAPS of amanitas for us to stare at. We cut out pastry leaves, washed dishes and served customers. Edith Piaf CDs were a perfect soundtrack. We even had 2 days off, although there is nothing to do in this town. Relaxed and watched DVDs (one of our bosses has a Brad Pitt obsession too and has most of his movies). Went to the only pub in town with our coworkers for karaoke, where I unleashed some "forever in blue jeans", Michael Jackson, Poison and Abba. Believe it. Natalie really wanted to sing her favorite song, Heal the World by MJ and I did it with her after much pestering even though I had no idea how it went. It...... sounded ok. I figured out the chorus and everyone was drunk enough to not notice, or simply ignore the new version. The German girls and Robert sang a German techno ballad and got boos, it was pretty funny.
Natalie gave us a lift to Dunedin, and after settling in we went for a run in the park. Koos immediately got flashed by a pervert (glad I kept my head forward and missed it) and we laughed about that warm welcome for awhile. Our Lemon Tree crew met up with us for St Paddys, we all shook our butts and had a great time. Star of the County Down, my fave Irish song, was being rocked by the band right when we walked into the first pub! Koos was encouraged by a new friend to flirt with her boyfriend...... uhhh....... no....... thank you..... but all in all one of my best St. Pats to date.
Ended our NZ travels with a few days in Christchurch, where we finally found life sized gnomes. A dream come true for anyone, right? Yep. Feel very lucky and happy to have spent time here getting to know this rad country. We'll miss it, and Kit, Olly and Jill (who just got engaged!) and all the moments, good and tiring, that made up our experience of Aotearoa. And away we go!