Weekend before last, as usual, I had frisbee Friday night, and then Robbie's after the game for a few drinks. Saturday, I left for Kaikoura with Jackie, Erin, and Michelle. The drive was beautiful… classic New Zealand. Once in Kaikoura, we drove over to the trail head. It's funny because it always seems like we're going down the wrong road until we pop out at the start. Sometimes it's even on private property. You have to know where you're going. Then we headed up to make sure we got bunks in the hut. It seems to always be the first 20 minutes that i'm constantly thinking…. why do I do this? It's up a 4X4 track, but it's pretty steep. Enough to keep me breathing hard that's for sure. The view's were beautiful and once again we lucked out on weather! It was such a nice walk. Only about 2 and a half hours and it was just the 4 of us. We literally stopped about every 10 minutes because we were describing food we've had/ plan to make/seen on pinterest. Such females! We were first to the hut. The rest of the afternoon we soaked up the views, played cards and made the most delicious dinner. We packed up and cooked shrimp pasta and vegetables along with fresh bread and red wine and cadbury chocolate for dessert. YUM :) I happen to forget my utensil, but my super talented friend Jackie managed to carve me a makeshift one. It was sorta comical to watch me eat. Serious balancing act.
After dinner and cards, I crawled into bed to enjoy a nice night of sleep after a great tramp up 1100m. Unfortunately, that was not the case. There was a wood burning stove that was awesome until it was 9pm and suddenly became a billion degrees in that hut. There were 9 of us in the 8 person hut, and at first I just took off my shirt and left my sports bra on, still in the sleeping bag, but that WOULD not suffice. seriously, I thought I might melt. Long story short, I could barely cover the necessary bits and bobs and I was still sweating. Every time I heard that darn stove door open, I wanted to tomahawk that guy!! I wasn't the only one either, Jackie and Michelle were on the top bunks which was even hotter! they literally went outside in sports bra's and ended up sleeping in the mud room on the concrete to try and cool off. It was arguably one of the worst nights of sleep i've ever had. haha, even so, I wasn't that upset about it. location sorta does that to you. In the morning, we hiked up the last 400m to the summit. It was SO beautiful! The rest of the way was all down hill. LITERALLY. 1600m of it, and funny enough, we ran into some of the guys we met at Muller Hut 2 weeks earlier! what a small world… especially in NZ.
On the way out of town, we visited this famous seafood trailer out by the seal colony and then headed back to CHCH. I worked all week on my med school application and Friday, it was back to Frisbee and then Foo San for Emma's 21st birthday. Yummy Chinese dinner followed by some casual pictionary which I was awful at and an early night saving up for Saturday's festivities.
Saturday, I studied all morning for my children's literature final, and then we all met at Emma's to start the road rally. My team was Jess, Chris and Stewart. It was SUCH a blast. We had to do all kinds of things like find a pinecone, take a picture with a stranger in a costume, collect a Foundry receipt, a cindy's can, take a team tequila shot, and then there were some clues that correlated to the few places along the way to Flock Hill Lodge. When we arrived, we all showed our clues and i'm sad to report that we came in second to last place… better next time team 3. lol We got ready for dinner, and then met back in common room where we ate and Emma's Dad, boyfriend, and sister made speeches. They all were great. I heard some awesome Emma stories and it's apparent that she is loved and appreciated by more people than she knows. Again, I was reminded how glad I am that I joined the ultimate team. I've met so many awesome people through it. Anyways, the rest of the night was full of good times and great memories and not much sleep.
After the drive back, I napped and studied more for my final. Today I took it, and I don't think I failed, so i'm golden. NO MORE CHILDHOOD IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE FOR ME!!! WOOOHOOOO!
if that's not exciting enough….. tomorrow, KYLE AND MICHAEL GET HERE!! :D i'm SO SO SO excited. just 4 classes, 2 projects and a final left in my semester. YES!
stay tuned because I've got some great plans for when Michael and Kyle are here! OH and I forgot to mention that I'm officially going to Singapore "on my way home" to visit my friend Mel from TCU, and even better, Amy's meeting me. CANNOT wait. :) so many fun plans ahead!
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