Bonjour, mes amis! Constance, Laura, and I are in the French town of Akaroa right now, in a hostel called Chez La Mer on Rue Lavaud, about an hour outside of Christchurch. In the past few days, we’ve been getting our adrenaline on with skydives from 12,000 feet and 400 foot bungee jumps. The bungee jump was by far the scarier of the two, including a harrowing drive in a rickety bus up a steep and narrow dirt road, as well as a gondola ride out to the pod from where you jump (which swings when the wind hits it—of course). All the fear was totally worth it, though—the rush of swan diving off a metal platform straight towards the river 400 feet below you is indescribable. The skydive was awesome, too, but involved less moxie—you basically get pushed out of the plane with your instructor and don’t have to do anything but scream. My skydive partner took us down head first, though, and we freefell for 45 seconds before the chute was pulled, and we did a ton of spins on the way down, so it was definitely not boring.






Other things I’ve been up to: a really cool kayak trip out in Milford Sound, in Fiordland National Park in the southwest. It was misty and cold in the morning, but by afternoon the clouds had burned off and the views were amazing.
We even saw dolphins up quite close—they would swim under our kayaks and surface a ways out. Of course the best part of the trip was our sea kayak couture—very fashionable.

Also, we took a hike up to the top of a hill over Queenstown for some nice scenery and, in a lovely twist, some amazing apple strudel. I have become obsessed! I am eating it every chance I get. =)

I just have a few more days in NZ—I cannot believe how quickly the time has passed. The things we have done have been totally fun and exciting, but the best times have been getting to know new people and making friends from all over. I’m so happy I don’t have to go home yet! and that there’s more to come. Miss you all! Take care of yourselves.

xoxo,
Sheri

Post from the South Island

Greetings loved ones! New Zealand has been treating me very nicely, and Laura and I have done a lot of cool stuff the past couple of weeks. After we got into Nelson, we drove up to Abel Tasman National Park and went for a hike on the track that extends for 3-5 days’ worth of hiking. We just went a couple hours into the track, but it was gorgeous. Each time we’d turn a corner, there would be another brilliant blue bay, and another beach to hike down to.


After the hike, we drove back down to Nelson and met up with Martin, with whom we had arranged a sailboat trip for that night. Martin bought his catamaran in South Africa and sailed it to NZ years ago, and he had tons of stories to regale us with. We laid on the hammock, watched the sun set over Tasman Bay, and sailed around a bit, until dinner was ready (shark and mussels, of course). After we ate, Martin took us to the old lighthouse on the jetty, and we climbed to the top in the dark and saw the whole Milky Way, and tons of southern hemisphere constellations Laura and I had only seen in books. Then we spent the night on the boat, had breakfast the next day, and sailed back into the harbor. It was fun making friends with Martin, too—he was a riot.



A few days later, Laura and I stopped in Okarito, a small town on the West Coast, and kayaked in Okarito Lagoon, which had great views of Mounts Tasman and Cook. The picture is of the curiously red water, which we were told was a result of all the tannins at the creek head. It looked like we were paddling through red wine and the views were amazing. That afternoon, we hiked to Franz Josef Glacier,
and managed to get fairly close. There were signs all over showing where the glacier had been in 1750, and then 1850, etc. It was amazing to see how much it has receded in not such a large amount of time. The next day, we rented bikes in Franz Josef and rode out to Lake Mapourika—that’s the picture with me on the pier.


The last few days, we have been in Wanaka, which is possibly the most beautiful place in New Zealand (so far, anyway). We’re staying at a hostel 200 meters from the lakefront, and there are mountains all around and sun all day. Today it has been amazingly windy, and we took a long hike up to the top of a nearby mountain. At the top, we had to crouch down and lean hard into the wind and nearly lost our sunglasses, sweaters, etc. I was afraid my earrings would be ripped out of my ears! But the views were absolutely worth it. Right now the wind is blowing so hard outside I can hear the whole building creaking, and there are big waves all over the lake.













We’ll drive down tomorrow to Te Anau, which is a town farther south that’s close to Milford Sound, where we’ll take a daylong kayaking tour on Friday. Then it’s back up to Queenstown, where we’ll meet up with Constance on Sunday. Once we’re all together, we’re going to skydive, bungee jump, and otherwise throw our good sense out the window.

Miss you all! and hope everything is going well back at home.

xoxoxo,
Sheri

First of many!

Hello Friends!

NZ, land of kiwibirds and gorgeous views, has been wonderful so far. I've been in country for almost a week, and I'm already loving the people, the tea, the views, the food, etc. My first stop was Rotorua, which is right on this geothermal fault line, so there's bubbling mud and hot pools all over. The first few pictures are in Rotorua near the lake (did anyone else know black swans existed?!) and then in a place called Hell's Gate, where I went to the mud spa and walked around

the bubbling pools.

Another picture is from Auckland, from the ferry ride I took across the harbor at sunset toward a little island community for dinner. Today Laura and I drove up from Kaikoura, which is a whaling community, where we saw the sun rise out of the ocean, went for a spectacular cliffside walk and made friends with some seals. This afternoon we drove up through wine country to where we are now, Nelson-- top of the South Island. Tomorrow we will try to meet up with a day-and-a-half sailboat ride, and then we'll go to Golden Bay and then off down the west side of the island. Great so far, and more to come! Hopefully I will get better at this blogging thing-- I can't seem to figure out how to orient the pictures in a less-than-retarded way. Sorry! Miss you all and still keeping my fingers crossed that some/all of you can come meet me in various legs of the trip. xoxo!! -Sheri