Shaker Fries and Guitar Chords

Hey everyone! Four days until Christmas and it feels so strange. The weather right now is not so nice, it's been raining, but better rain than snow I guess. I was talking to a lady, saying that it is so bizarre that it is Christmas, that it is just too nice. She said that if it's not hot on Christmas, it feels weird to them. Anyways... we were in Taupo before. Taupo- the place where we skydived and saw Huka Falls. We also said good-bye to two friends. We departed from Sydney, our wonderful travel companion, so she went off to Napier. It was a sad parting, but we will see her again around New Year's, so that will be nice. We also said good-bye to Olli, for what I think will be the last time. But who really knows? Then we went off to Wellington on a six-hour bus ride. We had been on the bus for four hours, it was not fun. We had a thirty minute supper break, so Bretton and I stopped at McDonald's. It's not something we have done yet, so it was totally okay. They have this new things called "shaker fries". Basically, you get fries, a bag, and a package of flavoring (sour cream and chives). Then you mix it all up. It was good but very salty. I'm not sure why I'm talking about this, they probably have it back home too, I just thought it was interesting. Then we got to Wellington at 8:30. I was super tired, but we still had to walk to our hostel. We were dropped off nearby the wharf. I do recall reading something about our hostel being the closest to the wharf. Well... it was not. Wellington is kind of set-up like San Francisco, there are many ups and downs. When you're tired with a heavy backpack and food bag, it is not so much fun. We walked up a hill for a while, then we hit the glorious stairs, called "Jacob's Ladder". That was just the cherry on top of the night, so much fun to walk up. Our hostel was totally worth it though, it was very nice. There was free internet and breakfast. The next day, we went to the the "Te Papa" Museum, which was free. We went to exhibits on volcanoes, earthquakes, water, introduced species, Maori culture, and... the Colossal Squid! That was insane! It was huge, I have never seen any sea species that large. It has these hooks on its legs that can rotate 360, so that it can hold onto it's prey very effectively. And it's eyes were as large as soccer balls! That was quite interesting. Then we wandered around Wellington for a bit. That night, we went to a carolling service at the Catholic Church, it was by candlelight. It was nice, but did not feel quite right yet. The next day, we walked by the Parliament Buildings, took the Cable Car, looked at the Botanical Gardens, looked at probably every shoe store in Wellington, bought nothing, and I got to play $65 000 grand piano. I was kind of worried playing that, I mean, if something happened to it, I would have to pay. And there's no way I could pay, for quite some time anyways. But it was very nice. I don't know if I've mention free bins yet. Well... every hostel has a free bin- a bin for food that people don't want. Everytime we go to a new hostel, we check the bin for good stuff. Often there's pasta, a leaky bottle of oil, rice... the usual. But, sometimes there's something sweet that somebody didn't want. I've found bags of cookies and stuff. Well... I think maybe I will take anything sweet, just so I don't have to spend extra money. I took a bag of dessert topping (sugar, cookie crumbs, spices, oats) and have been eating it for a couple of days. Is that desperate or resourceful? I'm not sure. But I really enjoy looking in the free bin, you never quite know what you will find. That night, I also learned the E+, e-, A+, a-, D+, and d- chords. That was awesome! I finally can play songs! The next day, we took the ferry to Picton, making our way to the South Island. It was a nice, but very windy ride. Picton was a nice little town. The best part we found of it was definitely the Dutch Bakriji (or something, Bakery). They had really cheap and good day old bread and stuff. We bought a day-old foccacia bread to make pizza. We ate so much that night. We had half a foccacia bread each with tomatoes, peppers, meat, cheese, spices, etc, each. Then, we had free hot chocolate pudding and ice cream. I felt really full. Even better, we're in Nelson right now, at the sister hostel. So we get pudding and ice cream every night! Yeah... I can't really turn down free food, but I might have to after a week of it, that could be bad for your health, eating that everynight, couldn't it? Anyways, it rained the whole day when we were coming to Nelson, it was a very depressing day. There was flooding on the roads. It's raining again today, but it's not as bad. I went to church this morning, to "City Church". It was a nice service... there were actually people my age and younger than me at the church! Which was really nice and different. They were having "Carols by Glowstick". The music was awesome, so it was a nice change from the old Anglican Churches I've been attending. Anyways, we start the Abel Tasman tomorrow. We found out that there are no gas cookers on the walk, so we were going to rent or buy one. But, if we bought one, we would have to carry it around, and we're not really going to need it that bad after the walk. If we rented one, that would cost a total of $15. How much food could you buy for $15? So we're thinking of not taking one. Maybe we'll bring something hot for Christmas and hope that someone will let us use their cooker, just because it's Christmas. Otherwise, cold turkey sandwiches it is. We will be out of the walk on Boxing Day, so we will have our real Christmas dinner then. Then it will be my birthday! I'm pretty psyched to turn 18, just because I'm tired of telling people I'm 17 and them going crazy over it. There is not that much difference between 17 and 18, but somehow people think you're like a little child before you're 18. Whatever. Soon, I shall be an adult and it will be awesome. Anyways... Happy Christmas everyone! I hope that you have awesome warm dinners and cool presents. Talk to you in a bit... if we survive our five day hike, that is.