Part II: Picton (South Island)

We’ve traversed the North Island; today we are on to the South Island. The South Island is everyone’s favorite, or so it seems, but the North Island treated us very well. We’ve done some pretty incredible things in the last week. We’ve been to a “hot water” beach, passed many gorgeous empty normal beaches, we’ve seen an incredible display of sheep (there are 10 times as many sheep in NZ as people), and I’ve gone Zorbing. What is Zorbing? Well, allow me to explain…

Zorbing was developed in NZ as they proudly proclaim, and consists of a gigantic plastic ball and a grassy hill. The ball or “Zorb” is large enough to accommodate up to three people and you get the option of “harnessed”, or “wet” eg, either harnessed into the ball rigidly so that you rotate with the ball end over end, or just tossed in with a few buckets of water. The harnessed approach was the way I thought I would have to go to get the full experience, but that wasn’t the case. When I was signing up, the option of a zig-zag course down the hill was presented and this was emphatically explained as the most fun option. Why not—after all I am signing up to roll down a hill inside a giant plastic ball, what difference does it make what the course is like. It made all the difference. The others that went down the mountain before me “wet” went down on there backs the whole way, nothing to intense… a lot like a waterslide inside I imagine. The zig-zag course on the other hand was another experience entirely. I got into the Zorb (you enter by diving like superman into a tiny belly button of the beast). And was told to just run forward. I pressed my hands against the top and my feet against the bottom and stepped forward starting down the hill in a hand stand for 2 cartwheels before I couldn’t hold it anymore, then it felt like I was in a washing machine. I tried a backflip and with the help of the inertia landed it. It was great fun and I was giggling like a child for the first 10 seconds. After that I started to not feel so hot and tried to gain control of my body and limbs. It was like I was in outerspace, with apparently no rhyme or reason the horizon was going end over end and from side to side. Just as I thought I was going to puke, it stopped. No wonder the course is only 200m, that’s all I could take! What an experience!

The Hot Water Beach was also a “only in NZ” experience. It is a beach that has just under the sand (in certain spots) thermal hot springs that you can dig to, and create your own hot tub out of sand on the beach. This sounded amazing to us and we headed off on a cool morning with spade in hand. When we got there we were amazed at the scene…. There were 50-100 people of all ages, shapes and sizes either digging, gawking, or lounging in their personal hot tub. I was doubtful at how hot the water could be as the ocean is cold here like the pacific in Northern California, but sure enough, in the right spot it was downright hot—hot enough to burn! Rather than dig a giant tub for ourselves we helped some others with theirs and jumped in. The water turned out to be too hot for us and we had to sit in the “cooler” corner. The tide was coming up and the cold ocean waves were mixing with the hot thermal springs. It was another amazing experience!

The other highlight of the last week was at the “Agrodome.” We paid our $30 for a sheep show which included an introduction and explanation of the 12 breeds of sheep in NZ, cow milking, sheep shearing, and sheep dog exhibition. Sounds dull? Think again. It was great fun. The dogs where running all over (including up and down the backs of the sheep!!), you could try your hand at milking a cow, and pet the sheep. Ok, maybe it wasn’t all that exciting, but we had a good time.

Other than that, we’ve just been enjoying ourselves. We are a bit more homesick here than we were in South America, mainly I think because we are just on vacation now and without a mission. I have taken it upon myself to read as many meaningful books as possible (be them business, history, or classics) and Amie is working on some projects on the laptop.

We’ve been camping almost every night. Camping runs us about $20, and more importantly, doesn’t require a reservation. We are pretty amazed how difficult it has been to find a bed at a hostel. All booked! The camping has been good though, most here are very clean and modern, with kitchen access, swimming pools, internet, etc.

The Kiwis continue to amaze us with there great attitudes and uncanny kindness. It seems like the whole country is on prozac. It really does. We were buying something at the store the other day and when we left we looked at each other and said almost simultaneously, was that checker on drugs?! No, just a friendly old lady!

Zorbing???