Vacation

It's been nearly a week since I left Antarctica. Slowly I'm learning how to reintroduce myself into society. Nighttime is like a new experience for me. No longer am I dealing with the same 1200 faces. I'm seeing thousands of new faces every day. In clubs and bars it's an interesting experience interacting (or at least trying) with people I don't know. With everything going on in my personal life (deaths, daughter on the way, bank issues), I've been doing as much as I can to take my mind off of the depression that's sorta set in. I can't thank my friends enough. They've done a lot to keep my mind off of things. Monday, we left the confines of Christchurch and headed south for Queenstown. I was really looking forward to this trip considering I'd get to see New Zealand outside of Auckland Airport and the City of Christchurch. One thing I noticed is that New Zealand is green. Very very very green. I don't know. It could be that I hadn't seen "green" in nearly 5 or 6 months but it definitely left me in awe. Our trip to Queenstown slowly took us west closer to the mountains. When we hit the mountains I instantly fell in love with the place. The southern Alps are truly remarkable. We didn't see much because of low lying storm clouds but we could only imagine what lie within the clods that covered the Alps like a hat. Our first stop along the way was Lake Tekapo where we decided to freeze our asses off and go swimming. We stopped later on a different towns to eat and get gas. The one thing I was sorta disappointed in was that asides from the metric system and different road signs, New Zealand towns look a lot like American towns except with more round-abouts. We got into Queenstown after dark. The town itself has a Colorado ski-resort feel to it. When we woke up, we were amazed by how such an awesome view could be masked by the dark. The lake, Lake Wakatipu, is the longest lake in New Zealand and boasts some of the most spectacular views in the country with 6,000 to 8,000 ft mountains beginning at it's shores. It's in Queenstown where bungy jump was created. The place we've been staying at is a 3 level, 5 bedroom, townhouse type deal where we've set up base. Most of the nights have been spent out at the bars. With such an extensive backpackers system, New Zealand (especially Queenstown) is full of people from all over the world. So far I've met people from at least 23 different countries....and a lot of gorgeous women. Queenstown has definitely been a blast.

I leave here to head back to Christchurch on Friday and then for the states on Monday. This has probably been the first vacation I've been on since early high school. Vacation being somewhere I go just to relax and not necessarily do anything. I also call it a vacation because for once, I needed to go some where and do something to take my mind of things. Next week I hop back into a somewhat normal existence: firehouse, climbing, hiking, maybe working here or there. I'm planning on going on unemployment when I get back into town. Depending on my money situation maybe even food stamps just to save up for the gas I'll need to drive out west. I'm praying the rest of this trip goes well. I'm praying my ATM card shows up tomorrow, and I'm praying that all goes well when I get back home. Stay safe.