Changes

One of my favorite things humans is our determination to find joy is small moments. There are countless songs and poems and stories telling us to appreciate the “little things in life." How many times have I leaned my face over a cup of steaming Earl Grey tea and thought, “mmm simple pleasures”? Fall always reminds me to stop examining at the concrete sidewalk, look up at the fire colors dotting the sky, and enjoy those few seconds examining the heavens. I didn’t know whether Christchurch was going to have a green to brown autumn, or if the tree would give us a last burst of beauty before the cold sets in.

But it turns out, Christchurch does fall very well.

Fire in the sky.

And roses on the ground.

Last Thursday, we had the day off from school because it was Anzac Day, which is the New Zealand and Australian version of Memorial Day. It was about 70 degrees, the sun was out and it was a little breezy, making it the perfect day for a stroll around the Re:start Mall (the mall made of shipping containers). Everyone was out and about, soaking up the last drops of good weather before the dreary winter blows away the leaves and the sunshine. As I sat down, drank my lemonade and listened to the guitar and fiddler duo jamming out Beatles songs behind me, I was so happy to find myself there on that bench. The leaves in the trees sounded the ocean and it smelled like fall and I wished I could keep that moment in a glass jar so everyone who wasn’t there with me could join in on one perfect moment in the Life of Kirsten Wilder Endicott. It is good to be back in Christchurch.

Although the city is rebuilding itself, there are still major sections fenced off right next to the Re:start Mall that haven’t been cleaned up. It looks like the movie version of the apocalyptic city (see: I am Legend, but watch it in the day because it’s really freakin scary). But there is something odd about this picture, can you spot it?

The end of Dan and my Three Week Adventure Trip of Adventure was rainy and cold, so we were happy to get back to Christchurch, see some sun, and stop living out of suitcases. But we were also sad to come back to real life and stop living our vagabond existence.

We’re bbbbbaaaccckkkkk.

Going back to school was also a little difficult because I had gotten used to doing what I want, when I want. And that is exactly why I can’t take a semester off of Middlebury – I get too comfortable too quickly with a life of leisure. I’d become a permanent leech on society. Speaking of Middlebury, NEWS FLASH: I’ve decided to come home in June and go back to Midd in the fall instead of staying here the whole year. Get ready, kids, Kiri’s coming back to a summer with NOTHING TO DO! YAY!! (See what I mean about the whole being a leech thing?) I will be back early because I realized  I accomplished my goals for study abroad much faster than expected. I’ve had an active semester where I’ve met a lot of fascinating people and learned how to travel by myself and with others. But, New Zealand, I’m coming back, I’m definitely not done with you yet, you wily mistress of the south!

In case you’re wondering whether changing your planes is easy, it is not. Middlebury administration was a champ about the whole thing. I’ve sent about ten emails and the thing is done and everybody’s happy. UC on the other hand, has been a NIGHTMARE. I want to make it clear that while I am annoyed at the system, I am not annoyed at the actual people who have been very kind. Here is the chain of events so far, which I will demonstrate in a helpful flow chart:

Email Mom asking who I should email -to- Email dean of admissions, tells me to go to International Office -to- Email International Office people, tell me to go to Student Services -to- Email Student Services, tell me to email specific person in Student Services -to- Email specific person in Student Services -to- Emails back, we need to set up a meeting -to- I email back asking time -to- We settle on a time, I walk to the library for meeting – I need to email academic advisors and accommodations, and maybe someone else? -to- Email accommodations, tell me I need to deal with academics first -to- Email Academic department, tell me I need to meet with Student Services. END.

Although this is where I stopped for the day, the battle is not over. They WILL let me leave! But for now, I will enjoy the autumn, the sunshine, and my Earl Grey tea.

It's steaming, trust me.

Skies and Sands

Today (April 15) I’m writing sprawled out on my back in a hostel in Montueka desperately trying to digest one of the largest, most delicious burgers I’ve ever had. I would love to share it with everyone but it’s in one of those hard to reach places of the world, so here are some pictures. Just imagine trying to keep a hold of this colorful burger as large as your head while beet juice runs down one arm from the thick slices of beet on top of the burger (genus!) and egg yolk runs down the other. It the best challenge I’ve ever had to overcome, and overcome it I did!

 The Fat Tui burger trailer

Blurry but colorful. This burger had a beef patty, caramelized onions, cheddar, fried egg, some kind of special white sauce, purple and white cabbage, tomatoes, some kind of special red sauce, parsley, carrots, soft butter lettuce, deep purple beets, and some kind of grain sprinkled on top. It was so freakin delicious.

 Jessica and me unlocking our jaws to get it around the behemoth burgers. Jess joined Dan and me in Punakaiki for four days of our adventure. She is an old friend of Dan’s from when he lived in NZ when he was young, and she’s an excellent addition to our travels.

Although we demolished the burger, three hours later it is still kicking me in the stomach.

All this was after an epic round of mini golf played in the nearby town of Kaiteriteri (pronounced ki terry terry – pretty much exactly how you’d expect). At the sixth hole, Jess got sixteen strokes and Dan and I made endless fun of her. On the eighteenth hole, both Dan and I scored sixteen strokes. Karma baby.

Although we suck, we still looked mighty fine.

Now let me rewind a few days back to April 10, which will now and forever be called Jump Day. As I said last post, we arrived in Wanaka on April 9 from Stewart Island. We had reached yet another gorgeous town with beautiful mountains plunging into a glittering lake, and tall, bright green trees blowing in the wind.

 The creatively named Lake Wanaka.

These trees are everywhere around the South Island, and I really like them. They are so tall and straight they almost look like huge blades of grass.

The night of April 9, Dan told me the weather was going to be beautiful, and would I like to skydive tomorrow? Throughout the vacation, I’ve been waffling about whether I wanted to do this because I don’t like jumping off of high things, and I never met a roller coaster I wanted to ride. Then I remembered skydiving was something I’d written down on my Kiri’s Life Goals list, so I couldn’t not do it. I mean jesus that list is written in black sharpie, which as everyone knows can’t just be crossed out or erased! Once something is written in sharpie, it is basically carved in stone. Too dramatic? Maybe, but that is actually how I convinced myself to face my fear of falling, and agree to jump out of a plane at 12,000 feet.

The next morning around 10:30, we headed out to the airport in Wanaka, and it was a sunny and clear day, perfect for skydiving according to the hostel receptionist. When we got to Skydive Lake Wanaka, we watched an introductory video telling us our picture and video options and how to safely jump out of an airplane. My hands were shaking and sweating as I signed the forms acknowledging that I might die. In a daze of fear, I had to pick out the music for my video that a separate photographer who would jump with me was to shoot. They gave us suits, clipped us into our harnesses and suddenly we were walking out to the tiny plane that was going to take us 12,000 feet into the air. The easy to open pull down door rattled crazily as we took off. I straddled a bench in front of my instructor, from Slovenia (all these guys were foreign), and stared out the window. I wasn’t scared anymore because it couldn’t possibly be real; there was no way I was about to jump out of this moving object that was so high off the ground. Ha ha! Planes are for convenient travel, not for some ridiculous idea of a sport, ha ha! The instructors and photographers messed around the whole time, making lots of sex jokes and generally trying to stop the suffocating shadow of fear from blanketing their clients. For me though, I was just happy looking out the window at the beautiful landscape below us – patchwork farmland, lakes, a gracefully winding river, and peaks that were soon at eye level. “Ok, lean back,” said my instructor, and I was strapped within a centimeter of circulation to my beautiful stranger (as Skydive Lake Wanaka calls their instructors, and most were, in fact, beautiful). The door was thrown open, I was shuffled to the gaping hole in the side of the plane and GAAA he flipped us out. In the video, you can see the total fear on my face. It is odd how quickly the human body gets used to something because after about five seconds, I did not feel like I was even falling anymore. I screamed my head of the whole time though just in case I got really scared again.

Look at how beautiful the world can be!

Bizarre shapes against the sky.

When my instructor pulled his parachute, every swear word and an odd collection of other nouns came streaming out of my mouth. Behind me in the quiet that fell when we stopped falling, I heard laughing. “If I was taking the video, that would have all just been one big beep,” said my instructor. The parachute part was wonderful. There was no glass between what I was seeing and me, so I felt just like a leaf floating down from the tallest tree in the world. I looked above me and saw the pops of other highlighter orange and pink chutes against the clear blue sky. Too soon, we were back on the ground and I was kneeling on the grass, adrenaline coursing though my body. I gave my instructor the kind of hug I would have given someone who just saved me from death. Then I stumbled over to Dan and gave him the kind of hug that someone deserves when he holds my hand as I work up the courage to achieve another one of my goals.

 Although skydiving itself is badass, it’s impossible not to look like a total goon while doing it.

            When we got back to the hostel in Wanaka, Dan and I walked around part of Lake Wanaka to take advantage of the sunny afternoon, then went to get hot chocolate at the other Patagonia chocolate store that happens to be in Wanaka. It was delicious as the hot chocolate I had in Queenstown, but this time, we also tried the famous churros. So crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, they were some of the best I’ve ever had. The dulce de leche and chocolate sauce completed the yummy snack. It was a surprising, scary, joyful, and shaky sort of day. I can’t wait to get back to Christchurch where I can cross off another one of my life goals. The other one I’ve achieved is completing the Tough Mudder, which I did with the help of an AMAZING team who I would run up mountains and through fire for if the need arose. Other ones currently on the list that I can remember off the top of my head are: go to Italy, have a sandwich named after me, spend months at sea again. There are also a couple others. If you want to help me cross any of these off my list, let me know because it’s much more fun than doing it alone. I already have my friend Anna signed up for Italy - I hope you haven’t forgotten about that, lady!

The next day, April 11, we headed over to Franz Josef for a very rainy night where we made a delicious stir-fry for dinner and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

We got to Punakaiki on April 12 and after searching a while for our YHA, we found it tucked deep in the woods down a tiny gravel path. It is the funkiest YHA we’ve been to. No industrial kitchens or huge refrigerator space – it was much cuter and hippier. You could almost imagine pot growing in the front yard. Although it was kind of a weird place, I liked the change of pace. The only problem is that Punakaiki really is not a “town” per say, more like a collection of four buildings down the road. This means no grocery store, no gas station, no ATM, but it does have very pretty beaches and the Pacific Ocean right there, which is extremely comforting.

Walking on these smooth pebbles tickled my feet.

After we found our hostel and went to the beach, Dan and I decided to go back into “town” to see if there was any food we could possibly find. The answer was not really, but we did find something else: our friend Sarina and her family, who is visiting her from the USA during our time off! They just happen to be pulling into the same parking lot we pulled into because they were headed out to look at the Pancake Rocks.

 We walked with them and watched the sunset over these crazy formations of striated rocked.

Look how much we’re enjoying the rocks!

Yes, they looked like one crazy shaped pancake sitting on another. Yes, it made me want pancakes. We parted after our short walk, and we headed back to the hostel.

April 13 dawned rainy and cloudy. So Dan and I took the day to laze around playing cribbage and eating fresh baked bread that the workers at the hostel make for the guests to buy. Steaming pieces of brown bread studded with seeds can really make a dreary day brighter. That night Jess’s parents dropped her off at our hostel and the three of us pulled together the oddest dinner we’ve eaten on the trip so far. Since Dan and I were expecting to be able to go food shopping in Punakaiki, we either did not have or were low on everything. Jess brought with her some pasta and frankfurters and we had some emergency soup in our trunk and a tiny wedge of cheese. We threw everything into a pot and what came out looked like cat vomit and tasted like each of the ingredients. There was no melding of flavors, there was no variation in texture. The Top Chef judges would not have been impressed.

Before we left Punakaiki for Motueka (where I am now) the morning of April 14, we headed back over to the Pancake Rocks and blowholes so Jess could take a look.

Here you can see the layers in the rocks really well.

 Thar she blowsssssss!

Today was a special day, not only because I had an epic burger and lost horrendously at mini golf, but most importantly because my godmother and one of my best friends in the entire world got married today! Although technically Lenka and Craig were married at 5:30 on April 14, I watched it on Facetime on April 15 in the common area of my hostel at 9:30 in the morning. Ollie was an excellent guide and cameraman throughout the whole thing.

Here he is, my helpful host.

 The blurry but I know it was beautiful ceremony!

As we walked around afterwards talking to people, he and my parents would introduce themselves to someone and then Ollie would turn his phone around and say, “Um and this is Kiri.” It was great. Technology, man, it blows my mind! Anyway congratulations to the new couple! I can’t wait to hug you both in person. And everyone else, I’m looking forward to hugging you in person too.

Feet, Flying Machines, and Ferries

Te Anau treated us well. Dan and I enjoyed three wonderful days in the town that reminded me of Queenstown’s little sister. Te Anau is the jumping off point for many long trails such as the famous Milford Track, and is surrounded by gorgeous mountains, snowy glaciers, and long, delicate waterfalls. The hostel where we stayed was a nice change to the giant, constantly busy Queenstown YHA that was always noisy and the kitchen was always full.

On our first full day in Te Anau, we decided to take it easy in the morning and in the afternoon do a three-hour trek from Rainbow Reach to Shallow Bay.

 It started with a swing bridge, where, said Dan, we both needed to get pictures because it’s very New Zealand. So here’s Strong Man Dan.

 And Kiri The Yogi.

This was nothing like our Queenstown hike mostly because it was a completely flat trail. It led us through a beautiful forest towards another lake. On this hike, I realized that the way I judge forests is by what magical creatures I imagine living in the trees and in the various crevices along the path. If there is no magic among the plants, then it is the most boring of forests. Luckily, I was constantly finding places where elves or fairies were sure to live. In my younger days, I would have constructed houses for these smallest of people, but I figured the forest already did a better job than I would.

Maybe they’d live in this stump (which I think in the picture almost looks like a pond with plant debris in the middle)...

Or in the jagged remains of a tree...

Maybe they’d live under these tree roots.

We came upon a beautiful pond called the Amoeboid Mire, made when a shard fell off a receding glacier and created this perminant indentation. No streams or rivers feed it, so only plants can leave in such nutrient poor water.

But it sure is beautiful.

And the edges have such incredible coloring.

An hour later, we reached Shallow Bay

Where I built, in Dan’s words, an “environmental sculpture.” I wonder if my cousin Robin, currently at school for architecture, would approve of the design.

The next day was probably one of the most amazing so far on this trip because it involved…drumroll totally necessary here…a helicopter ride!!! My extremely generous parents gave Dan and me the gift of seeing what most people on earth will never see. The total flight, with Mark the Pilot, was about an hour and a half where we started in Te Anau and flew over Milford Sound, landing ON a glacier ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN and then by a lake that feeds the most famous waterfall in the area, the Sutherland Falls.

This map, painted on the wall of the hostel, shows Te Anau near the middle and Milford Sound above it.

TAKE A PICTURE OF ME, DAN, I’M IN A HELICOPTER.

Me too me too!

 The clouds moved like water around the peaks. Looking at these pictures I am again filled with wonder at the amazingness of this opportunity.

I felt like I was in a nature video or a ski movie.

We landed on a GLACIER!! Here is the helicopter.

And here is Dan and me freaking out that we’re on a glacier.

The Sutherland Waterfall, zoom out.

Zoom in

 Here is the second place we landed, the lake that feeds the Sutherland Waterfall.

Throughout the whole flight I just kept thinking how I am so lucky to be seeing so many things that most people in the world never get to see. I’m still blown away by that thought.

When we got back to Te Anau, we went to a place that I’d walked past a bunch of times called Miles Better Pies And More… I don’t know what the “and more” was, but the pies were incredible.

I got a luscious and steaming steak, bacon, and mushroom pie (with the moon on it) and Dan got the thai chicken pie.

The next day (April 7) we left Te Anau barely bright and extremely early because we had a two hour drive to get to the Stewart Island Ferry in Bluff. The ferry ride over to Stewart Island was very calm and easy, and we were met at the warf by Robin, the very enthusiastic caretaker of the Bay Motel. He managed to give us about a 20 minute tour of a three street town in which we learned there are only two restaurants, diesel is very expensive on the island, all the older children have to go off island for middle and high school, we can feed the kakas outside our room almonds and peanuts, and Robin is a 

chatty Kathy.

 The kaka takes the nut delicately out of your hand with a curved beak the size of a man’s pointer finger. It was CRAZY. Who know there were parrots so far south?

 That night, we went into town, a three minute walk from our hotel that was “out of town,” and joined in on the world famous Quiz Night at the South Sea Hotel. The large quiz mistress, Vicky, loudly welcomed us as we stood awkwardly in the doorway, unsure where to sit. She quickly pulled three slightly bewildered vacationers out of a crowd of local fishermen, yelling, “There’s only three of you! You two, here’s your team!” We f all sat down on folder chairs surrounding the smoothest wooden table I ever stroked obsessively. That sounds really weird, but it’s true; I kept touching it because it felt so good. The wood was softened from decades and decades of hands that had touched, wiped, and slammed the table.

“Alright everybody, shut UP,” boomed Vicky. TWEET TWEET went Vicky’s referee’s whistle. Thus, the quiz began. We failed miserably, coming in second to last with 17 out of 40 questions right. Just so you get an idea of how bad that is, there were about 15 teams and the winners got 38 out of 40 correct. Ouch. “The score doesn’t effin’ matter! I want to see ya stand and cheer when you’re team’s name is called!” Imagine everything Vicky says in a lazy British accent and every fifth word being something that rhymes with luck. Although we made fools of ourselves that night, we enjoyed ourselves immensely, grinning all three minutes on our walk to the hotel.

Ulva Island, known for its excellent bird watching, was our destination the next day. Dan made the good point that we are living on a small island (the South Island), visiting a smaller island (Stewart Island), going to walk around an even smaller island (Ulva Island).

 On this map you can see the township, Oban, where we stayed (the “you are here” label) and Ulva Island on the upper left. The time it took us to walk from the you are here label to Golden Bay was about eight minutes, just so you get a sense of the size of the island.

We found a beach

Where Dan found an alien. Don’t make too much fun of me, it was drizzling the whole time and if you’ve ever sailed with me, you know I’ll be the first in my foul weather gear jacket tucked into my gigantor rain pants. Ok make fun of me, I just realized I made it worse.

But the coolest thing that happened was that while we were eating lunch, a bunch of Stewart Island robins, grey and white fluffy things, hopped around our feet jumping up on our boots and thoroughly enjoying my brightly colored shots.

 It was the most like Cinderella I’ve ever felt. Photo courtesy of my human lunch partner, Dan.

As we walked along the paths, we heard a bright melody of various birdsong. My favorite call was the kaka’s because it sounds like water dripping from a faucet. I wished I had my aunt and uncle were along to experience this with us since they are enthusiastic birdwatchers who may or may not have an app on their iPhones that identify bird calls.

That night, we had an amazing dinner at the Church Hill Café, a five minute walk from our hotel. I gorged myself on seafood from the island. Green-lipped mussels steamed in a spicy ginger, garlic and chili broth, sweet oysters on the half shell, and a salmon and blue cod citrus and soy ceviche satisfied my mighty appetite for creatures from the sea. The meal convinced me that I just want to eat raw fish on Stewart Island for the rest of my life.

This morning brought another sunrise start to get to the eight o’clock ferry off the island. But it was worth waking up early because it was that special time of day where the light is liquid gold and the sky is a gentle blue.

 Looking out to sea from the ferry terminal. Those two islands that look like mummies lying head to head are called the Tiki Islands.

Now I find myself in a hostel (sad, I miss having my own HUGE bed and clean bathroom at the Bay Motel) in Wanaka. It is another town on a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. I am constantly in awe, wondering, how did I get here? Am I really experiencing all this? How did I get so lucky? I’m trying to soak it in but it is difficult. I feel so full I’m going to burst with trying to keep it all in. But I’m going to try to take the advice of a quote Char gave me from American Beauty, “it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude…”