Greymouth & Extending My Time in NZ

Sontsa & I have already come and gone from Greymouth now. I must say it wasn't the most exciting town in NZ, but luckily we were only there for a night. I think the highlight of going to Greymouth was actually the city we stopped at on the way to Greymouth: Punakaiki. The bus stopped there for a 30-minute break, which gave us enough time to walk around the park there & see some huge pancake rock formations, so that was pretty cool. When we actually arrived in Greymouth on Saturday afternoon, it just seemed like a really small, quiet, old industrial town on the coast. As it turns out, it is actually the largest city along the west coast of NZ! If that was considered a large town, I can only imagine how small the rest of the towns we visit on the south island are going to be haha. A huge plus was that our hostel in Greymouth had free unlimited internet, so I naturally spent entirely too much time on facebook uploading pictures, etc.  =)  Oh, and the hostel had BATHTUBS!! I hadn't seen a bathtub in 3 months...needless to say, I was overjoyed & took full advantage. A somewhat comical experience I had at the hostel was when I was brushing my teeth in the morning at the sink near the showers and bathrooms--a guy walked out of his room in the smallest underwear possible, walked by me into one of the toilet stalls, proceeded to urinate into the toilet with the door wide open, then walked back past me to his room without flushing the toilet or washing his hands. Mmmm...the joys of living in a hostel haha.

I calculated yesterday that we have now visited 6 cities in NZ in the past 10 days--Taupo, Wellington, Picton, Nelson, Abel Tasman, and Greymouth! Pheww...that is too much. Traveling is so much more enjoyable when you are able to take your time moving around to different locations. For the past week and a half, it feels like a large part of my time has been spent unpacking, booking bus tickets for the next town, re-packing, sitting on a bus, then doing it all over again. I must say it can be a bit stressful & quite tiring. If it weren't for the people we've met along the way & the beautiful sights we've seen, I think I would be pretty grumpy. Oh, and the bus rides from town to town are somewhere between frightening and nauseating. I am honestly very surprised that more people don't find themselves vomiting. I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster every time, with the bus twisting and turning at high speeds on these tiny mountain roads. It is so intense that during the past 2 bus rides, I have literally had to hang on to the seat in front of me so as to NOT fall out of mine! Haha. Good thing I don't get car sick or I would be screwed! I guess it makes the bus rides a little more exciting though, eh?

Some of you may remember that the return ticket I originally purchased to go back to America was for May 7th. Well, seeing as that is next week, I obviously won't be making that date haha. I've known I could change my ticket for a minimal fee, so that was never a problem; the problem was deciding what date I should change my ticket to! Sontsa goes back to FInland June 1st, so I knew I would be without my official traveling partner after that. However, I still have much to see on this side of the world before I can consider going back to America. So, the new plan (yes, I'm  planning) is to work again for about six weeks in June & July to start saving up some more money.  I will more than likely work in Auckland, Wellington, or Queenstown, a few of the main cities I have potential job connections.  However, I'd be happy to work just about anywhere in NZ.

Then, once my bank account has slightly increased, I will fly over to Australia to travel around there for hopefully 4-6 weeks. I would love to fit in a short trip to Fiji, Tahiti or Tasmania too, but that will all depend on finances. So, I called Air New Zealand & changed my return ticket back to America; the new date will be September 23rd. Sorry to my family & friends back home, but I have to make the adventure last! By then, I will have been living in NZ & away from my home country for just under 8 months--wow! Although I could stay here for a full year, I know I will have seen all of NZ by June 1st when Sontsa & I are done traveling together. After that, it's just a matter of working to be able to visit Oz, plus maybe adding in an exotic island into the mix. Another reason I am choosing not to stay the full year is that I would really like to be home for the holidays, as cliche as that may be =)

I can already tell you that I will have a really hard time leaving this country in September; this trip has been everything I had hoped for & more. Plus, one thing I have learned in NZ from talking with people from other countries all over the world is that in comparison, Americans have CRAP vacation time, among other things. That isn't slander; it's a fact. Now, I'm not saying that living in America doesn't have its perks as well, because it does, so please don't think I am bashing my home country. But, I do think that I would like to do a heck of a lot more traveling around the world before I get settled into a career in America, if that is in fact what I want to do. I am considering going home for just a short period of time (less than 6 months) after I get back, working a short-term job somewhere & saving enough money so that I can just go spend it again on some more more traveling =) . Another possibility I'm considering is getting my British passport (since I am half British) & maybe moving to England for a while. I would absolutely love to live in Europe. The thought of being able to travel short distances for relatively cheap and experiencing soo many different nearby countries & different cultures is just incredibly tempting. The problem is that I'm not entirely sure how (or if) my hard-earned Masters Degree would transfer over for a potential criminology career in England. I'll just have to do some more research & weigh my options =)

Cheers,
Ash