dolphins and ridiculously annoying canadian chick

Hollllarr!!! what up what up partttyy people! currrently back in the N. island in good ol' wellington. as usual, lets go back then forward...

so i left christchurch and went to Kaikoura which is about 2 hrs. N. of it. its "the'' place to do whale watching and dolphins swims. the dolphin swimming was one of the big things i have wanted to do here....soo, the day before we go to kaikoura the weather says its going to be complete shit. low and behold, i woke up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky...good news! but then we get close to kaikoura and find out the whale watching was canceled---waves to big and no whale sitings. so i kinda start getting nervous that we wont be able to do the dolphin swim. we get there and they tell us that we get like 80$ back if we dont see/swim with the dolphins. and they tell us that it is highly unlikely we will see them. so we get dressed in our wet suits anyways and get on the boat. we start going and like hundreds of birds start following the boat, including to albatross. so we are going and balaha...i tell people that i thought i saw something splash in the water....and they were like ohhh its probably a bird....and i'm thinking, no you assholes i'm right. just then, the boat turns and starts heading toward where i pointed out....and guess what!!!!!!!!!

WE FOUND A POD OF 400 freakin dusky dolphins!!! you hjave absolutely no idea what it looked like. you couldn't NOT see them. everywhere. swimming all around the boat, jumping up, doing backflips, slapping their tails. it was FABULOUS! so what i have heard the boat people do it usaually drop you off about 3 times with the dolphins because they usually keep moving. once again, luck came through. so what you do it get at the edge of the boat, sit down and then this horn goes off for you to get in the water. the boat gets infront of the moving pod so they swim straight through you. so we get in and the dolphins played with us, 13 of us, for 40 minutes!! they said thwas completely unheard of and that they usually stick around for about 10 minutes and keep moving. ohh yea, back up a bit....so they told us to stick our fist up in the water if we are in trouble....so i get in the water and the dolphins were so overwhelming, mixed with adrenaline that i pretty much gave myself an anxiety attack. i couldnm't catch my breath, and mind you i'm a damn good swimmer, so i was like "MARI, SNAP THE F OUT OF IT!!" and if worst comes to worst, the wet suit wouldn't let me sink so they could have rescued me if i passed out. ha. not the most positive thinking but there was no way in hell i was going to get back on that boat. so i finally gained my life back and all was good. the dolphins were just completely surrounding you. swimming straight at you, under you--showing their bellies, and if you looked them in the eye and started swimming in circles with them they got realy excited. you could feel them swimming---the water moving. i got hit a couple times by them.....oh man, it was the most brilliant thing ever!!! wild dolphins just haning out around you. so cool. one time i dove down to swim with them, came back upm, and a MASSIVE albatross was just chilling about 2 feet from me. those birds about the size of a great dane. massive. after dolphin swimming, i felt better about coming home. i would have been pretty bummed if we didn't see them---which i really thought would happen.

NEXT.

so i have no done a bungy jump or skydived here. those are like "THE THINGS TO DO" and i feel slightly stupid for not doing them, BUT, i have legit reasons. for example, for as long as i can remember, whenever i have gotten done with a test and feel like i did awful (which happened a lot) i would always tlel my friends that i failed that test. and then they would say they did too...and it would ALWAYS end up that i really did fail the test and they got like a B or an A. that ALWAYS happens to me. so with skydiving and bungy jumping, i realy think i would pass out--esp. with the skydiving. and then miss the whole thing. or possibly poop my pants. i could totally see that happening. and other people say they are gonna freak out, but ui know that that would happen to me. and that is my story for why i'm not doing that stuff. booyah!

before this trip, i couldn't decide of i was a beach or mtn. person. i liked both. i can now say i am def. a mtn person 100%. thats my thought of the day.

on that note, i think the absolute strangest part about being back in indiana (for hopefully 2 months MAX) will be the fact that there are NO MOUNTAINS. just slight hills. oh man thats going to kill me. i cant imagine no being surrounded by mtns after this. they just make me happy.

i think what i want to do when i get back is get a job, move somewhere, and when my lease goes up, i'll go travel some more. SE asia or S. America. i do recognize countries with foreign languages, thailand etc, will be a lot more difficult to travel around. i feel like if you came to NZ and had a hard time, you are a moron, this country mbasically maps out everything you should do. so if you can read, you will be fine.


if i got a job here, preferably in wanaka, i would move here ina heartbeat.

i'm SO excited for my bed. esp. my pillows. the hostel i'm in right now is the WORST hostel in NZ. just sucking it up for 3 more nights. in a room right now with 2 italian men and one american guy. 1 of the italian guys was snoring last night. i might kill him tonight. i have def. become a less fussy sleeper sincei have been here. at home, before, i couldnt have a light in the room--like the computer or anything. now i can fall asleep as long as there isno snoring. i feel like every both i have written has something about snoring. i hate it.

OHMIGOSH!! i met the MOST ANNOYING CANADIAN EVER! got on the stray bus and there was this chick who was on who was so god damn loud with the most disgusting voice in the world. its called the "woman who has the voice of a transvestite" voice. it was SO deep, and it sounded like she was 80 and a smoker. she was the kind of person who loved hearing herself talk, god knows why, but you could ALWAYS here her talk. i couldnt be in the same room with her. the part that ticked me off the most was the morning after i met her, she asked where i was from, then i said where are you from, and she was like " no the states, i'm canadian" the way she said it was like " ha ham, you thought i was american, but i'm canadian and we are better" i wanted to be like " Ohhh you must be the WORST canadian ever. please get a new voice box"

ehajksfhkjdsaf . gross.

another thing that happened at the hostel, which was realy scary...so i got to the hostel and went up to my room (we were all in a rush to ge tto the dolphin place) went in my room and there was this old man who was mumbling shit to me wavingme to get out of the room. i thought he was wasted. so i was freaking out, not only thinking that he seemed scary but that he was prob. a massive snorer and a drunk. so i freak out, and as i'm walking to the dolphin place i call the hostel, tell them to move my stuff out of the room and that i want to be switched to adifferent room. when ig et back from the dolphins they ask me why and i say i didn't feel comfy with that man. turns out he is a regular and has a horrible speech impediment!!!!!!!!!!! IM A BITCH!!!! so i end up staying in the room and 2 other girls wer ein there. we were all freaked out by him though--so atleast it wasn't JUST me. eww.

the hostel i stayed at in pictron (where the ferry leaves from ) was called the Villa...it was so damn cute!!! so cozy. loved it. they gave us free apple crumble at 8 and rang all these bells. HUGE line. was very excited for it and it turned out the crumble was AWFUL. they must have forgotten sugar or something. it tasted like vegetable crumble. but i ate it. duh.

so yesterday i took the ferry to wellington (wher ei am right now). i hadn't been onit yet andi never want to go on it again. i thought the ship was going to flip the F over. the waves were gigantic. going over the entire ship. it was out of deadliest catch. so scary. i was nervous the whole time. didn't puke but it ruined the rest of my day--felt out of it, head felt icky.

i could tell the difference between the n. and s. island immediately once i got off the boat. the people are different, eerything is different. i prefer the s. island---way more laid back. oh i miss it already.

ok, i have more to write but i so damn hungry right now and my hands are freezing for some reason. i just got my haircut. its pretty good, not the best, but wa better than was it was. starting to look like a 'non' backpackers, slowly but surely.

i'll write once more before i leave welly and possibly in taupo.

hope everyone is well!!! i can't believe i fly backj in a week. insane how fast this has gone. blink of an eye.

xoxo
mars