Well, see ya later

Nine hours from take off! Stoked to go home, sad to leave (sort of, sometimes). Looking forward to not living out of a backpack, not sleeping on the ground and not eating hummous every single day.

After escaping the madness of the Christchurch area post-earthquake, we decided to do a leisurely section of the St. James Walkway, spend a couple nights in huts (to avoid spending money) and get in some quality reading and general peace and quiet. After dropping our bags at a motel it took us a very leisurely 2.5 hours to hitch the 15 km back to the trailhead. WTFFFFFFFFFFF?!?! On our way out 3 days later, ran into a couple from BC who had huge packs with a tent because they "come from BC and don't even like to see huts." Ok, have fun trampling down the native grasses and shrubs instead of sleeping on an actual mattress. I will definitely miss the hut system here and it would be sweet to see something like that set up in BC to minimize the impact of campers (especially of the drive onto the beach and light a huge fire and shit in the creek and leave our garbage everywhere variety).

Made it back to Nelson to spend a week on the farm of a couple who had picked us up hitching near the beginning of our trip. We brought the rain the first time we visited and after they'd had pretty much nothing but sun all summer, brought the rain again. Spent a night in the beauuuuuuuuutiful Marlborough Sounds at a campsite and decided to hitch out further and do some sightseeing. We saw the sights alright and spent 4 hours on the side of the road (one vehicle drove by) waiting for a ride back to our hammocks and sweet sweet food. Ended up walking an hour to a real end of the road backpackers where the owners ever so generously gave us a water taxi ride for half price instead of paying for the most expensive dorm room in NZ. And then I didn't get car sick on the road back out towards the ferry. Everything's comin' up Milhouse!

Stayed with some of the nicest couchsurfers yet after getting off the ferry on the North Island.  Back to better hitching territory, even when we tried hitching from a prison. Our first night we showed up to veggie lasagne, a clean comfy bed and breakfast the next morning. The next few days around the volcanos filmed for Lord of the Rings, we woke up to frosts each morning, but safe and snug with more couchsurfers, this couple letting us stay free in their rental accom that goes for $400/night in the ski season. Later we decided to try our luck and hitch around the east cape of the north island which has like NO people and therefore little traffic other than rich white old couples squinting at the signs to try and find their beachfront B&B. We knew it was rural when we got our second ride of the trip in the back of a pickup truck.

We'd been warned about hitching in an area with 80%+ Maori and similar levels of unemployment, but luckily it ended up being one of the most chilled and scenic areas we'd been to and it was a nice break to go only short distances each day and enjoy the sun and warm ocean swimming. Even saw the country's most active volcano, White Island, spewing smoke in the distance. Lucked out with the price of out of season accomodation as well ($12 each for 4 walls and a bed)!

Unlike the Coromandel peninsula, which had pretty pricey camp sites and nowhere to freedom camp. Some of the most brain explodingly gorgeous beaches I've ever seen though

and Dan got to surf again. After all the rain we got on the South Island and despite aggravatingly hot days on the side of the road, I'm going to miss sweet lady sunshine when we get back to Canada. If we'd visited at the beginning of our trip we would've shared the beach and the road with thousands of other tourists. Helloooooooo quitting your job and staying somewhere longer than everyone else. Did our final farm stay as well, which entailed more weeding than I thought humanly possible in only 4 days. But we did get to learn about amateur radio, which is weird, trippy, and super dorky.

-Amy