Tough Farewells

Volunteering has ended and it is now time to experience even more sites and thrills of the great NZ. Thursday morning was an early rise, well, earlier than normal. Out the door by 7. Load our bags. Double check the rooms. Make sure all was clean. And off we go.

It was about an hour ride to Greymouth, where Sam would drop us off to board the west coast shuttle back to Christchurch. It was tough for all of us to say farewell to Sam. Throughout these past few weeks, he not only taught us so much about the Punakaiki site, but about New Zealand's natural landscape and habitats. But perhaps most of all, he taught us that if you love something and it makes you happy, then that is enough. Working for CVNZ has been apart of Sam's life for the past seven or so months and he is happy. He loves his job, his new little sanctuary up on the hill overlooking the site, and the reason he is doing it. I don't think you could ask for much more.

So, after a much needed group hug, we headed to Christchurch. With my new friends right around me and an amazing project leader laughing and joking just as much as us, it was a good ride. After a bus ride of four or so hours, we arrived in Christchurch and we finally made it to our resting place. Now, I have never been in a hostel before because, well, really I don't need to stay in one at home, but this hostel was nice. Not smelly, scummy, or anything you might expect for how cheap a stay it is for backpackers. It was great.

After a few moments rest, we headed off through Christchurch to see some sites and hit some stores. We walked in about 20 souvenir shops all selling essentially the same thing...and you know, its funny, even though they all sold the same, we would walk in pick up the same thing we picked up in the store before and tell everyone how cool it was that we found something genuine. It's a foreign country and we are tourists, what do you expect.

After some shops, we headed to the botanic garden to have a walk around. It was beautiful. Signs saying what every plant was and HEY! an old friend! there was some flax. Boy did we feel at home, well home at Punakaiki at least. After hugging some trees to show everyone I really am a proud tree hugger, we headed back to meet up with Kristina to grab some fish and chips for dinner. Apparently that's the thing to do in NZ, so of course we had to try...well, not so much the meat portion for me, but the chips were good.

After our night in the hostel, our bus picked us up at 7:30 and we were off to Chirstchurch airport. It was another difficult good bye with Kristina. We all got extremely close to her during our two weeks volunteering and learned so much from her. Personally, for me, she showed me that a life of traveling and doing whatever job you thought interesting at the time could be a life of success. She was happy and you could tell. Again, how much more successful could you be.

We headed to our gate where we met up with the other south island volunteer group. Boarding time was around 9 am and from that point on, adventure tour had started. Another two weeks of amazing adventures.