Gills adventures

Hello everyone!
I am in Te Anau right now which is near the very bottom of New Zealand, having the best holiday ever! We left home on Feb. 7th and rode the bus to Wellington (about 8 hours). We spent the night at a backpackers right downtown and the following day exploring the city - me and my friend Marie Rasmussen rented rollarblades and went for a long journey around the warf - it was beautiful! I met Jerome from NZ (he used to live in Calgary) and he took me for a car ride around all the major points of the city and then out for food, it was great to see him again and catch up. 20 of us trainees caught the 6:00 ferry from Wellington to Picton that evening and got picked up on the other side by Pauline Norrish and her husband who are our tour guides for the next 2 weeks. We met the other 26 trainees who were already here at the backpackers and the party began! That was my earliest night so far - I think I was in bed by midnight. Will that ever happen again? Not likely.
The next morning we were up early getting sorted and loaded on the bus and drove to Kaikora where a bunch of people were going whale watching, seal swimming, seal kayaking, or just hanging out in the town. However, is was a foggy morning and everything but seal kayaking was cancelled. I spent some time walking around with Pauline and Mark and talking about Champion and how great my family and Canada is! From there we drove to Christchurch where we stayed at the YMCA for 2 nights. It was a huge YMCA with fitness centre, climbing wall, restaurant/cafe. Not bad at all! We had a welcome dinner that night at a restaurant - lots of fun, every country had to do a song. We did "Grand County Auction", all the Europeans think country music is the strangest thing.... Pauline said on the bus - "we have a cd player for the bus and we may even let the Canadian put on some country music some time. Like maybe once." We met the trainees who are placed on the south island this night and got to know them a bit. So many Danish ones.
When I say "we" I mean 45 trainees all of whom are placed probably within 3 hours of each other on the North Island. We are the ones who are together pretty much every weekend, and every moment we can when not working. It is such a great experience because we are such close friends. I don't think many people can say they have taken a 2 week holiday with 40 of their best friends..... it really is quite special and we are having a great time.
Spent a bit of time exploring Christchurch the next day - had a city tour in the morning then free time for the rest of the day. Eva and I went to the Cathedral, and the marketplace, and walked miles and miles that day. We met the others for dinner at this place where you order what kind of meat you want and they bring it to you on hot rocks on a plate and you cook it yourself! I ate Ostrich this night! It was good. From there we had a soccer game in Hagley Park. There were these two gothic type teenager guys in the park and they saw how much fun we were having and asked to join in and be our goal posts. Optimus Prime was one of their names and the other guy was Chris but he was the goal post for the girl's team so he was Christina. That night me and a few others had a fiasco with the laundry station at the YMCA which resulted in heaps of wet clothes having to be carted around for a few days, but other than that we just hung out, played a bit of cards, put shaving cream on the faces of people who fell asleep early - you know those sorts of mature antics.
The next day we headed to Mount Cook - the biggest mount in NZ. We stopped at the Moreaki Boulders on the way there. Unfortunately I was sleeping and missed the explanation of how and why the boulders look like they do, but they were amazing perfect spheres just sitting on this beach. It was a cold day but 4 of us swam anyways. We made it to Mount Cook that night and had a dinner of burgers at the camp site and played volleyball till dark. There is one french guy on the trip Fredrick and he plays guitar and sings so we listen to him pretty much every night - it's really good. Mount Cook is beautiful. The maori's call it something that means piercing mountain because it pierces the clouds - it was lovely.
From Mount Cook to Dunedin for 2 nights. I have heaps more to say but I have to go now because I am running out of internet time. ok bye