14 days until I get sunburned

So I officially have 2 weeks left until I fly out from New Zealand. It feels strange to say that, but at the same time I can't wait to be home to see everyone for 10 days before I leave again. This has been an amazing time learning about New Zealand and seeing the country, but it has given me a different outlook on traveling extended periods of time. Considering the longest I have been out of the country is 3 weeks, this has been quite different. The common thought about the stages of emotionally reacting to travel and culture shock are in 4 stages. The length of stages for emotionally dealing with travel depend largely on whether one speaks the language, traveling companions, amount of communication from home, and who you are.

The first stage is the honeymoon phase. You love everything about this new place. The sights, sounds, smells, weather (maybe), and the food. This new place is the best thing since sliced bread. This is an easy stage to stay in New Zealand because it is so beautiful here. The people are lovely and there are very few things that you can't get at home.

The second stage is culture shock. This may come quickly when one does not speak the local language, but here in New Zealand is not a problem if you can hear through the accent. Culture shock doesn't have to be some big event or extremely stressful situation. It can creep up on you. It's a sly little monster.

The third and fourth stages are adjustment and acceptance. Then the whole cycle starts again when you return home. For each traveler there are differences in the stage when returning home and the best memories usually come from the honeymoon phase. The world just looks better through rose-colored glasses.

If you haven't guessed by now, I'm not exactly in the honeymoon phase. One of the aspects I think changes my outlook is that I'm not really coming home when I leave New Zealand. Arizona will be a quick stopover on my way up to Montana for my next rotation. One week in Arizona over 5 months. Yet another reason I am so excited my mom is traveling down here for my last week. It will be a great ending to an amazing trip.

I am looking forward to seeing as many people as possible during my short time at home!

Sickly few days :(

Unfortunately, I got sick and have been resting the past few days. I guess that is a price you pay for staying in a hostel and depending on people who are sick to clean their dishes properly. Oh well, it was a good excuse to relax all day and allow my body to heal.

The countdown has begun for my mom to arrive in 9 days! My time here the next week will be less interesting to people back home since I will just be doing some school work. I'm working out the details for my mom and I to see as much of the South Island in 6 days as possible. It will be a crazy trip, but tons of fun and lots of pictures.

Boulders, bikes, and birds

On our way up to Christchurch, we stopped by the Moeraki boulders to take a few pics. These boulders are perfectly round and just in this one location. We missed the entrance through the bushes to get back to the car and ended up walking through the sand for an extra 45 minutes. The first night we stayed in Oamaru and spent some time walking around the historical district. There is a bicycle group there with some old bikes on display as well as some other random displays courtesy of the town. The motorcycle pic is in honor of Brian's truck!
After exploring around Oamaru, we ventured out to find some penguins. The yellow-eyed penguin spot had been closed for several weeks because of some slips. Amie heard from her German friends that they had been out there to see the penguins just the week before and they had mentioned nothing about the path being closed. We decided that since they had done it and not even mentioned it was closed that it would be no big deal to make it out there . We hopped the fence and turn around the corner to find this:We thought that it would've been worth mentioning, but apparently this did not make an impression on the Germans. The viewing deck was close enough to see, but my camera does not make the photos very worthwhile. The penguin is waddling up the beach through the water in this photo. Good times in Oamaru!