So I'm back in LA, but that's not important right now. What matters is that I haven't fulfilled my storytelling duties.

Sprang Brake

In the New Zealand university system, your spring break is two weeks long and is sandwiched between two six-week periods of earnest learning. I didn't even realize spring break was approaching, probably because hello it was August, but suddenly all the other international students were talking about going to Bali or Australia and I was like oh hey maybe I should think about this.

I briefly considered going to Thailand to meet roommate/stellar human Stella K Joh, but those plans completely unraveled within days. Don't worry about Stella Joh, though. She had a great time in Thailand. So did the mosquitos in her bedroom. Heh.

Eventually, Caitie and I managed to weasel our way into Chloe's family vacation. And thank God for that because the Hoods are some exquisite humans. For the first week, I stayed at my flat in Lincoln. During the day, the Hoods took us to tourist hotspots near Christchurch, and at night, Caitie, Chloe and I enjoyed a virtually empty Farm Road. It was fantastic. I could pee with the door open. Just in case you were wondering.

Stalking baby seals in Kaikoura

Over the course of the next week, we covered about 2300 km (1430 mi, greater than the distance between San Diego and Seattle) in an epic kiwi road trip lollapalooza.

The trek involved some very familiar faces, along with a fourth adventurer from Colorado, Lauren.

taking the nz roads by storm

We started in Queenstown and neighboring Glenorchy


And ventured to Milford Sound, a trip that took about 5 hours by bus each way with a 90 minute boat ride in the middle. It's only about 60 km away from Queenstown but the road was built in such a convenient way that the trip was lengthened to 287 km. Simply wonderful. 10/10 road.

worth it though

Look at this. Lovin life right here, what can I say. These were some great times, truly glad I can share.

The next day we busted a move north.

Chloe's ready to go

Four and a half hours later through mountains, forests, and coastline we reached Franz Josef Glacier.

this is what

driving in NZ

is like.

hi hi Mr. Franz, fancy meeting you in the middle of a forest

The next day we reached Nelson, gateway town to famed Abel Tasman National Park. Abel Tasman is an absolute must for all NZ goers. Unfortunately for us, spring in NZ = cold, rainy, windy, haily, etc.

It was sunny until we decided to go kayaking

We finally made our way back to Chch, exhausted but overall stoked about the fact that this is real life:

So should we go to Australia tomorrow or?

At Chch airport bright and early