How do you know if you have heat stroke?

For some reason none of my pictures are uploading from the last week so I’ll either update these pages later or post on Facebook when I get back to the states.

Anyway, everyone’s leaving in 2 days…I’m not ready. What kind of cruel joke is this? Meet a bunch of strangers, spend 17 days living with each other and doing everything together, learning things about each other, becoming some type of family, only to all go back to your own countries and possibly never see each other again?? Not into it. Although some of the others are definitely ready to go back to their homes, I understand though, it’s been a lot. I just happen to like the constant go go go. But ya, we leave in 2 days, idk what I’m gonna do.

I believe we last left off in the cinema room watching Lord of the Rings? So I finished the movie without falling asleep for the first time ever. Pat on the back for that. And I even watched the 2nd one on the long drive to the Milford sound the next day! That drive was about 6 hours with some stops along the way. At one point we stopped for lunch and fed some alpacas. I don’t think anyone got spit at thankfully. We eventually made it to the Milford sound and we had to go through this tunnel that was just straight through this giant mountain, the history behind it was pretty cool. It was a little terrifying though, the thought of it just collapsing with us inside and all that. The views at the Milford Sound were really amazing but I have to say I was underwhelmed. I’ve seen views like that all around New Zealand. I guess I was really expecting the waterfalls to be super cool but they were pretty dried out soooo. 2nd wettest place on Earth my ass. Just kidding, it really is amazing when there’s actually water. I stayed in the boat most of the time since it was cold, wet, and windy, 3 of my least favorite things. It was fun still. The captain was pretty rude and passive aggressive to some of us, but then he showed me a video of a great white shark in those waters so idk how I feel about him currently.

After the Milford Sound we drove another couple hours to Te Anau where we staying for the night. I was pretty hyper at one point and provided entertainment to the rest of the group with my amazing dancing and all around awesomeness…at least thats what I’m telling myself. I didn’t eat so I kinda was picking off of everyone’s plates and eded up having a fulfilling meal of fries and cucumbers. Then I went down to the lake by myself to watch the sunset for a little while. I found a cool tree and some cool sticks and some really good skipping rocks. When I went back to the hostel everyone was getting ready for bed, I didn’t bother unpacking since we were leaving the next day. Aiden came in and told us a bedtime story about leprechauns. It was great.

The next morning we traveled to Wanaka but stopped at a few places along the way. Our first stop we went to a bird sanctuary and saw some endangered birds. It rained the entire drive. Most of the stops were Lord of the Rings locations but because it was raining we couldn’t do much. At one point Alex was showing us videos of the scenes from in the bus because nobody could be bothered to get out. We ended up stopping in the one cute little town for a couple hours after the rain had cleared up and some of us went shopping and then to lunch for the hours we were there. It was a very cute little town with amazing views. It was surrounded by mountains and greenery. I was under the impression that since I was an ADULT I could go off on my own and do some looking around but apparently thats not the case because after literally 5 minutes of being gone I started getting the “where are you” and “were looking for you” texts… So of course after that I kept going off on my own just to stress them out a little. Again, joking. We all got lunch and since I wasn’t hungry Ingrid and I split a Margareta pizza, probably our 5th one of this trip, and some fries. Very good. Then at 4 we all loaded back on the bus and headed to Wanaka. The sun doesn’t set here until about 9 every night so we always have so much time to do things. Wanaka was really pretty. Ingrid and I went for a little walk around the town and in the first 5 minutes we were asked for our numbers by a group of men…we pretended not to know English. Later that night we all played games at the hostel. We normally play mind games or mafia but tonight we played a game called out of the loop. It was a lot of fun. Ingrid, Lewis, and I all stayed up later than the others just asking a bunch of hypothetical questions. Great way to learn about people.

The next morning Lewis made breakfast sandwiches (and he did a great job BUT still not as good as my papas). Then we all headed to the lake to go kayaking. I’m an amazing kayaker I learned. We went to this little tiny tree which is apparently the most photographed tree in New Zealand…don’t know why. Humans are weird. Then we kayaked back and my wife Connie splashed me! She got me all wet which is just plain rude. So after Imi bought me something to eat (he owed me according to him, I’m not just having people pay for my food, I walked back to the hostel to change. Later on we went on a hike, it was steep, I was in pain. Apparently I need to go to the doctor because searing pain through your nose, eye, and ear “isn’t normal” and your heart “shouldn’t” flutter, but I think they’re full of it. I’m perfectly fine. Lewis said maybe it was altitude sickness but I’m not sure. Another said it was a hole in my nose…whatever that means. I think it just means I shouldn’t do hikes which sounds great to me. But anyway I just went at my own pace and anytime it started hurting I just stopped and rested. It was fie because I still got there like 2 minutes after the others. Alex, the manipulator he is, told me at the beginning of the hike that he was gonna tell. Story about an island you could see from the top and I was and the group was gonna chose who they believed but in order for us to do it I had to go to the top. Asshat. But just to be clear, I was getting to the top either way. I’m not gonna choose to go on a hike and then not get to the top. If I don’t want to hike to the top then I just wont go…like today…but we’ll get into that in a couple paragraphs.  So anyway I’m going to tell you the 2 stories now about this island you can see from the top called Ruby island and you can decide which one you think is the true story.

Story 1: During the prohibition in New Zealand people used this island to party and sneak alcohol onto. One of these people was a girl named Ruby. Ruby came from a family of drug dealers, which is obviously illegal to do. One night during a party on this island the cops took boats out to confiscate the alcohol, but Ruby thought they were coming for her because of her family so she grabbed a boat and sailed the opposite direction. She was never found and it is believed she drowned. Now at sunset you can see this red, ruby mist settle over the island and people like to believe it’s her ghost in a way.

Story 2: There’s a house on this island and years and years ago a family lived there who had a daughter named Ruby. They also had a dog. The dog died. So Ruby went to bury the dog but as she was digging she came across these bones. It kinda freaked the family out because they thought they were human bones, so they called the officials in and as it turns out they were actually the remains (fossils) of a prehistoric bird. This was an incredible find and is kind of what the town is known for and the reason the island is called Ruby island is because Ruby was the original one to find these bones.

I won’t tell you who told which story but I will say I told the true one knowing no one would believe me…and I was right, the majority voted in favor of Alex telling the real story. Rude. No faith. Also Alex and I have matching glasses.

A couple hours later some of us went Banana boating…we basically paid to be water boarded. It was not what I thought it was gonna be. I thought it was a boat pulling a floating device and all nice and fun. I guess in a way I was right because it was a jet ski pulling a floating boat…but it was not nice and fun. Okay, looking back now that I’m alive I can admit it was fun, but at the time I was drowning. At one point we had water just absolutely destroying us for at least 45 seconds. I couldn’t breathe, water went up my nose, it hit my face and I felt my jaw pop and that freaked me out, but everything was fine. Also…I dint fall off (and let go) once. I was the only one. I did fall off with everyone else right in the beginning but I was still holding on to the boat. My bottoms pretty much came off which is why I was very serious about not falling off again. The water was also freaking freezing. But I suppose it WAS a fun time.

When we got back to shore we were all gonna jump off the dock since we were already wet…but then we saw the eels. So instead Connie, Rachel, Aiden, Ingrid, Lewis, and I walked a bit further down and went swimming there instead. We went back to the hostel and showered afterwards then went to the food trucks around the corner. I got a really good burger from this French burger truck, they were listening to the lion king in French which was fun to listen to, and I like the way they said my name. We all ate together (well Lewis, Aiden, Ingrid, Rachel, and I did) and we learned that Lewis and Aiden would be down for male birth control and cramp simulators (don’t ask). Then we went and got ice cream by the lake. I got Hokey Pokey which is a New Zealand original I think? It was way better than I thought it would be. We went the playground and messed around for a little before heading back to the hostel to play some games. We played out of the loop again and this time my name got picked, everyone automatically gave away that it was me by the questions that were asked but it was so fun. Alex and I were partnered up since we’re each other’s pumpkin pies. Oh ya, Alex thinks he can do a southern accent…he can’t…but it’s soooo fun to hear. Then everyone else joined in on the southern accent and it was hilarious. After Out of the loop we played Mafia and I was chosen to be God since freaking Lewis killed me for no reason last game. Apparently I play a good God because they wanted me to do it a second time and BOTH times my mafias won. So not saying I’m the best or anything but…

Aiden made my dreams come true by reading The Wonkey Donkey in his Irish accent (I guess it’s not an accent since he is Irish but whatever). I had bought the book earlier just for this reason. It was better than I imagined. Everyone was crying of laughter by the end. 10/10 recommend.

The next morning we loaded back into our bus with Colin and headed for Mt. Cook. I was exhausted and since my wife wasn’t sitting next to me I used Lewis as a pillow and I slept for an hour probably. So did mostly everyone else. We made a couple stops along the way for pictures. We also stopped for food. I split a chicken pie and steak pie with Faith and also some avocado toast (So I don’t want to hear ANYTHING about me not eating for the rest of the day because I’ve already heard it from Connie, Lewis, and Alex) I don’t know why we don’t have pies like this in America…someone should look into that. Once of the places we stopped was the middle of the road. So we all basically played a game of chicken and would run out into the road to get pictures until someone yelled “CAR”. We had a pretty good system going by the end. It stressed Colin out though I think.

Mt. Cook was really pretty but I’ll admit that I was distracted the whole hike and couldn’t be bothered for part of it because as it happened, the hike was right in the of middle of the freaking Super Bowl. The wifi was spotty but I got to see the end o the halftime show (this is when I realized I didn’t know a lot of his songs because as Alex said “He’s old as shit”) and the entire second half. By the way, it’s Lewis fault that the 49ers lost. They were winning until he stopped watching. Just saying. Oh yay, the glaciers were really pretty by the way. It wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be considering they were snowy mountains surrounding us. I stacked rocks since I didn’t pack a lunch. I also didn’t pack water, so that was great. Oh ya, and I didn’t put on sunscreen. Don’t ask me what I was thinking because honestly I wasn’t. I was distracted by the game okay, thats my excuse. Also, I don’t freaking know what’s wrong with me but my shoulder really hurt on the walk yesterday so I put it into a makeshift sling which really helped. Of course that made people ask questions but I just said I was fine, because I feel like on hikes especially something always hurt and I didn't want to be THAT person that always complains. But then they found out at the end of the hike that I was in fact not fine and my shoulder did hurt and they were “mad” at me. In a joking way. Well in a way that was like “how dare you not tell us, but also please tell us next time”. Alex says I was gonna have a heat stroke since I was probably dehydrated and hadn’t eaten or worn sunscreen so he made me drink this disgusting drink (it was water and electrolytes) but I’m fine. They’re all just being dramatic. My face is a little burnt though. BUT Connies whole body is burnt sooooo, I’m not the only irresponsible  one.

When we got to our new hostel here in Tekapo the niners had just lost and I was sad for them. I didn’t feel right for a couple hours, not because of that, but I think I was definitely dehydrated and a bit hangry. So I kept to myself for a while. They all made dinner together but the thought of food made me sick so I pretended to eat then snuck upstairs to the media room. I know that means I SHOULD eat, but I just couldn’t be bothered. Sorry mom. Sorry nana. Sorry Connie. Sorry Alex. Sorry Lewis. Anyway, I thought I had found Mamma Mia in the DVDs but turns out it was just the bonus track. That was a let down. So I stated watching the Princess Bride instead. Everyone went for Ice cream and then went down to the lake. I didn’t join, until I did. I found Aiden, Emmett, Sinead, and Connie and we all went on a walk and eventually ended up with the rest of the crew. Connie and I found these hand rails that we tried scooting down…It didn’t work well. When we found the rest of the crew they were already drunk as shit sitting on a rock. I stacked rocks again. I’ve gotten pretty good at it.

We went back to the hostel and everyone chilled for a bit. I went back in to finish the movie while the rest of them played pool and cards. Around 10:30 Ales took us all to stargaze by the church across the lake. Tekapo is one of the best places in the world to see the stars. It was amazing. Paula and I stayed behind for a minute or two after the group left so we could watch in silence. It was great. At this point I was painfully hungry so we went back to the hostel where everyone was hanging in the kitchen I got into the breakfast stuff. The others also made popcorn, it was actually really good. Connie was a tattle tale and told Alex I hadn’t finished my electrolytes or eaten…So I told him that she didn’t wear sunscreen and was really burnt. Yes we’re both adults, no we don’t care. We were all supposed to go up and play games but then half the group ditched us, then Alex ditched us, so Connie and I decided everyone hated us and went to bed.

I hope you all know half of the things I write in here are sarcastic or over dramatized. Please don't take any of this seriously.

ALSO people are starting to keep secrets. I know there’s been drama in this group (not like between any of US, just in general) but I thought we were past this. But no, people are lying and keeping secrets and I am NOT into it.

Okay thats all. Everyone’s on a hike right now except some of us aren’t. Me included. So I’m gonna get dressed and ready and probably go with Connie to find some food. Love you!