So it just seems to be the way things go that none of the girls here ever know when they'll be
leaving until at least three weeks before hand. I may have set the record with 6 days. After an amazing trip hitchhiking around the South Island, Justin and I returned to Mel and Connie in Blenheim. To be able to put our backpacks in a car and then drive wherever we wanted was great fun after the past two and a half weeks.

I am so happy that Justin and I got a chance to hitch around the island. Hitchhiking is really common here so there isn't really the same stigma as at home. We never had too much trouble getting picked up- our record was when the person two cars behind the one that dropped us off picked us up. On a few occasions we had to wait an hour and a half maybe, but never more than that. I enjoyed the experience of talking with all the different drivers. There definitely isn't a specific type of person who usually picked us up. A few times we even had drivers who swore they never usually stopped for hitchhikers. It must be our roadside charm. Or the juggling.

After a short trip to Stewart Island and a wonderful reunion for me with Dunedin, (I love that city) Justin and I headed out to Purakanui for one last day of climbing. We were picked up by a lovely woman, Justine, and her daughter, Izzy. I sat in the back and talked with Iz, who has bright red ringlets and a maturity far beyond her 6 years, while Justin and Justine talked in the front seats. I'm not sure what the two of them discussed because I was absorbed in a serious story, complete with hand diagrams, about the neighborhood Izzy lived in. Justin managed to catch my attention and asked if we wanted to accept the offer to stay with Justine and Izzy in their spare bedroom. Hmmm... sleep in a bed in a warm house with amazing people, or haphazardly find a place to put up our tent... I'm in. The house was wonderful and we had a great time cooking dinner, playing on the trampoline with Izzy, meeting Blondie the pig, and talking with Justine after dinner. In fact, we loved it so much that we readily accepted the offer to stay another night.

In the middle of all this I was exchanging emails with potential employers for possible job offers for leading work crews in the backcountry. One starts in early April and the other in mid May. I decided that if I were going to come home then start a job where I would be even more isolated from contact with people than I am right now (and all of you thought I was hard enough to get ahold of already), I would want to spend some time at home first.

Our last day of hitchiking was a great accomplishment: Dunedin through Christchurch all the way to Blenheim. We even were picked up by a truck driver, something I thought was never going to happen. We then met up with Mel and caught the ferry to the North Island. We stayed with Danielle for a night (which was every bit as wonderful as she said. It was great to see where she's been living this whole time. We all really liked the family and are so happy for her) then drove off in the wee hours of the morning to pick up Mel's dad and brother from the Auckland airport.

So here I am. Justin flew to Australia this morning after a great month here. I now have a day and a half to enjoy myself in Auckland before I hop on a plane tomorrow night to fly home. TOMORROW NIGHT. What? Am I leaving this wonderful country tomorrow???

I guess that it feels right, though. I'm excited to be (hopefully) getting a job that I'm really passionate about. I could happily continue traveling for a lot longer... living out of a backpack, sleeping on my trusty Thermarest, brushing my teeth in public bathrooms every night- in fact I'm basically signing up for another 5-9 months of it if I get this job that I'm applying for. The main thing that I think I'm ready for is to have a purpose again. I think that I'm ready for some serious work after living such a carefree lifestyle. This trip has had a lot of different sections- traveling around with different combinations of the five original girls and all of our different visitors (Mt. Cook with the Egges, Hokitika to West Coast to Wanaka with my sister and the Martins, climbing tour with Justin), staying with all the WONDERFUL families who invited us into their homes, meeting up with other travelers from all over, and meeting Kiwis who showed us around.

It seems fitting to me that if I can't spend my last two days driving around with Lauren, Danielle, Megan, and Mel, then there's no way to do it other than by soaking up that last part of New Zealand by myself.