7 days in NZ

we've been in NZ for 7 days. it's beautiful here. we did zorbing (rolling down a hill in a huge plastic ball that has water in it), sky diving which wasnt as cool as i thought it'd be but i'm glad i did it, walks & hikes (i did a 7 or so hour one yesterday & my legs HURT), geothermal pools, tons of sight seeing. we're crossing from north to south island tonight at 3am with our van. pretty crazy idea to spend 3 weeks with 4 girls in one mini van. the back converts to a bed and then there's this white contraption on top of the van that rolls up and becomes a bed/sleeper thing. there's not really enough room for everything but we've figured out a system and it's our home. we're having fun but looking forward to Christchurch which is on the 25th or somewhere around there (we're spending Thanksgiving there) because Sarah & Lucy are staying with Sarah's friend and Nish & I are going to stay in a hostel for at least 1 or 2 of the nights. Space! we're really having fun though and seeing amazing things. i'm glad i came but i'll also be glad to leave. i miss australia and i miss home but i'm not looking forward to going back to australia for a day and definitely not looking forward to going on 15 + 6 hour flights to get back home. oh well...

we bought advent calendars today. they were only $3 for the chocolate kind... i feel like they're so much more expensive at home and NZ dollars are pretty much half US dollars. it's weird being away from home during holiday season. it's even weirder being in the southern hemisphere because it's summer (although NZ is pretty cold compared to Australia) and there's been Christmas decorations everywhere for weeks. There were candy canes in the super markets before halloween even happened. makes sense though cause they dont really celebrate halloween and don't celebrate thanksgiving. (i dont know if i wrote this here already.)

anyway, i just feel like rambling. i'm in a weird mood about leaving and home and other stuff but i think it's just cause i'm really tired right now.