Holiday in New Zealand

Here i am sitting in a nice warm room in Kaikoura New Zealand as it is cool and drizzling outside. i am not in a hostel or a tent but comfortable on the bed of a really good friend from the states. Alicia and I worked at La Vida together along with john who also works here. they both work for creation care studies in new Zealand and Ali has been here for 3 years now. i flew in on saturday and an here for the week visiting and exploring their county side. Sunday we went to church and just hung out resting and getting tours of town and the old convent they live in. On monday (the only good day in the forecast) Ali and i lest and headed north-ish to Nelson lakes for a day and night of tramping (what they call hiking) we had amazing weather and hiked up a valley to a hut and had an amazing but windy ridge walk down the the car the next day and back to the convent in time for tea (in NZ and Oz tea can mean dinner) on our way to nelson lakes on monday we stopped off the side of the road and had about a 5-10 mon walk up la path to pa spot where mother seals drop their baby seals off for a day or two while they go hunt. the babies make there way up a stream to a pool and waterfall and play. there were SO many baby seals it was amazing an watching them i couldn't stop laughing. they have no legs! if you have ever seen a seal walk you will know what i mean. that is NOT what they were made to do. anyway after an early evening last night i got up today feeling good and refreshed. another girl who works here also has a friends visiting so while Ali was working me and the other visiting girl went on our own adventure. we drove over to a seal colony on the other side of town (still only about 10 min away) and took a walk along the coast. we saw a lot of seals, some sea anemone, 3 star fish and a suicidal cow. there was a cow farm on top of the cliffs we walked along and then down some stair and along the water back to the car park. at one point along the water we found a dead little cow that had clearly gotten out of the fence and jumped down the cliff. well he could have been pushed but i am no detective so i will not be making any calls here. after our walk we wandered in town and i got a few post cards then made our way back to the convent for a lovely lunch. I then got to feed some eels that live in the stream across the street with john. we dumped the fish guts from the fish john had speared the day before in the the stream and 4 eels about 2 ft long each came out and ate them. i then ran errands with john and got some NZ sheeps wool yarn and i am back here trying to start a hat and blog at the same time. its almost time for dinner then a night out with the staff. fire and NZ beers on the beach. looking forward to a wonderful remainder of my holiday week. i really like this place.