There's a little town called Kaikoura on a peninsula on the east side of the South Island - I happened to be there this weekend. My parents used to shake their heads in disbelief when I wasn't floored by all things natural, like the Grand Canyon, or the even Mount Rushmore. But as I walked back to town from Kaikoura's outlying seal colony (where I almost stepped on a very large, very angry seal, to one little girl's amusement), I actually stopped in the middle of the street to let it sink in.

It's not that its unlike any other place on earth. It's more like it's a compilation of a little piece of everywhere. The turquoise sea of the Caribbean. Deeper blue waters like Lake Michigan. Green squares of pasture land like Ireland's countryside. Purple-ish hills like the Smokies, and snowcapped peaks a la Flagstaff or Colorado.

Some beaches have pancake rocks, some are rocky, others have black sand. The flowers remind me of Hawaii - all colors, shapes I've never seen before. Except the snapdragons - those we have in the F-Go. But have you ever seen lilies not brought in by a florist? In Kaikoura, they grow in the roadside ditches. I've never seen such a variety of birds, it's like being in the middle of a rainforest.

A fun fact I've learned is that there was no wildlife except birds when NZ's islands were first discovered. Everything that's here was introduced. That's why some of the birds here don't fly - they didn't need to. There are no chipmunks or rodents running through the forests, which, after growing up in the Midwest (where my brother and I trapped mice in paper bags for fun on camping trips - don't worry PETA, we let them go), is sort of weird.

One sad result, though, is that the nation's deer are raised strictly for food purposes - and they're kept in fenced-off farmland. It sort of broke my heart to see deer in pens. I've only ever seen deer caught by surprise in the woods, or the second before they're being worn by a car or - I just had a terrible flashback - hanging in my uncle's garage to be carved into meat chunks (sorry PETA). They're usually stunned still at the sight of people. Here they have the same lives as sheep or cows - eat, sleep, repeat, and humans don't seem to bother them much.

Anywho... enough waxing poetic. Other reasons Kaikoura was a blast: Went swimming with the dolphins. I tried to do this in the Bay of Islands, but there were babies in the pod, so we couldn't go. Imagine boating out to sea 20 minutes, jumping off the back of the boat and being surrounded by two dozen wild dusky dolphins. You see their fins above water, then they just fly above, below, all around you - if you make eye contact and swim in a circle, they'll circle too. If you dive, they come to check you out. I would guess they were within 1-2 feet of me, although it's hard to tell - snorkel masks sort of fuck with your depth perception, and you're not allowed to reach out to touch them, a rule I had to fight human nature to follow.

The next day the whale watch boats were full, but I had a mission; my firstmost NZ goal was to see a whale, I said I wouldn't go home if I hadn't seen one. So I went by plane, and it was also amazing. We found several sperm whales, really far out - I bet the boats would've had to turn around before they found them, so I lucked out. We found one and circled it, then it dove and three more popped up. From the air, you see its whole body - they sort of look like pickles, with tails. It seriously astounds me that there are creatures like that out there, swimming around, taking no notice of all the shit that goes on on land. I heart whales.

One good thing about being a solo traveller: As a lone soul, you get to sit up front with the pilot, not in the back rows with all the couples and families. Ha ha, chumps.

Yet another observation about NZ that makes me laugh: Several times a week, I encounter people walking down the street barefoot. The first guy I saw my first week here, I almost laughed out loud, because I made up a story in my head (you guys do this too, right? ...right?) that he was a hobbit extra and just never wore shoes again. He was walking his dog down the main drag of downtown. But I've seen people barefoot in the supermarket, barefoot in museums... it's so bizarre. Granted, it's not the norm, but at least once a week I see someone sans shoes.

I was super frustrated with work tonight, and wanted nothing more than a rowdy happy hour in a pub and someone to listen to me complain. Instead I went running, to the grocery store, and home to watch bad tv. This routine has gotten old. Weekends are fantastic, cause I get to travel and get out of the city, but coming back is depressing. One in three Kiwis live in Auckland, but it's sort of the armpit of the country. Well, ok, even the armpit of NZ is pretty good-looking, but it'd be the last place I'd want to live if here. I also hit up Christchurch this weekend, and that's such a cute little town, with streetcar tracks and an amazing arts complex and almost-new art gallery and enormous botanic gardens. Makes you wonder what the appeal is here...

A brief list of other fantastic NZ things:

The Hokey Pokey | No, not the dance. It's a flavor, duh. They have hokey pokey ice cream, hokey pokey biscuits, hokey pokey cookies. Apparently, that's what it's all about.

NZ fashion | Heavy sarcasm implied - I wish I had some paparazzi stealth in me, I could supply trashy women's mags with "Don't" pics to last for years.

Tea breaks | Brought up by a mom and grandma who drink tea every night, I love this. Speaking of... I'm going to put a pot on, if you'll excuse me...