Dunedin, New Zealand - Polarsteps

Woke up a bit extra early to catch the sunset out at nugget point this morning. It was quite lovely. Cooked breakfast oatmeal while the day began. I awoke with a bit of an attitude today. My knee was seriously hurting and I couldn't really find a way to walk that did't hurt it. Also, it seems as though if I am down even in the slightest, Pete is in chipper chipper "let's go run 30 miles" or "I can conquer the world" mood. Our vibes were clashin hard though all the screaming and sass was always the genuine loving kind ya know. Pete took the drivers seat and north we went to meet up with my lovely Vermont friend Jordan in Dunedin!! So funny story. Pete and Jordan have somewhat known each other for the entire semester. Whenever Peter posted his photos, naturally Jordan liked every single solitary one that I was in. This lead to over 30 facebook notifications from Jordan on Peter's phone on the regular. This lead Peter to befriend Jordan on facebook an like all of her profile photos from the past few months, maybe even years. For the remainder of the semester, they kept up the like button clicking. There was even a poke war at one point and the like war even switched platforms and became an instagram battle. Peter was, and still is, convinced that Jordan is his soul mate (2nd to me, of course) so we were a bit excited to see her cute lil face. After a quick coffee, we pulled up to her friends flat were we met all her mates and had a good chat for a bit. We all hopped in the van/car and headed for a day hike. After a few wrong turns, Peter had to back the Juce down an very steep, dirt backcountry road, which he executed perfectly I must say. Cheers mate, I knew you could do it. Pulled in at the Organ Pipes carpark. After a quick uphill walk/climb we were greeted by a glorious view and some super cool rock formations which looked a lot that organ pipes, obviously. Had some great laughs at the top of the mountain for a bit. Met Tess, a super cute ballsy ass hyper mountain dog. Headed down and back into the city where the 3 of us discussed Jordan and Pete's future marriage arrangements and told some great stories from our amazing semesters while checking out the winter festival. I was very glad I got to see Jo for a bit and catch up. We had to head out that night so we could reach Mt. Cook for our last night in Jucy. Like I said, reoccuring gas theme here, we left town then had to turn back in order to fill up. This ended up being a very, very smart decision on our part cuz there wasn't any civilization for most of that drive. Stopped by the ocean and cooked up dinner. Also went onto the beach later on to check out the Moreaiki Rocks. We heard about them from a friendly gas station Kiwi and even though it was dark, we thought it was still worth it to head out there and see them. So these rocks are like very circular, like little globes all over the beach. Pretty neato. I have to say that my favorite part of the rocks had to be when pete was walking along the tops of them and he jumped off into what he thought was sand... It was actually a massive puddle, which substantially soaked his running shoes and pants immediately. Had a g r e a t laugh at that of gosh. We had to sweat in the van for a while after that while he blasted the foot heat into his shoes. The rest of the drive was quite peaceful. Saw some deer run across the road ahead of us, some with massive antlers. Pulled off the road to sleep about an hour outside of Mt. Cook so we could enjoy the scenic drive into the park in the morning. Wrote up a few of these blogposts before passing the heck out. Highlights of today: - Drove from Hillside to Nugget point with the lil side door open, which contains the propane tank. How it didn't fall out on the bumpy and twisty road up to the lighthouse I got no idea but #blessed - Jordan in all her gloriousness - The actual meeting of Jordan & Peter - Pete's puddle jump - Sketchy campsite visits.. seriously looked like something straight outta a murder movie - Chill playlist makes Jamie cry - Suicidal bunnies make a reappearance