Akaroa

Hello friends and family! Thank you all for your e-mails, calls, facebook messages, etc. regarding the earthquake. I am safe in the small beach village of Akaroa, which is about a 90 minute drive from Christchurch. I hitchhiked here from Blenheim, where I was hanging out for the past couple days, drinking wine and waiting to hear from my friends Alisha and Matt about whether they were staying in Christchurch (where they live) or going to stay somewhere else. Alisha told me yesterday that since they had no power and no water in Christchurch, they were going to stay with family in Akaroa, so I decided to come down and meet them.

This morning, my couchsurfing host, Sonya, dropped me off in Blenheim at a good hitchhiking spot, across the street from Montana Winery. I was stoked because I figured this way, if no one picked me up, I could run across the street and go wine-tasting. However, I didn't have time to taste any wine because less then a minute after Sonya dropped me off (seriously, I think it was less than 20 seconds ... I hardly had time to pick up my backpack), a car pulled over and the driver told me she was headed to Christchurch. I was surprised because I didn't think many people would be going there post-quake, but I happily threw my bags into her SUV and got in. I stuck out my hand and said, "Hi! I'm Marie!" She gave me a confused look and then said, "You're Marie? You're kidding. I'm Maree!" Needless to say, we got along great! Maree (two E's but pronounced the same) lives in Auckland and she was driving down to Christchurch, where she grew up, to pick up her elderly parents. She was soooo nice! She stopped along the Kaikoura coast so I could take pictures of the seals, and when we stopped for provisions (milk and batteries, since the stores in Christchurch were reportedly out of those), she picked up a box of chocolate biscuits for us. They were delicious! She also offered to let me stay with her in Auckland, and said I can probably stay with her sister in Perth when I go there next month. 

Maree dropped me off in west Christchurch. We were far from the city center so I didn't see much damage, other than some fences that had fallen down, and silt that had come up out of the cracks on the road. I went to the store and bought some tea and a box of muesli bars. I put the bars in my backpack and ripped apart the box to make a sign that said "AKAROA." I walked a couple blocks up the road and held out my sign. It was my longest hitchhiking attempt yet; I was out on the road for almost ten minutes before someone pulled over. The car was completely full -- five people in a five-seater, and the entire back of the car full of suitcases and backpacks. I wasn't sure if they were pulling over to offer me a ride but the driver yelled to me so I ran up to the car and saw the three people in the back seat squeezing over to make room for me. How nice is that!? The driver, Ken, was a man from England who has lived in Akaroa for the past eight years. In the car with him were two friends visiting from England, and a young couple from England/South Africa -- I'm still not clear whether they knew him already or if he picked them up hitchhiking as well. Either way, everyone was very nice and Ken dropped me off right on the main street of Akaroa, two blocks from the hostel (Chez La Mer) where I ended up getting a bed for the night. I continue to be thankful for all my good hitchhiking luck, and so grateful to all the kind Kiwis who have helped me get where I want to go. =) 

On the day of the earthquake, I was planning to hitchhike from Nelson to Christchurch but I got a late start after deciding to walk into town for a bit (I got lost of course). When I finally left The Customhouse (the awesome hostel where I was staying in Nelson), I had to walk about half a mile to the spot where I could hitch south. While I was walking, I got a text from Alisha, telling me there had been two massive earthquakes. I was standing out on the road for a couple minutes when a car pulled over and the woman in the passenger seat said they were heading towards Havelock. I asked if that was on the way to Christchurch and they said, "You don't want to go to Christchurch! They just had a big earthquake!" I told them I knew about it but I still planned on going there. They said they would take me to Havelock with them and on the way there we listened to the radio and found out that the earthquake situation was actually quite serious. I was beginning to think that maybe Lee and Richard (my hitchhiking angels who, along with their two children are the only family that lives on Maud Island, a bird sanctuary in the Marlborough Sound) were right and I shouldn't go to Christchurch. When they dropped me off in Havelock, it was raining and I needed to get on the internet so I went into the town's only hostel and spent the next three hours using the computer, talking to my parents on the phone, and watching the news reports about the devastating earthquake. =(

Thankfully I knew my friends were okay, but it was so sad to watch the TV footage and see the collapsed buildings and know that they must be waiting to hear news about their own family and friends. As it was starting to get dark, I realized I had to get on the road -- or commit to spending the night at the YHA in the tiny town of Havelock. The rain had let up for the most part so I decided to try to hitch to Blenheim, about 40 minutes away. I had passed through Blenheim a few days earlier when I hitchhiked from Picton to Nelson, and I had seen all the glorious vineyards and thought, "I really hope I get a chance to come back here." After a couple minutes on the road in Havelock, a truck driver named Pete stopped for me and said he was on his way to Picton but he would drop me off at the turn-off to Picton and then I'd only be about 15 minutes away. I wasn't sure exactly where I was going to end up, but it sounded better than staying put so I climbed up (way up! those semi trucks are tall!) and after a few minutes, Pete said he was actually going to take me all the way to Blenheim! =D He dropped me off in the center of Blenheim, and even got out of the truck and lifted my bags down for me. What a nice man! I called one of the hostels in my BBH directory (Copperbeech) and the guy there said they had a bed available -- and even offered to come pick me up! The hostel was nice and clean, and I shared a 4-bed room with two friendly German girls. We had our own bathroom, laundry was free, and the bed was the most comfortable bed I've slept on in weeks! While I was there, I decided to stay in Blenheim another night or two, but I didn't want to spend any more money at the hostel (as great as it was), so I sent out a couchsurfing request to an American couple named Sonya and Sam. 

The morning I checked out, I received a message back from Sonya who said she currently had two other girls (also Americans) staying in the guest room but I was welcome to stay on the couch if I wanted to. Of course I wanted to! I wrote back and told her I would make my way to their house after I did a walking wine tour of Blenheim. Her house was a few miles away in Renwick and I wasn't sure exactly how I would get there, but I was more concerned about getting some wine so I set off -- with all my bags -- in the direction of the closest winery, Wither Hills. It was a long walk with my 18 kg of gear (especially because I took a small detour to the Marlborough Museum and checked out their Wine Exhibition), 

but I finally made it to the winery and I felt like I really deserved that wine. 

After Wither Hills (I loved the sauv blanc and pinot gris), I walked even farther to the next winery, Villa Maria. Their wine was good (but not as good as Wither Hills) and the tasting room was full of Americans. I talked to a couple from New Mexico, and the tasting room attendant who was from Texas. Then I started walking to the third winery, Highfield, but after about ten minutes, I decided I was tired of walking, dropped my smaller bag, and stuck my thumb out. A sweet man whose name I can't remember picked me up and drove me to Highfield. The tasting room attendant was a nice Hawaiian girl; I couldn't believe how many Americans I had met in the past few hours. We were talking about our experiences in New Zealand and she asked me if I was staying at a hostel or with friends in town. I told her I was staying with some couchsurfers. She laughed and said, "Wait, are you Marie??" It was Sonya, my couchsurfing host! I probably should have guessed when she told me she was from Hawaii, but I guess my brain was fried from trudging around town all day. I was happy this nice, wine-pouring girl was my couchsurfing host, and even happier because I didn't have to walk to her house or find a ride! =) I stayed two nights at Sonya's with her other two couchsurfers, Jillian and Winlee. I did some more wine-tasting with the other girls yesterday while Sonya was at work. Sonya let us use her car so we didn't have to walk, and we hit up four wineries (Grove Mill, Serasin, Clos Henri, and Te Whare Ra) and a chocolate factory! Okay, I'm very tired and I feel like I've taken advantage of the hostel's free internet for long enough so I'm going to stop here. I'll write more when I can. Good night!! =)