Margaux Rhymes with Fargo

Since my mother is currently working as a doctor in New Zealand, Will and I along with my brother jumped on the chance to visit her for a few weeks during the summer months.

Days it took me to write this post: 41

Technically we got back on March 9th, so I’m only a little over a month behind…

Spiders killed during a single 3-hour kayak trip down the river: 12

I counted. I kid you not. You’d think that once you kill a few spiders on a kayak, you’re good to go for a while, because it’s in the water and all. Not true. And we all know how much I like spiders.

Total spiders killed during my stay (approximate): A million gazillion

Clearly this is an overestimate; it’s probably more in the two zillion range.

Total hours of travel to get from my house in San Francisco to my mother’s house in the middle of nowhere: 18

This is more hours than I’m usually awake, but it’s better than that one time it took me 44 hours of straight travel to get to my hotel in India.

Total hours spent on a plane: 27

I’m counting the little helicopter hop we did in order to explore an active volcano.

Hours from touchdown in Auckland until I got sunburnt: approximately 5

Which is impressive because we landed at 7am.

Times there were cows in the middle of the road: 1

I swear, you never actually see the cows moving, but you turn around and turn back and they magically appear somewhere else. It’s crazy business, kinda like those flying cows from France.

Times we ate ice cream at Blueberry Corner: 5

Which is just about the cutest name for an ice cream shop.

Times we had some sort of zucchini for dinner: 9

Out of 13 dinners, that’s pretty impressive. Check out the size of these things, grown in my mother’s backyard.

Number of days I wore a bathing suit: all of them

We literally went to a beach/river/hot spring every single day. Did I mention how awesome New Zealand is yet?

Number of hobbit holes we saw in Hobbiton: 44, plus the Green Dragon pub

Minutes to bike around the whole town: 15

And that’s if you go the long way.

Minutes to the beach by bike: 7

More like ten if you’re moseying along like Will. Still pretty good though.

Hot springs experienced: 3

New Zealand is on the famed Ring of Fire in the Pacific and has a lot of geothermal activity, which saavy businessmen basically turn into giant pool-sized hot tubs. We did go in one natural spring, which fed right into a cold river such that you could choose your own temperature by moving closer to or further away from the hot spring. It was pretty cool.

I’m sure lots of other fun things happened, too, besides the spiders, obviously, but I’m terrible at taking photos of it all. Thanks to Will and my mother for taking most of these.