in the ranges

today was pretty cool, and by far the most adventurous so far. my mate and i decided to go into the ranges ( i.e. the jungle or bush) by biking into them. we biked all over the place, up and down hills, through the woods, off trail and on and it was really super awesome. the bush is pretty crazy, just really thick jungle and today it felt like a jungle to: hot and humid. i think that the best way to explain it is just sticky, the type of hot in which your clothes start to stick onto you and then leave trails of sweat, point is, it was hot. But that didn't stop us at all as we biked and tramped all over the place. i definitely should have brought my camera, but i'll try and explain the scenery as well as possible.

at first, we just biked down the road into the 'foothills,' thick jungle on both sides, and a river running right to our left (haha). but soon came time to ditch the bikes in the bush and head out into the real ranges. (ranges are the equivalent of the mountains). upon wandering aimlessly through the thick jungle we came upon a field of extremely tall grasses. this grass was easily a foot or two over head and there was no direct pathway through it. so we continued on as the large thick grass (which was starting to get wet, that's how humid it was) turned into large purple, orange and white flowers. it felt like we were in alice and wonderland sort of. just walking through these huge bushels and sects of giant grass and flowers. it was pretty awesome to say the least.

eventually, i guess we made a loop and because we found ourselves back at the bikes shortly after that. by this time we were getting pretty hungry and got on the bikes, heading out for a dairy (small shop) about 2 miles away. by the time we got there the sun and heat had taken its toll on us and we were dehydrated and starving; and everyone knows that when your starving the only thing that can truly fix it is a New Zealand meat pie. It is possibly the greatest invention of all time and it filled us right up.

after eating, we got back on the bikes and headed out again into another stretch of the ranges. this time we hit a good biking trail that carried us all the way through the bush for about a mile and a half. it was cool, the jungle was thick and there were a couple big pairs of butterflies hanging around by this river bank were we stopped to take a break. but the trail ended and took us back to the main roads.

But we weren't done yet.

We followed the main roads up and up until all that we could see was huge stretches of vast farmland and empty jungle. it honestly looked like a postcard at times. massive green hills expanding into deep jungles and rivers, with plenty of sheep and horses around as well. and, as it turns out, it was all of 10 minutes from my house. 

All in all, i'm adjusting into life in New Zealand (people just call it nz [pronounced n zed]) and i can definitely tell that it's getting easier to accept the fact that this far away from home. tomorrow is technically my last day of summer, but i'm ready for school and i'm ready to do a lot here in the next 6 or so months. i guess i'm really excited to see how this will all play out. But for now, i'm going to take it day by day and enjoy every moment i have in this particullary beautiful country.

but i'm pretty tired from my ride today so i think i'll go to bed