Health update before the good stuff.
I’m still alive! I guess things were a lot more dire than
I initially thought. (Mom and Dad, just skip to the next paragraph.) I mean I
knew a blood clot in my chest was not a good thing, but when you hear “pulmonary
embolism” and start googling, it gets kind of terrifying. For instance, the CDC
estimates that “sudden death is the first symptom in about 25% of people who
have a pulmonary embolism”. Ho. Ly. Shit. And if you don’t drop dead
immediately, it’s pretty much all downhill from there. I could even tell that
from my day of getting scanned and tested. At first my chest only hurt when I
was lying down so I felt totally normal sitting down for breakfast, but as the
morning went on my chest started hurting just sitting in the waiting rooms. It
got to the point where lying down for the CT was excruciating and I was almost
unable to take the necessary deep breaths. Fortunately I was in a medical
facility at that point, so I figured if something bad DID happen, help would be
like two feet away. Except that it was just a doctor’s office and not actually
a hospital, so I guess I still would’ve been f’ed.
Anyways, I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor
last Thursday, and after getting me from the waiting room she put her hand on
my shoulder and said, “I’m really happy to see you back here. You had us pretty
worried last week. I prayed for you.” As my friend Katie said, when the doctor
turns to God you know you’re not doing well! The doctor told me that I still
probably have a partially collapsed lung and a blood clot, but it’s too soon to
do another CT scan since they aren’t the greatest thing in the world for you. I’ll
have to get one in January before I come home, though, to make sure that I’m
fit to fly. The anticoagulants that I’m taking (and will be taking for the next
6 months) are slowly breaking down the clot, which is good, but as far as I
know it’s still there! None of the doctors had a clear cut answer about how
long it would take for the clot to go away and the lung to return to normal, so
I guess it varies drastically between patients. (I can tell the lung isn’t back
to normal when I try walking up even the slightest incline – immediate minor
pain in half of my chest.) The doctor also said that I’m not supposed to run or
do contact sports or anything because the clot might break free and start
roaming around my chest, and that doesn’t seem like a good thing. So basically,
for the first time ever, my doctor has told me to NOT exercise.
Oh yeah, and after 11 days I finally started pooping
normally again. You try not having a good poop for a week and a half and tell
me how YOU feel.
Upside from all of this? Buying travel insurance has
finally paid off, AND I got some cool scans of my insides! Here, check out my
heart.
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Back to my adventures in New Zealand!
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| Looking into Queen Charlotte Sound from Picton |
After my day trip to Abel Tasman I took a bus back to
Picton on 9/25. I had a couple hours to grab a coffee and sightsee on the
waterfront before catching a train – the Coastal Pacific – to Kaikoura. I
carefully planned my time in New Zealand so that I could take this trip,
because the 25th was the first day of the season that it was
running! I had a window seat on the ocean side – beautiful! I was sitting right
behind a very friendly guy named Bruce. He was too friendly. He talked to me
and the older couple behind me the entire 2.5 hours. I know I sound rude right
now, but he LITERALLY (and yes, I actually mean it in this context) did not
stop talking for longer than 30 seconds the entire time, except for when he
went to the café car for a beverage. He was clearly smart and educated and
chatty, but my god I wish there was an off button. I went to the open air car
for a while to take pictures and escape, but after 30 minutes I was frozen so I
went back to my seat. Bruce was standing in my row of seats and talking over
the chairs to the couple seated behind me. Come on, man, just sit down and
enjoy the scenery! There is no good way to tell someone to just stop talking,
especially when they are just being nice. I tried to ignore him by birdwatching
out the window, but he was persistent. Oh well, at least the scenery was nice.
We passed a massive seal colony just before Kaikoura –
there were HUNDREDS of them hidden on the rocks! I also got a quick glimpse of
what I think were spotted shags – they have crests, which is why I think that’s
what they were. The views were amazing, and it was hard NOT to take pictures,
which is why I now have hundreds of pictures to sort through. Fantastic.
When we got to Kaikoura I got picked up by Helen, the
owner of The Dolphin Lodge hostel I was staying at. I think I liked that one as
much as The Funky Green Voyager in Rotorua. This hostel was perfect for solo
travelers because it was really easy to hang out and meet people. The larger
hostels I’ve been in have had a lot more groups of people, so it’s more
difficult to mingle, but Helen even said she tries to avoid booking groups
because they detract from that dynamic, so that’s cool. I was in a 5-bed dorm
which had a decent amount of space, there was a nice cozy area by a fireplace
and a larger sitting area with windows on 3 sides with great views of the ocean
and mountains. There was also a hot tub on the deck, which Helen was very
diligent about opening up. I had such a nice time in the spas back in Rotorua
that I was really looking forward to this hot tub.
There were already three guys in the hot tub when I went
out, but they were all super nice and none of them actually knew each other
beforehand! Harry was Irish and had worked in Australia for a couple years
before ending up in New Zealand to travel for 9 months. Etienne was a French carpenter
and had arrived in New Zealand only a week before, but he was staying for
something like 9 months to a year and was going to look for construction work.
Andre was German and was finishing up his 5-week visit before heading to Sydney
for a week. I chatted with them for a while, and they invited me out for drinks
later. The difference between biologists and non-biologists: I heard “drinks
later” and thought that meant 6 or 7pm. They weren’t actually planning on
leaving the hostel until 8 or 9pm. I’d been going to bed around 10pm most
nights, and they didn’t want to LEAVE until 9pm?? Oh boy. But I put my big girl
pants on and had a fun night out. A few other people from the hostel joined us,
so we had a decent-sized group down at the only open pub in Kaikoura. It was a
really fun night!
I had planned to get up early and walk to the seal colony
on the peninsula, but I got a bit of a later start than anticipated. Of course
it was supposed to drizzle/rain for most of that day, so when I did finally get
up I had to get all decked out in my rain gear. The guys were awake when I
left, but they wanted to stay in and take it easy. The walk to the peninsula
was a lot longer than I expected. It was supposed to take almost an hour
without stops, but I was poking along and taking pictures, so it took well over
an hour. It was worth it, though – I saw some cool birds along the way
(Australasian gannet, white-faced heron, spur-winged plovers, and several variable
oystercatchers), some cute little seals by the road, and I stopped for what
turned out to be the best ham and cheese croissant sandwich I’ve ever had in my
life. Maybe it was the hangover talking, but it was the perfect combination of gooey
cheesy goodness and fresh flakey croissant. That thing gave me the strength to
walk for 8 miles that day. In the rain.
The seal colony was awesome – there weren’t as many seals
as in the one we passed on the train, but there were plenty and they were right
next to the trail and parking lot, or in the case of one tiny pup, walking
through it. There was a volunteer there to keep people a safe distance away
from the seals, which was a good thing, too, because people can be STUPID
around wildlife, despite the half a dozen signs warning people to stay at least
three meters away. It always seems that parents are the ones to ignore these by
making their kids go and stand by the dangerous wildlife. How about you first!
Anyways, from the seal colony I walked up the trail along
the cliffs and got some BEAUTIFUL views of the coast and the ocean. There were
a dozen different shades of blue (or was it 50 shades?), with the sun lighting
up the beaches below. There were a bunch more seals that covered the beach and
the rocks, with lots of seagulls flying around. I walked down to the breeding
grounds on the beach and saw a bunch of white-fronted terns, more gulls, and
some absolutely stunning views, even with the clouds and drizzle. It was hard
to convince myself to start heading back to town because it was such a
beautiful place with some amazing wildlife. I definitely wish I had stayed in
Kaikoura longer.
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| White-fronted terns |
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| White-faced heron with several Variable oystercatchers |
The walk back to the hostel was way more difficult than
walk there; up to that point I was feeling alright, but as soon as I started
walking back I noticed my legs were KILLING me. It took at least an hour to
walk back, if not more. When I got there the guys were all still on the couch
right where I left them hours earlier, haha! I had a little bit of time before
my train to Christchurch, so I changed, packed up my stuff, said my goodbyes,
and made plans to meet up with Harry and Etienne in Christchurch (they were
both heading there that afternoon as well, but Etienne was taking the bus and
Harry was hitching a ride with a couple in the hostel). Helen gave me a ride
back to the train station, and then I enjoyed a short but beautiful (and much more
peaceful) journey to Christchurch.
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