"One by one the hobbits drifted off to sleep." ~ JRR Tolkien

 Basically, this post is about lambs and an island. But it starts with a story about why I love my feet.

Starting with a story...

When I came here, I was in awe of my feet. I still am. But in particular, recently, there's been a significant amount of love for them.

Last January, I ran as fast as I could, barefoot, down a street near my house.

The cause of the running is irrelevant.

A few days later, I noticed a couple red blotches, matching, on the bottom of my feet, near the balls. I knew what they were from, but not why. It was obvious there was blood sitting there. It was perhaps in between a blister and a callus.

They weren't painful, but I didn't like them any more for that.

As a kid, doing Irish Dance meant my feet often had blisters and were sore. In fact, it was very nearly expected that if I didn't have blisters, I wasn't practicing enough, or with enough effort. I had massive calluses on my feet in random places. While I didn't play basketball for as long as I danced, it was also a source of pain for my feet.

Last January, these reddish spots on my feet reminded me how precious my feet are. Without them, I'm not mobile. It's such an important thing, and I never want to take it for granted. While I think my feet are beautiful, I also think they're incredibly functional. I love being able to go places, walk places, and do what I desire. I'm so happy not to be at the mercy of anybody else, and to have both of my feet. They're great appendages. That's the bottom line.

And so, to everyone who's asked why this blog is entitled as such, that's why.

Now, the weekend before last weekend, I visited a farm with some of the other internationals. While I wasn't particularly interested in the farm, I went with the hope of seeing some baby sheep up close. That's right. I went on a day trip for lambs. Because they are presh.

Among a few of my closest friends here, the favorite quote of things I've said is “Lambs: the only things that are truly presh.” Because while I enjoy using words, they lose meaning when they are used constantly. I was reminded of this when I began calling everything cute presh. Because really, the only things that are presh are lambs.

I will now spam you with photos of the presh lambs.

Aaaand that's lunch!

I also went out to Somes Island yesterday. I'm getting scared I won't get to do the things I wanted to do, so I made sure that happened. Perhaps I should have made it happen sooner, because they were looking for volunteers out there, and that would have been a really cool thing to do.

Regardless. Somes is special for a few reasons. First of all, it's completely predator free. No mice or rats whatsoever. You check yourself and your bags before you're allowed entry to the island. This allows some of the native species to flourish. That said, the native species that live there, a few birds, Tuatara, skinks and some bugs, were all re-introduced to the island. Based on scientists' research, they re-introduced species which they thought were natively on the island.

That's for you, Daddy.

When Britain first arrived in New Zealand, Somes was used as a quarentine for ships to arrive where people died on board from disease and they had to raise the yellow quarentine flag. Apparently there were thoughts and ideas about actually building it up a bit, but it didn't happen. When people arrived, it was not a welcome arrival.

I didn't get to see a tuatara. They resemble tree limbs quite a lot apparently, and they only have around fifty on the island.

Just some pretty clear water off the rocky coast...

I did get to see a bunch of skinks though. They were quite cute (but not presh, as only lambs are presh), and they scurried away when they heard noise. The lady working there said probably anytime you heard movement in the brush, it was a skink. And sure enough, once I finally started seeing them, and walking slowly or quietly enough to just scare them slightly, I saw them everywhere. They were very cute. But they were camera shy...

The first in harbor lighthouse! All of these lighthouses are so small and cute...

I also saw a tree weta. They weren't particularly cute. They created “motels” where hikers can open up a half of a tree and see them. They're behind some kind of plexiglass, but I still opened it with my toe while holding my breath.

Oh hey! It's the ferry I'll be on tomorrow!

I didn't get to see blue penguins either. I kept my eyes open on the ferry ride and tried my best to see them, but it didn't happen. Apparently they're mean though, with sharp teeth and claws. Despite them being cute, apparently they can be mean?

So much pretty, clear water. Very little accessible coastline though... I had about three hours on the island, and it was more than enough. The paths around the island are only a few kilometers, and even though I took breaks and laid in the sun, I still finished with the paths with quite a lot of time to spare.

That's all for now! Tomorrow I'm on the ferry to the South Island, and Thursday I start hiking the Abel Tasman Great Walk. If you'd like to check it out (it's gorgeous, on the coast, and I'll be camping), click HERE!

Thanks for reading!