It's all about the experience....

After our break, it was becoming obvious that the next big thing people were looking forward to was going home. I found that a little depressing because I wasn't ready to even think about having to leave, but the swine-flu like pandemic soon infected me too, especially after seeing some of my old and future roommates back home via skype, realizing everyone at home is now on summer break, and the fact that Jeremy's back home from Ireland now. But I also realized I still had a lot of things that I wanted to do and places I still needed to see before I say goodbye to NZed, so I started planning out the last 2 months of my stay here. That alone eased any homesickness, and made me extremely excited for all my upcoming trips and adventures. Most of the fun is scheduled after we get out of school, as almost all of us have already bought tickets to the All Blacks rugby game in Wellington for June 20th. After that, the plan is to head back down to the South Island with Anna, Ianna, and Eugene, where we already have a bunch of places in mind that we want to see. However, the first short term trip on my list was to head up north to Cape Reinga and 90 Mile Beach. So this past weekend, Anna, Ianna, and I rented a car and drove the 6 or so hours to the tip top of the North Island....and let's just say that we had two slogans for our trip after day 1: "Expect the unexpected" and "It's all about the experience".....

Anna and I picked up our rental car on Friday morning, and were just happy they had an automatic...even though it was named "El Cheapo" (cough*foreshadowing*cough). Since Ianna didn't get out of class until 4ish, Anna, Kierstin and I took the car out to One Tree Hill and Mount Eden, which are only about a 15 minute drive away...if you know where you're going. So we managed to get a little lost, just as it started to downpour. But it actually worked out perfectly, because by the time we made it to One Tree Hill, it stopped raining as soon as we got out of the car. The ironic thing about the place is that it doesn't even have a tree on top of the hill anymore. It was vandalized sometime in the early 90's so it had to be cut down. Now there's just a monument. Regardless, it still had a wicked sweet view of Auckland.


From there, we went to Mount Eden, which is a dormant volcano, and has a huge grassy crater at the summit. We were all stoked that the weather happened to be so perfect for the little photography session that we had going on, especially considering it had been raining everyday for the past week or so.


We made our way back to the apartments, finished packing, exchanged Ianna for Kierstin, and were off! It only took us a couple blocks before we ditched the directions that Anna wrote out, and literally busted out a compass to find our way to the motorway. As soon as we got on it though, we were faced with the unfortunate circumstances of city rush hour. Once we made it out of Auckland though, the drive was pretty easy and carefree. We made it up north, and close to Cape Reinga, around 10:45 but were feeling uneasy about a rattling sound coming from underneath the car. But we kept driving because we thought we were getting close to the campsite, and we just wanted to get to bed. It was when Ianna nervously advised us that the gas meter had gone from a quarter tank to empty in a matter of a couple kilometers that we decided we needed to get out and check things out. Sure enough, we had a flat tire. All three of us are pretty calm and rationale, and it didn't even need to be verbally expressed that we were pretty scared about the situation we were in. Three girls, gas is on empty, flat tire that we don't know how to fix or even change, stranded on a gravel road at 11pm, way past the last gas station, and we had no idea how far away the campsite actually was. So we decided we would walk a little bit in hopes of reaching the campsite, and worry about the car in the morning. We probably walked for about 5 minutes before we decided with the help of our flashlight that the campsite wasn't in walking distance, so we turned around and made peace with the fact that we'd be sleeping in the car for the night. We made it back to the car, and to our complete surprise, a car came down the road and without us waving them down, they stopped to see if we needed any help. It probably took this amazing Kiwi couple a total of 5 minutes to change our tire. They warned us that because we only had a Space Saver as a spare, we needed to be extra cautious and drive a lot slower than the speed limit. They also told us that we should get off the road we were on because "you don't know what sort of crazies are out here". Thanks...that made us feel a lot better when we drove the 10 or so kilometers back to the gas station and slept in our car across the street from it. Or at least, Ianna and I slept in the car. Anna started in the backseat, but since the car was so little, she really didn't have as much room as we thought she would so she ended up waking up in the middle of the night and pitched the tent by herself in the dark. Let's just say, no one got a great night's sleep that night.

We were determined to have a better day on Saturday, and felt a little better when the guy at the gas station told us we would be fine driving with our spare, and recommended us to try getting it fixed at the service station on our way out to 90 mile beach. But before that, we drove back out to the cape, and were pleasantly surprised at how spectacular the view was, and also how wonderful the weather was! We headed straight for the lighthouse to take some pictures, and then took an hour or so hike down to the beach because Ianna was bound and determined to say she swam in the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea at the same time.



We were in tennis shoes and didn't want to get them too wet, so we had to jump over some rocks to avoid the tide that was coming in. Unfortunately, because the tide was coming in, that also meant we would have to make a decision later as to how we would get around that. So we frolicked on the beach for a little bit and realized that maybe we shouldn't swim in the ocean because the tides seemed pretty strong and we were the only ones on the beach, so any emergency help would be out of the question.


We thought it would be smart to find a different path up to our car, so we started tramping (NZ slang for hiking) up the giant hill. It seemed like a path at first, but it quickly turned into having to crawl on all fours under bushes and shrubs in order to get to the top. We then realized that there wasn't a clear cut path back to the car, so we ended up going down the other side of the hill so we could get back on the path we originally took to go down to the beach...this 30 minute detour was all so we didn't get our shoes wet. Maybe not the best decision, but it was actually kinda fun..and definitely "all about the experience". Once we made it back to the path, it probably took another half hour to hike back up to the car, and by that point we were exhausted.

I drove us out of Cape Reinga and headed toward 90 mile beach. We stopped at "the last NZ service station before Australia" to see if someone could help fix our tire. The guy said he could do it, and asked us to take off the spare (without knowing that none of us had ever changed a tire). All three of us intently watched the couple change it the night before though, so we had a good idea as to what needed to be done. We ended up doing it, and surprisingly it was rather easy! Ha, what an empowering feeling it is to finally figure out how to change a tire!! So feeling rejuvenated, we hopped back on the road and were on our way to 90 Mile Beach! It was only 10 km away, and even though we had heard you're not allowed to drive on the beach, the signs seemed like they encouraged it...as long as you did it wisely....which we soon found out meant staying on the wet, hard sand. It didn't take us more than a minute of driving on the beach, and right after Ianna mentioned sink holes, that I drove on dry sand and got us stuck. It felt all too similar to the feeling of getting stuck in the snow back in Wisconsin. Ianna and Anna jumped out to try pushing it out, as I tried doing the rock back and forth maneuver. However, unlike being in snow where you know there's solid ground at the bottom, when you accelerate at all in the sandy beach, your front end just slips in deeper and deeper. Luckily, we weren't trying too long before a group of Kiwis came driving towards us in a big truck. They stopped, hooked our car up to theirs with some lines that they happened to have with them, and pulled us out in the first try! Relief...again!! We decided no more driving on the beach and immediately turned back to the main road. So much for the "Stree-Free" insurance option we got on the car. At this point, we were just laughing at how ridiculous the past 12 hours had been, and couldn't wait to pitch our tent and have a decent night's rest. We ended up driving down to the very bottom of 90 Mile Beach, and making it just in time to take a bunch of sunset pictures.





After that, we set up the tent before we went into town to get some food. The only place open that we could find was this really nice restaurant. We were the only ones there, but still the lady managed to talk down to us like we were wasting her time when we just ordered soup, a bottle of wine, and an ice cream sundae to split between the three of us. We definitely didn't lose sleep over it though, considering we left around 8, and were asleep in the tent by 8:30 :)


Apparently we all needed a few extra hours of sleep because we didn't get up until 7:30. Even though we were a little stiff from the ground, we still kept to our plan of going for a run on the beach in the morning. It was awesome, and running is much more enjoyable when you can watch the sun come up while you're running on an incredibly long stretch of beach.

The next adventure on our agenda was to rent boogie boards and go down the sand dunes, so we found a place that hired them (hire=rent) and decided that we'd probably only need to hire 1 for the 3 of us. We learned the dunes were a good 45 minute walk away from the carpark, but we were so set on doing it that we weren't too bothered by it. Everyone that we had talked to who had done it before said you go really fast, and it's kinda scary. Well apparently, we must have been doing something wrong, because none of us were able to get any sort of speed and our attempts were pretty pathetic looking. Ianna was the only one who made it all the way to the top of the dune (it was insanely exhausting climbing up them!), and even then, she didn't have much luck. Oooo well...it was all about the experience!



We went back to drop off the boogie board, and I had wanted to stop at this little shop that I saw a brochure for that sold beautiful handmade plates, bowls, and coasters. It was right in town, and I thought we'd make a quick run in and look around for 10 minutes. Well it turns out it's in this guy's house, and the guy (who called himself Irish) LOVED to talk. He told us about how he ended up doing what he's doing, after years of being a pro golf caddy. He then took us out to the garage to show us how he makes his pieces, and was more than eager to let us have a shot at using the machinery. Everything was made from Kauri trees which has to be dug up from the ground, and he then adds his artistic touch by adding shells and colored resins. Everything was gorgeous and I would have loved to buy any or all of it, but when he mentioned the price of one of the pieces ($700), I knew it wasn't going to happen. Anna was starving and I was getting antsy to head down to Whangarei because I was planning on stopping at the Zion Wildlife Gardens to see some lions, but we didn't know how to politely leave when Irish could easily go on for hours more about his craft. He managed to take a breath just long enough for Ianna to mention that we needed to get going, and about 15 minutes later, we had reached the door.

As awesome as it was taking to Irish and learning something new, we unfortunately ran out of time to stop in Whangarei, and we found out we had to make a booking in advance to do a tour. But if you're reading this, Stepanski's, I still plan on getting back up there before I leave!! Well that was the end of our incredibly exciting weekend, and now I'm off to class!! Much love!!

Sweet as in Sydney

Sorry this update is pretty delayed...I actually had a rough couple weeks of schoolwork?! But now that I'm done writing every about every possible stat on the Auckland Zoo, and teaching my group members how to use a devil software (SPSS), I can finally fill you all in on my trip to Australia!!!

The journey started on April 19th, and considering it took me minutes to check in to the domestic airport, I didn't think it would be that much more of a process going to Australia. I mean, it's only a 3 hr flight, but silly me wasn't really thinking about the travelling to a different country factor...which also meant I never thought about needing an Australian visa. Luckily, I was able to purchase one at the airport. I was a little frazzled, but extremely relieved when I reached my gate and saw that boarding had just begun.

I arrived in Sydney around 8:00pm and took a taxi to my friend's place that I was staying with for the week. His name is Evan, and like Kurtis, is also a friend from UW-L studying abroad through AustraLearn. I think this experience has already made me more outgoing, as I found myself sparking up conversations with the taxi drivers quite easily. I actually sat in the cab for awhile longer once we arrived at Evan's just talking to the driver, who I found out had lived in Rwanda and witnessed the genocide every day. Absolutely horrifying and if you haven't seen Hotel Rwanda yet, that's pretty much exactly how he described it. Wow, ok sorry for the major downer...but that was definitely a taxi experience that will always stick with me

Once I got up to Evan's, I was floored to see that he had his own room, with a sink, full bathroom, and a spiral staircase up to his bed!! (However, I soon learned spiral staircases are really more for looks than practicality) We pretty much just caught eachother up on the past few months before heading to bed.

The next morning I woke up pretty early for no reason, and headed out to find some place for breakfast. I found a great cafe, but was a little bummed when they gave me cinnamon-raisin toast instead of the french toast like I ordered. Luckily, it actually hit the spot and I ended up going back there a couple times later in the week just for the toast. I sat there for a little bit reading "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" for my leadership class, when Greg (the guy I met in Rotorua) texted me and said he was about to start exploring the city. So we met up soon after and headed straight to the Opera House!! It was probably a 40 minute walk from Evan's, but so worth it. Any time I ever saw the Opera House on TV (especially during the 2000 Olympics), I thought to myself, I WILL see that in person one day. Since the building is so iconic, seeing it right in front of you and fullfilling a dream just made me realize how incredibly lucky and grateful I am. We took heaps of pictures, like any good tourist would before heading on to our next destination.




We didn't really have anything in particular that we wanted to see after the Opera House, but we knew we weren't done exploring. So we ended up at the Contemporary Art Museum. Art has always interested me, but this contemporary art was insanely fun and whimsical and I LOVED it! The featured artist was this crazy asian woman (Yayoi Kusama) who was often photographed wearing a bright pink wig, and her OCD was definitely evident in the plethora of pieces that included hundreds of thousands of little dots.


After that, we walked through a tunnel of trees in Hyde Park and watched some grown men in business atire play a very serious game of oversized chess. The weather had been toying with us all day, and it started getting pretty cool. So before we parted ways, we stopped at the Sky Tower to make reservations for dinner the next night.



I didn't get too far before taking a snack break at a cafe, and found a computer to try and get in touch with the Folkmans. I actually went to high school with Max and Nick Folkman, and they have been studying in Wellington for the past year and found out they were also in Sydney for their holiday. We managed to get in contact and I met them for pizza. They're both incredibly passionate about the film industry, and have taken full advantage of every opportunity they've had since they've been abroad.

We all went down to the harbor for gelato before saying goodbye, and I was feeling lazy and took a taxi back to Evan's. Luckily I didn't eat too much with the Folkman's because when I
came back to the apartment, I forgot they had plans to grill out on the roof. We made asparagus and Kangaroo burgers and I actually really liked it! I called Greg to come over and we all played some card games before heading out.

The next day I did some exploring on my own, and took a bus down to the Wildlife World, which is a mini enclosed zoo. I finally saw some koalas!!! :) Right next to that building was the the Aquarium, which was pretty neat because it had a couple tunnels of overhead aquariums so there were literally sharks swimming right over my head! So cool! After that, I headed back to Evan's to get ready to meet up with Greg and Keely at the Sydney Tower Restaurant. The restaurant was at the top of the tower, and rotated 360 degrees while you ate and took in the incredible scenery of Sydney at night. The dinner was buffet style, but definitely the best buffet I've ever had!!! Though my wallet didn't appreciate it, treating myself to a nice meal with fine company felt pretty awesome, and it was totally worth it.


My fondest memory of Australia is probably the trip that Evan and I took to the Blue Mountains in Katoomba, which was about a 2 hour train ride north of Sydney. On the way, we were talking about bungy jumping, and a guy sitting across from us joined in on the conversation and we went back and forth comparing stories of our adventures. His name was Rich and was from London, and just travelling around for awhile. We found out he was also going to see the Blue Mountains, so when we got off the train, we invited him to come with us. We bought a hop-on/hop-off bus ticket and our first stop was to take a cable car ride across a valley with an incredible view of the Three Sisters rock formation.



From there, we went on a little hike on a trail that was designed for tourists to see what's left of the coal mine that it used to be. We had heard there was a ruined castle fairly close by, but you had to go off the beaten track to find it. All three of us were up for a little exploring, figuring it would only take us about a half hour max to reach our destination. Wrong. We walked for about 10 minutes before coming to a couple who said they were doing the same thing until they reached a sign saying it was another 5 km to the castle, so they turned around. We decided it would only take us another hour to walk a 5k, so we kept going. (wrong again). It wasn't until we had hiked/climbed up and over rocks another hour and ran into another couple who told us it was actually another 4 hour walk to the castle, until we collectively decided we weren't going to make it to our original destination. However, they did advise us to climb the Golden Staircase because it was "magnificant". We reached the so called "Golden Staircase"....and couldn't figure out what was so "golden" or "magnificent" about it. It probably didn't help that we were already exhausted, hungry, and not looking forward to hiking all the way back. But we managed to work up the energy to climb the stairs that were legit metal stairs in some places, and rock climbing in others. The view was spectacular, and I was actually glad that I forgot to pack tennis shoes, which meant I only had flip-flops...which resulted in doing most of the hike barefoot. Feeling the cold water between my toes was the only thing keeping me cool. When we were getting close to the top, we ran into more people who were asking where we were coming from. That was our first clue that they were coming from a different path, so when we asked where they started, they said the road up top! We were SO relieved to hear this, because that meant we could walk on the road back to where we started, which turned out to only take a half hour, as opposed to the 2 hours it took to get there. What an adventure!!

We made it back to Sydney that evening, which was a great way to end my trip!! I wish I could have seen more of the country, but it was time to head back to Auckland, as I had volunteered for a weekend excursion of doing some environmental work on one of the nearby islands. That's all I'll write about that for now though, because I'm too excited to write about my newest trip from this weekend!!

Visit from a familiar face!

Even though I was a little bummed my south island trip was so short, I was so excited to get back to Auckland and see Kurtis! For those of you who are reading who don't know, Kurtis goes to UW-L with me and is studying abroad in Perth, Australia (also through AustraLearn). He was flying into the Auckland airport around 4pm, and I told him I would wait for him since I was supposed to be getting in around 11am. Well when I got to the Christchurch airport on Monday morning, I was surprised to find out that my flight was delayed because of the fog. About an hour later, my flight ended up getting cancelled. As I was waiting in line at the service counter to re-schedule, a man was coming around asking us where we were heading and update us on the status of the flights. When I told him I needed to get to Auckland, he said all the seats were filled for the day and that I would have to find somewhere to stay for the night. That was the first time during my whole trip that I started to panic a little. Kurtis and I had been trying (and failing) at getting eachothers' phone numbers to work, my phone was dying, and I didn't know what flight he was on. But when I finally reached the service desk, they immediately set me up on an 11am flight which would be leaving in about a half hour! So I made it to Auckland around 1:00 all calm, cool, and collected :) While waiting for Kurtis, I found a new hobby. Sitting at the arrival gate of an international airport. Seeing people anxiously await the arrival of their loved ones and then witnessing both their reaction and that of their friend/lover/family member literally brought me to tears almost everytime. I don't even get that choked up in sad movies!! Anyways....Kurtis finally stepped into the arrival gate around 5:15, and we headed back to the city, swapping stories and catching up during the 45 minute bus ride. Reuniting with the friends I met here next week when we all get back from break will be awesome, but seeing a friend all the way from home that you've known for a few years now and being with them in a different country is such a comforting feeling! Kurtis had previously told me 3 things he wanted to do when he was in Auckland. Eat at MexiCali, go to Minus 5 bar, and go whale watching. We did the first two of those within the first couple hours he was in town.

Minus 5 is more of an attraction than it is a bar. It's completely made of ice, and with your entry ticket, you get a "free" vodka drink served in a glass made of ice. It was pretty cool inside, and a fun place to chill...teeheehee :) They give you jackets and gloves to wear, but because of the freezing temps, you're only allowed to stay in there for a half hour. We also weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the bar, which was lame because they could take a picture of you and then you have to pay $25 for one pic! So we just took a couple through the windows once we were outside. The rest of the night, I took him around to a couple local bars and pubs that I go to, and started talking about plans for the rest of his stay.

The next morning, we went to K-Road for an uber yummy and cheap breakfast (belgian waffles with fruit and ice cream on top!) From there, I had to take him to the Domain and show him some of the crazy trees that I love so much.

Around noon, we headed down to the harbor to jump on the catamaran to go whale and dolphin watching!! It was a beautiful, sunny day out and the captain was a riot, which made the 2 hr ride out to sea pretty enjoyable. Unfortunately, we never saw any whales, but we did get to see heaps of dolphins!! We also were boating around the EAC for awhile, which I thought was pretty cool.



Once we were back on shore in Auckland, we tried finding a rental car because we decided we wanted to take a road trip to Lake Taupo. We stopped in a travel agency, and asked what they could do for us. The lady told us we would be wasting our time on going to Taupo because there wasn't much to do there, and that we should go to Rotorua instead. I told her I had already been there, but I would also be willing to go back with Kurtis. She gave us tons of brochures on all sorts of other things to do in Rotorua and booked a car for us to pick up the next morning. The rest of the night, we spent planning the trip with my friend Elza who would be joining us on our adventures!

We had an early start to our day, and headed down to pick up the rental car...and hoping it wasn't a manual. Sure enough, it was, and since Elza's the only one who knows how to drive manual but refused to drive since she just got her license right before she came to NZ, we asked if they had any automatics. Luckily, they did and after purchasing some insurance, we were off. The car was in my name, and I said I'd be the only one driving, just to save time and paperwork. It didn't take more than a minute and 2 streets before I almost got us in an accident. After that, all was good and I quickly adjusted to the whole driving on the left side thing :) Also in the car with us was my friend, Sherri who we were taking to her house a couple hours away, and her friend Casey, who is actually from Montana. Even though it wasn't my home, it felt great to be in someone's home. I could relate to that "ahhh i'm home" feeling that I'm sure Sherri had when she stepped inside to find a half eaten rabbit that her cat had left for her. We didn't stay long, and Sherri wanted to take us to the gorge by her house where you can jump off a cliff into water. Elza, Kurtis, nor I wanted to jump considering we had another 2+ hrs of driving and we didn't want to be cold and wet for it. So Sherri jumped right away, and then it was Casey's turn....

Ha, considering he has the whole macho rugby player look going for him, it was obvious how nervous he was for it considering he kept walking up over the edge, then walking back, and so on and so forth. A couple older folks were across the river on the other side harassing him to jump and telling him to stop being a chicken. But it took a good 10 minutes, and then Kurtis just spontaneously jumping in, for him to say "Well now I have to do it"...and he did.

On the road again, and I was so glad Kurtis was a great navigator because I had some difficulties with some of the back to back roundabouts. Some old guy gave me some unpleasant looks and words...but Kurtis said it didn't count because he was toothless. We finally made it to our hostel around 3:30, where I had booked us for a night stay at Kiwi-Paka! It was actually kinda nice to be back there, even though it didn't seem nearly as long as 2 months since I was there last with the whole AustraLearn clan! We went into town to have a little meal at Nando's, and then headed back to get ready for a Maori village performance and hangi dinner. We went to a different one than the first one that I went to, and it was interesting to notice the differences between the two. We learned more in this one, as they explained things during the performance, but the first one seemed more authentic and they took it more seriously. I did enjoy the food at this one more though!

A traditional Maori hangi is prepared by digging a hole in the ground, making a fire in the hole, placing stones in the pit, then placing covered baskets of food on top to cook for several hours.

Once we came back, we just layed in our room and talked all night. We had a four person room, but we were lucky enough to be the only ones there for the night.

On Thursday, I woke up before the other two and drove to the store to get some stuff to make breakfast. When I got back, Kurtis and I made some delicious french toast with yogurt and bananas on top. While checking out, we talked with the reception lady who was incredibly helpful and friendly. She booked us a tour at the Wai-o-Tapu thermal wonderland which was about a half hour away and was a place to see the geothermic activity up close. It was there that we lost Elza for a few hours, who somehow managed to sneak in without her ticket while Kurtis and I were buying jade for eachother. I tell ya, those Latvians are pretty illusive. After realizing that there was no way for her to leave without us, Kurtis and I wandered through the set paths, and were amazed at some of the things we saw.


We were at the very end of the tour, when Elza jumped behind us, and we were all relieved to see eachother. From there, we headed down to Taupo so Kurtis and I could tandem bungy jump!!! It took us about 45 minutes, and we first stopped along the Waikato River to see the well-visited Huka Falls, which is a glorious blue color and quite a violent looking current.

From there, we found our way to the bungy site and it was kind of funny, because as soon as they gave us the forms to fill out, Kurtis and I both hesitated a little before signing our lives away. But we signed it, and got our tickets and then anxiously waited in line to watch others throw themselves off a ledge into the Waikato River. It was pretty chilly that day, and part of me really didn't want to touch the water, but I figured I wouldn't get this opportunity again anytime soon, so we decided to get wet. (Taupo Bungy is NZ's highest water touch). For some reason, I was thinking it would be less scary because I was hanging on to someone. WRONG! It was so much more terrifying in the day light...with your eyes open...seeing the water get closer and closer. But it was AMAZING at the same time!! And I am officially a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie :) After that, we headed back to Auckland and I was relieved of driving duties, as Kurtis wanted a shot behind the wheel. We got back pretty late, and Kurtis' flight left at 8:50 the next morning, so we didn't do much of anything before calling it a night. I was telling him that I wish he had more time here because he didn't get to see nearly any of the amazing and beautiful places that I've seen so far, but he assured me that he really had a great time and had already fallen in love with New Zealand!

bungy jumping with school spirit :)

So another successful adventure down, and now I'm packing yet again for the last part of my break. Tomorrow, I head off to Sydney to visit another UW-L friend studying abroad, meet up with some friends from high school who have been studying in Wellington for a year now, and also explore some of the city with a friend I met on my first trip to Rotorua, who's also studying in Wellington!! As excited as I am though, I'm almost just as excited to come back next week and see everyone and hear their stories...and not live out of my backpack for awhile! Other than that, no compaints and I'm just a happy girl having the time of my life :) Much Love!!!

1.2.3...BREAK! (part 1 of 3)

It's a beautiful day out in Auckland again, and I'm sitting here thinking how much I love this country. The past 9 days have been a whirlwind of travelling, meeting new people, and seeing unbelievable sights; and since I have a couple more days before part 3 of my mid-semester break, I'll try and catch you all up on the past week and a half of my incredible adventures!

Wednesday, April 8th

Let's just say getting 2 hrs of sleep before you travel is a terrible idea. I was so exhausted, and wanted to get to the airport extra early since it's was my first time travelling by myself. It turns out I could have slept in a couple extra hours because checking into the Auckland airport was the easiest process I've ever had to go through at an airport and it took less than 15 minutes to get all checked in and find my gate. I had a short layover in Wellington before heading to Dunedin, where I stayed the night. One of my good friends that I met here in Auckland (Anna), who actually goes to Madison has a friend who is also studying abroad through AustraLearn, but at the University of Otago in Dunedin. She asked him if I could stay with him for the night, and he was kind enough to agree. His name is Dan, and him and his flatmates were fantastic hosts! They sent me on a Speight's tour (well known New Zealand brewery), and were also hosting a party at their place the night I was there! As much fun as I was having though, I was so tired and ended up going to bed before midnight! I met so many people, and had a really great time, even though it was bitter cold and rainy.




Thursday, April 9th

In the morning, we all helped clean up and then went out to breakfast in town. Dan and his friend, Travis had bought a car the day before, so Dan was nice enough to drive me to the historic Dunedin train station, which is apparently one of the most photographed places in the country. I understood once I saw it. Even on a dreary day, it was stunning. I arrived early, but somehow almost managed to miss the bus to Queenstown because I didn't realize one of the buses that was there for awhile was actually the one I needed to be on, and had been waiting for me. Ooops.


The bus ride from Dunedin to Queenstown took about 4 and a half hours, and we arrived at the city centre at 6:30. I was scheduled to bungy jump at 7. I made it up to the top of the Ledge just in time to be the last jumper of the night. The Ledge Bungy is unique in that you're not attached by you're ankles, so you can have a running start to your jump, and also because it's the only place in New Zealand where you can jump at night. Since I felt a little lame that I wasn't doing the Nevis Bungy (164m compared to the 47m fall at the Ledge), I wanted to do something a little crazier than just dive off, so I decided to flip off. I ended up tying the record for the number of revolutions (4), and I actually didn't think it was that scary!! However, I did close my eyes, and since it was dark out, I couldn't even see where I was falling into. After that, I headed back town the gondola, and hiked up a massive hill to get to my hostel.

Friday, April 10th

I got to sleep in, which was great! Even though I've never been to Colorado, Queenstown is how I would picture Colorado with the mountains in the background and really nice streets to shop around at in the center of the city. For as many wild adventure activites as there are to do in Queenstown, the town itself seemed pretty quiet and low-key. I went to a little cafe for brunch, before I started my fun-filled day of activities. It was a combo. package that let me take a jet boat ride on the Shotover River, helicopter ride from the top of a mountain to the top of the gondola station, and then go luging! The jet boat was way more exciting than I anticipated! The driver would get the boat within inches of the rock walls, and do 360 degree spins every couple minutes!



Next was the helicopter ride, which was another first for me, and the view was spectacular!!! A family sat in the back, which meant I was fortunate enough to get the front seat next to the pilot! He dropped me off at the same place that I bungy jumped from, but this time I tried the luge!! I
think the best way to describe the luge is to imagine yourself as a character in Mario-Kart.



That's exactly how I felt. I stayed up there for awhile longer to watch the sun go down behind the mountains, and it was overwhelmed with content. Queenstown is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've seen so far, and I would love to go back and stay longer!

After I got back down to the main drag of town, I hit up Fergberger after hearing from several people that I had to go there. The place was packed, and my monstrous hawaiian burger was delicious!

Saturday, April 11th

Originally, the plan was to leave Queenstown by Saturday, but I knew I would be kicking myself later if I left without making a trip out to Milford Sound. It's one of the most popular places people visit in New Zealand, known for its scenic beauty. I was ecstatic when I walked down in the morning and had the chance to see the sun rise while we were waiting for the coach to pick us up.



Unfortunately, it happened to be quite foggy and rainy that day. It's about a five hour coach trip from Queenstown, followed by an hour and 45 min. cruise. The nice part about the rain was that it created hundreds of mini waterfalls down the mountains, which was really neat to see.


On the way back to Queenstown, the weather turned around and became sunny and gorgeious out. Go figure. We stopped at a place called Te Anau on the way there and back. Here are pictures from almost the same spot about 5 hours apart.

Sunday, April 12th

The next day was pretty much just spent on a bus from Queenstown to Christchurch, since I was flying out the following day to head back to Auckland. We had three breaks along the way, making it about an 8hr trip. Here's a few pictures from the stops we made...




One of the places we stopped was Lake Tekapo, which I had originally wanted to spend a night at because it's known as one of the starriest places in the world. Had I known it was this beautiful in the daylight too, I would have tried harder to actually make it there for a day.




Once I made it to Christchurch, I walked around a bit to check out the city. I would have loved to have made it in the Art Museum, but it was closed by the time we got in. Christchurch is the biggest city in the South Island with a population around 400,000 people, but it didn't seem like a big city at all in comparison to Auckland, and the brick roads in the city centre definitely gave it a warm, small town feeling.


Travelling by myself actually went a lot smoother than I had expected, and it was great to have all the time in the world to think about anything and everything under the sun. It was a wonderful 5 days, and it came to an end at the perfect time when I was starting to get a little Auckland-sick. I would love to go back to the South Island and explore more, because I know there are so many other incredible places that I didn't have time to see. However, I would definitely want to do it with someone that I can share the experience with.

Well, I'll work on writing about part 2 of my break tomorrow, because that's all I have the patience for at the moment! Much love!

Hey all! So it's been a few weeks now since my last post, which is mostly because I haven't been on any big weekend trips since the last one to the Coromandel. However, a couple weekends ago, a bunch of us went surfing at a beach about 45 min. west of Auckland, called Piha. We managed to cram 9 of us in an 8 seater van. Not the most comfortable, but probably the most affordable way to get there! On the beach, there was a huge rock, called Lion's Rock (from the water, it's supposed to look like a lion) that you could climb.

Can you see the lion??

View from Lion's Rock

Before surfing, Mike and I played with this incredibly AWESOME dog, Ozzy!! He was the best frisbee receiver ever, and I wanted to take him home with me!!!


It was my first time surfing and I will definitely say I was happy with how it went. After getting hit in the face with my own board when we first walked out into the waves for carrying my board wrong, I eventually made it up to my feet a couple times! I think Eugene was the only one to actually ride some waves, and I realized surfing was a lot more difficult than I thought. It was so frustrating to put all your energy into just walking out to the waves, and then have a wave come and push you right back to your original spot! I definitely want to try it again sometime though!!


We were all pretty wiped after surfing, so we found a place for fish 'n chips and watched the sun set. Between 6 of us girls, we took a LOT of sunset pictures.


Courtesy of Kathleen Wamser

The past couple weekends, I've just been staying in and around Auckland to save money and spend a little more time on schoolwork. One night last weekend, we went to a Karaoke place where you pay $30 for a group of people to have an hour in your own little room. I was exhausted that day, so I didn't sing too much, but it was still a really fun time!

All of us singing "Living on a Prayer"!

Looking back at my journal, I've realized I've done a bunch of other little things, but that's all I can write about with pictures for now. So I'll just have to save the rest for stories when I get home (if I ever come home)....yeah, I went to the Auckland Domain today, which is where I go to run, and it has several trails and gardens and ponds (I have to take pictures sometime because it's truly amazing). Anyways, I found this really sweet tree that looked perfect for taking a rest in. Well I did just that, and sat in the tree for a good hour and I'm pretty sure it was the most peaceful and serene experience I've ever had. But it made me not want to leave New Zealand (or the tree, for that matter)

We have our mid-semester break starting on Friday, but I'm leaving this Wednesday because I have a LOT planned in two weeks! Everyone I know is travelling to the South Island at some point, and most are staying the entire time. However, I'm having a friend come to visit me in Auckland from the 13th-17th, and then I'm going to visit another friend in Sydney on the 19th. So before that, I'm going down to the South Island. By myslelf!! I'm pretty nervous about it, but so excited to see what happens! I don't really have many plans other than staying with a friend of a friend for a night when I fly into Dunedin. Then I'm taking a bus to Queenstown (adventure capitol of the country) and bungee jumping an hour after I get there! The only other thing that I'm for sure doing is taking a cruise to a beautifully scenic place called Milford Sound . Then I have 2 days to make it up to Christchurch to fly back to Auckland. The goal is to meet friendly people while I'm in Queenstown who are heading north, and maybe hitch a ride with them! If that doesn't work, then the buses will work. As long as I make it back to Auckland on the 13th safely, it will be a success in my book!! :) This experience of knowing every decision I make is solely my own has been such a fun ride so far, and I can't wait to challenge myself the next couple weeks and see how independent I really am!!