So I still have two full days here, but I want to write this post while I'm still here in New Zealand. Also it's a good excuse to stop studying for a bit! I've done 2 finals already which went pretty well, and I've got 2 to go. My final tomorrow should be my hardest one, but I only need 40% to pass the class so that's the goal ;)
So I guess I'll just give you a rundown on my thoughts on Lincoln University, and studying abroad and all that, and kind of my plans for the near future.
So I'll start with what's to come: it's Thursday night here in NZ, I have my Farm Management final tomorrow, my Wine final on Saturday morning, and I leave Sunday night. I'm really excited to be home, especially to see all my friends and eat good food!! I'm currently taking an online accounting class, so I'll also being doing that until July 15th. I get to road trip to Disneyland on July 5th with one of my roommates and best friends from the Disney College Program, so that's EXTREMELY EXCITING <33333 AHHHHH. I'm definitely going to cry when I see the castle :,) I road trip down to Colorado with my mom probably around July 22nd, then I'll just move in to my new house and find a job! Very exciting stuff.
So my thoughts on studying abroad....everyone should do it. I think it's a great experience to have, and may as well do it when you're young! When you're old your going to be doing wine tastings and staying in hotels, now's the time for bungy jumping and camping and mountain climbing! If you're a homebody, or someone who gets homesick really easily OR can't afford to set back graduation, do a summer or winter program! They have some awesome 4 week programs out there that's a great option. And pick your country carefully, make sure the credits will transfer back to your college, and that it's somewhere you're going to be comfortable living for 5 months. I LOVED New Zealand, but kind of wish I would have picked Europe or Asia so travelling would be easier. New Zealand is so isolated you really only affordably travel within New Zealand, or to Australia. But I would definitely recommend visiting NZ, it's an amazing country.
My highlights from New Zealand that I think everyone should visit if they have the chance are Queenstown, Mt. Cook area (Hooker Lake is a great easy walk/hike!), Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki, Hobbiton, and Cathedral Cove (Coromandel Peninsula). There were other great things I got to do, but if I had to pick the MUST SEE attractions, those would be it! I think the glowworm caves are over priced and over rated (but still cool), Tongariro Crossing is obviously a great iconic walk, and Dunedin and Lake Taupo are both neat spots as well. It all depends how much time you have! Fortunately I had 4 months :)
I think my favourite parts of studying at Lincoln is that it's small enough I usually run into people I know, and has a homey small town feel. There's maybe 4,000 students or something, and the town population is about the same (not including students), so it's a great non-touristy place. I met lots of cool and adventurous people, and the classes were super hands-on since the class sizes were smaller. My wine class was especially cool because I got to make my own wine, and we had 4 or 5 wine tastings throughout the semester. I also love that their "fall break" or "spring break" is 2 weeks instead of 1, that's when I got to do the majority of my travelling!
My least favourite parts were definitely the food, and the cost of living. Everything is crazy expensive, and the food here is either unhealthy or super expensive, so it was tough eating good food. I just paid $12 for a bag of grapes!! It was also tough doing a lot of travelling because NZ is so spread out it takes a while to get to places, and being in school I only had weekends open which usually weren't enough time. So I would rather travel here for fun than for school. There are so many cool things to see and do, but you really need time and car to do them.
Overall I had an amazing experience!! NZ is such a neat country, and I learned more than I ever need to know about farming. ;) I have no regrets on studying abroad, and encourage everyone to do so! I will say however, that if I had to choose between the Disney College Program, and studying abroad, I would pick the Disney College Program. But that's a personality thing, everyone has different experiences and opinions!
Well I hope you all have enjoyed coming along for the ride and experiencing my study abroad adventure with me! I'll miss the country and all the amazing friends I've made here, but I'm really excited and ready to come home. Until next time New Zealand!
New Zealand
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Friday, June 5, 2015
The Final Countdown
16 days until I leave New Zealand! So I'm just going to throw in a post here on my life. My last day of lectures was May 29th, and my first final is June 15th. Lincoln has a study break of one week, and then has three weeks of exams. My exams fall on the 15th, 16th, 19th, and 20th, but exam period is June 9th-23rd. So I'll finish up my final exam, then fly home the next day. My flight leaves Christchurch on June 21st at 6pm with a layover in Auckland until 9:30pm, the long haul to LA, and finally the last leg to Seattle. It should be alright though because Air New Zealand is an awesome company, and I paid the $30 to upgrade to the better seating :) I currently have the WHOLE row to myself, let's hope it stays that way!
So random updates. Holly and I FINALLY finished our pinot noir rose! It's filtered and bottled and sitting in my closet. We ended up with 32 bottles, gave two to our wine prof, and the are splitting the rest between us. I'm giving some away to friends, and am going to try bring home as many as possible! We also had a little side project of a pinot noir red, so we'll bottle that soon with some oak chips and crack it open in a year. Fun stuff :)
I've basically just been sleeping in, going to the gym, reading, and organising some of my notes for exams. It's been pretty chill ;) Tomorrow I'm going to do a 2 hour hike in Port Hills area with some church friends, then church on Sunday with Holly and Richard. Oh, and I've become oddly obsessed with Christmas music and movies and blame that on the fact that it's fall here (almost winter) and constantly like 35 degrees. All we have left for plans is walking into town for lunch one day, and one night dressing up and getting tea and desserts at the really nice restaurant in town. Oh yeah, I ate there for dinner last week with Lizzie and it was SO GOOD. We both got Riesling and burgers, so odd combo, but they were both great. It's been AGES since I had good food, so that was like heaven. Anyway, we're going to go get tea and desserts there (it's called the Tea House), and then maybe do a day trip or two to more local hiking spots.
Aside from all that, I'm set to go home! I've had an incredible time here, but I'm ready to be home where the weather is nice and the food is amazing. And there are berries. The only fruit I get here is apples and kiwis, because nothing else is ever ripe or on sale. Cherries were $39/kg today. WOAH. So yeah, nothing much to report on! I'll probably do one more wrap up post, but this is all for now :) SEE YOU ALL SOON!
Friday, May 22, 2015
New Zealand VS USA: New Opinions!
Now that I have lived in New Zealand for 3.5 months, I thought I'd do another post comparing the two countries.
First of all, FOOD. I'm sorry but New Zealand food is awful. New Zealand is one of the top 3 most obese countries in the world, and it all makes sense. All restaurants serve fried fish, meat pies, and pastries. I have yet to find somewhere that sells a chicken caesar salad! The dining hall I know is just a university thing, but it's pretty bad. Meat and potatoes EVERY DAY. Like seriously everyday they have rice, some sort of potato, and some kind of meat. Sometimes they don't even know what kind of meat it is...all in all, there's a reason I've gained 10lbs since moving here.
Secondly is fashion. My school is a farm school, so it's not typical, but it's what I have to go on. The boys like to wear rugby shorts AKA short shorts, long wooly hiking socks, and jandals AKA flip flops/sandals. They often wear collared shirts on top, and there;s something about blue and white stripes! Hahaha :) Also bucket hats are a big things. Or sometime when it's cold they wear their short shorts with a giant sweater and gumboots AKA rainboots. They REALLY like their short shorts (stubbies). Girls are pretty similar to USA, but where we would wear yoga pants they wear pants that look like basketball warmups. Those people in movies with the snap sweatpants that look kind of wind/water resistant, yeah those. And it's normal. Also when they dress up they like to wear these white disco era platform sandals and boots. And makeup here costs $23984723984 so they usually only wear makeup when they go out!
Thirdly is FARMS ARE EVERYWHERE AND EVERYONE IS FROM A FARM. People are shocked to hear I live in a "farm town" where no one runs productive dairy/cattle farms. Their idea of a farm is a sheep/dairy/cattle/deer farm where they own 1,000 animals or something. Farms are not places where people own 5 cows, 2 horses, and some chickens. So that's a bit different. Also they know what the teacher is saying when she talks about tailing, culling, milk sheds, and velvet. It took me forever to figure that all out. By the way, tailing is chopping off a lamb's tail, culling is killing, milk sheds are where you milk cows, and velvet is the stuff covering deer antlers that they chops off the antlers for and send to Korea.
Fourthly is everything costs an arm and a limb. Grocery bills (and I go 1-2 times a week) are usually $50-$80 for ONE person. A pack of 12 strips of bacon costs at least $10, and that's sale price. A slushy at the movies is $7, gas is 3x what it is back home, and a university sweatshirt (usually $30, right?) is $100. It's absolutely nuts.
Fifthly people here love Obama. I don't know why, but they think he's great. They know more about American politics then I do!!
Sixth no one is religious. There's a tiny percent of people who Christian, that being split pretty evenly between Anglican, Catholic, and Baptist. There's not a Mormon, Jew, Jehovah's Witness, or Buddhist in sight. And the people that are Christian follow a double standard where they pray then take a shot.
Seventhly people here are smashed 95% of the time. People are drunk by 9pm probably 5 days a week, at least. My R.A. told me he spent $10,000 on booze his freshman year...like WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
Eighthly college means high school, high school means high school, and university means college. And it's first years, not freshmen, second years, not sophomores, etc. They just like to make everything confusing.
FINALLY, they like to use random vocabulary that makes no sense. A yarn means to have a talk, they add "as" to the end of statements (sweet as, it's cold as, I'm drunk as, etc.), and biscuit means most baked goods. It's quite confusing :)
Overall I've had a fantastic time here studying abroad, I would LOVE to come back and travel, but I don't think I need to live here. The people are great, but seeing as I'm a non drunk Christian who enjoys a variety of food aside from just meat, I don't think I'd fit in ;)
First of all, FOOD. I'm sorry but New Zealand food is awful. New Zealand is one of the top 3 most obese countries in the world, and it all makes sense. All restaurants serve fried fish, meat pies, and pastries. I have yet to find somewhere that sells a chicken caesar salad! The dining hall I know is just a university thing, but it's pretty bad. Meat and potatoes EVERY DAY. Like seriously everyday they have rice, some sort of potato, and some kind of meat. Sometimes they don't even know what kind of meat it is...all in all, there's a reason I've gained 10lbs since moving here.
Secondly is fashion. My school is a farm school, so it's not typical, but it's what I have to go on. The boys like to wear rugby shorts AKA short shorts, long wooly hiking socks, and jandals AKA flip flops/sandals. They often wear collared shirts on top, and there;s something about blue and white stripes! Hahaha :) Also bucket hats are a big things. Or sometime when it's cold they wear their short shorts with a giant sweater and gumboots AKA rainboots. They REALLY like their short shorts (stubbies). Girls are pretty similar to USA, but where we would wear yoga pants they wear pants that look like basketball warmups. Those people in movies with the snap sweatpants that look kind of wind/water resistant, yeah those. And it's normal. Also when they dress up they like to wear these white disco era platform sandals and boots. And makeup here costs $23984723984 so they usually only wear makeup when they go out!
Thirdly is FARMS ARE EVERYWHERE AND EVERYONE IS FROM A FARM. People are shocked to hear I live in a "farm town" where no one runs productive dairy/cattle farms. Their idea of a farm is a sheep/dairy/cattle/deer farm where they own 1,000 animals or something. Farms are not places where people own 5 cows, 2 horses, and some chickens. So that's a bit different. Also they know what the teacher is saying when she talks about tailing, culling, milk sheds, and velvet. It took me forever to figure that all out. By the way, tailing is chopping off a lamb's tail, culling is killing, milk sheds are where you milk cows, and velvet is the stuff covering deer antlers that they chops off the antlers for and send to Korea.
Fourthly is everything costs an arm and a limb. Grocery bills (and I go 1-2 times a week) are usually $50-$80 for ONE person. A pack of 12 strips of bacon costs at least $10, and that's sale price. A slushy at the movies is $7, gas is 3x what it is back home, and a university sweatshirt (usually $30, right?) is $100. It's absolutely nuts.
Fifthly people here love Obama. I don't know why, but they think he's great. They know more about American politics then I do!!
Sixth no one is religious. There's a tiny percent of people who Christian, that being split pretty evenly between Anglican, Catholic, and Baptist. There's not a Mormon, Jew, Jehovah's Witness, or Buddhist in sight. And the people that are Christian follow a double standard where they pray then take a shot.
Seventhly people here are smashed 95% of the time. People are drunk by 9pm probably 5 days a week, at least. My R.A. told me he spent $10,000 on booze his freshman year...like WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
Eighthly college means high school, high school means high school, and university means college. And it's first years, not freshmen, second years, not sophomores, etc. They just like to make everything confusing.
FINALLY, they like to use random vocabulary that makes no sense. A yarn means to have a talk, they add "as" to the end of statements (sweet as, it's cold as, I'm drunk as, etc.), and biscuit means most baked goods. It's quite confusing :)
Overall I've had a fantastic time here studying abroad, I would LOVE to come back and travel, but I don't think I need to live here. The people are great, but seeing as I'm a non drunk Christian who enjoys a variety of food aside from just meat, I don't think I'd fit in ;)
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Room Tour!
So I've gotten a couple requests for a picture blog about where I live, so here it is! My hall is called Centennial, and it consists of five buildings. I live in building 5 which happens to be the building with laundry and a common room! Each building has two floors, and a total of four wings, though one of the wings on my building is dedicated to laundry/common room, not actual rooms.
The outside of my building, my camera couldn't capture much from closer up.
My wing is the upper right one! Camera couldn't capture the left wings.
The straight on view when you open up our pod door, bathroom is a door directly to the right, kitchen is that door on the left, and everything carpeted is rooms (there's 6). Oh, and that door at the end is a broom closet.
Our bathroom (one toilet, two sinks, two showers)
Our airplane sized toilet room
One of the showers
View of the kitchen from the doorway
Our cooking area
It gets full when six people have to share it...
Each of us has a shelf (mine is the very full third row down)
The right side of my room
The view of my tiny room from the doorway
My bed/wall
My closet
My bookshelves and towel rack
Looking out into the hallway from inside my room
My super messy desk
Well that's my building! I would do a campus tour, but that would take a LONG time and probably wouldn't do it much justice! I hope you guys enjoyed my messy little building tour, I hope it makes sense haha.
Random Update: Walked into town yesterday for the farmer's market where I bought some homemade bread and fudge, then took the bus into the city with Lisa, Robert, and Peter (Germany, Pennsylvania, German), and we did a little shopping then went and saw the Averngers 2: Age of Ultron which was really fun! We got AWESOME seats and instead of paying $20 to see it on the "Extremescreen" we got to see it for $12, still not sure why. But it was really fun. Today I basically was a hermit and did homework/watched YouTube videos, and made homemade rice pudding and homemade applesauce! Unfortunately I doubled the recipe for rice pudding, because I had enough ingredients to do so, and now I have a ton of rice pudding. I also used a lot of apples for the applesauce, so now I have a lot of that too, and our fridge is already packed. Oh well! Also, I tried sarsparilla soda for the first time, it's the closest thing New Zealand has to rootbeer. It's pretty good, similar to rootbeer but a little bit off. In other news, our wine is ALMOST done fermenting! It should be done tomorrow and the next day. To tell when it's finished, we measure sugar levels (because the yeast converts the sugar into alcohol), and we're almost to -1, which is what we're aiming for. -1 is a dry wine style, and we also chucked some oak chips in to make it more interesting. AND GREAT NEWS! My wine prof can give us letters that lets us take our wine through customs even though I'll only be 20! HOORAY NOW MY FAMILY CAN TRY IT! Hopefully it doesn't taste horrible.
Well that's it from me! Got a few big projects coming up, so wish me luck :) Only four weeks left of lecture, then three weeks for exams, then I'm home. It's been one wild ride :)
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Mid Semester Break
*WARNING* LONG BLOG POST AHEAD:
So here's my super long post on my two week, mid semester break. We called it spring break, but it's fall here so that's pretty inaccurate haha.
Thursday, April 2, 2015 - DAY ONE: So Holly and I were scheduled to leave Christchurch at 8:50pm for Auckland, Erin's plane came in the day after. So Holly and I brought our bags to the dining hall with us, ate dinner, then caught the bus to the airport. We got into Auckland around 10:30pm, and go to pick up our car keys to our rental car. Since our flight was an after hours flight, we got an email (Ace rentals) that we were to pick it up at the information desk in the international terminal. Well that desk was closed. No keys. We were given a number to call, it goes straight to voicemail. So after consulting three airport staff, we're told we have to wait until 6am when the information desk opens. Airport sleeping: night one.
DAY TWO: We wake up at like 4:30am because we can't sleep, and hang out until 6am and go to the information desk. The info desk informs us they don't have our key and have no idea where it would be. So we call the phone number again, and they tell us they are located off site, about 3.5 km away (~2.3 miles?). Well, we walk the 3.5 km in the dark, along a busy highway, and finally get there. They inform us there's a free shuttle that goes to the airport every ten minutes or so, well THANKS ACE RENTALS. Well we finally get our car, and drive it to a parking lot to defrost. Battery dies. We have to call the car company to come jump us, then we're finally on our way. We went to Muriwai Beach, on the west coast of the North Island. We went horseback riding, which was super fun, then headed back to Auckland to pick up Erin. By the way, the car was dubbed Bobby Flay.
We took a slight detour to do a short hike to Fairy Falls, so that was fun :)
We picked Erin up, then headed over to the University of Auckland to stay with my friend Meredith who is studying there. The parking garage said full, but there were like two cars there so we parked anyway and went up to her apartment. We were kind of running because the door was shutting and we didn't have a key, turns out we forgot our car key in our trunk. Well we stayed the night on her couches (thanks Mere!!) and go to sort out our key problem in the morning.
DAY THREE: $65 parking ticket sitting on our windshield. We spend an hour trying to pop our trunk while Erin pays the ticket, and find out that the trunk can only be opened via car key. SO we call Ace and have to pay $65 for them to come and take our backseat out so we can get our car key. FINALLY we're on the road. We head over to the Coromandel Peninsula, our next stop. We ended up taking a slight two hour detour through dirt roads and loose pigs, but finally make it to Hahei (by Whitianga), get delicious ice creams, and make the 45 minute walk to Cathedral Cove. This is a beach used in Prince Caspian! Well we stayed overnight (I slept on a rock), and "fell asleep" (LOL) to the world's brightest moon. Oh, we also went skinny dipping. You only live once, right?
DAY FOUR: We woke up to the most spectacular Easter morning sunrise!! One of the highlights from the trip. We were the only ones there, and all you could hear was waves crashing against the rocks! Totally unreal.
We headed into Hahei for Easter church, and arrived an hour early. We forgot about the time change. But this was a plus, because we got to go get an AMAZING brunch at the local cafe! So good. We finally went to church, which was interesting because it was an extension that came from Whitianga. So it wasn't a weekly service with a loyal congregation, they only came in for Easter and Christmas basically. But it was an Anglican church service, and held in the library's big hall. Very interesting to say the least :)
We went back to the beach after church, and hung around there until dinner time, when we drove over to our next stop of Matamata (Hobbiton!). We took a shower at a campground, stole some free wifi, and found a park to spend the night in. Three people in a little five seater is quite cramped, let me tell you...
DAY FIVE: Hobbiton!! SO COOL. We had nothing to do in the morning, so we just came to Hobbiton early and they put us on an earlier tour. We were all in charter busses, and they drive your through the farmer's sheep farm on the way to the movie set. They found the farm while doing an aerial search, and he allowed them to build on his land. They did not, however, use his sheep because the director didn't like their look. He had sheep imported from America to take their places hahaha! Well anyway we had a really nice tour of the movie set (44 hobbit holes?) and took some great pictures, then at the end we all got a free drink from the Green Dragon! I got a cider. The beer and cider served there are unique, they're not sold anywhere else!
After Hobbiton we spontaneously decided to drive to Hamilton and stay the night there! I wimped out of yet another night without a bed, so I bought myself a room at a cheap motel.
DAY SIX: We left Hamilton around 10:30am, and headed to Waitomo caves for our glowworm cave tour! We got a tour of a bunch of caves leading up to the glowworm caves, then sat silently in boats as we glided through thousands of glowworms. It was SO cool. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures, because it disturbs the glowworms. After our tour we took a short hike to a lookout, then headed out for some lunch! We basically survived the weeks on PB&J and apples. We drove to Rotorua where I had a REALLY nice hostel booked, and planned out the next day.
DAY SEVEN: Holly and Erin paid to get into a geothermal park in Rotorua, but since I have done Yellowstone, and wanted to save some money for my hostels, I stayed behind. When they got back we set off for Lake Taupo and spent the evening exploring the town! We tried skydiving, but it was too cloudy. We ended up hitting up Haka Honey for some mead and honey tasting, then took a hike to Haka Falls and the hot springs!
We hung out at the hostel, which had it's own bar, and went to bed early.
DAY EIGHT: Skydiving still wasn't happening, so we decided to go white water rafting instead! That was in Turangi, so made the drive over there and got to spend two hours on the water (in the rain). We were very wet. I got to take my GoPro, so that was pretty fun! All the footage is going up in a video, once I can figure out how to get iMovie to cooperate. :)
We were originally going to spend the night in the Tongariro Crossing area, but the weather was horrid for the next day, so we took a three hour drive south to Feilding. Erin is a pig farmer, and was in contact with a pig farmer there and he graciously hosted us for a night! He put us up in a SUPER NICE hotel, and wouldn't let us pay a thing.
DAY NINE: We ate breakfast with Neil and Yvonne in the morning, then he took us on a tour of his pig farm. We got to hold piglets, which were SO cute and SO warm, and saw his feed plant thing which was super cool. He gets leftover or expired food products from local companies, and has a program that tells him how much of each he can add to his pig feed. So he cuts his feed costs in half, while also helping these local businesses do something useful which their leftovers! We had lunch with them, then headed BACK up north to Turangi and spent the night there.
DAY TEN: We woke up early, and started the Tongariro Alpine Crossing! This is a 19.4 km (~11.5 mile) hike into Mordor. Well, where they filmed much of it anyway. It took us just over 6 hours to complete, and we made sure to take a cool photo with Bobby Flay at the end.
We were due to drop our car in Wellington at 10:30pm, so we headed straight from the crossing to the Wellington airport! We dropped off our car, then settled down for night two in the airport. We got woken up at 1:30am by security because we weren't supposed to sleep there, but he let it slide :)
DAY ELEVEN: Field tour begins! We were picked up at 8:30am from the airport by the charter busses that were to take us around the southern half of the North Island. This was a mandatory trip for my management class. We stopped by a deer farm in Masterton, and a sheep farm in Eketahuna, then were dropped off in a parking lot in Pahiatua. The teachers called out students and matched them to our billets (homestay families). They were all part of the rotary club. A kiwi girl, Celia, and I stayed with a cute old couple and had a nice wine and cheese appetiser before dinner. For dinner they served us homemade schnitzel, potatoes, green beans, and peaches and ice cream for dessert! It was all scrumptious. We shared a room upstairs, and both went to bed early.
DAY TWELVE: After breakfast we dropped off in the parking lot, and headed over to Ruawhata for a dairy farm tour (in the POURING rain), and a hill country farm in Hunterville. We were all freezing cold and soaked through, it was quite miserable. Well my billets for the night (in Marton) were absolutely AWESOME. They were also rotary club members, but a bit younger. This time I was by myself, but they immediately let me take a hot shower and get warm. Their shower was one of those awesome ones that feels like a waterfall. Well we also had wine, and they wouldn't stop filling my glass! Haha, the wife and I finished a bottle between the two of us. She made this INCREDIBLE Moroccan food for dinner, and lemon glazed cake for dessert. Probably the best food I've had in months. I stayed up late talking to them, because they were so interesting. They have three kids, one dating a Brazilian, one married a Japanese, and one's a professional chef. So they're really well traveled and had a lot of cool stories! They let me do laundry, and I got to sleep in a big bed with a bottom AND top sheet that were heated! Woah.
DAY THIRTEEN: We had a nice breakfast of fruit and yoghurt, and I tried my first feijoa, and first golden kiwifruit! The feijoa is a fruit with a rind, and it tastes like flowers. The golden kiwifruit was amazing <3 I'm hooked now!! Well they dropped me off and both gave me hugs, and we were off again. We went to a sheep farm in Parewanui, and a dairy farm in the Levin area. I was with Celia again for the night, and we stayed with a single lady in Levin. She had an awesome house, and even let us use her hot tub! We had classic kiwi food for dinner (bacon and egg pie with side dishes), and we stayed up talking. She was really interesting and had a super precious cat named George.
DAY FOURTEEN: Our last day of the tour! We went to a sharemilking farm in the Levin area, and a market garden, then headed back to the Wellington airport and train station. I stayed at a hostel across from the train station, and spent the evening talking to my roommates for the night. It was me and three guys in the room, but they were all super cool! One was a tall guy from the Netherlands, and he was shirtless because he had just showered. We were talking about hiking, and one of our other roommates comes in, first thing he asks is if we were together. So awkward. But they were all great and I stayed up late talking to them.
DAY FIFTEEN: I woke up at 5am to catch my shuttle to the airport. My flight for Queenstown left at 6:50am, but it was hands down the most beautiful flight I have ever taken. Ever.
Perfect day for flying <3 Well I landed around 10am, and checked into my hostel where I met up with Christian and Meredith. We pretty much laid low and used wifi, I FaceTimed the family, then we were off for some adventuring. Christian and Meredith went horseback riding in Glenorchy, and I went bungy jumping off the Kawarau Bridge! SO COOL BUT SO SCARY. 100x scarier than skydiving for sure. It was crazy fun though! I got dunked in the water, which is why my shirt is all wet. I promise it's not sweat! Hahaha.
After I got all tidied up and showered back at the hostel, Meredith, Christian and I got Ferg Burger. It's this super popular burger joint in Queenstown and is super popular. It was giant but really good! We got some cider to drink with it, and chatted pretty late.
DAY SIXTEEN: I got up early to catch my bus for a Milford Sound tour and cruise, and had a beautiful, but long, drive to Milford Sound. The bus driver stopped a few times for picture opportunities and short hikes, and then we took a 100 minute boat cruise on the sound. It was really foggy, but still super cool.
We then made the long trip back to Queenstown in which we watched the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" or something like that. It was really cool! It's about a man from Invercargill who fixes up an old Indian (motorcycle) and brings it to the Bonneville salt flats in Utah to have it timed. He ended up breaking the record for whatever category bike his motorcycle fell into, and his record still stands today! So that was pretty neat.
DAY SEVENTEEN: I made the horrid nine hour bus ride back to Christchurch. I got Starbucks in the morning (they have different menus here!) and we stopped in Wanaka and in Tekapo on our way back to Christchurch. Both BEAUTIFUL places to stop.
Made it home safely and immediately loaded my photos on Facebook ;)
DAY EIGHTEEN: Christian and Meredith came and visited me at Lincoln, and we got pies from town. A very relaxed day, and we had perfect weather!! I went grocery shopping and caught up with some friends, and now here I am typing this whole thing up! It was an incredible and unforgettable two weeks, there are absolutely no regrets. <3
So here's my super long post on my two week, mid semester break. We called it spring break, but it's fall here so that's pretty inaccurate haha.
Thursday, April 2, 2015 - DAY ONE: So Holly and I were scheduled to leave Christchurch at 8:50pm for Auckland, Erin's plane came in the day after. So Holly and I brought our bags to the dining hall with us, ate dinner, then caught the bus to the airport. We got into Auckland around 10:30pm, and go to pick up our car keys to our rental car. Since our flight was an after hours flight, we got an email (Ace rentals) that we were to pick it up at the information desk in the international terminal. Well that desk was closed. No keys. We were given a number to call, it goes straight to voicemail. So after consulting three airport staff, we're told we have to wait until 6am when the information desk opens. Airport sleeping: night one.
DAY TWO: We wake up at like 4:30am because we can't sleep, and hang out until 6am and go to the information desk. The info desk informs us they don't have our key and have no idea where it would be. So we call the phone number again, and they tell us they are located off site, about 3.5 km away (~2.3 miles?). Well, we walk the 3.5 km in the dark, along a busy highway, and finally get there. They inform us there's a free shuttle that goes to the airport every ten minutes or so, well THANKS ACE RENTALS. Well we finally get our car, and drive it to a parking lot to defrost. Battery dies. We have to call the car company to come jump us, then we're finally on our way. We went to Muriwai Beach, on the west coast of the North Island. We went horseback riding, which was super fun, then headed back to Auckland to pick up Erin. By the way, the car was dubbed Bobby Flay.
We took a slight detour to do a short hike to Fairy Falls, so that was fun :)
We picked Erin up, then headed over to the University of Auckland to stay with my friend Meredith who is studying there. The parking garage said full, but there were like two cars there so we parked anyway and went up to her apartment. We were kind of running because the door was shutting and we didn't have a key, turns out we forgot our car key in our trunk. Well we stayed the night on her couches (thanks Mere!!) and go to sort out our key problem in the morning.
DAY THREE: $65 parking ticket sitting on our windshield. We spend an hour trying to pop our trunk while Erin pays the ticket, and find out that the trunk can only be opened via car key. SO we call Ace and have to pay $65 for them to come and take our backseat out so we can get our car key. FINALLY we're on the road. We head over to the Coromandel Peninsula, our next stop. We ended up taking a slight two hour detour through dirt roads and loose pigs, but finally make it to Hahei (by Whitianga), get delicious ice creams, and make the 45 minute walk to Cathedral Cove. This is a beach used in Prince Caspian! Well we stayed overnight (I slept on a rock), and "fell asleep" (LOL) to the world's brightest moon. Oh, we also went skinny dipping. You only live once, right?
DAY FOUR: We woke up to the most spectacular Easter morning sunrise!! One of the highlights from the trip. We were the only ones there, and all you could hear was waves crashing against the rocks! Totally unreal.
We headed into Hahei for Easter church, and arrived an hour early. We forgot about the time change. But this was a plus, because we got to go get an AMAZING brunch at the local cafe! So good. We finally went to church, which was interesting because it was an extension that came from Whitianga. So it wasn't a weekly service with a loyal congregation, they only came in for Easter and Christmas basically. But it was an Anglican church service, and held in the library's big hall. Very interesting to say the least :)
We went back to the beach after church, and hung around there until dinner time, when we drove over to our next stop of Matamata (Hobbiton!). We took a shower at a campground, stole some free wifi, and found a park to spend the night in. Three people in a little five seater is quite cramped, let me tell you...
DAY FIVE: Hobbiton!! SO COOL. We had nothing to do in the morning, so we just came to Hobbiton early and they put us on an earlier tour. We were all in charter busses, and they drive your through the farmer's sheep farm on the way to the movie set. They found the farm while doing an aerial search, and he allowed them to build on his land. They did not, however, use his sheep because the director didn't like their look. He had sheep imported from America to take their places hahaha! Well anyway we had a really nice tour of the movie set (44 hobbit holes?) and took some great pictures, then at the end we all got a free drink from the Green Dragon! I got a cider. The beer and cider served there are unique, they're not sold anywhere else!
After Hobbiton we spontaneously decided to drive to Hamilton and stay the night there! I wimped out of yet another night without a bed, so I bought myself a room at a cheap motel.
DAY SIX: We left Hamilton around 10:30am, and headed to Waitomo caves for our glowworm cave tour! We got a tour of a bunch of caves leading up to the glowworm caves, then sat silently in boats as we glided through thousands of glowworms. It was SO cool. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures, because it disturbs the glowworms. After our tour we took a short hike to a lookout, then headed out for some lunch! We basically survived the weeks on PB&J and apples. We drove to Rotorua where I had a REALLY nice hostel booked, and planned out the next day.
DAY SEVEN: Holly and Erin paid to get into a geothermal park in Rotorua, but since I have done Yellowstone, and wanted to save some money for my hostels, I stayed behind. When they got back we set off for Lake Taupo and spent the evening exploring the town! We tried skydiving, but it was too cloudy. We ended up hitting up Haka Honey for some mead and honey tasting, then took a hike to Haka Falls and the hot springs!
We hung out at the hostel, which had it's own bar, and went to bed early.
DAY EIGHT: Skydiving still wasn't happening, so we decided to go white water rafting instead! That was in Turangi, so made the drive over there and got to spend two hours on the water (in the rain). We were very wet. I got to take my GoPro, so that was pretty fun! All the footage is going up in a video, once I can figure out how to get iMovie to cooperate. :)
We were originally going to spend the night in the Tongariro Crossing area, but the weather was horrid for the next day, so we took a three hour drive south to Feilding. Erin is a pig farmer, and was in contact with a pig farmer there and he graciously hosted us for a night! He put us up in a SUPER NICE hotel, and wouldn't let us pay a thing.
DAY NINE: We ate breakfast with Neil and Yvonne in the morning, then he took us on a tour of his pig farm. We got to hold piglets, which were SO cute and SO warm, and saw his feed plant thing which was super cool. He gets leftover or expired food products from local companies, and has a program that tells him how much of each he can add to his pig feed. So he cuts his feed costs in half, while also helping these local businesses do something useful which their leftovers! We had lunch with them, then headed BACK up north to Turangi and spent the night there.
DAY TEN: We woke up early, and started the Tongariro Alpine Crossing! This is a 19.4 km (~11.5 mile) hike into Mordor. Well, where they filmed much of it anyway. It took us just over 6 hours to complete, and we made sure to take a cool photo with Bobby Flay at the end.
We were due to drop our car in Wellington at 10:30pm, so we headed straight from the crossing to the Wellington airport! We dropped off our car, then settled down for night two in the airport. We got woken up at 1:30am by security because we weren't supposed to sleep there, but he let it slide :)
DAY ELEVEN: Field tour begins! We were picked up at 8:30am from the airport by the charter busses that were to take us around the southern half of the North Island. This was a mandatory trip for my management class. We stopped by a deer farm in Masterton, and a sheep farm in Eketahuna, then were dropped off in a parking lot in Pahiatua. The teachers called out students and matched them to our billets (homestay families). They were all part of the rotary club. A kiwi girl, Celia, and I stayed with a cute old couple and had a nice wine and cheese appetiser before dinner. For dinner they served us homemade schnitzel, potatoes, green beans, and peaches and ice cream for dessert! It was all scrumptious. We shared a room upstairs, and both went to bed early.
DAY TWELVE: After breakfast we dropped off in the parking lot, and headed over to Ruawhata for a dairy farm tour (in the POURING rain), and a hill country farm in Hunterville. We were all freezing cold and soaked through, it was quite miserable. Well my billets for the night (in Marton) were absolutely AWESOME. They were also rotary club members, but a bit younger. This time I was by myself, but they immediately let me take a hot shower and get warm. Their shower was one of those awesome ones that feels like a waterfall. Well we also had wine, and they wouldn't stop filling my glass! Haha, the wife and I finished a bottle between the two of us. She made this INCREDIBLE Moroccan food for dinner, and lemon glazed cake for dessert. Probably the best food I've had in months. I stayed up late talking to them, because they were so interesting. They have three kids, one dating a Brazilian, one married a Japanese, and one's a professional chef. So they're really well traveled and had a lot of cool stories! They let me do laundry, and I got to sleep in a big bed with a bottom AND top sheet that were heated! Woah.
DAY THIRTEEN: We had a nice breakfast of fruit and yoghurt, and I tried my first feijoa, and first golden kiwifruit! The feijoa is a fruit with a rind, and it tastes like flowers. The golden kiwifruit was amazing <3 I'm hooked now!! Well they dropped me off and both gave me hugs, and we were off again. We went to a sheep farm in Parewanui, and a dairy farm in the Levin area. I was with Celia again for the night, and we stayed with a single lady in Levin. She had an awesome house, and even let us use her hot tub! We had classic kiwi food for dinner (bacon and egg pie with side dishes), and we stayed up talking. She was really interesting and had a super precious cat named George.
DAY FOURTEEN: Our last day of the tour! We went to a sharemilking farm in the Levin area, and a market garden, then headed back to the Wellington airport and train station. I stayed at a hostel across from the train station, and spent the evening talking to my roommates for the night. It was me and three guys in the room, but they were all super cool! One was a tall guy from the Netherlands, and he was shirtless because he had just showered. We were talking about hiking, and one of our other roommates comes in, first thing he asks is if we were together. So awkward. But they were all great and I stayed up late talking to them.
DAY FIFTEEN: I woke up at 5am to catch my shuttle to the airport. My flight for Queenstown left at 6:50am, but it was hands down the most beautiful flight I have ever taken. Ever.
Perfect day for flying <3 Well I landed around 10am, and checked into my hostel where I met up with Christian and Meredith. We pretty much laid low and used wifi, I FaceTimed the family, then we were off for some adventuring. Christian and Meredith went horseback riding in Glenorchy, and I went bungy jumping off the Kawarau Bridge! SO COOL BUT SO SCARY. 100x scarier than skydiving for sure. It was crazy fun though! I got dunked in the water, which is why my shirt is all wet. I promise it's not sweat! Hahaha.
After I got all tidied up and showered back at the hostel, Meredith, Christian and I got Ferg Burger. It's this super popular burger joint in Queenstown and is super popular. It was giant but really good! We got some cider to drink with it, and chatted pretty late.
DAY SIXTEEN: I got up early to catch my bus for a Milford Sound tour and cruise, and had a beautiful, but long, drive to Milford Sound. The bus driver stopped a few times for picture opportunities and short hikes, and then we took a 100 minute boat cruise on the sound. It was really foggy, but still super cool.
We then made the long trip back to Queenstown in which we watched the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" or something like that. It was really cool! It's about a man from Invercargill who fixes up an old Indian (motorcycle) and brings it to the Bonneville salt flats in Utah to have it timed. He ended up breaking the record for whatever category bike his motorcycle fell into, and his record still stands today! So that was pretty neat.
DAY SEVENTEEN: I made the horrid nine hour bus ride back to Christchurch. I got Starbucks in the morning (they have different menus here!) and we stopped in Wanaka and in Tekapo on our way back to Christchurch. Both BEAUTIFUL places to stop.
Made it home safely and immediately loaded my photos on Facebook ;)
DAY EIGHTEEN: Christian and Meredith came and visited me at Lincoln, and we got pies from town. A very relaxed day, and we had perfect weather!! I went grocery shopping and caught up with some friends, and now here I am typing this whole thing up! It was an incredible and unforgettable two weeks, there are absolutely no regrets. <3
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