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

The Great Kiwi Beer Festival & The LU Rec Center

I'm just combining two posts into one here :)

I went to the Great Kiwi Beer Festival (let's just call it the GKBF) in Christchurch yesterday which was super fun. There were 40 different booths selling beer and cider, and that's not even including the multiple beer gardens and food stands. I only got cider, but I don't really like beer. The stands I went to (and cider I got) were British Beer & Cider (Honey Milford Cider), Harrington's Breweries (Brotherhood Cider Three Berries), Mike's Organic Brewery (mike's Wicked Cider), Mussel Inn (Freckled Frog Feijoa cider), Old Mout Cider (Passionfruit & Cider), Sprig and Fern Brewery (Berry Cider), and Tuatara Brewery (Zeffer Cider). I know it sounds like a lot of drinks, but they were all $3 tastings. My favourite was actually one that my friend Erin tried at Old Mout Cider. She got a really good Boysencider. My least favourite was the Mussel Inn cider (what the heck is feijoa?!) which tasted like a mix of beer and cider. Of the beers I tried sips of, my favourite was from British Beer & Cider and it was a dark smoky beer.

There was loud music, and everyone there was mid/upper 20's and older (probably because the young crowd can't afford it;)). We got this AMAZING food for lunch from a booth called Flavours of Europe. It was a "potato cake with Manuka-smoked honey cured bacon, cheese, sour cream, and a cheeky dash of sweet chili sauce". Seriously the greatest thing ever. That might because we're used to tasteless NZ dining hall food, but it was to die for <3 Overall I had a fantastic time!! It was pretty pricey, but a lot of fun :) Here are our pictures!

Me (Washington, USA), Peter (Germany), Erin (Minnesota, USA)

Our awesome new shirts :)

The gym here is weird because you have to pay for a membership, but all the classes are free. So that's been super nice once I paid the $85 fee! They do all of the BodyPump, BodyVive, etc. classes, so it's a good variety. Our schedule for gym classes goes like this:

Monday - BodyBalance at 7pm (yoga + strength)

Tuesday - BodyCombat at 6pm (combo of karate/boxing/tai chi, etc.)

Wednesday - BodyBalance at noon

Thursday - BodyVive at 6pm (Zumba but more workout-y) OR RPM/cycling at 7pm

Friday - Zumba at 5

Saturday - free day :)

Sunday - BodyCombat at 3:30pm unless we're out adventuring

I once tried a 6am cycling/RPM class. Never again. Hahaha. So it's been awesome getting a good variety for workouts, especially for one who hates running! It also helps when you have awesome gym buddies to go with. So shout out to Holly and Erin for that :)

Class Style in NZ & Random Updates

Classes here are SO HARD. Not because there's a bunch of work, but because there is absolutely no structure. Our grades consist of maybe 3 projects, and 1-2 tests. And that's it. So we basically don't have homework, then out of nowhere we have a giant project due! The biggest problem is that our rubrics for projects are ridiculously vague. Or the teacher will add something right before it's due. So communication is definitely an issue, but we are much more independent here! It'll be weird to go home and actually have homework and tests every week. :) Oh, and 50% is a C, 60% a B, and 70%-100% is an A. The problem is, the class average on everything I've done so far is like a 55%. My first test, the highest grade was an 85%. Crazy!! Hopefully I can pass all my classes...

UPDATES:

I have fallen in love with cider. And wine is growing on me...but beer is still terrible. So that's exciting? Luckily I live in states where cider making is pretty popular :)

I finally joined the gym (for $85), and have a lovely fitness schedule with some ladies in my pod! We do a class every day Monday-Friday. They teach BodyPump/BodyVive/BodyCombat etc., and some others, so we're trying a bunch of stuff out.

Our two week break is coming up!!! April 2nd-April 19th :) We're going to Auckland, Cathedral Cove, Hobbiton, Waitomo glow worm caves, Lake Taupo (skydiving), Tongariro Alpine Crossing, Wellington, Queenstown, and Milford Sound. So it's going to be packed, but we're renting a car which will be super nice. SO PUMPED!

Joined Christian Fellowship (club), their bible study, and found a church I like and go to with my pod-mates!

Went to my first ever rugby game!! Go Crusaders!

Also went and saw Cinderella in theaters which was SO CUTE OMG. Highly recommend it <3

This Saturday I'm going to the Great Kiwi Beer Festival in Christchurch, so that should be fun! I'm also going to make a caramel apple pie, and my friend Lizzie and I are going to make Harry Potter cocktails.

That's it for me! Weather is getting cooler, and leaves are changing colours! Pretty strange that it's going to be fall for Easter :)

Lake Tekapo & Mt. Cook

This weekend we had a FABULOUS weekend camping adventure!! There were five cars packed with (mostly) international students heading out to Lake Tekapo for hiking and camping. My car left first, and we had another car following us, we were planning on meeting the other three cars there (it was a three hour drive). Well our driver, Richard, got the highways mixed up and we somehow ended up at Lake Coleridge instead, which is northwest, when we wanted to go southwest. So after that nice three hour detour, it took us another three hours or so to get to Lake Tekapo! Here's Lake Coleridge:

Well when we got to Lake Tekapo it was already 4:00 or so, so we decided to camp by the lake instead of hiking up to the campground. We ended up with two of the cars, the third was who-knows-where. In total there were close to 20 of us hiking at the lake. We went swimming in the world's clearest water (even though it was freezing!) and I got to play around with my GoPro some more :)

Carl - Norway

Me, Haley, and Sydney (WA, WI, CA)

As we ate dinner we got to watch the sunset which was BEAUTIFUL.

Then the stars came out which were absolutely unreal. I'll post a photo of what they looked like, but we didn't take this. You clearly see the ENTIRE Milky Way, and the tents were silhouetted, and it was unforgettable. All 20 of us, representing seven? different countries, watching the stars for hours.

Photo credit: Derek Rowley

Most of the crew! Photo cred to Carl

Photo cred: Carl. Probably the best shot we got :)

Then it got super freezing cold, and since Holly and I don't have tents yet, we spent the night huddled under two blankets, freezing our butts off. Most people slept outside with their sleeping bags in a big pile, but that wasn't going to happen for us hahaha. We all woke up before the sunrise and got to watch the sunrise together.

We were out of camp by 9:30 and headed off to Mt. Cook, stopping by Lake Pukaki on the way.

At Mt. Cook we did a short walk/hike to Hooker Lake, which was gorgeous. Very Lord of the Rings-y. :) It took us about two hours total walking there and back, but we spent quite some time at the glacial lake. The Norwegians, Yoka (Denmark), and Jack (USA) all went swimming, but they're crazy.

Driving up to Mt. Cook

Hooker Lake

A view on our hike <3

The squad!

I had an absolutely incredible weekend, definitely my favourite thus far!! Even though I got no sleep, it was SO COOL. And all the people are fantastic, here we all are!

Left to right (ish): Jacob (NY, USA), Lauren (CO, USA), Sverre (Norway), Clem (France), Richard (CA, USA & Taiwan), Tasia (Canada), Holly (NH, USA), Carl (Norway), Lisa (Germany), Hakon (Norway), and me in front (WA, USA)! Not featured: Ahmed (Egypt), Caleb (CO, USA), Haley (WI, USA), and Sydney (CA, USA)

Check out my video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydhnW0oUje0

ALL PHOTOS BY ME UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

Dunedin

So this weekend I got to travel down to Dunedin and spend some time there. We took NakedBus from Christchurch down to Dunedin, and it was about a 6 hour drive. We took a break in Ashburton and in Oamaru, so that was nice to kind of break up the trip. We left Lincoln at 6:20am on Saturday morning, left Christchurch at 8am, and got into Dunedin at 2pm. Dunedin is like the San Francisco of New Zealand, so it took us like 30 minutes of walking (all STRAIGHT uphill) to get to our hostel. We stayed at Pavlova Palace, and everyone was super cool there! Every single person was like from Germany. Well after we put our stuff down we walked into town and took a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, which was super cool!! They have the largest chocolate fountain in the southern hemisphere, so that's pretty cool. We also got a bunch of free chocolate, including liquid chocolate samples (TO DIE FOR). It was a 45 minute tour, and I'll include some photos below.

These are all chocolate bars!

After Cadbury we just walked around town, admiring all of the super cool architecture!! Most were old churches still being used, but they were all incredible.

When we got tired of walking we found our dinner spot, a delicious Irish place called the Craic Irish Tavern, got some drinks, and shared some Guinness stew pot pie for dinner <3 

We were pretty tired after all of that so we decided to go back to the hostel where we met some pretty cool Germans, and a very lovable cat. We named it "Little Nugget".

The next morning we got breakfast at this AMAZING little hole in the wall cafe, I got a homemade bacon muffin, and freshly squeezed pear-mint juice. Oh, and scrambled eggs. Absolutely incredible.

We stopped by the park after breakfast to enjoy the sunshine and relax a bit before our long ride home.

We boarded the bus at 2:20pm, got into Christchurch around 8:20pm, and got back home in bed around 10pm. It was an incredible weekend, and I had the awesome company of my friends Lizzie (from Oregon, goes to University of Idaho), and Amanda (from Colorado, goes to Colorado State University).

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYUv-aNtO_M&index=2&list=PLzU_b2847hsr8MHsS1AqrDGFvdBSYNrt9

The Night Life

New Zealand has a drinking age of 18, so they have a very big night life, and very different from the States. I am 20, so I'm not legal in the States, and I'm also not a big partier so these observations are based on my very limited observations!

In the States people party mostly on the weekends, like Thursday-Saturday were the big party nights, and people don't start drinking til like 8pm, come home around 2am. Also, since we were all underage, parties were held at houses and apartments. Oh, and no drinking on campus. Here in New Zealand our "drinking hours" on campus are from 5:30pm to 9pm, so people start drinking at 5:30pm in their halls, then take it to the bars in and around town. We have two major bars here, one is within walking distance, and it's called the Famous Grouse, and it's the kind of bar that doesn't have dancing. The other one is called the Springer, and it's insane. That's where you go to dance and be crazy, we swung by at 8:30pm and there was a line out the door!! So I've been to the Grouse twice, the first was really quiet, the second was much bigger. They stop serving shots once it gets pretty rowdy (that was only like 9:30pm), and they don't know the same drink names as we have in America. Also, people here party on Wednesdays. Yeah, I know, it makes absolutely no sense.

I've only been to two "parties" here, parties meaning lots of drunk people ;) Not really my scene, but it's been fun ordering different drinks and finding out what I like! I always thought I hated alcohol, but that's because I've only ever tried the bad stuff hahaha. My favorite thing here has been cider, I've tried three different kinds and they've all been very good. I still don't like wine (sorry mom and dad) but I'm working on it, since I have to make my own wine in one of my classes!! Oh and mom and dad, if you're reading this, no I have never been drunk. I like to think I know my limits pretty well!!

Overall I prefer the New Zealand night life, but once I turn 21, I think I'll like the U.S. night life better. Not a big fan of the whole Wednesday night thing, but I MUCH prefer bars to houses!

Grocery Shopping in New Zealand

This is one of the few "culture shocks" I've gotten while here in New Zealand. Groceries are SO EXPENSIVE!! This is mostly because our local grocery store (New World) is a really expensive one, but even when we take the bus to the cheaper on, the dairy products are crazy expensive. You'd think because New Zealand is a huge dairy producer that the dairy products would be cheap, NOPE. I pay like $5NZD (~$3.75USD) for a 1/4 gallon jug of milk (it's in liters, but it's about the size of a 1/4 gallon jug). So here's what my grocery shopping thus far has consisted of:

• Lowfat milk (they don't have completely fat free) 
• Cornflakes, aka the cheapest cereal
• Eggs (they're brown, not white)
• Yoghurt, which is combined with custard? I don't know but it's pretty creamy
• Cheese, crazy expensive. And all white, they don't have yellow cheese like anywhere 
• Apples, all from NZ (gala)
• Big carrots, I don't I've even seen little ones
• Bacon (we're talking like $7 for 10 strips)
• Hard cider (I recently got pear cider and raspberry vanilla cider)
• Rice
• Frozen veggies
• Juice! They have crazy weird flavours here, stuff like kiwi and aloe vera. 
• I tried hot chocolate, but it's not very good so that won't happen again...
• Bread - I get the kind with seeds, but it's all pretty white bread here, I haven't seen any whole wheat?
• Peanut butter - mine sticks to my mouth really bad. Probably because they don't add salt and oil ;)
• Jam
• Margarine
• Miscellaneous stuff depending on the trip!

Thus far (on the whole 3 trips) I've spend about $45NZD, or $35USD per trip. Sometimes more or less, but it's pretty pricey here. For some odd reason I can't stop eating apples? I've been having like 3 a day. So that't strange hahaha. Food in the dining hall is pretty horrible, but the grocery food is decent. Personally I prefer shopping in the States because we have a bigger variety, and it's much more affordable, but they have very quality food here! I haven't really done any cooking so far, ingredients are just so pricey. I did try making oven baked drumsticks, but our oven is in celsius, which I forgot, and they didn't quite turn out ;)