Writing out my last week in NZ...over 2 months later...

I believe I left off the night before heading down to franz josef from wanaka.

In retrospect, Wanaka was probably one of my favorite places on earth. Like, if heaven exists, I would think that it would look something like those views across the lake *sigh*.

So anyways, caught the atomic shuttle to the west coast, and that in itself was a gorgeous ride, along the shores of Hawea Lake and along the top of Wanaka Lake and then down through the Haast Pass...gah! And all as the early morning clouds and fog were lifting, munching on a cheese scone and being somewhat preoccupied by the state of the digestive system of a hard-partying Australian up front ("I don't know if he'll make it, there's nowhere to stop up along the pass..."). We stopped at a salmon farm once we hit the Tasman, where I discovered that my aquaculture class has ruined any illusions I might have about the sustainability of such a facility and also conveniently discovered that I hate smoked salmon. Anyways, we switched into a tighter ride in a van, and arrived in Franz Josef in the afternoon. Spent the remaining daylight walking to the bridge with the glacier view, running errands and chatting with my Australian roomates, who it turned out were on the same glacier hike as me the following day.

Woke up the next day and the weather was a bit cloudy but definitely dry. We made breakfast and headed over to the guiding place, where, while waiting to get going, I picked up, out of sheer curiosity at the time, a brochure about helicopter rides. On the shuttle to the glacier trailhead, I overheard the guides joking about the guide named Bryce who cost the company thousands of dollars somehow. Of course, after we hiked up to the terminal face, I take one for the team and go into the first (apparently most vigorous) group onto the ice and guess who my guide is: "Thousand dollar Bryce". I was extremely apprehensive about going in the first group b/c my pathetic lung strength, but besides the frst 10 minutes or so, it was actually awesome to be in the group with the freshest ice and the guide making the stairs etc. And the weather was absolutely perfect! Sunny and probably around 60F for most of the hike...gorgeous.

Highlights of the hike:

-ummm standing on a flipping glacier

-discovering crevasses and irises are not made for humans with hips (ie, women)

-talking with a fellow American about MJ's death...and the crazy German girl interjects about spending 900euros for VIP tickets about his show

-"the Franz shuffle"

-taking lame pictures with ice axes

-realizing the australian boy in my group was the same guy puking on the bus the day before, and having a "wow this guy is weird" crush on him

-keas are cheeky bastards

-eating lunch on top of a glacier

-falling on the gravel but not the ice

-knowing i have crampons but still hesitating with every step for the first 2 hours

-getting on the bus, putting on the radio and "Modern Love" is on, and Bryce and everyone complain about thelack of stations on the west coast...while i dance and say "david bowie's the man!"

Anyways, so afterwards, I am exhausted and STARVING, so myself and my two australian roomates and another person from their bus go out to one of 3 restaurants in Franz: the Speight's Ale House. I find my foody soulmate in one of the Aussie girls, as we extoll our love of delectable desserts and order huge pieces of meat to make up for the energy lost on the hike. I think I would've enjoyed travelling alot with those two Aussie girls, they had similar attitudes about travelling around NZ.

Slept well after climbing on ice all day, obv.

The next day I was undecided about what to do, but after consulting my parents, I decided to splurge on a 45 minute heli ride around mt cook and and glaciers, etc. Probably one of the coolest things I have ever done. I'm not even going to attempt to describe how incredibly unreal it was to be face-to-face with the top of mt cook, or looking down on the tinytiny people at the very top of the Fox glacier. But one thing you certainly realize from that height is how small the South Island really is, as we could see both coasts/oceans at one time from up there. We landed just below the top of the Fox and got out for pictures, etc. My favorite thing ever was watching the family of four that went up with me and this other younger girl having the most epic snowball fight on the top of the world...just incredible.

Umm can't really remember what else I did that night, besides probably watch Boston Legal, try to get on a kiwi tour in Okarito (couldn't get there, no ride....lame) and eat pasta. Oh, I did walk to the bridge at sunset, with Sly and the Family Stone's "Time" playing on shuffle...but more about that in my musical memories entry (hypothetically).

Next day got up bright and early for a bus to Greymouth. Stops along the way included the Bushmen Center and Hokitika. The former was like a little piece of Texas, with mounted deer heads, that same backcountry sense of humor, game meat and everything you could possibly think of made of possum...basically dedicated to eradicating those vermin from the area and NZ as a whole. Hokitika was really nice, I had a chance to walk along the beach and find myself a bunch of pieces of unpolished greenstone. In retrospect, I wish I had stayed there one night instead of two nights in Greymouth, since you had easy access to the sea/beach, whereas Greymouth was very industrialized...oh well. Got to Greymouth, and basically walked around with nothing to do all day, since it was one of the ugliest towns I'd ever visited in NZ. As on Stewart Island, I got myself a bottle of Banrock Station white shiraz and some delicious pesto and pasta and watched Boston Legal in Bed once the sun went down. Spent most of that night also listening o the ranting of the crazy German girl from Franz, who was in love with some tour guide who clearly was trying to get rid of her...tragic. Got her whole life story as well...she was a legit nutjob, but at least not boring. Woke up the next day and essentially killed time til my tour to Punakaiki that afternoon. Punakaiki...in retrospect should've stayed up there one night instead of Greymouth as well, as the tranzalpine the next day was late anyways and probably would've waited for the bus anyways. The tour was just me and this Danish woman and her 2 daughters. Kinda...dumb. When I said I was from NY, the first question from the mom was "So the two towers...that must've been hard for you, no?" UGH, really? The tour guide hated me too because I already knew like everything he said. But, it got me to the rocks and the nikau forest so whatever. Rocks were incredible, we even saw a maori dolphin diving in and out of the surf. Went back and drank and ate and Boston Legaled once again, but that night my roomate was an adorable, intelligent marine sciences major from Coastal Carolina. Wish he had been my roomate 2 weeks prior, as I was just too exhausted from travelling and meeting a million new people to be really friendly...lame.

Hung around and read and stuff til the train at 1:30...got a ride to the train station and found out that the train was mega-delayed...great more time in Greymouth! By the time was got on board it was already twilight and raining, so no last views of the Southern Alps for me...but I did get to talking to my seatmate, who was also from Australia (and Tanzania). We ended up meeting up for my last real dinner in NZ in Christchurch and b/c it was a Tuesday night, only a handful of places were even open past 8pm. We ended up at a chain Japanese place that had fascinated me in Wellington called Wagamama; had a deliciously seasoned and semi-raw steak dish (I think it was beef negamaki...?) and what was called plum wine but really seemed to be plum wine and a bit of ginger ale. Afterwards, we both realized we had missed a few people on our souvenir purchases and convinced the only place we saw open to stay open juuuust a few more minutes while we speed-shopped for those remaining. I thought it was so touching and fitting to be spending my last full night in NZ with someone I had just met and enjoyed the company of, she confirmed my feeling that Aussies are some of the friendliest travellers in Kiwiland. That night I stayed in my odd little single room and praaaaayed for good weather at the Christchurch and Auckland airports, as I needed to fly back to Auckland in time to relax and finish packing all my luggage that I had left in my lovely friend Rike's room while I was away

Flights worked out for the most part (although arriving late at LAX was stressful, as I had to get through customs and across the airport in a little over an hour ahhh). It was so odd to be back in Huia, packing my stuff up in another room, knowing that only one of my friends was really left there. I introduced myself to Rike's Italian student neighbor just so she didn't think I was breaking in or something and I was instantly jealous that she had the next 5 months to discover NZ like I had. I found it funny that Rike and I could find almost nowhere to eat lunch OR dinner at 4pm in Auckland (we ended up getting butter chicken and naan at the uni commons...sadly, my first and last time eating that delicious treat)...made me appreciate NY schedules alot more. And then came that last fatal super shuttle ride to Auckland airport, with bags that juuuust made it under the weight limit and in my sweats (how people make that flight in jeans and nice shirts beats me...), did some yoga at the gate to relax my back, etc. Got a bulkhead seat for the AUK-LAX flight, which was unbelievably amazing...and then...home to my very tanned and loving family and a delicious diner meal mmm mmm.

le fin.

Whales, snowstorms, and mountains...lots of mountains...

Left off at arriving in the evening in Kaikoura, right? Well, once I walked onto the beach at Kaikoura, I loved that town. The beach itself was a gravel beach, which we studied in my coastal geography coast. Go, go geo-nerd geekout: whats really cool about these beaches is the way they dissipate incredible, incredible amounts of energy. The steepness of the beach makes the waves unable to break but instead they surge onto the beach face, and this ridiculous amount of force is absorbed by the gravel of the beach face. On the coast south of Kaikoura, 90% of sediment is lost through abrasion…abrasion, like ground up to nothing…90%! The water from the wave itself is also absorbed through the porous nature of a gravel matrix, so the upward sweep is much stronger than the backward sweep. It was incredible to just hear the waves hitting through the gravel all the way in my hostel back behind the train tracks. The geomorphology of the area also includes shore platforms, which, like gravel beaches, basically no one understands entirely b/c they’re in such high-energy environments that its impossible to do so without physical risk to people and the equipment used in coastal studies. However, the Kaikoura peninsula is one of the few places that has been studied, so I read the papers at night. On the last day, the waves I watched coming into the beach were probably the closest things I will ever see to tsunamis, just a massive wall of water like 20ft tall…incredible.

Not only was there something for the marine geologist, but most people go there for the marine biology. There’s a huge trench like 1km offshore, so the continental shelf drops off to 1000m in a veryvery short horizontal distance. This trench creates upwelling, which is basically a whole bunch of nutrients from the deep sea coming to the surface. I did get to go whalewatching (in 2m swells, but with only 2 vomitting incidents…), where we basically went over the trench to watch the whales come up for air after diving after things like giant squid in the trench. Came back and watched an incredible sunset on the mountains and adjacent sea. That landscape combination is the best, mountains and sea.

The next day I took the long drizzly coastal walk to the resident fur seal (read: sea lion) colony. All the mountains were hiding again, and the rocky coast of the peninsula reminded me of Rhode Island (with much bigger waves though). The seals were just hanging out on the beach and in the car park, sleeping and stretching. They showed absolutely no fear and I almost ended up stepping on a few of these sleepy creatures! On the way back, I stopped at the super-cheap seafood bbq stand, and got a very, very tasty paua (abalone) fritter. Seriously delicious, minus eating it in a persistent drizzle. Caught the train to Christchurch and basically just ate and slept at my favorite hostel there, Vagabond backpackers. Went to sleep optimistic about the weather and road reports for my bus trip over the Southern Alps to Queenstown.

Well, although there was no snow forecasted for the next 3 days, at the halfway point of the trip, Lake Tekapo, where I had hoped to relive my previous stop there with spectacular views across the lake of Mt. Cook, we hit pouring down snow. The bus driver was convinced it would stop once we came down from the lake, but nope, it persisted and in fact got worse as we approached the highest road in NZ, the Lindis Pass. We optimistically stopped and outfitted the bus with chains, but we drove right up to the gates that were shut, meaning the road was closed. The new plan was to backtrack to the coast and then head back inland to avoid the pass but the other road there was closed for the first time in years. So, we ended up going all the way down to Dunedin, back inland and then back north to Queenstown along the shores of Lake Wakatipu (see a map of NZ for how ridiculous this was). We left Christchurch at 8:30 am, and finally arrived in Qtown at 1am. Very much an adventure, and I honestly did not mind once I knew where I was sleeping, but I did nearly miss saying goodbye to one of my friends who had spent a few days in Queenstown.

I spent the next five days in Queenstown basically keeping myself busy during the day while my friends and their friends from Ireland snowboarded. I had planned on taking a lesson or 2, but boring person that I am I honestly knew I would enjoy peaceful walks around town and a 3.5 hour cruise across to a high country sheep station. Yes, I finally got to touch a real sheep…actually to hold a lamb to be exact! Didn’t hold it for long or pet too many more sheep because the farmer mentioned that they often have fleas…been there done that thankyouverymuch. The changing light on the mountains around the lake was endlesslyamazing, and my friend’s friend was renting a room in a house with an absolutely incredible view. Finally had a fergburger, which everyone says is the best burger place ever…pretty good, although my favorite aspect of the place was that they didn’t look at me like a crazy person when I asked for no salad on my burger, as most kiwis do. Its also basically the only place open after a night out, so I experienced that aspect of fergburger as well (too big of a burger for post-drinks for me!). Spent the fourth of July getting my favorite ice cream ever in the biggest cone ever (Patagonia dark chocolate and raspberry sorbet..mmm) and walking along the lake. I guess just seeing the mountains at Queenstown everyday was enough for me considering until I came to that town the first time, I’d never seen mountains like these before; I mean, I’ve never been to the Rockies or the real Alps, so the Southern Alps are really unreal to me.

Anyways, said my last round of goodbyes and headed off on a bus to Wanaka.

My first day at Wanaka was pretty blah. Its on a lake of the same name that borders Mt. Aspiring National Park; Mt. Aspiring is the second highest mountain in NZ after Mt. Cook . All the mountains were hiding yesterday in the clouds, so although the walk along the lake was nice it wasn’t exactly breathtaking. But today…wow. The mountains were out in full force, first under overcast skies and then in the sun, finally. My connection’s too slow right now to upload photos, but I guarantee there will be at least 10 photos from my hike around the lake shore today on facebook and shutterfly as soon as I get back. It had to be hands-down the most scenic walk I have ever taken in my life, and enjoyable because it was a very relaxed walk on a combo of beach and flat terrain trails. I’m honestly quite sad to be leaving here, as the people in the hostel are also very friendly (many are here for the entire ski season, and have good taste in the music they play at night, although they could learn to respect one’s wish to sleep past 9am sometimes), the town is just lively enough (not quite as crazy/touristy as Queenstown) and I could take that walk everyday and not get tired of it (although if I had a car I’d love to actually explore inside the park’s boundaries).

Anyways, tomorrow I leave Wanaka for Franz Josef, where I will *fingers crossed for no rain* do a full day hike on a glacier. I am ridiculously excited for this, as I’ve lived on a glacial garbage dump and terminal moraine my whole life.

This trip to the South Island has been the perfect thing for preparing me for coming home. Travelling by myself has allowed me the freedom to see and do what I want, so I enjoy the beautiful scenery however I wish to do so, but its also transitioning me from my friends here to the relationships I have back home. During the day I think “OMG this place is gorgeous I never want to leave” and at night, after meeting new people again and again, or hanging out by myself, I think “I’m so ready to come home to my friends and family again”.

Exactly one week from now I will be enroute to Auckland International, ready to fly out of NZ after 5 months over here…ahhhhhhh!

Wellington Weekend, Last Week in Auckland and shitty start to South Island take 2...

Foul-weather ferry ride across the Cook Strait

Tongariro from the overlander

COLOSSAL SQUID

Inside the Overlander...def not the LIRR...

Wellington Harbour

Final exams:

Not much to say here…hopefully the grades will not reflect that I went to samoa for a week up til one day before my first two tests and that my tests were all within one week (exams are usually more spread out since the exam period is june 6^th-june 29^th). Its really tough to gauge how I did because they’re all essay questions (which could mean more chances at partial credit or, alternatively, you just may not be able to remember enough to write sufficiently about the essay topic). What is frustrating about this is that these exams count for 50% of my grade in two courses and 60% in the other two….so I have no idea how I did on very important tests effectively. Oh well, its over.

Wellington Weekend:

The day after exams, I flew down to Wellington, the other major city on the North Island and the capital of the country. I arrived in the afternoon, before a lot of my other friends who were either driving that day or flying down the next. The weather was perfect and I walked down the harbor to Oriental Bay. I love Wellington Harbor, mountains in the distance, lots of walkways along the water ala Riverside Drive (but with mountains…). Met up with Duffer, Paul, Rike and her friend Ann from Germany and went to the Mac’s brewery for a beer and wedges (think steak fries, but yummier). Mac’s Wheat ale was a lot like Blue Moon, minus the bit of citrus. Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city with the boys while the girls shopped. The Beehive, the capital building essentially, reminded me of a SUNY college building, which is not saying much (architecture kids, feel free to explain that better). Went to dinner in a sports bar with the girls to watch rugby games so everyone could refresh their knowledge of rugby for the All-Blacks/France game (if you don’t know who the All Blacks are, look em up) everyone was going to the night afterwards.

We all went to the Te Papa National museum the next day, to see such things as THE COLOSSAL SQUID and a collection of whale/dolphin skeletons. The squid was indeed colossal, although not that well-preserved, and unfortunately the skeletons were all behind glass in a big room so it was difficult to see them. Also, the blue whale skeleton had no vestigial hind legs on it…lame. Maybe my expectations were set really high and maybe my own museum ideal is odd, but I wasn’t all that impressed by the collections in the museum. This was one of those interactive/watch the videos/lots of reading museums, whereas I guess I prefer large collections of works and specimen without so much interpretation and explanation…but not everyone goes into museums with the same level of knowledge, so I guess its better to educate besides just showing specimens, etc.

After the marathon museum tour, with a lunch break, we were all zonked and either napped or just hung out til everyone headed to the game and I moved my stuff to a hostel closer to the train station. I opted not to spend the 102NZD for tickets to the game, and although it was a good game (I watched in the room in the hostel) it was pouring and freezing and, quite honestly, no sports event is worth that level of discomfort for me. I did watch the victory/loss of the Gallagher trophy on tv, as I said, and then the beginning of an Australia/Italy game and a Lions/South Africa game and came to the conclusion that I really love watching rugby and that it should replace football in America. It’s a faster game, actually easier to understand, the players look a lot better in the uniforms…its really a win-win situation.

Caught the Overlander train to Auckland at 7:25 the next day…got into Auckland at 9:10pm that same night….yeah, a very long train ride. But it was thoroughly enjoyable, I’d never been south of Auckland before and its all that classic North Island landscape of rolling green hills with sheep and cows dotting the foreground. Went through Tongariro National Park, which I was excited about since I just never had the time before the autumn/winter snows to do the Tongariro crossing, aka the best day walk in NZ. Its basically a cluster of active cone volcanoes, which, in this case, were perfectly snow covered. Very pretty. I forgot how much I love riding the train, even for 14 hours-ish. I kept nodding off (sopite syndrome like crazy) and waking up thinking I was on the LIRR late at night, as that’s usually where I get equally narcoleptic, except the seats were waaay more comfortable. Overall, a fantastic experience. I look forward to the transcoastal and transalpine in the next two weeks.

Last Week in Auckland *sniff-sniff*

Honestly, didn’t do much expect shopping and sleeping. My big goal for the week was to finally get to Rangitoto, but it was closed June 19^th-June 29^th for pest control(I left Auckland June 27^th).Thursday I got all sentimental about our last Huia dinner, lots of tearful goodbyes…I’ve moaned enough to you all about how hard its been to part with every one of my friends here, you know the sentiment. Caroline, Zoe, Jess and I all went to Waiheke Island Friday, despite the rain, which we moaned about until we went wine-tasting of course. Probably the coolest thing on the island was the Musical Museum, which essentially was started when people carted huge pianos to New Zealand and Waiheke but never wanted to ship them off the islands. All sorts of really cool old pianos, organs, dulcitones…pretty much any keyboard instrument you could think of, they had it! And the best part was that you could play almost any of them (I tried to get the guy to let me play the baroque flutes...no dice, understandably so). Went back and got ready for the final dinner and drinks, and man, did we do it up for our last night. No one was ridiculously drunk (or some were but not obnoxiously so) and we first fueled up at the Waterfront (I had a nice juicy steak!) and then hit just about every bar without a cover that we’d frequented in the past 5 months. Highlights include: every time “sex on fire” came on, b/c this was THE song at the time we all started hanging out and going out together, singing at the top of our lungs and crying at the Irish pub, every time Laura brought out the squid dance and when Phil brought us to the dock to see fish and we ended up just having spitting contests, etc. I couldn’t cry, I just wanted to enjoy the last night so I kept giggling instead.

When the airport shuttle came to pick Caroline and myself up at Huia Saturday, my heart started pounding. I’m super awkward at goodbyes, but I think we all know what we mean to each other, and I’ll see Duffer, Laura, Conor and Matt in Queenstown on Thursday. Saying goodbye to Caroline at the airport was equally rough b/c she was my first really close friend here.

Start of South Island take 2…and restart of South Island take 2:

So after saying my goodbyes on Saturday, I flew down to Wellington. Felt pretty queasy on the 45 minute plane ride, which had me worried for my flights home, but I figured it was the emotion of the day and lack of sleep the nights beforehand. Turns out it was one of those stomach-bug things that seem to get me a lot (maybe its actually an ibs thing? Or ibs makes me more sensitive to tham?). So, upon arrival, thinking nothing of my nausea, I went and got a sandwich at the only takeaway place open in within the very deserted part (it was Saturday night…) of Wellington my hostel and the train station was in: the Shell Gas Station. Well, still felt queasy, which was not aided by my very acrid-smelling room and constantly farting and phlegmy-snoring old woman roommate. Basically, you know how things deteriorated from there. At 5am, decided to abandon my travel plans (a 2.5 hour ferry ride across the often-rocky Cook Strait and a 3 hour train ride) and booked myself into a single room for the following night. Spent the day in bed watching Australian news (which also broadcasts ABC news from home) and movies, and worrying about the 60NZD I lost in pre-booked train and ferry fares as well as when I could get myself down to Kaikoura as planned. I was in panic-mode, b/c this situation was exactly what I feared, and apologies to those who I complained to in this state. Well, forced myself to eat a few crackers and got out of bed this morning and onto the ferry. It was a rough ride (waves had to be huge to rock a 10 story ferry twice the size of the CT ferries back home…), but exhaustion from 2 nights of barely sleeping and fever and puking made sopite syndrome kick in real quick…slept for most of the ride. Ate my first “meal” (a croissant and tea) at the ferry terminal and caught a bus down to Kaikoura. Bus ride down the coast was really cool. The southeasterly swells made the sea real rough (better clam down before my whalewatch tomorrow…) which drove all the sea lions (literally hundreds!) to just hang out on the side of the road…pretty cool. I love wild coastlines like that, waves crashing on rocks and gravel, monstrous frothy swells. Checked into my hostel and turns out I’m the only one staying here, so I have a double ensuite room all to myself. Nice and calm for recuperating. Hope the gales calm down for whalewatching tomorrow at 12:45. I want to see sperm whales but I’ve had enough nausea for the next month, thank you very much!

Samoa (6/4-6/10) in a few photos and highlights...no time!

I'm going to miss these kids...best picture ever of the crew...

Paradise. At Tanu Beach

We slept in huts called fales.

Snorkeling was fantastic! So many fish and healthy corals!

Highlights:

...Ok so first the only real lowlight: Samoa (especially the island of Upolu) has packs of wild/feral dogs. Scary as hell! Had nightmares inspired by the sounds of them scrapping on the street the first night!

-Highlight #1: Pizza place we went to the first night had the best pizza I've had since NY. Yeah, who knew, Samoa?

-Highlight #2: Our fourth roomate the first night in the only hotel we stayed in: Charlie the giant cockroach!

-Highlight #3: Ferry ride from Upolu to Savai'i in the pouring rain. Cool to go on a non-touristy ferry, if that makes any sense...

-Highlight #4: First time I snorkelled at Lusia's Lagoon. Even with a rainwater lense and in the crappiest area near the shore with sediment, it was still good snorkelling, with a moray and juvenile angelifish (!) right off the dock!

-Highlight #5: Gecko cage fighting!

-Highlight #6: the overabundance of fresh coconuts and their juice at Lusia's Lagoon

-Highlight #7: Hanging out at an ideal waterfall, with cliffs to jump off and shelves to sit on, even in the pouring rain.

-Highlight #8: Attempting to walk home from the falls, and having the locals laugh at us, and having kids invite us to take pictures or swim with them.

-Highlight #9: Snorkelling out on the reef at Lusia's...Gah, incredible, with healthy coral (porites, the diseased coral I studied in Jamaica) and tons of different butterflyfish, damselfish everywhere and those fish that the scarred one was in Nemo (yes I am ashamed for not knowing its name...)

-Highlight #10: Prawns with Coconut cream and banana fritters.

-Highlight #11: Sitting under a fullish moon on the dock at Lusia's.

-Highlight #12: Late night chats with my falemate Rike. And finding a crab in our bed haha

-Highlight #13: Having your accommodation be a thatched hut over the water means that you don't even need to leave your bed to see the sunrise: just open a flap and see the sun come up over the reef :-)

Highlight #14: Passing out from motion sickness/dehydration at Tanu Beach fales and waking up to a gorgeous sunset over the reef

Highlight #15: Dinner and a show put on the family who own Tanu Beach, from the littlest kids to the older family members

Highlight #16: Dancing with the family and trying ava (which did not do anything narcotic-like except to make my tongue numb)

Highlight #17: Playing and jumping around in the water with my guy friends...just like the old days at West Neck, except we're in our twenties...

Highlight #18: Walking down the beach and finding shells

Highlight #19: Hanging out in the water with the kids of the owner, who tried to get us to say offensive things in Samoan and asked us about our lives ("22? Thats too old for school."). The little girl wanted to set me up with an older cousin, until I told her I was "friends" with all the boys in the water. She replied in disbelief "You have 4 friends?! And you're the only girl?!" I think you can see the disconnect here. It was adorable.

Highlight #20: Cocktails at a bar down the beach and watching crab wars down in the beach.

Highlight #21: Ferry ride back to Upolu in good weather.

Highlight #22: The only real tourist shops were in the airport.

Highlight #23: Having my fake cousin Leslie's underwater camera for the waterfall in the rain and all the snorkelling, etc.

Well, sorry that wasn't more detailed. A few more trip entries soon to come before I leave!

Poor Knights Trip

Honestly, not the best trip in the world, for various reasons. 

But the water was actually beautiful, not too cold at all, considering I went to sleep the night before in about 5 layers, including thermals and sweats. According to the NZ Herald, NZ has apparently skipped autumn and its now colder than most of winter in Auckland.

Let me explain this weekend.

The trip guy  from the university diving club picked me up and we got lost repeatedly trying to first find the guy to pick up the club gear from and then the other girl going up with us. Interesting side note: I drove up in Miss New Zealand's car. The trip guy's sister is Miss New Zealand, hence he gets to go to the Bahamas (prolly Atlantis, I told him) for Miss Universe in November. Anyways, we also did not have directions to the place we were staying so that was a hassle too. Got to the barn at about 11:30pm, and watched tv for awhile. Interesting side notes about NZ tv ads: 1. the song from the Enzyte commercials (with the creepy smiley guy and thinly veiled erection references) is used in a commercial for something with adorable tiny little blue kiwis running around...weird and 2. a few commercials are the exact same ones we have on the states but with new zealand-accented voiceovers. Barn was not heated, phil's sleeping bag was a summer one, and i was freezing, i couldn't feel my nose or toes all night...really helped the cold I've acquired since the huge drop in temperature.

Decided to snorkel b/c I've had a cold and diving with any sort of sinus congestion is problematic because they can't adjust to the pressure underwater then. It takes about 45 minutes to cross the open water over to the islands. There were some biiig swells and in order to stay dry i had to be inside. And I got MAJORLY seasick, especially once we stopped moving. First time I have ever puked and puked and puked over the side of a boat...the snapper really enjoyed nibbling on it. Sat on the bow for awhile while the divers readied themselves, and when I felt decent  I wriggled into my wetsuit and jumped in. Pretty cool, blue as hell waters, not very cold at all after the first few minutes (17C=62F) and there were all these big schools of fish, tons of snapper. I forgot how much it feels like flying, snorkelling over deeper waters, quite dizzying with the light and all. I had a little school of snapper following me, like in the movies, where I kept turning around b/c I didn't see any fish and they were all just hanging out behind me. Snapper just kinda hang out in the water like barracuda, ominously, but they're not scary. Literally a few minutes after I got back on board the boat, I puked out the rest of whatever was left in my stomach (a single protein bar for breakfast) and dryheaved for awhile and then napped on the bow of the boat while everyone else ate lunch. After my nap and with nothing at all left in my stomach, decided to go in after the skipper told me i looked absolutely miserable, which was nice of him. It was shallower so I saw alot more species of fish (like triggerfish! yay!), but I could kick myself for not venturing around the corner b/c the other snorkeller and the divers saw a bunch of eagle rays over there! When I got back on the boat, I couldn't get the wetsuit off and the skipper, instead of helping me, thought it was hysterical. I went and sulked, in my cold wetsuit on the bow and waited for the divers to get back, and one of them finally helped me out. Not a big fan of that skipper, didnt he see me puking my brains out? and didn't he hear me when I told him I wasn't diving b/c I'd been sorta sick? but yeah FUNNY joke making me freeze and all. Anyways, made it back w/o feeling seasick mostly and stopped for pizza on the way home. back now and exhausted.

According to my HILARIOUS buddy the skipper, the islands have lots of sunfish (the freaky oceanic ones w/ no butt) in the summer...I SHOULDA GONE IN MARCH BECAUSE THATS ALSO WHEN THE SNORKELLERS IN THE CLUB SAW THE MANTA RAY THERE! MANTA RAY AHHHHHH

Overall, the water was gorgeous, the weather stayed perfect and the islands themselves were pretty stark and had lots of caves and cliffs and stuff. And, when i wasn't puking/feeling like puking, i had some of those great moments where i just enjoy being out on the water. But freezing and puking are really not fun, at all.

I <3 Trees of NZ...because my internet got a bit faster!

autumn trees in the southern alps

Lake Pearson, near Arthur's Pass

Out my window in Auckland...I love that tree on the right, I will miss it dearly when I leave.

Oh, and the old volcano in the background there...but will NOT miss the ridiculous amount of construction you see there...

On the Kepler Trek...I think it was beech forest. lots of hanging moss

Tane Mahuta, or "king of the forest"...a huge 2000 year old kauri tree

Yes, that me and my friends Duffer, Paul and Elyse at the bottom

I don't know what this one is called, but its at Cheltenham beach in Devonport, across Auckland Harbor from the city

also in Devonport...I'm surprised this is the only outfitted tree I've seen, they're all so great for climbing!

Ancient Kauri trees in Northland, near Tane Mahuta

Tree ferns on the Coromandel Peninsula

Tree ferns and pine trees on the Coromandel...love it.

I *think* this is called a Pinus radiatus...but not sure. Favorite tree here

Mt Eden, in Auckland

Trees on Mt. Eden in Auckland...they just beg you to sit under them with a book or ipod!

Imported tree in the Domain w/ awesome roots.

Autumn's about to de-leaf many of these trees, so I figured I'd take a break from studying and show one of my absolute favorite things about this country, that I will miss dearly when I go home to boring old oaks and maple, etc.

Flight's pushed back as hoped: July 15th is the new official departure date...weird, only like 2 months left here...nooooo!

A Quick Update.

Now's the part of my semester abroad where I remember that I am still a student, despite my ambitious travel goals that have yet to be accomplished.

I have 5 research papers due between May 13th and May 29th.

I'd rather take 5 tests than do these papers, you can study anywhere as long as you can get some quiet time at night.

I spent all weekend avoiding work and basically partying in pretty clothes at the Huia Formal Dinner and one the RA's birthday parties. Oh and my birthday was very nice too; I went out to a nice italian place in Parnell for some wine and pasta, and my friends bought me a delicious chocolate cake, a 1-kilo block of real swiss cheese, a box of tim-tams and some other amazing scrumptious delights. We went for drinks afterwards, nothing too crazy though because we knew the next night was the formal dinner.

I've already booked my reward for getting through these tough-student times: 5 days in Samoa.

Yep, June 4th-June 9th I'm hopping on a plane with eight of my friends and we're just going to hang out on the islands of western (read: not American) Samoa. On my part, I intend on using my days to study for exams (my first two tests are June 11th and 12th...ooops?) on the beach (and taking breaks to snorkel in the basically untouched waters there, of course).

When I get back, I only have a week of exams (June 11th, 12th, 15th and 18th), which is not bad at all considering the exams period goes all the way until June 29th for the semester. I'm hoping my plane ticket can be pushed back from July 5th to something a bit later (no later than the 17th, though, as my visa expires then) so I can hang with people around Auckland before doing a final catch-all tour of NZ. I still have an entire list of places I haven't been to yet and the after-exams period is basically the last chance I'll have! Scary.

I am missing home alot, but I'm sure once I get through this school-stuff, I'll be as in love with this country as I have been before *sigh*