Last Days

Hey all that are still reading up on this. Sorry to not have written for so long, I do apologize. I do have a valid excuse, I am having an amazing time and haven't figured out what I wanted to write about or how I was going to go about writing it.
I'm in a weird place right now. I got to New Zealand in the beginning of January and have been here for a total of 6 months. I didn't know anyone and I didn't know anything about New Zealand, except for maybe a couple movies have been made here and it is supposed to be spectacular, oh right they have an amazing Rugby team! Anyways I came with a completely blank slate. Didn't know much of anything or anyone and it has been everything I wanted. I have had adventures every where I turned. I have met some amazing people that will end up being life long friends. I have learned a lot about New Zealand culture and I have learned a lot about myself.
I went and stayed on a farm with a friend from the halls and got to wander around her land. We woke up early to feed the baby calves and she left for work.

I found an amazing spot on top of a hill and sat and looked out over the Waikato area for a great deal of time. The Waikato area is a large flat space surrounded by smallish mountains much further off. As I sat there I watched the rain clouds carry the rain across this flat space casting rainbows across the farm fields and houses. It was really nice view and a nice place to sit and relax and realize all that I have done. The time has gone by so quickly, but it has seemed like ages since I got on the first plane to Auckland. I changed strange faces to be great friends, through all of the experiences we had together. Now at University life I was changed from the crazy international student living in the dorms to a friend who will be missed. It is strange to sit in the dorms almost completely empty. I remember when I got here and, other than the RA's there was no one here. It was weird then to know that I did not know anyone there to now knowing so many of them that have left for home.

I will not be here when most of them come back and I will have to face the fact that I am leaving many great friends behind as I travel back to the states. The empty space, which was once filled with mystery for who was to come is now filled with memories and faces not so strange to me anymore. It is a weird place I am in right now and I'm sure when I get home I will continue to keep them in my memories and influencing my everyday life. I wish to keep in contact with all of my friends here and come back and visit some day very soon.

I believe the leadership course I was in has also influenced my current perception a great deal. And I look forward to bringing back my experiences from everything I have done here in New Zealand and continue doing great things in the states. I have great plans for when I get back and so happy that I had the chance to travel abroad for a semester (although I do wish it would have been longer).

It has been a fantastic time and I look forward to coming back to tell stories and create new ones. I will miss New Zealand very much and look forward to coming back in the near future!

Teacher Holiday = two week break

First Week:
Some friends drove me down to Wellington. I think this took just as long as the bus did, but I was infinitely more comfortable. I met up with the three guys from Furman again and will be traveling with them the whole two weeks. I am very excited. We hoped on the Ferry on Saturday and from then until Thursday of next week we were driving 5 or more hours a day staying in hostels and seeing as much as we could in our rented car. It was nice to be back on the South Island, but I appreciate the longer time I spent, when it was not so rushed. This was a very enjoyable experience though and I wouldn't exchange it for the world.
We took the ferry to Picton and quickly picked up the car we had rented and after grabbing a bite to eat we headed on the road. We made it to Christchurch a little before night fall. We broke up the trip by stopping in Kaikura to walk along the beach and find sea lions. When we got to Christchurch we checked into our hostel and headed out to find dinner at a tasty Indian restaurant. The weather was perfect, respectively chilly. The next day we drove to Dunedin. This drive was not amazing we saw some coast line but a good portion of the drive was nothing to write about. When we passed through Oamaru we went looking for penguins and followed a nice coast trail until high tide washed up. By the time we got to Dunedin we were so hungry that we set out to find food. This was Easter Sunday mind you and not many places were open, but we were lucky and found an amazing Italian restaurant called Etrusco and had a fabulous pasta dinner. The next morning we were ready to tour the Cadbury Chocolate factory, explore the art gallery and look at the cathedrals. We also ran/walked up the steepest street in the world according the Guinness world record; Baldwin street at a 35% gradient. By the afternoon we were making our way through the Catlins seeing Jack's bay, McLean Falls, and Purakaunui falls (picture provided). We made it to Invercargill late that night very cold and very hungry. Thankfully there was a warm fire place to meet us with a very friendly owner who had all kinds of gadgets hanging from the walls and strings attached to doors which had little figurines attached to the ends of them, all rigged up so when you open a door the figure pops out at you. We stayed in the Egyptian room and cooked a huge portion of rice and beans and added many spices and herbs to make it a fantastic meal.
We had not inclination to stay in Invercargill long so we headed out to bluff in the morning. Bluff is the southern most city to Antarctica and we had to stop there on our way through the South Island. We made it to Te Anau by lunch time and hiked part of the Kepler track. The Kepler track was just as amazing as when I did it the first time with the mossy trees and the beautiful scenery as you wind your way the the first hut coming in, where it had a nice beach which looked out across a lake. By dinner time we made it to Queenstown to walk around a little and find dinner before we made our way to Wanaka. By the time we got to the Catlins it was starting to get chilly. Queenstown was very cold and reminded me a lot of winters spent in Lake Tahoe as you walk around Squaw Valley. Where the center of town is all lite up with the cobble walkways and all the stores and restaurants close together inviting you into their warmth. As we drove out of Queenstown to Wanaka there were condos for rent for the ski season, having the inviting atmosphere of a great place to be in the winter. Too bad it wont be snow season until July, I would love to tear it up on these beautiful mountains.
We slept in Wanaka and awoke to a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains ready for what they day would hold for us. We had the best drive yet on our way out of Wanaka to Fox glacier. Sights completely out of this world through windy roads and in the mountains the whole time. Before we got to Fox Glacier we were almost run off the road by a motor home going the other way as it turned a corner to sharply and started rocking back and forth. Matthew had to drive off the road a little bit to avoid the last tip of the motor home before it rolled off the other side and landed upright with no one hurt, but a vacation that will have to have some major changes before they get going again. We hiked as far as we could on Fox glacier and headed on for we had a very very long drive ahead of us. We made it to Greymouth by nightfall exhausted and happy we would be out of a car and in Fiji soon. There was nothing to do in Greymouth as we left and headed to Picton to drop off the car. Nelson had a beautiful beach I convinced the boys to stop at and walk around before we went through the vineyard section of the trip. We did a wine tasting at Herzog (which you can look up and order if you want). I believe if I remember right my favorites were the Merlot Cabernet "spirit of Marlborough" and the Sauvignon Blanc "sur lie" although I will not credit myself with any decent knowledge at explaining good wines for I am still very naive. Although I do intend to learn a lot about wine. We got to the Ferry in time and were very happy to be rid of the car.

We had a day off before we headed to Auckland, in which I wrote one of my essays and relaxed happy to know I would not have get into a car and drive for 6 or more hours that day. I gathered my strength for the next day I get to go through customs... yeah! We flew from Wellington to Auckland then from Auckland to Nadi (Fiji). Once there grabbed a taxi to World Mark resort where we would be staying until we came back to Auckland and parted our separate ways. We arrived relatively late, but could still get dinner and walk around on the beach as well as swim in the warm pool. The ocean water in Fiji is easiest to describe as bath tub temperature, the beaches were white and had a lot of crabs running away into the dark. In the condo we were staying in it had one king size bed, two twins and a pull out of the wall bed. Short end of the draw got the pull out bed. I was sleeping in the twin. My time spent in Fiji was very relaxing. I caught up on my reading, I was able to write two essays, I laid out on the beach, watched movies, went swimming and scuba diving. We took a day trip to the what they called the south island where we scuba dived and were fed an amazing meal, allowed to take snorkel gear, kayaks, sail boats, play volleyball, sit and do nothing in lounge chairs, free drinks, massages looking out to the water... wasn't a bad place to go. The two dives I did, one was a wreck dive on a boat which was maybe 8 years old, but it was great to have had the experience of going through a sunken boat. The second dive I did was a coral dive, which was also cool and I got to touch anemone, see colorful coral and play with a some fish. There were no great problems, although I was very cautious of the equipment and had fins too big for me and didn't have the right weight on the first dive, but by the second I was all squared away. Oh we didn't wear wet suits because there was no need, the water was wonderful and I'm pretty sure my breathing is more stable in warmer water. We ate some very good meals, while at the resort, as well as cooking a lot of pasta and soups, which we brought through customs. We even ordered giant pizzas one night and watched the Dark Knight. I wouldn't suggest drinking the water or eating fruit, while you stay in Fiji I may have gotten sick because of it and wont say anything more. Thankfully the day I did get sick was a little raining and cloudy so it was a good excuse to sleep all day. But the weather the entire time was humid and warm and just what we needed for a break. Thank you Chris for bringing me along.
The two week break, which is technically a teacher's holiday was a great way to explore New Zealand and get to Fiji. I had a little trouble getting back into New Zealand, a problem with my student visa, but all was ok when I had proof I was leaving the country before my visa expired. It only took 45 minutes to get a ticket, but once I was on that plane everything was A-O-K.

Catch Up!

So it has been a while... sorry about that. I will quickly give you a brief overview of what I've done. I'll also include pictures. Normally what I've been doing up to this point is traveling on the weekends and going to classes during the week. Classes started off slow so this was very easy to do. And I would normally have someone else with me traveling to some place they haven't been to as well.
The first weekend I went Whangarei, it is a bit North of Auckland, and we stayed at a hostel that night and got a ride to Tutukaka the next day. In Tutukaka we went scuba diving off Poor Knights Island. The first dive we followed around a guide I hadn't been breathing through a regulator for a long time so I took a couple minutes to realize I could breath under water again. By the second dive I was doing great and me and my partner, Storm, were able to go off and do our own thing. In the water they have really wide and long seaweed, which had a yellow/orange tinge to it. I was able to stick my head through the seaweed and see the ground floor it looked like a forest when you were low enough. And it was hanging off the walls so it looked like hair moving with the waves. I also saw two big sting rays circling, scorpion fish...
That week in school the game assassins started around our dorm. If you don't know what the game assassins is let me explain. Each participant carries a name with them. This name is the person they have to "kill", to kill their person they have to throw water on them below their head. This can be done many ways... lurking outside the dinning hall, sneaking around a corner, jumping out at them as they open a door... The rules are you have to make your kill outside on Student Village grounds, so no in-between classes unless they come back to their block. Once you kill your person then you must take their slip of paper (of the person they were trying to kill) and learn who your new target is. I made two kills the first day, three kills the next day. I am still alive today but I don't think anyone is coming after me anymore...
The next weekend, Friday, I go to another Chief rugby game with Ali and three Canadians who I met when I was scuba diving. They are driving around New Zealand surfing. Saturday Chris, Storm, Nicky come with me to camp out in Raglan and learn how to surf. We rented 8ft styrofoam boards and played in the white wash. Fighting the waves can get really tiring especially when your in a "spin cycle" getting caught going down and around and being spit out again. I was wiped out. We camped at a YHA facility made some great pasta/sausage combination and jammed on the guitar till we were to tired to continue. The Canadians had the set up, they had pull out chairs, like we would bring to the horse shows, a cooler of good food, guitars, harmonicas and they could sing. It was a lot of fun. We surfed again on Sunday before going back to University.
School isn't so bad. Having four classes doesn't seem a lot to me, but apparently the normal load is three. I am enjoying my contemporary Maori class it is very interactive and I love learning about the creation myths. My earth class is, well the lectures are boring, but I really like doing the labs. And the labs help me understand the material better. There is a lot I don't know. My anthropology class I was hoping I would enjoy more, but it seems to just be skimming the surface of Ritual and Magic rather than getting into any kind of depth, which is disappointing. The teacher is new here so maybe she is just trying to find her grove. My English class is entertaining, my teacher seems to really enjoy the subject and is very energetic with her information giving. I did not realize we had to read an entire book within a week... might have some problems if I don't learn to read very quickly very soon. No worries though we have a break coming up.
Oh on this weekend is the Balloon festival in Hamilton. I got up really early on thursday and watched the sun rise over the Waikato river watching the balloons take off and race hare and hound. Reminded me of stories dad told me about his ballooning days as well as Thanksgiving morning when I was little. Walking down to the barn all bundled up with a hot coco and a look of amazement at the balloons that would take off before my eyes. Here in Hamilton there was a peacock and a jack-in-a-box and a large mushroom along with the regular shapes of the balloons with all sorts of colors that I was watching this morning before I got breakfast and attended class,
Next weekend the 21st of March three of us went to Hobbiton. On a farm between Rotorua and Hamilton in Matamata Peter Jackson decided to film the Hobbit's homes in Lord of the Rings. He used the farm as the setting because you cannot see anything man made all around it, with the exception of the shack which they made look like a tree in filming. This was very touristy business, but it was cool to see the set. The "party tree" was one of the main reasons Jackson decided to film there. They have cardboard places for all the holes and Bilbo's shire is the only one you can walk into. The holes are very fragile so we weren't able to walk over them because the ground often collapses if you do. We were lucky though, they are rebuilding the set for the Hobbit so we may go back later in the year and possibly see more. There are a lot of sheep!
The next weekend was much longer traveling and shorter doing things. Ali came with me to go see the three guys I know from Furman and go sky diving. We took a red eye bus to Wellington on Friday (getting there Saturday) and took a red eye bus on Saturday (getting back Sunday). Long way to travel! When we got into Wellington we threw our stuff down and headed to catch a train to Masterton, where we were picked up and awaited our turn to jump out of a Cessna. I watched Matthew and Chris go before we were suited up and sitting on the plane. To tell you the truth this was a lot less scary or adrenaline pumping than bungy jumping. I felt safe and taken care of the the entire time. It felt very freeing to jump out of the plane and free fall. The guy behind me spun us around and I didn't want it to stop. When he pulled the shoot it was even slower and I felt like I was sailing gracefully through the air. I got to control the shoot and spin us around a couple times too. I think I may seriously consider getting my diving certificate. The rest of the time we were in Wellington we went to the Botanical gardens, the farmers market and went out for food for lunch cooked food for dinner and watched a movie. Sunday was relaxing before we had to get back on that bus... Lets say when I arrived at 5am on Monday I was tired, but still made it to all my classes.

Waikat-O-week

Alright so past orientation now we are in school and classes have started, but since it is the first week of classes we still need a good way to meet random people and interact socially so O-week is here. Now WSU- the Waikato student union puts on this festival. There is a big piece of grass in front of the cafes and bank stations that look towards the lakes, which you can walk by on your way to class. This was a hot spot during the day. They handed out free breakfast as you walked to class and they had loud music blaring to let you know that they are there. They had lots of booths up on the green, giving away free stuff to attract the students attention; the wireless provider was giving away free trial vouchers, the WSU was giving away bags and information on what is happening every day, banks were advertising themselves. Monday is "Sexual heath day" at night they had a quiz game at one of the bars. Tuesday was "Who are you?" They had a hypnotist show up and if you are a student you got a free ticket in. Wednesday was "Clubs day" so all the sports, leisure, interest clubs you could sign up for and get information on. I signed up for heaps of stuff. They do not have a girls rugby team here... you have to drive two hours to Auckland to play girls rugby... kind of reminds me of Lacrosse season. There is a lacrosse team (boys, but girls can practice), and a comparable outdoors club that we have at Furman. The other days were international days, but on thursday they had three comedy guys show up. They were also giving out tickets to the Chiefs game (local rugby team). At the bars there were heaps of stuff to do as well. Apparently O-week is a pretty big thing in Hamilton. There were themed bars for every night, monday was a beach party, thursday was flouro or white out, tuesday was 90's. It was really fun to dress up for some of them and go out with my hall, and it was even more fun to watch them dress up and go all out and leave for the bars.
The first week of classes were normal 1st week of classes, you don't do much other than hand out a syllabus and say see you next time. I have class from monday to thursday. I am taking four papers (they call classes papers). I am taking an english: Victorian literature, a Anthropology: Ritual and Magic, a TIKA: Contemporary Maori Society, a earth science: Discovering planet earth. The english and earth class are each an hour and the other two are both two hours. The earth class has a lab and a tutorial and the english has a tutorial as well as the tika class. My days usually start off around 9 or 10 and end around 6 or 1. Only two of these course will transfer to my home Uni; the earth class and the english class and they transfer as general education requirements. I am very excited for my classes and think they will all be very interesting. I am especially excited about the anthropology class as well as the contemporary maori class.
The week was fun it had its ups and downs, got really board with the club scene and was ready for some actual lectures to take place. Friday was the rugby game though and that was worth waiting for, but the Chiefs lost. It was fun to watch a NZ game and be with the crowd and eat nasty sausage hot dogs. Goal before next game get a jersey, that and learn some of the states on the Chiefs. I wish I could play here at the University it would make life so much easier. I met a lot of new people and look forward to continuing that. First impressions are that I can't really tell you until I have an actual class, but people here are a lot less stressed then at Furman.

Orientation Week before classes start

Last week of February

All the first years are moving in and it is getting a lot louder in the once was quiet dorm. They are from all over the North Island and all are around 18 years old. They are all very much excited to be at the University for their first year. When I got back on the bus I realized that orientation was just about to start. Lots of name games and attempting to take away the awkwardness of meeting a lot of new people all at once. We are divided up into blocks. So I live in Student Village, which is a dorm, but I live in block 4. I think there are 6 blocks, some of the blocks are flats (meaning 4 people live in one room). I live in pod one meaning first floor. Oh in NZ they don't start their floors on the first floor when you walk into a building you are walking into the ground floor so the 1st floor is one level up... makes so much sense. We got t-shirts that say SV (student village) on the back of them with cool designs. The shirt is black and the writing is in red. Looks pretty cool.
The next couple of days were filled with learning about rules of the dorms as well as rules of the school. The run down of the rules in the dorm goes as follows: You can drink if your 18, but only in your rooms. You can't have more than 6 people in a room, otherwise its considered a "party." Lock down starts at 10pm and they have a drinking rule of drinking only from 10am to 10pm so that you can get to your studies. You must report if you have guests and if you aren't going to be sleeping in your dorm room you need to tell your RA you will not be there. There are more, but I don't want to keep writing them. All you need to know is that I know them and have been told them many times. They are much stricter here on the rules, not saying rules are a bad thing, but they are not as lenient as we are when we set a rule in the states. When they have a rule to follow at this Uni they follow it and will write you up for anything that you are doing wrong. Everything is reported. It is interesting.
There was an introduction to the school at the University's powhiri (pronounced poferi), a traditional Maori welcome filled with singing and speeches in Maori. We walked in the traditional way with women in the front and men in the back and were greeted with a song and when we flied in the men sit in the front and the women sit behind them (apparently this is so the women are protected because they make the babies). The leader of the the other sang and gave a speech then someone from our group, a male, would also sing and give a speech. It was all very exciting, but I could not understand the words. We were outside, but could see traditional carvings, each with its own story and each representing someone's ancestor. The international orientation was after this and we loaded up on some free garb and special offers they were getting people interested in.
Friday we played top team, which is where all the dorms competed against each other in friendly games; ultimate, soccer, touch rugby, water slide, handball, swimming challenge, human knot and some other ones. A hall that I didn't know won. During the night we attended the "block party" where you were to dress up as the first letter of the dorm you are living in. I am living in Student Village, so I had to think of something that started with an 'S'. I dressed up as a smurf... it was really fun and I was happy to have another dress up with me. She is also from the states and goes to school at UNC Charlotte. She also plays rugby and I can't wait to have someone to visit when I eventually make it back to the states. There were many cool and interesting costumes. Other 's' costumes were: sheep, school girl, shower...
Saturday night I went to a flat off campus with some of the australearn people I had met earlier and we met a lot of Germans. The night eventually took us to town to get a glimpse what the club/bar scene is like in Hamilton. Well it is loud, lots of people and they play American music usually remixed with techno.
Sunday I went to the gardens and had a glimpse of a symphony. There was an art exhibit in the gardens, but because of the symphony I couldn't see much of the gardens. And started to prepare for classes on Monday.

Weekend trip to Tauranga

21-2-10 and 22-2-10
Hey so I decided that I would leave school by myself and make it to Tauranga, which is on the east coast of the North Island. One of the RA's hooked me up with a family to stay with and after getting off at the wrong stop and being driven to the right stop by really nice people I got to Tauranga. I arrived in the middle of town and it seemed smallish, but it looked like a lot was going on. The mother of the family picked me up and drove me to their house and they have a beautiful view overlooking hilly cattle farms and you can just see a vineyard on the farm hill. Reminded me a bit of home, or at least Petaluma (smelled much better though). There is a lot of green and lots of trees. I went with the daughter (whom is coming to Waikato for her 2nd year) to climb "the mount." Climbing Mount Maunganui gives you a great overlook of the city as well as the ocean. You even get a interesting view of sheep with beach and water in the background. We got some good ice cream that ended up all over me by the time I was done with it and headed back. That night we went to the hot pools and I challenged on of the brothers to Halo... I don't even want to tell you how that ended. The hot pools were really nice and relaxing, the sun had gone down so you had a good view of the stars as well.
The next day I got the luxury of sleeping in and going to McLaren falls all day. I brought a snack lunch (tuna and crackers) and we did a nice walk/tramp and ate our snack on top of the falls. A guy jumped off the bridge, but apparently if you don't hit it right you might end up somewhere you don't want to be. It was really relaxing not much noise. We jumped from rock to rock following the water upstream and even were so relaxed we took a nap. The water was refreshing and when we ended up going back to town she showed me a local chocolate store and a equivalent of a jamba juice from the states. It was great fun, the family was incredible they treated me like family and I am really happy I got the experience to stay with them. I think they are coming to the states at some point hopefully I can house them and give them a good time as well.

catch up before school

So the week when I got to Hamilton and there was no one here we found a free concert to go to and traveled by bus to the furthest distance to get to a beach in New Zealand. Raglan really isn't that far away 45min is nothing compared to a drive to Tahoe. There was a sign post with a street called Wallis.... that could look really cool at the Winery right?

In Auckland pictures

here are some of the pictures I took while I was in Auckland before I met up with the australearn group. We went to Devonport and I got a lesson on how to surf.

Picton pics

Nelson

Aurthur's Pass