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.