We're Lost in New Zealand...YONZO!

So the beginning of last week was not too exciting.  It rained buckets, literally, and I practically ran out of shoe options because I don’t have any waterproof shoes here besides my hiking boots, which I really don’t want to wear to class.  And even if I had brought my gumboots (rain boots), nobody wears them here and Kiwis generally think they are weird and should only be worn on the farm.  But they are so practical and super cute!  If only they could see Chapel Hill on a rainy day J  Some students even got a little crazy and surfed the raging Leith River that runs through campus.  They got in trouble, but they made the 6 o’clock news and the paper!  I also had a small fight with my cheap $5 umbrella from Kmart.  Unfortunately I have to declare it the winner considering it literally collapsed on my head! So basically I was in a constant state of wetness until about Thursday. 

Anyway, in other news, I finally got to meet my mentor! Yes, a little late into the semester, but I had forgotten to sign up for the program and then I heard that you could still join, so I did!  Her name is Emily and we got coffee last Monday night! She is awesome and we have a lot in common! And fun fact: she was wearing gum boots when I met her! The only Kiwi that day wearing them.  That night Werner, who is an RA at unicol (a residence hall), invited me to eat dinner with him there since RAs are allowed one guest per week.  The “dining hall” was much smaller than the ones in Chapel Hill and there were only 2 options for dinner.  Much different, but probably much healthier!

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty normal I think.  I’m having trouble remembering everything though!  Thursday I went to a hats and wigs party at another international flat.  The only way you could enter was if you were wearing a hat or wig, so Erin, Rachel, and I made paper hats for the party.  On the front of the hats we wrote YONZO, which is a spinoff of YOLO (You only live once).  YONZO stands for You’re Only in New Zealand once!  Which I hope is not true, because I would love to return, but it justifies everything that we do!  Friday was a little crazy trying to get some work done and planning the last minute weekend trip.  We decided to head to Silver Peaks, just 30 minutes outside of Dunedin, for a weekend of tramping and backpacking.

So we woke up super early Saturday and Erin baked French toast before we met up with the rest of the crew! All together it was me, Laura, Jordan, Erin, Rachel, and Marvin.  We hitched a ride with a couple of Kiwi hosts and made it to the car park around 9am.  But we had decided to do the trail backwards so that the longer portion would be completed Saturday rather than Sunday so we had to walk down the road a couple miles.  Well, we walked more than a couple because we missed the trail that we were supposed to take because it was marked with a different name at the end of it.  So we overshot our starting point by about an hour and realized once we were out in the middle of nowhere on a random dirt road with no sign of civilization that maybe we were lost.  So we stopped to regroup and plan right as a truck comes around the corner.  Good timing right?  We asked him for directions and after a little orienting; he told us we were headed in the right direction.  So we kept walking until about 10 minutes later when we see his truck headed back towards us.  We knew then that we were way off.  But it was nice of him to come back and tell us to turn around after he realized he had told us wrong.  So by noon, we made it to the trailhead, had a snack, and officially started.  But within the first ten minutes there was a river crossing up to our knees without any way of rock hopping.  So we decided to be brave the cold water and take off our shoes and socks to walk through it.  Now remember, it is the middle of winter here!  And my feet were so cold after waking though the river! But it was better than hiking in soaked boots for the next 5 hours! 

 After that it was straight uphill for a while and there were tons of prickly plants growing over the path.  Even in my leggings, my legs were pretty cut up.  We complained about it, but in the end it really didn’t bother me as we walked on the ridge with a full 360 degree view of the mountains.  Lunch was a quick stop as we were a little worried about the sun setting before we made it to the hut since we lost so much time at the beginning.  But we did take the time to check out the ABC cave along the trail.  It actually had a platform you could sleep on, but probably not the smartest thing to do in the winter.  We finally made it to the hut a little past 5pm after a final river crossing (this time with rocks, but I still got a little wet).  But I was proud of myself for not actually falling in this time!  Once at the hut, I started dinner for us because we were all starving!  So I cooked up heaps of pasta and we ate in a couple shifts.  Laura even carried cooked mince for us to add to the meal that disappeared within seconds of being made. 

Afterwards we hung out and played some cards.  Then another group of 5 arrived at the hut and since the hut only holds 10, it was looking to be a cozy night.  So we talked with them for a while and one of the girls had just returned from a trip to UNC for a week for some sort of workshop.  Yay small world!  Later that evening, Laura had gone out to the bathroom but got spooked as she heard noises and saw a flashlight coming out from the woods in the opposite direction of the trail.  I was not concerned and we all gave her a hard time for being scared until ten minutes later we hear somebody step up onto the porch.  None of us wanted to go see who it was so we waited a few minutes and then in walked this guy carrying a giant rifle.  I think at that moment all of us froze and didn’t really know what to say.  After the initial shock, I realized he was probably a hunter because we were only in a conservation area and not a national park.  But boy was that a way to scare some people when you walk in.  Turns out he was a super nice guy and let some of us use his night vision goggles and shared his cookies with us.  After hanging out for a while longer, we headed to bed with tons of layers on thinking we would freeze, but woke up with a huge pile of all of our clothes that we had pulled off throughout the night.  I guess the cabin got a little cozy with 12 people. 

The next morning we slept in a little bit and then got up to eat breakfast and hit the trail.  The hunter also headed out with us and since he was just heading back to his car for the day, we actually ended up walking with him the whole way.  The first part of the day was the hardest as it was straight up “Devil’s Staircase,” where at parts I was literally on all fours climbing.  That lasted about an hour and a half, but after that, the last 6 kilometers were smooth sailing besides a little mud.  Unfortunately the fog rolled in pretty quickly which limited the views and made for a pretty windy walk on the ridge.  We also had an issue with the ride back as Erin and Rachel’s ride couldn’t pick them up until 5pm and we were done by 2pm.  So the hunter volunteered to take then back to Otago (and we sent Jordan with them just to be safe).  But the hike was a lot of fun and I loved all of the silly times on the trail that I had with some close friends!  And our new friend J After we got back last night, we went to The Cook for $2 burgers and I collapsed in my bed pretty early.

As for the upcoming week, I have a busy schedule, but I am looking forward to Spring Break (guess I get 2 of those this year) starting this Friday! You guys can hear about it in a couple of weeks J Hope everybody is great!  Missing all of you at Chapel Hill moving in right now, but I’m sure you are having a wonderful time and I can’t wait to skype and see your rooms and everything! Have a great week!     

We just saw an Avalanche???

So it has not been long, but I just had a packed weekend and thought I should probably write about it before I start to forget things!

At the end of last week, I said goodbye to one of my really good friends here named Lorenzo.  Well we said goodbye multiple times thinking we were not going to see each other again.  But he is headed to UNC for the semester (basically switching places with one of the UNC girls here) so look out Chapel Hill! I am expecting everybody from Carolina to take good care of him and teach him how to love UNC just as much as we do J  I am super excited for him!

Early Friday morning, a group of 10 of us loaded into 2 rental cars and headed to Queenstown for the weekend!  After a little detour through town after getting lost in Dunedin, we were on way.  Queenstown is about a 4 hour drive and my car went crazy with singing along to every song on the radio.  Marvin and Wynton (the guys from Germany) had a CD with Wagon Wheel on it so that kind of became our theme song and it’s still currently stuck in my head.  Such a good one!  Anna and Emma were also in our car and Wynton and Marvin were such troopers driving the whole time.  Once we got into Queenstown, we dropped off a group of people who had booked to go bungee jumping.  (Don’t worry mom, I was not in that group).  The rest of us hiked up to a viewpoint where you could see the lake and snow covered mountains.  It was chilly but so worth it!  Afterwards, we checked into our backpackers and went to grab dinner with the rest of the crew.  We ate at a famous burger joint called Ferg Burger and I’m pretty sure the burger was about the size of my head.  We had to wait about a half hour for them, but it was delicious!  After dinner, we rested for a while and then went out to a few of the famous clubs in town called Winnie’s and World Bar.  They were lots of fun, even though I ended up losing my cardigan (but I found it the next day when I went back) and earrings!

The next day, we woke up and got some breakfast in the backpackers.  The lady that was working the breakfast station started talking to us and it turns out she is from Maryland and knew where my hometown, Frostburg, is, which is kind of a big deal considering how small of a town it is.  After filling up on toast and hot chocolate, we headed down to the lake.  On our way there, we ran into a boy who was wearing a Carolina sweatshirt with his family.  So of course we had to talk to them and it turns out they are from Carrboro, right outside Chapel Hill!  Small world again!  Down at the lake, we rented some kayaks and were able get onto the beautiful crystal blue water for a while!  Rachel and I rented a double kayak and it was so much fun to be in the middle of the lake surrounded by the mountains!  Afterwards, we grabbed a quick lunch, played around on a random rope swing that went out over the water for a while (even gathering spectators to watch us make a fool of ourselves), and took a drive down the road beside the lake.  We were looking for another lake, but never ended up finding it.  Instead, the road took us to some spectacular viewpoints a little ways away from town.  Afterwards, we walked around quaint little Queenstown exploring and then grabbed pizza at Winnie’s (yes the club we were in the night before) and then headed to Wanaka, an hour’s drive away.  Halfway there we stopped on the side of the road to look at the stars.  I forgot to mention this in my last blog, but the stars from the hut on Mt. Somers were absolutely amazing and I don’t think I have ever seen any so bright! And the Milky Way was incredible.  They were beautiful that night on the side if the road as well.

We made it to Wanaka around 9pm and that’s when things started going wrong.  When booking the week before, we had to split up into 2 groups because we could not find a backpacker’s that could hold all 10 since we booked pretty late and Wanaka is a popular ski destination.  So Rachel and I ended up staying somewhere different from the rest of the group.  When we arrived at the place we were staying, they looked at the two of us and said that they only had one person booked and only one bed.  I then proceeded to show him my receipt that explicitly said two adults booked.  So we got into a, “stern conversation” with each other with me basically telling him that this is not my fault and not my problem to figure out.  I was little short, but I knew the rest of the backpackers were full and we needed a place to sleep.  At the same time, I told the rest of the crew to head to their place while I sorted things out.  Finally, the guy agreed to break fire code for us and bring in a mattress into the bunk bed room.  So we settled for that and figured we were set of the night right as I got a text saying that the other group checked into their backpackers with only 2 beds, after booking for 8 people.  It was a mess!  They ended up getting a motel and the backpackers paid the difference for it.  After that, we were all pretty exhausted and while some people decided to go out, Rachel and I went to bed.  But before, we got to watch NZ win a gold medal in women’s single kayaking! Yay! 

We woke up early Sunday morning and decided to hike Rob Roy Glacier track.  So we packed some lunches and after a mini freak out where I thought I lost my wallet and passport (it ended up being put in the other car after the ordeal the night before), we headed out to the trailhead.   I guess it was just the weekend of losing/misplacing things.  Not many people had backpacks, so I ended up carrying most people’s food and water, but I didn’t mind.  It took us about an hour and a half to get to the overlook, but the hike was beautiful along the river and valley.  And once at the top, the view of the glacier was amazing! And out of nowhere, we hear a rumbling sound and turn around just in time to see an avalanche! I’m serious! It was crazy.  Also, at this point we were about 2.5 hours from Queenstown and we ended up running into the family from Carrboro again on this trail! It was hilarious.  We made it back down the mountain just before it started raining. 

So we headed back into Wanaka, gabbed some dinner (I had fish and chips) and headed back to Dunedin arriving here at about 10pm Sunday evening.  It was a packed and tiring weekend, but lots of fun exploring the small towns we went to and the sights around them!     

Chocolate + Tramping = One Happy Girl

Sorry it’s been a while...my procrastination on an 8 page research paper has caught up with me so that’s what I have been working on since Monday.  Battling with footnotes is certainly not fun.  It doesn’t help that the paper is on a topic that I truly am not invested in: Is fashion art? Ugh!  It’s due Friday, but I just turned it in because I am leaving town early tomorrow morning! Glad to get it out of the way!

Anyway, enough of school.  The start of last week was pretty normal.  It’s been a while, but I can’t remember too much happening in Monday or Tuesday of last week. 

But on Wednesday, I may have skipped class to go eat chocolate J The international office organized a group tour of the local Dunedin Cadbury Chocolate Factory! I would have been happy to just stay inside and smell the chocolate all day.  The tour was very interesting and it was fun to learn about how the different chocolates are made and they even made us wear the ridiculously funny looking hairnets.  And throughout the tour, we were awarded with chocolate for listening and answering questions.  So we all ended up with such a sugar high!  The tour guide even poured us each double shots of melted chocolate.  So good!

Then that evening, I started planning a tramp (NZ word for hiking/camping/backpacking) for this past weekend.  I was really ready to get out into the country and mountains rather than just staying on the road and driving around, so I took it upon myself to organize a trip.  Werner was over at out flat at the time and, after a little persuading, I convinced him to go with me!  So I rounded up 3 more people the next day and planned out our route.  The final group was me, Werner (permanent resident of NZ, but from South Africa), Jordan (from Canada), Ryan (from Philadelphia), and Emma (from England).  It was a great group and really cool how we were all from different places.  I actually had never even met Ryan before, but after the weekend, we all became pretty close.  Together, we decided to complete the Mt. Somer’s loop, which is about 4 hours north of Dunedin.

So after a lot of last minute errands trying to rent cooking equipment and finding food/snacks for 3 days, we set off in our rental car Friday evening.  We arrived at the trailhead carpark at about 10pm and pitched our tent at the beginning of the trail, so we could start out early the next morning.  We knew Saturday would be a long day with the hut being about 14 km (8 hours away).  After a restless night battling the cold (we were not very smart and pitched the tent on concrete), we got up about 8am, put only a million layers due to the cold winter morning, and set off. 

However, not too far into the tramp, we quickly discovered that those extra clothes were not needed. I was the first to lead and boy was it tough going for the first few kilometers.  The trail was straight uphill, very muddy (it had rained the whole week before), and filled with rocks and roots that we had to literally climb over with all fours.  Although nobody would admit it, I know everybody was thinking “What has Emma gotten us into?” But once past those first few kilometers, the rest of the day was much better.  And even though the forecast called for a few morning showers, we had blue skies the whole weekend. 

It was fun to drive in at dark and not actually see the mountains we were climbing until the next day.  And we all freaked out at the first sight of a snow-covered peak.  Little did we know that the views only got better further into the mountains.  We even climbed high enough to be in the snow and ice, a funny spectacle when trying to walk over a drift and everybody falling knee-deep into the snow.  We also had multiple river crossings and I discovered that I have a slight fear of crossing rocks and rapids.  Give me a rock to climb over and I will do it, but rock hopping across water makes me a little nervous.  At one of the first crossings, I even slipped and fell backwards, luckily catching a branch before I landed in the water.  Lucky for all of you who were not there to witness this great act of clumsiness, Jordan took a video of the whole thing and it is now on Facebook. Glad I could add to everyone’s entertainment J But that small river was not the end of it.  There were lots of puddles or “super soakers” as we called them throughout the trail.  And towards the end of the day, we encountered another crossing, this time much larger and with much stronger rapids than the previous ones.  Initially we could not figure out a way to get across without literally wading through the water after searching up and down the area, but Ryan somehow made it across with such ease that we figured we could do it.  However, Jordan, Emma, and I still ended up with wet feet.  Luckily, at the point we were still sweaty and only about an hour from the cabin.  The river did set us back in time though and we made it to the hut at about dusk after an exhausting, but amazing, 8.5 hour day!  We also crossed a swinging bridge (max 1 person) over a beautiful and massive gorge right before arriving at the hut.

Once there, we stripped off our wet clothes, shoes, and socks, grabbed a snack, and then broke out the bottle of wine that the guys carried for us.  While the boys started the fire, Emma and I gathered water from the river to cook with and I started dinner for us.  We all ate heaps of pasta, shoveling it in our mouths faster than we could chew. We sat around the fire for a while laughing and admiring what we had accomplished that day and eventually dragged the hut mattresses into the common area so we could sleep by the fire (it’s off season, so we were the only people in the hut).  Luckily, Saturday night was much toastier for all of us compared to the night before.

The next day, we set out just before 9pm and climbed the steepest part of the whole trail.  As tiring as it was, I would have hiked that ten times just to see the panoramic view of the snow covered mountains at the top.  Incredible! The rest of the day was mostly downhill (a little hard on the knees) and set at “V Pace” (Werner was leading and his name is pronounced Verna).  I ended up in the water again after trying to cross a river using a log.  Theirs is definitely a pattern forming! But no worries mom and dad, I was never hurt.  The only injuries I, or anybody else, experienced were from a very pokey plant.  That is a terrible description, but I don’t know the name of it.  But I learned by the second time I slipped on them that it is better to fall over than try to catch yourself.  They got the better of my hands a couple times, drawing blood each time, but luckily it didn’t hurt for long.  I also proved my gullibility in believing Jordan when he told me there was a bear in the woods (there are not even bears in the country).  Anyway, with the V-pace and downhill momentum, we made it back to the carpark in 5 hours! We were all so excited at the end and proud of the accomplishment and mountains we climbed because one thing we did learn is “It’s never the top!”

We hit the road and started out journey back to Dunedin, stopping at KFC on the way home, where I believe I ate my weight in fried chicken.  I even drove part of the way back! And don’t worry, I stayed in the left side of the road the whole time.  Although I did tend to turn on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal because they are on opposite sides than what I am used to. 

But this past weekend was amazing and filled with so many hilarious and incredible memories.  And literally all I want to do now is tramp!  But for now, I should probably go and officially submit my paper!