Living Young, and Wild, and Free

Hello everyone!  I am sitting inside our “union” area with a coffee after just meeting with somebody to plan trips for my month after exams and figured I should write my blog for the past week.  I always have a hard time remembering what happened at the beginning of the previous week, but let’s see here.  Tuesday I went to class and it was a pretty normal day.  I cooked my Dad’s famous white bean chicken chili for dinner and it turned out great (but I guess not as good as yours Dad)!  That night some friends and I watched the season premieres of How I Met Your Mother and New Girl.  After the shows, Erin, Audrey, Rachel, Anna, and I went to the Bog for Open Mic Night.  One of the international girls was playing and she is absolutely amazing!  We hung out there for a while and somewhere in that time decided that we needed to create our own Red Card.  I had already participated in Sophie’s Red Card this semester, but I missed half of it and we decided we needed to have one of our own and go all out!  So we decided to make it last throughout the day and created a school girl theme.  Wednesday I only had one class because my other one got canceled this week, so that was nice to have more of my day free.  Wednesday night, Rachel and I planned our part of the Red Card.

Thursday was the big day!  It was the day of our Red Card and time to go all out!  Erin and I went on a run in the morning and then we changed into our school girl outfits for the day.  The rules of the Red Card included everybody dressing up like school girls and going to as many classes as possible.  I looked so crazy!  I mean, I was wearing my hair in pig tails and borrowed a tie from Nathan.  We had a point system, and we earned points for how many classes attended, number of questions answered, number of questions asked, number of high fives given, number of selfies taken in class, etc.  I attended my own two classes for the day and then also went to Rachel’s Pacific Studies class, where I learned about music in Fiji, and my flatmate Nathan’s recitation where I learned absolutely nothing about finance.  In Pacific studies I even answered a question and was asked to elaborate!  But I was right and I earned some points!  Erin and I went to Nathan’s class and we sat in the back of a class of about 12 people.  Nathan could barely keep a straight face to teach and we had no clue what he was talking about (it was advanced finance) so we just ended up writing down funny pick-up lines with the finance words he was saying!  After classes were finished for the day, we all met in a little courtyard in the university for “Orientation” where superlatives were awarded for a plethora of different categories.  I won most studious because I answered the most questions haha J  Then the official Red Card began with the whole group!  There were about 10 of us.

The first activity, planned by Erin and Audrey, was a scavenger hunt around the university and town.  And the things on the list were absolutely ridiculous.  In that hour, I ran up an escalator that was going down, proposed to a high school boy in the mall (I have no clue why he turned me down though), got wrapped up like a mummy in a bathroom, ate a double scoop of ice cream as a group (it’s huge), protested the killing of lambs, sang “Call Me Maybe” on the streets, went Christmas caroling, asked a high school couple about their future plans, joined a zumba class for like 3 minutes, had a thumb war with Campus Watch, asked random people where I could find a vegetarian meat pie, ran through campus screaming, and a million other crazy things that I can’t remember right now!  Never have I had so many crazy looks in my life!  But we never thought twice and I have probably not laughed that long in forever!  And my group won the scavenger hunt!!!  After that, we met back up at my flat, grabbed a quick dinner, and moved onto phase 2 : Trivia!  Anna made up questions that could have real answers, but the right answers were always something related to past events in NZ.  It was a good break from running around town, but once we finished, it was time for our final phase: Recess!  Rachel and I had planned this part and it turned out great!  By this time, it was dark outside so we went to the rugby field near our flats and completed different relay races.  We played leap frog, the game where you spin around ten times with a bat and then have to run back, wheel barrow (Scott dropped me and I face planted during this), and a race where we had to crawl through each other’s legs.  All doing this in skirts and in the dark!  Afterwards, we went back to Anna, Kelly, and Emma’s flat to relax for a couple hours before the last part of the Red Card: going to town that evening in our school girl outfits!  And yes, it did happen and it turned out to be a great, and certainly memorable, day and night!

 

 

Friday, I went to the grocery store with Erin ad Rachel to pick up supplies for that night.  With the weather looking absolutely wonderful (a rarity in Dunedin), we decided to take advantage of it and go camping Friday night at Long Beach.  We had one car, but the beach was only about a half hour away so we shuttled people back and forth and in the end, there was about 15-20 of us there!  I was in the first shuttle, so once there we walked the 20 minute walk to the caves at the end of the beach that we were planning on sleeping in.  They were huge!  And the perfect place to camp!  We didn’t even need tents, which was a good thing since we didn’t bring any.  While waiting on the other groups, we hung out on the beach for a while, collected some firewood in the nearby woods, and started the fire.  Once everybody got there, we had the fire going strong and it was time for dinner.  We had brought sausages (they don’t have hotdogs here) to roast over the fire so we stuck then on some sticks and had a great dinner!  We also brought supplies that resembled s’mores.  NZ does not have normal marshmallows or gram crackers though, so we ended up using oddly shaped marshmallows and malt ginger thin cookies.  But we were determined to have them because our German friend, Marvin, had never tasted one before.  However, even with the major substitutions, he still loved it and they were a success!  Afterwards, we just hung around the fire joking around, singing along to a couple ukuleles, and telling stories. 

 

 

 

Once part of the group went to bed around midnight, Erin, Marvin, Rachel, Emma, and I went down to the ocean to hang out and ended up joining a group of Kiwis, who were also camping there, for the next couple hours.  They also had a guitar and loved to sing so we sang along with them too around their fire.  We eventually went to bed, but not for long because we (Rachel, Erin, Marvin, and I) were up before 6am to watch the sunrise.  We were definitely living by the philosophy that you can sleep when you’re dead!  So even though it was a little cloudy, it was still nice to get up and see the sun reflect off the clouds!  And by that time, we just decided not to go back to bed.  So we took a long walk to the end of the beach and climbed around on some rocks.  It warmed up pretty nicely through so once everybody was up, we just hung out on the beach in the sand (still too cold to swim this far south on the island).  Eventually, we decided it was time to go so we began the shuttles back.  Once back in Dunedin, I took a shower and then a much needed two hour nap.  Afterwards, I went over to Erin and Rachel’s flat and we purchased flight tickets for our travels after exams.  I will let my travels be a surprise, but really there are only a couple guesses J 

Sunday morning, I woke up early to meet Colleen (Rachel’s kiwi host), my flatmate Margaux, Rachel, and Malika to make a journey to Middle Earth and Rohan!  For those of you who don’t know, they are places in Lord of the Rings.  It was a two hour drive, but luckily Colleen had a car so no renting this time!  I am obviously not a huge Lord of the Rings fan considering I had not even seen the first movie until about a month or so ago, but it was still a great trip!  We went to the area where many of the scenes from the second movie were filmed.  We had great weather and the landscape was beautiful.  It was a very rocky area so we did lots of climbing over rocks and even recreated the movie in a set of mini video of us J  So I am excited to watch the second movie soon!

 

 

 

And now I am finished my coffee and want to go enjoy the sunny day outside!  Have a great week everybody! 

Icy a Glacier...Sweet As!

(Pun Translation:  I see a glacier)

Last week was filled with some silliness in our flat!  There is this kind of strange, but cute at the same time, painting of a fox that was hanging in our flat at the beginning of the semester.  But a couple months ago, Bob stole it and hung it up in his flat.  So last week, Sophie and I decided it was time to plan a rescue mission.  I mean, the fox just looked so sad in Bob’s flat!  So Monday night, while Bob was cooking dinner in our flat, we snuck out and snatched the painting and returned it to its rightful place.  And being our crazy selves, we acted like ninjas in the dark jumping around and hiding behind corners (obviously there was nobody near us), even tossing the painting to one another to avoid “attacks.”  Thankfully, the fox is now safe with us again J  That night I watched a movie with some mates and worked on a little homework.

Tuesday I went to class and hung out with some friends.  That night I cooked some baked ziti for my flat and fun fact: NZ does not actually have ziti noodles in the store and nobody knew what I was talking about.  Thankfully, they all enjoyed my “foreign” dish!  That night we watched a couple episodes of Game of Thrones as a flat.  Sophie has been begging me to watch this show, and at first I was a little weary because it looked like something out of a video game, but it’s actually quite good!

Wednesday I came down with a little cold so I stayed in most of the day chugging orange juice, tea, and taking as much vitamin C as possible because I didn’t want to be sick for my weekend trip!  I think it worked because I felt better the next day!

And then Thursday rolled around!  Erin and I woke up early and went to the grocery store to get some food for the road and then I headed to my last tutorial for my geography class.  It’s so crazy that I only have three more weeks left of school!  Did I not just get here?  Anyway, after class, Erin and I took her Kiwi host’s car to go pick up our rental car for the weekend.  The only rental company that rents to 18 year olds is at the airport, which is a 20 minute drive from our flat, but it’s worth it to have a car obviously (NZ public transport is okay, but only to larger cities).  So I drove our car back into town, we picked up the rest of the gang (Emma, Katie, and Anna), and hit the road.  It was a good 6 hour drive to Fox Glacier, but it went by super-fast jamming out to music, talking, and being silly.  While Erin was driving, she hit a bird, which in itself is pretty bad.  But later on, she earned the nickname animal killer when she also killed a possum in the road.  And for some reason, both times she hit the animals; I started laughing, so of course I earned the nickname morbid laugher.  We were quite the pair!

But we finally made it to the small town we were staying at, and the Fox Glacier tourist attraction is probably the only reason the town even exists!  Our backpackers was super cute and rustic and when we checked in around 8pm, the owner said he was taking a few people to go see some glow worms down the road and invited us to come.  Even though we were starving, we decided to go.  So the 5 of us plus three guys who worked there led us to a path a few minutes from the backpackers.  At this point, he told us to turn off all lights, grab the person in front of you, and walk.  The problem:  it was pitch black and we couldn’t see anything.  There were even bridges on the path that had no railings.  At one point, I think we all realized just how trusting we were of these complete strangers luring us into the woods with the opportunity to see glow worms.  I mean, they say beware of people with candy in the US, but maybe it’s glow worms in NZ.  Anyway, with a little freaking out in the dark and trying to walk in a line, we finally made it to the hundreds of glow worms hanging out on the bottom of a fallen tree.  The guys were actually very knowledgeable about them and I learned that it’s their poop that makes them glow…for some reason that made them less attractive!  I was very appreciative of him to show them to us since it was my first time seeing them!  Afterwards, we grabbed some food in town at the only place that was open and then went to bed pretty quickly.

 

 

The next morning, we woke up early to walk down the road (like 30 seconds) to the Fox Glacier Tour meeting place.  We had booked the full day Nimble Fox glacier tramp and it was totally worth it!  I am usually not a huge fan of tours and would rather do things on my own, but this was a tour that provided both instruction and freedom, which was really cool and unique.  The company provided us with boots, crampons (the spikes on the boots that dig into the ice), and rain gear.  Our tour guide was a Kiwi named Sam who was just a couple year older than us.  It didn’t hurt that he was pretty good looking as well J And he was awesome for putting up with 5 ridiculously silly girls who pushed all the boundaries of what we could do!  The tour started out with a ten minute bus ride to what used to be the bottom of the glacier, but is now just forest.  The glacier actually recedes up to 3 meters a day, so it is always changing and in my lifetime will probably disappear.  Glad I came when I did!  Anyway, the first part of the tour was an hour hike up 700 stairs from the car park to the present start of the glacier.  It was a lot of uphill, but provided some beautiful views of the glacier. 

 

 

Once to the ice, we strapped on our crampons and away we went.  Sam took us through crevices, caves, and tunnels up into the glacier.  It was sweet as (a kiwi phrase meaning sweet or awesome)!  He even let us carry his pick ax and take pictures with it.  And although weary every time we decided to wander off from the rest of the group for a picture or just to explore, he was willing to give us some freedom!  And except for a little rain around lunchtime, we had great weather and even saw the very rare NZ blue sky for part of the day!  When we were on our way back down from the glacier, we decided it was beer o’clock and opened our few beers that we had packed and drank them on the glacier.  I mean seriously, when am I ever going to drink beer on a glacier again?  Sam and the two couples that were with us in our group loved it!  We really lucked up with an excellent tour guide and group.  Once off the glacier, we took the shortcut back to the car park and passed by a glacial pool.  Sam told us that he had only had 4 people in one group to jump in it in one day.  Well there were five of us, and we took that statement as a challenge!  So we took off our boots and jumped it.  Burr…it was freezing, but so fun at the same time!  We quickly hopped onto the warm bus and headed back to town.

 

However, on the bus ride we heard that the road back to Wanaka (where we were headed that night) closed at 7pm due to a rockslide.  I remembered passing the rockslide because it covered most of the road and was pretty bad, but I never saw a sign that said it was closed.  Well at this point it was about 5pm and they said it would take about 2 hours to get past the slide.  So once the bus parked, we flew out of it, exchanged our boots for our normal shoes, received our certificates saying we survived the glacial hike, thanked Sam, changed half of our clothes in the parking lot and away we went.  Some of us were even half wet still.  But we headed out of town not even checking the gas level.  And we remembered literally nothing in between Wanaka and Fox Glacier.  So when Erin noticed the gas light come on, we were hoping we would somehow make it.  But we were still 2 hours outside of Wanaka and we had not even hit the rock slide yet and it was already past 7 and I was beginning to think that even if we did make it through the road, we were going to be spending the night in the car without any gas.  Then out of nowhere, a gas station/accommodation/café appears on the side of the road.  So we whip in there and even through the gas station is closed, Anna runs inside to beg for gas.  But while doing so, we talk to a guy that had just been turned around from the road block so we figured we were stuck there for the night.  So we grabbed some dinner and I called the backpackers in Wanaka to make sure that they would refund us.  Thankfully, we only had to pay the 10% booking fee!  So we ended up staying at this really cute place and going to bed not having a clue where we were.  A little stressful, but it all worked out!  We woke up the next morning to a beautiful little cottage area surrounded by snow covered mountains and figured out we were in a small “town” (as in a school and this café) known as Makarora.  Once we ate a little breakfast we had packed and grabbed some petrol, we hit the road again.  And thank goodness that place was there, not only because we were sure we would have run out of gas before Wanaka, but also because we were able to see the beautiful scenery of Lake Hawea that we would never have seen in the dark!  The sun was shining, we had our shades on, and we were happy J 

We stopped in Wanaka to grab some coffee and sit by the lake for a little while.  I have been/passed though Wanaka three times, but this was the only time I had seen the town and lake when it was not raining.  And it was just so perfect of a day!  The rest of the drive back was great and Erin and I took the car back Saturday evening.  That night, some friends came over to my place and then we went to town! 

In town, we met up with some people, one of them being Michael, who happened to have corporate tickets from where he works (graduated from uni last year) to the Otago vs. Tasman rugby game and so Erin and I went to the game with him and some of his friends.  It was such a nice day and it was fun experiencing more Kiwi culture through sports!  After the game, the guys dropped us back off at my place and Erin and I experimented with making potato and leek soup.  It turned out pretty tasty!

And today I went to my last tutorial for my religion class, cleaned my room, and worked on some homework.  And then after dinner Werner, Erin, Rachel, Liam and I watched the movie “Taken” and now I am sitting in my bed well past midnight writing this blog!  But I probably should get some sleep.  Cheers! 

When the All Blacks Come to Town...

This past week/weekend was filled with so much fun and craziness!  Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal with class and homework, although the weather was far from normal!  I thought North Carolina weather acted a little bi-polar, but Dunedin weather is just insane.  Monday I walked to campus in a short sleeve shirt with blue skies and no clouds in sight, but within the same hour it went from perfectly clear to a massive hail storm!  And then cleared up an hour later.  Tuesday was a repeat with SO MUCH HAIL and then back to spring weather!!!  There was literally rain, snow, hail, sleet, and sunshine all in one day.  It was also my first snow in Dunedin! Yay!  Four seasons in one day!  But enough about the weather…

Wednesday I went to class in the morning and then went to the gym and played badminton with Nathan and Erin.  And according to Nathan, apparently I say the word badminton wrong, because he says I sound like I say “mitton” on the end of it!  But he plays a good amount so I had him teach me the rules to a simple game.  After a few embarrassing moments of completely missing the birdie (I haven’t played since middle school probably), I got the hang of it and the game was even tied when our court time ended!  I also went to a BYO that evening to say goodbye to Elena, Marvin’s friend from Germany, who came to visit for a couple weeks.  We went to Indian Spice and I shared some delicious chicken spinach curry with Erin.  After dinner, we went to town for Irish night again and just hung out for a while listening to the music!

Thursday was pretty normal with class and some homework and then we went to a friend’s birthday party in the evening.  Friday we walked to George Street to look for game day attire and I bought an All Blacks shirt.  We also stopped by the Otago Museum on our way back to the flats.  We spent about 2 hours wandering through the exhibits and learning about anything from Polynesian and Maori culture and history to the native species of New Zealand.  It was really interesting and I may go back sometime to explore some more!  But the best part was the Butterfly exhibit!  There is an area within the museum where a small rainforest has been created and there are hundreds of butterflies!  They were so beautiful and we even were able to touch and play with them!  There were also a kid’s science exploring area with cool things like optical illusions, bubble making, and electricity tricks.  This area was probably intended for ten year olds, but we spent as much time here as the rest of the museum!  It was so fun acting goofy and playing with all the experiments.  After the museum, I went for a run and then some friends and I watched “The Proposal” that evening! 

And now saturday!!! In the morning, I went to the farmer’s market to get breakfast and some apples for the week.  I love going there when I am in town and supporting the local farmers of New Zealand!  Afterwards, I went back to my flat and took a short power nap until Olivia and her friends arrived!  Olivia is my friend from UNC who is studying in Christchurch (about 4 hours from Dunedin) for the semester.  They eventually found my flat and once they were settled in, I showed them around the university and town.  We walked up to George Street to look at shirts/All Blacks paraphernalia.  We realized there was a promotion in the store where if you spent $25 on All Blacks items, you received a free poster with your purchase.  So when Olivia went to pay, I asked the guy if that was just for the day, since I had been there the previous day, and he said yes and sorry that he could not give me a poster.  But when he went to the storage area to grab Olivia’s poster, he came back with 2!  How sweet!  Kiwis are awesome!  Afterwards, we grabbed some Starbucks coffee (first time I had some Starbucks in NZ), but when I went to order my usual iced coffee, the lady had no clue what I was talking about!  Apparently iced coffee is only an American thing?  So I just ended up with a latte.  Afterwards, I pointed Olivia and her friends Mac, Mai, and Erica towards the Cadbury Chocolate Factory for their tour and then headed home to get ready.

Not only was it a big weekend because Olivia was in town, but the All Blacks, the NZ rugby team, were also in town for their big match against South Africa!  I bought my ticket within the first couple weeks of being in the country and had been looking forward to the game for quite some time!  Before the big game started, I had 20 or so of my friends over to my flat for some “tailgating” (for lack of a better word).  We ordered ten pizzas and had some pre-drinks and just hung out while we talked about how excited we were!  And after a minor issue with ordering pizza from the South Dunedin Dominos rather than the North Dunedin (thanks Werner for driving us there!), the party was great!  I even let Werner eat some pizza even though he was wearing a South Africa shirt!  We also painted our faces!  And after much deliberation about how I should paint my face, I figured, well, I am only going to one game so “go big or go home, right?”  So half my face was black and the other half was white!  I looked ridiculously awesome and intimidating!  Everybody that I paint up with at UNC would be proud J

Eventually, we headed to the stadium, which was so exciting seeing everybody come together for the event.  Otago doesn’t really have sports teams so there is no “game day” atmosphere or school spirit like there is at UNC.  Once inside we found our seats and chuckled about how we were literally sitting in the middle of older people with our faces painted and looking crazy!  Who cares though!  The Hakka was awesome!  It’s the Maori ritual war cry and dance, but the All Blacks players also perform it before the game to intimidate their opponents!  The game was so exciting and I even looked up some rules beforehand so I mostly understood everything that was going on.  And rugby makes football look so wimpy.  The players are tackling each other with no pads whatsoever!  And, the All Blacks won, which is a huge deal because South Africa is a big rival!!!  So we left the game super happy and excited.  Once back to my flat, we washed off our face paint and got dressed for town.  Olivia and her friends were excited for me to show them some Dunedin nightlife!  Town was so crazy!  Everywhere was so crowded with not only students, but tourists and people of all ages.  It was fun seeing everybody there, but it also meant longer waits to get into places.  We found a couple places to dance though and had a good time!

The next day, we woke up pretty early and I took Olivia and her friends to get takeaway breakfast pancakes from Capers.  It was super warm and sunny outside so we ate them on campus, enjoyed the blooming trees and flowers, and then walked to Baldwin Street to show them the steepest street in the world!  After they left, I took a nap for most of the day (very minimal sleep the night before) and then worked on some homework in the evening.  It was so great to see Olivia though and meet her friends, and I had a blast being their tour guide and showing them my home!

Hope everybody else at my other home is doing great!  Missing the start of fall weather!

P.S.  I thought I would share some random things about NZ!

Trash is not called trash, it’s called rubbish.

There is no penny, only 10 cent coins, so when you pay, you just round up or down.

Style is much more European with darker clothes.

Ground meet is called mince.

Fries are called chips.

McDonald’s is called Mackers.

Cookies are called biscuits.

Takeout is takeaway.

Dinner can be referred to as tea.

The floor that you walk in on is the ground floor and the second floor is labeled the first (This confused me when I was trying to find my classes at first).

NZ recognizes the queen, but has a prime minister.

There are two main political parties: the Labour and National (both are pretty liberal compared to America’s standards).

Police don’t carry guns (they have a much lower number of gun incidents…I like this).

Flip flops are called jandals.

Petrol (gas) is sold in liters.

A convenience store is called a dairy (very few are 24 hours).

Up turns a light switch off.

NZ was the first country to grant women the right to vote!

Spring in Dunedin!

So it’s been a pretty chill week with nothing too exciting happening after break.  I spent a lot of time with some of my flatmates this week just hanging out after dinner and such.  Wednesday was Bob’s birthday and we went out to eat at a Thai restaurant.  I got so full and we still had cake afterwards!  But it was great and even though Bob lives in our complex, but not our flat, he is basically an honorary flatmate.  I had a reading test for my visual culture class on Thursday and I ended up doing quite well on it so I was pleased!  Afterwards, I went out to coffee at the Otago museum with Werner.  We talked a lot about American football versus rugby.  He didn’t understand why everybody just hits each other, so I attempted to explain to him the general rules.  Maybe I should just get him to watch “Remember the Titans!”  Thursday night I went over to another flat for an ABC party.  I wore a surprisingly stylish sheet toga (we looked up on the internet how to wrap them around us).

Friday I skyped with my parents, which was great since I have only been able to skype them three times since I have been here!  It was also the most beautiful day, in terms of weather, since I have been here so I put on some shorts (exposed my pale legs) and went with Erin to lounge in the Botanical gardens for a while.  It has been so nice lately (I’m sure it’s just a teaser though at this point) as it officially turned Spring here September 1^st!  It’s so crazy celebrating spring in September.  And I cannot even imagine Christmas in the summer!  Once the sun started going down, we ran a few errands and then later that night baked oatmeal pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! Delicious! 

Saturday I worked on a little homework outside and then went for a run!  It felt so good to just run in shorts and a t-shirt!  Then that night, Liz, Marvin, Xavier, Tucker, and I took a tour of Speight’s Brewery.  It’s the famous brewery in Dunedin which started in the 1800’s and is considered “the pride of the south.”  That sounds so American to me haha!  Our tour guide was pretty cool because his great grandfather was one of the founders of the company so he had heaps to tell us including a story of the brewery ghost and how the workers are allowed to even drink on the job as long as they are responsible!  After the tour, we were given time to sample the different kinds of beer they brew.  The original brew (what I have had before) was pretty good, the dark ones were pretty disgusting, but my favorite one was the cider!  Although our guide told us that cider is like cheating beer and that we should pick another favorite.  I also realized my future as a bartender does not look very bright.  We were allowed to get our samples from the tap ourselves, but I could never pour a proper glass without filling half of it with foam!  After the tour, we headed to a Marie Clair’s birthday party.  Lots of birthdays this week!  Today I wrote my reading log (yay for being productive) and just hung out for a while.  I also got to skype Kelly and Lorenzo in Chapel Hill!  But I am headed over to Marvin’s soon and we are going to town to get some sushi!  I have seriously been craving it lately so I am so excited.  And then a bunch of us are watching a movie tonight!  Cheers!  

Spring Break 2012 Round Two: New Zealand Alpine Edition

So before I get to my spring break adventures, on a side note, today marks 2 months that I have lived in New Zealand…which is crazy! But amazing at the same time! I love it here and am so happy and can’t wait for all the adventures to come in the next 3.5 months!

Anyway, the week before break was kind of stressful and packed with a million things both fun and not so exciting.  I had two research papers due the Friday before I left so there was minimal sleep that Thursday night.  But aside from working on those, we celebrated Audrey’s 21^st birthday on Wednesday night.  She's the one wearing the cowboy hat (her birthday present)!  We went out to dinner at Tokyo Garden for a BYO and then went to a bar downtown called the Cook.  There was literally nobody in the bar because it was a Wednesday night, but there was a cute little old Irish band there that we danced to and they seven ang Happy Birthday to Audrey.  We also asked them to play Wagon Wheel for us, and they did twice J Friday was super busy turning in my essays, attempting to skype Courtney (sorry it didn’t work), and grocery shopping.  Sophie also pulled her Red Card that night, which is essentially a game night where she invents all kinds of games and everybody has to go along with it.  The theme of the night was Game of Thrones/Harry Potter/Olympics and included races around the block and eating competitions.  It sounds weird, but it’s very popular in Dunedin and lots of fun!

And finally, Saturday morning I set off on spring break.  After a minor panic that morning because the tent that we were borrowing was locked in somebody else’s flat (props to Campus watch for being understanding and letting me into Jordan’s flat), we hit the road in a pretty run-down rental car.  There were four of us: me, Liz, Sammy, and Matt (all Americans this time).

So many of you know for my first spring break of this year I traveled to Honduras where I was hot and sweaty most of the time.  Well, you could say this spring break was a little different!  Saturday morning we drove to Te Anua, which is a small town 4 hours from Dunedin.  Our plan was to start the Kepler Track, a four day backpacking trip that is considered one of the “Great Walks” in NZ.  Unfortunately it decided to start pouring so we stopped by the Department of Conservation (DOC) to check out the weather.  One look at the forecast and we started to consider our other options as the weather called for rain and snow up on the ridge all four days.  They even warned us that the avalanche danger would very possibly change from low to moderate if any more snow fell on the mountains.  So we went to find a camp ground in town for the night.  But as soon as we started setting up the tent, it decided to pour and we ended up upgrading to a bunk room.  That night we fell asleep, still undecided about what to do, to Sammy and Matt playing the ukulele, which is amazing!

The next morning we woke up to more pouring rain and still had no clue what to do.  But after checking the forecast online and seeing a beautiful full rainbow that gave us a little hope, we decided to go for it!  So we picked up a few last minute items needed in town and drove to the trail head around noon.  And off we went!  The first hour of that track was super flat and we made great timing, but after that it was a 5 hour climb uphill for the next 3000 meters.  On our way up we ran into Xavier (from Belgian) and Meagan (from Canada) who were on their way back down.   In the final stretch we emerged from the bush line, and through our huffing and puffing, our jaws dropped at the view that surrounded us.  Snow covered mountains to one side and the lake thousands of meters below us to the other.  The forecasted rain never really came the first day and although there was minimal fog, the views were still surreal.  So we hiked the last 30 minutes to Mt. Luxmore Hut in good spirits.  After arriving at the hut and relaxing for a bit, we decided to head out and do a little spelunking at a cave near the hut.  This was a giant cave and we went pretty far down in it, squeezing through crevices and tiny holes.  But once inside, there were a lot of cool stalagmites and stalactites!   Once back to the hut, we cooked up some pasta and lentils, built a fire, hung out for a little while, and went to bed after a pretty exhausting first day!

 

 

Now the next morning, was quite a surprise.  As most of you know, I am not the normal person who likes to hide away in the winter.  I normally don’t mind the cold and winter and LOVE snow.  So that morning, I was the first to wake up to the sun coming through the window and as I turned over to look outside, all I saw was white.  I instantly grabbed my glasses and literally jumped off the ground and sprinted toward the window! I may have been a little excited J And indeed the ground was covered with a couple inches of perfect snowball powder.  I snapped some pictures of the snowy mountains and seeing that it was still pretty early and everybody else was asleep, I went back to bed for another hour.  The funny thing was, I think I had the exact same crazy reaction to the snow the second time I woke up as the first. 

Anyway, once we were ready to leave the hut midmorning, the sky was blue, which made for a beautiful couple of hours or so climb in the snow.  However, as we got higher, the snow began to fall again and once we reached the sign where we could make a detour to Mt. Luxmore peak, we decided to drop our bags to make the extra 400 meter climb.  At this point there was not much to see due to the snow storm, but we wanted to say we made it to the top anyway.  As we climbed this part of the track, I instantly noticed the weather worsening as the wind picked up to the point of blowing us off balance on the ridge and the snow pelted down on us.  But I figured this was just at the peak, so we made it to the top after a little slipping and sliding on the icy surface that probably is covered in snow most of the year.  And after a few quick pictures, we decided to get back to the trail and better weather, so we hoped. 

But once back down, I noticed that our bags were covered entirely in snow and we were almost blown over when tried to put them on.  That’s when things clicked in my head that we were in some bad weather and needed to keep moving to make it to the emergency shelter hut along the ridge about an hour and a half away.  We started booking it, but it was still very slow going as we had to shield our faces from the pelting snow and walk through up to a couple feet of snow at times.  But we eventually made it a little cold, but we had come prepared with plenty of thermals and our bag liners even serve as hypothermia bags in case of emergency.  Once inside the shelter, we decided to have lunch and watch the weather.  Luckily, once we finished eating, we opened the door to joyfully see that the snow storm had cleared and that it appeared safe to continue. 

So the rest of the walk along the ridge was much more pleasant, but we were still plowing through anything from a couple inches to a couple feet.  But the clouds did clear enough for us to see the beautiful mountains we were walking though!  And we only lost the trail once (we came prepared with laminated topo maps and Matt is very skilled in navigation) for a brief period!  At this point it was already a packed day, but the next hut, Iris Burn, was in the valley so we eventually said goodbye to the snow (a sad time for me J) and made our way down along a beautiful river to the hut.  When we arrived at the hut, we were surprised to find another group of international Otago students there who had decided to complete the trail in the opposite direction.  So we hung out and got to know them for a while, cooked some delicious burritos, and reflected on our ridiculously crazy and eventful day!

The next morning, after sleeping in a little and packing up our gear, we made a quick side stop to a waterfall and then hit the trail.  This day was mostly downhill and the weather was very clear as we were able to look up and see the gorgeous mountains were had climbed.  The day was not too eventful as we walked along the lake and soaked in the fairly warm weather in our t-shirts.  Once we arrived at the hut, we were warm enough (and sore enough) that Sammy, Matt, and I decided to go for a swim…well, more like a freezing dip!  Don't let the picture fool you, it was very chilly outside and inside the water!  But it was quite refreshing, the whole minute I stayed in there!  And the only “shower” I had in 5 days.    Unfortunately as soon as we jumped out onto the beach, the sandflies attacked.  Sandflies look like gnats, but act WAY worse than mosquitos in my opinion.  They hurt when they bite you and are everywhere!  I quickly ran inside to escape.  Afterwards, we cooked dinner, played some cards, and watched the sunset over the lake.

The next morning we got ready swatting the sandflies as we packed up our gear and headed out.  It was the last day of the trail and we were all pretty exhausted, but still in good spirits! The day was very easy and mostly downhill or flat through forest.  Somehow we really lucked up because the only form of precipitation we ever saw was the snowstorm!  The last day was about 5 hours and we were so happy to see our car!  After changing out of our smelly clothes, we went and grabbed some fish ‘n’ chips, realizing it was probably okay to eat something a little fried and unhealthy after so much hiking.  And after rearranging the car (this car was very small and had to be carefully packed to fit everything in it and even then Liz and I had to hold stuff on our laps in the backseat) and set off on the next phase of break: Fiordland National Park!

The road from Te Anua to Milford Sound (the main “town” in Fiordland) is pretty treacherous and winding, but the views were spectacular.  We arrived early evening and checked into the Milford Sound Lodge campground.  As we were unpacking the car, I saw Xavier sitting inside the lodge and ran in and gave him a huge bear hug, something he probably did not appreciate due to my lack of a shower in five or so days.  Small word…or small country!?!  That night we finally took a hot shower, cooked a delicious meal, and hung out with Xavier for a while. 

 We woke up early the next morning to catch a cruise out onto the sound.  And considering it rains most of the time in Fiorldland, we could not have asked for better weather! The sun was shining and the mountains created a perfect reflection in the clear blue water.  We even saw some dolphins and lots of seals on the cruise!  We also realized that Xavier and Meagan did not have a ride to see anything else because they had taken a tour bus, so we decided to squeeze them into our car and head to Lake Marian.  It was a difficult climb to the lake within the mountains, but totally worth it as we enjoyed our packed lunches in the sunshine!  Afterwards, we drove them back to the lodge, grabbed all of our gear from the drying room (we may have used their facilities after checking out without them knowing), and headed back up Milford road to a campground literally out in the middle of nowhere. 

 

 

The next day we drove down to Lake Manapouri and enjoyed some pancakes on the shore and after a little stressful deliberation over whether or not we should continue south to complete the Hump Ridge track as we initially planned, we decided to head north to Mt. Aspiring National Park due to weather concerns.  So we drove through Queenstown, ate at the famous Ferg Burger, and then drove on into Wanacka.  We stayed in a hostel called Base-X and although they were having a huge night at the bar with lots of NZ bands, we decided to go to bed after a long days travel.  The next day, we got up and drove into Mt. Aspiring and hiked out to Colloquians beach along the Mineret Burns track.  After the hike, Matt decided to take our car out onto the lake’s beach, even after we all said that might not be the best idea.  Well we ended up getting out rental car stuck, not once, but three times! Each time, Matt had to get out and push the car!  After that, we visited a set of twin waterfalls and then Liz and I dropped Matt and Sammy off.  They decided to hike into a hut, but since it had started pouring, Liz and I chose to head back and stay at Base-X.  We met a couple other international students at other universities around NZ that night, which was pretty cool!

The next morning, Liz and I hopped in the car to pick up the other 2.  The day before, there were about half a dozen small rivers to ford in the car, but considering the heavy downpour for 24 hours, these rivers rose a good bit and I was nervous to drive the car into the first one as I couldn’t see the bottom.  So we pulled over and tried to figure out what to do.  Sammy and Matt were another couple hours of walking down the road and we had no clue if they would even decide to walk back towards us and we had no way of contacting them with no phone reception.  Luckily, a couple headed out for a little exercise (in the pouring rain???) drove by and I flagged them down.  I explained the situation to them and they offered to go through the river in their Land Rover to see how deep it was.  They made it through fine, but we determined it was still too deep and fast for me to take a much smaller and low 2-wheel drive vehicle through it.  Luckily, they were awesome people and super nice, even determined “not to abandon our mates” as they said and offered to pick them up for us.  So about an hour later they arrived back (at this point it has started snowing a little) with a very soaking Matt and Sammy.  The funny thing was, they were going back to get another group who were stuck because their car wouldn’t start!  Liz and I were so grateful for them!  But anyway, we found a place to dry off and finally headed back to Dunedin!

Today, we took the car out to Moeraki Boulders, an hour north of Dunedin.  These giant rocks along the beach are quite the sight!  They form through mineral precipitation from the ground water which cements loose sediment together.  Many of them even contain fossils!  They are pretty large and climbing on them can be difficult when wet, as I even have a photo of me wiping out trying to hop on one (sorry that one didn’t make the cut to actually be displayed in this blog)!

Overall, break was one heck of a crazy and exciting adventure with heaps of fun!!!  Now it’s back to the real world with school work and a test coming up this week!  Hope everybody is great stateside!