Did you forget about me!?

Okay, I know its been awhile. BUT let me tell you, it is really easy to get busy while you’re abroad. And I have been attempting to pump out thousands of words in essays before I take my 15 day semester break trip! So this is what I have been up to over the past few weeks:

Amazing walking stick I found on the beach.

 Lunch Date with Seals!

Our group for the Red Rocks day trip.

The beautiful coast.

Three weekends ago a few people from my program and I decided to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Red Rocks Reserve to see if we could find some seals. It’s about a 25 minute bus ride from downtown and then we had to walk about 30 minutes to get to the start of Red Rocks. Thennn we walked all along the coast in search of the seals. There was a lot of people there enjoying the beautiful weather. We probably walked for about an hour and then FINALLY there they were! Hundreds of seals all laid out on big rocks just off the shore. Most of them seemed to be sleeping in the sun, but we watched a few swimming around. You could get so close! But not toooo close because wild seals are dangerous and could/would eat you if you had the chance. They make this horrible growl sound if you get to close. We decided to take a break and have some lunch before heading back to bus stop. I had my pbj sandwich about 15 yards from a snoozing seal. It was awesome.

Then we all decided to head back and figured it would take about an hour and half to get back to the bus stop. BUUUTTT then we found this map and decided to take a trail back instead of walking along the water. On the map, it seemed that this might be a short cut even. HA. NOT. This was hands down the longest hike I have ever completed and I think we walked roughly 10 km total. And most of the hike was up the steep ridge of this mountain, but the views were absolutely incredible so it was hard to complain. And once again, the weather was unbelievable. Which has been rare in this rainy city. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time I got home that night. I ate a dinner large enough for 3 grown men and then slept for 11 hours. So rewarding.

 

An “Easy” Tramp.

The following weekend I decided to go on a day hike for the tramping club. When they talked about the trip they made it seem like it was no big deal and a beginner level hike. Again, NOT. The first 45 minutes of the hike was up the steepest hill I’ve ever climbed. It wasn’t even fun at first because I was panting so bad that I couldn’t even talk to anyone I was with! Ha. But it got better and the view from the top was very pretty. We also ended up climbing up this hill in a beautiful forest. There was moss everywhere and it was so pretty! I think I fell in love with moss. It made it looked enchanted almost; like a fairy tale. However, the path was pure mud and you had to be very cautious of how you stepped. I am somewhat shocked that I didn’t end up rolling down the whole hill. Callie takes a tumble. We walked across a couple small rivers and also went across this really cool suspension bridge. Overall, it was a fun trip and I am glad I went. Next time I will just have to make sure I know what I’m really getting myself into. I am not sure if I can really keep up with these Kiwi trampers.

First NZ Road trip, Caves & Glow worms

Last weekend four other girls and I took our first road trip to Waitomo to do some black water rafting in the famous glow worm caves. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done! So fun. We picked up our rental car on Friday and I was a wee bit nervous about the driving situation (they drive on the left side of the road here). However, I really had nothing to worry about because it wasn’t bad at all. I didn’t drive on the way up, but that meant I got to take in all the beautiful scenery. It was a little less than 6 hours, but it went by fast. We drove past Tongariro National Park and saw 2 breathtaking mountains. We even got a glimpse of the volcano that erupted just days before. We arrived at our hostel which was really nice and met some guys from the Netherlands that had been travelling for a few weeks. The Olympics were still on then, so we spent the couple nights there watching the events, sipping on wine and enjoying far too many Tim Tams (delicious NZ cookie, if you’re lucky I’ll bring some home for you!).

Saturday we got up and it was a beautiful day. We made our way to the black water rafting place and waited for our tour to start. We had to put on full wet suit gear, boots, helmet and grab a black inner tube for the trip. We took our van ride down to the entrance of the cave and were told to climb in behind our two guides. The hole into the cave was a little intimidating and I started to get nervous that I would get claustrophobic down there. But I was just fine! I even forgot that I was inside a cave for most of it. The cave had water running through it and most of the times it was about calf-deep and we were walking through it. We only had the lamps on our helmets to guide us, so it wasn’t the easiest walk and the water was so cold! But what do you expect when you’re in a cave over 200 feet underground. We encountered 2 small waterfalls in the caves. Each time we had to stand at the edge of the waterfall backwards, hold our tube behind us and jump backwards off the waterfall into the water below us. Scary, but so exciting! There were also times when we all linked up in a long chain, turned off our headlamps and just floated. Above us the cave was covered in thousands of glow worms (bio-luminescent maggot poop.... yes, beautiful, incredible, breathtaking poop). You should all look up glow worms, they really are fascinating. Anyway, it almost looked like a starry night sky above us and we just floated in the pitch black. I hope I get the chance to do this again while I am here because it was beyond cool!

We also went on a night hike on Saturday around the same area the caves are because the whole place is covered in glow worms at night. It was a little scary at first to be walking in the pitch black with no real idea of where we were going, but it was totally worth it. Again, I felt like I was in some sort of a fairytale. I think every day that I am here I have a “is this real life?” moment. This country is the most beautiful and amazing place I have ever been. I feel so fortunate to be here! It rained all day Sunday, so we missed out on a day of hiking and drove home early instead.

Senioritis + Study Abroad = Terrible Combination

Other than those few trips, I have been keeping busy with homework and school. I had to write 3 essays within 2 weeks so I had all my work done before leaving for my semester break. Friday morning we leave and I’ll be spending 10 days on the South Island, then taking a flight to Auckland and meeting Nick, Jane (his mom) and Lynette (his aunt) for 5 days of North Island travel. Then back to Welly to watch the All Blacks take on Argentina! (NZ's national men's rugby team). I could not be more excited! My next blog post won’t be for at least 3 weeks, but it will be full of amazingness. So prepare yourself. J Some of the things I am doing over break are hiking a glacier, seeing some the most beautiful places NZ has to offer, hiking through National Parks, possibly bungee jumping, hot water beaches and muchhhh more. Again, is this real life!?!?