Australia and back-take two

The first time I went to Australia I remember walking around the Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Rocks etc, and thinking how a year ago I would never have imagined being able to go to such awesome places. Well, last week I found myself doing the same exact thing as I wandered around the beautiful city for a second time. This time I returned with my parents and coincidentally we went at the beginning of this cool winter light show festival. All of the big buildings and famous landmarks had amazing laser effects projected onto them, there were lanterns all around the city, and cool illuminated statues. We were walking along the wharf when we found a crowd of people staring at a dock in the middle of the bay. A few minutes later an awesome fire show began perfectly in sync with all kinds of music. The next day we woke up early and headed to the Blue Mountains. The first stop was Featherston Wildlife Park where we hung out with some kangaroos and wallabies.. highlight of my day! At the Blue Mountains we saw the Three Sisters rock formation (fun fact- the Blue Mountains are blue because the atmosphere scatters blue light reflected off the sky). As to be expected, the views were phenomenal. We took the steepest railway in the world down to the rainforest for a little tramp.
The next day we headed to meet up with Taylor and Nicole in Cairns for some some relaxation and diving on the Great Barrier Reef. That night we grabbed some dinner and then got a free didjeridoo lesson from a bored shop worker. Nicole deemed herself a fan and now tries the didj whenever an opportunity arises. On Saturday my parents and myself set sail to find a few good diving and snorkeling spots. My first time diving was a success and once again I'm finding myself more and more an adrenaline junky. It was surreal being on the bottom of the ocean floor in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. The scenery was amazing. I saw hundreds of different types of fish swimming all around me, got up close and personal with a friendly sea turtle, and kept my distance from an electric eel. What I found most interesting was how the fish really didn't pay much attention to me, they just kind of accepted my presence and went about their days. I was beat on Sunday and just wanted a chill day so we headed to the lagoon for some sun.. and got more than our fair share.. whoops, the biggest hole in the ozone is over Cairns?! All day on Sunday there was the Iron Man Triathlon competition. Participants were required to swim 2 miles in the ocean, bike 110 miles, then run a marathon of 26 miles.. holy cow- truly inspiring! The race started at 7 am and the winner came in around 3 pm, however, participants were still finishing after 10 pm!
Although it was another whirlwind Australia trip it was still great fun! I headed back on Monday for a week of painstakingly torturous paper-writing and exam-studying. Over the weekend AustraLearn buddy Chris and his brother Matthew paid us a visit. The weekend was so much fun, we checked out the street fair, went star tipping and jumped off the plank into the bay.. in the middle of winter (obviously their winters aren't as brutal as NH's). It was so sad to see them go, but alas, they must continue their adventure onto the South Island! As of yesterday I am a free woman in Wellington, no more school work or stress. Finally, it's summer! Well, winter here but you get the idea. Some friends and I signed up for 10 days unlimited of Bikram Yoga for just $10, can't beat that! The next week and a half will be spent enjoying friends and Wellington because who knows the next time I'll be here again or reunited with my amigos?! I'm looking forward to returning home to see my friends, family, and animals but I'm really going to miss this place! Not to mention the slew of emotional and miserable goodbyes impending. One thing's for certain, my time here in New Zealand has been the best of my life and i'll always look back on it fondly. That's all for now, let's hope the volcanic ash from Chile doesn't cancel my flights home!

Hate to be morbid but, it's the beginning of the end..

Maybe you've figured out blogs aren't my thing...


It seems since we got back from mid semester break the study part of 'study abroad' has really cracked down. My days and nights have mostly been full of Uni work and a lot less fun than in the beginning. Two weeks ago Taylor's sister, Kasarah visited and they had a great week full of adventures and catching up. I joined them on a little road trip to Taupo at the end of the week. It was weird driving the familiar road to Taupo filled with landmarks we've become so familiar with like Mt. Doom and of course, the Gumboot Cafe and know that it wold probably be the last time we see them. I guess that's when I realized it's really the beginning of the end of our crazy, memorable adventure, here in New Zealand. Anyway, nostalgia aside, Taupo was really fun! I didn't really do anything except for some homework and look around... thug life had to hit me eventually! I went along on Tay and Kas' skydive adventure and documented via Tay's flipcam, one step closer to being a professional skydiving photographer!
After we made it back to Welly  we picked up Nicole and went on the hunt for little Blue Penguins (not a literal hunt, of course). Well, things got a bit heated when Tay and Kas were bickering about Taylor's driving when we came across a Blue Penguin in the middle of the road, stopping just before we killed it! Phew, tragedy avoided. Nicole hopped out of the car and chased it away in an effort to capture it? Not sure on that one.. We continued on to Breaker Bay and some surrounding bays in the complete dark looking for a herd of these little guys. With no luck, we deemed ourselves satisfied with that one saved soul and headed back. Good thing I have night vision because I spotted another little herd of them in a bush and we got another dose of the little, flightless birds. We went back to the Cube and picked up MegMorg for some southern style cookin' at "Sweet Mother's Kitchen" topped off with gelato at "Kaffee Eis" a truly tasty night. The rest of my weekend and week was filled with my Wellington photo project which ended up being a lost cause, don't wanna talk about it! On Thursday my parents ventured across the world and made it to New Zealand. It was really awesome seeing them after four months, I've had a great time showing them around my stomping ground. For my birthday we went on a Seal Coast Safari where we saw wild horses, goats, sheep and seals... and mutilated goats... not something you want to see on your birthday! At night, my awesome flatmates threw me a 'surprise' party and decked the flat out in Kiwiana, complete with a homemade twister game!
Since then I've been failing at getting ahead and completing all of my hand-ins so I can have a work-free vacation in Aussie. I leave for the airport in about an hour and am forced to bring a backpack full of homework and final papers... procrastination is the enemy. Anyway, i'm off for a few days to our neighbors to the West for some Blue Mountains, beaches, and diving the Great Barrier Reef!

my photo montage of wellington- Oriental Parade

Public Trust building

old BNZ building

In Welly!

6i love!

I wanted the whole world or nothing- Charles Bukowski

I’ve been putting this post off for almost two weeks now because I didn’t want to have to write down all the goings-ons of the previous three weeks. Look where that’s left me, with five weeks of happenings to update you on. Well, well, well, where to begin? Alright, well in my last post I had just gotten back from Aussie and Castlepoint (seems so long ago!). Since then I’ve had three weeks of constant adventure with my NZ family and two weeks of horrible, miserable, tantalizing, rigorous, life-consuming (you get the idea) schoolwork.

            It all started the Friday of Easter break (known as Fall break here, weird.) Nicole, Taylor and I headed northbound to the Bay of Islands, for some sun and relaxation. The travel day was full of CD mixes, country sights, and copious amounts of baking powder-less cookies. The next few days were spent wandering around the sleepy town of Paihia, a really beautiful place that sort of shuts down in the fall/winter (we didn’t know..) Anyway, it was still a fun few days filled with crime-ridden waterfalls, nomadic tendencies, treacherous, steep, one-lane roads, and the stressful card game, ‘slaps’. 

            On Monday we boarded an overnight cruise called ‘The Rock’. This was the best part of my time at Bay of Islands. We had so much fun fishing, night kayaking, night swimming, snorkelling, hiking, and trying the local seafood delicacies. Not to mention The Rock’s crew was completely accommodating, friendly and awesome. We also befriended a lovely family from Germany, a couple from Georgia, and some friends from England. By the end of our 22-hr cruise around the Bay of Islands we were so sad to leave our new friends but more adventures were waiting to be had.

            The three amigos headed to Auckland for the night before our flight to Queenstown. Not much happened here, we meandered a cute part of Auckland (who knew?!.. kidding, kind of), got 100lbs of various types of fries and stayed at the best hostel ever with the best bathrooms (Pentlands, it you’re wondering). The next day we set out for the airport, for some reason I was on a different flight from Nic and Tay, so that was weird.. Rou picked us up in Queenstown and we began the two weeklong battle fitting everything into Bernd (his little blue car).

            Queenstown is magnificent, one of my favorite places in New Zealand. We met up with some AustraLearn buddies, enjoyed the infamous Fergburgers, explored the Milford Sound, oh yeah and I went skydiving! It was the best, most exhilarating, peaceful thing I’ve ever experience. I’m hooked; I may have found a new calling in skydiving photography (sorry mum!).

            Nicole and Taylor (the packing experts) packed up Bernd on Saturday morning and we headed to the beautiful, Wanaka. We spent most of the day wandering around town and the girls and I spent the afternoon at Puzzling World. Rou forgot about us so we had to walk back to town where we ran into some girls from Massey—what a small world! That night we spent the night playing the international travellers card game ‘shithead’ with a bunch of fun people from the hostel. Nicole and Taylor spent the night living thug life in the car. At one point Taylor remarked, “This is the best hostel I didn’t have to pay for!”

            On Easter Sunday we set out on a little tramp in search of waterfalls around Lake Wanaka. We were told it was only going to take about 40 minutes. Well, anyway we must’ve taken a wrong turn or something because we ended up walking for an hour and a half then giving up and turning back. Oh well, beautiful sights were seen and a good time was had so no lost there. After our fail, we set out for the Franz Josef Glacier. There wasn’t much to do or eat there so we had an Easter meal of instant noodles and frozen vegetables (thug lifeeee).

            The next morning Tay, Nic and I set out to conquer the Franz Josef. After gathering our hiking outfits and walking three km of riverbed, we were ready to begin the ascent. What struck me most about this colossal behemoth was how deceptive it really was. What looked like an easy 20-minute hike took hours. It was an awesome day and I’m definitely glad I got to do it. The next part of our journey was a little less fun and a lot more stressful. We left Franz Josef around 5:30 with high expectations of getting to Dill’s house in Motueka that night (a 6+ hour drive). We met up with one of Taylor’s friends from home for dinner in Hokitika. This would have been cool if I hadn’t locked the keys in the car (whoops). But honestly, who leaves the keys in the car and the car unlocked with all of our valuables in there?!?!! Rouven, that’s who. Anyway, I’ll be the bigger person and take the blame. He ended up breaking into this own car and the rest of the trip Nicole and Taylor’s foreheads were cold from not being able to close the window all the way… Lesson learned!

            We finally pulled into Dill’s driveway after midnight. We quickly caught up, and went to bed exhausted. The next day we packed up and went camping. We hiked for about 2 hours to this tree house-like boulder. Spent the day and night roasting marshmallows, sausages, swapping stories, and debating political and ethical issues (that was kind of unexpected haha).

            The next few days were spent being pampered by Dill’s lovely mum, Kath. She cooked and baked for us, we watched movies, played with cats, dogs, and ponies (finally!) and just enjoyed the feeling of being in a home. I also took a memorable trek on the beach with an ‘off the grid’, horseback-riding, ditty-singing character; Harmony Aquarius. It was nice to be back in the saddle, I couldn’t believe how sore I was for the next few days.  After we said reluctant farewell to the Anderson household, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

            Next we were off to Farewell Spit, the northernmost point of the South Island. Again, there wasn’t much to do here so we looked around and occupied ourselves with cards. We spent the next day exploring various beaches and caves. It’s the weirdest thing here, one minute you’ll be walking through a sheep field of rolling hills and the next you’ll be on the beach amongst vast sand dunes and boulders.

            We were told that we missed the most beautiful drive in New Zealand by driving from Franz Josef to Motueka in the dark so we headed back down to further explore the West coast. We stayed the next few nights in Westport, yet another ghost town. We spent the next few days seeing the beautiful Pancake Rocks, Greymouth, and Arthur’s Pass.

            Our trip was rapidly coming to an end and on Sunday we headed out early to Picton. It was yet another gorgeous drive through Marlborough and Blenheim, where we saw miles and miles of beautiful wineries. I chose the scenic route instead of the highway to Picton to catch the ferry (mistake, I didn’t know). Poor ol’ blue was struggling up, around and down steep mountain dirt roads. We spent the last day killing time in Picton then finally heading back to Welly on the 10 pm ferry.

            Alright so fun’s over, back to reality. I’ve spent the last two weeks as an invalid trying to get all my assignments together and turned in. I guess it’s universal, professors ban together to make their students’ lives miserable by making everything due at the same time. I do like being back in Welly, I somewhat missed the constant sirens, traffic, and noise. Last weekend we went to watch the Hurricanes play rugby against the Blues. I didn’t have a clue what was going on but it was still fun. On Saturday we went to JOHN BUTLER TRIO!!!!! It was so good!!!! AHHHHH, can’t get over it! This past week has been used for catching up on more assignments, nothing noteworthy has happened yet. Cody and I walked around town wearing elephant masks to help promote some play, that's not unusual right? The weather has been crazy bipolar. Anywho, that’s all for now I’ll try not to be so neglectful next time.

beautiful Paihia sunset

clearly fishing experts

on our little hike

Milford Sound

Queenstown

being touristy at Puzzling World

On the Franz Josef

camping quarters

Casey!! 

Pancake Rocks 

A little friend/enemy on our way to Arthur's Pass

Greymouth

John Butler!

being creepy around town

"be it peace or happiness let it enfold you" — Charles Bukowski

I feel accomplished for making yet another international flight, solo. It was so good to see my aunt, Carrie and Craig. A 15- minute, $50 taxi ride later we made our way to our hotel in downtown Sydney with killer views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was so strange to be in a nice hotel compared to the hostels i've been frequenting. That night we perused Pitt Street and couldn't help noticing the plethora of well-dressed, pointy-shoe'd, young Wall Streets'. This was followed by the countless designer stores I'd have to spend my quickly-depleting life savings to just buy a pair of socks and fancy restaurants, when I soon made the realization that living in Sydney would land me on the streets next to Blanket Man. After a few hours of walking around I tracked down an internet cafe/mini grocery store that played loud club music. On Friday we woke up early and took the ferry to the Taronga Zoo. The zoo was like non i'd ever been to, it was very clean and laid back, we got to get up close and personal with a few dozing koala bears and feed some nosy giraffes some carrots. That night, Aunt sue and I donned some schnazzy outfits and hit up the Sydney Opera House to see Edo conduct Beethoven, Wagner and Adams. It was a great concert, the acoustics were obviously amazing and just being in the Opera House was surreal. The next day we had big plans to sight-see in the morning, take the bus to Bondi Beach to have a surf lesson and then climb the bridge. The double-decker bus was more of a terror-ride, we were dodging low branches left and right and it took us an hour longer than we had planned (I guess that's what we get for being extra touristy). We finally made it to Bondi, it's a lot smaller than I had imagined but the water was beautiful and warm. We decided against a surf lesson since the bus took too long and just meandered around the beach and the boardwalk trying not to get blown away from the intense wind. Later we walked through a night market and made our way to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and began the 14,000 steps to the top. The next morning we took a ride on a high-speed jetboat all over the harbor, it was so much fun and left us completely soaked. We ended our brief Australian adventure by going to the Museum of Contemporary Art and seeing the Annie Leibovitz exhibit(AHH!!!). Overall Australia was a ton of fun, expensive-- but fun. I left happy to be returning to Welly. Aunt sue, Carrie and Craig spent their three days in Welly saving beached dolphins, experiencing the famous wind and not seeing kiwi birds. Despite all of this, I think they had a great time in New Zealand and was sad to see them go. This past weekend was more normal, I went with some friends for sushi and gelato then hit up a German film festival. After the film we went dancing and ended up at the waterfront for a nice twist to end the evening. The next day we headed out for another mini road trip to explore Castle Point (sorry Meg and Morg). The town dog, "Holly" adopted us for the day and showed us around. Nicole grew quite attached and is now suffering from separation anxiety ;) After a fish and chips snack we headed into town for some chinese takeaway then made our way back to Welly. Another great day! Sunday I made brunch for my flatmates, chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, bacon, and cinnamon buns-- I was definitely the favorite for the day :) So far this week has been pretty low-key, mid-semester break starts next week so we've been gearing up for two weeks full of adventure. I'm looking forward to unplugging myself from technology for a bit.
Until next time,
Kristen
Here, have a listen to some Langhorne Slim,  Land of Dreams

View from the hotel room

Holly!

Nicole and her love, Holly

Castle Point

Sydney skyline

inside the Opera House

The proper emotion is wonder – Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s been a while since I last wrote (no surprise there) so here’s an update of what I’ve been up to. A few weeks ago I wrote about this amazing beach on the Wainuiomata Coast where some friends and I saw a seal and a penguin unfortunately I didn’t have my camera. Well, I begged Rouven enough and he took Dillon and myself back for round two. It was just as beautiful as I remembered except this time the ocean was much rougher allowing for great wave shots. Rouven split from us, disappearing around the corner, so Dillon and myself made our way back to the spot where we first saw the marine life. I wasn’t expecting any more seals, thinking that I had witnessed a rare sight already, however, we did find one guy right away. As I was sneaking around the rocks trying to get the best angle for my pictures I came face to face with yet another beached behemoth. He didn’t seem phased, but I sure was, taking off screaming for Dillon. After our expedition round two we made our way back to the late night “Curry 2 Go” joint and once again filled our famished stomachs with delicious curry and nommin’ naan bread.