Thursday, March 31, 2011
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.
Not much else happened last week, I began to think about the assignments that I had due the upcoming week, which is a lot coming from the world’s worst procrastinator. Remember how I told you about how customs maliciously and with no regret seized my package and were going to force me to pay $200 to get it back? Well, I had a little word with them—that’s right, I just called them right up and gave them a piece of my mind until they unwillingly gave up my belongings. Well that’s not really the whole truth, I did call them, act really sad, played the ‘I’m just a poor innocent student’ card and they waived the fee, no problem! A few days later I received my package, sadly with no goodies from Mum, (hinthint).
The Edge Film Festival hit Wellington last week; I took advantage seeing two documentaries. The first was called “Leave Them Laughing” about a mother who was dying from Lou Gehrig’s Disease and how in order to cope she infuses humor in everyday life. The second film was called “Make Believe” it followed about six young magicians from all over the world in their journey to become the world’s best junior magician. On Thursday of last week some of my friends and I decided on a movie night and ice, I’m always down for anything involving ice cream. I picked the movie “Four Lions” because I read in “Time” magazine that it made the top 10 list for 2010. The movie was real weird, good, but weird.
On Friday night we hit up Cuba Street for a benefit event called “Cuba For Christchurch”. For ten bucks you gained access to multiple participating bars that were playing something like 65 bands throughout the night. We hit up a few places and called it an early night (as usual). On Saturday Taylor, Nicole, Rouven, Cody, and myself met up around noon in search of Cape Palliser, a coastal area home to hundreds of seals. This day turned out to be quite the adventure, a 2 ½ hour mini road trip lead us through narrow roads dug out of the side of beautiful, green mountains, through farmland, and finally the ever-breathtaking coast. We had a short fail of a hike, encountered a Lord of the Rings-esque views, a 250-step climb to a lighthouse and finally the jackpot—seals as far as the eye can see. A local couple tipped us off pointing just around the bend to a seal pup nursery. You will not believe what we saw, hundreds of baby seals yelling and flipping, chasing each other, it was amazing! Not being able to help ourselves with the cuteness factor the girls and I got as close as we could, about five feet away! But then Nicole ruined it and one of the baby seals got a little too close, sending us running back to the car. As they say, ‘bad decisions make good stories”. We ended the perfect day with some Chinese food eaten under lamplight in a park in the quaint wine-country town of Martinborough. Definitely one of the best days I’ve had so far.
This past week has been brutal. It’s been almost four months since I’ve had to write a college essay and this week I had to write two. Of course being Miss I-procrastinate-everything I got very little sleep and handed in both papers unsure of how my ‘American’ writing style would be received in the New Zealand system.
As I write this I’m sitting in a little café inside the Wellington airport waiting for my flight to Australia. That’s right, AUSTRALIA! I’m meeting up with my Aunt Sue, Carrie, and Craig for a long-weekend full of adventures in Sydney. It’s so weird to be sitting here alone without my friends who I’ve been attached at the hip with since day one of this adventure. Oddly enough, I’m feeling a bit sad thinking about how hard it will be when we part ways for good come June.
But enough of that blubbering, my flights boarding now- on to the next great adventure. Life is beautiful.
xo Kristen
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Living a Fairytale
This past weekend I went back in Rotorua. During the eight-hour bus ride I found myself wondering why I was going back to Little Rotti when there were so many other places that still needed to be explored. Pulling up to Rotti I started smelling the rotten eggs scent of sulfur and oddly enough felt somewhat comforted by the familiarity.
As I said in my earlier post, the first night we checked into Cactus Jack’s and headed towards the Night Market. Day two Taylor and I set out for Blue Lake. She had gone during our first week in Rotorua and said it was really beautiful so I wanted to see this place for myself. After a bus ride and a lift from a friendly local we found ourselves hoofin’ it around the gorgeous Blue Lake to our own, almost-private beach. We befriended a little duck, ‘Milly’ and drooled over some little kids with cute little accents (little kid New Zealand accents are the best).
After baking our bods for a bit, eating some pineapple lumps and fruit, we started back and met a cute family on holiday from Hamilton (about an hour from Rotorua) who owned a blueberry orchard, “Blueberry Country”. After chatting with them we promised to visit and parted ways. The gang of eight of us that made the trip cooked a family dinner of pasta and pizza and cookies and chocolate (mmmmm!! Nomnomnom) and headed to bed early in preparation of a busy next day.
Saturday, six of us headed to sledging, a sort of boogie board-like adventure on a river. The guide told us that the normal speed of the river was 15 meters per second, but that day, due to all the rain, it was 25… the highest it could be if we wanted to sledge, (oh boy, near panic attack). Anyway, fear aside, we plunged our wet-suit ridden bodies into the river right at the base of a beautiful waterfall, simply gorgeous. The first rapid we headed down, my sledge was ripped from my hands and I swallowed about 29 gallons of water through my nose/mouth, awesome, ay? (sorry Mom, cover your ears!) Seriously, the guides gave us two rules, don’t let go of your sledge, and turn your head to the side when heading into a wave so as to avoid breaking your nose… welp, I messed that one up! Accident averted, I re-muckled myself onto my board and continued on, trying not to seem like a wimp. I got the hang of it though, and like all things adrenal fueled, I really loved it. I’ll attach a video at the bottom.
After dragging my sore, beaten body out of the water we headed back to go zorbing. BEST THING OF MY LIFE!!!!! Paired up, we bounded down a long grassy hill in giant, water-filled hamster balls. Talk about dream job!
Sunday, we said ‘so long’ to CJ’s and deemed ourselves nomads for a few hours whilst waiting for the bus back to Welly. Once again an eight-hour bus ride loomed over me. Thankfully it came and went and was made much more enjoyable by the incredibly awesome views. The New Zealand country side is made up of green, rolling hills, mountainous formations, unique flora and fauna, speckled with sheep, cows and the occasional deer.
As a great weekend came to an end, Monday started off quite terribly. I left my flat and got the mail on my way to class this morning only to receive a letter from the post office. Apparently the package that was sent from home almost three weeks ago was randomly searched in customs and is now being held in Auckland… yeah I know bugger, right? As if that’s not bad enough… they want me to pay $200 to get it… um, what? Yeah, that’s right TWO-HUNDRED DOLLARS!@#$%^&*(. Excuse me, but I already bought that, I don’t want to pay for it again. Thanks, but no thanks! So all during my classes today I was just telling myself, “well I mean I guess I’ll just leave it there and never see that stuff again”. But then I realized, all my riding stuff is in there, good clothes, and my camera charger, plus maybe, just maybe my mom stuck some goodies in it?! So now I’m really down about this whole ordeal.
Anyway, it’s really hard to be anything but happy here. My friend Rouven bought a car over the weekend, so he toted myself, Taylor, Cramer, and Dillon to this private beach with nearly-black sand and huge, unbelievably gorgeous rock formations. It was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to, top five definitely (the other four are also in New Zealand, this place is unreal). I was kicking myself the whole time for not bringing my camera, like what kind of photographer am I?! BAD. Anywho, I just took millions of mental pictures instead. We climbed huge rocks, frolicked, and oh yeah, hung out with a seal, yeah I know.. caaarazyyy! And then stumbled upon this cute little penguin, double crazzyyy.
It’s times likes these that I can’t help but appreciate and love the life I lead. I’m living a dream, if only for a short while.
As I said in my earlier post, the first night we checked into Cactus Jack’s and headed towards the Night Market. Day two Taylor and I set out for Blue Lake. She had gone during our first week in Rotorua and said it was really beautiful so I wanted to see this place for myself. After a bus ride and a lift from a friendly local we found ourselves hoofin’ it around the gorgeous Blue Lake to our own, almost-private beach. We befriended a little duck, ‘Milly’ and drooled over some little kids with cute little accents (little kid New Zealand accents are the best).
After baking our bods for a bit, eating some pineapple lumps and fruit, we started back and met a cute family on holiday from Hamilton (about an hour from Rotorua) who owned a blueberry orchard, “Blueberry Country”. After chatting with them we promised to visit and parted ways. The gang of eight of us that made the trip cooked a family dinner of pasta and pizza and cookies and chocolate (mmmmm!! Nomnomnom) and headed to bed early in preparation of a busy next day.
Saturday, six of us headed to sledging, a sort of boogie board-like adventure on a river. The guide told us that the normal speed of the river was 15 meters per second, but that day, due to all the rain, it was 25… the highest it could be if we wanted to sledge, (oh boy, near panic attack). Anyway, fear aside, we plunged our wet-suit ridden bodies into the river right at the base of a beautiful waterfall, simply gorgeous. The first rapid we headed down, my sledge was ripped from my hands and I swallowed about 29 gallons of water through my nose/mouth, awesome, ay? (sorry Mom, cover your ears!) Seriously, the guides gave us two rules, don’t let go of your sledge, and turn your head to the side when heading into a wave so as to avoid breaking your nose… welp, I messed that one up! Accident averted, I re-muckled myself onto my board and continued on, trying not to seem like a wimp. I got the hang of it though, and like all things adrenal fueled, I really loved it. I’ll attach a video at the bottom.
After dragging my sore, beaten body out of the water we headed back to go zorbing. BEST THING OF MY LIFE!!!!! Paired up, we bounded down a long grassy hill in giant, water-filled hamster balls. Talk about dream job!
Sunday, we said ‘so long’ to CJ’s and deemed ourselves nomads for a few hours whilst waiting for the bus back to Welly. Once again an eight-hour bus ride loomed over me. Thankfully it came and went and was made much more enjoyable by the incredibly awesome views. The New Zealand country side is made up of green, rolling hills, mountainous formations, unique flora and fauna, speckled with sheep, cows and the occasional deer.
As a great weekend came to an end, Monday started off quite terribly. I left my flat and got the mail on my way to class this morning only to receive a letter from the post office. Apparently the package that was sent from home almost three weeks ago was randomly searched in customs and is now being held in Auckland… yeah I know bugger, right? As if that’s not bad enough… they want me to pay $200 to get it… um, what? Yeah, that’s right TWO-HUNDRED DOLLARS!@#$%^&*(. Excuse me, but I already bought that, I don’t want to pay for it again. Thanks, but no thanks! So all during my classes today I was just telling myself, “well I mean I guess I’ll just leave it there and never see that stuff again”. But then I realized, all my riding stuff is in there, good clothes, and my camera charger, plus maybe, just maybe my mom stuck some goodies in it?! So now I’m really down about this whole ordeal.
Anyway, it’s really hard to be anything but happy here. My friend Rouven bought a car over the weekend, so he toted myself, Taylor, Cramer, and Dillon to this private beach with nearly-black sand and huge, unbelievably gorgeous rock formations. It was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to, top five definitely (the other four are also in New Zealand, this place is unreal). I was kicking myself the whole time for not bringing my camera, like what kind of photographer am I?! BAD. Anywho, I just took millions of mental pictures instead. We climbed huge rocks, frolicked, and oh yeah, hung out with a seal, yeah I know.. caaarazyyy! And then stumbled upon this cute little penguin, double crazzyyy.
It’s times likes these that I can’t help but appreciate and love the life I lead. I’m living a dream, if only for a short while.
thanks for listening folks.
 |
| Sheepskis again, i'm seeing a trend.. |
 |
| CJ's |
 |
| c: |
 |
| blue lake |
 |
| milly! |
 |
| after zorbing |
 |
| Lake Taupo, on the way home. |
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Don't listen to the date, March 11, 2011
I seem to be keeping up with my sub-par and irregular blogging skills. Last week was kind of a shakey week (literally). We had three earthquakes in Wellington ranging from a 3.7 to a 4.7. One thing I learned, I really don’t enjoy earthquakes. Wellington certainly lived up to its reputation as ‘Windy Welly,’ the week was full of rain and wind comparable to hurricanes and freight trains. It’s somewhat unsettling to be sitting in your room and be swaying with the wind. I’m told it’s a good thing that the building moves with the elements because if a large earthquake hits it should be able to just go with the flow?!
Also this past week I went and checked out this cool place that offers Buddhist Meditation every Monday and Wednesday nights. Although I don’t think I understood half of the things they were saying (in English) and obviously nothing they said in Tibetan, I still left feeling very calm and happy. Plus, at the end they served us carrot cake, which I don’t really like but it was free and sweet so I’m not complaining!
A few days ago I went down to the harbor with some friends and joined the locals in dong some ‘bombs’ off the plank. I don’t think I can really call mine a ‘bomb’ though; it was probably more comparable to a flailing flop. I’m as graceful as ever these days…
Tonight I’m finding myself back in Rotorua. This time, with a group of five girls from Wellington, and staying at the hostel, ‘Cactus Jacks’. Earlier we wandered around the Night Market, taking in the live music and free food and wine samples.
 |
| getting pumped up by showering himself in some sugary substance? |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)