Alright here comes the long post. I've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, as we just had our Mid-Semester/Fall break. One of my friends, Chris, and I had tried to figure out plans to travel to an island out in the Pacific, but that never really materialized due to cost. We ended up hooking up with several other of our friends to combine forces to go on a huge road trip all over New Zealand, covering mostly the north island (since it's harder to get to). So Chris, Garrett, Anna, Kristin, Angela, Adam (another Adam Z. nonetheless) and I roughly planned what we'd do on our trip, and mapped everything out. Adam, Angela, and Anna all already owned a car together, so the week before we shipped out Chris, Garrett, and I bought a used 1991 Nissan Pulsar to use for the rest of our time here. Not a bad deal, taking into account that we'll be able to sell it back when we leave for a pretty good amount as well.
Anyway, the seven of us left somewhere around 4 o'clock on the afternoon of Thursday the 9th (break started Friday for Good Friday), and the start-off plan was pretty much "drive north." We made it a pretty good ways away, and our car being ahead of the other, found a campsite at Motunau Beach. We literally had to drive up and down a huge hill next to the beach to get reception on one of our phones so that we could tell the other car where we were camping. It was freezing camping that night, but Garrett and I were so tired that we didn't even set up a tent. The town that we were in was pretty far from actual civilization, so we just slept under the clear sky on a tarpe outside.
The next morning we had to wake up fairly early at our campsite to make it to Picton, where we had booked spots on the ferry to Wellington on the north island. You're able to drive your car right onto the ferry, which went pretty smoothly. Before leaving we split up, some of us to grab groceries and the rest to get some information at the information center in town. Loading everything onto the ferry, we lucked out with getting a beautiful day to hang out on the deck outside and take pictures and take in all the scenery. We even actually ran into a kid on the ferry who lives in the flat right next to mine in Dunedin. The ferry itself was pretty nice, and equipped with a cafeteria, bar, tons of comfortable seating, and even a movie theater.
Once we were in Wellington, we debated trying to get a hostel for the night. After realizing that none of the hostels were going to have room for seven people in that short of notice, we decided just to keep moving north. It also didn't help that it was Good Friday, and the entire country wasn't selling alcohol anywhere. We wouldn't have been able to go out that night to check out Wellington anyway. The next day we had planned on doing a long hike anyway, so to make it easier we camped literally right next to the trailhead. The hut at the trailhead was called Mangatepopo Hut, and we slept right under the awning to make sure we didn't get wet. This ended up proving to be a little backwards, since the dew on the roof started dripping on us at about 5am and we had to move.
That morning, though, we woke up and cooked up a big batch of oatmeal for the seven of us, and after moving one of the cars to the end of the trail, we started on our journey. The trail is called the Tongariro River Crossing, and as a part of it there is an optional split-off that climbs up Mt. Ngauruhoe... or better known as Mt. Doom (from Lord of the Rings). The trail is a 19.4 km hike, excluding climbing Mt. Ngauruhoe, which is 7,520 feet tall. It was a great sunny day for the hike, and ended up being one of the craziest and hardest hikes I've ever done. At the splitoff for Mt. Ngauruhoe we all stopped to make sandwiches for lunch. Chris and Angela decided not to attempt the climb, though, and began on the second half of the hike while the rest of us began Mt. Doom. After only a few minutes, Anna and Kristin turned back and finished the second part of the hike instead as well, leaving just the three of us.
Climbing to the top was one of the most amazing things I've ever done. It was so steep that we literally had to grab onto rocks and ice as we went, since there was almost no traction at all as the ground was almost entirely gravel. The scenery was some of the most beautiful that I've ever seen... a clear day overlooking snowy mountains, lakes, and hot springs. We pretty much ran down the mountain because of how steep it was, and finished the rest of the hike. A good portion of the second half smelled awful because of the hot springs, but the sun was going down and we had plenty to look at, including Lake Taupo. We got to the end and met up with the others, and continued driving for a little while, this time towards Taupo. Again we didn't really have a plan of anywhere to stay for that night, so after unsuccessfully trying to find hostels in Taupo and Rotorua (since it's on the way going north), we kept driving towards Tauranga. Garrett, Chris, and I ended up sleeping in a grassy field literally on the side of the highway, too tired to even pitch a tent.
The next morning (now Sunday) we drove into the next small town to meet up with the other car for gas and breakfast, before heading out and driving toward Whenuakite and Hahei. We had booked a hostel in Hahei and were all set getting checked in and everything, when a woman who worked at the hostel happened to walk by and notice that we had five more people in the room than there should have been. Whoops... We got kicked out of the hostel, but didn't let it ruin our day. We headed to Hot Water Beach nearby, which was one of the coolest beaches I've ever been to. The beach is nearby to many hot springs, which filter up through the sand. You're supposed to dig a small hole, which then fills with the hot water... too hot to sit in. After mixing it with some ocean water, you've got your own little hot tub to hang out in.
After relaxing in our mini hot tub for a while, we took one of our first showers in a few days at the rinse-off showers at the beach. We grabbed some burgers and fish and chips there before heading out to Coromandel to look for another spot to camp. We stopped along the way to make some burritos, and hang out and play with my glow-in-the-dark frisbee that I got in Queenstown. We ended up finding a more foresty area to camp in and were just about all set up, when a cop pulled over next to our site. Rather than telling us we couldn't camp there, he had stopped to recommend an even better spot to camp overlooking a lake just 15 more minutes up the road. He said we probably weren't supposed to camp at either spot, but if anyone called to complain he said that he'd be the one getting the call, and he didn't care at all. Thanks New Zealand police! We camped there that night, and were somehow much warmer than most of the other nights so far. Good day.
The next morning we woke up and went into Coromandel for breakfast and gas again, and to go to the information center to use internet. After checking email real quick, we piled back into the car to head towards Waiau. We went to check out a place called Waiau Waterworks, which was similar to Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton for anyone reading this who knows what that is. There were many sculptures around the site, a lot of which had some type of water contraption moving them around or flowing through them. It also had some more kiddie-geared things which we all had fun playing on anyway, like a few ziplines and a human-sized wooden hamster wheel type thing that ended in most of us with brushburns all over. After getting some 'banana-berry' ice cream there, we headed back to the car. An Indian family was picnicking right next to our car, and promptly invited all of us to try their food, which was delicious. Some of the best food I'd had on our trip by far.
We drove to one of the nearest beaches to hang out for the rest of the day afterwards, Whangapoua, and relaxed there before driving to our hostel that we had booked for the night in Thames. At the 'Sunkist Backpacker,' the seven of us made pasta with veggies together and were actually able to sit down at a table for a meal together... who knew. Once we were all cleaned up and showered, we hung out in the lounge of the hostel for a pretty chilled out night. We drank some beers and played some pool, scrabble, and darts. We passed out at a pretty reasonable time, again without a plan of anything to do the next day.
After breakfast the next morning, we used the internet at the hostel to try to figure out plans for what to do that day. The girls decided that they were going to go horseback riding in Rotorua, so the guys decided to go 'sledging/river surfing' in Hell's Gate instead. Sledging is basically the same thing as whitewater rafting, except instead of a raft you have a 'sledge,' this being almost the same concept as a boogie board but instead it's made out of hard plastic and has handles to hold onto. We got all suited up with flippers, a life jacket, and wetsuit, and were off to the rapids. Doing that was a fun change of pace again, as our guide was pretty crazy and constantly throwing us into the rapids. That night we met up with the girls in Napier to grab some food before again looking for a campsite. We drove off the main drag and into the country, and found an unbuilt housing property that was perfect for us to pitch our tents on.
Wednesday we woke up and drove down to Taradale relatively early to begin our activity of the day... a biking wine tour. We found the company pretty easily (Bike D'Vine... haha..) and got all geared up to go with maps and lunch and all. Everyone had a solo bike except Anna and I, since we wanted to try riding a 2-person tandem. After getting used to it, our bike ended up being pretty fun to ride. We switched off with others a couple times along the way, but rode it for the majority of the time. There were 5 wineries on the way, as well as one brewery and one chocolate factory. All in all it was a great day... plenty of exercise, fresh air, alcohol, chocolate... The only thing that dampered us a little bit was getting lost and having to ask for directions at a fruit stand, which we all chocked up to simply getting more exercise! We returned the bikes and picked up some beer before heading to the beach to set up camp for the night. We actually arrived at the beach around dinner time, and had a good time hanging out there building a fire and listening to the ocean.
The next day we had a hostel booked already in Wellington, and drove down there to hang out for the day and check out the city. I was able to hang out with a family friend of mine, Diane, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, while the others went to the Te Papa Museum to check out some Monet exhibit that was on display there. I walked around and got coffee with Diane and her kids Maddie and Jess, and she showed me around parts of Wellington. We walked down to the harbor, and then to get a quick drink with her husband. It was refreshing to be able to relax for a while rather than running around like we had been, and Wellington was definitely a city that I could see myself visiting again... very welcoming.
That night after I'd said goodbye to Diane, we all met up at our hostel to shower and get ready to go out for the night. I grabbed some Indian food and checked my email while waiting for everyone else to get ready. We ended up starting the night in the hostel's Basement Bar, before heading out on the town to several other sports bars. At one more club-type bar we actually ran into another group of kids from our program in Dunedin, and had fun exchanging stories with them about how our breaks had been going. After a long, but fun night, we all ended up back at the hostel together to pass out... 7 people in a room meant for 3.
Friday morning we had to be on the ferry at 7:30am, so naturally most of us didn't do much on the ferry but read or sleep. Luckily it wasn't as bumpy as a ride as the first ferry was, and we were able to get back into Picton quite uneventfully. Once there we decided to drive to Nelson to check out the town, having heard that it had much to offer. We walked around there for a little while, the girls shopping. It was a nice town, but as a general consensus we all felt like lying on a beach and sleeping all day. So... we drove to Kaiteriteri nearby to do just that. There was a camper van site near the beach with kitchen and shower facilities there, so we utilized them, cooking spaghetti for dinner. After dinner we all went to what was pretty much the only bar in town, The Beached Whale, to hang out and listen to music. We took to the kiwi way of buying "shouts," or rounds, of jugs (pictchers) of beer for us all, and hung out having a pretty relaxed night.
The next morning we woke up to get our day started at Abel Tasman National Park. We had booked kayaks for the seven of us in Marahau, and after grabbing some coffee we were out on the ocean! Chris and I manned a kayak together, and had a great time paddling around several different islands and checking out the clear water on an almost perfect day. We were told that one island often had seals hanging out on the rocks around the other side, and we all got to see tons of fur seals laying out and enjoying the sun. We weren't supposed to get too close to the seals, but as we got closer to one of the islands, about 6 or 7 baby seals began swimming and playing all around our kayaks. They literally were playing with our boats, chewing on our oars, and jumping around all over the place. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen... I was even able to reach out and pet a couple of them.
We stopped on a random island to hang out, have a lunch of wine/cheese/apples, and throw around a frisbee. Although I sliced open my finger while cutting up an apple, nothing could stop me from having a great day. After we had to head back and return the kayaks, we all grabbed some burgers before finding another campsite on a beach. We built a fire and hung around there for a while as we had several nights before, and passed out from exhaustion soon after.
Sunday was our last day of break, and pretty much the day to drive home. Anna and Kristin were doing a dolphin encounter in Kaikoura, but it was a somewhat foggy day and no one went to join them. We had a long day of driving ahead of us, now with five people in our car, but we split up the drive pretty well and had a good day cruising down the south island. We stopped at a large CookieTime store that we had seen when passing through Christchurch, to buy tons of cookies for our ride and pick up some funny tee-shirts. Making it back to Dunedin pretty uneventfully, we said goodbye to the last of our break.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Quick Update
I know I haven't updated in a while... my bad. I'm currently on my mid-semester break, road tripping with 6 other friends from Otago. I don't really have time for a long update since I'm at a hostel right now and have to check out pretty soon, but I'm having an awesome time. I've been writing down notes of everything I'm doing, so expect a longer update sometime soon. I'm in Thames right now (north island) and have another hostel booked for Thursday in Wellington, so we should be able to have comptuer access there.
Anyway, everything's going great... leave comments or email me or whatever to keep in touch! Updates soon.
Anyway, everything's going great... leave comments or email me or whatever to keep in touch! Updates soon.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Queenstown
So I did end up making it to Queenstown this past weekend, and man was that a good idea. One of my flatmates, Steve, bought his own car and had made the decision that he was going... so I took advantage of that right away. We piled some more of our friends in the car with us, and headed out to Queenstown. Right before we left, I called and booked us all a pretty nice hostel, Pinewood, that was only a few minutes walk into town.
Steve, Kylie, Garrett, Alison and I all made it to Pinewood rather uneventfully. A second car full of more friends was on their way, so while we waited we went into the town to explore. Though I've never been to Colorado, everyone else I drove with goes to school there. They all consensually agreed that Queenstown seemed a lot like Vail, CO, but way cooler. Queenstown is nicknamed the adventure capital of the world, and rightly so. You can do anything extreme there, you name it: ATV-ing, skydiving, whitewater rafting, kayaking, paragliding, hang gliding, ballooning, heli-biking, heli-skiing, and the most famous... bungy jumping (to name a few). It's home to the 2nd highest bungy in the world, the Nevis.
Anyway, in town we happened upon one of the greatest burger joints I've ever eaten at, Fergburger. We all chowed down there, and the 2nd car of people met us there. After hanging out there for a while, we found a bar and causually hung out there for part of the night also. The bar, World Bar, had a pretty funny drink situation going on... they served teapots with many various mixed drinks inside. It was also common to drink straight out of the teapot, funny stuff. We played some pool and had a pretty low-key night that night, heading back to the hostel to jump on the trampoline (!) that they had there.
The next morning, we woke up early enough to make it down into town for our appointment to go bungy jumping! Five out of ten of us had signed up to do the Nevis bungy... a 440 foot drop, 2nd biggest in the world next to one in China. We had to take a bus to the actual bungy site, which was about a 45 minute drive. They harnessed us all up, and we had to take a gondola ride out to the actual platform. This bungy was not just off of a cliff, but off of a platform suspended by cables in the middle of the canyon. We each jumped one by one, and it was one of the craziest things I've ever done, hands down. So fun.
After we each jumped, we waited for the bus to bring us back into town. Once back there, we immediately went to go grab some lunch, before heading back to relax for a while at the hostel. Steve and Alison had to head back to Dunedin for a field trip the next day, so Garrett, Kylie and I had to switch rooms and find a bus that would take us back on Sunday. After switching rooms and getting settled, some of us ventured back into town to walk around for a while. There were tons of ski/skate shops around, and it was nice to be able to relax and take our time for a little while. We grabbed some beer to bring back to the hostel, and hung out playing card games with all 8 of us before getting ready to go out for the night. All of us went out to a few bars that night as well, and stayed out well into the night, passing out hard enough to miss our 10 o'clock checkout the next morning.
Once we actually got checked out and straightened up the room in the hostel on Sunday morning, we headed back into town for a real breakfast. We all had a pretty great time recounting the night before and getting some good food in our stomachs. Finishing up, there wasn't a whole lot of time to kill before we had to catch our bus back, so we headed down toward Lake Wakatipu to hang out before leaving Queenstown. We threw around a frisbee and hung around listening to our friend play his guitar... a nice way to end our trip. The ride back wasn't too bad, and a bunch of us ended up watching the first Lord of the Rings that night back in Dunedin... something we'd been meaning to do in New Zealand for a few weeks now.
Anyway, Queenstown was definitely one of my favorite trips that I've down since being here, and everyone I went with agreed that it would not be our last time visiting there. Garrett, my friend Chris, and I have been eyeing a car on TradeMe (NZ's version of eBay), and the auction ends Friday. Wish us luck...
And check the pics on Picasa! There's some bungy ones up there now too.
Steve, Kylie, Garrett, Alison and I all made it to Pinewood rather uneventfully. A second car full of more friends was on their way, so while we waited we went into the town to explore. Though I've never been to Colorado, everyone else I drove with goes to school there. They all consensually agreed that Queenstown seemed a lot like Vail, CO, but way cooler. Queenstown is nicknamed the adventure capital of the world, and rightly so. You can do anything extreme there, you name it: ATV-ing, skydiving, whitewater rafting, kayaking, paragliding, hang gliding, ballooning, heli-biking, heli-skiing, and the most famous... bungy jumping (to name a few). It's home to the 2nd highest bungy in the world, the Nevis.
Anyway, in town we happened upon one of the greatest burger joints I've ever eaten at, Fergburger. We all chowed down there, and the 2nd car of people met us there. After hanging out there for a while, we found a bar and causually hung out there for part of the night also. The bar, World Bar, had a pretty funny drink situation going on... they served teapots with many various mixed drinks inside. It was also common to drink straight out of the teapot, funny stuff. We played some pool and had a pretty low-key night that night, heading back to the hostel to jump on the trampoline (!) that they had there.
The next morning, we woke up early enough to make it down into town for our appointment to go bungy jumping! Five out of ten of us had signed up to do the Nevis bungy... a 440 foot drop, 2nd biggest in the world next to one in China. We had to take a bus to the actual bungy site, which was about a 45 minute drive. They harnessed us all up, and we had to take a gondola ride out to the actual platform. This bungy was not just off of a cliff, but off of a platform suspended by cables in the middle of the canyon. We each jumped one by one, and it was one of the craziest things I've ever done, hands down. So fun.
After we each jumped, we waited for the bus to bring us back into town. Once back there, we immediately went to go grab some lunch, before heading back to relax for a while at the hostel. Steve and Alison had to head back to Dunedin for a field trip the next day, so Garrett, Kylie and I had to switch rooms and find a bus that would take us back on Sunday. After switching rooms and getting settled, some of us ventured back into town to walk around for a while. There were tons of ski/skate shops around, and it was nice to be able to relax and take our time for a little while. We grabbed some beer to bring back to the hostel, and hung out playing card games with all 8 of us before getting ready to go out for the night. All of us went out to a few bars that night as well, and stayed out well into the night, passing out hard enough to miss our 10 o'clock checkout the next morning.
Once we actually got checked out and straightened up the room in the hostel on Sunday morning, we headed back into town for a real breakfast. We all had a pretty great time recounting the night before and getting some good food in our stomachs. Finishing up, there wasn't a whole lot of time to kill before we had to catch our bus back, so we headed down toward Lake Wakatipu to hang out before leaving Queenstown. We threw around a frisbee and hung around listening to our friend play his guitar... a nice way to end our trip. The ride back wasn't too bad, and a bunch of us ended up watching the first Lord of the Rings that night back in Dunedin... something we'd been meaning to do in New Zealand for a few weeks now.
Anyway, Queenstown was definitely one of my favorite trips that I've down since being here, and everyone I went with agreed that it would not be our last time visiting there. Garrett, my friend Chris, and I have been eyeing a car on TradeMe (NZ's version of eBay), and the auction ends Friday. Wish us luck...
And check the pics on Picasa! There's some bungy ones up there now too.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wildfoods Festival
The craziness has yet to let up. It seems that all people do during the week here apart from going to class, is plan what to do for the next weekend. A large portion of my friends spent this past week figuring out all the details in attending the Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika, which is on the west coast of the south island, but much farther north. We had to work out tickets, campsites, hostels, carrides... it all turned out to be worth it though.
I woke up before my classes on Thursday morning to get the rental car and rent a tent from Unipol, the recreation center here at Otago. I made it to my class right on time, and after Maori and Hinduism/Buddhism I came straight home to pack all my stuff together for the weekend. We eventually rounded up the kids for our car (myself, Alison, Garrett, Caroline, and Steve) and hit the road. We were actually one of the first cars to head out, so we had to figure out the path on our own. The plan was to drive to Wanaka to camp for the night, since it was about halfway to Hokitika. The only problem was that the day was looking pretty gloomy, and we didn't really know of anywhere to go once we were in Wanaka. We ended up calling about every hostel on our list and none of them had any openings. Luckily about 20 minutes before we ended up in Wanaka our friends in the car not too far behind us had found a place, and booked it for theirs and our car. We drove around trying to find it for a while, but eventually made it to the Albert Town Lodge.
Throwing all of our stuff down, the five of us ventured into the town in search of some food. We found a pretty classy outdoor pizza place called The Cow and chowed down. It was relaxing to sit down and have a meal after the drive, and was great the next morning to have leftovers also. Each of us grabbed a bottle of wine next door before heading back to the hostel. When we got back there we were greeted by our friends who had made our hostel reservation, and we all hung out for a little while before getting some sleep.
We woke up early the next morning to try to call to make a reservation to do a half-day hike of Franz Josef Glacier, which was on the way, but everything had already been booked. There was still a lot of driving to do anyway, and we were able to do it at our own pace instead of trying to make it to the hike on time. We ended up stopping at a bunch of different lookout points to take pictures, and we also stopped at both Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers to hike around ourselves for a while. We couldn't cross a river (that had been caused by the melting glacier) to actually hike up to the glacier itself, but we had a great time walking around there.
Heading back to the car, we finished up the rest of the scenic drive and finally made it to Hokitika, where the festival was being held. Some of our friends were already there, as a bunch of us had all reserved the same campsite. Our campsite, "Beach Street," was literally right next to the beach... felt a little similar to the weekend before at Long Beach. By night there were tons of bonfires all up and down the beach, and everyone was just hanging around meeting new people and having a good time. Some of us tried to not make it so late of a night, and passed out in our tents to get some rest before eating some crazy stuff the next morning.
I woke up relatively early on Saturday morning and got all my stuff together, and got ready to head out to the festival. A group of us went and found where to get our pre-ordered tickets, and made it into the festival pretty early around 10:30. We'd been told that a lot of the really crazy stuff gets eaten early, so we had to get there in time for that. Going around to each of the venders, one of us would buy a small amount of something, and we'd all try it. It went like that for most of the day, just walking around and eating weird stuff! Throughout the day I tried: ostrich pie, eel, kangaroo, "rocky mountain oysters" (buffalo testicle), shark, grasshopper, cow udder, venison burgers, kava juice, a huge chunk of honeycomb, buffalo jerky, the quintessential Wildfoods huhu grub, and much more. That night was similar to the one before it, hanging out by the campfires on the beach.
The next day we headed out to get an early start on all the driving that we had. Before leaving, though, we stopped in town to get some authentic jade, from a shop run by a Maori couple who cut all the jade themselves. I got a pretty cool fish-hook design, which is supposed to represent "determination, strength, peace, prosperity and safe journey especially over water." We set out on the road which was another beautiful drive... this time we took a different route and went through Arthur's Pass. It's crazy how stunning New Zealand is, every drive that we took seemed amazing.
We got back to the flats around 7pm, ate food and relaxed. For the next couple of nights we took it easy and stuck to watching movies at night rather than going out, which was probably a good bet due to St. Patrick's Day last night. The complex at 480 Leith had another big party, which somehow had food paid for by the university. It was great having everyone decked out in green and having a good time, and add some good barbeque to the mix and it was another awesome night.
On my list of to-do's now are planning what to do this weekend (maybe a trip to Queenstown?), get fall break figured out (Fiji? Cook Islands?), and work on the possibility of buying a cheap car with some friends so we don't have to keep renting. We'll see what happens. And check the "My Pictures" link, there should be tons more photos up there.
I woke up before my classes on Thursday morning to get the rental car and rent a tent from Unipol, the recreation center here at Otago. I made it to my class right on time, and after Maori and Hinduism/Buddhism I came straight home to pack all my stuff together for the weekend. We eventually rounded up the kids for our car (myself, Alison, Garrett, Caroline, and Steve) and hit the road. We were actually one of the first cars to head out, so we had to figure out the path on our own. The plan was to drive to Wanaka to camp for the night, since it was about halfway to Hokitika. The only problem was that the day was looking pretty gloomy, and we didn't really know of anywhere to go once we were in Wanaka. We ended up calling about every hostel on our list and none of them had any openings. Luckily about 20 minutes before we ended up in Wanaka our friends in the car not too far behind us had found a place, and booked it for theirs and our car. We drove around trying to find it for a while, but eventually made it to the Albert Town Lodge.
Throwing all of our stuff down, the five of us ventured into the town in search of some food. We found a pretty classy outdoor pizza place called The Cow and chowed down. It was relaxing to sit down and have a meal after the drive, and was great the next morning to have leftovers also. Each of us grabbed a bottle of wine next door before heading back to the hostel. When we got back there we were greeted by our friends who had made our hostel reservation, and we all hung out for a little while before getting some sleep.
We woke up early the next morning to try to call to make a reservation to do a half-day hike of Franz Josef Glacier, which was on the way, but everything had already been booked. There was still a lot of driving to do anyway, and we were able to do it at our own pace instead of trying to make it to the hike on time. We ended up stopping at a bunch of different lookout points to take pictures, and we also stopped at both Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers to hike around ourselves for a while. We couldn't cross a river (that had been caused by the melting glacier) to actually hike up to the glacier itself, but we had a great time walking around there.
Heading back to the car, we finished up the rest of the scenic drive and finally made it to Hokitika, where the festival was being held. Some of our friends were already there, as a bunch of us had all reserved the same campsite. Our campsite, "Beach Street," was literally right next to the beach... felt a little similar to the weekend before at Long Beach. By night there were tons of bonfires all up and down the beach, and everyone was just hanging around meeting new people and having a good time. Some of us tried to not make it so late of a night, and passed out in our tents to get some rest before eating some crazy stuff the next morning.
I woke up relatively early on Saturday morning and got all my stuff together, and got ready to head out to the festival. A group of us went and found where to get our pre-ordered tickets, and made it into the festival pretty early around 10:30. We'd been told that a lot of the really crazy stuff gets eaten early, so we had to get there in time for that. Going around to each of the venders, one of us would buy a small amount of something, and we'd all try it. It went like that for most of the day, just walking around and eating weird stuff! Throughout the day I tried: ostrich pie, eel, kangaroo, "rocky mountain oysters" (buffalo testicle), shark, grasshopper, cow udder, venison burgers, kava juice, a huge chunk of honeycomb, buffalo jerky, the quintessential Wildfoods huhu grub, and much more. That night was similar to the one before it, hanging out by the campfires on the beach.
The next day we headed out to get an early start on all the driving that we had. Before leaving, though, we stopped in town to get some authentic jade, from a shop run by a Maori couple who cut all the jade themselves. I got a pretty cool fish-hook design, which is supposed to represent "determination, strength, peace, prosperity and safe journey especially over water." We set out on the road which was another beautiful drive... this time we took a different route and went through Arthur's Pass. It's crazy how stunning New Zealand is, every drive that we took seemed amazing.
We got back to the flats around 7pm, ate food and relaxed. For the next couple of nights we took it easy and stuck to watching movies at night rather than going out, which was probably a good bet due to St. Patrick's Day last night. The complex at 480 Leith had another big party, which somehow had food paid for by the university. It was great having everyone decked out in green and having a good time, and add some good barbeque to the mix and it was another awesome night.
On my list of to-do's now are planning what to do this weekend (maybe a trip to Queenstown?), get fall break figured out (Fiji? Cook Islands?), and work on the possibility of buying a cheap car with some friends so we don't have to keep renting. We'll see what happens. And check the "My Pictures" link, there should be tons more photos up there.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Beaches and Stuff
Since I last wrote in here I've been doing a lot of crazy stuff, and need to get it down while I still remember! I finally figured out the whole internet thing at my flat, and it is now all up and running... which my flatmates loved me for. The night of the last time I posted, a group of friends and I decided to go on a bar crawl around Dunedin. There had been some coupon booklet sold with a free tee-shirt on campus that was all sponsored by a local beer here, Speight's, and each coupon was good for a free jug (pitcher) or two at various bars. I didn't have one of these, but I went along for the ride anyway. That turned out to be a really fun night of mostly drinking and playing pool, as we stopped at The Baaa, Starter's, Refuel, The Bog, Gardies, etc. One of my flatmates, Caroline, and I both started pooping out at one point, and decided to head back to our flat around 2:30.
Thursday I only had a couple of classes, so I headed to a different beach with a few friends by bus. Tomahawk Beach was one of the most beautiful beaches I've been to, and my friend Chris and I walked very far down the beach taking pictures in caves and of strange birds and rock formations that we hadn't seen before. After realizing how far down we'd walked, we attempted walking back on the road to find a different bus stop, which ended up working out just fine. It was a good route to take though, as we were able to also see many of the awesomely-placed houses overlooking the ocean.
That night was the night of my flat complex's big kegger, which actually started getting going around 8 o'clock. A few of us did a power hour of 'Ice Breaker,' which was a keg filled with a vodka/lemonade mix about equal to beer. By the time we were done, things started picking up around the place. Almost everyone we knew from AustraLearn was there at some point during the night, and it was fun to be able to walk around different people's flats and get to know a lot of different people. There ended up being another couch/chair burning, which the police actually responded to this time. They didn't do very much to ease the situation, but seemed to just be there because it was appropriate. I passed out shortly after that.
Since I don't have any classes on Friday, my friend Alison and I woke up early to be greeted by the rental car that I had requested the day before. We decided (and helped facilitate many more people) to go camping this weekend at Long Beach, which was not that far away, but only really accessible by car. By getting the car, we helped persuade about 4 other carsfull of people to come, and it ended up being an awesome decision. We rounded up all of our supplies, and set out to Long Beach. Our car arriving first, we scoped out the situation and found a perfect cave for all of us to camp in... already equipped with a firepit and everything.
Once more people started showing up, it really started turning into more of a party. We all situated ourselves in the cave, and spent the rest of the day in the ocean and on the beach. People threw around frisbees and kicked soccer balls, and we all jumped in the freezing cold ocean and had a great time. We drank all night around the fire and cooked sausages, and stayed up pretty late on the beach. Waking up to a beautiful sunny day the next day, everyone had a similar agenda as to the day before. Rather this day was more about napping on the beach. After a long day there, we all packed up and headed back to Dunedin for a relaxing night watching movies and hanging around.
Earlier today, Sunday, the kids from my car who'd pitched in and I all decided to get our money's worth for the car, since it wasn't due back to the rental place until 4pm. We woke up relatively early to head out to see the Moeraki Boulders which are famous to New Zealand. They are a bunch these huge spherical boulders on the beach... pretty cool to see. We hung out there for a while, before driving around to try to get lunch in town. We ended up stopping at a bar called the Moeraki Tavern for some fish and chips, and made it back to Dunedin with time to spare and go grocery shopping while we still had the car. After returning it, I came back and hung around my place for a while getting settled back in. I went over to my friend Garrett's flat to watch a few movies and hang out, and had a relatively relaxing night here.
This past week has possibly been even more fun than the week before it was, and I'm still so excited for everything else to come. I know I need to start planning what to do during my Fall Break here, but different people have been talking about different things. I think I might look into going to Fiji to just lay on the beach for a while... This coming weekend, though, I'm going to be attending the Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika, which is about an 8 hour drive away on the west coast pretty far north. It's supposed to be crazy, but more details to come.
Thursday I only had a couple of classes, so I headed to a different beach with a few friends by bus. Tomahawk Beach was one of the most beautiful beaches I've been to, and my friend Chris and I walked very far down the beach taking pictures in caves and of strange birds and rock formations that we hadn't seen before. After realizing how far down we'd walked, we attempted walking back on the road to find a different bus stop, which ended up working out just fine. It was a good route to take though, as we were able to also see many of the awesomely-placed houses overlooking the ocean.
That night was the night of my flat complex's big kegger, which actually started getting going around 8 o'clock. A few of us did a power hour of 'Ice Breaker,' which was a keg filled with a vodka/lemonade mix about equal to beer. By the time we were done, things started picking up around the place. Almost everyone we knew from AustraLearn was there at some point during the night, and it was fun to be able to walk around different people's flats and get to know a lot of different people. There ended up being another couch/chair burning, which the police actually responded to this time. They didn't do very much to ease the situation, but seemed to just be there because it was appropriate. I passed out shortly after that.
Since I don't have any classes on Friday, my friend Alison and I woke up early to be greeted by the rental car that I had requested the day before. We decided (and helped facilitate many more people) to go camping this weekend at Long Beach, which was not that far away, but only really accessible by car. By getting the car, we helped persuade about 4 other carsfull of people to come, and it ended up being an awesome decision. We rounded up all of our supplies, and set out to Long Beach. Our car arriving first, we scoped out the situation and found a perfect cave for all of us to camp in... already equipped with a firepit and everything.
Once more people started showing up, it really started turning into more of a party. We all situated ourselves in the cave, and spent the rest of the day in the ocean and on the beach. People threw around frisbees and kicked soccer balls, and we all jumped in the freezing cold ocean and had a great time. We drank all night around the fire and cooked sausages, and stayed up pretty late on the beach. Waking up to a beautiful sunny day the next day, everyone had a similar agenda as to the day before. Rather this day was more about napping on the beach. After a long day there, we all packed up and headed back to Dunedin for a relaxing night watching movies and hanging around.
Earlier today, Sunday, the kids from my car who'd pitched in and I all decided to get our money's worth for the car, since it wasn't due back to the rental place until 4pm. We woke up relatively early to head out to see the Moeraki Boulders which are famous to New Zealand. They are a bunch these huge spherical boulders on the beach... pretty cool to see. We hung out there for a while, before driving around to try to get lunch in town. We ended up stopping at a bar called the Moeraki Tavern for some fish and chips, and made it back to Dunedin with time to spare and go grocery shopping while we still had the car. After returning it, I came back and hung around my place for a while getting settled back in. I went over to my friend Garrett's flat to watch a few movies and hang out, and had a relatively relaxing night here.
This past week has possibly been even more fun than the week before it was, and I'm still so excited for everything else to come. I know I need to start planning what to do during my Fall Break here, but different people have been talking about different things. I think I might look into going to Fiji to just lay on the beach for a while... This coming weekend, though, I'm going to be attending the Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika, which is about an 8 hour drive away on the west coast pretty far north. It's supposed to be crazy, but more details to come.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Settling into Dunedin
So the last few days I've felt like I'm getting a little bit more accustomed to life here in Dunedin. It's really great to be able to walk down George Street into the Octagon... there's a lot to do down there. All the people I've met so far are all great people also. The area that I live seems to have a lot of Americans, though. There are some students from other countries around here though, and a few Kiwis sprinkled in.
O-Week started winding down over the weekend, and it's been cool just to be able to hang out and relax for a while. I started classes on Monday, and I think my schedule is going to be pretty good. My Music Technology class is pretty cool, it's going to be a lot of playing around in GarageBand and mixing music in different programs. Maori Society seems to be the typical 'fresher' (freshman) class, but also has tons of international students in it. At least half of our AustraLearn group is in the class. It's kind of cool, but kind of strange at the same time. Hinduism and Buddhism is my smallest class, with about 30 students. I weirdly know a few people in that class also, and I think it's going to be very interesting, but probably a lot of reading and work. My last class is TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages), which is definitely going to be interesting. I only have it once a week for the first couple weeks, so I don't know a whole lot about it yet.
Anyway, it's been annoying having to come to the student center (the Link) or the library to use the internet, but it's going to be installed in my flat most likely by the end of the week. It has seemed like I don't know what to do with myself during the week, but I've gone into town and to the beach a few times. At night, it seems that there is always some form of partying going on somewhere. A lot of the time a whole flat complex will have a party together in the middle courtyard. Ours (783 Great King) is having a big one this Thursday night, I think there are about 6 flats that are all getting kegs, mine included. Last night I went out with some friends to a bar called The Baaa, and then headed over to 480 Leith St. for a party for one of our friend's birthdays. We had fun throwing around a rugby ball and just hanging out there, but I came back to my flat at around 2 to get to bed for my 9am this morning.
I do miss everyone back home, but I'm having a great time here. Hopefully this weekend I'm going 'tramping' (hiking/camping) in the fjordlands, but we'll see what happens. I'll definitely get out there and do something. Internet in my flat is coming soon, and then I'll finally be able to upload pictures and use Skype to maybe actually talk to some of you guys. Hear from you soon...
O-Week started winding down over the weekend, and it's been cool just to be able to hang out and relax for a while. I started classes on Monday, and I think my schedule is going to be pretty good. My Music Technology class is pretty cool, it's going to be a lot of playing around in GarageBand and mixing music in different programs. Maori Society seems to be the typical 'fresher' (freshman) class, but also has tons of international students in it. At least half of our AustraLearn group is in the class. It's kind of cool, but kind of strange at the same time. Hinduism and Buddhism is my smallest class, with about 30 students. I weirdly know a few people in that class also, and I think it's going to be very interesting, but probably a lot of reading and work. My last class is TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages), which is definitely going to be interesting. I only have it once a week for the first couple weeks, so I don't know a whole lot about it yet.
Anyway, it's been annoying having to come to the student center (the Link) or the library to use the internet, but it's going to be installed in my flat most likely by the end of the week. It has seemed like I don't know what to do with myself during the week, but I've gone into town and to the beach a few times. At night, it seems that there is always some form of partying going on somewhere. A lot of the time a whole flat complex will have a party together in the middle courtyard. Ours (783 Great King) is having a big one this Thursday night, I think there are about 6 flats that are all getting kegs, mine included. Last night I went out with some friends to a bar called The Baaa, and then headed over to 480 Leith St. for a party for one of our friend's birthdays. We had fun throwing around a rugby ball and just hanging out there, but I came back to my flat at around 2 to get to bed for my 9am this morning.
I do miss everyone back home, but I'm having a great time here. Hopefully this weekend I'm going 'tramping' (hiking/camping) in the fjordlands, but we'll see what happens. I'll definitely get out there and do something. Internet in my flat is coming soon, and then I'll finally be able to upload pictures and use Skype to maybe actually talk to some of you guys. Hear from you soon...
Friday, February 27, 2009
O-Week
It's so hard to keep up with this, especially with this week being O-Week. The 'o' kind of ambiguously stands for Otago and/or Orientation... it's basically a week of non-stop partying. I've been having so much fun this week it's amazing. The first few days that I was in Dunedin it was kind of rainy and chilly, but that didn't stop any of the festivities from occurring at all.
In the beginning of the week I registered for classes, which was a weirdly different process from what it is in the US. I had to have classes approved my professors in each department of each class, and actually get them to sign off on them in person. That was a confusing ordeal that none of us really understood, but we got it done eventually. Classes here are actually called 'papers', and I'm taking 4 of them: Hinduism and Buddhism, Music Technology I, Maori Society, and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. I'm pretty sure that I only have class Mon/Tues/Thurs, but I won't know for sure until tomorrow. I did that and then got my ID, and spent the next day or two really getting to know Dunedin, walking around and all that. It's really insane how so many of us AustraLearn kids there are that all know each other... we run into people everywhere. Between that and just meeting people as we've been here, I feel like I know someone everywhere I go already, and I've been here for less than a week.
Tuesday there was a toga parade for the 'freshers' (freshman), where they all dress up in togas and march down Great King Street (where I live) while the upperclassmen all proceed to pelt them with eggs. I only caught the end of it, but it was pretty great to see. Another apparent tradition of O-Week is couch burning, which is obviously frowned upon by the town but definitely still happens. Some friends and I actually participated last night... it was great, we don't really have much garbage left in our house after that... haha.
Yesterday was Cook-a-Thon, which seemed similar to Halloween. It's another part of O-Week, but all the students dress up in crazy costumes and head out to a bar nearby campus called Captain Cook's Tavern... starting when doors open there at 10am. Most kids even wake up earlier than that to start drinking, and I was actually woken up by our neighbors drinking and being loud at about 6:30. Lots of people had matching costumes, and a friend Chris and I went to an op shop and put together pretty cheap doctor's costumes... lab coats, rubber gloves, and dust masks. We didn't keep them on all day, but last night turned out to be a great night once we burnt a couch and got out to a couple bars... 'The Baa' and the 'Monkey Bar'.
Today was a great day all around. I woke up relatively early to get down to the Clubs and Societies buliding for the expo that they were having there to sign up for different things. I signed up for a ton: Volleyball, Squash, Handball, Ultimate Frisbee, and was told about a recreational Rugby team. We'll see what I stick with, but there are just so many opportunities of things to do here that I can't pass up anything. I got some coffee with friends and some lunch, and then we went our separate ways to get changed to go to the beach... today was the first warm and sunny day since we'd been there.
We put on our 'togs' (bathing suits) and 'jandals' (sandals) and amassed a pretty good crowd to find the bus to get to St. Clair's beach, which was only about a 15 minute busride. It turned out that we were definitely not the only AustraLearn(+company) folks who had the idea, and it just turned out to be one big party on the beach with everyone we knew. Almost everyone brought alcohol, and we had a great time there all day playing frisbee and jumping in the freezing cold water. Finally heading back, I made some pasta with a girl who lives in a flat next door to mine. I hung out and starting drinking and jumping around different flats before heading out with a few to the Monkey Bar for an International Students night there. We ended up getting there after they had started letting Kiwis in also, but still ran into tons of people from AustraLearn. I was there for a while before walking toward one of our friend's flats that was having a party, but we got sidetracked talking to some Kiwis and watching another couch burning. They turned out to be some really awesome kids who I'll hopefully and probably run into another time. I headed back here almost at the same time as my flatmate Steve, and we made some quesadillas and heading up to bed.
I'll have to try to actually update this more frequently so that I can actually remember everything that I've done, but it's tough with so much going on! That plus my internet only half-working because we're mooching it off of a neighbor, haha. Anyway, I'll be back on here soon...
In the beginning of the week I registered for classes, which was a weirdly different process from what it is in the US. I had to have classes approved my professors in each department of each class, and actually get them to sign off on them in person. That was a confusing ordeal that none of us really understood, but we got it done eventually. Classes here are actually called 'papers', and I'm taking 4 of them: Hinduism and Buddhism, Music Technology I, Maori Society, and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. I'm pretty sure that I only have class Mon/Tues/Thurs, but I won't know for sure until tomorrow. I did that and then got my ID, and spent the next day or two really getting to know Dunedin, walking around and all that. It's really insane how so many of us AustraLearn kids there are that all know each other... we run into people everywhere. Between that and just meeting people as we've been here, I feel like I know someone everywhere I go already, and I've been here for less than a week.
Tuesday there was a toga parade for the 'freshers' (freshman), where they all dress up in togas and march down Great King Street (where I live) while the upperclassmen all proceed to pelt them with eggs. I only caught the end of it, but it was pretty great to see. Another apparent tradition of O-Week is couch burning, which is obviously frowned upon by the town but definitely still happens. Some friends and I actually participated last night... it was great, we don't really have much garbage left in our house after that... haha.
Yesterday was Cook-a-Thon, which seemed similar to Halloween. It's another part of O-Week, but all the students dress up in crazy costumes and head out to a bar nearby campus called Captain Cook's Tavern... starting when doors open there at 10am. Most kids even wake up earlier than that to start drinking, and I was actually woken up by our neighbors drinking and being loud at about 6:30. Lots of people had matching costumes, and a friend Chris and I went to an op shop and put together pretty cheap doctor's costumes... lab coats, rubber gloves, and dust masks. We didn't keep them on all day, but last night turned out to be a great night once we burnt a couch and got out to a couple bars... 'The Baa' and the 'Monkey Bar'.
Today was a great day all around. I woke up relatively early to get down to the Clubs and Societies buliding for the expo that they were having there to sign up for different things. I signed up for a ton: Volleyball, Squash, Handball, Ultimate Frisbee, and was told about a recreational Rugby team. We'll see what I stick with, but there are just so many opportunities of things to do here that I can't pass up anything. I got some coffee with friends and some lunch, and then we went our separate ways to get changed to go to the beach... today was the first warm and sunny day since we'd been there.
We put on our 'togs' (bathing suits) and 'jandals' (sandals) and amassed a pretty good crowd to find the bus to get to St. Clair's beach, which was only about a 15 minute busride. It turned out that we were definitely not the only AustraLearn(+company) folks who had the idea, and it just turned out to be one big party on the beach with everyone we knew. Almost everyone brought alcohol, and we had a great time there all day playing frisbee and jumping in the freezing cold water. Finally heading back, I made some pasta with a girl who lives in a flat next door to mine. I hung out and starting drinking and jumping around different flats before heading out with a few to the Monkey Bar for an International Students night there. We ended up getting there after they had started letting Kiwis in also, but still ran into tons of people from AustraLearn. I was there for a while before walking toward one of our friend's flats that was having a party, but we got sidetracked talking to some Kiwis and watching another couch burning. They turned out to be some really awesome kids who I'll hopefully and probably run into another time. I headed back here almost at the same time as my flatmate Steve, and we made some quesadillas and heading up to bed.
I'll have to try to actually update this more frequently so that I can actually remember everything that I've done, but it's tough with so much going on! That plus my internet only half-working because we're mooching it off of a neighbor, haha. Anyway, I'll be back on here soon...
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