The Final Chapter

I've been home for almost a week and have been avoiding writing this last chapter like the plague. I felt like if I wrote the last entry in this blog, it would mean that it was officially over and I wasn't ready for that.

The last bit of the trip was filled with relaxing and watching movies, reuniting with people I hadn't seen since the beginning of my trip, back when we were in orientation in Auckland. The last night we went to a party in one of the halls for the University of Auckland. It was a EAP reunion and it was amazing to see everyone again. They are such an incredible group of people and I can't wait to run into them at the various UC's back at home.

The Auckland group!

The trip to return the car and then to get to the airport went without any problems. I had a 1:30 flight on the 29th of June, but due to refueling we didn't leave till 2:30. I teared up just as I had flying out of Christchurch as I watched the Auckland and surrounding greenery disappear. It was so hard to believe that my 5 months abroad were already over. I didn't sleep as well as I had flying out there but did get caught up on a few movies and had some pretty good plane food.

Before I knew it, I could see the houses and buildings of LA appear below me. After an absurd amount of time getting through customs, getting my luggage, and then waiting in completely pointless lines, I finally got out of the airport. I turned a corner and headed up the ramp to the waiting area and saw my two brothers waiting. It was amazing to see both Pat and Kevin considering they had to get up at least by 5:30 am to get me at 6:30 am. I yelled up to them to immediately be asked by Pat "Where is my kangaroo?" Typical. Once I got up the ramp, I finally saw my parents, and it was emotional. I had missed my parents so much while I was gone, which was crazy to me because I kept telling myself I would have been at school the same time I was abroad. I was so happy to finally be home and yet was extremely sad to leave somewhere I had called my home for 5 months.

This experience went by either in a blink of an eye or took a lifetime. Time passed so quickly to the point where I can still remember arriving in Auckland and the very first road trip. And yet on the other side of things, it seemed like it took forever when I think of the many things I had done and how close I got to the people I was with. It couldn't have only been 5 months that I lived in Centennial 3 at Lincoln and met all these incredible people. In the big picture of things, 5 months is a very short amount of time in my 21 years, but it had such a strong influence on my life and such an incredible part of my time in college.

Everyone that studies abroad always says that their best semester is the one abroad. I think I can agree with this statement because 5 months in New Zealand has taught me so much and made me rethink a lot of things I thought I knew. I may be a bit more lost on what I want to do in the future, but at least I found out now before flying straight into a career or decision I wasn't going to be happy in. I have grown in the fact that I was completely responsible for myself for 5 months with absolutely no possible chance for help if I needed it. I think the time I realized I was on my own was on our 2 week road trip. We had to plan our own trip, find accomodation, and handle all car drama. There were definitely a couple of times we all looked at each other and said "This is weird, it's like we are adults."

I will never forget my time in New Zealand. I lived there for 5 months and have so many incredible experiences. I will never forget the moment Cayla and I ran down to Cathedral Cove and screamed "We're in New Zealand!" That entire road trip is one to remember. Then the shenanigans of orientation down in Lincoln and the first couple of weekends we went into town and got to know each other. I was so lucky to live where I did so I had the opportunity to meet such wonderful people. Then the road trip for mid semester break was even more than I could have imagined. I think the LOTR horseback riding tour in Glenorchy was one of my favorite moments. Turning 21 in a country with an 18 year old drinking age didn't sound like it would be fun, but it was great that all my friends in New Zealand could celebrate with me. The many rugby games, nights out, movie nights in, times at the Grouse; all these have contributed to a fantastic experience.

To sum it all up, it has been an incredible experience, one of which can't be summed up in a sentence or even a paragraph. I wouldn't trade this 5 months for anything in the world and am so blessed I had the opportunity to go to the bottom of the earth and try new things, explore different parts of my major, travel to Middle Earth, but most importantly, to learn about myself. Thanks for reading and I hope that my documentation has helped to share this experience with you.

With Love from California, but missing the land of the Kiwis...

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

The Final Trip

I'm currently sitting at Grafton Hall in Auckland, right back to the same place I began my journey. I remember arriving here with Cayla way back on February 3rd for Orientation and now it is June 28th, and the journey is about to be over.

The Last Night all together with my floormates Theresa and Katie

The day after we got back from Australia I had to say my first goodbyes. It began with Zac, Paddy, and Jared which are just some of the most fun guys I know and were greatly missed. That night was the last night that our core group of girls were going to be together. This meant of course, one last trip to the Grouse. It was crazy to believe that these people had become my family for the past 5 months. We had seen each other through homesickness, relationship problems, hangovers, family issues, injuries; pretty much life.

"5 best mates" outside of the Infamous Grouse

The following day was definitely the hardest. I had to wake up to say goodbye to Katie, who lived across the hall and who I love to death. We had so many great times watching TV, yelling across the hall, and our great talks. Only hours later, I said goodbye to Lannette, equally loved, but definitely an easier goodbye since she only lives 2 hours away. That night was the hardest goodbye and it was to Elyse. She was flying to the Phillipines for another study abroad semester and an internship. She lived right next to me and was there for me through everything. I hope she is ok in the Phillipines because she was really worried about it and I can't wait to pick her up from LAX in December. That pretty much left Emma, Sam, and I. Sam left the next day and I miss her already, though I know when I visit in November, we are going to have an amazing time. Emma and I spent that day packing while Surprise Surprise, Jared came back before he took off. So it was us three for a while until it was my turn to catch my short flight up to Auckland.

I waited in the Auckland Airport for Sophia, who was on a flight 30 minutes after mine. We had a bit of trouble finding a rental car for as cheap as we wanted, but once we did, we were on our way to Hamilton. We made it to Kirk's, another EAP kid from Berkeley and made ourselves at home. That night we went out with his friends and watched some highly entertaining Karaoke.

The following day we went on a drive to fill up our time to Te Aroha. We went to go see a geyser, but because of the rain, we took refuge in a cute cafe to watch through the window. Sophia and I caught up on life having mochas and chai lattes and cake, hoping to catch a glimpse of the geyser. Turned out we had missed the times it went off, and the other attraction, a soda water drinking fountain was broken so it was time to leave Te Aroha. We took a detour going home to hit up Matamata, aka Hobbiton. While neither one of us wanted to pay $60 to see the actual location, we did stop to take a picture with the Hobbiton sign. They also had a very cool I-site that was LOTR inspired. It was just one more cool LOTR thing I got to experience.

We then decided to meet up with my friend Mike in Cambridge. He had been our cave guide when we went to the Waitomo Caves way back in February. After a beer at the pub, his mom invited us over for a delicious home cooked meal. It was the first family dinner I had since I had left home and it was nice to be welcomed in so graciously.

The following day Sophia and I decided to do some thrift store shopping and just general wandering. We stopped by a couple of places in town and scoured the Salvation army. It was then that Sophia said we should stop by a tattoo place. She had wanted to get a Maori style Kiwi tattoo for her time here. She had also recently lost her flatmate Rachel who was also studying abroad here and wanted to commemorate her as well. I sat with her as she got it, which she took like a champ and then headed out to the car.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten to turn the lights off, but the car started anyway, only to die 5 minutes later on a random residential street. We got a guy to help us jumpstart it and we drove around for 20 minutes before it died again. We had to call the rental guy to use the AA and get a tow truck to drive it back to the university. The following day was dedicated to getting the car to run again. We walked to a car parts place to get a new battery. Thankfully, the guy that sold it to us drove us back to the Uni and installed it before we drove it back to the car parts place to get a new altenator belt and have that put on. I thought that would be the solution but it turned out that the altenator was not charging the battery. So that left us with the option of driving half the distance between Hamilton and Auckland to meet the rental guy to get a new car. We drove an hour to get a new car and made it back in time to get ready for the All Blacks game that night.

The All Blacks are the National Rugby team of New Zealand and half the team is from the Canterbury Crusaders, the team I cheered for down in Christchurch. Sophia and I got there to see them do the Haka and the game started. It ended up being 29-10, not nearly as good as the 42-9 the week before but amazing nonetheless. It was definitely on my to do list in this country and I am now super excited for the Rugby World Cup next year.
All Blacks Pride

After the game we went to hang out with Mike again down in Cambridge. It was a new thing to go to a party that didn't consist of only Americans and French which had been the case in Christchurch. Instead it was a ton of Maori guys who would sponteiniously break out in the Haka at random times. The Haka is a Maori dance that originally was meant to scare enemies before battle, however, in this case, it was just plain entertaining.

The next day was the day I said goodbye to Sophia. After getting lost on the way to the aiport, we finally made it and I sent her on her way back to California. I had luckily found somewhere to stay with EAP kids studying in Auckland and have been just chilling and watching movies till I leave tomorrow. It was really nice to get to catch up with the friends I had made in February. Though, I'm not looking forward to anymore goodbyes...

Just to show you all what the best Rugby in the world looks like

OZ continues...

The next day we planned on moving from the hostel to stay with Sam's friend Jorden, so we got up early, packed up and hopped on a bus and train to the other side of town where Jorden was staying. After settling in, Sam and I left to go meet up with Lizzie to go on an adventure. Another train ride back into town and we hopped on a ferry to Cockatoo Island where they were having an art exhibition.

Cockatoo Island

Cockatoo Island used to be a prison so the exhibit was really interesting. It was a lot of modern art including a bunch of digital pieces. They were all set up in random places on the island, such as in cells and guard houses. This presented an opportunity to take a lot of fun photos. Lizzie really likes photography, Sam's a art major focused in photography, and me, I'm asian, so when you put us all together, we went crazy on the photos.

It was a ton of fun wandering all over and we finished up all the exhibits as the sun set. As we took the ferry back, we went under the Harbour bridge and the Opera house were both illuminated.

We then hurried back to catch the train to Jorden's to celebrate her birthday. We immediately headed out to a cheap mexican restaurant with 4 dollar tacos and 3 dollar tequila shots. It was the best cheap mexican I had in the last 5 months. Then it was time to go out, despite it being a Tuesday. We went to a place called Side bar where we were the only group of girls and the other group was a group of gay guys. It was really fun just to hang out with a cool group of people and enjoy dancing.


The next day we took a train to the infamous Bondi beach. Apparently its normally really crowded in the summers but considering it was winter, was pretty empty. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was nice to walk along the water and see the Pacific from the other side of the world.


Jorden, Sam, and I realized there was a market we wanted to go see so I could buy souvenirs for everyone so we rushed over to Paddy's market and went crazy. There was so much to see so it was hard to get everything in before they closed. Once we made it back, we tried out this new sushi restaurant right outside of Jorden's apartment. It was their grand opening so all the sushi was 50% off, which means a lot of sushi under 3 dollars. It was delicious too and a great last dinner in Australia. We then stopped on the way home to get ice cream and had a great girls night in watching New Moon.

The following morning, we got up bright and early to catch the train back to the airport to fly back to NZ. It went without any problems and we came back to find Lincoln short of a few members. That night, everyone got together to hang out in the lounge as a last hurrah and farewell to people. It was the last time we were all going to be together and it was really sad to know that this experience was almost over.



Also heres a link to all Australia adventures.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=185193&id=665896295&l=0e987dd5d8

The Land of OZ

So I'm a bit behind with my blogging due to my utter lack of wanting to do anything the last week when everyone was abandoning me and now I've got nothing but time for the next two days in Auckland. But first Australia...

Sam and I got a ride to the airport at 4 to get our flight at 6, which I attempted to sleep on but failed miserably. We arrived around 8 in the morning because of the time difference but it took a while to get out of the airport and get our bearings. We bought our metro passes which let us go on anything; busses, trains, ferries. We took the train into the city and hopped on a bus to get to our hostel, the Wood Duck Inn. I was a bit concerned when we walked in and it had a shady stairwell but we checked into our 10 person room and took a fantastic nap.

We woke up sometime around 1 and decided to go explore the city. Near the hostel we checked out the St. Mary's Cathedral which was really beautiful and massive! We then wandered over to the Botanical Gardens which were super cool and beautiful. They had wild cockatoos and different types of vegetationa and flying foxes which are really cute bats. We turned a corner and there were hundreds of them just hanging from the trees. We then walked along the water and all of a sudden, right in front of me was the infamous Opera House. It was crazy to finally see something so iconic in person. Just past the Opera house was the Harbor Bridge, and it was a perfect blue sky and WARM! Christchurch had been so cold for a while so it was wonderful to be in the sunshine in such an amazing place. We had muffins by the water before going back to our hostel.


We hung out for a while with the other people at our hostel. There were a lot of English, Dutch, and Germans there and we got really close with a English girl named Lizzie and a Dutch girl named Reve. Sam and I decided that since it was towards the end of our time here, it was time to splurge for dinner. We decided to go get Thai food which was surprisingly delicious and not too pricey before walking over to Darling Harbor to watch the World Cup. They had a giant screen set up on the water and there were tons of people watching the game. After one game, I was definitely ready for bed, so we walked back to the hostel to get some good sleep in.

The following morning, everyone got up early to have our free breakfast on the roof. It was pretty basic, cereal and toast, but I think it was a great idea because it brought us all together to hang out and get to know each other. A group of us decided to meet up and go to a museum and have lunch in the botanical gardens. We explored the Sydney art museum before the guys took off and us girls decided to have a picnic in the park. Sam and I had decided to save money through making sandwiches instead of eating out. It definitely was cheaper, healthier, and I think we make awesome sandwiches. Relaxing in the sun was a lot of fun and just sharing culture with Lizzie and Reve was interesting. Then it was a walk along the water before we split off and Sam and I decided to hop on a ferry to Manly beach.


It was a beautiful ferry ride in the harbor and we went right past the Harbor Bridge before we arrived at sunset at Manly. I think Manly beach may be a future home someday because its a ferry ride away from Sydney and yet has the touch of a beach town. There were people running everywhere and its a great surfing beach. Now I just have to get rich so I can afford beach front property.

My view from my future dream home

Sam and I walked along the water and enjoyed the fact that we were at the beach and it wasn't freezing. We had plans to meet up with the girls for dinner so we quickly hopped on the ferry and made it back in time to catch them heading to italian. I had some good pesto pasta and once we were all decked out for the Holland game it was time to head to Darling. The whole group from the hostel was at the game and all decked out in Holland pride. It was a really good game and it was tons of fun cheering on a team in a big group. After the game, half the group went to get celebratory drinks, but I was so tired I went back to our room and passed out.

Dutch Pride

The End is near...

So I'm currently sitting here typing this at 2:30 AM waiting to leave for the airport at 4 AM to catch my flight to Australia. I figured it would be easier to stay awake than try to go to sleep for a few hours and wake up. I'm going to be spending 4 days in Sydney and I'm so excited for a great adventure. I finished my finals a few days ago, about a week before most people and figured I needed to leave so I wouldn't annoy all of those who were studying.

So I had only 3 finals despite having 4 classes which was awesome. My GIS (mapping) class only had a group project at the end so I didn't have to worry about studying for that one. The main class I was worried about was my Resource Management class. I didn't really do as well as I hoped for my assignment in that class and so I really wanted to do well on that final. I think I did a really good job because I already knew what to expect on the exam so hopefully I did fairly well, especially since its worth 60% of my grade.

Next up was my Resource Monitoring class. Once again, I had done pretty well in the class but with a final worth 50% of my grade, I needed to do well. It went alright, though I did forget how to measure flow so that will definitely trip me up a bit. Finally, I had my Maori final, which was super easy since my professor gave us the questions. My only concern is that my teacer is super inconsistent with her grading.

In general, I think finals went pretty well, but I guess I won't know for sure until the end of June. During this crazy finals time, I also managed to fit in another soccer game and actually took team pictures! It was one of our better games considering we went into half tied 0-0 instead of losing and only lost 0-4 instead of 0-7. I'm so glad I had another opportunity to play soccer again. I love cross country, but it's fairly individual and very little contact. I loved being aggressive again and being part of a team. Its great watching a pass you made lead to a breakaway to the goal.

My University of Canterbury "football" (soccer) team


Its so close to the end now that I said my first goodbyes today. Its absolutely terrible that you come here and make all these incredible friends and then you have to leave. You live with everyone and because of how small my campus is, you see them every day. And the sad thing, is that you all say you will see each other again, but in reality, it very rarely happens. I know I will definitely meet up with the other EAP kids because we are all based in California. I already have plans to see my floormate Elyse because shes flying in to California on her way back from the Phillipines. There are a couple more that I'm sure I will see again, but then there are the ones that you say you might, but in the future, plans could fall through. I know I would really like to visit Colorado because my friend Sam and Katie are both from there and they keep saying how beautiful it is. So I guess once I recover from my NZ debt, that's the next place I want to go.

Despite all these sad goodbyes I'm about to say, I am truly ready to come home. I miss the warmth of summer and my friends and family. I miss the food and living in civilization. I miss having a reliable car and having a comfy bed. Overall, its been an incredible journey, but I think 6 months is a good amount of time to spend away. True, I've just gotten used to everything here, but knowing whats waiting for me at home is enough to get me eager to come back.

I realize this is a bit ramble like, but it is 3 AM afterall. This is just a bit of how I'm feeling as it gets closer to the end. I think you can expect another one of these "what I felt about my time abroad" entries before I leave.

Heres a link to some shenanigans around campus and nights out.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=171293&id=665896295&l=c9ee2de5e9

Wellywood!

If anywhere represented Lord of the Rings in New Zealand, it would be Wellington. While it doesn't have the beautiful scenery expected when looking at Middle Earth, it is the home base for Peter Jackson and the Weta Workshop. The Weta Workshop was started with Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and his wife Tania Rodger, and is a 5 time Academy Award winner for the props, costumes, prosthetics, makeup, miniatures, and special effects it did for LOTR. And it was the main reason for my trip to Wellington.

Way back in June 2008, I went to Comic Con. Really nerdy I know, I don't even like comic books, I went for Twilight, which probably doesn't make it better. But despite all that, I was presented with an incredible opportunity to meet Richard Taylor at the Weta Workshop table. I kinda cried at first but once I was able to pull myself together was able to profess my love for Lord of the Rings and told him I loved the work he did for LOTR. Then when I told him I was going to come to New Zealand to study abroad, he gave me his business card and said to come by the workshop for a tour. Well, two years later, in current times, I emailed him and he said this would still be possible. So I set off for a weekend in Wellington before finals started.

Elyse and I arrived late afternoon. We were planning on staying with one of my fellow EAP kids and one of the girls from the first road trip while in Wellington but was unable to get a hold of her. This led to our search for a cheap hostel and some exploring in Wellington. We found the City in the Lodge, which from the outside looks super shady but wasn't really that bad once inside. Then it was off to dinner at Great India, which was really good. Then we went back to hang out and relax at the hostel.

The next day we were able to get a hold of Sarah and began our morning trekking up the giant hill to her house. Once we got to the top and settled in, all three of us went off for a breakfast adventure. This resulted in eating cookies before breakfast, which actually ended up being at lunch time anyway. After a good breakfast at the all day breakfast place, we went to check times at the Embassy Theater. This is where they held the Austrasian Premiere for the Fellowship, Two Towers, and the World Premiere for Return of the King. They were playing a NZ film called Home by Christmas so we decided to give it a shot at 5:30. We then went to the Te Papa museum which was free and had a lot of really cool exhibits.

Me in a traditional Maori Marai

Once we had thoroughly learned all we could, we went back to the Embassy for our movie. We got there early so we could run around in the theater and see all the sponsored seats by all the actors and such.
It was really awesome to know they had seen the movie complete for the first time in the same place we were. The movie turned out to be about the Kiwis fighting in WWII and was a bit documentary with some flashbacks acted out. It was very representative of the Kiwis attitude to life.

Just chillin in Liv Tyler's seat

After the movie we went to Coyote, a Mexican place for dinner and a beer. Then we began the trek back up the hill to Sarah's house where we chilled until late into the night.

The following day was when we had planned on the tour of the Weta Workshop. I made a few calls and left messages while we did some shopping and had an incredible breakfast at this place called Ernesto's. I had raisin french toast with apples on top while Elyse had berry pancakes. Overall fantastic. Then as we were attempting to find Parliament, I got the phone call I had been waiting for. We immediately hopped on a bus to Miramar and arrived at the Weta Workshop.

Upon entering, we had to sign confidentiality waivers before heading into the conference room. In front of me were not only figurines from almost every movie they have done, but the 5 Academy Awards they had won for the LOTR trilogy. Then it was on to downstairs. There we saw all the LOTR shields, armor, weapons, as well as things from their other movies as well. Overall it was really awesome going where so few have been before. We also found out early that Guillermo del Toro (the Hobbit Director) had quit that day. Then it was on to show Elyse the Weta Cave. While the tour was not what I expected, I still felt extremely grateful for the opportunity.

That night we made dinner with Sarah's housemates and had a fun night full of stuffed peppers, macrame, guitar playing and youtube videos. The next morning Elyse left early to get her haircut and I enjoyed sleeping in. Once she was back, we decided to head to Parliament. We fortunately got there right on the hour and was able to get a tour of the Parliament building. Then right after our tour was over, the house had just started a debate and we could go in and watch it. It was fascinating to see how small there House was compared to ours. They all sat there joking and yelling out of turn and even talked about issues relevant to us. We got so wrapped up in the excitement, we realized we had to be at the airport in 30 minutes and had to still go back up the hill to get our bags before catching a bus.

The Trolls from the Hobbit/Fellowship of the Ring in the Airport

There was no way we were going to make it so instead we caught a cab up, grabbed our bags and took a cab to the airport. We made our flight without any problems because of how laid back the airport security is. Overall the weekend was a perfect break from Lincoln and was everything I could have hoped for.

Heres a link to the photos on facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=182090&id=665896295&l=985eeeccef

Lincoln Ball, Soccer, and Basketball

About a week later we had our school Ball. Of course, I hadn't brought any good dresses with me which meant I had to go shopping. Not that I was complaining, I missed going dress shopping with a group of girls. So we got a bunch of us together and went to see what we could find. There were a couple that caught my eye but I decided to try going into town first. I found a great tie die bustier dress that I figured I could wear back at home as well. Elyse found an incredible teal dress that I loved as well and we were all set!

We all got dressed up and pregamed before arriving at the Ball. It was Academy Award themed and faintly reminded me of an even crappier version of our prom. They had a picture station but fortunately at this version of prom, there was a free drink with your ticket.

There was a live band that played a lot of rock music which was different to dance to. Going to dances at Poly pretty much equaled rap the entire time. In New Zealand, its usually this thing called Dub Step, or kinda like reggae. We ended up spending a lot of time by the food table. Put out free food and I'm bound to be nearby.

My little Kiwi freshmen

It was fun just to hang out with everyone, especially when I realized its becoming closer and closer to the end. And to get dressed up! I really love dressing up nice and having somewhere fun to go and wish I had more opportunities for it. While the decorations were kinda lame, it was definitely a memorable night!

The crazy boys!

Another exciting thing happening in my life was the chance to play soccer again. I'm currently playing for the nearby University of Canterbury and am loving it! It's so much fun to get to participate in a competitive team sport again. We don't win much, actually we don't ever win, but its still a lot of fun. I'm currently playing defense and miss taking the ball up the sideline as a midfielder but I'm used to taking one for the team. I missed soccer so bad, I'm even willing to play with 2 sizes too big cleats and borrowed shin guards. But its all worth it as soon as I get on the field. Plus I'm getting some incredible bruises, which are my favorite battle scars.

I've also been playing basketball for my hall. Theres currently a interhall basketball competition and each team was supposed to have girls on it so I got recruited, despite never really playing basketball. I found that I'm still really competitive even when I suck at something and that being a girl playing against guys gives you no sympathy. Also, that interhall sports competitions don't encourage interhall kindness or bonding in any way, shape or form.

I booked a ticket for Australia from June 13 to the 17 to hangout in Sydney. I never would have imagined myself going to Australia. I really wish I had an opportunity to go visit the couple of people I know in Australia but I guess Sydney will be amazing nonetheless. I'm going with my friend Sam because we both finish our finals early. I'm really excited to experience Australia and see the Opera House. Hopefully it will make finals a bit more tolerable to know I'm going after they are all over. Other than that, not much is happening in the land of Lincoln. However, this weekend is the epic Weta Workshop trip so expect some severe LOTR nerdness happening.

Emergency Rooms and Cinco de Mayo

So I'm trying really hard to get caught up on my blogs. I'm now at least in the same month that I'm writing about. I also want to be caught up to write about this coming weekend where I am going to the Weta Workshop and getting a tour with the man who started it, Richard Taylor. If you don't know about the Weta Workshop, it's the company that Peter Jackson part owns and is responsible for the costume, props, miniatures, and everything else that made LOTR amazing. So it's going to be a good weekend! But first, more catch up time.

Once back from break, the first thing everyone wanted to do was have a welcome back party! So one of the houses near campus threw a BBQ and we were all excited to go. Everyone was there so it was really chill to hang out with everyone and not worry about being told we were too loud. Emma and I signed up to play beer pong and after an extremely intense game, we de-throned the 9 game champs. However, we had run out of the beer we brought with us. So we decided to run back to our dorms to get some more beer. Unfortunately this upset our friend Sam greatly.

She was mad we had left her at the party and followed us home and as Elyse tried to comfort her, Sam slammed her door...right on Elyse's thumb. Elyse started freaking out when she realized the door was shut and her thumb was still in the door. Sam screamed and we immediately drove to the ER. They got Elyse on happy gas ASAP and then got her an xray. Her thumb was barely attached still and there was a possibility she would lose the tip. They only allowed one person with her so I stayed to watch all the goriness of cleaning it and sewing it back on. Not to laugh at her pain, which I know was extreme, but watching someone on happy gas is pretty entertaining.

The nurse kept yelling at her to stop cussing because there was a baby nearby. Personally, I think she had a right to say what she wanted when her finger is pretty much no longer attached. Being the typical smartass she is though, the nurse asked her if she was allergic to anything and her response was "Just Religion" (she went to Catholic School). We then went through her talking to people who weren't there and a surgeon with absolutely no sense of humor. He also lacked sensitivity and tack and just told her over and over again, she was most likely going to lose the tip.

We had spent 4 hours at the ER that night and got home around 4 in the morning. The following day we went and got her meds and a week later she had her stitches out. Fortunately, everything reattached and there was no infection. And I got to play nurse for a while. So thanks Mom for teaching me how to keep my cool in emergency situations and being fascinated by really disgusting medical messes. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures (much to Elyse's dismay) but apparently her doctor sketched everything so maybe I can get my hands on those :) jk.

So being a bit homesick at this point (about 2 months before coming home) we decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! The kiwis didn't know what it was and neither did a lot of other countries, so we decided to enlighten them. Because actual Cinco de Mayo was on a Wednesday and we usually don't drink or party till Thursday, we postponed it to the American Cinco de Mayo. We decided to make it a fiesta between our side of the hall and the girls that lived in the hall next door. Most of them are Norwegian so they had never heard of Cinco de Mayo or ever had tacos.

For some reason, mustaches and tacos go well together.

We made a bunch of hard shell and soft tacos, homemade guacamole, beans, Mexican rice, bell peppers, and chips and salsa. Overall, one of the best dinners here! And it was so much fun being with a big group and having a family like dinner. Unfortunately, I didn't get my hands on a Corona, but it was still a perfect way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
We then went to the local pub, the Grouse, where all the Americans were celebrating Cinco de Mayo. We made sure we told every Kiwi about Cinco de Mayo. We somehow walked home where we discovered a hedge hog and decided to jump into bushes.

HEDGE HOG! NZ doesn't really have many mammals so we get kinda excited about finding some.
There's this really bouncy one outside of Centennial 2 dorm and is known as the trampoline bush. FYI made that decision completely sober, and it was soooo much fun! It was really exhilarating if maybe a bit on the stupid side.

It was definitely a typical night in Lincoln and a perfect way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. It also made me think about how badly I miss Mexican food. I definitely will be eating at Taco Surf like every other day when I get home!

My Mad Action Photography skills!

You only turn 21 once...

So after break, I only had one week before there was another exciting event, MY 21ST BIRTHDAY! So technically my birthday was on a Friday in New Zealand, but the night to go out is Thursday night. So my group of girls got all dressed up to go into town on Thursday night. Sam let me borrow her tiara and boa from her birthday and after taking forever to get ready and pregaming a bit, we left for town.

The girls! Emma, Sam, Me, Elyse and Lannette

The first stop on the birthday circuit was the Mad Cow. They are the bar that usually sends a party bus to campus so the rest of our friends had taken the bus into town from the boonies known as Lincoln. We added our friends Kevin, Jared, and Nick to our group and moved on to the next bar.

We ended up at the Billiard Bar which has these drink mixes in teapots. Jared bought me a tequila shot as a pre birthday shot. It was 11:45 so we decided to stay there till my birthday at midnight. Jared ordered a teapot and as soon as it was midnight, everyone had a shot for my 21st with me. We then moved to the upstairs area where they had live music and had fun dancing around. I also had another shot...

Apparently staying at one place was not an option, so we moved on to the next spot; a place called My Bar. I really like My Bar since it looks like the clubs in Auckland and has the best setup for dancing. We spent a while there just dancing and attempting to avoid creepy boys. Then it was on to Sol Square. This happens to be one of my favorite places to just chill so it was perfect for the end of the night. We went to the Yellow Cross where I had my last drink of the night and hung out a bit before everyone began getting sleepy. They also wouldn't let me in anywhere else (they have this no intoxicated people rule at the bars, its weird).

My birthday crew

The following day was the hangover from hell, which I guess is a requirement for the day after your birthday. Unfortunately, it was my actual birthday and I spent the whole day sick, hungry, and horizontal. Finally by 4:30 I was able to drink a smoothie and skype with my parents. The first thing my dad says to me, "Malia, you look hungover." "Thats cuz I am Dad." By 5 I was finally vertical, and completely fine. I had awesome mexican tacos for dinner and then the best birthday cake that Elyse and Lannette made me. It was chocolate with chocolate pieces and oreos on top. I took my birthday night easy by watching movies in the lounge, ignoring everyone hassling me for not drinking on my birthday.

The following day was Saturday and meant it was actually my birthday back home. In an attempt to salvage my birthday plans, I chose to celebrate on my American birthday by going into town to have delicious sushi for dinner. Sophia came from Canterbury, as well as Cody and his entire apartment.

Elyse, Lannette, Emma, Me, Cody and in the back from left, Sam and Sophia at an awesome Sushi restaurant

I got birthday ice cream before my dinner which was odd, but good nonetheless. We took Sophia home with us to Lincoln and went to the Grouse for a couple of birthday drinks. Then we hung out at Farm Road for a bit before going home.

The next morning, I woke up early to drive to Akaroa with Lannette. We had signed up to swim with the world's smallest and rarest dolphin. Its equivalent with seeing a panda in china. We got outfitted in our wetsuits and took our spot at the front of the boat. I became the dolphin spotter and even got to see one jump out of the water (they aren't known for their acrobats). We saw a bunch of different pods of about 2 or 3 dolphins. We even saw some penguins which had been on my New Zealand checklist. We were waiting for the dolphins that stuck around even when the boat was turned off. Finally, one single dolphin was swimming around and the guide told us to get in the water.

So excited to finally be swimming with dolphins!

I jumped in and was given rocks to bang underwater to interest them in coming over. The water was fairly cold because it was so overcast. I knew these dolphins were small but once you are in the water with them you really can see how tiny they are. They are about the length of my arm span. Right as I got in, one was circling the group and darting in between everyone. Next thing I know, there is a new group of 2 and another new group of 3. One went zooming by so close I think he was inches away from my body. I of course screamed.

It was incredible to be surrounded by these tiny dolphins. The fact that they were endangered and extremely rare made it that much better. I had wanted to go swimming with dolphins my entire life and was never really comfortable with the thought of paying an absurd amount of money to sit in a pool with dolphins in a life jacket and doing kissing poses with them. While I wasn't allowed to touch these, to know they were wild animals and had chosen to spend some time with us really made it special. Unfortunately, they only stuck around for a bit and they were off to eating once more and it was time for me to get out of the freezing water.

Aren't they adorable! The babies are said to look like rugby balls with flippers.

Overall it was an incredible birthday weekend. Despite being in a country where the drinking age is 18, it still felt like my 21st was an important birthday. I got to experience with my new friends here, and while I missed celebrating with friends at home, it was still incredible. I also got to have great food (a nice change from the dining hall) and got to do one of my life goals by swimming with dolphins. It was definitely a weekend I will never forget!

Dunedin and The End of A Journey

We drove through exhaustion to arrive in Dunedin around 10 where we were quickly ushered into Marguerite's queen size bed. She very persistently insisted that us three should sleep in a bed after the Stewart Island adventure. I kinda love her and immediately was asleep. At Otago University, they had only had one week off for break so they were already back at school. Unfortunately that meant Marguerite (from the first road trip) had an essay due. Once she turned it in, we were able to grab a quick lunch with her before she had to head off the class.

This is one of the buildings at the University of Otago

Dunedin is known for being a Scottish town and is considered a crazy college town. It was a nice day and so we decided to go explore. We walked to the town square and saw the beautiful architecture of the bus station as well as their many churches. Mostly we were just relaxing and exploring. It was a nice change to have good weather and not rushing off to go do anything in particular. We also walked by the Cadbury factory and it smelled fantastic.

I really like chocolate, unfortunately we didn't go in.

We wandered back to Marguerite's really cool apartment and made dinner with her housemates. This included tiny Brittany (she's 4'8 with enough energy for someone 7 ft tall) and Taryn, her kiwi host. Turns out Brittany loved Lord of the Rings and Taryn was as well and had worked as a LOTR tour guide in Queenstown. So that left us with one thing to do; watch The Two Towers. It was great because Taryn and I kept turning to each other about trivia and found that the other already knew it.

The following morning we got up to go to the farmers market in town. It reminded me a lot of Santa Cruz with fresh produce and great bread products. I got this great Lemon loaf, a bag of the best apples ever, free pasta, CHEESE! and chocolate truffle tea. Overall a good start to the final day of our road trip. We also ran into a couple of people from Lincoln and got to see Joanna from our road trip at the beginning of the year. It was really nice to have a large group of us EAP kids togeter again.

Once we got back to the house, it was really hard to get moving out. It was hard to leave the comfort of Dunedin and Marguerite's house. I've said it before and I will say it again, she is by far the nicest person I've ever met. We finally packed up Bluebird and set out from her apartment. We made a short stop at the World's Steepest Street Baldwin Street. It didn't look too bad until you started walking up it. Apparently it has a grade of 35%.

We had one more stop in mind on the way home. It's called the Moeraki Boulders. They are these perfectly round giant boulders on a beach. It was an incredibly beautiful and warm day and I definitely wished I had a bathing suit on. We hung out by the boulders just messing around for a while. I just enjoyed being at the beach, Elyse was jumping from boulder to boulder, and Lannette found a good boulder to meditate on. It perfectly described each of us.

The journey was so close to the end; we were 2 hours from home when as Elyse was driving there was a popping sound. We got outside and found the spare tire we had put on to replace the one with wire poking out of it had popped. We pulled the wire tire out again, and I changed my first tire! It was actually a lot easier than I expected and not too bad when there's 3 girls working on it. I then took over driving to the nearest town to find a replacement.

Unfortunately we stopped in a town where almost every place was closed and we were going to have to pay a special call out fee. At the last moment, the lady at the gas station rememebered Firestone closed at 5 (it was 4:45). We rushed over to find 5 mechanics having beers and watching Nascar on the big screen. As they changed our tire, they offered us beer from a bathtub in the garage. We had coffee instead. It was highly entertaining though watching them try really hard to get us to hang out for a bit. However, we were tired and just wanted to get home.

We got into Lincoln around 7:30, made our RA Paul let us into our rooms. And the journey had ended. We had traveled everywhere south of Christchurch: Lake Tekapo, Lake Puakaki, Wanaka, Arrowtown, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Stewart Island, Dunedin, then back to Christchurch once more. I had seen the most beautiful aqua lake, seen more glaciers than I can count, jumped off a cliff, found a new favorite place on horseback, experienced a waterfall up close and personal, and hiked in the worst weather imaginable. And I wouldn't take any of it back! It was an incredible journey, and while it had its up and downs, was something I will remember forever.

Heres the link to the last photo album of the road trip.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=173974&id=665896295&l=2bf6c86e68

Stewart Island

First off, I'm dedicating this blog entry to Kelli so she will get off my back about my picture choices. Personally, I think she has should take advantage of being my fb friend and look at the albums, but thats just me. Also, this specific entry goes to her, because she definitely could/would never do what I did.


So we awoke on the morning of the 12th to a beautiful double rainbow as we drove out of the Fiordland National park. We stopped to book our tickets for a ferry later that day to Stewart Island. That was also when I checked my email and found that Richard Taylor, of Weta Workshop fame and five time academy award winner(the man that made LOTR seem real) had replied to my email saying that yes, he would be available to give me a tour of the Weta Workshop. Of course, I freaked out just a bit. Then it was on to Invercargill, our stocking up point before catching the ferry.

Once at Invercargill, we loaded up on groceries and drove to Bluff where we had to catch the ferry. We had a ticket for 5 meaning we would arrive at 6. We packed up our bags with our food and clothes and I was really excited to use my backpacking backpack for the first time. Then we hopped aboard. The water between New Zealand and Stewart Island at the southern tip of the south island is notorious for being rough water. I settled down with my complementary tea and prepared for the worse. It wasn't actually that bad at all.

Once we arrived on the island, we went and found the only campground in town, and paid an absurd amount of money to sleep on a lawn. Our tent had to be covered with a tarp due to the fact that it was a 2 person, children's summer tent. Basically the cheapest thing we could find. We then had fantastic fish and chips before hanging out in the lounge and going to bed.

We started out early the next morning by heading to the DOC office to book the huts on the Raikoura Track. This was the southern most Great Walk (easy, beautiful recommended walks) in New Zealand. Stewart Island was known for two things: being super wet (rain 260 days a year) and being extremely beautiful. We were really excited for this hike and started around noon. Once we actually hit the path, we realized it was going to be an adventure. There were puddles and mud everywhere! And guess who didn't have waterproof hiking boots? That's right, me. Fortunately, it wasn't raining very hard and we took a nice easy pace before arriving at the hut at 5. The hike had been through a beautiful forest that reminded me of hawaii a lot, mostly due to the big ferns covering the floor.

Despite the beauty, I was extremely happy to reach the hut. I wanted my wet socks and shoes off and I was starving! We had hot dogs before we did a group massage session in the hut. Then we entertained ourselve with card games, MASH, and sticking various shoes into the fire place to dry them off.

The next morning we woke up to see our worst nightmare; horizontal wind and trees whipping around in the wind. Our original plan to get up early and start on the longest and hardest part of the track was postponed. We considered various options for an hour and in that time, the weather got slightly better. I put on my rain pants, my slightly dried socks and shoes, and headed out. It was worst than the day before on the mud and two minutes in, my feet we drenched and I had mud to my shins.

It got worse as we reached the incline part of the track. All the dirt had been washed away leaving slippery roots as stairs to climb up at a 45 degree angle. I struggled with my giant backpack on as I slipped everywhere, fell into a tree, and banged my knees. I hated my life for the first 4 hours of that part. I either was slipping somewhere, falling into puddles, banging into this and that, overall MISERABLE!

Then we started going downhill, wooden steps appeared, the rain ceased, and the sun came out. Magically it made all the difference. I was by myself at this point; we found that Elyse likes her alone time and goes really fast, while Lannette likes to go slowly and take it all in leaving me in the middle zone. I was singing every musical song I could think of because I think I was losing my mind.

I finally saw a sign saying 30 minutes to our campsite. We had decided that we wanted to do the hut one night and then camp the second night. I emerged from the forest to see a perfect beach and sunshine. I found some perfectly intact spiral shells the size of baseballs and the famous Paua shell of NZ. And of course, Elyse. The first thing I did was get out of my wet clothes and then set up the tent to get in before it started raining again. I had a dinner of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before preparing for bed. This is when things got interesting.

The wind picked up again and we had the tarp on over the tent. We each had our mats, but only 2 sleeping bags for 3 people. We zipped them together before spooning each other for warmth. The wind whipped around, as the tarp made thundering sounds, making each of us jump everytime. I think we said "OMG WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!!" about 20 times that night. The water started to come in and we had to keep rotating to stop our hips from hurting too much on one side. Overall, we got little amounts of sleep but definitely were closer than ever before (literally).

Typical NZ weather, we woke up to perfect blue skies and sun, just in time for the easy 2 hour hike part of the track. This part followed the coast and we could look out and see the pretty ocean. After a short amount of hiking time, we emerged out of the forest once more and onto the street. At this point we had 5k (3 miles or so) on the street back to town...and it was hilly. I wasn't having it, so first chance I got, my thumb went out and we jumped into the back of a construction truck and rode into town.

We walked into the DOC office straight for the bathroom. I was so happy to see a real toilet and to wash my face. Camping makes you appreciate the small things in your life. I changed into dry clothes again and immediately wanted hot food. I found this really cool cafe owned by this awesome American lady and had a chicken pesto panini and a brownie. Then we chilled in the warm DOC office before our ferry back to the mainland.

While the way to Stewart Island had been fairly easy, the way back was awful. I went straight to sleep to avoid getting sick and woke up to find myself back on the mainland. Then it was on to Dunedain.

I took so many pictures from this place. PLEASE GO LOOK AT THEM!!! words cant do them justice. and I'm talking to you kelli!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=173974&id=665896295&l=2bf6c86e68

Also, according to my mother, theres a lot of people out there reading this. I would love to know who my audience is (so I can stop talking about alcohol all the time) so please leave me a comment!

Milford Sound

We arrived around dusk in Milford Sound National Park. We had talked to Sophia who had just come from there and had been told there was somewhere we could sleep for free. The DOC sites were only $5 which was much improved than other campsites we had seen but tried for the Hollyford campsite area instead. We stopped at this museum before the Hollyford hike to get an idea of where we were. The campsites there were $10 bucks and we just wanted to sleep in our car. We found out that at the end of the road there was a carpark where you technically aren't supposed to camp, but really who was going to go out there. While in the museum I saw a kid wearing a University of Hawaii shirt. Being my father's daughter, I started talking to him and found out he had "studied abroad" there for a semester. The group of guys were actually from the east coast and were studying abroad at Victoria University in Wellington. Then we left for the carpark.

I don't think I have ever been somewhere so dark and creepy in my entire life. We drove in passing dead man's creek and hangman's drop and it was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I never considered myself scared of the dark but that was really scary. We were also concerned about getting caught sleeping where we weren't supposed to so in the early morning when we saw headlights, I tensed up. But we awoke with no problems and the sun shining. We decided to finally use the stove we bought and made eggs on toast. We then decided to do the short hike to see the waterfalls before doing part of the Hollyford track. Arriving at the waterfall, we saw the same group of guys from the night before and hung out with them a bit before we headed back down.

From there we did 2 hours into the Hollyford Track. It's normally a 6 day in and out track but we didn't have that amount of time. It was a nice easy flat trail following a river with glaciers in site the whole time.

Once back at the car, we drove into Milford Sound to see about kayaking the sound the next day. We signed up for the afternoon kayak trip at the Milford Sound Lodge when they told us there was no where for us to sleep for free or cheap in the area. We then went back out of Milford, through this giant tunnel in the mountain before going to the nearest DOC campsite. While searching for the toilet, guess who we run into? The boys from the hike earlier had set up a campfire. We hung out with them for a while before going to sleep preparing for 4 hours of kayaking the next day.

The morning of the 11th, we drove 45 minutes back into Milford Sound, used the Lodge's kitchen for eggs on toast before finding out they canceled our kayaking trip because of bad weather. Lannette was really upset because this had been the part she was looking forward to the most. We decided to do an afternoon trip on the Ferry showing the Sound. While I think it would have been really cool to see the sound up close from the kayak, it was still amazing from the ferry. We saw the entire sound, all the way to the Tasman Sea and got up close and personal when he backed us into a waterfall. I even got to see dolphins. All the while, the rain was pouring down which meant we got drenched but also that there were trickling waterfalls down the lush mountain sides everywhere.

Once back on land again, we dried off in the only pub around and had a delicious dinner of tortelloni. Then we found the jenga blocks and played multiple rounds while the pub filled with grizzled boating types that looked at us like we were crazy sitting in a corner on the floor playing with blocks.

We then ran into the group of guys from the campsite again! I told them they were stalking us, then we headed for the lodge to use the internet, which convienantly was also where they were staying. Then it was time to find a campsite to sleep at for the night.

Here's a video of the waterfall the boat backed me in to. No zooming required.

The Longest and Craziest Day Ever

So when last I left you, I was about to start the longest and craziest day of my life. We woke up early on the 8th, sometime around 7, which for me, is already not a good start. We then walked to the Shotover Canyon Swing office Dowtown and a bit after 8, they loaded us up in a van and drove us 10 minutes to the canyon. On the way there, we watched a video showing the different jumping styles we could do. Sitting there watching people jump off the ledge was getting me so incredibly nervous, I thought I was going to have a break down and cry. Then when we arrived and walked through the main office I finally looked down at the canyon, which of course was a very bad idea.

I chose to go last and therefore was the last one to get in my harness once we got to the ledge. Elyse went first in our group and just jumped off forward, Lannette did the same next. Then it was my turn. I chose to do the cutaway, which meant they were supposed to cut a string and I fell in a sitting position. They chose to torture me instead and do the 7 string cutaway where they cut each string individually. Let's just say they aren't very nice there. You get a good sense of their personalities by watching the video.

I tried so hard to not focus on what was happening, so when he started pushing down on my shoulder, I freaked out. Then as the rope snapped, I screamed as I dropped from 109 meters high, did a 60 meter freefall, before swinging 200 meters at 150 Kph. To say I was terrified would be an understatement. Once back at the top, I was still uncomfortable and it took me a while to get myself collected again. Elyse chose to do another jump, the Gimp Boy goes to Hollywood, where she hangs upside down and they drop her. Lannette also did another one, which consisted of her sitting in a plastic chair and leaning backwards off the edge and doing flips the whole way down. They tortured her so much that she had a panic attack and cried. Of course once she back up, they were joyous tears.
"Yay I survived!"

In general, it was something I got to say I've done, and will never have to do ever again. I'm not an adrenaline junkie and that was a bit more than I could handle, but I do get to say "yes, I have jumped off a cliff before" which sounds pretty badass if I do say so myself.

Once we were back in town, I found an awesome japanese lunch special and spoiled myself with a great bento box for lunch. Then we did some shopping before the Horseback riding tour. This resulted in me buying my first ever backpacking backpack! I was extremely excited about it, especially since it was on sale. Then it was time to head over to the Dart Stable town office. There we were picked up by a bus that took us an hour along the lake to Glenorchy. We stopped on the way and saw this incredible view.

Once at the Dart Stable, they asked us our experience level. Usually I'm around the middle because of all the horse camps I went to as a kid. This time, Elyse and I were the 2nd and 3rd most experienced. We had a bunch of girls with us who had never ridden. We then climbed back on a bus, drove past a couple of scenes from the movie Wolverine before arriving in Paradise. No really, its called Paradise. I then was given Merlin, described as "moderately ornery." Elyse was given Harry, who really didn't like other horses, but had been one of the opening horses in the beginning of Prince Caspian. Then it was time to hit the trail.

We rode out from the stable, into the forest. Instantly I knew where we were. The lighting and everything was exactly like Amon Hen (the end of the first LOTR). To the left Aragorn was fighting Lurtz, to the right, Merry and Pippin were attempting to flee. A bit further into the forest, the trees became larger, and I was transferred to Lothlorien. Once we rode out of the forest, we overlooked Dart River surrounded in the background by tree covered hills, seen when the Uruks leave for Helms Deep from Isengard. We also saw areas used in Prince Caspian and more sites used for Wolverine.

It was an incredible ride in the most beautiful place on earth. I would love to go again and do their longer advanced ride, including river fording. They were knowledgable and the horses had great personalities. I had a great ride even though Merlin tried to pull me over the top when I tried to stop him from eating. I realized how much I missed horseback riding. Maybe when I get back and I'm not completely and utterly broke, I will go more often.

Once back in town, we made dinner before heading out to do a pub crawl. The pub crawl was an epic fail considering you pay for it, to get "free" drinks at each bar. However, you stay at the bar for 30-45 minutes and then your buzz is gone. We ditched it towards the middle to go meet up with my fellow EAP kid and love Sophia who goes to Canterbury. Then we ended up running into a bunch of Lincoln kids before we called it a night and went back to the hostel.

The following morning we got to a slow start. We packed up the car before getting another Fergburger and heading out for Milford sound.

Heres a link to pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=173718&id=665896295&l=a737a7161e