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

Shopping, Rugby, and more Shopping

So after the adventure of last week, it was time to get into the serious business of classes. We just finished our 2nd week and my schedule is now FINAL. Which is totally fine by me, because I like all of my classes. So really not much happened during the week until we went out on Thursday night. Normally, I am strictly a weekend girl, I don't particularly like going out on school nights (yes I am a nerd). However, Lincoln has these amazing things called Field Trip Days every few weeks where the classes can go on field trips if they want. None of mine did so that meant I was free on Friday, and free to go out on Thursday.

We took the shuttle into the city with all the other Lincoln kids (it was freeee! a nice change from paying $3 everytime). We got dropped off at the Mad Cow which was kinda uneventful at that time. We left to go hang out at the Yellow Cross again, where I saw one of the bartenders from the previous weekend (its probably bad if I start becoming a regular at a bar right?). We then migrated to a nearby one with comfy couches where we ran into grad students from Lincoln. We hung out with them for a while before we started a hunt for fish and chips. We fortunately turned the corner and had some of the best fish and chips I've had since arriving in New Zealand.

Half of the group decided to head back but Cayla and I decided to wait for the shuttle back into Lincoln. We got separated from the rest of the group staying out and decided to just go back to the Mad Cow (where we were getting picked up). At this time, they had a foam party in the back room which frightened me a bit at first, but figured why not. After dancing around in knee deep foam (god only knows what was in that foam), we headed back into Lincoln.

Friday was a self declared homework day while everyone else left for their weekend adventures. Nic, Cayla, and Val all took off to go hike in Arthur's pass, so that left Liz and I in Lincoln. We chose to make it a productive weekend and I guess you could say we did.

I began my morning with homework and moving. I had been hassling the housing office to move to semi catered (so I could eat dinner with everyone) and they finally made it happen. After that we really wanted to go shopping. Sounds silly, but the Kiwi girls are putting me to shame and I needed more going out clothes. Plus, my mom did say to go shopping instead of having her ship stuff to me. We went to the Riccarton Mall and after a good day of trying on clothes and deciding if the exchange rate worked in our favor or not, we went into Christchurch.

We met up with the grad students again before we went to the rugby game. I'm thinking at this rate, I should just get the season pass for the Crusader games. Anyway, they won once again and it was a much more eventful game with the competition stronger. Liz and I ran onto the field after and I met 4 players (including hottie from the previous match) before we went back into Lincoln.

Today we decided we needed to yet again go shopping. We went back to the Riccarton Mall and ended up making some "neccessary" purchases. The weekend total was a pair of leggings/pants, a nice going out dress, perfume, a bathing suit, two tank dresses, a beanie, and a nice tanktop. Due to great sales and my excellent shopping technique, it didn't add up to too much. It probably helps that the NZ dollar is equal to 70 cents US. Overall I'm quite satisfied with the purchases and now can stop looking like a slob when I go out.

Rugby and Akaroa

If you didn't know, Lincoln is in the middle of nowhere. When you look at maps of Canterbury, Lincoln doesn't even get listed. That means if you want to do anything, you have to get out of town. We knew we wanted to do something this weekend, but at the last minute decided to start it out with a rugby match.

We took a bus into Christchurch to watch the Canterbury Crusaders. After stopping for happy hour, we arrived at the game. It's an interesting game because it never stops and there are practically no rules. I swear I counldn't even count how many headlocks and pulling I saw. No stopping to restart each down like football and they have throwins that include lifting a huge guy into the air to catch a ball. We ran into friends from Canterbury Uni and had a great time watching the Crusaders win. After the game we really wanted to meet the players (we had seen them earlier in the week practicing at our university). We ran onto the field and immediately saw the really cute one. Val got his autograph and he agreed to take a picture with us which we were really excited about. We got pictures with the players from the other team as well and decided we had to go to more rugby games.

Us with the cute rugby player. Note to self: next time get a sober person to take the picture.

After we wanted to stay later in Christchurch and went to the Yellow Cross bar where we got the bartender to create a drink just for us. We had to name it a soccer (football) term so I named it The Header. It was basically pure sugar and delicious. Once again we ran into friends from Canterbury and hung out all night before heading back to their rooms to sleep.

Our bartenders from the Yellow Cross. After this they took my camera and had a photoshoot.

Once we got back to Lincoln, we decided to hitch hike to Akaroa. Fortunately all of us (Cayla, Val, Alli, and I) were able to get a ride together to Akaroa. It's a beach town known for having pretty cool dolphin and penguin sightings. We coincidentally ran into friends from Lincoln and chilled on the beach before finding our campground high above the town. After that, we went back into town for a fish and chip dinner on the beach. After a fantastic dessert of peppermint cheesecake and a chocolate and raspberry sundae, we were ready for bed.

After tossing and turning (the ground was REALLY hard and it was FREEZING!) all night, we woke up excited to rent kayaks and swim with dolphins. Unfortunately we began heading down to town when we noticed the water in the cove was extremely low and someone told us there was a tsunami warning. The whole town had evacuated and we waited up on the hill where our campsite was. This is when I found out that it was a tsunami from an earthquake in Chile.

If you didn't know, my best friend Heather is currently studying in Chile. I knew she had been traveling in Argentina but was unaware of when she was getting back into Santiago. I ran to the internet room and was extremely happy to see that she was safe and ok. Thank you to facebook for allowing a quick and easy way to communicate. I hadn't even realized that people back home would have heard about the tsunami warning for NZ because it didn't really seem like a huge deal where I was. Thanks to all who checked in! Apparently while I was in there, a tiny wave came in and the cove began to fill back in.

We decided we needed to hitch before everyone left. We quickly got a ride back into Lincoln with a nice french couple and then Lincoln Uni alumni. While the trip didn't really go the way we planned, it was exciting to get out. We now know what we want to do when we go to Akaroa again. Also, I'm extremely glad that Heather is ok and I can say that here, the tsunamis have been practically non existent.