Fox Glacier and Dinner with Ivan

So the following morning is something I had eagerly been looking forward to. We got up bright and early to drive another two hours south of Hokitika to Fox Glacier. The drive was beautiful and felt similar to Hawaii. We stopped in a tiny town for brunch which was delicious barely made it in time for our guided tour of the glacier. Once there, we piled onto a bus and drove through a rainforest to end up at the glacier. We began the hike in a glacial valley carved away by the glacier ages ago. It was made of schist, which is a very easily broken rock. The hike then continued into the mountain side next to the glacier and into the rainforest. After 250 stairs up, I was sweating and went the sports bra route the rest of the way up. I found it ironic that I was hiking to a glacier in a sports bra. Once we got up the equivalent of a 53 story building, we were level with the glacier. We then put on our crampons (sharp metal brackets that you put on the bottom of your shoe so your shoes stick into the ice) a necessity when you are as clumsy as I am. We then began a climb up stairs carved into the ice onto the glacier. We moved faster than the average half day hike and arrived at a glacial tunnel/cave. I was really excited about it, but unlike most of the girls, chose to stay warm rather than slide down the tunnel. After spending an long time enjoying the wonders of ice, we began the descent back down. Overall it was an incredible experience that I will cherish forever. Once we got back to the town, I was thoroughly starving. We found this adorable place called Cafe Neve with a great waiter named Mike. We began with garlic bread and I had a delicious cajun chicken sandwich. They also had amazing pizza and my only wish was that they weren't 6 hours away from Lincoln. I couldn't pass up a chance at dessert and I had the summerfruit crumbles which was fantastic. It was about this time that things starting going wrong. We were about to leave when we realized we had only a quarter of a tank in the car and the gas stations in New Zealand close at 5. While us girls came to terms about spending the night in town and enjoyed ourselves at the bar, the boys began a search to find a way home. They ended up with two options: siphoning gas from a locals car and finding someone with a mobil card. We went with the mobil card and found someone who had a friend in the next town over with one. We drove to Franz Josef glacier, bought a man a beer, payed him for gas and we were on our way. The boys were pretty smug about finding a solution but the problem was now it was 10:30 pm and we had a 6-7 hour drive ahead of us. Taking advantage of the situation with a good mug of Tui and catching up on some journaling.

Kevin took the first shift of driving which I was so thankful for. He got past the difficult winding roads back to Hokitika and then Arthur's Pass. Our job was to keep him awake. This resulted in us singing for two hours. Like really awful yelling singing of disney songs, bob marley, gwen stefani, and even some rapping. After that, I went to sleep because I had the final shift. We got to the rest station in Arthur's Pass at 2:30 and I began my first driving in New Zealand. This was scary for multiple reasons. It was pitch black, winding roads, and the car was not the best at getting up hills. And did I mention they drive on the left side of the road?!?! In the end it wasn't too bad to adapt to and Lannette and I talked so I could stay awake. We got back to Lincoln at 5:30 in the morning and I went straight to sleep.

The following day I did miss my morning classes before having my meeting with Ivan, the EAP advisor from Auckland. He told us he was taking us EAP kids out to Chinese that night and as usual when it comes to food, I was super stoked. We arrived and immediately began ordering entres (appetizers) of wontons and egg rolls. It was done family style (with the big plates everyone shares) but we each ordered something. Next was the actual meal where I ordered a beef noodle meal that was delicious. I had a bit of everyone elses as well and was stuffed when they asked about dessert. But considering it was a free dinner, why not indulge. I had an ice cream sunday and tried some fried ice cream. Overall it was a lot of fun to have everyone together and eat some delicious food. And I'm so thankful for Ivan and his wife Barbara to come visit us and feed us poor uni students.
Sorry you can hear Kevins ramblings about girls sweating in the background. Also, when I say the kilometers, I mean the sea level the glacier is at. Its unusual because its not very high in the mountains.

Heres a link to the all the pictures from the glacier.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=163374&id=665896295&l=59499a7aa6

Alli's bday and Wildfoods!

So this has definitely been the most eventful week/weekend. So much so I'm splitting it into two entries for an easy read. We started the weekend festivities early on Thursday because we were celebrating Alli's 21st birthday. While we are not in the US and are already allowed to drink, it doesn't mean that a 21st will not be truly celebrated. It was a lot of fun because us girls all got dressed up to go out on the town. I think it had been the first time all of us went out as a big group.



The following day we left for Hokitika which is on the west coast of the south island. The reason being WILDFOODS festival. It's basically this big festival where they sell really interesting and wild food. Oh and people also dress in crazy group outfits. We arrived later in the evening after a beautiful drive through Arthur's pass. I rode out with my new floormates including Lannette and Kevin from the epic road trip on the North Island. I stayed at Alli's friends house that night, eagerly anticipating the festival on Saturday.

We got to a late start on Saturday since we all wanted to sleep in. This was Alli's actual birthday and we began the morning with Happy Birthday and a candle in a muffin. After dressing up (my friend Liz and I were jungle cats) and drawing on our whiskers and noses, we were ready to go.


The whole gang

We arrived at the festival starving which was perfect. I wasn't too adventurous and began my morning with a delicious strawberry waffle. We began wandering around to see some of the rather crazy costumes. There was a man in a Borat thong, avatars, too many wheres Waldos, and much more. We ran into more EAP kids which was really awesome. There was also a lot of weird food to choose from. There were grubs, snails, worms, and more insect varieties. I think the worst was a stand called Rocky Mountain Oysters, which was in fact, bull testicles. Definitely steered clear of that one. I did have a friend encourage me to eat something that looked like a chocolate truffle. Turned out to be ground up worm with chocolate inside. It wasn't too different from a regular truffle except with a weird after taste. I also had moonshine which was pretty gross. That was it for my food festival, I really didn't have an adventurous palate and the money to support buying all the food.

avatars, complete with tails and wigs

That night I went to concert they had which was really great and fun. I ran into my kiwi freshmen friends and danced and sang to some good classics. After a few hours I realized I hadn't had dinner and went to have a classic kiwi cheap food, fish and chips. We then wandered to he beach to chill at a random bonfire before heading back to the house. I piled on the layers to sleep in a tent in the backyard and was quickly asleep.

Heres a link to the craziness of Wildfoods.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=163360&id=665896295&l=c8365c4aa2

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.

Christchurch and Uni

Our roadtrip adventure came to an end as we hit Christchurch. We dropped Matt off at University of Canterbury and the group began to split. Team mazda, per usual went to find a field to sleep in, while us Lincoln girls stayed at a hostel. The following morning, we caught a bus to our official home for the next semester. Upon arrival we unpacked and began exploring our university. It's fairly small with about 4,000 students and is a strong land school (ag, viticulture, envs). The library is adorable; on the outside it looks like an old european building, but inside, its modern with a garden in the middle and mod red couches everywhere.

My room is in a self catered hall (meaning I don't have a meal plan) and is pretty much your typical dorm room. The good thing is, the closet is really big and therefore had lots of room for my suitcases to be stored away as well as all of my clothes. It even leaves some room for me to go shopping ;) Everyone else is in a semi catered (meaning they get dinner at the dining hall) and I have been trying desperately to switch to that. Its not like the food is much better, its just that I like to eat a lot, and the price of food is high and theres only one small grocery store in the small town of Lincoln.

So we arrived here on the 15th, and orientation began on the 17th. It was kinda silly to go to all the intro lectures because we had already experienced that at EAP orientation. We've met a lot of non EAP people, but so far, most are Americans. All the kiwis we've met are freshmen because they are the ones living on campus. We were all excited to have classes start to meet more people our age.

Classes started on the 22 and I'm taking four classes this semester which is normal for Lincoln. First, I'm taking an ENVS class called Environmental Resource Management. We get to go to some rivers and take samples to study in the lab. It's the first field class I've had so I'm looking forward to it. Also in the ENVS major, is a GIS class. This teaches you how to create maps and find the best location for a well, vineyard, farm, etc. It's a great tool to have as an ENVS major but unfortunately is not that exciting. I'm also taking a Maori studies class about the Treaty of Waitangi. So far, I've only learned some Maori words and a bit about the treaty but it should be a cool culture class. Lastly, I'm taking Resource Law which I was concerned about at first, but will most likely be fine. Thankfully NZ is on the common law system similar to the US and so the structure is fairly similar.

I've had a week of classes but its also been orientation week. We've gone to a Salmonella dub concert which is kinda like reggae style of music. They were pretty chill and it was a lot of fun. Also, the local rugby team, the Canterbury Crusaders came to practice at our University. It was pretty awesome watching them train; they are surprisingly better athletes than I expected. And not bad to look at either ;) I'm still trying to understand the game but I got a real chance to put it to use when I went to a rugby game this weekend.

The Best Day of My Life

Clearly the title states it all. After having the best breakfast I've had yet in New Zealand at this cute cafe, we wandered aimlessly in Wellington. While my initial opinion of Wellington was negative because it was so early when we arrived and it was incredibly windy, it is actually an adorable city. The architecture was really neat and had a mix of a lot of styles.

We eventually ended up at the Te Papau Museum, which was perfect since it was free and we had time to waste. It ended up being one of the coolest museums I've seen. It was really interactive and I think we spent most of our time going through all these pictures and videos of New Zealand you could look at. Despite being about a decade older than their target audience, I had an amazing time. In two hours, we had only covered the bottom floor and there were more exhibits to see. I wish I had had a week to check everything out, but we had an appointment.

We walked to our pickup location where I unpatiently waited. Once we saw the van pull up with Wellington Movie Tours on the side, I knew that this was going to be a fantastic day. The group I was with kept laughing at me because I was so excited, I had a goofy grin glued to my face. Thats right everyone, we were going on a Lord of the Rings Tour!

I knew immediately that it was going to be so much fun. Right off the back, the tour guide and I began swapping trivia as he drove up the windy roads to Mt. Victoria. This was location for all the scenes when the Hobbits are escaping Hobbiton from the Black Riders. First stop was a small cliff which they used for the hobbit's perspective looking down at the Black Riders coming to Weathertop. It was also used in the 3rd film for Dunharrow when Aragorn and Theoden are surveying the Rohan camp. Not too exciting yet, but was still fairly cool. Next, he shows us a scene on his laptop from the extended version (which I am quite familiar with) when Frodo and Sam are leaving the Shire. Then, he pulls out a frying pan and two pipes, exactly like the one in the film and says "Who wants to be Sam and who wants to be Frodo". The nerd inside me explodes.

We take turns being both before heading to the shortcut to mushrooms scene. We all pile exactly like all the hobbits when they escape from Farmer Maggot, in the exact spot Elijiah, Sean, Billy, and Dom had all been, even including the broken carrot. Farther down the road was the "Get off the Road!" scene, and the hiding from the black rider in the roots of the tree scene. Unfortunately the tree in that scene was artificial, but it wasn't difficult to imagine. We also turned Cayla, Lannette, and I into a Black Rider at the top of a hill, which was quite clever. Then it was back to the car.

Seeing the exact trees and spots for filming was amazing, but next we were heading to somewhere I had been dreaming about for years; the Weta Workshop. At this point I was literally bouncing in my seat and had to get a stern look from Cayla to calm down a bit. We arrived at the Weta Cave and walked in to see Lurtz to my left (hes the big Uruk kai who kills Boromir in the first film. To my right, Gollum. I was definitely in my geekdom heaven. There were props and costumes and puppets and books galore. I couldn't take it all in at once. We watched a behind the scenes of Weta movie where I recognized some people from the DVD appendices. After that, I had a great chat with one of the workers in the cave who had been in the film and shared my love for Alan Lee's artwork (Conceptial artist for LOTR). I was strongly encouraged (peer pressured) into buying Arwen's evenstar since they had been discontinued and I had wanted one for years. I was the last person in the cave and was rushed out to finish our tour.

We drove by the beaches where the inspiration for Shelob's lair was found and headed back into Wellington. We drove past the location for the premiere and I pictured what it must have been like with all the people and the red carpet. It was truly a great tour and cost less than it was worth. I look forward to making another stop at the Weta Workshop before I leave New Zealand.

We went out that night before we had to catch our ferry at 2:30. It was nice to put on makeup and be girly for the first time in a week. We had fun before we headed to load our car onto the ferry. This is when I get really stressed. We had apparently lost our confirmation number, were supposed to be there an hour before instead of a half hour, and we weren't being allowed on. The other car was already there and had to come back to help us. After what seemed like eternity, we figured it out and threw everyone in the car as we raced down the ramp to the ferry.

Once on board, I found a nice corner in the play area, curled up, and fell asleep. We awoke on the south island at 5:30 in the morning, drove long enough to find a park, pulled out sleeping bags and went to sleep. We got a few more hours in before the long drive to Christchurch.

Heres a link to all the pictures from the Tour, there are some pretty good ones.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156750&id=665896295&l=adcb9da96b

Bubbling Mud and Huka Falls

So next on our journey we had planned on doing the Tongariro Crossing or "the climb to Mt. Doom". Unfortunately, we ended up getting the storm from the south island a bit sooner than expected and were left trying to figure out what to do next. Since we had skipped Rotorua to get to the caves in time, we decided to give it another go. It was a long day of driving and by the time we got there, it was dark and we just set up camp.

That morning I awoke to what might be the most obnoxious bird ever created. It had this awful squawk and then this scratchy one but I made it another hour of sleep before I went outside of the tent. Turns out there were tons of these evil dinosaur birds, including babies and they had ransacked everyone's food and were running wild. I've nicknamed them devil birds and spawn of satan. Either way, we all ended up awake because of them and were within walking distance of Lake Rotorua. It wasn't too impressive but the funny colored water and steam coming out of some nearby streams and holes were kinda neat.

Despite it being super early, Cayla, Lannette, and I decided we wanted to try some infamous Hells Pizza. We got lost on the way and found a cool park with bubbling mud and eventually got there. Guess we weren't thinking too well since it hadn't opened yet and kinda killed all the fun. As we wandered aimlessly in the city we saw a Native American performer (kinda weird in NZ) and went to pee in a McDonalds. When we came out, Kirk, another EAP kid traveling with another group was there. It was by far one of the weirdest, what are the chances kind of thing. He didn't have school for a while so we told him to meet us in Wellington in a few days. After enough time we got our pizza, and met up with the other group at Blue Lake.

I think after being on the go for so long, we kinda just wanted to chill out and relax. Blue Lake was perfect for that and we enjoyed our pizza, drew, wrote, and just actually got to know each other. We were a group joined by an interest in traveling the north island and eventually ending up on the south island so it was nice to spend time with everyone.

We hit the road once more and stopped at Huka Falls outside of Taupo. At first it looked kinda lame; there were too many people and it just looked like a giant river. But once you walked a bit more to the falls part, it got incredible. It was so incredibly fast moving and massive and the crashing of the falls was so deep, bubbles came up 30 yards away. All the fast moving water was a beautiful torquoise and the falls fell into a deep dark teal. It was one of those beautiful natural wonders that you feel like you could stay forever.

After dragging ourselves away, we decided to drive all the way to Wellington. This was going to be our longest drive but we assumed that finding a campground late in the day would be difficult. After fixing the lights so we could drive through the night, we drove all the way to the capital and arrived at 2 am. We were quickly hustled into our rooms at a hostel where I tried my best not to wake up the other people. Wellington is called Windy Wellington and it was definitely living up to it's name. The wind was blowing down the alley and I swore the building was going to come down a couple of times but having a bed for the first time in a few days helped make it easier to get to sleep. The following day was the one I had been looking forward to for years....