Officially Stateside

Been home for three days so I guess it's time to wrap up this New Zealand Blog Business...

Last couple days in Dunedin were pretty relaxed. Just hanging out with friends, packing up, drinking a billion cups of tea, and saying bye. Got a banana and some free books from the awesome Kiwi guy who works at the used bookstore by New World. Special thanks to Tim, Liz, and Alan for taking me to the airport Thursday morning.

Left Dunedin Thursday morning, landed in Fiji Thursday night... not too shabby :). Fiji was really good. I basically just hung out in and around the city of Nadi for a few days, ate some Indian curry (YUM), went to the Friday rugby games, lay on the beach, read some books, and made friends with some other American, British, German, and Dutch wanderers who were staying at the same hostel as me. Relaxing in the sun was SO NICE. And it was SO WARM which was great because Dunedin was SO INCREDIBLY COLD when I left. Another really nice thing about Fiji is the tide change. Not only was the difference between high tide and low tide really really really noticeable, but the period when the tide was changing (from low tide to high tide) was also really really noticeable. It seemed to always happen around 3pm, and I just found it to be the coolest part of my day.

OKAY SO, Fiji is interesting/different. For example, apparently in Fiji... if you are 20+ years old... you are meant to be married with a bunch of children. So yeah, BASICALLY, when someone is young+unmarried+visiting Fiji (eg. LIKE ME!!!), you are going to get marriage offers. At first, this is awkward, but I was talking to the other people staying at the hostel and I guess they had the same experience with the marriage offers, so whatevers.

I left Fiji on Sunday night. Flew to California/LAX/home and (because of the time change) landed there Sunday afternoon. After I went through customs and got my bags, I found my family... Mom, Padre, Luke, and puppy dog... and then they took me home YAY!

Man, it is good to be back. Saw Toy Story 3 and it was AWESOME. Ate some In-n-Out last night. I am honestly just THRILLED by the fact that 1) I can sleep in a warm house and 2) I still got three solid months of warm weather before it decides to snow in Boulder. Being warm and sleeping bag-free so incredibly nice. Other than that, I still got to finish unpacking and clean my room and just figure out my life... but summer is good and travel plans are good, and I pretty stoked about seeing my New Zealand/California/Colorado people again because they rock my world.

Farewell and Safe Journeys.

Love, Theresa

sun chasing

Wednesday morning at 3:30am, (with some cookies, energy drinks, our cameras, and some freshly baked banana bread) Alan Dean and I started [great] walking to Peggys Hill to catch the sunrise. Basically, our walk took us out of North Dunedin, along Otago Harbour, and into the peninsula. Perfect Night (not too chilly, clear skies, good company, stars everywhere, sleepy city lights reflecting off the water, etc etc) = The Universe was most definitely on our side :) So couple hours and twelve miles later, we finally made it to the top of Peggys Hill. On your left, you could see the Otago Harbour and on your right was the Pacific Ocean. It was AWESOME and the sunrise was marvelous.

Thursday morning at 7:00am, Tim, Alan, and I met up to go find the sunrise from Mount Cargill. Mount Cargill is meant to be the highest point in Dunedin and I had never been there before so I was really glad to be able to go. Anyways, after driving around in Serena for a bit and getting a little lost, we finally found the right road to take us up to the top of Mount Cargill. We were so close to almost missing it, but Tim is a pretty great driver in these situations and we charged up and around the mountain and made it just in time to see the clouds getting all nice and pink - PERFECTION :)

Friday morning at 6:00am, Tim, Paul, Liz, Jenny, Alan, Tamara, and I met up to go find the sunrise at the Moeraki Boulders. I had been there a couple weeks ago when my family was visiting but DANG, Sunrise Was SO COOL!! Like seriously, beyond beautiful... I dunno, the ocean and the sky and the boulder just looked so nuts and awesome. I'm not doing the greatest job describing this, so you'll just have to look at pictures or just go and see for yourself.

Three Days, Three Sunrises... It's really neat to be able to see the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean. Highly recommend that if you do ever have that chance, don't miss it.

Other than all that, I've just been hanging out/staying alive/enjoying brief periods of warm weather. Had an exam Friday that I think went pretty well, so that's good... and that means that school is over!! Went to the All Blacks vs. Wales game last night, really really fun night (slash we saw the Haka live which was SICKK).

New Zealand = good times. Five months went by REAL Fast. Peacing out in 4 days. Fiji Sunshine Time for a bit. Then California Summer Goodness for July. Hell yeah

every glamorous sunrise...

...throws the planets out of line, a star sign out of whack, a fraudulent zodiac. Third Eye Blind rocks my world.

So besides finishing up classes, writing papers, and studying for my exam (yep, that's right, I got pretty lucky and I've only one actual final exam)... Life has been quite marvelous. Last week I went with a few of my friends for one last New Zealand roadtrip in Serena and it kinda went like this...

Catching The Sunrise In Dunedin, Chasing The Sunset In Queenstown (Saturday, June 5th)

So classes/lectures are over, final papers for Intro to NZ Society, Social Power, and Advanced Theory are COMPLETE and turned in, it's officially wintertime in the Southern Hemisphere = the South Island is quite chilly (but overall, no big deal), and Tim, Paul, Alan, Mike, Liz, and I decided to journey up to Queenstown to meet up with Jamie and her brother Tyler (Jamie is from the States but did study abroad up in Wellington on the North Island). First though, we stopped at Portmouth/the Otago Harbour for a terrific sunrise. After that and after a terrible period of carsickness, we finally made it to Queenstown and found some Werthers candy (for me) and muffins (for Paul, Mike, and Alan). After that, we all went to the tiny Queenstown airport to pick up Jamie and Tyler. But that really just turned into playing ball in the parking lot, being secret undercover spies, and flipping through touristy brochures. After Jamie and Tyler joined us, we wandered around town, found some yummy kebabs, and then OF COURSE we had to stop and play on the playground by the lake (...I think this ALWAYS happens because Paul has a Very Serious Addiction to playgrounds). After that, we went to find the sunset... we hiked up to top of the gondola, checked out the Skyline complex that overlooked Queenstown, decided that The Higher Up We Could Get = The Better, and so we hiked higher and higher to the top of a snowy ridge better mountaintop views could be found, hiked up higher and higher until we reached the top of a snowy ridge. Although the sun had already set behind the mountains, we had some pretty spectacular views of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. Queenstown is honestly one of the coolest little towns I've ever been to... so you if ever get the chance, you've got to go. MOST DEFINITELY. After hiking down, we went to Fergburger (SO FREAKING DELICIOUS) and met up with some of our other friends who were also in Queenstown that day. After that, it was just grocery shopping and then some serious sleepytime at The Secret Campsite on Lake Wakatipu.

Roy's Peak: The Mountain Of Snow And Death (Sunday, June 6th)

So This Got Nuts. We woke up and it was raining a bit. We drove to Wanaka (a town up by Mount Aspiring National Park). It was still raining. Parked at the bottom of Mount Roy. Still raining. So we're like, Okay, Let's Just Start Hiking And We'll Just See How It Goes. Good plan. So basically, raindrops turned into snowflakes and BAM, We Are In A Blizzard At The Top Of A Mountain. THIS WAS SWEET. Yes, it was totally cold and windy and freezing... But It Was Still Awesome. Basically, we abandoned/ignored/disregarded every possible form of logic or reasoning or basic commonsense (because Let's Be Real, NO ONE in their right mind would EVEN CONSIDER doing whatever the hell it was we were doing) and had a magnificently ridiculous time. So yeah, we made it to the peak, made some snow angels, and started to descend down the mountain. This got a little tricky... so since we were hiking down a snowy grassy mountain (slash since I'm naturally clumsy slash I don't own hiking boots), I ended up slipping and falling on the trail NO JOKE every minute and a half. I am seriously Not Exaggerating/it was out of control/there was nothing I could really do about it. So snowy grassy mountain turned back into muddy grassy mountain... and I just kept on falling. After a while, this got really really really tiring, and I was cold. But alas, we all eventually returned to Serena safe and sound, changed into dry clothes, got victory snacks at a nearby New World, and drove to Mount Cook to camp for the night.

Taking A Break From Sun Chasing: Mount Cook National Park... Well, Kinda (Monday, June 7th)

Our general plan was to camp by Lake Pukaki (we had camped there on our first Mount Cook trip way back in the day), wake up Monday morning, hike the Hooker Valley Trail, and then peace on back to Dunedin. But Really This Is What Happened... I'm sleeping in the van and Monday morning rolls around and it's cold/snowy/rainy outside. So we all just stayed in our respective shelters of choice (eg. in the tents or in the van), snacked, napped, and just basically hung out (someone in the tents was playing guitar, so that was really nice too). Six Hours Later.... I mean, we weren't really in any kind of rush... The rain finally stops and we slowly get our lives together, pack up the van, and head over to Mount Cook. We find out that the road to Hooker Valley (slash the road to our desired trailhead) is all snowed in. Bummer, but really No Big Deal. We ended up having a snowball fight on the side of the road... Well, what happened was this... For some reason or another (probably to take a picture), Tim got out of the van. Then Tim ended up throwing a snowball at Paul. Paul runs out of the van WITHOUT SHOES to chase Tim down, but Timothy is quite speedy. More snowballs are thrown. Paul gets back in the van, and we drive off without Tim for quite a ways. Van stops and Tim eventually catches up to us, and then we all play in the snow for a bit/have a snowball fight! The End! Eventually, we make it back to Dunedin alive, so that was good. That night, I had a kebab wrap for dinner and then ice cream. It was all very delicious.

To Nugget Point: Oceans and Friends, Rainbows and Sunsets (Tuesday, June 8th)

Tuesday morning, I wake up in my nice bed, email Mom to assure her that I'm alive, shower, and then start my laundry... And As Soon As I Put All My (Relatively) Cold Weather Clothes In The Laundry, I get a text basically saying, Come To Nugget Point! Meet At Tim's In Two Hours! ...Oh shoot, laundry takes a while... Possible Dilemma. But Itsssss Cool, because exactly two hours later, LAUNDRY IS FINISHED! So I pack real quick and head over to Tim's YAY! This time, it was Tim, Mike, Alan, Liz, Jamie, Tyler, and I. No Paul = no playgrounds, but Tim always seems to find the good rainbows. So we wandered along the coast (by the way, I love the Pacific Ocean) to the Caitlins, chasing rainbows and sunsets, and basically doing some picture hunting and stopping at any random cool place we came across. It Was Good. We had wanted to catch the sunrise at Nugget Point the next day, so we found a place to camp nearby, met up with Greg and Anne (both of whom have been studying at Wellington), ate some dinner, listened to Tim sing and play guitar, and then bedtime.

Nugget Point Sunrise (Wednesday, June 9th)

So Wednesday morning, we all woke SUPER SUPER SUPER early, drove out to Nugget Point, walked/ran along the trail, and hiked up the side of the mountain for a good view of the sunrise. And damn, it was good. Sunrise Over The Pacific Ocean + Nugget Point/New Zealand Awesomeness + Great People = SO GOOD. After sunrise, we stopped by Lake Waihola for a bit, but we had to head back to Dunedin pretty quick because Timothy had a final at 2:30pm (no pressure, yeah?). Overall, roadtripping/camping was awesome. Rainbows/sunrises/sunsets are awesome. Ocean/clouds (duh)/mountains are awesome. And of course, friends are awesome. Good times with good people.

The rest of the week consisted of some Tunnel Beach action, hanging out, feeding my running addiction (I found the reservoir today, and IT WAS AWESOME), planning my Fiji trip, and studying for my exam. So yup, that's my life. Basically, I've got about twelve more days of New Zealand. This Is Kinda Crazy. After that, I'll be in Fiji for a few days. And then, back to the Golden State for summertime :) :)

PS. "God of Wine" by Third Eye Blind = Sweet Stuff

Winter Has Arrived

Yesterday, it was RAINING. The day before, it was RAINING. Today is mostly cloudy, with no rain. Earlier today, I DEFINITELY spotted a little sunlight and That Was Neat but now its just very very cold, like the Winter Sort Of Cold. But back to yesterday...

Because it had been raining so much, the river (Leith River/the river that runs alongside my flat) kinda exploded with all the water come down from the mountains (and just from the sky in general). Anyways, I was hanging out in the library all day because I had a paper to write and, unlike my flat, the library is heated. However, SILLY ME, I forgot my power adapter for my laptop at home. Oops.

So my computer dies... and I'm walking back to my flat and I see a HUGE crowd of people at the edge of the river and also on the bridge over the river that connects Leith Street to Montgomery Ave (my street). Huh, INTERESTING.

I didn't really understand what this whole gathering was about, so I walk over to check out whatever it was that everyone's looking at. WELL, it turns out that a couple of really genius guys thought it would be a great idea to jump into this raging river of madness With Their Surfboards. A little random, but whatevers... They were trying to grab onto this rope that their friend was holding over the bridge. And I THINK they were aiming to just hold on, stand up, and ride the river. Pretty Solid Plan I guess, EXCEPT that all the guys seriously failed at this rope grabbing business, and just ended up floating down the Huge/Brown/Muddy Mess that was Leith River. This Was Amusing. I'm glad I forgot my power adapter. The end.

Ps. Just checked and winter officially begins on June 1st... Four days off, My Bad.

the clouds have been looking especially rad today

The weather has been super nice and sunny the last couple days. And yeah, sunshine and relative warmth is pretty great, but MAN, the clouds have just been Blowing My Mind. Clouds are SO Awesome. And the best part is that THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!! Seriously though, besides in outer space and in the ocean (which are both pretty awesome in themselves), clouds seem to be basically everywhere. This is Rad.

Soooooo, THE FAMILY CAME TO VISIT!! They were only here for a short time but it was still pretty fun showing them around Otago and Dunedin. Highlights from the family visit (besides just hanging out with everyone) include:

1) Moeraki Boulders = Super large, spherical boulders lying on Koekohe Beach (a little ways north of Dunedin)

2) Botanical Gardens = I had to run to New World (the grocery store) really quick and so I showed them my usual grocery-store-route through the Gardens. Basically, my walk to New World is really pretty and I have a greater appreciation for trees because Trees Are Awesome.

3) Otago Peninsula = Beautiful as always

4) Seeing Penguins at Pilots Beach = After sunset and just when the last bit of light is fading from the sky, hundreds of little Yellow-Eyed Penguins hop up onto Pilots Beach and waddle up into the grass and shrubs to find their nests for the night. Penguins are pretty cool, and I think my family was pretty excited to see them out and about in the wild, so that was really fun :) - University of Otago = Yay, School! Campus is pretty small, so we basically just wandered around so that they could check out the Central Library, St. David's, and the Clock Tower. Basically, that was the Uni (because I'm So Kiwi and all) in a nutshell.

5) The Whisper Dishes = They are AWESOME... I don't really know how else to describe them sorry.

6) Otago Museum = This was only the second museum that I've visited in New Zealand. The first was the Waikato Museum in Hamilton on the North Island... I guess that means this was also my first South Island museum visit... so basically, we've got two museums total. I am pretty content with this number because (as much I enjoy visiting museums just in general) I feel that although New Zealand lacks a ridiculous number of museums, it makes it up in clouds, moutains, lakes, caves, and Great Walking so it's All Good. ANYWAYSSS, the Otago Museum really nice (and FREE!). It had a lot of interesting stuff about Maori culture, Pacific Islanders, and the South Island and Otago region. There was a really cool room about all the different animals that existed and/or still exist around New Zealand so that was really fun because then I got to show my family the different animals (mostly birds) that I've seen, and then I got to tell them about where I saw them and what I know about them from my own experience. Yay for being a good tour guide!!

7) Good Food = Got my family addicted to Pineapple Lumps (the standard Kiwi candy), Rob Roys Ice Cream is SOOO YUMMY, Turkish Kebabs, Anzac Biscuits (kinda like a cross between a date scone and an oatmeal cookie dipped in chocolate), Steak Sandwich, Seafood... basically, hanging out with my family = good food and a happy tummy

After the familia departed, I had to work on a presentation about an analysis of Social Power and the film The Pianist. It all turned out really well and my powerpoint was pretty SWEET so that was really nice to finish. Now, all I've got is three papers (one for next week = easy peasy... and two for the week after = potentially might be a struggle, but not too worried about it) and then just one final exam. YAY for being Almost Done With Classes!!

In terms of just everyday type shenanigans... Yesterday(Friday), I didn't have class and it was really nice out, so a couple friends and I borrowed some surfboards and drove out to the peninsula, attempted to going surfing, but basically just messed around in the water at Allans Beach. Today is Kyle Rhatigan's birthday and he is awesome and one of my bestest friend and I've known him since Kindergarden, YESSSSS!!! Happy Birthday Kyle!!! So today, in honor of Kyle Rhatigan's Birthday, I went to the Farmers' Market, got some pears that I've never tried before but they looked pretty delicious (I got to wait until they ripen up though), failed to find the 24hour book sale that was meant to be going on in the Octagon, and ended up checking out Dunedin's Public Art Gallery (Really Rad, like I really really really liked it and I'll probably go back because its super free and That Is Neat). Tomorrow is also my friend Jenny's Birthday so we are going to go out and celebrate tonight. Yay Birthdays! AND my half birthday on Tuesday! I am so close to being twenty-one and a half years old, YESSSS!! SO CLOSE!!! the closest.

Still Alive

And it's already May!! I realized that it's been awhile since my last update on life. So in no particular order, this is what's been rocking my New Zealand world.

First, let's start with MUSIC.

I have decided that music adds a whole other dimension to life... like a Dimension of Awesomeness. (To break it down... So there are many dimensions of life. And many of these many dimensions are quite awesome in themselves. However, add MUSIC, and that changes the game, because music has the ability to absorb, reflect, and enhance/amplify the awesomeness already present in these other dimensions of life.) Anyway, I have gotten so much music in the last couple weeks and man, it's been a super good time. It's all mainly just a great combination of seriously SERIOUSLY GOOD BEATS and good lyrics. So basically, we've got a few new Jams, some Running Music, some Sleepytime Music, some Mash-ups for Epic Paper-Writing Shenanigans, some "Into the Wild" Soundtrack Action, and of course more of The Essential Basics... Incubus, The Shins, and (duh) Third Eye Blind.

And then there's MY SLEEPING BAG.

So don't get me wrong, I am totally into my bed. My bed is wonderful. (I mean, come on... It Has Pillows, and let's just be honest, Pillows RULE.) But MAN, I LOVE MY SLEEPING BAG. You see, while half of the world is enjoying a nice spring-to-summer transition, This Half Of The World is enjoying a nice fall-to-winter transition. And it gets significantly cold in the South Island... as in, it's only April (aka mid-fall) and the nighttime temperature is about 39 degrees Fahrenheit/4 degrees Celsius (with the occasional drop below freezing, Oh Dang). And since my flat doesn't really do the whole "heating" thing... basically, I've been sleeping in my sleeping bag EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. Bringing my sleeping bag to New Zealand = Best Idea Ever slash Best Packing Decision Of My Life. Love my sleeping bag, Mountain Hardwear: 20 degrees Fahrenheit/-7 degrees Celsius, SO GOOD.

The AMIGOS slash Traveling Companions.

So the last couple weeks have been pretty swell with the amigos. In general, it's been lots of hanging out, lots of playing badminton and basketball (with the random game of ultimate and/or rugby), and lots of making dinner together (learned how to make enchiladas last night and it was SUHWEET). Overall, just seriously good times with seriously awesome people. Last weekend, some of the Amigos and I (aka Paul, Tim, Kristen, Ashlyn, Mike, Alan, Liz and I) ditched Dunedin for the weekend...

- On Friday, we headed out to the Southland region of the South Island, found and stopped at POSSIBLY THE COOLEST PLAYGROUND EVER (complete with a huge zipline), and later got to go exploring in the Clifden Caves. Gotta say, Caving Was Pretty Rad. Basically, it was just us and our headlamps... naviagating our way through small tunnels and large caverns, climbing around rocks and pools of water, and checking out all the limestone formations and the little glow worms :)

- After the caves, we made some dinner and then decided to go nighthiking into the Kepler track to snag a campsite for the night. Saturday morning, woke up for the sunrise over Lake Te Anau, hiked out of Kepler, and then we began our Green Lake Adventure...

- Sidenote/FunFact: Hiking to Green Lake = Hiking through the World's Largest Landslide (http://www.gns.cri.nz/what/earthact/land_stab/greenmore.html WORD)

- So Basically, our hike to Green Lake got a little nuts... meaning that it was AWESOME. We got a late start on the Borland Road Track, so we began hiking around 3:30pm. We start off wandering through the woods and everything's all cool. And then WHOA, things start to get a little muddy. AND THEN, we reach this huge grassy field that looks like nothing BUT is secretly a HUGE MUDDY SWAMPY MARSHLAND. Everyone got pretty muddy and fell/sank into mossy holes of mud and water (Paul and Tim definitely got trapped all the way to their waists = so amusing)... Honestly, this was Way More Fun than it sounds... you basically just had to accepted your ridiculously muddy fate and it was all SUPER GOOD :) Eventually, more forest came our way... until we reached another huge grassy field. However, unlike the first one, this second field of grassy awesomeness was not a huge swamp in disguise so that was pretty sweet. After Grassy Field #2, there was some more forest and more nighthiking until we got to the Green Lake Hut. This was awesome because it was HEATED and had BEDS!!! I was definitely pumped. The next day (Sunday), we woke up to a little rain, but the weather cleared up by the time we left the hut, so we all had a really nice hike along Green Lake and through the woods, fields, and swampy marshes. Back at the van, we changed into whatever dry/less muddy clothes we had and then headed back to Dunedin. That night I went out with some friends for kebabs and ice cream and it was DELICIOUS.

FUTURE PLANS that I am excited about.

The future is always super fuzzy, BUT some parts of the future are getting clearer slash more official slash I Am Officially Going To The All Blacks vs. Wales Game On June 19th 2010. In addition, I am officially seeing my family on Sunday and I get to show them around Dunedin and the South Island for a couple days :) YAY FAMILY!! In terms of way-far-in-the-future plans, when I finally make it back to the Golden State, I am officially buying new running shoes and new jeans... Great Walking has destroyed my Mizunos and My Existence and Good Times in California/Colorado/New Zealand just happens to be manifested in the increasing decimation of my jeans (Kinda a major bummer, but I guess after 2+ years it's to be expected... Shucks). Also, I am officially planning to sleep tonight... I am most seriously tired right now, so I'm pretty excited about this even though I still got a couple hours before bedtime and all.

Currently, it is Thursday. I've finished up my classes for the week. So I got some badminton shenanigans going on later tonight and a weekend of chilling in Dunedin, hanging out friends, some end-of-the-year schoolwork action, and then family time on Sunday YESSSSSS

Going Running

Why My Life Is Nuts: Some friends and I decided that it would be fun to run Routeburn. No big deal.

Who? Paul, Liz, Mackenzie, Tim, Mike, Kristen, and I

What? Routeburn Track

Where? Fiordland National Park/Mount Aspiring National Park

When? Saturday, April 24th 2010

How? That is a very good question

Why? No clue, it kinda just seemed like a good idea :)

Routeburn Track is 32 kilometers (about 20ish miles) long. Also, it's not a loop... you can start at this place called the Divide and end at Routeburn Shelter, or you can start at Routeburn Shelter and end at the Divide. So this was Our Basic Plan:

1. Drive up to Fiordlands National Park (near the Divide) Friday.

2. Camp someplace near the Divide

3. Wake up super early and Group 1 would be dropped off at the Divide at about 6am to start their run.

4. Group 2 would then drive 5 more hours to Routeburn Shelter, ditch the car, and start their run at approximately 11am. Cool beans.

5. Eventually Group 1 and Group 2 would cross paths, say hey, exchange hugs/high-fives, etc. YAY

6. Group 1 would finish at Routeburn Shelter (around 1pm, maybe 2pm), drive back to the Divide and pick up Group 2. Everything would be sweet as, and then we would all chill and relax and cruise home Sunday.

And This Is What Really Happened:

- On Saturday, we woke up super early and our car battery was dead... and it had started to sprinkle.

- We eventually found someone with jumper cables and ended up at the Divide around 9:30am. - Paul, Liz, Mackenzie, and I started our run and Mike, Tim, and Kristen headed out to Routeburn Shelter.

- 16 waterfalls, 12 kilometers, and 1 hour and 45 minutes later, Mackenzie got hypothermia.

- We had stopped to fill up our water and stretch at Mackenzie Hut (kinda ironic/weird coincidence) and our Mackenzie was freezing, getting dizzy, and turning blue. Oh Shoot, This Is Not Good.

- Our New Mission: First, make sure Mackenzie was okay. Second, stop Tim and Mike from running Routeburn (because the weather was meant to get worse - heavier rain, freezing conditions, probably snow - and we did not want them to get stuck at the top of the mountain because that would just be a bad situation).

- Sidenote: Evan (the warden at Mackenzie Hut) is the nicest person alive. He helped us get our Mackenzie warmed up, He gave all of us hot drinks and snacks and then he gave us some old lost-and-found clothing so that we could stay warmer and drier. SO NICE

- The New Plan: Mackenzie and I were going to run back to the Divide and get a ride to Queenstown. Paul (who goes on random 30-mile runs around the peninsula just for kicks) and Liz (our triathlete) were going to run the rest of Routeburn, find Mike and Tim along the trail, tell them what's up, get Kristen (who was just doing an out-and-back run from Routeburn Shelter), and then all of them were going to drive to Queenstown and met up with us.

- We were very successful with this new plan because, at 7:50pm Saturday night, Paul found Mackenzie (alive and well) and I sitting in front of the fireplace at Nomads (a hostel in Queenstown) and we all were reunited YESSSSSSSSSS :) :)

Other Happenings:

- We found out that there was a race being held on at Routeburn Track on the same day that we had planned to run it for fun. (Mackenzie and I got a ride to Queenstown with some of the race officials so that worked out really really well.)

- Paul and Liz finished counting waterfalls - there are 38 waterfalls on Routeburn Track :) :)

- Mackenzie and I met a woman from Huntington Beach who has run the Western States 100. She looks like she's in her seventies and she ran a 50 mile race last weekend and was just doing the Routeburn race just for kicks. Pretty Flippin INTENSE. (She was recovering from a leg injury, so with the crazy weather and not wanting to risk further injury, she decided to turn back and not run the whole thing.)

- On our way to Queenstown, we stopped in Te Anau for restrooms and snacks... And so I was walking into this cafe and the automatic sliding doors shut on me. Yep, that's right, I'm the girl who got stuck in the automatic sliding doors. Sweet Life.

As weird as this might sound, I have to say... Saturday was pretty fun. Pretty Nuts/Bizarre/Random, but really fun... like running Routeburn was REALLY REALLY FUN. Running in the rain + trail running + Great Walk + friends = super fun good times... It wasn't that hard/bad at all and we were all feeling pretty good and talking and having a good time (except obviously Mackenzie who was blue and all). Liz (who had never even walked Routeburn before and had got to run the whole thing in one day) and Paul ran about 20 miles, Mackenzie and I ran 15 miles, and Tim and Mike ran about 11 miles. Mackenzie got all better which was WONDERFUL and we had fun running back to the Divide and journeying to Queenstown together.

Yesterday was Anzac Day. We stopped in this place called Arrowtown on the way back to Dunedin and it totally reminded me of Colorado (particularly Aspen) in the fall because the trees were all brown and orange and SO YELLOW :) and it was all very very pretty. Made it back to Dunedin all in one piece, got some groceries (chips and salsa for dinner = man, sooo good), hung out with some friends, etc. Right now, it's Monday and I have a paper to write (big surprise) but life is quite good.

More Great Walking

Basically, my mid-semester break was more or less structured around one simple idea: Great Walking. More specifically, doing Routeburn Track and Abel Tasman Track. So pretty much this past week has been all roadtripping, hiking, camping, mountains, and beaches... and it went like this:

Friday was Pretty Easy:

We (Alan, Gray, Mitch, Luke, and me) left Dunedin, drove west toward Fiordland National Park and Mount Aspiring National Park, stopped in Queenstown to book our bus tickets and our hostel (for Monday when we finished Routeburn), and found a campsite by Lake Te Anau... so yeah, that was all good stuff. Next day/Saturday was when things got a little more complicated... probably because when we woke up it had started to rain...

Routeburn Track was The Great Walk of Water:

Day 1 - Okay, so.... on our first day of tramping, it was definitely raining - Like A Whole Lot. Because of all the rain, our tents, sleeping bags, and clothes got pretty wet so that was unfortunate. It honestly wasn't that bad while we were hiking and all. The worse part was when we were setting up our tents because the rain got pretty heavy and crazy. Anyway, the highlights of that day included our encounter with Earland Falls... the biggest and wettest waterfall ever... as we were walking up to it, it was like we had our own personal super stormy raincloud. Basically, this waterfall was epic. I mean, seriously, the track had its own "flood detour" route (which we took because at that point we were still hopeful that our gear wasn't too ridiculously wet). Highlight #2 was when Mitch and I ran back to the hut (to get our backpacks and to try to dry up) after setting up the tents at the Mackenzie campsite. Basically, we just running along this trail in the rain without our packs (so we were feeling SUPER FAST) and just leaping and flying over huge puddles of water/mud. The rest of the night was dedicated to hanging out in the little shelter by the campsite where we hung up our clothes to dry, made some dinner, and taught Mitch how to play Hearts.

Day 2 - As Alan cleverly pointed out, there's no way that God would let it rain on Easter. And lo and behold, there was definitely some sun shining on our Easter Sunday. Day 2 was great - we hiked up above the tree line, crossed big and little waterfalls legitimately every five minutes, found a HUGE lake on top of the mountain (it was beautiful and all sparkly like the ocean), descended back into the trees, and set up camp at Routeburn Flats right next to the river in the middle of the mountains. We laid out all our clothes and sleeping bags to dry some more and then we made some dinner and played some cards before bedtime.

Day 3 - Monday was sunny again YAY... super easy hike, crossed a lot of bridges with waterfalls, took a break by the river and had a rock skipping contest with Mitch and Luke, and then successfully finished up our Great Walking for the day. After Great Walking, we took the bus back to Queenstown, met up with Gray (Gray was pretty sick the very first day so he decided to just chill and hang out in Queenstown and Dunedin for the rest of break), took showers, GOT THE MOST DELICIOUS BURGERS EVER!!!!!! and then we just hung out and found Tim, Paul, Mackenzie, Liz, Jenny, and company because they were in Queenstown for a couple days too... seeing everyone slash just being back in civilization was quite awesome =]

Highway 6 to Abel Tasman National Park:

So Tuesday and Wednesday involved some serious car time....

- Tuesday, we left Queenstown and drove for about 7 or 8 hours... we stopped by Fox Glacier, but it honestly wasn't that exciting so we continued on until we reached the town of Greymouth and all the wonderful things it had to offer (a New World grocery store, Domino's Pizza, and a motel with a shower and beds).

- Wednesday was nice (and with only a total of four hours in the car = very nice)... we continued driving up Highway 6 which was AWESOME because I LOVE THE OCEAN (technically the Tasman Sea but I mean huge body of salt water + waves = ocean... at least to me) and Even Though I ABSOLUTELY LoveLoveLove PCH and It Will Forever Be My Favorite... New Zealand's Highway 6 was indeed VERY Beautiful.... Ocean + Me = Total Happiness.

Sidenote: The owner of our Greymouth motel told us that the Highway 6 is one of the Top 10 coastal drives in the world; however, I couldn't really find anything online to back this up... all I found out was that Highway 6 is the longest single highway in New Zealand and even though Highway 1 is technically longer, it doesn't count because it combines the Highway 1 in the North Island with the Highway 2 in the South Island so whatevers... moving on....

Before our Wednesday journey took us further inland, we stopped by the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes which were Really Pretty and Super Rad. Basically these rocks are columns of limestone that look like stacks of pancakes, and then during high tide and heavy swells, seawater is forced upward through the blowholes. Pretty neat stuff :) After that, we eventually made it to the town/city of Motueka where we found a backpackers lodge for sleeping and a New World for our Abel Tasman/Great Walking supplies. Pretty chill night, just made some spaghetti for dinner, played some card games, almost walked into the Motueka Police Station by accident OOPS, and found some yummy ice cream. Another sidenote: I learned how to play Spades (kinda like Hearts, but with teams) and Egyptian Rat Screw (kinda intense like Spit but really fun once you get the hang out it)... Anyways...

The Abel Tasman Coastal Track:

Overall, tramping in Abel Tasman was pretty relaxed... we basically just wandered through some coastal forests, made a few tidal crossings, found some cool seashells, played little frisbee, Great Walked across some swing bridges, went swimming in the Tasman Sea, camped by the beach, listened to the waves as we fell asleep... not too shabby, not too shabby at all :)

Day 1 - Drove up to the town of Marahau, ditched our car, and started Great Walk #3 at around 11am YESSSS. (By The Way, the Abel Tasman Track just might be one of the best ideas ever... backpacking + coastline + little islands + beaches + warm weather...)We did our first tidal crossing at Torrent Bay, set up camp for the night, made dinner (Alan and Luke caught some crabs... and we found out later that catching, cooking, and eating crabs from a marine reserve was not really allowed, Oops), and played a little frisbee and cards before bedtime.

Day 2 - Woke up and went swimming in the ocean = life is SO GOOD. We eventually got our lives together and hiked through some coastal forests for a few hours, played some frisbee and went swimming in Bark Bay, and ended up at Tonga Quarry campsite.... And that was the night we learned that Mitch was afraid of small animals... Basically, we were just hanging out/playing some card games and Mitch WOULD NOT STOP TRIPPING OUT because of the killer possums wandering around our campsite... SO FUNNY/You Had To Be There because this was definitely one of the Top 3 Best Parts of Break.

Day 3 - #1 of the Top 3 Best Parts of Break was Saturday morning - Waking up to the sound of waves and going swimming and tossing the frisbee around with Alan (I don't think Mitch and Luke were really feeling the early morning swim). After that, we Great Walked through more forests and beaches, made a couple more tidal crossings, and eventually made it to Totaranui Beach where we played frisbee until our water taxi picked us up. Basically, a water taxi is a small motor boat that picks up and drops off backpackers and dayhikers all along Abel Tasman's coastal track. So we took that back to Marahau where we had left our car. (On the boat ride back to Marahau, we randomly saw a penguin swimming in the ocean - Super Neat.)

Abel Tasman to Dunedin:

- Picked up our car from Marahau, drove back to Motueka, got some dinner and bought/stole some snacks at New World (I was in the self-checkout line and I guess I was really out of it because I definitely just scanned my snacks, put them in a bag, and left the store without paying for them... Oops, my bad). Leaving Motueka at 5pm, the four of us journeyed through the night until we made it back to Dunedin. Got back to Dunedin around 2:30ish Sunday morning, so yeah... my Sunday was just sleeping, etc = real nice and super low key :)

Overall, Great Walking has been Really Great and my mid-semester break was some serious good times with good people... Plus mountains and waterfalls and ocean and beaches... and many many amazing starry nights (the Milky Way was looking WAY COOL during Routeburn and Abel Tasman). So although I have decided that sleeping in my own bed is quite wonderful, exploring New Zealand/the South Island has been BEYOND AWESOME. (Dear Parents, thanks for sending me abroad!! Also, just in case you need more reassurance that Yes, I Have Been Feeding Myself, I'm a pretty sure that I mentioned that I ate dinner like a zillion times YAY so you can stop worrying =] 'Kay Cool, Loooove You!!)

Ps. I know this covered a whole week but still... Apologies for the Longest Blog Ever :)

I Mean, Kepler Track Was Pretty Cool...

OMG KEPLER TRACK WAS BOMMMMB!!! It was like On-Top-Of-The-World type of Wonderful... like I might NEVER get over the coolness of this past weekend...

So 6am Friday morning, I met up with Alan, Mackenzie, Gray, and Dylan for our weekend adventure. (By the way, 1) Dylan is girl and 2) random cool fact about Dylan = she's from New York but used to live in Westlake Village - WHOA - on the Lindero Canyon Road side of North Ranch - Double WHOA).

We drove west for about 3.5 hours to Fiordland National Park (which is located in the southwest part of the South Island), checked in at the Vistors' Centre, put on our packs, and started our first Great Walk.

So New Zealand has these cool things called Great Walks. They are New Zealand's best/most beautiful/most popular hikes.... Basically, if you choose to do these hiking tracks, you'll be seeing some of the best scenery in the country. There are five Great Walks on the South Island, three on the North Island, and one on Stewart Island. Anyways, we were all pretty pumped because Kepler Track was everyone's first Great Walk. And MAN, it was indeed quite great...

We started off just cruising along Lake Te Anau (pronounced "tay-ah-nu"). Then we passed the Control Gates (It was basically a bridge. And once we crossed over, we were "officially" on Kepler Track - YESSSS!). We continued on along Lake Te Anau, wandered into the rainforest, stopped for a quick lunch, cruised for a couple more hours up this SUPER RAD rainforest mountain, hiked up past the tree line, almost got blown away because it was SOO Ridiculously Windy above the tree line, and then we checked out our TOTALLY NEAT view of Lake Te Anau in the northeast (our starting point) and then of Lake Manapouri in the southwest (our endpoint)... we arrived at Luxmore Hut (there are no campsites at the top) after only 5 hours of hiking, claimed our bunks for the night and then chilled in the kitchen/dining area with all the other backpacking groups. Day One = Championing the Mountains = Success. We made some dinner for ourselves, drank some hot chocolate, taught Dylan how to play Hearts, and eventually went to bed...

Day Two was awesome. And I mean, SOOOO AWESOME!! We all got up, ate some breakfast, repacked our backpacks, AND THEN we spent the next few hours Walking On MOUNTAIN TOPS surrounded by The Craziest Clouds EVER. We had the cirrus clouds that were really high in the atmosphere. We had rainclouds off in the distance (because it had rained the night before). And then we had huge clouds of fog just rolling and rising off the lakes. IT WAS SPECTACULAR.

AND this whole time we are hiking on the tops of mountains... we were literally on mountain ridges. Surrounded by lakes, waterfalls, keas, funky plants, and clouds. No Joke, all five of us were flipping out The Whole Time. Six hours of Awesomeness. It was Seriously THAT Cool.

Mackenzie and Dylan were moving pretty steadily, whereas Alan, Gray, and I were REALLY distracted by all the coolness that Kepler had to offer... Basically, I was just being obsessed with life and clouds, so yeah... I got to be pretty occupied with just existing so high in the sky... and Alan and Gray are both film majors so both of them kept alternating between filming with their video cameras and using their regular still cameras... Anyways, so we got separated from Mackenzie and Dylan a couple times Oops. But they waited by the kea birds to eat lunch with us! When we caught up with them, they were just chilling by a group of keas. (Keas are one of the few alpine parrots in the world... they make the weirdest sounds... like a dying cat. But Keas are really pretty... from far away they just look dark brown or black, but when you see one up close, you can see that it has orange feathers on the underside of it wings and blue feathers on its outer wings.) Anywho, we all sat down on top of our mountain and had lunch together and it was delicious... Peanut butter, honey, and banana all in a tortilla for me YUM :)

After our lunch stop, Mac and Dylan motored ahead and Alan, Gray, and I cruised along some more ridges together. We eventually descended and got back down to the tree line where the trees were all nice and mossy. We descended more and more back into the rainforest, crossed a few bridges, passed some little waterfalls, and arrived at Iris Burn hut and campsite only ten minutes behind Mac and Dylan. We all set up our tents, took a break in the shade away from the bugs, cruised over to this MONSTER Waterfall nearby, made some dinner, and went to bed... Yay for Day Two!!

Totally could not sleep at all that night. It wasn't that cold for me in the tent in my sleeping bag, the grass was really soft... so I have no clue why, but I pretty much got no sleep Sunday night. Kinda weird but whaterror, we all got up at 7am (AHH! It was SO COLD that morning and the sun wasn't even out yet) because we wanted to pack everything up and leave at 8am... because it's supposed to take people eight hours to get to from Iris Burn to Rainbow Reach (our endpoint) and we wanted to have enough time to hike to Rainbow Reach and catch a shuttle at 5pm.

We packed everything up and headed out of Iris Burn around 8am so yay, that worked out pretty well... Mackenzie was leading our group for most of the day and so she got to set the pace for us. MACKENZIE MOVES SO FAST! She seriously walks SO FAST! And she doesn't stop or slow down EVERR... So basically, we were moving like machines. It got to the point where I couldn't even fathom stopping or slowing down... like I Could Walk Like This Forever... so Why In The World Would I Want To Stop? Okay, I mean... we did stop for breakfast on the trail and for lunch by the lake, etc... but other than that, we just kept moving through the forest like some unstoppable hiking force, It Was Awesome... I thoroughly enjoyed moving that fast for such a long period of time. Anyway, all the native flora and fauna was looking especially delightful that day, Lake Manapouri was all sweet and sparkly in the sunlight, and the trail to Rainbow Reach was pretty easy so Day Three = So Good.

Cool Things about Lake Manapouri (pronounced like"man-na-pour-e"):

- You can drink the water straight out of the lake. So when we stopped for lunch, I got to fill up my water bottle with a bit of Lake Manapouri, SWEET!

- In the Fellowship of the Ring, at the end of the movie, when Boromir tries to take the ring from Frodo/when Merry and Pippin get captured by orcs/when Frodo and Sam leave for Mordor by themselves.... that was all filmed at Lake Manipouri. This Is Awesome. Basically, New Zealand = Middle Earth (plus Pandora, plus Ferngully).

Since we had been moving so fast, we got to Rainbow Reach at 2pm... meaning that 1)the last section of the track only took us six hours (instead of eight) and 2) Alan could take the 3pm shuttle (instead of the 5pm shuttle) to get back to the car and then pick us all up. Total Success! While waiting, we all just lay around on the grass in the sunshine. Man, that sunshine was so glorious. Honestly, the weather for the whole weekend was seriously perfect... we had looked up the weekend forecast before leaving Dunedin and it said that it would be raining, windy, and cold and so we had all prepared ourselves for crazy weather conditions but instead, we totally lucked out and got the best weather ever!!

We headed back to Dunedin (I got to drive for part of the way... Driving on the left side of the road YESSSS), took showers, and then Alan, Gray, and I went to this kebab place in town for dinner that SO DELICIOUS! Annnnd after that, Alan and I watched some Lord of the Rings because 1) we are in New Zealand and 2) Dylan has all the extended versions YESSSSS.

Really really really great weekend. Kepler Track was SO SICK.

I am So Pumped for next week/semester break because I'm going with friends to do two more Great Walks - Routeburn Track (up in Mount Aspiring National Park) and Abel Tasman Track (on the northwest part of the South Island)... It Will Be Awesome.

On the more regular side of life, I have some homework for this week and a paper due Wednesday (slash tomorrow)... Sweet Life/I heart the library.

So The French Guy Finally Showed Up

Monday morning (yesterday), I had just finished with my shower and I was getting ready in my room when TOTALLY OUT OF THE BLUE Muhammad shows up. Okay, well, it wasn't totally out of the blue because DUH he is living here too... and also because Danielle (my Kiwihost) went to the UniFlats office about a week ago just make sure he hadn't died or anything. Anyway, they told Danielle that he would be back in New Zealand sometime around March 22th. I guess since yesterday was March 22th, Muhammad was right on time, NEAT. I don't really know the whole story, but I THINK he was in Paris for a month, no big deal. ALSO, it might be important to note that Muhammad is from Algeria, not France. Also, he wears cologne. That was the first thing I noticed about him. Other than that, he is just your average dude. Oh, and he's finishing up his masters in law slash he is supposed have his thesis finished by June. So yeah, cool stuff, that's Muhammad. On the random down side, I don't even know if that's how you spell his name... might be Mohummad or Mohammed?? Who knows... Basically, this dude is super mysterious.

Other than that... the weekend was pretty low-key. I was kinda sicky so it was really nice that I got to sleep-in in the mornings and wake up in my comfy bed. Got a lot of homework and readings done. Wrote a paper that is due Thursday (I know, I finished a paper a whole Five Days Before It Was Due! WHOOAAAA!! Go Me =]). Hung out with friends. Went to the flea market. Got a boy shirt at the thrift store. Went out to dinner with cool peoples. All in all, I think it was a nice balance of Relaxing/Getting Better and Being Productive.

Anyway, about other general stuff in life...

Food + New Zealand + Theresa =

1) I AM OFFICALLY OBSESSED WITH OATMEAL... I think it started about three weeks ago and it is DEFINITELY still going strong

2) It has been decided that... Nutella is good with everything (except with silly things like soup or roast beef)

3) Red Curry is my favorite curry

4) Peanut butter, honey, and banana sandwiches are SUPER tasty

5) I know how to make stir-fry

6) I can make tacos

7) I know how to marinate meat... for example, I marinated beef in soy sauce last week =]

8) When I go grocery shopping, I always buy apples... Why do I buy apples?? Well, because APPLES RULE... and I am always out of apples

9) I thoroughly enjoy eating ice cream on a cone... especially while in motion... mainly walking... it is indeed most excellent

Basically this is all super exciting because I am kinda sorta learning how to cook... slash cook different things... and because food is delicious.

Extreme Gardening

Okay so last weekend....

Paul and Tim left Friday morning to go hiking/tramping for the weekend so they dropped me off at the airport. Flew from Dunedin to Christchurch to Hamilton. Took a shuttle to the city. Found my hostel. Dropped my backpack off in my room. Got some lunch and wandered around the city. To clarify, Hamilton is less of a city and more of a town because cities are more dense. (Explanations: Physically, Hamilton might be the size of Westlake... but Hamilton is only 1/3 ofWestlake's density - therefore, Hamilton = town.) Anywaysss.... Hamilton seems like a very nice place. I went to the Waikato Museum which was really cool/informative/fascinating/free. And then I walked to the Hamilton Gardens. Yay exploring! Eventually, I made it back to my hostel and, because of some previous nights of sleep deprivation, I went to bed super early. Sleeping is seriously the best... Just Saying :)

Next day, I trekked over to the Transport Centre (yeah I know, UK English...) met Callie-from-Minnesota, Rachael-from-St. Louis-but-goes-to-school-in-South Carolina, and Dan-our-leader/guide-from-Auckland. I guess three more people were supposed to go volunteer with us but they never showed up... they're Aussies, go figure. So the four of us headed up to Hunua Ranges to start our weekend.

Things That I Learned About New Zealand/Hunua Ranges On The Drive Up And During The Weekend:

-Back in the day, tectonic plates were maneuvering themselves around and New Zealand decided to break away from Antarctica and Australia.

-Randomly, during all this plate tectonic motion, the land mammals weren't too keen to hang out in New Zealand... which is why, New Zealand has no native land mammals (minus 3 species of bats). So New Zealand was just full of plants, birds, some small reptiles (but no snakes, Kathleen), and bugs... and all these living things evolved harmoniously BUT they didn't develop any instinct for/protection against predators.

-As a result, when Maori, Pacific Islanders, and Europeans started to settle in New Zealand and when they brought rats, cats, pigs, goats, deer, possums, stoats, weasels, etc etc etc with them, all the native plants and birds were getting eaten and the forest was cut down for logging and the whole ecosystem of Hunua Ranges was being destroyed :(

-So now, in order to save the ecosystem/promote biodiversity/protect Hunua Ranges, there's no more logging and a whole lot of pest control... meaning that I got to help out with the pest control part :)

-Basically, there are a whole bunch of bait lines and every 100 meters or so there is a bait station full of bait. When an animal eats the bait, the bait prevents its blood from clotting. So there's no immediate death, but the animal will die eventually. Every week, a group of local volunteers run along the bait lines and check on each bait station. However, these bait lines aren't on actual trails and they are VERY VERY OVERGROWN and some haven't been cut for over a year.

So this is what we did: We hiked along the main track to the start of the bait line. Then we journeyed into the bush and did some extreme gardening to make the jobs of the bait-line-runners a little bit easier. We did one bait line the first day (Saturday) and then we did two bait lines the second day (Sunday). The bait lines were pretty steep and overgrown so it was a lot of hard hard work. All in all, it was totally worth it though... carrying gigantic gardening scissors, blazing trails, learning about all the different plants, learning the sounds that different birds make, finding pig tracks, getting super muddy, finding rare ferns, etc. (Dan got REALLY EXCITED over this fern we came across. It was a King Fern and apparently they were almost wiped out and they are really rare. It was only the second time in his life that Dan had seen one and he was seriously ECSTATIC, like he spent ten whole pictures taking a bazillion pictures of A PLANT... PS. Dan (no joke) knew the English name, Maori name, and characteristics of EVERY plant and bird that we saw so he got to educate us and enlighten us with all his knowledge of nature.)

Other highlights of the weekend:

-On Saturday night, there was a speed shear competition at the Red Fox Tavern in Maramarua. It was probably the biggest redneck/hick (no offense) event I have ever been to. BUT I did get to witness someone shear a whole sheep in 39 seconds!!!!

-On Sunday afternoon, on the way back to Hamilton, we stopped in Pokeno, a tiny town that is only known for their ice cream. So my lunch that day was three huge scoops of ice cream - Hokey Pokey, Mange Rizzle, and Mint Chocolate Cookie. So Good, So Creamy, So Delicious.

-Air New Zealand gives out water, then coffee, then cookies, then more water, and then candies. This happens even on their short, one-hour flights and I've decided that I really like the amount of attention that Air New Zealand gives to my tummy. It is Quite Nice.

I got back into Dunedin on Monday night (shout out to Paul who was really great and picked me up at the airport) and went over to Gray's flat because it was his birthday and everyone was there. Tuesday was class, frisbee in the rain (torrential downpour/it was raining SOO hard), stir-fry dinner at Alan's, and homework. Wednesday/yesterday was class and then just hanging out with everyone for St. Patrick's Day!! Today/Thursday, I was printing out some notes for lecture and I looked down and my backpack had disappeared. Yeah, SOMEONE STOLE MY BACKPACK... with my wallet, and my computer, and my life. In a nutshell, I was ready to kill someone. Granted these murderous feelings and thoughts were all in the heat of the moment, but DUDE, I was so furious. And just as I had reached a certain level of anger that only a very few people have ever seen (which, in general, I think is a good thing)... I turn the corner (I had been pacing around the building looking for any trace of my backpack) and there it is, right where I left it. The weirdest???? Turns out this girl had picked up my backpack, thinking that it belonged to her friend... and when she realized her mistake, the girl returned it. This girl was seriously apologizing All Over The Place and I was just totally relieved and I told her not to worry about it and we went our separate ways.

So yeah, my brief period of panic = gone forever and it's ALL GOOD and I am so happy that I've got my backpack. And now I have loads of reading to do - YESS.

The Catlins...

So two weekends ago (March 5th-7th) I got to explore a coastal, rainforest-like area called the Catlins. Basically, the Catlins is a bunch of nature-awesomeness that is all conveniently concentrated in the southeasternmost corner of the South Island. And since we love nature, we (Paul, Tim, Mackenzie, Liz, Alan, Mike, Jenny, and I) departed North Dunedin Friday morning in Serena and headed off to the Catlins. (It took longer to get there because we got lost slash ended up in Gore slash took a more scenic route because we were not in any rush, yay for seeing more of New Zealand!)

And what did we do during our weekend in the Catlins? Well...

When we arrived Friday afternoon in the general region, we checked out Waipapa Point which was SWELL because Waipapa Point = lighthouse, ocean waves, tidepools, seaweed, seashells, sea creatures. Also, good story... Paul was sitting on a rock on the oceanside-edge of the tidepool when he got totally decked by this huge wave. Like you saw Paul on the rock. You saw the wave hit the rock. And then Paul just DISAPPEARS. Yeah, just like that... He landed on some smaller rocks that make up the tidepools so he got cut up a bit but, no worries, other than that he's totally fine (meaning that it's pretty hilarious/ridiculous/amusing).

After Waipapa Point, we made some lunch and then headed over to Slope Point... which is the southernmost point of the South Island. (Some parts of the South Island are referred to as the "Deep South." This is amusing because New Zealand is not Alabama/Texas/Georgia/etc.) Honestly, Slope Point was pretty rad... probably just because cliffs/being high up + the Pacific Ocean is just a really really REALLY GREAT combination of things.

After Slope Point, I was getting really tired (I was really sleepy and tired all weekend - I think it's because we were driving around so much...) and so was everyone else. So we found a spot at Curio Bay to camp for the night. (P.S. falling asleep + listening to the ocean is another Really Great combination) After dinner, we watched to moon rise over the ocean and Tim played the guitar for everyone. This was So Good and the moon was really cool... it was all red at first and then it rose higher and higher over the horizon and it lightened up to orange, and then yellow, and then white. I had never seen the moon rise over the ocean before. It Was Super Neat. It was as if the moon was slowly wiping out all the stars in the sky.

Got up for the sunrise the next morning (Saturday morning), ate some breakfast, packed up Serena, and headed over to McLean Falls... which we preceded to climb up. Essentially, we were hanging over a 72 foot waterfall. It was HUGE. After that, we went to Cathedral Caves... these were really really really neat. To get to the actual cave-area, you have to hike through the rainforest and then you walk along the beach until the caves appear. Going through the different caves was all pretty nuts (plus only two of us had flashlights) and then, penguins appear Out Of Nowhere. They were really little and super scared of us, but seeing them was so UNEXPECTED and it just blew my mind and they were really cute. After exploring the caves, we just messed around on the beach for a bit and eventually headed back into the rainforest... and back to the car... and then to another little rainforest... where we checked out another waterfall. I was SuperSuper Tired at this point, but Alan/Tim taught me/us a cool little trick to use when photographing waterfalls, etc. so That Was Neat.

After that... we found a place to camp for the night, made some pasta for dinner, played some catchphrase, and then everyone just chilled hardcore until it was bedtime. The next morning everyone - except for Paul - missed the sunrise, but we got to look at his pictures that he took by the water and they looked marvelous. After breakfast and such, we went to check out Jack's Blowhole. Pretty nuts to be honest. Because there's the ocean. And then there are the cliffs by the ocean. AND THEN there's a gigantic hole in the middle of these cliffs. And inside this gigantic hole is the ocean. The Ocean is the coolest. Yay for nature. And tides. And erosion.

After Jack's Blowhole, we went to Nugget Point. It was awesome. We were so high up -- like walking along the side of a mountain with the ocean (and sea lions) down below. When you stand at the tip of Nugget Point, it's as if you're standing on the very edge of the world (...I dunno, I think you'd have to be there to fully understand what I'm talking about... but that's the best way I can describe it right now).

So after seeing all these cool sights, we had some lunch on the beach nearby and I found some real pretty seashells :) And after that little break, we all headed back to our homes in Dunedin.

Good times/good weekend. After I got home and showered, etc... I went over to Tim's because it was his birthday. Ate some delicious tacos/guacamole/fries and was just hanging out.... So for some randomness: Tim's Kiwihost is Tamati. The first time I met Tamati, he asked if I was Indian. And I was like No, Sorry. I'm half Filipino.... The second time I saw Tamati, he asked if I was Indian. And I was like No, I'm just half Filipino... So on Tim's Birthday, I saw Tamati for THE THIRD TIME and he asked if I could speak "Filipinese." SO RIDICULOUS. So I kinda laughed and told him didn't know much Filipino/Tagalog... so yeahhh... but DUDE, Filipinese???? ....Seriously?

Anyway, the rest of last week was pretty much just schoolwork and sleep-deprivation (and some hanging out with friends). And then I left for Hamilton/Hunua Ranges/my volunteer weekend on Friday (March 12th) and I just got back tonight/Monday (March 15th). But its late and I have class tomorrow... so even though Hunua Ranges was Quite The Adventure, it will have to wait until next time.

Brief Flashes of Genius and Technological Advances

Three things that made today awesome =

#1 School Books:

My textbook for my Theories of Social Power class is $80. At both Whitcoulls and Paper Plus (New Zealand’s versions of Borders/Barnes and Noble), it would be $84 dollars. Yeah, textbooks are expensive everywhere but THIS BOOK IS ONLY 165 PAGES. Super small, like as big as The Little Prince or Tuesdays With Morrie. Anyways, I am a total nerd but basically, we will be reading every chapter in that book and I learn better when I’m reading from an actual book/a printed version of an article (instead of reading something off my computer screen). So yesterday, I went to all the used bookstores around Dunedin and I couldn’t find it. But my professor said that she would put one hardcopy of the book on reserve in the library. SO THIS IS MY PLAN: Plan A = I could borrow book from library, take notes, save trees. Plan B = OR I could just copy the whole textbook. It cost 10 cents per paper and since these pages are small, I could copy two pages on one sheet of paper. 165 pages = 83 sheets of paper = $8.30… I mean, I don’t know if I’ll go with Plan B (because honestly that’s a lot of time spent at the copy machine and a lot of paper/trees) but I feel darn pretty clever for coming up with that solution by myself.

#2 Lunch:

Got home from my first class and I was thinking about going for just a regular nutella sandwich (= nutella smothered over a warm, slightly-toasted piece of “multigrain-honey” bread). I had been eating this a lot this week. Basically, my diet has been revolving around these sandwiches – simple and tasty. But today I decided to spice things up: Cut up an apple + Sprinkle with brown sugar + Mircowave for 30 seconds + Add to regular nutella sandwich. Yeah, I know, THIS WAS SUCH A GOOD IDEA!!!!

#3 On-Campus Internet:

Finally conquered the internet in the library… and subsequently, on the rest of campus. So now when my internet doesn’t work in my flat (which is often = lame), I can bring my computer to the library and figure out my life. Not that life is terribly hard to figure out, but having access to Google, email, and Wikipedia is really nice. (Plus, I’ve got to get familiar with the library’s online database for paper-writing and researching purposes, etc etc.) It’s SOO NICE to be able check my email before midnight.

Cheers.

First Week of School

It hailed today. No Really, It Legitimately Hailed Today.

Okay, so after being in New Zealand/Dunedin for a couple weeks, I feel like it's about time I started sharing some general observations about life...

1. Asian tourists are the same everywhere.

2. On the other hand, it is unnatural for people, who are obviously ASIAN, to have New Zealand accents. (This seriously might be on my Top 5 Things About NZ That Takes Getting Used To...)

3. Dunedin is part-city/part-college town. The college town part of Dunedin is just like any college town in the U.S. Except that the legal drinking age is 18 years old. Except that there is a bar on the university campus (right next to the central library). Except that the all the furniture (couches, armchairs, benches, tables, etc) is moved outside because students party on their front lawn.

4. People walk around barefoot all the time. Even when the beach/harbour/coastline is at least two miles away. Even when going to class. Even when there's broken glass on every sidewalk in North Dunedin. I feel like this last thing is really not the smartest thing to do. Whaterror

5. Besides the whole "broken glass on the sidewalk" part, Dunedin and the rest of New Zealand seem to be pretty litter-free. COOL/Yay for the Environment. The weird thing is trash cans (rubbish bins) are very rare... you usually have to hold onto your trash until a rubbish bin magically appears.

6. If a guy is...

a) wearing "Stubbies" (aka short shorts)

b) has an braid like Anakin Skywalker

c) has any hair style that is or slightly resembles a mullet

d) running/exercising with a backpack on (not a camelpack, but a regular bookbag)...

He is from New Zealand. Hands down. No exceptions.

That's all I've got for now... moving on to Daily Life in Dunedin slash Coolness...

- I live half a block away from campus... ten minutes max to class/library/bank

- I live next to the Leith River (which also runs through parts of campus).

- I can see and hear the Bell Tower from my house. (It's a very old/historical/famous building at the University of Otago).

- My room is in the front of the house and so my window looks out onto my front lawn and Montgomery Ave (my street). I really really really really really really really really really really really like this part of my living situation because... Whenever friends come by to visit or say hello or wake me up, they bang/knock/throw stones at my window and when I open my window for them, they just climb into my room. This is the best. It always makes my day :) :)

- I live very close to lots of people from AustraLearn and the campus is pretty small, so I run into a lot of people everyday. Rarely Rarely happened in Boulder, so this has been pretty nice.

- No bike. No skateboard. I Walk/Run/Jog everywhere around town. Everything is very close which is nice.

- First week of school is good so far. Three classes = five lectures and two tutorials per week = No classes on Monday or Friday = super nice.

- Awesome Purchase #1 = textbook for my New Zealand Sociology class! Originally $98.99 at the University Book Shop. My classmate got a used copy for $70. I bought it at Hamblyn's Quality Secondhand Books for only $40!!

- Awesome Purchase #2 = The Backpack! In the U.S., new backpacks are about $450 and secondhand packs usually go for $150-$250. So I was talking to a friend today about where I could potentially find a used backpack and his friend overheard us talking and she popped in the room and was like No way, I've a backpack that I'm trying to sell! Turns out this girl (she's American too) JUST bought this backpack right before she left for New Zealand - she already had another backpack and decided that she didn't need this second/new one in NZ after all. It was brand-new and she only used it once (on the airplane as a carry-on). So I checked it out, liked it a lot (it's a good size for me, 39 liters, and has the features I was looking for YESS), and asked her how much she paid for it. She said she only paid 150 US dollars. So then I offered her 150 New Zealand dollars (which is really only 103 US dollars) for the backpack and she took it and It Was A Deal! SO PUMPED!!

Got class at 10am and 1pm tomorrow/Thursday and I still have to finish some readings. And then Friday I'm going to the Catlins (in the Southland region of the South Island) for the weekend so that should be a really good time :)

Mount Cook = So GOOD

Just had a REALLY REALLY REALLY GREAT weekend.

On Thursday, the general plan was to take a roadtrip to Mt. Cook National Park. (Simple yet flexible.) So eight of us (Tim, Paul, Liz, Jenny, Alan, Mike, Mackenzie, and me) piled into Serena (the Van) with our backpacks and sleeping bags (and Paul's guitar), turned on some pretty sweet tunes, and took the highway northward toward Mt. Cook.

The trip was only took about 4 hours, so we arrived at Mt. Cook National Park around 6ish, pulled off the main road, and found ourselves a nice camping spot in the middle of all the mountains (and right next to some cows). So we set up camp, played some frisbee, and made rice and beans for dinner... and around this time, it began official that bringing the guitar was The Best Decision Ever because Paul, Tim, and Alan can all play really well.

By the way... watching the sun go down and watching the stars come out + good friends + great music + lying down under a really bright moon = better than what you see in the movies

It ended up so that every night we watched the sunset and every morning we watched the sunrise.

The next day (Friday), we decided to hike the Sealy Tarns Track up to Mueller Hut, which is right below the summit of Mount Ollivier and which faces the west side of Mount Cook. Saying that "it had a great view" does not give our hike-to-the-top any justice. Ahhh!! IT WAS SO GOOD!! I was super high in the sky, with mountains and glaciers and clouds and lakes and the sun, and I was with great people and we were gonna hang out, climb to the peak for sunset, and then sleep on top of a mountain. So legitimately victorious.

Sidenote slash Geography/History lesson:

-both Mount Ollivier and Mount Cook are a part of the Southern Alps (the larger mountain range that extends all along the west coast of the South Island); Mount Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand.

- Mount Ollivier reaches 1933m (6340 ft) and is part of a smaller mountain range called the Sealy Range.

- Mount Ollivier was the first peak Sir Edmund Hillary ever climbed.

- Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mount Cook (3754m/12316 ft) to train for Mount Everest.

- Sir Edmund Hillary was the first to summit Mount Everest; Sir Edmund Hillary was also from New Zealand.

Extra sidenote: Liz hadn't gotten her sleeping bag yet. And since on Thursday night, she got really really cold... I told her that we could share. Up on Mount Ollivier, Tent #2 = Alan in his sleeping bag and then Liz and I in my sleeping bag. Yes, we fit. Yes, we were relatively comfortable. No, we could not move. It was like we were stuck together, except that we were in a sleeping bag and according to Alan, we looked like a mermaid. So we decided to call it "the mermaids' embrace." It got pretty ridiculous after that.

Also, sometimes I would hear thunder outside. But no, it wasn't thunder, it was just the glacier cracking on the next ridge over. Yeah, I know... Whaat??!

So Friday morning... wake up on Mount Ollivier for the sunrise. Mountain tops and sunrises = a great combination. Man, sunshine is just a really great thing.

After the sunrise and some breakfast, we packed everything up, refilled our water bottles, and headed down the mountain. Going down went by really fast... got back to Serena in 2 hours and then just sat our tired bodies down in the parking lot and ate most of the food that we had stored in the van. That was really quite nice.

After lunch, we headed back to the Vistors' Centre to figure out the next move. We decided that a lake would be nice.

Ended up on Lake Pukaki, which was formed by glacial runoff. NICE.

Swimming the in glacial runoff = So So Nice!

Sunset over lake = B-E-A-utiful. The clouds were so good... that sunset is definitely one of my favorites so far.

More guitar time.

So bedtime came around and it was a really calm night so (since the van was full) I decided to sleep outside with the guys. Lake, stars, moon, warm night.... Why not, right? We set up our sleeping bags pretty close to the lake so that we could listen to the waves wash up and then we all fell asleep.

And Then Midnight Came Around... and it began SUPER WINDY. Like our shoes were being blown away and the wind would pick up our sleeping bags and lift our legs off the ground. After an hour or so of this, we decided to head back to the tents. So I sleepily stumbled back to tents with the guys and fell back asleep. AND THEN... only a couple hours later... I woke up to everyone stumbling around again, flipping out about some cool sunrise. So I peek out of the tent and OMG THE SUNRISE WAS AMAZING!!! So I grab my shoes and follow everyone up to the top of the hill and IT WAS LIKE THE SKY WAS ON FIRE. Omg. So rad.

After the sunrise, we had the best/my favorite oatmeal breakfast! It was mixed with apples and nuts YumYumYum. After breakfast, we packed up, played some frisbee, piled into Serena, turned on Men In Black by Will Smith (I guess it's like our official getaway song), and headed back to Dunedin.

Really really really great weekend.

Took the longest shower ever yesterday, got some groceries, and slept really well last night.

Today (Monday) is for running more errands and getting ready for my first day of school tomorrow. Sweet Life.

By The Way, New Zealand Has No Ozone Layer

So right now it's super early Wednesday morning and I am sitting on my bed, eating breakfast (pretzels) because I couldn't sleep. I don't really know why. Oh well.

Okay, so I've realized that when I posted something last Friday, it showed up as Thursday. I guess because it was still Thursday in most places. Go figure.

So about the last couple days...

On Friday, I successfully bought some power at the post office! Score. Also, since the Highlanders (Otago's rugby team) were playing in at Carisbrook Stadium in Dunedin, everyone went to go watch the game. Even though the Highlanders lost in the second half, it was all a good time and Pat from Rhode Island (this guy from our AustraLearn program) ended up winning a free television (Super Awesome).

So we walked an hour to get to the game and an hour to get back... kinda long, but I like walking and I thought it was nice just hanging out with everyone... but basically, I was really hungry on the way back because I didn't have time to make dinner before the game. And since it was late and mostly everything was closed, I got a Big Mac from McDonalds. So Random, but I had never had one before. Honestly, I didn't think it was that bad but I probably will never do that again just because it's McDonalds...

Saturday was pretty relaxed. Just went running in the morning for a bit, found a farmers' market (definitely going back next Saturday), and then...

WE WENT TO THE BEACH!! In case you were wondering, the Pacific Ocean is just as lovely in Dunedin as it is in California. And I Am So Incredibly Glad I chose to do studyabroad in a city with a coastline :) :) :) Swam in the ocean, went on a walk, lounged around, played some frisbee, and got yummy ice cream (NZ has this special ice cream flavor called "Hokey Pokey." All I know is that it involves toffee and it is delicious!!).

On Sunday, Liz, Mackenzie, Tim, Jenny, and I hiked for five hours. Seriously though, we left the flats at 1pm and got back at 6pm. I was So Tired, but it was SO GOOD. We went up this trail/track that is called the Pineapple Track... because back-in-the-day this guide would lead hiking groups up the trail, and when they reached the top, they would stop and rest and the guide would provide canned pineapples for them... and as a result, there used to be loads of pineapple cans just lying around and so this track/trail is forever known as "the Pineapple Track." A lot of uphill, great view of the city/peninsula/inland areas (we were at the highest point in Dunedin, SWEETNESS), found a nice dude to give us a ride a little ways into town... The whole day was seriously a lot of fun. However, because there's a "sweet as" hole in the ozone layer above NZ, last Sunday was the first time I've ever been sunburnt in February. WHOA. But it's all good because I was only a little burned in the collarbone/upper chest area; plus I woke up the next morning and it had turned into a nice tan. cool beans.

Monday!!

Monday was super exciting because Tim and Paul bought a van. YEAH, A VAN. So we drove around and went to St. Kilda Beach for sunsets, celebrations, and a picnic... which basically was a feast of random goodness... chips and salsa; bread, deli meat, and cheese; juice, chocolate and fruit; and cookies and apple pie!!! The beach/ocean was beautiful, the sky was amazing, Good Times With Good People.

Yesterday/Tuesday was also a very wonderful day. Paul, Liz, Jenny, Tim, Mackenzie, Mike, Ashlyn, Ashlyn's flatmate, and I basically just drove around in the van, listened to good music, and went to really cool places in Dunedin and on the Otago peninsula and enjoyed the day and took lots of pictures. We first went to the very tip of the Otago peninsula and wandered around Pilots Beach and the cliffs by Taiaroa Head Lighthouse. Next, we went to Allans Beach on the south side of the peninsula... it was the best time ever!!! Okay, you remember those HUGE HUGE swells that you see in Zuma around July/August?? Yeah, that was Allans Beach today... SO MUCH FUN/SO HAPPY :) :) :) :) After that, we left the peninsula and drove almost to the edge of Dunedin to this place called Tunnel Beach. Tunnel Beach = cliffs, arches, headlands, and a hand-carved tunnel that lead to a secluded/sheltered beach at the base of the cliffs (took loads of pictures). AHH-MAZING PLACE.

Yup, that's pretty much it. Haven't slept. I've got a three hour meeting with all the international students today and then a train ride to someplace cool... Cheers.

"Kia Ora" means Hi

So now that I've got a solid internet connection THIS IS WHAT'S UP:

New Zealand is pretty awesome and the last week has been pretty nuts but basically...

1) Group flights are a great idea. Whoever thought of that gets a gold star.

2) Last Thursday, I successfully arrived in Auckland at 4:30am (that was so unimaginably early) with all my AustraLearn people who were going to Otago. (AustraLearn is the name of my study abroad program.) We had a short and sweet Welcome-to-New-Zealand session with our program leaders and then we got to explore the city. Auckland was super cool because its right on the water and there are sailboats everywhere and its right on top of a volcanic field... whoa... so we got a nice view of volcanic craters, cones, etc. As far as cities go (it's New Zealand's largest city), Auckland is beautiful.

3) The next day we went to Rotorua (like "row-two-rue-ah") for the rest of our Culture and Adventure Program (aka Orientation) and we played touch rugby and then we spilt into groups to learn the Haka (the Maori battle ritual that the All Blacks perform before every game) AND THEN we got all dressed up in traditional Maori (... apparently you are supposed to forget the "o" and roll the "r" like “mah-rree”) dress and had a Haka battle which was basically us looking super fierce with face paint and our eyes bugging out and chanting and yelling like we were going to battle. IT WAS AWESOME.

4) I guess Kiwis are known for being adrenaline junkies and so they get pretty extreme pretty often and since I’m in NZ for the time being, it seemed like a good idea to try and fit in... which is why last Saturday, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE (because we do so much of this in the States) I rolled down a hill in a giant plastic ball filled with water. I am seriously not kidding. They call it Zorbing. It was awesome/hilarious. Also went whitewater rafting in the KaitunaRiver down a 20ft waterfall. No big deal.

5) Sunday was community day. We helped run a local bike race because February was Bike Wise Month all over New Zealand. Met some Kiwis and rode with little kids so they wouldn't get lost on the mountain. It was all pretty good even though I was honestly half-asleep the whole morning. Skipped running with Paul and Mackenzie, found Gray (yes, that's his real name) for some frisbee time, and ended up playing a big game of Ultimate with a bunch of people. Basically, it was a really good time and since Tim just bought a frisbee here (my little frisbee is too small for Ultimate, shucks) hopefully we'll play again soon yay!

6) Monday was the coolest day ever. Why? Well, because I went on a CAVING ADVENTURE. And when I say ADVENTURE, I mean like two and a half hours UNDERGROUND, repelling/abseiling down four WATERFALLS, the largest of which was no less than 90 feet... yeah, No Way!! It was nuts/It was awesome. Basically, there was nine of us Otago-AustraLearn kids and our two Kiwi guides. After we made it about 200 feet underground, we were all together crawling in knee-deep water, rock climbing, army-crawling through super tight spaces, checking out the glow worms... all of this wearing wetsuits, helmets, and gumboots/galoshes (yeah, literally class 5 climbing, scaling a 20 foot wall, wearing RUBBER BOOTS). That Day = SO COOL!!! the coolest.

Random observation: I feel like Kiwis/Kiwi guides have this idea of "learn as you go" and that "everyone will be totally fine." Like for instance, for rafting in Rotorua and caving in Waitomo, there were no safety instructions, it was all just basically "Hold on" and "Wear a helmet" and that's all. I mean, we learned the basics of repelling for our caving adventure but that was it. And after that, you are pretty much expected to be able to do anything, which was cool because we did. I don't know, I guess it was just refreshing/interesting.

Also, everyone is really friendly and saying Kia Ora everywhere (like "key-or-rah"). All Kiwis say Kia Ora even though it's a Maori word... it's like the basic Hi/What up/Hey man/Yo... but I think it's more common on the North Island because more Maori live there.

ALSO, instead of saying Dude/Man/Mate... EVERYONE says "Bro" except because of their accents it sounds like "Brew" like Leo DeCap in Blood Diamond. This is extremely funny to me.

7) Tuesday, we flew to DUNEDIN!!! So yeah, that's where I am right now, in my flat on the computer because yesterday I finally figured out how to work my internet YAY!! So Tuesday, I met two of my flatmates (Danielle from Rotorua/Auckland area and Lukas from Vermont originally and who goes to UPS in Washington state)... Flatmate #3 is Muhammad (sp?) and he's been here since last fall because he is in NZ for a year and but I haven't met him yet because he's in France right now. Got some groceries and basic stuff like towels, a laundry bag, etc. Last night was really fun because we all pitched in and went to Liz's flat and helped Tim make tacos for everyone. After that we went to the park and just tossed around a rugby ball and frisbee AND THEN we went to the Fish n Chips (= a combination of fried food, hamburgers, and chinese food) across the street and got deep fried Moro bars (chocolate, caramel, and nougat... not sure what a nougat is except that is delicious) and deep fried bananas OMG SO GOOD!! And Then, Paul, Mackenzie, Tim, Liz, Jenny, two of Liz's neighbors, and I decided that it would be a great idea to hike up to Lookout Point and to look out over the peninsula. So we all got jackets and changed shoes and met up around 11:30pm and started out. We got sidetracked a bit but we eventually made it all the way to the top around 12:45ish and then we hung out up there for a while, just looking out over Otago Harbor, the peninsula and the Pacific, and also the actually city of Dunedin. It was really really cool and I'm super glad we all did it... we were talking about doing that hike sometime during the day sometime in the future so that should be neat.

So even though I got home at 2am, I did in fact manage to wake up at 7:45 this morning to register for classes and get my student ID card, Success!! So as of now, I'm taking...

- Intro to NZ Sociology: Tuesday & Thursday 1:00-1:50pm

- Theories of Social Power: Wednesday & Thursday 10:00-10:50am

- Advanced Sociological Theory: Wednesday 11:00-1:50pm

Since I just added Advanced Sociological Theory today, I have to email my advisor at CU to see if that class will count as a upper-division sociology elective... which would be excellent if it did, but if not, no big deal. Supposedly Advanced Theory is going to be super hard and loads of work but all in all, I think this is a most excellent schedule.

Yesterday, when I was walking across campus back to my flat, I saw a boy riding his bicycle and a older man was SPRINTING after him yelling "Hey! No Bikes!" (because apparently you cannot ride your bike on campus??) Anyway, this boy on his bicycle is wearing headphones and he Cannot Hear Anything That This Old Guy Is Saying... so naturally, he pedals faster and faster because just thinks he's being chased by some crazy old man. Old Man keeps chasing him. He Does Not Give Up. I honestly do not know the end of this story because after a minute or so they went around a building, but I was highly amused and I'd like to think that Old Man won in the end but who knows.

I think that's about it for now... kinda long but I had to makeup for all last week. Now I have to go buy power at the post office because most flats in Dunedin have a pre-paid power system/pay-as-you-go system and we don't want the power to run out this weekend when the post office is closed...

Back to the Future

So I've got one more week until I leave for New Zealand and so far this is what I know:

1. This time difference thing is tricky. This is because New Zealand time is three hours behind California BUT it's also one day ahead... so if it is Tuesday at 6:00pm in California, that means that it is Wednesday at 3:00pm in New Zealand. So basically, it's like I can see into the future WHICH IS AWESOME.

2. My flight departs LAX on Tuesday at 7:30pm and I'll arrive in Auckland on Thursday at 5:25am. This is important. However, I'm not really sure what's happening in-between on that Wednesday...

3. So I looked on the University of Otago website (Dunedin is the city, Otago is region) and formal lectures don't start until March 1st. And then April rolls around and OH LOOK, mid-semester break from April 2nd to April 12th. And then school resumes et cetera UNTIL... Lectures end June 4th. Exams begin June 8th. Exams end June 24th. So really this means that I only have about three months of actual classroom time. WHOA, That Is Neat.

4. I'm going to be living in a four bedroom flat/apartment with a Kiwi girl from Auckland, a French guy, and another American guy. This should fun/interesting.
PS. "Kiwi" = New Zealander... apparently it's a big part of their national identity/huge source of national pride type thing.
PPS. "Kiwi" is also a fruit (duh) and is the national bird of New Zealand.

5. Even though New Zealanders speak English, apparently they use a lot of slang. Again, this should be fun/interesting. Also in case you were curious, I guess in New Zealand the term "walkabout" is used to refer generally to traveling around when you want a break or change in your life and so I thought it would be an appropriate title for my blog plus it makes me feel like I'm going on an adventure - SWEET. (In Australia back in the day, "walkabout" meant going into the Australian outback. I don't really know much about Australia right now except that Australia and New Zealand are like friendly rivals and that Australia was originally a place were Great Britain sent all its prisoners so New Zealand is supposedly better/superior/more awesome... just saying.)

6. By the time I return, I will have been unemployed for SIX MONTHS. It's not like I won't have funds or anything like that... it's more like Hey, I Have Had A Job Since I Was 15 Years Old And Now I'm 21 And I Won't Have One For Six Months. I don't know, it's just weird I guess.

7. Travel plans that I know of = I'll be going up to the North Island during the second weekend in March to do some conservation work at the Hunua Ranges Regional Park. WAY EXCITED... this place contains 20% of all New Zealand's indigenous plant species so I'm guessing it's pretty rad. Yay Nature!!

Coolness, ORGANIZING THE FUTURE!!! Alright, I think that is all for today. This is good... like maybe we should do this again sometime.