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