G'day everyone. I haven't been blogging as nothing too big has happened until recently. I was glad when school was over, well I guess classes that is. I still have one exam to go, and I am taking a break from studying now, but I have turned in all of my papers and as of 4:15 on Thrusday, my time... I will be a free man! Unfortunately I will only have 8 days left in Oz to enjoy it, but I'll make the most of every second!
Just after school let out on the 29th, Lee, Lee's mom Ann and myself headed off to Sydney. We stayed there from the 4th through the 7th in a nice little condo right down town. Lee's aunt lives close to Sydney, so she and Ann played tour guide for the weekend. The first full day there, we hopped on the ferry from the harbour and headed out to the Zoo. The place was massive and we had a lot of fun. The ferry ride out there was pretty cool too, as we had great views of the opera house and harbour bridge. At the zoo we saw everything from giraffe's to meerkat's. There was even a new born baby elephant that was out with its mom. It didn't do much but hid under her legs, but it was still pretty neat to see. That night we went to one of THE BEST seafood restaurants I have ever been to. I ordered the surf and turf, which was steak topped with jumbo shrimp and lobster pieces. The steak cut like butter and the seafood was so fresh... it was just a beautiful meal! Then to top it all off, we had chocolate fondue served with marshmallows and strawberries. As if we weren't full enough, we indulged a bit more and it was SO worth it! The next day was a bit rainy, but we made the most of it. We went out and hopped on the monorail and headed down to another spot along the water. There were some cool ships and old boats around and so feeling inspired, we went and checked out the maritime museum. I myself geek out over every type of mode of transportation, and so I was excited, but the museum was actually really cool and I think everyone enjoyed it. After that, we went and ate a little lunch and did some shopping. We went back to the apartment to rest for a bit, then we were off again. This time, we just did some driving around. We made our way over the harbour bridge and off into a little suburb. Little did I know, we were headed of to where the Prime Minister lives when she is in Sydney. We were able to drive up pretty close and look at the house. She gets some pretty stunning views of the opera house and bridge, I was definitely jealous. After that little trip it started down pouring, so we just headed back home. One of Lee's cousins came into town that evening so we all went out to china town and had dinner. We had another big feast that night... not quite as extravagant as the night before, but it was still pretty delicious. Again it was drizzling and so we headed home. On sunday, the weather was absolutely beautiful. It was sunny and about 73 degrees. We couldn't have asked for a better way to end the trip. That morning we headed down to the harbour again and went to this place that Lee's aunt and mom and found before. It was a rooftop bar/restaurant and it had amazing views out over the opera house. We all sat there and ate lunch and enjoyed the afternoon for quite a while. Then we went down and looked at the open air market that was going on in the streets. Many of the roads were covered in cobble stone, as this was an area first settled when Australia was first found. We wound our way through the maze of streets looking at all of the homemade goods each vendor had to offer. I ended up getting something for myself as well as Shelby, the last person I had to buy for on my list! After the market we headed down to the water side. We snapped a couple of pics and started walking around the water. All of a sudden we stumbled across this jet boat company and Ann REALLY wanted to do it, so we all joined in. The whole concept of this boat is to A) Go really fast, doing all sorts of bobs, weaves, and spins and to B) get REALLY wet.... Oh yeah.. and get really good views. Anyway we hopped on the boat and all of the things above were accomplished. We got an excellent tour of the harbour and got wet along the way. It was a fun way to end the trip. After being completely soaked... Me not as much as Ann who received the brunt of it, we headed back to the apartment to change and pick up the car and head to the airport.
I had such a great time on the trip and we had so much crammed into one tiny weekend. I got to see all the sites a tourist should see when visiting Sydney, and probably a little bit more! I had excellent tour guides and I know that I had a blast! Now I am back in Melbourne and am getting antsy for this exam to be over. I only have to wait 24 more hours, but I can't wait.
I hope it isn't getting too cold back in the Northern Hemisphere. It is getting hotter and hotter down here. Tomorrow is supposed to be 87! Nothing else new to report really. I am looking forward to seeing everyone when I come home. I hope everyone is well and I will speak soon... until next time... no worries!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Summer Time!!
Hello all... so my body is totally out of whack... I am sitting on my balcony at the end of October, wearing no shirt and gym shorts. AND its 10:15 at night! It is SO beautiful outside and I am so glad summer is finally here! The only bizarre thing is that the Big W has started putting out their Christmas line and that is just crazy! It in no way feels like it is getting close to Christmas. I literally saw three decorated Christmas trees today and just busted up laughing. Though it was a joke at first, then realised that I guess Christmas really will be here before I know it.
Speaking of time flying, next week is the last week of school and I can hardly believe it! I have been working hard these past few weeks on getting my end of the year papers finished. I have three 2,500 word essays all due on the same day, so I trying to get them all done now, so I will just be finished with school! I also only have 27 days until I leave Australia and that is really starting to stress me out. I know that I'll be ready to go home, but the fact that I really only have 8 full days of freedom after exams are over kinda makes me sad! Best believe that I will be at the beach every single one of those days before I leave and head to the winter wonder land that I am sure will be blanketing the states upon my arrival... Nothing like a good, "hi ya, you are definitely NOT in Australia anymore, but welcome home.. p.s. its -20 outside!" Ok, maybe it won't be that bad, but coming from 90 everyday, it will not be fun!
Nothing too new really. I sprained my ankle on Monday, which meant I couldn't go out and do anything all week. My theory is that it was God's little reminder to stay in and do my work. All-in-all I think it was a blessing. I have basically finished my Irish history paper, which has truly been the bane of my existence. I don't think it is anything too revolutionary in thinking when it comes to making an argument about Ireland, but I at least have something to turn in. I only have one more paper to write about Ubiquitous Computing, exhilarating I know, but then I will be done with those and just have to take an exam on the 11th.
I was talking to Jordan the other day about how I wasn't homesick here, but I was really people and food sick. I am looking forward to seeing everyone around the holidays! I am also looking forward to putting ranch dressing on EVERYTHING I eat for like the next five months. Mom asked me to make a list of foods and I have really been craving Mexican, and Lasagna, really anything you bake in an oven. That is the one thing my apartment doesn't have and I never realised how many things I like to eat that come out of an oven... and really, in all serisousness I think I want a Dr. Pepper and a shot of ranch dressing waiting for me at the airport. I can't believe that Hidden Valley ranch in all its goodness has not hopped the border of America to spread its deliciousness with the rest of the world!
Ok... getting a little out of hand, so I'll bring it back home. I hope everyone reading is well and enjoying your fall into winter. I enjoy hearing from everyone on Facebook and Skyping with who I can. I'll try to write again a couple of times before I leave, but not making any promises. Until next time... no worries!
Speaking of time flying, next week is the last week of school and I can hardly believe it! I have been working hard these past few weeks on getting my end of the year papers finished. I have three 2,500 word essays all due on the same day, so I trying to get them all done now, so I will just be finished with school! I also only have 27 days until I leave Australia and that is really starting to stress me out. I know that I'll be ready to go home, but the fact that I really only have 8 full days of freedom after exams are over kinda makes me sad! Best believe that I will be at the beach every single one of those days before I leave and head to the winter wonder land that I am sure will be blanketing the states upon my arrival... Nothing like a good, "hi ya, you are definitely NOT in Australia anymore, but welcome home.. p.s. its -20 outside!" Ok, maybe it won't be that bad, but coming from 90 everyday, it will not be fun!
Nothing too new really. I sprained my ankle on Monday, which meant I couldn't go out and do anything all week. My theory is that it was God's little reminder to stay in and do my work. All-in-all I think it was a blessing. I have basically finished my Irish history paper, which has truly been the bane of my existence. I don't think it is anything too revolutionary in thinking when it comes to making an argument about Ireland, but I at least have something to turn in. I only have one more paper to write about Ubiquitous Computing, exhilarating I know, but then I will be done with those and just have to take an exam on the 11th.
I was talking to Jordan the other day about how I wasn't homesick here, but I was really people and food sick. I am looking forward to seeing everyone around the holidays! I am also looking forward to putting ranch dressing on EVERYTHING I eat for like the next five months. Mom asked me to make a list of foods and I have really been craving Mexican, and Lasagna, really anything you bake in an oven. That is the one thing my apartment doesn't have and I never realised how many things I like to eat that come out of an oven... and really, in all serisousness I think I want a Dr. Pepper and a shot of ranch dressing waiting for me at the airport. I can't believe that Hidden Valley ranch in all its goodness has not hopped the border of America to spread its deliciousness with the rest of the world!
Ok... getting a little out of hand, so I'll bring it back home. I hope everyone reading is well and enjoying your fall into winter. I enjoy hearing from everyone on Facebook and Skyping with who I can. I'll try to write again a couple of times before I leave, but not making any promises. Until next time... no worries!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Spring Time
Hello all... So I sitting here at my computer having a spoonful of peanut butter and a glass of milk. I am absolutely craving a tim tam, but it is midnight and I have a whole fresh package of them and I know that I will eat more than one and don't need them, especially this late... any way, point of story is I am now writing this blog post to distract myself... after this, i'll just force myself to brush my teeth and then I won't have the desire to eat any more and it will be time for bed...
Anywho, the weather here is absolutely amazing! The sun has been out every day, the trees are budding, and people are EVERYWHERE! This past weekend, Casey and I went down to St. Kilda and laid out on the beach. Again, there were people all over the place, but it was nice. There was a lot of sport playing going on... cricket, football, Frisbee, we were dorks and didn't bring anything to do, but as it turns out, just laying out in the sun was just perfect. We decided that next weekend we are going back only this time we are packing a picnic and a frisbee.
Since New Zealand, not much has been going on. School is taking up most of my time. Classes are done on the 29th and I still have three research papers to write! I have started one, but the task ahead is still daunting. They'll get done, but I am ready for classes to be out! Lee and I have a trip to Sydney planned for the 4th to 7th of November. Her aunt lives there so that will be nice to get an insiders guide to the city! Sydney is really the last thing I have on my list of things to do in Oz, so once I tick that off of my list I think I will be complete. I only have 37 days left in Australia and I can hardly believe it. The good news is that I don't feel like I have missed out on any opportunities here. I feel like I have been taking advantage of all, or at least most of what this city has to offer.
Well, I've really run out of things to say, so I suppose I better go brush my teeth and avoid the deadly tim tam box! If you haven't done so already, I posted the majority of New Zealand pictures on my facebook, so you should check them out. Talk again soon, and until next time... no worries!
Anywho, the weather here is absolutely amazing! The sun has been out every day, the trees are budding, and people are EVERYWHERE! This past weekend, Casey and I went down to St. Kilda and laid out on the beach. Again, there were people all over the place, but it was nice. There was a lot of sport playing going on... cricket, football, Frisbee, we were dorks and didn't bring anything to do, but as it turns out, just laying out in the sun was just perfect. We decided that next weekend we are going back only this time we are packing a picnic and a frisbee.
Since New Zealand, not much has been going on. School is taking up most of my time. Classes are done on the 29th and I still have three research papers to write! I have started one, but the task ahead is still daunting. They'll get done, but I am ready for classes to be out! Lee and I have a trip to Sydney planned for the 4th to 7th of November. Her aunt lives there so that will be nice to get an insiders guide to the city! Sydney is really the last thing I have on my list of things to do in Oz, so once I tick that off of my list I think I will be complete. I only have 37 days left in Australia and I can hardly believe it. The good news is that I don't feel like I have missed out on any opportunities here. I feel like I have been taking advantage of all, or at least most of what this city has to offer.
Well, I've really run out of things to say, so I suppose I better go brush my teeth and avoid the deadly tim tam box! If you haven't done so already, I posted the majority of New Zealand pictures on my facebook, so you should check them out. Talk again soon, and until next time... no worries!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Back in Aussie
Well I am back in Aussie now and let me tell you, this city has come alive!!! We left chilly NZ to come back to beautiful sunny 75 degree weather here in Australia, and there are people out everywhere. All of the cafe's are full and people are laying out in parks. Today, Claire, Casey and I went and played frisbee in a park that is close by, it is just so hard to not be outside. This new found necessity to be out enjoying the warm weather could prove to be bad when trying to complete schoolwork, but I suppose I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
So, where I last left you was in the stench of a town that is Rotorua, NZ. We all opted to sleep in the next morning and got up at 9. We ate brekky and checked out. It was raining out, but we still headed north to our beachy destination in hopes the sun would come out. We finally made it to Tauranga, and the sun never showed its face, so we didn't spend much time at the beach. After cruising around town, we just decided it would be best to head on in to Auckland. On our way there however, we did stumble upon where they filmed Hobbiton and the Shire in LOTR so that was pretty neat. Once we were about an hour outside of Auckland the traffic got really heavy and our two lane road finally turned into four. (the first four lane road we had encountered in NZ I might add) I was driving and Claire was navigating. Come to find out, Auckland is bigger than London and is like driving in LA, so needless to say I had never driven or encountered anything of that magnitude before. We somehow made it with ease though. I suppose it helps that both Claire and I are like walking GPS's. Once we found our hostel and unpacked we headed to the beach. We spent about an hour there just relaxing and watching these two kids running around chasing the seagull's. As it was our last night in New Zealand, we decided to go out. There was a nice bar in the basement of our hostel so we just went there. There was some good music and dancing and a good amount of people. We turned in early however, because we had to be up at 4:45am to make it to the airport on time. Everything on the flight was fine until about 30 minutes into it. I don't want to sound mean, but the plane was 75% full with asians and they were all screaming at each other in whatever they were speaking and there was one screaming baby in the row behind us, so needless to say our plans of sleeping on the flight home were down to nil. I love flying, but never in my life was I so ready to get off of an airplane. We finally landed and ventured back to our rooms. I tried to lay down and nap, but it never happened so I just went to the market and picked up some much needed food. I ended up fall asleep last night at 10pm. I was watching a movie on TV and just absolutely zonked out from exhaustion.
Today again was a beautiful day. Frisbee was fun and I have been cleaning for the remainder of the day with my balcony doors open, listening to the cars and birds as they pass noisly by. I am not looking forward to going back to school tomorrow, but what can you do... Fortunately I only have 4 weeks left as classes end on the 29th, but I still have four research papers due on the 8th of November, so I will still be busy this month. I only have 49 days left in Aussie and I know they are going to fly by! I am anxious to get home in some ways, but know I will be sad to leave. I think its really the comforts that one grows up with that I miss the most. You know, the things that you can just run out and get or do... basically everything that is familiar. I am sure it is the same with anyone who travels from their home land... There are just things that you know and miss. For me those things are mainly food... Like Dr. Pepper, Ranch Dressing, Mexican, and Good ole American Chinese food, and of course my family! But I have also really come to like Australia, and all it has to offer. Needless to say it is a catch 22, but I will survive when I come back to the States!
Well, it is my turn to cook dinner in the Sunday night ritual, so I guess I better go and get started! Keep reading, commenting and talking to me on FB I love hearing from home! Until next time... no worries!
So, where I last left you was in the stench of a town that is Rotorua, NZ. We all opted to sleep in the next morning and got up at 9. We ate brekky and checked out. It was raining out, but we still headed north to our beachy destination in hopes the sun would come out. We finally made it to Tauranga, and the sun never showed its face, so we didn't spend much time at the beach. After cruising around town, we just decided it would be best to head on in to Auckland. On our way there however, we did stumble upon where they filmed Hobbiton and the Shire in LOTR so that was pretty neat. Once we were about an hour outside of Auckland the traffic got really heavy and our two lane road finally turned into four. (the first four lane road we had encountered in NZ I might add) I was driving and Claire was navigating. Come to find out, Auckland is bigger than London and is like driving in LA, so needless to say I had never driven or encountered anything of that magnitude before. We somehow made it with ease though. I suppose it helps that both Claire and I are like walking GPS's. Once we found our hostel and unpacked we headed to the beach. We spent about an hour there just relaxing and watching these two kids running around chasing the seagull's. As it was our last night in New Zealand, we decided to go out. There was a nice bar in the basement of our hostel so we just went there. There was some good music and dancing and a good amount of people. We turned in early however, because we had to be up at 4:45am to make it to the airport on time. Everything on the flight was fine until about 30 minutes into it. I don't want to sound mean, but the plane was 75% full with asians and they were all screaming at each other in whatever they were speaking and there was one screaming baby in the row behind us, so needless to say our plans of sleeping on the flight home were down to nil. I love flying, but never in my life was I so ready to get off of an airplane. We finally landed and ventured back to our rooms. I tried to lay down and nap, but it never happened so I just went to the market and picked up some much needed food. I ended up fall asleep last night at 10pm. I was watching a movie on TV and just absolutely zonked out from exhaustion.
Today again was a beautiful day. Frisbee was fun and I have been cleaning for the remainder of the day with my balcony doors open, listening to the cars and birds as they pass noisly by. I am not looking forward to going back to school tomorrow, but what can you do... Fortunately I only have 4 weeks left as classes end on the 29th, but I still have four research papers due on the 8th of November, so I will still be busy this month. I only have 49 days left in Aussie and I know they are going to fly by! I am anxious to get home in some ways, but know I will be sad to leave. I think its really the comforts that one grows up with that I miss the most. You know, the things that you can just run out and get or do... basically everything that is familiar. I am sure it is the same with anyone who travels from their home land... There are just things that you know and miss. For me those things are mainly food... Like Dr. Pepper, Ranch Dressing, Mexican, and Good ole American Chinese food, and of course my family! But I have also really come to like Australia, and all it has to offer. Needless to say it is a catch 22, but I will survive when I come back to the States!
Well, it is my turn to cook dinner in the Sunday night ritual, so I guess I better go and get started! Keep reading, commenting and talking to me on FB I love hearing from home! Until next time... no worries!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Playing Catch-up
Ok, so my computer battery died and we have only had one or two outlets in our rooms and the heater takes up one and camera chargers rotating between the four of us take up the other…. So, point of story is I haven’t been writing and I have a lot to catch you up on!
Again, I would like to reiterate the fact that New Zealand is FREAKING AWESOME!!!!! Sorry… I didn’t mean to yell, I just love it here! Anyway, in Queenstown, Claire and Casey didn’t end up being able to go skydiving. After three attempts, it was just too windy for them to go. Cat and I were however, able to go ziplining. We went on four separate zip tracks through the mountains that gave us stunning views of the lake and mountains around it. The town itself was SO beautiful. It is a nice little costal town right on lake that was the same glacial blue as all the others sitting in between these huge snow capped mountains. The view from our hostel alone was spectacular. We had clear views of the lake and two different mountain ranges. One of which was the Remarkables, which are named for the fact that they are the only mountain range in the world that run due north and south. After our minor hikes and thoroughly exploring Queenstown and taking about a billion more pictures, we started our trek north to the Franz Josef glacier. On our way out of town there were two roads, the scenic route and the highway route…. Naturally we took the scenic route that got us to our mid way destination about 45 minutes behind the highway and the ominous road signs speaking of chained tires in winter and absolutely NO trucks allowed, didn’t stop us. Needless to say, we 100% made the right decision! With me at the helm, we wound and twisted our way up these mounatins and hills slowly heading north. Again, cameras were whipped out at every direction. One stop we came to looked back in over Queenstown and we even high enough that we were eye to eye with a landing airplane, to which I totally geeked out over. After that we kept on trucking along slowly twisting and turning up and down, luckily none of us got car sick. We finally wound our way through the mountains to our midway point of Wanaka. Again, this was a nice little town on the edge of a lake, with, of course, stunning views! We drove around the lake and stopped at this scenic overlook. We had the perfect weather, sunny and warm. I think I could have sat on the edge of this cliff overlooking the water for days. Unfortunately however, after some exploring we had to be on our way. On our way up the road, the scenery started to change dramatically. There were no longer snow capped mountains, but rather mountains covered in rainforest. Come to find out, it is an actual rain forest, but we couldn’t believe that the surrounding ecosystem had changed so much. We could see waterfalls flowing from high off the mountains and trees and bushes everywhere, it just had that “wet” feeling that you would imagine a rainforest to have. The only difference was that it was only about 60 degrees, so no jungle fever for us. Again, we found ourselves on curvy roads, but as we got farther towards the west coast we started to smell salt water. Then, out of nowhere, the mountains opened up and we emerged onto a road that ran just parallel to the ocean. It was amazing. It was about two o’clock when we had made it there so the sun was just visible over the water, making it even more of a sight to see. Again, we could have stopped for ages, but we needed to keep driving. The ocean didn’t last too long as we made our way back into the mountains for our glacial destination. There were two glaciers that we were going to see. One was Fox glacier and the other was Franz Josef, also the town we were staying in. We ate dinner at Fox Glacier and then went and hiked around the sheet of ice. It was pretty cool, you couldn’t get on it, but having never seen a glacier before it was pretty amazing. As the sun set, we decided it was time to go and check-in to our hostel just another 20 minutes up the road. Franz Josef was a small little town, literally only two roads and nothing open past 8 pm. We slept well and bounced out of bed early to check out the second glacier. Again, we couldn’t climb on it and we didn’t feel like taking an expensive helicopter tour just to get to the top, so we did the hour or so hike up to it and got as close as we could. Our next resting place was Westport, which was farther up the west coast, so after our hike we decided to hit the road again. We stopped at a couple of walking trails along the way, taking pictures of many waterfalls and scenic areas. Once we got a little over half way to Westport, we stumbled over an area called the pancake rocks. By this time we had gotten back to the coast and the rocks were so named because they have lines running along them that make them look like huge stacks of pancakes. What’s neat about them though is that their formation along the coast has made blowholes and as the waves come crashing into them, water is forced up and out of certain areas of the rocks. It literally looks and sounds like a whale is clearing its blowhole. Once on the road again, we made only one pit stop to get a smoothie from McDonalds. Unfortunately to say, as college kids on a budget, we have eaten at Mackers, as they call it, for breakfast everyday, and basically fish and chips (french fries) the rest of our meals because its the cheapest, but I digress…. Once in Westport, we stayed at this old renovated house, which was the only hostel in the whole town. It was a nice little place and the beds were comfy, but there was absolutely nothing do to there, except for a seal colony, so we went to see it. It actually turned out to be really cool. We were there around 6 pm so we looked at all of the seals sleeping, fighting, and flopping all over the rocks, then we made our way up the hiking trail to the top of this hill and sat in the grass and watched the sun set over the ocean. We stayed until the sun finally sunk below the horizon, and in hopes of seeing the green flashing light at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean 3, but it never happened. After that, it got super cold so we went back to the hostel and watched a movie. The next morning was a big drive to Picton where were catching the Ferry to Wellington, but not before horse back riding. Casey had been wanting to go horse back riding since day one, so we found a place that did a two hour ride for $80 (New Zealand) and we went. We all grumbled about it, but it ended up being pretty fun. We basically went all over the woods and along some fields and water. One river was the Buller river, which come to find out has the largest amount of water flowing through it second only to the Nile, so that was pretty cool. After that little adventure, we headed to the Sea port of Picton. We went back through the same rain forest type mountains, which we are all convinced is where the Jurassic Park movies were filmed. Once to Picton, we hopped on the ferry and parked our car and just chilled out for the 3 hour journey in the lounges upstairs. After our journey to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city, we got lost for about an hour. Wellington is one of the world’s WORST laid out cities ever created. I was driving and Claire was navagating, and no matter what the map said, we kept hitting one way’s and do not enter signs and seriously could not get to where we needed to be! We finally made it and just crashed in our hostel and got up bright and early the next morning to get the heck out of there. We ventured into a town called Upper Hut and visited a couple of Lord of the Rings filming sites. One was a river, but the most exciting one was where they filmed Rivendell. I took tons of pictures and again, the landscape was just gorgeous. We then started to head up north to the town of Rotorua. On the way, we saw where they filmed the Black Gates and as we passed through this deserty area we saw a full rainbow in the field right next to us. Claire was driving and immediately swerved off of the road for us to take pictures. The North Island is completely different from the south. Here instead of long mountain ranges, there are rolling hills of green as far as the eye can see, with little plops of white sheep all over them. The north island is where they filmed the Shire in LOTR so if you are familiar with the movies, then that is where we are. As we headed up the road, we stopped at a place called Lake Taupo and ate dinner and did a little walking around. It was a decent sized town and the lake was beautiful. It was really clear and blue, although not glacial fed, it was still nice none the less. The green hills surrounded the whole lake and the sun again was setting over it, making our views unbelievable. After we tore ourselves away, we headed into Rotorua. Let me just start off by saying, THIS TOWN STINKS!!!!! Not stinks as in its boring, but as in the air stinks! This area is filled with geothermal hot spots so the smell of sulfur is rank in the air! I absolutely do not know how people live here. The smell is awful. Luckily our hostel is in a place where it is hard to smell it, but man some places in town smell like you have been swimming in rotten eggs for years. Anyway, we got into town last night (Wednesday 29, September) and did a little exploring. We stumbled across this amazing hole in the wall and got ice cream and ended up going back today for lunch. For $10 you got two pieces of fish, one sasuage (like a bratwurst), chips, and a seafood stick! It was amazing. I’m getting ahead of myself a little bit, but the food was just SO good. Anyway, we went to bed rather early and got up around nine and went to the one thing I have been waiting this whole trip to do… Zorbing! Zorbing was invented in New Zealand and its where you put your self in the big giant plastic ball and roll down a hill. Casey and Cat did the dry Zorb where you get strapped in and tumble down the hill head over heels all the way to the bottom. Claire and I however, did the water Zorb, where they fill a portion of the ball up with a bit of water and then you climb into it. They then proceed to roll you down this winding hill whilst you slosh everywhere! It was absolutely one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life! If it wasn’t so expensive, I would have ridden a million times! Afterwards, claire and I froze our bums off and went back to the hostel to change. Once back we were trying to decide on an afternoon activity and settled on a hike through this redwood forest. It was about a two and a half hour hike and it had a pretty good rain going for the latter half of the trek, but overall it was pretty neat to see. The redwoods are just like those in California, except I don’t think they get as big around. We were also able to look down into a spot were there were a bunch of geothermal pools and we also saw one of the geyser’s erupting. Our long wet trek finally came to an end and we are now sitting back in our hostel taking a breather....
Phew.. Ok, I know that is a lot for you to read, and man that was a lot for me to type. A lot has happened since I was last able to write and I’m sure I’m missing out on some things, but this is turning into quite the post! But, at least you are all caught up now! I would also like to mention that it is my mom’s birthday today, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Tonight should be a pretty chilled out night in Rotorua as we are getting up early to hit up a couple more spots before heading into Auckland. This trip is just going by insanely fast and I can’t believe that it is already coming to a close. We really only have one more day left here, as our flight is out of Auckland at 7 am, but that should give us a chance to settle back into Australia time and come down off of our New Zealand high before starting school on Monday.
Hopefully all is well on the other side of the globe! Until next time… no worries!
Again, I would like to reiterate the fact that New Zealand is FREAKING AWESOME!!!!! Sorry… I didn’t mean to yell, I just love it here! Anyway, in Queenstown, Claire and Casey didn’t end up being able to go skydiving. After three attempts, it was just too windy for them to go. Cat and I were however, able to go ziplining. We went on four separate zip tracks through the mountains that gave us stunning views of the lake and mountains around it. The town itself was SO beautiful. It is a nice little costal town right on lake that was the same glacial blue as all the others sitting in between these huge snow capped mountains. The view from our hostel alone was spectacular. We had clear views of the lake and two different mountain ranges. One of which was the Remarkables, which are named for the fact that they are the only mountain range in the world that run due north and south. After our minor hikes and thoroughly exploring Queenstown and taking about a billion more pictures, we started our trek north to the Franz Josef glacier. On our way out of town there were two roads, the scenic route and the highway route…. Naturally we took the scenic route that got us to our mid way destination about 45 minutes behind the highway and the ominous road signs speaking of chained tires in winter and absolutely NO trucks allowed, didn’t stop us. Needless to say, we 100% made the right decision! With me at the helm, we wound and twisted our way up these mounatins and hills slowly heading north. Again, cameras were whipped out at every direction. One stop we came to looked back in over Queenstown and we even high enough that we were eye to eye with a landing airplane, to which I totally geeked out over. After that we kept on trucking along slowly twisting and turning up and down, luckily none of us got car sick. We finally wound our way through the mountains to our midway point of Wanaka. Again, this was a nice little town on the edge of a lake, with, of course, stunning views! We drove around the lake and stopped at this scenic overlook. We had the perfect weather, sunny and warm. I think I could have sat on the edge of this cliff overlooking the water for days. Unfortunately however, after some exploring we had to be on our way. On our way up the road, the scenery started to change dramatically. There were no longer snow capped mountains, but rather mountains covered in rainforest. Come to find out, it is an actual rain forest, but we couldn’t believe that the surrounding ecosystem had changed so much. We could see waterfalls flowing from high off the mountains and trees and bushes everywhere, it just had that “wet” feeling that you would imagine a rainforest to have. The only difference was that it was only about 60 degrees, so no jungle fever for us. Again, we found ourselves on curvy roads, but as we got farther towards the west coast we started to smell salt water. Then, out of nowhere, the mountains opened up and we emerged onto a road that ran just parallel to the ocean. It was amazing. It was about two o’clock when we had made it there so the sun was just visible over the water, making it even more of a sight to see. Again, we could have stopped for ages, but we needed to keep driving. The ocean didn’t last too long as we made our way back into the mountains for our glacial destination. There were two glaciers that we were going to see. One was Fox glacier and the other was Franz Josef, also the town we were staying in. We ate dinner at Fox Glacier and then went and hiked around the sheet of ice. It was pretty cool, you couldn’t get on it, but having never seen a glacier before it was pretty amazing. As the sun set, we decided it was time to go and check-in to our hostel just another 20 minutes up the road. Franz Josef was a small little town, literally only two roads and nothing open past 8 pm. We slept well and bounced out of bed early to check out the second glacier. Again, we couldn’t climb on it and we didn’t feel like taking an expensive helicopter tour just to get to the top, so we did the hour or so hike up to it and got as close as we could. Our next resting place was Westport, which was farther up the west coast, so after our hike we decided to hit the road again. We stopped at a couple of walking trails along the way, taking pictures of many waterfalls and scenic areas. Once we got a little over half way to Westport, we stumbled over an area called the pancake rocks. By this time we had gotten back to the coast and the rocks were so named because they have lines running along them that make them look like huge stacks of pancakes. What’s neat about them though is that their formation along the coast has made blowholes and as the waves come crashing into them, water is forced up and out of certain areas of the rocks. It literally looks and sounds like a whale is clearing its blowhole. Once on the road again, we made only one pit stop to get a smoothie from McDonalds. Unfortunately to say, as college kids on a budget, we have eaten at Mackers, as they call it, for breakfast everyday, and basically fish and chips (french fries) the rest of our meals because its the cheapest, but I digress…. Once in Westport, we stayed at this old renovated house, which was the only hostel in the whole town. It was a nice little place and the beds were comfy, but there was absolutely nothing do to there, except for a seal colony, so we went to see it. It actually turned out to be really cool. We were there around 6 pm so we looked at all of the seals sleeping, fighting, and flopping all over the rocks, then we made our way up the hiking trail to the top of this hill and sat in the grass and watched the sun set over the ocean. We stayed until the sun finally sunk below the horizon, and in hopes of seeing the green flashing light at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean 3, but it never happened. After that, it got super cold so we went back to the hostel and watched a movie. The next morning was a big drive to Picton where were catching the Ferry to Wellington, but not before horse back riding. Casey had been wanting to go horse back riding since day one, so we found a place that did a two hour ride for $80 (New Zealand) and we went. We all grumbled about it, but it ended up being pretty fun. We basically went all over the woods and along some fields and water. One river was the Buller river, which come to find out has the largest amount of water flowing through it second only to the Nile, so that was pretty cool. After that little adventure, we headed to the Sea port of Picton. We went back through the same rain forest type mountains, which we are all convinced is where the Jurassic Park movies were filmed. Once to Picton, we hopped on the ferry and parked our car and just chilled out for the 3 hour journey in the lounges upstairs. After our journey to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city, we got lost for about an hour. Wellington is one of the world’s WORST laid out cities ever created. I was driving and Claire was navagating, and no matter what the map said, we kept hitting one way’s and do not enter signs and seriously could not get to where we needed to be! We finally made it and just crashed in our hostel and got up bright and early the next morning to get the heck out of there. We ventured into a town called Upper Hut and visited a couple of Lord of the Rings filming sites. One was a river, but the most exciting one was where they filmed Rivendell. I took tons of pictures and again, the landscape was just gorgeous. We then started to head up north to the town of Rotorua. On the way, we saw where they filmed the Black Gates and as we passed through this deserty area we saw a full rainbow in the field right next to us. Claire was driving and immediately swerved off of the road for us to take pictures. The North Island is completely different from the south. Here instead of long mountain ranges, there are rolling hills of green as far as the eye can see, with little plops of white sheep all over them. The north island is where they filmed the Shire in LOTR so if you are familiar with the movies, then that is where we are. As we headed up the road, we stopped at a place called Lake Taupo and ate dinner and did a little walking around. It was a decent sized town and the lake was beautiful. It was really clear and blue, although not glacial fed, it was still nice none the less. The green hills surrounded the whole lake and the sun again was setting over it, making our views unbelievable. After we tore ourselves away, we headed into Rotorua. Let me just start off by saying, THIS TOWN STINKS!!!!! Not stinks as in its boring, but as in the air stinks! This area is filled with geothermal hot spots so the smell of sulfur is rank in the air! I absolutely do not know how people live here. The smell is awful. Luckily our hostel is in a place where it is hard to smell it, but man some places in town smell like you have been swimming in rotten eggs for years. Anyway, we got into town last night (Wednesday 29, September) and did a little exploring. We stumbled across this amazing hole in the wall and got ice cream and ended up going back today for lunch. For $10 you got two pieces of fish, one sasuage (like a bratwurst), chips, and a seafood stick! It was amazing. I’m getting ahead of myself a little bit, but the food was just SO good. Anyway, we went to bed rather early and got up around nine and went to the one thing I have been waiting this whole trip to do… Zorbing! Zorbing was invented in New Zealand and its where you put your self in the big giant plastic ball and roll down a hill. Casey and Cat did the dry Zorb where you get strapped in and tumble down the hill head over heels all the way to the bottom. Claire and I however, did the water Zorb, where they fill a portion of the ball up with a bit of water and then you climb into it. They then proceed to roll you down this winding hill whilst you slosh everywhere! It was absolutely one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life! If it wasn’t so expensive, I would have ridden a million times! Afterwards, claire and I froze our bums off and went back to the hostel to change. Once back we were trying to decide on an afternoon activity and settled on a hike through this redwood forest. It was about a two and a half hour hike and it had a pretty good rain going for the latter half of the trek, but overall it was pretty neat to see. The redwoods are just like those in California, except I don’t think they get as big around. We were also able to look down into a spot were there were a bunch of geothermal pools and we also saw one of the geyser’s erupting. Our long wet trek finally came to an end and we are now sitting back in our hostel taking a breather....
Phew.. Ok, I know that is a lot for you to read, and man that was a lot for me to type. A lot has happened since I was last able to write and I’m sure I’m missing out on some things, but this is turning into quite the post! But, at least you are all caught up now! I would also like to mention that it is my mom’s birthday today, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Tonight should be a pretty chilled out night in Rotorua as we are getting up early to hit up a couple more spots before heading into Auckland. This trip is just going by insanely fast and I can’t believe that it is already coming to a close. We really only have one more day left here, as our flight is out of Auckland at 7 am, but that should give us a chance to settle back into Australia time and come down off of our New Zealand high before starting school on Monday.
Hopefully all is well on the other side of the globe! Until next time… no worries!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Kiwi's and Sheep!
Fact: There are more sheep in New Zealand than Human.
Fact: New Zealand is Hands Down the most beautiful place I have ever been to in my life!
So we flew from Melbourne into Christchurch on the 23rd of September. We landed at 11:30pm so we didn’t do much that night. We were all starving from the flight because they didn’t feed us and so we just ended up going to KFC around the corner from our hostel. After eating and walking around the square we finally retired to our room and all fell asleep. The next day was early… We got up at 8:30 to pick up or car and head out. After picking up or beautiful White Nissan Sunny, we headed off to explore Christchurch. After a minor map snafu and remembering to drive on the left side of the road, we headed out to the beach. We stopped at pegasus bay and got out… The water was and icy blue and the sounds of the crashing waves was absolutely amazing. Only the even better part was you could be standing on the beach and then turn around to see snow covered mountains. I had never seen anything like that before and I had now idea of the views that were yet to come…
At around noon we decided it was time to get on our way to Queenstown. Claire drove us out of the city and towards our destination… We stopped in a town called Geraldine to where we found this amazing diner and had some pretty awesome Fish and Chips (fries) They had all homemade sauces and the food was absolutely delicious! After stuffing our faces, we were back on our way, only this time I was at the helm of the ship, which we have named Aeowin (SP?) to fit in with our tour of New Zealand/Lord of the rings Middle Earth. Heading farther east, we only got closer and closer to the ominous mountains, which looked absolutely breath taking. The clouds were floating around the tops of them while the snow blew in the wind. I couldn’t wait to get closer. As we were driving, the road we were on had two glacial lakes. As we topped over a hill the view we had was more than words can describe. The water was an icy pale blue and was just so pristine and gorgeous. Then, rising up from the coast of the water were the snowy mountains that fed them. We found a place to park and ventured down some rocks to the water. The wind was blowing heavily off the lake, but just such pure fresh smelling air that I didn’t mind. Once we got to the water and we had completed the ritual tourist pictures we all decided to drink the water… It just looked so clean we couldn’t resist. After getting over the shock of how cold the water was to the touch we each scooped up a handful and drank. As I had suspected, it was absolutely delicious.. Again, just as crisp and clean as the air! We finally pulled ourselves away to head to the next lake. It was just as, if not more beautiful than the first. After passing by that one, we made our way into the mountains. The path through wasn’t too bad… just a few curves here and there and some fairly steep climbs, but it stayed flat most of the time.
We continued to drive or 6 hour drive and when we were about an hour outside of Queenstown we stumbled upon this fresh fruit place with Cider, food and Sweets, so naturally we pulled over and went in. We hadn’t even eaten dinner yet, but after looking around, we new we had to get this custard cake, so Claire and I split it. It was literally one of the best things I have ever eaten. Both of the crusts were drenched in butter and coconut. Then inbetween was the most beautiful whipped vanilla custard you have ever tasted… I think we could have eaten about fifty more… but we refrained. We finally forced ourselves to leave and made it down the road to Queenstown. We checked into our amazing hostel, which truly is one of the best I’ve seen… We even have our own bathroom, so that’s nice, and then headed out to dinner. After eating some pizza we all came back to chill out here and sleep before our big adventure day tomorrow. Queenstown is the Adventure capital of the Southern hemisphere apparently, so we are adventuring… I’m not going as far as Claire… she is going skydiving with Casey and me and Cat are going ziplining… If you know me at all, I’m not really an adrenaline junky. :) Anyway, we are spending two nights here so we are going to try and do as much as possible. Along side our adventure, we are balancing out with the dorkieness of the group and hitting up a couple of Lord of the Rings sites they used for filming in this area. Once we are done here, we will be heading up the West Coast towards Franz Josef Glacier, which should be a site to see and I am so excited for it.
Driving seemed like a breeze, both in a way, that driving a long haul drive on the left side of the road was actually no big deal, and also, that even though it was a long drive, the scenery was so dramatic and always changing, we were just always awestruck!
I’m just trying to write a day at a time and I’ll post when I can, but if it all ends up one big post in the end, I apologise.
On a side note, New Zealanders are called Kiwi’s and there slogan is “it’s the Kiwi way” but I have yet to find out why they are called Kiwi’s. So, If anyone has any info on this please share it.
I’ll just keep documenting my holiday, trying to write down as much as I can at a time… Until next time, no worries!
Fact: New Zealand is Hands Down the most beautiful place I have ever been to in my life!
So we flew from Melbourne into Christchurch on the 23rd of September. We landed at 11:30pm so we didn’t do much that night. We were all starving from the flight because they didn’t feed us and so we just ended up going to KFC around the corner from our hostel. After eating and walking around the square we finally retired to our room and all fell asleep. The next day was early… We got up at 8:30 to pick up or car and head out. After picking up or beautiful White Nissan Sunny, we headed off to explore Christchurch. After a minor map snafu and remembering to drive on the left side of the road, we headed out to the beach. We stopped at pegasus bay and got out… The water was and icy blue and the sounds of the crashing waves was absolutely amazing. Only the even better part was you could be standing on the beach and then turn around to see snow covered mountains. I had never seen anything like that before and I had now idea of the views that were yet to come…
At around noon we decided it was time to get on our way to Queenstown. Claire drove us out of the city and towards our destination… We stopped in a town called Geraldine to where we found this amazing diner and had some pretty awesome Fish and Chips (fries) They had all homemade sauces and the food was absolutely delicious! After stuffing our faces, we were back on our way, only this time I was at the helm of the ship, which we have named Aeowin (SP?) to fit in with our tour of New Zealand/Lord of the rings Middle Earth. Heading farther east, we only got closer and closer to the ominous mountains, which looked absolutely breath taking. The clouds were floating around the tops of them while the snow blew in the wind. I couldn’t wait to get closer. As we were driving, the road we were on had two glacial lakes. As we topped over a hill the view we had was more than words can describe. The water was an icy pale blue and was just so pristine and gorgeous. Then, rising up from the coast of the water were the snowy mountains that fed them. We found a place to park and ventured down some rocks to the water. The wind was blowing heavily off the lake, but just such pure fresh smelling air that I didn’t mind. Once we got to the water and we had completed the ritual tourist pictures we all decided to drink the water… It just looked so clean we couldn’t resist. After getting over the shock of how cold the water was to the touch we each scooped up a handful and drank. As I had suspected, it was absolutely delicious.. Again, just as crisp and clean as the air! We finally pulled ourselves away to head to the next lake. It was just as, if not more beautiful than the first. After passing by that one, we made our way into the mountains. The path through wasn’t too bad… just a few curves here and there and some fairly steep climbs, but it stayed flat most of the time.
We continued to drive or 6 hour drive and when we were about an hour outside of Queenstown we stumbled upon this fresh fruit place with Cider, food and Sweets, so naturally we pulled over and went in. We hadn’t even eaten dinner yet, but after looking around, we new we had to get this custard cake, so Claire and I split it. It was literally one of the best things I have ever eaten. Both of the crusts were drenched in butter and coconut. Then inbetween was the most beautiful whipped vanilla custard you have ever tasted… I think we could have eaten about fifty more… but we refrained. We finally forced ourselves to leave and made it down the road to Queenstown. We checked into our amazing hostel, which truly is one of the best I’ve seen… We even have our own bathroom, so that’s nice, and then headed out to dinner. After eating some pizza we all came back to chill out here and sleep before our big adventure day tomorrow. Queenstown is the Adventure capital of the Southern hemisphere apparently, so we are adventuring… I’m not going as far as Claire… she is going skydiving with Casey and me and Cat are going ziplining… If you know me at all, I’m not really an adrenaline junky. :) Anyway, we are spending two nights here so we are going to try and do as much as possible. Along side our adventure, we are balancing out with the dorkieness of the group and hitting up a couple of Lord of the Rings sites they used for filming in this area. Once we are done here, we will be heading up the West Coast towards Franz Josef Glacier, which should be a site to see and I am so excited for it.
Driving seemed like a breeze, both in a way, that driving a long haul drive on the left side of the road was actually no big deal, and also, that even though it was a long drive, the scenery was so dramatic and always changing, we were just always awestruck!
I’m just trying to write a day at a time and I’ll post when I can, but if it all ends up one big post in the end, I apologise.
On a side note, New Zealanders are called Kiwi’s and there slogan is “it’s the Kiwi way” but I have yet to find out why they are called Kiwi’s. So, If anyone has any info on this please share it.
I’ll just keep documenting my holiday, trying to write down as much as I can at a time… Until next time, no worries!
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