Time has been FLYING- as expected.
I said goodbye to most people today as I will they will leave while I am in the South Island. It was really weird. It felt like I was leaving my friends back at home for New Zealand- but flip flopped. I guess that's a good thing because I definitely have made some great friends here. The best part of that is they live all throughout the world. US: West coast, mid west, south, east coast. Europe: Netherlands, Germany and of course, My Kiwis. So I'll have people to visit everywhere. What a great excuse to travel :)
Exams finished up and we have all just been hanging out and having a good time. Friday night I went to my favourite Kiwi band's concert: Six60. www.six60.co.nz .. they were absolutely AMAZING live. It was an awesome night and probably one of my favourites in Wellington. We started out having a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant on Cuba Street then headed to the concert. Apparently, Six60 was scheduled to come on at 12 and we thought 8pm. So we went back to the Cube and "prepared" for the concert a bit more. It was AWESOME. Then I had a stat exam the next morning. Oh how lovely Business Statistics is after 3 hours of sleep and drinking...hehe.
Last night we (Leah, Jarad, Dani, Jon, and Alex) went to Three Kings (huge sports bar) to watch the FIFA soccer game with NZ All Whites vs Argentina. It was an okay game, but ended amazingly! A Kiwi scored with 30 sec left and it ended up being a draw. That was a lot of fun just to see the culture of sports watching in NZ. The pub was PACKED. We got there an hour early and barely got a table.. hundreds of people were there. It was great! Before that, we went to dinner for Indian food (obviously)..that was great too! I'm going to miss the cultural food. There is so much Malaysian, Indian, Asian style food options here.
Today Jarad and I just walked around town and did some shopping. It was a beautiful, sunny day (I actually got sunburnt!). I'll definitely miss being the Wellington sunny-day walks. Everything is just so pretty when it's nice out. The waterfront is packed and people are out of hibernation. There's so much to do/see when it's nice out. Those days usually speed by. Oh, Welly! I can't believe it's almost time to go!
I'm off to bed. I'll be in the South Island for a week before my 3 1/2 day wrap up of Wellington. HOW did this happen?!
My itinerary is:
June
17: Christchurch
18: Scenic train Christchurch to Greymouth
19: Greymouth to Franz Josef (glaciers!)
20: Franz Josef to Queenstown
21: More Queenstown
22: Dunedin
23: Tekapo
24pm: Fly back to Wellington
28: LEAVE WELLINGTON
29: helllllo Vermont!
http://www.magicbus.co.nz/main/productDetail/index.cfm?productID=8
That's the link of my detailed itinerary. It has a map with descriptions of what each town is known for and what to explore. It's actually a really cool system. I purchased a bus pass for this specific journey and can decide how long I spend in each town, with a minimum 7 days. So someone could have a 3month travel pass, staying weeks at each place. So I'll be backpacking, but with a planned schedule. I am actually really excited and don't know what to expect. I feel like a kid on the first day of school, very anxious yet thrilled for it to start. YAYYY!!!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
"The truth is rarely pure and never simple" -Oscar Wilde
Lot's has happened since June 1st. Starting with last Thursday, June 3rd- a pretty eventful day :)
Leah and I scheduled massages at the cosmetology training school. It was $30NZD (about $20USD) for a one-hour, full body massage. It was great! My back has really been bothering me so it was nice to get a budget priced massage in.
We then went to Coyote, a little bar/restaurant on Courtenay Place for lunch followed by a lovely film: SEX AND THE CITY 2. I had been anxiously waiting for it to come out in NZ. Penny (Leah's new flatmate- sweet girl!) came with us. It was a great afternoon.
Also, it was Katie's 21st birthday back home in Vermont!!!!! I wish I could've made it to celebrate!! My friends here and I went out that night and I made them have a tequila shot for her (surprise, Katie!).
Friday morning, I left for Rotorua:
Kelsi was on the bus to her hometown for the weekend. So it was nice to have a bus buddy! It was about a 7.5 hour bus ride. However, I didn't really mind it. We watched a few movies and the scenery was beautiful! We passed a mountain with lots of snow on it and the volcano that is represented in the Lord of the Rings quite a bit. And yes, HEAPS OF SHEEP! It's funny.. the mountains and hills are so steep but somehow, the sheep just post right up. It looks like the might roll down but they really can control themselves. My friend joked and said that's why the meat is better here.. haha, could be true!
But $35 NZD ($20USD) was totally worth it to see all the scenery and make it to Rotorua!
Britta (international from NJ) met me in Rotorua on a later bus. So I got off the bus and had a few hours to figure out the hostel situation etc. Instead, I headed to the water and caught a beautiful sunset and gave my big sissy a phone call.
Then I realized, it's dark, I'm backpacking alone, and have yet to find a hostel. I kind of made some moves and searched around town and came across one that was legit and worked out a little deal. I walked to the bus station and some Maori man just started talking to me. He was not harmful, maybe just had a little mental condition. New Zealanders make fun of the Maori accent because they talk like "bros". ie: "cheya bro, i wen dow to da mawket" something like that. Anyways, he asked what planet I was from (yes, planet) and asked if I had children. I said no and started laughing and he said he had never met an American woman without children. I thought that was kind of funny. After what seemed like ages, Britta arrived! We went to the hostel, dropped her stuff off, went to dinner, and passed out! We intended to wake up at 7:30 to start our only day in Rotorua but my "lovely" NZ crap phone turned off and my alarm didn't go off. I woke up around 8:30 and we were able to start our day at a reasonable travel time. We hopped on the bus to go to the Redwood forest. It was "world environmental day" and they gave us free fares. Awesome. Nothing (really, nothing) is free in New Zealand. We even have to pay for a size of sauce out to dinner.
Decades ago, the land was not able to be used for agriculture. People were trying to figure out the reasoning and brought a variety of species into the forest to determine what thrived best. Redwoods were quite successful! It was nice to be out of the Wellington city and breathing fresh forest air. I can't even describe that. So refreshing and just amazing.
Rotorua is built upon a volcano crater. So there are sulfur and mineral pools all over with geysers. It's so cool! In the middle of the park there will be a spot with boiling mud. I touched the acidic mud and it made my finger quite soft after. It's funny to see a little pit/pool of boiling water just in the middle of green grass. I took a video of it because it sounds like tea kettle. Something I've never seen before.
We then went to the Polynesian Spa. At the spa, there are five hot pools, two sulfur and three mineral. It was only $21 for admission to all. They were all full of natural water from the overlooking water.
It was awesome! We were really dehydrated from all of it. Also, there were little flakes of sulfur in them which was very cool. My skin was (and still is) very soft from all of that. We then walked around for a few minutes to catch out bus to Taupo.
And I ALMOST forgot to include the scent of Rotorua. If you can imagine: sweat with rotten eggs, that's it. It's from the natural pools and sulfur. However, I did get used to it and it was not bad.
On to Taupo. They were hoping to skydive the next day. We dropped bags off and went out to dinner. The restaurant was pretty cool. An Irish bar with great prices. What more could I ask for?
Then back to the hostel. The weather was iffy so we were trying to think of stuff to do if skydiving was cancelled. No ideas. Leah, Jarad, and I didn't really sleep. There were three other Germans in our hostel room and they were deep breathing and snoring all night. And, their skydives were cancelled!
I was up early and need some breakfast. I decided on having my first "Maccas" (McDonalds) breakfast. I feel like everyone needs to have experienced that at least once and I'm glad I had! It was yummo! I met up with the group again and we headed off to wander Taupo. It turned out being a fun day. We had to get past the rain-factor and enjoy our one time in Taupo. We shopped, went to a coffee shop, and went out to lunch. Last of all- KAFFE EIS! That is our favourite Gelato shop in Wellington and they had it in Taupo, It was great to experience it in a new location :)
Taupo is an hour south of Rotorua. It had a large lake and is popular for tourists.. often in the summer months. I preferred Rotorua though! Rotorua has a lot of culture to it. It's actually the one town/city in New Zealand that has a lot of indigenous people. It was cool to see and experience all of that.
We had a great trip back. The bus was pretty empty which was nice. Also, there was a Maori lady swearing and screaming on the phone which was hilarious at the beginning of the trip. It was hilarious and Jarad actually took a video of it.
So I've had the opportunity to travel a lot of the North Island and am ready for my South Island adventure! One week from Thursday. And actually today is my 3 week mark. I leave New Zealand three weeks from today! I'm excited/anxious to get home but also, am going to miss the lifestyle here. It will all even out!
A few photos from the trip:
Leah, Jarad, Britta out to dinner in Taupo
We're not really the best backpackers..
Rotorua reminded me a lot of New England in the autumn. Very beautiful... not quite Vermont style though :)
Sign to the park we visited. Lots of mud, vapor, and sulfuric pools
Rotorua
Natural mud pool
Lot's has happened since June 1st. Starting with last Thursday, June 3rd- a pretty eventful day :)
Leah and I scheduled massages at the cosmetology training school. It was $30NZD (about $20USD) for a one-hour, full body massage. It was great! My back has really been bothering me so it was nice to get a budget priced massage in.
We then went to Coyote, a little bar/restaurant on Courtenay Place for lunch followed by a lovely film: SEX AND THE CITY 2. I had been anxiously waiting for it to come out in NZ. Penny (Leah's new flatmate- sweet girl!) came with us. It was a great afternoon.
Also, it was Katie's 21st birthday back home in Vermont!!!!! I wish I could've made it to celebrate!! My friends here and I went out that night and I made them have a tequila shot for her (surprise, Katie!).
Friday morning, I left for Rotorua:
Kelsi was on the bus to her hometown for the weekend. So it was nice to have a bus buddy! It was about a 7.5 hour bus ride. However, I didn't really mind it. We watched a few movies and the scenery was beautiful! We passed a mountain with lots of snow on it and the volcano that is represented in the Lord of the Rings quite a bit. And yes, HEAPS OF SHEEP! It's funny.. the mountains and hills are so steep but somehow, the sheep just post right up. It looks like the might roll down but they really can control themselves. My friend joked and said that's why the meat is better here.. haha, could be true!
But $35 NZD ($20USD) was totally worth it to see all the scenery and make it to Rotorua!
Britta (international from NJ) met me in Rotorua on a later bus. So I got off the bus and had a few hours to figure out the hostel situation etc. Instead, I headed to the water and caught a beautiful sunset and gave my big sissy a phone call.
Then I realized, it's dark, I'm backpacking alone, and have yet to find a hostel. I kind of made some moves and searched around town and came across one that was legit and worked out a little deal. I walked to the bus station and some Maori man just started talking to me. He was not harmful, maybe just had a little mental condition. New Zealanders make fun of the Maori accent because they talk like "bros". ie: "cheya bro, i wen dow to da mawket" something like that. Anyways, he asked what planet I was from (yes, planet) and asked if I had children. I said no and started laughing and he said he had never met an American woman without children. I thought that was kind of funny. After what seemed like ages, Britta arrived! We went to the hostel, dropped her stuff off, went to dinner, and passed out! We intended to wake up at 7:30 to start our only day in Rotorua but my "lovely" NZ crap phone turned off and my alarm didn't go off. I woke up around 8:30 and we were able to start our day at a reasonable travel time. We hopped on the bus to go to the Redwood forest. It was "world environmental day" and they gave us free fares. Awesome. Nothing (really, nothing) is free in New Zealand. We even have to pay for a size of sauce out to dinner.
Decades ago, the land was not able to be used for agriculture. People were trying to figure out the reasoning and brought a variety of species into the forest to determine what thrived best. Redwoods were quite successful! It was nice to be out of the Wellington city and breathing fresh forest air. I can't even describe that. So refreshing and just amazing.
Rotorua is built upon a volcano crater. So there are sulfur and mineral pools all over with geysers. It's so cool! In the middle of the park there will be a spot with boiling mud. I touched the acidic mud and it made my finger quite soft after. It's funny to see a little pit/pool of boiling water just in the middle of green grass. I took a video of it because it sounds like tea kettle. Something I've never seen before.
We then went to the Polynesian Spa. At the spa, there are five hot pools, two sulfur and three mineral. It was only $21 for admission to all. They were all full of natural water from the overlooking water.
It was awesome! We were really dehydrated from all of it. Also, there were little flakes of sulfur in them which was very cool. My skin was (and still is) very soft from all of that. We then walked around for a few minutes to catch out bus to Taupo.
And I ALMOST forgot to include the scent of Rotorua. If you can imagine: sweat with rotten eggs, that's it. It's from the natural pools and sulfur. However, I did get used to it and it was not bad.
On to Taupo. They were hoping to skydive the next day. We dropped bags off and went out to dinner. The restaurant was pretty cool. An Irish bar with great prices. What more could I ask for?
Then back to the hostel. The weather was iffy so we were trying to think of stuff to do if skydiving was cancelled. No ideas. Leah, Jarad, and I didn't really sleep. There were three other Germans in our hostel room and they were deep breathing and snoring all night. And, their skydives were cancelled!
I was up early and need some breakfast. I decided on having my first "Maccas" (McDonalds) breakfast. I feel like everyone needs to have experienced that at least once and I'm glad I had! It was yummo! I met up with the group again and we headed off to wander Taupo. It turned out being a fun day. We had to get past the rain-factor and enjoy our one time in Taupo. We shopped, went to a coffee shop, and went out to lunch. Last of all- KAFFE EIS! That is our favourite Gelato shop in Wellington and they had it in Taupo, It was great to experience it in a new location :)
Taupo is an hour south of Rotorua. It had a large lake and is popular for tourists.. often in the summer months. I preferred Rotorua though! Rotorua has a lot of culture to it. It's actually the one town/city in New Zealand that has a lot of indigenous people. It was cool to see and experience all of that.
We had a great trip back. The bus was pretty empty which was nice. Also, there was a Maori lady swearing and screaming on the phone which was hilarious at the beginning of the trip. It was hilarious and Jarad actually took a video of it.
So I've had the opportunity to travel a lot of the North Island and am ready for my South Island adventure! One week from Thursday. And actually today is my 3 week mark. I leave New Zealand three weeks from today! I'm excited/anxious to get home but also, am going to miss the lifestyle here. It will all even out!
A few photos from the trip:
Leah, Jarad, Britta out to dinner in Taupo
We're not really the best backpackers..
Rotorua reminded me a lot of New England in the autumn. Very beautiful... not quite Vermont style though :)
Sign to the park we visited. Lots of mud, vapor, and sulfuric pools
Rotorua
Natural mud pool
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Happy June! Although it doesn't seem like it could possibly be June already.
a) there was snow on a mountain this morning in visual distance.
b) I can see my breath in my poorly insulated flat
c) I was not prepared for winter in June!!!!
The funny thing is, last year at this time I was in Ghana, Africa. I guess June is my travel month! I am consecutively missing the early Burlington summers (which are my favourite). No complaints!
I was able to complete my last New Zealand assignments in the last week of classes. I have become a great procrastinator since living in New Zealand. Kind of a good trait if you look at it from a different perspective. I put off all the work, have tons of fun- but when it's time to do my work I am pretty good about buckling down and getting it done. ie, I understand that if I am on an Australian vacation for 10 days, I will be doing work for 2 days straight. So that's good!
Hopefully that works with my finals. I am starting to study tomorrow (Wednesday). All exams are 60% of my final great and are cumulative. Long story short, I NEED to study quite a bit. My exams are on the 8th, 11th, 12th, and 15th.
This whole week is supposed to be "study week"... an equivalency to UVM's one reading day.
Another reason I need to really be studying tomorrow and Thursday... I booked another trip!!!!!
Friday morning, I'm bussing it to Rotorua. It's about 7 hours away and has heaps of tourist stuff. It's known for representing the Maori culture and hot springs. I'll probably visit a hot springs spa for a few hours and do some zorbing
Saturday, I'm meeting Leah and Jarad in Taupo (1 hour bus ride). They are planning to sky dive if the weather holds out (cross your fingers!!). I'll either a) take pictures or b) wait for them to do activity 2.
We'll arrive back in Wellington on Sunday 8:30pm.
So that's definitely an exciting thing to look forward to this weekend. They've been planning it for a week or so, I just jumped in last minute. Another part of the North Island that I should be seeing. It would be a bit embarrassing to see more on the South than the North where I was living!
My kiwi friend Kelsi's best friend Ayden came up to visit for the past 5 days. She came up a few months ago and we loved her! So that was a good time having her in town. I picked her up from Courtenay Place on Friday and we surprised Kels! Ayden is moving to Texas for the summer to work for Camp America then Canada for 2 years. So it was her "goodbye nz" trip to Wellington. We hung in Friday due to the obnoxious cold and rain... then had quite an exciting Saturday! Shopping in the rain (not a great plan by us seven girls!!!) and had a crazy night. Matthias' friends were throwing him a going away party/Graduation party so we went there then in to town. Sunday- most unproductive day. I left the girls' flat twice. One being to get pizza and two being to meet up with a group at a cafe. We (Leah, Matthais, Dani, Jon) headed down to the Plum Cafe for a little weekend catch up. It was nice! But we headed back to continue our recoup!
I joined the nicest gym in Wellington for the week. It's called Les Mills and I pretended I wanted to join long term so they would give me a free week pass. I went yesterday and tonight and it made me miss working out so much! It's just nice to get your mind off things and move! I loved it! Can't wait to go back tomorrow! :)
Today, Kels, Ayden, Leah, and I went for a quick lunch and played at a park. It was awesome! The park was called Central Park, located in Brooklyn (the next suburb over from me). But no, it was not even close to Brooklyn, NY or NYC in general.
Their parks are ten times cooler than ours. They had this structure where you hop on a rope with a little saucer on it and swing to the otherside. It zooms to the other end where you honestly think you will run into the wooden poll, but two tires shoot you back and just bounce you around. It sounds so confusing. I'll have to go back and get a video of myself or someone else doing it. I was screaming and laughing- craziest ride ever.
Below: Leah gets the wild ride ready:
Here I am playing in one of the structures.
Central Park:
The design students have finished all of their final pieces and are starting to head home. One of my New Zealand friends Alice left today at the same time as Ayden. She lives in Auckland and should be back before we leave. But it was still weird/sad seeing her leave knowing she won't be here until the end of the month.
It made me think of saying bye to all members of our international family- which I am totally not ready for!
I love and miss everyone at home and am excited to go back but at the same time, I don't want this experience to end. I love it. Wellington, New Zealand, all my friends, the different foods, lingo, COFFEE, and just.. everything! I wish NZ was so close and I would be able to visit frequently. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I KNOW that I will be back sometime, but I just don't know when that will be.
Here's a list of all the places I will be in the month of June.. world traveling!
Wellington (obviously)
Rotorua
Taupo
Christchurch
Greymouth
Franz Josef
Queenstown
Tekapo
Dunedin
Auckland (airport)
San Francisco (airport)
New York (airport)
BURLINGTON!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll check in after my Rotorua/Taupo trip! xx
a) there was snow on a mountain this morning in visual distance.
b) I can see my breath in my poorly insulated flat
c) I was not prepared for winter in June!!!!
The funny thing is, last year at this time I was in Ghana, Africa. I guess June is my travel month! I am consecutively missing the early Burlington summers (which are my favourite). No complaints!
I was able to complete my last New Zealand assignments in the last week of classes. I have become a great procrastinator since living in New Zealand. Kind of a good trait if you look at it from a different perspective. I put off all the work, have tons of fun- but when it's time to do my work I am pretty good about buckling down and getting it done. ie, I understand that if I am on an Australian vacation for 10 days, I will be doing work for 2 days straight. So that's good!
Hopefully that works with my finals. I am starting to study tomorrow (Wednesday). All exams are 60% of my final great and are cumulative. Long story short, I NEED to study quite a bit. My exams are on the 8th, 11th, 12th, and 15th.
This whole week is supposed to be "study week"... an equivalency to UVM's one reading day.
Another reason I need to really be studying tomorrow and Thursday... I booked another trip!!!!!
Friday morning, I'm bussing it to Rotorua. It's about 7 hours away and has heaps of tourist stuff. It's known for representing the Maori culture and hot springs. I'll probably visit a hot springs spa for a few hours and do some zorbing
Saturday, I'm meeting Leah and Jarad in Taupo (1 hour bus ride). They are planning to sky dive if the weather holds out (cross your fingers!!). I'll either a) take pictures or b) wait for them to do activity 2.
We'll arrive back in Wellington on Sunday 8:30pm.
So that's definitely an exciting thing to look forward to this weekend. They've been planning it for a week or so, I just jumped in last minute. Another part of the North Island that I should be seeing. It would be a bit embarrassing to see more on the South than the North where I was living!
My kiwi friend Kelsi's best friend Ayden came up to visit for the past 5 days. She came up a few months ago and we loved her! So that was a good time having her in town. I picked her up from Courtenay Place on Friday and we surprised Kels! Ayden is moving to Texas for the summer to work for Camp America then Canada for 2 years. So it was her "goodbye nz" trip to Wellington. We hung in Friday due to the obnoxious cold and rain... then had quite an exciting Saturday! Shopping in the rain (not a great plan by us seven girls!!!) and had a crazy night. Matthias' friends were throwing him a going away party/Graduation party so we went there then in to town. Sunday- most unproductive day. I left the girls' flat twice. One being to get pizza and two being to meet up with a group at a cafe. We (Leah, Matthais, Dani, Jon) headed down to the Plum Cafe for a little weekend catch up. It was nice! But we headed back to continue our recoup!
I joined the nicest gym in Wellington for the week. It's called Les Mills and I pretended I wanted to join long term so they would give me a free week pass. I went yesterday and tonight and it made me miss working out so much! It's just nice to get your mind off things and move! I loved it! Can't wait to go back tomorrow! :)
Today, Kels, Ayden, Leah, and I went for a quick lunch and played at a park. It was awesome! The park was called Central Park, located in Brooklyn (the next suburb over from me). But no, it was not even close to Brooklyn, NY or NYC in general.
Their parks are ten times cooler than ours. They had this structure where you hop on a rope with a little saucer on it and swing to the otherside. It zooms to the other end where you honestly think you will run into the wooden poll, but two tires shoot you back and just bounce you around. It sounds so confusing. I'll have to go back and get a video of myself or someone else doing it. I was screaming and laughing- craziest ride ever.
Below: Leah gets the wild ride ready:
Here I am playing in one of the structures.
Central Park:
The design students have finished all of their final pieces and are starting to head home. One of my New Zealand friends Alice left today at the same time as Ayden. She lives in Auckland and should be back before we leave. But it was still weird/sad seeing her leave knowing she won't be here until the end of the month.
It made me think of saying bye to all members of our international family- which I am totally not ready for!
I love and miss everyone at home and am excited to go back but at the same time, I don't want this experience to end. I love it. Wellington, New Zealand, all my friends, the different foods, lingo, COFFEE, and just.. everything! I wish NZ was so close and I would be able to visit frequently. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I KNOW that I will be back sometime, but I just don't know when that will be.
Here's a list of all the places I will be in the month of June.. world traveling!
Wellington (obviously)
Rotorua
Taupo
Christchurch
Greymouth
Franz Josef
Queenstown
Tekapo
Dunedin
Auckland (airport)
San Francisco (airport)
New York (airport)
BURLINGTON!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll check in after my Rotorua/Taupo trip! xx
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