CHAMPS

HEY GANG. I had a very eventful week since last blogging!

Last week was my last week of classes. We went over what the finals will be like, and they’re going to be very different from those at Loyola. So many essays. I’m not looking forward to it… I’m actually studying right now, just taking a break because I remembered I hadn’t written about my week yet.

Friday was gorgeous. We hung out in the park during the day, threw the football around and I played a bit of soccer before heading to the bronze medal game! We decided to cheer for Wales because we figured cheering for Australia would be like cheering for Canada and none of us wanted to do that. Wales lost. However, being in the gorgeous stadium and talking to the fans was very worthwhile. There is a free train down to Eden Park where the game was played, and on the way back I met a boy who had just graduated from JMU. Earlier that night I talked to a boy who is actually from Baltimore. Such a small world; really cool to see how far people came for the world cup!

The next day the girls and I walked around town and stopped to get delicious cupcakes.

Sunday was a big day. We woke up and walked downtown to the ferry. All the streets had already been blocked off for the day, seeing as the RWC final was that night. We took the ferry over to Devonport for the day. We hiked, had lunch, bopped around town, and visited the naval museum. It was a really relaxing day and the weather turned out to be quite nice.

By the time we headed back to the ferry it seemed as though all the islanders were ready to head into Auckland as well. The boat was full of people with their All Blacks gear on. There were handfuls of adults with face paint and fake tattoos. When we arrived about 5 minutes later in Auckland the city was wild. Seeing as it was hours before the game and the streets were already full, we realized we needed to run back, get changed, and eat quickly.

We arrived back downtown about an hour and a half later. We walked around, realized we probably would not be getting into a bar to watch the game, and decided to sit on the street and watch on one of the big screens.

For the end of the game, James, Dan, Nolan, and I went to Globe. We met up with a few of the kids from the Australia program who are visiting New Zealand for a little over a week. They came at such a great time because the weather is beautiful, and they were able to see the All Blacks win the world cup! When the game ended everyone went crazy, people were getting picked up all over the place, it was wild. The world cup only happens every four years… how lucky am I that I chose the country that not only hosted the cup, but also won?

Coromandel

Coromandel was awesome and beautiful and I want to go back right now. We hit the road Thursday evening around 4:45 and got there about three hours later. Since it’s spring here the town wasn’t that busy; I assume the area is like Cape Cod in that aspect and that it doesn’t get busy until the summer months. We found somewhere near the house that had pizza before heading to the bach.

The house was such a beach house it was perfect. Although it wasn’t on the water it was a great size: two floors, two bathrooms, and double beds for all of us to share. I shared a room downstairs with Gabby. The decorations were very 70s, it reminded me a lot of a place we would stay in New Hampshire. That night we just relaxed, had a couple of beers, and got settled in for the weekend.

The next morning we headed to Cathedral Cove. None of us realized what a hike it would be to get to the beach, but it was most definitely worth it; it was absolutely incredible. In the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian the children get to Narnia using the cave at this beach… so it was basically like we were in Narnia. Basically. The water was so clear and blue and the sand was so clean and soft, it was just beautiful. The best part was that the lousy weather we were planning on running into held out. We were able to get into the ocean, in October! We all swam out to a rock and got a bit of sun. It was so great to explore and appreciate more of New Zealand out of the city.

On the way home from the beach the girls and I stopped at the convenience store for a few things and to ask the cashier where the nearest ATM was. Turns out the closest bank was fifteen minutes from where we were staying… ferry ride included. Considering it was Friday and the banks closed on the weekend we skipped the trip with the boys to Hot Water Beach and instead headed over a river to get some cash for the weekend. The ferry ride was no longer than two minutes. The other side was very quirky: lots of little shops and the first diner that I’ve seen in all of New Zealand! We bopped around a bit, and then made our way back to the house.

That night we barbequed. Steak, chicken, and vegetables were grilled and we just hung out at the house again. Unfortunately the water stopped working for a bit, before I was able to take my shower, but eventually the owner came and showed us what to do.

The next day we headed to another beach to try surfing! The guys warned us that if we said this was our first time we wouldn’t be allowed to rent gear. Therefore, when the woman asked if Gabby, Kacie, Alex, and I had been surfing before, we basically let her know that we were definitely beginners. When we walked to meet up with Adam, Andrew, and Thomas, we were informed that Andrew had been taken in the rip tide. He went with it and was safe, but we were extra careful at choosing a place to get in the water. Within five minutes I had already been tossed around by the waves: I tried to jump over one but it pulled me under. It’s a lot more difficult to fight the waves with a surfboard than with a boogie board. After attempting a few times we decided it would be a lot easier to catch the waves after they had already broken. This was a lot less scary and a lot more fun. I came pretty close to standing a couple of times! I’ll have to ask all my cousins in Scituate to help me out next summer…

Despite my lack of skill, surfing can now be checked off my bucket list. It was a lot of fun just being pushed around by the waves. Kacie and I couldn’t stop laughing because we felt like toddlers being knocked over by the smallest waves. I still feel sore today!

After all of that excitement we dropped off our wetsuits and boards and met up with the rest of the boys at the hot water pools. At low tide, beach-goers grab a shovel and are able to dig their own thermal pools because of the underground hot springs beneath the sand. It gets very crowded at this time, so we all tried to fit in the one shallow pool the guys had dug. Some areas were really hot and bubbled, while others became lukewarm and pretty uncomfortable. Had we had half the amount of people I’m sure it would be a lot more enjoyable. It was still funny, however, essentially twelve young adults in a hand-dug baby pool.

That night we got take-away at a nearby fish and chips shack and watched the Wales vs. France semi-finals match. Wales lost, which means we will be seeing them in the bronze medal game on Friday! When the game ended we headed up the road to see the beach at night. Coromandel doesn’t really have street lights, so the sky was so clear and there were so many stars, it was gorgeous. It made us all really appreciate where we were at that moment, but also made the group sad that not only do we have finals coming up, but that we have under a month to go in New Zealand.

The next morning we woke up, cleaned up, and headed out. We went to this one breakfast place about fifteen minutes away that’s supposed to be a must-visit in Coromandel. It reminded me a lot of Paper Moon Cafe in Baltimore that Mom and I visited over the summer. It was very quirky and had statues all over the place. It was definitely a family-run restaurant so the service was slow. However, when I got my meal I was definitely content. I had salmon eggs benedict and it was absolutely delicious. It was so runny and there was spinach and it was delightful. They had just taken a carrot cake out of the oven as well, so I figured I had to try it. Just writing about it is making me drool, it was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted in my entire life, no lie. The perfect meal to hold me over until dinner.

The parts of the ride home that I was awake for was very scenic. I can’t get over how gorgeous this country is once you get out of the city. There is so much green lush land, and then miles and miles of beaches to contrast it. It’s going to be weird not to see sheep running around when I’m driving around back in the US. 

We stopped in Paeroa where L&P was first made. L&P is a popular New Zealand soda that (I think) tastes a lot like ginger ale and Sprite. The letters stand for “lemon” and “Paeroa.” Gabby is absolutely obsessed with the drink: it’s sort of like Gracie and Diet Coke. There wasn’t a lot to see, but Gabby was in heaven. The town has a little L&P cafe with a big bottle outside. The cafe has L&P ice cream: Alex bought some, it was decent, definitely would have tasted better as a sorbet. Regardless, it was a nice little stop on the long drive home.

Last night was the New Zealand vs. Australia semifinal. It was a huge game obviously because it determined whether or not the All Blacks made it into the finals. All of Huia was watching the game, and I watched on the tenth floor with a group of kids from the dorm. We won! This means that New Zealand will be playing France in the final match… the same match up that knocked NZ out of the finals in 2007. The final is Sunday and Auckland is going to be wild that night. I obviously really hope that the All Blacks win, and that there is a parade. While that game is Sunday, the game the Loyola group is going to is Friday. We’ll be watching the losers of the two semifinals games, Australia and Wales. It’s supposed to be 70 degrees that day! I cannot wait, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Until then, I have three more days of classes, and then I’m done for the semester (other than finals). Finished with theology, ethics, and history cores!

ON A FINAL NOTE: I’d like to wish one more happy happy happy happy happppppyyyy birthday to Colleen! I’m very sorry I wasn’t home for her big sixteenth, but I did get to talk to her on the phone which was nice. I can’t believe how old my little sister is…

Leaving for Coromandel today!

Diwali

Hey gang! I’m in a much better mood than last week. I’m done with my papers and all I have left to worry about is finals in a few weeks! This week I’m just going to make it through my classes and then off to Coromandel on Thursday! I’m so excited, despite rumors of unfortunate weather this weekend. It will still be nice to get away and celebrate one month left…….. that is absolutely absurd. I can’t get over how quickly time has flown.

Anyways, this weekend I slept. A lot. I needed to catch up on sleep that I didn’t get during the week. However, when I was awake I went to Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. I couldn’t stop thinking about that Office episode that they celebrate Diwali, and Michael sings the Diwali song. Gabby and I decided to check it out on Saturday so we walked downtown. It put us in such good moods: there was delicious food and so much dancing. I was thoroughly impressed by the young children in the Bollywood dance competition. I got some henna on my hand, such a middle school move. It’s still going strong, and will be for at least another week and a half…

Anyways, we loved it so much we went back yesterday with Kacie. This time we went at night, there were supposed to be fireworks but we didn’t see them. The crowd was rowdy and the music was actually awesome; I decided I’m going to make a puntabi cd to bump in the car on the way to the beach house this weekend. There was this one mash-up of Indian music and Nikki Minaj. After that the three of us headed down to the “cloud” (the fanzone for the world cup). We watched the first half of the All Blacks game there, and then the rest back in Huia because we were exhausted and cold. The All Blacks won, so they’re at least in the semi-finals! Unfortunately Ireland lost the other night, I really wanted them to be in the bronze medal game so I could wear all my Irish gear.

Smell ya l8r.

I hope you guys haven’t given up on me! I’ve had so much work to do since I’ve been back, a paper for almost every class, in-class essays, etc. It sort of stinks, because we only have 6 or so weeks left. I handed in an essay today about Bob Dylan as a modern day prophet. It was actually really interesting to research, so I didn’t mind writing it by any means. Plus, it’s been raining a lot here, I’m guessing it’s like New Zealand’s equivalent of our April. The nice weather is right around the corner, and so are some fun activities: one week from Thursday we’re all heading to a beach house in Coromandel for the weekend, and the week after that is the last day of classes, and the rugby game we’re attending!

I know I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks, but this is why. I’ll try to post again soon, but this week is going to be a whole lot of work and no play. :(

Last weekend we went to Rotorua. Rotorua smells like rotten eggs because of the sulfur pools. Years ago the town was a huge tourist attraction because of its pink and white terraces, once known as he eighth world wonder. Even though they are no longer there, Rotorua offers a lot of tourist attractions… leading us to sit through an hour lecture to learn about the tourism of New Zealand. Pretty much the only interesting thing about the talk was that the woman’s name was “Gina George” like Regina George from Mean Girls. I’m kidding.. it was a bit interesting because it related a lot to my marketing minor, but compared to everything else we did last weekend it was sort of a buzz kill.

To start the weekend, we saw glow worm caves in Taupo. Unique only to this area, glow worms need dark, damp areas. Since the area was so dark, however, you can see how they illuminate the cave, which was really cool. We also went to a valley where the pink and white terraces used to be. These days their is only mud pools and sulfur pools, but it was still very interesting to see the area and walk on once volcanic ground. On the bus we played the celebrity game, but I liked playing too much and nobody wanted to play with me anymore…

Friday we woke up bright and early and went to Huka Falls where we boarded the Huka Jet (“30 minutes of pure fun and exhilaration, skimming close to cliffs with centimetres to spare, sliding past trees and feeling the adrenaline of our 360-degree spins”) It was so much fun, a lot like the Mack Attack we did on the first Loyola trip but better. It rode up to the falls, the biggest “natural” tourist attraction in New Zealand. 

That evening I went for a run through Rotorua. Because of the sulfur pools, the entire town smells like egg salad, and, in my opinion, honey baked ham. Needless to say, it felt like I was being force-fed both while I was running. It was nasty.

That night we went to a Maori village, which wasn’t a real village, more of a tourist attraction, but still very educational. We saw the Maori people arrive on their boat in the river, making their extremely intimidating faces. We then watched a show of these men and women dancing, singing, showing how to fight, and teaching us Maori words. We then had the hangi; a dinner prepared traditionally in the ground. It was delicious. Following dinner we went on a walk around the area. We were all pretty over-tired and a little bummed that we were missing the world cup opening ceremonies, so the walk made for an interesting time.

Saturday we saw geysers! They were really cool; it was so weird to think about how the earth naturally creates these things that explode into the air. Around the geysers were hot stones, naturally heated earth. We also finally got a chance to see the kiwi bird, a national symbol of New Zealand. They look similar to porcupines, not the prettiest animal in the world to say the least. The female gives birth to eggs that are about 75% of her own body… sounds really painful, right? They’re an endangered species, so the two places we had the chance to see these birds were actually breeding them and trying to save the species.

That day we attended the Agrodome Sheep Show. It was absurd. I didn’t like how aggressively the host was when handling the sheep, but I understand that’s his job so he must know what he’s doing. James went up on stage to milk a cow, a moment he’s been waiting for since he heard they ask for volunteers. I volunteered too! I went up on stage and won the lamb feeding contest. They so many different kinds of sheep on stage, but they also had dogs, ducks, cows, a whole farm parade that thankfully didn’t send me into a deadly reaction. I had my epipen just in case.

Following lunch we headed zorbing. In this New Zealand-created pastime up to 3 people are put into a ball filled partly with water inside another inflated ball. The giant ball is then pushed down a hill, and the passengers enjoy a hilarious and wet forty second ride. My first ride I was in the ball with Alex and Kacie. I couldn’t stop laughing as we fell on top of eachother and screamed the whole way down. I got a discounted second ride with Kacie and Gabby, and since we were veterans this time we all tried to kneel, and failed miserably, and hilariously.

That evening the girls headed to the Polynesian Spa near our hotel. Part of the package Loyola had for that weekend allowed us to visit the hot tubs for free, so obviously we were going to take advantage of it!

Sunday was luging! We took a gondola ride up a mountain, got helmets, and went on these boards down the mountain. The luges themselves had handlebars where we could control speed and turning, so it was safe but still exhilirating. On the second ride Mike went straight into a hill of sand, which was really funny. I got three rides total, and by the end I was a luge master. We then had the best lunch of our lives, ate like it was our last meal ever, and headed home to Auckland.

This week was a very busy one. We had an online test Tuesday, an in-class essay to prepare for that we took on Thursday, and got a couple of papers back throughout the week. My writing seems to be “too journalistic” for the teachers here, so I’m definitely going to need to work on that before my finals.

Hope you’re all watching the Rugby World Cup and enjoying your first couple of weeks back to school. When you get cranky because the weather is getting worse, just remember that it’s getting nicer here. HAHA

Love and miss!

I’m alive, I swear!

Hello and apologies to all for not having posted in quite some time! The twelve of us have essentially been on the road for the past two weeks, having spent all that time down south, and just arriving back yesterday from a four day trip to Rotorua.

Looking back at my last post, it seems I had just finished the extreme part of the vacation: skydiving and Nevis, and was about to go skiing the next day, so I’ll try and pick up from there.

Skiing was awesome. I was able to rent a jacket, helmet, pants, gloves, skis, poles, and boots for under $100 and the lift pass was reasonable too. We woke up bright and early to catch the shuttle to “The Remarkables” and were able to get a full day of skiing and boarding in. Apart from a couple of beginners we were all pretty much on the same skill level, so it made for a pretty stress free day. The first trail we went on wasn’t packed down yet, and pretty much everyone wiped out. Other than that however we got some really nice runs in. However, there was one big yardsale at the end of the day. Adam, Mike, Gabby and I decided to stay on the mountain a bit longer than everyone else. On what was supposed to be our last run, Adam and Mike decided to go on a different trail just to check it out. Turns out it was pretty grassy and rocky; Mike lost his skis halfway down and had to walk back up the mountain to avoid completing the trail. We met him back up at the top, where we found him completely defeated. Needless to say we were all completely exhausted at the end of the day. Some of the boys made dinner: pre-made rotisserie chickens, pieces of bread, and fries… we ate with spoons and looked barbaric. We played the celebrity game that night which got a bit too competitive. Then Gabby and I had our turn to sleep in the roof-pod that night. Absolutely freezing.

Next stop: Franz Josef. We were back on the road again, and it was Gabby’s turn to drive. As Kacie sat shotgun, Alex and I rode in the back of the van and it was the funniest ride of the trip. We must have been so over-tired because we basically acted like two middle schoolers; making faces at the cars behind us, not caring that the car was out of gas as long as the music was good. We listened to a lot of Lion King and Mamma Mia (which reminded me of Oxford…) We took a pit stop at this waterfall for some fresh air, but other than that it was about a five hour drive straight through.

We arrived at my favorite campground of the trip; it was a decent price and offered a great deal on meals in the site’s restaurant. After that Kacie, Alex, and I tried to watch Year One, but I passed out five minutes in.

The next day we went to the town’s pride and joy: its glacier. With the package comes all the gear you need: a big blue raincoat, thick socks, boots, and “crampons.” Crampons are spikes that you stick into the bottom of your boots so that you don’t slip on the ice. The guys made a lot of jokes about their name. Hiking the glacier wasn’t nearly as difficult as I had imagined. It was cool to see the blue ice, and the tight spaces reminded me a lot of going to the Bear Caves with Maggie and Dad.

I meant to post this a few days ago, but I’ve been really busy getting back into school work! I’ll post about Rotorua and more in the next couple of days, and swear I’ll pick up regularly with my blog soon. Sorry guys!

“No longer a mere mortal”

I’m a new woman. I have bungy jumped despite a lot of tears getting up to the ledge, and I jumped out of a plane today. I uploaded my Nevis pictures to Facebook; I have a video too but I have to wait until I get back to Auckland to upload that and the rest of my pictures. I am paying $3 for this internet right now so I can only write a short post but this town is amazing, and I have never felt so alive in my life. I will remember this experience forever and ever and am so excited to tell you all about it when I get home to the university. Tomorrow we’re going skiing! I can’t wait! Later in the week we’re hiking a glacier; it just keeps getting better and better. Love and miss you all, I’ll try and post again soon!