A crazy last week - Bungy and Milford

Today is Sunday, November 22nd in New Zealand and it is my last final day in this amazing country before I depart to Auckland, then to San Francisco, and then ultimately to home in Chicago. It is a very bittersweet time because although there are many reasons I am ready to come home and want to come home, I know I am going to miss this country incredibly once I am gone. The past five months have been amazing though and I topped it off with a perfect, small 3 day mini roadtrip with two of my best friends.

On Monday the 16th Case, Marshall and I rented a car (Marvie has been sold for a couple weeks now...) and drove up to Queenstown. We hungout, showed Marshall around and then drove to Arrowtown to hangout at our kiwi buddy's place for one last time. The next day we woke up and had a 1:00 pm bungy jump scheduled with AJ Hackett. The three of us decided to do Nevis, the 134 meter bungy (largest in NZ). It was expensive, but you might as well go big or go home right? It was well worth it. The feeling of bungy jumping is like no other feeling I have ever felt in my life. 134 meters is the equivalent of around 440 feet for those of us in the world not using the metric system, and that is preeeetttttyy high. At the Nevis highwire, the pod you jump off of is suspended on cables hanging in the middle of a valley about 150+ meters above the river. You put on a harness, get in this cable car that takes you out to the pod, then they hook the bungy up to you, have you step onto the edge and you jump. With no hesitation I did a massive swan dive and enjoyed every second of it. You actually have enough time to realize, "Wow, I am still falling." The ground is rushing towards you and then before you know it the bungy cord pulls and you are just bouncing up and down in the middle of the air. It was amazing.



After bungying and spending the night in arrowtown again, we woke up early the next day and made our way to Milford Sound. To get to Milford you have to make a massive loop southwest of Queenstown and then head back up north. The drive actually getting to Milford Sound is half the fun. There were many amazing things to stop and see on the side of the road.

Mirror Lakes

The Chasm

A Kea

Waterfalls

Milford Sound

A waterfall in the Sound



Marshall and I

The Catlins

I really do apologize that I have gotten lazy with my blog. I forgot my password and blogspot was being weird about email addresses not letting me log in. After some tinkering and a little help from Mama Tarras things worked out and now I am back.

A couple weekends ago in early November, some friends and I went on a day trip down to the Catlins. The Catlins are literally as far south as you can go on the south island of New Zealand. Stewart Island, which is technically not a part of New Zealand because its an island, is the only thing further south. The Catlins are about a 2 hour drive south of Dunedin and then you have to do a bit of driving once you are there to see the various things. In the Catlins we did a few different small hikes and saw plenty of amazing beaches, waterfalls, cliffs, and other things. Here are a few photos of some of the beautiful things we saw.

McLean Falls


Up higher at McLean

The top of McLean

Another waterfall, can't remember the name

Slope Point

The cliffs near Slope Point

Southern most point on the South Island

Windswept forest

On our way out of the Catlins we saw this yard that had crazy metal sculptures and objects all over the place surrounding a large bus. On the side of the bus it said "Lost Gypsy Gallery." We stopped. Inside was a guy who spends all his time in a room full of hundreds of tools and pieces of junk. He sits there all day listening to music making gadgets and trinkets for people to play with. He said the bus took him 5 years to make. This place was amazing, I could have spent hours in there looking around.

Almost done

My time here in New Zealand has absolutely flown by in these past 3 months. And although I still have almost 2 months left in Dunedin, my classes are just about finished. I have my last assignment due Friday, one more week of lectures next week and then classes are finished. Final exam period here is a little bit strange compared to back home. Instead of having one week of exams and having multiple exams on each day, exam period is 3 weeks long. I have one week off from school after my last week of lectures, then an exam, then another week off, then an exam, a week and a half off, and then my last exam on November 10th. It should be an experience. I am just hoping that because they are so spread out, the exams aren't going to be extremely difficult.

In between and after exams I should have a few weeks to explore this amazing country before I have to head back for yet another winter... (but this is a good thing don't worry, Loveland opened today and Abasin opens this weekend).

No pictures or much excitement here, just thought I would update a little blurb about finals and how things are really winding down in Dunedin, school-wise. It's crazy to think my friends abroad in other areas of the world have just started class and I'm almost done! It's a bit sad really.

Til next time. Hopefully I'll do some fun and exciting things by then.

A well needed update

So I felt that it was about time to post another update. I haven't posted in a while - not since early September - so I figured it was appropriate. The past few weeks have been pretty fun. I went to the mountains two weekends in a row to get a little bit of last minute snowboarding in before the mountains close. I stayed in a hostel 2 weekends ago with three of my good friends and rode one day at The Remarkables. Right now spring is in full force up in the mountains. We had nothing but bluebird skies and sunny 50 degree weather all day. The park was awesome as well, they know how to have fun at the remarks. I went to Arrowtown last weekend to snowboard again which is a town up in the mountains in between Queenstown and Wanaka. One of my kiwi buddies has a house there where I stayed with 4 other guys. His parents were awesome to us cooking us meals for two days and letting us stay at their really nice house. It was awesome to have the feeling of a homecooked meal for once while I've been here.

I have also been going to a lot of beaches in the past few weeks. I have been surfing a couple times here and there (still not good at all haha) and also just going to beaches to hangout. Here are some pictures from Sandfly beach and Tunnel beach which are both really cool.

Tunnel beach

There is literally a tunnel going into the ground that you need to go through to get to the beach.

Sandfly beach

A video of sea lions at Sandfly beach

And here are some random surf pics

Spring break #2 - Exploring the north island

So it has been a while since I have updated my blog, which I apologize for, so I feel it is necessary that I update everyone on what has been going on with me in the past 2 weeks.

It is very weird hearing that people back in the U.S. are just now starting their fall semesters of the new school year, whereas I have been in class for over 2 months now at Otago. Two weeks ago we had midterms and I had a busy week of 3 papers, a test, and an in-class writing assignment. After this hectic week it was time for the 2nd spring break of 2009. It was very weird to think I was having a spring break in August, but it was extremely necessary after the amount of work I was doing. For my spring break, 8 of my friends from my flat complex and I did a massive roadtrip up to the north island with two cars full of kids. I'll give you a play by play of what we did.

Friday, August 28 - we packed the cars at around noon and were on the road at about 1:00. It was a day of driving and nothing else. A lot of us have explored the south island pretty thoroughly so we didn't spend much time there. We drove from Dunedin, up to Christchurch (4 hours), then continued up to Kaikora, and onto Picton which was our final destination where the ferry would take us from the south island to the north. We stopped at some cool spots along the way. We saw some crazy round boulders on a beach and some other interesting towns. It was a total of about 9 hours of driving from Dunedin to the very top of the south island and a very scenic drive (when isn't it in NZ?) all the way there, especially along the coast.

The Moeraki boulders

Saturday, August 29 - We slept in our cars in a parking lot Friday night because the ferry was leaving at 6:00 am Saturday morning. After an uncomfortable 5 hour sleep in the car (some people in sleeping bags in the parking lot) we woke up, checked in at 5 am, and drove onto the ferry. The ferry ride was pretty cool. It was a 3 hour drive from Picton to Wellington, which is the lower part of the north island. When we got off the ferry at around 9:30 am, we spent the better part of the day in Wellington, just walking around the city and enjoying a break from driving. After walking around Wellington and enjoying the city, we hopped back in the car mid-afternoon, and drove up to Whanganui National Park where we spent the night camping. Whanganui is located more towards the western and southern part of the north island. We pulled our cars right up to the campsite and because of our lack of tents (which we later purchased more), some people slept in the car, some slept outside on sleeping bags, and 3 of us in a tent.

Sleeping the night before the ferry

Sunday, August 30 - We woke up early in Whanganui and gathered our things before going on a hike (or a tramp as kiwis would say). Right next to our campsite there was a 5 hour long track each way. Because we had to get back on the road later that day we only hiked a couple hours and then decided to turn back. Although it wasn't as scenic as other hikes we've done, it was still good to get out and do something active and to hike in a new area too. After our hike, despite being soaking wet from the rain, we all hopped back in the cars and continued driving. Our next destination was Raglan, a surf town on the west coast about 4 hours north of Whanganui. We stayed there for two nights in a very cool hostel.

Monday, August 31/Tuesday, September 1 - The next two days we spent exploring the scenery that Raglan had to offer. A couple of us brought surfboards and gear hoping to surf (because Raglan is known for amazing surfing) but the waves were massive and choppy the whole time we were there. A big bowl of chop. So instead, we drove to a couple beaches and relaxed and also went kayaking. Some of us used the ocean kayaks and went across to the bay to an area for cliff jumping. My friend Christoph and I decided to take out the other kayaks and just cruise around the estuary in front of the hostel, which was very scenic and relaxing. Wetsuits were a must for the cliff jumpers. Even though the water was warmer than Dunedin it was still freezing. I didn't wear one kayaking but I can assure you that after kayaking, the hot tub in the hostel felt amazing. Tuesday afternoon, we drove to Auckland which is about 2 hours north of Raglan. We stayed in Auckland for a few hours and walked around just enjoying another new city. Auckland is New Zealand's biggest city with around 1.5 million people. Because most of the country is so laid back and slow-moving, it felt weird being in a fast-paced big city, especially because I had only been driving in NZ for a few days. After a few hours, we decided not to spend a night in Auckland and just to drive up to the Bay of Islands, way up on the northeast coast of the tip of the north island. Tuesday night we decided to camp in the Bay of Islands and drove our cars up this dirt road in the forest and literally parked on the side of the road, walked into the forest with our gear, and set up a campsite in a random spot. This is where we camped for the next three nights.

Wednesday, September 2 - after driving and walking around the bay of islands and simply taking in the amazing scenery, we decided to go for a hike. It was a very cool jungle-like hike through the forest along a river until we got to a cool waterfall at the end. We had some bad luck with rain again but it was worth it. The entire hike was 10 km roundtrip.

Thursday, September 3 - Thursday might have been the most fun day of the entire trip. After a fun night of camping, we packed up our things at around 9:30 am and drove tot he pier in town. We decided to rent two boats and go for a cruise. The Bay of Islands is a chain of 144 small islands all clustered together in what creates a massive bay. It is a very, very cool area and it was really fun to be able to explore the islands on our own. The 9 of us rented two small 90 hp speed boats for 5 hours and spent the better part of the day driving around, seeing all of the islands from the water, and anchoring and spending time on a random beach. The water was still very cold, but the sun was out and it felt great to get some warm sun in compared to Dunedin's cold rainy weather. We camped again that night.

Friday, September 4 - Friday was another relaxing day. We decided we wanted to spend our last night before driving back in a hostel instead of in the woods. So after waking up Friday morning we loaded the cars and drove straight to a hostel so we could have somewhere to relax during the day. It was another very cool hostel with very cool people. This place had a hot tub, a game room with a pool table, ping pong table, dartboard, a tv room, a big kitchen, and free kayaks and bikes to use. All of this for $20 NZ ($13 US) for a whole day and the night! After getting settled we all decided to do different things. Me and 4 others drove to the west coast where we planned on going sandboarding. After that fell through we just hungout on a beach all day, hiked some sand dunes, and saw some wild seals in the ocean. We also went to this forest that has the largest tree in NZ. I believe it was 58 meters tall and 15 meters wide if I remember.

Saturday September 5/Sunday, September 6 - We woke up early and drove straight through to Dunedin. A 24 hour drive with a 3 hour rest on the ferry in between. I took the night shift from Whanganui to Wellington, slept 3 hours on the ferry, and then drove from 5:00 til around 10:00 to Christchurch. I really enjoyed the morning shift because the sunrise along the coast was amazing. It was a really fun roadtrip, but after all of that driving it felt great to be back in Dunedin.

Here is a picture that shows where we drove in New Zealand. My school is on the southeast coast of the south island in Dunedin. We drove a total of 3700 km (about 2500 miles) roundtrip.




I finally have taken the time to post pictures online. They are on facebook. Because it takes so long to upload pictures to Blogspot, I am posting the link instead.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2048477&id=1145100154&ref=mf

Enjoy.

Shredding at Temple Basin

This weekend I went on a trek to a place called Temple Basin. Temple Basin is one of many "club fields" in New Zealand which are smaller, very low key, member ridden ski fields. This one was up above Christchurch, about a 6 hour drive from Dunedin.

Let me start by saying there is absolutely no place in the U.S. that compares to what Temple Basin is (some say Silverton does, but I've never been there). It is essentially an all inclusive resort without all the bells and whistles that you might get at a high class American resort. First off, Temple Basin is right in the center of the Southern Alps so the drive up to the mountain was a mix between grassy and mountainous areas with rivers and jungle/rain forest looking sections. When you get there, you park your car in a cutout on the side of the road and it is a 45 minute hike through rocks, water, and snow up to the base. There is also a goods lift where you can put all of your gear in so you don't have to carry it to the top. Its kind of like a mini gondola just for snowboards, clothes, sleeping bags and of course beer.

Once up at the top, there are two small lodges, a few rope tows, and endless amounts of terrain waiting to be hiked. The coolest part about Temple is the atmosphere. Everyone eats meals together cooked by the chef that lives there, and everyone hangs out together at night. Its very much like everyone is there on a trip together. Its cheap too. I paid $140 NZ (roughly $100 US) for two nights staying in the lodge, one day of amazing snowboarding, and breakfast, lunch and dinner each day while I was there.

They also use these things called nutcrackers, which was an experience in itself. Envision a ropetow, except instead of holding on with your hands, you grab the rope, rap this metal nutcracker over it, which is attached to a harness, and let that support you as you ride up.

I don't think I have ever done so much hiking (or sweating - it was a really hot, sunny day) in my entire life. Because they call it "In bounds backcountry" there are endless places to hike and ride. Although the snow conditions weren't so great, the guys from Canterbury University found a great place with some nice snow to have the Gnomes freeride competition. It was two very long hikes up to the top where the competition was but it was well worth it for some fresh snow. The contest was based on difficulty of the line you took, aggression, technique, and a couple of other things. Out of the snowboarders, I placed 2nd and my friend Case placed 3rd.


Because my internet is so slow here, I thought I would just post a link instead of posting all of the pictures of Temple Basin. If you want to see pictures, check them out on facebook.

PICTURES ON FACEBOOK

"Study" abroad

Since I've started this blog and shown people pictures and what not, most people seem to get the impression that "study" is definitely not the key word in "study abroad." Because of this, I thought I'd post a picture just for reassurance that I am indeed studying haha. Here is about half of the first paper that I have due on Monday. And to the right of my computer is the best deal on New Zealand beer you can buy...