Just Livin'

So this past week has been crazy. Getting back into the swing of school and all of that nonsense is NOT my favorite thing. I think my problem is I have a real lack of motivation. Especially since the weather has been PERFECT.

It's starting to get to be springtime weather. And that makes me completely unable to stay inside. Do you want to know how depressing it is to sit in a lecture hall with NO windows when it is sunny and 70 degrees outside? I'll tell you, SUPER depressing!
This weekend was the first one since we got here that we did not travel. And I have to say, I was SO restless. I don't think I can handle staying in one spot for long. This is going to be a really bad thing when I get back to the States. But lack of funds is making the whole traveling on the reg thing less and less realistic by the day.

This weekend was really fun though, even though we just hung around Christchurch. Because I was able to spend most of it outside wandering around, playing around, and hanging around.
And, at one point this weekend, we did my favorite thing in the entire world: karaoke. Shout out to the rando Asian Karaoke place that we ended up at. What a ridiculous evening!

Oh, also, it was Cathy's 20th birthday last Thursday. All of us had forewarned her that 20th birthdays are like the worst birthdays in the world. I thought I was alone in this, but everybody agreed. Nobody had a good 20th birthday. So we all promised her that we would make sure she had a great one. Well, appendicitis had other plans and came and interrupted her life. And instead of enjoying her birthday party in New Zealand with great friends, she had to spend it in the hospital recovering from surgery. But she took it well. What a trooper.

And this afternoon Shona, Courtney, Kim (Courtney's sister who is visiting -- my sisters should probably take a lesson from her, just saying), and I got in their rented car Fez and took a day trip to Akaroa. It was so pretty. And so fun. We got some fish n chips -- a staple in the New Zealand diet -- and just walked around. Even got to see a GORGEOUS sunset on the way out. What a great Monday afternoon.

Hm... what else can I talk about to avoid my homework?...

Daylight savings occurred on Saturday night so now there is more light in the day and the days are longer. Springtime is my favorite time.

I just started the sixth season of LOST. And just finished watching the first episode of this season. And cannot find a place to watch any of the other episodes because they have all been removed due to infringement. Seriously, why is this happening to me?!

I watched The Sixth Sense for the first time last night. Creepy.

I have eaten more junk food than meals in the past couple days and I'm starting to feel sick from it.

I got back one of my grades from a paper. Clearly the professors here don't appreciate rap music like I do, that's all I have to say about that one.

I have a huge presentation that I need to do for my Social Movements class and I have never been more scared about a presentation. I have no idea what I'm talking about in this class. Why do we have to do presentations anyway? Gross.

My love for Andy Samberg has grown exponentially since I got here.

I am really behind on work. I don't know how they expect us to just jump back into school after a month long break. My heart just isn't in it.

Also, it is quite difficult to write papers when our library is closed down. Not sure how to handle this one.

I have to say, talking to the sister makes me wish I could see the nieces and nephews and just hang out with them. Can't help but miss these kids!

But, despite the schoolwork, life is great. The sun shines just for me and I feel good. (I hope you caught that Boy Meets World reference.)

Okay, this is enough rambling for today. Stay Sweet, my friends, Stay Sweet.

Conquering the South Island Part 2

My South Island adventure was far too epic to fit into one post. So here is part two:

Thursday morning started with a bang. Literally, a man was banging on the window telling us that if we didn't move in five minutes he was going to fine us $100. Perhaps we should have made sure there were no No Camping signs before we parked there. So we moved to a park near the town and ate breakfast. Then we headed towards back into Queenstown and spent the day chilling out and having fun. We ate the most delicious burger from FergBurger and then headed to Milford Sound.

Our drive to the Fiordlands did not disappoint -- with it's views of lakes and the mountains called The Remarkables (for the record, they live up to their name). Our destination was Milford Sound and in order to get there we had to go through this crazy tunnel that was literally carved inside of a mountain. There were no lights and it was a really small space. So freaking cool! The other side of the tunnel was extraordinary, of course. Wouldn't expect anything less. Once we arrived at our campsite, I had Cathy cut my hair in the back of our camper van and then we all went to sleep.

We woke up early Friday morning so that we could take a water tour of Milford Sound. It was absolutely beautiful. We got free coffee and muffins and sat outside to see all of the mountains, waterfalls, and seals that we wanted. Completely astounding. And even more exciting, we were ON A BOAT, don't you ever forget. I mean, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. At one point, we even got to go into a waterfall.

After our water tour, we got into the camper van and headed towards Te Anau. On the way out of Milford Sound, we stopped at a bunch of really awesome sights. There was the Chasm, which was this really cool walkway to this waterfall that had carved out these awesome rocks. Hard to explain, but it was legit. Then we went back through the crazy lightless tunnel. Next was the Mirror Lakes, which were so clear and still that they reflect the mountains around them like a mirror. Really really pretty. What was super cool about these was that when a duck went underwater you could see everything that it was doing. Crazy. Then, we stopped at Dunn Lake where we skipped rocks and sang and laughed and just had an all-around great time. Basically, we just spent a lot of time being too legit to quit.

Once we got to Te Anau, we stopped and got food and gas and then just spent some time enjoying the town. There was this really cool used bookstore where I got Into The Wild and immediately started reading it. Really good book, in case you're wondering. Then we headed to Invercargill. The drive was absolutely beautiful. Especially with the sunset on the way. I mean it literally looked unreal. I hate how much I overuse these words, but I have no other way to describe these sights.

Once we arrived in Invercargill, we sketchily parked our camper van outside of McDonalds (or, more appropriately, SketchDonalds) and ate dinner. Shona, Cathy, and I decided to check out and walk around the town while Courtney went to find us a camping spot. After a while, Courtney came and picked us up and we parked our camper van on the beach for the night certain that we would be kicked out in the middle of the night.

Saturday morning came without any police coming and making us move, which was a win in itself. But then we opened the curtains to see the beach. What a beautiful place to wake up to! After spending sometime soaking in the beach, we drove into Invercargill and had breakfast near Queen's Park. This is where I stopped for a moment to call Brooke and wish her a Happy Birthday. Great conversation. Then we decided to check out Queen's Park. It was a really pretty park and was so cute. So we walked around for a little bit, playing with the ducks and picking flowers. Then we headed to Bluff, the southernmost part of New Zealand.

The day turned to be quite rainy and gross and, to be honest, we all kind of just wanted to chill. So we went to find a camper van site to park and stumbled upon the greatest accommodations. We pulled into what looked like somebody's front yard. It looked this way because it was. And, instead of paying to park there for the night, we were told about WWOOFing. WWOOFing stands for Worldwide Workers On Organic Farms. And basically, you work for a certain amount of hours in order to have free food and accommodation. So, we agreed to work the next day for four hours in order to use the kitchen and park our camper van.

This place was super cute! And it was really nice to finally be in a house after being in a camper van so long. It was so spacious. We spent the first night laughing and talking around the kitchen table for hours and hours. The next day (Sunday), we slept in for the first time in a long time but were woken up by a neighborhood dispute. There was yelling and profanities and policemen called. Totally legit. After a while of sitting and listening, we decided to go inside and cook some breakfast.

After breakfast, we were assigned our WWOOFing duties. Courtney and I cleaned the inside of the house while Shona and Cathy pulled up some potatoes outside. It was such a fun experience. Who would've thought cleaning would be so fun. I cleaned the floors, put the laundry out on the line, cleaned out the refrigerator (which was really gross by the way), and all sorts of other little stuff. Soon, we were finished. And I got to take a long hot shower. It was amazing. After that, Andrew (the guy who owned the place) cooked us a delicious dinner of fish, potatoes, and tomatoes. Then we all sat around and talked until we were too tired and then went to sleep.

Monday morning we woke up and started to head towards Dunedin. It was a nice drive filled with a comfortable silence, reading, and writing. We all have experienced life so fully the past couple days, it was nice to just reflect on it all. Once in Dunedin, we walked around for a bit but soon decided that we were going to come back on a weekend. So we headed towards the Peninsula where we were overlooking a lake and the lights of the city and ate dinner, told scary stories, and laughed a lot. It was a pretty chill day overall.

We left our campsite early on Tuesday and headed to the beach to eat breakfast. It was such an awesome place to sit and eat. After sitting for a while, we headed towards Lake Tekapo. On the way, we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders. These boulders are the only round boulders in the world. They were super sweet. We stopped for a while and picked up these awesome seashell type thingys that literally sparkle. Crazy.

After spending a good while marveling at the boulders and the sea shells, we ate lunch at a cafe and then headed to Lake Tekapo. The drive was amazing, as always. Once we got to Lake Tekapo we went to the I-site and found a Resort called Peppers. Needless to say, I was excited. Either way, once we left there we saw how awesome this place was. There were all these sweet mountains in the background and the lake was the prettiest blue I've ever seen. This is because it is glacial water. Man, it blew my mind. As we were driving through the town we saw signs for ice skating and immediately knew what we were going to do with our last day.

The ice skating rink was outside amidst these beautiful mountains. They were playing some really good music and so we all just headed out and skated for a couple hours. It was so fun. And the perfect ending to our trip. And, of course, I was the only one who fell. Fail. After realizing we were freezing, we went inside and warmed up before heading back to our camper van and eating dinner overlooking the lake. Great ending.

The next morning (Wednesday)we woke up and ate right on Lake Tekapo, soaking in our last few hours of the trip. Then we headed for Christchurch. Once we got back home, we went straight into the city to see all of the damage that the earthquake had done. You see we hadn't been allowed into the city when we were last here so it was crazy to see. They definitely had cleaned up a lot, but there was still a whole lot of damage. There is even an entire road that is completely impassable because of it. We attempted to get pictures, but you can't see the damage all that well in them. It's a good thing there weren't more people out when the earthquake hit.

Since being back I've taken some days by myself and headed to Sumner and New Brighton Beach. These two places are the greatest places to read, reflect, relax, journal, listen to music, whatever. And at night there's been a lot of hanging out, laughing, chilling, playing hat games on the reg. You know, the usual. There was something completely out of the norm, though, I got attacked by an orange juice bottle. It literally exploded in my face and the cap hit me in the eye. Scariest thing ever. Oh, and we baked a cake for Sarah's birthday. And the next day Courtney, Shona, and I made fudge. (I'm using the fact that I helped very loosely seeing as the extent of my helping was helping to pay for the baking products).

Either way, this month long break has been amazing. Seriously. This has been the best month of my life, and I'm not just saying that. Sadly, classes are starting back and we're having to settle back into the normal routine of things. I guess I can't complain about it too much, though. I mean, I'm in New Zealand. There's not much I can be upset about. This place is perfect!

Conquering the South Island Part 1

We were only back in Christchurch for a few days when the earthquake hit. We were then given an extra week of break for school. So we rented Flossy Senior, made Shona join us, and headed for our trip around the South Island. (In case you were wondering, that means we were fitting four people in a camper van that uncomfortably fits three.) And so week three of our break begins...

We woke up on Monday, picked up our camper van, went to Pak n Save to get some food for the trip, and promptly headed for the West Coast. The drive was once again, absolutely beautiful. Driving through Arthur's Pass with it's rolling, snow-topped mountains can't really be described, only experienced. Just believe me, it was astounding. We covered a good amount of the West Coast and stayed in a park in Franz Josef Glacier that night.

The next morning, Tuesday, we set out to walk the trail to Fox Glacier. When we got there, we were disappointed to find that it was closed. So we saw the glacier from afar and then went back into town and ate at a cafe. Then we set out for Wanaka. On the way, we stopped at so many places. First, at King's Point lookout that overlooked the ocean. Next, we stopped at an actual beach and spent some time having fun in the sand. Then, we stopped and walked down to these amazingly green lakes filled with glacial water.

The drive into Wanaka was absolutely beautiful. It literally looked like a painting. Or maybe artists are just better at painting than I ever thought. But either way, there were rolling hills, mountains side by side, snow-topped mountains, lakes on the bottom of these mountains. I mean seriously, anything you could ask for, we saw it. I don't know how this place is so beautiful everywhere we go, but it truly blows my mind on the reg.

Either way, once we arrived in Wanaka we had dinner and then decided to see what this town was about. We ended up in the upstairs of a cafe with all of these people who looked they were straight out of the 70's. I'm not even kidding. There were epic mustaches and a circle of friends. There was also a radio station right next to where we were sitting which only added to the vibes. Pretty cool place for sure. After we left, we headed to find a camp site and get some sleep.

Wednesday began by eating breakfast in Wanaka Park. This town was so cute! It is a place that I want to visit again before I leave. After having coffee in a cute little cafe, we headed towards Queenstown. Once again, EPIC DRIVE. Apparently this drive is called the Crown Ridge drive. Basically, we were up on top of a windy mountain overlooking the entire town with huge rolling mountains and wonderful green hilly grass everywhere. I mean, I don't know how, but it's continually astounding. And it never gets old.

Our arrival in Queenstown was surprising. Queenstown is a pretty big part of New Zealand. I assumed that it would be really tourist-y. But it was absolutely adorable. And you could see beautiful epic mountains from the street. Overall, a really cool place. Well, we got into the I-site at Queenstown and inquired about Bungy Jumping. I was still a bit shaky about the whole idea seeing as I had spontaneously decided to go the day before. But we ended up paying for it and headed to the site.

This is as much as I can condense the story of my Bungy Jumping experience, but I will attempt to make it short. So, we get on the bus that is taking us to the private Nevis Jump. And the whole time I am pretty scared, just thinking about the jump. Once we got there, we got suited up and the guy who is putting on all these crazy harnesses asks me if I've ever been bungy jumping before. I answer no. And he says something along the lines of, "Oh, starting big ae?!"
That's when I was hit over the head with the fact that this jump was, in fact, 134 meters up a.k.a. the third highest Bungy Jumping place in the ENTIRE WORLD. Awesome, as if I wasn't scared enough.

We were then brought outside to wait for our turn to get into the pod that would bring us to the platform so that we could make our jump. Walking out there only made me one million times more scared. Because we were literally jumping into a canyon. I mean, we couldn't even see how far down the people who were jumping would get from where we were standing. That's how far we were going. What?! My current thought process at this point was, "WHAT AM I DOING?!?!" We were soon told to get on the pod, which was so far up, it was scary in and of itself.

Either way, we arrived at the platform and I don't even know what nerves were going through me. But I was SO EXCITED and SO SCARED at the same time. So Shona was up first. And she took it like a champ. I mean, you could definitely see she was scared, but she just semi-hyperventilated while walking over and when they counted down, she jumped. Then it was Courtney's turn. Can we say Most Composed? She was super chill about the whole thing the whole time. It took her about a second after he told her to jump to jump but she did it with complete ease.

...And then it was my turn. Let's just say, they named my jump Biggest Freak Out. I got to the seat prior to the jump and was like, "Okay, I can do this." I started asking really stupid questions about pulling the leg harness and stuff like that. And then I stood up and headed toward the actual platform and I was fine. And then I looked down. Uuumm.. I can literally think of NOTHING more terrifying than that moment. I'm not even going to pretend like I wasn't scared out of my mind. I immediately started freaking out and saying, "I can't do this. I'm so scared. I'm really sorry, I'm so scared." The guy leading me out there was helpful. He'd say encouraging words and I'd look up and be ready to jump and then I'd look down again and completely freak out again. This continued for a while -- maybe a minute or so, which is a long time when standing 134 meters in the air knowing you are about to plummet into nothingness.

I don't even know what it actually took for me. But finally I just did it, my knees completely buckled underneath me and I jumped. At first I was closing my eyes and then I was like, "Wait, open your eyes idiot!" It was the most AMAZING feeling. Literally free falling. Oh man, and I got really close to the water. I distinctly remember looking down and see how close I was getting. It was incredible. Just hanging out in the middle of canyon. Wow. I would advise everyone to try this at least once in their life. I'm not even kidding. I can think of no better feeling.

I was pulled back up and tried to regain my composure. I thanked the guys for helping me out and apologized for freaking out. And then it was Cathy's turn. She had a mini- freak out also. But in the end, she went pretty easily -- arms flailing and all. It was so cool to share this experience with these girls. We all got to see a side of ourselves we had never seen before. This was how we reacted to pure fear. Some were composed. Others flipped out. But we all did it. Such an extraordinary feeling!

Once we got back, we spent the rest of the night talking about life post-bungy. Oh, also, Eunice texted us to tell us we had ANOTHER week off of University. Hello, month long break. This day could not have gotten any better. So we walked around Queenstown and checked out the town. We soon came back and found a random parking lot to sleep in and ended the most epic day of our lives with smiles on our faces.

North Island Extravaganza

Once again, so behind on my blogging. Oops... way too much happens around here to stay on top of this stuff. Either way, the second week of our mid semester break Cathy, Courtney, and I went on an epic trip around the north island in our little camper van, Flossy.

Our adventure began on Friday. On our way back from Rarotonga we stopped in Auckland and stayed there. We got to the airport at some ridiculously early hour, like 5:30 or something like that.
So we just chilled at the airport before heading to our hostel, Base. To be honest, we were all really exhausted and hungry. So after a delicious meal we headed to Base to take a short nap. Our short nap turned into a 6 hour sleep. Not surprising.

We woke up and got to take hot showers for the first time in a while. And then the nicest guy in the world who was also staying at our hostel gave us all of his leftover food. Score! After dinner, we decided to check out the town. After a while, we went back to the hostel to sleep again. Clearly we were incredibly exhausted. Soon, we were woken up by the fire alarm. Seriously, why does this happen to us all the time?! So we were all ushered into the streets to stare at the building that was definitely NOT burning. After a while we were brought back in only to be woken up periodically by the fire alarm going off for split seconds. This WOULD happen to us.

Saturday began the camper van adventure.
Cathy volunteered to go and pick Flossy up so Courtney and I checked out and then just chilled in the lobby of the hostel. It was nice. Soon Cathy called us and we walked outside to the cutest little camper van of all time and thus began our journey. We drove to a small little town called Hamilton and got a few more groceries and then cooked some grilled cheese in the parking lot.

Then we decided to head straight for Wanganui. Of course, the ride did not disappoint with it's beautiful landscapes. The whole time we rocked out and played soulmate. Just all around bonding time. Once we got to the town, there was the problem of where to park. After driving around using a totally screwed up map we ended up in a sketchy parking lot next to some public restrooms. Late in the night, we were woken up by banging on the door. All of us thought this would have been a policeman because you're not technically supposed to just park wherever you want. So I chose to pretend to be sleeping still. We all know how I am with cops. Courtney, being the responsible one, opened the curtains to find a guy about our age telling us that our lights were left on. Nice.

The next morning (Sunday) we woke up to the sound of rain.
And it was perfect. Once it stopped raining we looked outside to see that we were parked by a really pretty lake. After cooking some breakfast, we decided to check out the town of Wanganui. We went to a nice little cafe and stopped in a couple shops. Every store was having excellent sales, especially on baby clothes. So I bought a million things for Holly's baby. Since we're not sure yet if it's a boy or a girl, I just got both type of clothes and figured that there's always someone pregnant in my house anyway.

After shopping for a little bit, we got back in the camper van and headed towards Wellington. I was driving, and doing pretty well I might add, that is until a yield sign just jumped up out of nowhere. And Courtney was in the back eating some yogurt. Let's just say, it didn't end up pretty. Yogurt was everywhere. We like to refer to this as the Yogurt Incident of 2010. After spending a good while cleaning everything up, we got back on the road towards Wellington.

Once in Wellington, Cathy and I decided to check out the town. This place was pretty awesome. We ended up in the cutest little bookstore. Nerdy, I know. But I loved it. We returned to the van and decided to find a place to park for the night. This becomes quite the endeavor and we end up driving through random neighborhoods everywhere. Finally, we find the Titahi Bay and park beside there. It was quite the place to wake up to, let me tell you. Later, we found out that where we parked was a site where some orcs were frolicking about doing scary things in The Lord of the Rings.

The next morning, (Monday) we woke up to this beautiful bay and were stoked to being our day.
We drove into town and checked out the Te Papa Museum. Wow. This thing was seriously cool, and I'm not even big into museums. The first floor had a lot of natural type history which was cool and all, but I wondered up to the 5th and 6th floors where the art was. This stuff was seriously incredible. I really wish we could've had more time there, but our next adventure awaited.

The next adventure was none other than a Lord of the Rings tour. Now, I know what you're thinking, "What a nerd!". And yes,
you are probably correct in thinking that. But, honestly, this tour was really really cool because not only were we seeing a lot of the Lord of the Rings sites, we also got to see a whole lot of Wellington, which is a pretty awesome city. So before you judge, maybe you should try one of these tours. I would go into crazy detail about the tour, but I am afraid it will only prove the nerdiness of the situation. Let's just say, I got to see a whole lot of great stuff, walk where all of these people walked, and now I'm stoked to watch the movies again.

Alright, moving on, after the tour we drove to Lake Taupo and stayed at a really sweet campsite. The next day, (Tuesday) we headed into the Lake Taupo town and sat down and charged up at a little cafe. The people there were super sweet and it was just fun to hang out with the locals. But, we couldn't stay for too long because Rotorua awaited. The drive to Rotorua was absolutely amazing, as always. I've said it once and I'll say it again, there is literally no prettier place than New Zealand.

Once we got to Rotorua, Cathy and Courtney really wanted to do this thing called Zorbing, which is basically rolling down a hill in a giant ball. Because of lack of funds and a desire to spend my limited funds on this experience, I opted to check out the town while they did this. And I am SO HAPPY that I did. This place was extraordinary. I started out on this gorgeous dock reading (reminded me of Lake Robinson except far more huge and beautiful).
Once I had my fill of that, I meandered around and somehow stumbled upon this awesome pathway that ended up being the Rotorua Walkway. As my walk began, I put my headphones in and listened to the Resonate Podcast. I feel like perfect is the only way to describe the rest of my afternoon. Absolutely astoundingly beautiful. In every way. Sometimes I forget how much I need time by myself. This showed me how much I truly enjoy it.

Once the girls had finished, they called me and we met up and headed for the Blue and Green Lakes. We arrived there at just the right time - as the sun was setting. Once again, Rotorua did not fail to disappoint with the absolute beauty of it all. We decided to eat dinner by the Green Lake and after dinner sat on this dock eating Tim-Tams, listening to Jack Johnson, and staring at the stars which were appearing shockingly quicker than they do around dusk in America. Probably because of the lack of pollution.

The evening only continued with it's perfectness as we got back in the car, drove through Bethlehem (seriously, it was the name of a town), saw the city lights by night, and then drove into a remote part of The Corromandel and walked outside of our campervan only to see that the stars had exponentially grown in number. I literally have never seen the sky like this. It was completely breath-taking. I could have sat out there for hours, literally. What a perfect day!

Wednesday began with us waking up to see where exactly we parked because when we arrive it was pitch black and we had no idea what our
surroundings looked like. You can imagine how excited we were to find ourselves to be the only people in this entire campsite amidst a sunny field. So we sat outside in the sun and ate our breakfast.

Once we forced ourselves to step away from the greatness, we headed towards Cathedral Cove. On the way, we stopped at a Hot Water Beach. Now, the sign definitely lied because the water at this beach was far from hot, but trust me, I didn't mind. This was probably in the top three of favorite moments of the entire New Zealand trip, which is saying a whole lot.
There was another spot of beach unable to be attained unless one was willing to splash through the water to get there. Beyond that, there were some rocks that you could climb over in order to disappear from the rest of the world. And beyond the rocks was another long stretch of beach where you could walk for forever and have an entire beach all to yourself. So of course, that is exactly what I did. And, once again, I had some great 'me' time, as some would call it. I really can't describe how amazing this was. Let's just say, God blew my mind. In a really really awesome way. I'll probably tell you the story if you ask.

Either way, once I meandered back to where Cathy and Courtney were we headed towards Cathedral Cove. We had short hike to this place, but it was nothing compared to the hikes we've been doing. Cathedral Cove was stunning.
It's a little beach surrounded by huge boulders. I can see why so many people say it's their favorite place in New Zealand. When we got there, there was no one there so we just walked around the place and enjoyed having it all to ourselves. Once people started coming, we decided to head out. But it was amazing while it lasted.

On the way back we saw a sign for Gemstone Bay so we decided to take it. We were all a little surprised to walk straight onto rocks. There was no sand, just huge rocks and then the ocean. It was so so cool. So we hung out there for a while and then decided to head back to catch the sunrise. Um...wow. That's all I have to say about it. We ended up on this absolutely amazing hill overlooking the ocean and the mountains and sat and basked in the sun until it set. It was amazing. Gorgeous beyond belief, I'm not even kidding.

Once the sun set and the wind picked up, we headed to the campervan, cooked some dinner and then sat outside and stared at the stars all over again. We actually got to see a Red Dwarf, which was super cool since I've never seen one before. I think we could've sat out there all night, but we knew we had to find a place to park our campervan so we headed to the Corromandel Town. I'm going to go ahead and forewarn you, this is where the perfectness of the day ends.

The sketchiness begins when we reach the town and follow motorhome signs that lead to dead ends and large No Camping signs. This seems a little weird, but we persist in finding a place to sleep. Since, we had such good luck with sleeping by the bays before, when we saw a sign for Kennedy Bay, we thought it would be an excellent place to stay. So we headed that way. As we turned on the road, there was this creepy old man walking all alone in the pitch black dark on the road. When I commented about how creepy it was that he was doing this, the other girls were like "Aw, he's a sweet old man." Um.. no. This was not normal. I knew it was a bad omen.

The road that we were on suddenly turned into a gravel drive that could barely fit our campervan on it, let alone a car that would be passing us on the other side. As if that wasn't it enough, it was going straight up a mountain. Now, this doesn't make much sense if we're trying to go to a bay, but we still thought it would all work out. Well, the longer we climbed the lower our gas tank got. But still, we weren't worried. That is until Cathy realized that there was no way this was right. But, for some reason, we continued on. Finally, we got to the top of this mountain, and then the road started going down. And kept going down. And never really stopped going down.

And so then we all started to get really creeped out by the dirt road and the fact that we were the ONLY people on this road and that the road NEVER ended. Oh and there was that whole not sure if we'd have enough gas thing. So, finally, after traveling on this creepy road with a whole lot of crazy possums everywhere, we decided to turn around. Well, in our eager anticipation to leave, the driver (who shall remain nameless -- and no, it wasn't me) tried to do a three point turn in the first possible place she could. This proved to be a bad mistake when she tried to back out and realized we were stuck in the mud.

Yes, you heard that right, in the middle of the creepiest and tiniest dirt road in the entire world, with no cellphone service or battery for that matter, and a million sketchy little possums everywhere, we were stuck in the mud. Now Cathy and Courtney took charge and got right out of the car to access the situation. I, on the other hand, couldn't move from the position I was in and was absolutely petrified that they were going to get eaten or abducted or something crazy like that right in front of my eyes. Thankfully, none of that happened. Instead, Courtney directed Cathy in the best way to got out and we drove out as fast as we possibly could. I'm pretty sure none of really breathed correctly until we got completely out of this place with gas enough to get us out of the town.

I was finally starting to regain my composure as we searched for a new campsite when I looked out the window and I saw, I KID YOU NOT, a man dressed in all black crouching down hiding on the side of the road. WHAT THE HECK?! I STILL don't understand what was up with that. Needless to say, I freaked out. Let's be real, what other reason than the fact that he wanted to attack someone could there be for him to be dressed like that and crouching like that?! I'll tell you, there is none.

Let's just say, we drove as far away as possible from this dodgy town, drove into a campervan site, left a frantic note on the window and attempted to sleep after the scariest couple hours ever. The next morning, (Thursday) was much more pleasant. Our surroundings were very beautiful. We began our drive to Auckland to head for the airport. After eating some Pita Pit, we got to the airport with many hours to spare and basically just hung out until our flight.

Once again, really long recap. But how do you expect me to do a short recap when my weeks are so event-filled. I mean seriously. Overall, a perfect trip. I can't help but love my life. I mean, can you blame me?!

Shaking things up in En Zed...

I am super behind on my posts. But I will go back and explain the North Island Extravaganza another day. Instead, I am going to comment on all of this earthquake craziness.

Yes, my friends, it is true. I have survived a natural disaster. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake just rocked all of our worlds down here in Christchurch, New Zealand. Good news is the only damage done in this house was the TV breaking. All the rest of the 'damage' was just stuff falling on the ground and such.

But let me explain how it all went down. I just spent the last week in a camper van. So when I wake up to everything moving at 4:30 am, I'm thinking that I am somehow back in that camper van and I am so so confused. So I look around for my phone for some light. When I realize that I am, in fact, in my room I am even more confused. Then I'm like wait, is this an earthquake?? So I just sit in my bed as my whole room keeps moving violently and try to assess the situation. You see, I had never been in an earthquake before and wasn't really sure what the proper reaction to one would be.

Once the big one stopped, my host mom and dad come running down the hallway asking if I'm alright. I'm like, "Yeah, was that an earthquake?". They stare at me like I'm insane because OF COURSE it was an earthquake. What else could it have been? Because they are kind people they answer my question in a nice manner, but they had to have thought I was mentally unstable or something. Furthermore, because I really had no idea that this was a big deal, I turned around and went right back to sleep. Had I known this was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, I may have had a more ridiculous reaction... like perhaps screaming or crying or informing my parents that I was okay.

I kept getting woke up throughout the night by the aftershocks of the earthquake, but my host parents had told that this would happen so I wasn't scared. Just annoyed because I wanted to sleep. Finally, after a more violent aftershock, I woke up for the day and signed onto facebook.

When I signed on, I had 20 notifications. I'm thinking, "Man, I'm so cool today." Well, come to find out, this earthquake thing was quite a big deal. Apparently making breaking news headlines over there in the states. Who even knew?! I promptly see my sister's post that is basically her freaking out. So I call her up to tell her I'm okay and then I talk to my parents to verify that I am okay. Sorry family, I really didn't know it was a big deal.

Then, come to find out, we're not allowed anywhere near the city, we have to conserve our water, and we're still feeling aftershocks two days later. So much damage and I had no idea. I thought all earthquakes felt like that. Clearly, I was wrong.

Good news is University is closed for a week. Extended break? I think yes. So we immediately rented another camper van and we're setting off for Queenstown, Fiordland, and who knows where else tomorrow. Oh what up natural disasters.

A Great Reunition in Rarotonga

Wow, so it's time to catch up on this blogging thing. I have been away from the internet for the past two weeks. I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of refreshing to get away from the usual technology of facebook and my phone. It'd be alright with me to get away from it all again.

Anyway, my two week break began with a plane ride to the Cook Islands at about 4 am on Friday morning.
Needless to say, I didn't sleep. I think we all know that if I slept I would not have woken up for the plane ride. So of course, I got on the plane and watched the sunrise then immediately fell asleep. Landing in Rarotonga was amazing. We (meaning my IES group) stepped off the plane to warm weather! I cannot describe how good warm weather felt after 2 months of winter in ChristChurch. There was also all this island music playing. All in all, perfect way to start the trip.

We were then brought to our accommodation (Vara's -- which was pretty sweet, by the way) and then we went to get some dinner. On the way there we saw another rainbow. I swear, I have seen more rainbows here in the past two months than I have seen in the past 20 years of my life combined. I feel like there is always a rainbow around -- I love it. At dinner, I ate the best burger I've ever tasted. Seriously. But by the end of it I felt like I couldn't walk because I was so full. Worth it.

We all got back to the place we were staying and there was a lightning show happening outside. So we all sat outside on the girl's porch and watched the most spectacular lightning in the sky. It was crazy because there was no rain or thunder. Just awesome lightning that lit up the entire sky. It was also really cool because all of us in the group were squished outside on this porch and, for the majority of the time, nobody was saying anything (except the occasional "wow! that one was crazy!"). It was completely mind-blowing. I think our silence was telling of that. So so cool.

Later that night Lindsay, Courtney, Cathy, Shona, and I decided to check out the town. This resulted in us ending up sitting on the beach for a while just staring at the clouds and the lightning and talking about life. This was up there on my favorite moments of the trip. Once again, we were all content to be right where we were doing exactly what we were doing. As we were walking back, we passed a bar that was playing PokerFace very loudly and, I have to say, this was the perfect end to my night. Thank you Lady GaGa.

The next day (Saturday) we were woken up by the sun and the roosters. After breakfast, we headed to the market in town.
It was fun to just walk around and see what the people of the Cook Islands were like. I ended up getting a pair of sunglasses and a koru necklace. After that, Cathy and I went to find the ATM so we could get some cash out before getting lunch. Good thing the ATM was messing up big time and it took a million years to get my cash out. I ended up having to get kabob on the run before meeting the group to head to our next location.

The next place we went was pretty cool. We all got to paint our own sarongs and play some football/rugby/500 with the kids. I must say, I almost forgot how much I miss my nieces and nephews. Part of me can't wait to get home and roughhouse with them. Man, those kids are the cutest.

After a while of this, we walked to this field and got our hands and clothes dirty by Taro planting. In the middle of this field, they then began to do a coconut demonstration.
These people climbed a coconut tree in like 2 seconds. It was so crazy. Some of the people in our group attempted to climb these trees and couldn't get past halfway there -- if that. Then they had a competition to see who could open the coconut the quickest. They did it so quickly. Then it was our turn. Let me just say, I failed. Actually, to be honest, I probably could've won just because this guy was helping me and he was awesome. But I still somehow failed.

After this was arts and crafts time. As we all know, arts and crafts aren't exactly my forte. So, naturally, this was when Lindsay and I discovered that we fail at this trip. We were told to make our own baskets which we were going to eat out of that night.
Let's just say, I had one of the girls there do the entire thing for me because when I would try, the whole thing would come apart. Then we were told to make these head coverings out of leaves for our hair. I actually did this one myself, but it was quite a struggle. Then we were taught a dance which we were told we were going to perform that evening. It was some island dance, not sure what it was called. I would say it was similar to the hula but Jessica is from Hawaii and used to do hula competitions and says that it's not. Personally, I can't tell the difference.

Either way, after we learned this dance we went back to Vara's
and had some time to get ready and then went back to go to dinner. Everyone was told to wear the sarongs that we had made earlier that day and to bring their baskets because that is what we would be eating out of. We got to the place and sat down and ate a delicious meal and drank straight coconut milk straight from the coconut. There was this island-style band that was playing for us the whole time.


Then began the show. These kids came out and did these awesome island dances. Seriously, they were legit. At one point there was this little kid with dreads doing the dances -- cutest child in the world. (shout out KEEZ GORILLA - I know you'd appreciate the dreads).

After they finished, it was our turn to perform. Um... fail. After these kids, anything would be a let-down. But it was so much fun. Then they decided that it was a good idea to make the dance a competition. This is when Lindsay and I had our instincts that we suck at this trip affirmed. Because she was the first one out and I was the second. Soon after the competition began, the man came over and tapped me on the shoulder and said "you're gonna have to sit down". I was super disappointed -- how did he not see what a naturally talented dancer I am? I realized that this type dancing just must not be my element. Perhaps he should come and visit me one weekend at the row. There would be no tapping on the shoulder then, I'm sure. Okay, let's be real, yes there would be. Anyway, after our tiring day, when we got back the whole group decided to spend some time sitting on the beach and just chilling out. Definitely much needed down time.

We woke up on Sunday and got dressed in our Sunday best and headed to church. Most of the service was in Maori (the Cook Island language) so I didn't understand most of what was happening. The songs were pretty cool though because they were traditional Maori songs. All in all, more of a cultural experience than anything.
There was; however, the most adorable little girl who kept coming over and staring at Max, Tom, and I. I'm fairly certain she had a crush on Max and really didn't like Tom.

After the church service, they served us some delicious food which a couple of us brought down to the beach to eat. Let me tell you, this place was absolutely beautiful. And the water was perfectly clear. After that, we headed back to Vara's and I fell asleep in an awkward position on one of the chairs. When I woke up, I found out that everyone was napping also. Clearly we were all exhausted.


We then were brought to some place to go snorkeling! I was so excited since I had never really been before. Everyone seemed to think this was the weirdest thing because they had all been snorkeling a million times. Apparently I don't go on cool trips enough. (Parents, we should start working on that.) Anyway, it was SO COOL. I didn't think I would be that interested in it since I'm not exactly Miss I-Care-About-Fish/Animals/Any of that type stuff. But it was seriously awesome. I had this really colorful fish that I chased for a while. After we got out we got hot chocolate/coffee and laid in the sun. It was excellent.

We were brought back to Vara's to get ready for dinner. Some of the guys decided to swim in the pool. I opted to sit and watch them belly-flop and cannonball in as I ranked them on their form. Then it was time for dinner. The place we were at was right on the beach and we got there just as the sun was setting. It was beautiful. The food was buffet style and wow, it was delicious. Once we got back to Vara's we all just sat around and talked, swapped some ghost stories (Brooke, I told the one about the midget clown), and then went to sleep.

On Monday, we woke up early and were forced to attend a lecture. It ended up being less miserable than expected but only because the lady talking was super interesting. And then one of my favorite parts of the trip happened. We visited a school and got to play with the kids.
Um.. hello favorite thing to do. Shona and I immediately volunteered for the preschool age. I am so glad that we did. At first, we were just playing and stuff. And then they brought us outside and wow, I forgot how much energy kids have. They were dragging me by the hand all over the place. After an hour, we were told we had to leave. It was so sad. I literally could have stayed there all day. Clearly, I am a child at heart.

After that we were forced to go to another lecture. This one was more miserable than expected. Mainly because I was so hungry I thought I was going to pass out, which we all know actually could have happened.
Thankfully, I was staying hydrated and had taken my medication that morning... so there was no real need to worry! But maybe if I had passed out the lecture could have ended earlier.Needless to say, when I finally got our Indian food, I scarfed it down. The Indian place that we ate at was right across from the beach so we all went and saw heaps of whales in the water. Yep, whale watching for free. I didn't think I'd be that impressed by the whales, but it was actually really really cool to see.

After that, we had another lecture on boating which would have been lame if we didn't get to actually go and hang out on a boat for a while afterwards.
We waded over to the boat in the warmest water and that sat there and hung out on it. I definitely enjoyed it. As soon as that was over, we quickly left and had 15 minutes to get ready for our progressive dinner. Somehow, we all got ready in time (Max even wore his red pants) and headed to 3 different houses where we had three different courses for dinner. At the first house there was this little boy who loved me. He kept coming up to me and hugging me. I was so excited, until I realized that he did that to everyone. Breaking my heart... Anyway, all three locations were absolutely great, the hosts were wonderful, the food was great, and there was constantly island-type music playing. No complaints here.

Tuesday began with a nice breakfast and then our cross island "walk".
This "walk" was less of a walk and more of an uphill climb up a mountain. It was definitely difficult, but the views at the end made it so worth it. And honestly, the uphill stuff was much better than the downhill, which made me slip and fall quite a few times. But the best part of the whole thing was jumping into a freezing cold waterfall at the end. I'm pretty sure I was the first one in. I'm pretty sure nothing has felt as good as that waterfall pool felt.

After this we had some free time so Shona, Cathy, Courtney, and I got lunch at this cute little cafe where I had a delicious banana chocolate chip muffin.
And then we met up with everyone else and we all spent the day hanging out on the beach and in the ocean and wading to the other islands. The water there is so incredibly calm. You could literally see the waves crash in the distance. It was the craziest thing. The day was basically filled with us just making the most of the absolute paradise that we were in. Then it was dinner time so we headed to this Hawaiian style place that was also right on the beach. Once again, another delicious meal filled with hilarious conversations. Couldn't ask for a better day.

Our final day was Wednesday and it began with two lectures. The first would have been incredibly boring but the lecturer was quite attractive so I'm pretty sure he held all of the girl's attention.
The second one went quickly, but I have to say, it was so good to get out of there and just have some free time. In our free time Shona, Cathy, Courtney, Andrew, and I rented this motorized bikes and spent the day in town. It was super fun and all, but my favorite part was getting back and taking a nap on the beach. So peaceful.

Once I woke up from that we began our outrigger paddling races. My team won the first two times but the third time, after we switched boats, we lost pretty badly. Max decided to explain our loss with, "Well we had Steph on our team." Um... excuse me?! To quote my Full House character's famed expression, "How Rude!" Let's be real, I dominated at this outrigger paddling thing. I was, by far, the loudest on the team and; therefore, kept the tempo for the paddling. But then again, me and Lindsay were both on this team and, as mentioned before, we sucked at this trip.
That has to be the explanation. In the end, we realized that the boat that we lost with had much more water in it. So no one is to be blamed for this loss.

We then went back to Vara's and got ready for our final dinner. The place we went to was absolutely beautiful. It was right around sunset so we all hung out on the beach in hammocks and just enjoyed it. Dinner was also delicious. And hilarious. For so many reasons. Our half of the table was quite ridiculous, to say the least. It got less hilarious when Tom realized that he ate some pine nuts, which he happens to be deathly allergic to and had to rush back to Vara's in order to use his EpiPen. No need to worry, he was okay in the end. And after spending some time at the hospital, he ran into our room shouting, "Who wants drugs?!"


After dinner, we had like an hour to pack our bags before we headed to the airport. That's right my friends, another night without any sleep. On the way the airport Max realized that he didn't know where his passport was. So he almost didn't make it on the plane. We were literally boarding as he walked through security. What a ridiculous final night. In so many ways. Either way, we all made it back safely. Courtney, Cathy, and I stopped off in Auckland and began our North Island adventure (that post will be up soon).

I realize that this is a really long post but what can I say? The whole week was amazing, I couldn't leave out too many details. Just another day in paradise. Couldn't help but love this place.