June 29, 2008 1:30 pm
Alright, I made it back from New Zealand. Barely. I was pretty tired and have only just recovered recently. It was amazing though, and incredible time. So here we go!
Day 1: I didn’t get into Christchurch (on the South Island) until about midnight so I just caught a cab to a hostel and went to bed. My tour started at 9am this same day, so I got up early and the met the group. There were about 30 people in my tour, from all over the world and all different age groups. To start off we took a walk about Christchurch and checked out the museum and the cathedral. It was freezing. I was quite unprepared for the cold and it was only going to get worse. After our walk, we loaded into the bus and headed south to a place called Flock Hill. Flock Hill is a huge sheep farm, which has accommodation and a restaurant. The man who owns it has over 20,000 sheep and produces much of the merino wool for Italian suits. We got a tour of the farm and watched how sheep dogs work. Pretty cool actually. That night we just had dinner and drinks on the farm.
Day 2: We all got up early (I won’t even say that anymore because we got up at 6 am everyday, it was awful) and headed down the West Coast of New Zealand. We stopped at a small town called Hokitika and checked out a jade factory. We then went on to a place called Fox that’s famous for its glacier. After suiting up in warm clothes and boots, we went for a long hike that ended on top of the glacier (and under it in some cases). I don’t know if any of you have ever been on a glacier but it is a strange thing. There’s a huge lush valley of temperate rainforest and then in the middle of it all, just a huge hunk of ice (miles and miles long). It wasn’t even that cold since the surrounding air was warm. That night we partied it up at the local Fox pub, the town only has 300 people. It was actually one of our best nights out, fun with the hick locals!
Day 3: Today was the day that we would drive down into Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of New Zealand (and also just a really cool place). On the way down we stopped at the Tasman Sea for some views and also the Thunder Creek Falls, NZ has tons of waterfalls everywhere. We stopped at a famous creek where people stack rocks (exciting, I know). We got into Queenstown and settled into our (surprisingly) nice motel. That night a group dinner was planned at an awesome gourmet pizza place, and then we went to an ice bar! The bar is made completely out of ice and kept at about negative eight degrees Celsius. You put on huge boots and jackets, and you have half an hour in the cold. The glasses were made out of ice too, it was really awesome! After the ice bar some friends from the tour and I went to a local bar called Buffalo, then home for bed.
Day 4: We had activities scheduled for this day. I went on a horseback riding tour of the Lord of the Rings territory and saw where a lot of the movies were filmed. It was absolutely gorgeous, and we had a perfect sunny day, even though it had snowed a lot the night before (I did say it was cold). Some of us went out for mexican for dinner that night and then had some drinks out. There was a lot of staying up late and getting up early on this tour, luckily we spent a lot of time on the bus where we could catch up on sleep.
Day 5: We had a boat tour of the Milford Sound on Tuesday and saw some dolphins and rainbows! The tour was only a couple hours, it was originally supposed to be over night, but instead we got an extra night in Queenstown, which was basically ok with everyone. After the boat, we stopped at some scenic places (we did that multiple times everyday, hence why I have 500 pictures from the week). Everyone was really exhausted on this day, so heading back to our motel was greatly appreciated. We did another group dinner out and had a couple drinks before bed.
Day 6: This morning we had some free time, did a little souvenir shopping and then we loaded into the bus to continue onto Lake Ohau. This lake was in the middle of nowhere, and the only thing around was the lodge we stayed in. It had its own bar (entertainment problem solved) with a pool table and some darts. A pretty decent dinner and drinks ensued for the night.
Day 7: The last day of the tour! We drove back to Christchurch, stopping for lunch on the way, and the tour was over by about 4. Our group decided to go out together for the night, since no one was leaving NZ until Friday or later. My flight was at 6 am on Friday (a big mistake on my part) and since we had to leave for the airport by 3:30 am I just decided to stay out (and thus up) with the group. Everyone met at a little cocktail bar called Lyme, where there was one (awesome) bartender who was not expecting 30 kids with a penchant for alcohol to wander in. He handled it very well and my friend Alyssa and I closed the bar (since there was no point in me going to bed). Around three I went back to the hostel, grabbed my stuff and booked it to the airport. Not my favorite flight ever, ahem, but I slept through most of it and made it home to my empty apartment. I managed to take a quick nap and stay up for the rest of the day and night, about 40 hours straight in all.
Overall NZ was beautiful and amazing and cold. I’m really glad I went, I did so many cool things and met a lot of awesome people. If I ever to go Michigan or Mexico or Ireland or Japan I always have somewhere to stay now :)
With all this being said, I do have a million pictures to post from the zoo and Melbourne and New Zealand and I will put up links, hopefully by tomorrow. My internet is iffy so I have to load them on campus, but I promise it will be worth the wait! Sorry this post is so long but I did a lot of stuff!
Everyone in Parklands leaves tomorrow minus 2 people, so it will be lonely and sad for awhile, until I leave for Asia on July 9th. I suppose I’m excited to go but I mostly want to go home. I really miss the city and my apartment and everyone: Dad, Olivia, Mason, Megan, Emily, Elena, Seguin, Erin, Tom, Zach, Melissa and the list goes on! If I didn’t mention you, I promise I still miss you and I can’t wait to see you all!
6/18/08 1:21 am
Hello!
Wow, time has been flying! I just got back from Melbourne a couple hours ago, and before that it was just go go go (as always).
I had all my finals; somehow wrote 2 papers and took an exam, I don’t really know how that’ll turn out...ahem. But it’s done and I’m happy about that. School is such a fun-damper anyway.
After my finals were over I celebrated by going to Toronga Zoo (the one in Sydney) finally, with Ashley and Joanne. It’s a pretty good zoo and we had a lot of fun. And you can bet there are pictures to prove it (almost a whole album in fact). After the zoo, I went home and changed and then made the irresponsible decision to go out on the town (we were leaving for Melbourne on Saturday, the next morning). Well, I had a great time in King’s Cross, as always. A lovely Vietnamese-French fusion dinner with Melissa (not Melissa Kovner from home, she left a long time ago. Melissa who lives above me now). Then we met up with some of the girls and made a night of it. Got home a little later then expected (um...3 hours later in fact) and went to bed, only to get up and catch a flight. Not the best flight I’ve ever had...
We, Cydney, Lindsey and I, got to Melbourne Saturday afternoon and I took a nap. Way too tired to actually enjoy anything. But we went out for a great Italian dinner and called it a night. We wanted to get up and hit up the Sunday markets the next day. Sunday was an exploration day and a good dinner, in bed early because we had a really full day Monday. We had signed up for an all day tour that brought us to Phillip Island to culminate in the watching of the nightly penguin migrations. Fairy penguins live on this island, and every morning before sunrise one of the mates of a pair goes out into the ocean to fish all day to feed their young. Then every night, after sunset, they come back from the ocean and go to their burrows in the sand dunes. You can go at sunset and sit and watch the penguins come out of the ocean, a really amazing experience. You can’t take pictures though because the flash causes the penguins to regurgitate their food early, and the young don’t get fed (since their eyes are used to the dark ocean). We had a mini tour bus and in the morning drove to island. We stopped at a wild life preserve on the way and fed some kangaroos (big ones this time, see the video and album) and other animals. Then we went to a beautiful beach and the nobbies on Phillip Island (some rock formations in the ocean). Our last stop was the Penguin Parade and then pizza dinner and back to the hostel.
Our last day, today, was spent wandering around the city, going into shops and eating lunch. We caught our flight back, and here I am. On Thursday I go to New Zealand for a week, so now I need to prepare for that. Lots of packing and shopping to do (it’s winter, very cold there now). I come back Thursday of next week, then start preparing for Asia. It really is non-stop for me these days, but I’ll find time to write again before I head off to Asia. Hope everyone is well, I’m getting excited to come home (in a month and 2 weeks!). Love all around!
Links to photo albums are coming! My uploads won't work, bad internet.
6/1/2008 8:38 pm
...hi. I know it’s been a bit of time, sorry. I’ve been busy, and when I haven’t been busy I’ve been sleeping or busy. Things here are going well, still having heaps of fun, but in the last couple of weeks or so, it’s finally hit everyone that in less than a month, people will be going home. Suddenly everyone has become really mopey and sad, and it’s not helped by the colder weather and shorter days.
I’ve been going out a lot since I last wrote, and Cyd’s ‘boyfriend’ came to stay for the last two weeks. Actually a lot of people have recently come to the Parklands to stay and visit, so that’s been exciting. We had two CEA events since I last wrote and one was a dinner and comedy show, which was hysterical. It was two hours long and was a variety of comics, although the main one was a guy named Eddie Ifft, who was American. Eddie was absolutely inappropriate and everyone laughed until they cried. The other event was actually today, and some of us went to an AFL game (Aussie Rules, footie etc). I’ve been to two rugby games, so going to a footie game was exciting. It was the Sydney Swans versus the something Tigers, and the Swans kicked ass (125 to 26 or something by the 3rd quarter).
Last week we went to Epping on Wednesday, Edward Scissorhands and the Ivy on Thursday and Argyle on Friday. Scissorhands was pretty amazing, but not what I was expecting at all. I was under the impression that it was a play, but there was no dialogue, just music and dancing. The dancing was incredible though, and I was excited to see something in the Opera House theater (I saw the orchestra in the other house). Argyle was very fun as usual, but I got left behind when the group went home (my own fault actually), which was sad, but I figured it out ok. Last night, Saturday, I took it easy and just hung out around Parklands and at a friend’s house. No Hugo’s tonight, very tired and I have a paper to write this week. Finals are coming rather quickly, but the good news is that I’ll be completely done by June 12th. We’re trying to put together a Melbourne trip for June now.
So now everybody, I finally have dates for when I’ll be home and where I’ll be for the rest of my trip. I go to New Zealand from June 19th to the 27th, and move out of Parklands on July 4th. I will remain slightly homeless from the 4th to the 9th of July, which is when I go to Asia. Asia is from July 9th to the 30th, when I will fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Hong Kong for a 6 hour layover (during which I will hopefully get to explore a bit of the city). From Hong Kong I go to Sydney and arrive early on the 31st. I spend one night in Sydney and fly home (home as in New York as in my travels are over and I will cry for weeks) on August 1st. I get in around 10:30pm on August 1st. And there you have it, my final plan. Minus the Melbourne trip, which is in the works still. In total I will have been away for five and a half months, and it’s great that I still have two months left (exactly two months today) because I’m not ready to come home yet. I still need some ‘self-discovery time’ and to figure things out, and I think going to Asia with no one I know will be great for that.
I am thoroughly exhausted now so I am going to sit here on the floor with some of the Parkland girls and watch awful Australian TV. Goodnight!
