They Say It's Spring

Well… we are back on the main island. New Zealand already seems so far away but it is good to back in warmer weather and to return to ‘normal.’ I spent the last week catching up on homework and working at “The Breath,” as I so fondly call it. Saturday was ANZAC Day (which is like the Australian equivalent to Memorial Day) and the whole weekend was spent relaxing and recuperating from our trip (with Nutella and Grey’s Anatomy, of course).

I can’t relax for too long though because I’m heading to Melbourne this weekend! After we got home from NZ, we already felt that we needed to get out of Toowoomba. It’s Daniel’s birthday this weekend so 5 of us are flying down to Melbourne for a long weekend. The flights were fairly cheap and the hostel we booked is really cheap so I’m sure it will be a lot of fun.

It has also recently occurred to me that I don’t even hear the Aussie accent anymore. Being around so many nationalities recently, I can’t really distinguish the dialects. I’m hoping this means I will be returning with a bit of Aussie in my speech. I have picked up these words for you though:

- Problems= Dramas
- Sketchy= Dodgy
- If someone is silly/stupid, they are a dag
- And a ginger is a wranga (pronounced ringer)
- I also get “Ta” and “Cheers” a lot at work which I thought was just a British thing but apparently not.

In other news, no mice have returned to my room and I’m currently feeding my HP addiction from the USQ library. (Isn’t my life just so thrilling that you get to hear about mice and my current reading list?) We leave for Melbourne on Thursday so until then, I’ll be packing and working. Hope you all are enjoying the warmer weather you’re getting because I’m heading into winter!

Everyday is a Holiday with You (or Installment 8)

It was a bit sad leaving Nelson, knowing that we only had one more destination before heading back home to Australia (is it weird that I feel like it’s home?) But the thing that made it DEVASTATING was the fact that about halfway through our Harry Potter audiobook, Emma realized that only half of it got uploaded onto her iPod. We were depressed about this (obviously) but we journeyed on, stopping in Picton for some lunch and listening to 90’s music (always a surefire way to get me back in a better mood).

We checked into our hostel in Christchurch in the afternoon and discovered this market that was held right across the street that sold food on Fridays and crafts on Saturdays/Sundays. So we walked over and checked out all the homemade food (and Lauren and I bought some cupcakes. Typical.) After dinner, we went grocery shopping (yes, again…) where we discovered the best grocery store we’d seen by far. It was set up kind of like Costco and had really cheap prices, but you didn’t have to buy in bulk. This is what I call a win-win. We called up the guys we had met in Queenstown and were planning on going to see this improv comedy show with them, but it was sold out. So instead, the guys invited us back to their flat were we met a bunch of their other flat mates and friends (almost all of whom were international as well, which was neat). Their flat was located right in Cathedral Square which is basically the center of Christchurch and they lived behind this alley above 2 bars which made for a fun time. After hanging out in their flat for a bit, we went out to this 80’s club called Boogie Nights were I felt like I could’ve seen my parents dancing across the room. But it was a blast.

The next day we slept in and walked across the street to the art market again, checking out all the handmade scarves, pottery, and the international food booths (mmm, Nutella crepes…) The whole thing was like the Ann Arbor Art Fair on a small scale so it was cool. Also right across the street were these giant Botanical Gardens were we spent the majority of the afternoon. They had this rose garden which had over 100 different types of roses and a greenhouse and this lake which you could canoe on. It was absolutely beautiful. After dinner, we met up again with Anja and Antje and were invited back over to our new friends’ flat. We went out again that night to this Irish bar called Sullivans (where they played EXCELLENT music) and made several other stops that night before crashing into our beds.

Our last full day was spent looking at the Art Gallery and listening to this Salvation Army band that had set up right outside. Apparently, the weekend we were there it was this big jazz festival so I felt like there was always some sort of live music playing. Because we were leaving the next day, we needed to finish all the food we had bought which meant only one thing: binge hardcore. :) After stuffing ourselves, we hung out for the last time with the people we had met and ended up watching a movie at their place. We watched Defiance (with Daniel Craig) and it was actually really good. It was really great knowing people in Christchurch because we would run into them everywhere, like at the grocery store or at the art market which just made the weekend all the more fun.

And thus concludes the tales from New Zealand. The next morning we sadly returned Ellen, our rental car and boarded the plane back to Australia. The trip was amazing and I would tell anyone to go there. Now I am back at school (trying really hard to get out of vacation mode and back into school mode) and working my butt off because there are more trips to plan and more places to see! More updates soon (although you’re probably super sick of this blog by this point) and I hope you all are doing well!

P.S. For all you who were dying in anticipation wondering what happened to Lauren's camera, the hostel sent her an email the other day saying they had found it! :)

I Hope Tomorrow is Like Today (or Installment 7)

Because we couldn’t stay at the Nelson YHA for 2 nights, we had to relocate in the morning to another hostel across town called the Green Monkey, which was one of the better hostels we stayed in (free internet and free cake every night? Sign me up). We walked around the town of Nelson in the morning and hung out (taking full advantage of free wireless) in the afternoon.
Nelson is roughly the size of Toowoomba, I’d guess, and the fact that it was slightly warmer than down south was also a plus.

Nelson’s claim to fame is the fact that you can hike (and when I say hike, I really just mean walk up a steep hill) up to geographical center of NZ. So we did. And it was just as thrilling as you can imagine. Get to the top, see the sign, stand there, take a photo, hike back down. But it was fun. After dinner, we went to this cute pub across the street that had all these ciders and special brews which were all delicious. Meanwhile, Lauren had lost her camera somewhere between relocating hostels and none of us could figure out where it went no matter how hard we searched. But more on that later…

Another White Dash (or Installment 6)

The next day when we woke up (Monday) it was raining but it wasn’t too bad because we had a long day ahead of us in the car driving up to Fox Glacier which is about a 6-7 hours drive north of Queenstown. We listened to Harry Potter 6 basically the entire way, all of us wanting to sleep in the car but trying really hard to stay awake just so we could listen. Once we reached Fox Glacier, it was still raining and we were super tired so we didn’t get to hike to see it, but instead watched Titanic in the hostel and ate some instant noodles. Great life choice.

The next morning, we decided that it would be a good idea to wake up wicked early (eww) and do a hike before driving to Takaka, which is on the northern part of the island. So we all trekked out to Matheson Lake were we saw the stillest water I’ve ever seen in my life. Everything was reflected perfectly into the water and it was especially cool to see the sunrise behind Mt. Cook (we’re on the other side of the mountain now). After the hike, we loaded into the car (and by this point, all of our bags plus the food that seemed to keep increasing was jammed packed into the car, so much so that you couldn’t see out the back window) and headed north, listening to HP (because by now, we were obviously hooked). The roads were super windy and I was thankful I don’t get carsick, but we made a stop on the way at the Pancake Rocks which was kind of neat. Basically, it’s all these giant rocks that are layered on top of each other in the ocean and no one really knows how they formed. So we stopped there for lunch and kept on driving until we spent a quiet night in Takaka.

We left Takaka the next morning, but because our next destination was only a few hours away so we thought we’d see a lot of things on the way. We started out the morning going to PuPu Springs which are apparently the clearest springs in the entire world (besides Antarctica, but who really sees those anyway?) A little further down, we hiked to the Wahui waterfalls, which were absolutely beautiful. All through the hike, I felt like I was in Lost or about to get eaten by a dinosaur from Jurassic Park 2. Actually, everywhere I went, I felt like I was in a movie/TV show (which kind of makes me feel lame, but hey, that’s my life…) The falls were similar to what I’d seen in the Smokey Mountains and the drive up north was a little like the Hawaiian landscape (not that I’ve ever been, but what I imagine it would be like…)

After the springs and the falls, we did a walk through this Grove Nature Reserve (it was a big nature day obviously) which we decided would be the coolest place to have in your backyard as a kid. There were swinging vines (Tarzan?) and all these rocks that had been split apart to made caves/forts. We had heard about this little salami shop that was located nearby so we (after several wrong turns) went to this quaint little homemade salami shop that was owned by this older couple. The others all bought some salami, which at the time seemed like the best idea ever, but eventually caused our food bag to reek of spicy sausage. Mmmm… We also stopped at this bus which was like a roadside restaurant where I had probably THE most delicious chocolate cake I’ve ever had. No lies. Finally, we reached Nelson that night and spent the night in, enjoying hot showers and some salami.

Designer Skyline (or Installment 5)

Queenstown. Definitely a must-see if you’re going to NZ. It was absolutely beautiful. It was a bigger city, similar to Estes Park that clearly made its money by being a tourist destination. Downtown was filled with souvenir shops and places where you could book your skydiving/bungy jumping/paragliding adventures. Because it was Easter weekend and we hadn’t called ahead, we ended up having to call about 10 hostels before finally finding one that was available. Which turned out to be absolutely perfect. It was called the Hippo Lodge and while I didn’t understand why they chose to be branded by a hippo, it was easily one of the better places we stayed. Our window opened right up to the parking lot so we just opened the window and tossed all of our stuff into the room, firefighter style.

We walked downtown (down another giant hill that our hostel was located on top of) and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day and all the nice cafes that lined the streets. We ate dinner while watching My Best Friend’s Wedding and met some of the other people that were staying in the hostel (more on them later as well). We all went downtown that night (it was Friday after all) to the World Bar which is this really cool place (there’s one in Sydney as well) with a great dance floor and drinks served in teapots. We came back that night and crashed, only to wake up the next morning to…

Free pancakes. I’m not joking. I don’t know WHY I thought it was such a big deal, but the hostel provided free pancake mix every morning which I loved. We didn’t have any syrup and they were more like ‘butter cakes’ with all the butter I had to use to make them not stick but they were so delicious. And free. After breakfast, Lauren and I went on this hike (they love their steep hills in NZ) up to the top of this mountain where you could see Queenstown from up high. Once we got back, we walked downtown to visit the weekend craft market as well as Chocolate Patagonia: only the greatest dessert place ever. Actually, let me just digress and tell you; Saturday was a great food day. Breakfast: free pancakes, Lunch: Delicious chocolate mud cake and homemade cookies and cream gelato from Chocolate Patagonia, Dinner: Fergburger. Fergburger is this place which kind of reminded me of Blimpy Burger and had been recommended by literally everyone we had talked to, so of course we had to go. It was pretty good and definitely a step up from the PB&J and grilled Cheese I had had every day until then. (And when I say every day, I mean I had a grilled cheese every day. Good thing, I love it… :) OK, enough about food, I’m making myself salivate.

We went out again that night with the guys we met at the hostel and woke up to (yet another) amazing pancake breakfast. Lauren gave us makeshift Easter presents including a NZ pencil and Cadbury chocolate. :) It was the cutest thing. We had to move out of the Hippo because they were booked but we stayed in the YHA down the road. By this point, Anja had split up from us and was going back down south to Milford Sound with Antje, another girl we know, so Lauren, Daniel and I walked down the riverside while Emma went paragliding in the morning. I spent the day walking along the harbor and Lauren and Emma and I spent the afternoon going to this winery where Emma’s mom imports their wine so we got a free tasting which was a great end to a relaxing day in Queenstown. So that was Queenstown… definitely a favorite weekend thus far (and don’t tell, but I stole some free pancake mix and took it with me for the road. What can I say? I’m a sucker for free food…)

Spectacular Views (or Installment 4)

After leaving Dunedin behind in the morning, we drove a few hours to Te Anau which is on the West side of the southern part of the island. I navigated in the front seat while we listened to various iPods and Harry Potter 6, which Emma had on audiobook (more on this later). The little town of Te Anau is essentially where everyone goes if they want to go up to Milford Sound or Doubtful Sound. It reminded me so much of Grand Lake, CO, with the tiny main street and several lodges to stay on the lake. The YHA hostel in Te Anau was great, mainly because I spent an afternoon reading by the fire (I love vacation).

We were in Te Anau for 2 nights, so the next day the 4 of them went up and took a Milford Sound Cruise and saw dolphins! I didn’t go, but spent the day relaxing and relocating hostels to one down the road, which came to be known as the Holocaustel because of the large Star of David engraved into the wall and the fact that we had about 1 pot and 2 spoons in our kitchen and one rickety ladder to split between two bunk beds. Needless to say, it was not my favorite. But (as it always was in NZ) it was beautiful by the lake and we had fun with it. The next morning we drove up to Queenstown (the adventure capital of the world) which was (yet) another one of my favorite places.

By this point, we are about halfway through with the NZ trip. If you’d like to take a break, perhaps grab a snack and return after intermission, you may. Too bad you don’t have homemade chocolate Kahlua ice cream from Wanaka…

Edge of the Ocean (or Installment 3)

Because we were spending 2 nights in Dunedin, we wanted to spend the day at the Otago Peninsula which is where you can see penguins, seals, sealions, etc. What we didn’t know was that the road to get there was one of many winding roads where I thought I might die falling down a cliff. I swear, the ocean was not even feet away from our car with a giant cliff on the other side of the lane. AWESOME. Even though I did fear for my life at several points, Daniel managed to keep us on the road and the sights were really beautiful and idyllic (I feel like I’m narrating a children’s book…) Anyways, we made it to this place called the Albatross Center. Apparently though, the albatross had migrated to Africa or South America or somewhere so they weren’t in New Zealand. They would have been cool to see but in all honesty, I was under the impression that an albatross was a type of fish, so…

But while we were there, we got to walk down to the beach where we saw seals! Like actual seals sitting on the rocks and jumping in and out of the water. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a seal outside of a zoo so that was pretty cool. One thing we all really wanted to do before the day was up was see a penguin. We heard that if you go down Seal Point Rd. (Clever, huh?) you could maybe see sealions and penguins. So we drove the windy roads up and down to get to Seal Point where we descended down the most gigantic sand dune I think I’ve ever been on in my entire life (even bigger than the one at Warren Dunes). At the bottom, there were all these sealions just laying on the beach… like we probably saw about 10 of them just laying there! It blew my mind. Obviously we didn’t want to get too close because these things were pretty massive but at one point, I was at least 10 feet away from a gigantic barking sealion (slowly backing away of course). Sometimes they would flop over or shimmy (do they shimmy? Maybe shimmy isn’t the best word, more like drag) themselves over into the water and there were two that were fighting. The pictures are incredible. But we had not seen a penguin yet. We went up to this blind where you have to sit and watch penguins or else they won’t come out. We probably sat in there for a good half hour before Anja was like “Wait, what’s that white thing on the grass?” And lo and behold, we saw our penguin. Sitting above the rocks on the grass. He didn’t do a lot, except maybe flip over one time but at least we got to say we saw one which is all that really counts…

We drove back through Dunedin, climbing the steep streets, and picked up more groceries (where we found bagels! I can honestly say a Parmesan bagel has never tasted so good in my whole life). After dinner, we went downtown to go to the Speights Brewery Tour. Speights is this really popular NZ beer and it is made in Dunedin so we got a tour and a tasting which was pretty fun. We were going to go out for the night, but it ended up raining so we played Life (which was a major blast from the past considering I haven’t played that since I was about 11). But overall, Dunedin was beautiful and I would definitely go back and visit there someday.

Buildings and Mountains (or Installment 2)

The following morning, we left Mt. Cook and drove a short way to Wanaka, this quaint little inland city that we all just loved. We pulled into the hostel (which oddly felt like summer camp) in the early afternoon and had the entire day to see beautiful Wanaka. Since we didn’t go kayaking at Mt. Cook, we decided to go on Lake Wanaka, which is this absolutely gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains. While the water was a bit chilly, the views were breathtaking. After drying off, we went to one of Wanaka’s main attractions: Puzzle World. Obviously, we were all pretty stoked about going. :) Basically Puzzle World is half Cosi Science Museum with all these neat optical illusions and half outdoor maze. It took us about an hour or 2 to make it through the maze, having to reach all 4 towers. (Brandon, it was like “A-MAZE-ing Mirrors mixed with corn maze). Needless to say, it was awesome.

For dinner, we read that there was a free Sausage Sizzle in the park and since we’re all about free food, we went and had some dinner. After dinner (or napping for some of us) we decided to check out the cinema. Everyone had told us to go to this cute one-of-a-kind cinema that they have and I am SO glad we did. It’s this little art house cinema that plays (relatively) new movies and makes their own homemade cookies and ice cream. The theater doesn’t have typical seats; instead you sit on couches and pillows that have been put together in this giant room. We watched Revolutionary Road (don’t watch if you’re looking for something upbeat) but it was good. And the homemade cookies and ice cream were definitely worth it. We may or may not have gone back to get more during intermission. One of the coolest things about Wanaka was that it had such a small town feel. The same guy who rented us our kayaks worked at the cinema and there were lots of other people that we had seen before, whether it was travelers from Mt. Cook or people around town. Definitely one of my favorite NZ places.

After only one night in Wanaka, we took a beautiful drive down to Dunedin (you should probably just be google imaging these places as I write about them…) which is at the southern part of the island. Dunedin is a little rainy university city that is just off of the Otago Peninsula. Or maybe it was just rainy while we were there. Regardless, after setting up in our hostel (which felt like I was staying at my great aunt’s house with all of her cats) we walked around the city, stopping in coffee shops and getting more groceries. The evening was chill and we enjoyed the free sauna/hot tub that was there. We wanted to be well rested for all the adventure we’d have to tomorrow, after all…

Such Great Heights

So I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to blog about the last 18 days of my life without writing a novel and overwhelming myself, let alone you, and I’ve come up with this. I will warn you, there’s a lot to write about, but I figure if it’s in installments (Dicken’s style), you won’t be stuck at your computer for hours. Because let’s be honest, my life really isn’t as enthralling as you think and you all lead very busy lives, I’m sure.

So 2 and a half weeks ago, 5 of us (Daniel, Lauren, Emma, Anja, and myself) all boarded TT coaches to ride into Brisbane. Normally, this is a mundane, even comical 2 hour ride. Not so. They had gotten a new bus and the ride into Brisbane felt like a terrifying roller coaster, what with the driver trying to get as close as he could to the wide load truck in front of us and all. But we made it there alive and boarded the plane. I ended up sitting next to this cute older couple (Erin, you would’ve loved them) and tried to sleep for the 3 hour flight to Christchurch, NZ. By the time we got there, it was about 10 PM with the time difference and we didn’t have any place to stay. Unfortunately, everything in arrivals was closed for the night (I’m telling you, these airports are small) except the arcade and a vending machine. So our dinner consisted of cookies and we camped out with all of our luggage behind the Sega Strike Fighter Machine. I was able to get a few hours of sleep, using my towel as my blanket and waking up to the sounds of Need for Speed Underground (which some kid decided he needed to play at 4:30 AM.)

The next morning (Friday) we were able to get our rental car and get on the road to Mt. Cook. The car was quickly named Ellen and she was the greatest thing we had the entire trip. We spent the better part of the day driving but we stopped every hour or so just to get out and take pictures because it was so beautiful. I had no idea what to expect when going to NZ but it is honestly THE most beautiful place I’ve ever been. So much of it reminded me of Colorado with the mountains everywhere and I constantly felt like a hobbit was going to pop out from behind a tree. (Speaking of LOTR, you would not believe how many tours are available to see where they filmed, visit the jeweler who made the ring, etc. It’s ridiculous.) So anyways, one of our main stops on the way to Mt. Cook was Lake Tekapo and the St. John Observatory where Ellen chugged up this steep hill to see the lake from above. I honestly can’t even describe to you how gorgeous it was. I’ll put up pictures, but even those won’t do it justice. Also, I knew New Zealand was known for sheep, but they are EVERYWHERE. I mean, they aren’t running across the street or anything (except once) but there are tons of penned in cows, sheep, and deer which was weird considering deer are grossly overpopulated in the US.

Once we got to the hostel, we were starving, but of course, we didn’t have any food. So after practically selling an arm and leg to buy food from the hostel, we drove 45 minutes to the next town to go to a grocery store/ATM to get some much needed supplies. Like most mountain towns, Mt. Cook had nothing except for our hostel, a nice hotel and… well, that was about it. So we chilled in the hostel that night, wanting to be well rested for our hike the next day. Unfortunately, Lauren’s alarm was still set for Australian time so we ended up waking up at 11, not 8. But we still made a day hike up to Hooker Valley (which is part of Mt. Cook) and visited this huge glacier that was at the end, which was fun, but SUPER cold and windy. Again, all through this hike, I felt like I was in Lord of the Rings, which was kind of cool/kind of made me feel dorky. After eating our lunch in this cove by the glacier, we came back, warmed up with some Speights, ate some dinner and played Monopoly (NZ style with NZ money).

Wow. I cannot believe I’m only on the third day. Hope you all enjoy reading.

How the Day Sounds

So before I embark off to yet another country, I figure I’d write one last post of all the random things that keep popping into my head and then I think “Oh! I need to tell people at home about that…”

I’m loving Aussie life more and more. It’s just so much more relaxed. Namely the fact that I’ve never paid to dry my clothes here. Everyone just hangs them up on the line outside. I don’t know why I love this so much, but I do, and I get such joy out of hanging my clothes up on the line.

One thing I DO NOT get joy out of is locking myself out of my room. Maybe it’s the fact that GCC is probably the safest place I will ever know and so the whole locking doors thing hasn’t clicked yet, but I’ve locked myself out multiple times (this week). Although it’s not so bad because I discovered the windows here just pop out from the outside. Which is all fine and dandy until you get caught by your RA asking you if you’re locked out and you sheepishly reply “yes… again.” Awesome.

I meant to tell you all this when I first got below the equator, but the toilets do NOT flush the opposite direction. Well, they might, but all the toilets here are dual flush (I feel like I might’ve told you all this already…. oh well) and so it kind of just goes down. Although I was thinking about it and I don’t even know if I could tell you what direction the water spins in the US, so…

Walking around barefoot is lot more common here. I’ve seen people in the grocery store, the outside plaza, Cold Rock (this awesome ice cream just like… you guessed it, Cold Stone) all walking around barefoot. Which is kind of weird/kind of awesome.

One last final story about my life. I think I need to get a mousetrap. A few weeks ago, I woke up to this rustling sound in my trash can. I freak out (because if it’s loud enough to wake me up in the middle of the night, it’s a big deal) and flick on the lights only to see a mouse fly out of my garbage and sneak out underneath my door. Ew. And now, they’re back. I have literally seen a mouse in my room the last 3 nights in a row. I’m starting to calm down about it more and more because they just run around and then leave, but I feel like Sara from The Little Princess, curled up in my threadbare sheets while the mice scurry around beneath me. Lovely. I hope everyone got the Little Princess reference… (And my sheets aren’t really threadbare, I just pretend they are for dramatic effect.)

Now off to NZ I go!