Fall Break part two!!

Alright…I am finally going to update!! No more complaining! I am back at campus…well I have been for a week and a half…just trying to get back into the swing of things. School sucks…lots of papers and tests…and it makes it worse that the winter is starting! On a happy note Mul-month has begun…Mullet and Mustache May…all the guys on campus had their hair shaved down at the sides to start growing their mullets. I walk around campus in awe of all the dirty mullets…. I cant wait until the last day of May for the judging of the mullets…get ready for some pretty amazing pictures come June. One guy on campus has had the best mullet all year…I am rooting for him to win…he also happens to be the sheep shearing champion here… god where am I??? haha. Oh ya…side note…they have venison farms here…talk about a strange site…hundreds of deer in a paddock munching on grass…they have definitely ruined the beauty of seeing a wild deer in the wilderness!!

The second half of my fall break was great…a lot less crazy and more relaxing with lots of site seeing. Kell and I got up at 4:30am on Saturday to drive some friends to the airport…then we came back and picked up her cousin…ate lunch at Hell’s Pizza, and then dropped her cousin off at the airport too. Kelly and I left campus early Sunday morning and caught a bus into Christchurch to hop in another bus that would take us to the top of the South Island. It took about 6 hours to get to a town called Picton where our friend Adam from school picked us up and took us home to his batch (they call beach houses “batches” bc they are simple…like bachelor pads). His family vacations at their batch a few times a year and invited us up to stay the night before we continued onto the North island. He lives out in the Marlborough Sounds….an area right at the top of the south island. We went out in his boat around the water…it was awesome. There are TONS of jellyfish out in the water…luckily there really aren’t any harmless animals in NZ, so I picked one up out of the water and gave it to Kelly bc she hasn’t ever held one! We had a fantastic home cooked dinner…nice after living off of PB & J during the first weeks road trip!!

We had to get up at 5:30am the next morning to ride back to the Picton Ferry Terminal to hop on our ferry to the north… of course with our luck…something had to go wrong. We got to the ferry terminal…handed them our itinerary…and the lady looks at us and says “You girls were booked on yesterday’s ferry…not today’s…you missed your ferry yesterday morning and we had to cancel your reservation…it says the date right here on your itinerary” yup…we’re special. Neither of us caught that. Luckily they were incredibly helpful…got us on the ferry that morning and we headed onto the big boat. It was a 3 hour ride to cross a small span of ocean…literally you can see the North island from the South…but for some reason it took ages to get there. Once we got to the North…Kell and I went to a place and rented a car. We paid more than we wanted…but ended up getting this nice little mazda thing. We got some dinner at the store and decided we weren’t big fans of Wellington (too BIG city…after living in Lincoln…a village) so we took off in search of some random city to crash in. We stopped at the ocean along the way and took pictures and headed up to Palmerston North. Once again…not the city for us, so we kept driving… we probably drove about 7 hours just looking around and enjoying singing to the radio…. They play Red Jumpsuit Apparatus nonstop here so naturally I am now in love with that band. We drove thru an area with a few volcanoes, and then settled in a city called Taurangi at a hostel.

The next day we got up early and went for a drive up one of the active volcanoes in a village called Whakapapa (fock-a-pop-uh) strange right? It was so cloudy and foggy though and we couldn’t see much. They even closed down this hike called Tongariro Crossing that we wanted to do because there was too much fog and snow. We decided to keep driving and make our way up to Taupo. We grabbed some lunch….we switched to hummus and salami on bread or crackers on this half of the trip, and sat by the bottom half of Lake Taupo eating and watching a family of swans ( with fuzzy babies! Ill put the pics up!) play around. We drove another hour around to the actual town of Taupo and shopped around and met up with our friend Jonathan from school. He had 2 other friends from school staying with him too, so we all had a big slumber party. His family was GREAT… Jon has 4 sisters and a brother… weird… the only difference being that he is 21 like me and they are all younger than him… it was like being at our house…15 years ago! We went on a walk with his family before dinner then had another fantastic home cooked meal… I am starting to enjoy these :0) After dinner we were ‘initiated’ into his family…we played a game called the broom dance. It is this horrible contortionist game that I will be sure to teach everyone at the next family gathering… I got it on the first try though :0) After that…Jon, Jesse, Jonny, Kristin, Kelly and I went to a place called the Hot Spot. It is a natural thermal stream under a bridge that was probably about 110 degrees!! It is so weird to me that the north island is filled with areas of high thermal activity… I was enjoying the soak in the heat…and Jon’s friend Jonny decided it would be funny to drag me into the river that the stream runs into… yup that’s about 50 degrees… it was horrible…I screamed like mom when she jumps in cold water (wow I seem to use that analogy often). We played on a zip line in the rain and then headed home.

The next morning we all got up and showered, and then took Jon’s little brother with us to do some rock climbing. We went to a place called Kintoch and Jesse (he is a boulderer) set up ropes and harnesses for us to climb. It was such a beautiful day out…and Kelly and I even made it to the top of the rock face… its way harder when the path isn’t marked out for you like at indoor climbing places!! Jon’s little brother Jayden was my buddy for the day…he kept making me go on little adventures with him and climb hills and rocks and slide in dirt… I remembered what it was like to have a brother that actually LIKES spending time with me :0) Kelly and I brought a picnic lunch and the 5 of us (kell, me, Jesse, Jon, and Jayden) ate lunch and sat by the Lake. Then we headed home and cooked pasta for dinner and rented a movie called Kenny. It is an Aussie film about a plumber with a heavy accent and a lisp…it was so strange. Speaking of weird movies…I watched a kiwi film called The Castle that is hilarious…michelle it is definitely your type of humor.

The next day the four of us drove out to Rotorua. Rotorua is famous for its thermal pools and bubbling mud… and of course the horrible SMELL. We stopped a few times on the way there at a waterfall called Huka Falls and a honey place where we got to try a bunch of different flavored honey for free! Once we were about 15 minutes away from Rotorua we started to smell the awful sulfur that fills the air. I honestly don’t think I could EVER live there. We went to a thermal park and looked at all the random areas with bubbling mud and steaming water….check out the weird pictures. We had lunch and milkshakes then Jon and Jess drove back to Taupo and we moved on to Tauranga. Kell and I wanted to sleep on the beach once we got there, but Phil and Graham came to the beach at Mt. Maunganui where we were at and made us come home with them. We went in the spa at his parents…we were trying to be quiet and Kelly accidentally hit the garage door opener…and then sat on the buttons that turn on the spa… so much for that!!

Kell and I went to the mall in the morning to try to find an outfit for Phil’s 21st party and then laid on the beach the rest of the afternoon. We went back to the mall for lunch and grabbed more hummus and crackers and then I went to the butcher…I mean hairdresser. Yup he chopped 6 inches off… apparently here in NZ…1.5 inches really means 6 inches. I was pissed…so Kelly and I went back to the beach and painted our toes and then put Phil’s bday present together and went back to his house. We watched movies and called it an early night since Phils party was the next morning.

Saturday, Kelly and I got up super early and went on a hike up Mt Maunganui. It was a BEAUTIFUL day but the stairs up the mountain were KILLER. We stopped halfway up and laid out in the sun for an hour. Then we went back to Phils, showered…and got ready for the party. It was a blast meeting his friends and family. The amount of drinking that goes on at a NZ 21st amazes me still. Graham, Kelly, Regan (phils little bro) and I went to a shop and bought a Yardy…a huge drink glass that the birthday boy has to drink as fast as possible. We had to set out beers early on in the day because he had to chug it without fizz. There was a big feast for dinner and then there were some great speeches by his family. Graham and I filled up the yardy…we were looking to add some vodka to it (since you cant taste it in beer) but couldn’t find any…so graham added rum instead. Phil put in a good effort and only threw up twice as he was drinking it. Needless to say…he was pretty trashed within 30 minutes after having that… We headed into town at about midnight and went to a club that his friend owns called Ozone. It was a really cool bar and he bought Kelly and I shots that you light on fire…called a Flaming Lamborghini…it was terrible. We stayed out until late and then got taxis home to his place.

Kell, me, Phil and Graham had to get up early the next morning to help break down all the stuff from the party. Phil’s dad had me BBQ steak kebobs…yup trusted me alone on a BBQ with raw meat. We had breakfast, and then headed off to the Rotorua airport to return our car and catch our flights home. It was a quick flight…I fell asleep since I only had an hour of sleep the night before… and before I knew it, we were home! Our friend Adam picked the 4 of us up and then we came back and had a nice night sleeping in our own beds!! The week after went well…minus the school part…Wednesday was ANZAC day, so no one had school and we all relaxed and watched movies. Same went for the weekend… and now that brings me to today…

Shell…CONGRATS ON THE FINAL INTERVIEW!!!! Jeff….good luck on the move (if you even read this?) Dad- HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY!!!!! Mom HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY soon! Kim congrats on the new job! Kristen good luck finishing up college :0) Kelly…uh yay for being you!

Love and miss everyone! Thanks for all the comments and notes you all have been leaving me!! I love checking them when I update!! I hope you all enjoyed the video of me jumping :0) It was a blast! I will post more videos from Fiji and NZ when I take my comp. to the lab soon!

Xoxoxo

Ps- I wrote this update and then didn’t post it for a bit. At the end of my new posted pictures, there are photos from my 18k hike in Arthur’s Pass this weekend! Kelly, me, Gabe, Mark and Elle did the Goat’s Pass Hike in Arthur’s Pass National Park from Saturday until Sunday. We hiked through the pouring rain and stayed in a hut that was FREEZING! We could see our breath inside before the sun even went down. Mark brought a tramping stove and we had hot chocolate…and since it was Cinco de Mayo…we ate Mac n Queso for dinner :0) The pictures are awesome…I hope you like them!!