So another long overdue update here. It feels like such a long time ago that I was on the Barrier (when I last updated). Since then, Mom and Dad visited, I turned 21, I visited Napier (the art deco capital of the world), did a brief hike, and finished all of my school work until exams.
Mom and Dad got in about two weeks ago now and I didn't really realize how excited I was to see them until I met them at the hotel by the water front. Their room was actually ridiculous. It was huge and and had a ginormous patio overlooking the harbor. Mom suggested I have a huge party there since we would have had the room for sure. They came at bad weather though because now it's starting to rain everyday. That said, we managed to stay clear of it, island hopping for two days to Rangitoto and Waiheke. Waiheke is a small island off the coast where probably a couple thousand people live year round. It has some great beaches and a quaint little village. We only had a couple hours there but we took a shot tour and saw a good chunk of the island. Rangitoto is a volcano off the coast which I had been dying to go see for a while. It's amazing how you can be on this chaotic volcano and see Auckland only 20 minutes by ferry in the distance. I was kind of nervous that Mom and Dad would be bored but I think the two big excursions we did together kept them entertained and gave them an idea as to why I'm loving life here.
The real reason I think they came to visit was to fee me. I ate like a king for 4 nights eating at Auckland's finest establishments. Auckland doesn't have a huge restaurant or service industry so it was a real treat to even go out to eat for a change with a real waiter instead of a counter. Thanks for the recommendations from Cliff; Soul was great! They also happened to come on my birthday weekend which i share with two of my other good friends here. So that weekend we celebrated several times in several ways including a fantastic dinner at my parents hotel. My friends loved getting real food and dressing up to impress my folks.
After they left town I had a tough week of essay writing to get out of my way. I don't have anymore work to turn in now until finals so the next two weeks should be nice. I also took a great overnight hike in the Kaweka Forest outside of Napier which is a 5 hour drive from Auckland. Napier was destroyed by an earthquake in the 40's so when they rebuilt it, the architecture style that was hot was art deco. So several of the buildings have an art deco feel. It makes a really unique atmosphere. I wish I had more time there but in the 12 or so hours I was there I enjoyed myself (not to mention real pizza for once). Kaweka is a huge and isolated park and the drive there was fantastic. We probably breached our rental insurance fording rivers and driving on dirt roads but whose checking. The first day we walked 4 hours along a river where we found a hut situated in a small and steep valley. The hike was nice overall; it was good to get back on the trail and exercise but it wasn't overly challenging or mouth droopingly beautiful. That said, it was nice to see trees changing for fall. The second day we planned to summit the nearest peak but got chased back down by the most powerful winds I've ever encountered. I really felt like I was going to blow away and had cartoon vision of me holding onto a tree flapping like a flag with my fee in the air. When we started to hit the hail we turned back down and went out the way we came. So it was a pretty plain walk back but it was nice to be in the wild again since I haven't tramped in some time.
That's about it for now. I got more pictures but not as many as usual. I've also given up on captioning them and for that I'm sorry. I kinda hope you can figure out what they are since they're usually in chronological order (as is this blog). This weekend I had planned to see Tongariro (the first hike I did here) in the snow but the weather has other plans so we're still not sure. I've been thinking a lot recently about how study abroad is a lot like 4 years of college crammed into 5 months. I sort of figure I'm in my junior year now and I'm not as into touristy things anymore. I kind of just want to relax and hang out so I'm not as motivated to do. So the excitement of "freshman" year is gone as is the feeling of thinking I have a handle on everything in "sophomore". "Junior" year brings more serious study habits (which I'm finding I just can't break even on this little vacation) and a desire to be with my friends more without running around the country. Plus I've seen so much so I'm starting to run out of things to do. But the sure constant through my time here has definitely been that I'm enjoying myself. So I'll let you know how "senior" year goes when I update next. Don't forget the pictures!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Jungle Gyms and Small Aircrafts
So I've been slacking on my updates, (I still haven't updated the captions on my pictures). The truth is my second half has been a lot less interesting. I've been doing some fantastically unique things but everything isn't as new and exciting. It sounds odd but it's like I'm no longer as impressed about what I'm seeing. Also, I'm doing more social things. The last two weekends I've pretty much just gone somewhere with a lot of friends and relaxed.
Two weekends ago bunch of pretty much took over a hotel in Raglan, a tiny surf village minutes from an amazing surfing beach and legitimately stuck in 60's. It's supper artsy and crunchy. For example, the first night we ate at the Burger Shack, an organic burger mecca. The cows are shipped in from literally just down the road along with all of the vegetables, cheeses, and gluten free buns. They also had a huge selection of very different veggie burgers made from pumpkin (I'm assuming not as local), mango, mushrooms, chic peas, and so on. I loved this place if you couldn't tell and the guys who ran it were really awesome too. That night we hung out on the beach and pretty much just relaxed. The next day was a journey back to elementary school. We woke up, found a field with a candy shop in the center and threw around a frisbee while we traded lollipops and chewy candies and then ran to the local jungle gym where we played on see-saws and monkey bars. We then relocated to the beach where I learned (or at least tried to learn) how to do a proper cartwheel and handstand. Anyways, like I said, we just hung out and relaxed all weekend. Raglan was quite pretty and the little shops were really fun to pop in and out of. But, the purpose of the trip was relocate the ever expanding circle of 15 or so friends somewhere new and just hang out. Probably the second most relaxing weekend here.
The MOST relaxing weekend I think I've ever had was out on the Great Barrier Island. It's the 4th biggest island that makes up New Zealand and by far one of the most remote places in the world. It's a 5 hour ferry away or a 30 minutes flight out of the airport. After a huge adventure getting there, (we missed our flight because of traffic and had to buy another ticket...probably the dumbest thing I've done in a long time), we got in a vessel that only sat about 12 people. The airplane was probably 15 feet long and 10 feet high. I've never appreciated how incredible the concepts of lift and aviation are until we took off. You can see the plane pretty much work it's way through the air and "become" light enough to fly. It also happened to be a few minutes before the sunset so we flew northeast toward the Barrier with some spectacular views of Auckland, The Coromandel, The Barrier, and the Pacific. One of my friends here has a house out there (she was born here but moved when she was young), so she picked us up from the airport (a collection of two small huts and a big grassy airfield). The house was an old a-frame with another a-frame extension about 20 minutes from the airfield. The view from the living room was not to be believed; there's thee huge glass windows in front of all of the couches that suggest a spot for a big screen TV but instead make way for this dramatic view of one of the beaches. You can't see any other man made structure from there so it really looked and felt like the house was just dropped there in the bushes. Also, everyone on the island has their own generator since there is no other electricity source, along with water tanks that collect rain water to drink and cook with. That said, you wouldn't know it when you were standing in the local pub or grocery store.
Only 800 people live there year round and only 20% of the island is "developed". The rest is all farm land or untouched. So I was pretty excited to get a chance to hike around. Unfortunately it rained 20 hours of the first 36 hours I was there. So on Saturday we waited for the rain to hold off and went fishing, caught nothing but seaweed, and scurried back to the house before the rain came on again. That night we went to town and got some supplies for a huge dinner feast. I've really gotten more into cooking for myself on a regular basis here which is great and probably one of the best developments that I'll bring back to the states. We roasted a chicken, made mash potatoes, peas, sweat corn, pasta and pesto, and sauteed onions, (it's worth noting we had a huge breakfast feast as well with chocolate chip banana pancakes and eggs in a nest which I never heard of but are just eggs fried inside of a piece of bread with a whole in it). It was kind of weird to think that I was on my own on this little island far away from my friends and family from home, making my own family style meal. Just an odd feeling really, realizing I'm really on my own out here and surviving. Gives me a lot of faith concerning my ability to live in the "real world" but I'm not going to stat thinking about that until I absolutely have to (1 more year right?). Sunday we got up and saw no clouds so we literally ran outside and drove to the other side of the island for a quick hike. Check out the pictures as usual. From there we went to these natural hot springs which were lukewarm at best but still pretty interesting. The flight home I got to sit right behind the pilot for another amazing sunset (the pictures from the plane window are unreal to me and I was there). Sitting behind the pilot was also a really unique experience except I found myself a little antsy; every time a light lit up I would try and survey the dashboard and figure out what it meant. Nonetheless it was a fantastic experience as was the rest of the weekend.
This weekend mom and dad make their way out and I'm a little worried they wont have enough time to see how incredible this place is. I'll do my best to show it off though and seeing them will be a little weird if I think about where we are on the map but a real treat. Also, I'll caption the pictures form the last album soon. Some people also said they wanted to see more pictures of my friends so I'll try and sift through my 1000 pictures (literally) to find some and share. I had to make a new album for pictures so here's the new one that has the pictures from this entry.
Two weekends ago bunch of pretty much took over a hotel in Raglan, a tiny surf village minutes from an amazing surfing beach and legitimately stuck in 60's. It's supper artsy and crunchy. For example, the first night we ate at the Burger Shack, an organic burger mecca. The cows are shipped in from literally just down the road along with all of the vegetables, cheeses, and gluten free buns. They also had a huge selection of very different veggie burgers made from pumpkin (I'm assuming not as local), mango, mushrooms, chic peas, and so on. I loved this place if you couldn't tell and the guys who ran it were really awesome too. That night we hung out on the beach and pretty much just relaxed. The next day was a journey back to elementary school. We woke up, found a field with a candy shop in the center and threw around a frisbee while we traded lollipops and chewy candies and then ran to the local jungle gym where we played on see-saws and monkey bars. We then relocated to the beach where I learned (or at least tried to learn) how to do a proper cartwheel and handstand. Anyways, like I said, we just hung out and relaxed all weekend. Raglan was quite pretty and the little shops were really fun to pop in and out of. But, the purpose of the trip was relocate the ever expanding circle of 15 or so friends somewhere new and just hang out. Probably the second most relaxing weekend here.
The MOST relaxing weekend I think I've ever had was out on the Great Barrier Island. It's the 4th biggest island that makes up New Zealand and by far one of the most remote places in the world. It's a 5 hour ferry away or a 30 minutes flight out of the airport. After a huge adventure getting there, (we missed our flight because of traffic and had to buy another ticket...probably the dumbest thing I've done in a long time), we got in a vessel that only sat about 12 people. The airplane was probably 15 feet long and 10 feet high. I've never appreciated how incredible the concepts of lift and aviation are until we took off. You can see the plane pretty much work it's way through the air and "become" light enough to fly. It also happened to be a few minutes before the sunset so we flew northeast toward the Barrier with some spectacular views of Auckland, The Coromandel, The Barrier, and the Pacific. One of my friends here has a house out there (she was born here but moved when she was young), so she picked us up from the airport (a collection of two small huts and a big grassy airfield). The house was an old a-frame with another a-frame extension about 20 minutes from the airfield. The view from the living room was not to be believed; there's thee huge glass windows in front of all of the couches that suggest a spot for a big screen TV but instead make way for this dramatic view of one of the beaches. You can't see any other man made structure from there so it really looked and felt like the house was just dropped there in the bushes. Also, everyone on the island has their own generator since there is no other electricity source, along with water tanks that collect rain water to drink and cook with. That said, you wouldn't know it when you were standing in the local pub or grocery store.
Only 800 people live there year round and only 20% of the island is "developed". The rest is all farm land or untouched. So I was pretty excited to get a chance to hike around. Unfortunately it rained 20 hours of the first 36 hours I was there. So on Saturday we waited for the rain to hold off and went fishing, caught nothing but seaweed, and scurried back to the house before the rain came on again. That night we went to town and got some supplies for a huge dinner feast. I've really gotten more into cooking for myself on a regular basis here which is great and probably one of the best developments that I'll bring back to the states. We roasted a chicken, made mash potatoes, peas, sweat corn, pasta and pesto, and sauteed onions, (it's worth noting we had a huge breakfast feast as well with chocolate chip banana pancakes and eggs in a nest which I never heard of but are just eggs fried inside of a piece of bread with a whole in it). It was kind of weird to think that I was on my own on this little island far away from my friends and family from home, making my own family style meal. Just an odd feeling really, realizing I'm really on my own out here and surviving. Gives me a lot of faith concerning my ability to live in the "real world" but I'm not going to stat thinking about that until I absolutely have to (1 more year right?). Sunday we got up and saw no clouds so we literally ran outside and drove to the other side of the island for a quick hike. Check out the pictures as usual. From there we went to these natural hot springs which were lukewarm at best but still pretty interesting. The flight home I got to sit right behind the pilot for another amazing sunset (the pictures from the plane window are unreal to me and I was there). Sitting behind the pilot was also a really unique experience except I found myself a little antsy; every time a light lit up I would try and survey the dashboard and figure out what it meant. Nonetheless it was a fantastic experience as was the rest of the weekend.
This weekend mom and dad make their way out and I'm a little worried they wont have enough time to see how incredible this place is. I'll do my best to show it off though and seeing them will be a little weird if I think about where we are on the map but a real treat. Also, I'll caption the pictures form the last album soon. Some people also said they wanted to see more pictures of my friends so I'll try and sift through my 1000 pictures (literally) to find some and share. I had to make a new album for pictures so here's the new one that has the pictures from this entry.
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