New Zealand

So I'm not very good at blogging apparently. It has been almost two months since my last update and so much has happened! I'm going to try to break up my posts by my travels. First up, my Easter Break trip to New Zealand! It already feels so long ago. Crazy how time flies! I am actually in my exam period now and will be officially done with my exchange semester in two weeks. Then my family is coming and we are travelling around Oz. So excited, but sad that my time in Australia is almost up. Some of my friends have already left, so reality is definitely setting in.

New Zealand:
I flew to the North Island on Wednesday April 20 (yes, this post is long overdue) and got into Auckland late late at night. I was travelling with three guy friends from USC who I met in Melbourne oddly enough, and my friend Rose. I somehow lucked out and got upgraded to a single hostel room that night for no extra charge, but we only got to sleep a few hours because the next morning we woke up early and drove to Rotorua. Along the way we stopped in Hobbiton, a town that literally was created for the filming of the Lord of the Rings movies. Several photos with a Gollum statue later, we were back on the road to Rotorua, a town full of geothermal activity. Once there we headed to the Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal "Wonderland" and wandered around the park looking at one steamy patch of ground after another. I think the smell of sulfur was burned into my nostrils for a few days. That night we wandered around a night market and ate Thai food. I swear I have yet to eat real Australian or New Zealand food (or find out if they even have a national food), but I have tried many other international cuisines while I've been here!

doing the stanky leg

The next day it was off to the Glow Worm caves in Waitomo. We were geared up in wet suits, go go boots and helmets and were ready for our adventure. We were taught the basics of abseiling and then it was down into the cave. I was too light to actually abseil properly, so I pulled myself down the rope the whole way. Fun? Once in the cave we admired the stalactites and the worms! We zip lined, rafted, and hiked through the caves. The best part was the short moment of relaxation staring at the glow worms from our inner tubes. I felt sort of like I was on Space Mountain or some Disney Land ride with a ton of twinkle lights. The glow worms, according to our guide Monkey (which I hope for his sake is not his real name), are actually maggots with, and I quote, "glowing shit." They wait to tell you that until you are already amongst it. Still pretty cool though! I started to get chilly from hiking through the water for so long, so during our snack time of hot Tang and chocolate squares (yummmm), Monkey poured some of the Tang down my wet suit. I smelled weird for a while after that, but it was worth it. At the end we climbed up two waterfalls and out of the cave. That was a little scary because there were no ropes holding us if we fell. Just a small detail. Fun day though!


Saturday, Rose and I left the boys and flew to Christchurch to meet up with different travel buddies for the South Island. In total there were 11 girls...and one boy. He was either the luckiest guy in the world, or the unluckiest, I can't decide...haha! We rented two six-person camper vans that really were small motor homes and drove around the South Island for the week. Josh (the singular boy) and Amy were the only two who were both old enough and knew how to drive stick, so they drove the whole time, thank god for them! Once we all met up in the airport, using the intercom system because most of us did not having working phones, we stocked up on groceries for the week, and I actually got a "fight on" from a random guy in the store who went to SC back in the day. Go trojan fam connection! Then we drove to Akaroa for the night, a town about an hour and a half away. We parked and stayed the night right in the heart of town and used the public restrooms like they were our own. I'm still not sure how we got away with this, other than the fact that it was the night before Easter. Maybe the cops were feeling forgiving. Anyway, we woke up to the most beautiful scene in the morning! We were right on the water, and it was such a cute town. We walked around and explored all morning, then drove back to Christchurch to pick up our last traveler. Driving through Christchurch was very sad because there was still so much destruction from the earthquake and much of the city was still closed off to the public. We drove about 8 hours to Queenstown that night, did a few too many laps through the town trying to figure out where to stay, and then once again ended up on the side of the road, probably illegally. We had some good luck that week I must say.

Akaroa

Monday was what we dubbed "Adrenaline Day." The 12 of us all did various extreme activities that New Zealand is famous for. The majority of the group went skydiving, two girls went hang gliding, one did the bungy swing, and Rose, Audrey and I went bungy jumping at the Kawarau Bridge (the world's original bungy!). Basically right when we got to the site, we were checked in, weighed and sent out to the bridge. I was the first to go. The lady looked at us, grabbed me and put me in a harness. I was just fine with going first haha. I somehow was not that nervous. I think I didn't really realize what I was doing...or maybe it was the fact that my Dad had jumped off the same bridge for his 50th (so I was capable, right?). Since you are jumping over a river, they offer the option to be dunked in the water, touch it, or not come near it. My mother had scared the crap out of me by telling me that my sinus issues were going to cause my eyes to pop out of my face while jumping. I decided to Google the validity of this claim and the only case of eye popping involved a man whose neck was in the wrong position when he was dunked into a river...so I was hesitant to go near the water. So at first when the guy strapping me into the bungy chord asked if I wanted to touch the water, I said no. Then I asked if it was worth it, and the guy said "Ohhhhh yeah." So I agreed. He told me to "dive out" otherwise I would be dunked. He also told me his girlfriend was from Scottsdale, which was probably a lie. This all happened very quickly, they certainly don't give you much time to think because they were practically throwing people off the bridge to make sure they got through everyone. So within a few seconds I was up at the ledge ready to jump, posed for a few pictures, then it was 3...2...1...weeee! I took the "dive out" instructions too literally out of a slight terror of being dunked and stayed in a dive pose the whole way. Didn't really think about how that would turn out in photos. Woops! Well, turns out I got fully submerged anyway. I don't know how far into the river I went, but my entire body was soaking wet afterwards. Once I realized I was still alive, I gave a little woooo, and then it was all over just like that. The most difficult part is actually trying to get down. Two people raft over to you and hold up a pole for you to grab, but when you are swinging around upside down with all the blood in your head, this is not very easy. Then they pull you down into the raft and take you over to land. All they said to me was, "Oh man, now the boat's going to be all wet!" I waited at the viewing point to watch my friends jump and got a "LAUREN!! WOOOOOOO!" from the two bungy operators who instructed me how not to get dunked in the water. It was worth it though, although I was freezing afterwards (keep in mind it was autumn in NZ at this time, made for pretty pictures, but cold Lauren). Apparently both Rose and Audrey actually wanted to be dunked in the water, but didn't come near it. Funny how that works out.

post-bungy success

The next day was a relaxing day to explore Queenstown. It's such a nice city! It reminded me of Park City a bit. We took the gondola to the top of the hill and admired the views and then luged (sp?) down...which also reminded me of Park City and the Alpine Slide. We ate at Fergburger for dinner, a famous local burger place that always had a line out front. I must say, it was one of the best burgers I've ever had. And we got there at an awkward time and didn't have to wait long at all! Later that night we went on a pub crawl and hit up six different bars. I wore a hoodie and my one normal, non-logo t-shirt that I brought on the trip. Had to pack light haha.

stumble upon

The morning of the 27th we drove from Queenstown to Milford Sound, which is supposed to be New Zealand's prettiest drive. Needless to say, we made a lot of pit stops for photos. We stopped at the Chasm national park, where we wandered down a random path for a bathroom break and stumbled upon the prettiest pool! Someone had definitely been there before because there was a rope for jumping into the water, but no one else wandered down while we were there. Good things come from going off the path! We drove into Milford, cooked dinner, and star gazed, but realized there wasn't anywhere for us to stay. We ended up sleeping in the parking lot for the Chasm, which, once again, we miraculously got away with. We hightailed it out of there in the morning to get back to Milford. We went on a late afternoon/sunset kayaking trip of the Sound. It was beautiful! No dolpin or seal sightings though. We ended up singing the whole time, which I'm sure was slightly annoying to our guide, although he did try to chime in and make song requests that were usually shot down. Woops! That night we drove to Te Anau, the nearest town, where we were told by one of the kayaking guides to go to the "jam festival." We all took this to mean that we could sample a ton of jelly somewhere. Really it was just a bunch of scary hicks in a bar listening to bad music. Neeeevermind.

my van in Milford Sound

We wandered around Te Anau in the morning and decided to have an America's Next Top Model photo shoot instead of hiking. It was a solid choice. We drove up to the glaciers that day and had an incident with trying to avoid a possum along that way that almost got us rear ended, so we then had to convince the driver that hitting a few possums was all right in the grander scheme of things (aka our lives > possum). She was mortified. I guess I'm used to bunny roadkill in Zona?

Our last full day was spent hiking the Franz Josef Glacier. We all wore shorts and t-shirts because it was so warm. Something about it just seemed wrong. The glacier is also unique because it is located right next to a rainforest. How that is possible, I will never know. Oh nature! We had to strap crampons on our boots and trudge around the ice.  It wasn't too intense, but was very beautiful. The guide also allowed us to stage photos that made it look like we were ice climbing (oh wait...I just blew my cover woops!). It was the twelve of us and one poor random British guy in our group. GEORGE! Afterwards we had free entry into the hot pools where we relaxed and took advantage of their showers. That night we all crammed into one camper van to have one last bonding sesh. It was such a fun trip! Some of the best times happened just hanging out in the vans. I was ready to eat something besides pasta, PBJ and cereal though. We drove back to Christchurch the next day, turned in our vans, and then proceeded to hang out in the airport from 4:30 PM until our 6:00 AM flight. Surprisingly, it was not that bad. At one point, three of us wandered to the Domestic terminal to see if they had better food and wound up in a photo booth with Asian decals and played a game of Around the World with a random guy, a mini basketball, and a box resting on top of a trash bag. Somehow, I won. I credit 4th grade YMCA b-ball (in which I never made a basket). Rose and Alex received corn rows from Kerry, we all swapped photos, played lots and lots of card games, and took turns venturing out for food. Then it was time to fly back to good old Melbourne. I felt like I was gone for a month! New Zealand is beautiful though, and that trip was definitely the highlight of my study abroad experience. To quote the New Zealanders, it was "sweet as!" Everyone should go there if they get a chance, but you definitely need more than a week to see even just the South Island.

More (old) updates soon!