Friday, April 27, 2007

Surfing!

Today after school, one of the other student teachers, Miles, took Megan and I surfing. It was so fun! Since it is fall here, the weather is a little chilly and it gets dark pretty early, like 6ish. But we didn't know how many more chances we would get to try and surf. We left school grabbed the boards and wetsuits and headed to the beach. Miles said the waves weren't that great, but they looked big to me! We all put our wetsuits on (I had to put mine on twice, because apparently I had it on backwards the first time) and headed out to the waves. Miles gave us a quick lesson and then we were off. We "surfed" for an hour or so. I had so much water in my mouth and ears by the end of it and I am pretty sure I looked like a drown rat (notice no pictures were taken of this). We stayed in until it got dark and by the end I was able to get onto one knee a few times but was nowhere near standing up! That will take a lot more practice. My goal is to get up on two knees on my board before I go home. It might take awhile. Guess I will just have to keep going for it until I get it down!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Wellington

I tried posting this ages ago and for some reason it wouldn't post. So, I forgot to say in the previous post that Megs and I stopped in Nelson in the South Island at the museum of Wearable Art. It was so cool and weird! There were the craziest costumes! After Megan and I left the South Island we stayed at Ruth and Michael's house. They are our host parents kids. The next day we walked around Wellington. We checked out the national museum, which was huge! Then we took the cable car up to the city gardens where there was a great view of the city. After that we walked back down and checked out all the parliment buildings. That night Michael made us a fantastic meal and Sunday morning we were off. We drove back to Waihi sad to say good bye to our adventure but happy to sleep in real beds!

Friday, April 20, 2007

The Last of the South Island Adventures

Not only did Megs and I hit up all the adventure areas of Queenstown, we also enjoyed some of the city life. We went to every souvenir shop imaginable! There were little arts and craft tables set up along the lakefront and a concert was going on. While we were walking around I saw a girl I had gone to school with walk down the street! I knew she was working in Abel Tasman for a few months, but I didn't think I would run into her. What a small world!
That night we went to the Minus 5 Degree bar. Now I am not a big bar person, but this was cool. The ice bar originated in Sweden and are now found in a few other places. It is a popular place to go, even with families and kids, so we had to make reservations. You are alotted a half hour in the bar. Before we went in, we were fitted with fur trimmed parkas and gloves. The whole room is made of ice, and I mean EVERYTHING; the bar, the seats, and the glasses! There were amazing ice sculptures everywhere. That was cool. We met a crazy group of English backpackers when we were there, which made for a good time.
After all the Queenstown craziness we drove on to Wanaka. We stayed at a campsite that night. The next day we went into town to check everything out. We heard from a friend it was pretty cool. Wanaka is situated right on a lake and because it is fall here, the scenery was beautiful. Along the lakewalk was a photography display. There were huge aerial photos displayed all about the changing enviroment and learning to care about the earth we live on. We walked through display for about an hour. That was also very cool. We did some shopping and again headed on to Franz Josef.
Franz Josef is a huge glacier set back in a big rock valley with rainforesty-type woods surrounding it. We stayed at the Rainforest Holiday Park that night, and prepared for our full-day glacier hike the following day. That morning we headed to the Franz Josef center where we were fitted with raincoats, over trousers, wool socks, boots, crampons (grips strapped to the bottom of your boots), hats and mittens. We boarded a bus and off we went. We were in a group of about 10 and a guide. We spent the next 7 hours together exploring around. I was super excited about it, since I see cold and snow all the time, but it was awesome. We even got to use ice picks. We wandered up the glacier where the views of the valley were gorgeous. We tramped through blue crevaces and all arounded. By the end of the day, we were really tired out! We made tacos for dinner, took a warm shower and were in bed by 7:45!
The following morning we headed to Lake Mathison, a well known scenic lake. the backdrop of the lake are the snow covered mountains that are reflected in the water. Again, gorgeous.
Okay, moving on....
The rest of the day we drove through to Abel Tasman. It was a long day of driving; about another 8 hours total. But we stopped at great places along the way. We drove down the highway along the beach, so we stopped for pictures here and there. We also saw Pancake Rocks. On the beach are these massive layered rock formations. When we get the pictures up, you will see what I am talking about. We finally made our way to Abel Tasman and booked a hostel for the night. Yeah, no sleeping in the back of the van! After 13 nights, it was nice to have a break!
Abel Tasman national park is right near the top of the south island. It is known for it's aqua waters and white beaches. In fact, it was one of the top five beaches in the world! The thing to do here is go out on a kayak trip, since most of the beaches can only be reached by water. We booked the "Royal with Cheese" all-day trip. When we got there, one of the guides told us that they drew peoples names for an upgrade to a better kayak package and we had won! So, we were put on the trip that was twenty bucks more and we got it for the same price as the other. We met our guide, Gloria, who was awesome and the other four kayakers in our group. They came from, Israel, France, England, and Austrailia. What a multicultural group! We were fitted into our life jackets and boarded the water taxi that brought us to the beach we would be launching from. The kayaks were two-person, so Megs was in the back in charge of steering and I was in the front. Our guide told us that we were sure to see some seal pups along the way. Not ten minutes after we got going we spotted seals doing there thing on the rocks; lazing in the sun and making noise! Gloria suggested we head to this secluded lagoon where there are usually some seal pups. She said we would be able to get there because it was still high tide. The lagoon was so pretty, but there were no seals in sight. We paddled on further to a little cove. All of a sudden these pups emerged from the trees on the banks and started swimming around our boats. Gloria said they were about 4 months old and often the mother leaves them there for the day while she goes out because they are safe in the cove. One of the pups grabbed onto a rope tied to Gloria's kayak and was swimming and plaing with it. We are watched and pulled our kayaks up side by side. The seals were so playful! Our kayaks was resting on top of a tree that was in the water. The pups would walk on the log and come up to sniff our kayak. All of a sudden, one jumped onto the kayak next to us and sat there for awhile. Gloria was laughing so hard. She said this had never happened before! We are all taked pictures like crazy when another one jumped onto ours. But instead of sitting there, he came up to me and sat on my spray skirt, right on my lap and sniffed my life jacket! haha. Gloria couldn't believe it! After awile we got out to swim with them. The water was freeezing and we were in the shade, so it didn't last long. But the seals would dodge all around us. They were swimming in between Megan's legs and one grabbed the tie on my life jacket and started pulling it! It was the highlight of the trip! Eventually we headed out of the lagoon because the tide was going out. We paddled to a beach where we had the lunches that were provided for us. We even got mochaccinos! Yum! Gloria said she had a surprise for us. She pulled a violin out of her kayak and started playing it. It was so cool. Beach, catered lunch, mochaccino, sun, and violin music. How lucky is that? Total paradise. We explored some more beaches and even sailed our kayaks. Yeah, sailed them. We connected them all together out in the water by holding on to each other's boats. Then the back people tied a tarp the their oars and raised it in the air, the front people (me), held onto the other corners down low and away we went. It was one of the best days, our group was awesome and the weather couldn't have been better! Abel Tasman was one of the most gorgeous places we went to! I loved it!!! We were freezing by the end of the day and headed back to the hostel for dinner and hot showers.
This brings us up to today. Basically we drove from Abel Tasman so Nelson, where we stopped and explored the city and then drove on to Picton, where we are now. We only have a few hours left on the South Island. In fact, we board the ferry in about 2 hours to head back to the North. I am sad to leave here. I fell in love with the South Island. Tonight we are staying at our host parents' other child's house in Wellington. Tomorrow we plan to check out the capital and then head back to Waihi on Sunday to get ready for the last five weeks of teaching.
So, for now I am off since I have been sitting at United Video store to type this! haha.
Love you all.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Adventure Guru

Well, I am alive! So Megs and I both did the canyon swing. Basically, you stand out on a platform 300 ft. above the canyon. It is sort of like bungy jumping. You have a rope and harness attached to your waist by your belly button. You can choose to jump off anyway you want. Megan hung upside down! No way. Not for me. I got up there to the edge and was shaking to bad! I held onto my rope and then stepped off. I started to scream, but then you are going too fast that you can't make noise anymore! You drop to the bottom and then swing back and forth until they raise you up again. It was a rush, that is for sure!!!! Celebrities like Adrien Brody, Jack Osborne, and Jack Black have done the swing too! About 3 hours later Megs and I got in a plane and jumped out of it! Ahhh!!!! I went skydiving! It was so amazing. When we first got there I was more excited than the day before. Our van driver said it isn't scary once you are in the air. It said it is more euphoric than frightening. This eased my fears. We got all siuted up and the guy who was helping me introduced himself as Uros. I asked if he was my instructor (the one who would jump with me). He said no, that he is just the parachute packer and helps fit people into their jumpsuits. He said that he will take people if something happens to the instructors, and that he has gone a few times (compared to the thousand that the instructors have gone). After we got suited up we headed out into the field for instruction. Then we hopped in the plane. There were 3 of us jumping, our instructors and our cameramen. We each hired a camera guy so we could get pics of the jump. My instructor still hadn't come. The low and behold, Uros comes out! I was freaking out! I wanted someone who had jumped more than a few times since they were the ones in charge of the parachute and the landing! Ahhh.... I was trying not to freak. We were all crammed into a little cockpit. As we rose the view was awesome. We were above the mountains and the clouds. When we reached 12,000 ft. The door opened. Meg and her instructor leaned out the door and were gone. It was my turn. Just me and good ole' Uros! He told me to scoot near the door. I was sitting with my legs hanging out. My photographer was hanging on to the wing and told me to smile. Yeah, smile while I am hanging 12,000 ft. out of a plane. Then Uros, who was strapped behind me rocked backwards and forwards and we were out! It was nuts! My feet were up to the sky and we flipped a few times. Then we turned so I was looking out ahead. Because the air is pushing up on you, you sort of feel like you are floating. It was scary! The view was amazing! Lakes, mountains, and sheep pastures. We were free-falling for 45 seconds, then the parachute opened and it was another 5 minutes before we touched down. During that time Uros, asked if I wanted to spin. I said, "why not" so we did. He spun all around and it was so cool, all though I was nervous that my lunch would come up! When we hit the ground I was so pumped! I did it!!!! And that's when I found out that Uros is a jokester. He had done over 10, 500 jumps! Phew! haha. I was a great experience and I would do it all over again. Who wants to join me!

Friday, April 13, 2007

The South Island details

So, here we go, bare with me on this long one.
Thursday: Last day of school, left Waihi at 4:30 and drove the 8 hours to Wellington. There we spent the night in the back of the van in the ferry parking lot.
Friday: We took the 3 hour ferry ride from the North Island to the South Island. The scenery was amazing and the wind was cold! We arrived in Picton and drove further down to Kaikoura. On the way we stopped at an awesome beach for lunch and then saw tons of seals along the rocks. There were tons of seal pups playing around. I loved this little town. The weather was good and we looked around town before camping for the night.
Saturday: We went whale watching! It was soooo cool. We saw two different sperm whales. You can't see much of them, just a bit of their backs and blowhole. When they dive down again, you can see their tale. That was amazing. We also saw some albatross and 200 dusky dolphins. These dolphins are the smallest in the world and were so fun to watch. They would swim right up to the boat and dive and jump all over. We then headed off to Hanmer Springs. We went to the Springs spa and enjoyed a few of the dozen outdoor hot pools. It was nice to do on a cool day. Then we went to a fun maze. We had to find clues in the maze to spell out a little message. From here we drove on to Christchurch where we camped for the night.
Sunday: Easter! We went to church at the Christchurch Cathedral. It was huge and gorgeous. It was cool to see an old church in the middle of town square. Most the shops were closed so we just browsed around town a bit. Then we went to the Antarctic Centre. We saw the blue penguin, the world's smallest. We watched them get fed. That night we stayed with our host parents kids and their family.
Monday: We went up to a cool lookout of town and then to the town centre where we walked around the arts center. It was soooo awesome. It is like 3 blocks of an old campus. There are art stores, theatres, movie theatres, and galleries throughout the whole thing. There are people performing on the streets too. Then we went on the Mount Cook. The drive took about 5 hours to see NZ's tallest mountain. We spent the night in the van at a campground there with the snow covered mountains and a lake all around us.
Tuesday: We did a two hour hike by the mount. It was again a gorgeous site.We headed out and drove to Dunedin. This town was awesome. It is a little bigger than Duluth and had a cool town centre. We stayed in a hostel that night. It was like an old big house and you rent a room for like 20 NZ$ and there are 4 people per room. There was a big kitchen, pool table and tv room. It was nice to sleep in a bed for once instead of a van. We walked to the city at night and went to a piano bar and a few other hangouts. It was really quite in town because it is the holidays so all the students are gone.
Wednesday we went to the Cadbury chocolate factory. You know the cadbury bunny? Yeah, I saw him in real life! haha. It was a cool tour. The place is huge and employs like 600 people. Then we went to the only castle in NZ. That was awesome too. It isn't huge, but it is beautiful. After that we saw the steepest city in the world, and i hiked it. In the evening, it was off to a brewery tour which was also pretty cool. After all of this, we drove to a beach and parked the van on the side of the road to sleep.
Thursday: We got up early in the morning and saw some seals on the rocks by a cool old lighthouse. We could hear all this grunting and realized it was a mother seal and her pups playing in a cove. We then drove to Te Anau and walked around town and stayed in a great holiday park for the night. It had fireplaces and was log-cabin style. Which was nice and warm since it was really cold outside. We even watched Grey's Anatomy in the TV lounge, before climbing into our cold van again for the night.
Friday: We went on a cruise through Milfrod Sound! It was the most spectacular thing ever! The drive took about 2 hours. Te Anau is the closest town. The whole Fiordland Park is all natural and huge! The are steep green cliffs and mountains everywhere. The cruise was a 3 hour boat tour from the beginning of the Sound to the Tasman Sea. It was freezing, even snowed and hailed, but while we were on the boat the sun was shining and everything was beautiful! We even saw seals and a pod of bottlenose dolphins. Last night we drove into Queenstown. We have taken it easy here so far, since tomorrow is a big day! We are skydiving! I will definitely update after all that excitement. Well that is all for now! More later if I survive!

South Island is AMAZING!

This is a quick blog for ya. Megs and I are in the South Island and it is so amazingly awesome. We have whale watched, hiked by the mountains, been to a castle, gone on a chocolate factory and brew house tour, cruised through Milford Sound and more. It truely is the most beautiful place I have ever been to. But I have five more minutes left on the internet here at the campsite. So farewell to all and there will be more to come. Check out the pics! Cheers!

Monday, April 2, 2007

Good times in Rotorua

Rotorua was cool. It was a very touristy town, but there was lots to do. We went to see some boiling mud pools in a park, went to the Historic Bathhouse, which is the Rotorua museum and the government gardens there. But by far, the coolest thing we did was zorbing! It is pretty much rolling people down a hill in padded gerbil balls. Megs and I went in a hydro one together. We climbed in the ball where there was a small pool of warm water inside and then we roll down the hill in it. We were soaked by the end. It was the funnest 30 seconds of my life! We also saw a Maori concert. So awesome. We stayed in a thermal camp park that night and woke up to have the thermal pools all to our selves for the morning. Very relaxing!