The Last Week...wait, what??

 As I was opening up my blog, I realized that this time next Sunday (my usual updating day), I’ll be back in Ellicott City (probably or more like hopefully asleep since it’s 2am EST!). It’s more than a little strange to think about. I rambled on for a while about leaving and changing and all that other fun philosophical stuff, but I think I’ll hold off until I’m back in the States to post the entry. Who knows, perhaps this next week has something in store for me that will further change my opinions and such.

The end is definitely drawing to a close. Suddenly there’s lots of talk about packing, suitcase weight, shipping, cleaning and most importantly, really fun volcanic ash! There are still flights cancelled, both domestic and international, although Air New Zealand is awesome and I don’t believe they’ve cancelled a single one. I will give them a bit of free advertising here as the best airline in NZ (think if they see this I might get a comp ticket? Har har har). I have four full days left in Wellington with Laura and Nicole, as we are flying as far as Los Angeles together. Jessica is leaving ridiculously early on Thursday morning for Sydney, so she has even less time. I had post-it notes of last-minute trips and other assignments to accomplish. We’ve been doing a fantastic job on the group outings, but the school-related and packing bullet points have yet to be fulfilled…oops.

Since the completion of finals last Tuesday, I spent a whole day hiding from wintery Welly (rain and wind everyday…it just depends on how much as to whether it’s a good or bad weather day) followed by some last minute souvenir shopping (and I’m still not done! Argh!) as well as some other fun. Nicole was the only one out of our group not to celebrate her birthday in Wellington, so we hosted an exciting half-birthday party on Wednesday complete with a microwave cake we learned at Sparky’s Backpackers. It actually turned out pretty good! I might have to bring home the ingredients, if I have a single bit of space in my luggage, eek! Besides that, we finally returned to pizza Mondays (we’re getting a picture with our waitress tomorrow) and were able to take the bus to another section of the Botanic Gardens, the Native Bush Reserve, on Saturday. Today (Sunday), all four of us took advantage of “gold coin” day, a Wellington promotion to allow ‘locals’ to experience all the touristy things Wellington offers for only a gold coin, before all the tourists descend in September for the Rugby World Cup. Apparently, Alex does not consider me a local, although I fought back with the mention that I had an address AND a NZ debit card—what else does one need?!

Anyway, we went to Zealandia, which has been on our to-do list for many months since our failed attempt earlier in the semester that was cancelled due to rain. We woke up this morning to rain (what a surprise??), but since it’s winter here now (so strange!), it’s to be expected. It was still fun to roam around in the mud, as I had my gumboots, and see some birds and such. Although there were a lot of people taking advantage of ‘gold coin’ day, Zealandia is so large that you never felt claustrophobic. I learned that New Zealand has over 200 different types of ferns, of which approximately 50% are only found here. Exciting, or at least I thought Mom would enjoy that bit of trivia. Jess and I trekked up to the gold mine, but there was a bit of a wait and I lost my nerve after hearing about the cave weta (you can Wikipedia this disgusting bug-like creature, ew!). 

This last partial week will be devoted to getting my school transcripts and such in order, as well as having a chat with Australearn about the money that should be arriving back at home soon. The accommodation office put me in a shared room after I paid the single room price, so that will be quite a hefty refund. Also, since the houses were not complete when we arrive (see my complaints on the lack of trash cans and heaters), we should each be receiving $150 due to the inconvenience. It appears, however, that since I paid through Australearn, they have the option to not return this money to me or anyone else as it is not specified in their contract. Of course, I would never expect this of Australearn, but I will certainly be keeping an eye out for an e-mail and/or a check!

Still on the to-do list is another sunset trip back to Mt. Victoria to look out over the city, attempting to finish my photo books of the five months here in time for my return home (I’m about halfway through), and purchasing a dress that does not have any floral patterns. According to Laura, Jessica and Nicole, every dress that I own has flowers on it. Turns out the last five or six I’ve bought (some here) have indeed had flowery patterns. A first attempt at finding a different style was made last week but was unsuccessful…what can I say, I like the flowers! A last visit to our usual pizza, crepes, and gelato will also be made. I mentioned to my gelato person last time that they should open up a branch in the US to which he responded “Well don’t you guys have a lot of ice cream over there?” Do I really have to explain to the man giving me my gelato the vast difference between ice cream and gelato? Apparently. A bit saddening, but there’s always hope that it will catch on in the DC Metro area!

So I guess this is the last time you’ll be hearing from me in New Zealand. A little strange for you too? I know it is for me. I will certainly update once I’ve returned home with some excellent travel stories (perhaps ones that involve all of my planes being on time!) and some reflections. Until then, kia ora! And if you’re not looking forward to something you have to do later this week or next weekend, just remember that I’m en route to Ellicott City for 30+ hours and you’ll feel better about whatever it is you have to do!

The South of the South Island: Scenery EVERYWHERE

The last of the “big trips” is over, and suddenly I have about two weeks left in my new home. How crazy it seems that at this time next month, I’ll be back in Maryland. It is most definitely a bittersweet feeling, for all of the reasons you can imagine. I miss all of my friends and family so much, but I love my friends and my home here in New Zealand. I’ve decided that everyone in MD should just move here…then I will never leave! Sorry, MD, but you just can’t compare.

Anyways! I just returned this afternoon from a five-day tour of the most southern south island parts. We started off in Dunedin very early in the morning. Unfortunately, due to some mix-ups and late changes in plans, we spent the first two hours in the airport waiting for our rental car. It was probably good to rest a little bit, as Laura and I were pretty sleep deprived and we had all been up very early that morning to catch our 7AM flight (it was the cheapest!). There had been a bit of an incident before we even made it to the airport…Laura slept through her alarms and was awakened by a call from the shuttle driver who was outside. Imagine Jess’s and my surprise to see her in the shuttle in nothing but shorts, t-shirt and a sweatshirt. At the time it wasn’t quite funny yet, but now it’s hilarious. We had to go shopping for essentials as soon as we got into Dunedin since she has planned to finish packing that morning (no time for that, obviously). After stopping at our hostel (it was freezing…but we had our own room!), we headed to Larnach Castle. Being a castle officianado thanks to Dad and our frequent jaunts in England, I was not impressed. Sorry, Larnach…you were small, boring, and you had to pay more to go inside? No thanks. You did provide some nice views of the Otago Peninsula however, so I’ll forgive you some of your faults. We continued to the albatross colony, which our hostel-person had informed us of, but we then realized we had to pay for a tour. So we just wandered around and took some pictures on cliffs instead. Our third and final stop of the day was across the peninsula up lots of windy, narrow, gravel roads (thank you to Jess for not driving off the edge) to a beach where there were penguin colonies. From our understanding there were both yellow-eyed penguins and blue penguins…unfortunately we didn’t get close enough to see the difference. We did see some penguins though! After a long trek down a sand dune and over a small river (as well as past a few seals or sea lions…we got too close to one and it charged a few steps. It was absolutely terrifying.), we made it to the viewing hides to watch for the penguins returning at dusk. We saw seven penguins at all. They were so funny to watch as they waddled out of the water and jumped with both feet from rock to rock!

The following day we browsed through downtown Dunedin for a few hours before heading down the coast through the Catlins on the way to Invercargill. We stopped at Nugget Point and Slope Point. They were both absolutely fantastic. The Catlins are renowned for their scenery, and there is absolutely no doubt why. Every inch of the drive there was something fascinating to behold. To the three of us who are used to concrete or cornfields while driving, it was almost overwhelming. The sunset at Slope Point was magnificent and such rich hues of purple, pink, and orange. Insane! We arrived safely in Invercargill to Sparky’s Backpackers. It was an unusual place to be sure. The guys running it were a little out there…we were promised chocolate cake. When Sparky said “chocolate cake in fifteen minutes!” we believed that we would be eating it in fifteen minutes. Oh no. There was a whole show…I ended up with a tambourine, Laura was on the drum, Jess had some strange strainer device that squeaked, and Sparky was wearing a hard hat and goggles. I got some cake and a free t-shirt (due to my previously unknown skills on the tambourine) out of it, so it was definitely worth it. I’ll have to recreate this cake that Sparky made some time for those who are interested!

The next morning it was off to Queenstown via the scenic route. We stopped on the coast for lunch where Jess got some really good seafood chowder (I always pick the wrong thing!). It was incredibly, horrifically windy so we weren’t able to get out and walk around as much as we would have liked. It was my day to drive and even though I drove for probably five hours, it was never boring because of the scenery. Just another beautiful day in a beautiful landscape. Take a look at the pictures!

The following day was Laura’s 22^nd birthday! She and I were up around 6AM and out the door to catch the bus to Milford Sound, lauded as one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand (how they pick just a few I don’t know!). The bus trip combined with a 1.5 hour cruise of the sound was twelve hours long. It was a long day, but it didn’t feel like it with a few catnaps and the gorgeous views. Once again, not much to say except take a look at the pictures, which still don’t do it justice. I also ate four cheese scones…by myself…in about an hour. I have no self-control when it comes to scones, as a warning for all. That night we went out for Mexican food (Laura’s choice), wore some pink sombreros and drank some margaritas. After visiting a few more spots in town, we were back in bed by midnight after an early start. 

The following day we were up fairly early again and out to the original bungee jump site. Jess had decided (after going back and forth for probably a month) to bungee jump off a bridge into a river. Well, she didn’t actually touch the river (good thing because it was freezing!). There were several jumpers before her and I was too scared to even watch them jump off the ledge. You can tell that the thought of bungee jumping myself was never even a consideration. But Jess did a great job and had a beautiful swan dive (unlike some others who went feet first and were unceremoniously yanked upside down by the bungee cord). With our adrenaline pumping, we went back into Queenstown and up the hill in the gondola to do some extreme sporting together. When I say extreme sporting, I mean as extreme as I can get…ziplining. For some it might not seem too extreme, but I can promise you it was for me! It was a lot of fun. I even hung upside down on one (kind of…I never actually let go of my tether), but it was so cool. We also rode the steepest tree-to-tree zipline in the world! Oh yeah! And the scenery was awesome as well. Nothing in New Zealand is complete without the scenery, after all. We grabbed some pizza for dinner (it was HUGE! 20 inches in diameter! But there were only two pieces left when we had demolished it), and did a lot of souvenir shopping. I don’t want to shop for souvenirs again for a looong time after leaving NZ. I’m beginning to worry about the luggage situation for the way home..we’ll have to see what happens there. After preliminary calculations, I may be carrying up to 25 boxes of Tim Tams alone. Goodness gracious. I might have to cut back a little, you think?

Anyway, the final day was spent traveling home. Seven out of my ten flights in a one-month span have been successfully completed. Now back at home base in Wellington, I have a lot of work to accomplish in the next five days. Then I’ll be home free and be able to enjoy my last ten days in this wonderful country to the fullest. I’ll probably wait to update again until the following Sunday (sorry!). In place of this Sunday’s post, you can just imagine me typing and studying frantically. I can promise it will be an accurate representation of the next week. Argh. Until then, kia ora!

NZ Southern South Island Trip (1):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150634444885707.687021.597595706&l=bc8b3bcde1

 NZ Southern South Island Trip (2):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150634514675707.687035.597595706&l=9c5d303c70

Tonga: Lizards, Kava and Beachtime!

Malo e leilei! I’ve returned from Tonga in one piece! Hooray! For all of you who enjoy the short version, it was tons of fun. For those of you interested in more depth, read on:

It started out with a bit of a rough start when our flight to Tonga was delayed on Friday night, from 10pm to 12am. After bumming around the food court and eating ice cream, we made it to the gate. Then they changed the gate. Then we got to the new gate and got on the plane. Then we sat on the plane for over an hour. Apparently our original plane never left Australia due to mechanical problems, and our new plane was experiencing its own share of problems as well. Eventually, after 1am, we took off. After getting through customs and all that jazz in Tonga, we arrived at our accommodation…at 7am. Dang.

We slept until noon in our fale (We even had our own bathroom! Although the wall was incomplete between the two rooms, so you needed to be very comfortable with your fale-mates. It did, however, facilitate conversations between the person in the shower and the other two in the bedroom.) After getting up and exploring the beach (the sand was full of shells and bits of coral!), we decided to do a bit of grocery shopping since the weather was not ideal for sunning ourselves. We were given directions about how to walk to the nearest convenience store. When we arrived, we started to walk past because it couldn’t possibly be so tiny. It was a small narrow room filled with tinned meat and packaged food with bars covering the wide window so you could only look at the food but not get close enough to reach it. We managed to negotiate for some ramen noodles and potato chips. Walking through the village, it was so different from anything else I’ve experienced. Tonga is certainly not a rich nation, and a lot of the houses are very run-down. Pigs, dogs and kids (in various states of cleanliness) are running around in the street. It’s definitely still a developing nation. But they had ramen, so what else could we need?? They even had different varieties…one day we bought some that was imported from Indonesia and another time from Canada. Yum!

The following day, Sunday, was abysmal. It stormed all day and everything shuts down on Sundays anyway as Tongans are a very religious people. We ended up hanging out in our fale, reading and playing cards. I only won one game of Go Fish, but I did manage to read three books over the five days. Not too shabby. Although our fale might seem confining, we have a lot of interesting memories there…

Tonga is a tropical island (in case you didn’t know…one of my friends thought it was in Africa. Alex forgot that I was going anywhere at all, and then thought Tonga was part of New Zealand. Goodness gracious.) As one might expect, there are an interesting array of bugs, spiders, and lizards. That doesn’t bother me. It bothers me when they are inside my living space at night when I can’t watch their every move. I was showering when screaming broke out in the next room…there was a sizeable lizard on the ceiling. Nicole was pretty freaked out, but we all continued on with our tasks. Then Nicole happens to glance behind her bed. There is a HUGE SPIDER. HUGE. In the excitement and screaming about said huge spider, and its untimely demise by tennis shoe, we lost track of the lizard. Great. The search begins to find it. Although having no luck finding “Liz” and she/he is hereby known, Laura did find a GIGANTIC bug. GIGANTIC. (I need to admit that I was actually doing none of the bug or lizard searching. No…I was hiding under my blanket on my bed. There is photographic evidence.) It took several tries to crush the exoskeleton with the tennis shoe. I should also mention that this bug was on a ledge above all of our heads, so we were unable to dispose of the body. And. Then the smell hit. Apparently it was some kind of stinkbug. So now we’re trying not to breathe deeply, remove the bug’s body, and still keep an eye out for Liz. None of these tasks were accomplished, and we spent the night with the bathroom light on in hopes that it would draw all bugs, spiders and lizards in there and away from us while we were sleeping. Liz never reappeared…dun dun dun!

The following evening, we were plagued with only some moths that kept dive-bombing the nightlight (and Nicole). Thankful for a more restful night, we all dropped off to sleep. Only to all be simultaneously awakened in the middle of the night with cats fighting right outside of our open window. To those of you who have heard this before, it is a hair-raising sound at the least. To me, it is worse than nails on a chalkboard. It continued for quite some time. It took me more than three hours to fall back asleep as the sun was coming up. Needless to say, most of my sleeping took place on the fantastic beach!

The beach was wonderful and everyone at Heilala Holiday Lodge was really friendly and helpful. They let us borrow snorkeling gear, lent us some Tongan money to get our ramen, and gave us a ride to and from town on Monday. We had wanted to check out the capital city, Nuku’Alofa, for souvenirs and perhaps some food so we could make our own meals in the communal kitchen. We started out by standing at the end of the road to Heilala waiting for the bus for half an hour before two nice Tongan ladies informed us it was a public holiday, so no bus. We never did figure out what the holiday was for exactly…maybe everyone just felt like taking the day off! Unfortunately, this meant that there wasn’t too much to see in town since almost everything was closed. We headed back and spent the rest of the day and the entirety of the next on the beach sunning ourselves. I am very proud to report that I did not get sunburned at all! Not one little bit! Nicole and Laura can make fun of my all day about the amount of sunscreen I slather on my skin, but it paid off. Hooray!

The last day of our trip, we took a tour around Tongatapu, the island on which we were staying (the Kingdom of Tonga is a collection of over a hundred islands). Our tour guides were really fun and we really did see the entirety of the island in seven hours...they didn’t lie! We saw cemeteries, plants galore, crazy looking fuzzy-headed bats, the landing sites of Abel Tasman and the Christian missionaries, Nuku’Alofa and countless other things. The best part of the tour was how unorganized and “non-touristy” it was. We would just be driving along the road when one of the guides would spot a group of women weaving tapa cloth or making mats. We would just pull over and take a look, not a problem at all. The funniest part was probably when we were passing by a church when the guides casually point out that there are people drinking kava next door before the service. Kava is the local alcohol in Tonga, and is ground from the root of the cassava plant, otherwise known as the kava tree. After mentioning it, the one guide decides “Let’s go drink kava with them! Yeah!” So away we went. Three American girls, a British and an Italian along with their two Tongan guides crash the kava party. They were happy to share! It looks kind of like muddy water, and tastes kind of like it too. I guess it’s an acquired taste. It has a very strange effect…after just a little bit, maybe two mouthfuls, my tongue and hands went kind of numb and tingly. It was pretty creepy. I can only imagine what would happen if you were to partake in the whole bowl, which the five men there were planning on doing. And then going to church afterwards! And both of the pastors were there!! Things are different in Tonga, but fun. Although I won’t miss the sleepless nights of lizard hunting, the people were extremely friendly and it’s just a beautiful island in the middle of nowhere. Maybe I’ll make it back someday!

And now onto the next adventure. After about twenty hours in Wellington, it’s off to Dunedin early tomorrow morning for a five-day jaunt around the southernmost parts of the south island. More updates after that!