If I could marry a country..

My adventure for the past weekend was another trip put on by the international student group, this time to the top of the south island and Queen Charlotte Sound.

     We (myself and four other international girls, along with our advisor Jayne) left for the ferry early on Friday morning. I hadn't been on it yet, so I was super pumped to see what it was all about. It was huuuge, at least it seemed to be based on my limited experience with ferries. There were 10 floors, a couple of which were for cars being transported. There was a cinema, a food court, a bar, a playground...it was crazy. I didn't spend too much time wandering around inside though, because it made me a little sick not being able to see the horizon while we were moving. It was about a three hour ride, most of which I spent taking pictures from the top deck of the AMAZING scenery. The weather was pretty nice, so we just stayed outside the whole time.

     Once the ferry dropped us off at Picton, a small south island town, we grabbed some fish and chips for lunch, and met up with our kayaking guide! He drove us down a nauseating winding road to our launch point. After a lecture on gear and whatnot we headed out. I shared a kayak with Evelien, my Dutch flatmate. She had a few issues learning to steer, but quickly figured it out, and we were off. We were out on the water for 2 and a half or 3 hours, making our way along the coast, into sheltered bays and out into the wind every once in a while. (Here's a decent time to mention...the same trip was put on last weekend with a group of about 20 international students. while they were out kayaking, a freak storm hit, and they almost died. i think they lost some gear, but everybody made it to land safely. thankfully our trip was uneventful in that regard.) We kayaked into Mistletoe bay, a tiny place you only find out about by word of mouth really. It was really beautiful though. There was a bit of a beach, and the cabins we were staying in. They're all ecological, so use recycled water in the bathrooms, have a place to put compost, all kinds of awesomely hippie stuff. Hearing about it I figured they might be a bit run down or really bare, but they were fully decked out cabins with beds, sheets, duvets, nice furniture, a full bathroom, and a separate kitchen building with anything you could need to make a meal (minus the food). The people who manage all the cabins live on a farm right next to them, where there were a couple donkeys and llamas. That's pretty much all that was in the area though. There's no road access to the area, other than the water it was completely surrounded by mountains.

     So after settling in and having dinner we went exploring a little bit. We went and saw the llamas, and while looking for pigs, ended up finding a sign for some hiking trails. It was mid-late evening when we started out, still plenty of light. We started hiking up, me and Evelien only in flip flops ('jandals'), and we just kept going up, looking for a 'hilltop lookout' we kept seeing signs for. It was getting to be a bit late though, and the sun was about to set, so me and Evelien wanted everyone to head back before it got dark. The other three girls insisted on continuing up the mountain though, so we went back without them. No one told Jayne where we were going, and no one had a cell phone or a flashlight, so we thought it was the smart thing to do. By the time we got back to the cabins it was pitch black, and we had no clue how long the other girls were going to keep hiking up the mountain. Evelien, Jayne, and I just sat outside waiting to hear their voices coming back. We were so worried that something would happen and we wouldn't know since they had no way of contacting us. They came out of the forest just fine after about 20 minutes, but it was really not a smart idea to go out there so unprepared. ah well, it all turned out alright.

     The next day we got picked up by a boat right at the bay, and went out for some dolphin watching! It took a bit to reach an area with a good group, but once we got to them, it was fantastic. They're absolutely huge, 3-5 meters. When we got there the dolphins were feeding, but after a little while they finished, and we got into our wetsuits and snorkels to hop in with them. It was seriously amazing. A group of 10-15 gigantic creatures would swim within feet of you. None touched me, but I guess it doesn't happen terribly often. They are attracted to curious sounds, and noise travels way better underwater, so while we had our faces in the water we were supposed to make any kind of noises we could, which sounded hilarious from above the water. Personally I went with humming 'Under the Sea' from The Little Mermaid. With echolocation the dolphins can sense really minute differences between people's patterns of breathing and even heart beats. The guides said that the dolphins really liked our group because we had a couple small children whose hearts beat faster. They also love if a pregnant woman is in the water because they can sense the heartbeat of the baby inside. I thought it was fascinating.

     Anyway, after a couple hours with the dolphins, the boat took us back to Picton where we got back on the ferry to Wellington. It felt like such a short trip only staying one night, but it was nice to have the rest of saturday and sunday to recuperate and get some homework done. There is a lot of that to be done in the next few days. It's a little bit overwhelming doing all these trips and being away so often when there is also a full class load to worry about, but I'm getting better at managing my time, and now that I'm getting a feel for the expectations of classes here it'll get even better hopefully. It's just over a week until Easter break (two weeks off!), so I just have a little bit more to get through before some good rest, and traveling of course.

pictures of the Queen Charlotte Sound trip coming soon! as soon as facebook stops being stupid that is.

Monster Blog.

I know it has been forever since I've posted anything...I tend to get lazy, and when adventures and things to write about started accumulating, I got even more lazy. hopefully this is my last monster-blog though, and I will try to start writing way more often. but yes, I am alive here, and come bearing gifts of pictures!!

Photo Album!!  my orientation week and arrival in Wellington

So I've now gone through three weeks of classes here. There's a noticeable difference in how school works here, but when it comes down to it, it's still school. The main differences are a much higher emphasis on research, documenting every observation and thought you have on your project, and quite a bit more independent work outside of the classroom. The teachers ultimately assume you know exactly what you are doing unless you go to them with specific questions. There isn't much in the way of guided practice...you guide yourself. and then write about it in your 'workbook', 60 pages which they expect to be full (and then some) by the end of the course.

Here's a bit about the classes I'm taking:

Intro to Photography--I'm really enjoying this class. We only meet once a week to go over any questions or problems we may be having with our work, and to introduce any new software we may be working with. Our first project we're currently working on is to document a street in Wellington. Basically this involved me purposefully getting lost and finding a street I thought would be interesting to photograph. I picked one that runs straight into Mount Victoria, which looks out over the city. There is a long bus tunnel running through the mountain, and a playground next to the tunnel. I'm finding I really enjoy wandering around (or sitting in the playground) taking pictures, but I'm definitely not very good at it. One afternoon I took about 175 pictures, and ended up with about 10 that I deemed worthy of existence...ah well. I was worried at the beginning that we would have to buy our own SLR cameras, but the school has a ton of equipment that we can sign out for 24 hour periods. I kind of wonder how they can trust people to just borrow thousands of dollars worth of equipment, but I suppose if you break it, you buy it.

Critical Studies--This is the one class I don't care for quite as much. It's very geared toward first year students who don't really know how to write an essay, reference their research, or analyze anything. So, in that aspect, it's fairly boring to me. The subject matter all has to do with New Zealand (and specifically Maori) culture though, which makes an otherwise boring class one that's fairly interesting, and super-easy..score!

Intro to Printmaking--This is a really difficult class for me. I'm being introduced to completely new processes and techniques, but there are no real introductory kind of projects..you have to create and execute those on your own (and write in that workbook!). Our project is investigating your public vs. private self. I feel like this is quite a heavy topic to be exploring with a medium you've never used. I am, and will continue, to put quite a lot of work into this class. Hopefully it will pay off. If not, well...I only have to get a C for credit to transfer back to Drake. Speaking of grades, can I just mention that in high school, an A was a 92% and higher, an A here is an 85%, and it's not easy to get either. The grading is pretty strict.

Drawing the Body--A very studio-based class, we've been doing a lot of short exercises capturing the movement of the model's poses with loose gesture drawing that tends to look more like blurry blobs. We'll slowly work our way into more detail. those quick exercises get to be a bit stressful though. Doing sets of 10 or 20 30-second drawings just fries your brain after a while, not to mention uses up paper super quickly. We use sheets of 'A1' paper (it comes anywhere from A0-ginormous, to A5 which is about diary-sized. A1 is about as wide as my arm is long (I know because that's how i carry it)), and will use up about 20 sheets in one 3-hour class period. There is also independent work every week that we do and then discuss as a class.

So, those are my classes! Even though I only have 4 (I'm used to taking 6 at home) there is more than enough independent work and research to keep me busy. Everything is basically due in the next couple of weeks before our easter break.

Enough about school though, how about the adventure side of life in NZ...

After the first week of class, a few of the study-abroad students were feeling a bit down and wanting to take action on some traveling plans, so we pulled together and planned a road trip for the weekend to Lake Taupo, which is a huge volcanic crater that filled up with water smack dab in the middle of the north island. After finding some sleeping bags, cold sack, and a $10 portable grill, Libby (my Scottish flatmate), Kimberly (another girl from Scotland), Kelsey (American), Alicia (American), and myself all rented a car, named it Julio, and left Friday midday for our journey.

We left on Route 1, which leads out of Wellington right into Taupo. It works its way along the west coast for a short while, and then heads inland through some beautiful mountains, fields, and even a desert. Besides the beautiful scenery, the ride up there wasn't all that exciting. It took around 5 hours, so we had plenty of time to explore New Zealand's severely lacking radio selection and eat a few too many bags of chips.

By the time we got to the lake, it was around 5:30 or 6:00, so we started hunting for a camp site...and kept hunting...and kept hunting. We figured there would be tons, and there were quite a few, but none that we could find at the time based solely on road signs and our New Zealand books we brought along. We ended up driving about a half hour back the way we came to a spot mainly filled with camper vans, where we had to pay $16 per person for a spot. It was kind of ridiculous, but it was already getting really late, so we had to take what we could get. It was an absolutely gorgeous spot though, right directly on the lake, and we got bathrooms and showers, so it was all good. We successfully set up our tents, made some chicken burgers on our grill, and went to sleep. I did at least...apparently I kept up a couple of people with my snoring..thanks for handing on that gene, mom.

We woke up to a beautiful morning and took a quick swim in the lake. It was seriously the clearest lake water I've ever seen. After packing up our tents we headed off to the city of Taupo and an information center to make some legitimate plans. Our first adventure stop for the day was Huka Falls, really spectacular waterfalls on the Waikato River with intensely blue water (see pictures in album below!). We took a ton of pictures there, and then headed to Orakei Korako thermal park. There is a ton of volcanic activity in the area, so we got to see a bunch of geysers, pools of bubbling mud, and this spectacular cave they had with a pool at the bottom. The one downside was how hot it was. It was a comfortably warm day, but climbing up and down stairs in the thermal park, with steam all around you, and a sulfuric smell every once in a while..it got to be a little uncomfortable. We figured we would go for a swim after that, so we took a short ride to an area of the Waikato river that has hot water pouring into it. It was so weird climbing into freezing water, swimming a few feet, and being almost too warm. If someone kicked or moved too much we would get a cold blast from the rest of the water. We met some nice Swedish boys there who were at the very end of a trip through New Zealand. I never realized how much of a tourist spot this country is for people all over the world. It makes sense though, it's utterly gorgeous.

Anyway, after our swim we went to our campsite, recommended by the lady at the information center, and it was another beautiful spot. Since it was free it was a bit more crowded, but it was right along the Waikato River. The night brought an interesting story back with us. We were all about to go to sleep, when we heard a car pull up right near our tents. We stuck our heads out and saw a guy get out of this pickup truck that had a large dog in the back of it. We couldn't see much of anything because it was so dark, but it was definitely creepy at the time. The man opened the back door, and we could hear chains rattling around. He hauled those out and used them to tie up his dog to the truck. Then he continued messing around with something in the back seat. Of course being late at night in a strange camp site we figured he was about to pull out a shotgun and murder us all or something. He takes something from the backseat, we don't hear anything for a while. Next thing we know we heard the Who Wants to be a Millionaire music come on...he spent the next few hours watching tv shows and movies on his laptop. It was hilarious how freaked out we were about nothing.

The next day we decided to go for a more thrilling adventure and go jet-boating. The five of us, two small families, and a couple of older ladies were given some life vests and we climbed into our small boat. It was then expertly driven up and down the Waikato River, going over rapids, inches away from rocks and branches, pulling a 360 turn every now and then. It was only a half hour ride (and just as most other tourist-y things, way over-priced), but it was a lot of fun, and we got a CD at the end of pictures they took of us (in the photo album linked below!).

Shortly after that we left to head back to Wellington, on a different route this time that took us to the east coast and through some mountains. We stopped at Napier, a very art deco town right on the east coast. It was a really pretty town, but we didn't have too much time to spend there.

The rest of our trip back wasn't too eventful, until shortly after it got dark, when we were on a winding mountain road (would have been gorgeous if it was light out), and we realized we were almost out of gas. We weren't too worried for a while, and just said we would stop at the next town. Well, the next town didn't appear until the gas light had been on for close to 20 minutes I'd say. We were very lucky to find a gas station when we did. We made it home safely though, at about 11:00 Sunday night.

Here are pictures of the trip! Lake Taupo road trip

Another small adventure I went on was some wine tasting. New Zealand is well-known for its wine, and the people at Massey in charge of international students decided to put together a trip for us to experience it. There are a couple of other trips they are setting up for us too, all at really discounted rates, which is awesome. For tasting at two wineries, and the bus ride, they only charged $25 NZ (19-ish US dollars). We went to the Wairarapa, which is an area about an hour and a half away from Wellington. The ride there was beautiful. We took a winding mountain road (I think it was the same one we almost ran out of gas on) to the vineyards in the heart of rural New Zealand. We stopped at Te Kiranga Vineyard for the morning, and then after lunch went to Alana Estate for a bit more tasting. Considering my lack of knowledge about wine, it was really good. It was nice to learn a little bit about wine itself and its influence on New Zealand.


Well, those are the major goings-on of my life here so far. I will try my hardest to make posts more often now so you all can get a better feel of the day-to-day life here. Hope things are well with all of you!