I'm hanging out with my friend Njeri tonight, and then Bruno is going to drive me to the airport early tomorrow morning. Wish me luck and safe flights!!
New Zealand has been absolutely amazing- I'm so glad I chose to study abroad. I just can't wait to be home and see everyone!
Only four flights to go!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
So excited to head home finally!!!
Finally some good news!!!!
I'm leaving Auckland Thursday morning at 9 am! I'll be flying to Sydney, then Los Angeles, then Washington, D.C., then Connecticut! I'll be landing in Connecticut really really tired at about 11:15 on Thursday night. I said bye to two more of my friends today, and more of them leave tomorrow. I'm SO ready to be home, just have to make it through the longest day of travel in my life!
Wish me luck, one more day in Auckland, then I'm out of here! =)
I'm leaving Auckland Thursday morning at 9 am! I'll be flying to Sydney, then Los Angeles, then Washington, D.C., then Connecticut! I'll be landing in Connecticut really really tired at about 11:15 on Thursday night. I said bye to two more of my friends today, and more of them leave tomorrow. I'm SO ready to be home, just have to make it through the longest day of travel in my life!
Wish me luck, one more day in Auckland, then I'm out of here! =)
Monday, June 27, 2011
Goodbyes
Still not sure when I'll be flying out of New Zealand. I don't think my mom and Sharon are coming here, so I'm pretty much just hanging out until I hear.
I'm having a hard time saying bye to my New Zealand and Australian friends, the ones I might never get to see again. I'm excited to get to see the ones that live in the U.S. again. Studying abroad makes no sense at all- you make these great friends that you have so much in common with only to have to say goodbye. I'm so glad to have made the friends I did, so this post is dedicated to them. I've included some of my favorite pictures of me and my friends.
I'm having a hard time saying bye to my New Zealand and Australian friends, the ones I might never get to see again. I'm excited to get to see the ones that live in the U.S. again. Studying abroad makes no sense at all- you make these great friends that you have so much in common with only to have to say goodbye. I'm so glad to have made the friends I did, so this post is dedicated to them. I've included some of my favorite pictures of me and my friends.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
bad news.
So, forget about the best road trip ever.
My mom and Sharon are currently in California, because their flights to New Zealand got cancelled due to the stupid ash cloud from the volcano in Chile. The earliest they would be able to fly here is Tuesday, so that shortens the trip quite a bit, and then we might all be stuck here when we're trying to fly home. That being said, I might just fly to California and meet them there. Now that I won't be traveling around New Zealand any more, and all of my friends are heading home, I'm SO ready to be home as well, or at least in California. I'm currently pretty disappointed, but that's life. As long as we all get home safely, we can always come back to New Zealand in the future.
Other than that, I had really amazing dinner last night with five of my best friends here- Jo, Njeri, Flora, Olly, and Bruno. Anisha was sick so she didn't come. We went to a pretty fancy italian restaurant, where I got prawn cutlets (essentially just New Zealand shrimp) with broccoli over penne pasta with tomato cream sauce. After that, we went out dancing and enjoyed our last night out despite the rain. So, now I'm just sorta hanging out until I hear about a flight.
I've also included some pictures of what my room looked like before I packed it all up.
My mom and Sharon are currently in California, because their flights to New Zealand got cancelled due to the stupid ash cloud from the volcano in Chile. The earliest they would be able to fly here is Tuesday, so that shortens the trip quite a bit, and then we might all be stuck here when we're trying to fly home. That being said, I might just fly to California and meet them there. Now that I won't be traveling around New Zealand any more, and all of my friends are heading home, I'm SO ready to be home as well, or at least in California. I'm currently pretty disappointed, but that's life. As long as we all get home safely, we can always come back to New Zealand in the future.
Other than that, I had really amazing dinner last night with five of my best friends here- Jo, Njeri, Flora, Olly, and Bruno. Anisha was sick so she didn't come. We went to a pretty fancy italian restaurant, where I got prawn cutlets (essentially just New Zealand shrimp) with broccoli over penne pasta with tomato cream sauce. After that, we went out dancing and enjoyed our last night out despite the rain. So, now I'm just sorta hanging out until I hear about a flight.
I've also included some pictures of what my room looked like before I packed it all up.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Best road trip ever!
Last night I went to the Mexican Cafe with Flora- it's a mexican restaurant by day and a salsa dancing-type place at night. They had a spanish DJ, and it was AWESOME! It's the kind of place where there's tons of people that know how to do the dances and the twirls, and all the guys just randomly dance with all the girls. I haven't had that much fun at a bar probably ever!! Plus I've been told I'm quite the salsa dancer! I can just fake it really well.
Tonight we're all going out to our last dinner, Njeri made a slideshow of the semester, and then we're going to town.
Tomorrow morning at 8:10 (my time), my mom and Sharon will be here!!
This is what we ended up planning:
• Sunday the 26
o Mom and Sharon arrive 8:10 am, meet at airport, rent a car, start driving north
o drive up to Whangarei (3.5 hours)
o Sleep at a beach house (called a bach)
o dinner at either Schnappa Rock or Marina Pizzaria
• Monday the 27
o Go diving/snorkeling/kayaking with Dive! Tutukaka http://diving.co.nz/
• Tuesday the 28
o Wake up, drive back (3 hours)
o Drop off stuff in Chelsea’s room
o Lunch somewhere (with Flora and Jo)
o jet boating http://www.aucklandjetboattours.co.nz/
o Dinner at the sky tower http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz/Restaurants/Orbit.html or just visit: http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz/Attractions/Skytower.html
o Sleep by Auckland
• Wednesday the 29
o Drop off car by airport
o Flights to Nelson departs 11:00 am
o Wine tour?
• Thursday the 30
o Nelson zipline http://www.happyvalleyadventures.co.nz/
o Rent a car, drive to Punakaiki (3 ¼ hours)
o view pancake rocks in Punakaiki (http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/west-coast/buller-area/punakaiki-pancake-rocks-and-blowholes/ )
o Drive to Greymouth (half an hour)
• Friday the 1
o Drive to glacier (2.5 hours)
o Heli-hike the glacier in the afternoon
o sleep at glacier
• Saturday the 2
o Horse trek by the glacier
o Drive back to Nelson (6 hours)
o Sleep in Nelson
• Sunday the 3
o Flight to Auckland leaves at 7:40 am
o Rent a car; pick up stuff from Chelsea’s room, laundry!
o drive to Waitomo (3 hours)
• Monday the 4
o Morning caving
o drive to Rotorua (2 hrs)
o thermal pools http://www.waiotapu.co.nz/ or
o hangi dinner, maori cultural performance
o sleep in rotorua (all of these places have thermal pools right at the hotels! http://www.waiotapu.co.nz/)
• Tuesday the 5
o Drive to the Coromandel
o Kayaking http://www.seakayaktours.co.nz/sea_kayak_tours.html
o Hot Water Beach (low tide 4:21pm) http://www.mercurybay.co.nz/activities/hotwaterbeach.php
o Drive back to Auckland (or sleep somewhere between Auckland and the Coromandel)
• Wednesday the 6
o Return car to airport
o Fly home! (return home the same day, too!)
Tonight we're all going out to our last dinner, Njeri made a slideshow of the semester, and then we're going to town.
Tomorrow morning at 8:10 (my time), my mom and Sharon will be here!!
This is what we ended up planning:
• Sunday the 26
o Mom and Sharon arrive 8:10 am, meet at airport, rent a car, start driving north
o drive up to Whangarei (3.5 hours)
o Sleep at a beach house (called a bach)
o dinner at either Schnappa Rock or Marina Pizzaria
• Monday the 27
o Go diving/snorkeling/kayaking with Dive! Tutukaka http://diving.co.nz/
• Tuesday the 28
o Wake up, drive back (3 hours)
o Drop off stuff in Chelsea’s room
o Lunch somewhere (with Flora and Jo)
o jet boating http://www.aucklandjetboattours.co.nz/
o Dinner at the sky tower http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz/Restaurants/Orbit.html or just visit: http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz/Attractions/Skytower.html
o Sleep by Auckland
• Wednesday the 29
o Drop off car by airport
o Flights to Nelson departs 11:00 am
o Wine tour?
• Thursday the 30
o Nelson zipline http://www.happyvalleyadventures.co.nz/
o Rent a car, drive to Punakaiki (3 ¼ hours)
o view pancake rocks in Punakaiki (http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/west-coast/buller-area/punakaiki-pancake-rocks-and-blowholes/ )
o Drive to Greymouth (half an hour)
• Friday the 1
o Drive to glacier (2.5 hours)
o Heli-hike the glacier in the afternoon
o sleep at glacier
• Saturday the 2
o Horse trek by the glacier
o Drive back to Nelson (6 hours)
o Sleep in Nelson
• Sunday the 3
o Flight to Auckland leaves at 7:40 am
o Rent a car; pick up stuff from Chelsea’s room, laundry!
o drive to Waitomo (3 hours)
• Monday the 4
o Morning caving
o drive to Rotorua (2 hrs)
o thermal pools http://www.waiotapu.co.nz/ or
o hangi dinner, maori cultural performance
o sleep in rotorua (all of these places have thermal pools right at the hotels! http://www.waiotapu.co.nz/)
• Tuesday the 5
o Drive to the Coromandel
o Kayaking http://www.seakayaktours.co.nz/sea_kayak_tours.html
o Hot Water Beach (low tide 4:21pm) http://www.mercurybay.co.nz/activities/hotwaterbeach.php
o Drive back to Auckland (or sleep somewhere between Auckland and the Coromandel)
• Wednesday the 6
o Return car to airport
o Fly home! (return home the same day, too!)
Friday
not going to post too much right now.
I've started packing, said bye to my friend Kaitlyn today, and got a whole bunch of errands done. Packing is probably one of my least favorite things to do, ever.
Tomorrow I'll put up my itinerary for when my mom and Sharon get here!!
Tomorrow will be a long day of finishing packing and going to a goodbye dinner with all my friends.
I've started packing, said bye to my friend Kaitlyn today, and got a whole bunch of errands done. Packing is probably one of my least favorite things to do, ever.
Tomorrow I'll put up my itinerary for when my mom and Sharon get here!!
Tomorrow will be a long day of finishing packing and going to a goodbye dinner with all my friends.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Quad biking!
Today was a pretty good day!
I had lunch with my friend Marc, whose headed back to Germany on Saturday after his last exam. He had plans to go to Fiji, but one of his good friends passed away while tech diving in a lake in Germany. His friend was a great scuba diver, and taught technical diving classes, so no one really knows what happened, but his gear is going to get checked to see if there was a problem with it. Diving accidents really scare me and serve as a reality check that this wonderful hobby is actually really dangerous.
This afternoon, Jo and I went quad biking (4 wheeling) in a forest 35 minutes northwest of Auckland. We saw a rainbow on the way, and I took a picture, and the tour guide (who was probably in his fifties) said that I was the first person he'd ever seen take a picture of a rainbow. Since it rains here usually once an afternoon for a little while, rainbows are pretty common. The quad biking people picked us up in front of our building, and we got a free 1 hour Trail Blazer Safari. They do up to 3 hour tours, where they can bring you all the way to Muriwai Beach, which is where I went with my Coastal and Marine Geography class. We only did the hour long, so we went up to an outlook where you can see tons of beautiful forest and then the beach in the distance (look for it in the picture with the sun). It was so nice to get out of Auckland- makes me unbelievably excited to do some more traveling before I come home. Riding quads was so much fun- the trails ranged from huge puddles (they supplied rain gear, helmets, goggles, and gum boots) to gravel roads that are used for logging, to really narrow roads that curve between trees and over stumps in the dense forest.
Tomorrow, I start packing up my room.
I had lunch with my friend Marc, whose headed back to Germany on Saturday after his last exam. He had plans to go to Fiji, but one of his good friends passed away while tech diving in a lake in Germany. His friend was a great scuba diver, and taught technical diving classes, so no one really knows what happened, but his gear is going to get checked to see if there was a problem with it. Diving accidents really scare me and serve as a reality check that this wonderful hobby is actually really dangerous.
This afternoon, Jo and I went quad biking (4 wheeling) in a forest 35 minutes northwest of Auckland. We saw a rainbow on the way, and I took a picture, and the tour guide (who was probably in his fifties) said that I was the first person he'd ever seen take a picture of a rainbow. Since it rains here usually once an afternoon for a little while, rainbows are pretty common. The quad biking people picked us up in front of our building, and we got a free 1 hour Trail Blazer Safari. They do up to 3 hour tours, where they can bring you all the way to Muriwai Beach, which is where I went with my Coastal and Marine Geography class. We only did the hour long, so we went up to an outlook where you can see tons of beautiful forest and then the beach in the distance (look for it in the picture with the sun). It was so nice to get out of Auckland- makes me unbelievably excited to do some more traveling before I come home. Riding quads was so much fun- the trails ranged from huge puddles (they supplied rain gear, helmets, goggles, and gum boots) to gravel roads that are used for logging, to really narrow roads that curve between trees and over stumps in the dense forest.
Tomorrow, I start packing up my room.
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