Rugby and Rotorua (October 23 and 24)

All of New Zealand has been aflutter because of the World Cup and there is All Blacks spirit everywhere. We have been watching all of the games religiously and, luckily, the school chaplaincy provided group viewing with delicious snacks, so we could watch it with a huge group of people without having to go to the bars. After the All Blacks won their quarter final game against Australia, the country was crazy! We had the opportunity to go up to Auckland the weekend of the Gold game because Marian's brother were flying in to see her and travel. Sage, Magge, Josh, and I opted out and voted for Rotorua instead.
We arrived in Rotorua Sunday night just in time to watch the final game. We went to an Irish pub attached to our hostel, ate New Zealand nachos, and watched to close game between New Zealand and France. When the All Blacks won, there were fireworks, shouts, horns, and everyone was going nuts. There was even a middle-aged woman sitting in front of us who was crying because she was so happy. The only people who were not happy about the win were these two French guys who were at the pub too. They were being pretty creepy to Magge and Marian, who had met up there with her brothers. The French men's accents were so thick and stereotypical that I thought they might be fake. They had strange French flags tied as cape on their backs. We luckily dodged them after they stared at us from the street.
We did not do too much after that because we had so much planned for the next day, so we wanted to be well rested. We go up early, checked out of our hostel, ate breakfast, and headed to the main event: zorbing! Zorbing is essentially being in a huge soft plastic hamster-like ball with 40 gallons of water and rolling down a hill. I was a little nervous but mostly excited for this crazy experience. I went in a ball with Magge (look at the video on Facebook, if you haven't) and it was a blast! We loved it so much that we went twice! I would go again in a heart beat.

Rolling down the hill

We love zorbing

We love it so much that we jump for joy! 

After we dried off, Sage, Josh, Magge, Marian, her brothers, and I headed to a free geothermic park. Rotorua has a lot of geothermic activity which makes for nice hot springs, but also for the disgusting sulphur fart smell. Not great. We walked around the park, played on the playground, and headed back into town. Marian and her brothers headed off to do their own thing and then rest of us went to an animal reserve to "pat" baby lions! We were really excited, especially Magge. We waited in line for what felt like forever, but then we patted the adorable lion cubs. I was really obsessed with lions when I was younger and even had an imaginary lion friend living in a tree in my backyard, so this was perfect! After our patting, we headed to the lion feeding and then saw the rest of the animals.

The crew

mud pit

Sulphur fumes, yum

It can be pretty sometimes 

Pre-lion excitement

lion cubs

I felt pretty cool

Before the feeding

Beautiful canopy at the reserve

We then went back to the hostel, watched a movie, and rested. We did not have a bus back until after midnight, so we had a lot of time to kill. We went to dinner and played cards for a long time. We then then went to another hostel where we were storing our self (I know its really confusing) and watched another movie. We finally got on the bus and attempted to sleep for the next 5 hours, but was relatively unsuccessful. We got back on campus at 5:40 am and fell into our beds quickly. 

This last week was study break in preparation for finals that start on Wednesday for me. I have struggled to hunker down and study, but hopefully motivation will come quickly.

Seeing Nic's lambs (October 14)

After our rugby weekend, we had all spent a lot of money lately. The next few weeks we took a spending break and spent a lot of time hanging out. We did smaller "adventures" like hanging out at Magge's flat, eating delicious pizza, and laughing a lot. We also all had a lot of assignment due in October, so we all "buckled down" or at least attempted one.
One free Kiwi experience, provided by our friend Nic, tops them all. Nic's family owns sheep and they had recently had lambs. He had promised us that we could come see them for weeks and it finally worked into the schedule that we could go. I was SOOO excited! He first took us out to the windmills. They are all around Palmy and they are huge. It is also a beautiful view up on the hill, so we were excited to finally see them.

They are huge! 

And it is real windy up there

 When we finally got to Nic's house, I discovered how "sheepish" sheep are. I kept trying to pet them and they would have none of it. I have decided the progression of events to follow can be best shown through photos because they were all skillfully captured by Magge. 

I kept trying to pet them but they would run away from me. This made me feel silly. 

Scarface is an older sheep who will basically do anything for food. He was very sweet but I did not know how to act with him. When this picture was taken, Nic was yelling at me that this was "not a proper cuddle"

This is a proper cuddle, but as you can see, I am not feeling it. 

I came to Nic's to hug a lamb and, gosh darn it, I was going to do it. I set my eyes on Chop. 

I tried to tempt Chop with assorted methods like food, smelling my hand, and pleading. Nothing seemed to work and I was getting disheartened. 

Nic, the take charge sort of man that he is, tackled Chop and prepared him for my dream cuddle. 

I was finally cuddling a lamb! Dream come true (even if it was not mutual) 

Now, THAT is a proper cuddle! I was one happy camper. 

Wellington for Rugby and Josh Miller's Birthday (Sept 23 and 24)

It is really strange to not be writing about break, but it is nice that it is FINALLY done. It was quite a daunting task. After break, I had to hit the ground running. I had two huge assignments due in the next week and ended up writing 24 pages in 4 days or something crazy like that. Never again please! When I was writing the papers and meeting with professor, I noticed a lot of cultural differences in terms of education and what is expected. It was fairly difficult for me and I did not do as well as I would have done in the States, but that is what Pass/Fail is for. Hurray!

The weekend of Sept 23 (I know I am still far behind), we went to Wellington for Josh’s birthday and to watch the Australia v. US rugby game. The tickets were expensive, but I knew I would kick myself if I was in New Zealand for the World Cup and did not go see a game. Sage, Josh, Marian, Magge, and I were planning on going, but then our Kiwi friend, Nic, decided to come too and Jen was going to meet us at the game. It was looking like it was going to be a great weekend. We made t-shirts a few days before, which is always an adventure, and got pumped for the game. 

We had planned the weekend so that we would leave Friday afternoon, arrive in Wellington a few hours before the game, get dinner and change, and then to the game. It all sounded great, in theory, but our bus was, once again, HOURS late, so we ended up not getting to Wellington until 30 minutes before kickoff. We raced to our hostel, changed, and hurried to the game. We ended up being about 15 minutes late, which was frustrating, but we were finally there, so it did not matter. There were tons of people reppin’ the States (because Kiwis always cheer for whoever is playing Australia), but we got creamed.  The final score was 5 to 66 or something crazy like that. There was also a streaker the last few minutes of the game, but security got on him really quick and he barely made it 15 feet. After the game, we went down to the field and got to meet some of the US players and by that I mean I saw them closer up, but was blocked by the questionably dressed Kiwi girls that wanted to “get some”. Rude. As we were walking back to our hostel, I recognized a guy who went to Whitworth a few years ago and was in my Spanish. It is a very small world!

The crew in US attire 

 We went back to our hostel and prepared to hit the town. I finally got to give Josh the Disarrono that we bought for him in Queenstown and that I carried it all around the South Island. There were tons of people out and everyone was so excited that we were American. That had definitely never happened before. Every 15 feet or so, someone would shout “USA! USA! USA!” at us. It was very surreal. We went to a lot of places and got back way too late.

Nic and I out on the town

I was exhausted the next morning, but we had to check out of our hostel early, so we were up and at ‘em. I do not remember a ton from the day because I was so tired, but we wandered around Wellington a lot and ate a lot of food (it was for Josh’s birthday after all). I found this amazing Christmas tea at a little teashop that I did not buy and I am still regretting it. Luckily my mom and I are going back, so that is number 1 Wellington activity on my list J. I did, however, buy the Love Spells book that I was eyeing the last time we were in Wellington. Please tell me to read some to you sometime. It will change your life and you laugh a lot! We napped in our hostel lounge, ate some more, and took the night bus back. We all slept like babies that night for sure. 

Break, last one, promise!! (Nelson, Wellington, Palmy bound)

Day 13

We had no official plans today except staying at our favorite hostel, Tombstone, that night. The world was our oyster! We walked around Nelson and saw pointer baby again! It was really magical and a Kiwi told Josh "Bless you", which NEVER happens. They treat sneezing like coughing here, so I have had to restrain my automatic "bless yous". I always feel rude. After visiting the ISite, to my GREAT delight, we decided to go the the WOW museum, which is the World Of Wearableart Museum. Project Runway is one of my favorite shows, so I was in imagination heaven! It was a whole museum of strange pieces made out of unconventional materials. The WOW shows have been going on in Wellington for the last month or so, but tickets have been sold out forever, so I was really excited to get to see some of the art up close. The museum also had classic cars, so I guess they are trying to appeal to everyone. "Ok honey, we can go to WOW. You go look at the dresses and I'll look at the cars. Meet back in an hour?" The cars did not really appeal to me, but they were there, so I looked around and took pictures.

WOW! We are at WOW!

Hippie van

Austin Powers "Shaguar" Fancy! 

We decided to get come takeaway pizza and eat it at the beach because it was a nice day. We played in the water, took pictures, and almost got our pizza eaten by seagulls on various occasions.

What a gem! This is my fellow travel mates favorite picture of me. I was literally distracted by a bird. Classic. 

Beach and sunshine. Good day!

We headed to Picton on the scenic route and came to Tombstone. We went to the park that we had seen two weeks before and played to our hearts content. I think I played at more playgrounds on this trip than I have since elementary school, but they are irresistibly cool over here. There was a huge pirate ship and swings and other tricky things. We made a delicious dinner and did more hot tubing.

Huggin' Donald at the park

Sweet pirate ship 

Titanic reenactment... 'eryday

Day 14

It was an early morning because we were taking the ferry over to Wellington. It was really rainy and gross so it was nice that we were tired and not wanting to take pictures outside like 2 weeks before (What did I tell ya? Perfect weather for each occasion). Jen and Josh decided to nap, so Marian and I went into the lounge area to play cards. We ended up meeting 3 rugby players from the US who were here for the World Cup. We talked about culture differences, all the different things we had done in our travels, and all of the strange rugby rituals. I have decided that I don't even want to play rugby because of my love of peace, avoidance conflict style, and low pain tolerance. I do, however, want to watch rugby when I get to states and I would not mind marrying a rugby player if he was nice and had all of his teeth. I know, I am SO picky! 

We finally arrived in Wellington and had a lot of trouble navigating. The city was abuzz with the World Cup starting in a few days and it was a lot bigger than any of the village towns we had been driving through. We eventually found parking, wandered around, and got food. We then got picked up by our Lord of the Rings tour guide!! This was Marian's chosen activity, but we were all really excited about it. 

We went to Victoria Forest, just outside of Wellington, where they filmed a few of the scenes. Our tour guide would play us the scenes on his laptop and then show up where it actually happened. Pretty cool! We also got to recreate some iconic scenes in the places where they were filmed, which was WAY cool! We then went to Weta Cave (Studios) where they made all of the set and are now making the sets for (and filming) the Hobbit. 

Recreating one of the deleted scenes. I was Sam and Jen was Frodo

Recreating the "pile" scene after the farmer chases the hobbits and they fall down the hills. Marian=Frodo, Jen=Pippin, Josh=Merry, and I am Sam

The classic scene with the dark rider. This is the actual location and the big root was just a prop, so sad. 

"creating" the dark rider. So awkward! 

But it worked well

Me at the Weta museum with my BFF. This is the mold of the actual man that played the Lurtz. He was a big dude! Also, when I took this picture, this strange ponytailed man told me I did not look scary or cool at all! Not cool Weta Cave guy!

Gollum loved us

Great travel companions

 Finally, after 14 days of intense travel, it was time to come home to Palmy. This trip was really one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I would not trade those two weeks for anything. I saw some of the most beautiful sights in the world, made some life long friends, created some amazing memories, and grew as a person. I was an adult for two weeks! I planned my life and did exactly what I wanted to. All of the "post-college" stuff does not seem so scary now.

Us with Leroy, our great steed that took us from Queenstown to Palmy. Miss ya, kiddo!

Break (Abel Tasman, Wine Tours, Nelson)

Day 11
We had a bit of an "incident" in the morning, but tried to quickly put it behind us because we were going sea kayaking! We had 2 person kayaks, so I quickly paired up with Marian. Jen and Josh are really athletic and adventurous, so it made sense for them to be in the same kayak. I was kayaking, like all of my other New Zealand activities, for the experience and I wanted to enjoy the day. Marian and I always have a great time together, so I knew it would ensure a good day. We went through a short tutorial and headed out to the water. We had the kayaks for 5 hours and had complete freedom in where we went. It was the absolute perfect weather and we were all so excited!

Crystal clear water and sunshine 

 Marian and I struggled to get a rowing rhythm at first, but eventually became pros. As we were out on the water, we realized how much fun we have together and made plans to go on a booze cruise together when we are middle-aged. I have it written in my planner :) We meandered a little more than Josh and Jen, so we made plans to stop at the first island for lunch. When we arrived a few minutes after they did, they wanted to go to next island so we did not go on shore. Marian and I were paddling and we saw another boat 100 meters away. We were shocked that Jen and Josh had gotten off the island and were already even with us. Their athleticism frustrated us, so we started booking it so they would not beat us again. We were not worthless kayakers! When we had pushed hard for 30 minutes or so, we got close enough to the other kayak to realize it was an Asian couple who trained with us, but not Josh and Jen. They were significantly far behind us. Marian and I felt silly for stressing about their athleticism and trying to race an unsuspecting kayak. Josh and Jen met us at Fisherman's Island for lunch and had to hide in the bushes because it was too windy and cold out in the open. The beach was also covered in hard shells, so also not conducive for sitting. At one point, one of our ores "received its freedom", so I ran down to get it, but my uncooperative rolled up pants and the painful shells made me run like a crazy person. When I looked back at the others, they were taking pictures of me and laughing. Typical.

Tough kayak partners

Just Kidding! Booze cruise buddies! 

Hiding in the bushes from the cold and wind

Jen and Josh are champs

The guide had told us about a seal colony around the island, so we anxiously headed for it. We rowed up and there were baby seals all over the rocks yelping away. The momma seals were in the water twirling and flipping for us. We got within 6 feet of them! So cool!! As we were kayaking away, one of the seals was following us and we became best friends. Marian and I started to leisurely head back to base while Jen and Josh did some hard core exploring. I enjoyed basking in the sun and laughing with Marian while giving my forearms a rest (hence the booze cruise plans). We did get caught in a sand bar a few times, but it was always met with lots of laughter and we always got out.

Our seal friend

When we got back to the hostel, we were ready for a relaxing night in. We made dinner and watched the next LOTR (meaning I fell asleep and did not make it through the first hour). Our precious friend, Richard, was there again and kept offering everyone Bacardi and Coke (even though Josh does not remember this at all). Josh later told us that after we had left, Richard told him "Well aren't you careless for galavanting around with three hot chicks". Oh dear Richard. Of course Josh's response was something about how awesome it was. Typical.

Day 12
This was "my day". We each got to pick activities that were a must do on our break. Jen chose bungy jumping (check), Josh chose kayaking (check), and now we were doing my activity: a wine tour! (I obviously have a bright future). This was the opposite of yesterday. We slept in late, put effort into the way we looked for the first time of the whole trip, and then hit the road. We did not have too much of a set plan, but we knew there were a lot of vineyards around. Jen, being Mormon, was a built-in designated driver, the sun was shining, so it was all adding up to be a great day. We got to just show up to vineyards and they would tell us about the different wines and we would do tasting. I feel a lot more knowledgeable now and I learned a lot. We went to 3 vineyards, stopped at the Richmond mall for a late lunch, and then went to 2 more vineyards. We also went to a cute ocean town that had supposedly good ice cream. There was no atm in the entire town, though, so Marian and I went on adventure and walked for about 30 minutes to get coffee. Worth it. My favorite moment was in one of the tasting rooms while the sun was shining in and we could overlook the beautiful vineyard, and Norah Jones was playing while I tasted wines. It was a good day!

vineyards

sunshine and friends. What could be better?

We stopped in Nelson for the night and went exploring. We found a beautiful church and explored the grounds and inside. It was interesting to learn about the missionaries influence in New Zealand. We decided to go to Indian food for dinner. Before we ordered,  there was a man standing holding his one-year ish old son, who was looking over his dad's shoulder at us. The baby had food and a blank expression all over his face. We smiled at him and, without changing his face, he pointed at us as if he were holding a gun. I wish I could convey the ridiculousness of that moment. We were laughing for about 10 minutes and still reenact it today. 

Weird tree in church grounds 

Nelson cathedral 

We went back to our hostel and decided to watch the third LOTR (meaning I made it maybe 45 minutes this time). The others finished the film and Josh left because he was staying at a campground outside of the city. We found out that he had come back to late, so the campgrounds were closed, so he had to drive back and crash on our floor. This all happened around 3 am. Poor kiddo.