Just got back from taking a 2 week tour around the North and South islands- ridiculously fun! The itinerary: Christchurch, Lake Tekapo, Fiordland/Milford Sound, QUEENSTOWN , Franz Josef Glacier, Arthur's Pass, Kaikoura/Marlborough Sounds, Wellington, Taupo, Rotorua, Waitomo, and back to Auckland.
Highlights include (but are certainly not limited to): jumping off boats, swimming in cold Lake Tekapo, the Nevis (3rd highest bungy in the world), skydiving 15000 ft above Queenstown, black water rafting to see glow worms, zorbing, natural hot pools, cultural show in Rotorua, frolicking on the way to Milford Sound, and meeting tons of great friends. The only downer was missing out on hiking Franz Josef Glacier due to poor weather conditions, bummer!
While the past two weeks have been awesome, jam packed with adventure and beautiful New Zealand, I'm a bit relieved to be back in reality and starting classes on Monday-tomorrow? Well, maybe not too relieved.
That's all for now.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Picture Update
Pictures, as promised:
Hiking up Mt. Eden (photo: Malia Nanbara)
A lone sailboat off the coast of Auckland
View of the Central Business District from the water
Scenic New Zealand, water
Tiritiri Matangi Island above
A symbiotic relationship; I personally feel the plant is losing here
All of the EAP NZ students, at our banquet
(photos: taken by someone else...)Although an endangered species,
this bird is really quite a terror.
He kept hassling me and weighs in at about 12 kilos (photo: Malia Nanbara)
More pictures from Tiritiri; tramping up on a guided tour and boats on the sea (photo: Emma Luxton-Reilly)
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Early Feb
New Zealand has been about as perfect as I could have imagined- better even. After an easy flight across the Pacific, I stayed in Orewa (about an hour outside of Auckland) with extraordinarily gracious family friends. Between figuring out logistics (cell phone, banking, etc.), browsing the gallery ( http://www.monmogallery.co.nz/ ), walking around town, and playing with the family pets ( Possum, the Bouvier, looks a bit like my Portuguese Water Dog; Pixie and Zippo, although both cats, were very agreeable), transitioning to NZ has been a breeze.
Fellow UCers studying abroad at any of a half dozen or so NZ universities have been quite friendly and willing to go adventuring. Hiking on trails (rather tramping on tracks) is nearly an every day occurrence and the nightlife in the city has been nothing short of fabulous. Even the professional staff program advisors are a blast to talk with, they have so many hilarious stories about Californians getting upto great mischief in NZ.
No pictures yet, I haven't been too keen to tear through my unpacked luggage to find the small USB cord. Think of the greenest grasses, cutest baby animals, bluest skies, and fluffiest clouds you've ever seen- take those images and make them 8 times better. That's about 10% as good as the landscape here. Even with my lacking photography skills, the pictures look great.
Fellow UCers studying abroad at any of a half dozen or so NZ universities have been quite friendly and willing to go adventuring. Hiking on trails (rather tramping on tracks) is nearly an every day occurrence and the nightlife in the city has been nothing short of fabulous. Even the professional staff program advisors are a blast to talk with, they have so many hilarious stories about Californians getting upto great mischief in NZ.
No pictures yet, I haven't been too keen to tear through my unpacked luggage to find the small USB cord. Think of the greenest grasses, cutest baby animals, bluest skies, and fluffiest clouds you've ever seen- take those images and make them 8 times better. That's about 10% as good as the landscape here. Even with my lacking photography skills, the pictures look great.
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