Day 23

I woke up at 1 to puke. It was distressing, and my roommates went and slept in different beds, which I felt bad about. I woke at 7 to take my final. The final had two essays and a really long short answer sections. I didn't do too badly though. Then we had a free afternoon. The snow shut the city down, so most of the activities that we could have participated in were closed. We walked around Re:Start, which is an upscale mall made entirely of shipping containers.

We had a very nice dinner and a heartfelt farewell to our resident professor who was with us the entire trip. We sang him the Waiata he taught us during the trip.

That night we went out to the Casino. I wasn't allowed in, because I'm not 20. I tried though. I gave the bouncer my passport and hoped he would notice. But he did. I waited in the lobby until the next group got there. Instead a smaller group of us went out to the bars. We went to Smash Palace, which was an outside bar. The bar itself was in a bus, and there were trashcan fires and heaters all around. They played very nice old beatles music, and it wasn't to loud or crowded. My perfect bar.

And what cute topiary animals

The rule was 5 push ups for every swear

Then part of the group got to cold for a super awesome bar, so we walked to the gay bar down the street. The decor was really neat, and on the tv's on the wall they played an old creepy puppet show. Stingray? It was louder and more crowded, but I dance and had fun. Then one of the guys got yelly and we got thrown out, and that was the end of the night for us.

Day 22

Today we were supposed to do a service project. At first I was really excited to help rebuild Christchurch. Then I got bummed, because I learned we were painting pianos and shoveling gravel, which has nothing to do with my image of rebuilding houses. And then I got excited again, because I learned what those pianos were for. When Christchurch had it's big earthquake, lots and lots of the building had to come down. This leaves just empty lots everywhere in the city. So they're doing this thing called "Gap fillers" where they put gardens and whimsical activities in the lots. One lot has a refrigerator full of books that people can take for free. Another has a large dancefloor and laundry machine. When you put in a dollar coin and the dance machine will light up and project music. The pianos were going to be weather treated and put outside, and the gravel was for a gap filler garden.

But the weather had other plans.

The Snow!

That morning we woke to snow. The third time there has been such a snow fall in twenty years. The city shut down, along with our service projects. Instead, we watched a documentary about the earthquake and took a tour of the city. We had a review session for our final the next day.
We made a snowman.

We named him Sean. He had a mohawk.

I ate dinner at the accommodations, then walked to town and had a lovely lemon tart while the rest of my group ate dinner.

It had a nice berry compote.

Day 21

We left Kaikoura and headed to Christchurch. We got there late enough that there wasn't much time to do stuff before class. We walked to the local town mall. We're kinda in the suburbs and far away from town, so thats what we could get too. The mall had the normal fare. I had na'an and ice cream for lunch which was very acceptable. We had a guest lecturer and we ended the day with thai food and a dip in the heated pool. There isn't much in terms of regional or national food in NZ, so I don't feel bad about eating outside of the region. I haven't eaten at all in any chain restaurants. No McDonalds for me this trip.

Day 20

At 7:30 this morning everyone sat around our faculty member, with a pill in our hands, waiting with baited breath. We were supposed to go on a dolphin swim today, and at 7:30 exactly we find out if the trip can go on or not, depending on the weather. And so we waited with anticipation. Waiting to know if we will have to take our Dramamines for motion sickness, or whether we will not be going on a boat that morning. And... she gives the thumbs up. We are go. We each take our pill and let up a cheer. We arrive at the dolphin encounters store front, and are fitted out with very tight very thick wet suits.

The Picture of Sexiness right there.

On the whole, they were not very comfortable. I couldn't stand up straight. My skinned itched. Someone pondered allowed "I wonder how many people have peed in this suit". And then theres that image. But I managed to squeeze in, feeling very badass, and lugged all my stuff to the bus. They warned us that while we would get on the boat and go see what we could find, we might not get in the water. And if we could get in the water, the dolphins might not come to us. It was all very up in the air, subject to change at a moments notice. But we loaded the bus and set sail. The ocean was filled with swells. While I get car sick, I rarely get boat sick, and I enjoyed the boat diving into the surf immensely. Some other people on our boat? Not so much. As we raced to where the dolphins were, I saw tons of sea birds, and a seal leaping from the water. And then there was the signal. Dolphins were in the area, so we were to jump in and sing in attempts to attract them. And I jumped in. And then immediately wanted to jump out. The water floods the wet suit, squeezing your veins, making your entire body feel like one big brain freeze. But I'm supposed to be singing! Oh right. I start singing random folk songs with my constricted breath. And I'm supposed to put my face in the water! I do so. Oh thats so much worse. As I become more acclimated to the water there goes the signal. Everyone back on the boat. We haul ourselves up and they drive on towards the dolphins again. We can only go in the water five times, we better make this one count. On our second dive I had a Giant Petrel fly right over my head and land really close. On our third dive I had two dolphins swim under me. On our fourth dive a group of seven swam right next to me. It was truly amazing. But all to soon, we're back on the boat, stripping our wet suits and putting on dry clothes. They apologized profusely that the dolphins weren't more social. That was silly though, because I had dolphins right up close. I was very content. I got some hot chocolate and a cookie and went to the bow, where tons of dolphins were swimming along side the boat, doing jumps and backflips.

Look at them!

Look at them frolic!

God damn

Ungrateful little frolicers

Also, albatross

I also found pretty flowers.

 Oh, now you like us. And then we headed back to shore. Swimming with a wet suit, especially in 11degree water, is tiring. We had a nice panini lunch at the dolphin encounters cafe, and I was falling asleep over the meal. We got dismissed for a free afternoon. I disembarked and walked down the beach to see what I could find. I'm typing this on a very nice pebble beach with the surf before me, and my legs being attacked by sand flys. You win some you lose some.

And then the helicopter blew sand in my face.

Day 19

We got up pretty early today, with me having to set up breakfast because I'm in charge of Kaikoura and Christchurch. We had a Maori cultural tour. They taught us a traditional song and our Maori names, and they taught us all about they're villages and intertribal customs.

We walked through an old village site, and through the woods where they taught us the cultural significance of the plants. We played some games, and got taught how to weave with flax.

And then they fed us a lovely morning tea, with chocolate banana bread, and kiwi, and finger sandwiches. They did a very nice job, and everything was delicious. You know whats interesting is of all the places we've been served food, none have used disposable cups. It's an interesting cultural thing. Even kayaking, they brought plastic mugs with them to serve us juice. We stopped for lunch, and we had two guest speakers, one who was entralling, and one I struggled to stay awake for. Then we had a group dinner at a sports bar. My food was pretty good. Not the worst I've had but definitely edible. However, the group as a whole didn't like their food, and didn't like the service. They're complaining and being demanding of the waiters is was darkened the meal for me. But, then dinner was over, and we walked the twenty minutes home in the rain, and then I got to sit in the hot tub and watch a movie, and it was a good night.

Day 18

 Today might have been my favorite day. We left Nelson, but not before having a lovely hot breakfast. On our drive to Kaikoura our professor in residents had us stop at a very special waterfall. We walked up a little mountain path that ran parallel to a stream. And then "Oh my god, there's a seal in the water" As we progressed up the trail we would sporadically see seal pups in the stream, playing or handing out. The seals are getting more frequent as we get highter, and then we start seeing seals in the woods. There are seals in the trees! How did they even get up there? I didn't know seals could climb! And then we rounded a corner. And it was just amazing. At the base of this waterfall was a small natural pool. And in that pool were fifty seal pups, frollicing and splashing about. I wanted to stay there and watch the pups for hours.

Look at the blurry seal!

And that smile stayed for days.

 But all too soon, we had to leave for our next destination. That's whats really striking me about New Zealand. They are so driven towards conservation here, that amazing spots like that can go on undisturbed, even with tons of tourists walking through. There were Department of Conservation (DOC) volunteers at the waterfall, educating people about the seals, and ensuring that no one got to close to the seals, or left litter that could hurt them. The DOC is really active here. I see volunteers at lots of the tourist spots and DOC cars on the roads all the time. They were the ones who shut down Fox Glacier the day we were supposed to climb it because conditions were too dangerous. They swooped in an assessed the situation and got done quickly quietly and efficiently. They're like a eco-friendly S-H-E-I-L-D. They are also the largest land owner in New Zealand, and most of the land they own is reserves or sanctuaries or nation parks. And what amazes me, is how much work DOC is putting in to protect the native vegetation and wildlife. We've been hiking a lot on this trip and all the trails have been controlled by DOC, pretty much. And all the trails have been beautifully maintained. I'm completely serious, the trails are gorgeous and they have no litter on them and they're lined with traps. Yep. In New Zealand the main danger to native species are invasive creatures like possums, rats, and stoats. The only way to protect the native birds are to murder large amounts of cute furry animals. Our professor keeps joking that "New Zealand is the only country thats conservation efforts involve killing large amounts of animals". So giant mousetraps line the trail, and most are maintained by DOC, who sends volunteers out to check and empty the traps. And apparently it's really helping. In the areas where wasp poison is spread out (wasps are another huge problem) the wasp colonies are reduced by 80%. 80% is a lot of dead wasps! The main problem that I've seen with the traps and poisons however, is that cats are a huge problem for native birds too. And apparently, if you let your cat out, and it gets caught in a trap, welp, that sucks for you. But once the pests are controlled, the native birds really pick themselves up in full force. We saw fenced off areas, where all the pests had been removed, so they set up a giant barrier so more couldn't come in. That was really cool. I wonder how long it will take New Zealand to be one giant fenced in area.


We stopped at a little farmers market where I got a 2 dollar ball of NZ yarn, and a crepe with local organic strawberries. we drove a bit more dropped our bags off very quickly at our accomidations in Kaikoura. We got back on the bus and took another hike around a peninsula. On the peninsula were lots of seals, and lots of cow poop. The hike was nice, but pretty cold, and pretty steep. I'm so exhausted I kept falling asleep while standing up. We had class and then a very nice dinner at a local resturant. I had a lamb shank. And I think I've probably had enough lamb on this trip. Now its time to work on eating lots of seafood. I watched a movie with some people,  but I kept falling asleep, so I went to bed and slept for ten hours.


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Day 17

What did we do today? We left Motueka. I got paid a dollar to help load bags onto the coach. Our TA has discovered that paying us gets jobs done. We traveled for a bit and stopped at a sea side playground. The playgrounds here are amazing. They have no real regard for all the uber-saftey of America, and thus they are extremely fun. I played on an actual see-saw today, and not a little baby one that can go an inch and just sort of bounce. I'm talking full blown up in the air see-saw, feet-dangling-fear-for-your-life see-saw. The play ground was huge and had lots of neat equipment.

It was called the Rock-topus

It was funny until he got spun so hard he fell off. Then I laughed so hard I cried.

 We then went to a bird sanctuary. We got a talk about all the traps they use in the park to catch pests. And then we took a nice leisurely hike to a stream full of waterfalls and fan-tailed birds. The birds were some of the cutest things I've ever seen, but I got pooped on twice, so I don't know how I feel about them.

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-bird poop

We got to our hotel in Nelson, which is actually very nice, with bathtubs and fluffy robes. We gave presentations on destination marketing and then it was time for dinner. I went to a very nice Indian restaurant and had lamb and naan and then a few of us went and saw Happy, Happy at the movie theater. The theaters here are cool. They're pretty small, only seat about 20 people each theater. And you get an assigned seat which was nice. The movie was odd. It was a Norwegian drama. But it wasn't bad. And then it was back to the hotel for a nice bath. Tomorrow we  head out to Kaikoura bright and early.

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Day 16

Today was another pretty long day. We left the camp ground where we're staying later than normal and arrived at a kayaking touring company. There they got us fitted out in two person kayaks and got us out to sea. They got us into the water at the huge sand flat. It was this huge expanse of beach and a few puddles and birds. Apparently at high tide it all got covered up. It was very cool, especially coming back when the tides were higher and there were tons of newly formed temporary islands. The kayaks' design was really neat. I sat in back and got to control a rudder with feet peddles. My partner and I got our rhythm down pretty quick.

My bow.

We paddled 4 miles around the coast. Unfortunately we didn't see much wildlife, just some birds. Apparently the other group saw 15 baby seals. We stopped at a little secluded beach for lunch.

There were these beaches everywhere

These tiny little mussels covered the rocks completely

 Then the groups switched. The other half of our class kayaked back and we hiked the 3 hour trail the came in on. The trail was relatively level and very pretty. The interesting part was there was a very steep incline to get on the trail, and then it stayed pretty flat a hundred feet on the side of a mountain. The trail clung to the very steep side, winding with the mountains. I hike the majority of the time on my own, singing and appreciating nature. The trail led through really thick ferns and rainforests, and through sparse beech forests and over grassy areas. There would occasionally be side trails leading to more secluded beaches.

We got back and took showers before heading off to a group dinner. We ate at Hot Mama, which had excellent pizza. I got seafood and spicy pizza and it was delicious. Then a group went to the grocery store and headed back to the accommodations. A pretty big group went out for karaoke, but I was trouble staying awake at dinner, so I'm heading to bed soon. I'm really enjoying the trip, but they sure are keeping us busy.

We learned about honeydew on our hike yesterday, and I just wanted to share some of that information. There is an insect that burrows into the bark of beech trees here. The Scale Insect, as it's called, lives in the tree eating sap. However, its digestion can't keep up with the saps fast flow, so the majority of the sap comes out undigested from the tail end of the insect. So what end ups happening is a beech tree will be covered with little hairs, and at the end of each one will be a little bead of pure sugar. Our wonderful guide taught us how we can eat the little tear without getting a mouthful of tree bark. Its really good, actually, and I've been seeking out particularly large beads of sap all week.

Don't mind me while I lick this tree.

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Day 15

Mist from the lake where we started.

I'm in pretty good shape. I walk everywhere. I exercised three times a week all freshman year. I can play a game of volleyball with friends for like five minutes before I get bored. I hadn't really been prepared, however, for how physically demanding this trip would be. When we hiked the Routeburn Track a bit ago, I thought the hike was hard, but I thought it was going to be a one time thing. "This is what hiking is like for tourists, isn't that neat?" But today we hiked a legit mountain. We hiked up a mountain in the St. Arnaud range, I think. We started at 8 in the morning after we had a quiz on plant species. We got to the alpine zone at 11 and ate lunch before descending. And I gotta say. It was pretty challenging. We had our very athletic faculty member and our resident backpacker lead the group, and so the pace was set crazily fast for the first hour or so. Eventually, someone asked them to slow down, and they did, and only at that point did I really realize that we had been practically running and how winded I was. I was able to keep my own with the group, and the pace was much more comfortable after that, but it was definitely a hike. I guess I just wasn't expecting so much demanding activity. And we have another 3 hour hike tomorrow, in addition to kayaking. All physical activities are optional, of course, but it's not like they're impossible, and I don't want to miss out on all these amazing trips.

View from the top.

Overall, the hike was very nice with lots of pretty scenery and an amazing view at the top. The alpine vegetation was very interesting, and there were ice formations embedded in the trail.

A classmate being a lion on the side of the mountain

Just what we hiked up. No big deal.

We left St Arnaud after the hike and drove to Motueka. There, we had some time to grab dinner before our lecture at 7. I went with a few girls to a deserted Irish Pub. It was just us and the bartender. We ordered our food, which was hot and pretty prompt and not terrible. I've really grown on NZ ketchup. It's different, a bit sweeter and a lot clove-er, but it's not terrible. We got to chatting with the bartender, who talked about how tonight they had a band playing. We said that we had saw as much and were planning on coming out. He then called a man out of the back room, who played us a few songs. He was pretty good.
Our lecturer was a lady who started a kayaking business in Abel Tasman bay, sold it, and then was put in charge of managing it after the new owner ran it into the ground. She had a lot of interesting things to say about marketing and setting up business and working with bureaucracy. We would be going out with her company the following day.
We then went back out to the pub. It was full of locals until our group of twenty invaded. The band was pretty good, and then they opened it up for "open mike night" which was the band playing a song, and drunk patrons getting on stage and trying to figure out what the words were. We listened to some very painful singers, and our group sang a few songs, equally poorly, and then it was time for bed.

Day 14

Today we left Hokitika and our very nice accomidations, and drove to St. Arnuad, and another very nice accomidation. This time the group had a house all to ourselves, filled with beds and cozy fireplaces. On the journey we stopped at the pancake rocks, a very nice see side toursist spot with lots of really interesting land forms. Once in St. Aranude I took a walk down to the lake, which was very pretty, but filled with eels. We had a very nice dinner of curry and portugese casserole at a local resturant. What I find amazing is all the meals that they've provided have been excellent. We don't get meals provided to us often, but they are delicious. We had class and did a girls vs. boys debate about whether communities should be involved in tourism development. Then I worked on homework for the rest of the night. Pretty good day overall.

Day 13

Today it continued raining. We drove from Fox Glacier to Hokitika, the world capital of greenstone. We walked through the town, which was filled with jewlery stores and little shops. We had lunch in a nice little cafe. We had a lecture by Micheal Orchard about enviormental managment in a little 70's style church. They served us tea and biscuts. It was very nice of them. Our accomidations in Hokitika were actually very nice. Two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen in each little apartment area. We were steps from the wildest ocean I've ever seen. We cooked ourselves a nice ramen dinner in our rooms and watched Australian tea. I ended the day by sitting in the forest watching the glow worms in awe, and then sitting on the beach watching the moon in awe. It was a really nice cozy day. 

Day 12

I woke to rain today. Pouring rain. Ran from out room to the shower in a separate building. Visited a dairy farm. Came very close to being peed on. We were supposed to climb fox glacier, but because of the rain and wind it got cancelled. That was a bummer, but thats the way the cookie crumbles. We had dinner at a local dinner and I had a very nice steamed pudding with custard. After dinner one of the girls and me took a hike through a local trail. We heard that there were glow worms on the trail. Ho boy. It's pitch dark and we're walking through this deep rainforest full of undergrowth. No light is filtering through the canopy. I got a flashlight and I'm leading, but I kept thinking I saw eyes in the forest. We comforted each other, there's no large predators in this country, right? We walked for like a half hour, growing less sure of our path the entire time. I felt like I had a good idea of the direction the path was going, but how could I be sure we didn't get turned around. We hadn't seen any of these "glow worms" yet, just shadows and imagined creatures. So we stopped an turn off the flash light. And the forest lit up. The worms are like stars embedded in the trees. It was spectacular.

Day 11

I don't remember much of today. We had a 7 hour drive from Queenstown to Fox Glacier. Every time our bus started moving, I would read for a bit and then fall asleep. We're on the westcoast of NZ so it's just raining constantly and there wasn't anything to see out the window. We made a few stops along the way. We stopped at the Haast cultural centre and watched a movies obviously filmed in the 80's. We stopped at a lake side that had HUGE rainbow trout and eels swimming as happy as could be. We also stopped and ran up a trial to a lookout. Or at least the majority of the class did. I was very discombobulated when the bus stopped, waking me up, and then seeing my class run up an impossibly steep trail. I tried to follow, but after 15 minutes at the end of the group, with no end in sight, I turned around and walked back. But really one of the high lights of the day was a visit to the sheep farm. The farmer brought in 40 sheep into a paddock and taught us about the ins and outs of sheep farming. It smells pretty bad at first. But then the sheep settled down and started chewing their curd, and the room filled with the smell of vomit. It was pretty gross.

Also, did you know sheep have tails?

 We had a lovely dinner at a cafe. They made us pasta and warm chiabata bread, and sweet potato and salmon pizza. It was lovely. 

Day 10

Today we started off early with a Zipline extravaganza. The owner of Ziptrek Ecotours talked to us about his business practices and the legal things tourism companies in New Zealand encounter. Then it was off to the Ziplines. They're set up high in the Douglas fir forests on the side of one of the mountains. We had to take a gondola up to get there.

Gondola to the top.

The Zipline was fun. We went over four which wasn't as much as I would have liked. The starting four lines weren't that steep, but they let us flip over which was neat. The 6th line was apparently the steepest line in the world. That would have been awesome, but alas. Then it was back down the mountain for lunch and school work. We had some class time, and a quiz and then we walked over to the Queenstown Resort College. We got a tour of the college and a very interesting talk about risk management. After that it was a very lovely dinner made by the students of the college. They had sweet potato and beets, chocolate, and salad, and some of the best steak I've ever had. It was actually really good. Then some more class. I went out to World Bar, the hipster bar, with some people. They wanted to go to the casino, which I am not allowed in, since I'm 19, so I walked back and went to bed.

Day 9

So free day. Yeah. Bungy jumping was super fun. They dropped us back off at the store thing and there was large group of kids from our program there. Eleven of them had planned to go skydiving, but it was too windy so it got canceled. They all went bungy jumping too. The group that was supposed to go paragliding and hangliding got canceled too. In a way I'm glad. There were lots of activities to do in the adventure capital of the world, and it was hard deciding. I was debating between ATVing, Skydiving, Paragliding, and Bungyjumping. So those two got canceled, so I couldn't have done them anyways, and then ATVing required a drivers license, so I could have done that. So it all worked out. I would have felt bad for the people who missed out on they're activities, but lots of people went paragliding the next day, and a group is planning on skydiving at the last town, so it's alright.
We had a nice barbeque dinner, I had a delicious corn on the cob. And then I worked on more school work, and was so tired that I went to bed at 8. It was a great day.


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Bungy

What a glorious today was. We had a free day in Queenstown and I took the opportunity to cross jumping off a bridge from my bucket list. That's right, with some rubberbands and some courage I went bungy jumping. I went with three other people. The whole process was kinda funny actually. We were set to leave at noon, so I started my day with breakfast and doing some school work, and shopping. I walked to town a bit early with the other girl going so she could get some alcohol in her before she jumped. We got to a store front that served as the starting point for the jump. And I started freaking out a bit. There were pictures of jumpers on the walls, and a video of jumps going, and every time I looked at them my stomach dropped. We took a van from the store to the jump site. The Kawarau Bridge. The site of the first commercial bungy jump. The bridge is an old rickety suspension bridge over an impossibly blue river.

Not that high, right?

We arrived at the jump site and they took our weights and had us sign a paper, and told us to go the bridge. No safety instruction or anything. But once I got to the bridge I calmed down a bit. There was a lot of water under us. It looked pretty deep. I could jump off without a cord and survive. Probably. We stood on the bridge watching the people before us jump. The people before us? 12 year old kids. If they could do it, I could do it, right? The kids went off, with a little encouragement and maybe a push, and then they suited us up. They got our wave into our harnesses, the three of us, and then two German tourists. Our plan was for the guy in our group to go first, then the other girl, then me. But the operator checked each of our weights and said to me"Ok, you're up first". What. I weighed so close to the little kids that they wouldn't have to change the bungy cord over. Well, crud. I hadn't signed up for that. But I crossed the little barrier and sat down and they wrapped some towel around my ankles and tied me in. Let me tell you, the fact that you're attached by the ankles is the scariest part. What if my feet pop off! My ankles are scarily far away from the rest of my body. But they talked to me so I wouldn't have time to freak out, and then it was time. They had me step to the edge of this little platform that jutted out. Like a little platform too. And they had me get to the very edge. You can't walk with your ankles bound together, so I tried to hop, but I was afraid I'd overshoot and fall off by accident. I was planning on yelling "Blood for the blood god, Skulls for the skull throne, karee" because I'm a gigantic dork, but once I got to the edge the guy said, "ok 321 go". I went "crap I better go now, he counted down" so I yelled KAREE and jumped. But not really. I didn't do the graceful swan dive like I was planning. I freaked out and aborted the jump and did this weird little thing.


The fall was really scary. Because you're legitimately free falling, And the ground is accelerating towards you. But once the bungy catches you and slows you down its actually pretty pleasant. Until it pulls you back up and you have to free fall a second time. But after that it was fun too, just bouncing around. They send out this little raft and extend a pole for you to grab on to. And then they pull you in the boat and unhook you and send you on your way.

Overall it was super fun and I would do it again in a heart beat. Maybe sky diving will be next. We'll see.

Day 8

I would like to introduce you to two friends of mine. They're loyal. They're supportive. They've seen me through a lot, and they haven't let me down. I might be falling in love. My new hiking boots are amazing. We hike the Routeburn track yesterday. 7 hours of hiking, more than 8 miles. And my boots held up fabulously. It wasn't until hour 6 that my feet started to hurt, and that is extremely commendable, considering until now the only shoes that ever felt good were converse and flipflops. The hike was long, but I actually really enjoyed it, which was also a surprise.

The top of the Routeburn Track

 On the trail they had a couple huts to people to stay in. They had beds and a kitchen, and I thought it was a very nice touch. The trail was very well cared for. It ran alongside the Routeburn River which had some of the bluest water I have ever seen.

We went on a bar crawl too. 6 bars, free drinks at all of them. I gave my drinks to random bystanders who seemed appreciative. It was actually a pretty well put together expenditure. We got wristbands that let us into the bar without cover, and each bar had specials for the people with the bands. There was an ice bar on the crawl, where all the walls and furniture and glasses were made of ice. It was pretty neat. They gave you a coat and gloves in attempts to keep you warm. It didn't work but it was a nice effort.

Let us have a mocktail next to the ice fireplace

There was also a bar called World Bar which I really liked. It had really good atmosphere and artwork and live hipster music. I might go back when it's not packed to the gills with people. Let see. I danced a lot at the second to last bar, which was kinda a small rooftop lodge. Then it was to the last bar, and sleep. Good night overall. Loud, crowded hot, but good regardless.

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Day 7

What did I do today. We left Te Anau pretty early, with a stop at a bird rehabilitation park. We saw mountain parrots and red crowned parakeets and Antipodes Island Parakeets. We drove to Queenstown among more amazing scenery.

Queenstown certainly seems... active? There's an entire street of adventure tourist ventures. "Go Ski Diving!" The shops yell. "Go JET BOATING!" Screams another. "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LOTR ATVS! RIDE AN ATV!" The city advertizes itself as the never ending party, and it's definitely trying. There are tons of bars, and they all have specials to get you in and get you drinking. Tonight the Buffalo bar has half price drinks for anyone topless. Tomorrow anyone who kisses a ginger gets a free shot. Tomorrow we're going on a bar crawl that has 7 bars. One of which is an Ice bar, with walls of ice and stuff. That should be interesting. While a few of my peers went out drinking tonight, I finished up my essays that are due tomorrow. We have to hand write them, which is really hard! I'm used to be able to add sentences here, spell check there. I never did learn to spell restuarant correctly.
I got a meat pie at a bakery for lunch today. My first one of the trip. I just sat there in ecstasy while I ate it., Yep, it was amazing.
So, that's what I did today. Have a good day everybody. 

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Day 6

Today was another neat day. We woke early and started our early morning drive to Milford Sound. The drive was gorgeous, with lots of mountains and snow covered peaks and rainforests. We took a short cruise down the sound and back. There were mountains on either side of us that were a mile tall and plunged straight into the ocean. It's hard to describe in words, and I wish pictures did it more justice, but you'll just have to see for yourself.

We drove back through the lovely winding scenic route, be suppressing motion sickness the entire way. We took a quiz on indigenous plants.

And then we had a lovely pasta dinner, and I helped with clean up for like an hour.
But really the highlight of the day was after everyone had turned in for the night a few of us went out for a star walk. Oh my god. I've never seen the milkyway so bright. The stars are different, different constellations, but still really familiar.

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Day 5

Today we took a rather long drive from Dunedin to Te Anau. We stopped periodically for bathroom breaks, and at the top of a hill to look at a windfarm and to discuss New Zealand's energy crisis. We arrive in Te Anau at a little backpacker hostile thats right next to an absolutely gorgeous lake. I'll be sure to take pictures later. And then we hoped on the bus again and had a group dinner at a restaurant called "The Ranch". I got a lamb roast and a pavlova, a merang-ish dessert. It was awesome. And the first vegetable I've eaten in a couple days.

Day 4

Today was another activity packed day. I work early and did some laundry, took a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory, went to a farmers market, and then to a rugby game. The Cadubry factory was really neat. You enter the building and there's a mountain made of gold wrapped chocolate in the front entrance, with little ompaloomapa-ish men poking their head out. While we waited for our tour to begin, there was a little museum about the history of chocolate and cadbury that you could peruse through. They had a basket full of raw cocoa beans for you to try. They were extremely bitter and tough, but neat to try. We were then ushered into a room and given a bag of chocolate to eat while they played a movie about cadbury chocolate. When they said bag of chocolate, I thought they meant two pieces of funsized candy or something. Nope. They meant a bag of chocolate. They gave us like 5 full sized candy bars and a Cadbury Carmel egg. I haven't even eaten all of it yet. The movie talked about how they used local ingredients, milk from the Otago cows, sugar from cane plantations in Australia. Our tour guide took us up this huge silo that they used to keep ingredients in. It was all dark, and there's a spiral stair case following the side of the silo. The railings of the staircase where covered in old chocolate. Once we got to the top, our guide pushed a button and made a waterfall of chocolate crash from the ceiling in front of us. There was a splash zone! As in, stay out of this area, because you will get sprayed with liquid chocolate. He said it was just for the benefit of tourists, but it was still extremely awesome. Then he took us to a little room, and told us how Jaffas, a popular New Zealand candy is made, and then he gave us all little cup of liquid chocolate, right from the machine. We stopped at the gift shop on the way out and I got a bottle of chocolate soda. It was disgusting. Like gross enough that I kind of want to try it again, just to confirm that it was that gross. I haven't convinced anyone else to try a sip yet.

The farmers market was very nice. Lots of farmers selling produce or cheese. There weren't many out of the ordinary products, no vegetables that I didn't recognize. They also had a nice collection of lunch stands. Ribs, and hot dogs, and post stickers, and crepes, and one lady was selling warm lemonade. I tried a sample of mead, which was interesting. Our TA bought 7kg of apples.

The rugby game was between Dunedins team and a team from South Africa. We went early and pregamed at a student bar. It's so weird that I'm of legal drinking age here. Everyone bought a pitcher of beer for themselves, and it like totally allowed. It's odd. I just kinda sat there, not drinking, feeling like a dorky kid sister. "You wanna split a pitcher with me, Lily?" "Naw thanks, man". We painted our faces in Blue and Yellow for the team colors. The game was neat, even though I didn't know what was going on. I got a flag, and I waved it when everyone else did. At half time they brought out some sheperd dogs and raced them across the field. Though they didn't really race. Most of the dogs were to scared to move, and some of them ran for the door. The game lasted for 80 minutes, and New Zealand won. We walked back, and I got some roti bread and packed and went to bed. Tomorrow we leave for Te Anu. Have a good day everyone.








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Day 3

Today we listed to three lectures about sustainability, and the Maori people, then we split for lunch and reassembled at the Otago Museum. It was a lovely museum with a very large collection. It boasted the worlds most Moa artifacts. The Moa was a 10 foot bird that lived in New Zealand until it was hunted to extinction. They had a few skeletons on display. These things were HUGE! I don't know why I didn't get a picture. We got a guided tour and then returned to the hotel for another lecture. This time it was our trip leader, who basically gave a talk about how if he finds us sleeping on the bus he's going to hit us. We're on a bus almost everyday, traveling between towns. I don't know how I won't sleep. So we'll see how this goes. I had a pretty terrible dinner at a Chinese restaurant after we discovered all the restaurants we were planning on going were reservation only. I was under the impressions that most of our meals would be provided for us, but it is not looking like the case. Pretty much only breakfast is given to us, which sucks. I don't really want to spend money on food, especially when I could be buying ATVing trips or something. I also need some warmer clothes. So its either eating, or wooltights keep me warm on the glacier. I don't know. I went an bought myself a jar of peanut butter, and a few refrigerated meat pies. I'll try and smuggle food out of breakfast, and at least eat lunch in my room instead of out as much as I can. Meh.




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Day 2

So I'm writing this post in the rain, at 6 in the morning, in the middle of Dunedin, NZ's town square. This blog post probably could have waited for a more suitable time and place, but I really wanted to get my thoughts down as soon as I could.Yesterday, we began our day with breakfast at the hotel.We then took our bus to the local University, where we listened to a very interesting lecture about the history of New Zealand tourism, and what the best path for it's future would be. Then it was back to the hotel for a quick lunch on our own. A group of girls sat in our room and we passed around a jar of vegemite and some bread. Vegemite is disgusting. I didn't actually think it would be that bad, but it has this weird trait where the longer it's in your mouth the worse it gets.

After lunch we hoped in some vans lead by an Eco Tour company.

They had a pretty spiffy logo, too.

They drove us around the peninsula, through just lovely scenery.They drove us to one end of the peninsula. It was supposedly the only spot in the world where albatrosses nest on the mainland. In all other spots they nest in offshore islands. We couldn't see the nests thought. The non-scientists every allowed near the nests was Prince Charles when he came to visit. And we weren't considered as important as prince Charles. But we could stand on the cliffs and look over the ocean, and we were told if we were lucky we would see one flying out to see. And we did. I saw 4 albatrosses total. 1 royal and 3 lesser species. And they are magnificent. Great wide wings, gliding just above the water. All to soon we were ushered back on the van and shuttled off to the other end of the peninsula. We climbed down a steep trail and reached a nice secluded beach, right before sun set. There were probably a dozen large Hooker Sealions lounging on the beach.

Look at those Hooker Sealions lounge

 They're the rarest species of Sealion in the world.  We were able to get right up close to them. One of them was a little peeved at our presence, and chased us. And by chased I mean took an aggressive step towards us, and I ran away like a little girl. The sealions were very content to lounge around, occasionally getting up to pick on one another. Also on the beach were yellow eyed penguins. Let me tell you about these little guys. Dunedin used to be covered in forests that the penguins would nest in. Yes, thats right, these penguins are forest dwelling creatures.

Best photo I could get of the little guys.

The penguins are very shy so we had to hide in little huts. They would swim to shore, walk across the beach, and then hop their way up the steep grass hill side and scuttle into the bushes where they kept they're nests. The penguins would walk right past the sheep and not even be phased. I really wish I could have gotten a better picture of them. They were really very cute. We then climb back up hill that somehow became impossibly steep while we were on the beach. And then we walked down the other side. On the other side of the hill were tide pools with New Zealand Fur seals. Oh boy, these were cute. There were seal pups everywhere. Itty bitty things that played and splashed about in the tide pools and looked at us with just the cutest eyes. And there were a hundred of them! It was very neat to see. The sun set and we took a couple group photos and returned to the van. The day was completed by a long drive home through the darkening country side, with the town of Dunedin lit up in the distance. It was a truly amazing day.






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