Seeing the Sound

Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 14-15 (day 4 & 5 of the South Island Adventure):


I left off with us getting in at 1am, and crashing. The morning was … hectic. I woke up having planned for 45 minutes to get ready and eat. I got out of the shower and got dressed with seemingly 25 minutes to spare, only to find out the bus was arriving to pick us up in 5 minutes. WHAT?! A bus is picking us up? WHAT?! Today’s event was the Milford Sound cruise. I thought we were driving there. Nope. A bus was picking us up and I now had 4 minutes to eat and pack. Needless to say, it was a little rushed – at least my shower was leisurely :) I hustled onto the bus having prepared a pb+h sandwich for breakfast and thrown my stuff into the van. I had a raincoat (it was drizzling again) and my clothes – that’s all. I forgot my wallet and camera, but that was ok. Though I don’t have pictures yet – I’ll get them from Allison, since I borrowed her camera (the really nice one).

The bus ride was great! We got 2 hours of guided tour through NZ as we drove to Milford Sound. We learned about the countryside, and the animals, and the plants, and the history, and all that kind of stuff. When we got to the Sound, we boarded a ferry-like boat and began our cruise. IT was a little drizzly all day, but everything looked beautiful. As we left the wharf, some dolphins swam alongside our boat! They were so close! We saw sheer cliffs plunging into the sea, tall waterfalls, seals, dolphins, lots of beauty! South, South Island is my favorite landscape in NZ, in the world so far! Rolling plains of green, with dense forests, crystal clear lakes, and distant mountain peaks covered in snow - it’s gorgeous! Milford Sound was beautiful. After the cruise was over, we took the bus back to our hostel and then started our drive towards Christchurch. We stopped in Queenstown, which is a lovely town. We ate magnificent burgers at this burger joint. I got a spicy Cajun chicken sandwich which was amazing. Then we left and finished our drive to our hostel (a little over halfway between our last hostel and Christchurch). We arrived at midnight at a small farm in the middle of nowhere. That was our hostel. They had a few small buildings with a few bedrooms each set up for us to sleep in. We really did not expect it to be so far from everything – I mean it was just a single house along a long stretch of road. But it was such a blessing! One of the things I really wanted to do while in NZ was see the stars without all the city lights and light pollution – just to see how many there were. When we arrived, one of the fist things we noticed were how very many stars there were! The drizzle from earlier that day had blown over and the sky was completely clear! So we grabbed our comforters and laid out in the field for at least an hour just watching the stars and chatting. I saw Orion, the Sevens Sisters, Southern Cross, and the W (Cassiopeia). There were so many stars out – impossible to count! We went to bed sometime after 1am.

The next day was simply getting back to Wellington. Those of us in Bio1520 (3 of us), caught a plane at noon and made it back in time for lab at 2:15pm. God worked out everything so that the plane was on time and smooth. We had no problems. Everyone else arrived back in Wellington around 5pm. It was a very full weekend, and an adventure I will never forget! My favorite part was ice climbing and then stargazing. I have now journeyed through just about all of New Zealand! I feel very accomplished and satisfied with what I did in New Zealand. I really squeezed the seconds to make every minute count!

Taste of Tundra...

Saturday, Feb. 13 (day 3 of the South Island Adventure):

Ice climbing day! It turns out this same day it snowed 2 inches in Georgia! It NEVER snows 2 inches in Georgia! Anyway, I got my fair share of ice that day. The day began off with almost everyone doubting we could climb. When we woke in the morning, it was raining outside and dark. The ice climbing places are known to cancel tours due to inclement weather. But I remained optimistic. Even when the situation has seemed impossible, God has always come through. So I prayed and gave it to God. My friends would say we were lucky, but I know otherwise. Those of us who wanted to ice climb, rather than just hike, chose Fox Glacier instead of Franz Joseph b/c it had a climbing tour large enough for the 5 of us. The remainder of the group planned to hike across the Franz Joseph Glacier. We arrived at the Fox Glacier tour building a little early and learned that our tour was definitely still going to happen!



We suited up and started our hike to the glacier. When we got to the base of the glacier we had to wait a bit, while some people recut the ice steps we were to use. While waiting there, the rest of our group (the hiking ones) showed up – at our glacier! It turns out all Franz Joseph Glacier cancelled all tours! When you trust in God, He always makes it work for the best! So yeah, we were pretty excited that our tour was still a go!

We strapped on our crampons (spikes that attach to your boots and help you climb ice) and started our ascent up the glacier. It was a little tricky at first to get used to the crampons, but we all did really well. They took us through a narrow crevice where we had to shimmy our way through sideways – that was pretty cool. And we stopped at a place where you can fill your waterbottle with glacier water! Of course I did! IT was cool and refreshing! All this time it was drizzling slightly which was a little disappointing because we were getting pretty wet – BUT it really made you feel like you were in a different land! I felt like I was in Antarctica! After a while, we reached our first climbing station. It was an almost vertical 30 foot wall of ice. The instructor hiked around to the top and threw down three ropes. I had a go at all three courses. The first one was a little tricky because I had to get used to using the ice axes. How you ice climb is you have 2 ice axes and the crampons that stick out in front of your boots. You first drive both ice axes into the wall as high as your arm will reach and then jab your boots into the wall so that the crampons stick in and your boots are level. Then you push with your legs and drive your axes in higher. So on, so on… It was AWESOME! Difficult and tiring but Awesome. By the end though, I was going pretty fast.

We then moved to the next climbing face and did the same thing – 3 courses, one time on each – except I did one of them twice! So I got to climb a total of 7 ice walls! After we finished we headed back down the glacier. At the bottom of the glacier, the sun finally came out – the warmth was splendid!

Ice climbing = A++++++
Ice climbing vs. rock climbing: ice climbing is just different – it’s difficult b/c your hands get cold and have trouble holding onto the axes, but the technique is pretty straightforward. I like both of them… a lot!

Our class ended late in the afternoon and we had a long way to travel, so we started driving. It was a long drive and I got to drive (!) b/c Jay was exhausted. It was a lot of fun, and since it was nighttime I saw a lot of animals! I saw 2 hedgehogs, 2 rabbits, 2 possums, and a stoat! The stoat was cute – like a ferret. I liked him, even though he is an invasive (bad for the NZ ecosystem) species. It’s amazing how many animals you see at night!

We made to the hostel around 1am, and crashed. (As you are beginning to see, this trip is a lot of drive-then-do-something-then-drive-then-sleep. I like it!)

Oh how I miss pancakes...

I apologize for the disorder of my entries. I've decided to post the rest of the days for the South Island trip (2 wks ago) as individual entries when I get to them. Since I've already posted some stuff for Sydney, they will be out of order, but I'll make sure to put the date on them so you know which day I'm referring to.

Friday, Feb. 12 (day 2 of the South Island Adventure):

As I left off, we had reached our first hostel in Christchurch, had an amazing dinner, and went to bed after watching Lord of the Rings...

I woke up in the morning after getting a wonderful night’s rest and got ready. We had stayed in a common room style hostel, so I was bunked with a random guy. He didn’t speak English though, so we didn’t talk much. But anyway, the morning… Tomas had gotten breakfast for us, which consisted of sweet rolls, lots of fruit, and granola bars. It was nice. Then we began our adventures.

We started by walking around Christchurch, which turned out to be a lovely town. Tomas had found this walk that took us by the river, so we did that. It ended at the Botanical Gardens, so we enjoyed looking at flowers and bonsai trees and such. It is amazing how much more interesting a botanical garden is when you’re with four biology majors! After the market we went to sweet natural history museum and then to a small market. And then we started traveling.

Our goal was to make it to Fanz Joseph, so that we would be close to the glacier site for the next day. Along the way, we stopped at Arthur’s Pass, which is a trail to a huge waterfall. It was a fun walk, and Aerin, Drew, and I wandered from the beaten trail a lot. Once at the viewing station for the waterfall, all of us climbed down to the stream and started making our way closer to the falls. I got so close that the mist coming from the falling water got me pretty wet, but it felt great cuz it was a hot day. Aerin and I stayed a lot longer at the falls so we had to run down the mountain to catch up to everyone – fine with me!

Then we set off for franz joseph and our hostel there. We made a few stops, one at a lake and another at a scenic view. At the view, we noticed some native birds which we hadn't seen before: the Kea. Note: Close all windows and doors when leaving your car when kea are around. Kea's are known for biting, tearing apart, and getting into anything they can. So, we shut the windows and enjoyed a new kind of bird!



When we got to the place where we were planning on eating dinner, Jay mentioned that he wanted to stray from our journey to the hostel and visit the PANCAKE ROCKS. I was all for it! My logic was: pancakes rocks -> I like to climb rocks -> sounds adventurous = more fun = definitely do it! but most of the group decided not to, since it would put us arriving at the hostel after 11pm. So, a few of us split off to visit the rocks. They were so COOL! They were layered like stacks of pancakes and excellent for climbing on! The signs told us “DO NOT go off the path” but when has that ever stopped me?
Friday, Feb. 12 (day 2 of the South Island Adventure): (Yes, mom, it was safe (relatively) to leave the trail.) I really wanted to climb down into this one place, but there were a lot of viewers and I didn’t want to obstruct their scenic view, so all of us waited. While waiting there, we were looking out to the ocean, and deciding what we would say if some of the viewers walked up and asked why we were waiting. Then I said, “Oh, we’re just looking for dolphins,” and right then we saw dolphins! The timing was perfect, instant! That was cool. So we told everyone there were dolphins, and after getting a nice long look at them, crept back to the spot I wanted to climb. With everyone distracted by the dolphins, we climbed off the trail. Perfect distraction! It was a lot of fun! I crept around trying to stay out of sight, and climbed lower and lower, until the rest of my group motioned for me to come back.

We then left to drive to the hostel. We made great time! We got back to the hostel at about midnight, and crashed. We had a long fun day ahead of us…

Scuba Steve

As a note, I don't want the nickname Scuba Steve to stick; however, today it was rather apropos. Today was SCUBA DAY! And it was AWESOME.

As you saw in the last blog, I finished it around 2:30am and then went to bed b/c I was utterly exhausted. (Turns out dancing is quite tiring! huh.) Well, the next morning I woke up...early. Alarm went off at 6, rolled out of bed out of need not desire at 6:05. And off we went. We got to the scuba place right on time, and drove over to a pool to begin. The morning segment started off with us swimming 200 meter and then treading water for 10 minutes. Seemingly harmless? No, it kicked my butt. Then we suited up in scuba gear and did various tasks. We practiced falling into the pool, and using flippers, and floating close to the bottom of the pool (buoyancy testing). But by far the most difficult task was clearing our masks. In the event that the mask mal-functions or leaks somehow, we needed to know how to get the water out of it ... while under water. So we practiced blowing the water out with our nose. Then (as if that was too easy) we had to take off our mask, put it back on, and then clear all the water out. Seeing (pun :) as I use contacts, I had to do it with my eyes closed. That was a test of my memory more than anything because once I started I couldn't open my eyes to see the instructors signals. But it went alright, and I didn't lose a contact! Score! Now, if some fish decides to steal my mask, and I manage to get it back, I will know how to clear the water out! ;)

Then we had lunch. Noteable thing about lunch: I had Vegemite. Vegemite is a spread that many Aussies and Kiwi like to put on bread. I suggests not trying it. It's bitter and that's about all. Rather distasteful too. But now I can say that I've tried it!

Afternoon session was AWESOME! We drove to a reef for our first real dive! We got into the water at low tide and scuba'd around the edge of a reef for about 30 minutes - which actually seemed like about 10 minutes! I saw a giant Groper fish (yes 'groper', not 'grouper') He was at least 30 inches long and 18 tall, and bright, bright blue! And we got to pet him, because he liked us because we fed him a sea urchin. (He demolished half of it in one bite! and it was pretty large) We also saw various sized fish and several schools. There were so many fish! Before we went in, another instructor was coming out and said that there were more fish today than he could remember seeing there ever before. I can see why! We all did very well and had a blast! We finish up our course on Friday. So in one week I will be officially Scuba Certified! And that's for life! Even if I never go scuba diving again, though, I feel like the dives we're doing for this training are totally worth the cost! That's the cool thing about learning in Oz, even the practice dives are amazing! I was wavering a little yesterday but now I am so thankful I chose to get certified! Thanks Pops!

Til the fat lady sings....

Tonight was wonderful! First week of classes down - a hell of a hard study week - and party time begins. Tonight I saw an opera... in the Sydney Opera House! That's right - pretty frickin sweet! I saw La Traviata - it's about a woman who loves a man but chooses not to marry him but then must leave him to restore his family honor but really loves him and ends up dying because of illness but not before they confess their undying love for each other. whew!

The Sydney Opera House is GORGEOUS! And opera is a lot of fun! I felt very gentleman-like. I even stood up for when the girls sat down next to me, and walked very composedly. (I deem opera as a very high society event, and as such view the attendees as gentlemen and ladies of stature.) All in all: A++++++

AND... we got in for $55! Which is amazing and such a blessing from God! IF you arrive an hour early, they sell open seats to students from $55. And these seats aren't the crappy ones. No, we got the BEST (and I mean it) seats in the house! $270 seats, 7 rows from the front - close enough to see the actors expressions! And to see some of the pit and all of the conductor! THE SEATS WERE PERFECT!


THEN... after the opera, we took pictures, blah blah blah (which I'll add as soon as I get to it and it's not 2:30 in the morning, the day before I have to wake up at 6am). But then we found a gellato place called Gellatissimo, and got a sweet treat. I split a 3 scoop with Aerin - Choc. Hazelnut, White Choc, and Berry something. = very good!

THEN... Jessie (our TA) told us that there's this bar where you can go salsa dancing every thursday night without a cover charge. So we went. It was awesome! Part of our group left b/c they didn't have their passports, but Jessie, Aerin, and I stayed. A random guy helped teach me and Aerin a little. I've now got the basics, so maybe tomorrow, I'll get down the twirling a girl. (Apparently there's a bar every night that hosts a salsa dance thing.) Then we walked back.

Tomorrow: I am getting SCUBA CERTIFIED! Oh yeah! I was considering whether or not to do it, b/c it costs ~425 when all is said and done. But I decided it is worth it. You can't find a cheaper deal anywhere, where you get certified with the open water dives. And I get to learn in Australia, so the open water dives should be very cool. And it lets me scuba dive when we go to the Great Barrier Reef! It is worth it, even if it costs some. On top of that, certification is FOR LIFE! So I will now be able to go scuba whenever the opportunity arises. This trip is about trying new things and getting a taste of the countries I am in. Well, Australia is all about the water, especially surfing and scuba diving. Check!

When the van's a rocking ... it's probably because it can't make it up the hill ;)

As you can tell, I'm a little behind on my blog. To summarize last week, it was busy. I completed an essay, a final, and lots more! As well as getting ready to leave for Aussie, and trying to finish everything I wanted to do in NZ! Wheww! But the weekend before last week, cannot be summarized so quickly - which is why I've taken so long to post it!

I'm going to post last weekend (not the one that just ended but the one before that) a day at a time. Maybe that way, I'll be able to get it done! So keep checking on this post, because I'll keep adding to it. where to begin?...

Thursday, Feb. 11:
Classes ended Thursday at 11:30 - which was awesome! My biology class met in the afternoon, but we are allowed one absence from each class, so I took my skip day for that class that afternoon. As such, I had time to finish packing and preparing for the weekend trip, which began at 2:30pm. There were a lot of us going on the trip together, and Tomas did an excellent job planning it all! (Thanks Tomas, because I did not have time to plan it!) We left for the airport - yes, this weekend trip involved actually flying somewhere - and arrived a little early. I was pretty tired from a full week, so I slept in a comfy chair while we waited for our plane to arrive. It is amazing how easy security is at NZ airports! We literally waited until 10 minutes before boarding to go through security! oh yeah!

The plane ride was quick and within the hour we had arrived in Christchurch. Christchurch is a pretty cool place! It's not small like the towns we traveled to on the other weekends. Jay took a bus to the car rental place and picked up our van. Yes, it was a van - we were stylin! The van was probably the most interesting thing that day. We spent the first ten minutes betting whether or not it would make it through the weekend (it did). There was moss on the windows, and nothing but seats in the back. But it worked GREAT for us! We just piled in and piled our stuff in, and had a blast! We drove to the hostel and unloaded our stuff and then went out for a late dinner. Dinner was amazing! We decided to splurge a little - pb+h only satisfy a little. We got steak! and burgers! Both were equally amazing! Katherine and I couldn't decide which one we wanted more - the sirloin steak grilled to a slightly smokey perfection with mixed vegetables, slowly cooked to a sweet tenderness ... or ... a luscious burger with two tender beef patties, bacon, cheese, and two over-medium eggs. My mouth waters reminiscing about it! So, anyway, we couldn't decide, so we decided to by both and then split them between the two of us. (Sometimes it helps to be indecisive!) After dinner, we went back to the hostel, watched some Lord of the Rings, and crashed.



to be coninued...

There and back again...

The last weekend in New Zealand has drawn to a close, and it was EPIC! Not quite as full of death-defying feats, this weekend carried me ALL over the south island of New Zealand. I was curious just how far we traveled, so I decided to look at a map to see. Here's a picture I've drawn up just to show you the scale of what we accomplished! It is INCREDIBLE how very far we drove this weekend! I can now say that I've traveled across all of south island NZ! (If you remember, the first weekend, I traveled across the top portion of the south island.) I still don't know exactly how many kilometers we traveled but I do know it was in the thousands!


Our trusty chariot this weekend was an old van and a small sedan. The van literally gave the impression that it was falling apart. It had moss growing on the window crevices and gave off a horrible black exhaust whenever it climbed any manner of a hill. I believe that the dashboard dials even bottomed out a few miles outside of Christchurch the day we returned it! But fortunately, thankfully, the van made it the entire weekend!

The weekend was so much fun, and full of BEAUTIFUL scenery. After all, they did film Edoras in the countryside we drove through! I will describe all that in a later blog, but for now enjoy the map!

Sky Diving VIDEO!

I finally got around to uploading my sky diving video! I didn't order the freefall video so it doesn't show me in that section, but Emily Morris was loving enough to let me copy the video! The video is way too big for this blog, so you can view it on my facebook. The video has a generic intro and then goes into the prep and takeoff, then freefall (again, not me), and then landing (I land last). Hope you enjoy!

Just in...

So this weekend, we have 13 people in our group and it's gonnna be awesome. Some last minute things I just found out about: Four of us are going to go ICE CLIMBING! It's an 8 hr adventure on Saturday - can't wait! AND...I might get to drive this weekend, b/c we had to rent two manual cars (actually one is a van) and only three of know how to drive stick! Whoohoo! (Mom, don't worry, I will make sure to pray and believe while driving!) Gotta catch a plane!

As a note:

I am trying to keep up with my blog as much as I can. Sorry that the last post took a while to finally get to. Next week is our last week in New Zealand, which means lots of school assignments are coming a quick close, with lots of papers, and lab reports, and tests and stuff. I am having a lot of fun during the week as well as on the weekends (as you can tell). Hopefully, I'll get this weekend's stuff up a little quicker!

I leave for Sydney on Friday, so I'll be trying to cram all I can into this last week! One thing that is definitely on my list is to visit WETA, the company that basically did everything for Lord of the Rings except act and direct! They have a display room called the WETA cave which is just 30 minutes from where I'm staying. The plan is to visit a week from today! God bless!

Madder than Mardi Gras!

Last week, I was expecting a mild weekend, with lots of relaxing time to get caught up on some long lost sleep. I now see how very naive I was!

Last weekend was CRAZY! I have never been to Mardi Gras (though I hear that we'll get a taste of it in Sydney), but I imagine that it is nothing compared to what happened last weekend. For those of you who don't already know, last weekend was SEVENS! Sevens is a rugby tournament held in Wellington every year. If you have never seen rugby, it is INTENSE! Imagine a mix between football and soccer, where you run around constantly for 14 straight minutes, and get tackled full force without any pads on - you're starting to get the idea!

The festivities started Thursday with a parade around 1pm. Thankfully, my afternoon biology teacher canceled class so I got to go down to the parade! We rushed down right after class (which ended at 1pm) and got to see the tail end of the parade! I saw most of the rugby teams pass by on floats and got a squishy football (which I got signed by two NZ rugby players, but later lost) and a poster. They had a group of men playing the bagpipes which was pretty cool! At the end of the parade they welcomed all the teams to Wellington and the governor gave a speech. It was pretty cool, but just the beginning. After the parade, I went to the store to stock up on yummies for the weekend (pb+h all the way! plus chips and fruit and oatmeal (of course!)).

As I was going back to my room after the grocer, I saw Charity trying to get tickets to the Sevens tournament that next day. I thought all the tickets were sold out, so I found this kind of odd. So, I popped into her room for a chat. She informed me that you definitely could by tickets and they only cost about $50! What a deal! 50 bucks to see tons of rugby games all day and join a crowd of crazy people dressed up in all sorts of bodacious costumes! Hell yeah! I'm IN! SO I went up to Drew's room (the guy who I roomed with in Taupo) and asked if he wanted to go. He had the same response I did, so we started looking for tickets. We found some for $55, arranged to pick them up, and got them later that night. That was a total change of plans for me. Originally, I had just planned on going to some pub and watching a few games on the tele. It's amazing how God works things out! I had NO idea Pops would bless me with the tickets!

That night, the real fun began. A little after 10ish, a bunch of us went out clubbing. It was so much fun to finally relax and hang with my friends after a very busy week. (Note: Biology 1520 makes life VERY busy.) The coolest thing was that one of the clubs was giving out cowboy hats if you bought a vodka cruiser, so basically everyone did. The cowboy hat definitely came in handy later on, as you will see!

The next day was SEVENS! I slept in forever (10:30am) - which was wonderful! The games started at 1pm so Drew and I had to quickly brainstorm a costume. Everyone who goes to the tournament (actually almost everyone in town, regardless of going to the actual games or not) dressed up in groups. Sheri, Charity, and Aerin were going as pink flamingos. We considered joining them as flamingos, but they left earlier than we did, so we changed plans. Plus, i don't have anything pink. bleh. So, we looked around our rooms to see what we had. Things I noticed: unmade bed with sheets and comforter, cowboy had from last night thrown on chair, and other random piles from the previous school week. We had our costume: Togas and cowboy hats, oh yeah! Nothing beats that! (Except for the guys I saw dressed up like Alan from the Hangover, equipped with a baby doll in a stomach pouch;) Drew decided to add sunglasses to the combo last minute - great choice man! So we got dressed up and walked into town. Things were starting to get crazy. People were dressed up in ridiculous costumes (kinda a mix b/w college halloween and mardigras!). We met up with some friends (Jay and Tomas) and went into the stadium. It wasn't packed but there were plenty of people! The best made costumes were a group of avatarians in sitting in front of us. The costumes were perfect! It was incredible! After sitting down and enjoying a few games with the guys, I decided to look for the girls. But I wasn't about to walk around and lose the guys too, so I pulled out my camera and took pics of huge sections of seats, then switched to view mode and zoomed in. The girls were in BRIGHT pink, so it only took about 4 shots to find them. My method worked surprisingly well! I told the guys and we went and found the girls. They had found some other Techies so now our group was about 11 people large! It was fun. We sat back and enjoyed game after game after game of rugby. My favorite teams were NZ and S. Africa. They were crazy good! Around 4pm, perhaps the most exciting even of the game took place. I looked up from talking with Drew to see a pale figure running across the field at the opposite end. SOme crazy fan jumped down onto the field, mid-game and ran nude across the field! To his credit, he made it almost 2/3 of the way across! And then got tackled by 3 security guards with a towel. It was hilarious! I have a video of them escorting him off the field, so I will never forget it! Epic. That night we watched a movie or something like that and went to bed.

Next day was Saturday. We had purchased tickets to a concert which we went to in the afternoon. It was pretty cool but I enjoyed falling asleep on the grass the most (the sleepiness was starting to get to me). Key points for Saturday was that found the spot where Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin hide from the Nazgul just after leaving the Shire. You know, "Ooh mushrooms!" ... "Get off the road!" Yeah, that part. It was pretty difficult to find b/c the exact spot wasn't marked, but I'm pretty sure we did! The real fun for Saturday began that night! Saturday is always finals for the Sevens tournament, which means Saturday night is always the crazy party! EVERYONE gets dressed up and parties at all the clubs until they book up and then everyone crowds into the streets. So naturally, we had to join ;) Drew and my toga costumes won the popular vote for group costumes so everyone dressed up in togas. We traded the hats for the leafy circle headwear thing which I have now forgotten the name of. We even got Jessie (our TA) to join us and dress up! We had so much fun! I can't even describe! It was epic. And yes, I remember it all, mostly ;) We got back late that night. And I crashed.

Sunday, I had nothing planned, except for to work on a project for most of the day. I have developed a philosophy suggested by my dad which is actually very helpful. You see, I like to burn the candle at both ends, in case you hadn't noticed ;) So, I now view sleeping as a project. That way, I feel obligated to set aside the appropriate time to get the sleep I need (which isn't very much - ~5.5 hours a night). AND...then after a day of sleeping and staying in pajamas and relaxing like I did on Sunday, I can say that I accomplished a lot! :) What a deal! So, yeah, I slept a lot on Sunday, and spent my awake hours doing a puzzle and watching a movie and chill things like that.

All in all, SEVENS = AWESOME! For anyone planning to be in Wellington during Sevens, Go To The Games. And DEFINITELY dress up!

All those rubbly bits Dr. Volcano keeps talking about

This weekend was by far the CRAZIEST I have had! I have now completed two things I had to do while in New Zealand. If I were to leave tomorrow, I would now be at peace with what I’ve done. Those two things were (1) visit Mt. Doom (check!) and (2) go sky diving (definite check!). Both were absolutely awesome! I also did something I never expected to do: went bungee jumping, and into a river at that! It is hard to convey the excitement in doing these three things, but I will try here.

It began Thursday morning. We didn’t have class Thursday because the weekend was a field trip for my biology/geology class. We left at 8am-ish. Aerin, one of my friends, was the excitement for the morning. I woke up at 7am, got ready, and ate breakfast. Aerin, who lives in the dorm next to mine, didn’t show up at breakfast. After a series of phone calls to her room and knocks on her door, I managed to wake her up at 7:50. At first, she was kind of confused that the bus was leaving in 10 minutes, but reality quickly set in. To her credit, she made in time. In 14 minutes, she managed to get dressed and pack for the entire weekend, during which time, I went to the dining hall and made her a breakfast and picked up a sack lunch. It was a group effort, but we did it! After that the bus ride was rather mild. We arrived at Lake Taupo about 7 hours later.

Our first adventure was scaling Mt. Ruapehu. Mt. Ruapehu is a huge volcano that has been blown down by numerous eruptions. A ragged top now replaces the nice peak it once had. We went up the side of the mount on a series of ski lifts. After reaching the top of the ski lifts, we were supposed to continue hiking to the top, but the clouds started rolling in. Within 5 minutes, some really dark clouds had reached us. Lightning was spotted not far from us. The ski lift people warned us that the lift would shut down pretty soon due to weather, and unless we wanted to hike down the mountain, we better get back on the lifts. As the lightning grew closer, we listened to a quick lecture by Dr. Volcano (our endearing name for our geology professor) and then hopped back on the ski lifts. As we went down, I looked to my right and saw for the first time, off in the distance, Mt. Doom. The storm clouds circling it seemed so fitting!

We then went to our hotel. I stayed with Drew – he’s my closest guy friend and pretty fun/chill to hang with. The hotel was frickin sweet! It had a huge flat screen, nice bathroom, fridge, and two beds (important for us guys)! That first night was wonderful. I got to actually watch a movie! Besides 15 minutes of Lord of the Rings, I haven’t seen any TV since I left home. I’m not complaining, just saying it was nice to relax for an evening. As you have surely noticed, everything has been soooo busy.

The next day was devoted to hiking the Tongariro Crossing which goes between Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe – otherwise known as Mt. Doom! We started out with a complimentary hot breakfast – I only note it because I have now determined that Kiwi’s don’t know how to cook eggs. At first, I thought it was just Weir House. Nope. Apparently scrambled eggs are commonly accepted to be indescribably soft – kinda like tofu? Anyway, I had some ham and a peanut butter and honey sandwich for breakfast! :) The hike up Mt. Doom was epic. We stopped at intervals to note the rock formations – after all, we were on a class field trip! We didn’t hike all the way up the volcano, but we hiked high enough to be close to where Frodo and Sam enter the gate to throw in the ring. At the highest point of our hike, we took pictures and had lunch. I organized a special photo opp using some props. On the hike up, I scouted out a ring most suited for my purposes. Professor Garton was blessed enough to lend us his wedding band for photos. We slipped the ring onto Miranda’s chain necklace and had the One Ring. It was definitely legit! We then hiked back to the bus and went back to our hotel and chilled – again, thank you God for the relax time! And thank you God for backrubs! (We all agreed that a backrub chain was in order!)

Saturday began off like the other days, with lectures from Dr. Volcano. That continued until noon. After that was when the real fun began. Saturday afternoon was when I went both bungee jumping and sky diving! Bungee was first. We had a group of 7 seven of us – plus an old professor who was at least 65 years old – that made my day! A bus picked us up from the hotel and drove us to the river. We stripped down to our bathing suits and waited. I went last out of the group. When my turn came, I walked up to the platform. Several of my friends were waiting with their cameras. I chose the touch-the-water option, which means they would try to loosen the bungee cord enough to let me dunk my body halfway into the water! To further raise the daring part of the bungee (as if it wasn’t crazy enough) I decided to jump backwards! They strapped the cord to my feet, preventing me from running away. I wiggled up to the outcrop and turned around. I backed up until I felt my heels barely leave the floor boards. At this moment, I felt a tinge of fear. But only a tinge :) I raised my arms, casting my cares to God, and leaned back. The first second was an Oh-Shit moment that felt so much longer! Then, I let my fears go and enjoyed the free fall. It was glorious and unforgettable. Just before hitting the water I remembered to close my eyes. SPLASH! I vaguely remember seeing under the water, but the water was so magnificently clear, I don’t know if I openned my eyes under the water. After bouncing up and down a few times, they let me into a boat and drove me to shore. Thrill rating: 10+. Excitement rating: 10. Stupidity rating: I lived didn’t I? (Actually, in all seriousness, there wasn’t the slightest jerk or whiplash, so you people who, like me, are cautious about taking the leap, it’s ok.)

Enough excitement for one day – no way! Next came sky diving. We (Sheri, two other techies named Katherine Joy and Emily, and I) got to the sky diving place and suited up. We all decided to go with the 15,000 ft descent rather than the 12,000 ft descent. Why not do it all?! My tandem diver was hilarious. I asked him how many times he had dived before. 1000? He started counting – 1 … 2 ... 3 … 4 …… 9. “9 times.” “So how long have you been working here then?” I asked. (I was holding onto the hope that he meant 9 thousand times.) “I started this week.” At that, my heart skipped a beat. Oh naïve Steven. I learned later that he was joking. He’d dived 7,000 times at least and had been working there 3 years! He was a great instructor – talked me through everything, added a lot of humor, made me feel at ease. We all piled into a really small plane, really small, and started our ascent. About twenty minutes later, we reached the final altitude. One by one we scooted forward and popped out of the plane. I was last – which was cool – I got to see everyone else freak out just before they jumped! I was strapped to my instructor so wiggling to the front of the plane was a joint effort. We finally made it to the open door. At that height we were above the clouds, so all I could see was a layer of grayish white with some blue patched scattered. He scooted to the end of the seat. This meant that my body was hanging out the door, supported only by the straps connecting us! Then he jumped – with me of course in front of him! We somersaulted and fell for about 3 seconds before he pulled the stabilizing chute. (That’s a little parachute that helps us stay with our faces towards the ground.) After that point, we just glided. It felt like floating, even though I know I was speeding towards the ground. The clouds kept getting closer. The wind was blowing against my face. I started to see tears build up behind my protective glasses. The clouds engulfed us. Then, poof! I could see the ground – a looong way down! I could see the entire Lake Taupo (it’s pretty huge!) and the city where I was staying. We continued free falling for another 15-ish seconds and then he pulled the main parachute at 5,000ft. A slight jerk and we were actually floating. The total free fall was about 65 seconds. (As a comparison, 12,000ft is about 45 seconds. Those 20 seconds are definitely worth the bucks!) The total descent probably lasted about 4 minutes, so I had some time to enjoy the scenery. He asked if I wanted to do the steering. Sure! He showed me where approximately we wanted to land, and handed over the steering straps for the parachute. Then, he taught me s trick. You pull hard on one strap, and it spins you into a tight donut turn. While doing that you look up at the parachute and it’s pretty much awesome! As we got closer to the land, he took over the steering and we closed in on the landing field. We landed like rockstars, standing. I think I looked like Luigi because I was slightly running before we landed :) We all took pictures and went back in. Emily and Katherine Joy got the video so I’ll copy it from them so you can see what we did. The video is pretty sweet – it includes the pre-flight group shot and candid shots, as well as the landing. Thrill rating: 9 (not quite as scary as bungee jumping because I didn’t jump – I was only attached to the instructor as he jumped). Excitement rating: 10++. Nothing beats free falling for more than a minute! That… was enough excitement for one day!

Sunday, we drove back to Wellington and had our last Dr. Volcano lecture. Over the entirety of the weekend, I learned a lot about volcanoes and the effects on the landscape. One I may never forget is that a lava flows have "rubbly bits" on top and below them. These rubbly bits are broken chunks of rock resulting from the cooling of the lava flow. My professor must have mentioned "rubbly bits" at least one hundred times this semester. (We actually made a drinking game of it: On the hike up Mt. Doom, whenever Dr. Volcano said "rubbly bits" everyone had to get out their water bottles and take a drink. It grew rather tiresome ;) We got back to Wellington a bit earlier than expected, so I had time to call my mom and reassure her of my well-being before she went to bed. She was very thankful to hear from me!

Today, we dissected a cow’s eye – which was pretty sweet! Lab is pretty fun – between sleeping in lab and dissecting crazy things, I can’t help but like it! I have two more field trips planned for this week: one to a marine wildlife reserve and another to the US embassy to meet the ambassador! That will be lots of fun! This weekend is Sevens – a big rugby tournament. Apparently Wellington gets into this huge uproar for it, so I’m starting to get pretty pumped! With two weekends left, I am definitely doing all I can with the time I have left! Thank you God for your amazing grace as I go on these crazy adventures! God bless!