Monday, December 11, 2006
Today was one of the most amazing days of my life. It has got to be one of my favorite of this trip.
The scenery is so beautiful and Milford Sound is gorgeous! I took SO many pictures. I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet, but they're coming. Probably not til I get home, though.
We stopped at a few places on the way to Milford Sound; the most remarkable being the Mirror Lakes and The Chasm. The Mirror Lakes are just like what they sound; lakes that mirror the stuff around them, except the stuff around them are huge, snow-capped mountains and wild flowers. It was SO pretty.
The Chasm is this magnificent hole in the ground, basically. It starts on one side as just an ordinary river and then on the other side, there is this, well, chasm and the colors in the water and the rocks is just amazing.
I feel like I have never seen color properly before coming here. Everything is just stunning.
Milford Sound is full of waterfalls [although, you can find waterfalls just driving along the road...] and seals and supposedly penguins and dolphins, as well, but we only saw seals. It's a fiord and so it was created by glaciers [much like everything else in the South Island] and it's just ... indescribable. I will definitely post pics soon.
I am so tired, though. I'm going to go hit the proverbial hay.
I love you and can't wait to see you!
Chelcie
PS - My solution to the possums is to just put on my headphones. If I can't hear 'em, they're not there.
The scenery is so beautiful and Milford Sound is gorgeous! I took SO many pictures. I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet, but they're coming. Probably not til I get home, though.
We stopped at a few places on the way to Milford Sound; the most remarkable being the Mirror Lakes and The Chasm. The Mirror Lakes are just like what they sound; lakes that mirror the stuff around them, except the stuff around them are huge, snow-capped mountains and wild flowers. It was SO pretty.
The Chasm is this magnificent hole in the ground, basically. It starts on one side as just an ordinary river and then on the other side, there is this, well, chasm and the colors in the water and the rocks is just amazing.
I feel like I have never seen color properly before coming here. Everything is just stunning.
Milford Sound is full of waterfalls [although, you can find waterfalls just driving along the road...] and seals and supposedly penguins and dolphins, as well, but we only saw seals. It's a fiord and so it was created by glaciers [much like everything else in the South Island] and it's just ... indescribable. I will definitely post pics soon.
I am so tired, though. I'm going to go hit the proverbial hay.
I love you and can't wait to see you!
Chelcie
PS - My solution to the possums is to just put on my headphones. If I can't hear 'em, they're not there.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Ok. So.
I currently have about four hours to kill, so I'm just emailing everyone because I have nothing else to do, really, because this town is small and I'm not hungry yet - although I should probably eat before dark because that's when everything likes to close...
ANYWAY.
Yeah, I decided to not do the Glacier Hike... at first, we weren't going to do it today because the weather report said it was going to rain and hail... so then we were going to do it tomorrow. And then I saw what it all entailed... and it reminded me a lot of what we did at Tongariro, so I decided it wasn't for me and passed... so Tanya went today and I've got the rest of the afternoon to do whatver. I just finished my book last night, too... and I'm fairly certain I didn't bring any others with me to the South Island... so ... since I'm saving some money by not doing to hike, I might just splurge a little and buy a new book. Or I can just read Pride and Prejudice, which is what Tanya was reading... but I'm really not in the mood for Jane Austen at the moment... It was kind of funny, we were camping last night and I was reading my murder mystery and I get scared pretty easily, so I kept thinking there would be an axe murderer coming for us in the middle of the night. Instead, we got possums. I woke up to a possum climbing around on the top of our tent. At first, I thought it was "just a rat," but then realised what it was and started to freak out a little... I mean, the possums [is it possums or possum?] in America are ferocious little devils, right? Like, you don't touch them no matter what... and then I started thinking about The Princess Bride and the huge rat things that they have in the forest and how the possums are JUST LIKE THAT AND OH MY GOD WE'RE GOING TO DIE. But then the possum slid off the roof of the tent and I relaxed a little. Until I began thinking of how it was going to steal our shoes -
[I guess I should stop here and explain the set up of our tent... Ok, so, we have a four person tent. We orginally bought it with Rob, so a four person tent for three people wasn't too bad. It's really big and roomy... Tanya {who had the nickname of Amazon Woman in high school} can stand up in it at the middle, so it's not like the possum was right on our heads... And there are two parts to the tent... the inner, less water proof part that you sleep in; and the outer, wind/water proof layer that goes over the inner part. This outer part, it doesn't close all the way against the outside elements, but the inner part does - once all the zippers are zipped, nothing is getting in or out unless you unzip it. The outside is just a cover to protect against the rain and wind and is sort of open at the bottom where it meets the ground. Ok. Back to the story.]
because they were sitting in between the inner and outer parts of the tent so they could dry [which never happened, by the way...], and the possum could get to it... and I assumed that the possum would steal things because it's kind of like a rat and rats steal things. Sooo [and Tanya's sleeping through alllll of this] I slowly unzip the door, but just the part that doesn't open the screen so just in case there is a possum outside, I have at least a small layer between it and me... and I don't see anything moving, so I zip that back up and unzip the actual door and quickly reach out and grab our shoes and the tent bag, all the while believing the possum was going to jump out at any minute and bite my hand off. But it didn't. I safely get the shoes inside and quickly zip the tent back up and start to relax again. And then I start thinking, what if it starts to chew its way in? WHAT THEN? What do we do then, Dragon???? {Ok, so no one except Gabe will really get that last part, but it's pretty funny... It's not really my story to tell, but I will tell it later if you ask me}, so I lay reallllllly still and stop breathing so I can hear what's going on outside. All of a sudden, I hear something walking on the mat [that's connected to the inner part and not the outer part] right by our heads {the tent has two doors, front and back, duh} and I almost had a heart attack. THE POSSUMS ARE ATTACKING! So I don't move. Actually, I wait a beat, and then start shaking Tanya awake, telling her we're surrounded by possums, which wasn't totally true... I really only think there was one the whole time, but I was freaked out, and I ask her what we should do. She says something about not going outside til morning [at which point I start thinking, "You hear that, bladder? NOT GOING OUTSIDE TIL MORNING SO DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT."] and that they'll be gone by then. She goes back to sleep and I see the possum start to climb up the pole of the tent. I don't know if it was inside or outside. Actually, now that I think about it, it had to have been on the outside because the velcro that holds the outer part to the poles on the inside was still velcroed and it would have come undone, I'm sure, if a possum were crawling around on it... Anyway, so I just see this possum head illuminated by the moonlight right above my head and try to think rational thoughts [and not how he can claw his way through the tent and eat us alive...]. So finally, I realxed enough to tell myself not to worry about it, if he starts eating his way through the tent, we'll hear it, and that would be when we could freak out or do something about it. So I fell back to sleep. And all was well.
So yeah... I decided not to the the Glacier Hike. But I went with the hiking group up to the yellow danger ropes [where they actually start their hike ... there's this walk from the carpark to the glacier, actually you never get that close to it, but anyway, and then you get to the yellow ropes and that's as far as you can go and the hikers with guides can start their journey] and then turned back. I actually didn't spend as much time walking to the ropes as everyone else does because one of the guides said I could follow them and hear the stories and then just turn back when the time came, so I got to take a short cut through the rainforest {yes, rainforest and a glacier... only three glaciers in the world are next to rainforests. Two in NZ - Franz Josef and Fox - and one in Patagonia, which is in Argentina or some place in South America}. However, on my way back to the shortcut, I decide to take pictures and take my time and just enjoy the pretty scenery and stuff... and I get 7/8s of the way to the shortcut when I realise I don't have the car keys. I check, double check, and triple check all of my pockets, but I knew full well that they had been in the pocket my camera had been in... and I kept taking my camera out of my pocket, so there was ample opportunity for my keys to fall out. Soooo I start backtracking, trying to remember exactly which way I came so I can re-trace my steps and find the keys - which, thankfully, have a yellow tag on them which would stand out against the grey rocks. I start to panic a little bit... thinking of how ALL of our stuff is now locked in a car... how if someone else finds the key, they have access to ALL of our stuff ... that I'm gonna have to pay the car company some more money to get another key/have the car unlocked. But then I start seeing a bunch of people coming back from where I was, and I start asking them if they've found any keys.... and lo and behold, someone says an older lady had found some keys. Do you ever have one of those moments in life when you've just been so devastated by some stupid move you've made only to get that moment of relief, that one moment where everything in the world seems so much brighter and more colorful just because your mistake has been rectified in a very easy manner, such as someone finding your keys for you so you don't have to scrounge about the entire glacial floor looking for a small yellow key? Yeah. That's what I felt. I finally find the woman who found it, and start thanking her a billion times and start walking back to the carpark with her. She's from the UK and will be travelling for six months and just went to Fiji {but in June... so ... yeah ... she didn't really know about the coup when I asked her about it.} and will be going to Australia for a bit and yeah. So we finally get to my shortcut but she was wearing not hiking boots and the short cut kind of goes through water, so she kept going the way she originally came. I ended up getting to the carpark just as the people who told me someone had found the keys were... so it was a pretty fast shortcut. It takes about 45 minutes to get to the ropes, I guess... Anyway. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that I have car keys.
I still don't know what I'm going to do. If I keep typing for another fifteen minutes, then I still have about three hours until Tanya's tour is over... I don't think I can eat for three hours. And I think I'm just going to c&p this into my blog...
So tonight, we're driving to Queenstown. We return the car on the 10th, I think... And we're going to stop at Puzzling World and have tons of fun there. And we are horseback riding in Qtown... I'm really excited about that. We have a few days in Qtown, but I'm not sure what else we're doing. We'll probably see Casino Royale... And then we're supposed to go to Invercargill [and see penguins! We actually saw two little blue penguins when we were taking the aquataxi to awaroa, and lots of seals!] and on to Dunedin. From Dunedin, we fly back to Auckland and from Auckland, to LA. I have, at least, a long lay over in Auckland, and Tanya might too, so we're going to call our friend from work, Jess, and see if she'll come have lunch with us at the airport.
As a condition of us coming back to the States early, we should be showered with food. We have decided this. Lots of good, yummy food. Tanya likes enchilladas, but I told her there are restaurants for that. So we're going for anything that's been grilled on the barbecue now. And maybe some mashed potatoes. I can't wait to come home to real ketchup. They have Heinz here, but only at the grocery stores, really. And if you ask for ketchup at take away places, they charge you for it, and it's Wattie's tomato sauce, not ketchup. :P Tomato sauce is really gross, but after eating it with chips for four months, it's not so bad... but it's nowhere near as good as Heinz [which, oddly enough, owns Wattie's]. And Tanya wants to make breakfast one morning. She has a dish called Scrapple that involves sausage, cornbread, and apple butter, but I don't really know what it is. She tried making it here, but the sausage is too flour-y and the cornbread didn't come out, so she didn't even finish making it. It sounds interesting, though.
I kind of want one of the local birds to bother us. The kea are supposed to be really smart and try to get food from people, but we haven't run into any yet. Apparently, they attacked the other groups that came during the semester while they were here... well, not attacked, really, but persistantly tried to obtain a sandwich through the windshield. We've also run into some weird birds. There is a duck that sounds like a cat [at least, we assume it is the one that this girl Aya was talking about... it made really weird, non-duck sounds and I guess it could be considered a cat-like sound], and then we were approached by a flightless bird yesterday when we stopped to eat lunch at a scenic look out. We gave it some crackers.
By the way, after I come home, I don't want to eat another peanut butter and jelly sandwich for a really long time.
Ok. I guess that's about it, for now. I'm getting hungry and I'm going to go feed myself something warm.
I can't wait to see you all!!!
I love and miss you,
Chelcie
I currently have about four hours to kill, so I'm just emailing everyone because I have nothing else to do, really, because this town is small and I'm not hungry yet - although I should probably eat before dark because that's when everything likes to close...
ANYWAY.
Yeah, I decided to not do the Glacier Hike... at first, we weren't going to do it today because the weather report said it was going to rain and hail... so then we were going to do it tomorrow. And then I saw what it all entailed... and it reminded me a lot of what we did at Tongariro, so I decided it wasn't for me and passed... so Tanya went today and I've got the rest of the afternoon to do whatver. I just finished my book last night, too... and I'm fairly certain I didn't bring any others with me to the South Island... so ... since I'm saving some money by not doing to hike, I might just splurge a little and buy a new book. Or I can just read Pride and Prejudice, which is what Tanya was reading... but I'm really not in the mood for Jane Austen at the moment... It was kind of funny, we were camping last night and I was reading my murder mystery and I get scared pretty easily, so I kept thinking there would be an axe murderer coming for us in the middle of the night. Instead, we got possums. I woke up to a possum climbing around on the top of our tent. At first, I thought it was "just a rat," but then realised what it was and started to freak out a little... I mean, the possums [is it possums or possum?] in America are ferocious little devils, right? Like, you don't touch them no matter what... and then I started thinking about The Princess Bride and the huge rat things that they have in the forest and how the possums are JUST LIKE THAT AND OH MY GOD WE'RE GOING TO DIE. But then the possum slid off the roof of the tent and I relaxed a little. Until I began thinking of how it was going to steal our shoes -
[I guess I should stop here and explain the set up of our tent... Ok, so, we have a four person tent. We orginally bought it with Rob, so a four person tent for three people wasn't too bad. It's really big and roomy... Tanya {who had the nickname of Amazon Woman in high school} can stand up in it at the middle, so it's not like the possum was right on our heads... And there are two parts to the tent... the inner, less water proof part that you sleep in; and the outer, wind/water proof layer that goes over the inner part. This outer part, it doesn't close all the way against the outside elements, but the inner part does - once all the zippers are zipped, nothing is getting in or out unless you unzip it. The outside is just a cover to protect against the rain and wind and is sort of open at the bottom where it meets the ground. Ok. Back to the story.]
because they were sitting in between the inner and outer parts of the tent so they could dry [which never happened, by the way...], and the possum could get to it... and I assumed that the possum would steal things because it's kind of like a rat and rats steal things. Sooo [and Tanya's sleeping through alllll of this] I slowly unzip the door, but just the part that doesn't open the screen so just in case there is a possum outside, I have at least a small layer between it and me... and I don't see anything moving, so I zip that back up and unzip the actual door and quickly reach out and grab our shoes and the tent bag, all the while believing the possum was going to jump out at any minute and bite my hand off. But it didn't. I safely get the shoes inside and quickly zip the tent back up and start to relax again. And then I start thinking, what if it starts to chew its way in? WHAT THEN? What do we do then, Dragon???? {Ok, so no one except Gabe will really get that last part, but it's pretty funny... It's not really my story to tell, but I will tell it later if you ask me}, so I lay reallllllly still and stop breathing so I can hear what's going on outside. All of a sudden, I hear something walking on the mat [that's connected to the inner part and not the outer part] right by our heads {the tent has two doors, front and back, duh} and I almost had a heart attack. THE POSSUMS ARE ATTACKING! So I don't move. Actually, I wait a beat, and then start shaking Tanya awake, telling her we're surrounded by possums, which wasn't totally true... I really only think there was one the whole time, but I was freaked out, and I ask her what we should do. She says something about not going outside til morning [at which point I start thinking, "You hear that, bladder? NOT GOING OUTSIDE TIL MORNING SO DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT."] and that they'll be gone by then. She goes back to sleep and I see the possum start to climb up the pole of the tent. I don't know if it was inside or outside. Actually, now that I think about it, it had to have been on the outside because the velcro that holds the outer part to the poles on the inside was still velcroed and it would have come undone, I'm sure, if a possum were crawling around on it... Anyway, so I just see this possum head illuminated by the moonlight right above my head and try to think rational thoughts [and not how he can claw his way through the tent and eat us alive...]. So finally, I realxed enough to tell myself not to worry about it, if he starts eating his way through the tent, we'll hear it, and that would be when we could freak out or do something about it. So I fell back to sleep. And all was well.
So yeah... I decided not to the the Glacier Hike. But I went with the hiking group up to the yellow danger ropes [where they actually start their hike ... there's this walk from the carpark to the glacier, actually you never get that close to it, but anyway, and then you get to the yellow ropes and that's as far as you can go and the hikers with guides can start their journey] and then turned back. I actually didn't spend as much time walking to the ropes as everyone else does because one of the guides said I could follow them and hear the stories and then just turn back when the time came, so I got to take a short cut through the rainforest {yes, rainforest and a glacier... only three glaciers in the world are next to rainforests. Two in NZ - Franz Josef and Fox - and one in Patagonia, which is in Argentina or some place in South America}. However, on my way back to the shortcut, I decide to take pictures and take my time and just enjoy the pretty scenery and stuff... and I get 7/8s of the way to the shortcut when I realise I don't have the car keys. I check, double check, and triple check all of my pockets, but I knew full well that they had been in the pocket my camera had been in... and I kept taking my camera out of my pocket, so there was ample opportunity for my keys to fall out. Soooo I start backtracking, trying to remember exactly which way I came so I can re-trace my steps and find the keys - which, thankfully, have a yellow tag on them which would stand out against the grey rocks. I start to panic a little bit... thinking of how ALL of our stuff is now locked in a car... how if someone else finds the key, they have access to ALL of our stuff ... that I'm gonna have to pay the car company some more money to get another key/have the car unlocked. But then I start seeing a bunch of people coming back from where I was, and I start asking them if they've found any keys.... and lo and behold, someone says an older lady had found some keys. Do you ever have one of those moments in life when you've just been so devastated by some stupid move you've made only to get that moment of relief, that one moment where everything in the world seems so much brighter and more colorful just because your mistake has been rectified in a very easy manner, such as someone finding your keys for you so you don't have to scrounge about the entire glacial floor looking for a small yellow key? Yeah. That's what I felt. I finally find the woman who found it, and start thanking her a billion times and start walking back to the carpark with her. She's from the UK and will be travelling for six months and just went to Fiji {but in June... so ... yeah ... she didn't really know about the coup when I asked her about it.} and will be going to Australia for a bit and yeah. So we finally get to my shortcut but she was wearing not hiking boots and the short cut kind of goes through water, so she kept going the way she originally came. I ended up getting to the carpark just as the people who told me someone had found the keys were... so it was a pretty fast shortcut. It takes about 45 minutes to get to the ropes, I guess... Anyway. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that I have car keys.
I still don't know what I'm going to do. If I keep typing for another fifteen minutes, then I still have about three hours until Tanya's tour is over... I don't think I can eat for three hours. And I think I'm just going to c&p this into my blog...
So tonight, we're driving to Queenstown. We return the car on the 10th, I think... And we're going to stop at Puzzling World and have tons of fun there. And we are horseback riding in Qtown... I'm really excited about that. We have a few days in Qtown, but I'm not sure what else we're doing. We'll probably see Casino Royale... And then we're supposed to go to Invercargill [and see penguins! We actually saw two little blue penguins when we were taking the aquataxi to awaroa, and lots of seals!] and on to Dunedin. From Dunedin, we fly back to Auckland and from Auckland, to LA. I have, at least, a long lay over in Auckland, and Tanya might too, so we're going to call our friend from work, Jess, and see if she'll come have lunch with us at the airport.
As a condition of us coming back to the States early, we should be showered with food. We have decided this. Lots of good, yummy food. Tanya likes enchilladas, but I told her there are restaurants for that. So we're going for anything that's been grilled on the barbecue now. And maybe some mashed potatoes. I can't wait to come home to real ketchup. They have Heinz here, but only at the grocery stores, really. And if you ask for ketchup at take away places, they charge you for it, and it's Wattie's tomato sauce, not ketchup. :P Tomato sauce is really gross, but after eating it with chips for four months, it's not so bad... but it's nowhere near as good as Heinz [which, oddly enough, owns Wattie's]. And Tanya wants to make breakfast one morning. She has a dish called Scrapple that involves sausage, cornbread, and apple butter, but I don't really know what it is. She tried making it here, but the sausage is too flour-y and the cornbread didn't come out, so she didn't even finish making it. It sounds interesting, though.
I kind of want one of the local birds to bother us. The kea are supposed to be really smart and try to get food from people, but we haven't run into any yet. Apparently, they attacked the other groups that came during the semester while they were here... well, not attacked, really, but persistantly tried to obtain a sandwich through the windshield. We've also run into some weird birds. There is a duck that sounds like a cat [at least, we assume it is the one that this girl Aya was talking about... it made really weird, non-duck sounds and I guess it could be considered a cat-like sound], and then we were approached by a flightless bird yesterday when we stopped to eat lunch at a scenic look out. We gave it some crackers.
By the way, after I come home, I don't want to eat another peanut butter and jelly sandwich for a really long time.
Ok. I guess that's about it, for now. I'm getting hungry and I'm going to go feed myself something warm.
I can't wait to see you all!!!
I love and miss you,
Chelcie
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
weee!
ok, i am now in the south island! yay! currently, in nelson.
tanya and i just took a day hike, camped, and kayaked back to our starting place. i still feel like i'm in a kayak, and to tell you the truth, it might make me sick if it doesn't stop. the room is rocking!!! ick. it was a LOT of fun, though! the hike, which we originally thought was going to be an eight hour hike ended up only being three, so we took a nap on the beach before even starting it. well, i took a nap. we had to take a water taxi (oh, sorry, an ackwa (aqua) taxi) to the starting point of the hike awaroa and it was about 45 minutes... and it kind of sucked. i had to lay down on the beach for a bit to get my bearings back.
so then we hiked through the national park, and it was really pretty! lots of trees. then we got to our campsite, and pitched our tent. there was a group of 45 14 year olds there ... they were kind of noisy. they locked a girl in one of the toilet stalls and they'd keep banging on the door... and then there was this guy who kept singing 'lola ... lolololola.' it was kind of funny. the kids weren't actually that bad, they were quiet by 10, i think.
the kayaking was amazing! we rigged a sail and actually sailed three kayaks for a while. the guide we had was really funny.
annnnyway. i'm running out of time on my computer! i'll update again when i get the chance.
-- chelcie
ok, i am now in the south island! yay! currently, in nelson.
tanya and i just took a day hike, camped, and kayaked back to our starting place. i still feel like i'm in a kayak, and to tell you the truth, it might make me sick if it doesn't stop. the room is rocking!!! ick. it was a LOT of fun, though! the hike, which we originally thought was going to be an eight hour hike ended up only being three, so we took a nap on the beach before even starting it. well, i took a nap. we had to take a water taxi (oh, sorry, an ackwa (aqua) taxi) to the starting point of the hike awaroa and it was about 45 minutes... and it kind of sucked. i had to lay down on the beach for a bit to get my bearings back.
so then we hiked through the national park, and it was really pretty! lots of trees. then we got to our campsite, and pitched our tent. there was a group of 45 14 year olds there ... they were kind of noisy. they locked a girl in one of the toilet stalls and they'd keep banging on the door... and then there was this guy who kept singing 'lola ... lolololola.' it was kind of funny. the kids weren't actually that bad, they were quiet by 10, i think.
the kayaking was amazing! we rigged a sail and actually sailed three kayaks for a while. the guide we had was really funny.
annnnyway. i'm running out of time on my computer! i'll update again when i get the chance.
-- chelcie
Sunday, November 19, 2006
sosososorry!
Ok, I know. I haven't updated in a while. I always start to lag towards the end of the semester... but there really hasn't been *too* much going on here.
We aren't traveling quite as much as we used to [I have spent an inane amount of time in Auckland lately...], and I do have a big trip coming up, so ... yeah.
I did go on a trip last weekend, though, for my birthday! [Yay 22! I suddenly kind of feel like I need to become responsible or something... but I'm just ignoring it and hoping it goes away.]
Well, it wasn't specifically for my birthday, but it just so happened that my birthday came around that Monday, so it worked out for the best, in the end.
So earlier this semester, I won a free rafting trip and I finally made reservations to utilize said free trip and I found someone to go with me. Tanya's parents were in town ... and she didn't really want to go rafting anyway, because it was a level five rapids and was afraid she'd get a concussion [something about going rafting and getting concussions before, psh], so she wasn't too psyched about going anyway. So Gabriel went with me, instead.
We rented a car and left Friday after our ecology class [and after putzing around, enjoying the feeling you get after you finish your last class on a Friday, knowing you have the entire weekend ahead of you] and drove to Rotorua [we've been here before! The mud pits and the marae trip]. It was kind of rainy and foggy for part of the drive [and I was driving because I'm 21+], so I drove rather slowly, though there really weren't a lot of people on the road after we got out of Auckland, and I just let everyone else pass me.
They drive on the left side of the road here. It's crazy. Really crazy. Ok, sure, the wheel's on other side, too and then everything's just reversed (the slow lane is on the left, fast lane is on the right, the off/on ramps are on the left, the blinker switch is on the right side of the wheel! {this took some getting used to}), so after a while everything starts to fall in place. I didn't hit anything, though, so this is good.
On the way to Rotorua, we saw signs for Candyland and we actually made the detour and stopped, but it was closed, so we decided to go on our way back to Auckland.
The rest of the car trip there wasn't too bad. Driving in the dark was a bit scary since I didn't know any of the roads, but it was ok; I eventually fell in place behind someone in a car that was advertising Hoover vacuums.
We finally make it to our hostel and the room's actually pretty nice. We call it a night after a few games of cribbage [I'm pretty sure I won most of them...].
The next morning, we hang around Rotorua for a bit and then get picked up to go rafting.
I don't have any pictures of the rafting trip, just some of Gabe and a peacock outside where we got our gear, because the CD they gave me was blank. I'm waiting on them to send me another copy, so hopefully by this week I'll have some!
But it was a lot of fun! They advertise a seven meter drop, but it was not as bad as it sounds. We were over it in no time, and we didn't even flip over. No one fell out [except one of the guides, and that's because he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be, or something; I didn't even notice he had fallen out until our other guide said that he owed the rest of them a case of beer] and the raft was never in danger of flipping over... at least, it never seemed that way. I kind of wanted it to, just to say that I had, but alas, perhaps another rafting trip down some other river somewhere else in the world. The trip seemed very short, though. The website said it takes four hours, but I think they meant the whole shebang, whatwith getting into the wetsuits and travelling to the river and such. It definitely seemed a lot shorter than four hours, at any rate.
After we finished rafting, we went back to Rotorua and went to a thermal spa. We got free entry passes with the rafting trip, so we decided to check it out. It wasn't too bad; they weren't the smelly, sulfur thermal pools that are all over Rotorua. Or maybe we were just used to the slight smell of the town by that point that it didn't matter? Who knows. So we stayed in the hot pools for a while until the sunset talking about life and stories that Gabe was writing or had written until it started getting a little cold.
The next day, we decided to get up realllllly early so we could get to Taupo by six [it's only an hour and a half away] and start our day hike.
This is the only point where I actually goofed and started driving on the right side of the road instead of the left; I made a left turn and automatically went into the right lane [it was six am, in the middle of a national park, and we never saw another car the whole time we were in the park, so it wasn't like I was heading into rush hour traffic or anything] and stayed there for a few minutes until I realised I was a little too close to the edge of the road [the driver should always be in the middle of the street!] so I swerved... but Gabe didn't even notice that I was on the wrong side, and he was my navigator, so it was partly his fault, too. ;P
We finally get to where the bus was going to pick us up for the hike [you need a ride to the start and from the end because it's a really long hike that does not end where it starts], but the company we booked with had canceled [for weather, psh]... so we, in our infinite wisdom, went to another company that was still open; they gave us rain pants, hats, and gloves but said we probably wouldn't need them...
so we get dropped off at the start with some other people, and we start the hike. it was going well, it was picture-esque, slightly rainy, not too cold ... we saw a river and waterfalls and everything was all good. then all of a sudden, it gets rocky and we're climbing a mountain. hard core, steep mountain sides. we kept thinking the peak we were on was the last peak, only to look up and see more to climb. i had a panic attack because i freaked out; i couldn't look up because it seemed never-ending; i couldn't look down because we were really high and we were surrounded by fog so you couldn't see much around you. it started getting colder and it started raining harder, and the climbing never stopped...
so finally, we get to a point where it levels out, but there was snow and then the snow turned to ice water and my boots were less water proof than i thought, so my feet got cold and wet and i stopped being able to feel them after a while; and my pants were soaked because the rain pants i had had a hole in them, so it was just kind of bad. finally, we get through the ice water and we start climbing again. this time, we don't think it'll be much more to climb because we know there's a second peak, we just didn't realise it was steeper and higher, which means windier and rainier and colder.
the wind gets so bad that we have to hang on to rocks at some points because it felt like we were going to get blown off the mountain side. at this point, all i can think is, 'oh my god, we're on the side of a mountain, we're gonna get blown off, no one knows where we are...', so needless to say i was still freaking out a little bit.
at some point, we met a group going back because the wind was too bad. they had a guide. the guide was telling them to go back. we decided to go back with them. at least we would be with a group, with a guide, and at least other people would know the group was out. we were so close to being over that mountain and so close to being half way through the hike, but we decided to go back. the first thought through both of our heads was going back through the ice water and we didn't want to go back through it... but we turned around and started walking.
we make it back through the water, and i still can't feel my feet. i kind of freak out about it, but figure i'll be ok, regardless of what happens to my toes. but then, all i could think about was making a wrong step because i couldn't really feel my feet and then falling and breaking a leg or arm. as we get more and more down the mountain, though, it starts getting warmer and less windy, so i started feeling a little better and started sliding down parts of the mountain in the mud because my legs hurt and i probably would have slid anyway.
we make it all the way back down the mountain, but we still had the easy, flat part of the hike to go. at this point, life seems so much better, the rain is warmer and it just felt good to not be climbing anymore. i was able to feel my feet as we walked through warmer puddles and such, so that helped, too. at this point, it was more of an issue of "just keep moving" and get back to the start; we were both exhausted and really ready to be done. but we get back to the start and then we had to deal with our wet clothes and the wind and the fact we had no transport back to the rental car.
the guide arrives behind us and says we can hitch a ride with them, but that the bus will be about ten to fifteen minutes. we're huddled under this wooden shelter, waiting.... nothing happens and it feels like it's been forever, so we start trying to hitch a ride with people that are in the parking lot. the first people there are these french people who are waiting for the weather to clear so they can do the hike... i try to tell them that it's not a good day and that it would be greatly appreciated if they could just take us back to the visitor's center... but they were really hesitant, so i didn't push the issue and we decide to keep waiting for the other bus.
there was more waiting that felt like forever. finally a park ranger shows up! he was there doing some sort of security check and we practically begged him to take us back to the visitor's center. but, really, i think he had to take us anywhere we needed to go because we were in distress. he gave us a talking to about how we should have been more prepared, how we shouldn't have gone on the hike because the weather wasn't good, and that sort of thing.
he finally drops us off at our car and tells us to go to the visitor's center to change [some have showers! but this one didn't, unfortunately], so we try to get the heat up in the car and drive around to the visitor's center and grab whatever dry clothes we had and go change. i left a bunch of mud in the restroom because it got caught between the rain pants and my jeans, and when i took the rain pants off, mud just sort of fell out, everywhere. i had gone into a stall to change into dry underwear and someone else came into the bathroom, and my clothes were all over the sink [it was a small, two sink/stall bathroom, so it wasn't *that* bad], and my pants were on the floor with the mud, so i hurry up and try to clean up a little bit and put on some more clothes. the lady comes out and says something about being wet enough, but i couldn't understand her, so i just smiled and nodded until she left.
my hands were swollen, my legs were red, and my lips, knuckles, and feet were blue. i tried warming up with water, but it wasn't working, so i tried the air dryer, but that was too hot, so it just wasn't working for me.
finally, gabe and i met back up and got some hot chocolate and something hot to eat while the car warmed up more. then we drove back to taupo and found our hostel, got dinner, and took really hot showers. the hostel had laundry facilities, so we rinsed [the front desk was out of soap, so we just ran the washer] and then dried our clothes. we also had to lay out a lot of our stuff because it was all wet.
the next day, we drove back through rotorua back to auckland, but we stopped in tirau at the castle [the world's largest toy collection!] and about an hour out of auckland at candyland. everything seemed just a little brighter and more colorful because it was really nice to just be alive.
it was a lot of fun, overall, though. once we were actually out of any trouble, everything seemed better.
later that night, i got convinced into going out [it was my brithday, after all], and so a group of us went to a pub and just hung out for a bit.
then, on wednesday, it was jess's birthday [the girl i work with at richmond who went to bu and did the nz study abroad and interned at richmond before me], so we had a party in the office.
this weekend, we made a really nice dinner [roast chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce! {pre-thanksgiving dinner}], and a group of us went to mission bay for fish'n'chips and awesome ice cream, and then played some team cribbage and got kfc. it was a really relaxing weekend.
i'm racking up the injuries this week, though. :P when we went to kfc, we hopped some barriers to take a short cut, and on the way back i didn't make it over as gracefully as i had before and got a nice big scrape down my thigh. then, today, i was going through some doors and apparently didn't realise when exactly i had to let go of the door [the handle was weird] and my knuckle kind of popped and got jarred; so now it's kind of swollen and hurts a bit... but! i can bend it, so i don't think it's broken... but it hurts at the bottom knuckle if i move it side to side... so yeah, i hear you, don't move it side to side. :P
i plan to take it easy for a while. we have two weeks left in school [one lab report, an exam, and a plant identification test left!] and then tanya and i tour the south island for about two weeks and spend a few days in fiji [doing absolutely nothing!] and then i'm home!
i can't wait to see you all again! i miss home so much! i'm glad i haven't been sick for a while, it would have made this part of the trip pretty bad.
but anyway, i have some work to get done!
talk to you all soon.
-- chelcie
ps pictures will be going up soon.
We aren't traveling quite as much as we used to [I have spent an inane amount of time in Auckland lately...], and I do have a big trip coming up, so ... yeah.
I did go on a trip last weekend, though, for my birthday! [Yay 22! I suddenly kind of feel like I need to become responsible or something... but I'm just ignoring it and hoping it goes away.]
Well, it wasn't specifically for my birthday, but it just so happened that my birthday came around that Monday, so it worked out for the best, in the end.
So earlier this semester, I won a free rafting trip and I finally made reservations to utilize said free trip and I found someone to go with me. Tanya's parents were in town ... and she didn't really want to go rafting anyway, because it was a level five rapids and was afraid she'd get a concussion [something about going rafting and getting concussions before, psh], so she wasn't too psyched about going anyway. So Gabriel went with me, instead.
We rented a car and left Friday after our ecology class [and after putzing around, enjoying the feeling you get after you finish your last class on a Friday, knowing you have the entire weekend ahead of you] and drove to Rotorua [we've been here before! The mud pits and the marae trip]. It was kind of rainy and foggy for part of the drive [and I was driving because I'm 21+], so I drove rather slowly, though there really weren't a lot of people on the road after we got out of Auckland, and I just let everyone else pass me.
They drive on the left side of the road here. It's crazy. Really crazy. Ok, sure, the wheel's on other side, too and then everything's just reversed (the slow lane is on the left, fast lane is on the right, the off/on ramps are on the left, the blinker switch is on the right side of the wheel! {this took some getting used to}), so after a while everything starts to fall in place. I didn't hit anything, though, so this is good.
On the way to Rotorua, we saw signs for Candyland and we actually made the detour and stopped, but it was closed, so we decided to go on our way back to Auckland.
The rest of the car trip there wasn't too bad. Driving in the dark was a bit scary since I didn't know any of the roads, but it was ok; I eventually fell in place behind someone in a car that was advertising Hoover vacuums.
We finally make it to our hostel and the room's actually pretty nice. We call it a night after a few games of cribbage [I'm pretty sure I won most of them...].
The next morning, we hang around Rotorua for a bit and then get picked up to go rafting.
I don't have any pictures of the rafting trip, just some of Gabe and a peacock outside where we got our gear, because the CD they gave me was blank. I'm waiting on them to send me another copy, so hopefully by this week I'll have some!
But it was a lot of fun! They advertise a seven meter drop, but it was not as bad as it sounds. We were over it in no time, and we didn't even flip over. No one fell out [except one of the guides, and that's because he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be, or something; I didn't even notice he had fallen out until our other guide said that he owed the rest of them a case of beer] and the raft was never in danger of flipping over... at least, it never seemed that way. I kind of wanted it to, just to say that I had, but alas, perhaps another rafting trip down some other river somewhere else in the world. The trip seemed very short, though. The website said it takes four hours, but I think they meant the whole shebang, whatwith getting into the wetsuits and travelling to the river and such. It definitely seemed a lot shorter than four hours, at any rate.
After we finished rafting, we went back to Rotorua and went to a thermal spa. We got free entry passes with the rafting trip, so we decided to check it out. It wasn't too bad; they weren't the smelly, sulfur thermal pools that are all over Rotorua. Or maybe we were just used to the slight smell of the town by that point that it didn't matter? Who knows. So we stayed in the hot pools for a while until the sunset talking about life and stories that Gabe was writing or had written until it started getting a little cold.
The next day, we decided to get up realllllly early so we could get to Taupo by six [it's only an hour and a half away] and start our day hike.
This is the only point where I actually goofed and started driving on the right side of the road instead of the left; I made a left turn and automatically went into the right lane [it was six am, in the middle of a national park, and we never saw another car the whole time we were in the park, so it wasn't like I was heading into rush hour traffic or anything] and stayed there for a few minutes until I realised I was a little too close to the edge of the road [the driver should always be in the middle of the street!] so I swerved... but Gabe didn't even notice that I was on the wrong side, and he was my navigator, so it was partly his fault, too. ;P
We finally get to where the bus was going to pick us up for the hike [you need a ride to the start and from the end because it's a really long hike that does not end where it starts], but the company we booked with had canceled [for weather, psh]... so we, in our infinite wisdom, went to another company that was still open; they gave us rain pants, hats, and gloves but said we probably wouldn't need them...
so we get dropped off at the start with some other people, and we start the hike. it was going well, it was picture-esque, slightly rainy, not too cold ... we saw a river and waterfalls and everything was all good. then all of a sudden, it gets rocky and we're climbing a mountain. hard core, steep mountain sides. we kept thinking the peak we were on was the last peak, only to look up and see more to climb. i had a panic attack because i freaked out; i couldn't look up because it seemed never-ending; i couldn't look down because we were really high and we were surrounded by fog so you couldn't see much around you. it started getting colder and it started raining harder, and the climbing never stopped...
so finally, we get to a point where it levels out, but there was snow and then the snow turned to ice water and my boots were less water proof than i thought, so my feet got cold and wet and i stopped being able to feel them after a while; and my pants were soaked because the rain pants i had had a hole in them, so it was just kind of bad. finally, we get through the ice water and we start climbing again. this time, we don't think it'll be much more to climb because we know there's a second peak, we just didn't realise it was steeper and higher, which means windier and rainier and colder.
the wind gets so bad that we have to hang on to rocks at some points because it felt like we were going to get blown off the mountain side. at this point, all i can think is, 'oh my god, we're on the side of a mountain, we're gonna get blown off, no one knows where we are...', so needless to say i was still freaking out a little bit.
at some point, we met a group going back because the wind was too bad. they had a guide. the guide was telling them to go back. we decided to go back with them. at least we would be with a group, with a guide, and at least other people would know the group was out. we were so close to being over that mountain and so close to being half way through the hike, but we decided to go back. the first thought through both of our heads was going back through the ice water and we didn't want to go back through it... but we turned around and started walking.
we make it back through the water, and i still can't feel my feet. i kind of freak out about it, but figure i'll be ok, regardless of what happens to my toes. but then, all i could think about was making a wrong step because i couldn't really feel my feet and then falling and breaking a leg or arm. as we get more and more down the mountain, though, it starts getting warmer and less windy, so i started feeling a little better and started sliding down parts of the mountain in the mud because my legs hurt and i probably would have slid anyway.
we make it all the way back down the mountain, but we still had the easy, flat part of the hike to go. at this point, life seems so much better, the rain is warmer and it just felt good to not be climbing anymore. i was able to feel my feet as we walked through warmer puddles and such, so that helped, too. at this point, it was more of an issue of "just keep moving" and get back to the start; we were both exhausted and really ready to be done. but we get back to the start and then we had to deal with our wet clothes and the wind and the fact we had no transport back to the rental car.
the guide arrives behind us and says we can hitch a ride with them, but that the bus will be about ten to fifteen minutes. we're huddled under this wooden shelter, waiting.... nothing happens and it feels like it's been forever, so we start trying to hitch a ride with people that are in the parking lot. the first people there are these french people who are waiting for the weather to clear so they can do the hike... i try to tell them that it's not a good day and that it would be greatly appreciated if they could just take us back to the visitor's center... but they were really hesitant, so i didn't push the issue and we decide to keep waiting for the other bus.
there was more waiting that felt like forever. finally a park ranger shows up! he was there doing some sort of security check and we practically begged him to take us back to the visitor's center. but, really, i think he had to take us anywhere we needed to go because we were in distress. he gave us a talking to about how we should have been more prepared, how we shouldn't have gone on the hike because the weather wasn't good, and that sort of thing.
he finally drops us off at our car and tells us to go to the visitor's center to change [some have showers! but this one didn't, unfortunately], so we try to get the heat up in the car and drive around to the visitor's center and grab whatever dry clothes we had and go change. i left a bunch of mud in the restroom because it got caught between the rain pants and my jeans, and when i took the rain pants off, mud just sort of fell out, everywhere. i had gone into a stall to change into dry underwear and someone else came into the bathroom, and my clothes were all over the sink [it was a small, two sink/stall bathroom, so it wasn't *that* bad], and my pants were on the floor with the mud, so i hurry up and try to clean up a little bit and put on some more clothes. the lady comes out and says something about being wet enough, but i couldn't understand her, so i just smiled and nodded until she left.
my hands were swollen, my legs were red, and my lips, knuckles, and feet were blue. i tried warming up with water, but it wasn't working, so i tried the air dryer, but that was too hot, so it just wasn't working for me.
finally, gabe and i met back up and got some hot chocolate and something hot to eat while the car warmed up more. then we drove back to taupo and found our hostel, got dinner, and took really hot showers. the hostel had laundry facilities, so we rinsed [the front desk was out of soap, so we just ran the washer] and then dried our clothes. we also had to lay out a lot of our stuff because it was all wet.
the next day, we drove back through rotorua back to auckland, but we stopped in tirau at the castle [the world's largest toy collection!] and about an hour out of auckland at candyland. everything seemed just a little brighter and more colorful because it was really nice to just be alive.
it was a lot of fun, overall, though. once we were actually out of any trouble, everything seemed better.
later that night, i got convinced into going out [it was my brithday, after all], and so a group of us went to a pub and just hung out for a bit.
then, on wednesday, it was jess's birthday [the girl i work with at richmond who went to bu and did the nz study abroad and interned at richmond before me], so we had a party in the office.
this weekend, we made a really nice dinner [roast chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce! {pre-thanksgiving dinner}], and a group of us went to mission bay for fish'n'chips and awesome ice cream, and then played some team cribbage and got kfc. it was a really relaxing weekend.
i'm racking up the injuries this week, though. :P when we went to kfc, we hopped some barriers to take a short cut, and on the way back i didn't make it over as gracefully as i had before and got a nice big scrape down my thigh. then, today, i was going through some doors and apparently didn't realise when exactly i had to let go of the door [the handle was weird] and my knuckle kind of popped and got jarred; so now it's kind of swollen and hurts a bit... but! i can bend it, so i don't think it's broken... but it hurts at the bottom knuckle if i move it side to side... so yeah, i hear you, don't move it side to side. :P
i plan to take it easy for a while. we have two weeks left in school [one lab report, an exam, and a plant identification test left!] and then tanya and i tour the south island for about two weeks and spend a few days in fiji [doing absolutely nothing!] and then i'm home!
i can't wait to see you all again! i miss home so much! i'm glad i haven't been sick for a while, it would have made this part of the trip pretty bad.
but anyway, i have some work to get done!
talk to you all soon.
-- chelcie
ps pictures will be going up soon.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Wow, so this week went by kind of quickly!
On Monday, we had a Halloween party for some of the kids at Richmond. Tanya, Jess, and I planned and set it up. At first, when all the kids came in [there were only about seven at this point], they didn't seem too interested in what was going on, but they warmed up eventually. We started with the "creepy body parts" game, where you have foods in bags and make the kids guess what body part it's supposed to be. We had peeled grapes (eye balls), the grape skins (skin), cooked spaghetti (intestines), cauliflower (brain), mushy tomato (kidney), popcorn kernels (teeth), and green beans (fingers). Some of the kids didn't want to participate in it, which, you know, I guess it's kind of gross... :P
After that, we played the spider web game. Tanya had made a huge spider web of yarn on one half of the room, then intertwined different colors through it. The kids had to work in teams and choose one color and follow it to the end. Whoever got to the end first, won. Well, they all ended up getting prizes, so it was really for bragging rights, at that point. This is about when they really started having fun. They got to crawl around on the floor and it got them all into it.
Then we had food! We made worms and dirt (chocolate pudding with oreos crumbled on top with gummy worms), cookies decorated with ghosts and pumpkins (out of powdered sugar and food coloring... we did the decorations - and they looked fine - until they got smooshed on the way there...) chips, soda, the left-over grapes, apples and caramel, and candy. This took up a lot of our time, and four more kids came while we were eating. They had gotten stuck in traffic. Jess painted the faces of some of the kids.
Oh, I should mention we were all dressed up, too. Jess was a pirate, Tanya was Daphne from Scoobie Doo, and I was a witch.
After the food, we played one more game - the mummy race. The kids were partnered up again and each had to wrap an entire roll of toilet paper around the legs of their partner, then mummy walk to the other side of the room, and wrap their arms, torsos, and heads and mummy walk back to where they started. It was a lot of fun, and really messy. The other adults there, though, helped to clean up the whole way through, so when it was time to leave after that, the clean up was really quick and easy.
My tonsilitis has pretty much cleared up; I'm not fully 100% yet, but I'm on my way. :) I'm ready to not be sick, now. It's starting to get nicer here, and I don't like being cooped up in my room just because I might get sicker. :P
Not much else has happened this week...
I had a lab report due Friday ... and we had a field trip to the beach to look at snails. I' m not sure what we're doing with the information about the snails, though... And then on Saturday we had another field trip to a different beach ... and we basically just snorkeled and laid out in the sun. Well, I didn't snorkel because they needed wetsuits and that means the water is pretty cold... and, like I said, I'm not 100% and I could hear my mother's voice in the back of my head telling me it wasn't a good idea, so I didn't do it. :P There will be other opportunities, though. I just laid out with Gabriel, Thea, and Rob, instead, and worked on evening out my tan, and subsequently got slightly burned, but it's not too bad.
Anyway, that's about all that's been going on.
Oh! Next weekend, I'm going white water rafting and then doing a day hike called the Tongoriro Crossing, which part of Lord of the Rings was filmed at. I'll take as many pictures as I can! I'm betting there will be more of the hike than the rafting, but it's just a guess. ;P
Ok! I'm going to go do some work and upload some pictures!
:)
On Monday, we had a Halloween party for some of the kids at Richmond. Tanya, Jess, and I planned and set it up. At first, when all the kids came in [there were only about seven at this point], they didn't seem too interested in what was going on, but they warmed up eventually. We started with the "creepy body parts" game, where you have foods in bags and make the kids guess what body part it's supposed to be. We had peeled grapes (eye balls), the grape skins (skin), cooked spaghetti (intestines), cauliflower (brain), mushy tomato (kidney), popcorn kernels (teeth), and green beans (fingers). Some of the kids didn't want to participate in it, which, you know, I guess it's kind of gross... :P
After that, we played the spider web game. Tanya had made a huge spider web of yarn on one half of the room, then intertwined different colors through it. The kids had to work in teams and choose one color and follow it to the end. Whoever got to the end first, won. Well, they all ended up getting prizes, so it was really for bragging rights, at that point. This is about when they really started having fun. They got to crawl around on the floor and it got them all into it.
Then we had food! We made worms and dirt (chocolate pudding with oreos crumbled on top with gummy worms), cookies decorated with ghosts and pumpkins (out of powdered sugar and food coloring... we did the decorations - and they looked fine - until they got smooshed on the way there...) chips, soda, the left-over grapes, apples and caramel, and candy. This took up a lot of our time, and four more kids came while we were eating. They had gotten stuck in traffic. Jess painted the faces of some of the kids.
Oh, I should mention we were all dressed up, too. Jess was a pirate, Tanya was Daphne from Scoobie Doo, and I was a witch.
After the food, we played one more game - the mummy race. The kids were partnered up again and each had to wrap an entire roll of toilet paper around the legs of their partner, then mummy walk to the other side of the room, and wrap their arms, torsos, and heads and mummy walk back to where they started. It was a lot of fun, and really messy. The other adults there, though, helped to clean up the whole way through, so when it was time to leave after that, the clean up was really quick and easy.
My tonsilitis has pretty much cleared up; I'm not fully 100% yet, but I'm on my way. :) I'm ready to not be sick, now. It's starting to get nicer here, and I don't like being cooped up in my room just because I might get sicker. :P
Not much else has happened this week...
I had a lab report due Friday ... and we had a field trip to the beach to look at snails. I' m not sure what we're doing with the information about the snails, though... And then on Saturday we had another field trip to a different beach ... and we basically just snorkeled and laid out in the sun. Well, I didn't snorkel because they needed wetsuits and that means the water is pretty cold... and, like I said, I'm not 100% and I could hear my mother's voice in the back of my head telling me it wasn't a good idea, so I didn't do it. :P There will be other opportunities, though. I just laid out with Gabriel, Thea, and Rob, instead, and worked on evening out my tan, and subsequently got slightly burned, but it's not too bad.
Anyway, that's about all that's been going on.
Oh! Next weekend, I'm going white water rafting and then doing a day hike called the Tongoriro Crossing, which part of Lord of the Rings was filmed at. I'll take as many pictures as I can! I'm betting there will be more of the hike than the rafting, but it's just a guess. ;P
Ok! I'm going to go do some work and upload some pictures!
:)
Monday, October 23, 2006
So I've started my internship and it is a lot of fun. I work with Tanya, so it's nice to have someone there that I know.
We work at Richmond Fellowship New Zealand. It is a company that offers support and help to children with behavioural problems, mental illnesses, or who are just in a tough spot in their life at the moment. Richmond is a referral program, so the kids have to come in through a specific company.
I've been given the task of creating a parent's reference manual for a variety of issues ranging from support groups to general parenting advice. Tanya's working on collecting information about how similar programs are run in different countries.
Together with Jess, who is from BU and went through the study abroad program and was asked to come back and work for Richmond, we're hosting a Halloween party for the younger kids. Halloween isn't as big here as it is in the States, but it should still be a lot of fun.
This weekend, we're having a cocktail party/costume party. You can either dress up for the cocktail party or come dressed as your alter ego. I got a really nice dress and will be going for the cocktail party. The whole point of it is for a bunch of birthdays that are upcoming. Hopefully, it will go well. I'll let you all know.
I've also been diagnosed with tonsilitis. I can't believe I'm getting illnesses that I should have had as a child. It's not fair. The doctor told me to stay home today [I actually have a doctor's note!] since I might be working with kids, and people in general, today. So I'm home. Updating stuff, instead! I plan on getting some work done, though.
On Sunday, about half of the group went to Waiheke, and island that's about 35 minutes from downtown Auckland. It was Labour Day weekend, so all of the lodging was booked, or else we would have stayed the night. Instead, Tanya and I split off from the group and went to a winery for a wine-tasting, and then went kayaking for about an hour and a half. We walked around the island for a bit and then met up with the others for dinner and a drink. The other kids went to a winery and a brewery, during which they met Chef Jeff who offered to give them a lift to get lunch and then bring them back to where they were to meet us, and then a lift back to the ferry. It was really nice; they ended up buying him a few drinks. His car, though, was this old truck with a canvas top in the back... and we felt like were refugees being smuggled across the boarder. Tanya and I had a lot of fun picking out all the details of the experience - like the metallic smell of the bed, the claning of metal on metal, the dispair in some people's eyes... the longing gaze at the small ray of light of hope...
Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm going to get some work done, hopefully.
:)
We work at Richmond Fellowship New Zealand. It is a company that offers support and help to children with behavioural problems, mental illnesses, or who are just in a tough spot in their life at the moment. Richmond is a referral program, so the kids have to come in through a specific company.
I've been given the task of creating a parent's reference manual for a variety of issues ranging from support groups to general parenting advice. Tanya's working on collecting information about how similar programs are run in different countries.
Together with Jess, who is from BU and went through the study abroad program and was asked to come back and work for Richmond, we're hosting a Halloween party for the younger kids. Halloween isn't as big here as it is in the States, but it should still be a lot of fun.
This weekend, we're having a cocktail party/costume party. You can either dress up for the cocktail party or come dressed as your alter ego. I got a really nice dress and will be going for the cocktail party. The whole point of it is for a bunch of birthdays that are upcoming. Hopefully, it will go well. I'll let you all know.
I've also been diagnosed with tonsilitis. I can't believe I'm getting illnesses that I should have had as a child. It's not fair. The doctor told me to stay home today [I actually have a doctor's note!] since I might be working with kids, and people in general, today. So I'm home. Updating stuff, instead! I plan on getting some work done, though.
On Sunday, about half of the group went to Waiheke, and island that's about 35 minutes from downtown Auckland. It was Labour Day weekend, so all of the lodging was booked, or else we would have stayed the night. Instead, Tanya and I split off from the group and went to a winery for a wine-tasting, and then went kayaking for about an hour and a half. We walked around the island for a bit and then met up with the others for dinner and a drink. The other kids went to a winery and a brewery, during which they met Chef Jeff who offered to give them a lift to get lunch and then bring them back to where they were to meet us, and then a lift back to the ferry. It was really nice; they ended up buying him a few drinks. His car, though, was this old truck with a canvas top in the back... and we felt like were refugees being smuggled across the boarder. Tanya and I had a lot of fun picking out all the details of the experience - like the metallic smell of the bed, the claning of metal on metal, the dispair in some people's eyes... the longing gaze at the small ray of light of hope...
Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm going to get some work done, hopefully.
:)
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Ok so this is all from a while ago. I was waiting for my blog to get unlocked and just kept updating and not being able to publish it. So... here's what I've been up to!
So my blog has been locked because it has "spam-like characteristics." Until they unlock it [which I have received an email saying they have, but I have yet to see that reflected on the website], I will just write and then update/publish once I am capable of doing so.
Oh man. This weekend was CRAZY. I forgot to mention that we went to the live taping of New Zealand Idol last Monday! It was ... interesting. Nowhere near as large as American Idol, obviously, but it was still full of crazy fans. People started crying when they found out who was voted off. :( And, apparently, there's video of some of the BU kids. They stuck some of us behind the judges; I wasn't among them, though.
Ok. So Friday, we drove to Waitomo and went black water rafting... it was kind of 2/5 tubing/black water rafting [complete with renditions of "Old McDonald had a Farm"] and 3/5 climbing through the cave. Pictures aren't up yet; some of the others have pics from the caves, though. I'm stealing them and adding them to my album at a later date.
After the caves, we were all pretty hungry, so we got some dinner at the only restaurant that was open and watched rugby on big screen tvs.
Tanya, Rob, and I camped out in a tent that night. It was pretty cool! There were emus, cows, and roosters around, so it was kind of farmy. I wasn't feeling well, though, and I ended up waking up feeling even worse the following day. We were supposed to go hiking, but instead Tanya, Rob and I rented ... some sort sailboat thing. I don't know what kind it was... but it had a jib!
Anyway, so we went out on the water for a bit; Tanya and Rob did most, er, all of the work since, yannow, I don't really know how to sail. I could've sworn we were going to tip over a few times, but we never took on any water, so my confidence in their sailing abilities have not been lowered.
That night, we all had a picnic in a park. Well, it was a hodgepodge picnic. Someone got a whole chicken, there were bananas and nutella, peanut butter and jelly, hummus and pita, salads... it was a veritable feast for us college kids. After we finished, we went down to some fresh water hot springs. Since I wasn't feeling well, I just took pictures of everyone and didn't partake in the festivities. That night, I stayed in a hostel to get a good night's sleep since I was going skydiving the next day...
Yes, you read right. I went skydiving. I did feel better the next morning; I could breathe at least, which is important when you're 15,000 feet in the air... Rob posted the video online. When I find it, I'll post it under my links section.
It was amazing! We skydived over Lake Taupo which had incredible views. The whole way up, I didn't know what to think. I was kind of calm, considering I was strapped to a complete stranger who would shortly be pushing me out of the plane... I was okay until the first person went and I was being pushed towards the door. The second person went out and I got pushed even further to the door... my feet were hanging out the plane and I was close to asking, "Hey, can we think about this before we do it?" and I was tumbling out of the plane and yeah, I'm not gonna lie, it was kinda scary.
We had about a forty-five seconds of free-fall before the parachute was pulled. It didn't even feel like you're falling, though. My camera guy kept making hand gestures to me, and I couldn't figure out what he was trying to communicate to me. I didn't even realise he was taking video/photos. My mind kind of went blank as soon as I was hurled out of the plane. So when you see the video, that's why I look really lame. :P
After we finished skydiving [which I will totally do again], we went on a sailing tour of the lake and saw these carvings on the side of a mountain. It was really impressive ... and then we found out they were less than thirty years old... they were still pretty cool... but less so at that point.
That night, we all treated ourselves to a nice dinner and drove home back to Auckland.
That week in school, we had exams... but apparently, exams aren't to interfere with us having fun. One night we went out for a bit just to relax; the next night we went to the casino [I came out ahead! I kept telling some of the others to leave while they were ahead but they wouldn't listen to the girl from Vegas for some reason...]; and then we studied. The exams weren't too hard. Just essay questions based on our lectures and straight from the book... and we were given the questions ahead of time, or the question subjects... so it was really one of those exams where if you did poorly, it really was your own fault.
Right after we finished our last exam, Tanya and I treated ourselves to a massage. It felt soooo good and we felt a lot better. And we promptly ruined the benefits by attending another rugby game and sitting in hard plastic bleacher chairs. We all hung out and enjoyed being done with the first half of the semester that night... and we packed to go to the Cook Islands!
We left really early for the Cook Islands because Daylights Savings kicked in the night before, so we lost an hour. I think that puts us 20 hours ahead of the west coast.
Anyway, so we flew to Rarotonga on Sunday and got there on Saturday [yay for crossing international date lines!]. From Rarotonga, we flew to Mangaia in the smallest commercial plane I've ever been in. It held only about fifteen people... and when we landed in Mangaia [which has only about 500 people living there and you can drive around the entire island in a half hour], the airport was just a strip of dirt and a building. The group had to split up to fly to Mangaia, so those of us of the first group just kind of hung around the airport talking to some of the locals and exploring the surroundings.
When the other group finally joined us, we were driven to a village and we had a feast, then we were taken to the hall where we'd be staying for most of the week and crashed. Well, some of us crashed; others went out to the only bar on the island. Tanya and I were super tired, so we stayed in with some of the others and one of the guys that also stayed in read to us because he's got a great reading voice.
The next day, we went to a church service and had a breakfast kaikai [the feast/feed thing they had everywhere for us to keep us all fed, but they do these for all their guests]. After that, we took a hike up a hill [which I don't quite understand why the lady took us up the way she did since all of the girls were wearing skirts and it was a climb] and saw the village's school. Some people went back to the hall we were staying at, and others of us just sat and enjoyed the view [they have an ocean view at the school... it's not really fair], that is, until we discovered the coconuts. Some of the boys started to try to open the coconuts and it took them so long to crack the husk open. What sucks even more is the fact that the very first one they did was old and had no coconut meat in it... A few of the guys started to climb the trees, too... and they got pretty scratched up.
After that, we went back to the hall; we took a drive around the island. We stopped in Tamarua and had lunch/dinner and we got to see all of the island - or rather, the perimeter with the main road. Parts really looked like it came from Jurrasic Park. When we left Tamarua and got back to our village, we went to the beach. Their beach is all coral reef, though, so it wasn't like we could go swimming or anything. When it started getting dark, Thea, Gabe, and I walked back to the hall and Thea and I got really good showers.
I guess I should point out here that the island has no hot water. And the hall we stayed at had horrible water pressure. If someone turned on a tap, the shower would shut off. So since we got back before anyone else, Thea and I enjoyed nice, cold showers that had water pressure. After that, the three of us had philosophical discussions over Hearts.
When the rest of the group showed up, Tanya, Rob, Gabe, Thea, and I played a game called Coins. What happens is that you get dealt four cards and the dealer uses the rest of the deck to try to get a four of a kind. You can only hold four cards at a time, so you discard anything you don't need to the person next to you. Once you get four of a kind, you grab a coin from the pot in the middle [there are other variations of this game where you use spoons or stick out your tongue]. There's always one less coin than person, so as soon as the first person grabs a coin, everyone else lunges for the rest of them, and the person who doesn't get one gets a "C." It's kind of like musical chairs meets horse. The more you don't get a coin, the more letters get added on. The game gets kind of violent and frantic the longer it goes on... we finally stopped after Rob's glasses got bent out of shape. Thea, Gabe, and I then finished our philosophical discussions on a walk through the village. The ended, not because we were tired or out of things to discuss, but because roosters started crowing and we weren't sure what time it was and we didn't want to be thought missing if we weren't back home before the next morning ... not that it would have been a big issue; the island's tiny and they would have found us eventually...
The next morning, we attended an assembly at the school and then had breakfast there. After the breakfast, we went down to a different beach and hung out for a while until we had to go back and go to yet another meal. [It sounds like all we did was eat ... well... yeah... they fed us at least four times a day]. I can't remember what else we did that day... Hmm...
The next day, we went to a breakfast and then we were taught how to make rope from coconuts [first, you husk it, then you pound the husks, then you separate the really tough parts of the husk from the mush, then you braid them!], and then we had lunch and then a nature walk. A lot of people opted out of the nature hike, so it ended up being Gabe, Aya, and me who went, so they just drove us through where we were going to hike [it wasn't as bad as everyone thought it was going to be, and at the end we saw the remains of a shipwreck had by Zaragoza {and I climbed the old, rusted anchor... I'm really lucky I didn't get tetanus}] and cut the time in half.
By the time we got back from the nature drive, it was time to leave for our billet's house [billet, I think, is the Maori word for host?]. We had a two day stay with local families. My family lived in Tamarua, which is about a 30 minute drive from the village where most of the others were staying. When we got to the Tamarua, my billet, Juliet, took me for a walk through her village and showed me their taro plantation. We had dinner and then we went to bed early because we were supposed to have a church service at five am the next day.
However, the next day came and we didn't go to the church service. Juliet's parents had meetings that ran a little long the night before and they were tired. We had breakfast and then we drove to the school and learned crafts from the students. I now know how to make no less than ten things from a palm frond, including: glasses, rings, bracelets/anklets, earrings, titis [kind of like grass skirts], and bracelet/leg things that are worn during dances. After that, our billets picked us up and we went back to their homes. I had dinner and made eis with my host family. Eis are leis... just without the l. I went to bed early because I was really tired, and I ended up waking up later than the rest of the family... but this could be because their roosters woke them up and I was just too out of it to care that roosters were crowing.
We went back to the school and practiced a song/dance routine we were to perform that night for the school, and then later, the bar. We were fed some more. And we tie-dyed! That was a lot of fun; I only made one, though, because I was sunburned by this time and it really hurt to be in the sun for any longer than a few minutes. We were given about an hour of downtime before we had to be back at the school, so we just hung around the hall we were staying at. The school put on some dances for us after the feast, and then we sang and danced for them. It was a lot of fun after it was all said and done. We felt really stupid dancing beforehand, but when it got dark and after we saw the school's performance, we just had fun and let loose.
After that, we headed to Babe's Bar for an encore performance, except there was more dancing and less singing... all of the girls wore coconut bras [except me... again, I was sunburned and coconut rope isn't that smooth... and I really didn't feel comfortable with it], so that may be why.
The next morning, there was a market where my billet and I got breakfast. She drove me around the island on her bike for a bit, then we went back to the hall and I finished packing and cleaning up. Then it was off to the airport and back to Auckland!
Today I was supposed to start my internship, but the lady never emailed me back from before I left for Mangaia, so I went at 9 AM and there was no one there. I called the lady and she said she'd call me back ... and then someone showed up and told me she wouldn't be in until 1 PM... so I called my director and left a note for the lady and went back to the dorms. She never called me back and left two more messages for her... so hopefully she'll contact me before tomorrow. Although, I think Tanya goes with me tomorrow, so maybe something will happen. I didn't want to go back at 1 PM because it costs about ten dollars roundtrip and it's about 30-45 minutes one way, and I'd already made the trip once today. We'll see how things go.
On the bright side, I was able to get my laundry done. :D It is so nice to be home and connected to the world again... and to take hot showers with water pressure... and to be able to get clean... and to have clean clothes... and no roosters or goats... and no bugs everywhere [and when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE].
Anyway! I'm going to go find the skydiving video and move everything to this site. Sorry if I kept you guys waiting! It didn't occur to me to just make a new account until this afternoon. :P
So my blog has been locked because it has "spam-like characteristics." Until they unlock it [which I have received an email saying they have, but I have yet to see that reflected on the website], I will just write and then update/publish once I am capable of doing so.
Oh man. This weekend was CRAZY. I forgot to mention that we went to the live taping of New Zealand Idol last Monday! It was ... interesting. Nowhere near as large as American Idol, obviously, but it was still full of crazy fans. People started crying when they found out who was voted off. :( And, apparently, there's video of some of the BU kids. They stuck some of us behind the judges; I wasn't among them, though.
Ok. So Friday, we drove to Waitomo and went black water rafting... it was kind of 2/5 tubing/black water rafting [complete with renditions of "Old McDonald had a Farm"] and 3/5 climbing through the cave. Pictures aren't up yet; some of the others have pics from the caves, though. I'm stealing them and adding them to my album at a later date.
After the caves, we were all pretty hungry, so we got some dinner at the only restaurant that was open and watched rugby on big screen tvs.
Tanya, Rob, and I camped out in a tent that night. It was pretty cool! There were emus, cows, and roosters around, so it was kind of farmy. I wasn't feeling well, though, and I ended up waking up feeling even worse the following day. We were supposed to go hiking, but instead Tanya, Rob and I rented ... some sort sailboat thing. I don't know what kind it was... but it had a jib!
Anyway, so we went out on the water for a bit; Tanya and Rob did most, er, all of the work since, yannow, I don't really know how to sail. I could've sworn we were going to tip over a few times, but we never took on any water, so my confidence in their sailing abilities have not been lowered.
That night, we all had a picnic in a park. Well, it was a hodgepodge picnic. Someone got a whole chicken, there were bananas and nutella, peanut butter and jelly, hummus and pita, salads... it was a veritable feast for us college kids. After we finished, we went down to some fresh water hot springs. Since I wasn't feeling well, I just took pictures of everyone and didn't partake in the festivities. That night, I stayed in a hostel to get a good night's sleep since I was going skydiving the next day...
Yes, you read right. I went skydiving. I did feel better the next morning; I could breathe at least, which is important when you're 15,000 feet in the air... Rob posted the video online. When I find it, I'll post it under my links section.
It was amazing! We skydived over Lake Taupo which had incredible views. The whole way up, I didn't know what to think. I was kind of calm, considering I was strapped to a complete stranger who would shortly be pushing me out of the plane... I was okay until the first person went and I was being pushed towards the door. The second person went out and I got pushed even further to the door... my feet were hanging out the plane and I was close to asking, "Hey, can we think about this before we do it?" and I was tumbling out of the plane and yeah, I'm not gonna lie, it was kinda scary.
We had about a forty-five seconds of free-fall before the parachute was pulled. It didn't even feel like you're falling, though. My camera guy kept making hand gestures to me, and I couldn't figure out what he was trying to communicate to me. I didn't even realise he was taking video/photos. My mind kind of went blank as soon as I was hurled out of the plane. So when you see the video, that's why I look really lame. :P
After we finished skydiving [which I will totally do again], we went on a sailing tour of the lake and saw these carvings on the side of a mountain. It was really impressive ... and then we found out they were less than thirty years old... they were still pretty cool... but less so at that point.
That night, we all treated ourselves to a nice dinner and drove home back to Auckland.
That week in school, we had exams... but apparently, exams aren't to interfere with us having fun. One night we went out for a bit just to relax; the next night we went to the casino [I came out ahead! I kept telling some of the others to leave while they were ahead but they wouldn't listen to the girl from Vegas for some reason...]; and then we studied. The exams weren't too hard. Just essay questions based on our lectures and straight from the book... and we were given the questions ahead of time, or the question subjects... so it was really one of those exams where if you did poorly, it really was your own fault.
Right after we finished our last exam, Tanya and I treated ourselves to a massage. It felt soooo good and we felt a lot better. And we promptly ruined the benefits by attending another rugby game and sitting in hard plastic bleacher chairs. We all hung out and enjoyed being done with the first half of the semester that night... and we packed to go to the Cook Islands!
We left really early for the Cook Islands because Daylights Savings kicked in the night before, so we lost an hour. I think that puts us 20 hours ahead of the west coast.
Anyway, so we flew to Rarotonga on Sunday and got there on Saturday [yay for crossing international date lines!]. From Rarotonga, we flew to Mangaia in the smallest commercial plane I've ever been in. It held only about fifteen people... and when we landed in Mangaia [which has only about 500 people living there and you can drive around the entire island in a half hour], the airport was just a strip of dirt and a building. The group had to split up to fly to Mangaia, so those of us of the first group just kind of hung around the airport talking to some of the locals and exploring the surroundings.
When the other group finally joined us, we were driven to a village and we had a feast, then we were taken to the hall where we'd be staying for most of the week and crashed. Well, some of us crashed; others went out to the only bar on the island. Tanya and I were super tired, so we stayed in with some of the others and one of the guys that also stayed in read to us because he's got a great reading voice.
The next day, we went to a church service and had a breakfast kaikai [the feast/feed thing they had everywhere for us to keep us all fed, but they do these for all their guests]. After that, we took a hike up a hill [which I don't quite understand why the lady took us up the way she did since all of the girls were wearing skirts and it was a climb] and saw the village's school. Some people went back to the hall we were staying at, and others of us just sat and enjoyed the view [they have an ocean view at the school... it's not really fair], that is, until we discovered the coconuts. Some of the boys started to try to open the coconuts and it took them so long to crack the husk open. What sucks even more is the fact that the very first one they did was old and had no coconut meat in it... A few of the guys started to climb the trees, too... and they got pretty scratched up.
After that, we went back to the hall; we took a drive around the island. We stopped in Tamarua and had lunch/dinner and we got to see all of the island - or rather, the perimeter with the main road. Parts really looked like it came from Jurrasic Park. When we left Tamarua and got back to our village, we went to the beach. Their beach is all coral reef, though, so it wasn't like we could go swimming or anything. When it started getting dark, Thea, Gabe, and I walked back to the hall and Thea and I got really good showers.
I guess I should point out here that the island has no hot water. And the hall we stayed at had horrible water pressure. If someone turned on a tap, the shower would shut off. So since we got back before anyone else, Thea and I enjoyed nice, cold showers that had water pressure. After that, the three of us had philosophical discussions over Hearts.
When the rest of the group showed up, Tanya, Rob, Gabe, Thea, and I played a game called Coins. What happens is that you get dealt four cards and the dealer uses the rest of the deck to try to get a four of a kind. You can only hold four cards at a time, so you discard anything you don't need to the person next to you. Once you get four of a kind, you grab a coin from the pot in the middle [there are other variations of this game where you use spoons or stick out your tongue]. There's always one less coin than person, so as soon as the first person grabs a coin, everyone else lunges for the rest of them, and the person who doesn't get one gets a "C." It's kind of like musical chairs meets horse. The more you don't get a coin, the more letters get added on. The game gets kind of violent and frantic the longer it goes on... we finally stopped after Rob's glasses got bent out of shape. Thea, Gabe, and I then finished our philosophical discussions on a walk through the village. The ended, not because we were tired or out of things to discuss, but because roosters started crowing and we weren't sure what time it was and we didn't want to be thought missing if we weren't back home before the next morning ... not that it would have been a big issue; the island's tiny and they would have found us eventually...
The next morning, we attended an assembly at the school and then had breakfast there. After the breakfast, we went down to a different beach and hung out for a while until we had to go back and go to yet another meal. [It sounds like all we did was eat ... well... yeah... they fed us at least four times a day]. I can't remember what else we did that day... Hmm...
The next day, we went to a breakfast and then we were taught how to make rope from coconuts [first, you husk it, then you pound the husks, then you separate the really tough parts of the husk from the mush, then you braid them!], and then we had lunch and then a nature walk. A lot of people opted out of the nature hike, so it ended up being Gabe, Aya, and me who went, so they just drove us through where we were going to hike [it wasn't as bad as everyone thought it was going to be, and at the end we saw the remains of a shipwreck had by Zaragoza {and I climbed the old, rusted anchor... I'm really lucky I didn't get tetanus}] and cut the time in half.
By the time we got back from the nature drive, it was time to leave for our billet's house [billet, I think, is the Maori word for host?]. We had a two day stay with local families. My family lived in Tamarua, which is about a 30 minute drive from the village where most of the others were staying. When we got to the Tamarua, my billet, Juliet, took me for a walk through her village and showed me their taro plantation. We had dinner and then we went to bed early because we were supposed to have a church service at five am the next day.
However, the next day came and we didn't go to the church service. Juliet's parents had meetings that ran a little long the night before and they were tired. We had breakfast and then we drove to the school and learned crafts from the students. I now know how to make no less than ten things from a palm frond, including: glasses, rings, bracelets/anklets, earrings, titis [kind of like grass skirts], and bracelet/leg things that are worn during dances. After that, our billets picked us up and we went back to their homes. I had dinner and made eis with my host family. Eis are leis... just without the l. I went to bed early because I was really tired, and I ended up waking up later than the rest of the family... but this could be because their roosters woke them up and I was just too out of it to care that roosters were crowing.
We went back to the school and practiced a song/dance routine we were to perform that night for the school, and then later, the bar. We were fed some more. And we tie-dyed! That was a lot of fun; I only made one, though, because I was sunburned by this time and it really hurt to be in the sun for any longer than a few minutes. We were given about an hour of downtime before we had to be back at the school, so we just hung around the hall we were staying at. The school put on some dances for us after the feast, and then we sang and danced for them. It was a lot of fun after it was all said and done. We felt really stupid dancing beforehand, but when it got dark and after we saw the school's performance, we just had fun and let loose.
After that, we headed to Babe's Bar for an encore performance, except there was more dancing and less singing... all of the girls wore coconut bras [except me... again, I was sunburned and coconut rope isn't that smooth... and I really didn't feel comfortable with it], so that may be why.
The next morning, there was a market where my billet and I got breakfast. She drove me around the island on her bike for a bit, then we went back to the hall and I finished packing and cleaning up. Then it was off to the airport and back to Auckland!
Today I was supposed to start my internship, but the lady never emailed me back from before I left for Mangaia, so I went at 9 AM and there was no one there. I called the lady and she said she'd call me back ... and then someone showed up and told me she wouldn't be in until 1 PM... so I called my director and left a note for the lady and went back to the dorms. She never called me back and left two more messages for her... so hopefully she'll contact me before tomorrow. Although, I think Tanya goes with me tomorrow, so maybe something will happen. I didn't want to go back at 1 PM because it costs about ten dollars roundtrip and it's about 30-45 minutes one way, and I'd already made the trip once today. We'll see how things go.
On the bright side, I was able to get my laundry done. :D It is so nice to be home and connected to the world again... and to take hot showers with water pressure... and to be able to get clean... and to have clean clothes... and no roosters or goats... and no bugs everywhere [and when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE].
Anyway! I'm going to go find the skydiving video and move everything to this site. Sorry if I kept you guys waiting! It didn't occur to me to just make a new account until this afternoon. :P
