Don't Forget Your Roots

I spent my last day in Dunedin running errands, hanging out with people, and generally savoring every last moment. I began the morning by lugging my bedding package in the rain to the Uni Flats office. Along the way I made my way past robed graduates and their parents. I felt awkwardly under dressed as everyone around me was in formal attire and I was in a t-shirt and work out shorts, sweating (though you couldn't really tell from the rain) and carrying a large plastic bag over my shoulder and looking much like a hunchback. After my bedding was returned I went back to my room and Skyped while I finished sorting out the rest of my things. I then headed into town with Sophie and her rowing friend Katie to get lunch and close my bank account and send a package. I sent a package of yummy New Zealand goodies back to the Mawr. I was originally going to send it home, but since post is so expensive here I decided to choose the cheapest option, sending the parcel by ship. This parcel of goodies is due to arrive around the end of January.

In the afternoon Gaia and I met up with Ebony and we went out to see Port Chalmers. Although it was foggy out we were still able to see some good views from the lookout point. The three of us hung out for a while and went to some other places around there as well before Ebony drove us back to the Lofts. At the Lofts I caught up with Eirin and Sara. Eirin had just come back from Australia and Sara from traveling around New Zealand. We all talked about our adventures while eating dinner and for many hours after. Eirin gave me a bottle of Summit (beer) and I snacked on Kinga's Cookie Time Christmas Cookies. I'm only mentioning the beer and cookies because I have actually really wanted a Summit in the last couple of days which is really out of my character because i'm usually not in the mood for beer. One of the million things i've learned here in New Zealand is that there is actually good beer.

The past six months have been the best six months and I am so happy to have had the opportunity to come to this beautiful and amazing country. I have met so many awesome people and had so many epic adventures. I also learned a lot about myself. New Zealand has taught me so much more than just academics. I have now had the experience of planning trips, finding accommodation, traveling alone, traveling not alone, and generally I have done a lot of "growing up".

While I will NOT miss freezing my butt off in the middle of winter in a house without insulation, I will miss all of the amazing people I have met here and all the fun adventures we have gone on. As Anton Ego famously says in Pixar's Ratatouille, New Zealand has given me a taste of "perspective". I continuously surprise myself now-a-days, mostly because I have all these new perspectives that I haven't quite wrapped my head around everything.

With that said though, outside of all of this "growing up" and having amazing life experiences, I am probably still a child at heart as playgrounds are still fun, and I am almost 21...

After much debate about what to do with my blog after I arrive back in the U.S. I have decided (for the time being) that it will stay a travel blog, but for my later travels as well. Thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed it. As kiwi's would put it, I have truly had a sweet as time here.

Christchurch, Cadbury, and a wet dog

Here I am, sitting in the lounge, with Kinga's Golden Retriever, Leo. He is adorable and sitting next to me on the couch. He had gone swimming in the ocean earlier, so he smells like wet dog and has made my shirt partially wet but he's too cute, so i'm letting him continue to lean on me while I tell you about my last few days.

Sunday was a pretty relaxed day and I went to Gaia's Taiko performance. Taiko is Japanese drumming and is quite interesting. Gaia's Taiko group had a little girl, i'm guessing 9 or 10 years old that was super cute. She played on the front drum and she had this twirly thing she would do with her drum stick. (Gaia, i'm sorry i'm calling it a drum stick, but I don't remember the actual name of it :p)

I spy Gaia. Can you?

Taiko was very fun to watch and although Gaia's group had only prepared one piece to perform they actually ended up having quite a grand performance of multiple songs. There was one piece about salmon that I was particularly fond of.

SALMON!

After the Taiko performance I went into town to meet up with Ebony. We went to Angus Desserts where I had amazing mango lime cheesecake. It was really nice to catch up and we chatted for hours. :)

Yesterday Sophie, Gaia, and I brought Lady (the car) to Christchurch. We left Dunedin around 3:45pm and headed first for the Moeraki Boulders. It was still partially cloudy, but generally much better weather than last time. However, the ride to the boulders was again very much like a sauna and by the time we arrived we were all very ready for some fresh air. When we got to the beach we realized it was high tide again so we couldn't climb on a lot of the rocks but this time we were able to walk to the other end of the beach.

The Moeraki Boulders are sometimes called Dinosaur Eggs and I found one particular rock that was perfectly egg shaped. There was another rock with a crater full of ocean berries. Ocean berries is a made up word; I don't actually know what the things inside the rock are called. Pictures below.

DINO EGG

We then drove another three or so hours to Christchurch stopping only for a bathroom/ McDonalds break. The views that we drove by after our McDonalds stop were some of the prettiest I have ever seen. It was an amazing sunset behind us where the sun was often right above the road. There were also mountains that looked black against the purple sky. Basically we had panoramic postcard views. Since Lady's windows don't roll down, all my pictures are taken from inside the car but are all still beautiful.

Upon arriving in Christchurch we got a little lost but found Cedric's apartment soon enough. We also met a few of Cedric's friends, Andrew, a Kiwi that studies at Otago, and a German guy, whose name I did not catch. We ended up talking for hours and it was past 1am when we finally went to bed. Of course, Gaia, Sophie, and I then talked in bed for another unknown amount of time before actually falling asleep. We were then up at the crack of dawn (5:45am) to catch our bus back to Dunedin. The three of us traveled close to 1000 kilometers in the span of 24 hours. You are probably wondering if I saw any of the destruction from the earthquake. I did not see much, but I did see some of the buildings but i'm not sure if those were damaged during the earthquake or taken down afterwards to be rebuilt.

Early morning, waiting for the bus, eating Nutella and bread

Gaia and I then went to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory right after we got back. I learned so much interesting things about chocolate on this tour. Here are some interesting facts:

Mount Crunchie

Cadbury uses purple as their color because purple is the color of royalty. Apparently some time ago Cadbury chocolate was presented to Queen Elizabeth and she loved it so much that she allowed them to continue using purple.

There is a room with tanks that hold liquid chocolate. The tanks together can hold chocolate equivalent to the weight of 20 African elephants.

Cadbury Hollow Eggs are produced only for New Zealand and not imported anywhere else in the world. Each year 44 million eggs are produced and all of them are eaten within a week, during the time of Easter. If you are wondering, 44 million eggs is about 10 eggs per person in New Zealand. This is a small chocolate loving country.

One of the silo's (the purple one) holds a machine that dumps a one ton of liquid chocolate within seconds. You may ask what this machine is used for. Answer: nothing, its just for fun. After the chocolate is dumped its just pumped back up for the next crowd that comes in. The chocolate is only changed once a year so you wouldn't want to eat it anyways.

At the end of the tour, both Gaia and I looked in the shop and bought some chocolate. I bought the kinds that aren't imported to the U.S. Also, Cadbury uses Cocao from Ghana, sugar cane from Queensland, Australia, and fresh full cream milk right here from Otago, so chocolate here probably tastes different from the Cadbury made in other countries.

Afterwards, we stopped at a New Zealand wood shop before heading to Velvet Burger for dinner. I had never been to Velvet before but it reminded me much of Ferg Burger in Queenstown. The burger was the size of my face. Dinner was good but I think Ferg Burger was better.

Wooden Vikings

Tomorrow is my last full day in New Zealand and it is rather bittersweet. I am not ready to leave  yet, but at the same time i'm ready to see my family and friends at home. It is also SO incredibly quiet here in North Dunedin now that it is quite different from when the students are around. I'm hoping to meet up with Ebony again and maybe go to the beach (though rain is predicted) and run some errands before leaving early Thursday morning.

Dunedin: Little Edinburgh of the South

Since Gaia and I came back to Dunedin from Milford Sound we've basically been hanging out, cooking interesting foods, and walking around town. Although the town is basically empty now, and most of campus seems to be under construction it has been incredibly nice to be back. The past few days I've woken up without my alarm at a comfortable time and moseyed over either to Gaia or Sophie's house and we'd decided where to go from there.

A couple days ago (on Thursday to be precise) Sophie, her rowing friend Katie and her little sister, Stella and I set out to go to Harrington Point on the peninsula. It is basically the tip of the peninsula and is home of the Royal Albatross Colony. We took the low road with the windy paths to get there and had spectacular views of the harbor. It was a very warm sunny day and Lady (the car) doesn't have AC and the windows are broken, so our ride was very much like a sauna. By the time we arrived all the windows had fogged up and leaving the car felt pretty close to leaving a sauna. I love Lady though, she has been an awesome car (she's only a year younger than me!) and has taken me on so many adventures.

At Harrington Point we walked around looking at all of the water that surrounded us. From one side you could see Aramoana and it's blindingly white sand. On the other side there were cliffs with Shags nesting in the crevices. If you looked really closely you could see the little fluffy shag babies.

Aramoana in the distance

We went into the Royal Albatross center and read some of the posters they had about the giant birds. We then went outside to see if we could spot any of them in flight. After sometime we saw one albatross and it was HUGE. They make seagulls look like dots in the sky. They have a three meter wing span. That is only a little shy of twice my height.

That night Kinga made chicken salad for dinner and we ate together and talked about how incredibly fast this semester had gone. Sophie came around later on as well and chatted with us.

On Friday I woke up reasonably early and ran errands in town. I did some last minute souvenir and Christmas shopping and headed home. I went over to Sophie's where we bought bus tickets to come back to Dunedin next Tuesday. Sophie is flying up to Auckland with me next Thursday when I leave but is flying back into Christchurch later on with her sister and friends to travel around the South Island so she is going to leave Lady in Christchurch until she came back and Gaia and I decided to tag along since neither of us have actually been in Christchurch. Anyways, we'll be driving up on Monday and coming back on Tuesday.

That night after Gaia and I ate our leftover Shepard's pie for dinner we set out to climb Baldwin Street. I climbed the street, for the 4th or 5th time at that point, and we got to the top right as the sun was beginning to set. After we caught our breath Gaia and I took a bunch of jumping pictures. It was really fun, but also exhausting. I promptly went to bed after I got home.

This morning Gaia and I went to the Farmers Market for the last time. I haven't been there since September or early October so it was really interesting to see the stands selling fresh flowers, strawberries, and cherries as last time everyone was still bundled up in winter gear sipping coffee.

Also, since it is summer break now, there were a lot of little kids performing around the market. There were these four girls probably between the ages of 8 and 12 that were playing Christmas music on strings (1 cello, 2 violins, 1 viola). They were actually all quite good, and all so young.

There was another young boy on a ukelele who was also around 8 or 9 years old. He was adorable because he put his music on the ground so the entire time he stared at the ground while strumming his ukelele and trying to sing over his own instrument and everyone around him.

At the market I could not choose if I wanted a Bacon Buttie or a crepe, so as it was my last time at the Farmers Market, I got both.  I even got soy milk at the little Chinese stand and regretted that I did not get soy milk there before because it was a delicious taste of home. Gaia also got a Cornish Pasty and some pan fried dumpings. We sat on the bench under the sun eating our food and talking about the strengths and flaws of the U.S. education system. I have realized recently that i'm actually very interested in education. I have always been interested in childhood education but more so about the content of things that were taught whereas now i'm moving into being more interested about the different education systems. This makes me especially excited about my classes next semester where i'll be studying about education of northern Africa.

 

* One of my first Bacon Butties and my last Bacon Buttie :p

After our rather large meal at the markets, we ventured to the Octagon where there were stands set up selling a variety of trinkets. There was a stand that sold things made out of different types of New Zealand wood. He had picture frames, rulers, cutlery, and cutting boards. Gaia and I each bought a Kauri egg. Kauri trees are the biggest trees in New Zealand and takes 500 years to grow to full size. During my trip to Wellington with Grace and Miriam we had seen a forest where they were growing new Kauri trees and I recall seeing a tree skinnier than my wrist and hearing the guide say that it was 10 years old. I have also seen slices of Kauri tree in museums that had diameters that are twice my height. They are big trees.

Okay, these are NOT Kauri eggs, but they ARE chicken eggs. One on the left is a double yolker, the one on the right is normal.... 

We then walked around town for a little bit before hopping on a bus to go to St. Claire beach. When I boarded the bus and went to pay for my ticket the driver asked, "One child's ticket?" to which I responded, "Sure, i'm a student" so I paid $1.90 for my ticket. Gaia boarded right after me and got charged as an adult, hahaha... The student ticket only applies to college students, which means high school students here. :)

It's almost Christmas and i'm in shorts and a t-shirt?!?!

At St. Claire I had moments of nostalgia as it was the first beach I came to when arriving in New Zealand. A group of us (Tucker, Chris, Freddie, Grace, Sophie, Victoria, Julia,  and I) had come on a bus just a few days after we all arrived and met each other. The first time was cold and gray and I was bundled up in my hat and winter coat as this time it was sunny and I was in t-shirt and shorts.

Gaia and I walked around and met a lone sea lion sleeping on the sand. I felt a little bad, as while it slept flies just kept on bugging its face and once in a while it would flap its fins to get them to go away. Then a wind surfer walked by and the dangling rope on the end of the sail provoked the sea lion to chase it a ways before flopping down on the sand. Then just as it fell asleep again a huge wave came and splashed him and made him run towards the dry sand.

We then took a bunch of jumping and cartwheeling pictures before heading back to bus stop, but not without stopping at the playground. There were these really odd swings with a chain across them. We later hypothesized that they were there so that it would prevent people from jumping off the swings as they were assembled in a circle. With quite some trouble Gaia climbed in and swung happily. I couldn't be bothered to get myself tangled so I went on the see-saw.


At the bus stop I took out my two dollar coin and Gaia said, "You know, it was probably just a fluke that you got a student ticket," and I thought back to all the buses we took in Wellington where I got all student tickets so I was hoping on continuing the trend. We boarded the bus and I got my student ticket and Gaia was charged as an adult again. HAHAHA. Benefits of looking like a 14 year old, I guess. :) Actually, earlier in the day we had gone to Canterbury of New Zealand, a clothing store, and I really wanted a pair of their warm up pants and instead of trying on the adult pants (tooo too long and too expensive) I tried on their children's pants which actually fit me and were the perfect length. I didn't end up getting them because they were rather pricey, even for children's section, but for a couple of moments I was thinking about getting a pair for my birthday and thought, "Here's a pair of children's pants. Happy 21st Birthday and welcome to adulthood :)"

For dinner I attempted to make macaroni carbonara with Gaia and it ended up being mac n cheese but it was still good. We watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and then V for Vendetta. It has been a pretty sweet as couple of days. Like I mentioned earlier, Sophie, Gaia, and I will be off to Christchurch on Monday but we'll be back on Tuesday. Yay road trip!!! :)

Milford Sound and Glowworms!

What a day its been! Our morning began with Curls, a Real Journey’s tour guide picking us up from our hostel to go to Milford Sound. Although we were in a large bus that could fit up to something like 46 people, there were only four of us on the tour; me, Gaia, and a couple from Hartford, Connecticut.

I don’t know exactly how long the ride was to the sound as we made multiple stops to do short walks and to go to the bathroom. One of the first short walks we went on was by Mirror Lake. Before arriving at the sound, we also made many stops to take pictures. We arrived just in time to board our boat for the cruise. It was a rather large boat, one that could accommodate those who were doing and overnight cruise.

For the next two and a half hours we slowly cruised around the sound out to the sea. Milford sound is gorgeous with cliffs scaling twice the height of the Empire State building. There were these slate gray rocks with delicate white streamers coming out of them and at a closer look you realize they are rushing waterfalls. The water all around the sound was an evergreen color.

 

We saw fur seals on large rocks basking in the sun, and at one point, dolphins came and swam by our boat. The boat took us really close to some waterfalls, close enough to feel the spray. At one, there was a vibrant rainbow that spanned the front of our boat. Each color was bright and clear.

For those two and a half hours, Gaia and I just watched in awe as we sailed mountain after mountain. Fiordland is so incredibly green. I have continuously said that New Zealand is all crystal clear green and blue, but Fiordland is much more green than blue. The trees that grow on the high cliffs are evergreen, and throughout the dense bush you can see the infamous tree ferns, making the fiord look like you were back in the dinosaur ages. At the sea we turned around and headed back towards the warf.

 

By then, the sky had cleared and it was quite warm. We boarded are large and predominately empty bus and started to head back towards Te Anau. Along the way we stopped by two 20 minute loop walks. The first walk was to see a chasm, were we saw a gushing waterfall. On the walk back from the chasm walk, I slipped on gravel and scraped my left knee. However, I then saw a kea bird, so I promptly forgot about my stinging knee. Kea birds are so pudgy and cute, and unusually large.

We drove a short distance to our next 20 minute walk which was near a tunnel that we had to drive through to get to the sound. The tunnel was constructed between 1934 and 1954 and is only one lane. On the side of the tunnel we were on, we could see more of those stream like waterfalls flowing through patches of snow. Here, we went on another loop walk and saw interesting flowers and rock formations. We also saw another set of kea birds, about five of them. The keas must have saw the multiple tour buses drive in and wondered if they would get fed. Some keas sat on buses while others fearlessly went up to people. Soon, after realizing they had flown into a herd of Kea paparazzi, they flew away.

Our next stop was at a giant waterfall that we had driven past on the way there but had not stopped to take a look. This waterfall was a brilliant light aquamarine color. While the water was very blue, similar to much of the water in the rest of the country, it was also very clear. There were rocks at the bottom where the waterfall fed into the river and even through the mist and the ripples one can see the rocks incredibly clearly.

We later learned that this water was was pure and clean. We stopped by the riverside to take a drink and fill our water bottles. The water was cold and crispy and did not taste like much, which I presume is a good thing. I am very used to drinking chlorinated water.

Upon arriving back in Te Anau, Gaia and I stopped by at the iSite to book our bus tickets back to Dunedin. We then walked around town for a little bit and heading back to the hostel to eat dinner before going to see the glowworms.

To see the glowworms we first had to take a boat ride across Lake Te Anau, the second biggest freshwater lake in New Zealand. We were told that the water in the lake was also clean enough to drink without filtration, but Gaia and I eyed each other suspiciously and said, “But we’re in a motor boat, on the lake…” Anyways, this water did look incredibly clear, so I wouldn’t worry too much if I needed to drink some of it.

At the caves we were first lead into a room where we got a brief introduction about the cave and about the glowworms. Then we were lead down a 250 meter path into the ground. The guides had been warning us about the low ceiling rocks and made sure we ducked. Other than the entrance, I barely had to duck at all. I guess that is one benefit of being short...

After the path we ended up in a very dark block where all I could see was the little blue lights of the glowworms above me. I could also hear the rushing water underneath me. Minutes later a light came on and we saw a boat full of people emerge from the grotto. We traded places and soon we were on our way to the grotto to see where most of the glowworms were.

It was pitch black, and almost entirely silent. One could only hear the water and once in a while, the boat bump here and there. When looking above it looked like a sky of blue stars, only you knew that they were glowworms.

We moseyed our way back to the path, and out back to the little hut where we started. We were given some tea and coffee and put back on the boat for our ride back to Te Anau. We boarded the boat at around 8:45pm and the sun was still pretty high in the sky. It began to set on our way back and we were able to see the sun shine lower and lower on the mountains and turning the clouds a pink, purple, and orange color. It also made the lake water a blackish color with a ton of silver glistening waves.

Te Anau

I began this morning by meeting up with Gaia and Sophie and going to Tunnel Beach. I haven’t been there since July and it was very nice to be able to be in a t-shirt and shorts instead of my winter attire. The ground was also dry so I was not slipping and sliding all over the place. Because of the dry ground, the walk both ways also seemed and probably was much shorter.

Sophie and I on the big rock.

Look closely and you can see where the tunnel leads to

At around 1:00 Sophie drove us to the bus station where we boarded our bus to Te Anau. The bus ride was about 5 hours long with a few short breaks in between. As usual, the views were stunning. When we arrived in Te Anau, Gaia and I stopped at Real Journeys to book our Milford Sound and glowworms excursion.

Te Anau is a tiny tiny town next to a river. I thought that Queenstown was small (which it is) but Te Anau is even smaller. There is one main road with a few shops and some restaurants and a couple of hotels and hostels. It is beautiful though, and I imagine it is a great place to have a very relaxing vacation by the lake.

Upon checking in at our hostel and putting our things down, we set out for the grocery store, which was barely a 10 minute walk away. We bought some dinner supplies and came back and made beef and veggie risotto. We then ate on the porch overlooking the lake.

While I enjoyed visiting Australia and saw many interesting things, I am glad to be back in New Zealand. I miss everyone that has already gone home, but there are things such as Tunnel Beach, and the lake, and the mountains and beaches in New Zealand that makes me want to stay for longer. Luckily, the sun rises really early and does not set until 10pm, so that gives me more time each day.

Melbourne!

I have been in Melbourne for the past couple of days now with Emily and her mom. The weather hasn't been great and there has been rain and wind, but we have still managed to go out and explore some each day.

During our first full day, Emily took me to Brighton Beach. Surprisingly enough there is a Brighton beach and a St. Kilda beach here in Melbourne, just like in Dunedin. At Brighton we walked around and saw Hodges, these little colorful houses along the sand. Each of the houses were all vibrant different colors and some even had nice pictures painted on them. I have been told that these houses are used to store things such as surf boards and are incredibly expensive to buy.

 

Afterwards, we took the train to the Royal Botanical Gardens. I usually love walking around gardens but it was quite humid out and major stickiness was beginning to happen. We decided to go home to stay cool and dry.

The next day was also muggy and drizzling so we decided to go to the aquarium to see the penguins. There were king penguins and Gentoo penguins and penguin babies too! I love penguins. :)

There apparently was a storm that I slept through the night after we went to see the penguins so we decided to not go to the zoo the next day because the animals probably would be spooked. Instead we went to the Melbourne Museum where we saw Phar Lap the incredible race horse, and Sam, one of the koalas that was saved from the Melbourne bush fires. There was also a ton of other interesting things to see.

For lunch, we went to a hot pot noodle place in Chinatown. Although we took a tram there from the museum it was really really cold outside. We also got caught in the rain, which made it even colder. Both Emily and I had noodle soup, which was good and also warmed us up.

In the afternoon the skies cleared up and we went to watch Emily's field hockey game. Emily also taught me a bunch about field hockey and I had a try at it. I realized that I always look at the ball and never at where i'm hitting it to.

Today, Emily and I headed to the Melbourne Zoo. I have not been to a zoo in years so it was pretty awesome. I saw giraffes and they are HUGE! I think the giraffes were my favorite. They must have wickedly strong neck muscles.

This zoo was also especially nice because it had animals I had never seen before, such as baboons. I also saw my first echidna! They are so spikey and cute. 

There were also a bunch of emus walking around. They were a little different from the ones I had seen in Brisbane. These had blue heads. (You can't really tell from the picture though) I also saw four sleeping wombats. These wombats were also much cuter than the ones in Brisbane. 

Here I met my first blue-billed duck! This was the only picture out of many where you can tell that the bill is actually bright blue.

I think one of these birds was trying to court the other. I don't know how well that was going because the one doing the courting kept on being kicked by the other.

African wildebeest of some sort, me thinks!

Free - range peacocks everywhere. 

And then there were elephants! There were two babies elephants and one had a bunch of food on its head. I wondered how the food got there but after watching them for a while I realized that the little one would pick up food with its trunk and then throw it in the air, with most of it landing on its head. The other one would go to the water and instead of drinking the water, it would spray it everywhere. It once got a trunk full of water and then put its trunk against a rock and squirted the water out on the rock, a little bit like a pressure test.

And then they found the soccer ball... It was too cute....

Upon returning home, Emily's mom made a delicious dinner of rack of lamb and veggies. For dessert, we had strawberries with vanilla bean yogurt. One of the many interesting things i've learned from Emily's mom is that if you mix balsamic vinegar and sugar and put it on strawberries (or berries in general) it is quite delicious. It sounds really odd, but you really can't taste the vinegar at all. From jam and cheese on toast to strawberries and balsamic vinegar, I have had all sorts of amazing culinary adventures! I don't know if I've ever mentioned jam and cheese on toast, but it is one of Fredric's creations and it is delicious and amazing. :)

Tomorrow night I fly back to Christchurch to spend 11 hours dwaddling around the airport before my flight back to Dunedin on Saturday morning. I'm sure you will be hearing about this epic layover in one of my later posts.