adventures in blogging
HI
For anyone who's just recently stumbled across this blog, click here to start from the beginning of my adventures in New Zealand and Australia.
.
HI
For anyone who's just recently stumbled across this blog, click here to start from the beginning of my adventures in New Zealand and Australia.
.
I'm home now, I never really had the time to update my blog in June, or really talk about my south island adventures, but maybe that's for the best because the south island cant really be put into words, or pictures. But nevertheless I still did take lots of pictures (not that they can do justice to the untouched beauty). But I kind of feel like a need a post to just summarize my time in New Zealand. Maybe I'll just say this: If you ever get the chance to study, work or live in another country. DO IT. It will be the best decision you will ever make. It's been mine. I've been waiting for this trip for almost 2 years. I cannot believe that in the blink of an eye, these past 6 months have disappeared. Time has no mercy. I still remember the day that I set foot into the airport being both terrified and excited, trying to picture in my head what the next 6 months of my life would look like, but nothing could have possibly prepared me for what was to come. The choice to travel to New Zealand was based on many reasons, including the fact that it was just about as far away from Toronto as I could possibly get. I wanted to experience something new and exhilarating, completely independent and entirely out of my comfort zone. I anticipated an amazing semester, little did I know that I would grow to fall in love with a country that I once knew little about. I fell in love with the vivid culture, the lively city, and the silent landscapes and the everyday lifestyle. I fell in love with my new daily routines. But the heart and soul of my experience were the people that I met. Some of them I will keep in touch with for the rest of my life and some of them I may never see again. It amazed me how many close friendships have formed in such a short period of time. It was comforting to know that if i was ever bored or alone, I could run up and down flights of stairs to visit my friends in room 7e, 8h, 13d, 12a, etc. From chasing countless sheep through the rolling hills of the New Zealand country side to cheering on the Auckland Blues at ever popular rugby games, there was never a moment in the past 6 months where I wished I was somewhere else. For such a small country New Zealand has a lot to offer. No picture could ever capture the sheer beauty of Milford Sound, no words could possibly describe the feeling you get upon reaching the summit of Mt. Ngauruhoe. The best trips were the spontaneous ones, when a group of friends would rent a cheap car and drive somewhere - anywhere, without any real plans or expectations. Coming home was inevitable. Although I truly felt I had made a new home in New Zealand. I came back to a house in Toronto that I had only lived in a couple weeks before leaving on exchange. (It still doesn't really feel like home) I'm very excited to see everyone and enjoy the summer! Everyone will probably ask me: "So how was the trip?" And I'll say: "Awesome. Incredible. The best." And it'll be left at that. But in my head I will relive all of these unforgettable memories and amazing experiences, and consider myself the luckiest girl to have lived them. THANKS for following me on my journey!!! big love sent to MOM & DAD, and to everyone who wrote to me while I was away, I LOVED every piece of mail! and to STEVE (because i may have used some of his ideas and just reworded them. credit goes to steve. you tha best! can't wait to meet your cat!) to everyone else... LOVE YA! ps. if any of you ever plan a trip to New Zealand, i would be absolutely overjoyed to give you advice/ideas!
When the semester ended, we had plans to fly down south to see the South Island of New Zealand. Well all that changed when a volcano in CHILE erupted, and the ash cloud it created grounded our flight.
So we drove.
It was both the craziest and greatest decision we could have ever made.
So... circa 3,000 km, with three vehicles; including a toyota corolla, a 7 seater spaceship & a 10 seater mafia mob van
= most amazing & beautiful road trip in my life.
Inspired the song of the same name by U2, which in turn inspired the name of the hit TV series, this inactive volcano marks very spiritual place for the indigenous Maori people.
Incidentally, there is no "one tree" that stands atop this hill. (It is sometimes called None Tree Hill.)
The tree from which the hill got its name was cut down by an english settler in the 1850s.
At the summit there now lies an obelisk, in honour of the Maori people of New Zealand.
This place, by far, is my favourite spot in all of Auckland.
These are some pictures that i took at One Tree Hill:
My trip to Wellington condensed into less than 500 words:
Wake up 5am and its off to the airport on our adventure to Wellywood!Of course, as we walk to the bus stop we see our friend returning home from the bar.
One delayed flight and free cup of tea later, we land in the very charming city of Wellington. With amazing art sculptures and fountains placed all around the city, beautiful buildings and parks, and a very gorgeous landscape, I'd say that Wellington is a much nicer city than Auckland.
Okay and remember me talking about the nice public washrooms? I went into one on the street, thinking it would be the grossest experience ever. And the washroom talked to me. Yeah. And it also played "What the World Needs Now is Love"!! What a great experience. Check out those toilets. (They were on Courtenay Place).
We took the historic cable car up to the Botanic Gardens, and then climbed a tree which revealed a breathtaking view of Wellington. Then I got stuck in the tree for half an hour. And then I ripped my pants. All the while my friend was taking a video of me. Oh yeah so much fun!
Also got a tour of the Parliament Beehive. Did not get to meet John Key, but was immersed into the political and culture history of New Zealand. Did you know that the parliament buildings were devastated by fires like at least 6 times back in the day.
Saw the Te Puke Museum, one of the coolest museums I've ever been to on account of there were heaps of interactive stuff to keep my very short attention spa- SQUIRREL! Once again - it was an enriching learning experience. I got to crawl inside the giant heart of a whale. Took a nap on a giant satellite map of NZ, and saw the biggest Colossal Squid known to man.
Other things we did included finding Waldo and planking on a giant banana. We went to the art museums and the weekend market. We also went to the Weta Cave (the mini-museum), the company famous for all the special effects for Lord of the Rings movies, and many other movies as well.
We also went rock wall climbing along the harbour front, and I did some crazy monkey stuff. And caused another hole in my pants. I'm running low on pants.
Climbed the top of Mt. Victoria and I caught my first sight of the Cook Strait! (aka the body of water separating the North and South Islands)
Oh fun fact! No matter where you are in New Zealand, you're never more than one hundred miles from the ocean!
And now I can officially say I've been from top to bottom of New Zealand's North Island!
:)
The Great Grease Fire of 9G:
I can now check off FIRE on my list of disasters that I've survived during my time here in New Zee.
I want to start this post off by clarifying that despite what you might automatically assume, I DIDN'T start the fire (it was always burning, since the world's been turning) la la la
No, it was my roommate, Andy. He was deep frying asparagus. Which just goes to show that nothing good comes from making veggies.
We were all hanging out in the flat as he was cooking his vegetables, it started getting quite smokey but Andy was just "its only a little smoke!"
Then the grease caught fire, and the entire pot he was holding went up into flames. I was in the hallway of the flat and the first thing I could see was a huge glowing light coming from the kitchen and HEAPS of black smoke, so I ran into the kitchen to see Andy drop the flaming pot on the linoleum floor.
"Cheryl, get the FIRE EXTINGUISHER!!"
Cheryl is our amazing roommate from China who is doing her absolute best to learn English, but the word "fire extinguisher" wasn't in her vocabulary. (Needless to say, it is now!)
Anyway, we successfully extinguish the fire, 2 alarms are going off, and we are desperately trying to stop the smoke from reaching the smoke detectors in the main hallway of our floor… in order to prevent gallons of water from raining down on us from above.
Pretty much we were fanning the room with towels for a good 10 minutes, I ran to get my camera (obviously) and took pictures whilst everyone was yelling at me to NOT take pictures.
I just want to say how lucky we are that Andy did not try to put the pot in the sink and pour water on it. Thanks to the episode of Mythbusters we all watched together back in March, we were all reminded of the basic rule… to never ever put out a grease fire with water! http://www.wikihow.com/Put-out-a-Grease-Fire
The aftermath:
Fire extinguisher residue. EVERYWHERE.
The pot melted to the floor and was essentially cemented to the ground.
Smoke and dust, on top of everything.
Splatters of grease all over the kitchen.
The asparagus was a little burnt.
We a spent solid amount of time taking everything off of every shelf, wiping it all down, moving the fridge, mopping, vacumming and bleaching the floor.
Andy had to kick the pot multiple times just to get it off the floor. It has currently found a home in our shower, it's the most disgusting pot you ever did see, and the heat actually melted it down. There's a nice circular burn mark in the floor of our kitchen.
Nothing a nice floral rug can't fix!
This morning all the dust finally settled and there was a nice layer on top of our TV.
I don't even like asparagus.
So its been a couple of weeks since I've returned HOME from Australia, I figured I should update my parents on what's been going on...
I'VE BEEN STUDYING! SO HARD!
ALL day, EVERY day.
you can be so proud.
A couple of other interesting things have been going on, we went to the New Zealand Comedy Festival and saw one of the actors (Arj Barker, aka Dave) from Flight of the Conchords do stand up, pretty funny stuff. More rugby games, more Auckland volcanoes, festivals, markets, formals, etc.
This weekend I'm going to New Zealand's capital... Wellington!
Okay so the last place we got a chance to see before heading back to New Zee was the city of Brisbane. The city was magical! I loved it. There were lots of smoothie places too.
We took walks through its amazing gardens right in the heart of the city, and saw a bunch of weird wildlife. No kangaroos :(. The parks are beautiful though.
i saw a few kangaroos...
We visited a bunch of art galleries and science museums. The Gallery of Modern Art had a giant slide and room full of balloons, therefore it's the best museum ever. I also got chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs, further justifying the museum as the best one ever.
We walked through market places and shopping squares. There was a lantern festival going on at time so the South Bank park was full of things to do. One of the cool things about Brisbane is that South Bank has a man-made beach (Streets Beach), its not as ugly as you would think. I think more cities should have spaces like this. Toronto has a lot to work on.
Brisbane is magical.
The very last day in Australia, we took the train back to Gold Coast, and lied on the sandy beach until an hour before our plane was set to depart. At which point, we walked across the street and hopped on the plane. Actually.
I loved Oz! I only saw the tinniest sliver of it, but it was truly incredible and can't wait to one day go back! (and use my smoothie VIP card again)
