South Island one - Auckland to Otago

The SOUTH ISLAND

Pree, Rachael, Paurakh, myself. To paraphrase Andrew Merrill, I don’t know who’s reading, or what you’ll think, but, to keep from paralyzing myself, I’m going to say whatever I like. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry. The plan for the South Island: start in Christchurch (Chch), drive south and east to Mount Cook, drive south and west to bottom of Island, go to Stewart Island, drive north up west coast, loop around top and back down to ChCh.

Day one. Saturday. Travel to Christchurch.

The airport was small and ghetto. We saw two guys from AustraLearn who were doing more or less the same trip as us, though they hadn’t really planned anything, etc. Didn’t have hostel booked. They said they were going to do mushrooms in Milford Sound. I was left thinking (tip my hat to Andrew) “Is this the best my generation can come up with?” The flight was quick and uneventful. We flew over mountains and Pree kept excitedly hitting me and saying “It’s the South Island!” Yes, yes it was.

We took a bus from the airport, and it’s very lucky two girls overheard us being unsure about where our hostel was, because they were natives and were able to draw the route on our map.

The hostel was old, with no elevator and steep stairs. I just about died with my suitcase – why didn’t I bring a duffel bag? Not the last time I would wonder that! The whole place smelled oddly like bees-wax. We had a room to just the four of us. It was clean and nice.

Christchurch is just about the cutest city ever, except maybe Dunedin. There were huge metal sculptures just to make the city pretty, and a cute park around the Avon “River.” On the way back we saw a guy spinning around sticks on fire. It was sort of hokey, his CD player kept skipping, but it was still cool.

We borrowed some cards from the front desk and played a game that I’m pretty sure Paurakh made up while drinking beer. I had Monteith’s Celtic Red. It’s now my favorite.

Day two. Sunday.

Pree did my make up that morning, which was flattering, but I didn’t really look like myself all day.

It took forever to get the van, because the rental place didn’t open when they said they would, and they had more renters than they thought they would, and then they brought around the wrong van. It was all very shady, but I wasn’t really surprised, since  they  had been willing to rent to us on such short notice. We finally, finally got the van. It was pretty sweet: fold out bed in the back, and a sink in the back as well, and also a propane tank with a burner on top, and plates, pots, pans, silverware. We went to pick up a tent we had rented; the journey wasn’t so good because some random girl who looked about 12 years old, had silver pom poms in her hair, and looked stoned threw a rock at our van. It made a huge noise and a dent, and it was weird and scary.

The guy we’d rented the tent from was this nice little old man. His back shed was filled very tidily with camping equipment. We also rented a sort of mattress pad to sleep on. I couldn’t believe how tiny the tent folded down to.

Then we went grocery shopping. The most notable thing about it is that we got boxed milk that didn’t have to be refrigerated until you opened it. Genius.

We ate Indian food at the food court and then finally, finally were on our way. Well, sort of. We stopped at a beach just outside of Christchurch. A dog beach, it turned out! Much playing with puppies ensued.

We finally left Chch and spent the night literally right next to Lake Tekapo. We cooked some bean and rice burritos and drank beer and stargazed. The stars were too bright, and the lake made ocean noises.  were too lazy to set up the tent, so Paurakh slept across the front seat, and the girls slept in the back.

Day three. Monday.

We woke up to a GORGEOUS sunrise over Lake Tekapo. That day we drove to Mount Cook. The idea was to hike Hooker Valley pass- what a bad idea! It started raining freezing cold rain, and the wind blew so hard that it sucked off my beanie and the back of Rachael’s earring, and ripped my and P.Rock’s ponchos to ribbons. We crossed two swing bridges, and each time I thought I would be sucked off. The wind occasionally blew us off the path, and the rain came so hard that it felt like it was going into my pores. At the end of the hike, we saw an iceberg, the big payoff, but I was too miserable to care, and spend the time huddling behind a big rock. We sat, soaking wet, in the back of the van and tried to warm up and decide what to do. While we were sitting there, the rain literally blew through the seal of the closed window. We hung our stuff to dry in the back, but there wasn’t enough hanging room by far.

We outran the rain by going east to Canterbury near Otago. We camped near a lake again. That night Pree and P.Rock slept in the tent. With only two people in the back, it was cold. Not for the last time!

Kapa Haka final

June 5^th, 10:04 am.

Last night I had nightmares, and this morning I woke up very tired, sad, and pensive.

Even though I have a month left in Auckland, yesterday signaled the end in many ways. It was my last day of classes at Auckland University: all that’s left now are exams. Did I learn everything I could? Did I take good enough notes to be able to study? And did I talk to enough people, the right people, the ones who wanted to be my friends, who would help me grow?

Yesterday was my last logic test. I will never do logic again, not even in the final. What’s weird is I started out hating that class, but now it’s one of my favorites, possibly my one favorite. I started with no friends in it but now I know Sam and Ben. I wish I’d known them longer! I tried to copy and paste some logic here, but it uses symbols that blogger can't handle. :(

Yesterday was also my final Kapa Haka performance. I put my poi away sadly this morning. I know I’ll use it again, to show people at home and to teach my mom, but then I’ll be the expert, which is just wrong in so many ways. We’re probably never again going to stand in our kitchen and practice together.

Going to the final performance was so cool. I didn’t think anyone I knew would be there (in the audience). But I looked out and saw Paurakh, Brent, even Brent’s best friend Gui, Kevin, Eric and Chris (think way back to the beginning of the year), Alyse’s boyfriend David, and, surprisingly enough, Liam, because he hates Maori “culture”. I didn’t see everyone because it was so packed, but afterwards, I saw Pree and Amanda (think way back again). Obviously some of these people were primarily there to see someone else, like David to see Alyse, but they didn’t ignore me at all! I was expecting afterwards to be like after the plays at Catholic high, where people were only interested in talking to the person they’d come to see, but it wasn’t like that at all. I talked to everyone I knew, even those people who had been in the performance as well, such as my flatmates, Britta, Meaghan, Scott, Alyssa from AustraLearn….

So today is sort of a let down. Well, it shouldn’t be, because I still have a test to do today, and Hollywood Bakery with the Timlins, and I get my Philosophy essay back today. But… not to be overdramatic, but it is the beginning of the end.

I do wish I could go back and tell myself things: Learn to surf now! The water will be much too cold soon! I guess I have learned things, but not the things I thought I would

Two random notes

April 27. I’m sitting in Albert Park under the shade of a big tree, drinking Taro milk tea with bubbles and trying to decide if I should eat leftover tortellini or stir fry with rice. The fountain is going, there’s a group of school children shouting at the tops of their voices, and seagulls keep wheeling past. The wind just blew all the leaves about – there’s some on the ground now, since it’s nearly fall. It was cold and rainy yesterday, but today it’s hot and slightly muggy. I was up yesterday until 2 am finishing an essay on the rubber industry in Malaya in the late 19^th century and early 20^th century. I have a tutorial in an hour and a half, and I know if I nap, I’ll never go to it. So instead I drink bubble tea, listen to children holler, and muse as to when I plan to do the dishes.

 

May 24. It’s cold and rainy today. Things I miss most about the states: Friends and family, Denali, Disneyland, Garden State, Moulin Rouge, calling people on my cell, having a comforter instead of a sleeping bag, having my hair cut, no tourist shops, consistent internet, central heating, my bike, understanding slang.

Things I love most about New Zealand: The attitude that you can do anything, safety, my flatmates, Japanese and Thai restaurants, learning to cook, traveling, learning to take pictures, sheep, the beaches in the summer, being able to walk anywhere, difficult classes, public transport, the exchange rate, Kiwi accents and slang.

 

Taupo

This post is going to be weird. Here are my notes about it, so you have an idea of structure for the trip:

 

Taupo

Characters: Pree, Alyssa, Rachael, Jo Dee

Thursday – We leave right after Kapa Haka, the others already in the rental car picking up Rachael and I. The trip was decently long, and with three of us in the back, and me in the middle, it wasn’t very comfortable. I looked back as far as I could though the back window and saw about a million stars. After that, we all stargazed out our windows. The hostel was very nice, almost decorated in a Spanish style, with red and yellow tiles. For some reason, there were four bunks and one queen sized bed. Pree took the queen bed, and we all teased her relentlessly for it.

Friday – up at 6 to be at mountain, to hike the Tongoriro Crossing by 8 am. The pass is a 19 km (12 mile) day hike on various terrain. I was wearing my jeans and a wool sweater. After the bus driver’s dire warnings of chaffed legs and freezing body, I gladly rented fleece pants and a rain jacket from him. I also bought a thick wool beanie for $8, which I thought was quite a steal. It was bizarre reflecting that in my (very small camera) backpack, I had 2 liters of water, enough food to last me for a day, and almost an entire change of clothes. It gave me a strange idea of independence. Feeling of being alive – so much exercise that I stopped being sore. My new boots held up very well. At the end of the day, I had only two small blisters.

Up the mountain – Mount Doom, actually.  Crater. Up another mountain. Fall down. Emerald lakes. Grasslands and sulfur. We fall a lot. The end of the track is a forest that seems to go on forever. We hike it with Canadians. On the way out we passed a crying girl- her boots were too small. It sort of ruined the whole mood.

Other group arrives and skydives. That night was David’s birthday. Those of us who had hiked ate Italian food but were too tired to go out that night for David's. Crash at hostel.

Saturday – Cruise around Lake Taupo, where we saw some awesome Maori carvings dating back to ... 1980. Pree and I go to Craters of the moon – others go to beach. Craters of the moon was like a park to see huge amounts of steam coming out of the ground. Drive to rotorua – everything closed. FINISH A BEER. (Lion red)

Sunday – Thermal wonderland, come home. Thermal wonderland was pretty sweet. I can't describe the combination of sulfur and water... hopefully I can put pictures up on facebook, though that's been sort of dicey. 

Yeah, I think that summarizes it nicely. More later.

St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick’s is noteworthy just because of the number of places I went and people I saw!
The bar on campus is called Shadows – I went down there at 4-ish with Liam and Rachael to meet up with Sean and Duncan. We sat around for a few hours, chatting, taking stupid pictures, drinking beer. Duncan got a free hat for having a Guinness. The beers were served in water pitchers, which I thought was funny.
Then we all went back to our place. The idea was – I think- to get food, but we didn’t want to cook for all three Timlins, so that didn’t happen. Then we realized it was time to go over to Danny’s.
Over to Danny’s – green punch in a bucket. Yup. It was almost all girls, sort of loud pandemonium.
I’d been invited down to 10D (Carl’s - a guy from AustraLearn) so I headed down there with the Timlin boys in tow (their choice not mine). Did I say Danny’s was pandemonium? No. It was like a bomb of people and noise and alcohol in that room! I saw tons of AustraLearn kids, and I think that’s where I saw Tommy too (random). Oddly enough, we found Laura, who happily followed us:
Back up to Danny’s, where I got a text from Abby about going to the Irish pub. I was down for it, and she told me to come -
Up to 13D (Paurakh’s, Brent’s and Chris’s). Timlins and Rachael came with me. Also met another flatmate, Kirk, who is apparently in Kapa Haka with me. The mood was totally different, very laid back and quiet, not as many people, but Abby, Chris and Brent had green dye in their hair and they had the fixings for Irish car bombs (which we of course helped them with) and BRENT HAS GUITAR HERO. Of course I played it! Of course I was awful!
We finally went 0ut to Father Ted’s, but everyone else had the same idea as us, so it was full to the point of there being a line down the street. Walking along we passed Laura again and then most of the people from 10D. Pretty much everyone we knew.
The Timlins were still hungry, so we stopped at Wendy’s (their choice not mine) and then Sean and Duncan decided to take the bus home (since they live with their dad, not in the dorms).
I was tired, so I went home, passing several people I knew on the way, including Carl, who was extremely drunk and told me that I absolutely had to go skydiving, and also Scott, another AustraLearn guy who had lost his ATM card that night. All in all an exhausting night!

Rangitoto

Last Sunday (15th) we decided to go to Rangitoto, an extinct volcano which blew it's top a long time ago. It was going to be Pree, Rachael, Laura and me, but Pree had an essay, so it was just us 3 flatmates. The ferry ride was shorter than to Waiheke, but full of peril – Rachael nearly lost her lens cap overboard.
During WWII this island was used as a military base because it's high up and you get a good view of Auckland and the surrounding water and islands. This is humorous because a "bach" here is a beach house, and usually means someone's personal beach house - traditionally like a basic cabin, but now they're actual houses. During WWII though the basic cabin definition was applicable, so there are signs on the island pointing you towards "historic baches."
There's no water on the island, just a bathroom near the port where the ferry lands with tap water if you get really desperate (but no soap).
Somehow, I always have in my mind that volcanic rock is smooth, since it's hardened lava, and lava is liquid. NOT SO. It was very hard and sharp - I could feel it through my tennis shoes.
The hike was pretty intense to my mind because the sun was brutal, and the volcanic rock was hot too. I would stop to take pictures then run to catch up to Laura and Rachael. Sweat was dripping off of me, and I was feeling pretty tough and accomplished – but then a family, complete with a little kid, would hike by. Dang it, the kids put me to shame.
The top of the volcano was a gaping crater, softened by the plants which filled it to the brim and distorted its size – trees at the bottom were so close together that they looked like bushes, but you knew if you thought about it that under that bush was a 10-foot tall (at least) trunk.
We wandered in pursuit of the lava tubes (tubes sound smooth, right? NO!). Luckily there was an American family just coming out of the tubes as we wanted to go in, because they weren’t marked, so I don’t know that I would have had the nerve to go in very far without knowing that this was actually what we were supposed to go in to. Laura sat and talked with the family, since she was scared of dark/enclosed spaces, and Rachael and I went in. It was a tight fit at first, but then it opened up into a large room, large enough to stand it. Long cords of roots hung from the ceiling, with drops of water suspended from them. When I swung the flashlight past them, they sparkled like a chandelier over us. The room sloped up gently, then abruptly came to a hole up to the ground, which involved a bit of rock climbing to get out of (AND there were spiderwebs). We stopped by one of the baches (although I hadn’t realized that’s what it was). It was decidedly creepy, the perfect set for a horror movie- not over the top, just industrial and remote, etc. The hike down was pretty fast because Laura had to pee. (I hadn’t brought enough water but she let me have some of hers, so I didn’t desperately have to pee, since I was nearly dehydrated). When we got to the bathrooms at the bottom of the mountain, she did a little dance. All told the hike was about 3 hours, I think. Not more than that.
Then we got back on the ferry. On the way up I'd felt very positive, but on the way down, and back, I felt really... frustrated? Disappointed? Probably because I was dehydrated!

Quick note - about the present

Hi, this isn't about a trip or anything cool. I'm just sitting in my room. 

I can hear Cassie and her friend talking through a dance for their Polynesian (?) dance class - an indistinct murmur that I could pick the words out if I wanted to, rising and falling, reminding me very much of dinners in Montana, when the aunts and uncles would sit and talk and the cousins would wander off. Every once and a while I can hear Laura laughing on Skype. Outside the window, the sun is setting behind a crane, which is weird but still pretty because it's making a lattice-work silhouette. The clouds are thin, purple, edged with rose and orange-pink and gold. The sky literally looks like melted butter. It's setting more now, even as I type this. The sky looks dusty blue, like it's blue with gold dust sprinkled on it, and the edges of the clouds are white-gold now, almost painful to look at, and a darker grey-purple on the inside. The breeze is blowing the trees about and cars are intermittently turning down the street. Most don't have their lights on yet and the blinkers shine deep gold like a continuation of the sunset. 

All the glory is in the clouds now. The gold dust on the sky is being filtered into rays by the clouds, and the edges are copper, strawberry blonde, straw yellow, as you go down. As you get closer to where the sun must be, the distinction between dark and light in the clouds gets more intense; at the lowest level, they are purple mountains with gold snow.

I wish you were here. 

The clouds are becoming fuzzy, less distinct; the edging is mostly dark pink, and the dark purple is more dominant. People are walking on the sidewalk; some fast, some slow. In the opposite apartment, the TV is on, and a huge seagull just flew by. 

More Cast of Characters!

Abby – Girl from AustraLearn. Haven’t talked about her before because I haven’t seen too much of her, but she’s been popping up recently, so I figured I should introduce her. She’s very nice but could also at any given moment kick your butt, if need be. She and Chris went to dinner with me on my birthday.

Chris -  Abby’s boyfriend, who, as far as I can tell, never ceases to be happy. He takes everything in stride. Also from AustraLearn.

Brent – Paurakh’s  kiwi flat mate.

Sean and Duncan Timlin – Liam’s younger brothers (fraternal twins - just turned 19). Sean is very intense – usually off in his own little world, and then he’ll come back suddenly and ask you unusual questions. Somehow in our first meeting we talked about religion, politics, and abortion… you get the idea. Duncan is usually the normal counter-balance to Sean’s weirdness. Both of them continually take the piss out of (tease) Liam, which is funny, because he lets them get away with murder. 

A very belated first reaction to Auckland

This was written several weeks ago, when I first arrived.  I could have sworn I posted it, so if it looks familiar, then don't worry about it.

After sad goodbyes with the Waikato kids, we went on to the big city of Auckland. It’s clean and beautiful. You can tell that progress is continuing (some of the locals are surprised to see any bums at all) so I think I have managed to see the city at its most beautiful. My dorm is lovely – room to myself with a locking door, with a shared kitchen/ living room. Did I mention the kitchen/living room is mostly glass? Floor to ceiling windows. I think anywhere else I go now, I’ll feel claustrophobic. I’m on the 7^th floor – it’s like flying. We can see mostly other apartment buildings, but also a good chunk of the water. People-watching is always a fun activity. The first day or so all the AustraLearn kids grouped together- all 10 of us. Once we went to Waiheke Island, though, we broke off into smaller groups.

There’s a free bus in the city, which is awesome. Queen Street is sort of the “Times Square of New Zealand” but everything is pretty cheap, especially with the exchange rate. Still, I’m spending a boatload of money on trips and necessities like sheets and food.

K Rd is the “dodgy” part of town – very “artsy” but also very much into drag queens and prostitutes. At our request, Liam gave Rachael and I a tour around K Rd in the middle of the day; I still felt a bit sketched out, and was glad to have a guy there. It’s unfair, because there were some cute dresses for sale, and cheap pizza. But I don’t think I’ll be going out there for dinner any time soon. Liam said don’t worry about the prostitutes, they’re mostly guys in drag anyway. How that was supposed to comfort us, I’m not sure. It did make us laugh, so I guess it helped relieve the tension anyway. 

Alright, alright.... Paihia/Bay of Islands

I've been trying to put up pictures from Paihia for FOREVER, and facebook keeps crashing, so that, and the departure from said place, has made me VERY unwilling to blog. Plus the sheer amount of stuff that happened....

Paihia is a town on the mainland but in the Bay of Islands... guess what's in the Bay of Islands. Yeah. Islands. We - Rachael, Pree, Paurakh and I - took a four-hour bus to get there.

The first night, when we arrived, it was raining like mad! An absolute downpour. We were starving and had only snacks we'd brought - apples, pears, hard-boiled eggs, bread. So, in the pouring rain, we went out to Salty Bar. Rachael and Pree had rain jackets, but Paurakh and I got SOAKED! We meant to get a pizza, but beer is sort of like bread, so we made do (my lone beer lasted me all night, and then I actually think Rachael finished it off). We danced a lot! Showed the kiwis how it's done! For some reason there is a pole in all Kiwi bar/clubs. As in, for pole dancing. At the Globe, people actually do it, but at Salty, it was mostly Paurakh swinging around and yelling. I watched some rugby and watched some guys play pool.

 

Day 2: We hiked to Waitangi, where the Waitangi treaty was signed, which is the basis for most Maori-white relations. There was a visitor's center/explanation thing, but it was expensive, so we decided to keep walking. We hiked up to Haruru falls, through soo many different atmospheres. We felt we were in the middle of nowhere, but we passes a lot of people, and at one point we passed a house! Please look at the pictures on facebook. We passed the river with big branching trees, filled with nesting birds. Deep forest overflowing with ferns in all colors. Swampy grasslands with different-colored waving reeds. Cattails taller than me. Huge leaves bigger than a dinner platter, with giant droplets of water on them. Then the mangrove forest, which at first looked muddy and gross, but then we saw little crabs in the mud, and the trees went on forever. It was so quiet.

The falls themselves were short, but thick - you could see that the rain had swelled it to about 2x normal size. They were the color of chocolate milk. We took the "short cut" home, which often involved us walking in the gutter alongside the road - you know, with grass and flowers all around us. We stopped to get groceries, and that night Pree and Paurakh made Indian butter chicken. It was delicious.

That night we went to the beach in Paihia and stargazed. It mostly involved me putting my camera on 30 second exposure and saying, "No one move! No one breathe!" and Paurakh taking pictures of us with the FLASH on!!

 

Day 3: We kayaked! Pree and Rachael in one and Paurakh and I in another. By this point, Paurakh and I had become buddies, so I don't mind saying that he was a lazy bum, and left me to do most of the paddling. Rachael and Pree were a good team and were even able to go through the mangroves, but Paurakh and I tended to run into the trees... ooops....

Oh did I mention that we landed on one of the Islands, pulled up our kayaks and stripped down and went swimming? It was awesome. The water felt so good after kayaking in the sun.

Unfortunately after I changed back on the mainland, I accidentally left my shorts behind (I was wearing pants).

So, we'd left some of our stuff in the safe in the hostel, and the owner left without her cell phone, or any return time, or telling anyone where she was... Paurakh and I (unwillingly) stayed behind to get the stuff, while Rachael and Pree went on (buggers). We were able to get a later bus that night, as classes started the next day, and it actually even worked out well, because on the bus we met Josh, a really cool Australian who works for ABC (Australian Broadcast Corp…. not owned by Disney!). He was in NZ picking up tapes and had decided to come for a few extra days to go swim with dolphins in Bay of Islands (which he did, and Paurakh was jealous, because he wanted to do that instead of kayak). That night Rachael and I went out for dinner with Josh; we talked about Aussie culture. Thus ended the epic weekend. :)

... every time I try to edit this, the text gets bigger....

 

Pasifika festival

So, I've been really stoked for the Pasifika festival for a LONG TIME. I haven't hung out with Abby, one of the AustraLearn girls, in a while, so I arranged to go with her.
Then last night Scott came over and told us the big 10 were going out! Since I've sort of fallen out with that group, I went along.
So, I did not wake up early enough to go to Pasifika at the appointed time.
A few texts later, everything was sorted - Abby went with her boyfriend, so she was fine anyway, it's not like she was there alone. (But I still felt really guilty.)
I ended up going much later. They'd set up sort of areas in the park - a big, winding park, each area representing a different nation in the Pacific - like Epcot, but not so organized. There were tons of booths, and most booths were selling sort of the same stuff - fake flowers to put in your hair, woven purses and hats, shell earrings. Andrew, Isiah, you may never read this, but I thought of you - the same goods being sold in tons of different places, with the facade of being authentic. I didn't want to buy any of them after I saw that they were all the same.
I walked all over the park, got lost, heard some cool music, and saw some interesting people- old and fat, young with mohawk/mullets that are really popular here, teenage guys taller and wider than me, dark-skinned babies with big eyes, roving packs of teenage girls giggling like mad... I really wanted to do some portrait shots, but didn't know how to without being weird (and i didn't have my good camera anyway).
I bought prawn curry and a pork stick (pork eggroll on a stick, more or less) and then split half a pineapple covered in 3 scoops of ice cream with Liam. We sat on a hill overlooking the water and swarms of people; music was playing behind and in front of us, and the seagulls were looking at our ice cream very hungrily, and a thick sheet of clouds was swirling around. These kids with mohawk/mullets were playing frisbee and they kept almost hitting me, but it was one of those soft frisbees, so it was all good, and I guess some famous New Zealand netball champion walked by, or Liam is a rotten liar.
So far I have five moments in New Zealand that I want to remember how they felt.
1. Star gazing in the thermal pool in Rotorua with the loud noise of the bar in the background
2. Walking out onto Oneroa Beach on Waiheke Island
3. Star gazing in Bay of Islands and hiking through the mangrove forest
4. When Laura, Rachael and Liam brought in my birthday cake
5. Eating ice cream and pineapple and watching and hearing everything at Pasifika

A note about classes

All of my classes ("papers") are large. Asian studies and my 2 philosophy papers are held in class rooms larger than ftv 111, and they were full on the first day (but not every day after that!). 

My Asian studies professor is AMERICAN. He is huge with a long bushy white beard, bald on top, remaining hair long and pulled into a ponytail. He is pretentious and easily sidetracked, and usually sounds like a muffled vacuum cleaner. 

My Metaphysics teacher is old, with a deep nasally voice. He always smiles at us, which is nice, but he has the most annoying habit of licking his lips with this awful dry noise. His subject always makes him laugh, so he looks like he's enjoying a joke with the class. (We know nothing about the world, isn't it funny?)

My Logic teacher is very old, with huge hearing aids, and yet he is the smartest one of the bunch, because he has discovered the invention of wireless lavaliers. He's a pacer, but we can hear every word he says in crystal clearness, even at the back of the room, which is good, because 1's and 0's can get confusing. 

Kapa Haka is unlike any class I've ever been in. It's held in the Maori meeting house. To get in, we have to parade across the grass (stopping halfway in remembrance of the dead) and then take off our shoes to go inside. We have teatime halfway through class in a separate building. I kid you not, the department provides tea and coffee. Each week, a group in the class is assigned to bring food.

Class is taught by a family. Papa Napur, his son and his son's wife, and their friend. Random other Maori people will occasionally show up and help demonstrate dances - no introduction or anything, they just do it. Last class Napur's great-grandson (who was probably younger than 8) worked the over-head projector, putting up the words for the funny adults who had never learned them. Papa has to be at least 75. Probably in his 80s. He definitely has NOT figured out microphones, even though there is one provided in the room. Luckily the other teachers have. We learn by repetition. Sometimes they write out the words, sometimes it takes them a bit to do so. They haven't figured out the online resources (like Blackboard - here it's called Cecil) so anything we want to remember, we write down.

Right now we're learning the girls' song. The song is about how happy our spirits are, and how we welcome  you. Compare to the boys' song, the Haka (I die, I die, I live, I live) which has a much wider emotional range! The girls' song involves a dance with a poi - a ball on a string. Next class we make our own. We'll see how that goes!

Excitement in the dead of night!

Yesterday I had the day off classes.

First, I slept for 12 hours.

Then, Laura and I went to the Warehouse and bought school supplies. I feel much more organized and pinned my birthday cards up on my corkboard.

After that, Liam came over and explained Cricket while we watched India play New Zealand. It was cut short because of rain, but enough had been played that it was decided that India had won.

Laura and I went to the laundry mat across the street, and I had clean clothes for the first time in a while. The night finished with me reading Socrates for Philosophy class.

Then the exciting part started.

At about 2:30 am the fire alarm went off.  My first thought was that I must not have turned my computer off, and I actually opened it up to see why it was making such a ruckus. The fire alarm here is an alarm punctuated by a man saying, “Please stand by for more instructions.” But after standing by for a bit, and given the hour, I decided it probably was a legitimate fire alarm. I poked my head out of my room and saw one of my other flat mates – I won’t tell you which, and you’ll see why later – looking groggily at me from down the hall. “Does that mean we have to go outside?” she asked. She, I, and one other flatmate found our shoes, and me my glasses, and them their keys, and headed out into the hall, figuring that the other two probably hadn’t dawdled so long in the face of emergency, and were probably outside already. It was eerie to go down the stairs in the middle of the night – from the 7^th floor. No windows, lots of people, but none of them moving super fast, all clomping down the stairs, around and around until suddenly we were on the ground floor. The (very cold) fresh air woke me up a bit. (Luckily it wasn’t raining.) Apparently only half of the building was having a fire alarm (presumably there is a fire wall in the middle of the building?). I stood with some people I knew and some I didn’t. One of the guys I didn’t know was talking about how his sprinkler had gone off. There were sprinklers going off? Maybe he’d gotten outside later than me; maybe I’d been in the stairwell when the sprinklers went off in my room; my computer was on my bed; my camera was in its bag on the floor. What room was he in? 6A. Oh dear, that was very close – I’m on 7A, only one floor directly above him.

It then occurred to me that I could only find in the group the flatmates I had come down with: 3 out of 5. The other two weren’t outside. I texted them but they didn’t answer. Either they were asleep or they didn’t have their phones – wherever they were. We thought it was very likely that one of them was at a friend’s place, but the other one… My one flatmate was pretty sure she heard her come in around 2, drunk…

We couldn’t see any fire or any smoke. A rumour began to circulate through the crowd that there wasn’t a fire at all; that some drunk idiot had kicked off their shoes and hit a sprinkler with them.

Eventually they let us back in. Firefighters were still hanging around, running in and out of the building. We went up the stairs. About halfway, I got curious, ducked onto the nearest floor, and pushed the button for the elevator, just to see if it was working. It started to ding, as if it was, but then I noticed that there was a waterfall on the door of the right-hand elevator, and I decided it wasn’t worth it, even if they were working. I ducked back into the stairwell only to realize, as a security measure, you need your key card to get OUT of the stairwell, and I didn’t have mine. Because I’d gone exploring, I’d missed the mass of people, and was pretty alone. I realize now that I could have just texted my flatmates, but at the time I was pretty panicked. Luckily there was a girl holding open the door on the 8^th floor, and she let me in on the 7th.

About that time, we decided that the one flatmate might still be in her room. We banged on the door; nothing happened. So we went back downstairs to find some RA’s, who unlocked the door. She was there, in bed, apparently having slept through the entire fire alarm and evacuation. She more or less responded to the RA’s questions (are you alright? Do you want some water?) mostly by nods. The RA, satisfied that she was conscious, locked the door and started to leave. We flatmates were not so easily appeased, and demanded that she unlock the door again, so we could check on her during the night. You can’t get sued for much in New Zealand, but apparently giving us access to her room was something the RA could get in trouble for, and she had to appeal to the other RA’s as witnesses, and ask our drunk friend if it was alright if she left the door unlocked.

We watched her for a bit – gave her some water and so on, but in the end decided she really was probably ok, and we’d check on her in the morning.

The next morning she was fine – really hungover, and scared, but fine.

The sixth and fifth floors are swamped with water. Those people today are moving into different rooms. I don’t know what happened to their computers or cameras.

The newest rumour is that there were scuff marks found by the kicked sprinkler, meaning someone did it purposefully (though they were most likely too drunk to remember). Another rumour is that the person who did it was not a resident, but a guest.

Call me cynical, but I would not put it past the building staff to start this rumour. That way, the building is not responsible for property loss, but they’re not pinning all the damage charges on some drunk resident either. 

I haven't got much time until Kapa Haka, but I think it's definitely nap time. 

Class Schedule

Hello folks!

My class schedule is: 

Monday. Asian studies, 10 am- 12 noon, 2 pm- 3 pm

Tuesday. Philosophy 100 and 101, 9 am- 12 noon

Wednesday. No class.

Thursday. Philosophy 100 and 101, 10 am - 12 noon. Kapa Haka 4 pm- 7 pm.

Friday. No class.

Although I appear to have a lot of spare time, I'm expected to read 2 chapters a week of the text book in Philosophy 101, 2 Socratic dialogues a week in 100, and about 5 articles per week of asian studies, anywhere in length from 4 to 20 pages each. I'm not used to that type of workload. There's very little WRITTEN work, until the huge essay, which is actually coming up.

Anyway, that's when I'm in class. Remember the time difference. I think we're 4 hours behind California (but a day in advance) so on Sunday at 5 pm in California it's Monday at 1 pm in NZ, or 8 pm on Sunday in Tennessee. 

Happy Birthday!

Friday was my birthday! Dani had arranged a dinner, and I thought it was partially to celebrate my birthday, so I went and brought some of my friends and my flatmates. It wasn't for me, actually, but it was still really nice. (Ok, it was a little bit awkward.... sorry for crashing the party in a very egocentric way....) I had the best pad thai ever, though. Unfortunately, the waitress took it away - I was under the impression she would box it up, and she wasn't. 

I knew my flatmates and friends were going to go out drinking in celebration of my birthday, so I wasn't surprised when they all came back to the flat (especially since 4 of them live there). I was surprised when Scott turned up (a guy from AustraLearn who I didn't talk to that much but is actually really cool). Then a large group of Laura's friends turned up, so I was like, oh, maybe it's not for my birthday. But they didn't leave. They just hung around. And no one seemed to want to go out.... more people kept coming in, and leaving, and coming back, and whispering, but who could pay attention to the whispering when everyone was talking and drinking... my friends, mutual friends, Cassie's friends, Laura's friends.... the whole apartment was full... and then Laura and Rachael and Liam walked in with a cake, and Liam's friend held up a lighter since there were no candles, and everyone sang "Happy Birthday." I blew out the lighter (and made a wish, but I won't tell you what for) and Alyse cut the cake into the smallest pieces ("I'm Irish, we lived through the potato famine, we can make anything last!") so everyone would have a piece. My wonderful flatmates had even made a sort of birthday card that they'd all signed.

That night we went out to the Globe Bar - a real club - stuffy, hot, lots of people drinking and dancing. My first real club/bar experience, and I was pretty scared of dodgy people. I didn't drink any while I was there, so it was cheap and not as scary.

I was with Paurakh, and i told him not to leave me. He took his job a bit too seriously i think, but it was good, because when I went out for some fresh air, it was nice to have someone text me and say, "Where did you go? Are you okay?" But it was all good and fun. We even had to wait in line to get in, and they let me in because i was a girl! Exactly like the movies! Cassie made some new friends but I mostly danced with Laura, then sat outside (where it wasn't ridiculously hot) and talked to Rachael, Scott, Paurakh and Liam.

I've never had a surprise party before, unless you count this year when mom and dad got me a cake for a little birthday before I went away. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside (like the little cake did, but on a bigger scale). 

We all trooped back at various times (generally around 4 am) and after making sure Cassie was sitting up straight, and that her friends would take care of her, I went to bed- 22, happy, and grateful for my wonderful, wonderful friends.

Waiheke

Waiheke Island

With classes not started yet, the big 10 decided to go to Waiheke Island. It’s a 45-minute ferry ride from Auckland. We all sat on the top of the boat and took pictures of the beautiful islands and peninsulas we passed. We got to Waiheke and discovered it was a hike to the good beach – we sort of decided swimming in the harbor was not a good idea. So, at various speeds, we started on the hike, fragmenting off. Pree wanted to kayak; some of the group got into a bus, which I thought was a bit dodgy. In the end, it was just Rachael, Kevin and me.

We hiked quite a bit – I missed most of it because I was on the phone with my mom. We finally arrived at Oneroa beach. For those of you who have seen Prince Caspian, it was exactly like the scene where the kids arrive in Narnia. We stepped out of an overgrown path, hot and sweaty, onto a pristine and nearly deserted beach. It was a small crescent of white sand surrounded by lush forest, but big enough to be extremely comfortable. Shells the size of a bar of soap – and just as round and white – dotted the beach, whole and clean, looking like the birds had just moments before nibbled up their occupants. Sailboats sat lazily in the water some way out. Clouds straight out of Toy Story – flat on the bottom, puffy and full on top, and white as snow – hung about far away in the sky. To complete perfection, someone had tied up a tireswing in a tree. We swung around on the tire, then stripped down to our togs and splashed around in the warm, shallow water. It was pretty clear – you could see your feet, though they were a bit greenish looking. Kevin kept being afraid of “creatures” like sharks. I was a bit more rational (maybe) and was more afraid of sting rays, having seen someone be stung by one once  in California. I was careful to shuffle my feet. I floated along on my back for a while, splashing at Rachael (she didn’t appreciate it). After a while we all laid out on our towels to dry and warm up, and to read the tourist info we’d gotten about Waiheke’s beaches. I slathered on the sunscreen. J

As we were laying there, who should walk up but Tommy and his girlfriend. Random! We talked a bit with them, and they highly recommended getting a bus pass for 8 dollars. All day, anywhere you wanted to go. After laying out a bit more and saying goodbye to Tommy, we walked down to town, where we found a bus station and paid our $8.

Next stop: Onetangi, which had a much longer beach, and many more people – probably about 30 of them over the course of a mile. We went for a walk along the beach and saw a little pug bodysurfing on the waves, which was pretty much the coolest thing any pug has ever done.

We stopped at a seaside restaurant for dinner, and ended up getting cheeseburgers because it was the cheapest thing. I got L&P, a NZ soda (the bartender seemed concerned when I ordered, since I’m obviously American: “You know it’s from New Zealand?”).

We ate on the deck, and could see almost nothing besides sea and sky and shore – I think we must have sat there for at least an hour, just soaking in the beauty. Of course, we saw Tommy there (random!) but he didn’t eat with us.

We still had our bus passes burning a hole in our pockets, so we decided to stop at Blackpool on the way back for a change of scenery and to see if it was really black. Onetangi is famous for its vineyards; we passed a few small ones on the way out, but none of them seemed to be open to the public. Next time I will investigate further.

Blackpool was really just a neighborhood. It was high tide and the beach was nearly completely underwater. By that time it was getting darker and a breeze was kicking up, so none of us felt like swimming. We played on their miniscule playpark, then walked about talking about which of the houses we wanted to buy with our imaginary millions. We followed a path up to another street, and watched the beautiful sunset from there. On the way back to the bus stop, we heard a bunch of Kiwis singing Green Day in someone's house. Waiting for the bus, we stargazed and found Orion (who is upside down here) and the Southern Cross. The other constellations are completely foreign to us, but very pretty. On the bus back it was just us and  - you guessed it – Tommy and his girlfriend and her friends (Random!!). They were just coming back from Onetangi I think. On the ferry back we met up with the rest of the big 10, and sat in the covered area of the ship playing hand games like you learn at camp. I was tired, so I didn’t play. Instead I leaned back and closed my eyes and thought about the beautiful beach at Oneroa. 

Wait, who?

I realized I'm going to mention people a lot, and that you probably have no idea who they are. So here it is: The cast of characters.

My flatmates (all Americans):

Rachael – my best friend here. We are awkward together. We roomed together in Rotorua and also here in Auckland totally by chance – good thing we like each other!

Cassie – our flat’s party girl, but not over the top or anything.

Alyse – the mom of our flat (not literally, but she’s much more responsible than the rest of us)

Laura – the little sister of our flat – very fun, very hyper

 

Alex - at Waikato. Very, very talkative.

Charlie - at Waikato. Laid back and smart, very chill and will take on anything.

Pree - smart, fun girl from AustraLearn. Is very proactive; organizing trips, etc.

Kevin – shy guy from AustraLearn. Actually met him by continually “taking the mickey” out of him (being mean). Very smart and intuitive.

Paurakh – my brother from a different mother. From Nepal, but goes to uni in the states. Hyper, unstoppable, impossible to understand at times. I’m always the one hesitating, he’s always saying “Come on” (with a Nepal accent). So sue me if I want to think things through!

The big 10 – 10 kids from AustraLearn who banded together at the start – Chris (Alpha), Amanda, Eric, Lorissa, Kevin, Justine, Pam, Pree, Rachael and I. Chris, Eric and Justine have the strongest personalities and are often in the lead. Definitively not all the kids from AustraLearn.

Tommy -  Another kid from AustaLearn who is here with his girlfriend. Randomly run into him a lot.

Liam/ Jennifer – the first Kiwi I ever met, and what a first impression! Liam is very sarcastic, very dry humor. Doesn’t talk much, but when he does, it’s funny. At a party, we were going around the circle introducing ourselves to new-comers, and to be smart, he said his name was Jennifer. I refuse to let him live it down. In return, he has christened me “Bruce.”

Dani and Aylssa – Pree’s suitemates. Both very fun people. Often host cards-and-drinks parties, which are often broken up by security.

There. That should help with the stories.

Kia Ora! Rotorua

Welcome to New Zealand!

The flight was long. I slept on it, but still! We arrived at 5:30, so of course they woke us for breakfast at 3:30. Then we got on a bus to Rotorua, which is a town built around all its geothermal activity - Europeans made a lot of bathhouses here - and Maori culture. The Maori are the "native" people of NZ. They came over in boats too, but they did it first. 

So, after a 3 hour bus ride, we were all feeling extremely sore and really in need of a shower. We arrived at KiwiPaka, our hostel, which felt at first like it was in the middle of nowhere, but it wasn't - it was just chillin in a neighborhood, a few blocks from "downtown" Rotorua (this town is probably smaller than Knoxville). Internet there was $3 for an hour, i believe, which is why I didn't get on! My friend Alex got it, and he let me get on long enough to assure my mom that I was alive. 

That first day at KiwiPaka was rough, and the events they had planned for us were: get on the bus and go to an information session, and then get back on the bus and go on a city tour of Rotorua. SO MUCH BUS. My driver was awesome, little Kiwi named Stu. He drove that thing like it was a little sports car - parallel parking and so on. Some people said they were scared, but I wasn't. Bed that night at 8:30 pm. It was so weird to think that earlier that day, we'd been in Auckland airport. 

Day Two: Back on the bus to Waitomo! It wasn't as far, and we had something wonderful to look forward to: caving! There were three different caving experiences. I chose toobing, which is sort of a misnomer, because it sounds like a lazy river sort of deal. It was like that at one part, for about 5 minutes, but it was a 2 hour caving experience, and the rest was spent hiking and swimming, which I loved. The cave we were in was famous for its glowworms. They were all up in the crevices in the ceiling, looking like little green stars, even in sort of a milky way formation. Our guides were Scott and Louis. Scott was pretty quiet, but Louis was a textbook example of Kiwi humor - very, very dry and a bit weird. Example: he said "If you get into any trouble, just give us a shout." and I said, "What is your name?" and he smirked and said, "That's not important." Obviously he told us a few minutes after that, but you get the idea. We had a snack halfway through, which was funny. I was expecting granola and water, something healthy. They gave us chocolate fish, which are filled with marshmallow, and some warm, lemony drink (we still can't decide what it was- we asked Louis, and he said it was gin and tonic). 

The swimming part was really hard because we were wearing overalls, jackets and socks made out of wetsuit material, and "gum boots" (aka galoshes, rain boots, Wellies). So we couldn't move our arms much, but we didn't want to kick off our gum boots.... it was interesting.

It had been raining steadily that day, so the caves were pretty full of water. It made for much more enjoyable swimming, in my opinion. 

That night we went to KiwiPaka's pub. There was talk of going to the Lava Bar in town, but, oh, let's wait until the Rugby match on tv ends.... Eventually I just bought a beer at KiwiPaka (Mac's Gold) - my first beer. It wasn't bad, though of course I couldn't drink it all. There was a thermal pool (like a pool and a hot tub had a baby, both in size and temp) in the back, so I ditched everyone and stargazed in the pool. It was beautiful. I've never seen so many stars, and they were all new to me, except for Orion, who you can *still* see here. Apparently I missed out on techno night at the lava bar, but I think I can survive that disappointment (especially since we had to be up at 7:30 for breakfast the next morning.)

Day Three: Agrodome sheep show - we saw a guy demonstrate sheep shearing and cow milking. He annoyed me because he was in such a hurry. I'm sitting there thinking, doesn't he know us citiots are just lovin' it? Slow down!! The whole show was over in an hour. I was one of the few who got to hand-milk a cow. I felt very awkward on the cow's behalf; she didn't seem to mind.

ZORBING. Awesome, awesome, awesome. They made it out to be a really intense thing, so we all went in pairs for safety. We strip down to our togs (swimsuits) in the rain, and then take a pickup up a little hill. Paurakh and I went first, together. Jump in the ball, there's water at the bottom, then push forward and the ball starts rolling! It's like a really confusing slip and slide. Paurakh told me at the end he'd been trying to flip me, and I'd wish I'd known that, because I would have gone along with it. 

THE HAKA. Back to KiwiPaka, where we learned the Haka - what the Maori warriors do to get ready for battle. You should youtube search "All Blacks Haka" - I'd imagine it's there. Lots of chanting at the top of your lungs and slapping your chest.  We divided into two teams, and when we met up, we had a haka-off, which was super-intense and awesome. They dressed us up in traditional Maori clothes and facepaint (traditionally tatoos) and we went to film us doing it - of course then we all messed up once the camera was on us.

That night we went to a traditional Maori town reenactment. It was sort of cool, but cheesy. But they did entertain us with dances and chanting and that was awesome. I'm stoked for my Kapa Haka class, where I can learn those dances. 

The next day, back on the bus, and on to Auckland. We dropped off half of our bus at University of Waikato, which was sort of a middle-of-nowhere, cows across the street sort of town. Even though I'd only spent 3 days with them, I was sad to see these people go. There's something about having hours on a bus, experiencing totally new things, and not being able to shower much.... Charlie was good enough to give me a traditional Maori farewell, which was cool - he knew how much I loved all the Maori stuff. What you do is hold right hands, put your left hand on their shoulder, and touch noses twice. You're exchanging the breath of life. 

With a hearty "Kia Ora," we're on to Auckland. 

*Basic Maori. "Kia Ora" means something like "health to your spirit" and can be used in ANY situation - hello, goodbye, thank you... "Wai" means water. "roto" is lake, "rua" is second. 

Things are getting warmed up...

It was warm enough today that Gabrielle, Denali, and I went on a long walk in the woods. Of course, it will not compare in length to the "treks" in NZ, and it made me painfully realize that I will need lots of maps, and probably a compass, as well as hiking boots. >Sigh< 

BUT that aside, the walk was absolutely gorgeous and really fun. (We had a lot to talk about!)

 I've started to think about packing. I haven't gotten all my stuff out on the floor like Isaiah did- not yet- but I still have 3 weeks. But the problem is, at the moment, I have no idea what to pack. Um, clothes? Toothbrush? .... So I'll probably end up with a bunch of stuff I don't need! Any suggestions from you world travelers? Put comments here or on facebook. Lots of love,

E

Setting up

Hello everyone! 

I don't leave for N.Z. for several weeks still, but I know I will be swamped once I get there, so I figured I'd sort out this blogging nonsense in advance. 

I'm in Knoxville, TN, USA right now. It's pretty slow - lots of cleaning, grocery shopping, doing odd jobs for Grandy. I miss Disneyland constantly, though I'm glad of the distance to see some of its faults (crazy managers, anyone?). 

This picture took forever and a week to  load, so I'll probably put most of my pictures on facebook and text here. But, as you can see in this photo, it snowed for two days here. It was so foggy that day that you couldn't even see the water or the mountains beyond. Oddly enough, the days when it snowed were relatively warm: my first few days here, the high was in the teens or twenties. I've gotten used to wearing wool socks and keeping the heater on full blast (which I'd have to do anyway, since Grandy gets cold all the time now). On the warmer (max, 45 degrees F) days, I've taken Denali for a walk, which she totally loved, but it's been too cold recently, so she's getting cabin fever and barking a lot.

Still a few weeks to NZ. It doesn't seem real. First I'm worrying about going to Atlanta to see the Terra Cotta Soldiers, and then going to Davidson to see Maureen.