Here's my blog for folks to learn (and hopefully laugh) about my adventures while traveling abroad and engaging in my alternative education. My challenge? To keep my journal entries up-to-date, engaging, and maybe even informative for other adventurers through my successes or mistakes. As a young traveler and blogger, I am open to questions, comments, and tips. I hope you enjoy.
Dave/David My socializing partner Major: Geology, History Origins: New Jersey (don’t judge), Williams College
Fun guy who is excited to experience new things and willing to put himself out there to give something new at least a try. He’s also just so enthusiastic with just about anything and happy. He almost always has a smile on and I really can’t imagine him angry. He’s become one of my partners in exercise and exploring, and my main cohort in cooking and socializing.
It’s great because we’re both aren’t that great with socializing, especially when it comes to huge crowds of people we don’t know and there’s dancing that doesn’t involve instructions like contra or standard steps like Cotton-Eyed-Joe. We tend to stand to the sides and watch, not doing a very good job with meeting new people. So we started to challenge each other with getting out and meeting people. One of our first attempts was at the international party organized by Otago’s international office at a bar (week two of living in the flat). We were sort of just sitting in the corner together watching people, until I ended up talking to this one girl in the booth next to us (mainly because we made eye contact and it felt more awkward not to acknowledge it). Dave congratulated me on my willingness to just step out and talk to someone; I then set the challenge that if we made eye contact with someone while we’re there, we had to at least introduce ourselves to them and share our favourite hobbies. We did pretty well for ourselves that night, meeting about three new people, some of whom we had decently long conversations with.
As I mentioned before, he’s out going in the sense of trying new things, which includes (since he’s been in Dunedin) capoeira (sort of a Brazilian martial art that’s very graceful and a lot like break dancing). Despite the fact your quads are dying after the first session, it seems as though it will become a weekly routine for him (after a little delay, I got sucked into it too). He’s also got to experience outdoor rock climbing for the first time this past weekend and he’s looking forward to trying contra dancing.
One of the best aspects I have to say about him is his ability to be spontaneous and remain positive (at least outwardly), even when things aren’t going as well as we hoped (wait until you hear about the Cargill hike). He’s also able to laugh at his own mistakes and not ashamed to admit things like the fact that he still enjoys Backstreet Boys.
Quentin: AKA: Frenchy Major: Marketing Origins: France
Quentin is awesome. For one, he is a social butterfly and got to know basically everyone in our complex in the first week (doesn’t need to get drunk to go out and have fun with just about anyone or do spontaneous, somewhat crazy things like wear a dress to orientation to win a bet-he’s a very confident male). He fits the bill for the stereotype I have of French people (they love butter and lots of it) and he’s an amazing cook (he made us these homemade calzones/raviolis and a pumpkin dish). Oh, and he knows English better than David or I do (even though it’s obviously his second language). He also loves anime, along with Dave, and a number of other people in our flat complex. And like everyone in our flat. He’s very good in volleyball and joined a team here, already making it up to Christchurch for a few games the other weekend.
You have to appreciate his independence: he’s here to explore New Zealand and experience it for himself. He avoids hanging out with other French people for the most part so he can meet more new people, international and Kiwis. It’s hard for us Americans to avoid other US exchange students, there are just so many of us.
He’s really smart when it comes to marketing. He gave me a heads up warning me that the US dollar is taking a plunge so the exchange rate for us with the New Zealand dollar is going to get worse (and he managed to explain it to me in English terms I can understand-which is very impressive).
Liz Kiwi Host Major: Finance and Economics Origins: Christchurch
I’ve never had another kiwi host before, but I think Liz has to be one of the best. She has a playful sense of humor. Upon first arriving, I quickly learned she has the kiwi instinct to lie, though not in a bad way, just to mess with us internationals, and about 3 seconds after the lie she confesses the truth. Probably the best one she’s told us yet (unfortunately I wasn’t there for it, but I heard all about it) was the first time we lost power in our apartment. Dave asked what happened, did we blow a fuse or something? Liz responded with oh no, there’s just this tension/conflict between the people of Dunedin and the government and sometimes the government shuts down our power when the citizens have been acting up (or she said something along those lines). Being Dave (though I will confess I probably would have fallen for it myself momentarily) he was like “seriously?!” Then she broke down laughing and explained that our prepayment on our electricity just ran out. She’s great to have conversations with; she loves to ask us a lot about the US, comparing it with New Zealand (not in like they’re better because they do this way, but, oh we do this different way); and she’s so helpful in answering any of our questions (or answering them before we even know we were going to ask) or talking about things like politics without any tension (just genially curiosity). She works at this rugby store, which she hates (working in the store, pretty sure she enjoys rugby to a degree), but she also devotes quite a bit of time to soccer and hockey which she just got into the last couple of years and loves. She looks foreword to traveling the world one day, has plans to visit the US and love to watch a hockey game there where people actually like hockey (I mentioned she should just go to UNH to see a game, apparently we’re pretty good). Oh and she’s fantastic because she (with Dave’s help) made my surprise birthday cake-which automatically puts her on my list of amazing people.
I have to say that my flatmates are pretty awesome and I’m not just saying that because they may read this blog. They’re awesome because they enjoy going out to the parties, but know how to separate themselves to have low key personal/flat time (if they liked to throw huge parties every other night like some flats in our complex did the first couple of weeks, I personally would be a bit overwhelmed); they’re pretty laid back (’chill’), fun to hang out with, out going, have great senses of humour, generous, and help with the cleaning (to list a few of the reasons). Oh and probably one of the most important things: they’re all good cooks. Maybe it’s just because we’re still in the honeymoon phase, but I think this is going to be a great semester (when I noted this to Liz she said the honeymoon phase ends in 3-4 months: so perfect, just when we’re moving out we’ll be starting to get sick of each other).
Allow me to introduce you to them individually so you can get to know them a little better and have a better idea of what I’m talking about.
The railroad society in Rotorua had a fair basically just for us australearn students; giving us the opportunity to give back to the community and just talk with the locals-get to know the real Kiwis.
The fair itself was small, mainly just raising awareness about the railroad society among the locals. For the first couple of hours I was in the model room with two other students. Our duties were to make sure kids weren’t fiddling with the trains and that the trains stayed on their tracks. The set up they had was neat with some of the trains being about 80 years old. Unfortunately, it was just us students and the trains for over an hour. It doesn’t take three of us to put trains back on the tracks and it was pretty boring to do it repeatedly (I really don’t understand people’s fascination with having a fancy train set and watching it go round and round, unless they change the set up frequently). I ended up wandering just outside the model room for a little bit and started talking with a local fireman, asking about their wildfire fighters (also known as ‘bush bunnies). The bush bunnies sometimes come to the US to help with our bigger wildfires. There’s actually an international standard with their training so they can assist the US.
In the late morning, when I was assigned bathroom-cleaning duty, I checked to make sure the bathroom was in good shape and then wandered over to a group of older women selling delicious soup. As I sipped on the soup, I talked with them and watched their show dogs perform some amazing stunts on the obstacle course they had set up. I learned about this beautiful bread: the New Zealand Header collie. The one I watched was amazingly agile and fast.
That evening was one of the highlights of orientation: dinner and entertainment at a Maori village. It started with our bus ride provided by the village with a hilarious bus driver, Mark (for short, I have no idea what his two line long Maori name is). He began with introducing us to Kia Ora (Maori term for hello basically), proceeded to tell its translation in 62 languages, and then ended with the fact that none of us should have an excuse now not to understand what Kia Ora means. “Does anyone not know what Kia Ora means?” (as he opens the bus door while driving). “Please don’t let the open door sway your answer, we like complete honesty.” He then told us his long Maori name and asked us to ‘simply’ call him by his Maori name if we have any questions and he will answer them. We were then asked to repeat his name. Needless to say it was an epic fail, so he noted that due to our lack of ‘effort’ in trying to say his name, he noted we must not have questions and will not have any, so he doesn’t have to answer any. The ride there (and back) continued along these lines.
As part of entering the Maori village, we needed a chief, so on the bus ride to the village we ‘selected’ a chief among us. Mark set the prerequisites Maori have to be a chief and Austin was chosen because he was the only man among us who played rugby (‘the best sport on earth,’ apparently, as the All Blacks are the ‘best team ever known to mankind’), and he fit the bill for being ‘tall’ (definitely), ‘handsome’ (I’d agree with that), strong (ehh, little slim if you ask me, but looks can be deceiving), and ‘intelligent’ (potentially). When we came to the entrance of the Maori village we were greeted by the three finest warriors to challenge and intimidate us before they then offered us the peace sign (a fern) which Austin picked up. A Maori woman then greeted us with a song and we entered the village.
We had a little bit of time to wander the village and ask questions (it was set up like the Mayflower village in MA-people dressed up and demonstrating different activities) about whatever we saw. We were then guided to the area where our food was cooking underground in the Maori traditional style and watched them uncover the feast. As they went to prepare the meal to be served we went into a separate building to watch some of the people of the village perform native (minus the guitar) song, dance, and ancestral love story. In no time at all though we were enjoying a huge dinner with their version of sweet potatoes, lamb, chicken, fish, fruit salad, potatoes, and pavalova (the national dessert of New Zealand: they have excellent taste).
Our ride back from the village was just as exciting as the ride there, maybe even more so. Mark drove round and round (add like 10 more rounds to that) a small traffic circle...pretty fast too (mind you, we were in an old full length bus). As he did so, he sang the “wheels on the bus go round and round...” and then interjected in the same singsong voice that he hoped the police didn’t see him because it is quite dangerous and, as he found out recently, ‘it’s actually quite illegal.’ “But you know, I still think its darn good fun.” You got to love the Kiwis. They are so much more laid back than Americans and not so paranoid about taking risks (or taking ownership of their mistakes). You know in the US someone would be filing a lawsuit before that ride was over.
Monday July 4th, 2011
Mount Ngauruhoe, North Island of New Zealand= Mount Doom, Mordor, Middle Earth
Our day of travel and moving in. Nothing to exciting to report for today, for half the day was spent flying down to Dunedin, with a lay over in Wellington. The highlight of the trip-flying right by Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings. I have to say it looks a lot colder there now than it did when Frodo and Sam were making their way up it to throw the ring into its fiery depths. Interesting fact though, that mount erupted 45 times in the 20th century-most recently in 1977. This mountain is on my to do list by the way.
The other half of the day was spent moving in and doing a lot of walking around town, trying to orient myself and do some grocery shopping. And meeting my flatties (who I will soon introduce you soon)!
I have great news for you. The next few blogs wont recreate every single day of the next three weeks, for probably half of it involves walking and you would become extremely bored. So you'll have a fast forward version of the next three weeks and an introduction to each of my flatties, David, Liz, and Quentin-who are pretty awesome by the way.
Aoteatpa-->Land of the Long White Cloud= New Zealand
Day 2 of our orientation began with a three hour drive with our bus driver Eric, who shared a bit of information with us about New Zealand-the good and the bad. I was excited when I learned that 70% of New Zealand's electricity is from renewable energy, but not excited to hear that they have an overabundance of dairy farms, to the point which they have serious issues from the run off and keeping their water sources clean. Also, despite the abundance of milk being produced in this country, it is very expensive because most of it is shipped to other countries in powdered form and the dairy farmers make it big it seems by the look of their houses. Unfortunately, even though New Zealand takes pride with being more self-reliant and it's easy to find things everywhere that are made in New Zealand with at least some local products, everything is so bloody expensive.
That afternoon we had our 2nd Australearn session with Paul (good thing too, he does so well with keeping us awake with his humour). After that our day became much more interesting and exciting: we got a lesson on the meaning and history of the Haka! And on top of that we got to learn a real Haka and dress up and perform.
Haka: A war chant or dance that focuses your energy and allows you to call on your ancestor to give you energy and strength to kill the enemy you are about to fight. It’s also to intimidate the enemy you hope to kill (this is where they make their eyes pop and stick out their tongue in that aggressive face which is actually pretty scary when you see people who do it really well-I would not be their enemy).Your showing them you are coming at them to kill them and you have all your strength and the backing of your ancestors (the Maori were pretty violent-they had many wars between the tribes all over the Island).
Each tribe had their own Haka and it told a story. The Haka we learned was the Haka of one of the most feared war chiefs ever in New Zealand that lived about 200 years ago. Surprisingly, he didn’t do a Haka about his massacring of villages, but of the time a chief and his wife saved his life when he was younger (and not yet a feared war chief) and being chased by warriors. They hid him and the woman stood over his hiding place to protect him (it should be noted here that no Maori man will go through or under a woman’s legs, for they are, along with being a place of birth, the gateway to the underworld. It had to do something with a legend of a woman killing a man by snapping his legs or maybe snapping him with her legs, I’m not sure exactly). Never would have guessed a great war chief would chant basically about a woman’s “hairy part” saving his life.
Between practice time and performance time (where yes we did dress up, please refer to pictures on facebook, I may get around to putting them on photo bucket but that’s a slow program) we played flag rugby, which was actually pretty fun. For those who don’t know, rugby is NZ’s national sport and they are pretty obsessed with it, especially with the World Cup coming up in September in NZ. Go All Blacks!
Friday July 1st, 2011
Our adventure day! It turned out to be pretty awesome, despite the long drive (2 hours to Waitomo and then back). I’m afraid I may take up a new expensive hobby: caving. I had no idea how active, beautiful, and awesome it could be.We rappelled down about 3 waterfalls, lowered down a 4th (because it was a narrow opening), ran through waterfalls to get to the next passage, and climbed up rock walls and ladders (as well as over and across them). During all this we saw huge caverns, beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, and glow worms.I have a new respect for cavers who explore the unexplored. They may have the same guts, if not more than alpine rock climbers. Like in the case of our cave, if we continued down the river instead of veering off, we would have to swim under water several times to reach the next cavern and eventually where the river comes out on the surface. Imagine just going on a whim, dunking your head under water, swimming under a rock wall, and just hoping that there is an opening big enough for you to come up for air in time.And our cave was discovered in 1901, mapped out completely I think in the 60’s.
We had two Kiwi men as our guides; one older man with a laid back sense of humour who has clearly been doing caving for a long time; has probably been through that cave countless times. I was impressed when he rappelled down the first waterfall: he basically ran down it face first, letting the rope fly through his device. Our other guide was much younger and quieter but still pretty cool. He had black curly hair and looked a lot like a Hobbit (minus the height and I can’t confirm the hairy feet).
We ended our adventure with a late lunch of amazing pizzas and watching “Boy” (NZ movie, I highly recommend it) for the ride home.
Saturday July 2nd, 2011
This was our free day where we could go through a tourist company and do a number of awesome, overpriced activities (rafting, zorbing, zip lining, etc) or go explore the area on your own for free. I of course, chose the free option (eventually I definitely need to get around to zorbing); good thing too, because I had to finally go see the doctor that morning (who turned out to be yet another funny and very laid back Kiwi and who didn’t seem to be keen on squeezing as much money out of me as she could). Go figure, the one time I get giardia I get it right before leaving for New Zealand. Fortunately, I didn’t have it nearly as bad as some of the stories I’ve heard. And the medicine I got knocked it out in 24 hours (just in time to enjoy the Maori dinner the next night).
On my walk back from the doctors I stopped at the local farmers market and experienced my first Thai massage which was different, but pretty good (though I think I like traditional massages more). That afternoon I joined a number of Australearn students and we explored the Redwood forest just on the other side of town. From there we had wonderful views of the city, its hot springs, lake, and geysers. Oh and the redwood forest is not native, it was planted around 1900, but boy did those trees grow fast.
So this is basically Kat's Adventures Part Two (that's kind of a lie because I've had many adventures since South America, but no trip long enough worth blogging about; so this is the second long adventure; I promise, I'll finish the Argentina blog at some point-I have some posts started for it, just need to finish them, but let me catch up on the present first). I do recognize that my "year" off ended a year and a half ago, but it's too much time to start a new blog (I'm a little slow with creative titles and catchy descriptions), and I already have my hands full with catching up on my past 11 days in New Zealand. Despite the discrepancy with my description of this blog, I hope you enjoy following me along on my final semester of college (and hopefully beyond into the final hours of my internship) which I will enjoy in New Zealand. I promise not too bore you with the school work aspect (unless it's something super interesting).
Orientation Week with Australearn Day 1: Wednesday June 29th, 2011
After about maybe 30 hours of traveling (if you count the 11 hours I got to enjoy in LA international airport) I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand 2 days after I left (so weird, a day of my life just disappeared). Upon arrival we were driven up to the top of the tallest mountain in Auckland (by one of the funniest coach bus drivers I've ever met, though it turns out just about every Kiwi is like this), Mount Eden (196 metres, a dormant volcano with a beautiful grassy crater 50 metres deep). There we got to look upon the super city of Auckland with its scattering of hills that are dormant/extinct volcanoes, and the Pacific Ocean.
Tyme and Paul, our Australearn guides and native Kiwis (I believe they both have some Maori blood) gave us lovely intros to the laid back (sometimes sarcastic) humour of the Kiwis. I should warn you now, I'm becoming tempted to move to New Zealand, just because of its people (the landscape is a big factor too of course, but I'm just adding to the top 5 list of reasons). Hopefully I'll be able to convey this to you throughout these following posts. Maybe I'll start a post just for Kiwi humour.
After admiring the vista, we headed down to check into the hotel, have our first session led by Paul to give us a run down about Kiwis, their weird English (ex: Scarfies=colleges students), and some other important things to know that I wont bore you with. We had the afternoon free and I went with some Australearners to Auckland's museum. It was immense, large four floor building with just about anything you can-the geological history of New Zealand (they actually had an earth quake simulator that demonstrated how things might go if a volcano blew up in Auckland-talk about blunt and so reassuring), Maori history/culture, the colonist history, girl/boy scouts of the past century, the wars NZ has been a part of, and so much more.
After two hours of exploring the museum and getting lost we made our meandering way back to the hotel with a stop at the police station to assist us in finding the hotel. We then had dinner at an Italian restaurant where I had a salmon pizza (it was local meat), which is ingenious idea by the way. I then struggled to stay awake until 9:00 before crashing (this was my challenge for the next 3 nights).
