Travel Updates!

Hi everyone!
I just wanted to update everyone on my travels and this is really the first time I've been able to do so. Firstly, I arrived safely in Sydney yesterday and found my friend Lisa, who I will be staying with for the next three weeks. From the 8th, when EcoQuest finished, to the morning of the 20th, when I flew to Sydney, I have been traveling around New Zealand with two other girls, Alex and Kara. To start, we rented a car in the North Island and drove down the entire west coast. The first night we spent in Raglan, which is a big surfer town because of their beaches.

The next day we drove to the Mokau beaches, which are black sand beaches. It was actually really weird to see pure, black sand, but also very cool. That night we spent the night in New Plymouth, a fairly large town on the west coast.

After spending the night there, we woke up and climbed a small portion of Mt. Tongariro, which is actually a dormant volcano. We knew when we started that we could only climb a small portion because we weren't prepared for the weather or snow that had begun to accumulate on the upper portion of the volcano. However, it was quite a surprise when we started our climb in beautiful, sunny weather, which in less than 10 minutes changed to snow/hail. This just epitomized, to us, how quickly weather can change in New Zealand.

That night we spent the night in Levin, which is basically a commuter town into Wellington. So the next day we arrived in Wellington, and were very happy to be in a city. We explored the city on foot, went to a movie, and went to the Te Papa museum, which is very famous in Wellington. On the 13th we woke up early and headed to the airport, where we flew to Christchurch and started our adventure on the South Island.

We spent that night in Christchurch relaxing, eating Mexican food (finally! there is very little Mexican food in New Zealand), and preparing for our 8 hour bus ride the next day. That 8 hour bus ride took us to Queenstown, which is basically the hub city for the southern part of the South Island, and it was absolutely beautiful.

We only expected to spend 2 nights there because we were going to head into Fiordland, which is a huge national park along the west coast of the South Island. It is world renowned for its beauty, especially Milford Sound, which is the most famous sound within the national park. However, it was raining almost the entire time we were there, which defeats the purpose of going into the Fiords. It makes the roads to get there kind of dangerous, and the low cloud cover ruins the vastness of it all, which is where most of its beauty comes from. So we ended up hanging out in Queenstown and meeting and reuniting with lots of cool people we've met throughout our time in New Zealand.

After 4 nights in Queenstown, Kara and I went to Wanaka, which is basically a smaller version of Queenstown about an hour north of it. A lot of people like Wanaka because its what Queenstown used to be like, a smaller, quieter, not as touristy town, where people come to relax and ski/snowboard. I actually liked the busier nature of Queenstown, but its all personal opinion.

My second day in Wanaka I said farewell to Kara and got on a bus to get back to Christchurch, so I could fly out to Sydney. I got on the bus at 2:30pm and was supposed to be back in Christchurch at 10pm. However, about after about an hour and a half on the bus, we come to a road closed sign, which was blocking the road over a mountain pass we needed to go through. Because these roads are usually cleared pretty quickly, we decided to wait. We ended up waiting for 3 hours, when finally a truck came down and said it would probably be closed for the night. So we had to turn around and add a 2.5 hour detour to get around this mountain pass. So it ended up that I didn't get into Christchurch until 4am, where I walked into this hostel and asked about airport shuttles. They had one coming in 15 minutes, so I jumped on that and headed to the airport, where I boarded my plane and flew to Sydney, without sleeping for even a minutes. Needless to say I was excited, but very exhausted to be in Australia. I met up with my friend Lisa, and we just hung out all day and then I went to bed early. So today starts my first official day exploring the city and I can't wait to see what it has to offer. I will try and update again soon with some pictures and stories of my adventures.

Done with DRPs!!

Today, at 11:30am I officially finished my DRP. This consisted of writing at 62 page paper and spending four days in the field, over a span of only 22 days. BUT I DID IT!!! I'm so happy that its all finished and it is a piece of writing I'm proud of. They print and bind a copy for us to bring home, so if anyone wants to see it let me know!

Now we have an oral presentation to give on our projects, which should be pretty painless, and then the semesters over! I can't believe we only have 6 days left. I feel like I made up most of the trip, that it didn't really ever happen. And now its time to focus on my travel plans. I will be driving with two other girls, Alex and Kara, down the east coast of the North Island, then flying/driving to Queenstown. I'm spending about 5 days there before I fly to Sydney for 3 weeks! I'm really really excited to get the chance to see Australia while I'm over here, and I'm ready to get back into city life.

So thats about it for now...just wanted to express my excitement. Love and miss you all!!