Easter Road Trip: Sky Diving, Tongariro Crossing, and Glow Worm Caves

Last night I returned from my second weekend road trip in a row, and began an internal struggle between my strong desire for sleep and my even stronger desire to upload pictures and write down everything I did. Sleep won. But today, I am refreshed and ready to recall everything, and then go shopping, do laundry, and panic about my homework situation. Excellent!

We left Thursday evening for Napier, a very cute town on the East coast of the North Island. The entire town was apparently burned down a few decades ago, and was rebuilt with an Art Deco style. It also had the National Aquarium, which was unfortunately not as large as I'd hoped, but still had sharks, turtles, sea horses, and an eel which I bonded with (see left).

We were hoping to purchase some wine while we were there, since Napier and Hasting are known for their vineyards and wine tours, but we couldn't purchase any alcohol because it was Easter. I'm not sure if that restriction is practiced in the United States, but I was a little surprised how religion effects laws even in New Zealand.

The best part of Napier was the weather, which is supposed to be the best in New Zealand. We spent 5-6 hours lying on the beach (a practice which always relaxes me at visceral level, because it remind me of home)... less pleasing were the vicious burns we suffered that evening. Although we applied and re-applied strong sunblock that day, we obviously didn't take the hole in the ozone layers seriously enough. Lesson learned.

That night we took off for Lake Taupo, where everyone was planning on skydiving on Saturday. I was not planning on skydiving due to the price, but the night before had a sudden change of heart. I was already spending a lot of money on these trips, and I have always planned top skydive at some point in my life, anyways. Although I was worried about depleting all of my funds in New Zealand, this was a chance to skydive with seven friends in New Zealand; I knew I'd regret it if I didn't go. And after doing it, I knew it was worth it, even if I risk going broke at the end of this trip. Here are a few pictures:

Me gearing up for the fall:


A few seconds before falling 12,000 feet (I was the first one out of the plane, by the way- I felt incredibly badass)


Me and the gang post-skydiving:


I went first, with my awesome Swedish tandem skydiver, Patrik. A lot of my friends were panicking beforehand (especially the wimpy guys- they spent the entire night beforehand talking about how they were going to die). Oddly enough, I wasn't very nervous at all, even when we were about to jump out of the plane. I've been more nervous before a swim meet. Maybe it's knowing that I was statistically more likely to die in a car crash than skydiving, maybe it was the fact that I didn't have much control over what happened, or maybe it was nerves of steel. Whatever it was, it made the experience of falling even more enjoyable, because instead of being overwhelmed by fear I was overwhelmed by the incredible view of Lake Taupo and the trees below me, and my friend's multicolored parachutes floating above me. My favorite was the spinning, which we did once Patrik released the parachute; we would pull the parachute down so we spun in a circle facing the ground, giving me a 360 degree view of Taupo (which is a very pretty lake, see a picture of it below)



We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, eating and celebrating. We tried, but definitely didn't get to bed early enough for our mission the next day: The Tongariro Crossing. This 8 hour hike is supposed to be one of the top ten hikes in the world, and we had to get up at 5:45am to catch the bus there. I was a little worried about making it through since I couldn't keep my eyes open on the bus, but once we started hiking, my adrenaline kicked in and Nikki and I powered through (with breaks) in a little less than 7 hours. The hike was definitely interesting, since it took us through very diverse landscapes, from vegetation to volcanic rocky areas to a tropical forest:









(by the way, that's not a fire behind me, it's a thermal hot spring)


But we unfortunately picked a cloudy day to do the crossing, so the highest peak with the supposedly best view of the North Island was completely covered in a cloud:



After descending from the nebulous limbo, however, we came upon the lovely Emerald Lakes, which we had lunch by:



We drove out of Taupo quite exhausted, but all perked up once we realized that our hostel in Waitomo had a trampoline. Ah, the simple pleasures of life :-) We got up fairly early the next morning to start our Black Abyss tour through the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. We had a great time goofing around in our ridiculous outfits and inner tubes, and finding our way through the caves with our cool cave guides, Benj and Lloyd.





We didn't really get a clear shot of the glow worms, since the flash washes out their glow, but they were definitely an eerie sight. Sitting on my inner tube and floating through the cave was kind of like looking up at green stars, except they were at different heights and levels. The more I learned about the glow worms, however, the more I decided they were disgusting rather than enchanting; what's glowing is actually their feces, and they're used to attract bugs to their sticky mucus nets. They also eat their unborn brothers and sisters after they turn into moths, and then they die from starvation after two days of trying to reproduce (or as our tour guide put it, "shagging everything that moves").

At the end of our tour, Benj and Lloyd had us turn off our helmet lights, and find our way out of the cave in the dark. Maneuvering through the caves was also quite a struggle at some points, and I thanked my lucky stars that I'm not claustrophobic.

After the last of our friends went through the caves, we rinsed off but didn't have time for a real shower before hitting the road again. Driving through New Zealand is definitely an experience: the rolling hills, the endless sheep and cows, the really odd and hilarious road signs, the small towns, the sparse and strange radio stations, the diverse hostels and international travelers I meet in them... it's an experience I'm growing to love.

One thing I can't deny this time around is the steep price of travel. Even when eating, sleeping, and driving cheaply, all of our expenses rack up. I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said I've spent more in New Zealand these past 2 months than I have in the past few years in America. It's impossible not to if you want to experience all of these things, but I'm thinking about the two week break approaching, and I literally will go broke if I spend as much as I have per day on these past two road trips. To resolve this (a bit), I've decided not to rent a car in the South Island unless it's for a necessary and small trip, and I'm going to look into camping instead of staying in a hostel every night.

I'll worry about that a little later however, because now I need to jump back into my university life. This post is getting to be quite long, as is my "To do" list, so I bid you adieu for now. And as always, I love to hear from you guys, so email me and let me know how you're doing! Cheers!

Rotorua: Zorbing, Thermal Pools & More!

Whew! I just got back from my road trip to Rotorua, and I am exhausted but energized. I've decided to update my blog, partly because I don't want to forget all the incredible things that have happened, and also because I have a pile of reading sitting on my desk that I'm glad to put off.

We left Thursday night, and although we intended to leave at 6:00pm we ended taking off around 7:30. We rented a five-seater a few hours beforehand, and since I'd offered to drive first, I got a little practice driving in the city. Not only did I have to get used to driving on the left side of the road, but also sitting on what felt like the passengers seat, shifting with my left hand, and turning on the blinkers with the hand by the window (I ended up turning on the windshield wipers about three times before getting it right). Roundabouts are also a little strange to get used to, but with practice, end up being much more fluid than four-way stop signs.

After heading about 50km North, I realized that I'd left my purse (with my wallet, keys, phone, camera, and other valuables) on my living room table, and we had to double back. After that annoying delay, I felt a little guilty and so agreed to drive for the entire trip. I was paying very close attention to the road (or so I thought) but somehow ended up on a different highway (honestly, they all look pretty much the same in New Zealand... windy, two-lane roads surrounded by greenery). After a few wrong turns on each of our parts, a few angry truck drivers, a trip through a dense forest on frighteningly low gas, and a few stops in towns with no gas pumps or broken credit card gas machines, we made it to a gas station around 1:30am. We ended up arriving at Rotorua after 3:00am, and we were all frustrated and exhausted. And thanks to Murphy's Law as well as my continuous string of bad luck, the entrance code to our hostel didn't work.

We were already upset about the thought of sleeping in our car after the long journey, when a drunken young man stumbled up to us and said "hey ladiesss". Of course, we all exchanged a look of "please, not now". He asked "you girls live here?" pointing at the hostel, and although none of of us were willing to deal with being hit on by a drunken cavorter at this point (and I was almost ready to punch someone out of frustration), I said "this is a hostel, people stay at hostels, they don't really live in them". He oscillated back and forth before responding "I know that! I live here!" And after groping his sagging pants for about a minute, the drunken would-be-jerk ended up finding the entrance key and saving our skins. We crawled into our beds still laughing.

The next morning we set out bright and early to the zorbing fields! Zorbing is an extremely safe but extremely fun extreme sport that originated in New Zealand. For those of you who have never heard of it, Wikipedia defines it thusly: "Zorbing is an activity where riders enter into large inflatable plastic balls and ride along the ground, on water or down hills. The balls have two transparent skins which are connected together by wires and a tunnel by which the riders enter the ball. Air is inflated between the skins which forms a cushion to protect the riders." And if that description is a bit too technical and verbose for your taste, I'd recommend seeing the pictures of me zorbing instead:













What I did was actually called "Zydro", because it involved filling the plastic ball in the center with water, so that I sloshed around while rolling down the hill. I had a friend of mine take a video of my zorb down the hill, so perhaps I'll post it on youtube?

Anyhow, after zorbing, we headed over to the skyline gondola, which took us to the top of a mountain overlooking all of Rotorua. The view was gorgeous, and we partook in several activities while up there, including a small hike, as well as luging down the mountain and then taking the seat ride back up:





After returning back to sea level, we took a small trip to a Polynesian Thermal Spa, and were more than ready to turn in early so that we could visit the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland the next day. This supposed "thermal wonderland" was on my list of must-see locations in New Zealand, and I was not disappointed. When we drove to Wai-O-Tapu the next day, we knew we were getting close to the park because various areas of the forest floor were steaming. We did a walking loop around the whole park, and spent the entire two hours enthralled. The entire landscape was a hotbed of unique thermal, geological, and chemical activities quite beyond my scientific understanding, but which created such beautiful colors, patterns, and formations that I was completely mesmerized.

We started off the day by watching the Fort Knox Geyser erupt:



We came across a lot of small, colorful springs such as this one, which were bubbling profusely:



Some of the most impressive sights ended up being the water, which was naturally various shades of deep green due to it's chemical make-up:





My absolute favorite site was what I'd been longing to see, and that was the champagne pools. I couldn't tell you what made this gigantic steaming pool turn a variety of orange and turquoise colors, but it was absolutely amazing to see some of the neon colors that mother nature is capable of producing.





We also stopped at the Boiling Mud Pools nearby, which were huge pools of steaming, bubbling, popping mud. Because of its constant volcanic and thermal activity, pretty much the entirety of Rotorua stunk of sulfur; these mud pools, however, took the cake. And in what I doubt was a usual tourist experience, we got splattered with boiling mud when one of the more vicious mud bubbles exploded right in front of us.



That evening, we took some leisure walks around Rotorua, and Nikki and I went out for a free coffee and drink provided by coupons through our hostel. We turned in fairly early, however, because we got up at 7:00am for an early start back to Wellington. Although we were stopped by a police officer for going 63km in a 60km zone, he let us off with a warning when he found out we weren't from Auckland (honestly, everyone in New Zealand hates Auckland, allegedly due to it's huge, capitalistic, sprawling urban feel, which is quite different from a lot of other kiwi culture). We made such good time on the way home that we were able to stop in Lake Taupo for breakfast, and then dip our feet in the Tasman Sea, a beautiful and near-empty beach:



I arrived home today a little travel weary but otherwise excited about my next trip (we're planning a larger loop around the North Island for Easter break this weekend, and a South Island loop for mid-semester break). There's so much more to see and do, and I'm overwhelmed with possibilities. This trip taught be a lot about time management, travel planning, and money (one of the easiest things to burn while you're traveling), and I look forward to my next journey.

I suppose, finally, it is time to start my reading. Cheers!

Soames Island, Parliament

Yesterday I took a ferry with some of my friends to Soames Island, just off the Wellington coast. We went with the intention of spotting some of the island's blue fairy penguins (seen above-isn't it adorable?), but we were informed when we arrived there that blue fairy penguins fed during the day, and were only on land at night. In spite of this disappointment, the trip ended up being really pleasant. It was a perfect day out, so we hiked on a loop around the island, and marveled at the tons of beautiful and interesting plants. The water was very blue and inviting (although when I felt it, the temperature seemed slightly less inviting).













After walking around a bit, I sat on a rock next to the sea and just stared at Wellington from across the bay, and had a really nice moment of total carefree complacency. The air is so much cleaner than Los Angeles here, and the sky and the water are much bluer. It's very refreshing.



Other than that, I've been doing a bunch of random stuff. Classes, tramping club meeting, shopping, cooking with friends, going to parliament, going out at night... I've found that one of the best ways to meet locals is to literally just start talking to one of them at a bar or club. Many of them are friendly and social, and since there are only a few blocks where people really go out on weekends, I tend to see some of the same people out.

Observing Parliament was actually very interesting and enjoyable, although next time I'm going to do a little research on the questions being posed beforehand. Many of the issues presented were related to current events and national incidents that I wasn't aware of, so it was really difficult to follow the questions, supplementary questions, and subsequent debates. The questioning session was a very rapid, orderly, and oftentimes lively process. A member of parliament would pose a question to, for example, the Minister of Education about school funding, and then the minister would provide what was often a pre-written answer. After the initial question, however, any member of parliament could follow up with supplementary questions, which were not submitted for pre-approval thus which were often more confrontational and to-the-point. Some of the more impassioned members would yell out things during the session, like "bah, that's rubbish!", which I found amusing. The dynamics of the New Zealand Parliament are very interesting in that they are mixed member proportional (MMP), meaning that third parties are able to make it into the parliament. Besides the two main parties, the National Party and the Labor Party, there's the Maori party, the Green party, the New Zealand First and more; this means that there is not a Parliamentary majority, which requires a lot more inter-party cooperation rather than domination.

Anyhow, I have laundry and cleaning to do, so cheers for now!

Lotr, Kai Cruise, Updates

So because there are so many photos from the Lord of the Rings tour, and most of them need to be contextualized with pictures from the actual film, I'm linking you to a bigger photo album instead:

Lord of the Rings Tour Album

Suffice to say that Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings movies are a huge part of the culture here. The films caused New Zealand tourism to quadruple, and provided various boosts to the economy; apparently something like 300,000 New Zealanders were involved in the making of the Lord of the Rings. Our tour guide (who herself had small involvement as one of the orc voices) pointed out that almost anyone you ask in New Zealand either has been, or knows someone who was involved in the making of the films to some degree. I was a little disappointed that all the sets were all taken down, but a lot of the places we visited were still incredibly beautiful and I was glad to get the chance to see them.

Other than that, I've got a few pictures of things I did over the last week, including a picture a friend took of Nikki and I during my 21st birthday:



Here's a photo of the food my RA flatmate Will prepared for our flat BBQ. It was all very tasty, although we had to eat leftover meat for quite a few days after that:



I also went on a Kai Cruise with my study abroad program peers ("kai" meaning "food" in Maori - I'm becoming convinced that pretty much everything we do here revolves around food):









Other than that, I've begun my second week of classes, spent time with my friends from the study abroad program, and begun making travel plans for the upcoming Easter Break. I'm also fond of walking around the city, along the coastline, and in the surrounding mountains, which have a lot of random gorgeous trails through the woods. The unique plant life here makes for very lush and green forests that remind me a lot of Hawaii.

I'm getting along very well with my flatmates (the American and the kiwi), and have found that living with two men (as opposed to all women at Scripps College) is not quite as different as I'd expected. They can cook much better than I can, and are no messier than I am, and are both very friendly, fun and laid back guys. I've kept my cooking to the very basics. Besides microwaving and mixing already-made things, the most advanced this I've done is made pasta. Yeah, not very impressive... but I'm considering branching out! I'm just a little worried about finances. Money slips out of your fingers really easily here, and I can't afford to be too experimental with my food, especially if I risk buying a lot of ingredients only to make something inedible (knowing myself, this is probable). Alternatives include: cooking with my flatmates (which I've done a few times) and cooking with friends (which I've also done, and it really helps when we pool our funds together). Anyhow, enough about food, I'm getting hungry! It's kai time!