This will be my last blog: I arrived in Holland a couple of days ago. On my last Saturday in New Zealand I had a really cool goodbye party (see pictures). Then I started packing, which was quite hard, because I had way too much stuff! So I gave my flatmates about half my wardrobe (okay I’m lying now, it was more like a quarter) and just got my suitcase to close… The night before I left, my flatmates gave me a beautiful picture frame with some pictures of all of us, which they had secretly printed. They are so sweet, [View Full Entry]

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After a long silence, I decided to write a new blog, just to let you all know that I'm still alive ;) I have worked hard on my Master's thesis over the past weeks, and the first draft is now finished! I'm just waiting now for the comments of my second supervisor (my first supervisor already approved it), and then I'll be done! :) Which also means that I'll have more time to do other stuff around here, because I haven't done much the past couple of weeks (hence the lack of blogs, I didn't really have anything to say). To [View Full Entry]

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I just came back from Sydney, so I decided it was time for another update. I left for Sydney last week Wednesday, and stayed with Jimmy for 9 days. We did a lot of fun things, I saw heaps of stuff and met some really nice people! We first went to Darling Harbour, which is a beautiful harbour, especially with the amazing weather we had for the majority of the time I was there. We did the touristy stuff : we went to the Wildlife World to see snakes, kangaroos, koalas, etc.; we went to the Aquarium to see sharks, seals, [View Full Entry]

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Last week Emma came to visit me! We had an awesome time, of course I first showed her all the good stuff in Dunedin - the Octagon, university terrain, botanic gardens and Baldwin street. We also went horse riding with the same organisation I had been with before, only this time we did a beach ride. It was incredible, the weather was amazing, the sights were absolutely stunning and the horses were very beautiful and very very quick! We did what every little girl who starts horse riding dreams of: we galloped on an empty, gorgeous beach, only the two of [View Full Entry]

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The next day we drove to Kaikoura, where the weather was even better, nice and sunny! As soon as we arrived we decided to stay an extra night in Kaikoura, because it was a beautiful place with a lot to do! The first morning Michiel and I went swimming with dolphins, which was incredible! I had expected it to be cool, but not this cool! We went on a boat that took us right in the middle of a group of about 300 (!!) dolphins, where we were let off the boat with wetsuits and snorkels. We were told not to [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Queenstown, we drove to Fox Glacier. It was again a beautiful drive, first through the sunny hills and plains between Queenstown and Wanaka, and then through the impressive rainforest… in the rain! We took some breaks from driving, Michiel and I went to look at the sea and got very wet and cold (the waves were a little higher and faster than we had expected…) but it was a lot of fun. When we arrived in Fox Glacier it was still raining however, so we were afraid that the heli-hike to the Franz Josef glacier the next day would [View Full Entry]

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Last weekend, I got back from the South Island trip with my mother and my brother Michiel. It was very nice, we had such beautiful weather (so lucky, cause now it’s raining all the time) and we saw some amazing things. I will need a couple of blogs to tell you about it, mainly because I have too many pictures for one blog! So, my mum and Michiel arrived two weeks ago in Dunedin, it was really nice to see them again! We did not do much that day due to jetlag, but the next day we did some sightseeing in [View Full Entry]

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As promised, the continuation of the blog I wrote last night. Last week my flatmates and I went out a couple of times for cocktails, and one time for Chinese New Year’s on the 6th of February. Coincidentally, it was also Waitangi Day, the national (but in reality Maori) holiday. The Octagon in the centre of town was closed for traffic and there was a stage and some stands for Chinese New Year’s, but it wasn’t that interesting to be honest… So we just went to Toast, our by now favourite cocktail bar! Sam and I also went shopping, which was [View Full Entry]

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It’s already a while ago, but last weekend I went to Wanaka for the Rippon festival! On Friday afternoon, Henry, Chris and Phoebe picked me up and we drove up to Wanaka. The road to Wanaka was quite impressive, mainly because it was a whole lot of nothing… We drove for hours and hours without seeing much more than green hills and sheep. It is a very strange experience to see how much space they have here, compared to our packed little Holland! After about 5 hours of driving they dropped me off at the hostel I was staying in for [View Full Entry]

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My research proposal is almost finished! I have been working on it over the past week, and now I only need to make the last adjustments before I can send it in to my Maastricht supervisor. It is already 34 (!) pages long, but that’s mainly because of all the appendices with questionnaires etc. But still, it’s kind of long for a research proposal… Ah well, means less work for me later on when I am going to do the literature review for my Masters’ thesis. After I have made the final adjustments (hopefully tomorrow) I don’t really have a lot [View Full Entry]

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