Blogs from Waikato, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 6

Hi everybody I know I havent posted a blog in a while so I thought I'd let you all know whats going on since Ive been in New Zealand. Well I arrived in Auckland very early on the morning of May 2nd and I spent a few nights in Auckland looking around, now that its Autumn and soon into winter its starting to get quite cold and I havent had cold weather in nearly 14 months. From Auckland I hitchhiked my way up to the bay of islands stopping overnight in the little village of Leigh where a very friendly German guy who picked me up recommended I stay, it was also the village he lived in and that evening he invited me to join him and his Kiwi wife to dinner in the next village ... read more

October 22nd was a great day to be my birthday! We first went to Waitomo to do some caving. There were several options but ultimately I and 3 others from the bus chose to do the Toomoo Toomoo Tubes. We got in to our gear - wetsuits (I needed assistance with this one!), gumboots, and helmet and climbed down 27 feet on a ladder into one of the many caves in Waitomo. Once in the caves we had to climb over rocks, swim in freezing water, and crawl through claustrophobic passages but it was all worth it just to see the thousands of glow worms that called the cave “home”. Towards the middle point of the caving experience, we had gotten into black tubes, shut off our headlights, formed a human chain, and “black-water rafted” among ... read more

Just a quick test to make sure I know how this all works... read more

One night back at home after our four day dash then we took off again, this time in the split. Poor dogs, couldnt come with us this time either, and they love camping. We stopped off at Franks place in Auckland (Eurofix) to talk to him about the wedge, then carried on just past Cambridge. We met three Auckland kombis on their way down, but didnt hang with them for long as they were going straight to Karapiro, and we werent. We found a great little free camp spot between Cambridge and Tirau, on a council reserve, Little Waipa Reserve. There were three other vans already there, and we all spread out amongst the trees, out of sight of each other but close enough to hear of any trouble. Not that we expected anything. The next ... read more

Orientation back in the states usually involves all the students going to countless powerpoint presentations teaching them what to expect at their school. Well we did have two very boring sessions just like that but the University's Student Union also puts on "O- Week" which is basically the entire week filled with all types of activities on campus, free concerts and comedy nights, and most popular are the themed bar nights in town. The week was kicked off with the "B.O.C.S" party. Each letter representing a residence hall ( B- bryant, O- Orchard Park, C- College Hall, and S- Student Village) Everyone living in those hall has to dress up as something starting with the first letter of the Res hall name. For College Hall, we had cats, clowns, canvases, cleavage, cucumbers, chicks, etc. Everyone got ... read more