A Weekend in Queenstown

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Just a brief entry because it's been a little while since the last one. I've settled into life in Dunedin and classes are now in their second week. (That was a little bit of a letdown- the vacation was over, the work has begun!) Classes are run differently here and it looks like the class I hoped to use to replace my Science methods course will be too easy so I will have to take that once I'm back in the States. The "replacement course" is a lot of fun so far- it's all about learning science concepts through toys and how to incorporate that into classroom learning. I'm also taking an Anthropology course, which will involve a lot of reading and studying- definitely the most work of my courses. My elective is Early History of Australia and New Zealand. I've gotten to know a couple of my flatmates better and I've also got some good friends with the Arcadia group.

This past weekend Arcadia organized a group trip to Queenstown, which is about 5 hours southwest of Dunedin. The rain seems to follow us everywhere here, but we also got a sunny day yesterday, so it evened out. Queenstown is the self-proclaimed "adventure capital of the world" and a lot of adrenaline-pumping activities are offered or take off from the town. It's definitely a tourist town, but it's also very pretty and this area of New Zealand has some of the best scenery. If you've seen the Lord of the Rings, this is where all the huge mountains are.

We fit a lot of activities into just a couple of days. We took a gondola ride up the side of a mountain to get a panoramic view of the town and from there did a luge ride on the top of the mountain. (Really just a little scooter you steer around a course, but pretty fun.) On Saturday we did a full-day hike on the Routeburn track- it was pretty challenging once we got into the uphill alpine area, but had some amazing views and we got to eat lunch at a hut beside a waterfall. We also went on a jetboat ride, which goes fast and gets very close to the rocks on the side of the river. Some people in our group also went bungy jumping- at either the Kawarau Bridge, first commercial bungy jump site in the world at 43 meters, or the Nevis highwire, which is three times as big. Those of us not jumping were able to watch the bridge bungy (myself included.) One of my Arcadia friends and I somewhat regret not doing the jump because we're both afraid of heights and would like to challenge ourselves. We plan on returning to Queenstown and doing a tandem jump (I say that now but we'll see if I actually go through with it!)

Back to classes today- our next organized trip is later this month to see a rugby game at the local stadium, Carisbrook. Some of my friends and I are going to start planning for our semester break, which is next month. Starting to get a little colder here and we usually have rain at least three days a week. June still seems far away but the semester is going to fly by soon enough.

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Photos

On the Way to Queenstown
Rainbows were a common sight all weekend as it was pretty rainy.

View From the Routeburn Track
After we made it to the hut on the mountainside.