Recap of Break

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I got back from our semester break yesterday, just in time to present a project for one of my classes. Break was about 10 days of fun. Now we only have another month of classes before exams. Since I only have two exams and they use the entire month of June for them, I’ll have a lot of free time in between my studying later on. But sadly I don’t think I’ll have enough money to do much more travelling. Some people went to Australia or Fiji over break and that would be really cool if I could only afford it.

Anyway, here’s a recap of what I did over the semester break. I’ll try to make it as brief as possible, not too many details to bore you all with:

April 9: Spent the majority of the day on a bus to Queenstown and arrived in time for a late dinner.

April 10: Our first full day in Queenstown. It was me and my friend Laney from the Arcadia group only. We did a half-day horse trek in Paradise (yes, there is actually a place called Paradise in New Zealand!) I had never ridden a horse before so I was a little nervous but my horse Boris did a good job and I didn’t have any problems except when I got off because it was higher up than I expected and I fell. We did a trek through some really gorgeous scenery (the best I have seen here, and that’s saying a lot.) Our guide pointed out a couple of locations that were in the first Lord of the Rings movie.

In the afternoon we went to the Kiwi Birdlife Park in Queenstown and saw a lot of native New Zealand birds such as kiwi, tui, kea (my favorite), the morepork, and others. We also saw some more tuatara lizards and a possum, which is a pest here because they destroy the native trees and the native wildlife.

April 11: We did a day trip to Milford Sound which included a two hour cruise in the sound itself. We got rained out so it was difficult to see all of the beautiful scenery, but it was probably the only activity we did where it could have rained and still worked out okay. This area of New Zealand, Fiordland, gets over 200 days of rain a year, so the odds were against us. But when it does rain it creates a lot of waterfalls cascading down the mountains into the sound. I now have a ton of photos of waterfalls and a lot of mist-shrouded mountains.

April 12: Free day in Queenstown. We toured the Botanic Gardens and did a short (2 hour) walk up to the top of Queenstown Hill for some good views.

April 13: Took a bus to Fox Glacier, a tiny little town with two roads. It was again raining so we chose not to go and see Lake Matheson, which we had planned on doing. It is supposed to have crystal clear reflections of Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ. But since it was raining it was pointless to go.

April 14: We did a full day hike on Fox Glacier. It was enormous and we had a lot of adventures exploring the glacier. There were a few small tunnels we crawled through, one cave area with a little waterfall, and also some large splits that created narrow valleys we could walk through. In this section was also a massive tunnel that was about three times as big as a person on all sides! Our guide said it was the biggest he ever saw and would only be safe to walk through for about another week. I felt lucky we got to climb through it.

April 15: Travelled to Wanaka, basically just a stopover on the way out to Christchurch. We only stayed in town this one day and went to Puzzling World, which is a complex with a lot of optical illusions, a maze, and generally stuff that plays with your mind (Dave I think you would have liked it a lot). In the evening we went to Cinema Paradiso, which is a little arthouse cinema that has couches, armchairs, and even a car instead of regular theater seats, and they have an intermission where they serve you dinner.

April 16: Spent most of the day on a bus to Christchurch, a big city on the east coast north of Dunedin. Arrived again for dinner at our backpacker’s accommodation.

April 17: Did a day trip to Mt. Sunday, which is where they filmed the Edoras/Golden Hall scenes for the Lord of the Rings (where Eowyn and King Theoden live.) We took four-wheel-drive vehicles because we had to drive across gravel roads, onto private farmland, and cross several rivers. We drove right onto the mountain itself, then climbed about halfway up from where we parked the cars. The people running the tour also had replica props for us to take photos with, and they showed us some pictures of Edoras in construction. As well as showing us the actual locations seen in the film, of course. We all had great fun standing where Eowyn does on the steps of the Golden Hall and pretending we were in the movie. They provided a really nice lunch for us on the way back.

In the evening we went to a show at a theater in Christchurch. The show is called Scared Scriptless and it’s a group of improv actors who perform every Friday. It worked a lot like the show Who’s Line is it Anyway and was pretty entertaining.

April 18: We spent the day exploring Christchurch. We went to the Arts Center market and looked at local goods for sale, went to Cathedral Square and climbed the cathedral, and went to the Art Gallery.

April 19: Spent another day around the city. We visited the Botanic Gardens, the Canterbury Museum on the old college campus, and the Southern Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi House. Since it was our last night, we went out to dinner at an Indian place down the road from our accommodation. I had never had Indian food before and we had butter chicken and chicken tikka masala, sharing with each other. I am now a new fan of Indian food.

April 20: Took a bus back to Dunedin and got back one hour before my class!

Now I’m back to the usual: laundry, grocery shopping, and working on a research essay due next week. I’m just happy we only have 5 more weeks of classes before exams! Apparently I’m discovering that being abroad will make you lazier when it comes to your schoolwork.

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Photos

Me and Boris!
Sorry Mom, I hope you don't resent me for it.