Coromandel Trip
So this past weekend, Becca and I continued our mission to explore the North Island rather than preparing for exams and final papers. (That has really come back to bite me this week, but more on the trip before you learn of its repurcussions). We ended up using bus passes that my mom and Ann had left from way back in July when they did a great deal of traveling. This got us to the town of Whitianga (fi-tee-ang-uh) and almost all the way back. Total bus costs= $14 per person. Thanks, Mom! We switched buses at the town of Thames at the base of the Coromandel, which is a peninsula that gets out into the Pacific Ocean on the Northern Side of the North Island. The van we took from Thames to Whitianga was driven by New Zealand's very own Mario Andretti. He was speeding around the windiest coastal road with such confidence. Luckily, he's stop at picturesque views to have a smoke, tell us some geography, and save me from my growing car sickness. He was very knowledgeable on the flora and fauna and pointed out all sorts of volcanos and mountains that appeared to be people. This actually occurred on multiple occasions.

Anyway, we reached our hostel "On The Beach Backpackers" which was, in fact, on the beach. Given that we had little time to enjoy our new locations, we got straight to the sightseeing. We rented a car with the German girl that had been riding on the buses with us because we wanted to go to the same places and it made it less expensive. We rented a little car and drove straight to the hot water beaches. Based upon the recommendation of trusty roommate Becca, I neglected to wear a bathing suit because it was a bit chilly. Well as it turns out, it was full on beach weather, so we ended up stipping to our underwear to go swimming. This was only after having a divine picnic of assorted goods from our favorite supermarket, New World. After spending a number of hours watching people dig holes for themselves to read the underground hot water pools and then get obliterated by the incoming tides, we decided it was time to push on. Don't worry we didn't leave promptly, because I managed to lost the car key on the beach. It evidently fell out of my jeans pocket when I was getting dressed again. I had figured that's where I lost it, but if we'd waited another hour, the tide might have taken the key along with it out to the ocean. Acck!

After the beach, we headed to Cathedral Cove, the sight of some really unusual rock formations. It was a bit of hike to get to the actual cove, but once there it was not only gorgeous, but there was a whole group of kids playing cricket and just generally goofing around. Becca and I spent some time climbing the rocks and playing on the super shady looking swing. Luckily, it held on while we were on it!

Once it was starting to get late, we decided to return to town, get some food and tasty beers at a local pub. We talked with our German friend, Carmen, about her travels and life. She wasn't overly revealing about either, but she was an interesting companion for the afternoon. When we got home, we were all so tired that we fell asleep by 9:30p.

This ended up working out quite well because we got up bright and early to rent Kayaks. Carmen caught a bus on to Rotorua as she continued to explore New Zealand. The water was calm (after getting the kayaks beyond the surf where we got positively soaked). We took some pictures, enjoyed the morning light, and then rode the waves back into shore...so fun!

Afterwards, we packed up, checked out of the hostel and walked into town to look around at the shops. What we found was that few if any were open on Sunday. This left of course, our favorite option, food. We had a nice breakfast at an outdoor cafe and then proceded to shop afterwards. The best place we found was some kind of souvenir shop meets crap store that was going out of business. Everything was at least half off and we found all kinds of treasures in there including Halloween decorations, postcards, stuffed animals, and other essential items. Our bus left at 1p and we had the same driver for the return. He spent the trip pointing out everything he knew about the landscape as I desperately tried to not get sick on him from the winding road. All in all, another successful adventure. For now, I am stuck back in Auckland focusing on essays, projects, and finals. Ugh.

Mt. Ruapehu
So this past weekend was my first opportunity to take advantage of the University Ski Lodge at Mt. Ruapehu. Becca and I drove down early Saturday morning. The drive was gorgeous and thanks to a shortcut from the ski club website, less than four hours long. The strange part about the drive was that it seemed that we didn't find the mountain until we were driving up the access road. As you can see, it is quite a large mountain to not see! That having been said, it's actually a volcano which makes the landscape all around very strange from the skier's perspective. There are dark volcanic rocks everywhere and more tropical greenery in the surrounding valleys than you would typically see at a ski hill!

Becca and I arrived with enough time for me to ski the afternoon. It took the combination of 2 chairlifts and a rope tow to reach the top of the mountain. The skiing was alright. The sun was shining and there was actually snow (unlike the south island!) so I couldn't complain. The only downfall was that we managed to go during school vacation week. I should've known that I was breaking my own cardinal rule of skiing--never ski during crowded weeks! Just the excitement of playing human slalom combined with my gorgeous surroundings contended me with the experience. While I skied (Becca's a non-skier), she went off and hiked around the volcanic rocks and found a nice place to sit and do some pleasure reading.

When I finished that afternoon (went 'til the lifts closed, as per usual) Becca and I returned to the University Lodge and met a whole group of people spending the weekend (about 20 of us). We met a lot of interesting Kiwi folks and an alarming number of Americans (some of which we knew already). We spent the night playing cards, reading, playing board games, and watching TV in front of the fire. When it was dark, we walked the 300 feet or so to the base of the mountain where there was a fireworks display. It reminded me of being at Loon for independence weekend with the fireworks, torch parade, and cat rides. I think it's pretty awesome that the lifestyle and culture of skiers is the same worldwide. It really is a fun-loving, wonderful community of people! Becca had a blast just hanging out and I think I will turn her into a ski-groupie yet!

The next day, I got up bright and early to get first runs. Unfortunately the day was really foggy and rainy so the visibility was poor. The one upside to this was that all the vacationers chose to sleep in which left the mountain open to me and a few other insane people. The snow was really soft and slushy and it felt like typical Spring snow. After become sufficiently wet from the constant drizzle, I turned in my ticket to save some money and met Becca for coffee in the lodge. The skiing was altogether enjoyable and the volcano itself was spectacular. I love this picture of the waterfall cascading down the mountain with all the skiers going by paying little attention to it.

We then went back to the Uni-Lodge and showered and relaxed a bit before packing up and heading out. On the way out, we stopped in a number of little ski shops. We found a number of REAL treasures here. I can't refer to them, unfortunately, as they may appear as Christmas presents for some of you later this year! All you need to know is: flourescent! Then the last super cool thing before we hit the road was a single chair hanging outside of the ski shop. For those of you unaware, the single chair is something of a skier's anomaly. From what I know, they don't really exist in the States anymore, but are still being used in parts of Eastern Europe. Single Chair is also a fantastic microbrew made by Magic Hat which can typically be found in the winter time at your local packy. (It's also on tap at the BU PUB! That's only one of 3 bars in Boston who have it!)

Well, there won't be too many posts in the coming weeks because it's getting to be the end of the semester and exams are looming. The last day of class is Oct 21. My internship ends the 28th, and exams are done Nov. 2! I will return back to Boston on November 16. I know the time is going to fly by so I am trying to make the most of the time I have left with what little time I have!

Ro-tor-u-a and Wai-to-mo
Well, after realizing that we needed to see more of the North Island, the ladies and I headed to two popular destinations: Rotorua and Waitomo. We rented a car and left first thing Saturday morning for Rotorua. The drive was pleasant and it felt GREAT to get out of the city. Rotorua is the site of a lot of volcanic activity, and we went straight to the natural mud baths. First we stopped at the "foot pool" where we rolled up our jeans and plopped our feet into amazingly warm water with gushy grey mud at the bottom. Anya is showing off a big glob of it in the picture on the left.

Once we put our shoes back on, we walked around the park and saw all kinds of bubbling sulphuric pools and gurgling, splattering mud. One of the coolest things we saw was a hot waterfall. The water in it is nearly boiling and it used to be used for the cleansing of wounds for Maori warriors after battle. You can see the steam rising up from the rocks in the picture.

After all of the walking, we finally got ready to take our mud bath and spa treatment. We got the "family size" mud bath so we could all play in it together. The mud bath itself was not thick (as I guess I expected it to be). The mud sits on the bottom, and the rest is just hot water on top. Arguably a bit disappointing, but it still felt great. All that mud of course led to some shenanigans which made up for our high expectations.

After the mud bath, we sat in a natural, outdoor spa pool. Unfortunately there is so much sulphur in it, that even after washing my clothes and my body, I swear I can still smell it! It was an odd experience, but we managed to have a great time.

Also, in the parking lot of the place, there was a herd(?) of peacocks. They were so beautiful and new that Anya wanted to feed them. So we played with them for a little bit until they got a bit hostile and then we ran away.

After our walking and spa-ing, we went into the town of Rotorua where we had an amazing lunch at this little cafe. I had a great Panini sandwich with grilled Chicken and Camenbert cheese...yummmy. We then did a little bit of shopping in the town at cute boutiques before we had to get in the car and head to our next destination.

After two hours of driving (and a gorgeous sunset!), we arrived in Waitomo. This is the site of famous caves that are known for their glown worms. We stayed at the local hostel and enjoyed a packed dinner consisting of peanut butter and jelly and a bottle of red wine.

We then went out to the only place open in the little town. It was a log cabin style bar playing a rugby game on TV with a number of people drinking beers and relaxing. We spotted the jukebox and decided to make the place come alive. We dropped in a bunch of money, and using our combined DJing skills, got people dancing and singing. After a couple of hours there, we decided we needed to go to bed to prepare for our big day.

The next morning we got up and went to the adventure center we had booked a 4 hour caving trip called: Tumu Tumu Toobing. Unfortunatelty, we were not allowed to bring our cameras so you will have to rely upon my description. After meeting our guides Duane and Sheldon, we set out in a pink asian kindergarten bus (no joke, the thing had hello kitty and rainbows painted all over it). We took this smashing vehicle up a windy dirt road through pastures, hills, and many many sheep. We arrived at a large storage unit where we changed into full body wet suits, booties and rubber golashes. They then outfitted us with red helmets with headlamps on them. Once our group of about 10 people were dressed we looked like a bizarre version of Divo: "Whip it, whip it good!"

We then walked through the pastures with great difficulty (this was some seriously thick, heavy neoprene!) while passing sheep that kept running away from us! Then we came to a whole in the ground where we were told to climb down the ladder into the caves. Once inside we switched on our headlamps and looked at all kinds of stalagtites and stalagmites. The guides were really informative and a lot of fun. They kept steering us in the wrong direction and trying to scare us (fun in retrospect, of course). We trudged through the caves, crawled through narrow passages, swam through freezing cold water, and ultimately had a great time. The tubing part occured in two sections along the trip where we linked together in tubes (I think I've neglected to mention that there's an underground river in the caves) and sang songs while we floated along looking up at the glow worms. The scariest part was a section of the cave that they have named "the rebirthing canal." The name is quite fitting given that you crawl on your hands and knees through a narrow opening (barely big enough to move through) head first for about 25 feet. Did I mention we weren't allowed to have our head lamps on for this part? Despite a bit of claustrophobia at that moment, it worked out alright and we ended by floating through some rapids in our floating, rubber suits. When we finally saw the light of day, we were ready for some hot showers, food, and the drive back to Auckland.

Lord of the R.....Vs

I know, I know…soooo overdue in writing this, but life has been hectic. The collage of photos gives a pretty good sampling of the things I did while touring the South Island of New Zealand in an RV (Click on it to get an enlarged version!). This trip was the one that I planned for the group, so I was naturally a bit apprehensive about the whole thing and worried about making everything work out well. But let's back up one step...Saturday night, most of us had tickets to the All Blacks vs. Wallabies (Australia) Rugby game. I was so excited about going, but unfortunately, room 322 at the Railway Campus was stricken with the sinus infection/ stomach flu from hell. The first photo was taken when we were supposed to be going to the game. We mustered up the energy to hold up the tickets, smile, take the picture, and then go back to bed.

The next morning, we were scheduled to head to the airport and fly into Christchurch on the South Island. Becca and I managed to drug ourselves well enough that we were feeling okay to fly, but sadly, our darling Sass could barely move from her bed. We left her to get better hoping she might make it down later in the week. The flight to Christchurch was gorgeous: mountains EVERYWHERE. People? Couldn’t find them. From the air you get a pretty good idea just how few people live in this country. It’s a grand total of about five million. A little over 1 million of which live in Auckland.

When we arrived in Christchurch, we took a shuttle to the hostel. We then set out to check out the city. We spent the whole day walking around outdoor marketplaces (where I bought a Fair Isle sweater with kiwis and silver ferns on it!!), sight-seeing, and doing touristy things. The next photo in the collage shows a cherry tree blooming as it’s starting to be Spring down here. The following photo is where all 7 girls went “punting on the Avon.” This was when one poor man and his gondola got to push us up and down a river in a quaint little boat. The picture in the lower right is of me in the botanical gardens frolicking in the daffodils. The public gardens here are the third largest in a city in the world (after New York and London): HUGE! That night we went out to dinner at a place called Dux deLux (thanks Joe for the recommendation!) where we ate amazing food and home-brewed beers.

The next morning, the BU group broke up into a few factions. Eight of us set out in two RVs (this was of course after a major mishap with getting the proper RVs, but moral of the story they gave us our money back for a half-day rental). We drove north toward a town called Kaikoura which is the home to gorgeous snow-capped mountains, whales, seals, and other sea-life. Driving wasn’t too bad, surprisingly. The RVs were Mercedes Benzs and we named them Hans and Heidi, the mountain warriors. Don’t get me wrong, they’re big vehicles (sleeping space for 6, equipped with a microwave, fridge, stove, sink, shower, cupboards, tables, etc) but once on the open road, you almost can convince yourself you’re driving normally. The next pictures in the collage are from Kaikoura. You can see Hans the trusty RV, a whole group shot taken on the beach, Betsy giddy in front of the mountains, a fluffy amazing sheep, a seal on the rocks stretching his neck, and the sunset as we drove out of the little town.

After Kaikoura, we drove on to Blenheim in the heart of New Zealand wine country. We stopped for dinner in town (which started becoming some of the best parts of the trip) and then ventured off to a discreet location off the road to sleep for the night. The beds were surprisingly comfortable and we all slept soundly until the next morning. We woke up bright and early to begin wine tasting at 9:30am. The area is famous for its Sauvignon Blanc, but we tasted all sorts of things: Champagne, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Cabernet Merlot blends, and many others. (The pic is of Anya surveying the options at Cloudy Bay) After wine tasting we drove up to the little town of Picton which is where the inter-island ferry docks. The town was quaint with flowers everywhere and cute store fronts (see the pic). On our way out of town via the scenic route, the most gorgeous rainbow came out and spanned the entire town. Thank goodness I had my camera with me as always because it only lasted for about 15 seconds, but look at that picture! The “scenic road” was in fact scenic, but was also the windiest and most frightening road I have ever driven…well until later in the trip that is.

We then drove on to the town of Greymouth because there wasn’t much on the North-Western Coast of the Island for us to check out. By the time we got to this larger dot on the map, we were all starving. There were only two restaurants open in town and one was closing, which left one option. It was a “saloon” type establishment that was trying to mimic the American West. Pictures of movie stars and random other paraphernalia lined the walls. As it turns out, the place sucks. We all had the WORST meals of our lives. Anya and I split a rack of ribs and we didn’t eat a single one and the BBQ sauce was even too foul to dip the fries into. After complaining and an obscenely long wait we paid and left the town. This was of course the night that it starts to downpour as we are trying to get to an RV site for power hook-up and showers. Then, night construction prevents us from getting to our destination about 1km from it. We turn around and drive back to Greymouth to another RV site which is of course closed now. ARGH! We decide to forego the showers and to find a “picnic spot.” These so-called picnic spots became our favorite “freedom-camping” destinations. After a long day of driving, and no dinner, we all fell asleep generally disgruntle.

The next morning, in better spirits, we headed off to Fox Glacier. Things were certainly looking up. When we got to town we signed up to hike the glacier. We then went to a FANTASTIC restaurant with amazing burgers, fries, and hot chocolates. Ignoring that we were over-stuffed, we met our guide and took a bus to the base of the glacier. The view was absolutely breathtaking (note Becca and the view in the pics). Once we hiked to the ice, we strapped on crampons and climbed on and through the glacier (see my picture!). Once we got to the top we took plenty of “This is BU, this could be you” pictures. After receiving our certificates of completion from our trusty guide, Craig, we went back to the awesome restaurant and enjoyed a cider and chocolate desserts. Once again, it was time to hit the road. We made reservations at an RV site in Haast and made it in time to check in. You have never seen 8 people happier to shower...have I mentioned we have yet to bathe on this trip? There was even internet access, TV, and a full size kitchen there.

Bright and early, we enjoyed an unbelievable drive to Queenstown. This is a region where a large portion of the Lord of the Rings films was made. I have never seen them myself, but can only guarantee that there is no way that they could capture the kind of beauty I found myself driving through. We stopped on the side of the road a number of times for group photo-ops: lakes, mountains, snow, and rivers all around us. When we got to Queenstown, we took a Gondola to the top of the mountain and went luging. I was in seventh heaven as we boarded a chair-lift, my mind of course on skiing. The luging was similar to alpine-sliding for those of you familiar with that at Attitash Mountain, but 8 million times better. The track did not confine you from left to right and it had insane drops and turns. The speed demon in me was on cloud nine. The pictures from there you can barely see Becca and Anya on the chairlift because they are so dwarfed by the scenery around them: breathtaking. The next pic is of Becca (from Brooklyn remember, folks…the girl doesn’t drive!) but she seems to be taking to luging at high speeds quite well. We then got a great lunch at a Thai restaurant in town and shopped around to be flabbergasted by how expensive outdoor equipment is. Toto—I don’t think I’m at REI with an employee discount anymore. We’re talking $35 Nalgene bottles! Even with the conversion that’s still like $25!!! The inner children came out in us when we went strolling through the Queenstown gardens. There was an awesome swingset and then… an ICE RINK! We had such a blast in this town!

As always, our time in locations was cut a bit short because we needed to press on to our next destination. We drove to a lake just outside of the city of Dunedin. When we all got out of the RVs, we looked up at the sky and saw more stars than we’ve seen since we’ve been in NZ: gorgeous. We woke up the next morning to waterfront property (can’t beat that!) and the fog rising off the water. We were only about 20 minutes from Dunedin so we drove into the city, parked, and met my friend, Whalley for breakfast. Whalley attended Holderness (for those non-Academy kids reading this) and is studying at the University of Otago. After a great breakfast, we went to a brewery tour of the Speight’s brewery (very popular and famous beer down here). After getting the whole tour, our guide John provides each person with a glass and lets us loose on the taps. They even have a beer that tastes like CHOCOLATE! We all then went our separates ways to explore. The city is very Scottish in its heritage so I was forced to stop in a Scottish shop to purchase a good bagpiping CD. Whalley then showed me where he’s been living and his school down here. He also lives near botanical gardens so we hiked up to them and also saw a whole bunch of birds that live in a zoo-like thing for birds. I’m sure there’s a word for this, but it escapes me at the moment. A number of the birds even spoke, and Whalley managed to strike up a conversation with one. When we all met back at the RVs, the group headed off to the Otago Peninsula and Whalley headed back to his apartment. At the end of the Peninsula (the second most ridiculous road that we drove on…very narrow, windy, and drops off right into the harbor without a guardrail) is a whole penguin colony. Well, we got there, and they had apparently decided to hide from us, so we were left to enjoy the rocky coastline (see the pic) and lighthouse. We then drove back down the peninsula and hit the road heading north toward skiing!

Since we ended up crashing (in both meanings of the word, Erik hit a fence with the side of the RV and ripped off some pieces of metal…that’s why we got the full-coverage insurance, kids!) at the foot of the Mt. Hutt access road, we were close to our destination. This was by far the craziest road I have ever been on. It was gravel and ascended into the most amazing mountain view you can imagine. As we gained elevation we also had to be wary of the fact that the gravel road dropped off all the way down to the valley on BOTH sides of the road. I thought roads like this only existed in fairy tales with dragons at the end of them. Well, the road is 16km long and luckily there was no snow on it. I can’t even imagine it if there had been any snow to contend with. I geared up at the mountain and took a few runs which were worth it for the view (and a few great pics) but the snow was awful. This is apparently the worst snow season in the history of New Zealand…figures. I then lent my gear (and jacket w/ ticket) to Rusty to take a few runs. Fearing for the safety of my skis we all decided to relax a bit, shop at the gift shop and hit the road for Christchurh.

The drive to Christchurch was wonderful—sunny and warm. We even stopped to try to hug sheep, but they would only run away from us. It was truly devastating. We made it all the way back to Christchurch and ended up at an RV camp. We spent some quality time here showering (number 2) of the trip, packing, cleaning out the RVs, and eating all of the remaining food. We really should have rationed it better over the course of the trip, but we had an absolute feast. After some much needed downtime and playtime on the jungle gym on the site (see the pic), we all headed into the city for dinner. We had dinner reservations at this restaurant “Santorini” that we had seen when we were in Christchurch before. Naturally, I insisted that we go because I had been craving Greek food. We all went to Dux deLux again first and watched some Rugby on TV and enjoyed their tasty homebrews again. We then trotted off to the restaurant and were absolutely unprepared for what we found. Everyone enjoyed cocktails with ouzo and then ordered gigantic meals. I had the saganaki, mousaka, and baklava (those are there strictly for making the Greece trip friends a little jealous!). Each table there was a large group (we were actually one of the smallest with 8 people) most had 20-30 people. Then, the dancing and music started. A live bouzouki band came on (traditional greek music) and the bar tender started teaching people how to do the traditional dances. Pretty soon, most of the restaurant was on their feet, and being led throughout the restaurant, kitchen, and outdoors while dancing. This went on for quite some time and then was followed by the Macarena and a limbo competition. The limbo competition was unbelievable. The two finalists were the bartender (lanky and maybe 6’2”) and a waitress (dancer’s physique and maybe 5’6”). They both were able to do the limbo with the bar MAYBE 8 inches off of the ground. Positively baffling! After spending many hours at the restaurant, we headed back to our campsite having enjoyed the best possible send off party imaginable! The next morning we met the rest of the group back at the airport and boarded a plane destined for Auckland.

7 days in the South Island, 6 days in an RV, 2,250kilometers driven, and 1 amazing vacation!

Do you understand why this took me soo long to write?

Raro-who?

Well, my mid-semester break started last Friday (a week ago now) and I am forced to face the fact that this study abroad is halfway over. To remedy my grief at that realization, after a mad dash of papers and assignments, I took off to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands with the BU Program. Now for those of you (like me!) who have no idea where this place is, it is longitudinally about on par with Hawaii, but it is latitudinally on par with Northern Australia. The flight from Auckland was about 4 hours long, but we crossed the international date line while traveling which meant that we landed the day before we left. Time is weird. This 5 day trip is part of my study abroad experience through BU, so it was all included in the tuition for the program. I know I've said it before, but it really is nice to be able to see where that money goes. Since it was part of the program, though, we did lots of educational and cultural activities. Our first day allowed for some down time. We had breakfast at the resort with fresh tropical fruit and juices. Unfortunately it was overcast with scattered showers that day, but we still sat diligently on the beach enjoying the UV rays through the clouds. The sun did decide to peak out every now and again which was wonderful for swimming in the lagoon. The lagoon was like a large sandbar where you could walk through the water to the neighboring islands without dealing with waves crashing around you. In the afternoon we took a ride on a glass bottom boat and were given a talk by a Maori man regarding sea-faring in the Pacific. He taught us about the natural techniques used to navigate, the boats used, and other aspects of life on board the two-hulled wakas (canoes). He has spent much of his life traveling many of the distances that the original Pacific peoples would have done in their search of the south pacific. We had a nice break to go snorkeling where I saw so many different creatures. I really enjoyed the bright blue star fish. I had no idea that creatures in nature could be this color! Needless to say, the fish also in the reef were spectacular: orange, purple, green, blue, yellow, and red: quite the oceanic rainbow! After the boat trip, we went out to an island in the lagoon and had a BBQ of steak and fish. The picture at the top of this entry is from that island looking back at Rarotonga.

The next day started with a one hour lecture at the University of the South Pacific, Cook Islands. Bear in mind this consisted of a space smaller than that of my nursery school. The professor taught us about the history of the Cook Islands and expressed how difficult it has been for her to put together a history for the islands because it was so rarely recorded or even cared about. (sorry for the preposition there, Mom). After that we went to the primary school where the children prepared a cultural show of native songs and dances for us. I cannot express how unbelievable this was. Think of yourself in middle school (or younger) and your comfort level dancing around members of the opposite sex. These kids were amazing, though: poised, elegant and fun. They then taught us many native crafts involving weaving and braiding with plants. We taught them a little rain-storm-thing where the group ultimately progresses through making sounds of rain using your hands and feet, tough to put into words, but they realled enjoyed it. We told them they could use this to get rid of the rain that we apparently brought to the islands with us. We left the kids with little tokens of thanks: crayons, stickers, and chocolates. Somehow this didn't seem to be quite enough for all that they had shared with us. They were so friendly, warm, and welcoming.

Later that afternoon we went to the Whale Research Center where this woman, Nan, has set up a facility for teaching the natives about the local humpback populations. She was originally from Maine and after getting some kind of degree in nearly every field, she decided that whales were her passion. She swims with them, films them, and has brought numerous discoveries to the understanding of these creatures to the scientific community. She has been so successful that she's been featured in National Geographic, Animal Planet, and at science conventions worldwide. Amazingly enough, she was a mother of 4 children (well still is, really) before she came down to Rarotonga to pursue this dream of hers. Here's the research center's website if you're interested: http://whaleresearch.org/ .

The next day was a day of such physical activity that my muscles are still aching a bit. We started bright and early with a hike up to the pinnacle of the island. We were guided by a man who used to be a science teacher in New Zealand, but that has now devoted his life to researching the flora of the Cook Islands. His knowledge was baffling in that he could say so much about the native species versus those that had been brought to the island. Interestingly enough, many species are endemic to Rarotonga. Either way, the hike was informative and ended with beautiful views of the entire island. I'll ignore how many mosquitoes attacked my poor legs while on that trip. We also met one of Rarotonga's many roosters while hiking. They are not domesticated in the way they are elsewhere. They still wake you up cock-a-doodle-dooing in the middle of the night, but they also live in the wild and all over the island.

That afternoon we had a bit of free time to shop before getting ready for our dance lessons. We went to the local community center where young children in the beginner group were learning the local dances. We were just thrown in to join them in a large gymnasium. Thankfully we were all together in this learning process, strength in numbers, you know. It was still embarassing how difficult it was to do while these little kids lead you without effort. I guess I understand now what people felt about me skiing as a 2 year old. Try this dance: feet together, wrists on hips, bend your knees, Now, move each knee forward so that it forces your hips to swing to one side and then the other. Now, do this as fast as possible with regular hand movements, spinning, and steps. Repeat for one hour. I was sweating like a fiend at the end of our lesson and my legs and sides were soo sore. It was a lot of fun, though. Thankfully I have no pictures of the whole affair.

To make up for all of the physical activity, we gorged ourselves for dinner. That evening we went to a buffet followed by performances done by a local dance group. You may have noticed that dancing to these people is essential to life. The buffet was good, but the dessert table was phenomenal. Please enjoy this image of Sass after having merely sampled from the dessert assortment. Yes that is a dinner sized plate COVERED in cakes, mousses, creme puffs, and other amazing yummy things. I have never seen so many sweets in one place in my life.

The next day was our last on the island. We spent the morning going to local art galleries and shops to get a sense of the art community there. We did a little bit more shopping, but our main goal of the day was to get some down time in the sun. We spent four solid hours in the sun on the beach. The water was divine, cold enough to be refreshing and warm enough to feel like a bath. The day was pristine: fine white sand, sea-foam green water, perfect blue sky, and a lovely warm sun. Despite all of the activities we did, I still managed in that day to get some of my tan back from the trip to Greece. Let's hope it stays for a little while. I even accomplished some work for school for when I get back. I read three books in my time there! I highly recommend In My Father's Den by Maurice Gee (New Zealand writer). After the beach, we attended a lecture given by one of the professors for our SS315 course on the politics of New Zealand. Cook Islanders all hold New Zealand passports and are closely related in culture and many other ways, so this lecture was open to the public. I learned quite a bit, and it was interesting to see the number of people that came to listen given the quickly approaching NZ election. I can't imagine too many Americans going out to see a politics lecture by a professor in order to better understand an upcoming election.

We left the early the next morning but only after

enjoying a gorgeous sunset and a bonfire on the beach built by Survivor candidates John and Anya (not really, but they should be!). The sky was clear and filled with stars (unlike Auckland!). It is quite strange to look up at the sky and not recognize the constellations. Living in one place all your life, it becomes easy to feel safe in the notion that everyone looks up at the same sky at night. Things are certainly different on the other side of the world. Goodbye, Rarotonga!

Tonight I am going to the All Blacks versus the Wallabies (Australia) rugby game. This is the last one of the season, so it should be a great game. I am going to spend the rest of my morning packing for our trip to the South Island tomorrow and am going to the doctor. I think I am rocking a sinus infection and am hoping to get this cleared up as soon as possible. As always, check my ofoto pictures (the link is on the right hand side) to see the full pictorial account of the trip. I have barely given you a sampling on here!

Weekend in Sydney and the Internship Begins

Well, my passport finally arrived, a mere 4 hours before my plane took off. I almost didn't make it to Australia for the weekend! The courier service finally tracked it down at the local post office, so I biked over to pick it up. Funnier still, they needed ID for me to pick up the package. Luckily, I had something else to use, but HELLO! MY ID IS IN THE PACKAGE! I then had class from 2p-4p and the cab picked me up at 4:15p. I arrived at the airport an hour before my international flight. I got barked at by some airport attendant for not leaving enough time...oh well. So I went ahead and cut the whole line, went through security, and walked on the plane. On the plane, our takeoff was delayed (as always) because one of the baggage doors wouldn't close electrically. They had to hand crank it shut which apparently takes a half hour to do. When we finally got off of the ground I started talking to my seat mates, two guys from Korea. One asked me where I was from, and I told him Boston. He asked where that was and I proceded to show him the east coast of the US versus the west. It was so odd to imagine someone not knowing where Boston was. I mean, we're a little bitty city, but Boston is fundamental to even the most basic notions of American History. Not like I can criticize, had he told me he were from Seoul, South Korea I couldn't have pointed it out on a map (I might barely locate the country). Goes to show how Ameri-centric a world I have lived in. The two guys were really friendly and off to Sydney for business and a bit of pleasure. One of them had tickets to the All Blacks vs. The Wallabies (New Zealand vs. Australia-- the HUGE rivalry, put this one on par with Red Sox vs. Yankees, except with two NATIONS behind the teams). I told them how awesome that was, and they then said that they probably weren't going to go. I must have looked baffled because he explained that they were going to the casino instead. Casino instead of a once in a lifetime rugby match...hmmm. Regardless, I couldn't weasle the tickets out of him. Damn.

I did a good amount of homework on the plane (I already wrote two papers before departing in order to make the weekend possible). Once I finally got through customs, quarnatine, etc, I took a group shuttle to the Marriot Harbour Hotel. On the shuttle I met two people (because the guy had on a Red Sox World Series Champions Hat) from California. His family was originally from Boston and he attended Tufts. We talked baseball and about LA (Lower Allston, baby!), and decided that Red Sox Nation doesn't quite cover it, it's truly Red Sox World. Any of the cool cats in Greece will agree that I met a large number of sox fans even in Greece. After they got off the shuttle, the INSANE cabby continued onto my hotel. I got there by around 10pm (there's a two hour time difference from Auckland, and a 3 hour flight). After unloading my belongings, Mom, Ann, and I went out and found me food. Then we sat and listened to a jazz band play in the lobby of this gorgeous hotel.

The next morning we got up bright and early and took the bus to Paddington Market. The market was lots of fun with crafts, jewelry, books, chocolates, etc, etc. After browsing around, we hopped back on the bus and continued on to Bondi Beach. We had lunch at an outdoor cafe called Lamrock. It was a positively gorgeous Saturday: sunny and about 70 degrees out. We then walked down to the beach and watched the surfers for hours. Just as we're leaving, I realize that I have no pictures of people from the day. I have Ann take my picture and as she does, a freak wave comes in almost 15 feet farther than the rest of the tide, and it positively soaks me! Needless to say, denim + salt water + sand = miserably uncomfortable. Note to self, never turn back on the ocean. We then headed back to the hotel to get spiffy before going to the Sydney Opera House to see La Boheme. All dolled up, we headed out to the opera house a bit early to check it out. It is positively striking! I couldn't believe what I was viewing and about to enter. Oddly enough, the inside is not particularly remarkable. There are also four or five different theaters within the opera house. The show itself was unbelievable; our seats were eight rows back. It was also very contemporary in the way it was staged: modern costumes and modern set. I cannot describe how beautiful the voices were.

After the opera, we stopped at a little cafe for desert and coffee. I had the tastiest rhubarb and apple crumble (Kel Han--you should've been there!) with strawberries on top and a hot chocolate. We then returned to the hotel to find that the rugby game had just ended. All Blacks won 30-13! The hotel had recorded the game and was replaying it on the big screen in the lobby with refreshments. We watched enough of the game to slowly begin to understand what was going on. I have a new favorite player: Dan Carter. We then went upstairs and I packed because I needed to leave the hotel at 4:45a--BLECK! I of course managed to leave some things in the hotel, but c'est la vie. My mom's coming back to Auckland tomorrow with all my goodies that I forgot.

Monday I had my first day at my internship. I'm working at the Auckland Museum, which is beautiful, but an absolute maze. So far I am doing very internship-like things, organizing, stapling, etc, etc. It's a little frustrating, but I will hopefully get more responsibility as I prove myself to be capable. My supervisor works in the Public Programs division of the museum. This section comes up with and arranges all of the live productions to go along with the exhibitions. Currently we're preparing for a Da Vinci exhibition of many of his machines. This is such a cool opportunity! Once my input is requested I will suggest that Dan Brown come as a lecturer and that they do an evening of gelato and Italian wines. See--I know how to pack the people in the house (bestselling author plus desert and wine)! The internship should be good, but I'm working there 25 hours per week which is ALL of my free time outside of my 3 classes.

Well, I will continue to keep you posted of my trials and tribulations! Check out my pictures at Ofoto!

Mom's in Town--

Well my mother swung by Auckland while on her whirlwind tour of New Zealand and Australia with our family friend Ann. They've been here already for two weeks now, and this was the first I have seen of her. They stayed at the fine accomadations at the Railway Campus for two nights (don't worry, not on my floor, I got them their own room!) They arrived late Monday night and I was ready and waiting with a bottle of Lindauer Special Reserve Champagne (it was on sale AND said special reserve, clearly the pick for my mom!), dried apricots, dark chocolate, and New Zealand rose apple slices. These snacks were much appreciated and we stayed up until far too late sharing pictures and stories. My mom even brought me a little stuffed sheep from the south island. He's so darn cute, he's even getting a picture in my blog. I wish I could explain just how soft and fuzzy he is. To a smell extent, it's helping to curb my desire to run out into a field and simply hug a real sheep. With 60,000,000 sheep and only 5,000,000 people in this country, the odds of sheep hugging are quite high.

The next day I didn't have class until 5pm, so we spent the whole day together. At 8:30a we went to the Mascot cafe for breakfast with my roommates. I'd forgotten how nice it was to go out for breakfast. Better yet, how nice it is to be awake before 11am. I had crepes with bananas and maple syrup, they were called pancakes, but you can be sure that they were most definitely crepes. After that we walked to the ferry building and hopped on a ferry to Waiheke Island. This island in Auckland harbor houses a large number of vineyards. The morning was positively gorgeous, probably the nicest one so far in Auckland: sun shining, light breeze, mild temps. Once off the ferry, we went straight to Mudbrick Vineyard for winetasting. We all decided that there really wasn't anything there that wowed us. Nevertheless, winetasting is always a fun affair. Why people spit the wine out in the little spittoon is beyond me. We also decided that when my brother buys a vineyard (BTW, Bob, you're buying a vineyard) it will become a family run ordeal. My mom slated herself for janitorial duty because she said that's what she did at home anyway. Ann would wait tables with her ability to talk to ANYONE. I would be the hot chick that poured the samples at the wine tasting (clearly this is a fantasy world) and Bob would hide away in the winery blending and sampling wines until he final found something up to snuff for him. Ahhhh the vineyard life....


I had then arranged for lunch reservations at the vineyard in their quaint little restaurant with a gorgeous view of Rangitoto Island and the Auckland skyline. This decision got two thumbs up (or four, really) from my Mom and Ann. The food was tasty (albeit expensive) and the atmosphere lovely. We then walked to town and looked around in shops, galleries, and supermarkets. At the little supermarket, I found a personal-sized container of Movenpick Stracciatela ice cream. Now you must understand, Stracciatela is just a fancy italien word for chocolate-chip, but this concoction deserves a fancy name. The vanilla ice cream is so rich that it's almost butter, and the hunks of chocolate far exceed "chip" proportions. My mom (the one allergic to dairy) even ventured a taste and concurred: "amazing."

We returned from Waiheke to Auckland because I needed to come back and get ready for class. My mom then stole all of my $1 coins for laundry. Bear in mind that you NEVER get $1 coins for change here, so I am going to struggle the next time I need to do the wash. I then went off to two hours of class while Mom and Ann got their things organized for their departure for Sydney, Australia the next morning. I was definitely struggling from sleep deprevation and a long day outside in the sun because that class was harder to stay awake in than class at Holderness at 5pm after skiing for 3 hours (Holderness folks, you know the kind of eyelid falling I'm talking about!) I wish I could include a scanned copy of my "notes" from class. My normally pristine, anal handwriting is flat-out illegible; I can't read a thing on the page cause I was literally falling asleep in the middle of words: oops.

After class, I came back, cleaned up and got ready for dinner at the sky tower. You'll note that I scheduled the entire day around meals; that was clever of me, wasn't it? Looking spiffy we headed out to the skyline icon. The restaurant rotates at the rate of one revolution per hour. While we ate, we enjoyed the city lights over the entire Auckland area. The food was also fantastic and given the setting, reasonably priced. We got out of there for $30NZ a person (that's like $20US) and I enjoyed roast lamb served with eggplant and potato frittes, grilled brocolini (I know my brother is salivating, now), and a mochacino. Bear in mind the trip up the sky tower alone is nearly $20NZ and that was included in our dinner cost. Sure beat a $10 kebab.

We returned back and uploaded our pictures for the day--I showed Mom and Ann how to use ofoto.com. I think the lesson was a bit lost on them, but it was worth a shot. They finally went to bed and headed off to Sydney at 4am the next morning. I was left to finish my week, write a paper, and attend class. One assignment, for my Poetry off the Page course was to do a poetic transformation, ex. take any poem and change the way it looks typographically, visually, etc. Have a look at mine at http://www.geocities.com/bpantazelos/danserusse.html I leave this afternoon for Sydney, although I almost didn't get there because New Zealand was having a super-fun time playing hot potato with my passport and visa. I tracked it down less than an hour ago, but am all set to go to Sydney now (they got my passport back to me a mere 5 hours before I leave for my flight). I am generally in better spirits now with that weight lifted off my shoulders. My roommates already left for Aussieland at the crack of dawn this morning. We will be dining with them this evening upon my arrival. Tomorrow night Mom, Ann, and I are going to see La Boheme at the Sydney Opera House. I am so excited for this opportunity. I have never been to an opera before and now I am going to THE opera (feel free to pronounce opera with three syllables and your best british accent).

I will most certainly report back with pictures and tales from Australia for the weekend. Hopefully I will get some work accomplished on the plane rides there and back.

Betsy.

P.S. I now heart blogging. I have written soooo much more than I would have in a journal, and I love that I can share that with all of you. It's such a great procrastination tool for all those partaking. I can write for however long I want, and you can read to distract yourself from whatever you're supposed to be doing. Enjoy!