After three months of classes, it was definitely time to get away from school for a bit and explore. To celebrate the end of classes (and make our lives a little bit more sane), some friends and I took a trip to the northern part of the South Island to go backpacking on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. We rented a car, booked some campsites, packed our bags, and we were off. On Saturday, we caught the bus at 7:00 am to pick up the rental car, and we drove to Marahau, where the track ends (or begins, depending on which way you’re hiking). It was raining the majority of the trip there, which made for an interesting first experience with driving on the wrong side of the road! Honestly, though, after ten minutes or so of driving, it felt almost completely normal! I’m actually kind of worried about driving when I get back to the States, because now I’m completely used to everything being switched… On the way to Marahau, we stopped at Lake Rotoiti for a short hike. We also stopped in Motueka to get groceries and to fuel ourselves with some veeerrrryyy greasy KFC. In Marahau, we stayed at a cute little hostel/campground called The Barn, and we went on another short hike to a beach not far from the hostel. We also made LOTS of PB&Js. We started our three-day backpacking venture on Sunday morning. The track is not a loop like some of the other Great Walks in NZ, so to avoid needing a car at the beginning and end points of our hike, we took a water taxi to Awaroa (about 40 kilometers from Marahau), where we started our hike. We hiked from Awaroa to Bark Bay on the first day which was 13.5 kilometers. The second day we hiked from Bark Bay to Anchorage (11.5 kilometers), and on the third day we hiked from Anchorage to Marahau (12.4 kilometers). The hike for Awaroa to Bark Bay was absolutely gorgeous. We stopped halfway at a little beach to eat lunch. The Bark Bay campground was so great. It is on a peninsula/sandbar type thing and when the tide came in, it felt like we were camping on an island! We hung out on the beach, did some yoga, played a lot of cards, and struggled so hard to start a campfire with wet wood. The weather was perfect for pretty much the whole first day. It was sunny and warm, and there were only a few drizzles here and there… until around 4pm. There was a crazy thunderstorm that rolled through. It lasted for most of the night, but we woke up to clear skies and a beautiful sunrise. The weather the second day was just as sunny and warm as the first, and no rain at all! We found seals in Falls River and stopped for lunch at Torrent Bay, and we also took a side hike to Cleopatra Pools. When we got to Anchorage and set up camp, we went on a little side hike to the Watering Cove—barefoot. Worst decision ever, but totally worth it when we finally got to the Cove. And yet again, we struggled really hard to get a campfire going at camp; fortunately, we brought a camp stove with us. There were some crazy ducks and wekas at the campsite. They definitely not afraid of people as long as there was food involved. The ducks even jumped on Macy’s and Molly’s laps a couple of times! The third day was a little cloudy, but it didn’t rain and was still a great day to hike. We got back to Marahau around midday. We made lunch and took much needed showers and naps, and then headed to Motueka to get dinner that evening.
Despite the blisters and sunburns, the backpacking trip was absolutely worth it and I had so much fun! I was a great escape from school and civilization. Now, it’s back to the real world and back to finals. I’ve only got two and a half weeks left in New Zealand. Which to me sounds crazy! It doesn't feel like I have been here for almost four months. It's all gone by so quickly. I’m going to be sad to leave, but I’m also looking forward to being back home.
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Sorry it has been so long since I’ve written a post! It has been a month since mid-semester break, but I’ve had a lot of fun adventures and a lot of homework to go along with them. Three weekends ago (September 10th and 11th I think…), some friends and I took a trip down to Lake Tekapo, which is west of Lincoln. We stayed at a holiday park in little cabins right next to the lake. We had a bonfire on the beach and stayed up way to late Friday night, but had tons of fun. The next day, we hiked and stopped at a little café at the summit where some of our group learned how to do a Haka (Haka is a traditional Maori war dance). We also stopped at Lake Pukaki before heading home. The lake is absolutely gorgeous and very, very cold! The next couple of weeks were pretty laid back. I mostly just did homework and enjoyed the weather. I’ve been playing Ultimate again with some people from Lincoln. Now that the weather has gotten nicer, we’ve been able to get more people out to play with us, so we can play actual games rather than just toss a disc around. It’s been really fun finding people interested in Ultimate (it’s not very popular in this part of NZ).
Last weekend, a big group of international students took a trip down to Queenstown! We stayed a a funky little hostel called Bungi Backpackers. The car I was in got in really late Friday night and joined up with the rest of the group. Friday night, we all went out on the town and had a really fun time. The best part, in my opinion, was listening to a street musician for about half an hour. He was an amazing guitarist, and we were all singing and dancing along with him. It was so much fun! On Saturday, several of us went on a hike up Queenstown Hill while the rest were bungy-jumping or swing on the Nevis Swing. The hike was really steep, but the view was well worth it. And on Sunday, we hung out in the harbor, enjoying the sun and relaxing. On the way home, we stopped at Lake Wanaka to check out the tree in the lake. All in all, it was a great weekend, and now it’s back to the real world and writing essays. Here's Part Two! Our next stop was Lake Karapiro and Hobbiton. We stayed at an Airbnb on Lake Karapiro for a night before our tour of Hobbiton. The house we stayed at was so nice. It had a balcony overlooking the lake and two kiwi orchards, and the owners even had two dogs that were absolutely adorable. One of the most anticipated moments of this trip for me was the Hobbiton tour. I happen to be a very big fan of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. We got to see all of the hobbit holes and the party tree, and we had drinks at the Green Dragon at the end of the tour. It was fascinating learning about the history of the set too. The set is located on a farm outside of Matamata, and the original set was destroyed when the filming was done, but after Peter Jackson came back to film more movies, the set was built with more permanent materials. The Shire did not disappoint. After the tour, we took a drive past Mount Doom (a.k.a Mount Ngauruhoe) on our way to Whanganui. The peak is in Tongariro National Park and is one of three volcanic peaks in the park. The others are Mount Ruapehu (the largest) and Mount Tongariro. Our last stop on the North Island was Wellington. We went to Zealandia and stayed the night in the city. Zealandia is an urban eco-sanctuary that covers 225 hectares of forest. The sanctuary is surrounded by a predator fence that prevents pests and predators such as possums, stoats, and cats from getting in. We had a lot of fun bird watching and exploring the area. We got to see a lot of species that we didn’t see anywhere else. On the 23nd, we took the ferry back to the South Island and drove to Nelson. For the last four days of the trip we stayed at an Airbnb in Ngatimoti, north of Nelson. The first day that we were there Mom, Ryan and I stayed at the house to relax while Cooper and Dad hiked Mount Arthur in Kahurangi National Park. The Airbnb was on a ranch and we stayed in a guest house on the property. The couple, Anne and Mike, that own the property were very welcoming and it was a great place to stay. Anne is an artist and she showed us around her gallery and her studio. Anne and Mike have also designed a hedge maze on their property that is based on a famous hedge maze in Europe. The strangest thing by far that we did at Anne and Mike’s was feed river eels. There is a small bridge that crosses a stream running through the property and there are five or six eels (at least) that live underneath it. We threw chopped up raw bacon in the stream upriver from the bridge, and a couple of minutes later there were five eels swimming around in the water. The biggest eel was at least a four feet long and twice as big around as my arm. The third day we went to Nelson Lakes State Park and visited Lake Rotoiti. We did a loop hike through the beech forests and hung out on the beach. The area was gorgeous. While we were hiking we kept seeing this black stuff all over the trees and ground. We eventually discovered that it is a black sooty mould that is a result of scale insects that live in the bark of beech trees. The scale insects produce honeydew that is consumed by a variety of organisms in the forest. The mould grows on waste honeydew and creates a spongy black layer on everything that the honeydew covers. On our last full day in the Nelson area, we hiked through part of Abel Tasman National Park. We started in Marahau and took a water taxi to Bark Bay. From Bark Bay we hiked down the coast to Anchorage, where we caught another boat back to Marahau. We hiked 12 kilometers along the coast and had spectacular views the whole time. Abel Tasman is known for golden beaches which are caused by iron oxide on the granite that makes up most of the area. The beach at Anchorage was gorgeous and we timed the hike perfectly because as soon as we arrived at the hut to wait for the boat, it started pouring. On the boat ride back we finally got to see penguins! Now I’m back at Lincoln, and classes have started again. We have two more months of the semester left. The days are getting longer, and the weather is getting warmer – fingers-crossed that it stays that way!
Mid-semester break is a wrap, and it’s going to take a couple posts to tell you all about it. So here is Part One! Ryan arrived on August 12th, and my family arrived two days later. I showed them around the LU campus, and we visited the Christchurch Botanic Gardens and Victoria Lake. We also went to New Brighton Pier and Travis Wetlands outside of Christchurch to do some birding before our trip. Our first two nights were spent in Kaikoura at a little motel on the beach. On the way to Kaikoura, we stopped at Pegasus Bay Winery for lunch and my first wine tasting! We had gorgeous weather and hiked the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway. The Walkway is about 12 kilometers around the Kaikoura peninsula. We also stopped at the Ohau Stream Walk to see the seal pups that hang out at the waterfall! The seal pups apparently travel up the stream and stay at the waterfall for several days at a time, only coming back to the beach to feed. The waterfall provides a predator free oasis for the pups to swim and play. Unfortunately, there was only one seal pup at the falls when we got there, but it was still fun to see it playing around in water. The place was gorgeous and the food was just as pretty as the architecture. After Kaikoura, we drove to Picton to catch the Interislander Ferry to the North Island. The ferry ride was so much fun. I had never been on a boat as big as the ferry that we took. It was a weird experience all around. Driving a car on a boat is really weird for one, and seeing semi-trucks (one which was full of sheep) on a boat was strange too. Cook Strait is beautiful and the weather was perfect! We did a lot of bird watching, and I got to see a number of seabirds I’d never seen before. It was a three-hour ferry ride and we arrived in Wellington as the sun was about to set. From Wellington we drove to Napier in Hawke’s Bay, where we stayed for two nights. In Napier, we explored an estuary system across the street from our motel and got to see royal spoonbills! We also went to the National Aquarium of New Zealand. On our way north, we also stopped at Boundary Stream Mainland Island Reserve, where we hiked for a couple of hours and finally got to see parrots! The parrots that we saw are called kaka and are one of three species of large parrots in New Zealand.
Looks like I forgot to post last weekend… oops! It has been a crazy couple of weeks, but I have finally finished all of my homework. Only one more lecture and two labs and then it’s mid-semester break! Last weekend, we watched Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring in the Workshop on Friday night, and on Saturday night, a group of us went out to eat sushi in Christchurch. We also went to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. For five days every year, the Botanic Gardens are transformed in to a fantastic light show called Botanic D’Lights. There were lights upon lights upon lights; jellyfish climbing up trees, fairy gardens, and lots and lots of people. It was a lot of fun walking around at night to see the lights, although now I want to go back to see the Gardens in the daylight. On Monday, I went on a field trip for my ecology class to Quail Island. Quail Island is a small island near Banks Peninsula. We took a ferry to the island in the morning and we went to a series of stations set up by our professors. There were stations for a variety of different ecological sampling methods. We learned about invertebrate sampling methods, point counts for monitoring birds, pest control methods used on the island, using GPS, and vegetation sampling methods. We had a really good time exploring the island even though it was snowing most of the time and very, very cold. This week has been a whirlwind of classes and assignments. I had my first big paper due for Animal Physiology, and I am very ready to be done with classes for the next two weeks. Ryan arrives in the morning, and Mom, Dad, and Cooper get here on Sunday! Then we’ll be off to explore New Zealand! We will be headed up to the North Island for the first week of break to explore Hawke’s Bay and the Shire, along with a number of other places on the way. Then it’s back to the South Island to explore Abel Tasman and Dunedin. I’m very excited to see Ryan and my family. It’s definitely been weird being so far from home even though I’ve gotten used to being away at school for most of the last three years. Being almost 7,000 miles from home is a lot different.
I’ve reached the end of my fourth week in New Zealand. We’re about a third of the way through the semester! Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess! I had my first big assignments due this week, a paper for my recreation class and a lab report due for plant science. I think both went well, and I’m glad to have those out of the way! One thing I did discover this week that sort of bothers me about LU is the library hours: they are very short. The recreation center is open longer than the library is… I am used to a library that stays open 24/5, so having the library open only from 8:00am to 9:00pm on weekdays is really hard to get used to. Not that I always up late working on assignments, but when I need to print things for class and do research with books that are only on short loan, those hours can make it a little tough. I guess it’s something I’ll just have to get used to. On a more exciting note, we had some more fun adventures this weekend! On Friday after classes we went to Rapaki Beach, which is about a half an hour from LU. This wasn’t just any beach though. This beach has warm water springs underneath it, so we dug a couple of holes in the sand to put our feet in the water! The beach was also absolutely covered in shells, and I found some sea glass to add to my collection. On Sunday, a bunch of us went to Castle Hill, a.k.a where the big battle scene from Narnia was filmed! We left at about 9:00am and drove for an hour to get there. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, clear and very cold. There were tons of rock climbers bouldering and climbing all over the place, and I was kicking myself for not bringing my climbing shoes with me. But the scenery was phenomenal (like the majority of New Zealand so far), so I quickly forgot about climbing and enjoyed the views. It was another steep hike, but when we got to the top of Castle Hill, there were snow-capped mountains in every direction.
Alright, well it has been a pretty laid back week for the most part. I’m finally getting back into the routine of being in classes again, although I still don’t like that I’m missing summer back home! It has been pretty chilly here for the last month. There have been lots of mornings where it has been below freezing when I walk to my classes. The days are also pretty short right now… it gets dark between 5:30 pm and 6:00 pm and doesn’t get light until around 8:00 am. But the days are getting longer, slowly but surely! I had a pretty uneventful week for the most part, which I was grateful for. I feel like I haven’t stopped moving for the last month, but I got a chance to catch up a little bit last week and sleep in on the weekend. On Friday, however, we did go out for a pub crawl in Christchurch on a double-decker bus. That was quite the adventure, and we all had a lot of fun! Saturday morning, the Junction Crew (me, Tessa, Liz, Katie, Victor, Felix, and Milo) made a big brunch consisting of yummy bacon, eggs, and French toast, and we watched rugby from our porches for a bit. A bunch of us also went out and got Indian food at Coriander's on Saturday night in Riccarton. When we got back from the restaurant, the night sky was clear and it was really warm, so Tessa and I decided to take our towel out to the rugby field and look at the stars for a while. I tried out some long exposure shots with my camera and got some really neat pictures of the night sky. On Sunday, we watched Narnia in the Workshop, after a group went to Castle Hills where the big battle scene was filmed (I was stuck at home writing a paper…)! Like I said… pretty uneventful week, and I don’t have many pictures to go along with this post, but I figured I should stick to my plan to write every week.
Cheers! Here at LU, there are certain days throughout the semester that are called “field trip” days. These days are set aside for classes to do field trips if the professor wants to. So if you don’t have a field trip schedule for any of your classes on one of these days, you don’t have class. Wednesday this week was a field trip day and Liz, Katie, and I had a field trip for our ecology class. It was a really fun field trip, despite the cold and windy weather. We went to Kaitorete Spit, Kaituna Valley, and Mahoe Reserve. I learned a lot about the plant life in New Zealand and we practiced identifying plants based on various characteristics that we learned in class. Kaitorete Spit is a long strip of land that separates Lake Ellesmere—the largest lake in New Zealand—from the ocean. It is home to a number of New Zealand endemic species, several of which are now only found on the spit. One of the most common grasses on the spit is pīngao. We also found one of the only species poisonous spiders in New Zealand, the katipō. The spider is a relative of the black widow and is also known as the red-backed spider. We found two katipō spiders underneath a piece of roofing on the beach. They make think, messy webs in sheltered areas with sticky strands coming out from the entrance, and insects get stuck in these strands. At Kaituna Valley Scenic, we walk along a little path through a small patch of remnant forest. The dominant tree in this area is called tītoki. This patch also contains a few very large trees that are part of the Podocarpaceae family. Mataī and kahikatea are the two members of this family found at the reserve. Mataī have a really interesting bark pattern that our professor described as “hammer bark” because it looks like it has been hit with a hammer. The kahikatea tree in the reserve is the tallest tree in New Zealand and reaches about 60 meters (180 feet). Another plant that our professor pointed out was “ongaonga” (also called tree nettle) a plant related to stinging nettle. It has stiff spines on the stems and leaves. The spines break off if an animal/human and release a toxin. The toxin is enough to kill a variety of animals, and there has been one recorded human death. Mahoe Reserve is a small reserve in Lincoln about five minutes from LU. The reserve was started by students from Lincoln High School and Sue Jarvis, a professor at LU. The goal was to restore native plants in area. Today, the reserve contains almost exclusively plants that are native to New Zealand. The field trip was a great experience, and I had a lot of fun learning bits and pieces of New Zealand ecology while also getting to see some really cool areas. This weekend it was Felix’s 21st birthday. On Friday, we (all of us in Junction and a few others) had a pizza party and made a bunch of pizzas, played Twister, and had a lot of fun. On Saturday, we went to Little Mount Peel for a hike, which is just outside of Ashburton, NZ. We got up early made a big pancake/egg/bacon breakfast and left for the trail head around 8:30am, and we started the hike at a little past 11:00am. The hike was absolutely gorgeous! The track (trail in Kiwi language) was also extremely steep and icy. We were definitely complaining and in pain on the way up and on the way down, but the views during the hike and from the summit made it all worth it. I felt like I was on top of the world. On one side we could see the ocean, and on the other we had a perfect view of the snow-capped mountains west of Little Mount Peel. The hike took us a little less than six hours. We covered about ten kilometers and gained about nine-hundred meters of elevation. I honestly can’t put into words how beautiful the hike was. The landscapes in New Zealand are absolutely breath-taking, and pictures just do the country justice, in my opinion. After the hike, we went to a sushi restaurant in Ashburton that Felix wanted to go to. There were twelve of us who when on the hike: Liz, Tessa, Katie, and me from the U.S.; Felix, Jonas, Chris, and Björn from Germany; Hagen from Italy; Conor from New Zealand; Victor from Brazil; and Emilio from Spain. My legs and my toes are definitely feeling it today, but the soreness is worth every second of that hike. I survived the first week of classes! It’s been a tough week, trying to get back into the swing of school. I was definitely not ready for summer (if three weeks is considered summer) to end. My favorite class so far is New Zealand Ecology and Conservation. I think it is going to be a really interesting class and I really like the professor. It is a lower level class, so it shouldn’t be too difficult, but I am excited to apply what I already know about ecology to New Zealand ecosystems. We also have a number of field trips for the class to places like Quail Island. My other classes also seem like they are going to be really interesting. So far, the structure of classes hasn’t been very different than from what I am used to. Other than classes, this week has been pretty laid back. We had a Fourth of July barbecue on Monday, and then on Friday, a bunch of us went into Christchurch to explore. We walked around the city and went to a food market and listened to a live band in Cathedral Square. The Cathedral is still in rubble, but it is still a really beautiful building. About six years ago, there was a massive earthquake that destroyed much of the city. There is still a lot of construction going on in the city, and a lot of businesses are still closed. We also went to a shopping center that is made out of shipping containers. I had never seen anything like it. Later, we met up with some other people from LU. We went to a whiskey and cocktail lounge called The Last Word and ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant. This past week has been full of new experiences, and I’m discovering a lot of new/weird things. Many things are the same, but there are definitely some things that are different. There are a lot of foods here that are called different names. Bell peppers are called Capsicum (which is part of their Latin name); English muffins are called muffin splits; zucchini are called courgettes. That’s just a few foods that are different. Also ketchup and mayonnaise taste really strange here. I don’t know what it is about them, but they are definitely different. Another thing that I found strange about New Zealand, is that they farm deer here. According to deernz.org.nz, there is close to one million deer being farmed in New Zealand. There is a lot of agriculture/farming in New Zealand. In fact, sheep out number humans, the ratio is 5:1!
Now it’s finally the weekend! I feel like I have been constantly running around, going on trips, going to classes, etc. I finally got to sleep in on Saturday. Liz, Katie, and I took the bus to go shopping in Hornby on Saturday. Today (Sunday), I have just been relaxing at the house. I am slowly getting adjusted to everything here. It has definitely been tough at times, but all in all, I have been having a lot of fun. Life has been quite a whirlwind for the last week. From 24 hours of travel to catching sharks off a pier in Akaroa, I think I'm finally adjusting to life in New Zealand! The trip here was an adventure in itself. This is the first time I have ever traveled internationally, so traveling here by myself was a little terrifying at first. I didn’t really know what to expect for the thirteen-hour leg of my trip from Los Angeles to Auckland (North Island of NZ). The food wasn’t great, but I had access to tons of movies and music, so I was able to keep myself entertained. I tried to sleep, but I only ended up sleeping for a couple of hours. The only hiccup in my travel plans was my flight from Los Angeles to Auckland. Catering for the plane was an hour late in LA, so we took off late, which meant that we also arrived in Auckland an hour and fifteen minutes later than expected. Once we arrived in Auckland, I had twenty minutes to get to my flight to Christchurch. There was no way I was going to make it through customs, domestic transfers, and security, so I had to miss that flight and transfer to a later one. All in all, my travel was pretty seamless and easy, and after twenty-four hours, I finally made it to Lincoln University. For the next five months, I will be studying at Lincoln University in Lincoln, Canterbury, New Zealand. Lincoln is a small town southeast of Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. There is one grocery store, two pharmacies, a library, and a number of miscellaneous shops, but not much else. I have really enjoyed the small town feel so far. LU is a very small school (only about 2500 students), and campus is fairly small – much smaller than what I am used to at Oregon State. There are around 60 international students here, which seems like a lot given how many students there are total.
I am living in a flat on campus in an area called The Junction with a number of other people, five of whom I have become pretty close in the last week. I wasn't expecting to be living in a house, but so far I am really enjoying it! In each house there are two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and separate bedrooms for everyone. We are the first group of people to live in these houses, so they are very new and very clean! All of us Junction kids are living in semi-catered flats, which means that we get dinner in the dining hall every night, but we are on our own for the rest of our meals. It's been a lot of fun going to the dining halls and eating together every night. Just in the six days that I have been here, I have met so many really awesome people from all over the world. There are people here from the U.S., Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Germany, India, the Philippines, Brazil, Peru, and so many more! It has been fun learning about new other peoples' cultures and meeting such a diverse group of people. I am really looking forward to spending a semester here with so many new people and in a new country. |
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