Some pictures from Napier

Napier-BEACH

So on Thursday and Friday the 19th and 20th a couple of friends(Tess from Georgia, Ashley from Washington State, Cameron and my fellow marching band member from Virginia Tech, Whitney) and I went to Napier in Hawkes bay, its the big u-shaped strip of land on the east coast(north island). We had a little trouble finding a room because it was art deco weekend, which meant really old cars and flapper style/1920's style clothing all over the place. The outfits were really different but interesting to see. We stayed in a Quality Inn, but this was a hopping hotel. There were old men in speedo's...HOT, I know! and old women in really bad suits(one I remember was a straight pastel purple one). The first day we got there we went to the beach and the ocean spa, because the bay was a little to cold to swim in. However I sighted our long last Titanic...or something that looked like it...

Later we got ready and went out to eat at a hole in the wall, but really good Italian restaurant. After that we went bar hopping to some Irish pubs and I saw BLARNEY stone, pretty good for not being on the same continent. My friends, Tess, Ashley and Whitney all forgot their passports so they got rejected from the bar, but we all left to go to the grocery store to get booze. We went back to out hotel and I realized that I don't really like Heineken or any beer(hard liquor!) apart from ten man and sometimes beer band. The beach was really pretty at night, no sand just small rocks, however we were unable to find the moon...

the next day we did some shopping, went to the aquarium and got rained on a lot and the wind was pretty brutal.

NZ rule #1: ALWAYS bring a raincoat if there is rain in the forecast even if you are out for a few hours...it will rain on you(and it will probably poor) like it did on my way to class a couple times this week.

Down to Palmerston North/Massey University

We split from our large group, one group went down to Christchurch to go to the University of Canterbury and Lincoln on the south island, one other went to the other Massey University in Wellington, the other group was mine that took a bus down to Palmerston North. I was wondering how boring and long it would be to get down to the city, but it was quite the opposite. It was about 5-6 hours, but the scenery was stunning, in that short amount we traveled we saw sheep...a lot of sheep, rolling hills, caves, mountains, crystal clear lakes and farms! It was beautfiul, and they said the south island is so much better to look at...I can't wait for semester break!

We got down here and had really boring international orientation sessions and then all the first year students came. Most of the incoming students were good, but some of the kiwi's it's like talking to a brick wall. The advisors told us to be prepared because americans were so much more sociable than them, she was so right. I met some really cool kiwis so far, most of them vet students, actually practically the whole student body is Vet students. One of my good friends here from the U.S. (whitney) lives in a newer dorm where I met cool people, but when you get to my dorm, its like a whole new world they are all very skiddish, except for a few(i like those few :-)) and the guys are totally cool.

The other night we went into town to a few bars; Tao and some other no namer, but we were trying to find bar mode or mode bar, and my friends took us down rape alley it almost seemed like...but that night was a lot of fun!

Also...what the hell they close everything at 5?!?!?

next: trip to napier

Caving with the eels

So we went to Waitomo near the west coast in the north island, and all of us went caving. There was three choices, you could choose a dry cave even though there was water in it, it consisted of abseiling in and ziplining in the dark through the cave. The others were a tubing one, which was a water cave and the other one was the most physically challening cave that was both wet and dry with rockclimbing and small spaces. I choose to do the tubing cave it was called Tumu Tumu Toobing, and the profile picture is the one from it.

Although it was called toobing, it consisted a total of about 5 minutes of the 3 hours of tubing. It was more like the 3rd one. We also had to do a lot of swimming in temperatures as cold as lake superior, thank god we had a wet suit and gum boots(rain boots that everyone wears around campus). But most of it was trying to dodge rocks on the surface and then falling to the floor of the water because you weren't sure where you were stepping. But then came the glow worms.

The glow worms were something to look at, we turned off our lights and they looked like stars in the sky, they were beautiful to look at then we learned the reason why the glow is because of their poop.

We then swam with the white eel, one of the instructor said they saw it.

At the End was very trying after 3-3.5 hours of climbing, trying to dodge sprained ankle alley, concussion way and the supertight wetsuits. Although those wetsuits are very complementary compared to marching band uniforms!

Day 2/Massive Cultural Experience

We had a early wake up call, breakfast at 730, which was followed by a really boring program session, but the fun stuff came later.

In the late morning we went to the World famous live sheep show at the agrodome and practically every nationality was in the crowd. Here there was cow milking, lamb feeding, sheep shearing, sheepdog demonstrations, where the dogs would bark at the sheep to move and since they couldn't they jumped all over their backs( if you look at the pics it will make sense).

In the afternoon we went zorbing, which is rolling down a long hill in a plastic ball filled with water! After that we came back to the hostel and learned the "haka" a traditional maori(natives) war dance.

At night for dinner, we went to the Tamaki Village where some maori's live. This included a "hangi" meal, which is a meal cooked underground and in the soil, which was really good. I got some pictures the guy we loved, he looked like a model. :-)

First Day/Birthday

I Made it down here, the plane ride wasn't bad at all, luckily I sat by one of the greatest guys ever! He was old and we(me and another girl in my program) played with his iphone for like hours. Definitely the best food ever on the plane and we had a library of media to listen/watch during the trip, all together Air New Zealand was great!

We got into Auckland on my 21st birthday :-) at 5:00 am, finally went through customs and met with australearn, and holy hell it was humid, but it was much better than Iowa. We took a three hour bus ride down to Rotorua, where our hostel was, which was nice when we got there, but smells nasty because of the hot springs and sulfur.

Finally for birthday night a big night of guys and some girls we went to the bar at the hostel for a couple of hours. Lots of free drinks from guys including the hot bartender! So tell me if this is a successful 21st birthday night...2 or 3 screwdriver, 1 apple and vodka, steinlager(beer), 3 shots, apple martini thing, then we went to the FOAM Party at the Lava Bar and ordered another fruity one, is that good enough?? Foam party was so much fun, we got very wet! It was a wonderful birthday day!