Ups and Downs

Kia Ora everyone!

Sorry I have been kinda M.I.A these last two weeks.  Procrastination at its finest ladies and gentlemen! I will do my best at summarizing the last two weeks. Things have been a little jumbled.
The week before last was the first week since I have been here where the weather was not immaculate. The sky finally decided it was time to give the Auckland area a good soak. It was rather cloudy most of the week and poured all weekend. Of course, it was the one weekend where we had planned to drive an hour west to Piha beach, a beautiful stretch of sand with a nice waterfall you can hike up to. But alas, I opened my curtains that Saturday morning and was greeted by a steady downpour. Well there goes our beach plans. 

Me and my friend Melia at the bar.

 

 

But that Saturday was not wasted. Later, several of us went out for a night on Auckland town. It was an early St. Patrick's Day celebration. Having just recently become the legal drinking age in my own country, the bar atmosphere was a whole new experience for me. And to all of you responsible and experienced adults reading my blog, dont worry! I only had a two drinks. It was way too expensive for me to even approach my alcohol drinking limit. (See Mom, I am a responsible adult :) ) I have to admit I was not used to severely intoxicated men wandering over and surveying our group of girls and our figures in a less-than-subtle way. Frankly it made me a little uncomfortable. But hey that is bar life I guess.

Emily, me, Steph, Melia, Nic and Kristian in the back and Kirsten. Kirsten lives the flat next to us and Melia and Steph live in the other Massey accommodation 10 minutes down the road.

Other highlights; I experienced my first little earthquake that Sunday. It was pretty minor, but it felt like a car or bulldozer hit the house because the whole flat shook. Everyone wandered out onto the street asking each other if they had felt the jolt too. It was small but still kind of scary. That was probably nothing compared to the earthquake that hit Christchurch two years ago.


This last weekend, Emily, Robbie, our friend Klaire and I hiked up to Cascades Falls, 30 minutes west of Albany. It was a short but pretty hike. The falls are tucked behind this cave like cliff. We thought we could have a nice refreshing swim in the little pool at the bottom of the falls. But, the water was ice cold. Klaire, having warm Kiwi blood in her, could not be bothered with the cold and swam toward the falls while the three of us sat shivering on the rock. But it was still a great opportunity to see some the Kiwi wilderness. But this is only a taste of New Zealand beauty compared to what we are going to be seeing in the next two weeks.

We are now getting ready for our 2 week trip down to the south island. We have made the courageous decision to rent a car and drive the whole way. Hopefully the driving will come naturally, we will just have to switch to the left side of the road. Locations along the way will include Rotorua, Tongairiro Crossing (Mordor), Wellington (Rivendell), Picton, Marlborough Vinyards, Franz Josef Glacier, Milford Sound and Queenstown. Activities may include Zorbing, cliff jumping, wine tours, cruises, jet boating, and much more. We shall see how smoothly the trip will play out, but I can barely contain my excitement. This trip will be the most memorable part of my entire experience in New Zealand.
Unfortunately I most likely be unable to blog about my adventures. But I have a plan! I will keep a journal and write in it each night. Then when I have access to a computer, I will copy it onto my blog. Problem solved! You guys wont miss a single detail!

I am going to honest. These last two weeks, the homesickness has started to settle in. The overall euphoric feeling of actually being in New Zealand has begun to wear off. Trust me, I am so lucky to be here. But part of me longs for something familier like the mountains of home or the warmth and comfort of my family and friends. I miss the fresh crisp and quiet air of the Rockies. I am not used to the hussle and bussle of Auckland. Thankfully this trip down south will help ease the dull ache for home. I'll get to discover the less populated beauties of New Zealand.

Mama B on the left and Swanson on the right.

Mama B cleaning her feathers.

Before I sign off, I wanted to introduce you to Unit 14's newest "pets". The male duck is named Swanson and the female duck is Mama B. They come waddling up to our back door everyday looking for some bread to nibble on. They know to single me out as the weakest link between the four of us because I am the one most likely to give them food. I suspect that my flatmates are not happy with me giving our bread to birds. But if you know me well enough, you know that if they look at me the right way, their is no way I will turn away a hungry duck.

Well that's all folks! I will blog about my south island journey as soon as I get the chance!

Until next time!

Michael

West and Wewaxation

Kia ora to all my friends and family!
This will be a rather short post. Nothing incredibly interesting has happened to me here in Kiwi Land this past week. My laziness got the best of me and I stayed pretty close to home last weekend. I hope not to make that a habit.

Emily and I on our tour of Auckland.

That's not to say I have not been productive. I have been turning into somewhat of a gym junky. Emily, Robbie, and I and our two flatmates have been going to the gym every weekday and lifting weights, heavy weights, something I have never really done before. Needless to say, I have expereinced all types of pain from my recent activities at the Massey Rec Center.
"It's good for us,"  Emily keeps telling me. Oh yeah sure! But still, I find not being able to come down the stairs without clinging to the railing because my leg muscles are so sore to be a not too pleasant endeavor.

Beautiful tree canopy on the way to the top of Mt. Eden.

I did have the terrifying privilege of driving on the other side of the road last night. Nic's girlfriend Liz asked if anyone would be willing to drive her car to the McDonald's just down the road. Jokingly, I offered, not expecting she would actually me let do it. Yet, there I sat several minutes later, in the drivers seat, trying to adjust to the blinkers being on the right side of the steering wheel and having to shift gears with my left hand. Liz was in the passenger seat, clearly not phased by a nervous American driving her car down the left side of the road. I am happy to say I made it to McDonald's and back without injuring anyone! An accomplishment in itself!

Rock partially made of shells that I found on the beach at Browns Bay.

Ok serious note here. Even though I have only been here for a little over three weeks, I still find myself not believing that I am actually here! I was walking up the hill to class today, and it occurred to me, like it does almost everyday that I have been here, that I am in New Zealand. I am living comfortably in a place thousands of miles away from my home and everything I have ever known. I remind myself that I am making memories and friendships that I will no doubt be looking back on for the rest of my life. My dad Walt studied abroad in Europe for an entire year when he was my age. And he is still talking about how much fun he had, decades later. Down the road, that's going to be me, reliving the moments I have now to my kids. It's scary to think about it. Even if it doesn't feel like it now, this journey here in New Zealand is something that will impact the rest of my life.
And I will leave you with that!         

Week 2: Settling In

Ok, second week down and I seem to  still be in one piece! Ha ha, I am just kidding. I'm starting to get used to the kick-back nature that is the Kiwi lifestyle. I find myself forgetting about all my stress and relaxing. I've even found myself  walking around barefoot outside on the streets. But this new-found laziness is very inconvenient considering we started classes this last Monday.

As I mentioned before, living in New Zealand is not all that different from living in America. But, as I found out this week, there is one distinct difference. The school system. Not to say that the structure of Massey classes (or papers, as they call them here) is bad. I am learning. But, I would say I've been a little spoiled while studying at Whitworth. Going to a bigger and more public university like Massey, I now appreciate my small liberal arts education a lot more than I have in the past.

Thought I'd add a picture right here. I get bored when I have to read a bunch of words with no pictures. So look! Its a Kiwi inside a kiwi! Yay!

Here is roughly how the system works. You take three to four papers (classes). The papers are made up of lectures and tutorials. The lectures are two to three hours long and are once a week. Tutorials are basically extra study sessions you can go to to review the material you learned in the lecture. Here is the thing though. For most of the classes, the lectures and tutorials are not mandatory! Everything including lecture notes and power points is online. So in other words, you don't need to go to class! Weird huh? For example, my housemate Kristian  attended 0 lectures last semester and still passed all of his papers. That is something you could never get away with at Whitworth. You also only get two or three assignments during the semester.  No busy work or reading quizzes for me this semester!

Other than starting classes, this week has been pretty ordinary. On Saturday Emily, my two housemates Nic and Kristian, and Robbie (he's from Coeur d'Alene, YAY IDAHO!) took a day trip to the west coast. We went to Muriwai Beach, which was unlike any beach I'd ever been to because the sand was black! And hot! But it turned into a beautiful and relaxing day filled with sand castles and time spent in the waves.  This picture right here is the view from the top of a cliff on one side of the beach. You can see the gannet colony where there are hundreds of gannets nesting on top of the rocks. There are more pictures on Facebook if you want to see more. I do have to make a confession and say that I did not take these pictures. I regretfully forgot my camera that day, so I must give the credit to Robbie, who took these pictures with his iPhone.          

I have not talked much about our housemates. Here is Unit 14, Millennium Village. The taller one with the rugby ball is Nic and the one on the end is Kristian. (for those of you who don't know, Emily is on the other end) We have a great group. Both boys are very friendly, as are most of the Kiwis I have met here. Interestingly enough they have mainly two hobbies (or addictions you might say). One is going to the gym, which you can probably tell by their figures. The other is playing League of Legends or World of Warcraft, which I can relate to, having a boyfriend back home who plays LOL all the time. I also mean this in the nicest way possible. It's not like that's all they do or anything :)

But it has been great, we have had a lot of laughs in our flat and more is to come. 

I think that is all I have to say at this point. I am going to try and blog once a week. Once I start traveling around, I will probably blog a little more. Until next time!