I Fixed the Pictures in the Last Post, and Now I'm in Dunedin!

I made it to Dunedin! 

Last week I was in a little town called Lincoln outside of Christchurch with a friend I met at orientation, Melissa. We went on a tramping trip in Arthur's Pass National Park, which turned out to be much harder than we anticipated. It was a 2 day trip and the first day we hiked for about 8 hours. We made it to the top of Goat Pass and there were some beautiful views. Other than that, the trail followed a river bed pretty much the entire way, so we had to do some boulder hopping, which is really hard with a pack on. And to top it off I didn't have good shoes. But we trekked on. It rained that night and didn't let up all of the second day, so we had to hike about 5 hours in the cold and rain. This was kind of miserable, but we made it. We were going to stay in a tent that night, but all of our stuff was wet so we just decided to give in and stay at the only motel in Arthur's Pass Village. The owner was really nice (I think he felt sorry for us because we were so wet and cold) and gave us 2 rooms for $150. The next day it ended up being a little nicer so we hiked to some waterfalls, and then went back to Christchurch. I spent the next 2 days there just hanging out.

On Sunday I flew to Dunedin from Christchurch. I got here at night and none of my roommates were here so I just unpacked and hung out in the flat by myself. My flatmate Katie came in later. She's Canadian and seems really nice. Since we got here about the same time we've been doing a lot of school errands and stuff together. Scotty, our "kiwi host" got here around midnight that night and he seems really cool too. He is from Dunedin and has a car so he is an invaluable resource. Our flat is one of nine in a complex with a courtyard in the middle. All the flats are the university flats and everyone here seems pretty awesome. I met a lot of people last night, mostly Americans and Canadians, but I think they'll be fun people to live around. People like to hang out in the courtyard here and lots of people from other flats come by too so I think I'll be pretty busy. 

Overall Dunedin seems like a great city. I haven't seen that much so far, but there are cool old Scottish buildings and stuff. There's also Cadbury World and the steepest street in the world that I need to check out. I'll take some pictures soon and post them for you. If you want to see all my pictures from here on out, you can go to this website: picasaweb.google.com/svclark6. I'll update that as much as I can. 

I have a couple free days, then we have course approval on Friday where I'll sign up for all my classes. After that, it's the infamous "O Week" where everyone gets ridiculously drunk here (especially the freshmen). It should be fun, since I've never had anything like that before. When I see more of the city, I'll let you know about that. Hopefully I'll get to go up to Mt. Cargill sometime soon so I can get a view of the whole city. Today is a really nice day, so I'm going to the beach! Catch ya later!

I Heart NZ

Wow, writing this post has been the most frustrating thing ever. I almost just gave it up. But I am so dedicated to telling you guys about my life that I'm giving it another shot.

So on Wednesday, I hiked to the top of Mt. Eden with some people. It is the highest point above Auckland and a volcanic crater. I even got to go inside the crater which was pretty cool. We could see the whole city from up there and a bunch of other volcanoes. Apparently Auckland is comprised of 48 volcanoes and is still an active field. Wonder when the next one will blow.

This is the crater with a view of the city.

Thursday was the first day of orientation. We had a couple sessions about stuff like the outdoors and Kiwi language and we had some free time in the afternoon so we went to the beach. The water here is really beautiful and warm. I even went in! Of course, I got sunburned, even though I put on sunscreen. It's going to take a lot to get used to the sun here. At least I can get tan!


Takapuna Beach.

Yesterday was Waitangi day, a celebration of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. We went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum and saw a ton of cool stuff. The picture below is of a Maori court. All the carving inside is original. I can't believe that they can carve such intricate designs. I'm thinking maybe I should take a Maori wood carving class now. After looking around the museum a bit, we got to see a Maori concert. It was really awesome. I love the Haka (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-lrE2JcO44) and the Poi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hu2g5h0hNM). Go to those links if you want to see what I'm talking about. Maori culture is really amazing.


So today was our big island trip for orientation. We went to Tiritiri Matangi island out off the coast of Auckland. It is an open preserve that they have been completely reforesting since the 1970s. Now it has all native species there, with no outside influence. They even made people clean off their shoes before going on the island. It was so green there and the water was so turquoise, I never wanted to leave. We got to go on a guided hike through the bush, which was awesome because I never would have noticed as much without the guide there. There are also native birds there, and there's one called the Takahe that is so rare there are only 220 left in the wild still. They are flightless and only live in the Fjordland and on some remote islands like this one. There was one named Greg that tried to steal everyone's lunches.


How beautiful is this place?


A Takahe in the wild (not Greg).

Everything has been amazing so far, I've just been going nonstop since I've been here. Auckland is definitely a cool city, but I'm excited to get down to the South Island too. I know I'm going to be here for at least 10 months, but already I'm worried I won't even be able to see everything (or want to leave for that matter).

I might not be able to write again for a while, since I'll be busy, but this is my schedule for the next week: tomorrow is the last day of orientation, we're going to have a nice dinner across the harbor; then on Monday I'm flying to Christchurch (I think it's the biggest city on the South Island) and going tramping (backpacking) with two other girls around the area for four days. We're going to be doing a track that sounds really beautiful, going by bays and beaches and stuff. Then finally on the 15th I'm flying down to Dunedin and that's where I'll be living for the rest of the year. So I'll update you on that when I get there, don't miss me too much!

Finally Here

I am finally in New Zealand! I feel like I've traveled in time (actually, I guess I have) since I skipped Monday altogether. I've also been awake for like 18 hours, and what sleep i DID get on the plane was not real sleep. But I'm not tired. 

So I'm in Auckland right now, staying at the University of Auckland in the dorms. I'm with some other girls from UC schools in this old house that they converted to dorms. It's pretty cool and the girls are all really nice. We walked around the city a bit today, it's really clean and pretty here. It's kind of like a greener, warmer San Francisco. Tomorrow there's nothing planned for orientation, so the girls and I are going on a hike to Mt. Eden, this cool crater overlooking the city. There also might be some rock climbing there, so it sounds really fun. Orientation starts on Thursday, and then we'll be really busy all day. We're doing things like going to the museum, taking a ferry ride to an island, etc. It sounds way more fun than i thought. 

All in all, I'm really really looking forward to everything I'm doing. I can't believe I'm here!!!