Underwater Adventures

Good Morning!

I had quite an exciting weekend here in Australia. I took a crash course in scuba diving and got my open water certification in just one weekend! I'll start from the beginning though. . .

Thursday night a friend on my deck (or hall as we say in the States) asked me to go to an Asian restaurant in town with her. She's from China so I was pretty excited to try some Chinese food that somebody from China recommends. So, my friend Lisa (from my deck), her friend Vicky (also from China), and my friend Justin all went to a little Chinese restaurant in Wollongong. We ordered a ton of food and had a really nice time. The food was excellent and they both said it was similar to the food they eat at home. (I would say that the food at Ming Wok was just as good though). The girls were really funny because they told us all about how they LOVE American boys. Apparently they think that American boys (especially ones from Colorado) are a lot more attractive than Australian or Asian boys. Vicky is talking about traveling to the US and I can't help but wonder if it's just to see the boys!

Friday morning Justin and I headed out early (7 am) for Sydney. We arrived at the scuba shop around 9:20, but it didn't open until 10 am so we got ourselves some breakfast and walked around the town. We were in a really little town called Ramsgate and so we made it around the town in about 15 minutes. At 10 am we tried to get in the shop, but the closed sign was still up and the door wouldn't open. We parked ourselves on a bench about thirty feet from the door and decided to give them some time. Periodically we would go back and check the door and each time we weren't able to get in. We finally decided that the shop must not open until 11. We spent some more time on the bench and then we checked the door again at 11, but it still wouldn't open and the closed sign was still up. I figured we better call the shop and ask them what's up. . .they answered right away and said they were open and had just forgotten to turn the sign around! We then realized that we had been pulling the door when we should have been pushing it, so it wasn't locked after all. We both felt pretty silly and couldn't believe that we sat on a bench for an hour waiting for the already open shop to open!

We hid our embarrassment though and the instructor, Jaimie, had us take a little test and review some of the information we had read in our study books. We learned how to calculate the amount of nitrogen in your body so that you know how long you can spend under water and we talked about the various ways to deal with an out-of-air situation. We spent about 2 hours with Jaimie and then we began our trek back to Wollongong.

For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to try to get home a different way than how we got there. . .I think you can guess how this story is going to end up. We needed to catch a bus to a train station and rather than catching one to the train station we had arrived at we decided to catch one to the next city over. We waited a good half an hour for this bus and when we finally got on it, we realized we didn't really know where to get off it. Luckily (or unluckily?) the bus terminated its route not long after we got on and we were forced to get off. We were then stuck in the middle of Hurstville with no idea how to get to the train station. We wondered around for another 30-45 minutes and Justin finally spotted some train tracks. We figured if we followed along the tracks long enough in one direction we would eventually find a train station. Fortunately this logic paid off and we ran into the Hurstville train station not too much later. Once we got to the train station we realized that the bus had dropped us off not too far away. . .we had just walked in a big circle.

We finally got on the train around 2:30 and were able to make it back to I-House around 4:15. So for our two hours of scuba instruction we had spent around 7 hours in transit. We were both exhausted from our very adventurous day and so we both conked out on the train. We met up with our friends when we got back and ate a quick dinner at I-House and then we were off to a local Rugby League game. It was our hometeam (the St. George Illawara Dragons) versus the Panthers. I loved the atmosphere at the stadium. We sat on a grass hill surrounded by young people and families and everyone in between. Everyone was dressed up with their team's paraphanalia and there was a lot of energy coming from the crowd. I was shocked to find out that there were cheerleaders at this game. . .I was under the impression that cheerleaders were only an American phenomenon. I thought the actual game was not as exciting as an AFL game because it basically consisted of 1 guy running with the ball and being tackled by 5 members of the other team while his entire team stood around and watched. Once the guy got tackled the entire process just started again. I will give the guys props for tackling and being tackled without any pads whatsoever though!

The next morning Justin and I had to catch an even earlier train (6:15!) so that we could start our scuba training promptly at 8:15. Luckily we didn't have anymore mishaps traveling to the shop and we arrived right on time. We spent the entire morning in the local pool completely outfitted in all of our scuba gear. We practiced setting up our equipment, breathing through our regulator, taking off and putting on our mask underwater, sharing air (in case someone ever ran out), and other important skills. It was a little scary at first learning to trust the regulator to let you breathe, but after a little while I started to forget that I was even breathing through a regulator. By early afternoon we had both passed all of the skills tests and we headed to the ocean for our first open water dive. We put on all of our gear (wetsuits, air tanks, bouyancy devices, and regulators) on top of a hill and then hiked down to our entrance point. Our dive was about 6 meters deep and we spent about 40 minutes underwater. The visibility wasn't great because there have a been a lot of storms recently, but we still got to see some cool looking fish that lived on the reef. Our first day of scuba diving ended around 4 pm and we both felt like we could go to bed right then, but we had to get to our hostel in Sydney first and make some dinner.
We grilled burgers and made potato wedges for dinner and then relaxed in our hostel for the rest of the night.

Our day started early again on Sunday since we had to get three open water dives in. We drove to "The Monument" which is a diving site right in Botany Bay. We did three half-hour dives (the deepest was 10 meters!) throughout the course of the morning and afternoon and were tested on the skills we learned in the pool. It was a little unnerving practicing the out-of-air situations underwater and I really had to work to keep myself calm. But in the end we passed all of the skills with flying colors and by Sunday afternoon we were both certified scuba divers.

We're hoping to get one or two more dives in before we head up to the Great Barrier Reef to do our big diving trip with Molly and Chris. But right now I am busy writing papers and lab reports because the semester is quickly drawing to a close. This is our last week of class and next week is our study break. Lots of people will be spending the week traveling and some friends and I plan to do a few day trips to areas around Wollongong. Then we have 2 weeks of finals and we're done! It's sad thinking about the end of my adventures in Australia, but I am also excited to see all of you back home!

A Weekend in Sydney

My friend Will and I at the AFL game (he was cheering for the Sydney Swans, hence the red).

My friend Lisa and I at the AFL game (we weren't really cheering for anyone!)

Being silly at the Chinese food court (I was going for a walrus).

Me, Tim, and Yin Wei eating our delicious Chinese food.

Danny and Justin enjoying their food too.

I think I have finally recovered from a very eventful weekend in Sydney. Some friends and I grabbed the train up to Sydney early Saturday afternoon and did a little shopping and a little exploring. I got a new running top for my big race the next day and then we met up with some other friends from Wollongong to get some dinner. We walked around town for quite awhile bickering about where to eat (it's hard to make decisions when you have 10 people delirious with hunger) and we finally stumbled into China Town. We had all been there before but had only been able to find expensive restaurants that were too expensive for cheap college students. But we encountered some dumb luck and decided to check out a little underground food court within China Town. . .Jackpot. It was tiny, but jampacked with about 10 little Chinese restaurants all with huge portion sizes and no meals over around $7. We were all starving and quickly made our choices and devoured our food. The food was excellent which supports my theory that they dumpier a Chinese restaurant looks, the better the food is.

After dinner, about 70 people from I-house were going to the Aussie Rule Football (AFL) game in Sydney. We met them all at the game and watched the Sydney Swans beat the West Coast Eagles in a very exciting game. I sat by my friend Lisa who lives next door to me in I-house. She's from China and is one of the sweetest girls I've ever met. She wasn't a big sports fan though and I was pretty exhausted from a busy week, so we both didn't pay much attention to the game. I was convinced that AFL games only had three periods, so at the end of the 3rd period I got up to start leaving. Everyone gave me really weird looks and finally my friends informed me that AFL games have 4 quarters. Oops.

Once the 4th quarter was finally over we jumped back on the train and everyone headed back to Wollongong. Justin and I, however, headed to our hostel because our race started at 7:30 the next morning. We were pretty wiped out by the time we got to the hostel so we just headed straight to bed. Luckily our hostel was only a minute walk from the starting line, so we rolled out of bed around 6:45, got ready quickly and jogged over to the start. I was feeling a little nervous about the race seeing as I had been sick for the past couple weeks and was still fighting a cold, I was a little sleep deprived from a busy week and I had eaten Chinese food the night before. Definitely not the best way to prepare for a half-marathon, but when I started the race I actually felt quite good. I was running at a pretty good pace and was enjoying the route through Sydney. There were about 10,000 people in the race, so it was busy but not too crowded.

Around the half-way mark I started to get a little tired and I knew the rest of the race was going to be a struggle mentally. But I decided to push on because I really wanted to finish under 2 hours. It was difficult to figure out my exact pacing because they marked the entire course in kilometers and my math skills aren't 100% when I have already run 7 miles. Anyway, the last 3rd of the race I felt pretty terrible, but I started to get stubborn and refused to stop. . .also not a good choice. For those of you who know my running history, I returned to my old ways and collapse 100 meters before the finish. (DISCLAIMER: I AM COMPLETELY FINE SO NOBODY SHOULD WORRY!!!) I just got a little dehydrated and I think the combination of everything else led to my body just giving up. They gave me an inhaler and a bag in which I threw up my breakfast and then they carted me over to the medical tent. My friend Justin said that I was pretty lucky because I actually got my money's worth from the race. . .since the entrance fee includes the medical assistance, but most people don't get to use it.

Once I got over to the tent, they took my temperature and found that I was overheating a little bit. They covered me in ice packs and gave me a saline drip to try and rehydrate me. After a couple of hours recovering in the tent, my friend Justin finally found me. . .which was perfect timing because I was finally well enough to head home. We walked (very slowly) back to the hostel and I took a very refreshing shower. We had planned to spend the rest of the day walking around the town, but we both decided that probably wasn't the best idea.

Instead, we found one of the lovely parks in downtown Sydney and just rested in the sun for most of the afternoon. Around 3:30 we finally felt well enough to walk all the way to the train station to head home. We made it back to Wollongong around 6:30, just in time for dinner. I loaded my plate full because it was my first real meal all day. I felt so much better after a little food. The rest of the night was spent recovering from my exciting day.

Monday I had to head to the doctor to get a physical for scuba diving. Justin and I both needed to get one, so we went to the Medical Center in town and waited for a doctor for almost an hour. We finally were able to meet with one and he just checked our blood pressure, gave us a breathing test, and did a few other vital tests. Apparently I'm healthy enough to scuba dive, so this weekend I'm getting certified!

I headed back to Sydney at around 3:30 on Monday with some girls from my study abroad program because our program was taking us to the Opera House to see When the Rain Stops Falling, an Australian play. We got to Sydney early so we could find a restaurant called Pancakes on the Rocks. It's a restaurant that has every type of pancake you could possibly imagine and it's located in a part of Sydney called the Rocks. We were all hungry (this seems to be a common theme in all of my stories), but our map was not very detailed and it led us on a wild goose chase around the city (this also seems to be a common theme). Finally after asking two different people for directions, we found the restaurant. The other girls got various types of pancakes (apple, strawberry, banana), but I opted for a Caesar Salad (I think I'll have to go back, so I can get the real pancake experience). The salad, however, was excellent and definitely hit the spot.

The play was very well done and was actually quite good, but it was probably the most depressing thing I have ever watched. It was a story about two different families and how their stories intertwine. There was murder, tragic deaths, lost love, rape, and divorces. Not the happiest of stories, but it at least ended with a little bit of hope.

Finals are approaching quickly and I am trying to get on top of my work, but I'm not doing quite as good of a job as I would like. It's amazing how fast my time has flown by here; in less than 2 months I'll be back in Minnesota!

James Bond and Captain Kirk

Some of the girls before the ball (L-R: me, Laine, Stef, Katie, Cassie).

My friend Beth and me with all of our winnings from the Black Jack table.

Hello Friends,

Today marks the end of a very relaxing, yet fun, weekend in Wollongong. On Friday we had the Casino Royale Ball on campus. It was dinner, dancing, and fake gambling for students who live in on campus accommodations. It was my first opportunity to really get dressed up here, so I wore the only nice dress I brought along (just a simple black dress) and I straightened my hair for the 3rd time since I've been here. A bus picked us up from International House and brought us all to Uni where the ball was held. . .the bus seemed a little out of place (I don't think Cinderella's fairy godmother would have approved).

We had assigned seating for dinner, but luckily I ended up at a table where I knew most of the people. They did some James Bond trivia during dinner (which I was awful at) and gave away prizes for best dressed. After dinner we were given fake gambling money and I went straight to the tables. I think I ended up playing Black Jack for 2 or 3 hours and I am convinced that it is my new calling in life. . .but only if I can always use fake money.

Saturday morning I decided I was finally fed up with the cold that I have been fighting off for the past 2 1/2 weeks, so I went to a clinic in town and got myself some antibiotics. I'm already feeling better and I'm hoping I will be 100% by the time I run my half-marathon next Sunday. I also got to spend a little time at the beach on Saturday and then some friends and I rented some movies from our favorite little video rental store (2 movies for only $6!) and relaxed for most of the evening.

Sunday I tried to put in a few hours of studying, but I got bored quickly. Luckily a group of I-house residents play soccer every Sunday and I decided to take a little break and join them. I was immediately reminded that I have not really played soccer in about 5 years by my lack of coordination on the field. I spent most of the game passing the ball to the other team and missing passes to me, but it was still a lot of fun. We got rained on half-way through the game which led to a lot of slipping and sliding and a few minor injuries (but everyone was just fine). I am feeling a little sore today though. . .

I must admit that I have achieved a new level of geekiness here in Australia. Some of my friends wanted to go see the new Star Trek movie (it premiered in Australia this weekend, but it has probably been out for awhile in the States) and I agreed to go with them on Sunday night. Here's the really geeky part. . .I actually enjoyed it! In fact, it was a really good movie and one of the better movies I've seen in awhile. I highly recommend it to everyone. . .even if you're not normally a sci-fi fan.

This was one of my last "normal" weekends in Wollongong, so it was nice to just relax and hang out with friends. I'll let you guys know if I have any more adventures in the near future and I would love to hear about what is happening in your lives as well so shoot me an email!

Mel-bin

Laine, Danny and I acting out London Bridge is falling down.

One of the very pretty sites we saw along the Great Ocean Road.

One of the big trees we saw while hiking through the rainforest.

Acting silly in the padded room inside the Gaol jailhouse.
(L to R: me, Danny, Justin, Christy)

Laine, Christy and I decked out in our AFL gear before the game.

Some friends and I took a holiday this past weekend to Melbourne (pronounced Mel-bin). It is about a 1 1/2 hour flight south from Sydney and is part of the region affected by the forest fires this past February. We flew out Thursday night at 5:10 pm and finally arrived at our hostel in Melbourne around 9 pm. Our train ride to the airport was a little stressful because a few of the boys were adamant about not leaving too early for the airport. So we ended up taking a train that was scheduled to get us to the airport only a half hour before our flight. One of our trains got delayed and we got a little stressed about missing our flight, but luckily we made it to the airport with exactly the right amount of time to stop at McDonald's and then hop on our flight!

We landed at an airport about 40 minutes outside of Melbourne because the tickets were cheaper, but when we got there we found out we had to pay $20 to catch the bus into the city. . .so I think we ended up paying the same amount (which goes to show that good deals aren't always what they see). We found our hostel pretty easily and decided to go grab a bite of eat because we were all pretty hungry. Our hostel was located right on the edge of China Town so it was only fitting for us to eat some sort of Asian food. It took us awhile to finally choose one because there were SO many options and they were all SO similar. We finally settled on one and I got myself Beef and Sa Dae (not as good as Ming Wok, but still quite delicious. . .). After dinner we spent a little time walking around the town and found that it is covered in modern art sculptures. We saw an iron cast of a little dog-warthog thing and as my friend Tim was examining it, I thought it would be funny to scare him a little bit. I shouted "Aah" in his face and kind of jumped at him and he completely freaked out. He screamed/yelled and then punched me in the nose out of reflex. I guess his defense mechanism when he gets scared is to punch. . .luckily he stopped himself before he followed through and really punched me. Tim's a big guy though who doesn't scare easily so I was pretty proud of myself.

Friday morning I got up early and went for a run around the town. I found the Yarra river which runs through Melbourne and ran along it for awhile. They call Melbourne the sport capital of Australia and that definitely seemed to be true as I was running. I saw tons of runners and bikers, along with a fair amount of rowing teams out on the river practicing. After my run, I started the unpleasant task of waking up my friends for the day. . .actually, they were all pretty civil and I didn't get any pillows thrown at me (quite a different experience from waking up Whitney. . .). Once everyone was up we walked a few blocks to the Queen Victoria market which is a very famous outdoor market with lots of knicky-knack items and heaps of fresh produce. We shopped for most of the morning and I found myself a little Australian flag and some apples and carrots. Being the cheap college students that we are, we all just bought an assortment of fruits and veggies for lunch and went back to our hostel to eat them.

After lunch we went to the Gaol Jailhouse which is Victoria's oldest prison and closed in 1924. It was the sight of the infamous bushranger Ned Kelly's hanging. Apparently during the 19th and 20th century there was a field of medicine called phrenology which was the study of the shape of people's heads. It was believed that you could learn about someone's personality by studying the different contours of their head. Therefore, after the execution of every convict at the jailhouse, they took a mold of their face to be studied. We were able to see the mold of Ned Kelly's head, along with a lot of other notorious convicts. As part of our visit, we got to participate in a mock arrest where we were criminals being taken into the jailhouse. I was being arrested for "violent and threatening behavior". We were searched and then thrown into jail cells. We even got to take mug pictures!

That night out hostel had a free BBQ, so we ate the usual sausage on a piece of bread for dinner. The International Comedy Festival in Melbourne had just ended (Melbourne is also the comedy capital of Australia) and so we wanted to check out a comedy club. We found a pretty reasonably priced club in North Melbourne and headed over for the 8:30 show. The main performer was actually from the comedy festival and was just staying a few extra weeks in the city. The comedians were absolutely hilarious and we all had a wonderful time.

The next morning Laine, Danny and I woke up super early to go on a tour of the Great Ocean Road. This is a road that goes between Adelaide and Melbourne and is a popular tourist destination. It includes some of the most beautiful beaches and rock formations I've ever seen. Our bus picked us up at 7:15 am and we didn't get back to our hostel until around 9 pm. We stopped at the Surfing Capital of the world (Torquey) which is home to one of the biggest surf competitions in the world. The main surfing beach is Bell's beach and we stopped to take some pictures there. The beach was completely covered in surfers. . .and I would say pretty much all of them were 100 times better than me!

After stopping in Torquey we made a few quick stops at some nice ocean views and finally stopped around noon for lunch. We had a picnic at a little park on the side of the road which was just a few hundred meters from forest that was absolutely filled with koala bears. We were able to take tons of pictures of the cute little guys and we even saw one or two that were awake and moving (which is quite exciting seeing as they sleep about 20 hours/day).

After lunch we did a really nice rainforest hike and then stopped at some of the major tourist sites. We checked out the 12 apostles which is a famous rock formation in the ocean. . .I think there used to be 12 rocks, but some of them have fallen down due to erosion. We also walked around the site of a famous ship wreck in which only 2 young people survived. Our last stop was the London Bridge. This was a rock formation that used to be connected to the land by a little bridge. . .but a few years ago the bridge collapsed (London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down) and the story of its collapse is pretty interesting. I guess a couple was taking a nice romantic stroll along the bridge when it fell down, luckily they had made it to the other side before it actually collapsed so they weren't hurt. It took a long time for rescue crews to get out there because they needed to be helicoptered back to land, so there was a media frenzy there by the time rescue crews arrived. It turned out that the guy who needed to be rescued was actually married to two women and needless to say the other one found out because their rescue was broadcasted globally! Kind of unlucky. . .but he probably deserved it.

We were pretty pooped by the time we got back to our hostel and the rest of our group was nowhere to be found. We hung out at our hostel's pub for a little while, but then we all crashed and went straight to bed.

Sunday morning my friend Justin and I got up and did another run around town. We made it back, had some breakfast and then woke up the rest of the group. Our big plan for the day was to go to the Aussie Rule Football (AFL) game in town. Melbourne is really into sports (as I said before) and their favorite sport is AFL. We headed to the Cricket grounds (where AFL is played) around noon after we had stocked up on cheap AFL apparel and gotten lunch at a meat pie shop inside the train station. The Melbourne Demons (ranked last in the league) were playing the Geelong Cats (ranked first in the league) and most of us decided to cheer on the underdog. The stadium was absolutely HUGE. . .we think it probably held around 100,0oo people. It didn't fill all the way up, but there were at least 30-40,000 people there. The Demons were absolutely crushed by the cats, but it was still a fun game. The rules in AFL are really bizarre, but I still think it might actually be easier to follow than American football.

For dinner we went to a little Mexican restaurant called Taco Bill's (the boys were all going through Taco Bell withdrawal). We got some delicious margarita's and I ordered a big plate of nachos. We were all intent on checking out the town that night because we had been so sleepy the other nights and it was our last night in Melbourne. We spent a good share of the night wondering around a little lost, but eventually we found our way and had a very nice evening.

The next morning included a run and then a little shopping around town. We visited the skydeck of the Eureka tower which is the tallest residential building and the highest viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere. It was fun looking at the city from an aerial perspective. . .but we all agreed that the tower wasn't all it was cracked up to be. . .just one big marketing ploy.

We just walked around the town for the rest of the day visiting a war memorial and the botanic gardens. We got lunch at our favorite little meat pie shop in the train station and then headed to the bus stop to catch our ride to the airport. Our flight was supposed to leave at 7:15, but it got delayed about an hour. This put us back in sydney around 9:30 or 10. Unfortunately the delay made us miss the earlier train home and we were forced to take the 11:30 pm train back to Wollongong. So we went to a grocery store inside of the train station, stocked up on snacks and then hung out on the platform for what seemed like forever.

We finally made it back to I-house around 12:30 or 1 and unfortunately I still had homework to do. I had worked really hard the week before we left, but I wasn't able to finish all of my assignments. So, my friend Justin (who also had a lot of homework) and I got ourselves some caffeinated drinks and stayed up most of the night finishing our assignments. I got everything finished. . .but found out that the assignment I had spent the most time on wasn't due until Friday! Oh well, it was my first true all-nighter in college and hopefully my last!

Birthday Week

Due to an exciting week in New Zealand, I accomplished absolutely no homework over Easter break and was therefore I forced to study on my birthday. On Tuesday I had a lab report due and a midterm quiz in Chemistry and consequentially my 21st birthday resembled my long days of studying back at Gustavus. But before you start to feel bad for me, I should tell you that I did get to celebrate my birthday.

I handed in my lab report on Tuesday and took my (kind of difficult) quiz. Some friends and I decided to go to the only Mexican restaurant in Wollongong, Amigo's, because they have cheap tacos and tequila shots on Tuesdays. Unfortunately, as soon as we left International House it started down pouring. We tried to wait it out, but it didn't look like there was an end in sight. I was the only one who was well-prepared and had thought to bring an umbrella, so I tried to share it. But anyone who has ever tried to share an umbrella knows that both people get just as wet, or maybe wetter, as they would if they didn't use an umbrella. By the time we had completed our 15 minute walk to Amigo's, we were all soaking wet. My hair was a disaster and I had foolishly gone out without a hair-tie so I made a beeline for the bathroom and actually tried to blow dry it a little bit with one of those hand dryers. I don't think it worked very well, but it made me feel a little better.

Anyway, we enjoyed some tacos and tequila shots and then wondered back to International House and relaxed a little bit.

Wednesday night was my real make-up birthday celebration. One of the things that shocked me when I got to Wollongong, was that they have a UniBar on campus. I have never seen a bar on any US campus, but here in Australia students love to have a beer or two between class. I decided that since it was my fake birthday, I would indulge in this Aussie practice and have a beer before class. I had one 4:30 lecture on Wednesday, so two friends and I headed to the UniBar before that and then headed to class. I feel like I have now had the complete Australian experience. . .just kidding.

After class and dinner, we went to a very classy-looking bar called Hotel Illawara where they have Wednesday night Happy Hour for students. The real reason to go there though is that they give you free potato wedges and nachos. . .delicious. Afterwards, we went to the dance club where all Uni students go on Wednesday nights, Glasshouse. We spent some time dancing there and then made our way home in the rain again. It was a very fun night and it's weird to think that I am 21 now! Thanks for all the birthday wishes from back home!

I think that all of my fun in New Zealand and my birthday week have taken a toll on my health though. I am feeling sick for the second time this month. . .but I plan on laying low this week and recovering so that I am healthy for my trip to Melbourne next weekend. Enjoy the incredibly warm weather back home. . .I hear it was 85 yesterday!

New Zealand: The End of the Trilogy

One of the rivers we checked out as we left Milford Sound. . .it had a sign that said "Maximum Weight = 5 people". . .eek!

A waterfall we found after a 10 minute hike.


Being silly/bored in the van. . .sorry it's upside down!

A rainbow appeared as we were kayaking once the rain stopped.

A view of the sound from my kayak.

After the bungy jump we were all on an adrenaline high, but we figured it was best to get on the road asap. The boys, of course, had to make one last stop at Fergburger and then we got on our way. Our drive to Milford Sound was going to be long. . .but I managed to convince the boys to let me drive. So for the first 2 hours of the trip I was in control of our Vanette. The boys all claim that I was absolutely terrible and was practically off the road most of the time. I still firmly believe that they are lying to me and that I actually was a very good driver (I let you decide who you think is telling the truth).

We were told that the last two hours of the drive would be pretty slow and difficult, so I opted for a passenger seat and let Nick take over the wheel. It started to get dark out and it was raining as we drove (we were in a rainforest) but we finally made it to our hostel around 8 pm. The hostel was pretty creepy because it was surrounded by woods, it was raining and storming outside, and it was separated from all other civilization. Even the boys admitted to being a little creeped out. It actually turned out to be a pretty descent hostel with nice rooms and toilets, but it also felt eerily like the setting of a horror movie.

We cooked ourselves dinner again. . .this time we made tacos and then we had a pretty quiet night. I had been trying to convince the guys to play Farkel (a dice game) with me for the entire trip. They finally caved (probably because of the lack of things to do in Milford: population 100) and we played one game. None of them would admit that they actually enjoyed it though and one or two of them insisted it was the worst game they'd ever played. . .typical boys.

The next morning we were up early again in order to make it to our kayak tour. It was pouring rain outside and so we all prepared for another wet day. Our tour guide informed us that rainy days are the best days to be out on the Sound. Once we got out on the water we found out he was absolutely right. We were in a group of 10 people and we all were placed in 2 person kayaks. Justin and I were paired up and I took the front and left him in charge of steering in the back. When we got out on the Sound we were surrounded by huge mountains jutting directly out of the ocean with absolutely no beach. There were tons and tons of waterfalls streaming down the sides of the mountains. We saw one waterfall which our guide told us was 3 times taller than Niagra Falls! We kayaked around for about 4 hours and during the trip we came across a lot of seals relaxing on the rocks. Our guide informed us that these were the young bachelors who weren't old enough to go out fishing yet. He also told us that the last scene of the LOTR was actually taped where we had been kayaking. . .so if you're wondering what it looked like, check out the movie!

The kayaking was amazing, but Justin and I were constantly behind the rest of the group. For some reason we ended up being the slowest kayak, but we got over that quickly and just enjoyed ourselves. The rain stopped early into the trip which made everything much more pleasant. Our guide said we were very lucky because most of the waterfalls stop after just one hour with no rain. It worked out perfectly for us because it rained enough for the waterfalls to be plentiful, but then it stopped so we could just enjoy the ride.

After kayaking we were once again sopping wet and we headed straight for the showers. We got in the car and decided that we wanted to head back to Queenstown again. There is a two-hour stretch of highway between Milford Sound and a slightly larger town called Te Anau which is absolutely beautiful. We stopped every 20 minutes or so to do short little hikes and take pictures of glaciers and water falls and rivers.

Eventually we made it back to Queenstown, found a hostel and cooked ourselves a delicious meal of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. We checked out the town for the rest of the night. We tried our hands at gambling and Nick actually ended up winning $50 on blackjack. I just stuck to the slots and lost a whole $4 before I decided that I'm just not lucky enough to gamble.

The next morning, after breakfast and a walk around town, we got in the car and headed toward Dunedin, a town on the east coast of NZ. It was a long drive, but we wanted to get there in time to do a penguin tour. Dunedin is well-known for it's exotic wildlife with yellow-eyed penguins, blud penguins, seals, and a lot of birds. We arrived in Dunedin at 4:45, just in time to take the last yellow-eyed penguin tour. They drove us out to a beach where a colony of around 60 penguins live. We were informed that these penguins are endangered and that we had to walk through a series of tunnels and hide-aways in order to stay hidden. We were able to see a few penguins walking up the beach returning from a day of fishing and we saw a few others just hanging out around the beach. It was fun to see penguins in their actual habitat as opposed to just at a zoo.

We had trouble finding a hostel again that night (you'd think we would have learned by now that we should book early) and were forced to put three of us in one room and two in another. Tim, Justin and I were in a four-person room with a guy named James. He was a thirty-five year old New Zealander who was perfectly nice, but a little. . .um. . .interesting. He told us almost immediately that he was trying to get on the NZ version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? He therefore quizzed us all about where we were from in the US, the capitals of our states, and any other interesting facts that could be used as a question on the show. He chatted to us for quite awhile before we were finally able to sneak away.

We were all starving, so we began searching frantically for a restaurant. We ended up finding a little hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant and had some delicious food. We were all so exhausted from our busy week that we just went straight to bed. The next morning we got up and ate breakfast at a little cafe called. . .drum roll please. . .the Excelsior Cafe! It reminded me of home and made me smile. We then drove our Vanette to the steepest street in the world (Baldwin Street) and Ben insisted that we try to drive up it. I was a little skeptical about Vanna White's ability to make it up the street (it was really, really steep), but he was sure that she would make it. Much to my surprise she made it up just fine and we survived the drive back down it also.

It was then time to hit the road and get back to Christchurch. We had to return Vanna White by 5 pm that day, so we got back to the city, returned the van and then found ourselves some dinner. We went to a Texas-inspired restaurant with huge servings of ribs and burgers and fries. The food was wonderful (but then again anything tastes wonderful when you have been living off of pb & j for a week) and we were all pretty content after our meal.

Justin and I were flying out at 6:30 am on Sunday and decided that it would be easiest to just stay up the whole night rather than sleeping for just a few hours. So, the five of us stayed out quite late, but the other three guys decided to go to bed because they had later flights. Justin and I just hung out in the lounge of the hostel watching movies and drinking coffee. By the time we got to the airport we were both pretty tired, but we had to wait to get through customs and security before we could sleep. We were also informed that you have to pay $25 to leave the country. We were a little outraged, but didn't have much of a choice.

We finally got on the plane around 6:20 and promptly fell asleep (neither of us actually remember taking off) and slept for a good two hours. We arrived in Sydney at 8 am (there's a time difference) and we quickly collected our baggage and jumped on the bus to take us back to Wollongong. We made it home around 10:30 and promptly went to the dining hall to get some breakfast. I had every intention of staying awake for most of the afternoon to do some much overdue homework, but after about 10 minutes of studying I fell asleep and didn't wake up for about 3 hours.

All in all it was an absolutely amazing trip and I am seriously considering living in New Zealand for half a year after I graduate. But we'll have to see what happens. . .

New Zealand: Part II

The suspended room we jumped from!


Ben, me and Tim on our way out to the bungy jump.


Tim and Justin eating Fergburgers (they're huge, aren't they?)


Justin and I posing by a Kiwi after our long bike ride.


A nice view after we rode up a particularly large hill.


Alright, I left off yesterday by telling you that we drove to Queenstown on Monday afternoon. The drive was quite long (about 4 hours of driving) and I learned on the drive that Justin and Tim were playing the "let's see how much we can annoy Hayley in New Zealand" game. So it was definitely a long drive. . .

We arrived in Queenstown kind of late (around 7) and had a little trouble finding a hostel because apparently Easter Monday is a national holiday in NZ. We finally tracked one down and we bought some groceries at a local supermarket. Luckily, Tim is a restaurant cook back at home, so he made us some delicious pasta and pizza. We checked out Queenstown for awhile after dinner and found that it was a very nice city. It was pretty small (only about 10,000 people) and the main source of income is tourism. Here's how my guidebook describes it: "[It's] surrounded by the soaring indigo heights of the Remarkables, crowned by Coronet Peak, and framed by the meandering coves of Lake Wakatipu". . . it really was quite stunning.

We woke up the next morning and quickly found a hostel for the next night so we wouldn't be in the same pickle. We feasted on peanut butter and jelly for lunch and dinner. . .which was our staple meal for most of the trip (I don't know if I'll be able to look at peanut butter again for at least a month). Nick and Ben decided to do a river rafting adventure trip and Tim wanted to just wander around the town for the day. Justin and I decided to rent some mountain bikes and check out some of the sights. We picked up our bikes around noonand started off on a pretty intense trail that had us on and off our bikes frequently because we either couldn't make it up a hill or we were too afraid to go down a hill. Justin ended up falling off his bike twice! But don't worry. . .we were wearing helmets. After that adventurous trail we decided to take a more scenic bike ride around Lake Wakatipu. We ended up biking for about 3.5 hours and were pretty bushed by the end of it.

We went to a really famous burger place for dinner- Fergburger. It's so popular that at pretty much any time during the day you will see a line all the way out the door. The burgers were absolutely massive and we all struggled to finish them. The boys thought they were absolutely amazing (I think some of them ate Fergburgers at least twice more while we were there). I didn't think they lived up to the hype though. . .so I opted for Subway the next time they all went to Fergburger.

We had a pretty relaxed night because we wanted to be well-rested for our bungy jump trip the next day. As we were planning our trip to NZ, I initially refused to bungy jump, but at some point during the planning the boys convinced me to do the third largest bungy jump in the world with them. . .I don't know what I was thinking. We caught a bus to the bungy jump site at 10:30 am on Wednesday morning and I was absolutely petrified. We had to take a cable car across a river to this little room that was suspended above the river by cables. The bungy jump was 134 meters and we were told that we would free-fall for 8 seconds!

Tim was the first in our group to jump and when he jumped I think I screamed louder than he did. All of the other boys went and I ended up being the last one to go. Tim, Nick, and Ben were sent back to land because only a few people can be in the suspended room at a time. I was so terrified as I approached the jumping-off point and I almost didn't do it. . .but Justin and the nice women who hooked me up convinced me. I don't know what made me do it, but I finally jumped and it was the craziest feeling in the world! I just fell. . .for a long time. When I finally stopped falling I was so relieved that all I could think was: "get me back on solid ground". As we took the cable car back to land, I couldn't stop shaking. I'm really glad I faced my fear and did it, but I don't think I will be doing it again anytime soon. I am going to post the video of the jump on facebook. . .so you can check it out if you'd like.

After bungy jumping we packed up our things and began driving to Milford Sound. I'll tell you about my adventures there at a later date!