last days in aotearoa

The evening after my geology of nz final, I was lucky enough to be a part of an alumni host dinner. I had signed up for this dinner the first day I arrived at uni as I thought it would be a unique opportunity to get to know a kiwi family without having to do a homestay. I am so glad I filled out that paperwork because every little detail from the conversation topics to the meal itself was perfect. With the delicious white wine we had pumpkin soup, freshly baked bread, fish over orzo, salad, and pavlova. The friendly couple was so nice and it turns out that I only live about 5 blocks away from them on the north shore! That dinner really put me in a good mood for the week to come.

During my last week or so in New Zealand I did quite a bit of exploring the city since I was finally finished or almost finished with my ridiculous finals schedule. On Thursday, Jill, a friend of hers and I head to Piha, a west coast beach only an hour outside of the city. After a delicious brunch at a local cafe we headed for the surf beach. Since it was fairly cold and windy outside we concluded today was a day to get away and surfing just didn’t make it onto the to-do list. The beach was gorgeous, despite the fact it was unlike any other beach I had seen in New Zealand thus far. A true west coast black sanded beach it was just surrounded by beautiful scenery.

A few days ago after a day of souvenir shopping, I went to the Auckland museum. It even had a house in it that replicated the scenario if a volcano were to erupt in Auckland’s harbor. Needless to say the “earthquakes” involved still made me feel uneasy, a feeling I do not enjoy. After coming back home I finally got some kiwi style pizza, none of this pizza hut or dominoes nonsense, I got Hell’s pizza and it was quite delicious; I can’t believe I hadn’t tried it until my last week here!

Then yesterday I climbed Mt. Eden, another extinct volcano in the Auckland Volcanic Field. There is a giant crater at the top that is now covered in grass that is pretty neat to see, and with the workout to get up the volcano came extraordinary views of the city on a beautiful sunny day. Sunny days are rare in the winter here (even though it is only between 55-60 degrees during the day) so I was much appreciative not to get rained on for once. Also on my walk down I finally saw the New Zealand symbol in real life, the silver fern. On one side of the fern it is green but on the back it is silver, its pretty sick as.

Finally, I am talking about what I did today. As my last full day in New Zealand :( I decided to walk out to Takapuna beach one last time. It still boggles my mind that I lived only a 30 minute walk from a beautiful beach. Anyways the weather like usual was sunny then rainy then sunny, you get the picture. Now usually indecisive weather annoys me because I have to take on and off my rain coat, but today it resulted in many many rainbows. I even saw a double rainbow. It was such a cool send-off!

Now I guess that I have finished with my blogging about New Zealand so I should probably get to packing. But first I want to say that this semester has been one of the most enjoyable times in my life. From the kiwis I met, the friends I made, the places I traveled to, the food I tasted, and the memories I made, my time spend abroad has been a blast and I would not trade anything for it in the world. Despite the earthquake interrupting my semester I still cherish every minute I spent in New Zealand. E noho rā Aotearoa, I know that I’ll be back.

road tripping northland

So right now its my last night in new zealand, many friends already have left to go do more traveling or have left to go back home so instead of packing up my room, I am updating my blog like any good procrastinator would. Between my kapa haka and marine science finals I had quite a few days of break, too much to study the whole time, so me and two friends decided to explore the northland region of New Zealand, road trip style.

We rented the ‘el cheapo’ hatchback and took off to the only parts of Aotearoa north of Auckland. The open road just like in the South Island is so beautiful and vibrant. After driving for a while we stopped at the Whangarei waterfall. Known as the Paris Hilton of New Zealand waterfalls because it isn’t that impressive but it is photographed a lot. Compared to the small waterfalls I’ve seen so far in New Zealand I actually found this one quite impressive, but it is not Niagara Falls either. We got to the Paihia or the Bay of Islands quite late so we made a quick dinner at the hostel and went to bed early.

Day 2 was the day we did most of our activities, since most of the exciting stuff to do was quite far north. En route we stopped at Kauri Kingdom, a store that basically only sells items made of refurbished from swamp kauri wood. They had everything from furniture to little kiwi birds to a giant swirling staircase (that wasn’t for sale). Everything there had quite a high price tag attached to it, but it was like strolling through a gallery. After grabbing a quick lunch there we were off for an adventure. It began with a photo shoot near Cape Reinga like any study abroad students stuck in a small car would do. Then we finally arrived at the furthest north you can go in New Zealand. Complete with a lighthouse and pole with distances to places around the globe, this place was absolutely magical. According to Maori tradition it is a place where spirits of the dead travel on their journey to the afterlife. Like I have said before, the pictures do not nearly capture the beauty of this place. Next we headed down-coast to sand dune. Random, right? As a geologist the whole prevailing wing thing with the combination of it being near the continental shelf it made sense, but I am used to desert sand dunes, so I found it quite bizarre. Anyways after climbing up a near-vertical dune for what seemed to be forever I was exhausted so I took a little nap. Last major stop for the day was 90 mile beach. Making up a long stretch of the top part of New Zealand, this place is actually misnamed and is only 55 miles. We heard that at low tide you can actually drive on the beach, but we didn’t want our tiny car to sink so we initially just went to walk on this incredibly flat beach… but then we saw an suv coming our way driving on the beach, they gave us the ok to drive on it since the sand was really hard at the moment. So we took our rental for a little ride on the sand.

the kauri staircase

sheep are not a rare sight in new zealand

the views at cape reinga

having fun with perspective

see those dots on the dune? those are my friends.

Since we had to get our rental back relatively early the next day the next day consisted of a lot of driving, but first we stopped in Waitangi, the location where the Waitangi treaty was signed. We toured the grounds on the beautiful day outside of the bay of islands and got to learn about the history of the relationship between the Maori and the European settlers. Cheers!

why study when you can travel?

Continuing the natural disasters theme that is New Zealand, it is good I didn’t end up going to Australia because as it turns out a volcano in Chile (yes on the other side of the Pacific) has been erupting, resulting in blown ash in the atmosphere affecting New Zealand and Australian air traffic. I know a couple people stuck in Australia missing finals while other people were luckily able to travel back in time. Also, if you haven’t heard since I don’t know whether this made American news but Christchurch was hit today with 5.5 and 6.0 magnitude aftershock earthquakes earlier this afternoon, resulting in liquefaction, cracked roads and paths, buildings crumbling, the CBD in dust, and the closing of Uni for a few days or more just in time for the beginning of finals. My thoughts right now are with the people of Christchurch, and hope they can get the city back up and running soon.

On a more happy note, I think I am finally over my cold! Since I wasn’t feeling well last week and missed out on some great traveling opportunities, despite my upcoming finals I decided to take a short road trip with some friends up north. Driving around the region known as Northland, we are in for seeing some beautiful beaches, some sand dunes and the a very old kauri tree. Of course I’ll bring the flashcards along so when I have some spare time I will be able to study, so it won’t be all fun & games. Cheers!

Not much to say since not much happened… This past week has been a bit monotonous. After my kapa haka final performance I didn’t have any traveling planned for the whole week I had before finals. I did some cooking went out to eat (the photo above is from a restaurant in Takapuna) and enjoyed the fact that I finished with classes. Although I was a bit bummed about not traveling it was really for the best because now I have a cold. Nothing too bad, just a lot of congestion and aches making it difficult for me to motivate myself to study when all I want to do is nap. Hopefully this darn cold will go away so I can start studying and eat things other than clementines! Cheers.