In the Land of Hobbits, Wizards, and Elves

Wow.  Where do I begin?  

Last Friday I left the wonderful country of Australia to go to New Zealand.  My flight went well (we had our own "on-command" TVs again) and I checked into my hostel in Christchurch for the night.  The next day I took an 8 hour bus ride through the south island to the city of Queenstown.  I spent two nights there in a cute hostel called the Hippo Lodge, where I met some fun kids from the U.S. as well. 

I had one full day in Queenstown (Easter Sunday) before I left for my hike on the Milford Track, and I decided to jump off a bridge over a river with my feet attached to an elastic chord.  In other words, I WENT BUNGY JUMPING!!!  I had left for this trip not planning to go bungy jumping, but as soon as I got here, I knew it was something I had to do.  Queenstown is a cute little town nestled in the mountains, and attracts people from all over for the adventure sport lifestyle it provides.  You walk down the street and there are stores for skydiving, bungy jumping, whitewater rafting, heli-skiing, heli-mountain biking, high speed jet boating, 4-wheeling, ect.  The place where I went bungy jumping, the Kawarau Bridge, was the first commercial bungy jumping place in the world, and it was 43 meters high.  It was by far the scariest and craziest thing I've ever done, but it was truly amazing.  

After my adrenaline filled morning, I just wandered around the town and explored the shops.  I had a pre-hike meeting and met a girl around my age from Canada named Jane.  After the meeting we hiked to the top of a mountain that overlooked the city of Queenstown and rode the Gondola back to the bottom.  Then we went to a busy burger spot called Furburgers and I ate the most delicious hamburger in my life.  On Monday morning we woke up early to leave for our hiking adventure!!!!

It was a 3 hour bus ride to the town of Te Anau, where we caught a boat across a lake to where we began our hike.  Right from the beginning I knew it was going to be an extraordinary couple of days.  The mountains rose up for the water and towered over us in the misty clouds.  There was a light drizzle, which was to be expected since the area gets 7-9 meters of rain every year! There were about 35 people in our hiking group, and luckily 7 of those people were my age.  About 1/3 of the people were from New Zealand, 1/3 from Australia, and the remaining people were from the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Spain.  Everyone was super friendly.  The first day was a very easy one mile hike to our accommodation, where we were pleasantly greeted with hot showers, a full 3-course meal, and a nice game of monopoly!

The second day we woke up early to a beautiful, sunny day.  We hiked 10 miles through the valley, drinking water straight from the crystal clear streams and swimming in a frigid (5 degrees Celsius) lake with waterfalls.  The forest truly felt like a magical place where elves and fairies would live.  Even though we did have a large group, people could leave the lodge at different times in the morning and walked at different paces, so you were usually only walking with one or two other people.  

Day three was the toughest day.  We went up and down the MacKinnon pass to an elevation of 1154 meters.  Again, we were extremely lucky with the weather and had a clear view of the valley below.  Our guides told us that they hadn't had a clear/visible day like that in over a month!  After our 10 miles up and down the mountain (we saw an avalanche too!) we went on another hour hike to Sutherland Falls, which is the 5th highest waterfall in the world.  Our guide took us behind the waterfall, and it felt like buckets and buckets of water were being dumped on our heads.  By the time we made it back to the lodge, around 6 pm, it had started to rain pretty hard.

That rain continued through the night and by the time we were ready to leave the next morning, we were getting 12-15mm of rain each hour.  We were told to hope for rain the 4th day, since that would form heaps of waterfalls in the valley, but we got so much rain that our hike was postponed for 2 hours.  The guides were thinking for a while that we would have to be taken out in helicopters because the water levels on the track kept rising.  With our amazing luck though, as soon as we got the go ahead to walk, the sun came out.  It was perfect-we got the rain to see waterfalls, but since the rain stopped, the water drained off the track into the rivers fast enough that we weren't in water up to our knees.  Our guide told us that the water level was 3 meters higher than normal in some spots where we were crossing bridges.  After 13 miles of walking, we finished the day, and had also finished the 33.5 mile Milford Track!! From there we took a boat to the city of Milford (population=150) to spend our final night in the hotel there.

On day 5 we went on a cruise in Milford Sound and admired the mountains surrounding us, knowing what we had just accomplished.  It was a great feeling.  After the cruise we got back on the bus to Queenstown, and when we arrived there we had to say goodbye to each other, which was sad because we all became pretty close throughout the hike.  Hopefully I'll cross paths with some of them in the future.  2 of the guys my age were brothers that live in Melbourne, and we might try to meet up when I go there for the 1/2 marathon, which would be cool!  There was also a family from Minneapolis (small world!).  

I'm back in Australia now, having experienced another wonderful little slice of the world.  Traveling always makes me want to see more, it has become some sort of addiction!  I love meeting people from all over and hearing about their lives and adventures.  Going other places makes me miss home more.  I love, love, love seeing all these cool places, but it would be even more amazing to share my adventures with my best friends and family.  Yea, I've made a lot of good friends along the way, but none of them know me as well as you all do.  I miss you and love you guys very much! 

Okay enough sentimental stuff! Here's the word/saying of the week! (I'll give you two since I didn't do one last week)

"Sweet as!"- I don't know why, but they add the word "as" onto a lot of things to emphasize it.  The saying works with other words too, so you could say "Crazy as, scary as, fun as, hungry as, parched as, ect." 

             Example:  "That view of the mountain is sweet as!!" or "Jumping off that bridge was crazy as!"

"Rock up"- This pretty much means show up.

              Example: Girl 1-"What are you going to wear tonight?" Girl 2-"I don't know, I'll probably rock up in some jeans and a t-shirt."

There you have it folks.  You'll be speaking Australian in no time!

xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxo

 

Photos

Waterfall 

Cradle Mountain

Hiking at Cradle Mountain!

Tasmanian countryside

Jin, Allie, Jaci and me with "Blue Betty"

Harbor in Hobart

Here are some photos of the Great Barrier Reef that I finally got from one of my friends!  We all chipped in to rent an underwater camera.  I didn't take any of these, but there are some good ones! 

Giant Clam!

Me and my pet turtle!

So cute!

Nemo and his dad.

These actually were this bright.

Some form of marine life...pretty cool eh?

More roadkill than radio stations.

Last Thursday I left Wollongong for Hobart, Tasmania (the island state of Australia)!  I flew there by myself and, let me tell you, flying in Australia is definitely a different experience than in the U.S.  Everyone shows up for their flights just an hour ahead of time because there is minimal security!  I literally did not have my I.D. checked on my flight there or back, and they don't care about liquids, shoes, boarding passes, ect.  It's nuts.  

I bought an Australian version of "Women's Health Magazine" in the airport because I was bored, and while I was reading it on the plane, there was a little blurb about something dumb like "women tend to have friends of similar attractiveness," but I continued reading, and it said that the study about this was done at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire!!!!!!!!  It was kind of like when I heard Bon Iver on the plane radio on the way to Cairns.  Seriously, this stuff is just blowing my mind.  What are the odds of me buying a magazine I barely ever read, and there being something about Eau Claire in an Australian magazine!!? Crazy.

When I got to Tasmania that night I checked into my hostel called The Pickled Frog, which was really nice, and made friends with a French girl named Gabriella.  We wandered around the town and had a beer at an Irish Pub on the harbor in Hobart.  It was really fun getting to know her and talking about how wonderful France is.  The next day I woke up and wandered around town until my friends Allie, Jin, and Jaci from school flew in.  When they got there we went to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory!  I ate a lot of delicious chocolate eggs (did you know that Australia is the country that eats the most chocolate eggs at Easter?).  

On Saturday we woke up early and...rented a car!  We drove to Cradle Mountain, which was about 4 hours away.  Tasmania is a very small island, so we felt like we got to see a lot of the island by doing this, and there was really no other way to get anywhere.  The roads were really easy to follow (they only have a couple of highways).  Jaci drove most of the time, but we each took a turn driving on the left side of the deserted roads.  It was awesome!  We saw lots of wallabies, wombats, kangaroos, and probably Tasmanian Devils...on the side of the road as roadkill.  It was sad that the first wild kangaroos I saw were dead.  We made a joke that there was more roadkill than radio stations because we only found radio stations once every blue moon.  When we got to Cradle Mountain we hiked for a few hours.  It was beautiful, but much cooler than Wollongong (we could see our breath)!  After we finished hiking we journeyed back to Hobart in our awesome car.  I had to leave very early the next morning, which was a bummer, but I had to get back to Uni to work on a group presentation.  I could have easily spent a few more days in Tasmania.  

Other highlights: 

-Tim Tam slam.  I finally did one Jackie!  I have an addiction to Tim Tams, which are these delicious little cookies here.  I ate a whole package of 7 cookies one night, so now I make my friend Tom keep them in his room and I go get one from him everyday.  It has turned into a nice little daily ritual.  But anyways, yesterday I did a Tim Tam slam, which is when you bite off both ends of the rectangular cookie, then you use the cookie as a straw with tea or coffee.  The insides get all warm and melty and you have to throw it in your mouth fast before it crumbles in your drink.  I don't know if  my description makes any sense, but it tastes so good!!!  

-Word of the week.  I decided that I should teach you all a new Australian word or saying each week, so that when I come back and use weird words, you'll understand me! :) So here we go:  

ARVO: afternoon, sometimes used as "s'arvo," meaning "this afternoon"

Example of use: Boy-"What did you do s'arvo?" 

                               Girl-"Not much, went to the beach for a while and then headed to Uni for a lecture.  You?"

That's all for this week! I leave for New Zealand on Friday, and don't get back until Sunday the 19th, so it will be a while until I write on here again, but I'll have lots to share with you by then!  I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Easter!  Can you believe thy don't dye eggs here? They're really missing out!  Love you all!

xoxoxoxoxoox

Cheers! 

Low key week

Nothing too exciting has happened here this week. I've just been trying to get a lot of school work done. For my ecology class we have to design our own observational experiment with a group. Our experiment sounds cool--we're looking at species richness in low tidal zones verses high tidal zones--but it's turning out to be a pain. I guess that's how group projects go...even in Australia you end up pulling other people's weight. It was cool looking in rock pools around here though! We saw a bunch of starfish, urchins, and anemones! There were lots of dogs running around on the beach we were at, and it made me miss my little pupster. I wish Maddy could splash around in the ocean, can you imagine how much she'd love it!?

For my climatology class we had a mandatory field trip around the Illawarra region on Saturday. I almost missed the bus though because I forgot to turn on my alarm! Miraculously I woke up at 7:30am for no reason, and made it to Uni in time for the 8am departure. We drove to 7 different sites around the region, learning about geography and geology. Some of it was interesting, but it was kind of like sitting through an 8 hour lecture. The sites were beautiful (forgot to bring my camera--sorry!) and I saw some awesome beach houses that I decided I need to live in someday. Since I woke up late, I didn't have time to pack a lunch or eat breakfast, so by the time the field trip finished at 4 (and dinner didn't start until 5:30), I was so starving that I raided the package my Mom and Dad sent me full of Easter goodies. I was hoping I would have enough self control to make those Reese's bunnies last longer, but oh well!!!! They sure tasted amazing!

That's all I can think of for now! I leave for Tasmania on Thursday, we're hoping to do some hiking and maybe even go fishing! It should be fun!

love.love.love.

Photos

Surfing at Crescent Head!!

Surfer girls from our orientation group.

Isolated beach where we surfed.

Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.

This is where I go to school!

Pathway through Uni.

Little pond on campus.

More school.

Wollongong at sunrise. Mt Kiera is in the background.

Lighthouse sunrise.

Good morning world!

Wollongong harbor at sunrise.

Total concentration!

They call me Kelly Slater.
(haha this photo is actually me mid-wipeout...oh well)

Surfing!!

I'm not sure if this is real life.  Another amazing week has passed, and I have to keep pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming!!! So here we go with the weekly update:

-Weet-bix. This isn't so much of a highlight, but more of a new favorite food I've found.  Weet-bix are these cereal bars that kind of look like dog food, but when you put milk on them, they absorb the milk completely and take on a mushy/oatmeal consistency.  Add a little honey and peanut butter (you don't know how much crap we Americans get for loving peanut butter) and it's a delicious and nutritious start to my day!

-Mom & Dad are coming!! My parents booked their flights to come see me at the end of my session.  I'm so excited for them to come see where I'm living and introduce them to Australian culture!  You guys will LOVE it!!

-Soccer.  Lunchtime sports started this week, and I put together a soccer team for it.  Lunchtime sports are kind of like intramurals...but not as cool.  Our game was only 25 minutes, and we play 5 on a side (but had 2 subs too) so it went super fast.  It'll be fun to play each week though!  We have a pretty diverse team with people from the U.S., France, and Italy.  Our team name is the "Gophers." :)  This team doesn't compare at all to our U of MN intramural team.  I miss playing with you all so much!!!! 

-Sunrise.  My friend Allie and I woke up at 6:30 AM to go for a sunrise run.  We ran to the lighthouse just in time to see the sun rising above the ocean.  It was so beautiful!!  I'll post some photos of it soon!  We're going to make it a weekly routine.

-Surf camp!!  This was by far the best part of my week.  Several of us from our orientation group in Cairns signed up for a weekend surf camp and the date finally came!  We left from Sydney Friday afternoon and had a looong 6 hour bus ride to Crescent Head where the camp was.  We got there late Friday night, but the next day we realized the long drive was well worth it!  On Saturday we woke up early at 8, ate brekkie (Australian for breakfast), walked down to our own private surf beach (so beautiful!!!), got our surfboards, had a little lesson, then hit the waves!  I was standing up in no time!  The most amazing part--we saw about 12 dolphins 50 meters away while we were surfing!!!  I was a little freaked out at first because I thought they were sharks.  Seeing them so close in the water was surreal.  After our morning session, we ate lunch (the food was amazing), then went back for more.  The waves were a little bigger in the afternoon and we were getting pounded by them.  I now understand why surfers have such hot bods...surfing is exhausting!  This morning we woke up early again, hit the surf for a while, then got back on the bus to Sydney.  I definitely hope that I can keep trying to surf while I'm here!

This week and next week I've decided that I need to work really hard on my school work.  With my Tasmania and New Zealand trips coming up, I want to make sure I stay on top of things so I don't have as much to worry about when I'm there.  I'm sure I'll be able to fit exciting adventures in there somewhere though, so have no fear--more updates will come soon, and I'll post pictures within the next couple days!!

Much love to all! Miss you so much!

xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxox 

Photos

Our Royal National Park hiking group!  RNP is the 2nd oldest national park in the world-after Yellowstone!

Swimming in the beautiful rock pools in RNP.

At the end of our exhausting hike in the rain. We made it!!!!

 

Welcome to the Australian wilderness.  

At the top of a waterfall in RNP.

Cool trees!

Feeding the kangaroos at Symbio Wildlife Park!

I fell in love with this little guy.  Sorry Mom and Dad, don't think I'm coming home.

View of Wollongong from the top of Mt. Kiera.  So worth the hike/near death experience. ;)

  There were hundreds of these Blue Bottle Jellyfish washed up on the beach one day, and then the next there were none.  Pretty cool.