RUGBY!! RUGBY!! RUGBY!!

So after another week of class, a wine tasting, celebrating St. Patrick's Day New Zealand style, and finishing a bunch of reading, I chose to take the weekend easy. No trips, no hiking, no beach.... nothing, except a rugby match.

Our program coordinator emailed us a few weeks ago telling us he would take anyone to the local rugby match who wanted to go. Going to a match is on my NZ bucket list so I definitely was going to be there. Saturday night we met, got on a bus and headed to Eden Park for the festivities. We bought cheap tickets and got there early enough to watch the little boy rugby league play before the game. Let me tell you, it was absolutely adorable.

Then it was time for the real match... the Auckland Blues vs. the Wellington Hurricanes. We were all sporting the blue and white face paint and waving our Blues flags crazily.We were told that the match was going to be a close one because both teams were pretty good, so I was definitely looking forward to that. The match started and nobody was down in the front row so Becca and I moved down right in front of the try zone (a try is the rugby version of a touchdown.) It was the best view and I even touched a ball!!!!!

The fans were pretty wild as Auckland tryed before Wellington could. I don't really know all that much about rugby but enough to get by sort of understanding what's going on in the game, but luckily the lady sitting next to us was an avid rugby fan and taught us all sorts of things about the game.

a good scrum

It was awesome to see the teams scrum and line out at different times during the match and just to watch hot, muscular men tackle each other :) It was definitely my dream Saturday night. Bec and I are planning on attending some more matches in the future, so when I know more about the game, I'll teach you more about the game.

This week comes another week of class, but one more week closer to mid-semester break. This weekend I think Leah and I are headed to Piha and its black sand beaches :)

If you want to, you can check out some sweet pics on facebook.

Kia Ora

Taupo

So this past weekend a group of 11 of us rented two cars and headed out on Friday night for Taupo, NZ. Taupo is about 3.5 hours south of Auckland and is just a nice town with a lot of outdoor activities to do.

The trip there was pretty terrible. One of the girls miscounted and instead of there being 10 of us, there ended up being 11, which meant that 4 people had to squeeze into the back seat of one of the cars. Becca, Katie, Fady and I were the ones who ended up having to squeeze and the ride was pretty miserable. We got to Taupo at about 11pm and headed straight to bed in order to get up and tramp in the morning.

The Waikato River

We started off tramping the Huka Falls walkway, which wasn't really a tramp at all, simply just a walk, but the view at the end was absolutely gorgeous. The Huka Falls are formed by the Waikato River and is caused by the build up of pressure as it travels through this tiny gorge.  The falls at the end were absolutely gorgeous!! On the walk back we discovered that part of the Waikato River produces a lagoon like natural hot spring that we all had to try out. It's strange to think that mother nature can produce something like that.

The next trip that day was to Craters of the Moon, which is a geothermal hot spot in Taupo. There are tons of steaming holes and lots of bubbling mud. The walk wasn't amazing, but was pretty cool. After Craters of the Moon, we headed to Lake Taupo to do some swimming. We found this giant raft off a beach and all decided to swim out and have wars to see who we could push off. My favorite thing about the water in New Zealand is that you can almost always see the bottom and what you're getting yourself into. That way you can avoid as much kelp as possible! That night we just hung out at the backpackers lodge and got some rest for the next day.

Becca and I at Craters of the Moon.

Me at the top of Mt. Tauhara

Sunday was the day of the BIG HIKE, Mt. Tauhara. It was a difficult trek to the top, but the view from above was absolutely gorgeous. Words can't even describe what it looked like, but I'll add a picture to see if it will help.  You could literally see for miles in each direction from the top. The walk up the mountain wasn't too terrible (other than my falling in a crevasse at the beginning of the hike) but the hike down was hard on my toes and my knees (not to mention, I fell three times on the way down!!!) Don't worry, Mom, I'm okay :)

After we finished the hike, we headed of to watch the release of the Waikato River dam. It was interesting to see the release but it wasn't as epic as I thought it was going to be. After that we headed back to those natural hot springs we found on the Huka Falls trail in order to relax a little bit before heading back to Auckland for school on Monday.


Overall, the trip was excellent!!!! It was nice not to be in the big city for awhile and I got to hang out with and meet some pretty cool people. If you want to see some more pictures check out my facebook.

First Week of Classes

So my first week of classes was pretty lame. On Monday I had Intro to Pacific History which consisted of a ton of American students and a professor who simply rambles on and on for the entire lecture. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to be writing down and what I wasn't because he just skipped around in time. After history I had an hour break in which I would usually have a tutorial for my Race and Racism class, but since it's the first week of uni, we don't have tutorials. Another girl and I walked around to see if we could find where our tutorial was going to be and then went our separate ways to our 12 o'clock classes. Mine was in the Clocktower and was my Turning Points in Western Music class. After wondering around trying to figure out where my lecture theater was, Becca and I realized that we had done a full circle from where we started. Stupid, I know. That lecture was two hours and was probably one of the most interesting classes I'll be taking this semester. After 2 I had the afternoon off and just went the to book store to buy my course reader and some supplies for class.

On Tuesday the only class I had was my history lecture again which would usually be followed by my history tutorial. Since there was no tutorial, I decided it would be best for me to head down to the grocery store and pick up some things. I always hate going to the grocery store because it's such a long, hot walk there and back. Not to mention you're carrying 20 pounds of groceries uphill. That afternoon, I skyped home with my family and talked to my brothers a little bit.

On Wednesday, I usually have class at 3 for a Pacific Studies tutorial but I only had my Race and Racism class at 4. I think that this will be another class that's very interesting because the first lecture we had we talked about how race is a socially constructed term and that between races, there is very small differences biologically contrary to popular belief. My professor is from upstate New York and is in NZ working on research about Pacific Island races.

Thursday I just had my Pacific Languages and World Views lecture. I don't know exactly how I feel about that class because one of the professors is so soft spoken that it's hard to understand and hear what she's saying. It doesn't help that she's Tongan, so she has a bit of an accent.

Overall, I think that all of my classes will be interesting, but I think I'll only have a difficult time with my history class simply because my professor doesn't teach chronologically. It's a good thing all of his notes are in our course readers. And by the way, I only had to buy 2 course readers for school. One for history ($20) and one for anthropology ($16). We get our music course reader for free and all our readings for pacific studies are on CECIL (UofA's version of Blackboard). It's definitely my cheapest book buying semester I've had since being in college.

Since I don't have class on Fridays, Becca, Leah and I headed to the beach to hang out. It doesn't actually rain, but the entire time we were there, we totally thought it was going to. Sometime this weekend, we'll be going to Rangitoto Island off the coast of Auckland to go on an adventure. From what I've heard it's an inactive volcano, one of the most unique places near Auckland and sweet as.

Love and Miss you All :)

Windy Welly

Kia Ora :)

So this last week was pretty interesting. After getting so many messages questioning my safety after the huge earthquake that happened in Christchurch last Tuesday and sitting through international orientation in Auckland, I was finally ready to head south to Wellington.

After an 11 hour bus ride with Leah, Tom, and Jordan we finally arrived in the windy city, and windy it was!!!! We set off in search of Massey University where we would be staying with some friends that we met during orientation in Rotorua. Little did we know that Massey University and Victoria University were two different things. All of us thought that it was Victoria Massey University and seeing as though Victoria University was the only uni on the map that we got at the bus station, we headed off in what we thought was the right direction. We had to stop for a directions a few times to make sure that we were going the right way and finally a woman told us that Victoria and Massey are two completely different things and that Massey is a far walk from where we were so she offered to give us a ride. All 4 of us squeezed into her tiny car with luggage on our laps and set of the The Basin where we were meeting our friends. It's a good thing she came along because it was a LONG walk. When we got there, our friends were like... "Get ready, we're going out," so all of a scrambled to put on some good clothes and look presentable after a long, hot bus ride.

The night was full of good music, dancing and hanging out with some great people. We were there until probably 1 before we decided to head back and get some sleep for the next day. The next day we were meeting up with another of our friends and we were going to hike Mt. Victoria and see a killer view of the city from up there. The hike was more of a walk but parts of it were definitely rough. The view from the top was incredible! You could see mountains, ocean, and city all from one place. It was there that I realized I need to slow down and take things in while I'm here and not just always rush to do the next thing. That afternoon we headed to the beach to relax and ended up swimming out to the dock in the middle of the bay. The water was sooooo cold but diving off the dock was worth the swim. :) After the beach we headed back to The Basin to get ready to go out to dinner.

The next day we went to Te Papa Museum and  it was probably the coolest museum I have ever been to. It was full of history and science, art and everything else that you can imagine. It was extremely small looking from the outside but once you step inside, it's 6 floors of gloriousness. That afternoon we went back to the beach again and I got completely fried. I even put on sunscreen but it just didn't help. But don't worry, now I have a nice golden tan :) That night we went out to eat at a sushi bar called Wasabi. I didn't eat sushi because the look of it makes me want to puke and I definitely know that I couldn't handle the texture. That night we just walked around and hung out while the others went to a Jungle Party put on by their school and then a few of us went out to this little hole in the wall bar called Havanna. It was definitely a cute little place that only the locals new about. After a few hours there we headed back to make plans for the next day.

at the hole in the wall

For our last day in Wellington, we decided to go to the botanic gardens. It was absolutely gorgeous and full of so many beautiful flowers and interesting plants that you can't find in the US. After the cable ride back we got ready to go out to dinner at this Malaysian restaurant and I had some excellent food :) Then we went club hopping, I guess you could say to like 5 different dance clubs and just danced the night away. We were out late and had to be up early to catch the bus home.

 

 

The ride home was absolutely terrible!!!!! The completely packed and there was way less space between seats than the bus we came on. Let's just say that it felt wonderful to be back on ground and be able to stretch our legs for the walk back to Wellesley after an excellent week in Wellington.