Semester break part 2- Hamilton (4/7-4/12)

(Sorry for the random placement and order of pictures! I got too frustrated trying to move them around!)

After leaving Sydney, I went to stay with my roommates in their hometown of Hamilton, New Zealand. I flew into the Auckland airport where they picked me up and we made the 2 hours drive back to Hamilton. I was definitely glad to be back in good ole NZ, it felt like home.

On a quick aside, the flight from Sydney to Auckland was the WORST FLIGHT EVER! I sat directly in front of a honest-to-god homeless man, with the matted, oily hair, dirt-covered skin and clothing, and falling apart canvas backpack. The smell was horrendous, I can't even describe it. I can say that I was surrounded by a literal cloud of stench, but that would not do it justice. I actually gagged at one point. Needless to say, I was very unhappy the entire flight and spent all my energy trying to breath as little as possible. I was finally able to Zen out and relax myself, hoping to catch a little nap and miss most of the horrid flight when the homeless man decides to go to the bathroom. So in his attempt to stand up from his seat, he grabs the back of mine. However, he must have been a very uncoordinated homeless man because he missed the back of my seat and instead ended up planting his hand directly onto my head. I could feel the tiny microbes of grime connecting with my hair and skull. SO GROSS.

Well I ended up keeping it together fairly well, though I thought when his hands were groping my head I was going to lose it. And while it may seem otherwise, I actually felt pretty mad for the poor, smelly homeless man. Everyone, myself included, was annoyed with his stench and kept sending him sideways glances. I tried really hard to keep it together and be as kind and forgiving to him as possible. I hope where ever he is now that he's had a nice long shower and is on to a better life.

Ok, back to Hamilton. I stayed with my roommate Bridie, her mom and her brother Jackson. Their house was a one story, similar to my families, but was very open with lots of big windows and glass doors. It had a very comfortable, fresh feeling to it. It was so nice to be back in a home with a family, fighting and all. It made me miss my family and even my petty arguing with my sisters. They were so welcoming, her mom cooked me "real New Zealand dinners"- 1) burger with beetroot, mayo, butter and a fried egg on top, and 2) lamb roast with kumara and pumpkin. The burger looked so bizarre but was one of the best burgers I've ever had. I fully intend to bring home the egg on burger tradition. The kumara on the other hand, not so delicious. I couldn't get past the kind of chalky texture (and it was purple!). Her brother was fascinated by the fact that I was from the US and asked me tons of random questions like "do you eat tabasco sauce with everything?" and "do you know a lot of people in gangs?". Unfortunately I wasn't really able to give him the desired answer to most of his questions but it was pretty funny to see him image of the USA through all his random inquiries.

For the most part we just hung around her house, watched movies, baked, played Rock Band, etc. It was very nice and relaxing. One day we took a road trip to Rotorua, which is notorious for its sulfur smell. It is a pretty small town but has so many cool things to do, we were limited by money but we ended up going down the luge a few times which was so fun, I could have gone down it all day. And to get up to it you take a gondola with amazing views of the city. The city itself was pretty small-town, but then again pretty much everywhere is here in New Zealand. It was so charming though, which a nice little museum surrounded by a huge grass field with people playing botche ball (spelling?). Another unique thing was that randomly around the whole town were little, steaming and bubbling geysers. They all smelled pretty gross, but were really cool to see. We also had a nice little fish and chips picnic lunch on the water!

It was a FANTASTIC semester break. I never wanted to leave Hamilton or Bridie's family!

Easter in Sydney (4/3-4/7)

Man, I'm not very good at keeping this thing updated so apologies for that. I split my semester break trip up into two different blog posts so they are a manageable length and don't cause your eyes to dry up before you get done reading them.

First part of the break, from Saturday to Wednesday, Kelly and I went to Sydney! The trip there was a PAIN, we spent more time in the Auckland airport in between flights then we did actually on the plane. We stayed in the Kings Cross region, about a five minute walk from the cityrail (their version of the subway) station. It was an interesting area to say the least, basically to get from our backpacker to the cityrail station we had to walk down two blocks of strip clubs and meth-head heaven... we walked pretty fast. I never felt unsafe, just really really REALLY out of place.

The rest of Sydney was pretty amazing, though it felt like I could be back in the states. It felt to me like a more tropical feeling New York City. Darling Harbour was beautiful, we went down there at least once everyday, got a coffee and just relaxed in the sun. Also made our way to Patty's Market, which turned out to be a massive indoor flea market type place with every touristy item imaginable. There were also several stands selling kangaroo and koala fur vests, hats, rugs etc... kinda creepy. Poor animals. Anyway, the only thing I ended up acquiring was a pretty awesome batman watch probably meant for 8 year old boys, but it was cheap and I thought it was cool.

Day 2 and 3 we did some shopping at the Queen Victoria building. Again, didn't really end up with much but the building itself was so beautiful it was fun just to walk around inside it. It got tiring trying to dodge the crowds though, so many asian tourist, definitely made me feel like I was back in New York. The Opera House and the bridge were amazing!! Ended up having Easter dinner right along the water with a perfect view of both. Felt a little surreal to be so close to something that you always see in pictures. On an impulse one night we decided to go see Avatar in 3D imax, still great even round 3.

We couldn't go to Australia without seeing the kangaroos, so we ended up spending a few hours at Wildlife World on our last day there. The kangaroos were not at all what I expected. Yes, I've seen pictures before but they we much bigger in real life and they looked pretty hilarious hopping around. If they were painted orange with some stripes I would swear that I was surrounded by real-life Tiggers. I didn't know this before, but apparently they use their tail as an extra leg, and it makes them look so graceful when they slowly walk around (rather then vigorously bounce everywhere). The koalas were so darn cute, I wish I could take one home with me. We couldn't pet them but we could get right up next to the trees they were hanging out in. There were 6 or 7 of them climbing around or eating, and then one in the back fast asleep the entire time we were there.. I dubbed that one the koala version of me haha.

Later that day we took a quick excursion to Bondi Beach. So many surfers! The beach was gorgeous, white sand, blue-green water. And the little town surrounding it felt a lot like the beach boardwalk in Santa Cruz. From there we took the bus back to Darling Harbour to have one more walk around. We ended up wandering through the Chinese Botanical Gardens. It is amazing how the atmosphere changed so suddenly from chaotic, loud, tourist-filled city, to peaceful gardens. I never wanted to leave. Of course there were those few immediately recognizable American tourists there that had decided to dress up in traditional chinese clothing and make-up and walk around the gardens playing pretend. I was frustrated by how disrespectful and ignorant they were acting.

Anyway, Kelly had to leave super early on Wednesday but my flight wasn't until later in the afternoon so I had a few hours to kill by myself. It was definitely weird being in this strange city all by myself but was a pretty cool feeling at the same time. I realized that I've grown up a lot, I don't think even last year I would have been comfortable on my own like that. Overall, I really enjoyed Sydney. It was a refreshing feeling to be back in a big city atmosphere again after being in New Zealand for so long. But it made me realize just how different New Zealand is from the rest of the world. While Sydney was filled with products, brands and stores I recognized, New Zealand has none of that- everything was completely new to me when I got there. Ultimately, my little trip to OZ reassured me that I made the right decision going to Wellington. New Zealand has a unique feel and charm to it that I don't think is quite like anywhere else.

Life as Usual - up to April 2nd

Haven’t really written in a while but my excuse is I’ve been busy adjusting to life as a student in Wellington- I LOVE it. I’ve really learned my way around the city and love how its so easy to walk anywhere I want to go. I’ve also really bonded with my roommates, Bridie and Devlyn, who are very similar to me personality wise and whom I absolutely love! I feel so lucky to be living with them and they have been so helpful and understand in my whole adjustment process. One weird thing I’ve noticed though is that they don’t rinse the dishes – they just set them on the rack to dry all soapy which is apparently normal here but very strange to me. I’m definitely missing home, but I’m not homesick in the normal sense. I can’t wait to go back to California and DC but at the same time I’m already dreading leaving New Zealand! I couldn’t have picked a more wonderful place to study for a semester.

I’ve been doing good so far with the lists so I guess I’ll just continue with that lol. Here’s what I’ve been up for these past weeks (which have gone by WAY to quickly!)

- Classes have been pretty average, nothing to special or different, though I’m not used to the whole big lecture hall thing. I love my sustainable architecture class though, and physics is kicking my butt but I’m hanging in there. I mainly just feel like I stand out based on the way I dress. Basically every girl wears some sort of skirt or dress with tights or leggings and some flowery shirt and big baggy sweater. I on the other had am a fan of the jeans and t-shirt look. I don’t really mind, I just feel like I get some weird looks sometimes.

- Bridie ( who loves politics) invited Kelly and I to a youth Labour Party meeting. The meeting was inside the parliament building and we even got a tour of the building lead by an M.P. (Member of Parliament) before the meeting. After we went to this bar called The Backbench where there is a debate between three MP’s every Wednesday and its filmed live. That night Grant (the MP that gave us the tour) was debating so we decided to go watch. It was so crowded but we got there early enough to get a table. It was super fun and interesting though, I learned a lot about New Zealand politics. And the bar was very cool, there were figurines of past MP’s and prime ministers up on the wall the Weta had made (they did costume design stuff for Lord of the Rings and Narnia).





- Bridie also took me to my first New Zealand protest. The National party, which is the conservative party, is trying to open up certain sections of national parks to mining so we were protesting against that. It was a pretty big crowd- maybe a hundred or so- but very calm and relaxed atmosphere. People had signs but there wasn’t any rude shouting or yelling going on, basically just everyone listening to the various speakers at the podium. Again, way different then any protest that would happen in the US. And a bunch of MP’s were there, standing by the podium or just filtering through the crowd. Grant came up and even said hi to Bridie and I (he knows her from the youth Labour Party group). I can’t imagine any US political figure casually chatting up people in the middle of a protest or at any time in fact. It made me feel like he really cared and that the government was so separated from the rest of society.





- Went with my roommates to Wellington’s Relay for Life- we walked to 2-3am shift for the Labour party team. I met a ton of cool people and tried to teach them how to speak with an American accent, it was pretty fun but then again they had a good laugh at my attempts to sound like a kiwi.

- Went to a rugby game tonight- Christchurch Crusaders vs Wellington Hurricanes. Very fun, enthusiastic crowd. Still have no idea how the game works but I’m learning.




- General other things that I’ve discovered- I love MILO, which is a lot like ovaltine and I now have a warm glass of it every night. Pineapple lumps are a candy with the worst name ever but are the BEST. I miss cereal in the US, they don’t really have much of selection here. The coffee is excellent, again I probably over-indulge myself. I miss Mexican food, Chinese food, hotdogs and hamburgers none of which really exist here. But I love the fruit and veggie market that is downtown every weekend. Kelly also found out the hard way that they don't really say "God bless you" when someone sneezes here. She said it someone in the library then to someone in her class and both times they gave her the weirdest look, like she was some religious nut. I asked my roommates and turns out you would only really say that to a someone you knew..oh well.

Now I’m about to head off on adventure number 2! Tomorrow (actually in less then 6 hours) Kelly and I are off to Sydney for 4 days, then she’s meeting her sister in Japan and I’m flying back to New Zealand to visit my roommates in Hamilton (which is about in the middle of the North Island). I’m super excited to see Australia and I can’t wait to see where my roommates live. We are going to take little day trips around the North Island, I’m pretty pumped to see more of the country. The second week of my Easter Break I’ll be back in Wellington, studying for my physics midterm and writing a French essay, yippee.

South Island roadtrip! February 19th -26th

Kelly and I just got back from out week long roadtrip around some of the south island. SO MUCH FUN, and a great way to start off the semester (which officially starts tomorrow!).

Here’s a brief (well maybe not so brief) overview of where we went:

1. Took the ferry from Wellington to Picton- very scenic but I slept most of the ride haha. From Picton we took a bus 2 hours to Nelson where we stayed for 2 nights. The bus right was great, we saw tons of sheep and a lot of the countryside. Its unbelievable how beautiful every inch of this country is! A lot of the houses were very old fashioned feeling though, like something out of That 70’s Show lol.


2. Nelson was amazing, cute little beach town and really good fish and chips! We stayed at an adorable hostel called Accents on the Park which was right next to a gorgeous park and cute little main street. And the beach was huge with super soft, white sand and warm water- we made sure to spend at least 2 hours on the beach everyday. I’ve never been much of a beach person, but this was heaven.





3. We rented a car in Nelson and took a few day trips ( and yes, I had to learn very quickly how to drive on the other side of the road!). First day we drove to Abel Tasman National Park- long drive but very scenic. Stopped at two little towns with gorgeous beaches called Moteuka and Kaitiritiri. It was something out of a movie, with sparkling clear blue water and a beach surrounded by little rock caves. At Abel Tasman it was like a beach desert, super flat and it seemed to go on forever. There were little streams of water all around the beach and then a main shoreline which we walked down to. Before we knew it we turned around and found ourselves stuck on a little sandbar with almost waste deep water surrounding us because the tide has crept in around us. The water was warm so was easy to walk through, but the sand was covered with tiny colorful starfish which I felt bad stepping on but there we so many it was unavoidable. It was so peaceful driving around- I don’t think I’ve ever felt that carefree and relaxed my entire life. I can see why people say that you can really find yourself when you travel.






4. After two days we migrated to Kaikoura which about 4 hours away. Stopped at Hanmer Hotsprings on the way, which was fun. Kaikoura was a pretty small town, again right on the water. Unfortunately, I got sick while I was there and ended up going to the doctors. It was basically like a school nurse’s office, but the doctor prescribed me some antibiotics and I was good to go. Our hostel was called The Lazy Shag and we shared a room with a German and Irish girl who we swapped travel stories with. We swam with the seals our second day there, which was so different then I expected. About 5 of us were taken out about 100 yards from the shore to a rock covered with seals. Then we all hoped out in our snorkeling gear and swam around. Some of the seals would come right up to you under water and stare you down—it was a little intimidating to be honest and most of them were bigger then me! I’m also not an ocean person but I had so much fun and never wanted to get out of the water!





Random side observation- It is amazing how trusting everyone here is. When we stopped to get gas along the way we went inside to prepay only to find out you pump the gas first, then come inside and tell them how much you put in, and they don’t even question you. You would NEVER find anywhere like that in the US.


5. Next, we drove down to Christchurch, another 4 hour drive or so, but very scenic. Along the way the car started to make a funny noise and I seriously thought we were going to be stranded on a tiny little road in the middle of nowhere for who knows how long…luckily our little mazda trekked on and crisis was averted. Christchurch was by far my favorite city. Right in the middle is a big square with a church in the middle and little vendors surrounding it. It was filled picnicking or just walking around. There was even a human size chessboard you could play with. The buildings were old fashioned and very European feeling, made of stone with ivy crawling up the sides. It’s also a much larger city and feels more like the cities we have in the US. We stayed in Christchurch for three days, then flew back to Wellington from there.

While we were there we took daytrips to Sumner, which is another little beach suburb of Christchurch. We met up there with a few people we met in Wellington about a week before. It was embarrassingly difficult to understand what they were saying because their accent was so much stronger then most others I had heard. But we had a good laugh about it and it was overall super fun hanging out and getting the real kiwi experience. We also drove to Akaroa, which is the first (and only) French settlement in New Zealand- very French town but jaw-droppingly gorgeous. It was set right on a little bay in between green hillsides covered with little farms. We also went to the botanical gardens and somehow found ourselves at a high school track meet. I felt like it was something out of Bedknobs and Broomsticks or Mary Poppins- all the boys had old-fashioned uniforms on and were separated by house. And the judges all whole pinstriped suits with big top hats.

We also decided to go to a Christchurch Crusaders rugby game- what an adventure that was. We drove to the game but had to walk a ways to the stadium. It wasn’t in a horrible neighborhood but definitely not somewhere I would want to be alone. We buy are ticket, get into the stadium and immediately search for food seeing as we are both starving. Turns out they stadium only takes EFTPOS (which are weird NZ debit cards) or cash- neither of which we have. And they have no ATMs inside the stadium- pretty supid if you ask me. So we leave the stadium in search of an ATM. To make a long (very long) story short, we eventually found a random ATM after about 45 minutes of wandering around from little convenient store to convenient store. (Don’t freak out Dad if you’re reading this- it was still bright out and we are safe and sound!) We made it for the last half of the game, but were quite frustrated with the whole situation.

Before we left for the airport we stopped at the Antarctic Center where we went through an Antarctic weather simulation.. my legs were burning they were so cold, the room got to below -4 degrees F. It was pretty interesting though and we got to see come cute penguins.

Now back in Wellington, totally beat but had the most amazing trip. Kelly and I are now super close friends which is great and I we are already planning our next excursion, though I may have to wait until my bank account isn’t quite as empty lol. Classes start tomorrow- I’m taking French, Physics and Introduction to Sustainable Architecture. I’m not so worried about the difficulty of the classes but I just feel weird being at a new school. I feel like a little baby freshmen again and I’m nervous I’m going to stick out from everyone else. It’s exciting though in a way.

Week One- Feb 7th- 14th

Just as a preface, I realize that I am posting several weeks of blogs at the same time but only now do I FINALLY have a somewhat steady internet connection at my flat. Very frustrating process to say the least.

Hope you enjoy my adventures! Sorry if I ramble lol




So apparently my dad and I came on a very popular holiday weekend called The Sevens, which is hosted here in Wellington. Little did we know this when we wandered around the city at 8am looking for a place to eat and stay awake until our hotel room was ready. First of all, getting off the plane and arriving at our hotel (The Duxton) was kinda surreal. The view from our room was absolutely amazing, with the city curving around us on either side and the harbor straight ahead. I couldn’t really grasp the fact that this is where I would be living for the next five months, no matter how long I stared out the window, which was actually quite often lol.

Anyway so as we wandered around the city for the first time I couldn’t help but feel like I stuck out like a sore thumb. It was like everyone that looked at me knew right away that we didn’t belong here and had no idea where we were going. The first street we happened to wander down was Cuba Street. Not the best first impression of the city of Wellington. I thought my dad was going to drag me back on a plane home right then and there. The street was pretty much deserted, a few ragged people wandering around or sitting on the ground looking half drunk. And there was garbage everywhere, not to mention several smoke shops and adult stores. It was like Berkeley’s telegraph avenue x 100. It was a bit shocking to say the least and my poor dad was freaking out. LUCKILY there was a good explanation for Cuba Streets current state, as we soon found out: because the night before had been The Sevens, everyone had basically partied in the streets all night and were now wandering home or sleeping it off, which was why it felt as eerie as it did. I’m am glad to say that we went back to Cuba Street many a time and had quite a different (and much better) experience. It is actually one of my favorite places now, its very young and lively and has a lot of cool cafes, restaurants and second-hand stores (or Op-shops as they are called here).






I’m so grateful my dad was here with me, and it was so fun getting to know the city with him. We were able to pretty much walk ourselves around the majority if city. I was surprised to be honest by just how compact the city is. It has the skyline of a city yet it feels much different, I can’t really explain it. Less fast paced, easier to get around and almost more homey feeling. The harbor is absolutely gorgeous, with walkways surrounding the waters edge and little art pieces everywhere. And people everywhere! It was amazing the number of people in suits sitting outside around the water eating lunch, taking a walk or just relaxing with a coffee in the middle of the day. And so many people out jogging! It gives the city a very warm and friendly feeling, like everyone is out enjoying all the Wellington has to offer. Very different then any place I have been to in the U.S.

This post is getting long, so I’m not going to retell everything that we did over the week but I will detail a few of our adventures.

-We went to a Wellington Phoenix soccer game- SO MUCH FUN! And everyone gets really amped up for the game.

-Took the commuter train to Johnsville- nothing much there but got to see how beautiful and green it is everywhere, its incredible.

-The Moari have a very heavy cultural influence on the country – almost everywhere you go signs are written both in English and in the moari language. A lot of people will also say “kia ora” which I am guessing means something alongs the lines of Hello, welcome.

- The dairy here is SO bizarre tasting. I’ve slowly been getting used to it but my dad steered clear of the butter, ice cream etc. I think it’s much richer then US dairy, I bet New Zealanders would be grossed out by how watery our milk is haha.

-At restaurants we always sat there awkwardly trying to figure out if they bring the bill to the table or if you go up to the register to pay… never did figure that one out lol.

- SO WINDY- I heard it was called Windy Wellington but the wind so far is already way more intense then I expected.

-There was an earthquake! Not a very big one but it startled us awake at 2 am.

Anyway, now I’m here by myself in my flat. It’s definitely been weird and difficult being alone. My first night here alone (last night) was a bit surreal feeling, I don’t think it fully hit me until that moment that I am going to be staying here for 5 months! Surprising I was doing ok until I went to brush my teeth and the second I turned on the light, it flickered then blew out. Silly I know, but that put me over the edge and I had a momentary break down. I walked around the city a bit more today by myself, its strange being in a new place and not knowing anyone. My friend Kelly gets here tomorrow and my roommates on Friday so I’m definitely looking forward to that!

Here's some pis from around Welly: