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.