Feb. 28th 2011 First Day of Lectures

Today I had my Maori Culture and Moral and Political Philosophy classes. The lecture halls look exactly like the ones at home but the teachers definitely dress more casual here. I also found that there are multiple lecturers teaching the classes and different ones will show up at different dates depending on what we are learning that day. In my Maori class we will be learning the language as well as having to sing songs and do research. We also will be taking mini field trips. This teacher had a cool tattoo along her for arm and kept using the word Brazz ("it really brazzes me off when"....(pretty much saying this really pisses her off when...)). Here if you say that you are pissed off it means that you are really drunk.  For the Maori class we had to go to another building to sign up for a tutorial/recitation class. Here they call these classes "tutes". My philosophy class lecturer seemed very chill and down to earth and had a much easier accent to follow. He kept on telling us we have to open our minds. Another weird thing that they do in every class and ask for someone to volunteer to be the class representative. This person will be able to talk for the whole class and if someone has an issue they can tell the rep and they can take the issues to the teacher. All in all it was a successful day! Now I have to just deal with the long lines at the book store so I can start doing my readings.

Feb. 27th and 26th

 Since this was my last weekend before school started  I figured  I would take a walk in Wellington's Botanical Garden. It sits up on the top of a hill so this is the scenery of the town through the trees.

 Some of the artwork in the garden..there is said to be some good fortune by passing through this hole in the granite.

 These flowers were found in the trees

 This theater is where they put on free plays as well as free movies (under the stars) at random days through out the summer time.

 The bark of this tree is covered in leaves that stick straight out instead of lying flat on the bark.

 As you can see there were many elements to this garden. Since it is tucked away on the outskirts of the town it seems small but once you are inside it could probably take you a couple of hours just to see the whole garden.

 View from the top of the hill in the Botanical Gardens

 More of the shore line in Wellington

 As I was walking through town there were a couple of boys that were finding different places on the dock to dive off of. I felt the water and it was freezing! These boys were crazy. They were even jumping off bridges in the city to land in the mine cove where people were paddle boating.

 A little girl is in a inflatable ball playing in the water. I sat and watched her for awhile..she was having so much fun! I think that if an adult got in it it would sink in the water and bit, instead of floating.

 We spent our last Sunday going to the beach. It was very rocky and windy but very pretty. We found some very colorful sea shells too.

 View of the beach from the hike up an enormous cliff!!

 I'm amazed on how clear and blue the water is here

 Once we reached the top of the cliff we discovered World War II bunkers that overlooked the sea.

Feb. 20-24th South Island Travels

(sorry in advance that all the videos are sideways..I do not know how to change it..also let me know if some videos do not work so I can change them)

Since we had an extra week before school started my friends and I planned a trip all around the South Island. We took a Ferry that took us from Wellington to Picton where we rented a car. From Picton we spent a few hours in Christchurch and then drove through the night to stay in Queenstown for two days. Queenstown was a small but beautiful town that reminded me of Colorado. In Queenstown we visited Milford sound and I also bungy jumped there. We then spent two days traveling up the west coast to see all of its beauty which had more greenery and more jungle like than the east coast but had just as many rivers and mountains. Driving in the South Island was odd at first but since there is only one road to take the driving is much more scenic and easier to travel than in the States. When I drove I kept on forgetting that everything was on the opposite side in the car so when I went to put on my turn signal I usually turned on my windshield wipers first.

 The Interislander..It is the Ferry we took to get from the North Island to the South Island

 Leaving Wellington at 7am

First pictures of the South Island

On the Road from Picton to Christchurch

One of the many wineries on the drive

there were grape vines growing on the cafes that we stopped at as well

Center of Christchurch

Cathedral in Christchurch...half of it is now in ruins from the earthquake, we fortunately, left a day before the earthquake hit the center of this town so I probably have one of the last pictures of it standing

They were having a festival of flowers happening in Christchurch so it probably brought in more people to Christchurch around this time.

Scenery on the road from Christchurch to Queenstown. There were a lot of hills and mountains we had to drive through and up and around.

In the town of Queenstown

The hostile that we stayed at in Queenstown...lots of ppl tons of good smells because everyone was cooking their meals and lots of good conversations...we also watched American Pie with a bunch of kiwis and found out that they do not sensor anything here

On our way to Milford Sound, it was very rainy so the visibility was low but in return we also so many waterfalls on the side of the mountains

Many places near Queenstown and Milford sound is where they filmed Lord of the Rings which is understandable because this place is super mysterious and pretty

So much rain was coming down that it created extra waterfalls on the side of the mountains

All the water is rushing from the mountains to the sea

On the boat on Milford sound...this place was very tranquil and beautiful

The boat driver said that these are the reject males that couldn't find a mate this season so this is where they go to sleep, eat, and sulk

City center in Queenstown

Below is the Kawarau bridge where I bungy jumped. This bridge is where bungy jumping originated!

 Messing around in a small town called Arrowtown...there was mainly older people here so we were definitely stared at a lot

 One of the many sheep farms we saw through out the South Island...it's crazy that they have so many sheep but everything that was made out of wool here was over 100 dollars

 They sadly had elk and deer farms here as well. One farmer told us that they do not like ferrel deer because they eat all the small trees in the forest so they seem them as pests. Hunting deer for sport is usually not the case here.

 More Pictures of Queenstown

 Here in NZ you can buy teapots that are filled with mixed drinks of hard alcohol. With the four of us I think we got close to 4 shots each for 17 dollars. It was an interesting experience.

 I found it hilarious that they put George Michael on the "Fag" machine for cigarettes

 saw the Lord of the Rings tour shop in Queenstown and had to bother the workers to take our picture

 Random swing on the shore in Queenstown so I tried it out...notice I am barefoot since you can go into stores barefoot here! yay!

 Pictures of the west coast

 Freaking out on a very rickety bridge...well I am at least

 This was suppose to be considered the blue pool...however with the fresh water from the rain mixing with the ocean water, this pool didn't look so blue

 wide dried up rivers..there were many of these along the highway

 Along the shore line were tons of these rocks stacked up together..people also wrote messages and names on them as well

 Small parts of the glacier that are melting off into the river

 Picture of me at Fox glacier that recedes about a meter each day

 If you look closely you can see the different colors in the water...the mud mixing with the pure glacier water.

 This glacier is Franz Joseph Glacier which seemed to be a little bit larger than Fox glacier

 The second hostel we stayed at was called Noah's Ark where each room had an animal theme. We stayed in the sheep room. They also had a tiger, chettah, dog, giraffe, monkey, and an elephant room.

 The owner of the hostel also had a golden retriever dog name Beez which reminded me of Mr. BoJangles. I spent most of my down time playing with him.

 These are the pancake rocks of the west coast. If you look closely you can see the ridges in the rocks which make them really unique