South Island: getting there

3 weeks in the South Island is a long time to write in one post, so I figured I'd break it up.

Getting from Kaiaua to Kaikoura (north of the North to north of the South) took a couple of days in itself. After everyone had packed for 3 weeks and was in the vans, we drove for 12 hours down to Wellington... that is a LONG time to be in a van. Lots of crafts, eating, and napping. We stopped when there were things we wanted to look at, like this building shaped like a sheep:

Or Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings!

We spent the night in Wellington, which is a very cool coastal city at the bottom of the North Island. And then woke up mega early to catch the ferry from the North Island to the South Island. It was this GIANT, titanic-like boat that takes 3 hours (to take hundreds of people and their cars) to cross that waterway between the islands. The ferry was cool, so luxurious inside with lounges where all these recliner chairs faced large glass windows (like in WALL-E!) and cafes, bars, sundecks, etc. The car park downstairs was full of cool stuff too, like a professional race car, a bus, a trailer that said "Caution! Miniature horses in transit" and a collection of funny-looking foreign cars.

Once the ferry got into the Marlborough Sound was when it finally hit me how beautiful the South Island was going to be. We passed green islands all over, with rocky outcroppings, lone houses on the slopes, and with the bluest water you've ever seen.

Abby on the boat, that's Wellington in the background

We saw penguins here! Although they didn't show up in this picture. There was a little pair of them, swimmin together! (note: penguins mate for life, making our little pair that much cuter)

March

This is the most exciting month of the semester! As you are all probably tired of hearing by now, we are spending the next 3 weeks in the South Island, land of extreme sports (bungee jumping, cliff-diving, etc.) and some of the most stunning landscapes in the world. We're all packing our big hiking backpacks, which we'll be living out of, and a smaller daypack for everyday. I'm using my red school backpack as my daypack, and let me tell you, it has been taking a beating. I'm not sure it'll still be Michigan-ready when I leave this place.
I haven't started packing yet (unfortunately, the procrastination didn't change at all just because I have due dates in another country) but I'm a little skeptical as to how I'm going to fit 3 weeks worth of clothes for a region with an unpredictable temperature into one pack. There has even been snow in the South Island in past EcoQuest trips. We shall see.
If you're keeping up with where we've been (or if you're interested for this month) here is the schedule: We leave tomorrow morning for Wellington, which is all the way at the other end of the North Island and they're estimating it will be a 12 hour van drive down there <-gross. We're spending the night in Wellington, and then on the 14th we're taking the ferry over to the South Island (3 hours) and are spending time in Kaikoura. We have the next Friday and Saturday off, and were supposed to spend the weekend in Christchurch, but the city is still reeling from the earthquake and we will now be in Hanmer Springs where there is a crazy mountain biking race something or other going on that weekend, so that should still be a fun place to be. Hanmer Springs also has some awesome bungee sites, which a lot of us have been itching to try. We leave on the 20th for Nelson Lakes and are there until the 24th, then we get dropped off in Nelson (different from Nelson Lakes) that night and are on our own for food, travel, and accommodations until the 30th, when we have to back in Nelson by 4:00 pm. This is our SPRING BREAK! (that's how time off works here, they dump us somewhere, and we're responsible for ourselves until we have to meet up again. Last weekend in order to meet up with the vans again on Sunday, we had to return our rental cars, find the train station, and buy tickets and take a bus to the meeting place half an hour outside the city. It's a miracle everyone makes it every time, because we only have like, 5 cell phones in the whole group and we're often all split up). To be honest, planning for spring break has been the last thing on my mind this week, what with the mid term, the essay, the journals, having to pick classes for Michigan, pack for the South Island, and make sure I talk to everyone before I leave. Morgan and I are going to try and get down to Queenstown to visit my good friend and ex coworker Amy, but as of now, we have no cars booked or any concrete plan and Queenstown is almost as far from Nelson as you can get. Worst comes to worst, we figure we'll just end up doing something else sweet in the more northern part of the island, because there is SO MUCH to do, it's overwhelming.

Though I won't have internet for the next 3 weeks, I will have my phone and will get service probably on the weekends if you want to text me the exciting things that happen in your lives back in the States! I will be back on campus on March 31 and will read your online messages and mail then. If something amazing happens that I simply can't wait to tell somebody, I will text or maybe even send some letters of my own back! For those of you who have asked, my address here on campus again is:

Laura Kemerer

c/EcoQuest

1204 East Coast Road

RD 3, Pokeno 2473

NEW ZEALAND

Talk to you all again in April!!!

Pandemonium in the Pacific!

Last night was an overall ridiculous evening. Our midterm was in the afternoon, from 1:00-4:30 pm--one of the longest tests I've ever taken--just 3 questions that we had to write novels to respond to completely, so after the exam we were all feeling pretty wiped. We grilled up an all-American meal: steak, potatoes, and corn on the cob (the first time I've ever grilled anything! It's fun, I can see why boys have tried to trick us into thinking it's hard man's work... they just want to be outside having fun on the grill while someone else is stuck in the kitchen) and were in full-swing celebration mode after dinner when we heard the emergency bell ringing at around 9:00. When we all met up, we learned there had been 2 massive earthquakes outside Japan (8.8 followed by a 7.6!), causing tsunami waves throughout the Pacific. New Zealand's North Island had been issued a tsunami warning, and we all had to pack emergency packs to have ready in case we needed to evacuate campus, which is so conveniently located right on the water. So throughout the night we had to reconvene 3 different times, everyone at hilariously increasing levels of drunkenness each time, to hear news updates and weather forecasts. No tsunami waves ever hit NZ, but if they had, we were prepped for outrageous storms ("If the vans are inaccessible, we will hike to higher ground. If necessary, the key to the kayak shed is kept in the mailroom" and other, equally intense instructions) and stumbled around campus preparing for the apocalypse in between games of beirut. Life is so much more exciting on an island!

knitting

Right now, it's 40 degrees in AA, 50 degrees in Pittsburgh, and 65 degrees here. The temperatures are coming closer and closer together as it gets colder here and less snowy back home, it's kind of exciting.
I think it's technically fall here now, and the temperature definitely changed in the week we were gone up north. You can't tell any difference in the middle of the day, but it's pretty chilly in the mornings and at night. When we all wake up (remember we have to be done with breakfast by 8:00am) we drink our coffee in wool socks and thermals, but by the time ~10:30am rolls around, it's shorts and tanks weather outside and the girls tan out in the yard during the breaks. Then after dinner you have to pop on your winter hat again because it is freezing. A bunch of people here are working on knit hats, scarves, and warm headbands to wear in the South Island, (which we are leaving for on Sunday morning!!!) and I'm again impressed with how super crafty and handy other people are.

Today our lecture/discussion was about food production, and I usually don't blog about lecture but a couple things were kinda interesting. Like, I expected them to be very anti-meat, like every other environment-oriented class I've ever been in (eat at a lower trophic level, use less energy and produce less methane) but the talk focused more on human nutrition and sustainable farming practices, which totally jive with meat-eating. They didn't defend factory farms, but [free range] meat is actually a more efficient way to produce protein for human consumption than plants. And from what I've seen on our drives, the cows in NZ must be the happiest cows in the world.
We also learned that the way the New Zealand economy works, they export all their best stuff basically, and so the beef and dairy we eat here isn't any better or cheaper than at home, even though there are cows EVERYWHERE. In fact, apparently at Sam's Club in the States, you can get better and less expensive NZ lamb than you can anywhere in New Zealand! I just thought this was funny

This week is getting to everyone, because we have barely left campus (we took one slightly lame trip to a gold mine. We just listened to people speak and toured around, it felt like we were on a field trip) and we have so much to do. Our mid-term exam is tomorrow afternoon, and we have so much homework, not to mention a backpack packed for 3 weeks, due by Sunday morning. Also, there must be something in the water around here, because 3 long distance couples have broken up since last weekend--I think everyone was feeling stress to get everything in order before we go backpacking for 3 weeks and are isolated. Whatever their reasons (everyone's are kind of different) the broken hearts club on campus is rapidly gaining members and that has made things kinda tense as well. I think we're all looking forward to the end of this week and putting our feet on the freaking SOUTH ISLAND!

Up north

Back on campus and yet again faced with summarizing a packed week. This is our last week on the North Island. We're going to the South Island on Sunday and won't have internet for the next month, so I’ve gotta make it count. Prepare for an INFORMATION OVERLOAD this week. 

This week's theme was marine ecology. We were all fitted for wetsuits, which make everyone look very sleek and slim, and they keep you warm in the water even when you're in for hours, and we snorkeled in 3 different locations: Goat Island, Matheson's bay, and the Poor Knights. If you don't have "diving in the Poor Knights" on your bucket list, add it right now. It was one of the best days I've ever had. I can't believe I've never snorkeled before (I mean, it's actually pretty believable. Pittsburgh isn't exactly a destination dive spot) because this week was amazing. The following pictures are from the Poor Knights.
*The Poor Knights and the Tutukaka area are some of the top dive sites in the world.
We took a boat out there, about 14k off shore, and we went in in 4 different locations, including some underwater caves and tunnels. 

The water was perfectly clear, and we were swimming in a mix of deep trenches, bright orange kelp forests, and cave/tunnel systems. We saw stingray, a moray eel, schools of blue mao mao playing, a giant scorpion fish, snapper and kingfish that weigh as much as me! and clouds of pink/orange jellyfish EXACTLY like in Finding Nemo! I even got a jellyfish sting on my right hand, seriously, how badass am I! (they were small, don't be too concerned, almost all of us fell victim to the jellies at some point on Thursday) I have excellent pictures of all of these underwater creatures, but I need to find a place to get film developed. 

About half of us. I am having so much fun with these crazy kids

Shout out to mis padres. THANK YOU FOR SENDING ME TO NEW ZEALAND!!

We stayed with a bunch of graduate students in the Goat Island Marine Reserve Research Facilities for the University of Auckland. They were all marine biology students working on their masters projects. While it would be awesome to go snorkeling and diving for research all the time, staying with the students from Auckland has made me realize marine biology is definitely not for me. The ocean is such a big place, and I think working on species conservation dealing with marine life would just be the most frustrating thing. Our lectures this week were all guest speakers, some were pro-marine reserves, some were anti-reserve, some were fishing enthusiasts, and some were students talking about their projects. I would tear out my hair if I had to deal with this kind of stuff all the time. Not to mention, their facilities smell like fish. Not the life for me, but definitely cool to pretend for a week.

We had a long weekend free, getting dropped off in Auckland on Thursday night.

We met up with Eli's friend Lizzie (she's the unfamiliar face second in from the right next to Eli) at a wine festival. She's doing a study abroad program in Auckland and she hitchhiked to meet up with us before the weekend. Apparently, hitchhiking is super common here and regarded as generally safe. 

Triple bunk beds (!) at a hostel. We've stayed in 3 different youth hostels this trip so far, one in Opoutere, one in Leigh (pictured above) and one in Auckland. The first two were very camp-esque, in the middle of nowhere with multiple buildings and lots of grass, and the one in Auckland was coed and like a hotel with multiple levels, electronic room keys, and people you don't know in your rooms. They also gave you vouchers for "first drink free" at the surrounding bars <very tricky strategy

After Auckland, we drove up to Cape Reinga which is the tippy top of New Zealand. We had all kinds of outdoor adventures planned: 90 mile beach, sliding down the giant sand dunes, the ancient Kauri forest, and camping each night. It rained straight through the weekend, from the hour we left Auckland in the rental cars on Friday afternoon, to the time we got back to campus on Sunday. I can count the breaks in downpour on one hand for the whole weekend, and let me tell you, there are few things in life more demoralizing than pitching a tent in a rainstorm. We still visited all the places on our list, but were a little soggy at all of them...

Despite the rain, I like this picture. This is at the very tip of the country where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. I am pushing the Tasman here, but it blew my mind that you could SEE where the bodies of water met. 

Party in the rain!!! Against all odds, all the cars met up at the same campsites both nights. (On a side note, thank goodness for the DoC, or else sites like these wouldn't exist.)

 SAND DUNES. Lawrence of Arabia^ (there aren't any pictures of us sliding down, the risk of sand in camera seemed unreasonably high, but it was a freaking blast)

So high! This dune went almost straight up, you just had to walk up it like a ladder, sticking your feet in the sand

We stopped for lunch at a very cool, out of the way restaurant called Cafe Eutopia, which looks like a giant boat. The whole restaurant is hand built out of stucco, and it was full of little nooks with tables, and had a circus tent top in the back with coffee tables and mismatched chairs. It looked like something out of a fairy tale land inside, and is one of the best unexpected discoveries so far on our rental car adventures

taking advantage of the limited sunshine.

The biggest living Kauri tree in New Zealand. The Kauri is kind of a national symbol here, this particular tree is thought to be thousands of years old (notice the umbrella-ed Asian tour bus below it)

Stopping for some swinging on a Pohutakawa tree on the way back

In bloom

 

Garden, week 1 to week 3