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!!!