These boots were made for hikin

First big hike! We hiked 11km up the Hunua mountain range, reaching an elevation of 440m (~3ft in a meter, pretty high!) it took all morning. I though I was going to be lagging towards the back, but I was totally fine! Stayed mostly in the middle of the pack, even walked up front a couple times and was a main singer in a lot of our trail songs :) Then in the afternoon, we went straight to a perfect sandy beach a couple miles away and went swimming and did some drawing activities with clipboards on the shore (now that I've dropped out of regular school and am enrolled in the Hippie Academy of Peace and Love, a lot of our homework involves coloring... I'm sorry, "understanding the importance of reflection")

Finding out just how waterproof all our hiking boots actually are

Picture of Morgan and her awesome camera taking pictures of the same stuff I am shooting... New plan: take no more pictures and just steal all of Morgans

Don't see trees like this on American mountains!

Heyyy hiking group! 

This giant picture frame is a convenient piece of art on this beach :)

A kiwi accent lesson

There has been a lot of talk about talk lately. We all want to sound more Kiwi by the time we go home in May (it's on the general list of things to accomplish by the flight, accompanied by being tanner, skinnier, blonder, and further bedecked in hemp) so the T.A.s and instructors here have been helping us with our accents with advice like "Yer sayin i' wrang, Maori souns lahk mahldy. Lahk thi cheese." There are a lot of words that are different too, like when Dale (T.A. boy) asks for a rubber, he isn't about to have a good time, he just has some erasing to do. Swimming togs = bathing suit, jangles = flip flops, yeah no = yes, and our favorite Kiwi phrases are for compliments. If something is really awesome, it's sweet as sugar, but they are too cool for that, leave off the sugar, and "as" sounds like azz. So example: "New Tevas? Sweet as." Substitute sweet with whatever other chill adjective you want and you are set. Major as!
Today we asked Rebekkah (t.A. girl) how Americans sound, and she responded with "Howdy dude." Apparently, in all seriousness, we all sound like southerners. This is about to change. Prepare yourself for my new supa sexy accent America!

Fisheye! My lil bikini-ed self is smiling at you from the shade

February 6 = July 4

Independence day in NZ! Waitangi Day weekend involved a lazy Saturday (soccer game, ocean swimmin, burger bbq, drinks on the deck and a very long trek to the "within walking distance" pub. Sunday was a music festival in Auckland, featuring katchafire, soljah, and 1816, all reggae and ska kinda music. Very fun and relaxing way to spend the national holiday weekend

Taken from the shore, mountains and clouds we see every morning. Wowza, right?

"look natural" with our NZ beers on the deck

American hotdogs! Just in case you get sick of all this lamb

Auckland from the car

pups at the festival

Sunhats to protect our poor heads from the crazy sun, and sunglasses (of varying degrees of priciness, mine are $5 knock-offs of Hannah's RayBans :) to protect the peepers!

Happy Waitangi Day!

Mind your manners!

Today we were given bum bags, in the states they're called fanny packs, but here, fanny = the c-word, and a c**t pack is definitely not polite. Also since being here, we have learned that touch and song are very important (people aren't being creepy if they greet you with a forehead touch or a cheek kiss), however, do not step over someone, not even their legs, unless you want to sleep with them, and the green juicy kiwis are kiwi *fruits; this is very important because kiwis are people or birds, and when you're talking about kiwi fruits, you usually mention cutting, peeling, or eating them... gross

Campus

The campus dog, Scamper. Spoiled rotten with attention all the time. Like, he'll LET you pet him, if he's near you, but he definitely isn't asking for it anymore haha

Driving into town. It doesn't show up very well in pictures because of all the mist, but there are mountains EVERYWHERE, around everything we do

Driving across a one lane bridge

Taking a walk. There are trails, pathways and fences you can follow throughout the local village, a lot of students here go running in the mornings before breakfast. I am notttt one of them, but I can see how that would be nice. If you're into that sort of thing... 

More walking pictures. $1 tires anyone?

We eat so well, every meal, and everything is healthy, balanced, and local. I'm happy I'm not a picky eater, because I've gotten to try a lot of new things, especially in the produce dept.

This is where we eat all our meals and where our lessons are taught. They wheel out a whiteboard and teach outside, it is great. Watch out for sunburn though, the sun is much much harsher here than in the states, (due to a hole in the ozone) they don't even sell sunscreen with an SPF lower than 30, and even on cloudy days your burning time is still just 15 minutes without SPF. Still, can't complain, I wish environmental classes were taught outside at U-M

Dorms?

How many people can say they live next to a BANANA tree? 

This is where we are living, 2 people to each little cabin. Campus is SO just ridiculously pretty, I'm trying to upload more photos, but the internet here is slow as balls. We are kind of isolated in this small town Whakatiwai (pronounced Fuck-a-tee-why. I kid you not) that is on the Firth of Thames. The ocean is in our backyards. I'll upload more pictures as soon as I can!

Goodbye Pittsburgh!