Off to the South Island!

The long awaited "Spring Break" (more like fall break here) has come!!! We are off to the South Island for 2 weeks!! About 35 of us from Loyola are flying down to Christchurch and renting campervans to live in and stay at campsites while journeying around the entire island. ADVENTURE!!!! Updates to come when I return!

If anyone would like to send me a 30 cent text... here is my number.

+64 21 132 0966

Otherwise- I'll be out of contact for a while. Talk to you all soon! :)

Surfing on Piha

I learned how to surf! It was a blast. This is a picture of Piha, a west coast beach where we surfed. We had to meet at Base Travel at 7:30AM which lead to an early awakening. Everyone was exhausted from big walks the day before (some of my friends did Tongariro Crossing which we're doing in a few weeks) and we did the big Coast to Coast. So we were hurting! But before we knew it the sun came out and we were all ready for a great day of surfing. Our instructors gave us a lesson on the sand first and we practiced the steps to standing up on the board and positioning. Then we headed to the water! It was tough at first, but I got it pretty quick! I stood up almost every time and was loving every minute of it. We then took a quick lunch break and went back out for more, but the waves were getting rough and a riptide was forming so we had to cut the day short. They took us on a 30 minute hike to a waterfall, so it was worth it! Overall, an incredibly fun day and I definitely want to try surfing again sometime. The next morning my entire body was sore... especially my arms from laying and standing so many times!

Daniela and I in our wetsuits ready to go

waterfall!

Coast to Coast Walk

On Saturday we were going to hike the volcano (Rangitoto) but it was closed because they were having an event.. we aren't really sure what that was. SO we decided to be creative and try one of the walks around Auckland. My friend Lori's sister had done it when she visited and said she loved it, so we gave it a try! The walk is called "Coast to Coast" and literally goes from one coast to the other. It's 16km but we did side excursions so it was a pretty long walk and definitely worth it. Here's a picture of the map. We started all the way at the top!

Along the way we discovered new places and things in Auckland we had never seen, following little yellow signs that lead the way. Two of my favorites were Mt. Eden and One Tree Hill. The walk took us all the way up Mt. Eden to a giant crater that we of course walked down into (before seeing a sign that said do not enter crater... woops!) The view from the top of Mt. Eden was incredible. I'm stealing my friend DK's idea of posting videos on his blog... Here's one of Mt. Eden!

tiny people in the crater and climbing up!

We met a very nice woman who was very interested in where we were from and what we were doing in New Zealand. In fact, the entire day was filled with interesting people who were constantly friendly and fun to talk to. After Mt. Eden the signs took us through more gardens, parks, and eventually to One Tree Hill (my favorite of the day!!). Although, there was a tower at the top, not a tree. I think it would have been better with just one tree haha. At One Tree Hill there were sheep roaming around everywhere, on the roads, in the grass, all over. There were rocks at the bottom of the hill that someone had used to spell out "Will you marry me" How cute! We also saw two weddings that day... so much love! haha At the top of One Tree Hill we could see the sky tower so far away and Rangitoto far in the distance...

Lori, Daniela, Emily, Christie, and I (sky tower on left, rangitoto on right!)

It was very windy up there so you can't really hear me... so turn up the volume!

sheep!

Marae Trip!

This past weekend we had one of our group Loyola trips to a Marae! I'm not actually sure where it was... but the area was gorgeous.. and we learned a lot about the Maori way of life and explored the area! In the marae we couldn't wear shoes and couldn't bring in any drinks or food because it's very sacred. All 40 of us stayed in the giant room and slept on the ground next to each other... we wanted to sleep outside but they wouldn't let us bring out the blankets.. (although I think a few people still slept outside anyway). Here's a picture of our sleeping arrangements!

When we arrived we had a Powhiri, which is a welcome ceremony that the Maori people do when visitors come onto the Marae (I'm also learning about all this in my Kapa Haka class so I'm going to be an expert by the time i leave! I'll do a post about that class soon, its so much fun!) Every meal they had was a giant feast with delicious desserts and we all had like 3 cups of tea a day with some biscuits! (cookies!) After we had dinner we did Whakawhanaungatana (the "wh" is pronounced as "f" in all Maori words) This giant word means getting to know each other... so each person in our group stood up and introduced themselves, talking about family and what we like to do. It was kind of intimidating talking about yourself in front of so many people but very interesting also! After this they put on Whale Rider, which is a movie taking place in NZ about the Maori culture, but some of us stayed outside because it was so nice out and just layed out and star gazed. The stars here are INCREDIBLE the entire sky is lit up by them... especially when we get away from the city. We saw about 5 shooting stars and it was just a great night to relax and chat with some friends :)

The second day they split us up into 4 different groups. My group was Fa which means four. Today we got to learn how to be Maori WARRIORS! It was so much fun but kind of intense. We learned how to do different stick fighting moves and how to defend ourselves in a fight. We had to go for a run to warm up and do sit-ups and push-ups haha so we got a little exercise. I kind of felt like I was in warrior boot camp or something because the woman kept making us jump until we were completely exhausted. Pretty cool though! Here's my friend Lori and I posing as warriors.

After this we made Poi which are these things the Maori women use in dances and singing... kind of like a drum that you swing around. I made one of these in my Kapa Haka class too but it didn't come out very good.

The next day was awesome!! We went snorkeling and then kayaked around a little island! Snorkeling was pretty neat, we saw a giant stingray and a bunch of giant fish. Kayaking was probably the highlight of the trip for me. Our guide had us playing kayak tag and let us go into some caves! We couldn't go too far though because the water was rough and we could have gotten sweeped deep into the cave forever haha. Towards the end of the loop around the island our guide told us to all try paddling standing up which was actually a lot harder than you'd think it'd be but I was pretty good! I fell in though... but that's ok. Here's some pictures I stole from Todd from kayaking (he had a waterproof camera!) The first is all of us in a cave!

about to go snorkeling!

Takapuna

Takapuna is probably one of our favorite beaches... although we haven't seen the West Coast beaches yet which are supposed to be amazing. We'll be surfing on Piha this weekend though so stay tuned for that! Last Tuesday some of us went to Takapuna because a guy told us he was bringing a bunch of paddle boards that we could try out for free! So we all got to go paddle boarding! So much fun! It's basically a surf board with areas to put your feet and you just paddle around and try and keep your balance. I was doing great until I tried to surf in a wave at the end and then just completely crashed. It was actually a little chilly but it didn't even matter because the water was so warm. Daniela and I went swimming after too because we just love the oceannn. I should do a post about friends soon because I am making a ton of good friends in our Loyola group that I probably wouldn't have met otherwise! Everyone here loves adventure and outdoor activities so we all get along well.

In this pic is Shauna, me, DK, Emily, and Chris... some friends from the Loyola crew!


After we went paddle boarding a bunch of races started up on the beach! There was a run, paddle boarding, swimming, and kayaking. We wished we had signed up for one when it started and won a prize... but maybe another time we will! I don't know how good we'd be at the paddle boarding race, it was hard to keep your balance! Here's a pic of all the races going on and some runners falling behind :)

the volcano in the background is Rangitoto. we are hiking it this weekend!

Waiheke Island: Beach Bum Bus!

Sorry again for falling behind... we all have been busy writing papers... all this traveling and avoiding work is finally catching up! But, it's worth it :) So the other week a group of us from Loyola signed up for a trip to Waiheke Island on a bus tour called the Beach Bum Bus! We walked down to the Viaduct bright and early in the morning and hopped on a ferry to the island to meet our guide and our group for the day. Our guide, Bodie, was awesome! He took us to two vineyards where we got to do wine tastings and had a free barbeque! New Zealand is very into sausages... and their burgers aren't that great. But these burgers were AMAZING... so we all ate a ton. We also did a little hike in the woods, and saw a tui bird, which sounded like a character off of a mario video game. I should have recorded it, but I have some pictures you can all look at. Very fun day trip and got some nice shells :)

Here's a little video I took for you guys to get the real feel of how beautiful it was!

Bungying off Auckland Harbor Bridge!!!

I survived!!!! Probably the craziest thing I've ever done... and completely worth it. A small group of us from Loyola went together and booked it through base travel (got a discount and free pics/a shirt!) Others are saving up to do the big Nevis bungy in the South Island which is 134 meters... 3rd highest in the world... so we'll see about that one. But the bridge one was AWESOME. We got driven to the harbor bridge and had to walk underneath it... seriously was scary just doing the walk haha. When we got up to where we were jumping from there were a bunch of NZ bungy guys ready for us. We figured out the pattern was by weight... so we all waited impatiently to jump watching people go one at a time! I wasn't too nervous until I actually was standing on the edge and the guy told me to put my feet over the edge so my toes were sticking out. Then as I'm freaking out standing there, he made me wait for a ferry to get closer so they could all watch me!!! The entire ferry had their cameras out, so I'm pretty much famous now. Then he counted down 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. and I dove off head first!!!! CRAZY! I started coming up before I hit the water so it wasn't like we were diving into the water without resistance. The top of my head and hands skimmed the water... other people went in all the way to their socks, some didn't get wet at all. Definitely an experience I will remember forever! They said if we wanted to go again in the next 6 months it would only be $60 NZ... which is like 40 something US... so I might just have to do it again before I leave ;)

we made it!!!!

Canyoning!

So this past weekend we went on some epic adventures. It started with going to the beach Takapuna on Friday, which was absolutely gorgeous. Saturday was our CANYONING trip, hands down, best day of my life. We met at base travel at 10:00 and drove about an hour to the Waitakere Ranges, where people hike a lot. After a long and windy ride through the mountains we stopped at a small little shack where we met the other guides and got all our gear. We got wetsuits, helmets, waterproof socks, harnesses, andddd some awesome crocs for our journey. But first before putting it all on, we had to walk about 40 minutes to the canyons... more like an epic mountain climb I would say. We were all dripping in sweat walking up hills through forests on a small little path. It was a lot of fun though, but I'm definitely sore. Then we finally reached the canyon, which was just endless waterfalls as far as you could see... unreal. Throughout the walk through the canyons we jumped off waterfalls, slid down rocks (one time even backwards!), and repelled down steep and slippery waterfalls!

The repelling was a little scary, but more fun and exciting than anything. We basically were attached to a rope and had to slowly move ourselves down the rope with the gear they gave us. We were attached to the rope the whole time with our harnesses, but we moved down the waterfall ourselves, leaning back with our feet on the waterfall. The only thing that was a little nerve-wracking was when we'd slip as we were repelling... then you'd just be hanging in the middle of a waterfall without any support from your feet. There were some waterfalls we repelled down where we were basically getting splashed in the face the entire time which was an experience! Soooo much fun! There was one point when we were canyoning when my friend and I were laying down next to a waterfall in the sun waiting for everyone to finish repelling and we were like, if we could imagine anywhere in the world we'd want to be, this would be it. AMAZING!