North Island Pics

Avo peak

Here are the pics from my Avalanche peak hike, I'll get the ones from the North Island up soon.

Bitter farewell

Prepare yourself, this is a long ramble of assorted thoughts that I wanted to get into print, some of it may not make sense but it does to me. I'm sure I forgot somethings that I wanted to say but oh well, this is the general gist of it.

I can honestly say that this has been the best 4 ½ months of my life. I have had more fun and met more amazing people than I ever could have expected. Coming over here I knew that I was going to like it just based on what I had heard from friends and seen from pictures. What I didn’t know was that the experiences I was going to have were going to completely change me. Since being here I have been able to take a step back from a mainstream lifestyle and experience something completely different. I was able to live the life I wanted with only the most minimal commitments. I would go to class during the week, and literally almost every single weekend I was able to drop everything and go travel and explore somewhere brand new. I was living completely on my own, taking care of myself, feeding myself and doing whatever I wanted. I’ve realized that there is so much more to life than just going through the system; working hard in high school to get into a good college, working hard in college to get a good job and then working hard at your job to support yourself. I am terrified of this. This is going to sound a little cliché and maybe kind of redundant but I don’t know why it took flying to the complete other side of the earth to realize how much there our world has to offer. I came to one little tiny set of islands in the southern pacific and have seen more amazing things in this little area than I have in my entire life. I tell myself that I want to keep travelling, keep seeing amazing things, now I just need to make it happen.
I have also learned that there is definitely something to be said for living simply. Now don’t get me wrong I enjoy nice food and a good solid roof over my head, but it’s easy to make simple food taste good and equally easy to make a small accommodation feel like home. Growing up in boy scouts I always had fun camping and hiking, but it always seemed kind of like we were just playing in the woods. It’s not until you actually head out carrying everything you think you’ll need in 1 bag on your back that you realize that it’s possible to be completely self sufficient. I am so thankful for everything that I learned from scouts, because the best times I’ve had here have been living in the wilderness. The best feeling is setting up your home for the night underneath a hanging glacial valley, or next to a river, or right on the beach of beautiful lake or up on the snow looking out at massive peaks all around you; knowing that you got yourself there and you are going to get yourself out of there. I never knew I would be so happy cooking a small pot of ramen noodles with a chopped up carrot a few shavings of cheese and some instant mashed potatoes to absorb the extra water, all the while knowing that it is going to be an amazingly satisfying meal. The same can be said for a simple hot bowl of oatmeal in the morning to take the chill away when you climb out of your sleeping bag.
The one thing that has truly made this experience for me is hands down the people I have met and the friends I have made. I was put in kind of a unique situation coming over here, since I came with a study abroad program (Arcadia University) I was immediately thrown into the mix with 15 random people from across the US. Plain and simple, we got lucky. Our program director Jane told us flat out that it only happens about every 8 years or so that a group really meshes well, and we did. For the most part we are all great friends. I feel like I know these people almost as well as I know the people I have spent my entire life with. We all hang out at least once a week at what has become a tradition of Wednesday night potluck dinners and I see most people on a daily basis. Within the group of 15, 8 of us have really become a family. We do everything together, are always looking out for one another and we harass each other just like siblings. The same can be said for my flatmates who have also been amazing. I live with 3 other Americans and 1 Brit, we are all guys and we all have gotten along great. My flatmate Joe has become one of my really close friends he has also completely meshed in with the Arcadia group and I have in turn become great friends with the kids in the group he came over with as well. I have made some kiwi friends along the way whom I hope I will stay in touch with as well, but oddly enough the best friends I made here are all other Americans.
It’s weird to think about leaving. Four of us went and dropped our friend George (1 of the 8) off at the airport today, and it is strange to think that I don’t know when I am going to see a lot of these people again. Like I said before I really do have a family here. Not just the group of Arcadia students, but with the way our flats are set up so close to each other, my family is huge. It is not uncommon for me to run upstairs and pop into my friend’s flat and see if they what they are up to, or if they want to make dinner together that night, and they routinely do the exact same thing. I have conversations out my window from building to building everyday when I see a friend walking up the stairs to their flat, and I almost always know some walking by to say hello to. Thankfully with facebook and what not I will hopefully stay in touch with all these people, but it’s still weird to think about.
When I get on the plane next Sunday, I’m not just going to be walking away from them; I’m going to be walking away from a whole life I established here. I guess that’s what all this is really about, I made a whole new life here in 4 ½ months and I really really like it. This country has done amazing things for me. It has taught me a lot about what I think is important, and the kinds of people I want to surround myself with. Everything I’ve done here has been fun, spontaneous and exciting and that’s the way I like it. Routine is boring and it sucks. That being said I am going to try real hard to not fall into the same routine when I come back home. There is so much to do in my own backyard both at home and down at school and it’s about time I started taking advantage of it.
All this is not to say that I am not looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone I left again, I am very excited about that. It’s more that I am scared to lose what I have here. Everything and everyone here makes me smile and laugh so much I feel like I live in a little wonderland on the other side of the earth where nothing can go wrong. I’ll stop rambling now and just say that I have made lifelong friends and had life changing experiences and I’m going to do my best to not forget a single one of either. This is probably my last blog entry for a long time, I have 4 finals in the next 7 days and it’s going to be hell. While this adventure is coming to a close hopefully another one turns up soon and perhaps I’ll have more to write about. Thank you for reading all these, I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about my experiences even half as much as I have enjoyed them. All I can say is I highly suggest seeing as much of this planet as possible because it can really blow your mind.

Final(s) Hurrah

So after flying back from Auckland on Friday and spending the weekend studying for my Environmental quality exam Monday, It was obviously time to get out of Christchurch one last time. Monday night Austin, my flatmate Joe and I caught a ride with Travis and his girlfriend Chelsea up to Arthur's Pass with the intention of hiking Avalanche Peak. The 5 of us spent the night in the exact same campsite where we went for our very first adventurous weekend way back in February! The mountains all over NZ have been getting heaps of snow over the last few weeks so we were really excited to bag a snowy summit. We had rented Ice axes and crampons from the Uni tramping club just to cover our bases. Tuesday we went to the DOC visitors center and the lovely lady Christina more or less tried to scare us out of going all the way up by telling us that this early in the year the snow base was not solid and the conditions were very prone to slides. If there is one thing I've learned or I suppose maybe not learned is that the DOC likes to try to scare you and you don't always really need to listen. We did choose the less technical route up that kept us below the bush line and off the ridges longer. The weather was perfect, blue sky and barely a breath of wind. We were able to leave a bunch of our camping stuff; tents, sleeping bags, food, etc. in a locker at the hostel in Arthur's Pass village where the attendant also told us that we would "be up to our eyeballs in snow". We headed up the track and soon enough all three of us were hiking in stubbies(unnecessarily short shorts). We made it up above the bush line and popped on our crampons, since we were about shin deep in snow and climbing up a reasonably steep ridge. We made it to a flat area with an old weather station (3'x3' metal frame with a wood trail marker in the middle), here Joe and I decided to put our pants back on, only to discover that Austin had left his waterproof pants on the side of the trail when we had changed into stubbies. Being the man that he is he did the entire rest of the hike in shorts, sometimes plunging a full leg down into the snow and getting a little cold surprise on the family jewels. We then continued on up the ridge slowly but surely in knee deep or more snow. We summitted around 2pm, and had lunch with one of the most beautiful 360 panoramas. Snow capped mountains on all sides with valleys spilling off in every direction, Crow glacier on the opposing peak, and looking down on the trans alpine highway through the pass. We headed back down the ridge, which turned out to be much easier than we expected, and about halfway down i pulled my crampons off and attempted to run/roll the rest of the way down which was really really fun, and quite funny. We ended the hike in the dark with a spectacular view of the waxing moon and venus right over the mountains, and yet another amazing NZ starry night sky. After collecting our gear from the locker we were lucky enough to catch a ride with a guy heading to Christchurch and got a ride all the way back to our flats! It was the perfect way to end my adventures in New Zealand, right back where they started in Arthur's Pass. I have heaps to say about my time here and how it has affected me and all that good stuff, but that is going to have to come at a later date when I have collected all my thoughts. 12 days left and 4 exams to go, this semester has flown by and I'm going to miss it.

Sorry for the long delay, but here's the recap of my "study" week trip to the north Island. Nora, Alyssa, George and I flew from Chch to Wellington on the 6th, and hung out there for the weekend. We had an amazing time, and all of us really liked the city. It felt so much more like an actual city compared to Chch, which is basically just a huge sprawling collection of shopping centers and strip malls with no real "city". In Wellington you felt like you were actually in a real city, and the Uni, where we were staying with friends, was just up the hill(incredibly steep hill may i add) and provided incredibly easy access. We had amazing weather Saturday and spent the day walking around downtown and exploring the botanical gardens, etc. . Sunday it started to rain so we hung out at our mate's flat for a while and then drove up to Tongariro NP where we were hoping to do the Tongariro crossing the next day (one of the most spectacular day hikes in the world). We spent the night camped out under a cooking shelter at a DOC campsite, we set my tent up under the shelter for the girls to sleep in while George and I slept under the 2 sinks since it was the only other dry spot. Unfortunately the weather did not improve for Monday and there was 0 visibility and 90 km/hr winds on the saddle so we did not get to do it. Instead we drove up to Lake Taupo and hung out in a lakeside pub and watched the Celtics game 2. We also stopped by Huka falls which is nothing incredibly impressive but its a 9 km water fall draining from lake Taupo into the longest navigable river in NZ. What did make it impressive was watching a guy and 3 kids run it on white water kayaks! Our next stop was Waitomo caves, and we called ahead to receive a 20% discount on a black water rafting trip (in caves you can't see the white water so it becomes black water) . When we arrived at the caves the next morning we were given a good news/bad news scenario; the rain had flooded the rafting cave so our trip had been canceled, but since we had pre-booked the day before and they had already collected money from us they said we could do a 4 hr abseiling trip instead! Abseiling is a fancy word for repelling for those of you (including me) who don't speak climber. Bottom line was we got to go climb around caves and repel down water falls 80 m underground for 4 hrs!!! it was incredible, but unfortunately since we were wearing wetsuits and climbing through rivers we couldn't get any pictures, and they wanted $15 a pop for the ones they took... That afternoon we drove up to Raglan (google image search or youtube Raglan indicators). This is the most famous surfing destination in NZ, and for good reason. It is a bay on the west coast of the north island that under the right conditions can have one of the longest ride-able left hand point breaks in the world. Luckily for us, the massive low pressure system that had taken up residency over NZ and had brought all that rain was on its way out and had brought massive swell along with it! I spent all day Wednesday surfing and having time of my life. We stayed at an Eco-Retreat Hostel overlooking one of the breaks and were able to rent boards and wetsuits right from them. Arguably one of the best days of surfing i've ever had. From here we drove up to the Cormandel Peninsula which is just east of Auckland. We hiked the Pinnacles which are massive volcanic plugs that were left when the volcanic cones eroded away. We hiked in light rain and intermittent sunshine up to the top of the highest pinnacle and had an amazing view out to the water, and of the entire surrounding peninsula. We then drove along the coast out around the rest of the peninsula and circled back to Auckland where we were lucky enough to be able to spend the night with my friend from high school who is studying for a semester at Uni there. Overall it was an amazing last big hurrah of an expedition in NZ and I am so glad that I got to really see the North Island! Pictures will come as soon as I compile them from everyone's cameras.