The trails we trek, the roads we roam

I don't want to do this, but I have to comment on how amazing the weather is here now that Spring has settled in. I heard word from my extensive sources in Oregon, Missouri, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington DC (woo shout outs!) that the States are now blanketed in snow and general coldness. So imagine the exact opposite of that and that is life in the Southern Hemisphere right now. Birds, flowers, swimming, all that jazz. Thank god the weekend is here, because I spent the entirety of this week being taunted by the nice weather while I was tied to my desk, writing comprehensive essays on uninspiring topics that have no relation to my major or interests. Oops, a little rant there, whatever I'M FREE (until Monday) and headed up to the beachy Coromandel Peninsula to celebrate the sun.
      It was two weeks ago that this happened but, in case you hadn't heard, THE ALL BLACKS WON THE 2011 RUGBY WORLD CUP!!!!!!!

Things have really settled down lately, but the weekend of this game and the week following we're full of huge celebrations, happy kiwis, and parades in all the major cities. Even though we arrived plenty early, all the pubs and wharfs were jam-packed, so we watched the entire game from the street, standing up, packed in huge crowed, hoping that nobody tall stood in front of us (non-issue for me) so that we could see the big screens located an overpacked bar on Queens Wharf (which is considered "Party Central" for the games). Yeah, it was the BEST way to watch that game, especially because this is where the craziest crowds were (excluding Eden Park where the game was played). We had a loud Samoan group behind us, Spanish guys to our left, a French group to our right (who would obnoxiously wave their flags in our faces every time the French scored), and some Kiwi girls who 

Victory Parade! Weepu lookin good on the right

pushed their way into our area and then every five minutes asked me what the score was or to say something in my American accent... The last twenty minutes of the game were unbearable... watching all the close calls as the All Blacks led by a mere point. And, as you can imagine, the streets absolutely erupted when the clock ran out. I would compare the synchronized chaos to an explosion or something of greater magnitude. I don't really know how my group all didn't get separated, but for a good twenty minutes were ran through the streets, high-fiving and hugging and cheering with random people, everyone consumed with weirdly powerful joy. I'll just say that sun was rising by the time I got home from the celebrations.

Parading kiwi birds and kiwi fruit!

And the next day was a massive victory parade downtown, where the All Blacks Players themselves were driven on floats through the streets, surrounded by performers and dancers and musicians. I was about fifteen feet away from Piri Weepu, my absolute favorite player even though he didn't play too well in the finals (one newspaper said he was sick, I'll buy it). Yeah, and that concludes me ranting on and on about Rugby in these posts! But seriously, I will miss the atmosphere of the games and am so glad to have shared this enormous experience with Auckland.

Archery in the vineyards? Sure why not

      Just before the final, I went wine touring on Waiheke Island which is about a 35 minutes ferry ride from downtown Auckland. The island and the vineyard estates were stunning; the tourist in me would compare it to Lord-of-the-Rings landscape with a lot more grapes. I know we visited Peacock Sky, Wild on Waiheke, and Goldwater Estates, all of which also had really good food to "sample" (aka secretly take a ton of) and big porches with beautiful views to enjoy. Wild on Waiheke also had an archery and riflery ranges, which seemed like a creative but bad idea. 
     

Steamy Rotorua 

The past weekend my entire abroad program group traveled to Rotorua, paid for (mostly) by HWS. The city is located next to a giant lake, which is the a water filled crater formed by a past eruption. The city is located along the fault line and it's a big tourist destination because of its geothemeral features (geysers, hot springs). As we pulled into the city, there were random stream clouds emitting from patches of ground and fields, and there was a strong smell of sulphur in the air (not a good smell, just fyi). Pretty cool, it was like no place I'd ever been.

Cave entrance to Black Water Rafting

• Before we arrived in Roturua, we went to Waitomo Caves to see the famous glow worms (they are only found in NZ and Australia). Floating on an underground river in a boat, with all of us maintaining the dead silence, and the starry effect of the glow worms on the cave roof... yeah that was a powerful moment. After this tour, we proceeded to go "Black Water Rafting" through the cave systems. This sort of adventure is the sort of stuff I love and we spent the afternoon tubing through a dark cave river, jumping backwards off waterfalls, and crashing into limestone formations that we didn't see coming. 

Holding our very
 photoshopped Kiwi birds

• Toured Rainbow Springs Wildlife Park, a conservation and education center for native animals and plants - I absolutely loved it. We even got to see the kiwi chick hatchery where we learned how they incubate the eggs and release the adult kiwi's back into the wild. Let it be known that Kiwi birds are very strange, but absolutely adorable. 
• Visited Te Puia, home of the Pohutu Geyser which erupts 20 times a day, 100 feet into the air; best place ever for the geo-nerd in me! This land was formally occupied by the Maori tribe Te Arawa, who cook in the hot springs and have a spiritual connection with this land. So in addition to the geothermal wonders, this park includes a Marae, a Maori carving school, and a Maori weaving school. The whole time I was there I kept thinking about how much my dad would love                      this place, and how I wish I could have shared this experience with him.

Pohutu Geyser

Sulfur deposits around the park

getting ready to go!

• Went Zorbing, a sport that originated in Auckland itself! Well not really a sport, you get put in a giant clear rubber balls and pushed down a hill, completely out of control. There is "dry" zorbing, where you are strapped into a harness inside the ball (aka connected to the wall), and this feels like being on a very unpredictable roller-coaster (this is the one I did!). Or there is wet zorbing, where you are not strapped into a harness, but instead the ball is filled with water and you slide around in all directions as the ball rolls - kind of like a waterslide. 

• Spent an evening at the "Polynesian Spa" which is a collection of hot pools of varying temperatures overlooking Lake Rotorua. It's out of control how relaxing that water was, and I might have fallen asleep and boiled to death if it wasn't for Laura watching my back.

View of Rotorua from the mountain

a butterfly and a cat on a chairlift,
no biggie

• The big finale for the trip was riding the Skyline gondola up Mt. Ngongotaga and going on the luge! This luge has nothing to do with ice, but is more like gravity operated go carts that you can race down hill on beginner, intermediate, or advanced tracks (well you're not really supposed to race, but if that's true then they shouldn't have built a passing lane on the tracks... it's too tempting). We tried all the tracks, and a chairlift would transport you and your cart back to the top of the mountain when you finished the ride. The best part was that we were all dressed up in our makeshift halloween costumes and looked absolutely insane, especially me with my face covered in butterfly tattoos. Hey, it's better than blue hair. The day ended with a big buffet feast in a restaurant located on the top of the mountain, overlooking sunny Rotorua. 

I have one more story to share from last week. My class attended a ceremony at Owairaka Primary school to celebrate the construction of a new Fale at the school. A Fale is an oval shaped traditional Samoan building, made of timber. Owairaka is a low socio-economic, very culturally diverse community, so building this Fale to embrace Samoan ethnicity was an important event. The primary school students and teachers made speeches and delivered cultural performances, including Samoan, Niuean, and Tongan dances. I have uploaded a few videos and photos below with the hopes that they capture how special and fantastic this ceremony was. 

Sonny Bill Williams, one of the All Blacks, was in attendance, surrounded by very excited kids 

The new Fale

Tongan performance

      

After the celebration, we took a tour of the school and I soon realized that the Fale was not the first attempt by this school to create a united multicultural environment. The school had already constructed an Asian Zen/Rock garden, an Indian garden, and a Maori medicinal garden. They also had vegetable gardens, chickens, and composting facilities that the children were responsible for maintaining; a very cool way to teach community and responsibility to these young kids.

Less than one month before I start traveling... well I already am traveling but I'm about to become even more traveley as I head down to the sparsely populated South Island for two weeks, and then to the over populated Sydney Australia for another week. Time's ticking away, better make the most of it! I always get a little cheesy/sentimental at the end of these posts because I'm basically compressing all my favorite moments into a small space. Maybe it seems silly, but below i've attached a video in which I attempted to capture what I love about Auckland. Just a simple sunny day behind Vulcan Street, hanging out with Melissa and a guy on guitar:

THIS IS FRODO MY NEW SHEEP