tempting fate on cloud nine.

Wow, where to begin... I've been trying to remind myself every day how fortunate and happy I am to be here. However, this weekend needed no reminder.

Thursday at 8am, the entire study abroad program (including profs and spouses and children) all hopped on the bus for the ~5 hour drive to Taupo, home of a lot of volcanoes, including Ruapehu, Tongariro, and Ngauruhoe, as well as Lake Taupo, supposedly the trout fishing capital of the world. Lake Taupo is a water-filled crater that formed about 26,500 years ago with the violent, massive eruption of the supervolcano. The resulting void magma chamber then caused the walls of the volcano to collapse, leaving a caldera. Eventually it filled with water, forming the huge lake that is there today. The last eruption was in 186 AD.

We took ski lifts up Mount Ruapehu and sketched some volcanic layers in our field journals for island biogeography (there was a lot of that this weekend). We finally arrived at our hotel around 6pm, then hit the town for some food. We treated ourselves to some delicious Thai food, then walked to the lake to watch the sunset. We followed the lake back to our hotel, watching the sky grow dark, lightning storms in the distance, and the stars above us.

Friday, the bio class had a day hike planned to the Mangatepopo Valley between the Tongariro complex and Ngauruhoe (also known as "Mount Doom" from The Lord of the Rings) - a [relatively] young and active volcano. We observed and sketched more volcanic material. The non-bio kids got to continue past the saddle where we turned around, on to the good stuff: the Tongariro Crossing. They saw bright blue/green lakes, a red crater, and a forest. I'll have to steal someone's pics.. It looked absolutely beautiful.



After that, we went for a chilly dip in the lake, played some tennis at the hotel, watched some TV, and spent some time in the hot tub to end the day.

Saturday, the bio kids only had a half-day planned, so after examining some more thrilling rocks, geothermals (steam coming out of the ground), a hydropower plant, and Huka Falls, we were free. Huka falls was awesome. The rapids were fierce, but the clearest blue I've ever seen. Few daring souls have ventured down that river in kayaks.



The rest of my day got exponentially more intense. It turns out that only 7 of 36 kids are dumb enough to jump off of a 150 foot ledge. Oh, and a professor. A 60+ year old aerospace engineer, in fact. Bungy jumping originated in New Zealand, so that somehow contributed to my rationalization of participating. The ledge was above the Waikato River full of more gorgeous, clear blue-green water. They bundle your feet together and attach them to a massive rubber band, then give you the count-down. I wasn't brave enough to jump backwards, but I did dip my arms in the water below, screaming like a little girl the whole time. After bouncing upside-down a few times, laughing at the ridiculousness and enjoying the reversed scenery, I was lowered to a raft and transported to the safety of solid ground.



A couple of hours later, another adventure van came to pick us up, although this time for skydiving, which surprisingly, most of the 36 kids were willing to do. No professors this time, although our geology teacher has done it before. Dr. Garton did not hesitate to restate the stupidity of jumping from a perfectly functioning airplane, but we were already enamored with the idea by that point.

My tandem instructor and I dropped out of the plane at 15,000 feet with a sea of clouds beneath us (see video below). I remember being pelted by some form of precipitation in my face and palms, but it only lasted until we went through the clouds. He popped the parachute, and I could finally just enjoy the beauty of everything around me. I could see for miles on end; mountains, rivers, fields, tiny buildings, the gorgeous blue Lake Taupo, the sun covered by some clouds, my friends & their parachutes above me, and even a few distinct storms off in the distance. I just sat back soaking it all in until we did some awesome flips and turns in the sky.



Later, we grabbed some wine and fish & chips to celebrate our survival.



After witnessing another awesome sunset on the beach, we were perfectly content making fun of old school music videos for the remainder of the night.

We assembled at 8am yet again, hit the road, and examined some more rocks and the site of a bridge that collapsed due to a massive flood when a barrier of a crater lake broke (Tangiwai Disaster). In island biogeography, we are now shifting from geology to the biology portion, so I'm pretty excited that I don't have to hear the words "rubbly bits" or "pyroclastic flow" anymore. :)

This weekend was epic and cannot accurately be described in words. Especially not the words of a pre-med engineer. Maybe more pictures will help...

Taupo showed us awesome sunsets every night:







View from Mount Ngauaruhoe:



Bungy jumping video: (sorry, my camera lady sucked and missed the beginning, as indicated by the "I'm in trouble" narrative. ;) )



Skydiving video:

Weekend on the North Island

I spoke too soon. The weather was absolutely beautiful last week! I was even able to break out shorts and dresses. We played a lot of frisbee and frolicked on the field next to the Wier House. One day, Hannah and I took a dip in the fountain by the field.

In terms of classes, last week was pretty exciting. For environmental politics, we took a tour of parliament. We're going to go back in February when it's back in session to observe the process. We're allowed to stand in the public gallery and watch the chaos that supposedly occurs in there on a daily basis. For island biogeography, we visited a quarry to examine rock layers and faults, a small island representing waveform platforms, and the lookout at Mount Victoria, which has a great 360 view of Wellington.

We made a loop in the North Island this weekend, packing as many highlights in as possible.

After classes on Thursday, we picked up our rental cars for the weekend and headed out soon after. The drive was long, especially with the winding, foreign roads, squishing 9 people into 2 sedans, and the drivers' inexperience with driving on the left side of the road in a foreign country. However, we did see pastures, mountains, hills, a sunset, and more sheep than we've seen New Zealanders along the way.

Friday, we "abseiled" 27 meters into a dark cave with a stream and glowworms covering the ceiling. The guide informed us that we were not, in fact, looking at glowworms, but rather the bacteria in the intestines of Arachnocampo luminosa larvae only found in New Zealand and Australia. For a few hours, we mixed bouts of strenuous caving (crawling, squeezing, climbing) with peaceful drifts in an inner tube down the dark stream staring in awe at the bright green luminescing ceiling. The venture ended with a rock-climb up a steep wall leading out of the cave.



After a feast of spaghetti and veggies back at the hostel, the 6 ladies then decided naps were in order, while the 3 boys continued their adventures exploring trails and caves via the light of an occasional camera flash. After our naps, another feast of rice and tofu curry was prepared for dinner. It seems like I'm always eating here... Hopefully I'm working it off with my weekend excursions!

Saturday turned out to be a packed day driving to all of our destinations. The Waikite hot springs near Rotorua were delightful after so much driving. The temps were around 97 to 104 degrees F. We stopped by the geothermals in Hell's Gate on the way back to Rotorua. Lastly, we watched a Maori traditional performance and gorged ourselves in a real feast, then headed to our hostel a couple hours away.


We were pretty lucky Sunday. Long story short: the Google Maps driving time estimate failed us, but we still got to do our original plan of kayaking down the Whanganui River. We were on the river for about 5 hours, going through occasional small rapids and leisurely enjoying the beautiful scenery of surrounding trees, pastures, cows, sheep, birds & butterflies flying across the gorge, and 2 of the 3 boys flipping out of their kayaks. We arrived at the pick up spot early, so we ended this weekend like the last: napping in the sun.

We got after midnight on Sunday & the week has been pretty uneventful. I did have 2 tests today, which kind of ruined any chances of unwinding and relaxing this week. However, on the advice of my dad, I continue to take naps and play frisbee when I should be studying, so it's not all that bad. Classes are really started to get in the way of my recreation... ;)

Tomorrow at 8am, the entire study abroad group is venturing on a trip to the Taupo region (where we were last weekend), but to hike geology-related trails and such. Off to pack...

The journey begins...

After years of fantasizing about this trip to the Pacific, I have finally arrived. With my biomedical engineering classes officially finished and a med school acceptance in hand, it's probably best that studying abroad didn't work out until now. When others are taking engineering courses and science labs, I get to take environmental politics and island biogeography, complete with field trips! It's pretty nice when your biggest worry is laundry.

After a 5-hour flight from Atlanta to LA, 12.5-hour flight from LA to Auckland, 1-hour flight from Auckland to Wellington, and a bus to the Weir House at Victoria University, I settled into my awesome room, then set out for the town below with 5 new friends. We soon realized that there are a lot of hills in this town. And by "hills," I mean little mountains. Something tells me we will be experiencing a lot of these in the next 6 weeks. There is a quaint little permanently-angled red cable car that goes straight up the hill for a small fee of $1 NZ, but with about 20 different ways to get down the hill to the city, it's more interesting to walk anyway.

The first day was gorgeous, although pretty windy. To our dismay, the next few days turned out to be fairly gloomy with only sporadic patches of sunlight peeking out. Speaking with Kiwis (New Zealanders), it turns out that this is the coldest summer they've had in awhile, which they didn't seem too thrilled about either. Despite the cool weather and clouds, the UV index here is 11 on a scale from 0 to 10. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that I'm going to need to wear sunscreen every day. Hello again, pink nose and freckles. The air stays in the 60s though; I can't complain.

After a couple hours of wandering around aimlessly in the city and by the water, taking silly pictures, and foraging for something cheap and decent, we ended up with Chinese mall food. Go figure. Oh well, I'm not here for the cuisine, that's for sure.

Sheri, Matt, Tomas, and I decided to spend our first weekend backpacking ("tramping") on the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds. Thursday after classes, Sheri and I trekked to the ferry terminal for the couple-hour ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island. We all stayed in a hostel, then got up bright and early, hit up a delicious bakery, and headed to the water taxi to take us to Ship's Cove, the beginning of the 71 km (~44 mi) Queen Charlotte Track. It was a gorgeous morning, but clouds soon covered the sky. This cold summer actually turned out to be a blessing, for our weekend at least. The shade, wind, and occasional mist made for absolutely perfect hiking weather. As someone who uses backpacking solely as a means to an end - a cave - the trail was a little tougher than I expected, but not terrible. We made good time with roughly 7-8 hour days. The trail had nice variety between the coast, ridgeline, lookouts, areas with only one type of tree, and grassy fields. For almost the entire trip, you could see bays and little coves for miles. The view was incredible from almost anywhere, although the highlight for me was on the second day. After a long stretch of hiking up, we took a sidetrack that was pretty much a straight shot to the top of the mountain. The picture does not nearly do justice.

Sunday, we got an early start to make sure that we made it to the end in time for the water taxi pick-up. The sun decided to show up on the last day and made for a perfect ending. Even with breaks and a wonderful lunch by the water, we made it to Anakiwa 2 hours early and napped laying on the grass by the beach and basking in the sun.

Alas, I am back in school for the week, but I'm already pumped about this coming weekend, which we'll leave for in a couple of days... Man, life is tough.

I'll try to do weekly updates with tales from my sweet weekends around the country. More pictures from my trip are uploaded here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2224701&id=12811794&l=9181b54f45

Of course, my dreams were only made a reality through the neverending support of my parents, for which I am truly grateful. I love you all and miss you dearly!