Around Queenstown up in the Skyline

On the bus ride this morning, I stopped at Lake Roxborough, which holds the largest volume of water in NZ. I also tried a mince pie at the famous Jimmy's pie shop. We also passed by Cromwell, which is a huge fruit growing town. I arrived in Queenstown today around 2pm. It's a really nice little town. I realize that most of the towns in NZ are quite small. I like how Queenstown is walkable. My hotel totally exceeded my expectations when I first saw it. It overlooks Lake Wakatipu, which is super gorgeous. It's funny how I moved from Rydges Esplanade in Cairns to another Rydges Lakeside Esplanade in NZ. Yea, and I have TWO beds. I can sleep on one each night. Fancy that. I spent the rest of my day walking around town, picking up souvenirs. In the late afternoon, I took the Skyline gondola up to the top for a view and buffet dinner. The scenery was so beautiful: smooth,clear glass-like lake reflecting majestic snow-dusted mountains. I met an English girl up there named Ruth (funny how I met a Ruth in both Oz and NZ) who was also traveling alone. We helped eachother take pictures with the view. She's staying the Christchurch doing research and only in Queenstown for a short vacation. We said our goodbyes and I headed to the buffet. Oh my goodness. The food was so good and plentiful. For the first time, I saw salad customly made in a huge cheese bowl as well as fish served as a fish (we picked the meat out from the bones ourselves). The desserts were so pretty-looking. I took pictures of every station and definitely got some strange stares. There was also gourmet ice cream, which I totally snuck into my bag along with an apple and an orange. I ate til I could almost burst. I finished eating an hour ago. I am still so full. Anyways, I'm here typing since by some stroke of luck, I found this Global Gossip store and I still had a little over an hour on my card. Score! Life is good. Can't wait for my LOTR tour tomorrow and possibly a ride to the mountaintop in a helicopter!

In the Land of Kiwis

Alright. I know that the title of this blog is about my adventures in Oz, but a slight turn of events had me flying to Kiwi Land in search of my distant cousin. The bus ride from Christchurch to Dunedin was very scenic, but I was so exhausted that I just fell in and out of consciousness. I arrived at night Finy's place and we had our introductions and it was all very good. The next day we climbed the steepest street in the world. It was indeed very steep, but I thought it was comparable to Joce's hill back home. The view was great though. We then went to the Dunedin Botanic Garden, which didn't have too much since nothing was in bloom. We also went to the beach, but it was much too cold to get out. After that, we walked along George street, the main street and did a little window shopping. We met up with the friend of her's to have dinner at Korea House and drove up to Signal Hill to see the city's night view and then swung around to Ontago University campus and walked around. Their library is stunning: very modern and architecturally beautiful. We then decided to hit the club at Metro pub. We got there around 11pm and there were no people on the dance floor, it wasn't after 12:30 until the place started to get crowded. Finy and I just danced by ourselves for the most part and had a great time.

Today, Finy took me to Tunnel Beach, this little known heaven in a hole. And it was so amazing. The sandstone tunnel formations in the cliffs by the sea were breathtaking. I stood there not moving, awestruck by its beauty for a good 5 minutes. It has got to be one of the most beautiful views I've seen in my life. It was quite a hike down and back up, so we were pretty tired when we left the beach. We went to the Meridian after to shop around and then had hotpot for dinner. We stopped by the train station, which like the campus featured grand Scottish architecture.

I just spent a good couple hours trying to plan my epic tour of New Zealand's south island. I booked most of my tours and hotels already. This will be the first time I'll be traveling entirely by myself and I am extremely excited and slightly terrified. I don't think I'll have internet for the next few days, so wish me luck and I'll definitely documenting everything with my trusty Nikon.

Karunda and Koalas

I had the whole day to myself Thursday so I booked a tour up to Karunda Village. I took the train up the mountains and saw some great views of Cairns and the rainforest. The village was very small and quaint with stores and markets. I headed straight for the Wildlife zoo, where I got to feed some wallabies and roos. I also finally got to hold a koala! His name was Harold and he was very stinky. I also checked out the Butterfly enclosure and saw the Australia's famous Ulysses and Birdwing butterflies. Kuranda apparently has great fruit smoothies so of course I had to try one. I had a passonfruit smoothie and it sure was good it that humid heat. The trip back down the mountain was by Skyrail, which was just like a huge amusement park ride with infinitely better views.

The bus was running late, so by the time I got to the hotel, it was a little after 6. I was a frantic mess since my flight was at 7. I had to run through the terminal. I'm pretty sure that my baggage and person was the last to board the plane. When I got to Sydney, I had to stake out a place to stay the night. Alas, they didn't allow people to stay in the terminal so I had to sleep in a little box enclosure of automatic doors, which was super annoying since they kept opening and closing throughout the night. I just huddled in my sleeping bag trying to get sleep. Miraculously, I sleep for about 5 hours. I boarded my flight for Christchurch, NZ after a harrowing experience of not turning up on their records.

Pictures later!

I Can't

In the words of Brandon, I can't. Do goodbyes. It's just so hard. I promised myself I wouldn't cry and of course I did. The rest of the group left at 3:30am while Jake, myself, Maribeth, Grace and a couple others waved goodbye. It was heart-wrenching. Though it was a short 5 weeks, I got to meet these wonderful amazing human beings and bond with them over activities and memories that I would remember for a lifetime. I am tearing up as I'm typing this even though a day has already passed since then.

WILD LIFEE

Just Around the River Bend

I was Pocahontas zip lining, and then I was full-on Pocahontas rowing down the river. White water rafting on the Tully River was possibly the most exciting thing I've ever done. Hannah, Mel and I joined the Xtreme Team. We jumped off cliffs, floated downriver in our life jackets, and flipped out of our rafts. Calum, our raft guide, was hilarious, telling us past stories on the river as well as its natural history. T he first cliff we jumped off had to be about 15-20 ft high. I was ok while getting ready to jump off but as I did, I let out this unearthly shriek that I did not know I was capable of. Then my voice left me and I sank into the water in silence. It was so terrifyingly exhilarating. Then we had two "drowning simulations" as they called it. We were to float downstream and take quick gulps of air in between the 4-5 waves that crested in that section. I definitely drank some of that river water. The second one was a waterfall-like chute that went down 9 ft. We had to hold our breaths for a while and it felt like forever until I surfaced. Calum expertly steered us down the river, through the rocks and crevices. The dense rainforest scenery by the river was beautiful. I couldn't believe I was rafting through such a gorgeous place and I took many pictures along the way, even when Calum told us to paddle (oops).

GBR

So. The GBR was pretty freaking crazy supercalifragilisticexpialidotious. Yep. And if you don't know what GBR stands for. Well, it's GREAT BARRIER REEF!

 Not that I've had much diving experience, but it was the most amazing dive of my life. The water was warm, clear, and not too turbulent. As a certified diver, I got to go on a 45 minute dive instead of a 15 minute one. I saw so many fish, giant clams, gorgeous coral, some sea cucumbers, and SEA TURTLES! They are so majestic and I could stare at them for hours. I also snorkeled and did a marine bio tour with one of the crew. It was great. I want to do it all over again.

 One of my ultimate life goals. Accomplished.

FREEDOM

YES. I AM DONE WITH THE FINAL. ONE HOUR EARLY.

So relieved. Now I can scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef and river raft through the rainforest in peace. LEGGO.

Yesterday was pretty uneventful, so I didn't blog about it. With a morning to kill, I went to the beach, which was not one really since instead of sand there was mud. I found out that it was mud the hard way. I walked along the esplanade to the very end where most of the restaurants and tourist shops were. Stayed in for most of the day.

After the exam today Hannah and I went to Target, which turned out to be in the city's main mall. We shopped around and I got a much needed luggage bag. It looks exactly like the one I brought and it was on sale! We had our final dinner at 7:30 and before that I went for a swim in the hotel pool. It was nice since I was the only one there for a while. The dinner was alright. Everyone was dressed up and there was madness getting photos with everyone. I set up my underwater case just now and debating whether to go out and party or not. I bought some gel eyeliner at the mall which is pretty good and I don't want to waste it on just one dinner. Yet our scuba diving trip starts pretty early, so I think I'll call it a day.