Look how far we have come!

As I sit back and think about it, my time here is really almost over. Its been amazing to think about the end of my experience closing in, but such is really the case. I have a total of eight days left in New Zealand, an eleven day trek through Australia, and 23 hours of flying until I'm back in Massachusetts. Anything I do in New Zealand at this point will pretty much be school related.  Classes end Wednesday and, aside from one exam, I'm almost on winter break. Need I remind you that it is only October 14th? I mean, most of my friends just finished midterms. 

It might be too early to reflect on my experience on the whole-I certainly expect Australia to be a big part of that too-but I don't think it's too early to reflect on some of the individual experiences that I have had here in New Zealand. 

I am really proud of everything that I have been able to see here in New Zealand. With a country as small as New Zealand, it would seem easy to see it all. And certainly it is a lot easier here than in most countries. But it is still by no means easy. I probably saw a lot more than most of the people that studied abroad with me, in a lot less time. While many of them will be staying here until the holidays, I have the luxury of being able to go home early without feeling that I could have done more. In fact that was part of my strategy. If I ever wanted to come back, there is plenty that I could still do. 

Things I wanted to do before that I ended up doing:

Marlborough Wine Region

Queenstown

Surf

Zorb

Hangi

While this list may look awfully short, I think thats because I didn't know what to expect coming in. 

Things I did that I didn't expect:

Bay of Islands (by far my favorite North Island spot)

Bungy (Never thought I would do it)

Glacier hike

Thermal Pools

Caves

With all of that said, I could definitely make another trip here. I think there is a lot of the world that I would want to see first, but there is plenty left for me to do here. Not surprisingly, much of it is the more expensive experiences...

Fly fishing in Taupo

Golf Cape Kidnappers

Take the Tranz-Alpine train from Greymouth to Christchurch

Skydive Fox Glacier

Dunedin

I've said it the whole trip, but I don't think that any one feature of New Zealand (geologically) is unique. But it is such a unique country. Why? Because where else in the world can you find all of this in a country this size? Nowhere. And I say that with much confidence. It's amazing that a country this small can hold so much beauty and different terrain. 

Here are some answers to questions you may have about New Zealand:

Favorite city?

Wellington would be the place that I would most like to live, but it gets boring as a visitor the fourth time you go. As a visitor, Queenstown really lives up to the hype. There's so much to do-it's a one-stop-shop New Zealand. 

Favorite activity? 

The Cape Reinga bus tour. It really included every aspect of New Zealand. Scenery. Ocean. Extreme sport. Sheep. Fish and chips. Maori culture. It was all there.

Favorite destination? 

South Island was awesome, but I think Bay of Islands takes the cake here. Best weekend trip in New Zealand in my opinion. Two and a half days, and you can really see it all. Unfortunately we only had two. 

Biggest differences in school? 

I think that if I were putting in 100% effort, (which admittedly I'm not because I'm pass failing all four classes) I would numerically be getting the same grades that I get at Furman. The difference is the letters that correspond with those numbers. 75 is an A-? Get me this grading scale at Furman! I would have a 4.0.

Biggest cultural difference?

New Zealand is a bilingual country. So everything is written in Te Reo as well as English. There weren't a ton of cultural differences, but this stood out, especially on campus. 

Best food?

This was probably the biggest letdown of New Zealand. The food just is not that much different from the US. Less pork. More potatoes. Thats about it. One nice thing though is the quality of fast food. You don't feel as gross eating it because New Zealand actually has quality control standards. US could learn a thing or two...

Where to next? 

I really want to do Thailand. I tried to make it happen while I was here, but it just didn't make logistical sense. In the end, I'm happy with how I did it all. But I am still insanely jealous of my friends that made it to Thailand. Doing the whole Europe thing is probably in the fold as well. 

I will reflect on the greater experience on the whole once I get back stateside. But figured I would wet your whistle with this. Sorry about the word vomiting!

Wilson

The East Coast and All Blacks

I spent the last five days at Walkers in Wellington (with a night visiting new friends in Palmerston North as well), celebrating his 21st birthday. It was a joyous occasion and we had a lot of fun. As always, though, it is nice to return to my own bed. 

As I sit here today, I am one month away from heading home. Yesterday was the three month mark. It is crazy to think that it has been that long since I last saw my parents, family and friends (except Walker of course), but time has really flown by. At some points it feels like it cannot be moving any slower but at other points it feels like just yesterday that I was staying at Kiwi Packa in Rotorua not knowing what the future might hold.

I have eight more days of classes, one exam, eleven weekend days and a ten day "study week" (to be spent across the ditch in Australia before leaving New Zealand. It's going to start getting hectic here in Hamilton pretty soon, so I figured I should first finish my spring break story.


After we left Queenstown, we were feeling a bit sick of the Magic Bus experience. It had been nice to get off of the bus for a few days but now we were back on with few of our friends still with us (except Gui). At this point, we were just working our way back towards Wellington.

Our first stop was a place called Lake Tekapo. Tekapo is a beautiful lake, as blue as any lake that you will ever see. On the other hand, there really is not much to do there, especially in the winter. But it was a great stop. We hiked to Tekapo's only landmark, a church overlooking the lake. It was a magnificent church made completely of stone and had a stunning view of the lake behind it. Unfortunately it was closed so we could not go in, but the outside views were plenty sufficient.

We spent that evening relaxing in the hot pools. After all of our hiking and walking, it felt great just to decompress at the bathhouse. That was my last night with Walker, as he would be heading to Mt. Cook and I would be heading to Christchurch for the night before flying back to Wellington to watch some rugby.

I was in Christchurch by about mid-afternoon the next day. It was a gorgeous day to be in a city known for its gardens. Unfortunately, that was not what I wanted to see.

As many of you probably know, Christchurch was hit by a massive earthquake nearly two years ago. It hit the central business district of the city, closing many stores and businesses. Beyond that, it made many houses unfit for living driving people out of the city. Much like New Orleans, it has been a long, slow process to get the city back in order. I went to check out what I could of the business district, and was appalled at what I saw. The heart of the city was completely unfit for use. Pretty much every major business had to move their offices, and most stores just did not come back. It was hard to navigate around the "red zone" to find anything I needed (a bank, at this point), but I eventually found "The Restart Mall," a mall made completely from shipping containers. It was good to see that the city had made enough progress to have that, but also very telling about how far the city still has to go.

Much like people would probably say that you cannot fathom the magnitude of the damage in New Orleans unless you see it in person, the same could be said for Christchurch. I had heard about how awful the earthquakes had been, but had no idea that it took out the whole heart of the city. Its amazing how much natural disasters can destroy a city, and my heart goes out to the city of Christchurch.

But with it, there is also hope. Because of the earthquake, New Zealand has completely redone their national building codes to help soften the blow of all future earthquakes. Hopefully steps like this can prevent such a tragic event from happening again.

I flew out of Christchurch the next morning and was back in Wellington by midday for the All Blacks game that night. Flying across the strait from the South to the North Island is like being inside of a pinball machine. You get tossed and turned, dip and dive, and you never know if you are going to make it. People are throwing up all around you and screaming. Walker said his plane was even perpendicular to the runway as they were landing before straightening out. Quite the experience.

As I headed to WestPac Stadium around seven, it was hard to believe that I was actually going to see the mighty All Blacks play in person. The stadium was packed despite the suspect Wellington weather, and it was an awesome environment for the game. To say it was unlike anything I had ever attended before would be true, but the atmosphere was definitely not as crazy as a Patriots game, much less when I went to the Super Bowl in 2008. It was a lot of fun though. I was sitting next to a five year old boy who was at his first All Blacks game. He knew all of the players and was just excited to be there. I could see just how much this team means to this country through that boy. It was a tight game at half-time. The All Blacks led by one point and the Argentinians were putting on quite the tackling display. There was a power mishap at half time, but that was quickly sorted out and the All Blacks went on to win 21-5. In fact, I did not even realize that the stadium lights were not supposed to go out at half time.

The next day I headed back to Hamilton. It had been one hell of a trip, but I was exhausted and ready to catch up on some much needed sleep in my own bed.


I will be pretty busy the next few weeks. I head to Australia October 20-Halloween. I head back to the US on November 2nd. See you on the other side!

Wilson