It's all over

Well I have successfully finished my internship! Everything is turned in and all my hours at the hotel are complete.

My last week was all about wrapping up all the projects I have started while I've been there and giving suggestions about how to keep them going so all my work wasn't for nothing. Thursday night my bosses and their daughter took me out for dinner to celebrate me being done.

Yesterday (my first internship free day) I did not sleep in. I went to town and walked around the Queenstown Gardens, sat by the lake and watched the ducks. It was a relaxing morning but I still don't enjoy waking up at 7. Last night I took Aleisha out for dinner as a thank you for driving me around the whole time I've been here (I'm buying Janelle lunch today since she's taking me to the airport). I was wearing a dress, ordered ribs and somehow managed to be graceful enough to not get any sauce on my dress!

I have had the time of my life here. I am ready to go home, but at the same time I never want to leave. I love being so close to the water and having the mountains all around me.

Next adventure is a week in Queenstown with Beth. After that Queenstown, Wellington, Auckland, Cairns and Sydney with the family. :-)

OH MY GOSH ITS THE LAST WEEK!

Well the pictures from my last post are of me and Janelle doing the Safari of the Scenes for all of the Lord of the Rings scenes in Glenorchy (about a half an hour drive from Queenstown). We got to do it for free, which was AWESOME, and had a blast. It was a little off putting in the beginning because there was frost on the ground but once we stopped for coffee and some biscuits I had found my enthusiasm!

This past week I just hung around my place getting some laundry done after work and even starting to pack a little. On Friday I slept in and met up with Janelle in the evening. Her boyfriend, James, made us dinner and the three of us went to see Green Zone, which is the new Matt Damon movie. The movie was following US soldier in Iraq 2003. Not the prettiest picture painted for the American government in the movie, but good none the less!

Saturday I hung out with Aleisha, Paul, Gabbie and Isaac. We drove to Wanaka to go to puzzle world which is a huge maze and some illusion rooms that really screw with your mind (check out the Willy Wonka room at the top of this post!). The maze was pretty hard and we ended up splitting into two teams and racing. Somewhere along the way it says by the time you finish the maze you have usually walked for 2 or 3 kilometers. GOOD WORKOUT!! We had drinks at Aleisha and Paul's house later that night and had a blast (I felt like I was back in Athens drinking and chilling with my college buds).

Saturday night was fall back which was great that we got another hour of sleep, but now it's dark at 7. Getting excited about summer in the states!

Sunday was recovery. And today kicked off my last week at the Coronet Peak Hotel! I now only have 3 days left at the Coronet Peak Hotel, Beth flies in Saturday and two weeks from now Mom, Dad, Abby, Alex and John will be here. The time has gone sooooo fast!

No Costumes, but Good Weekend

Eventful Queenstown Weekend

My work week was typical 9 - 5 without much excitement beyond a dance party or two in Strike Bowl. But once Friday hit time went flying and now its all the sudden 4:30 pm on Sunday afternoon.

Friday morning I came into town early to get some work done on my paper (that was a joke I didn't get around to actually writing it until Saturday evening). But none the less I hung around town until noon then met Janelle to go up to the top of the gondola for zip treking. http://www.ziptrek.com/queenstown-new-zealand if you are interested. We did it as a famil (lovely little perks of the hospitality industry) so we were able to go for free. It wasn't high adrenaline but it was a lot of fun and not at all freaky. You felt very safe the whole time.

At about 4, Danielle arrived to Queenstown from Dunedin (she is originally from Southern California) for the weekend and we went mini golfing to pass the time until Ingrid arrived at 6:30 from Christchurch (originally from Wisconsin). We headed up to the top of the gondola so they could get the aerial views of the city, had some Indian for dinner (which I have had more Indian food here than I ever had in the states) and went up to my place to get to sleep early since the morning was going to come very soon for them.

Saturday morning I shipped both Danielle and Ingrid off in a taxi at 7am. After wards, I promptly went back to bed. Danielle and Ingrid were gone from 7 am til 8 pm so I had time to write my paper. After about 200 words I thought my progress had been good and went to do some souvenir and birthday shopping. Got Danielle and Ingrid a little after 8, just missing the shuttle back to the hotel. So we had ice cream as an appetizer for dinner and bought the required ingredients for banana pancakes. We made a delicious pancake dinner and since I cooked, I didn't have to do the dishes! :-)

This morning Danielle and I woke up with knots in our stomachs not sure if we were ready for the day ahead. We all went to breakfast at Halo: The Forbidden Bite before dropping Ingrid at the bus stop to get back to Christchurch. Danielle and I then made our way to check in for the Canyon Swing. For those of you who aren't sure as to what that is: http://www.canyonswing.co.nz/ You are attached to a cord (kinda like a bungy) at your waist and you either jump or are released from a platform. You free fall for 60 meters before swinging over the Shotover River in a 200 meter arc. There are many choices of ways to jump and I encourage you to watch the videos on the website of all the different jump styles. The guys that work that are hilarious and are very encouraging for people to do the scary jumps and not the wimpy ones. I of course chose the wimpy one! But these guys love their job so much that they actually tricked me into doing a scarier one. If you check out the website, I chose the cut away. For the cut away you're sitting up right and are released looking forward. Obviously the guys knew I was pretty gullible and told me that I had to lean back and cross my legs over the rope so I don't get hurt. Thus putting me into the Elvis Cutaway position. They took me from a "one underpants rating" to a "four underpants rating". I'm glad they did it though because I now have higher bragging rights :-). Danielle on the other hand is a gymnast and decided to go off the edge in flips. I swear she's crazy! But she loved it so much that she went again, but doing backwards flips instead.

We were both so proud of ourselves for 1) not chickening out and 2) not making too much of a scene as we fell that at lunch we deserved a drink. We had a more relaxed afternoon and took a cruise out on the lake before getting Danielle back on the bus for Dunedin.

Tonight, I will hopefully be making more progress on my paper (who knows maybe I'll even finish it!), eating some dinner and getting to bed early. All the adrenaline from the morning has drained me.

Photo Re-Cap

Internet Cafes have photo uploading capabilities. Who knew!

Second Part of Dunedin Weekend

Well Friday night we attempted watching Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring before going to bed. I was the last person to fall asleep and I only made it to the point where Bilbo leaves the ring on the mantel for Frodo. I think this proves how exhausted we were from the day.

Saturday morning we were up early. Josh had interviews for summer jobs (something I should start thinking about) while the three girls went out to the farmers market. We walked around the city for a bit and at noon we went to the Speights Factory. Speights in a New Zealand beer and one of the oldest functioning breweries in New Zealand (speights.co.nz). It was an hour and a half tour with (unlimited!) tastings of 6 beers. Included in the price of our ticket was also a 2 course lunch with a 12oz Speights beer of choice. Speights makes some of the best mud cake I have ever tasted :-)

We then ventured to the harbour where we got on a bus to take us out to the Otago Peninsula. There were some great views of both the harbour and the coast line from the bus ride, but the drive was a little windy with a bus driver who was a little too comfortable at going at high speeds around the corners. Out at the end of the peninsula we fought the wind (which was gusting up to about 50 knots) to get onto the boat. The boat took us out to the end of the peninsula to see Albatross, seals and penguins. We did see all those things, but we only got to see 1 penguin who was swimming along side the boat. The albatross have HUGE wing spans and glide so effortlessly on the gusts of wind. SOOO pretty to watch. Well on the boat we made friends with these 3 older women who were having a great time being young again. Since the animal viewing was only for 45 min of our 2 1/2 hour boat ride, these ladies kept us entertained the rest of the way!

Back on dry land we went back to the apartment, had leftovers for dinner and decided to attempt the other two Lord of the Rings movies. Before attempting this we had to (obviously) get some liquid fuel. My poison of choice being red bull. Well it proved to be an entertaining night. All 4 of us made it through the Two Towers then we had an hour intermission where I got to call home before starting the Return of the King. We lost Ingrid before the third one started and Josh got about half way through. Danielle and I however, powered through and finished the movie at 5am. How did we manage to stay awake? We made Lord of the Rings a sing along by choosing songs that we felt fit the scenes we were watching.

This morning was rough. We woke up at 9 had a little breakfast and went out to the Otago Museum. There we got to see taxidermy animals from the Otago region and an exhibit about collections in history (it had coins, matchboxes. . . etc). Still a little slap happy from the night before, it was an adventure :-)

I hoped on the bus to come back to Queenstown at a quarter til 2 and my bad luck with buses is still unfailing. We were doing great until 20 minutes outside of Queenstown the bus broke down. Making me miss the 6 o'clock shuttle back to the hotel by 15 minutes. Thank goodness that was my last bus ride!

Overall the weekend was a blast and we managed to pack a lot into a little amount of time! I'm spending the rest of my time in Queenstown until I leave for Wellington with Mom, Dad, Alex, Abby and John.

Beginnings of Dunedin

Woke up before dawn broke this morning to board my 7:45am bus to Dunedin. I decided to skip my morning coffee for increased chances of sleeping on the bus. Once on the bus I realized how awful an idea it was since I was going to be spending the next 4 1/2 hours listening to a baby wail everytime we hit a bump.

Once in Dunedin I met up with Danielle (who's living here), Josh and Ingrid. Immediately I learned how much the weather here has mood swings. I arrived and it was sunny by the time I dropped my stuff off at the apartment and we headed off it was pouring rain.

Our first stop of the day was the Cadbury Factory, YUM! The photo is of me, Josh, Ingrid, Danielle and Ryan (our tour guide). I'd also like to point out that after we took this photo, 4 other members of our tour group decided they wanted photos with Ryan and copied our thumbs up, we started a trend. The factory tour was great (and yes I'll put up more pictures when I have a computer to upload them from). The machines weren't all going but we did get lots of free samples of chocolate to take home and got to try liquid chocolate. BEST PART: Chocolate Waterfall. Yes. It does exist. Not quite to Willy Wonka standards, but 1 ton of chocolate does fall from the top of a silo in a waterfall manner. That plus the liquid chocolate made the tour. It was fabulous!

We then went outside and the sun was out again. We dropped our chocolate off at the apartment and headed in the direction of Otago University. We walked through the campus and also cut through the botanical gardens (not quite as impressive as Christchurch, but still pretty and free) to get to our final destination, the steepest street in the world, Baldwin St. (not named after Alec, I asked). I did not climb to the top since by that point I had lost feeling in my feet since the weather shifted yet again to rain and wind.

The weather remained windy with spits of rain as we walked back to the apartment where we made spaghetti for dinner and attacked all the cadbury chocolate we had. Tonight we will be watching Lord of the Rings in the theatre which has been reserved for us to sleep in. HOORAH for free accomodation!

Tomorrow we are seeing the Speights Ale House and going on the Wildlife Cruise to see penguins!

Dear (best) Mom (ever),
Thank you for the peanut butter and Somoas. The other interns are quite jealous that their moms didn't send them girl scout cookies. I brought one of the boxes to share this weekend and I have a feeling they wont make it back to Queenstown. THANK YOU!!!
Love, Erin

Christchurch and Dolphins

Christchurch weekend was a success!

On Friday we spent the day around the city checking out the cathedral, botanical gardens and just wandering around. Bre, Maria and I signed up for paragliding for Friday afternoon but at 2 o'clock the skies opened with rain and our trip was cancelled. That night we all ate dinner together then went 2 directions. Josh and Ingrid went to the symphony while the rest of us went to see Shutter Island. If you have not seen this movie yet I highly suggest it.

Saturday was the dolphin swim. We all boarded the bus in the morning for the hour ride to Akaroa. Akaroa was a small little town on the water that had lots of small shops and cafes. Only 5 of us went out to swim with the dolphins in our always flattering wetsuits. It took a while to find the dolphins, but once in the water they swam around you and came pretty close (we werent allowed to touch them). We took the bus back to Christchurch and then headed to the gondala. The sun was setting while we were at the top of the mountain which gave us some great views with the sunset. We ate together last night at Poppy Thai - yummy phad thai! A few of us went out for drinks before turning in for the night and the weekend was over.

IT WENT TOO FAST!!!

I'm so happy to be off the bus and back in Queenstown though.

Christchurch for the Weekend

I'm already halfway through my 10 week internship - it is going way too fast! David was out of town this week so I just continued with marketing and researching the website and venues.

I've been spending heaps of time with Janelle and we've been planning all the free activities we can do in Queenstown with our famil trips. She's willing to do the LOTR tour with me, but she hasnt even seen the movies. I dont think she'll want to do a 12 marathon of them either. We get along pretty well considering she loves popcorn and movies. We baked a cake together Tuesday night - DELICIOUS.

David let me have today (Thursday) off so I can have an extra day to get too and from Christchurch. Arrived in Christchurch at 5:45pm today. It is so flat here compared to Queenstown! The rest of my group (there will be a total of 7 of us) will get here in the next two hours. After 9 hours on a bus all I wanted was a shower. All of us will be sharing a room in the hostel with a guy named Mark from the UK. Since I was here first I've had a chance to meet our roommate and prepare him for the noise level to come. Tomorrow isn't planned but we are swimming with dolphins on Saturday. I'm excited to see what the weekend will bring! :-)

My plan is to post again Sunday.

CHEERS!

4 weeks in!

I've officially been here a month!

Well on Sunday I came into town early and fed the birds down by the water and walked around a bit. The computer shop was closed, so I didn't get to drop it off until Wednesday (still dont have it back yet).

This week has been great. Work has been the usual with registers and researching how and where to market. Tuesday night I watched House with Janelle and had popcorn. Wednesday was Lost and that was exciting as it always is :-)

Thursday night I went to Aleisha's house and had Bolognaise Pizza and watched Alice in Wonderland (she was a little appalled to the fact that I had never seen it). Bolognaise Pizza has bolognaise sauce, ground hamburger meat, cheese and parsley. On the way home we stopped by her aunt and uncles house who were entertaining Americans for the evening - they were from Arizona and Iowa. Very exciting to be with my people :-P

I have spent today with Janelle. I met her at the hotel and we sat in the hot tub and sauna for the morning, had lunch then came into town on the 2 o'clock shuttle. We then went to the Kiwi and Birdlife Park (for free) and got to see more kiwi - no pictures this time because they weren't allowed - and other indigenous birds to New Zealand. Tonight we are bowling at the hotel, eating some junk food and watch a movie on TV.

The rest of the weekend will be low key - hopefully beautiful weather so I can lay by the lake and sketch a bit.

**Crossing my fingers to have my computer back soon**

Weatherman Lied

My computer is still on the fritz. No good.

But for good news the weather report I read on Thrusday was COMPLETELY wrong for this weekend. We have seen nothing but blue sky and sun all weekend.

Spent Friday around the apartment during the day. Caught some sun on my balcony and outside the hotel when I called home. Friday night was a movie night with Aleisha and Janelle. Ate tons of junk food and watched Willy Wonka (with J. Depp) and Mulan. Aleisha has 27 Disney movies - I have met my New Zealand soul mate!

Saturday was beautiful. Hung around the apartment getting sun on my balcony again in the morning then went into town and played mini golf. I came in 4th out of 6. Not my best but it wasnt the worst I've ever played. Had a bbq at Aleisha's last night, lamb burgers (not my favorite), sausages, potato salad and cake.

Today is unplanned so far. Hoping to get my computer fixed. *fingers crossed*

Computer Issues

Having issues with my personal computer. Just my luck for it to break down while I'm in a foreign country. So I appologize for lack of posts until I can figure out what is wrong.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

End of Week 3

TIME IS FLYING!!!!

This week I have been doing research on events coming to Queenstown that the hotel can aim to market towards. I've compiled all the events and made a mini marketing plan/strategy for one of them. David is going to review them over the weekend and we are having a meeting on Monday about what to pursue, change, and all around do. Also on Monday I am going to go into town with Janelle to help market the bowling alley to all the hostels and public areas in down town.

This weekends forecast: rain, rain and more rain. This morning the rain created such a fog that you couldn't even see the mountain. So it will be a weekend indoors. Tomorrow night is going to be a movie night with Aleisha and Janelle and Saturday is putt-putting (theres an indoor course). Aleisha and I also discussed going to puzzle world, but I'm not sure if the weather will change those plans.

Not much else to report from the southern hemisphere.

Sketch Request

Beginnings of a sketch from the Wilderness Safari.

Thank you Nanny, Papa and Nana for the Valentines Day mail!
Lost is on tonight =)

Safari Pictures

Valentines Weekend

Happy Valentines Day!

Friday, I went into town with Janelle and Aleisha and saw the movie Valentines Day, which was good and the previews for new movies look really intriguing!

Woke up Saturday morning to catch the 8am shuttle and it was raining. I made an executive decision to sleep a bit longer and see what the weather proved to do. Woke up again at 9:30 and the sun was out so I walked into town. Went to the arts and crafts fair/thing and picked up a souvenir clock made out of a beer bottle. Spent early afternoon wandering around down town and found a small art gallery (with free admission - score!) that really made me miss my acrylics and paintbrushes. So in a wave of emotion wishing I had art supplies with me I bought a sketch book and colored pencils - much cheaper than acrylics and canvas I must say. So Saturday afternoon I drew for a bit and did my laundry - exciting no?

Today was an adventure! Aleisha picked me up at 7:30am to go on the Wilderness Safari (http://www.dartriver.co.nz/dartriver/WildernessSafari/). The weather was not great today, mid sixties, cloudy and windy. The safari is a 45 minute bus ride out to Glenorchy - a town of roughly 250 people, an hour jet boat ride, 20 minute nature walk, and another hour or so in a bus that takes you down a dirt road through some scenery (and LOTR filming sites!). The jet boats were heaps of fun. They went really fast and we saw some gorgeous scenery and the driver would stop so you had time to take some pictures. They also did some 360s that got your adrenaline pumping - and got you a bit wet, which made it pretty cold. The nature walk was short, but beautiful. It was through a rain forest that gets 7-8 meters of rain every year. On the backroad tour I got to see part of the ents - to me it looked like at the end of Helms Deep when the ents crush the remaining orks that fled, Isengard and a portion of the Hobbit will be filmed in May. On the drive up we also got to see where Frodo runs from Boromir in the first movie - when Boromir tries to take the ring. This trip made me want to do a Lord of the Rings trip now.

The rest of my Sunday is going to be a bit more low key. I'm chilly so I think I may make some coffee or tea and watch a movie.

When I get the pictures off my camera I'll put a few up from the Wilderness Safari.

Cool Front

Its been cooler the past couple days. Sun came out late this afternoon. . . I'm hoping it stays out. It is supposed to rain tomorrow :-(

At work I am still trying to straighten out the registers. Today I took stock of all the beverage items in the bowling alley and entered the numbers into the registers so we can have the stock automatically adjusted when things are sold. I will repeat all this tomorrow in the bar. Then its the weekend!

Went to town last night with Rachel. I was craving chocolate so we went to a restaurant, Brazz, and had a massive chocolate brownie with ice cream. It was delicious and was the perfect thing to calm my craving. After dessert we went to a goodbye party for Avril, who is friends with most of the girls in the hotel. Didnt make it a late night since I had work this morning, but it was a good time.

Tonight's big plans: Final season premier for Lost. I'm going to pop some popcorn and just relax in the common room. I'm excited!

Back to Work

Yesterday morning I spent watching a documentary of Marlon Brando in the common room while eating some bruchetta bites. Nothing terribly exciting but it was nice not having to be any where at a particular time.

I went into town at 4. Walked around for a while then had dinner at The Cow and gelato (I tried after dinner mint - yummy!) from The Lick. Picked up a few groceries (including popcorn - FINNALY!) and got back home around 8. By the end of yesterday the sun was behind the clouds and the wind was blowing so it was a little chilly.

Today looked to be chilly this morning, but turned out to be beautiful. I was able to wear one of my dresses to work :-). Speaking of work I had a change of scenery today and was working in the bar at the register (re-programming and organizing the functions). So instead of a view of the mountain I could see the back patio and the pool. At the end of the day I was in the bowling alley working on their register which was fun because I was working around people at that point.

Haven't decided what I am doing yet tonight.

Waitangi Day Weekend

Friday night was a birthday celebration for a girl at the hotel, Camilla. A couple people arranged a bbq and a night out on the town and I went with. Camilla is from Brazil, so the bbq was Brazilian flavored, which was just a lot rock salt on the meat that we cooked. We also had some sausages too to go along with it.

Rachel (a Kiwi and daughter of the hotel manager) LOVES onion dip. Over here though it is not pre-made, so they make it themselves with condensed cream, onion soup powder mix and vinegar. I told her once I get home I'll have to ship her a jar of french onion dip, American style. The homemade stuff tasted pretty yummy.

HAPPY WAITANGI DAY!
Saturday (Feb 6) was Waitangi Day (similar to our 4th of July - no fireworks though). Waitangi Day celebrates the treaty that was signed between the Maori and the European settlers in 1840. This treaty made New Zealand a part of the British Empire and helped cease the fighting between the Maori tribes.

Saturday, I slept in (Friday turned out to be a late night). I caught the 2 pm shuttle into town and walked around for a few hours. I had lunch on the harbour at a deli called "The Good Food Company". In the picture above it is the green building (you can click on the picture to enlarge it).

I then walked through the arts and crafts fair that goes on every Saturday. Lots of neat stuff there. I am planning to go back next Saturday and maybe pick up a few souvenirs. Afterwards I had some caramel gelato and walked by the water for a bit. I put my toes in the water and it was FREEZING cold. It is going to have to be excruciatingly hot to get me to go swimming in the lake.

Saturday night was just relaxing at home. Made dinner in the common room and watched Indiana Jones.

Toes in the. . . rocks?

Caught the shuttle to Queenstown at 8am this morning and spent all morning walking around and seeing the city. Had an amazing strawberry tart at a cafe with sparkling cranberry lime juice (tasted a lot like a limeade from sonic, but more expensive).

I then sat on the beach by the lake for a while soaking up the sun rays (with sunscreen on) and watching the seagulls, ducks and boats. The beach is really more just rocks that are small but there was plenty of space to lay out a towell and not feel like you were on top of other sun bathers like some beaches in Florida. The sun is more dangerous here since New Zealand has far less polution to suck up the UV rays as well as there being a thinner ozone layer. Sunscreen is REALLY expensive though. Got a bottle of Hawaiian Tropic for $26. It better last me the whole time I'm here.

All the interns in the program have been trying to get weekends put together for traveling. The only thing that has been set so far is that I am going to Dunedin in March, by bus. It is about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride, and the bus tickets were super cheap. Other cities I am trying to get to are Christchurch, Wellington and Nadi (Fiji). We'll see how far the budget gets me :-)

Summer Lovin!

The weather here has been so great! It has been warm with few clouds and looonnng days. The picture above was taken at 9:30 last night. About half an hour later it was completely dark. I'm not sure when the sun rises (because its up by the time I get up for work) but I love seeing it all day and getting my vitamin d!

With the summer comes great fruit and lots of it! The kiwis over here (as you would guess) are delicious and one of the cheaper fruits. I am hoping to make it to the farmers market this weekend to see what other kind of fruits I can get my hands on.

Hope you are all staying warm!

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

WORKING HARD!

The first couple days have been great. Everyone at the hotel is extremely friendly and willing to help me learn everything. I have already been offered rides to other cities on the south island when other people are headed there. I'm not sure if I will take these offers up yet but its nice to know I have a cheap, cheap, cheap option.

The people working in the hotel are half and half. Half temporary and half permanent. There are a bunch of nations being represented as well: New Zealand (of course), United States (again obvious), Ireland, Brazil and France are the nations of people I have met so far. Queenstown is full of people stopping through and finding a job for a while before moving on to the next city they want to see, so there is a lot of diversity and short term jobs.

So far all of my work has been excel spreadsheets and a little redundant but I understand it so that's great news :-). Hopefully soon I will be helping with events and marketing.

I haven't gone back into Queenstown yet, but am planning to go sometime this week to scout out a post office and some souvenirs.

Sending love back to the U.S.!

Queenstown Weekend

I flew into Queenstown Saturday morning from Auckland. The experience at the Auckland airport was the most pleasant airport atmosphere I have ever known. You checked your luggage yourself and everyone was happy and helpful (especially the security guards who do not require you to take your shoes off). The flight down was mainly over the water but once I was over the south island it was beautiful mountains that were spotted with sheep all the way to my decent into the airport.

The drive was just as beautiful with the lake surrounded by mountains. The weather is sunny and about 75 degrees. I love it here.

Saturday I moved in, went grocery shopping and walked around town a bit, where there are a lot of different languages being spoken because it is a very touristy town.

Sunday morning I walked down to Queenstown which took about 2 hours (with my photo stops that is). The photo at the top is me at the wetlands park that I walked through on my way down to town. There were some great views on my way down and lots of sheep, horses and flowers.

Every night that I watch TV in the common room I feel as though I am in a time machine. Saturday I was watching music videos and the Backstreet Boys "Bye Bye Bye" was on then the Spice Girls came on after wards. Last night I watched Tales from the Crypt. It is an amazing jump back in time to 10 years ago :-)

Picture Updates

Ok the first picture, obviously, a kiwi at the Auckland zoo.

Second picture is the whole intern group (plus a couple Maori guys) in front of the Maori cultural center.

Lastly, is a picture of Breann (left), Alanna and me in front of the city skyline.

Maori and Kiwi and Sheep OH MY!

Today was a bus tour out of Auckland with Paul the bus driver.

We went to the Maori cultural center where we were greeted by 4 Maori (3 guys and a girl) about our age who taught us Maori culture and history. We got to learn to weave the plants that look like palms (but are MUCH more durable) and sing Maori songs.

We ventured to One Tree Hill (not the movie set) where the park was filled with sheep. Unfortunately, no one in our group was able to get close enough to the sheep to take a picture with them but we did get pictures of them. . . running away from us.

The Auckland Zoo had all the animals out and about, which is what really makes the zoo fun. Not only did we see a Kiwi (who ran, and it was adorable) but we also saw hippos, lions, monkeys, giraffes, zebras, flamingos, turtles, sea lions and much more. The zoo was awesome because there is a medical center within the zoo to handle animal issues. What really makes this ingenious is that the operating tables are behind glass panes so that guests can see what is going on and the doctors will take the time to explain what is happening.

The tour ended at the museum of Maori Culture. We only had 45 minutes to do a quick tour (no, we did not see it all) of the artifacts and pieces of history from the Maori people. During this we were able to sit in on a volcano erruption simulation of an actual eruption that happened not too long ago. I never want to live near volcanoes.


Took over 200 pictures today. . . Best of coming soon.

Myths Busted

1. Toilet does NOT flush the other direction. I know I'm disappointed too.

2. Mullets do exist over here.

3. Kiwis are not everywhere - actually only 700,000 still exist when there used to be millions.



Any other myths I should be trying to bust?

Think I went to heaven

Landed safely in New Zealand this morning (Thursday - I had no Wednesday) at 4:55am, just in time to see the sunrise over the airport. It was far too early.

The flight was cramped coming from LAX to New Zealand. Happily, everyone had their own TVs for in flight entertainment.

After a whirlwind of a day (it is still only 4:15pm here) I am still going on some reserve energy I have managed to keep. So far we have had breakfast, expored a bit, had lunch and took a walking tour of Auckland. Plans for tonight are for a bit of fun at the pubs and trying to acclimate ourselves to NZ time.

Everyone in my group has the same travel bug I do and we are trying to find good times to visit eachother in our respective cities. Everyone wants to go to Fiji for the weekend of one of our girls birthdays - I'M PUMPED.

One fun fact about New Zealand - BEST COFFEE EVER. I think I'm in heaven. Coffee is everywhere and it makes me so happy.

I'm on a timer at the hostel computer so I have to cut this short. I will post again as soon as I can.

Lots of Love from Auckland!

861YBE

I am going crazy today with packing and pulling together all the loose ends. My to do list does not seem to be getting any smaller and I am procrastinating as I write this post. It just proves that I am still a college student, leave everything to the last minute and procrastinate as much as you can before getting in trouble.

As I was driving from OSU's campus to Dublin yesterday I was behind a car who's license plate was 861YBE. My head twisted the letters around at the end and made it spell 861BYE and I found it to really represent the past weekend that I have had and the night and morning at the airport to come. I have been running around trying to see everyone that I know one last time before I ship off and even though it was not 861 it still meant a lot to see everyone.

To all those that I did not get a chance to see or talk to - GOOD BYE! I will miss you!

Well I must be getting back to my to do list. My suitcases are already on the verge of breaking 50 pounds so let the shuffle begin!


My next post will be from New Zealand!

Accomodations!

For the Auckland orientation we are staying in a hostel. But it is not a typical hostel where you wind up walking out with scabies (ask about my Galway, Ireland incident). This hostel has a sauna, rooftop sundeck, and hot breakfast. I am also pumped for the orientation where we will have a tour of Auckland, learning about the Maori culture and a trip to the Auckland zoo (where there will be KIWIS!).

When in Queenstown I will be in a furnished, 1 bedroom apartment that is a 2 minute walk from my internship. My apartment is in the Shotover Ridge Lodge (previously known as the Storm Cat Lodge) off Arthurs Point Rd. The furnishings include queen size bed, couch, table with 2 chairs and a kitchenette. I AM SO EXCITED :-)

Estimations of my location:
•8 Minutes to Queenstown centre
•15 Minutes to Arrowtown
•20 Minutes to Queenstown Airport
•10 Minutes to Coronet Peak Ski Area
•6 Hours drive to Christchurch
•3 ½ hour drive to Dunedin