South Island Road Trip!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I won't be around for the next week to post anything, because I am going to be traveling around the South Island! (This does mean, however, that when I get back there will be several new entries to post!)

New Zealand is comprised of two main islands, the North and the South. Auckland is located on the North Island, as are all of the places that I have visited so far. As beautiful as everything has been here, the South Island is supposed to be even MORE scenic, if that's possible! So, needless to say, I'm really looking forward to this trip.

There are four of us going: Cate, Kim, Lynn and myself. We're flying into Christchurch tonight and then are renting a car for the remainder of the trip. We are trying to cover as much ground as possible and will be doing a lot of driving, making a loop across to the west coast, down to the southern region and then back up to Christchurch along the east coast - all in 8 days. We have some exciting things planned, and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Love,
Lauren

Taupo and Rotorua: Part Two

The next day began with a yummy buffet breakfast in the hotel. They had a full English breakfast plus pancakes, fruit, cereal, yogurt, etc. Pretty much, they had every breakfast food you can think of, PLUS some other unusually non-breakfast foods such as fried fish and rice. After breakfast, we got on the bus and headed to our first stop of the day: Te Puia, which is Maori for “The Geyser.” Here, we saw an active geyser that can shoot 30 meters into the air. It was pretty impressive. It’s amazing to me just how many of the things in Rotorua are related to the fact that it is a geothermal spot. (This is probably a good time to mention that Rotorua smells like rotten eggs because of all of the sulfur in the air. You get pretty used to it, but sometimes it just sneaks up on you and you get a very strong whiff all of a sudden.) They also had a “Kiwi House” at Te Puia, so we got to see our first Kiwi bird. Since they are nocturnal animals, they are kept in a house where the time is simulated. When it is noon, the Kiwi birds think that it is midnight - that way the tourists can get to see the birds! We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but they are very funny looking creatures. They are these large brown fluffy things with very long beaks. They can’t fly so they just waddle around.

Our next stop was to the “Agrodome Sheep Show.” In case you are not aware, the sheep to human ratio in New Zealand is 10:1 (the highest per capita of any country in the world), so sheep are a pretty big thing here. We were a little early for the show, so we got to walk around and see all of the sheep up close. I even kissed one! (Kind of gross, I know.) When the show started, they brought all 19 of the different breeds of sheep up on stage. Then, they did a demonstration of a sheep shearing, which was interesting to watch. I felt sort of bad for the sheep though, because he looked so scared afterwards. The guy said that after being sheared, the sheep feel very embarrassed and cold. The guy then did this thing where he was pretending to hold a sheep auction, yelling out in an auctioneer’s voice. He had people raising their hands to “bid” and somehow the next thing I knew I was being called up on stage to pay for the 4 sheep I had supposedly just bought! He told me I owed $700 and when I said I didn’t have any money, he wanted to know how else I could pay. Since I didn’t have much to offer, he asked me to take my jacket off and went through my pockets, where he found my wallet! It was all a joke of course, but I did walk off stage with a little stuffed animal of a sheep.
Next, he asked for 3 volunteers to come onstage to try their hand at milking a cow. Kelly, Cate and one of the Loyola boys got to go up onstage. They all got the hang of it pretty quickly, but seemed a little grossed out by it! After the show was over, we got the chance to hold baby lambs. They were adorable! We had lunch at the Agrodome and ironically enough, they served grilled lamb chops. Believe it or not, this was my first time eating lamb in New Zealand. The lamb chops were actually delicious, but some people were a little unnerved by the fact that we had JUST held lambs and were now eating them (obviously not the same ones though!).

Right after lunch, we headed off to go Zorbing. (Not the BEST planning to have this activity immediately follow lunch, but oh well!) Now, for anyone not familiar with Zorbing, they best way to describe it is a human hamster ball. You roll down a hill with 3 people in a giant inflatable ball which has a little bit of water inside. There is a hole in one side that you squeeze through to get inside. Then you stand up and try to start running (like a hamster wheel) but it is impossible to stay standing. So then you just fall down and are sloshing around in the bottom. I went down with Kelly and Kim and we were pretty much just laughing like crazy the whole way down. This was definitely a unique experience to say the least!
Next, we went to Rainbow Springs, which was a zoo-type place with fish and birds. I was exhausted by this time of the day and to be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to what the tour guide was telling us about the different types of fish. We did get to see another Kiwi bird though. Seeing these birds twice in one day could definitely be considered a rarity because even though they are the national bird, they are not spotted very often. Unfortunately afterwards, we had to sit through another lecture, about Maori tourism this time. I felt bad for the lecturer, because the things he was telling us about the Maori culture were mostly things we had heard numerous times already, and everyone was pretty bored, myself included. After the lecture, we were able to go back to the hotel and had about an hour and a half before dinner. Most of us put this time to excellent use by taking a much needed nap!

When we went downstairs for dinner, we were met with a huge array of food. Most of it was actually quite good, especially the desserts. We stuffed ourselves again – it was hard not to on this trip, since all of our meals were already paid for! After dinner, we headed over to the Polynesian Spa, which has 35 different hot mineral pools. It was really fun just relaxing in the hot water. The different pools were supposed to be good for different ailments. We spent most of our time in the one designed to relieve joint and muscle pain. I have to say that it was a very relaxing experience, despite the fact that we all smelled disgustingly of sulfur when we were done.

When we had had enough, we headed back to shower off. Then we all got ready to go out to celebrate Timm’s birthday. We hung around for a while listening to Nick and Timm play the guitar and bongo before going to a bar called “The Grumpy Mole” – Timm’s choice! The final day was pretty low key. We filled up on breakfast before heading to the Skyline Gondola – a cable car ride which afforded a beautiful view over Lake Rotorua and the surrounding area. The highlight was that Loyola paid for one luge ride per person. We got to ride on a track a little ways down the mountain and then take a ski lift back up. The luge was similar to alpine slides that I have been on, except the track was flatter and wider and you got to steer! It was pretty challenging at times, because you definitely felt like you were going to flip over coming around some of the curves (and one girl from our group DID wipe out)! It was tons of fun though, and we all opted to pay for a second ride so that we could try out the advanced track (because you had to go down the intermediate one your first time).
We had our final buffet meal – lunch with a gorgeous view. Then we headed back down in the cable cars, and boarded the bus for our ride back. Linda the bus driver dropped us off at the top of the hill (NOT out front of our apartment building) so we were all traipsing down the street with our luggage. I imagine it was quite a funny sight! Well, that concludes our trip. It was pretty sad to think that we won’t have any more trips with ALL of Loyola (not to mention the fact that it was our last free trip!) But I’m sure it won’t be the last of our adventures! Right now, we’ve passed the 2 month mark. It’s hard to believe all of the amazing things I have seen and done in that time.

Taupo and Rotorua: Part One

We had our third (and final) Loyola-sponsored trip this weekend. Essentially, we went on a four day trip to Lake Taupo and Lake Rotorua and didn’t have to spend any of our own money – so you can guess that it was a pretty good time! So good, in fact, that I am going to split this up into two posts. Here goes part one!

Bright and early Thursday morning, we all met in the lobby of Empire to board our coach bus. We met Linda (the very masculine bus driver who takes her job and her bus extremely seriously) and Susanna (the 60-something year old woman who was to be our coordinator for this trip of 35 college students). So right from the start, the stage was set for an interesting trip! We set out on our way towards Taupo, stopping along the way in Waitomo to visit glowworm caves. (These caves were in the same town as where I went caving about a month ago.) We were supposed to be able to take a boat ride in the dark to view the glowworms, but unfortunately, the water levels were too high. So basically, we just took a walking tour through the cave which, I have to admit, wasn’t really all that exciting. Afterwards, we went to a café where we had the first of the many buffet meals on this trip.

The glowworm caves were the only attraction of Day 1. We just continued on to our hotel and checked in. No, I did not forget the “s” in “hostel” – I really did mean to say “hotel.” Loyola put us up in hotels for the weekend, which was an absolutely wonderful treat!

Before dinner, we took a walk down by the lake:

We were given a sit-down dinner this first night, and it turned out to be delicious. The starter was tomato soup, which was creamy and reminded me of vodka sauce. Then, we had the choice of pork, chicken or fish. After much debate, I decided to order the pork. (And I’m serious about the debate part – the people at my table can attest to the fact that choosing my main course was an agonizing decision for me!) In the end though, I was very happy with my choice. The pork was served in a marsala-type sauce over mushrooms and kumara, which is similar to sweet potatoes. I thoroughly enjoyed it! For dessert, we had the choice of blueberry cheesecake or lemon-lime tart. This time, I made the wrong decision, choosing the cheesecake over the tart - but I still got to taste both! After dinner, we all hung out in one hotel room, until Linda came over and told us that we were being too loud. So we decided to walk the 45 minutes into town - far, I know but hey, you only live once!

The next morning, we got up for breakfast and then headed for a ride on the Huka Jet. (Note: this is the first of several occasions on this trip where we eat a meal before doing something rather active!) The Huka Jet was a half-hour ride on a specially designed boat that travels at a speed of 75-80 km/hour and does 360 degree spins. The boat goes along a river warmed by geothermal activity and travels to the base of Huka Falls, an impressive waterfall. Enough water comes over the falls to fill an Olympic sized pool every 3-4 seconds! The spins on the boat were pretty fun and you got a little wet – but it didn’t really matter because the water was warm! After the ride, we then got back on the bus and drove to where we could get some photos of the Huka Falls from land. We saw two people kayak over the falls, which I would consider quite daring!

We continued on to Waimangu Thermal Valley where we enjoyed a lunch of soup, bread and cheese at the café before heading out on a walking tour. We were right over a geothermal hot spot and hiked down into the valley. Essentially, we were inside of a huge crater. It was an interesting hike, passing hot springs, mud pools, lakes and streams all created because of the geothermal activity in the area. We had a guide with us, explaining things as we went along.

Kim, me, Kelly and Cate in front of a steaming lake!

After the walk, we drove to Rotorua and checked into our new hotel. The rooms here were really nice and almost all of us were staying in the same hallway which turned out to be a lot of fun. We had a chance to shower and get settled in, but then we had to get back on the bus to attend some lecture about tourism. The lecturer wasn’t that bad, but it was kind of weird that we had to go in the first place – we came to the conclusion that Loyola must have gotten some sort of a deal on this trip by promising that we would all listen to this talk! It was all about the tourism life cycle and different marketing techniques, and just seemed out of context with the rest of what we were doing.

For dinner, we visited a marae. where we were able to participate in the traditional Maori way of cooking called hangi. (Well, we didn't actually participate in the cooking itself, just the eating!) A hangi is where all of the food is cooked in a pit in the earth. Before being allowed to enter the marae, we of course had to go through the customary welcoming ceremony. Then we were entertained with song and dance, including a performance of the haka (the traditional war dance). They also had 6 of the guys from our group go up on stage and learn how to do some of the haka, which was pretty funny to watch. After the entertainment, we went next door for the main event: dinner. Everything was delicious and I think that everyone left the hangi stuffed to the max. We had pork, chicken, beef, vegetables and potatoes all cooked in the ground, which gave the food an interesting smoky flavor and was cooked to perfection. There was also salad, coleslaw, corn, delicious stuffing, gravy, and homemade bread. For dessert, there was fruit, cake slices, trifle, and some type of custard. The custard was unsweetened though, so we were all making our own concoctions by adding sugar and mixing everything up into a big mush! The whole hangi dinner was definitely very enjoyable. This was a family marae (not very commercial) and we were the only guests that night, so it really felt like an authentic cultural experience to me. That night after dinner, we went back and all hung around the hotel again.

My dinner table - Dana, Nick, Timm, Ed, Brian, me and TK:

The pit that our food was cooked in:

Skydiving? Tongariro?

This week is "Mid-Semester Break" and most of our friends are using the time to travel around the South Island. I'm going to be going to the South Island in two weeks, but I still wanted to do something over break. So 5 of us (Kim, Kelly, Cate, Lynn, and I) planned a trip to go to Taupo and to Tongariro. Taupo is the skydiving capital of the world and though I was not planning on participating, some of the other girls did want to go skydiving. Tongariro is a national park containing some impressive mountains, including the mountain that was used to film Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. There is a hike, "Tongariro Crossing," which is supposedly the best dayhike in all of New Zealand, so we wanted to do that as well.

We picked up the rental car early on Saturday morning and drove the three and a half hours to the hostel in Taupo. It was a nice drive, but when we got to the hostel, everyone was pretty tired. This hostel was very nice, and we had a room with just the 5 of us and an ensuite bathroom! The girls who were going skydiving were going to be picked up at the hostel at 3:00, and we had some time, so we decided to lay down for naps. We were all woken up at 2 by a knock on our door, being told that the car was here to pick us up! So everyone groggily, but quickly, got ready to go. It was a limo that came to pick us up, and we all got to go to the airport, even if we weren't actually going skydiving. I was glad because I wanted to come along to see and for moral support!

Kelly, Cate and Lynn were the ones who were going skydiving, and so obviously had a bit of paperwork to do. This is one place where New Zealand is completely different from the United States. At home, there are all sorts of safety precautions and everything. Here, they pretty much just make you sign a form saying that you can't sue them if anything happens to you. So as we watch the girls sign the form, the tension started to build! I think reality was beginning to set in that they were about to jump out of an airplane at 15,000 feet! When we arrived at the place, we all got to watch the DVD of a girl who had just gone. I have to say that as I watched the video, I only became more certain that I had made the right decision in choosing NOT to skydive. The view was beautiful, but I think I would have been scared out of my mind. The only reason I would really have wanted to go would have been so that I could say "I went skydiving!" and for me, since it wasn't something that I personally wanted to do, it wasn't worth the money or the risk. BUT, that's just me! While watching the DVD made me scared, the girls who were actually going got excited - so that's a good thing!

They got all geared up and then flew off in a bright pink plane! Kim and I watched from the ground and we actually SAW each of them as little dots appear one by one. Then, once the parachutes opened, we could see them even better. They were in complete free fall for a little over a minute! Once all three of them were safely back on the ground, we got to hear all about it. They all agreed that it was the coolest thing they had ever done in their lives - so I'm happy that they enjoyed it AND survived!

We decided to go out for a celebratory dinner afterwards, and walked in to town to find a place. Everything was pretty expensive and the town seemed kind of dead. We wound up at a little Japanese place where we got chicken terriyaki. After dinner, we went to the supermarket to get some basic supplies before heading back to the hostel. When Kelly and I were putting our groceries in the fridge, we made an amazing discovery: there were some games in the common room, and better yet, they had "Cranium." (For anyone not familiar, this is a boardgame which I love, that is kind of like a Charades, Pictionary, Name that Tune, trivia questions, Wheel of Fortune, and more all rolled into one wonderful game!) So we brought that back to our room and played two rounds of it before heading to sleep.

The next morning, we tried to decide what to do before driving to Tongariro. Our next hostel was only about an hour and a half away, so we wanted to do something in the morning before heading out. We decided to drive along the river, where we could get a nice view of Huka Falls:

Then, we headed along to visit the "Craters of the Moon," an interesting natural site. Because of the thermal activity below New Zealand, these interesting craterlike holes formed. There is steam coming out from the ground and bubbling mud pools. There is a track that winds along and takes about an hour, so we decided to go for the walk. I'm really glad we did, because it turned out to be a rather unique experience.

Our next random stop was a visit to "Huka Prawn Park," a prawn farm with some interesting activities. There was a restaurant there, which we did not actually eat at. We went up to look at the menu, and the hostess started to seat us. We told her that we were just looking at the menu for now, and she said rather rudely, "Well then could you stand back there so you are not in the way of other customers." So we just used the bathrooms and decided NOT to eat there! (To be honest, we wouldn't have eaten there anyway - our budgets couldn't quite afford the prawn dishes - but it felt better to pretend that we were leaving because of her rudeness rather than our lack of funds!)

We DID however, give Huka Prawn Park some business by participating in the exciting activity of "Killer Prawn Golf." Basically, we purchased a bucket of golf balls like you would at a driving range, and hit them into the prawn pools! It really looked like a driving range too! There were prizes for getting a ball into a certain ring (but, no surprise, none of us won). We were not really expert golfers by any means - we got all excited when one of us actually hit the ball - but we had fun trying anyway.

After the golf, we went to the Honey Hive, where we sampled different types of honey products, none of which I really liked! But we did try some wine made from Kiwifruit. (Yes, you must be very specific here in New Zealand when talking about Kiwis. The word "kiwi" by itself refers to the people, "kiwifruit" is the fruit, and "kiwi bird" is the national bird). So, just for clarification, the wine we got was made from a fruit, not a New Zealander or a bird!

We drove towards our hostel in Tongariro, seeing some very nice scenery along the way.
When we went to check in, we were told that we might want to reconsider our plans, since we wouldn't be able to do the hike the next day. The weather was supposed to be rainy, but worse than that, they were expecting 75 km/hr winds. Since part of the hike involves climbing down the edge of a crater, you are very exposed to the wind and the woman told us it would just be too dangerous. We were all really disappointed and kind of thrown off of our plans. We sat around for a bit, trying to figure out what we could do instead. We decided we would stay the night, and then figure out what to do for the morning. But once we got into the room (which was pretty nice, by the way!) and actually starting discussing our options, we decided that it would probably make more sense just to drive back to Auckland that night. There wasn’t anything in particular that we really wanted to do (there’s not much to do around Tongariro OTHER than hike), so we would be just waking up and driving back. So we decided to save the money on a night of accommodation. Here's what we WOULD have been climbing:
The drive back took about 5 hours. We stopped for dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Hamilton. The place was pretty full, and almost everyone eating there was Asian, so we figured that was a good sign. It turned out to be mediocre at best though. We were all pretty hungry though, so it didn’t matter much! When we arrived back in Auckland, we now had to figure out where to park the rental car, which was quite an ordeal since it was POURING rain at this point. We could park it overnight on the street, but we would either have to move it or put money in the meter starting at 8 AM. So we decided to try the parking lot nearby, but the machines weren’t working and we wound up going back to our spot on the street! When we got back into Empire, wet and tired, we were all glad to get a good night’s sleep.

We got up the next morning and decided that we would take advantage of having the rental car. So we drove to the aquarium, which was a nice indoor activity (since the weather was still gross). It was a cool aquarium, but the highlight was the Antarctica exhibit. They had a whole bunch of penguins in a simulated environment with water and snow. Plus, they have a little vehicle which they call a “Snowcat,” where you can ride through the exhibit, right up next to the penguins! They were so cute! That night, we had a nice dinner and movie night. We made tricolor pasta and had our Kiwifruit wine. It was a wonderful cozy night and a great end to our trip!

White Water Rafting!

Last Sunday (the day after we went canyoning), we went white water rafting on the Wairoa River, near Rotorua. It was an incredible experience to say the least! (Sorry, but I don't have any pictures of this trip.) It was a good drive from Auckland (close to 4 hours), but there was nice scenery along the way and most people napped/listened to their iPods on the drive. We did make one bathroom/snack stop along the way.

When we arrived, we got into our wetsuits which, as the guides told us, were “pre-moistened” from the previous group. Before coming to New Zealand, I have never put on a wetsuit, and today marked the 5th time I’ve been in one (not counting the fact that when we were at the Great Barrier Reef, we got in and out of them 3 times in one day)! Putting on “wetties” has become somewhat of a joke with our group, because the guides always size you up and hand you your wetsuit – so you never know until you try it on whether it is going to be enormous on you, or practically impossible to get on. Today we also put on helmets, booties and lifejackets and then boarded the bus to bring us right to the river.

As we were listening to the guides’ instructions before getting in the rafts, I was starting to get really excited and a little nervous as well. In addition to being taught the different ways to paddle and the different directions we might receive out on the water, we were also given a crash course in what to do should we, or any of our fellow rafters, fall out. I think the scariest instructions were on what to do if the whole boat flipped over and we were all underneath it. Anyway, I tried not to think about that possibility! There were 13 of us from Loyola on this trip, but we were split up into 3 different rafts. Rich and Dana were with some other people, I was in a boat with 6 girls (myself, Kelly, Cate, Kim, Lynn and Caitlin Henzler) and then the other boat had 5 people (Jed, TK, Gennady, Steph, and Caitlin Burke). Before we left, everyone was joking around with us, saying how our boat was going to be trouble, and making bets on which of us weren’t going to make it back. Because of this, our guide gave us the nickname of “wahine toa” (which mean “the brave girls in Maori). This became out team cheer and after every rapid, we all raised our paddles and yelled out “wahine toa!”

White water rafting was SO much fun! It was definitely a little scary at times, but I really enjoyed it a lot and would love to do it again sometime. The river that we went on was a Grade 5 river (which is the highest grade that you can raft commercially) and this particular river is only open 26 days out of the year, when water is released from a dam upstream. So there were some pretty challenging rapids to navigate through and some pretty decent drops. The largest vertical waterfall that we went down was 4 meters, but some of the other waterfalls were actually more intense because they had more volume and were rockier.

We were out on the river for about two and a half hours total. Stevie, our guide, would instruct us on how we were planning on navigating the upcoming rapids (whether we would be paddling at certain spots, if we would have to all get down really low, or if we all needed to move to one side of the raft, etc.). Then we would go through the rapids/waterfalls and it was really exciting! Stevie would call out instructions and we would all do what he said, hoping that we would make it through. It really was important that we did what he said, so that we would enter into the rapids at the right spot and in the right direction. Once we cleared the rapids, we would hang out in the calm sections of the river and watch the rafts behind us go through. This part was actually really cool, because as I watched the other groups come down, I was just thinking to myself, “I can’t believe I just did that!”

We went over some Grade 3 and 4 rapids, with names such as “Mother’s Nightmare,” in preparation for the two Grade 5 rapids coming up. It was tough and very scary, but we made it down all in one piece. Then, we paddled over to a calm spot where we tied our raft up to a rock. Then, we had the option (which I took) of climbing back up a cliff to a point where we could see the other groups come down the waterfall as well. It was kind of tough to get up, because the rock was completely vertical and there were no footholds. So we had to hold onto a rope and pretty much pull ourselves up. BUT….the view was well worth it! We watched a couple of rafts come down and try to navigate the tricky rapids. On one of the boats, two people fell out on the way down.

Then, along came the other boat with all Loyola people in it (the people who were giving us grief before we left). They seemed to be having a little trouble navigating around the rocks and when they got up to the waterfall, they were actually turned around, heading down the waterfall backwards. We were kind of laughing at them, since they were teasing US about how we would do. But then, their boat totally flipped over and everyone was gone! This was WHILE they were going down the waterfall, not even that the boat flipped when it landed at the bottom. We didn’t see anyone for a couple of seconds (we found out later that they were all trapped under the raft) and then finally we spotted some heads. The looks on their faces were of sheer panic. Everyone scrambled to get back on a raft. Some of them were able to get back up, but others were getting pulled downstream. Finally, everyone was pulled to safety and it was determined that everyone was ok. Talking to people afterwards, the consensus seemed to be that while it was terrifying at the time, they were actually glad that they had the experience.

To get back off of this cliff we were standing on, we all had to jump down into the water, since it was impossible to get back down the way we had come up. We each just jumped off the cliff, one by one, and then the people on the rafts pulled us back on. We then continued down the river through all the different kinds of rapids. This was such a fun experience and I’m SO happy that I signed up for it. Wairoa River is one of New Zealand’s most exciting rafting rivers and now I’ve done it!

Canyoning!

A group of 11 of us spent the day on Saturday canyoning in the Waitekere Ranges, about 40 minutes outside of Auckland. I’m sure you are probably wondering what “canyoning” is, because I myself didn’t really know too much about it until after I did it! Well, to sum it up, we basically walked through the forest UPHILL for a good little while and then followed the river back downhill. (This, of course, required jumping down waterfalls, swimming through pools and wading through the water.)

So, we were picked up at the university at 10 and then we drove out to some shed near where we were going to start our trek. We all had on our bathing suits, but we needed to get helmets, thermal shirts, booties and shoes for our feet. We gathered up our harnesses and wetsuits, and carried them with us so that we didn’t have to actually wear them for our hike. (We would have just been way too hot.) Keep in mind though, that this meant that we were hiking through the woods wearing a long sleeve shirt, no pants (just our bathing suit bottoms), a helmet, booties and funny looking shoes, with wetsuits tied as “backpacks” on our backs. It really was a pretty funny sight.

Our uphill climb lasted about 40 minutes and then we were finally at the river where we would begin our journey. We all jumped off a big cliff and into a pool of water. It was deep enough that we were allowed to do whatever kind of jump we wanted, so some people got pretty creative with their flips and funny jumps. (I however, looked super lame jumping off holding my nose every time, but I got too much water in my nose otherwise, so I just played it simple.) Then we swam through the water to the next waterfall and jumped off that ledge. It pretty much worked this way for most of the day. We would wade or swim through the water, depending on how deep it was, until we got to another spot where we would jump back in! Some of the jumps were pretty high and we had to have specific instructions on WHERE to jump so that we didn’t hit a rock or anything. Here's Cate jumping!:

At one of the jumps, they had all of the guys go together and then all of the girls. We decided to jump like ballerinas! (I'm the only person with a blue wetsuit, so I'm pretty easy to pick out!)There were two spots where we could not jump from, so we had to abseil/rappel down. I’m terrible at judging distance, but I can tell you that this was a pretty big drop! For the first half, it was mostly rock, but then it turned into the waterfall part, which was pretty slippery because of the moss and stuff growing. My feet slipped a big while I was making my way down and I swung out along the rocks. But Cate was my “safety” from down below and held my rope nice and tight for me until I got back on track! The second time that we rappelled down, the waterfall was much more vertical and slippery. Surprisingly though, I did much better that time, making it down with no mishaps.

Nick abseiling down the rock:

In addition to jumping, swimming and wading, we also got to do a couple of slides. The first one was pretty small, so they sent us down backwards, headfirst! (This is Kelly going down the backwards slide.)

The next ones were larger and longer, so we went down them forwards, but one had a pretty good drop off at the end, so you went flying into the water. Here I am going down the slide:Then there was a spot where we had to be lowered down into the pool, because it was too high and also too shallow to jump. So we sat in our harnesses while the guide lowered us down the waterfall. When I got towards the bottom though, my rope started to swing and I smacked into the rock. My hand is pretty sore (not a major injury by ANY means, but it’s just a little bruised). I also fell several times during the day while we were walking, because you couldn’t really see the rocks in the water to know how good your footing was. Since some of the rocks were slippery, or the water would be shallow and then suddenly drop off, I fell on several occasions.

It was a very fun day, but I was definitely very happy when we were told we could remove our wetsuits! Mine was SUPER tight on me and was very difficult to get on and off (especially once it was wet). After rinsing off and getting out of our suits, we trekked back up the hill, again sporting our interesting outfits, just a bit more exhausted this time. This was definitely quite an experience!

New Post

Hello! So I do actually have a new post called "Maori Culture Weekend," which is about our second Loyola-sponsored trip.

HOWEVER...I started typing the post before I finished putting up all the Australia info. So when I finally finished up with Australia and went to post the entry about our Maori weekend, the entry got placed out of order.

I can't figure out yet how to fix it, but hopefully I'll get around to it at some point.

In the meantime though, if you scroll down, you can view this post I am referring to. It towards the bottom of the page, in between Australia Day 2 and Day 3.

Enjoy,
Lauren

Australia: Last Day - Cape Tribulation

For our final day in Australia, we took a trip up to Cape Tribulation, which is where the rainforest and the reef meet. We didn't want to have to deal with the hassle of renting a car and driving ourselves, so we just booked a day tour through our hostel. We were picked up in a 24 person van/bus and then rode around picking up the other passengers before leaving town. On the drive up, we rode all along the coast and saw some beautiful scenery. Here's a photo I took at one of the picture stops:

It's worth noting that by this time in our trip, we were pretty exhausted and wiped out, so we both dozed off on the bus at several points during the day. Our first stop was in a small town where we went to a cafe and had the option of buying something to eat or drink. Kelly and I walked around the town and went into 5 other cafes searching for a muffin or some type of snack. But of course, just to go along with how things had been for this whole trip, since we were actually LOOKING for muffins, none of the 6 cafes we went to had any. So, we just got iced coffees at the cafe where everyone else was before we hit the road again.

Then next stop was at the Daintree River Crossing. We took a river boat cruise for about an hour, on a search for crocodiles.

We actually did spot a few and it was kind of scary being so close to them in their natural habitat. (And the fact that the guide was telling us all of his stories about close calls he'd had over the years with him just narrowly escaping crocodile attacks didn't help too much!) But we did make it across the river safely, since I am still here to tell you about it.

Our next stop was at a rainforest, to walk on a short trail through it. At this point though, my coffee had run through me and I had to go to the bathroom really badly! I looked on the map at the start of the trail, and it showed a bathroom just past the car park. So the group started along on the trail, and I said I'd catch up. Well, I walked up and down the road, searching for these bathrooms, which were no where to be found! I did find a small clearing right around where the bathrooms SHOULD have been, so I think that they really were gone (not just that I couldn't locate them). So, I had no choice but to make my own little trail to a hopefully secluded spot in the forest, where I could use the "bathroom" before my bladder exploded! I then caught up with the group and we saw some pretty interesting trees and other such flora in the rainforest.

All those knobby looking things on the are exposed roots of the trees:

We all piled back into the van and continued our drive up to Cape Tribulation. We stopped at a hostel-resort type area called "PK's Jungle Village" where we were supposed to have lunch. To be honest, it was pretty gross food though, so Kel and I wound up going to the little shop there to find some other source of food. We ate our "lunch" as we walked along a trail through the forest. Never before have I emerged from a rainforest right on to a beach. The scenery was just beautiful. Now, neither of us were wearing watches, but we knew we were supposed to meet back at the bus at 2. As we were heading back we were kind of just strolling along, thinking we had plenty of time. Just to get an idea though, we stopped and asked someone what time it was and discovered that it was already 2:20! We ran back to the bus to find everyone else sitting waiting. At least they didn't leave without us, but it was kind of embarrassing.

At the next spot, along our drive back, the driver/guide said to everyone, "And for the two girls without watches, please make sure you stick with me or with someone else who has a watch, because we can't wait this time." So, we made extra sure that we were back at the bus on time! This stop was just a short one anyway. We were at a place called Mossman Gorge. It was a short walk along a stream/river to a place where some people went swimming, but Kelly and I just took the opportunity to write some postcards. Our final stop along the way back was at a town called Port Douglass. It was a nice looking town, a little more upscale but somewhat similar to Cairns. We basically just walked around there for a little bit. When we got back to Cairns, we were exhausted from the day. We checked out a couple of restaurants, but ultimately decided just to go back to "The Banana Leaf," the Asian restaurant we had eaten at the other night. Since both of us had enjoyed out meals there so much, we decided that we would just eat there again instead of risking trying a new place and having a mediocre meal our last night. We got back to the hostel, packed and went to bed.

The next morning we went to the shopping mall for breakfast again (at a different place this time!) We both had omelettes which were very good. Since we were catching the bus to the airport from the center of town, and we had to check out of our hostel in the morning, we had to bring our suitcases with us. I can only imagine how funny we looked, rolling our suitcases not only down the streets of Cairns, but also through the mall! Everything went smoothly in terms of getting to the airport and our flight. We had an interesting experience on the plane. (I'm hoping that the fact that Kelly and I somehow always seem to have these "interesting" encounters is becoming less surprising to you by now!) There was a little 2-year-old Maori boy sitting a couple of rows ahead of us on the plane. When Kel got up to go to the bathroom, he ran over to her and started running down the aisle. Kelly picked him up and brought him back to his mom, but somehow the mom thought it would be great if he came and played with us, since we had an extra seat in our row! So, we spent about an hour of the flight entertaining this little Maori boy, and I think he probably entertained us about as much as we did him. Kelly and I each tried on different occasions to bring him back to his mom, but he was holding on to us and would not let go. (We eventually did get him to go back to his seat, but then he kept popping up and yelling back to us, "Hey!" until we would look up at him!)

Anyway, the plane ride also gave us some great aerial views of the Great Barrier Reef:

And the sunset was pretty cool as well:

When we finally got back to Empire Apartments, it felt really great to be back in Auckland. I am so happy that we decided to take this trip together because it really was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Kelly and I will have lots of stories and funny adventures to remember from our Easter trip to Australia.