The End

This final post has been long overdue, but I wanted to officially end this blog so I figure better late than never. I'm back from my post-New Zealand family vacation to Hawaii and have now been in the US for 3 weeks and officially home for a week. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a strange feeling. After spending almost 5 months in New Zealand, and seeing my friends there literally every day, it's weird to suddenly be back home and know that I won't see most people until school starts back up again in September. But it was an absolutely incredible experience that I wouldn't trade for anything. I just can't believe that it's all over now.

So, how did it all end? Well, we had a very enjoyable last night. It rained literally every single day for the final week, but that didn't stop us. We all faced the rain and went out to dinner at the Waterfront, down in the Viaduct. (Since we didn't totally dry out during dinner and it was quite cold, we kind of wimped out and decided to take a cab back!). Then, we went out for one last night out, trying to make the most of our last 24 hours.

Here's a group shot at dinner:

And here's one of Cate and I:
Sunday morning we got up early so as not to waste what little time we had left. We did a little more packing and then a group of us decided to go get a final kebab on Queen St. (Another group of people decided to really go out with a bang and went bungy jumping off the Auckland Harbor Bridge that morning!) We headed back to Empire to shower and finalize all of the packing, but Cate and I were done with plenty of time to spare. We were literally sitting in our empty rooms, which was way too depressing, so we decided to go upstairs and watch Rich and Nick finish packing!

We had arranged for 2 Super Shuttles to come pick us up at 4:30 PM. We met downstairs and said our goodbyes to non-Loyola roommates and Australearn kids. This was when it was really starting to sink in that we were actually leaving, never to live in Empire Apartments again. At the airport, the line was moving pretty slow. We went up to the counter in groups of 3 or 4 so that we could sit next to each other. I was sitting with Cate and Nick and we lucked out with our luggage - our combined weight just made the cut so we didn't have to pay any overage charges. By the time we got to the gate and everything, we didn't have long to wait before we boarded.

The flight went by surprisingly fast. Luckily I was able to sleep for a good portion of the flight - I'd guess I got in about 6 hours of sleep. So I wasn't feeling too bad when we arrived in San Francisco for our 9 hour layover. We weren't about to spend 9 hours just sitting in an airport when we had just come off of a 12 hour flight and still had another 6 hour one to go. So most of us took the BART train and headed downtown to check out San Francisco.

We were quite a sight, a group of 12 of us walking around with all of our carry-on luggage. We walked along the water, past Fisherman's Wharf, and got lunch at In-and-Out burger, at Ed's suggestion. After lunch, we went to Ghiradelli Square before riding a trolley back to the BART station. I was definitely very glad that we got to actually do something during our layover - it made the time pass much more quickly.

We could just see the Golden Gate Bridge through the fog:

The flight from SFO to JFK seemed much long than the one from Auckland to SFO, even though in reality it took about half the time. Once we landed, everyone except for me and a few others were reunited with their families. I was among the few whose parents were not at the airport (I was catching a ride home with Cate, and there were several people who still had to take a connecting flight). So, later that day I had my reunion with my family and then had one day to unpack and repack before heading off to Hawaii.

So now, it's been 3 weeks to the day since I've been back in the US. There's been some adjusting to do. (I kept turning on my windshield wipers instead of my blinker the first few days I was back driving. Luckily, I remember to stay on the right side of the road.) I really miss New Zealand, and especially my friends, a lot. It was an incredible, truly once in a lifetime experience, and I am so thankful that it turned out so well. It was everything I could have hoped for it to be - and even more.

I'm still working on going through the almost 5000 pictures I took. (I'm making my parents and sister look at every single one, but I'm in the process of creating a best-of slideshow for everyone else!) Every time I look at pictures, or something else here happens to remind me of New Zealand, I can't help but smile. It was just truly a great 5 months. Never again will this be what I see when I look out of my bedroom window, but it sure was wonderful while it lasted!

Well, thanks to everyone who read this blog! Though tedious to write at times, I'm so happy that I stuck with it. It was a great way to stay connected with people at home and to keep everyone updated on all my adventures (not to mention that this will be a great keepsake for me).

It's been quite an adventure that I know I will never forget. Thanks for sharing it with me! And if you ever have the chance to visit New Zealand, I highly recommend it (if I haven't made that quite obvious by now!).

Love,

Lauren

Good Bye Auckland

Well, this is it. In a few hours, I'll be leaving Auckland and be on my way back home. This feels completely surreal to me right now. I honestly can not believe that four months have come and gone and it's already time to come home. It's been an absolutely incredible experience and I couldn't have asked for anything more.

I'm planning on writing one last post when I get home, so I won't get too sappy now. Once I'm back in the States, I'll have had time to reflect on this experience and maybe write about that.

This past week has been rather interesting. We didn't do much because everyone had finals. I had one on Monday and then my other 3 all in the past 3 days. It has also rained every single day for the past week. So between the yucky weather and having to study and take tests, I think it's made for a good transition and at least warmed me up to the idea of going home. I'm excited about being home and seeing family and friends, but I'm also incredibly sad about the fact of this whole experience being over. I just can't believe it.

Anyway, I still have some last minute packing to do and a bunch of us are going to take one last walk down Queen St. to get kebabs. So this will have to be all for now.

Good Bye Auckland, I will miss you!

The Many Faces of the Skytower

Throughout the past four months, I have been doing a little photo study of the Skytower, trying to capture it from different locations, in different types of weather, and at different times of the day. It is THE icon of Auckland, and as I am nearing the end of my time here (just one week left now), I thought this would be a good time to share some of these photos. I know that there are a bunch of photos here, but I took so many, that it was hard to narrow it down. Many of them were just taken right from my bedroom window (like these first 3). Believe it or not, these first 3 pictures were all taken today!

Here's the Skytower in the sun...
...and in the rain. I actually took this today during a sunshower. The weather was so weird today - it was POURING during the night and morning, then it cleared up and was sunny, then it got rainy again, then it started downpouring again, then the sun kind of came out....it was just very strange.
Again, today's weird weather:

Here's the Skytower during the day......and at night. This was while they still lit up the Skytower at night. Now, they've started this new thing where they don't light it up anymore, to conserve electricity. Nice green move, but it was so pretty! (It doesn't look like this at night anymore. Now, the only lights on are a couple of blinking red safety lights for planes.)

Before the energy conservation plan began, the Skytower would sometimes be lit up different colors for different occasions (like the Empire State Building). Here it is in yellow with a lovely crescent moon:
These two pictures were taken from Auckland Domain, one of Auckland's parks:I liked the palm trees!

Pretty much where ever you go in Auckland, you can catch a glimpse of the Skytower. From One Tree Hill...
From Ponsonby...

Down by the Viaduct...

And of course from the water. This was taken on our ferry ride to Waiheke Island:The Skytower never disappears from sight. Unless, of course, it really does disappear! (It has actually gotten this foggy several times.)

But in nicer weather, the tower just looks beautiful against a clear blue sky.

I'm really going to miss just being able to look out my window and see the Skytower in a new light every time. Whether it's at dusk...

...during a beautiful sunset,
... or night time,...I have really loved seeing the Skytower in a new way every day.

Auckland, I will miss you.

Rangitoto Island

Rangitoto Island is the youngest island in the Hauraki Gulf and was formed by a volcanic eruption about 600 years ago. Today, there are no inhabitants on the island, but it is accessible by ferry and is a common day hike. A group of us (Kelly, Cate, Ed, Lynn, Caitlin and I) decided to take a break from studying and went to visit the island on Thursday. There are several trails on the island and you can hike up to the summit. The terrain on the island was quite rocky, because the ground is still very much made of all the remains of the lava and stuff from when the volcano erupted. Relatively speaking, the island is very new.
We began our hike up to the summit, which took about an hour, including a few picture stops. Some parts were a little steep, especially closer to the summit, but for the most part it was a pretty steady and gradual uphill climb.
The views from the top were definitely worth it! We had 360 degree views of the harbor and back to Auckland. We stayed up at the top just hanging out for a while enjoying the beautiful weather and views. We had packed lunches and ate these up top.
Here's a group shot we took using a self timer. We're kind of blocking the views, but here's Cate, Kelly, Ed, Lynn, myself and Caitlin at the summit:
More views:
You could also walk around the rim of the crater, which only took about 10-15 minutes. I was surprised how much growth and vegetation there was inside of the crater. The shape of it looked as I expected, but I thought that it would be all rocky inside, not full of trees!On our walk back down the volcano, we took a side trail to go visit the lava caves. There are several different caves that are formed out of lava tubes. Some of them are very small, but others were large enough to walk through. It was recommended that you have a flashlight, but we didn't have one with us. They were very dark, but we braved them anyway, going very slow and taking flash photos every so often to get an idea for what lay ahead. It's hard to get a feel for what it was like inside from these pictures, but you can kind of tell that it was a pretty small space. On either end, you still had the light from the entrance or exit, but in the middle it got so dark that you really couldn't even see the person in front of you!

Here we are at the entrance to the lava cave:

It was rather low at some points:

Here are Caitlin, Ed and Kelly emerging at the end:

We got down to the bottom of the hill and still had over an hour before the ferry would be back to pick us up, so we decided to walk along the coast for a little while. It wasn't very "beachy" because the beaches were made of volcanic rock. There were several historic beach houses called "baches" that were built during the 1920's and 1930's. The building of these baches was banned in 1937 and most have since been removed because Rangitoto is now considered a scenic reserve. Here's one of them that was preserved:

It was a great day for a hike and wonderful just to get out and do something. It's disappointing that the end of our time here has to be spent studying and taking finals, but we are trying to still experience things and hiking Rangitoto definitely made for an enjoyable day.

All Blacks Game!

This past weekend was the 2nd test match of the Iveco Series, a rugby challenge between New Zealand, Ireland and England. We had watched the New Zealand All Blacks beat Ireland on TV at the Wellington game last week, so we were really excited to actually go to the New Zealand vs. England game in Auckland this weekend.

The All Blacks Rugby Team is New Zealand's pride and joy and from my understanding, gets about as much hype (and probably even more) than football in the US. So needless to say, we were all pretty excited about having the opportunity to see them play in person.

We took a bus to Eden Park, where the stadium was, and got to ride for free just by showing our rugby tickets. The bus was packed and there were people everywhere. The whole city was buzzing and it seemed like everyone was out for the game. I do have to admit though, that I was surprised how many England supporters there were at the game.

We made sure that we were at the game and in our seats in time for the preshow. We didn't want to miss the haka. The haka is a Maori war dance/chant thing that Maori people use to intimidate their opponents before battle. We have seen it performed in several of the maraes we have visited. At one marae we went to, they called some of the boys from Loyola up on stage to teach them part of the haka, which was quite amusing. Anyway, it is tradition that the All Blacks do the haka before every match and basically the other team just stands there and watches. So as much as I was looking forward to the game itself, I really wanted to see the haka as well.

I tried to get it on video. It's pretty far away, but once the cheering dies down, you can kind of hear the chant. (And watch their faces on the stadium screen!)

We really enjoyed watching the game (and even more so because the All-Blacks won 37 to 20)! Since rugby is such a big thing here, we really felt like we were getting a true New Zealand experience being at the game and cheering for the All-Blacks. There was one point where the whole stadium was doing the wave and apparently it was pretty cool. (Unfortunately, I missed it because I was buying fries.)

We wanted to show our support by wearing all black and also by decorating ourselves with face paint (some more than others). I stuck with simple
black and white stripes on my cheeks, but some people went for the whole face (like Cate and Brian).Ed went ALL out and painted his whole upper body black and then Steph drew a really good fern on his chest. People kept stopping Ed and asking to take a picture with him!

After the game let out, it was crazy trying to get back into the city. There were buses and trains, but there were just so many people. We wound up on a couple different buses, but we all did make it back. Since the bus dropped us off on Queen St., we decided to head to the Vulcan, where they have a cover band playing on Saturday nights. It turned out that the other group of Loyola kids showed up there as well. Plus, some Loyola people who had been studying abroad in Australia just happened to have a long layover in Auckland and were visiting some people, so they were there too!

Day Trip to Piha

Way back in February, when Kelly, Kim, Dana and I went to the Auckland Cup (the horseraces), the rest of our group took surfing lessons at Piha Beach. Piha is one of Auckland's West Coast beaches, famous for it's black sand. We didn't care much that we missed out on the surfing, but we didn't want to leave Auckland without having seen Piha!

So, Kelly, Kim and I rented a car for the day and took the 45 minute drive out to the West Coast. It was a nice drive: first, through Auckland's suburbs and then on very windy roads with lots of hairpin turns through the Waitekere Ranges.

It was a beautiful beach and it wound up being a great day trip out. We got to see Lion Rock (a large rock/hill on the beach that Piha is known for). Here's Kim and Kelly in front of it (you can get an idea of the size):

We even climbed Lion Rock, and this gave us some nice views over the beach. We walked down to touch the water, but of course it was cold at this time of the year. We only saw 2 other people while we were there, plus 1 surfer who was brave enough to face the water!

Here's some pictures from the day:

We also drove about 5 km down the road to another beach, Kerekere. In order to actually get to the beach, you had to cross this stream. The bridge was undergoing construction and we didn't feel like getting all wet trying to cross the stream (plus we were getting very hungry for lunch!) so we just took a picture of the stream!

On a side note, we got use of the rental car again later that night when a group of us took a trip to "Spookers," a year-round Haunted House type place. That's not typically my kind of thing, but I had a fun time anyway. The house was very intricate (since it's open all year, they don't have to dismantle it and reassemble) so it was a fun experience. They take it pretty seriously though - you have to be at least 16 years old to go in! Another weird thing: the people who jump out at you are actually allowed to touch you (this would never happen in the US, but here in New Zealand, it's "no worries" and anything goes). So it was an interesting experience with people coming over and chasing you around with a knife, or grabbing your arm or touching your back. One woman cornered Cate and was rubbing her hands all over Cate's face and neck. (In case you are getting too freaked out, they did tell you that you can put your hands up in front of your face and yell "Stop" and they will back off.) Some people in our group decided to do the "Freaky Forest" as well as the Haunted House, so while I was waiting in the car with Kelly and Lynn, a man with a chain saw came over to the car, opened the car door and turned on the chain saw inside of the car. Kind of creepy. But I'm getting off topic here. What I really wanted to say in this post was simply: Piha was nice!