I went on a hike on Franz Josef glacier when I was in the South Island but unfortunately did not have my camera that day. Some girls I did the hike with fortunately had theirs so I just stole their pictures to share them with you guys. We took a helicopter to the top of the glacier, hiked up there for two hours, and then took the helicopter back down. It was my first time in a helicopter and it was awesome. And even better — it was free. The group of girls I went with signed up for the heli-hike. One ended up getting food poisoning and had to back out and get a refund. Since there was an open seat in the helicopter and no one to fill it, I was offered the open spot for free! Very lucky, and an amazing experience!
Sorry I have not been on to update anything lately; things have been so busy but should be calming down shortly. One by one people are starting to leave, but a few of us were fortunate enough to be able to scrounge up the money to stop by Fiji on the way home. Since it is a layover it is significantly cheaper. The pictures and videos I posted last were a large mantage from Spring Break down to the South Island. I have not done too much travelling since then but I hope to get to a few more small NZ towns on the North Island before I leave. The time here has been amazing and I hope to make it back here again soon.
Grammy pointed out that she did not know that some of the things I posted were videos until Steve showed her. So in case anyone else didn’t realize, thank Grammy for pointing it out. Anything with a light white arrow inside a circle is actually a video and if you click the arrow it will begin to play.
I don’t have much time to write on here since I’ve got a final in two days, but I wanted to say hello to anyone following this and give a quick update. Love you all!
We got so close to these seals and I got a quick video.
Hello everyone! I just recently got back from Fall Break in the South Island. These pictures aren’t from there — these are from Valentine’s Day when we went white water rafting in Rotorua. The pictures are mostly of the 7meter drop we went down. The pictures from break will be up in a little while. I’ve got a really busy week at school this week but will try to get them up by the weekend!
Okay, so the past two weeks have been two of the best yet! Last weekend, against my mom’s wishes, I went skydiving with a friend. We bussed down to Taupo which is supposed to be some of the best skydiving here, because of the view and the height. It’s one of the highest tandems you can do supposedly; 15,000 feet. It’s 65 seconds of freefall and then they pull the parachute at 5,000 feet. I put two pictures up but they are only pictures from the ground. I bought the DVD and am still trying to figure out how to put the video up and how to take still shots from the video and post them as pictures. Hopefully I figure that all out soon.
I just got back from going to a Maori family reunion in Matapouri (Northland) for Easter weekend. I’ve made good friends with someone here who is half Maori and he invited my friend and I to come along with him to their Hangi (where they cook food in the ground with hot rocks). It was on his aunt’s camping grounds and we all pitched our tents. He grew up there and knew the area and took us to some of the most beautiful places. We had to cling to the edges of rocks to find some of these places and they called them Mermaid Pools. Essentially they are like natural Infinity Pools (where you sit in the pool and it looks like it’s connected to the ocean). We didn’t get to swim in them because the tide was too high and rough, but maybe another time. Then we went on a hike with him, his dad, and his sister (who is also our age). His sister brought her horse with her, and they took us up a big hill. They own all the land so it’s private property, which means not everyone gets to do this. The trails were all overgrown so we just trudged through tall grass. At the top of the hill we came to one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen since I’ve been here. The pictures are up but they don’t do it any justice.
Grandma and Grandpa- I just got my birthday card and present in the mail. Thank you so much.. it will help me out a lot over here!
I’ll do my best to get the video and better skydiving pictures up as soon as I can, but I leave to tour the South Island tomorrow for 14 days. So it might be a while until the next update, but hopefully it will be a good one!
Because my classes are all finished by mid-day on Wednesdays, my friend Ashley (from Clemson) and I went on a camping trip from Thursday until Sunday over this past weekend. We wanted to see Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula, but never quite got there. However, we stayed in Coromandel Town, camping one night and in a hostel (Lion’s Den) the second night. Lion’s Den hostel was the best hostel I’ve stayed at yet. It was very homey and the owner put tons of thought into the decorations. It was a cross between African safari and gypsey. There was a teepee in the back yard that she actually rented out as a room! While staying in Coromandel Town we decided to charter a sailboat, which was relatively cheap especially when you figure in the conversion to US dollars. The boat was huge and the skipper had actually built it himself 5 years prior. He used to be a dairy farmer until he sold his farm and put everything he had into building his boat. We left Coromandel town for our third night and went to the opposite side of the peninsula to a place called Whitianga. We camped there for one night, and it’s where that picture of the Marlin fish was taken. We also saw a wedding during our stay at Whitianga; the picture above shows it. There was a man in the back who was wearing a dress. It seemed too silly to be serious. Ashley and I concluded that he must have lost a bet.
I’d love to hear any questions or thoughts anyone is having so feel free to email me at trippkl@email.sc.edu if you feel like it! Hope everyone is well!
