Thanksgiving

Since people in NZ don't really care about the colonists and the native americans breaking bread (or raping and pillaging) it's been over a year since I celebrated a good carbohydrate filled thanksgiving. And this thanksgiving lived up to all of the hype that I built up. I got home wednesday and did the local bar hop which is always fun and interesting. Then I got to go into NYC and see the parade on 37th!! I was in an office building which was even better. I had to go in by myself which kind of sucked but since I am a social butterfly I made friends quickly and enjoyed the parade. The breakfast club was fun as usual (I heart luigi) and tonight I am going to see some family and Umass peeps. It was a good trip home, but have no fear I will be invading msex again soon!! Christmas I will be home for a week and more ruckus will be created. Below are the parade pics. Enjoy!!


The Parade!!




His head is gonna fall off!!


Gobble Gobble


Snoopy


I can't imagine walking in that thing the whole parade.


Pretty


Big Bird


Weebles Wobble but they don't fall down!


Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends float


Scooby Doo and his big butt.


Rhino


Energiser Bunny


Hess Float


Harlem Globetrotters


SuperGroverrr!


Hairspray float


Mr. Potatoe Head (His nose was walking around in front of him!)


Cheerleaders!


The Polar Express float


All the floats and balloons have past...now just waiting for Santa.


You better not shout. You better not cry...


Santa!! Now there are only 25 shopping days until Xmas. Whoo hoo!


Now Everyone Run for the Train!!

Aaaaaaaahhh!!!

My boss has been on vacation for the past week and a half so I have had the office to myself with not a lot to do. It was inevitable that I would drive myself crazy.

The job is good. We just finished our busy season. At one point I was working thirteen hour days. Now I can barely find enough work to last me two hours. I don't deal with transitions like this very well. It's like working out and then being all energized afterwards but with nothing to do. I don't enjoy. To keep me busy I have been looking into grad school again. Good, but bad idea.

It's a good idea because I do need to get my but in gear and get things in order for next September. I will NOT be in the amherst area. It will ruin it all for me. I want to leave here with the good memories I have. I don't want to leave clapping and doing the dance of joy that I am out of the valley. I want to miss it.

Ok, anyway, yeah researching grad schools is a great idea, except I get all hopped up and stressed out. What if I don't get in? What if I don't get funding? eek what if no one likes me? For reals though I just think I secretly liked to get this worked up about things. Otherwise I just wouldn't get this worked up ya know.

I did get into UC San Diego and it is still my first choice, but funding is wicked hard to find. They don't offer funding to masters students within the math department so I have to look outside of the department. Translation...I have no clue what I am doing. I looked into their residence life program to see if they have any graduate positions and they don't. I feel like I am walking through a wicked dark tunnel with no flashlight and I don't like it. I finally resorted to emailing some poor math grad student who posted their email address and asked them for help.

Part of this is just me being lazy and just wanting someone else to figure everything out for me. Another part is me probably not really wanting to move on. It would be nice to not change zip codes every year. BUT no one is twisting my arm and making me do this. If someone even mentioned me not going to grad school I would become all indignant. I do want to go to grad school that's for sure.

I just need to calm down and remember the NZ attitude. Everything will work out and in the grand scheme of things life is going well for me. I live for free with good friends. I have a car. I have friends (note the priorities hahaha jk). I have some moolah. and I am damn good looking. It could be worse...I could be thinking about bungee jumping again (Oy). Seriously never again with the bungee.

The plans for the rest of my life (well for at least September)

It's been awhile. I have spent much of my time catching up with old friends and keeping in touch with the ones I made in NZ.

Sometimes it feels like I never left. Because I traveled by myself there's no one around to remind me of the things I did. No one turns to me and says "Remember that time that you took your bra off and we won a $50 beer tab? that was awesome." It's not a bad thing, it's just something that is different from all of my other travels. I have a picture of me on the Franz Josef glacier as my wallpaper on my desktop at work. That picture grounds me. Whenever I forgot about my awesome trip I get to look at that picture and a smile automatically shows on my face. Franz Josef was by far my favorite day. I felt so calm and I felt a real sense of accomplishment and adventure when I was on that glacier.

I graduated from UMass over a year ago now (eek). I never could have guessed where my life would wind up. I am back on campus and I will be here for the year. I got a job with conference services for the whole year and I somehow put my friends under a spell so that they would want me to live with them for the whole year. I am a very lucky girl.

Things are changing lots. Friends are moving away and some are choosing to move out of touch and I guess in a way I am making those choices too. I miss NZ everyday and everyday I am extremely glad that I went.

Back Home

I have been back in Jersey for a week now. After I left New Zealand I went to Fiji for a week which was great. I didn't leave the main island but I did go into town lots. Let's face it though, mostly I just laid out by the pool and enjoyed the sunshine and the heat. I was still staying at a hostel but I booked a room for myself which was a nice little treat for the end of my trip. It was cool because most of the people there were either beginning their trips or ending it so everyone just sat around and shared stories or asked questions. I also tried kava which is a ground up root mixed with water. It tastes like bad medicine but it makes your tongue numb and if you drink enough of it you will drool with knowing it. Any amount of kava results in a great night's sleep. A good time was had. When I got off of the plane in NY, not only were my mom, dad, and bro there but Aunt Lynn and my cousins J and Jenna were waiting for me too! It was a great surprise. Many hugs were given and I even got some Queens bagels to take home (whoopee!). Being home is good. I have just spent the week catching up with people and enjoying the fact that I am not living out of a backpack anymore. So what's next? For the time being I am just hanging in Jerz enjoying being home and catching up with everyone. At the end of May I am moving back to UMass. I got my summer job back and I get to live with my friends and just chill back at college. Not a bad deal. I got accepted to the math grad program at UC San Diego, but I am going to defer for a year. I am not ready to move to the west coast yet. Essentially (that one's for you Ed) I have no idea what I am doing from Sept 2006 to Sept 2007. I'm not worrying about it though because it will all work out. Who knows? Maybe I'll just pack my bags again and travel some more (with my imaginary money). The blog will stay up but I don't think I will add much until I travel again. If I haven't seen you yet we must get together because I have missed everyone and I want to know what's going on in everyone's lives. That is all I have to say (for now). The end.

Goodbye NZ

Before I say goodbye to NZ let me back up and fill you in on what I have done for the past week. St Patrick's Day was pretty fun. It was no NY with a parade but I did drink lots and sing Irish songs and just hang out with a good group of people that I met on my East Cape trip. When Sunday rolled around I hopped on the bus and headed to Auckland. The plan was to only spend the night in Auckland and the next day head further north to the Bay of Islands. Well the bus to the Bay of Islands was full so I was stuck in Auckland for a day. And I had a pretty bad cold. Combine these two things and I was one cranky girl. To add to the crankiness I checked my flight info and found out that my flight to LA from Fiji had been canceled and I had been booked onto one for the day before. This is all fine and good except for the fact that I still wasn't leaving LA to go to NY until the 2nd which meant one night in LA. Let me tell you, I don't want a night in LA. I want to be home in my bed. Finally today I was able to straighten everything out so it's all good now. I will be in NY at 1230am on Sunday, April 2.

Anyway, I sulked my way through my day in Auckland and hopped to the Bay of Islands the next day. When we got to the Bay we drove another half hour to Nafu springs. These were natural mineral baths. Basically it's a mud pit full of bubbly hot water that comes from underground naturally and you spread the mud all over you as an exfoliant. Since the earth's crust is so thin in the north island these natural springs are abundant...but these were the only ones that were free. The only downside is that the springs give off a strong sulfur smell which in turn sticks to your swim suit, even after washing. So for the rest of this trip, including fiji, my swim suit is going to smell like rotten eggs. I think I will live, I may not make many friends but I will survive.

The only other thing I did in the Bay of Islands was take a day trip to Cape Reinga. The cape is the northwestern corner of NZ and it is where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet. The bus left at 7:15am and we headed north. We drove along 90 mile beach which is a beach but also a highway. It's not really 90 miles and if you want to know how they thought it was 90 miles I'll explain in person. It was pretty cool to drive along the beach. Once we got down the beach enough to make sure we could get off before tide came in we hopped off and waded in the water. The driver showed us how to pick shellfish and we had a nice little snack of raw shellfish on the beach. We hopped back on the bus and got off of the beach via a stream.

Halfway up the stream we stopped to look at some really high sand dunes. When I say really high I mean 80 meters (about 240ft) and when I say stopped to look at I mean we walked up the dune and used a boogie board to ride back down. It was a pretty cool ride and sand got everywhere. It was a good way to spend an hour. Afterwards we hopped back on the bus and headed to a beach for lunch. We hung out again and then finally made our way to the Cape.

The Maori's believe the cape is the departure point for spirits to head home so usually there are some families grieving. It is a very spiritual place. You can actually see where the two bodies of water meet. The tasman sea is very green and the pacific ocean is very blue so when they mix it's a pretty cool site.

Seeing the Cape was very important to me. It marked the end of my trip in NZ. It was the last thing that wanted to do. I have spent much time in the Tasman Sea and much time in the Pacific Ocean since being here and I finally saw them both meet. It meant a lot.

Now I am back in Auckland and I am staying at Ana's place again. That's where I stayed for Big Day Out. Today is Friday and I fly to Fiji on Sunday. Tomorrow, I am going to see The Living End play one more time. One of Ana's flatmate's sisters is going and she said she would give me a ride. So I am going to spend my last full day in NZ seeing my favorite band play again. Not a bad gig.

The plan for Fiji is to work on my tan so everyone is jealous when they see me for the first time. The rumor is that internet in Fiji is pretty expensive so most likely this is my last blog until I am home. I can't really process this trip yet, that's what I hope Fiji is for.

I am looking foward to seeing familiar faces and hearing familiar voices and just being around everyone again. I can't wait to not live out of a backpack or sleep in bunk beds. I am sad that this trip in NZ is over but I am thankful for the time I had here and I can't wait to be in Jerz.

Here are some pics:

A car on 90 mile beach that didn't make it out before the tide came in. It's been there for two months and all of the damage done is due to the Tasman Sea.

The bus takin a break on the beach/highway

The dunes and us boarding down them

The streamwe drove through to get to the dunes and off of the beach

The Tasman Sea

The Pacific Ocean

Where they meet. The white water is the different waves from the two bodies of water meeting

The final thing I wanted to see can now be crossed off

See you soon!!

What a week it has been

I left Taupo on Monday to begin my trip around the East Cape. The East Cape is probably one of the most beautiful spots that I have seen in NZ. The bus was nice because instead of being 35 of us there were only 20 so we were all able to just relax and get to know each other. The first night we stopped in Gisborne which is the surfing capital of NZ. Unfortuanetly the weather was crap so no surfing was done, just lots of wine drinking. I was sitting at the table eating dinner when I turn around and see my friend Andrew. I hadn't seen Andrew since my first week in Auckland but we had kept in touch via text messages. It was great to see him since we were able to catch up on all of our experiences over the past six months. It definetly felt to me with seeing Andrew that I had gone full circle on this trip which was nice.

From Gisborn we went to a farm in Rangituka. We stayed at the farm overnight and had a blast. I rode a horse for the first time. His name was War Lord and he was fantastic. We rode on the beach and up in the hills for about two hours before dinner. It was so relaxing and I had a smile on my face the whole time thinking how great it was that I was finally riding a horse. Les, the horse guy, told me that me and War Lord fit each other and it was totally true. I felt completely comfortable on him even when he started to gallop. The only awkward part was getting on the horse. I am not very graceful when it comes to stepping up onto high things. It was a sad sight that involved me basically leaning over the horse and then Al, the kiwi bus driver, pushing my butt onto the saddle. Not graceful I admit but it got the job done. After the horseback ride we sat around a fire on the farm and just chilled out. It was really relaxing. We were at the easternmost point of NZ which means that we saw the sun rise first in the hemisphere. Well we would have saw it first if it wasn't foggy, but we were the first to know that the weather was going to be crap all day in the southern hemisphere.

The next day we went to possibly my most favorite place. It was a home stay in Te Kaha. This guy Paul O'Brien is half Maori and half Irish and he opened up his home to us to enjoy. It was beautiful. The house is set right on the shore and there is a hot tub that sit right on the beach so you can fish and watch the sun set all from the hot tub. I swam in the Pacific and then warmed up in the hot tub until after sunset. Then ate a delicious meal that Paul's mom made for us. It was so good. Al, the bus driver, went out fishing and caught snappers which we had for breakfast. It turns out that I love fish. I woke up and had my coffee (instant, boo) down by the beach and then had some fish. It was a perfect end to my east cape trip.

I am back in Taupo to celebrate St. Patty's day tomorrow. Then I am off to Auckland for a day and then off to my last stop on this trip, the Bay of Islands. It should be good. This trip is almost over but I am not processing any of it right now. I am just enjoying the moments and I figure I will think about it all when I am in Fiji. Here are pics from this past week. Happy St. Patty's Day!!

My horse War Lord

The lovely beach that I swam at.

Another view of the beach

The view of the hot tub from the top part of the backyard

Sunset from a hot tub. Sweet as.

The Kiwi crew in the backyard.

What I did on my birthday

On my birthday I woke up at 5am and by 7am I was walking up a mountain. Seriously. I was doing the Tongariro Crossing. It's considered on of the best day walks in New Zealand. The walk takes you through a valley between mountains and then up the side and into a crater. On top of the crater it is possible to see mount doom, real name mount nagarua(maybe), and also it's supposed to give some great views of the whole park and area. And when NZer's say day walk they mean day walk. The walk took me 7 hours and at points I was on all fours climbing up rocks.

The first part of the walk takes about an hour and is a slight incline. This slight incline leads to the devil's staircase. Let me tell you it's not called the devil's staircase for nothing. It's just a piles of stacked rocks going up the side of mountain. It's windy and very steep at points. I took my time and many breaks and after an hour I was finally off the staircase. I must admit that most of the time that I was on the staircase I was thinking to myself that I sure know how to pick a crappy brithday present for myself.

After the staircase I found myself inside of crater. It was completely flat which was a nice change. It took about a half hour to walk across the crater and I was able to catch my breath and talk to the two girls that I had walkedup the staircase with. By the time we made it across the crater a cloud had settled in on top of the next incline. The next incline was the ridge of the red crater. It was basically up hill for a half hour but the really difficult part was that now that the cloud was sitting on the hill the wind was really strong and it was really cold. The ground was frozen and the two girls I was with decided to turn around. So I walked up the ridge by myself. I was kind of nervous because I couldn't see very far in front of me and the wind does push you around. It's not like the ridge is very wide either. If two people walked side by side up it, one would eventually fall. But I made sure that I could see people in front of me and behind me so that if anything happened someone would see. I also had my cell phone and an emergency number....just in case.

After about a half hour I made it up the ridge and to the top of the red crater. This is where I was supposed to be able to see all of these great views. Unfortunately the cloud was still sitting there so all I could see was cloud and I was cold so I kept walking.

Walking down the other side of the crater was fun. It's all gravelly so the fastest and funnest way to get down is to just dig your heels in let yourself slide down. As I was doing this I could see the cloud moving so every now and then I could get a good view. Luckily I was able to take some pictures but I couldn't see Mount Doom.

Once I got down the crater I was in the spot called Emerald lakes. The entire Tongariro Park is a volcanic area and the lakes inside of the park are all emerald colored or deep blue because of the sulfur and acid that rises up from the ground. I had lunch at emerald lakes but then decided I was cold so I kept walking.

The rest of the walk was downhill. There were points where you could take a break and enjoy the view but I was freezing so I kept walking. The last hour of the walk was inside of a beach forest. There were waterfalls and other good things but it was the last hour of a 7 hour walk so I was more interested in finishing than enjoying the scenery.

Surprisingly my legs don't hurt too much. I am ridiculously tired still but other than that I am fine. This walk has taught me many things for me: I don't like 7 hour hikes (they are way too long) and hiking on your birthday no matter what your age will make you feel old by the end of it(my knees were killing me). I am very proud of myself for doing the Crossing. It was the last thing that I wanted to do in New Zealand and to be honest I didn't know if I was going to be able to do it. We all know that me and exercise aren't friends but I enjoyed the challenge of the Crossing. Bearing that in mind I will never do anything again that uses the words devil and staircase in the same sentence to describe it.

After the hike I met up with a girl that I had met on my bus. We went out for a drink, which turned into a couple since it was my birthday. It was a good time. We met up with another girl and we just sat around talking. I laughed a lot and then we went to the dance club I busted out all of my corny moves (the lawnmower, the sprinkler) and had a good time. All in all it was def a memorable birthday and I guess if I couldn't spend it with my friends and family then I might as well have climbed a mountain to pass the time.

I leave Taupo in a couple of days to venture onto the east cape of NZ. I will be passing through Napier again and seeing some great beaches. There are no more adventures for this trip, just relaxing and seeing the sites. Here are the pics from the crossing. Enjoy!

A view of one of the mountains when I started the walk

Just a small part of the devil's staircase. It's blurry but you can make out the zig zag that is the path.

This is supposed to be the picturesque spot with the views but instead there was cloud, but this was the highest point and I just climbed up to it on my 23rd birthday so I wanted a picture. The people around sang happy birthday to me and I even got a cookie. Good times with strangers.

Emerald Lakes through the cloud

One of the pics I took as I was sliding down the crater and as the cloud opened for a bit.

Emerald lakes as the clouds opened a bit

I don't know if I will ever be eye level with clouds again. Depsite the lack of a view the fact that I was walking through clouds is pretty amazing to me.

Unfortunately the wind caused my camera to think that it's brand new batteries were dead so that's it for the crossing pics. It was a good day. Oh and one more thing:

I LOVE PIMENTO LOAF!

Goodbye South Island

After I left Christchurch I headed to Kaikoura. I was only in Kaikoura for a day but it is a beautiful little spot. I was able to go whale watching in Kaikoura which was an experience. The said that there was a strong motion sickness warning so I took one of my magic pills and figured that would be the end of it. Oh no. While the boat is moving you have to seat inside and all of the doors are closed, which means no air movement. Heading out to where the whales were meant that we had to break over some waves. So for twenty minutes it felt like you were on a roller coaster. We spotted the first whale. It was a sperm whale and it was a pretty amazing site. We were no more than 50 meters from this massive whale. When it surfaces it only shows about 1/3 of its body but the money shot is when it gets ready to dive again. That's when their tale flips out into the air. I was standing there feeling the motion of the ocean and not feeling good about it when the whale went for its dive. I was speechless. I got a huge smile on my face and decided that this trip was worth it. Then we all had to get back into our seats so we could go see if we could find another whale. Another 20 minutes of the ocean and I wasn't feeling great and people around me were getting sick and I was thinking again that it wasn't worth it. Then we got out and saw another whale that yet again made it all worth it.

At this point we had been on the water for about an hour and a half. They had said that usually they see about two whales per trip. So I was thinking that we were going to head back to land. Instead they said that there was a dusky dolphin sighting around here and that we were going to check it out. For another half hour we traveled around and I sat there having a serious debate with myself. I was feeling ill but I had taken the medicine so the illness I was feeling was probably not physical but mental. So I just sat there and put my head down and took a nap for a bit. When I woke up I felt much better and the boat was surrounded by 100 or so dusky dolphins. I went out onto the deck and the crew members played "What a Wonderful World" over the loudspeaker as we all took in the magic of seeing 100plus dolphins swimming around and jumping in their natural habitat. It was a really great experience that brought a huge smile to my face. All in all despite the motion sickness it was worth it. It was a nice way to end my trip to the South Island.

Yesterday I took the ferry and today I am back in Wellington. I am staying at Ed's house and took today to meet up with the cleaner's from Base and hang out at Eat. While I was at Base I ran into some of the people I had cleaned with and we caught up on each other's travels. It was really good. Unfortunately my stay in Wellington is really short. I leave tomorrow for Taupo. I have already been to Taupo but the reason for going this time is that there is a day walk there that is considered one of the Great Walks of NZ. It is called the Tongariro Crossing. It takes between 6-8 hours and the terrain can be quite steep at times but the benefit is that the environments you cross over are amazing. You go from flatland to walking inside a giant crater to getting a view of some lakes and seeing the Mountain that was Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. A lot of travelers have done this walk and have raved about it so I am excited to finally do it. I will be doing it with another girl a met so it's a bonus that I won't be doing it alone.

So the next blog will be after the Crossing. The Crossing is the last big thing that I have planned for NZ. After that I am just cruising with the bus. Here are some pics to keep you going.

A place we stopped at between Christchurch and Kaikoura.


The wizard!

A whale surfacing


The money shot

One of the many Dusky Dolphins jumping (I feel he was just jumping for me)

The Kaikoura mountain range

All of these pictures make me feel like a very luck girl for having the chance to travel to New Zealand and take them. It's starting to hit that I will be leaving this beautiful country in less than a month. I am excited to see everyone but I am starting to get a little sad that this experience is winding down. But I will not think about it all yet. That's what Fiji is for. For now I will enjoy the rest of my time here and soak up as much of this beautiful scenery as I can. Peace out.