town and giving away prizes at the same bar we were at. The competition was a “horizontal bungy” which meant that one player of the team had to run to one end of the bar while attached to a bungy, grab a cup of beer, and return it to their teammate. The otherteammate had to chug the beer down as fast as they could and who ever could do it fastest would win a free bungy anda free bungy swing. None of us competed, so none of us won; not that it would matter though because the bungy was in Queenstown and we were not looking to go back there during this holiday in New Zealand. After we swooned over Prince William and Prince Harry some more and commented on how beautiful Kate looked with some girls from London, we headed back to the RV for the night; we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.The alarm went off at 7:30am the following day to all of us groaning and hitting snooze at least twice. At 9 o’clock we wandered over to the glacier guide base and awaited further instructions. We wrote down emergency contact info, I got a look over by two people and a lesson on how to maintain my diabetes while on the glacier, and then we gathered our equipment and headed for the bus. The boots they gave us were at least three times heavier than the sneakers we had previously been wearing and it was clear after walking ten yards that the hike up the glacier in these was not going to be easy. Once we arrived it was about a 3km (a little more than 2 miles) walk from the bus to the base of the glacier, but still there was no sign of ice, it was all just a bunch of rocks. Our guide informed us that this was because the ice was underneath. He explained all about high and low pressure systems, tectonic plates, and why the rock was on top of the ice at the bottom of the glacier- basically, it had been on the bottom, but due to an explosion of underneath because of the pressure, it was now backwards with the ice being on bottom. Finally, we strapped into our crampons and
started maneuvering all over the glacier. We used pick axes to balance ourselves and our guide would strike the ice to make stairs for us to walk down. Throughout the day, my group had 3 guides, which was very unusual. The first guide accidentally picked his leg so hard in the shin that he had to be taken away by helicopter, the second guide led us the rest of the way up and down, but had to make a speedy exit at the end because he still had six hours of driving ahead of him. The last guide didn’t take us far, just from the bottom of the glacier tot the bus, but he was the cutest so I didn’t care. It’s hard for me to put into words exactly what we were experiencing so I tried to take as much video as possible. The glacier hike was one of the most adventurous, exciting, and interesting activities I’ve ever done in my life and I would recommend it to anyone no matter what part of the world you are in. We had planned on going to the glacier thermal pools after the hike, but we were exhausted and starving so we decided to just go back to the camper, shower, and go out for our last dinner of the holiday.
Before I came to New Zealand, I wasn’t too excited about it. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited to go to a new country and get another stamp in my passport, but something about it just wasn’t screaming “fun holiday!” to me. I did really want to go to the outback and hopefully some day I will, but for right now I think I made the right choice. Driving in an RV with four good friends, experiencing an aftershock, almost freezing to death in Queenstown after almost eating myself into a coma with Ferg Burger, and finally seeing just how much a small town has to offer were some of the highlights not only of my week in NZ, but probably of my entire semester abroad. For those of you wondering where my other friends Julia and Cathy are (the girls who went on the Springbrook tour with me and Jenna), well since they are in a different program for studying abroad, they had the option to go to Thailand for break and they decided to do it. It’s been pretty strange not talking to them for over a week now, but I’m sure they had a lot of fun. I’m excited to see them again tomorrow and hear all about Thailand and the amazing experiences it offered them.
weather was far too cold for any of us to go into water, so opted for something a little warmer, but equally as exciting. We took a gondola up a mountain on the far side of Queenstown, overlooking the city the whole time, and bought tickets to luge. Honestly, the luge was the most fun thing I think I have ever done in my life. It’s a little car that has handlebars and that’s it; similar to a go-kart but there are no gas or brake pedals, the only controls are to pull back on the handlebars as a brake. We pretended we were in the video game Mario Kart and were zooming around each other the whole time; it was hilarious and exhilarating especially since it was on the side of a mountain. Afterward, we took the gondola back down and took a look around the shops in time for some souvenirs. We could all agree that the city of Queenstown reminded us of Denver or Boulder out in Colorado. It’s surrounded by mountains and the little shops and restaurants in the center gave the feel of a mountain summit, plus the locals are so laid back and friendly it’s similar to the Rocky Mountains. Needless to say, we fell in love with the city and would go back in a heartbeat. The highlight for all of us was the infamous Ferg Burger. Ferg Burger is a little hole in the wall hamburger stand where the serve enormous burgers that are some of the best I’ve ever tasted. When Jenna, Jill, and I were in Sydney, we met a boy named Jonathan who had been in New Zealand before and he told us about Ferg Burger; ever since then we’ve been dying to try it.
a ½ pound burger with everything on it. SO DELICIOUS. She even got a T-shirt. Unfortunately for the time being, the fun was over in Queenstown. Friday morning we packed up the RV and started on our 5 hour drive to Franz Josef where we will (hopefully) hike up a glacier. It’s still really cold down here and none of us really packed for the climate, but we are having fun nonetheless. It will definitely feel good to get back to the Gold Coast and be able to wear shorts and flip flops again… hmm, that sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it?
for reconstruction, the town of New Brighton (where our hostel is located) is practically all closed, and everywhere you drive in the city there are fallen buildings and roads of holes. Most of the landmarks we wantedto see in the city are closed until further notice. It’s kind of an odd feeling being here and seeing all the tragedy. Before we flew in, I obviously knew that there had been a severe earthquake, but it’s one of those things that I’ve never experienced and therefore never realized the magnitude of what the effects would be. The locals are so calm about it; whenever we ask what we can do they say, “oh you could do this…but, ohwait that’s closed because of the earthquake.” It’s something that really blows my mind and puts life into perspective of just how lucky I truly am.
early on Monday so we could go to the Adrenaline Forest, which is essentially a ropes and zip line course in trees up to 30 meters high. Little did we know that Monday was ANZAC Day. ANZAC, which stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, is one of the biggest holidays down here and all businesses are closed until at least 1pm. This wasn’t the only disappointment we encountered; it was also raining- cold and raining. We had no other choice but to sit around a table in the café downstairs, eat overpriced toast, and play hours of Monopoly until one. After one o’clock, we realized we were absolutely starving, so we took the bus to a shopping mall across the city, walked around a bit, and finally found a little pub to eat at. We got a pitcher of local Tui (t-oo-ey) beer, interesting because at home on the Gold Coast we love a beer called Toohey’s…
orest and let me tell you IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. Now, I’m a little scared of heights, but if you remember from my blog The Reef, this trip I am being fearless. We made our way out on the ropes and I was kind of scared when we got up really high, but it was worth it. The experience was amazing and quite the workout. Unfortunately, my iPhone was out of battery, so there are only pictures and no videos of our time, but just try and imagine me and Jenna flying down zip lines and climbing on spider web –like ropes in trees taller than anything you’ve ever seen. After an exhausting day, the four of us headed back to our hostel area to get some chicken fingers and fish and chips at a little place we had seen before we left New Brighton. With surprise, however, we found out that the little restaurant had a lot more to offer. It definitely didn’t help that our stomachs were basically empty, but I’m almost positive that we ate just about everything in the shop. To put it simply and after much debate, our table had 3 orders of chips, 3 “hotdogs,” 2 orders of six chicken nuggets, one cheeseburger, and one chicken burger. I know what you’re thinking, “why would hot dog be in quotes?” Well, this would be because it was not a typical hotdog. It was actually a sausage on a stick and then deep fried… YES, deep-fried. No worries, no one who ordered it could finish it and after three bites we all gave up on it, but I can’t say the same for the rest of the food. We got back to our room, experienced, the aftershock (of the earthquake, not of stuffing our faces with fried goodness), and snuggled into bed to warm up for the night. Overall, Christchurch was good to us and we enjoyed our time here, but we are definitely ready to get our RV and drive it all over the south island… Oh, right, I forgot to mention that. The four of us rented a RV and are driving from Christchurch then south to Queenstown then moving back up north to a glacier in Franz Josef and finally leaving Sunday out of Christchurch. This is going to be an unforgettable Easter Break, I can already tell. 
We took a train, then a bus, and then walked a little ways all decked out in our bright blue shirts and face paint. We probably looked like real fools because I’m pretty sure everyone around us was wearing maroon and yellow for the Brisbane Broncos, but we didn’t care. We had a sign and we had pride and that’s all that mattered. Once we found our seats, we watched some of the 20 and under game that takes place before the professionals take the field. Finally, it was time for the game to start. With our freshly refilled XXXX Golds in our hands, the girls and I cheered on the players, none of which we knew the names. Luckily, the people in front of us were kind enough to tell us when it was appropriate to praise the team and when it was ok to be upset about a call. We got a little rowdy just for fun and the fans were playfully teasing us whenever we would cheer for the wrong reasons (which happened a lot more often than it should have). The rules we finally did understand was that a try is worth four points and then they get to kick it through the uprights. However, unlike American football they have to kick the ball from where it entered the “end zone” and the kick is worth two points. Unfortunately, the Titans only scored once and the Broncos took the game. It was hard for us to tell whether there is a true rivalry between the
Broncos and the Titans, but a lady next to me explained that the two teams have never really gotten along, mostly due to their close proximity to each other. It reminded us a lot of Red Sox and Yankees rivalry or even Celtics and Lakers, just a little less intense. The fans were joking with each other instead of trying to rip each other’s heads off and arguing over players and statistics. At the end of the game, we ran to the bottom of the stands in hopes of meeting a player, we met him, but didn’t have enough time to grab a photo or an autograph or even a name, but I promise we met him!! I hope to get to another game in the near future because it was so much fun. Australia has a professional rugby league and a professional rugby union. The Titans are the NRL (the league), so we hope to make it to a Union game just to add another check to our bucket list.
World taught us all about the native fruits of Australia, including, but not limited to, dragon fruit, star fruit, and jakfruit which weigh about 20kg on average. He also told us that dragon fruits are a natural way to lower blood sugar, so needless to say I tasted about 5 pieces. After purchasing some honey-roasted macadamias and tasting chocolate macadamia nut spread, we got back on the bus and headed to the natural bridge. Once we arrived I was immediately reminded of a tour I took this past summer in the White Mountains of New Hampshire of the Lost River Gorge. They are similar because there were beautiful waterfalls at both places and caves; however, in New Hampshire there was a lot more freedom. I was not able to climb through tiny openings of holes at the natural bridge as I was in the White Mountains, but we had fun nonetheless. Our tour guide educated us about strangler fig trees, which wrap around other trees and kill them until all that is left is the outside shell of the fig tree. It was really quite riveting. We asked if we could eat the figs because we were now in native-fruit-trying mode, but he said that
although the figs are not poisonous to birds, humans should not ingest them. After admiring the beauty of the natural bridge and seeing bats fly in and out of the cave it had created, our tour took us on to the next stop. Along the way, we looked out the windows to the amazing countryside of Australia. Most people tend to this that Australia is just like the coast of Florida and is all beaches, however, there are more green mountains and sugar cane fields in Australia than I’ve ever seen in my life. Unfortunately for us, Saturday was a little cloudy so we couldn’t see the tops of the mountains too well. John explained that on the highest mountain you could see the outline of Mount Warning, which is a volcano that erupted millions of years ago. An hour drive outside of Southport is where Queensland meets New South Wales, the state in which Sydney is located. John pulled over so tourists like us could take pictures on both sides of the border. Our last stop before lunch was at the Best of All Lookout where you could literally see for miles and miles. Even though it was cloudy, it was still easy to make out where we had just driven from and where we would be going next. It was amazing, truly breathtaking. For lunch we stopped at the Springbrook Manor, a little inn located inside Springbrook National Park. We saw a pony and ate some lunch before heading out to see the last three waterfalls of our tour. The first falls we looked at were at Goomoolahra and come from MundoraCreek, which is the main water supply for the Gold Coast. John explained that we would see two more falls after this and that Goomoolahra was the smallest of the three, but it was also the falls that we could be closest to. Next, we headed to a lookout spot for Rainbow Falls. It is given this name because when the water is falling the bottom acts as a prism and creates a rainbow. Finally, and most remarkable, was Purlingbrook Falls. This waterfall flows off a 106-meter drop. As we stood in awe, I noticed that there were people far closer to the falls than we were, so I asked John if we could take a walk down. His replied, “Sure, if you’ve got an hour and a half to spare. It’s a 4 kilometer walk, I’ll come back for you tomorrow and pick you up.” Needless to say, we didn’t get to go down there. It was still gorgeous though. John was so charismatic, funny, and informative that we decided if the chance ever came to do a tour again, we would try to get him as our guide. More tired than ever before, Cathy, Jenna, Julia, and I boarded the bus one last time and headed home after a fun-filled day.
course was a communications course, but it turns out to actually be a psychology course. I still find it to be interesting and I hope that it will help me better my relationships and my interactions with people, both skills, which will be necessary when I become a world famous politician (it’ll happen, don’t worry). My journalism course seems to be very interesting as well. My tutor is not formally a teacher, but he has been editor at four different newspapers in Australia as well as two newspapers in London. This class is clearly just an elective, but I find it interesting. The first day we learned about grammar, something I thought I was good at, but I was wrong. My hope is that by the end of this class, my grammar skills are close to my sisters, but I doubt that will happen.
week study break before finals and I only have two finals, so there will be plenty of time to get out there. And, even if I don’t, I don’t think it would be hard to convince either of my parents to go with to the outback with me. As for Melbourne, it has its appeal, but it’s a city. I want to go, I want to experience it all, but in my opinion, if I go to Sydney, it’d be like going to the United States and seeing New York, but missing out on Miami. It would be awesome to go (and I’m sure I’ll find time for it), but it’s not a priority at the moment. One last place I have recently taken an interest in seeing is Tasmania. I met a girl who lives there and asked her if it was worth seeing. Obviously, she said yes. She said that Tasmania is beautiful and there are a lot of mountains and hiking to do. It sounded like a place I might want to see, but we’ll have to see what other trips I end up taking in my short five months down here. It's crazy to think that I've been gone for almost a month already. Time is flying by and I'm having so much fun. I don't want to think about leaving... ever.