1) New Blog Design. I like this one better. Seems a lot brighter to me. :)
2) A shout out to my dear, dear friend Amelia. She, too, is studying abroad this semester. She is much braver than I am because she chose to go to a non-English speaking country: Germany! She also has a blog! So if you are at all interested in Germany, studying-abroad, or just want to be thoroughly entertained by a much wittier writer than myself, go check out her blog: Amelia auf Deutsch (but in English)!
3) I have no more business matters. Moving on...
I woke at 5AM on the morning of March 10th, met up with some IFSA people an hour later, and together we made our way down into the heart of a sleepy Wellington. All of this took place so we could board a ferry that would take us IFSA students to the South Island where we would spend the rest of our weekend whale-watching and visiting a winery.
(Not exactly the cute, little thing that might come to mind when you think of a "ferry.")
(Boarding.)
(We aren't the only ones.)
(Cars on a truck on a boat.)
(Once we climbed up to the top of the ship, we were met with a beautiful sunrise.)
(Well, there goes my "I'm the king of the world" moment!)
(IFSA kids.)
(Once we made it to the top deck, we were met by a beautiful sunrise.)
(In fact, New Zealand is one of the first places on Earth to see the sunrise!)
(I love it when it's hard to tell the difference between the clouds and the mountains. Also, it's pretty easy to see why they call New Zealand Aotearoa: the land of the long white cloud.)
(A view of Wellington from the ferry.)
(Remember the wall that my friends were sitting on a few posts back? Well, you can see it and the beach we visited in this picture.)
(Mount Victoria and the eastern side of the city.)
(The west side of the city and a very, very green hill.)
(At this point, it is probably worth mentioning that the moment we pulled out of our "parking spot" in the harbor, our ferry was hit with the most intense wind Wellington had unleashed yet. This was one of the most beautiful days so far, but if I hadn't had my sunglasses, I'm not sure I could have kept my eyes open to see it! What follows are more pictures of that lovely morning in the bay.)
(Downtown Wellington.)
(I loved these trees next to the beach.)
(The first view of open ocean!)
Unfortunately, it was just after the last picture was taken that I realized I had forgotten to empty my camera's memory card before our trip. This meant I had no room for new pictures! Fortunately, a few friends were kind enough to share their pictures with me, and also gave me permission to show them here. Thanks, everyone!
Once we made it out into open ocean, we found that the wind was a little unbearable. We headed inside the ship for hot chocolate and cards. However, Paul stayed out a little longer and was rewarded by seeing some dolphins following the ship!
(Check out Paul's blog to read more about the dolphins!)
(By the way, remember when you were six years old and someone told you to use the blue crayon to color in the water in your coloring book? Then do you remember going to the ocean for the first time and realizing it was actually more like dark grey and in some places brown? Well imagine my excitement when we came along the fjords and found out that there are SOME oceans that are actually blue! Not just any blue, but a blue that doesn't even come in the crayon box (even the 64 piece one)!)
(SEE WHAT I MEAN?)
(Still trying to take it all in without being blown off the boat.)
(By the way, short hair rocks (sorry, Catelyn!))
(After several hours of sailing, we arrived in Picton!)
(Once we arrived, the wind died down significantly and we could shed our windbreakers and enjoy the glorious weather!)
End of Part 1! Part 2 should be up soon!
Beautiful. So jealous. Trying to find a way to go abroad. :)
ReplyDelete-Kirsten