New Chapters

Hello friends, family, and friendly followers! My most sincere apologizes for my lengthy absence and apparent neglect of this blog. Since March, my school schedule has become much more intense, my wonderful mom and brother came to visit and explore the islands during my Easter holiday, and I move into a new flat.

Each of the things I just mentioned deserves its own post (and one of those things will require many, many posts), but the last one is the subject of this post and probably the biggest factor in my not posting recently.

Due to some unforeseeable circumstances and an enormous dose of luck, I moved out of my first flat, meant to house five people, into a new place just up the hill, which is meant to hold two. I was thrilled to find out I could move into a smaller place. I had requested a smaller place anyway so this worked out really nicely. What's kind of amazing about the situation is that when I moved in, I didn't have a roommate. What's even more amazing is that I've lived here a little over a month and I still don't have a roommate. Believe me when I say that I am completely and utterly, 100% cool with this.

SO! HERE is my house. That I have all to myself. All. Mine. Can you tell I'm still pretty excited about this? Everything about this house is better for me. The public areas are smaller but I like them that way. The water pressure is better. My mattress is better (the last one had springs that popped into my back randomly). The windows are better....oh, just see for yourselves.

(My room: comfortable bed, desk, bookshelf.)

(The enormous window. Notice the stain glass?)

(The view outside.)

 (Closet: originally the dresser was in the main room but I stuck it in here to save space.) 

 (I put up some souvenirs to a rugby game I went to. The heater you can see on the right is in my room.)

 (The living room.)

(Non-working, but still cool fireplace and gigantic window.) 

 (Adorable bathroom complete with tub and fishy shower curtain.)

 (Kitchen!)

(Thanks to my friends who not only helped me move, but also helped me "break the place in" with fish and chips and fun!)

 I will be the first to admit how spoiled I have become: this is not how college kids are supposed to live, I know. But I'll also be the first to admit how I am not taking a single thing for granted. Every time I wake up or walk in the door, I count every single one of the blessings this new place has given me.

The Wonderous, Windy, Whale-watching, and Winery Weekend (Part 3)

The next morning we got up bright and early. We had a two hour bus ride to the winery, but it included a quick stop at a small beach that gave us some awesome views.

(The morning light was spectacular.)

 (Mountains to the left, ocean to the right.)

It was really hard to get back on the bus after this. But off to more adventures.

Frankly, I found the winery rather boring after a day on a ferry, train, and boat enjoying landscapes, volcanic rocks, whales, and fish and chips. No offense meant towards makers or drinkers of wine, though I find grape vines to be extremely pleasing to the eye, I find nothing about wine pleasing to the tongue.

(I love the mountains in the background.)

(We had a lovely brunch together!)

After that it was back on the ferry for a finally journey back to Wellington. Here are some of the pictures from that beautiful trip.

(Beyond the fjords and into open ocean!)

 (This is one of my favorite photos from the entire trip so far. The blue water, the blue mountains, and the blue sky peaking through the biggest, most luscious clouds I've ever seen.) 

Sometimes I can't believe this place is real.

The Wonderous, Windy, Whale-watching, and Winery Weekend (Part 2)

As soon as we docked in Pictian, the group of us headed towards the train station, which also turned out to be a Subway (the subs place, not an Underground). While waiting on the train to arrive, one that would take us down to Kaikoura, I enjoyed my first taste of any American fast-food chain since arriving in New Zealand.

Once we had boarded our train, we all found out very quickly that the South Island looks very different from the parts of the North Island we had already explored. The train sometimes took us along the road, but sometimes we got views that many motorists would miss and gave us excellent opportunities for pictures (well, everyone who's camera was working, that is!).

(Thanks again to those who let me share these pictures!) 

After many hours of gawking at the incredible landscape, we finally made it to Kaikoura. We had a few minutes to kill before the people from the whale-watching company picked us up, which meant we spent that time continuing to gawk at the incredible landscape. Can you blame us?

 (The waves were huge!)

I've had the privilege of seeing a lot of different beaches. All of them have looked onto the Atlantic Ocean but each one is relatively unique. The same thing can be said about this beach, but instead of sand it was made up of completely smooth, coal-colored rocks. Every so often would find a white one. This is because New Zealand is a rather volcanic country and most of the rocks we saw came from the thermal earth. Pretty cool.

Before we got bored of the incredible view, we were hustled onto a bus which took us to the whale-watching boat. I've been whale-watching once before off the coast of New England and found that this boat was both much smaller and much faster than the last one I had been on. Once on board, the staff explained that the whales we would be seeing were male sperm whales (they have more blubber than the females, so they can swim in the colder, more southern waters). These would usually be about 50 feet long, the same length as our boat! If you'd like to read more about these awesome whales (and you should!), check out this website.

The staff took time to explain the causes and symptoms of sea sickness. Having never been one to experience sea sickness or motion sickness before (I can read in a moving car; that has to count for something), I didn't think I would need to worry. Interestingly enough, more than half of the people on board, including at least 2/3s of the IFSA group got sick or felt sick enough to stay in the cabin, and I don't blame them. The sea was extremely rocky and the boat rather small. Still, though I didn't feel 100%, I didn't get anywhere near being sick. I attribute this to my decision to remain outside the cabin in the fresh air as much as possible...and the fact that I can read in a moving car.

Finally, the guides admitted that seeing whales was not a guarantee, but they had an average of seeing two different whales on each trip out to sea. We didn't see two whales. We saw three. Of course, you can never see the entire whale during these kinds of trips. As you can see from the pictures, you see a lot of whale backs, but with the help of our guides, I was able to snap a few of their beautiful, powerful tails before the dived into the deep.

 (The sun was hidden behind clouds half the time, but when it pushed through, it was gorgeous!)

(A boat from another company, about the same size as ours. I know it's far away, but can you imagine how big it is close up? Can you imagine how BIG the whales are??)

(Our first sighting!)

 (Again, I don't take credit for these pictures. We have some awesome photographers in IFSA!) 

(Actually, I do take credit for this one. Kat, in the photo, asked me to try to get a picture of her with the tail with her camera. How'd I do, Kat?) 

(A whale of a tail and a heck of a view.)

(Just...wow.)

(There she he blows!)

(A few brave IFSA students. The boat was really swaying, so we call held on tightly (to the boat and to each other) for this picture.)

 (Heading back to shore.) 

It was a great adventure and as we began to make our way to our hostel for the night, it hit us how unbelievably hungry we all were. I hadn't eaten a real meal since our stop at the Subway and had only a  few snacks on the train. Some people had had even less to eat than I had. Despite many people having emptied their stomachs on the boat, everyone was ready for a big meal.

Once off the boat, we had an interesting walk to the hostel before we could start to think about food. We returned to the train station, walked down the tracks, climbed through a fence, down a street, and finally made it! I think our IFSA guide was just as hungry as the rest of us so he took us the fastest, if a little conventional, way. After attempting to distract ourselves from our growling stomachs by playing cards, our hunger was finally satisfied by the most indescribably tasty, beyond words perfect, best fish and chips I have ever (to this day) had in my life. Oh yeah, there was also an amazing sunset.

(Paul gets "sassy" when he's hungry :) )

(I'm surprised I even looked up for this photo...I was in my own little world.)

 (Fish and chips, sunsets, and good company: get end to a terrific day.)