Welcome to My Crib

Today was move in day!
Everyone was ready to finally get to settle in somewhere. Personally, I didn't mind so much living out of a suitcase. I didn't have a lot of stuff anyway, and I wasn't in a rush. We would have 2 weeks before classes even started.That didn't mean I wasn't excited to see my nice new apartment, though.
So without further ado, welcome to my crib...

Upon entering the "flat", I turned to the left. This is the view of my living and dining area. One of my flatmates had arrived the day earlier to drop off two boxes, and she left a note for me on the table. That door you see would be my bedroom.

This is my lovely kitchen,

Here is where I became best friends with the microwave. That thing works wonders. Don't worry, I utilize the stove too..

This is my bedroom, where all the magic happens. If by magic, I mean where almost all of my living, studying, mental breakdowns, and eating occurs.

Next, we have the toilet and a sink with no mirror,

The shower is seperated from the toilet which is actually quite convenient.

 I didn't take a picture of the hallway, but my flatmates rooms are in the hallway along with the doors to these rooms.
This is the view from my window looking down at the courtyard,

This is my view of Auckland and the Sky Tower at night,

(Excuse this boring post, but I thought people might be curious as to what the place I am staying at actually looks like.)

Oh and here is a group picture of the whole residence complex. Try to spot me:

Hello Auckland!

Today, was the day, that I would go canyoning… and I had no idea what that meant. So I get up at my usual, ya know, 6:30 in the morning. I actually wake up even earlier than that, but I decide 6:30 is a more acceptable time to be moving around a room with 6 other girls sleeping. I mean, I really don’t mind waking up early as long as I’m not tired. But I clearly didn’t have that problem at this point. Breakfast is eaten at 7:30, so it was just a waiting game until we were to leave at 9.

That came quickly enough, and we got into the vans. Now Auckland is New Zealand’s most populated city, but it doesn’t take very long before you get all up in the woods. They said they had winding roads…they weren’t kidding. They tend to be really narrow too. Anyway, we get to the place and we are instructed to get helmets, a harness, jacket, and a wetsuit. Most people got a backpack to put their things in, which was convenient for them. I had to make a makeshift bag by stuffing my jacket and harness into my wet suit, and tying the legs around my waist and using the arm holes as a strap to put on my shoulder. We hiked for a little while and it wasn’t too bad. Then we stopped to put our wetsuits on. That was quite the experience. It took a lot of shimmying, stretching, and pulling to put on that sucker. Then we practiced our repelling techniques. Piece of cake, where is the waterfall? That’s what I would be repelling down. Except we still had to hike a little bit and since my wetsuit was a little big, it was hard to bend my knees. I felt so clumsy wearing that wetsuit. I fell a good amount of times, but I just thought it was funny, because it didn’t hurt at all. I guess wetsuits work as good shock absorbers. Who knew?

Anywho, we start jumping off of rocks and into canyons of water. You could say I got a gist of what we were doing when they told us to jump. So I did.

When we got to the river, they told us we would have different types of jumps. Ones where we could free style jump, ones to bend our knees for, and others where we had to slide down the rocks. And this took all day. I think I used to have a fear of opening my eyes underwater unless I had goggles, but I swear every time I jumped I would open my eyes before I came to the surface, and it wasn’t too bad. It also might have been because the water was cold so you get that gasp reflex when you go under. It was really fun though.

It took a long time for everyone to repel down the waterfalls, so we got separated into two groups. I was in the second. When we got down the last waterfall, we got to eat. I didn’t know what the sandwich was, but I grabbed it and started eating. I think that is just a reoccurring thing. I see food, and I eat it. The only depressing part about that was I thought we were leaving sooner than we were so I threw half of it in a trash bag. I was still hungry, so it was a sad time. But who has time for sadness when there were eels just chillin’ in the water behind me. They seemed really tame and everyone was just feeding them their bread.

After that we were at the bottom of the canyons, so we followed the river back to the trail. I just made that sound really simple right there, but I’m telling you, river rocks ain’t no joke. They are slippery.

I did make it back in one piece, and that night we went to Silo Park. It is right on the water and they play a movie every Friday night at 9. They have a little playground, food trucks, and a little market. Very cool. I was in the mood for pizza and I paid $12 for one. That’s $9 for you Americans reading this, but I don’t know what I was thinking. I was just blinded by the cheesy goodness, but I really should have looked for something cheaper. It was cut into 6 pieces that fit onto one of those white paper plates.

They were playing Rocky Horror Picture Show, because it was Friday the 13^th. When the movie started they had these people dressed up as the characters and they performed the music scenes happening on the big screen. So that aspect was interesting, and I guess so was the movie.

Okay, sleepy time.

(I forgot to mention that after we arrived in Auckland we were separated from the Otago people the whole time, so we got to know some of the other people better.)

Might as well talk about the rest of the time we spent before moving into our apartments.

The next morning we were going to Waiheke Island! This was only a 30 minute ferry ride as compared to the 3 hour one in Fiji.

The first thing we did was go to the Marae which is a traditional Maori meeting place. The Maori people are the indigenous population of New Zealand. We participated in the ceremony and set up our mattresses on the floor inside. After that, they separated us into four groups. Each would be doing a different activity, and then rotate. After we ate lunch, my first activity was sea kayaking. It was relaxing, yet tiring. We ended up losing one of our guys because he went through a cave and didn’t know where everyone else went, so instead of kayaking to the other side of the bay, we went back inwards to play some games. This required us to link up and climb across each other’s kayaks into another and stand up, but then we almost hit a boat, so the last people didn’t get to stand. We also played a game where we needed to pass a ball to our teammates before the other team blocked a pass, then one girl capsized and almost lost her go-pro. She thought it floated and was more concerned about her shorts getting wet. Luckily the water wasn’t too deep and she found it. As we got out of the water she managed to capsize her kayak again on shore and it was pretty hilarious.

Our next activity was just to take a stroll around the town. We walked past people giving out free “L&P” sodas. They are a classic New Zealand company. The soda tasted like if you mixed sprite and ginger-ale together. Pretty good stuff.

We took a look in a few art galleries and then we stopped by a piano shop. They had old, new, and everything in between. It was an elderly couple who owned the place and they started playing some of them for us. It was really awesome. I love live music and they told us that they were closing as we came in but they performed for us anyways. I was really happy we stopped in there. It’s one of those things that if time was altered even a little bit, we wouldn’t have gotten to have that experience. Then once again, we lost that same kid that we lost when we were kayaking. Everyone was just praying he knew how to get back to the Marae. He did.

That night they had us go around telling everyone a little bit about ourselves. I always dread those kinds of things, but it wasn’t bad. Then we had the option to go out to 1 of 2 bars, or stay in. I was really tired, and I’m not interested in that kind of thing anyways so I stayed back. A few other people were going to also, but they backed out when the overwhelming majority left. I ended up being the only one who stayed and they set up a movie for me, but I fell asleep 30 minutes in.

Today was time for everyone’s favorite activity. Winetasting.

I knew I wasn’t going to like wine, so I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it, but I thought I would give it a try. The way there was nice and we stopped at the beach, and I will regret to inform you, but wine doesn’t taste like grapes. I didn’t expect it to, but man, I had some hope. There was 5 to try, but I think the guy caught my drift, and understood that I didn’t like it, so he didn’t give me the last two.

Our second to last activity was to make a traditional maori toy. They are called poi’s, and it is a ball on a cord. We made it by taking a ball of cotton and braiding a cord to it. Then we took a plastic bag, twisted it tightly around the cotton, taped it, and then cut off the excess bag. Mine turned out okay, but I think I made the cord too long, and I messed up the braid too. I think a lot of people threw theirs out, but I still have mine. Maybe I’d throw it out if I made a better one.

Lastly, we would do the sculpture walk. It’s a walk around the coast of Waiheke with a bunch of sculptures made by artists. I feel like I don’t have enough appreciation for the kind of art that was there to fully enjoy what I was looking at, but some of them were really interesting.

After that, we returned to Auckland, and had our last dinner all together. We took over the whole place which is always amusing to see any regular people who must be wondering, “What the heck are all these kids are doing here”? But after that, I had a chilled night.

The next morning, everyone would go their separate ways.

Farewell Fiji

Fijian sunrise

The day we left, the ferry was scheduled to pick us up at 2 pm. This meant we had time for breakfast and lunch. Both meals I sat with different people, trying to mix it up a bit. But before lunch, one of the TEAN staff went over some places to visit in New Zealand. She is from the south island, but uh, I don't remember any of the places she said. Good thing we have google, right? Then I packed up all my stuff, which wasn't much, but my sneakers and a few of my other clothes were still kind of wet from the days prior. I needed a washing machine pronto (I wouldn't get to wash anything for a while). Then we all paid our tab. Mine was only 30 Fijian from the snorkeling trip I went on.

Though I didn't talk too much with the group I had sat with at lunch I did learn something. There was this German dude, that I guess is the manager of Botaira Resort. To make a long story short, he actually has a condition that people rarely survive past 50 with, but he was 50 when he found out he had it. Basically, if he didn't cut out the stressful things in his life, he would die, so he came to Fiji and they needed a manger, so that's what he did.

Afterwards, I got my things and they sang us the farewell song again. Everyone got their pictures, and as I lined up to get on the boat I started reflecting on my experiences there. I wish I had talked to the workers more. If I had the opportunity again, I would like to go back there. I think some of my family and friends would like it too.

Saying goodbye. Credit: TEAN

On the ferry I sat by myself, but I was pretty much the first one on. Most people went to the top deck, but I stayed on the middle deck because I wanted to stay out of the sun but still catch the breeze. For most of the way, the ferry was running off of one engine, because one of them blew shortly after we began the journey to Nadi. It took a lot longer to get back, but when we got to the hotel they gave us juice. I was sooo good. I want to know what kind of juice it was and how to make it, because that stuff was the bomb.

This is what my room looked like. Credit: google images

There were two people per room. I was wondering how they would organize it, but it appeared to be alphabetical. I guess that is the easiest way of deciding. So my roommate and I went right to our room, and I waited for her to take a shower before we decided to check out what the dinner situation was... Then we found out that almost everyone had already ate. Oh well, we still got to eat, so in the end I guess it didn't really matter. After that, I called it quits. I wanted to sleep, but I also wanted to check out the wifi. But then I couldn't get it to work, sorry Mom and Dad. (Oh yeah! I forgot to mention how nice the hotel was. I tried to find pictures of it. I wasn't that successful).

The Radisson. Credit: google images

Flight Day!

I felt like I finally had my appetite back, and had a relatively big breakfast. Did you guys know that chocolate pastries were a thing? I didn't

It took a little while to get out of there, but we checked out and bused to the airport. We only spent one night at the hotel, but it was nice and sweet. I think everyone was excited to get to New Zealand anyway. Airport stuff is boring, but for the sake of the story, it took us about an hour to get everyone checked in. After that, we all gathered in the lounge and me and another girl got interviewed about our stay in Fiji, I wonder if they ever get any bad reviews.

On my first flight experience, I had determined that flying was probably my least favorite form of transportation. You have to plan it in advance most of the time, it's strict, it costs money, I'm broke... haha, but this was a different story, my friends. On this plane I didn't get nauseous, they gave us complementary food, and I even watched a movie. I don't know. Maybe it was because I wasn't alone, it was a shorter flight, and I was just really excited to get to New Zealand, but it was just a much more enjoyable flight compared to the others.

Nobody had any issues going through customs, we found our bags easily, and pretty soon we were on a bus again. Next stop was dinner, but because we arrived early, my first experience in Auckland was a stroll around the city. Not bad.

Team Togs Photo Credit: Rachel Fenton

The restaurant we ate at was a different than any other eating experience I've had. They served us different plates of food that you would share with everyone sitting around you. I didn't know what most of the food was. All I knew was that it tasted good. It's not very hard to please me when I'm hungry. I just shut up and eat it.

The hostel we stayed at was pretty nice. When we arrived, we got out room assignments. I was in a room with 6 other girls. I got stuck with a top bunk, so I wasn't thrilled about that, but we were only ever in the room at night, so it was all good. We also got our cheap little black phones. They are honestly not much more outdated than the phone I already have, but it was still amusing listening to everyone else's reactions to them. This place also had wifi, but once again it wasn't really working out for me. You can probably guess what happens next... I went to sleep. The next day, we were going canyoning!

The view from my room

Fiji - Last day at Botaira

Group photo at the top of our climb. Picture Credit: TEAN

Village hike day! We ate breakfast at the usual and waited until 9. By this time I was really annoyed with my cuts, and I wasn't about to hike in flip flops, so I asked for some band-aides from the TEAN staff. Joy to the world, I got some comfort!

Luckily, today it was wasn't raining like the day before so the way there was nice and dry. The group from the other day had exaggerated the difficulty of the climb for sure. They made it seem really tough, but then again... throw some rain in the mix and you have a some slippery rocks. Eh, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. The heat will get to you before the hike tires you out.

Anyway, we get to the top. Bada-bing. We take a group picture. Bada-boom. We head down now, towards the beach and walk along that for the remainder of the trek. However, morning hours means high-tide, high-tide means wet sneakers, right? No. I ain't havin' that. I'm dodging the water like it's the plague. I DO NOT want my sneakers to get wet, and I succeed.

Inside the church

Just before we entered the village, most of the girls changed into skirts and shirts the cover your shoulders, because Fijian women still dress more conservatively. I'm all about respecting the culture, but the extra layer of clothing was not the most ideal situation after a hike. Also, Sam told us about the village and where the kids go to school. In this particular village (1 of 8), only 150-200 people live there. I happened to bring my camera this time so I snapped a few pictures along the way, but when too much is happening around me, I just kind of watch instead of participate. So while others got pictures of the kids and other locals, I didn't. It's all good, I'll just add in some other people's photos.

School boys. Credit: Greg Moores

The market wasn't what I expected it to be, but it was what I should have expected. Basically, in one of the buildings each woman had a blanket set up with all of their homemade trinkets spread out on it. Mostly there was sarongs, necklaces, and bracelets, but they also had various tools and wood carved items. I decided on a map of the Fijian islands on homemade paper.

The Market. Credit: Greg Moores

On the way back, the tide was down so there were no issues with that. I did notice that it started to get more breezy though, and then some clouds rolled in, and then right as we entered the woods... it started to pour. So much for dry sneakers... Good thing Kyra's backpack was waterproof. She let me put my things in with hers, thanks pal.

The village hike. Credit: Haley Peterson

Not gonna lie, the rain was really refreshing so I didn't mind so much that I was getting soaked. It's just that so much water was pouring down that I couldn't even see. I was wiping my wet eyes with my wet hands, that I couldn't dry on my wet shirt. It was just wet. Until it conveniently stopped raining just as we came out of the woods... Whatever, it was lunch time! I won't bore you with any details, but it was good like always.

After that I think I just waited until 2, because I was going snorkeling! I've never done it before so I was excited. We picked out our snorkeling gear, and blew that Popsicle stand. It was only a ten minute boat ride over, and we were dumped into the ocean. When I was first getting used to it, I forgot a few times that, hey! You can breathe, with your face in the water! That's what the snorkel is for. Sweet, deal. But yeah, it wasn't long before I got some water in my snorkel. I was taught that when that happens, you just take a big breath in, and then blow it out of your snorkel. No panic, problem solved. And I actually did do that a few times... when it was only a little bit of water. This time, it was a large amount that I breathed in, and instead of blowing it out, I tried to swim to the surface. Hey, it would of worked fine, but I was too close to the coral and I ended up scrapping my foot on it. By this point, you are all still shocked I scrapped my foot again, right? At least it wasn't the same one though. My right foot finally got a little taste of Fiji.

While looking at the underwater world, I got bored of looking at the coral relatively quickly, but the fish never got old. My favorite was probably when I was in the middle of a school of fish, because with any little movement you made they swerved in the opposite direction and it was very amusing and awesome. During our endeavors, one of the Fijian guys kept pointing out creatures he saw, so I stuck by him so I would be the first to see them. One was a sea turtle, and the other was... wait for it... a shark! And I totally took credit for attracting it with the blood from my foot. Woo!

On the boat I got a nice bandage on my cut, and we went back to the beach. Not long after we got back, other people who went scuba diving came back as well. A group of us gathered to talk about our experiences and then it was time to watch the locals husk some coconuts. One of the boys climbed the tree. Casual. Then they showed us how to husk them in a few different fashions. Some people took a shot at it, then we tried the water and coconut bits from both a young and mature coconut. Not bad.

Huskin' Coconuts

So far, it had been a busy day. The night was to entail a bonfire, performance by the locals, and a cultural kava drink. But then it rained pretty much all night. We sat around before dinner while they did the kava drink. It is apparently a religious drink, but it's made from a plant that gives you a high, and there is no alcohol in it. Interesting, but I didn't have any. What a buzz kill. Oh well, they did it as the buffet for dinner was happening so I just ate my meal.

It didn't look like there would be any bonfire tonight. Instead they had us bring all of our chairs to one side of the eating area. It took forever to set up, because none of us really knew what was going on or how they wanted us to set it up, so we just sat and watched. Then they turned out the lights. It was pitch black and when they turned them back on, they were dressed in their costumes and in position to give us a performance. I loved everything about it. The Fijian boys were hilarious with their dancing and I wish I had a video of the whole thing. I don't know how long it lasted but it was so fun to watch. At the end, they had us all up on our feet to participate in a ginormous conga line. It was a good time and then before we knew it they sang the last song. It was a farewell song, which they would again sing the next morning before we left. And I couldn't help but feel a little sad that we would be leaving.