my CRAAAAAZY trip to the land of the HOBBITS!!!

Before I lead into my trip let me just say wow it was ridiculous, and although you may or may not believe what I write let me share this, it all happened... the good times and the bad and the craaaziness all took place!!

Soo I don't remember much of the week leading up to break, we had a big party one night at a bar (exchange with another college), there was supposed to be the first game of fresher rugby but that got cancelled due to weather- there is another game tonight, hopefully that happens! Umm I worked a formal dinner... which was actually embarrassing for the college because no one showed up because it was the Thursday on which break started so everyone had gone home- but actually good for me cause I got to eat the formal dinner food which I may have not had been able to cause when you work the dinners you only get to eat the meals if there are left overs- if not you eat the "alternative" meal after formal dinners... anyway so LET ME BEGIN!!

FRIDAY APRIL 22: The first day of break, at this point Sophie and I are starting to freak out, trying to pack and get all of our shit together when we realize, oh wait we really have NOTHING PLANNED other than the first night we booked when we booked our plane tickets back in March. Well plans change, instead of doing the first night in Auckland as we had originally planned- our friend Nick (who is from NZ and lives below me) said he would drive us to Lake Taupo (kind exactly NZ's equivalent of Lake Tahoe in the states) soo we had to scramble to change our plans and book a hostel and then we had to scramble and book the shit out of the rest trip and all day Friday we were freaking out about where we were going to go in NZ, how we were going to get there etc. So finally it all came together/ kinda and the original plan was this: We were going to arrive in Auckland around 4 p.m. when our flight landed, drive down with Nick to Taupo (a 3 1/2-4ish hour drive) stay there Saturday night, Sunday do the "Mt. Doom hike", and then leave monday morning for Auckland, stay in Auckland Monday night, then early Tuesday take the bus to the Bay of Islands (we chose a town called Paihia), be there all day tuesday + night, leave Wednesday morning and go back to Auckland until our flight on Friday morning back to Brizzy. [WOAH I KNOW!] soo we were all okay! until we finally got in contact with Nick late Friday night and he was like well I can drive you back on Monday to Auckland, so it messed up all our already booked bus schedules for that day but thankfully we were able to get refunded on that- but more on that day when I get there.

our little plane!

Saturday: LEAVING BRIZZY! We got up around 7ish and made it to breakfast where we ate with our friend Josh who also lives in Auckland who we were flying on the same flight back with- He also had graciously offered us a ride to the airport that morning from a friend of his parents who was already driving him. But being a silly kiwi he likes to really take his time and we BARELY made it to board the plane in time having gotten to the airport late, had to check in, go through security, then since it was an international flight, go through customs as well! But we made it onto the plane:
There is a pic of the plane, we flew an airline called Pacific Blue... overall the flights' roundtrip prices weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be but they definitely still did damage but it was DEFINITELY WORTH IT. I CANNOT STILL BELIEVE THIS HAPPENED: okay so it is like a 4ish hour flight to Auckland from Brisbane, our flight was scheduled to take off at 10 a.m. and arrive there around 4 p.m. their time (they are 2 hours ahead time zone wise) so about 1 and 1/2 hours into the flight they announce over the loud speaker "Is there a doctor on the plane, there is currently a medical situation taking place, we need a doctor" of course that wasn't scary or anything! then... 2 hours into the flight aka HALF WAY TO AUCKLAND they come over the loud speaker and announce umm soo folks we are going to have to turn the plane around BACK TO BRISBANE there is a medical emergency and we need to treat to him in Brisbane. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! WE WERE HALFWAY THERE! so the plane turns around and we fly back to Brisbane, sit on the runway for another hour while an ambulance comes and takes the guy away and then we fly the 4 hours again back to Auckland. Turns out this guys was having heart problems. not a heart attack, heart problems, and I guess it was better for him to be treated in Australia or something so they turned back. I am still angry about that. Plus, Sophie and I were not even sitting next to each other so we couldn't even talk about it, she was like 8 rows back and poor her, her headphones had broken before the trip and she hadn't been able to get new ones so she didn't even have any music to listen to throughout this entire mess. By the time we finally got to Auckland it was 6 p.m. their time and poor Nick had been waiting to drive us since 4- he said he saw a sign that there were two flights arriving from Brisbane one that was scheduled to arrive at 4 like we had planned and one at six, he was crushed when we did not arrive at 4- AS WERE WE ALL. Soo good start right? But it was okay, we drove to Taupo through the darkness of NZ night sky and made it to our hostel at 1030ish just in time to get some even better news from the hostel. Since the weather was going to be shitty the next day- the "Mt. Doom hike" was not going to be open... aka we would not be able to hike it. But, there were other fun hikes we could do so I guess we had to settle for those. mehhhh worst first day of traveling but I guess we made it work and hey, the bed in the hostel was comfy... even though somehow me and sophie ended up in a room with all guys... ...

Sophie and I before the hike!

Sunday: Day 1 Lake Taupo: So even though we were not able to do the famous hike that was essentially the reason that we drove down to Lake Taupo for in the first place, we made the best of it and decided to do a 12 hike from the top of the mountain where the dam was stopping the water that flowed into the lake and followed it down through actually all these really cool places down to the lake. The pic on the left is of us before the hike waiting at 930 am to leave the hostel!! We got up early to talk to the reception people at the hostel to try and find alternative plans and they suggested this, this also allowed us to get up early and explore Taupo before it really started humming with people for the day and woah such a cute little town (if you want more photos, look in my facebook album- I posted a bazillion!) So we took a little shuttle up to the top of the mountain and waited patiently until the dam opened up.. which actually worked out well it opened at 10 so we got there with only 5 minutes to spare and had our cameras ready when it opened. I don't believe in my life I have ever seen such blue water rush over what looked like to be a little creek and rise so quickly once it opened. It was actually a really amazing site and I learned that 12% of NZ's electrical power for the entire country comes from hydro electric power so it was cool to see it "in action". After the dam opened we started the hike "down" but let me tell you it definitely felt more like a hike up/kinda side ways because there were many more ups than there were downs! It was also a little ridiculous the lack of any signage pointing us in the direction to continue the trail and I swear we probably didn't even take the right way because we went some weird routes. But nonetheless we made it to our first stop: Huka Falls!! This picture really does not do it the justice that it deserves however it really was enormous and a gorgeous site! Plus the water was sooo blue that I couldn't even get over it! What you can see in the photo is an activity we wanted to do but honestly it cost sooo much money and there was no way that it was going to be possible, but still sooo cool!

HUKA FALLS!

 Yeah, so after Huka falls we continued the glorious hike for a while, running into random people walking and biking the trail and woah are NZ people friendly! I feel like I said hi or hello to every single person we passed, kinda an awkward experience really but I guess it's the culture. Side note: on our drive to the airport the woman who drove us was telling us about her experience when she went to New York City and how nice everyone was to her, the people and the atmosphere, which frankly I was shocked because as any American would say I think, NY people are jerks/obnoxious! haha anyway just a small short story that I just thought of which was relevant! So we continued the hike to the next location on the map which was also really cool a thermal water springs where people could swim and omg! when we touched the water literally it felt like a hot tub! which was extremely ridiculous because it was all natural and you could literally see the steam rising from the ground. Oh nature, so ridiculous! I don't want to post another photo on here cause it wold just make this post even longer but you can picture it or go look at my fb! Or if we are not friends on fb I can send you a pic! Then we continued on the hike to our last stop along the trail, a big cavern where they had set up a bungee jumping thing and omg it was so high and the view was sooo beautiful but omg bungee jumping. People who can do that are honestly insane!! What could possibly make you want to do that, I probably would rather jump out of a plane than do that. But really lets be serious, I wouldn't do either anyway!! After our last stop we walked back into the gorgeous town and explored all the shops that had opened, took notice of the restaurants, walked around where there was a little market set up and just enjoyed being tourists on our vacation in a foreign country!! We made it back to the hostel around 3 exahusted from the events of the morning and immediately crashed and took naps/ hot showers and just relaxed until dinner. Which after going out and walking around, comparing prices and deciding what we actually wanted to eat, we decided upon a cute little japanese noodle place and got yummy food!! Then we walked around the lake for a while, it was gorgeous even at night and the stars in the sky were awesome! and then went back to our hostel around 1030 and like grandmothers, went to sleep early exhausted from our first day in NZ!


Day 2: Monday April 25: Travel Day + Rain! Well, after the wonderful day of hiking, we were keen to move onto our next location: Auckland for the day!! However Monday was also EASTER MONDAY AND ANZAC DAY sooo the traffic wasss horrrible! But! Since nick drove us and we weren't taking a bus, this allowed us to make a couple of stop along the way that we definitely wouldn't have been able to go to if we hadn't done that. For example: We stopped in a town called Rotorua!! and OMG did the entire town smell like sulfur/eggs/shit! Nick took us to a place which we had been before called Whakarewarewa >> see the photo, and it was this REALLY COOL village built on top of thermal geysers and they had them all around the village and everything! too bad the weather was shitty and raining because he said that they usually for the people, the native Maori's (the natives of NZ) cook corn from the ground for the people walking around etc. It was the coolest thing ever to again see the thermal activity that came from the ground, gah! NZ is the coolest country ever. Also in the town, we got to experience a "show" where we learned about the culture of the Maori and all about the people who "lived in NZ many many many years ago" which was really cool, they also did dancing etc. And we were able to take a picture which them after the show which was pretty cool, they did all these ridiculous facial expressions and sang lots and lots of fun songs! Needless to say when it was over and the rain was only getting harder I was ready to leave, but really glad that we got to spend some time there and see it

Me, Nick and Soph + some natives, you know!

If you want to see some photos of the actual village and stuff definitely again check out the facebook photos!! So we continued on our journey through the rain and the terrible traffic until we reached another cute little town where Nick usually stops with his family and ate lunch at this delicious little bakery place. OMG the food in NZ and Australia as well is just so good, so fresh and soo soo yummy. But we continued our drive and apparently when we reached this town we were supposed to be "half way" let me tell you that was NOT THE CASE. we got there around noon ish and unfortunately did not make it to Auckland until 6 p.m. at night! Damn the traffic of easter holidays and everyone coming back to Auckland! Granted NZ is already a small country only having 4 million people total but honestly it felt like all 4 million people were heading to Auckland that day on the same road we were!! But needless to say we finally made it Auckland 6 pmish and all and then without a phone we hop out of the car and Nick drives home (he lives like 15 min. from the city) and Sophie realizes that she left her wallet and purse in his car. So there we were freaking out at the hostel with no way to contact him however it all worked out in the end and we somehow figured out how to contact him and yeah got her stuff back (such good luck we are having right?) We stayed at a YHA hostel in the middle of the city and after we got her wallet back and stuff found a cute little japanese place to eat at and then because we were miserable due to the COLD AND RAINY WEATHER THAT IS AUCKLAND we found the most delicious gelato place ever! (yes we went back another night!) I got two scoops, a peanut-butter thing which was honestly heaven, and honey lavender- yum, just thinking about that gelato makes me sad that I will never be able to eat it again! But we headed back to the hostel early cause we had to make sure that we were up and ready to catch the bus to the Bay of Islands at 8 am! yuck I know but if we were only going to spending the day there we had to start early!

View From Russel !!! I KNOW RIGHT

Our Hostel Beds!

Day 3: Paihia + Bay of Islands: April 26: Got up early, made the bus, thank goodness and then napped for almost all the way there but I woke up with about an hour and a half to go (it was a 3 1/2 hr drive) and decided I needed to document the country because ITS SOO GREEN. never in my life have I seen more green everywhere than I saw in NZ. Plus there is soo much livestock. Fun fact: Like I said above there are 4 million people who live in NZ in total, there are 40 million sheep ... ... bahaha! Anywhere here is a lovely countryside shot! We also stopped on the way at this cute little side of the road cafe and were able to get warm tea... all Sophie and I wanted was to see the sun, and thankfully when we reached Paihia our wish came true!! We got there around 1230 and immediately just had to stop and take in the view- gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous is all I can say. We found our hostel, which actually was probably the worst of all that we stayed in, just what made it bad was the location and lack of heating at night when NZ got cold, and it wasn't "on the beach" which made me a little sad but it was still clean and had hot water which was all I could ask for!! After dropping our stuff off, we wandered around the main street- which was all Paihia really was, and found a cute little cafe! Thank goodness because we honestly were STARVING! At this cafe we got the most delicious fresh toasted sandwiches + yummy fruit etc. and we got our first taste of NZ's "national drink" L&P which kinda tasted
exactly like sprite but ehh I went with it! After our yummy lunch we walked around the little town and then asked the locals what we should do and they recommended hopping on the ferry and going to Russel Island, which was only about a 10 minute ferry ride away. So we did and omg sooo gorgeous! We took a little tour thing, which only lasted an hour because Russel is so small and hah it only happened to be me and Soph on the tour bus so we got to know our tour guide, this cute little old man who ended up buying us postcards at the end but omg so cute. He also took us to the top, which was actually a volcano and we got gorgeous shots and omg such a pretty day. It was kinda windy so not ideal laying out on the beach and tanning weather but perfect walking around weather and exploring the beautiful Bay of Islands: in total there are over 90 islands! CRAZY I was pretty certain I saw what could have been one of the locations for Pirates and the Caribbean which wouldn't make any sense but it looked just like that!! Then we went back to our hostel and relaxed, I read my book which I brought with me on my trip (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Soph napped, we really got a lot accomplished that day! After relaxing, the sun went down and we decided that we were going to go out for a nice dinner, and then get some alcohol and drink on the beach. We ended up finding a really cute little place that served the best pumpkin + salmon salad thing in the entire world!! We kept finding a lot of pumpkin and even here in Australia I keep seeing it, but I guess it's fall so that makes sense. Yum that meal was probably one of my favorites, then after dinner we picked up some alcohol and since it had gotten really cold since the sun had gone down, we decided that we were just going to drink at the hostel but when we went into the common room, a girl from France was already in there watching ... THE LORD OF THE RINGS THE 2 TOWERS- aka my favorite!! We thought it was soo cliche but we went with it, and she had never seen it so we explained the story to her and looked for places that we had seen in it, and I am pretty certain I saw one of the scenes in person! (too funny) she also was extremely helpful because she had just gotten back from Auckland and told of a few things that we should do/ places that we should see while we were there- which was awesome!! But then after drinking, we got tired and decided to call it a night around 11ish cause we had to get up at 7 to catch the 8 am bus BACK TO AUCKLAND FOR OUR LAST TWO DAYSS!!

The Space Needle actually is very very short!

Day 4: Auckland: Wednesday April 27: Woke up to this gorgeous image and was very very sad to leave Paihia!! But hey, at least the sun was out when we woke up! We hoped on the bus ride and drove back to Auckland- lots and lots of public transportation but hey thank goodness it all worked out and that the NZ dollar is somewhat cheap which enabled us to do all of this and the buses were clean and fast (just normal coach buses) and the drivers were friendly so I didn't mind it too much. We got back into Auckland around lunch time again and found our hostel, which this time was a different one from the one we stayed in when we were in Auckland on Monday night and honestly even though it was extremely cramped, this was my favorite hostel because of how nice and clean it was and the location was perfect. It was directly in the center of the city, which really came in handy that night when we went out out but I will get to that. We dumped our stuff off at our hostel, and went out to explore Auckland, but in typical NZ weather, it was coldish and on and off rain. When I say cold I mean like 55-60ish degrees! Here is a pic of the first shot I could get from the bus of Auckland, and as you can see, the weather is kinda cold and dreary... I would describe it to be what London is like although I have never been to London, so I cannot be absolutely sure! So after walking around and enjoying the sites, we decided after recommendations from the French girl and other local NZrs, to take the ferry to one of the surrounding islands of Auckland called Devonport! It was just a short 20 minute trip and I am really glad that we got the opportunity to do it because again, it was a cute little Martha's Vineyard like place and we got to hike up to the top of an old World War 2 fort, named North Head (bahah funny I know, which the view was clever) and we got to hike our a volcano called Mt. Victoria!! It was extremely steep, and the sun finally came out so we were able to see a gorgeous view of Auckland as well as the other surrounding places + and be on top of a volcano. A win win in my book if you ask me, after that we returned to Auckland and did a little shopping (I mean we had too!) I purchased a T-shirt for the Rugby World Cup, which will be taking place in Auckland later this year, and then we got a phone call from Josh (the one we flew over with) saying that he was going to take us out on a night on the town with his friends! So we rushed back to hostel, showered and met him on the corner of one of the main streets and he took us to one of his friends houses. I would describe it as the typical college house that you could find anywhere in America but to us, it was the perfect way to spend the night out and our first "real night out on the town in NZ". Before we got there, we stopped at the liquor store and I am happy to report that alcohol is a bazillion times cheaper than it is in Australia so we were really able to stalk up and drink liquor. We drank Smirnoff "double blacks" which I really hope are in the states because they honestly are delicious. The party started off small with the 3 boys who lived there and one of their girl friends and it kept growing and growing which was really cool and it let us meet a ton of his friends, who were all super nice! Then after the house party started to run out of alcohol, a big group of us walked to a bar in the middle of the city (which was nice and close to our hostel we found at the end of the night (: ) called Cassette and at this bar, the thing to "buy was a teapot" see the picture of me holding one, and with this teapot, you got to choose a fruity drink and then it came with shot glasses, and you got to drink from it!! Such a funny concept and we definitely enjoyed ourselves because, hey! were on vacation and why the hell not!

Josh, Soph and I 

All around it were signs: Do NOT enter Crater!

Day 6: Our Last Day! Auckland: April 28: Our last full day in NZ, so so sad!! We started the morning off early, although Sophie was pretty certain she was still drunk from the night before and I was definitely struggling with a painful hangover. In the morning, when the sun was kinda out and it wasn't too cold, we caught a bus from the city out about 20 minutes to Mt. Eden, another volcano that everyone told us would show us a beautiful view of Auckland and they were not wrong!! It was a struggle to get up the steep volcano but it was soo pretty!! and I got a really cool photo here of the crater! Sophie and I were kinda hoping that it would erupt, but that would have been very bad, and we would have died but it totally would have been worth it... and like my caption says, we were def not going to enter the crater and get killed by the lava!! Then, of course on our walk back to the bus stop rain rain rain came! So we decided that our outdoor adventures of Auckland were over with and that it was time we went inside. The french girl and Josh + his friends recommended that we go to this under the ground aquarium thing called Kelly Tarltons' so of course it was cold and rainy so we were keen to do it! the coolest part may have been the FREE bus that picked us up from the city to take us there, and once we got there we got to see sooo many cool things, penguins, sharks, nemo, dory, hundreds of lobsters, eels, starfish just tons and tons of fun underwater things! I mean LOOK AT THAT BUS, HAVE YOU HONESTLY SEEN ANYTHING COOLER? I THINK NOT!

Us at the top of the sky tower!

it was a really fun and dry activity but we finished around mid afternoon and were still exhausted from the previous night and days events so we crashed in the hostel for a while! Then before the rain kinda cleared up and it gave us the opportunity to go to the sky tower and watch the sun set!! Imagine kinda the exact thing as the Empire State Building but of course on a much smaller scale but still really really cool and we were set in thinking it was the perfect way to end our WONDERFUL BREAK. But the icing on the cake really was that we found the perfect local little restaurant hidden in Auckland that was packed, so we knew it was good and of course it did not disappoint and then.. we got our GELATO (: omg this time I got cheesecake flavor and a pancake with syrup flavored creation. Oh I will forever dream about that lovely lovely place! But as grandmothers and because our flight was at 7 am and the airport was actually a 30 minute bus ride from the actual city. We went to sleep and had to get up at 430 a.m. to catch the 5 o'clock bus to make sure we got there in time. This time THANK GOD- our flight was fine and we got back to Brizzy on friday with all day to relax.


The rest of break: It was really nice to be back with not a lot of people from college back yet, but then we started to get lonely and I am super glad everyone is back. Plus, getting to hear about everyone else's crazy adventures has been really cool, but in my opinion we definitely had the BEST TIME OUT OF EVERYONE!! I am always going to remember this trip!! check out my photos on facebook for images of everything I just described!


I honestly cannot believe mid semester break is over and that I really only have two more months in this wonderful wonderful country!! I am a little jealous that everyone back at home is getting out of classes now and summer is beginning but I would not trade this experience and the memories that I am making for anything!! This week also looks to be pretty fun, tonight is our first fresher rugby game against the all boys college, our poor boys are going to get killed, and then tomorrow we are celebrating CINCO DE MAYOOOO (: this weekend also we are going to an AFL game! (through my abroad program) so definitely looking forward for things to come!! MISS EVERYONE! Hopefully I didn't forget anything about the trip but boy this is loooooooong!