RYLA

Rotary keeps getting better and better.  Every time I think I am done being amazed with all of its programs, something else comes along to amaze me all over again!  This time, it was the Rotary Youth Leadership Association (RYLA).  RYLA is a program that was begun in New Zealand and then spread throughout the word.  According to the official programme, RYLA aims to encourage leadership of youth by youth and to provide an effective training experience by giving an opportunity to:

• Develop leadership skills;


• Increase self confidence;


• Gain exposure to a variety of issues and people;


• Make new friends;


• Obtain information and skills useful in life and/or work.

I know it sounds very official, but this was the best leadership conference I have ever attended (and I have attended my fair share).

I was originally not planning to attend RYLA at all.  Amy had attended right after she arrived last year and loved it, and Meredith was planning on attending this year, but I didn’t think I would have enough time and so did not apply.  Everything works out for the best, though.  I got a phone call from the program director on Friday, 13 January, asking me that if someone had to drop out at the last minute, could I drop everything and attend?  Meredith was very excited about attending, and I never say no to good opportunities, so of course I said I could go.  At this point, it was only about a 50/50 chance of someone dropping out, but I kept my fingers crossed.  I got a phone call at about 2PM on Tuesday asking me if I could still go the next day.  Yes!  Success!

Meredith and I got all packed that night (which was very difficult to do because we weren’t sure what we were going to be doing) and then drove out to Silverstream at 2PM on Wednesday.  Silverstream is a suburb of Wellington, only about 20 minutes out, and my host counsellor kindly drove us out there.  When we arrived, Meredith and I almost turned around and went home.  We might have tried to hide in the boot if the programme hadn’t been so highly recommended!  We were housed in an old asylum-turned-prisoner-of-war-camp (or the other way around, I can’t remember).  The majority of the buildings have not been refurbished and are tumbling down.  It was shocking.  Thankfully, the reception area was in a modern building, and once we finally found our accommodation, it was not in shambles.  I was still very wary at this point, though.  I hadn’t been excited about this for as long as Meredith and wasn’t quite sure if this was how I wanted to spend the next five days of my life.

We had received our schedules that afternoon, and I don’t think they could have fit anything else in this extended weekend.  We were that booked.  We began each day at 6.30am with exercise and we went full on until between 10pm and midnight every night.  Now, just because the official programme was over at, say, 11pm doesn’t mean that we went to bed at 11pm.  Rotary is first and foremost a service organisation, but it is also very social, and its conferences reflect that fact.  Every conference I have been to with Rotary has built in time for social activities.  One night we went into Wellington to some establishments, and the other nights the facilitators set up a small bar for us to enjoy in the evenings.  This led to some late nights followed by early mornings!  (For reference, Meredith and I calculated our amount of sleep over the conference when we arrived home.  We determined that we slept for roughly 17 hours between Wednesday morning and Sunday night.)

Our schedules were so packed because the RYLA team put together a phenomenal programme.  Our first speaker was the Chief Executive of NZ Post, and it took off from there.  We heard from medical researchers about burnout, MPs about having a vision and what it’s like in Parliament, workers from the Human Rights Commission about cultural diversity, and young entrepreneurs.  We were split into seven teams and had building challenges and races.  We had team building activities that included a ropes course, traversing all over the camp and dodging obstacles (including crawling through a pitch black old sewer pipe), racing around Wellington in ‘The Amazing Race,’ and building a raft and sailing around a part of Wellington Harbour in cold rain.  One night we played the International Strategy Game, which is where we were split into countries and we had to trade commodities and space in factories to meet our objectives.  One of my favourite speakers was from a company called TetraMap who helped us learn about our specific leadership type and how to effectively communicate with other types.  Another good session was about how to set goals and achieve them.  Many conferences will focus on setting the right goals, but we also learned how to take the action steps to achieve our goals.  I could have done with a few of the sessions being shorter, but overall it was an incredible inspiring weekend.

Now, most of my leadership conferences that I have attended in the past have been through Georgia Tech, and this means that the same sort of people attend all of them.  It may be people in my major or people in my social circle.  The conferences are also quite short, taking up just a day or two.  RYLA is completely different.  We had youth from all walks of life.  There were 18 year olds who had just graduated from high school all the way to 24 year old dentists.  There were people who weren’t planning on going to university, people who were in university, and people who had graduated university.  We had builders, teachers, world champion athletes, engineers, and students.  Some were married, and some had children.  Many had never really heard of Rotary before or had not idea what it was all about.  The only thing that we all had in common was a drive to learn more about our own leadership styles, about how to be a better leader.  We all came from different paths, and none of us knew each other in the beginning.  Another different thing about RYLA is that we lived together for five days.  We socialised together, learned together, broke through barriers together.  It was the longest, most intense conference that I have ever attended.  Something happened to all of us right around the end of the second day / beginning of the third day.  We all seemed to come together as a group, and the friendships really started to form.  It was very odd for me to get so close to these people right before I leave, but I don’t regret it at all.  Everyone was amazing and has such drive for whatever it is that they want to do.  We have a reunion coming up in about two weeks, so I get to see everyone one last time before I go.

Altogether, it was an amazing weekend.  I never thought I could do that much for that long on so little sleep, but when everyone else is pushing themselves that far, you do too.  I am still exhausted because I have only just realised how much I have left to do and how little time I have left to do it.  I began my two week intensive class yesterday, so that takes a good chunk out of my time.  I also have heaps of reading, catching up, errands, etc, to take care of.  I am preparing for finals, for my trip to Australia, and for leaving the country to go back to Atlanta.  I got a little freaked out the other day when I put in notice to cancel my gym membership because it was the first official ‘I’m leaving Wellington’ act.  Cross your fingers that I can keep going till Australia before crashing!

Extended Weekend

Last Thursday I walked over to the Weir House around 1PM to meet the crazy road trippin’ GT kids.  Because they are only over here for about 6 weeks, they go on road trips pretty much every weekend to see another area of the country.  14 of them were heading up to Rotorua for a variety of activities, many of which I had wanted to do since before arriving in the country, so I decided to tag along.  

We had a caravan of three cars, five people in each car, but because no one had mobile phones, we never really stayed together.  Sometimes we stopped in the same places for food, but those were chance meetings.  Road tripping like that is a lot harder without communication!  My car was the only one with a CD player, so we got to collect all of the mix CDs everyone else had made for the trip.  Listening to those was fun because you never knew what was coming up next!  We stopped in Taupo for dinner and a stretch break before continuing on to Rotorua.  We were staying in Cactus Jack’s, the only themed backpacker’s in Rotorua.  It was amazing.  It had its own ‘Mexican village,’ swing, hot tub, and entertainment / lounging areas.  We had a lot of fun in this hostel.  Our group took up two big rooms, including one that was brand new.  It had exploded the previous year, so they had just finished remodelling it.  It was nice to be travelling with a big group of fun people as opposed to travelling on my own again.  That night we lounged around and checked out the local nightlife.

We all slept in the next day.  That’s not something you can do often in Wellington, so it was nice.  The original plan was to go see the geothermal areas before being picked up for white water rafting at 3PM, but we ended up running out of time.  Our group was so large that it took awhile to get everyone mobilised, so we didn’t have enough time to eat breakfast, drive to the hot springs, see them, drive back, eat lunch, and change before 3.  The new plan was to go zorbing!  Zorbing is a crazy Kiwi thing that involves rolling down a hill in a giant plastic hamster ball type apparatus partially filled with water.  I went in one with Patrick and Blake, and it was insane.  We couldn’t stand up at all.  We were just rolling over and over down the hill.  It was some of the best money I have spent in New Zealand.  After everyone zorbed and was sufficiently soaked, we headed off to explore the rest of the Agrodome area.  We went in the chocolate store, took pictures with large statues of sheep and moa, and chased / herded some sheep around a paddock.  Basically, we were just wasting time with some farm animals!

We headed back to Cactus Jack’s for some lunch at the Mexican cantina next door before getting ready for this white water rafting.  I hadn’t had Mexican food the entire time I had been in New Zealand, so I really enjoyed my dairy-free chicken nachos.  River Rats picked all 15 of us up around 3, and we were off!  We rafted the Kaituna River, boasted as being the “Grade 5 Ultimate” in the brochure.  This was a fun river.  We rafted over a 7 metre waterfall, which is the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world.  There were lots of rapids and other exciting adventures.  Krista and I happened to be in the front for most of the time, so we got soaked when the guide kept us in the waterfalls.  I was really nervous before starting the trip, way more nervous than I had been for skydiving.  I kept imagining going over a 7 metre waterfall, keeping in mind that I stand at 1.66 metres.  None of us fell out and our boat didn’t flip, so we did very well.  We had three boats (mine went first), and the other two almost flipped but successfully straightened up.  Jim was the only American to fall out of a boat, but it was his own fault as he wasn’t holding on to anything in a waterfall.  That evening we all came back and camped out in the hot tub.  The hot tub is actually heated with thermal water, so it was also a cool Rotorua experience.  We went out again later in the evening to check out some local pubs and whatnot.

The next morning was much earlier than the previous day.  We woke up around 6.30AM to leave for Waitomo at 7.30.  We were booked in for the Haggas Honking Holes caving trip, which included three abseils (rappelling into caves and down waterfalls), rock climbing, a glow-worm cave, and crawling along a subterranean river.   It was a bit of an adventure getting there because we got slightly lost and ended up arriving later than expected, but it all worked out well in the end.  We were all in wetsuits with helmets that had lights and everything.  We must have looked like we were from outer space as we tramped along pasture land to get to the cave entrance.  This was a great experience.  We were all incredibly dirty once we got out and very grateful for the hot showers back at the base.  I am not the best rock climber, especially not wearing gumboots full of water, but I still did OK.  Our group was too big to go at once, so we split into a group of 5 and a group of 10.  I liked being with the smaller group because some of those spaces were very tiny.  I heard that the big group sometimes split into two groups of 5 simply because there wasn’t room at the bottom of the abseil for everyone to fit!

Once again, back at Cactus Jack’s, we did the whole hot tub / hang around / eat dinner / explore the nightlife bit.  

The next morning (Sunday morning) was our last in Rotorua.  We got everyone together, took some pictures of Cactus Jack’s, and moved out back towards Wellington.  We stopped at Wai-o-tapu to check out the geothermal pools.  I had been to this place on my last trip to Rotorua, but it was still fun to see it all again with the Georgia Tech crew.  We also stopped at the boiling mud pools, which is what I really wanted to see.  (I didn’t get the chance the first time around.)  We definitely took some videos of all the boiling mud.  I don’t remember seeing pools like that at Yellowstone, so it was really interesting.

One thing about road trips is that the ride is usually about as adventurous as the destination.  My car was a lot of fun.  It was me, Patrick, Blake Henderson, Catherine York, and Emily Straus (a non-GT person; she is a UGA student on GT’s study abroad).  We had an absolute blast telling crazy stories and enjoying the drive.  One of my favourite things we did was on the way back to Wellington.  We had heard about a sort of ‘adult’ playground that students had stopped at in the past.  We missed it on the way up but caught it coming back to Wellington.  Emily and I had a great time on a teeter-totter, we all ran inside the giant hamster wheel, and I went down the zip line more than the little kids did.  Unfortunately, Blake and Patrick had a race, during which Patrick potentially broke his toe (still waiting to hear about that one), so we had to cut our time short.  We stopped for dinner and continued the drive back into Wellington, arriving probably around 8.30 or so.  It was nice arriving so late because I really enjoy the motorway coming into Wellington.  It is a gorgeous city by day and even more incredible by night.  The harbour is lit up very nicely.  Our driving adventures were nothing compared to one of the other cars, though.  Their car broke down somewhere more than 3 hours north of Wellington, so they had to wait for 6+ hours to catch a 3AM bus back into Wellington.  They arrived at 7.30AM for 8AM class.  Whew!

My weekend didn’t really end there, though.  Monday was Wellington Anniversary Day (I think – I know it was a public holiday), and there were a lot of horse races on.  Meredith, coming from Kentucky, is a huge horse racing fan, and her boyfriend had 4 tickets to the Kiwi version of the clubhouse through his cricket connections.  They invited Claudia and me along because we had never been to a horse race before.  It was so much fun!  We got all dressed up to head out to the track.  Meredith taught us all about how to read the stats on the horses and how to place bets.  I am proud to say that I won $5.30 on a $2.00 bet, so I think that is a good thing.  We also got a special tour through the owners’ rooms because we got introduced to a guy on the race committee, so that was pretty cool.  We saw the jockeys weighing in, saw the race replayed for the owner’s, and heard a speech by the committee guy.  It was a really cool afternoon.  I wasn’t expecting to go when I woke up in the morning, so it was a fun spontaneous activity.  Now if I could only make editing my essay that much fun!

Family Vacation Pictures: Part 1D

Our cottage / hotel that we stayed in had a bunch of hot springs / thermal pools disguised as Victorian era baths, and they all had signed with 'radium bath' and the like. I thought it was so funny! 

Family Vacation Pictures: Part 1C

Our Skyline gondolas coming up over Rotorua. I really do love being in the air. 

Family Vacation Pictures: Part 1B

It seems I have to do this one by one ...

This is part of the tracks that you go down on (obviously - you can see that in the picture). I took this picture from the chair lift on the way back up. 

Family Vacation Pictures: Part 1A

I apologise for this week's pictures being so late. I got distracted last Sunday night unexpectedly and have been having trouble with this post ever since. I am posting these pictures in two parts because I can't get all seven in this post for some odd reason. These are my weekly pictures from 15 January.


On our way to Turangi on our 'family vacation,' Mark, Anna, and I stopped in Taupo to see some of the bungee jumping people. This is the main bungee jump from what I understand. No way am I doing this, but if you have to go bungee jumping, isn't this a beautiful spot to do it? You can see the little hut at the top of the cliff where you jump off the side.


Rotorua from the air on the gondolas. Anna is scared of heights, but Mark was really excited about going back up on the gondola. I did scare Anna a little more than anticipated, though, because I sort of leaned out the window to take this picture, and then I noticed the huge warning instructing me to stay completely inside the gondola.

These are the bobsled type things that we took down the track. I am sure these are all over the United States (I have already been informed that there are several tracks in the sparsely populated far west), but this one is cool because it is in New Zealand and I had never done it before.

This was also my first time on a chair lift! I love being up in the air, so I had to take a picture to commemorate.

Friends, Parties, and Long Classes

If we go in chronological order, the first main thing that has happened is that Wellington has been invaded by a bunch of crazy kids from Georgia Tech.  They arrived a week ago, all 43 of them.  Georgia Tech has a really popular study abroad program that comes to Wellington for six weeks, followed by three weeks in Sydney and three weeks in Brisbane.  Since I have been away from home for more than six months, it is very weird to be around so many Americans that I know, to run into them around town, but I am really enjoying it.  Because I have lived here for so long, I don’t feel like a tourist any more.  I don’t necessarily find out about free concerts on Tuesdays or go out to The Brewery on the waterfront just because it is a nice evening.  These kids do.  They only have six weeks in New Zealand, and their weekends are spent travelling around the country, so they have to enjoy Wellington while they are here.  It is very nice to be able to hang out with people who are exploring the city for the first time.  It also doesn’t hurt that Patrick, my boyfriend, is with the group.  I missed him a lot, so it is nice to be able to be in Wellington with him (basically, be in the same hemisphere, country, city, etc).

Next, Meredith came home!  She has been on a cruise with her parents since about the 18th of December, but she is finally home!  It’s nice to have her back again.  It’s been just me and Nina since she left, so now the flat is filling up once more.  Claudia stopped in for a few hours to refuel and do some laundry before continuing her journey up the north island (she’s been travelling around the south island since mid-December).  She should be home early next week, and then the flatmates will finally be together again!  We’re currently planning on having a “Girl’s Night In” sometime right after Claudia gets back to catch up on all of our adventures during the time we have spent apart, and I can’t wait.  I love living in this flat, and I couldn’t ask for better flatmates.  I really am going to miss living here when I have to go back stateside.

I’ve had a couple of parties to go to this week.  One of them was for my friend Dave who has decided to move to Melbourne.  He only knows one person there and has never been out of New Zealand before (not even to the south island), but he has decided that it is time for him to explore, and that means moving to Melbourne.  He currently plans to stay there for roundabout 18 months or so and then perhaps move on to Europe.  This was very weird for me to hear about because Dave was one of my first friends in New Zealand.  I met him very early on, and he has been a good friend to me while I have been here.  I couldn’t really contemplate the fact that someone I met from Wellington is actually moving to another country.  I am very excited for him, but it took some getting used to that people I know in Wellington don’t always stay in Wellington.

The other party was for my flatmate Nina’s birthday.  She turned 23 on Friday, so we had a little party to celebrate.  Meredith, Nina, and I, along with several of her university friends, went out to a big Chinese dinner.  Nina is enrolled in an English-as-a-second-language summer course to help her prepare for class work in English, so all of her friends from this class are not native English speakers.  This made for quite the multi-cultural dinner!  We had Swiss, American, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Indonesian, if I remember correctly.  Sometimes it was a strain to understand what the other person was saying, but after trying to interpret “Kiwi English” for six months, it wasn’t too hard.  It was most interesting toward the end of the meal because we got into more cultural discussions, such as how different cultures still approach marriage and romance (and particularly the difference between Asian and Western societies).  Also, this meal was HUGE.  One of the girls has a Chinese boyfriend, so she knew all the best things to order, and we just split everything.  We even had a whole fish that Nina almost couldn’t look at.  My big accomplishment for the evening was eating my entire meal, rice and all, with chopsticks.  It has been a goal of mine since I got here to learn to eat with chopsticks (especially since I am spending 10 weeks in Asia this coming summer), so I felt really good about this.  I won’t starve in Asia!  After the meal, Nina, Meredith, Ara (from Korea), and I saw Just Like Heaven (a complete chick flick) and then went out for kiwifruit martinis at a cool little bar just off of the main district.  All in all, it was an excellent evening and a good birthday for Nina.

Now, I would be travelling with the Georgia Tech kids right now except that I have class all weekend.  I don’t feel I can complain too much since I haven’t had class in over a month and tomorrow is my last day.  After tomorrow, I just need to write one essay and then study for my final (which is two days before I leave for Oz).  We went over the outline for the essay today in tutorial, and I was once again struck by how different it is studying here compared to the United States.  In Georgia, I used the same referencing and citation format from 6th grade straight through university (although it got more complicated along the way).  Here, it is not only a completely different style; it is different in each department.  The History department requires a different style than the Politics department, and these are both different then the Language department.  When you take classes in four different departments, it becomes quite difficult to keep track of which kind of essay you are expected to write.  Do you need footnotes or headers, a bibliography or a works cited list, a clear cut outline or a regular essay, etc.  It turns my mind in circles!  Looking on the bright side of having to leave Wellington, I won’t be sorry to only have to deal with one main style guide when I return home.

I'm going to Australia!

I am going to Australia for 20 days!

Yes, it is amazing.  I am so excited about this trip.  It is going to be my last trip based out of New Zealand, and it is going to be an incredible way to end my time down under.  I couldn’t come to New Zealand without going to Australia, and I have been planning on going at this time since before I arrived.

I start with 5 days in Sydney.  I was originally going to start in Melbourne, but I ran out of time and had to cut it out.  I am pumped about being in Sydney.  I have heard that it is a fun city to explore, and the more I think about it, the more excited I get.  While in Sydney, I will be (among other things):

• Checking out the aquarium and zoo.  You get to the zoo by ferry across the harbour, so I am also going to do a harbour cruise at the same time.  


• Learning to surf!  I am booked in for 2 2-hour surfing lessons (it’s a day long surf school) about 45 minutes outside of Sydney.  


• Getting in touch with nature.  I am spending a day on the Blue Mountains Day Tour enjoying Australian nature.  This includes bushwalking, views, kangaroos, and other Aussie things.  It also includes a river cruise.


• Exploring the local heritage night life.  The Rocks is a historic district in Sydney that is also home to many bars and pubs, and I am taking a Pub Tour through the area.  


• Viewing the whole city from the top of the Sydney Tower.  Self explanatory.

After this time in Sydney, I leave for a 15-day trek up the east coast to the Great Barrier Reef.  I am on a tour, so I stay with the same people the whole time.  This company is highly recommended by the same STA advisor who helped me with my Fiji trip, so it should be really good.  If I was old enough to rent a car and had someone to travel with, I would definitely be more independent and just go at my own pace up the coast.  However, I am travelling on my own, so this is a better option.  I already have all my accommodation booked in, most meals paid for, and I have guides and travel companions built in.  It’s a really good option for me.  Now, the breakdown.  A map might be helpful while reading this.

• Day 1: Sydney to Byron Bay.  


• Day 2: Byron Bay.  This city has a lot of water-related activities and seems to be a popular destination.  I currently plan on doing some sea kayaking here and either lying on the beach or checking out some local craft shops.


• Day 3: Byron Bay to Gold Coast.  We get into Queensland on this day, going through a city called Murwillumbah.  Man, the Australians have some crazy names.  This area is also known as “Surfer’s Paradise.”


• Day 4: Gold Coast.  Apparently, this whole area is becoming quite commercialised and has a lot of activities for the many holidaying visitors.  I envision this to be a sort of Panama City, so I’ll keep you updated.  I might get away from the crowds on this day and head into the national park, but chances are the beach will draw me to it.


• Day 5: Gold Coast to Fraser Island.  We stop in Brisbane for much of today, as well as Kangaroo Point.  


• Day 6: Fraser Island.  This is the world’s largest sand island.  It is supposed to be spectacular, with picturesque and pristine beaches.


• Day 7: Fraser Island to Capricorn Caves.  We stop in the beef capital of Australia today, something I think will make great trivia one day.  


• Day 8: Capricorn Caves to the Whitsundays.  Apparently, we have breakfast with kangaroos in the morning at the caves before leaving for Airlie Beach on the Whitsunday Coast.  I have heard that these beaches are amazing, so I am looking forward to some serious lying in the sun.  We’re staying on Long Island.


• Day 9/10: The Whitsundays.  Two complete days just to chill out on a beautiful beach.  I can’t wait for this vacation.


• Day 11: The Whitsundays to Cairns.  Cairns is a pretty popular launching point for going to the Great Barrier Reef.


• Day 12/13: Cairns.  I am absolutely heading out on a snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef.  That is one thing I have wanted to do the entire time I have known that I was moving to New Zealand.  There’s good shopping here as well as countless other activities to interest the tourists.  I might also do some horseback riding here.


• Day 14: Cairns.  Rather than hanging around the beach, we turn inwards to the rainforest.  We get to check it out on the Skyrail, which is gondolas floating above the rainforest, before exploring some of the local villages.


• Day 15: Daintree World Heritage Area.  It’s an early start this day, but it is sure to be one of the most spectacular days.  We hope on 4WD vehicles for a trip up the scenic coastal Cook Highway before getting on a river cruise at the Daintree River.  The cruise takes us into the rainforest, where we will go swimming and exploring.  We go on to Cape Tribulation for another chance for swimming and just enjoying the sights as the rainforest meets the tropical waters of north Australia.

The next morning I fly from Cairns to Sydney and then on to Wellington.  Every time I describe this trip to someone, I get a little more excited.  I can’t imagine that I could be more excited, but it happens!  I can’t think of a better way to cap off my time down under on the Ambassadorial Scholarship.

King Kong premiere pictures

This is me hanging out in the grandstands at the end of Courtenay Place and the red carpet with my appropriated sign. Some quick thinking allowed me to get it from one of the cleanup workers, and it is currently hanging above my closet door in my room.
The only other time I have seen Courtenay Place this crowded was my first weekend in Wellington when the Lions were playing the All Blacks in Wellington. For this premiere, people were anywhere and everywhere. I saw adults who were most definitely more than 60 years old climbing trees to see above the crowd. All of the bars lining the street were filled by 3PM for the 5.30PM premiere, especially the ones with upper balconies. Claudia and I just got lucky with our seats because they were amazing even though we got down there so late.

This marquee was built to look like the NYC theatre in the movie. The Embassy does amazing work transforming the decor for every premiere that it hosts.

And now some cast members!

Adrien Brody (writer Jack Driscoll)

Andy Serkis (Lumpy the crewmember and the big ape himself, Kong)

Naomi Watts (Ann Darrow) [Side note: one thing I really enjoyed about Naomi Watts is that she was taking her own pictures up and down the red carpet with her digital camera.]

Claudia and my seats were right next to this stage where everyone important gave the big premier speeches. This is Peter Jackson with his daughter talking about it film, and if you look closely enough, you can also see them on the big screen.


Colin Hanks (Preston - and also the son of Tom Hanks)

This is Karl Urban. He isn't actually in King Kong, but he was an invited guest. He has starred in a number of films, including The Bourne Supremacy, but I know him best as Eomer in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Family Vacation

In early December, Mark and Anna mentioned the idea to me of taking a holiday between Christmas and New Year’s.  I told Anna that I hadn’t been to the east coast yet and really wanted to, so it was decided that we would visit the area.  So began our family vacation!

Mark and Anna picked me up around noon on Boxing Day.  We weren’t driving too far on this day, only to somewhere between Taupo and Rotorua.  One of our rest breaks was at the Taupo bungee jumping site, so we watched some people plummet down towards the water off of a cliff for awhile.  Don’t worry, I haven’t done it!  We stopped for the night in Turangi, a small town where they had previously stayed.  Mark and Anna had reserved adjoining rooms, which was very nice.  I got my own room, bathroom, even my own kitchenette.  It was getting to be about evening time, so we walked into town to buy breakfast foods before dinner.  Mark is very interested in fishing, so he was drawn across the road from the grocer to the local fishing shop.  Once inside he got to talking with the owner and found out that the owner was also a guide, meaning he could take us out fishing in the morning.

This is how I came to be on a boat at 6AM on Tuesday morning on Lake Taupo.

I didn’t know we were going to be fishing, so I wasn’t too well prepared in the clothing department.  I had on short sleeves, a lightweight jacket, jeans, and my GT baseball cap.  Not too warm in the pre-dawn wind!  Once the sun started to come up, it got steadily warmer, but man, that first bit was cold.  It was quite fun to be on the lake that early, though.  I got to see the early morning mist rising up off of the lake, and I always have liked morning light better than afternoon light.  I also had never been fishing as far as I could remember (although I do have some slight recognition of my grandfather teaching me to cast once, so I must have been on the water sometime), so the new experience was broadening and kept my attention.  I caught the first fish of the day, and that started me on a roll.  Lake Taupo is full of American trout which was introduced just so people could fish for it.  It is illegal to sell trout in New Zealand, which keeps it open to only sport fishermen.  We threw back most of what we caught, but we did keep two good-sized fish.  The original plan was to have it professionally smoked and vacuum-packed to ship back to my parents in the USA (sort of proof that I actually did it), but no one was open because of the public holiday.  We cooked the fish for dinner that night in Rotorua, one with herbs and one with a sweet chilli sauce.  They were delicious!  It was quite cool to be eating the fish that I had caught earlier in the day.  I have never done that before.

After the fishing, we took quick showers, packed up, and took off for Rotorua.  Rotorua is in the middle of the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) of New Zealand and has a LOT of geothermal activity.  It’s sort of like a commercialised and civilised Yellowstone National Park but with fewer geysers and more thermal pools.  Mark was really excited about taking me on a luge ride, so that was the first stop.  We drove a little outside of Rotorua and pulled up to what was most definitely a tourist attraction.  What with the school holidays and Christmas and everything, there were a ton of tourists, the most I had ever seen in one place in New Zealand.  We took a gondola up to the top of the mountain and got in line for the luge rides.  I wasn’t too sure what to expect, and Mark wasn’t alleviating my nervousness.  He kept describing it as a sort of sled at really fast speeds down a concrete track.  In my mind I am thinking, “Yeah, and what happens when we crash?”  It’s just one of those things that you have to do, so I put on my helmet and settled in to the luge.  It’s basically a sled on three wheels with a steering concept that is very simple: push forward to stop and pull towards you to go faster.  You use your body mainly to steer, but you can also turn the steering rod a bit to help.  The first ride down I took the “scenic / beginners” track and had a great time.  It was weird at first and took some getting used to, but it was great fun.  The next time around I took the “intermediate” track which included the “Little Dipper” and some other large drops meant to kill your stomach and make you fly off of the ground a little.  I remembered something my dad told me when I was learning how to drive – “You can’t steer if you’re breaking” – and decided to go a lot faster down this time.  It was way easier to go faster because you hugged the curves more and it was a smoother ride.  I didn’t attempt the “advanced” track as I heard it had a jump in it, similar to a ski jump, and was glad that I didn’t when I heard a story the next day from a friend who broke her ankle when she fell off on the landing.

The next day I spent a little bit of time catching up with a friend who lives in Rotorua while Anna did some shopping.  I joined her after awhile and then kept Mark company outside while she continued to shop.  That afternoon we headed out 27km outside of town to Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland.  A little commercialised, but there weren’t as many tourists as at the thermal pools closer to town.  It was a really cool trip.  I was pretty young when I went to Yellowstone, but I remembered enough to know that this place was totally different.  Wai-o-tapu smells different, probably because there are several mixtures of sulphurous gasses, as well as a lot more colourful.  One pool, the Champagne Pool, has a brilliant ring of orange surrounded the edge, and the Devil’s Bath is an electric green colour that I didn’t believe existed in nature.  We went on the longest walk possible, going all the way out to a waterfall at the edge of the park.  I got a slight headache from all the sulphur in the air, but a bottle of water afterwards helped a lot.  We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around looking at the scenery and other hot spots in Rotorua.

That evening we also took a walk in the park close to our cottage.  One thing that amazed me about Rotorua was that it existed at all.  Everywhere there are wooden fences blocking off a small square of land where a hot pool has emerged.  These pools are all over the city.  Everywhere you can look in the distance and see steam rising above somewhere.  While we were wandering in Wai-o-tapu and around the park, I kept thinking, “This earth under my feet could collapse into a hot pool any second.”  It’s a bit of a crazy thought that Rotorua exists at all, much less as the commercialised tourist destination that it is!  (Rotorua is often called “Roto-vegas” by Kiwis to accentuate its commercialisation, its shopping and entertainment, and its attempts to become a tourist destination.)

Next, it was on to the east coast.  We had picked a highway through a national park as opposed to the highway that went through Taupo because I had been there a few months prior.  (Quick note about New Zealand state highways: they are not that big.  They are small two lane roads with occasional room for passing, and oftentimes you encounter roundabouts and stoplights along the way.  They are a lot like local highways back home, especially in back country areas.)  We planned on it being about a 4 hour journey to the coast.  Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into!  This road included roughly 105kms of unsealed road (read: gravel road) winding through mountains around a lake.  Well, we got our scenery!  The four hours turned into more than six, but it didn’t matter much to me.  This was the most gorgeous scenery I have seen in New Zealand, or at least the north island (the awesomeness of Mount Cook and Milford Sound cannot be overlooked).  This lake was absolutely amazing.  About halfway around, I finally opened up my Lonely Planet to investigate this route (something I should have done at the beginning; then we would have known what we were in for!) and found that we were circling Lake Waikaremoana (Sea of Rippling Waters).  This lake was huge, gorgeous, and awe-inspiring.  It really is one of New Zealand’s best kept secrets, partially aided by the fact that it is so difficult to get there.  There are some great tracks around it, and I would love to kayak around the border.  It had rained the night before, so everything was new and green and magnificent.  Close to the end, we came across a huge waterfall, and once we got to the other side realised it was part of a pair of waterfalls.  I am happy that we didn’t know how far it was going to be, or that we would have to travel so far on unsealed road (in the Jaguar!), because the scenic drive was more than worth it.  There aren’t sufficient words to describe how beautiful this area was.

After exiting the national forestry area, we were almost on the coast.  I have long wanted to explore this Hawke’s Bay area, not least because it is where much of the award-winning wineries are located.  We were staying in Napier, the art deco capital of the world.  In 1931 or so, Napier was completely destroyed by an earthquake, and the entire town was rebuilt in the style of the times; hence the current art deco capital status.  It’s a really cool city, and it really feels like a beach town.  The weather was crazy warm, especially after living with the cooler Wellington winds for six months, and I enjoyed every second of it.  After dinner we took a leisurely walk along the beach, and I felt like I was back in Florida on my annual family vacation.

The next day was devoted to wineries.  I got to pick all of the ones I wanted to visit, which was very exciting as I have become very interested in New Zealand wine during my stay here.  I got to visit several, including Mission Estate, Church Road, Te Mata, and Craggy Range.  The landscaping at these wineries is incredible, especially the bigger ones with impressive main buildings (such as Mission Estate’s old seminary).  I did wine tasting at each winery and took a history and building tour at Mission Estate.  I am a chardonnay drinker usually, tending to stay away from sauvignon blanc and the reds, and my tasting stayed mainly to that line.  I found some good rieslings, some good pinot gris, and I even discovered a new type of wine that is now my favourite: viognier.  It’s lighter than chardonnay and has only begun to be grown seriously in the region.  Very good!  The drive around to all of the wineries was also good, and we went to the beach at the end of it all.  The water was cold to me still, around 16 degrees, but that is apparently warm for the Kiwis who were splashing around.  I dipped my toe in to say that I did and then escaped back to the dunes to sit with Anna.

The next day (New Year’s Eve day) we drove back into Wellington, making sure to stop in Martinborough and at Palliser Estates, and really good and well-awarded winery in the region between Hawke’s Bay and Wellington (one that also exports to America!).  It was a fantastic trip in all.  I got to see a lot of the north island that I had wanted to see and was worried I wouldn’t have time to visit.  Mark and Anna were absolutely fantastic, paying for everything like it was a real family vacation.  They were really great for taking me around, for treating me to the trip.  I was really tired when I got back, too tired for a big New Year’s party, but it was worth it!

Holiday Season

This was the first holiday season that I have spent away from home.  It was pretty much as different as it could be!  It is summertime here, which firstly means that it is warm here, not cold as it is back home.  It also means that the days are very long, not leaving many dark hours to turn on Christmas lights.  I didn’t see any real Christmas decorations anywhere in town or in people’s houses.  Because it is in the middle of the summer, there are many other things to think about, and the holiday season gets somewhat lost.  Back in the northern hemisphere, any holiday time we have at this time of the year is pretty much completely focused on Christmas (or Kwanzaa, etc) and New Year’s.  Here, people are thinking about summer jobs, and summer holidays, and summer school, etc.  Christmas just doesn’t seem to be a big deal in most places here.  Also, in the United States, we have Thanksgiving about a month beforehand, and that preps us for the holiday season.  I found myself missing the massive amounts of outdoor Christmas lights put up by overeager residents, the electric candles in the window of my house, and the candlelight service at my church.  Basically, all of the things you do in wintertime when it is dark.

After all of that, I did have a very enjoyable Christmas Day.  Even though it’s not dark enough for Christmas lights, I really have never been a fan of cold weather, so I am enjoying having another summer.  I also got to have a family Christmas, even if it wasn’t my family.  Kay Phillips, the president of the Harbour City Rotary Club, had invited me over to her flat for Christmas Day.  She was hosting her family this year, so it was a big get together.  The guest list included her father, her two children, her daughter’s partner, her sister and brother-in-law, and a friend.  And me!  I got over there fairly early in the morning, around 10.30, and didn’t leave till after 5.  I got to spend the whole day experiencing a real Kiwi Christmas.  I got to pop a Christmas cracker, and then all of us attempted to play music with our plastic whistles that came inside.  We had a huge feast, eating ham, lamb, turkey, stuffing, and more vegetables than I can remember.  Since it was their “real” Christmas, there were also a lot of presents to pass out.  I had a Santa hat with me, so I got to pass out all of the presents.  It was a really nice day, hanging out with her family, having a real Christmas.  It was also incredibly windy, as if Wellington had to remind me that I was actually still in Wellington.  I had a really good time that day, and it was amazing for Kay to invite me in to her family like that.  

After I left Kay’s, I went home to hang out with Nina for the rest of the day.  It was just the two of us for Christmas, since Claudia and Meredith are still travelling, and we did what we do best – watch movies!  There were a lot on that evening, but we spent most of it watching a commercial-free Shawshank Redemption.  So good!  Not really a Christmas movie, but good all the same.  Nina and I go see a lot of movies together.  We saw King Kong a little while ago, and we have already seen Zorro and The Family Stone this week with plans to also see Narnia and Broken Flowers.  Man, I love movies!

Skipping ahead now to New Year’s, it was like no New Year’s I have ever had before.  New Zealand is in the first time zone to get the New Year, which means that when we celebrate it, no one else has.  I didn’t get to watch the celebrations in Sydney, Singapore, Beijing, London, Paris, New York City, etc.  There weren’t any countdown programs like Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve, although several programs were interrupted with a countdown 10 seconds before midnight.  I had just gotten back from travelling for six days (more on that in the next post), so I was exhausted anyway.  Nina and I split a bottle of pinot gris over the course of the evening and sat up until midnight just to say that we had.  We hung out with some of the guys from the flats around us for a couple of hours earlier in the evening, and also had gotten our last meals at Satay Kingdom in 2005.  I baked chocolate chip cookies as well.  It was a very chill evening, very relaxing.  Not too much partying on our account (although I did hear the guys that we had been hanging out with earlier come back around 7AM).  It was a good night, all in all.  I saved the big partying for next New Year’s when I am A) 21 and B) back in New York’s time zone.

By the way, this is the year that I turn 21.  Feel old yet, parentals?  (