Queenstown!!!

Hey everybody!!

I had the most EXCITING weekend ever!! My roommates and I went to Queenstown, New Zealand which is know as the extreme sports capital of the WORLD! When we were planning out things to do one our trip, we marked down about everything in our travel book. There is bungee jumping, sky diving, parasailing AND paragliding, ledge jumping, mountain biking, luging, white water rafting, rock climbing, hiking canyoning, sailing and just about anything else you can imagine. And that’s just in the warm months! In the winter, they ski, and snowboard. On top of the excitement, Queenstown is one of the best places for shopping, dining, nightlife and sightseeing. We were able to get in our shopping fix, we got to experience the night life and we got to eat at some very cool restaurants. In a word, this place is INCREDIBLE!!! 

All of New Zealand is gorgeous and the drive over to Queenstown definitely didn’t disappoint. I’m sure I sounded like a broken record saying, “Oh my gosh this is so beautiful” over and over again. 

The first thing we did on the drive up was something that has been on my “to-do list” since I found out I was going to New Zealand..... Bungee Jumping! In all honesty, this was probably one of the coolest things I have EVER done. It was a huge adrenaline rush!! They have you sign a lot of release forms before you go which is a little disconcerting, but it’s necessary, I suppose. haha! I bought the professional pictures and the DVD as proof that I actually did it! The DVD is hilarious, they play commentary from before the jump and of the people during the jump. I was definitely very nervous before jumping. The people at the top were very funny though and relaxed me a little bit!

I look like I was excited and ready to go, but I really felt like my heart was falling through my stomach.... They gave me a big 3.....2.......1.... and I

..... JUMPED!!! 

The free-falling part of the jump was exhilarating! I felt so free! The swinging afterwards was amazing too!! I literally felt like I was flying!! The people said they could tell I was a dancer because I had such “poise.” 

See I made it! :) 

Here’s the guy who hooked me up at the top and counted down my jump!

Seriously, this was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done!!

After bungeeing, we headed into downtown Queenstown! It’s an awesome city!! It was a little rainy on the day we got there, but we still had a blast. We met some cool people in our hostel and got to hang out with them for the night!

The next day, we took a gondola ride up to the top of one of the biggest mountain in Queenstown. Here are a few pictures of the BEAUTIFUL view on the way up and at the very top!

At the very top we got to “luge”! It’s a lot like alpine sledding if you’ve ever done that! It was so much fun!

One the way home, we stopped in a little town called Arrowtown. It’s a 150 year old gold mining town. It’s really cute and a good place to get some shopping done and drink a great cup of coffee!

This was an amazing weekend! I’ll leave you with one last awesome picture of Queenstown! :)

Climbing the Clock!

Hey guys!!

     The town we're staying in (Alexandra, also know as "Alex") is a very small town in the southern part of the South Island. One of the things they're famous for is having a "Clock on the Hill." It's basically a big clock set on top of a hill.... see?

People in the town look at the hill when they want to know what time it is! Cool, right? There is a path you can climb to get to the top! So that's what we decided to do this last Monday. (It was labor day here so we had a day off of school!!)

Just a couple pictures from the walk to the trail head!

We had to cross "Shakey Bridge" to get to the trail head... it sounds scarier than it was!

See? Not so scary! But a little cold! haha

We made it to the famous trail head!

Climbing the Rock! Laura was a quick little bunny all the way to the top!

Naturally, I had to stop to take some pictures on the way up!! Gorgeous views!

ALMOST THERE!!

We made it to the base of the clock!!!!

View from the base of the clock!!

Of course we couldn't be content with only getting to the base, so we climbed up to the top of the mountain!

Being a dancer, I felt it was necessary to take some dancer-y pictures along the way. I promise I was holding onto something!! :)

WE MADE IT! All the way to the top of the mountain! Sounds like a good end to the weekend to me!

Hey guys!!

This weekend was our first road trip! We went out to a town called Dunedin. (Do-need-in) We really want to hike, bike and camp soon but it’s been a little too chilly for that. The teachers at our schools have been telling us this has been an unusually cold end to spring but it should get much warmer soon! Because of the chilly weather, we decided to go to Dunedin because it’s more of a college town so an urban setting would be better for the cold. 

Just because it was cold outside, does not mean the drives to and from Dunedin were any less beautiful! I saw so many different landscapes during our weekend road trip. We got to see rolling green hills, snow capped mountains, palm trees, rivers, bays and oceans. I couldn’t believe my eyes, everywhere you turned was absolute beauty! Driving through all of this natural beauty was half the fun of the weekend :)

We got the car up to 100!!!! (Kilometers that is! I’m still having a hard time getting used to the metric system. When your average speed limit is 85, it takes a second to remind yourself that you’re not in the US any more!) Much of the drive to and from Dunedin was 100 km an hour!

The first thing we did once we got into Dunedin was check into our hostel called Penny’s Backpackers! I have never stayed in a hostel before and I thought it was an awesome experience. We got to meet a lot of people from all over the world! One of our dorm-mates was from South Korea and the other was from London. Backpackers are a great way to save money while traveling!

Later on that afternoon, we did a nice afternoon of shopping! Dunedin has a lot of cute clothes, but I controlled myself and only bought one thing :) Then we went to dinner at a local restaurant and asked someone from the area where the best place would be to watch the rugby game between the All-Blacks of New Zealand and the Wallabies of Australia. Rugby is one of the most important parts of New Zealand culture. That’s their favorite sport and EVERYONE cares about the All-Blacks. The schools have posters of the All-Blacks on their walls, most houses have All-Blacks flags on their houses under the New Zealand flag and even some of the Air New Zealand planes were painted black in honor of the All-Blacks. I’m a huge sports fan. I love hockey, football and basketball, so I was excited to get the opportunity to learn about a new sport. Especially one that is so iconic to the country that I’m visiting. Not only were we going to be able to watch the game on TV in one of the local pubs with the people of the area, this was one of the most important games of the season. The rivalry between Australia and New Zealand is huge. (Kind of like the rivalry between Iowa State and Iowa or the Chicago Bears and the Greenbay Packers.) It was awesome that we got to be a part of this awesome game. The All-Blacks are from New Zealand and as I mentioned before in an earlier post, the Maori culture is a really important part of the New Zealand culture. The All-Blacks perform a dance called a Haka before the game. The Haka’s origin is a war dance. It’s meant to challenge the opponent to war. (In this instance it’s a challenge to a game.) It’s very intense and powerful. It was so cool to see. The crowd got really into it as well. After the Haka, the game began and I got to see some rugby and learn a little bit about it from the locals at the pub. They seemed more than happy to explain what was going on to us and I tried to keep my questions to a minimum so they could enjoy the game!

The beautiful nightlife of Dunedin!

The next day was an awesome jam packed day! It’s was our roommate Laura’s birthday so we tried to make it the best day possible! We started off the day with a great breakfast in Dunedin and then went to Larnach Castle! Larnach Castle was the home of William Larnach, a member of the parliament of New Zealand. He built this castle to impress him wife, a member of French nobility. The castle has a tragic history, because Larnach committed suicide after his wives left him and he reached financial ruin. The grounds and the castle are beautiful, however. This castle is the only castle in all of New Zealand. There is a massive and impressive garden and an even more breath-taking view. The castle is located on the highest part of the Otago Peninsula. The pictures I have don’t do the view justice. It was incredible!

On our way up a MASSIVE hill to get to Larnach Castle. We were holding onto our seats for most of the way up (and down!)

I wouldn't be too mad about this view every day! Absolutely gorgeous!

I can never go a day without doing something weird and goofy. 

The last stop in Dunedin before we headed home was the.... CADBURY FACTORY!! Yummmm! It was a chocolate lover’s dream! We got to take a tour of the factory and try a lot of yummy chocolate. It was a sweet way (haha get it?) to end our time in Dunedin. For now. We’re going to come back in December and see the Royal Albatross and Blue penguin and seal habitat. How cool! 

Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your long hair!

That was all chocolate.... I wanted to eat all of it!! YUM!

Well that’s about it for now! Thanks for checking my blog out! I’ll post again soon!!