An American in New Zealand

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2007-12-16T16:22:00.000+13:00

The last few days have been great. Micah got back from his trip to the South Island and so me and him rented a car and headed north. We went up to Cape Reinga (the very most north part of New Zealand) and also visited the Bay of Islands. The weather cleared up and we were able to take a boat ride to see the infamous hole in the rock out in the Pacific Ocean, and also many of the beautiful islands in the bay. Cape Reinga was also interesting because you could see where the two oceans met out at sea.

I also managed to see the Kauri trees which apparently are 1000s of years old.... and I finally got my chance to drive in New Zealand, which very much to my surprise was not as hard as I had expected (considering they drive on the other side of the road.... and also they have some other interesting road rules that are different than the US).

Yesterday was very nice. I made reservations in Orbit which is the restaurant that revolves around the top of the Sky Tower... so my friends joined me for lunch up at the top. There was a wonderful view of Auckland from up there, and I also got to enjoy a very very delicious lamb shank meal... yum.

Today I went to the Sylvia Park and did a tiny bit of shopping....

My trip to New Zealand feels very complete, and I am very very happy that it feels that way, because tomorrow night I'll be boarding the airplane which will be headed back to the United States.

I am so lucky that I was able to come on this trip, and I feel like I've learned a lot about the world, and matured quite a bit since I left. It's been very hard to say good bye to all the friends I've made while I was here, but I am so happy that I was able to met some many awesome and interesting people... and I am sure I will be able to keep in touch with them.

So although I am quite sad about having to leave behind my friends, I am very happy to be coming home to see all of my family and friends whom I had to leave behind when I embarked on my journey overseas. It is going to be a very nice Christmas this year I think! :)

All that's left for me to do is finish up my packing and cleaning my room. I do plan to update this blog a bit when I do return home, so be looking forward to checking that out.

I'll see you tomorrow Mom and Dad!

Cheers,
Shawn

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-09T17:58:00.000+13:00

I've been back in Auckland for a couple days, but my trip to the South Island was very very great. We were able to see and do so much while we were down there.

I am going to write a longer post about the trip down there in the future, but I only have about a week left in New Zealand, so I will probably wait until I get back to the states to do that.

A few of the highlights of the trip included though:

Surfing in Raglan
Seeing some of Wellington
The Ferry Ride from Wellington to Picton
Hitchhiking with a buddy we made on the bus from Hamilton to Wellington (he drove us all the way from Picton to the South of the South Island)
Hiking for three days in Stewart Island
Going to Queenstown
Doing the Routeburn and Caples hikes (...my favorite part of the whole trip I think)

and just having tons and tons of fun.

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Dan (the guy who drove all the way to Invercargil), Micah, and Matt

Kiwi Crossing

Start of the Hike on Stewart Island

Sunset on Stewart Island

Orange

A possum that tried to steal our food

Micah and Matt and all our stuff

Got my thumb out

Riding towards Queenstown

A guy let us stay in his shack one night

Queenstown had a Frisbee Golf course... so we played.

The start of the Routeburn

Beautiful Mountains
Setting up Camp

Amazing.
King of the Mountain

Part of the Alpine Region of the Hike

It was cold up there, but well worth it
The highest elevation we reached
(and let me tell you.... it was A LOT of going up)

a great view from the top

a big mountain

Where we camped on the 3rd day

Below the waterfall

It was a big waterfall

Christchurch Cathedral (....after the construction was finished)

The Wizard of New Zealand

The ferry ride to Stewart Island

Hiking on the Routeburn

The Christmas Tree in the Cathedral in Christchurch

Last night they had Christmas at the Park which is like a free event they put on, and New Zealand celebrities and bands play christmas songs. It was pretty fun. The best part was this huge fireworks show at the end, so that was pretty cool. It really got me in the holiday mood, which is funny because it has been like 60 degrees, and there is no snow.

Thinking I may go up to Cape Renga and the Bay of Islands in a day or two... but I'm not sure yet.

Hope everyone is doing well,
Cheers,
Shawn

Sunburnt but Happy

2007-11-14T14:24:00.000+13:00

I've finished exams, and I'm done with school. To celebrate me and my friends went out to a restaurant in the Viaduct named Mecca. I got a really delicious lamb shank, and some potatoes, it was real good.

Jamming out on the Beach

This weekend we had a big farewell party at my friend Andy's beach house in the Coromandel peninsula. It was a really good time.

I'm leaving for an epic adventure on the South Island tomorrow, so I've been spending most of the day trying to get my stuff around and packed.

So I had to keep this post so breif, but I am headed out to get some coffee with some friends.

I'll be gone for a good 3 to 4 weeks down in the south, and it's going to be amazing. I am so excited.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

On the way there

Another shot of us jamming out

I hope everyone stays well.

I will take a lot of pictures.

Cheers,
Shawn

Summer Fun

2007-11-06T11:09:00.000+13:00

With exams coming to an end and the weather getting a lot better (as a matter of fact, it's been really amazing) everyone has been in real cherry moods lately, and I've been making the most of it.

Fireworks at Albert Park

I've been spending a lot of time out and about in the city of Auckland. I've started playing Disc Golf. It's pretty much the same as golf, except instead of playing with golf balls you play with a frisbee. There are actually a bunch of courses around Auckland, and so it's a pretty good way to spend time out doors.

New Zealand's best disc golf player lives in Auckland, and so me and some friends took a random trip to his house. He told us he'd come out and play a game or two or with us sometime.

In addition to the Disc Golf we've had a few barbeque's at Mission Bay and other beaches, and those have been a real good time too.

Last night was Guy Fawkes day. Guy Fawkes day is an unofficial holiday they celebrate here by lighting off fireworks. It has to do with Guy Fawkes, who was a guy who tried to blow up the king back in the 15th or 16th century. If you've seen V for Vendetta than the part in the very start is supposed to be Guy Fawkes. In New York State fireworks are illegal all year round. Here in New Zealand they are legal to buy but only for about 5 days before Guy Fawkes day (which is Nov. 5). So for the last week or so they've had fireworks on sale all over, and people have been setting them off for about a week or so also (which has been real nice).

Me and my friends bought a bunch of fireworks and went to the park to set them off last night (which we were told by the fire department is legal). That was a lot of fun, and there were a ton of other people there setting them off also.

In addition to that my friend from Oswego -- Leah Evans -- invited me to a Halloween/Guy Fawkes party at one of her friends houses which was a lot of fun. I got to meet a whole bunch of kiwis. It was really funny because one of her friends was dressed as an American Tourist for Halloween. Also they had a bunch of Jack-o-lanterns that they made which they showed me, and they wanted to know my opinion of them because it's not really something they do in New Zealand. Through a series of random events (and my ability to easily met people) I actually ended up hanging out with a bunch of people who work at a popular radio station in New Zealand called The Edge. It was pretty sweet because I got to talk to them for a while about a whole bunch of radio stuff.

I've also figured out what I'm going to be doing after school is out. I'm going to head to the South Island to visit Queenstown and some other areas in the south part of the South Island that I missed the first time. I'll be heading out with my flatmate Micha, and two of my other American friends -- Matt Connolly and Zoe Wagoner. The plan is actually to kind of hitchhike a little bit around, and kind of see where life takes us, but we definitely are heading to the south part. We're going to bring tents. With weather like it has been in the last week or so I have a feeling it'll be an amazing trip.

Here's some pictures:

So we had an 80's theme party...

80's theme party part 2...

Me and Rebecca down at her house in Tauranga

Waterfall in Tauranga

Me and Micha at another theme party at Rebecca's house
We are characters from the movie The UntouchablesMe and Rebecca

I look good in a suit

Matt and Christof at our BBQ

Playing disc golf

More disc golf

Sweet as

Wonderful weather at One Tree Hill

Getting ready to throw
Matt and my disc (which was stuck in the ground after I threw it)

Guy Fawkes!

Sprinklers

Micha sets some off

Boom!

The fun never ends

Me and Niki

Reminds me of the fourth of july

I have one exam on Thursday and them I am finished... hopefully it won't be too hard.
I also got to register for classes back in Oswego, so I'll be set when I get back.

as usual I hope all is well.

Cheers,
Shawn

Happy Halloween

2007-11-02T18:10:00.000+13:00

I did not end up getting a chance to surf last weekend. The weather wasn't so good. I still had a real fun time down in Tauranga though.

Trapped!

The other night was Halloween. It did not really feel like it here in New Zealand though. They do celebrate it, but I don't think they care as much about it as we do in the States. They did have some scary movies on the last few days though... and I got a chance to watch The Exorcist with some of my friends.

For Halloween we went to this place called Spookers, which is a haunted house which is open all year round. The building the haunted house is in used to actually be a mental institution, which is kind of freaky. In addition to the haunted house they have this long forest trail that you can walk through and it's pretty scary. It was a real good time. I preferred the forest over the house.

My last article is online. If you're interested in reading about Stephen Colbert check it out.

After we just got out of the Haunted House

I hope everyone had a happy halloween.

Cheers,
Shawn

Surfing, USA

2007-10-25T22:33:00.000+13:00

Two more of my articles for New Media Journalism are online

Read about the bad news for File-Sharers here

Read a review I did of the new Say Anything album -- In Defense of The Genre
I think I might have been able to write a bit better of a review, but I had to keep it kind of short.

This weekend I'm headed south to visit my friend Rebecca's family and try my hand at some surfing. It should be a fun time, as long as I don't get eaten by a shark.

Cheers.
Shawn

Retarded in Love

2007-10-24T12:56:00.000+13:00

One of my classes I am taking is New Media Journalism.

For the first half of the class we had to work on an internet magazine. My site was aimed at talking about fishing in the Auckland area.

You can check it out here
The site is more about the design and less about the content.

Additionally for the second part of the class we have to submit articles to be published online at City Beat, which is a student online news format here in Auckland.

The first article I wrote is about the debate over Carbon Neutral.

The second one is a movie review of the movie The Bourne Ultimatum (which came out here later than it did in the US)

The third is about the All-Black's losing to France in the Rugby World Cup. It's interesting because I wrote it from the perspective of the French Students living in WSA.

I have to do 3 more stories, so once I get those in I'll post the links.

Also I really thought that this article written by my american friend Matt was really interesting.
I feel like I could've written the same article myself. We are the only two Americans in that class. He talks about how everyone loves to hate Americans. Now in particular I have not run into very much anti-Americanism here so far. The few times I have, it was mostly from people who were also foreign, and not so much from the kiwis. But it's still very interesting.

Also if you feel up to it, this other article he wrote is pretty interesting also. It's about how many kiwis take the South Island for granted.

Cheers,
Shawn

My Trip To The South Island - Part 2

2007-10-14T14:20:00.000+13:00

I have been meaning to get this post up forever! I apologize that it took so long, but I hope you enjoy!

When we last left off, me and my German friends had just completed the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. Here is where we continued on our incredible trip to the South Island.

Day 12
We headed south to a small town called St Arnold which is located in the Nelson Lake's region. The German girls we met on the Abel Tasman had told us about how they had stopped there, and that it was really nice, so we fiqured we should check it out. The specific lake we stopped at was called Rotoitti. The town of St Arnold itself was very small, and not too impressive, however the lake was amazing. It was surrounded by some incredible mountains, some of which had snow capped peaks. The location also had signs up that said there were kiwi birds in the area, and that there was a kiwi bird recovery project underway in the area. We paid extra attention, but we didn't have any luck actually seeing any.

Day 13
We spent most of the day on the road heading towards the west coast. We arrived at Westport around 5 or 6, and we made a short stop there at an internet cafe. Then we headed north to the town Karamea. Although this day wasn't particularly interesting, it did have a few highlights. While we were on the road the sun was starting to set, and it always rises in the east and sets in the west. Although I'd seen some amazing sunsets while on campus at Oswego (where the sun sets behind Lake Ontario), I'd never quite seen a sunset as beautiful as that one. Sunsets at the ocean are amazing. When we arrived at Karamea it was late and dark, so we found what we thought was a good place to park, made some dinner and went to bed.

Day 14
We were awoken early in the morning by a large group of cattle walking by. Since it was dark the night before, we hadn't known it at the time, but we had parked on the side of a path next to a farm. So we were quite surprised when all those cows walked by. After we got some breakfast, we made way towards the Oparara cave system which was about a 20 minute drive. The road to the caves was actually so bad that we decided to park the campervan on the side of the road and walk the rest of the way. We probably walked about 9 kilometers till we actually got to the cave area. The Oparara cave system features many limestone formations and arches. One of the arches we saw was the Oparara Arch and it was 141 feet high and 719 feet long.... it was quite impressive. The end of the day was particularly interesting, because we had parked so far away, and by that point we all did not want to walk back. We had the good luck though that a DOC (department of conservation) truck was going by, and we waved it down, and they actually let us ride in the back of their truck to our campervan. We rode for about 25 minutes in the truck, so I can't even imagine how long it would have taken for us to walk. We then drove on to our next location in the town of Punakaiki.

Day 15
Before I left America, I met with a friend of mine in my town who had lived in Australia for 6 years, and in New Zealand for 6 months. Mrs. Hughes had showed me many pictures and told me many tales about her journeys to australia and New Zealand. One of those places she had told me about that stuck in my mind in particular was the Pancake Rocks located in Punakaiki. So I was pretty excited to be able to actually see what she had told me about.

The pancake rocks are basically these huge rock formations that are out at sea. They are pilled in layers on top of each other, and so in a way they kind of resemble pancakes. It was pretty cool to watch the ocean smash up against them. One of the formations has a big hole in it, and when the high tide is coming in, if the waves hit it right water shots out of the hole and makes a "geyser". We did not actually get to see that too well, because it wasn't high tide. It was still very interesting though. I also happened to see a couple of dolphins swimming around, and this was the first time I had seen dolphins since I had arrived in New Zealand.

Off in the distance we could see the snowed capped peaks of the mighty Southern Alps of New Zealand. This would be our next destination.

As we left the pancake rocks it was around 12 o'clock, and so we had plenty of time to travel. Along the way we passed into the town of Greymouth and made a stop. Now this might have beent he highlight of the entire trip. We had stopped in Greymouth to pick up some additional food, and also to find out when the next game in the Rugby World Cup was going to be on. As we got back in the van to head on our way my friend Christof had to make a pee break. So he left... and then we he came back he was raving on about how wonderful the toilet was.... being a curious fellow, I made my way to this toilet even though I did not have to really have to go. I have to say I was quite amazed. But why was it so amazing? I don't want to ruin the surprise, so keep reading on and you will find out. (as a side note, the whole time this little situation was going on, I can't help but think of my mom, and how she loves that one particular rest-stop on the way to Oswego).

So after our wonderful toilet experience we drove on. It was still quite early in the afternoon, and we passed through the town of Hokitika. Hokitika is famous because they used to have a lot of gold-mining and jade mining in the area. There were lots of shops for different jade jewelery and stuff like that. Earlier on journey we had heard of this fish that they had in the Southern part of the South Island that you could only get at certain times of the year, and it was only available in that part of New Zealand. We had been looking everywhere for this fish, but we could not find it anywhere... until we arrived in Hokitika. The fish is called Whitebait, and to be honest I did not think it was anything too special, but at least I can say I've tried it now

We got back on the road and continued driving. The plan was to get as close to the Frans Josef glacier as we could before the sun went down. We hadn't planned on arriving that night, but to our amazement we were able to reach our destination at around 6pm. After our long (and successful day) we rested.

Day 16
Of all the days I was looking forward to this one the most. I had never seen a glacier before, and so I was really excited to see them. Before we even got to the glacier I was impressed. They had a sign posted that said that back in the 1970s the glacier had gone as far as that point, and it was a few kilometers away from the glacier itself. The valley it had carved out was massive, and I felt like a pebble standing in the bottom. The glacier itself was very massive also.

After we spent some time at Frans Joseph we got in the car and drove a short ways to Lake Matheson which features one of New Zealand's most famous views. The lake has this one spot where you can see Mount Cook as well as Mt. Tasman reflected in the lake. Mount Cook is New Zealand's tallest mountain at approx. 12,283 feet high. It's an impressive sight.

We made our way back to the car and this time drove a short distance to the Fox Glacier. I really enjoyed this one a lot more than the Frans Joseph because you could get a lot closer to it, and it was even more impressive up close. You can really appreciate what you hear about global warming when you see a glacier in person. The difference between where it was and where it is now is dramatic.

We returned to the car, and made way to the north back to the outskirts of Hokitika. We had perfect timing finding a beach to park by. We made a fire on the beach and cooked beans and toast in the fire (like we had done on the Able Tasman), as the sun was setting.... and in my opinion it had been a damn near perfect day.

Day 17
The destination for the day was a place called Arthur's Pass, which the only road that goes through the Southern Alps. The road was actually pretty cool. It was called the Otira Viaduct, and it had these parts where there were like shields built above so that rocks would fall off into the mountain and not on your car. At one point there was even one of these shields, and a river came off the top of it. As we stopped at a viewing point to look at the road we encountered our first Kea bird. I had been hoping into one of them. It's a type of parrot, that are known to be particularly pesky. They will rip rubber parts of your car off and break your stuff, so we chased it off, but it was cool to see one.

We made a stop at the town of Arthur's Pass which is located on the top of the pass at approx. 3,030 feet high. While there we took a couple short hikes to some nearby waterfalls. One of them was called the Devil's Punchbowl waterfall, and it was the biggest one I'd seen so far in New Zealand. It's total height was 434 feet.

Day 18
The last few days of our trip were to spent in and around the Christchurch area. The night before we had driven most of the way back to the town, but there was still one stop we wanted to make before we returned to the city. A city near by to Christchurch is called Lyttelton.The town was located on the side of this huge mountain, and I've seen a city with so many streets that went up hill. The whole town seemed sideways. We took a hike up to the top of the mountain, and walked around the top. You could see Christchurch from the top. We also noticed that the very mountain we were standing on was connected to the same one that featured the Taylor's Mistake hike we had done on the first day. There were even some guns at the top of the mountain designed to fight off the Russians.

Back in the town they were having a farmers market, so we stopped into that. I picked up a particularly interesting piece of fruit I had never seen before, called a Custard Apple. Christof told me it was the most delicious fruit he had ever had, and highly recommended it. I can't quite describe how it looked but the Custard Apple was extremely delicious. It's hard to describe
the flavor also, but it's not really like an apple, more like a pineapple, mixed with a mango, or maybe even more like a cotton candy flavor. either way it was delicious. (here's a wikipedia link with a picture and some information about them, I highly recommend this fruit)

We had to return the campervan in the afternoon. The rest of the trip we would be staying at the backpackers we had stayed at the first night.

Day 19
Christchurch has a lot of stuff to see. The most famous is probably the Christ Church Cathedral which is located in the Cathedral Square. Unfortunately for us they were doing construction on the outside of the church (but it still looked pretty good from the outside). We were able to go inside though, and it was very nice. They had just gotten out of a church service (it was sunday morning) and we just happened to run into the head Deacon of the Church. He was a real nice guy and he chatted with us for a while about the church, and just stuff in general about Christchurch.

We also went to the Canterbury Museum, which had an interesting display about the ancient Giant Moa birds that used to live in New Zealand but were hunted to extinction.
A few other places we checked out included the Floral Clock (a clock made of flowers), the Art Museum and the Bride of Remembrance which was put up in honor of New Zealand soldiers.

Day 20
We actually had seen most of what there was to see in Christchurch, so we spent the day checking out various shops. We also had seen a Giant Chess set in the Cathedral Square, and anyone could go play. Although we had intended to play a few games, the Chess set was continually in use most of all day, so we never got a chance too. We called it an early night and went to bed early... but before bed we set our alarm clocks to 3am in the morning. Why would we set it so early you ask? We had to wake up to watch the All Blacks. vs. Scotland in the Rugby World Cup.

Earlier in the day we had come across a sports bar that was the best sports bar I have seen to date. It was called the Holy Grail. It had 3 GIANT (wall sized) TVs, and amazing seats, and it was just our luck that the World Cup Rugby game happened to be on the same day that we were in Christchurch. I never though I would ever wake up at the 3 in the morning to watch rugby... but it was definitely worth it to watch at that bar. The All Blacks won.

The final portion of the trip involved going to the Air Port where me and max (Sebastian had had an earlier flight, and Christof was leaving the next day), where we had to wait for our airplane... which ended up being about 3 hours late, but we still made it back to Auckland in one piece.

And since I believe that pictures can often speak louder than words, here are heaps of pictures from the trip:

Lake Rotoitti

Another picture at Lake RotoittiSunset on the West Coast

By the Beach as the Sun Sets
Another picture of a sunset
The Pancake rocks
The rocks up close

Another shot of the rocks

The king.

At the arch

The arch from a distance

Entering a small cave
Dinner in the campervan

Breakfast near the Frans Joseph Glacier

The Frans Joseph Glacier

Mount Cook and Mount Tasman

Closer up picture of the Mountains

Group picture at the Fox Glacier

Ice from the Glacier

The valley cut out by the Glacier

The glacier from a distance

Our fire on the beach

The road through Arthur's Pass
On top of the mountain near Lyttleton
Lyttleton from the top

The Christ Church Cathedral
Christchurch
Christchurch
At the Holy Grail at 3am in the morning

Jumping for Joy
(the first day with our campervan)

I'm an incredibly lucky man to have been able to go on this trip. It was so amazing. I have actually decided to stay in New Zealand for a month longer than I had planned, and once school is out I will head back down to the South to see a few places I missed the first time. It will be another epic adventure for sure.

I will have an update tomorrow with some things that I've been doing since the trip.

For now enjoy these videos:

On the Road
(also the title of one of my favorite books)

The Haka (recorded at the Holy Grail bar)

The Toilet at Greymouth (narrated by Christof)

Cheers,
Shawn

My Trip to the South Island - Part 1

2007-09-28T18:27:00.002+12:00

My mid-semester break trip to the South Island was incredible. I traveled with 3 of my friends from Germany - Max, Sebastian, and Christof (who is Max's friends from Germany, who came to visit). The four of us rented a campervan in Christchurch, and headed north. The route we took (for the most part) is the blue line on the map below.

(click to see a larger version of the map)

We left on Sep. 6th in the afternoon, and returned early in the morning on Sep. 25th.
I have a lot to write about the different places we visited, so I am going to break it down on a day by day basis.

Day 1 -
We had good luck leaving from Auckland to Christchurch at the airport. We arrived about 2 hours before our flight was supposed to leave (it had been delayed), and as we went to check in they told us they had space on a place leaving in 15 minutes, so we were able to jump onto that plane and head out early. We arrived in Christchurch at around 9:30. We found a backpacker to stay at for the night, and then headed out to the town to find some food. Now my first impression of Christchurch just from seeing it that night is that it was a beautiful city, and a really cool place to go. I will write about Christchurch later though, because we spent the last portion of journey back in Christchurch.

Day 2 -

We woke up early, and took a taxi back towards the airport to the location of the place where we had to pick up our campervan. After a little paperwork we were able to pick it up. This was the first time I ever really traveled in a campervan, and the first time I rented one, and this one was really nice. It had all the basics (a shower, a toilet, kitchen, fridge), but also a microwave, and a heater. The only problem with it, was that it was a manual, and since I've only learned to drive automatics, I wasn't going to be able to drive it. My German friends had asked me if I wanted to try and learn and practice in a parking lot, but I didn't really want too. First of all, it was a huge vehicle (and so learning on a such a big vehicle would be tricky) and second the driving in New Zealand is much different then the states. At any rate, everyone was ok with me not driving, and just having them drive the whole time.

The first location we took our campervan to was to a suburb of Christchurch called Sumner, and then to a beach called "Taylor's Mistake". At the time it was only Me, Max and Christof, as Sebastian was going to be arriving in Christchurch on a plane later that day. At "Taylor's Mistake" we took a long walk which went up a hill next to the ocean. At the top of the hill was the location of several gun turrets which New Zealand had built back when everyone was afraid of Communist Russia. It's pretty funny that they were so worried about getting invaded by Russia, but it's better to be safe then to be sorry I suppose. We had a good laugh about fearing a Russian invasion the rest of the trip (it was like an inside joke).

After our hike, we went back to the airport and picked up Sebastian, and then went to a supermarket to pick up some food. What was interesting about this particular shopping area is that it was the first shopping place I'd been to in New Zealand that at all resembled what a mall is like in the states. Most of the stores in New Zealand seem to be just one shop and that's it. This place was just like going to The Great Northern Mall in Oswego, or the Southside Mall in Oneonta (and it was nice to see something like that again). Also it just so happened that the foodstore was open 24 hours, which was handy when we wanted breakfast the next morning. Afterwards we enjoyed our dinner in the campervan at the parking lot, which was pretty funny. What made it even funnier is, that in order to save power, we bought candles so that we didn't have to turn the lights inside the van. So not only were we eating in our campervan in the parking lot, but we were also eating by candle-light as people were walking by. We also did a short birthday celebration (and I learned how to say happy birthday in German, but I've already forgotten how) for Christof. We actually parked and slept in that parking lot overnight, which was also a very funny place to wake up the next day.

Day 3 -
We headed North to a location called Hamner Springs. Hamner Springs is a small town, most famous for it's thermally heated water. We checked out the area where they had the hot water, but it's was basically just some pools which were heated by thermal power. We explored the town a little, and a bit of the area outside of the town, and then at night we headed to a pub in town to watch the All Blacks vs. Italy. It was the All Black's second game of the Rugby World Cup. Italy was no match for them. I think the end score was 76 to 14. It was still a lot of fun to watch though, and we also celebrated Christof's birthday again, and gave him a gift from all of us (an All Black's t-shirt).

Day 4 -
Yet again we headed further north, this time to a town called Kaikoura. It's a place well known for it's wildlife. There are tons of boating companies that take you out whale watching. In addition to whale watching, they have dolphins and other marine life. Not only did they have the boat trips to see whales, but they actually offered airplane rides that would take you out to see the marine life. I'd never seen anything like that before, and I thought it was kind of interesting. The whale watching was a bit out of price range, so we opted to go on a hike around the peninsula instead. At the very start of our walk we were quite surprised to run into a colony of seals. We were able to get within 10 feet of the seals, and they didn't seem to care. As we continued on the hike, we came across many more seal colonies. It was a very fun day, and a total surprise to run into the seals. We enjoyed a seafood dinner at a restaurant in town, and parked at a very nice spot by the ocean to stay for the night.

Day 5-
We traveled on up north again, and made a short stop in the town of Blenheim. Blenheim wasn't particularly interesting, but we had to pick up some more food, and make a short stop at an internet cafe to book the huts for our trip at the Abel Tasman Costal Track. We did make a short stop at the clock tower my travel guide had recommended to check in town though... and so it was definitely worth it to make the stop. After our stop there, we traveled up to the town of Picton. It was getting kind of late so we found a very very nice place to stay overnight. It overlooked the Marlborough Sounds.

Day 6 -
We explored Picton a little bit. It was a very nice town, and up until this point in my journey it was actually my favorite town. It's the location where the ferries from the North Island city of Wellington bring their passengers, and where people heading to Wellington depart.. In the morning while having breakfast we actually saw one of the ferries heading towards Wellington in the sounds. After breakfast we drove a ways towards the start of the Queen Charlottle Track. The Queen Charlotte Track is a long (up to 5 day) hike that goes up and down the mountains that surround the Marlborough Sounds. We did a short part of it that lead up to the top of a mountain which had an incredible view of all the sounds. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.

After the hike we drove to our next destination which was the town of Nelson. In Nelson we stayed at a campervan park for the night to recharge our batteries and make use of the microwave.

Day 7 -
We spent some time thinking about what to bring with us to eat on the Abel Tasman Costal Track, then went shopping for it. We also explored the town, and visited a very nice church. It was one of the first church's I had visited in New Zealand, and it was a very nice one. After leaving Nelson, we took a short stop at a beach on an island called "Rabbit Island", which was pretty nice, and then we drove more to the start of the Abel Tasman at a place called Marahau.

Day 8 -
We started the Abel Tasman Coastal Track on this day. The weather up until this point had been excellent, with most of the days not even having one cloud in the sky. The weather wasn't too bad, however it just wasn't as sunny as the other days. The first days hike was very nice despite it not being the most sunny. The track follows the coast, and has many little side tracks to various beautiful beaches. The hike to the hut was 11 kilometers (7 miles), and it took us about 4 hours to walk. The first hut was the "Anchorage Hut". The hut was very nice. It was pretty much just a big room, with mattresses for people to sleep on, but for only $10 a night it was a good deal. there were about 11 other people at the hut from different places. Sebastian and Christof took a dip in the ocean. As I had predicted, they were in the water for maybe 2 minutes before they were too cold and ran out, but they seemed to have a good time none the less. We joined a kiwi couple who had started a fire, and cooked our dinner (instant noodles and spaghetti in a can) in the fire. We had a pretty clever way to cook the spaghetti. We had some wire, and we poked holes in the can at the top, and then put the wire through. Then we could stick the cans in the fire, and use a stick to pick the can up from under the wire and take it out of the fire without getting burnt. We would use this same method to cook most of our meals the rest of the trip. The kiwis told us some very interesting stuff about there travels around New Zealand.

Day 9 -
The hike to the next hut was shorter, but the beaches and the ocean was just as beautiful. The distance was 9 kilometers (5 miles). The hut was the "Bark Bay hut". When we arrived at the hut at first we were the only ones there. We were later joined by a two German girls who had some very interesting stories to share about their travels in New Zealand. Before the girls showed up, we took a trip to the beach, and all ran into the ocean. The water was so cold, but it was very refreshing. We started another fire, and the girls joined us for our dinner. This night's dinner was some delicious baked beans in a can, and instant noodles.

Day 10 -
This days hike was another 11 kilometer (7 miles). Of all the days on the Abel Tasman this was my favorite. The other days we were mostly on mountains that overlooked the coast. It was nice because we actually hiked on many beaches. but The hut we arrived at was called Awaroa. A French couple were also at the hut. We had another fire, and like the other two nights we enjoyed some delicious canned food, and instant noodles. We also put some bread on sticks and made toast in the fire, and then had tuna on toast, which was very delicious.

Day 11 -
This would be the last leg of our trip to Abel Tasman, and we did not have far to hike. We did have to wake up at 6 in the morning to leave the hut though. Parts of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track actually require you to cross areas that are filled with water during high tide, and can only be crossed during low tide. So we could only continue our hike at 6 that morning. Once again there was plenty of beautiful beaches and amazing landscapes. The hike ended with an amazing Aqua Taxi boat ride which took us back to Marahau where we had left our campervan parked. That boat ride was really fun, and it gave us a good chance to see all the locations we had hiked by during the hike from a new perspective.

An overview of the Abel Tasman -
I hadn't done any soring of hiking since my boy scout days, probably around 5 to 6 years ago. So it was great to be able to do some hiking again. It really brought back tons of memories of all the stuff I did with the boy scouts.

The Abel Tasman is one of New Zealand's "great walks". It has a what you bring in is what you must also carry out policy, meaning that you have to bring your garbage with you. I was actually surprised at how clean, and how little pollution there was on the hike. I figured most people would be to lazy and inconsiderate to actually follow the rules and bring their waste out. I was very impressed. The Abel Tasman was one of my favorite parts of my trip to the South Island.

Also I find it funny that New Zealand actually named one of it's national parks after the explorer Abel Tasman. He did explore areas around New Zealand, but he wasn't the first to land on it, and as a matter of fact, I don't think he did ever actually land on it. He sent some of his ship's crew to land on the island, and they were killed by the Maori. I suppose that's close enough though.

And I'm going to end with day 11 for now, and I will write about the remaining days of the trip on a post to come. There's plenty more to read about, so stay tuned.

As a side note, I went to the Auckland Seafood Festival this weekend (...as I am working on a story about it for my journalism class) and it was quite a lot of fun.

Now here are some pictures from the first part of my trip.

At Taylor's Mistake

At one of the gun's on top of the hill at Taylor's Mistake

On the way to Hamner Springs

Breakfast at Hamner Springs

Rinsing our dishes off

With the Seal's at Kaikoura

A seal sleeping

The clock-tower at Blenheim (amazing isn't it?, my travel guide said it was, haha)

Marlborough Sounds

The ferry bringing passengers towards Wellington in the North Island

Where we camped at the Marlborough Sounds

At the shore
Picton is in the distance

A starfish I found

Marlborough Sounds from the top of the mountain

Resting on top of the mountain

A picture I took while on the way to Nelson

The church at Nelson
Food we brought with us on the Abel Tasman

Heading to the Abel Tasman

At the start of the Abel Tasman
A cave by the beach

At the Anchorage Hut on the first day
Our dinner with the Kiwis

Breakfast at the first hut

Look at the moss on those rocks

At the Bark Bay hut

Relaxing after a long day's hike

Dinner with the German girls

One of the beaches along the way
A bridge we had to cross

At the Awaroa hut

Terrific landscapes
Max enjoying his dinner
Crossing the river (...that water was cold)

Seems like every place we went was amazing

Another beach along the way

Our Taxi Arrives
Enjoying the ride

Back at Marahau

A video I took

hope everyone is doing well,

cheers,
Shawn

explosions in the sky

2007-09-27T23:58:00.000+12:00

Mt. Ruapehu, the mountain I went skiing at erupted.

Here's a news post about it

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20980852/

haha, it's kind of cool to say that I skied on a volcano that later erupted.

I'm still working on getting the pictures and stories about my travels to the South Island up.

I have no class tomorrow, so it'll give me plenty of time to work on it.

Cheers,
Shawn

Coromandel

2007-09-25T11:16:00.000+12:00

I just got back from an incredible trip to the South Island, and although I have plenty to write about that trip, first I have to write about the trip I took to Coromandel the weekend before I left for the South Island.

We left for Coromandel Peninsula on a Friday night. My friend Clemens had bought a van, and so he offered to let me ride with him, which was really great because it meant we didn't have to pay for renting a car. There were actually 3 van loads of people that came on the trip. The vans were all used vans, and all were bought for wicked cheap prices from different backpacker car-markets. This would come back to haunt us later on the trip.

So we headed down the main road towards hamiltion, and it was around 8pm, and as we drove all of the sudden Clemens gas pedal got stuck down, and it wouldn't come back up... I didn't realize what was going on though because Clemens was talking in German. In the end he turned the engine off and then moved the car to the side of the road. We invesigated the gas pedal, and found that what had hapened was that it had gotten stuck behind two screws.... so from then he was just extra careful not to push down two hard on the pedal. It was still pretty scary though.

Anyhow, so we arrived at a backpackers later that night. When we arrived we took a short walk to the beach, and took some pictures of the beach at night.

The next morning we woke up, and headed out to a place called Cathedral Cove, which is a very nice beach. There is a big stone formation that has a huge hole in it so you can walk through it, and it makes an arch leading to another side of the beach. I had heard a lot about this beach from many of my kiwi friends, and they told me I really had to check it out. I'm glad I did because it was quite impressive.

After our journey to Cathedral Cove, we returned to the backpackers and drove about 20 minutes to a location called Hot Water Beach. It's a beach where you can dig a hole, and then thermally heated water comes out of the ground. You can only dig the hole during low tide, so we had to time our trip there to correspond with the low tide. They had shovels to rent there for $5, so a few of us rented shovels and made our way to the beach to dig our hole.

As we walked there was already some holes that people had dug, and so we stepped in them to test out how hot they were. I was so amazed because many of them were way to hot to sit in. I saw a few of them that actually had boiling water in them. So we thought instead of digging a hole in the super hot part, that we would dig ours below a super hot pool, and then dig a channel to let the water come down from the pool above and heat our slightly less hot pool.

Since there was so many of us we had to dig a pretty big hole so we could all fit. Our plan worked extremely well, and we all enjoyed the sun, sounds and sights of the ocean and the hot water. We sat there for a few hours, and watched as the ocean started to get closer and closer to our hole as high tide began. It took a while but the ocean finally destroyed our hot water pool. By that point we were all prunes anyways, and had had a very enjoyable afternoon.

On the way back to Auckland we had wanted to make a stop in the town of Coromandel for some sea food (which we had heard is really good there.... as it is in most places of New Zealand). We drove on for a while, and then we ran into car problems again. It was my friend Arjen's (from Holland) van this time. It took us a little time to realize he wasn't behind us as we drove, so we drove back to his car. Luckily he had parked on a really good spot out of the way at an intersection. It turns out his transmission on the van had broke, so we had to call a tow truck to come tow his truck to Coromandel, and we had to cram 8 additionally people into the two workings vans. It actually turned out ok although it was very cramped in the vans, and we still got our seafood in Coromandel.

I enjoyed some very delicious mussels, and also some very scenic views as we drove north to Auckland on a coastal highway.

Here are some pictures.

Cathedral Cove

The beach

The beach at Cathedral Cove
Beach at Cathedral Cove

At the Beach

Looking good.

Excellent

Group picture

Fire on the beach

The beach at night

Islands

Hot Water Beach -- digging our hole

Chilling in the hot water

Still enjoying the hot water

Relaxing on a rock

Loving the view

I have so much to write about my trip to the South Island, and so many pictures to post too.... so I will be working on getting those up in the next few days.

Cheers,
Shawn

Plans

2007-08-30T19:34:00.000+12:00

My plan for the weekend is to head out to a place called Coromandel, which is located on the East coast of New Zealand. I've heard that it's a really awesome place. There is a beach where you can dig a hole in the ground, and then you get your own little hot pool, because it's a thermal area. That sounds pretty rad. Also I think I read somewhere that Coromandel was the location of New Zealand's first gold strike back in the 1800's, so there might some interesting kind of historical stuff there.

I have my plans worked out for the midsemester break also. I'm going to be flying down to Christchurch on the South Island, and then head north, and check out some stuff in the northern part of the South Island. A few areas of interest include -- the Abel Tasman hike, and Fox Glacier. I'll be going down there with my friend Max, and Sebestian, and Christof. I'm very excited.

Here are a few more pictures from the ski trip:

Cheers,
Shawn

Skiing on Mt. Ruapehu

2007-08-22T19:33:00.000+12:00

New Zealand is well known for being a beautiful place. I saw yet another great example of just how beautiful the country really is on the skiing trip I went on this past weekend.

The group at the ski lodge

We traveled 4 hours out of Auckland to Mt. Ruapehu. Mt. Ruapehu is the most well known skiing mountain on the North Island. I've been told that the skiing is actually better in the South Island. The trip was organized through the school. They rented a bus, and a driver (he was from an organization that puts on trips to go surfing and skiing). There were a total of 15 people that came on the trip. We stayed in a backpacker place that was about 20 minutes from the Mountain. What I thought was kind of funny was that there was absolutely no snow at the backpackers, or anywhere on the ground, but once we got to the Mountain it was high enough up that there was snow. We arrived on Friday night at the backpackers. We woke up early the next morning (7:00am...) and had some breakfast, then we drove to a place to pick up the lift pass, and to hire (rent) gear. I didn't have a jacket or snow pants that were suitable for skiing, so I had to rent them.

The weather was actually not so good on the first day. It was raining, but when we arrived at the mountain we were high enough up where it was actually snowing (which in my opinion, at least while skiing, is better than rain....). Despite the bad weather, I still had an excellent time. It had been about a year or so since I had last skied, but I still managed to ski very well.

The second day was way better. The weather was extremely great, and so we were able to see all the wonderful views from the mountain. The mountain had about three levels to it, and I'd say from the top one it took about 20 minutes or so to make your way back down to the bottom one. It was nice because there were tons of spots you could stop and get some nice photos while heading down. The mountain was about 2700 kilometers high, which converts to around 1678 miles.

What's kind of interesting about Ruapehu is that it's actually an active volcano. I saw a photo of the mountain erupting back in 1995. There are two sides you can ski on at the mountain. The side we were on was called Whakapapa (pronounced fuckapapa). It was a bit different than the mountains I've skied on in New York. There weren't any trees, but there were huge cliffs, and rocks, so you had to be careful to make sure you stayed away from those.

The trip was a ton of fun. It's got me interested in skiing again when I return to the States.
Here are some pictures from the trip.

Me and Sebastian on the bus headed to the mountain

arriving
There I am on the first day

Looking good (as usual)

The second day

The second level

On the lift

Sweet as (kiwi slang, for awesome...)A great view

The master of the mountain

Clemens making his way down
Picture from Google of Ruapehu exploding
I love New Zealand

The mountain peak behind me

At the top

Me and my buddy Max getting on the lift
Warming up

Rolling out!
The mountain

The peaks
The mountain from a distance

I've been really busy lately. I have quite a few assignments due at the end of next week. The mid-semester break will be coming up in about 2 weeks. I am working on some plans. I am not sure if I am going to travel to the south island for the break, or if I will just up here in the north.

Yesterday was a pretty fun day. I met up with Leah (who was an exchange student in Oswego 3 years ago) and we went and visited our friend Shannon, who unfortunately has a broken leg. We played a game of buzz (it's a game for the playstation, kind of similar to Scene It). Me and Leah then went and got some really delicious Japanese food.

It's getting late, so I should probably grab some rest. I'll try to update this a bit more often in the coming weeks. It should be easier, because I should have less work I hope.

Cheers,
Shawn

More Piha Pictures

2007-08-15T11:47:00.000+12:00

Here are some more pictures that some of my friends took while at Piha beach.

At the beach

New Zealand Ducks

On Lion RockA hidden beach

There we are at Piha

Walking

A Nice View

This picture is actually from Mount Eden

I saw the new Diehard Movie yesterday. I thought it was pretty good.

I am going skiing this weekend, and I am very excited about it. I just hope the weather is good.

Cheers,
Shawn

A Trip To Piha Beach

2007-08-13T23:10:00.000+12:00

This past weekend I traveled to Piha Beach (pronounced pee-ha). Piha is a black sand beach on the West coast of New Zealand. It's a good thing I took a lot of pictures, because it's hard to describe with words just how amazing the trip was.

My friends and I on top of a mountain at Piha Beach

There was a total of 16 people who came on the trip, so we had to rent two 8 person vans. We left early on Saturday morning. Piha is about an hour north of Auckland. We arrived in the Piha area at around 10 in the morning. It's a very small town. I would estimate the population was probably around 1,000 people. The houses there were all extremely nice, and I am sure each one had an amazing view of the beach. I am sure some very rich people live there.

My Italian friend Marco had made arrangements for use to stay at this backpackers place. It was a bit different from Cactus Jack's, but it was still very nice. We stayed in these caravan like things that housed about 3 to 4 people per caravan. The people who owned the backpackers were very friendly, and they told us a lot about the Piha area. They had told us that they had heard some weather reports that predicted Hurricane like conditions. Luckily for us the weather stayed good the whole time we were there. It was pretty windy, and it did rain a lot overnight, but during both days the weather was excellent.

After we got settled in at the backpackers, we got back together and walked down the road a bit to the beach. I seriously have never seen a more beautiful beach in my life. It was very nice. The only problem with the Piha area is that it has a reputation for being a very dangerous beach. This is because the currents are very strong. There are also no lifeguards patrolling the beach either. It is great for surfers but bad for swimming. The lady at the backpackers had warned us ahead of time that the beach was particular bad that day. She also had told us that on average one person a year drowns at the beach. The waves were huge. I did not go in the water (I was recovering from a cold, otherwise I would have at least wadded in the water). Two of my buddies did go in a little bit though.

One of the most interesting features of the beach was a giant rock formation that separates the beach into two sides. It's called Lion Rock, because if you look at it from the right angle you can see the face of a lion, and it's paw in the water facing the ocean. To be honest I had a hard time making the Lion out. There is a path that goes to the top of the Rock which you can climb up, so me and my friends did. The view from the top was incredible.

After we checked out the beach for a while, we traveled a short distance in the car to a forest. There is a trail we took, and after about 30 minutes we were at this awesome waterfall in the middle of a jungle-like forest. It was awesome. What made it particularly cool was that we were the only ones there, and it was in the middle of the woods. It was like our own private waterfall sanctuary. We hiked a bit further, and actually took a trail that led to the top of the falls. That was also pretty interesting.

After the time at the beach, and the hiking, we were all quite hungry. We headed to the local RSA (Returned Serviceman's Association, like the American Legion or a VFW in the States) where we got some food. I got some fish and chips (fries) and a salad. It was pretty tasty.Then we returned to the backpackers, and got some rest.

The following morning we got up, and had a delicious breakfast together (we had bought the food before we left and brought it with us). Before leaving the backpackers, we helped them move this granite kitchen top into there main room area.

We then headed back to the Beach to check out a trail we didn't see the first day. This trail was even better than the one up Lion Rock in my opinion. It led to the top of this mountain that had amazing views of the beach. After hanging out there for a bit, we drove to another beach in the area that we had heard about. A scene from the movie The Piano was actually filmed at that beach. As a side-note the road leading to the beach was one of the scariest roads I have ever been on. It was a two-lane road that was actually only big enough for one car, and it was on the side of this HUGE cliff and at one point of it, you could tell a car had gone off the road, because the trees and shrubs were no longer on the side of the road, and instead there was an orange-mesh fence. At any rate, that beach was very nice also. There was also a second waterfall near the beach, which was also nice. The waterfall was only about 5 minutes away from the road though, so I think I preferred the other one since it was so secluded.

The whole trip was so much fun. We saw a ton of amazing things. It was also very affordable also. It was about $NZ30 a person for the vans for both days, and about $NZ22 to stay in the backpackers.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

The girls in the van

Getting ready to goPiha from a Distance

The GroupWalking to the beach

It's 111 instead of 911
At the beach
Me and Clemens in front of Lion Rock
The View from the Top of Lion RockThe Ocean

On top of Lion RockAnother picture from the top of Lion Rock
Picture from the Forest

Waterfall from a distanceAt the bottom of the waterfall
Close up of the waterfall
From the forest

Christof, Marco and me at the backpackers.

Me and Clemens looking goofy

Me and my friend Morgan

Helping move the Kitchen Top

On the second dayMake note of the sheep

Sand ArtThe Beach
Wow!

The Beach
Me and my friend Sebastian

Sunny DayVery nice!

The Mountain Overlooking the Ocean

Wonderful
The Ocean

There I am with Lion Rock behind me
The second waterfall
The second beach
More of the second beach
Incredible

I finally got a chance to talk to my family on the phone using Skype. It was great to hear from them, and know that they are doing well.

All the walking, picture taking and fun times have left me a bit tired. I think it's time to get some sleep.

I hope you've enjoyed the pictures,

Cheers,
Shawn

Roadtrip to Rotorua

2007-08-05T22:54:00.000+12:00

The trip to Rotorua was amazing. There was 5 of us that went on the trip. Ben from Canada, Markus from Austria, David from Sweden, Clemens from Germany, and of course me. We did not really have a plan, other than to go to Rotorua and have a good time.... and we succeeded.

Me and Markus at Rainbow Mountain

We left on Friday afternoon, and made our way downtown to see about renting a car. We found a place, and got a great deal on a car for 3 days (it was a total of $30 per person for the 3 days). They even upgraded us for free, so we got a brand new car that had only been driven once or twice before us. It was super nice.

None of us had ever driven here in New Zealand, and since the traffic goes the other direction here, we thought it might be pretty hard. My friend Clemens offered to give it a try, and so we headed out on the road. Clemens did a great job driving. It was dark on the way out so we did not really get a chance to see much of the land on the way down.

Our friend Julia had been to Rotorua before, and she recommended a backpackers hostel for us to check out to stay in. So when we arrived in Rotorua, we drove over to it and checked it out. It was super nice, and super cheap, so we got settled in. The place was called Cactus Jack's, and it was a western themed Hostel. It was fully accommodated, and also had a hot pool (although the water looked kind of gross, so we didn't use it). It was only $20 for two nights.

We went out and checked out the town. It was a very nice town. It was much smaller then Auckland, but it was still pretty good size. It did smell like sulfur. The smell would come and go, and was worse in some spots. I think if you lived there for long enough you'd get used to the smell. At least it would be very easy to get away with farting (no one would even notice unless they heard you...). When we returned to the hostel, we played some pool for a while, then went to bed.

On the following morning we woke up early. There are a ton of touristy kind of attractions you can check out in Rotorua, but we did not really want to go to those, so instead we headed out of the town. We had heard about this place called Rainbow Mountain, and some hot springs/rivers that were near it. So we drove about 45 minutes and made it to Rainbow Mountain. After a short walk, we made it to the crater lookout point, which had an amazing view of some giant cliffs, and a big thermal hot pool. When I was walking through the paths at Rainbow Mountain I half expected to see some dinosaurs or Hobbits or something because it was just like so many movies I have seen. It was incredible.

After hanging out there for a little bit, we headed back on the road, and found a creek on a backroad called "Kerosene Creek". It was one of the most interesting things I've ever seen. Even though it's winter, and it was raining, and quite cold, the water was REALLY warm. It's just so weird to have the water be hotter than the air. You look at it, and expect to be super cold, but than you touch it, and it's not.. The place was really awesome, it was a creek, and parts of it opened up to make big pool-like areas. If you dug your feet down in the sand it got even hotter. If you dug deep enough in spots it was too hot to leave your feet. We started off in a small pool, and then swam downstream a bit and found a HUGE pool, that had this big waterfall in it. What also amazed me about all of this, was that we did not have to pay a penny. We just parked the car, walked down to the stream, and jumped in. We were the only people there too. I wish I had a thermally heated stream in my backyard.

The only bad thing that happened, was that I banged my pinky finger really hard a on a rock when I went over the waterfall at the top, and it's still pretty swollen. (don't worry though, I took some anti-inflammatory medicine, and taped it to my ring finger) It was raining, it was not really much of a problem though, because we were wet anyways, and the water was so hot.

When we got back to the Hostel, we made some pasta (which was quite delicious), and met up with some other people who were staying in the hostel, and checked out some more of the town.

The ride home the next day was great. New Zealand is an extremely beautiful country. I think lot of kiwis take it for granted.

I took a lot of pictures, so if a picture is a worth a thousand words, you've got a lot more reading to do.

Ben and our sweet ride

Another shot of the car

Cactus Jack's

The Bathroom

Making a funny face.... (I don't know why)
Playing some pool

Me and Ben (and Clemens in the background)

Clemens and Ben at Rainbow MountainThe hot pool at the bottom of the crater
At Rainbow Mountain
Rainbow Mountain

Rainbow Mountain
Rainbow Mountain
Rainbow Mountain
View from Rainbow Mountain
Clemens!

Ben in the water (this was the smaller of the two pools)

In the hot water (and loving it),

Another picture of us in the water

Markus making dinner

In the morning...

The road..

Me and Clemens
New Zealand -- beautiful country.

New Zealand

There was a ton of other stuff to do in Rotorua, so I am sure I will be going back there again before I leave. The trip was totally awesome, and pretty cheap too. New Zealand is awesome.

Cheers,
Shawn

Winter?

2007-08-03T12:46:00.000+12:00

The winter in New Zealand is pretty funny. It's nothing like what we experience in Upstate New York. The lowest temperature I have seen here was 49 degrees Fahrenheit. There is no snow here in Auckland (although I've heard they do get snow in other parts of New Zealand). This weather reminds me a lot of the fall or spring in New York. The kiwis are always talking about how cold they think it is, and how this winter has been especially cold. They are lucky they never saw a winter in New York.

What is also kind of funny, is that one minute you will look outside and it will be completely sunny without a cloud in the sky, and then the next second it will be completely the opposite, and then it will be sunny again. The weather changes quite rapidly, and quite often here in winter. It's still way better than anything I ever saw in New York (or especially in Oswego...)

My friends and I

Next weekend some of my friends and I are going to check out Piha beach which is a black sand beach on New Zealand's west coast. I have yet to see a black sand beach, so that will be very exciting. I've heard it's real dangerous to swim there though, because the currents are very strong, but it's winter anyways so I don't think I'd be doing much swimming.

A little later today I will be headed to check out Rotorua with my buddy Ben from Canada, Markus from Austria, and Clemins from Germany. Rotorua is a city about 2 hours away from Auckland. I've heard that there are a ton of thermal pools and volcanic kind of stuff in Rotorua, and that that the city smells like sulfur. A lot of Maori people also live there I've heard. I'm very excited though, because this will be the first time I've really left the Auckland area. I'll be sure to bring back a lot of good pictures.

cheers,
Shawn

The International Noho Marae

2007-07-30T15:53:00.002+12:00

This weekend was the AUT International Noho Marae. It was an event for the international students, where we got to spend the weekend living in a Maori Marae (meeting place). We learned a ton of interesting Maori stories, songs and traditions. I learned a lot, met a lot of people, ate a lot of food, and had a lot of fun. It was an amazing weekend.

At the Marae

The event began on Friday in the evenning with an international pot luck dinner on the Marae. I worked with my Italian friend, Marko, my German friend Clemins and my Scottish friend Karen to make an international lasagna to bring as a dish. It turned out very good, and was quite a hit among everyone at the dinner. There was a ton of delicious dishes from all over the world, and I was able to find a lot of stuff that was milk free to eat. That night after dinner we got welcomed into the Marae, and got to participate in the Hongi -- which is the Maori tradition where you touch noses as a greeting.

That night I slept in the Maori, but it was quite difficult (and kind of funny) because so many people were snoring extremely loudly. In the morning we woke up and had breakfast, and prepared for a long day of learning different Maori songs and dances. My professor from Te Ara Pou was actually the guy who taught us many of the Maori songs. The Maori language is pretty tough, because some words that you would expect to make one particular sound actually sound different. The best example is words with the letters WH -- which is actually pronounced as an F sound.

After learning a few songs, we got a chance to learn the Maori stick game. The stick game was used to by Maori warriors to train their hand eye coordination so they could be better in battle. It was actually a very fun game, and pretty easy to learn.

We had a light lunch (they told us it was light, because they had planned a HUGE fest for dinner...) and then we got a chance to learn about Maori Flax (it's plant that you can weave stuff out of), and we got to make our own Maori flowers out of Flax. It's kind of like Origami. Mine turned out pretty good I thought. As a side note Flax smells the same as the husk of Corn.

After learning about Flax, the girls and guys separated and I got into what I thought was the highlight of the weekend, which was learning the Haka. The girls went off and learned a different dance called the Poi.

The Haka was so much fun to learn. The hardest part for me was not to laugh or smile while I was doing it. Part of the point of the Haka was to scare enemy tribes, and so when they did it they tried to look real tough and really freaky when they did it. I had to get real pumped up in order to do it. It was so much fun to learn.

The words to the Haka -

Ka Mate, Ka Mate Ka Ora, Ka Ora Ka Mate, Ka Mate Ka Ora, Ka Ora Tenei te tangata Puhuruhuru Nana i tiki mai Whakawhiti te ra Ara Hupane Ara Kupane Ara Hupane, Kupane Whiti te ra

We spent the rest of the day practicing the songs and the Haka. At night we all participated in a "concert" where we presented all the songs, dances and games we learned to the people who taught us. The finale of the concert was the Haka, which turned out really funny, because nearly all the guys messed it up real bad, but we did it with such intensity that no one really noticed.

We ended the night with a huge fest prepared in the Maori style, where the dig a hole in the ground and cook the food underground. It was extremely delicious. I ate so much food. It was kind of like thanksgiving. My favorite food was the Kumara, which is the New Zealand sweet potato.

At the Marae

The Stick Game

Learning one of the Maori songs

Flax

Me and my Flax Flower

Group shot

Me and my friend Barb from Germany

Learning the Haka

The Concert

Another photo from the Concert

The Stick Game

The Poi dance

The Haka! (it's more scary with our shirts off)

Doing the Haka!

I learned so much about the Maori people. Their culture is very interesting. They love to sing and dance, and are all very cheerful. The Marae is actually located in the middle of town(about 5 minutes away from AUT), and they said we could stop by anytime we want. So I might stop over there again sometime.
More updates to come!
-Shawn

One Tree Hill

2007-07-24T23:49:00.000+12:00

On Sunday my friends and I checked out a place called One Tree Hill. A long time ago it was a Mauri settlement, and there used to be just one giant tree at the top. I was informed that a couple years ago, a Mauri activist went to the tree, and chopped it down. He did this because it was a Europeon tree, and when the Europeans came to New Zealand they brought a lot of disease and other bad things with them. The guy did not feel it was right that the tree was European. At any rate, instead of a tree, a giant statue now stands at the top of the hill.

At the top of One Tree Hill

What I thought was kind of funny about One Tree Hill was that there was a ton of sheep just roaming around. There was Sheep poo all over so you had to watch where you stepped. It was kind of like Mount Eden, the view from the top was great. It's kind of interesting because Mount Eden isn't very far away from One Tree Hill.

One Tree Hill

A few of the Sheep

More Sheep
My roommate Micha

There I am at the Top

Hanging out on a tree

Kind of a funny photo

Statue at the top

View from the Top

View from a distance

I had my first New Zealand Politics class the other day. It was very interesting. Their government seems quite similar to the United States government. It's funny because when the professor was going over stuff in class, he kept making comparisons to the way the United States does things. I am very interested in learning more about how the New Zealand Constitution and the US Constitution compare.

It's bedtime for my now,

good night,
Shawn

Rugby

2007-07-23T01:10:00.000+12:00

The Rugby game was great. The All Black's beat the Wallabies with a final score of 26 to 12. My seats were in the Terrace section of Eden Park. They reminded me a bit of the bleachers section at Yankee Stadium. There was even a sort of "bleacher creature" kind of attitude with the fans sitting in the section. When we first got there it rained quite a bit, but after the first 10 or 15 minutes it stopped. The haka was awesome to see live. The stadium seated about 40 thousand people, and it was quite hectic, and a bit confusing to find our seats. Although I thought the game was great to watch live, I think you'd be better off just watching it on TV, because it's so much cheaper. At least now I can say I saw the All Blacks beat Australia.

Getting ready for the game

My bus trip in the morning was not as fun as I had hoped it would be, but it wasn't all bad. The weather was pretty crappy, and they did not really explain about the history or relevance of the stops it made. They just dropped us off, and said we could check out the spots and get some pictures. At least it was for free though, and it wasn't all bad, because I got a few good photos.

There I am at the Pluto Concert

The master of the pool table!

Some shells at Mission Bay

A place we stopped on the bus trip.

Another shot of Bastian Point from the bus tour

Close up shot

Me and my friends before the All Blacks game

At the stadium

The game begins!

Close up shot

Some (shaky) video footage from the game

I took a trip to One Tree Hill today, but I'll post about that tomorrow.

I've been meaning to call home, however it's very difficult due to the time difference. I think it might work out so I can call on Tuesday though.

Cheers,
Shawn

Pluto & More Classes

2007-07-20T18:37:00.000+12:00

My classes all seem pretty good so far. In particular I enjoy "Te Ara Pou" which is a class that teaches about Mauri leaders. Te Ara Pou stands for The Path of the Pole. The pole is referring to the central beam in a house that holds it up, so it's like the path to centering one's self. My New Media Journalism class was also very interesting. We are going to be creating websites, and publishing news stories on them.

I've already noticed a few differences in the way in which college is done here vs. how it is in the United States. First off each class has two components -- a lecture and a tutorial. In the US each class is both a lecture and a tutorial. So in the lecture, the lecturer (...is what they call the Professors here) will just give you a ton of notes about the subjects of the class. In the tutorial, it's more of a group thing, where the students interact with the lecturer as well as with each other. It seems to be a bit more group oriented. It seems like we get less assignments in classes here in New Zealand, but each one is worth a lot more points.

Since I've been busy with class, I have not had a ton of time to do too much of anything. I've been playing a lot of pool (and I'm getting a bit better) and meeting quite a few people. The pool tables here are a bit different than those in the United States. The balls are smaller, and the pockets have rounded edges, as opposed to straight ones. This makes the game of pool quite a lot harder, but still very fun.

They had a free concert for AUT students at Vesbar (the student bar on campus), so I checked that out. It featured a local band from Auckland named The Midnight Youth. They were pretty good. The next band was the band Pluto, who are a famous band from New Zealand. I actually preferred the music of the Midnight Youth. The best part was that it was free though.

The trip has been very good so far. I've found it easy to met many many people, and adjusting to living in an apartment has been quite easy too. I've got to know my roommates a bit better, and they all are very nice. It's an interesting mix of people -- a girl from Germany, a girl from South Korea, a girl from New Zealand and another American guy from Maine.

City life is a bit different than I am used to, however I am glad I am having the opportunity to see what it is like. Also, it's a bit different using the metric system, as well as Celsius.

The people of New Zealand for the most part, seem a lot more friendly than people in the United States. So I think this has made it a lot easier to begin to feel comfortable living in another Country.

Later tonight we are having a birthday party for my friend Kersten who is from Germany. It should be a very fun time.

Tomorrow is sure to be a great a day, because I'll be going on a bus-tour of Auckland, followed by the All Blacks rugby game in the evening. It will be very exciting.

First Day of Classes & A Trip to the Museum

2007-07-17T16:05:00.000+12:00

My first day of classes was yesterday. I only had one class, and it was in the morning, so I had the rest of the day off. The class seemed pretty interesting. It is "Introduction to New Zealand Literature". The first section we are doing is about New Zealand short stories. I actually just finished the assigned reading which is due for class tomorrow. The stories were pretty interesting. This class should give me some insight into New Zealand culture. I have three classes tomorrow, so I hope those ones are interesting as well.

My friends and I

My friends and I had a chance to check out the Auckland War Museum the other day instead of going to Davenport. It was a rainy day, so we figured we'd be better off indoors. The museum is very close. It is located in the Auckland Domain Park, which is about a 10 minute walk from the WSA building. It is quite large, and I imagine you could spend a couple days checking it out. For me the most interesting part was that they had a live Mauri presentation, where they showed us different Mauri traditions, dances and games. The Haka was very cool to see performed live. The other parts were quite interesting too. They had this section about the flightless birds of New Zealand. They had bones from one species called the Moa which is now extinct because it was so easy to hunt. It was about 12 feet tall, and was formerly the biggest bird on Earth. They had this other section I did not get to check out which had stuff from Egypt. I am definitely going to go back and check it out. They also had this one section where they had these giant spiders that I guess live in some New Zealand caves and stuff... so I might not be going in any caves here any time soon.

My shadow is the third one from the left.

One of the pieces at the Museum

Buddhist Statue

A traditional Mauri meeting place

Performing different Mauri traditions

Close up of one of the Mauri dances

My roommate Micha trying out one of the Mauri dances

Me with one of the Mauri people

The Haka

Short video clip of the Haka

Another video clip from the presentation

I already have quite a few plans for the weekend. Friday I plan to go to Davenport (if the weather is good), and then on Saturday I will be on a free bus tour which will take us to historical and notable places in Auckland, and following that is the All Blacks vs. Australia Rugby Game. Finally on Sunday I plan on check out a volcanic island place(the one mentioned in the post below)

So be expecting more posts and more pictures.

cheers,
Shawn

Domain Park, Mission Bay, Mt. Eden & a lot of pictures

2007-07-15T09:12:00.001+12:00

The last two days have been very awesome. I checked out both the Auckland Domain Park and Mission Bay as well as Mt. Eden.

Auckland Domain Park is about a 10 minute walk from where I live. It's the largest park I have seen in the city so far. It's got some real nice paths you can walk. Through parts of it I almost felt like I was in some kind of jungle. After a ways walk through the jungle-like areas you come to a clearing where they have a big museum. I didn't actually check that out yet, but I figured I would check it out on a rainy day. It kind of looks like one of those things you could spend a whole day checking out.

Maytea, Fabien and myself hanging out in a tree.

Fountain near the museum at Domain Park

Maytea and the birds

Palm trees by the museum

After heading back from the park, I got together with a few more of my friends, and we got on a bus and headed to Mission Bay, which I had heard was one of the nicer beaches in the area. It was about a 10 minute bus ride. I was surprised to see so many people hanging out at the beach during winter. No one was swimming, but I did touch the water and it didn't seem too cold. My batteries ran out in my camera before we got there, but I did manage to find a place that sold some, and so I got some good pictures. We walked back to campus, and got an amazing view of the city skyline.

View from Mission Bay. That island is actually a non-active volcano.

There I am by the ocean

The shore

The Sun was setting

A boat

All of us on the walk back

Auckland city skyline

When I got back from Mission Bay I headed out to an Irish Pub named Father Ted's (named after the Irish comedy show) with a few Kiwi Friends who play Rugby. It was a very nice place, and they had good live music.

On the following morning I got together with a group of my international friends and we took a bus ride (again no more than 10 minutes) to Mt. Eden. Mt. Eden is supposedly the highest point in all of Auckland, and from it you can see the whole city, as well as both harbors and both oceans. It's quite an amazing view up there. Mt. Eden used to be a volcano years and years ago, and so there is a HUGE crater at the top. My buddy Clemins and I actually hiked on down to the bottom of it. I could actually see Eden Park from the top of Mt. Eden. Eden Park is where the All Blacks play rugby. By American standards it looked quite small, but I am quite excited because I did manage to get tickets to the All Blacks vs. Australia game, so I will be checking that out next Saturday at Eden Park.

The crater

Those dots you see at the bottom are my and friend Clemins at the bottom

There is a zoomed in shot of us at the bottom

Climbing out of the crater

The view from the top

There I am at the top

A very good view

The harbor and ocean

When we finally returned from Mount Eden, I got some stuff together and headed out to met my friend Leah, who attended Oswego 3 years ago as an exchange student. It was great to see her again. She introduced me to many of her Kiwi friends. They taught me quite a few things about New Zealand. Leah promised that whenever she is headed anywhere to do anything in all of New Zealand she would let me know, and that I was always invited.

So it's been a very good last few days. Later today I am checking out a place called Davenport, so expect more pictures!

Trip to the Harbor

2007-07-13T10:04:00.000+12:00

I had a chance to go to the Harbor yesterday with my buddy Christof who is from Austria. It was pretty awesome, complete with many shops and restaurants as well as tons of boats. At part of orientation they had told us that New Zealand has the most boats per capita of any place in the world. It works out to be about 4 boats per family. The harbor is so big that I did not really get a chance to check out the whole thing, but I am sure I will go back down and check it out more later, as it's only about 10 minutes from where I live.

There I am down by the harbor

Christof

The Harbor

The Harbor

After checking out the harbor we checked out Victoria Market, and Victoria Park. I managed to get about a months worth of groceries for about $NZ 60. To my amazement I even managed to find some milk-free butter.

I also had a chance to met some students who live a few floors below me from New Zealand. They are on the schools Rugby team. They taught me a lot about the game of Rugby. There is an All Blacks Game on July 21 vs. Australia which I think I am going to buy tickets too. Australia is the All Blacks main rival, so the game should be like the equivilent of the Oswego Laker's vs. Geneseo, but on a much larger scale.

Rugby Field at Victoria Park.

A little note about food and drinks.

2007-07-12T11:35:00.000+12:00

I've been here about 3 days now and so although I have not been here very long, I have had a chance to check out some stuff here in the city. What I find interesting is that there are actually quite a few American Franchises here. A few I have seen all over the place include -- Starbucks, Wendy's, Subway, Burger King and McDonald's. I did expect to see McDonald's and Burger King but I was quite surprised by Subway and Starbucks.

I checked out the McDonald's here out of curiosity to see how it compares to the American ones, and although they are quite similar, they do offer a unique menu item called the Kiwiburger. It's like a quarter pounder, with lettuce, onion, tomato, and they also put beets on it and some kind of barbecue sauce. I have yet to try the Kiwiburger, but I will before I leave. I am not so sure about how those beets will taste though.

I also came across what they call L & P soda (they call soda -- Fizzy Drink). It stands for Lemon & Paeroa. It kind of tastes like sprite. I guess Paeroa is the place where the stuff originated. It's quite common all of the place here.

I haven't tried too much other stuff yet, but I do plan too.

I plan to check out the harbor later today, so I should be posting about that later.

Kia Ora

2007-07-11T15:11:00.000+12:00

Welcome to my blog. Be sure to check back here if you are interested in learning about all of the exciting adventures, and other interesting parts about my time spent in New Zealand.

The airplane ride to New Zealand was my first ever time on an airplane. I was a bit nervous about it at first, but after the first little trip from Albany to Washington the rest of the trip was not as bad. Once I got to Washington, I made my way to the next airplane which was headed out to LAX in Los Angeles. That plane was a little bit larger, and I liked it more than the one from Albany to Washington.

That plane ride seemed pretty long, but I spent a good portion of it sleeping. Once I arrived in LA I had a 9 hour wait before I had to get on the plane headed to Washington.

It was a long long wait, but I finally boarded the plane, and prepared for the long journey across the Pacific. It just so happened to be sitting next to a student from San Deigo, California named Travis who was also going to be attending AUT and also who was going to be living in WSA. This made the plane ride a lot easier, as me and him chatted for quite a bit of the trip. It also made it a lot nicer because I had already made a friend before arriving in New Zealand. Me and him meet up with two other Americans at Auckland International who were also going to be living in WSA, and the 4 of us split the cost of a shuttle bus to the WSA building.

It was 6am in the morning when we arrived, so in order to beat Jet Lag we had to stay awake all day. We did this by exploring the city extensively. The city was bigger then I had expected. So far it seems that everyone here is very nice.

Here are a few photos I took during the plane ride, and also the first days adventures of the city.
Albany Airport -- where I begin the Journey

The United Express Airplane from Albany to Washington

LAX!

Auckland International Airport

The Metro on Queens St.

The Sky Tower

Another picture of the Sky Tower.