I have been awfully terrible at keeping up with this blog. It has been a while, and lots has happened. I will try to, again, highlight some of the things that have happened without writing a novel. Some things include my two weeks of semester break, birthdays, and lots and lots of papers being written (after all I am still going to uni over here).

So first off, my two week break: Alyssa, Anke, and I all traveled around together. We started in Wellington, New Zealand's capital on the southern tip of the North Island, where we stayed with a girl, Danni, who goes to Massey on the Wellington campus. We had a nice Easter brunch with her and her friends. A few days later we flew out of Wellington and into Christchurch, which is located on the east coast, half way down the South Island. And thus started our true adventure. We rented a car, and to our lovely surprise we were given this tiny little pearl pink car. We had been joking earlier about how it would be funny if we got a pink car, and sure enough that is what we got. So after getting our car we drove out of Christchurch, across to the west side and started heading south. And yes, they drive on the opposite side of the road here. It was definitely an interesting experience and it was surprising how natural it felt to be on the left side of the road by the end of the trip.

The South Island is much different from the north. It is more mountainous and less populated. About 76% of New Zealand's population is in the North Island, and a quarter of it in Auckland alone. It only has a population of a little over 4 million. So anyway, the South Island was more spread out with a lot of really adorable towns and farm lands. The drive was gorgeous the entire time with a variety of mountains, ocean, and just gorgeous scenery. The people were also lovely. We ran into so many nice people that were just completely willing to help you out in any way.

After leaving Christchurch our next big stop was Fox Glacier. This is where me and Alyssa skydived. It such an amazing experience. The plane ride alone was just so breath taking. They allow you to take your cameras up with you, one of the few that does, giving you one of the world's most spectacular photo ops. A 360 degree birds eye view of the Tasman Sea, the Southern Alps (including Mt Cook, NZ's tallest mountain at 12,316 ft), reforests, and the glacier. While I was being mesmerized by the view, the door of the plane swung open, snapping me back to the 12,000 feet of open space below me and next thing I knew I was hanging over nothing but sky and then free falling towards the ground. After 45 seconds of free fall the parachute was pulled and once again I was faced with a spectacular view of mountains, ocean, reforests, and glaciers. My jump was my instructor's 3,987th jump; almost 4,000 jumps! I pretty much lived off of the adrenaline rush the rest of the day.

There were many little stops here and there between places, but the next big place was Queenstown. I loved it there. It was nestled in the mountains on Lake Wakatipu. Here we met up with some of our friends from Massey for the two days we were there and hung out around town and what not. We hiked to the top of the skyline gondola, since it would have been 20 some dollars to take it up and had a nice view of the city and the mountains. Queenstown if quite an active place. The gondola brings you up to an adventure center with bungee jumping, luge rides, zip lines, and views of para sailing. And just to show how small this world really is, I was waiting for Alyssa to come out of the bathroom and someone asked me if I needed help with anything, because I was looking at the pictures form the gondola ride that other people had taken, and he asked me where I was from. It turns out he recognized my New Jersey accent. He even asked what exit I was! He is from New Brunswick and was traveling through NZ and ran out of money so he ended up finding this job in Queenstown. It was just so funny to run into someone from home so far away.

After Queenstown we did Milford Sound, which was gorgeous, even though we didn't spend much time there. We did a hike right outside of Milford Sound, Key Summit. The hike was about three hours return, and gave great views of all Fidorland National Park has to offer. From here we drove on and our next big stop was Dunedin in the province of Otago. We spent a few days here. It was rainy the first night we got there so we saw a movie. Boy was the name of it. It is a NZ made movie, but if anyone ever sees it anywhere in the States, I highly recommend it. It was basically about this boy named Boy and his life and relationship with his dad who had been missing from his life. Anyways, Dunedin was another city. We attempted to see some penguins here but they never showed up. There were some really nice scenic drives we did also. One thing i really liked was that all the cities had really cool artwork all over the city. After we left Dunedin we tried to see penguins two other time and still they never appeared. It was quite disappointing.

After Dunedin we made our way back to Christchurch where we spent the remainder of our trip. We met up with some of the same people we met up with in Queestown and celebrated my Birthday. My favorite part, however, was staying at the Stonehedge hostel where we met some really cool people. One of the nights we all made our dinners and then sat down and shared it all together. One girl from Finland made an enormous loaf of bread that was delicious! It was really cool meeting everyone from all over. Christchurch had some interesting things to offer too. Alyssa loved the giant chess board in Cathedral Square. They also had a market while we were there that was fun to walk around.

The entire trip was awesome and there is so much more to tell, but that would take ages. I loved the South Island. When we finally got back to Palmy I was bogged down with work, and I still am, and so that was a bit of a stress, going from vacation right back into everything, but now there is one week of classes left and the finals. Time has really flown.

Since I have been back I haven't really done anything too exciting. Last weekend we did go camping in the bush. That was a lot of fun. There was a lot of us and the site was right along a stream. Some of us jumped in the stream off this large rock. The water was quite frigid.

This past week a huge group of us did a 40hr famine where we didn't eat or use any electricity, except for watching a few documentaries. It was interesting realizing how much we eat just because we are bored and not because we are hungry. I realized that more than anything I just wanted to taste something, I wasn't necessarily hungry.

Some other things; Khali tried to teach me Maori, and Anke has tried to teach me German. Both are pretty difficult. We had a big fiesta for Cinco de Mayo. None of the Kiwis knew what it was, which is funny since it isn't even an American holiday, but we decided to celebrate anyway. We had nachos, enchiladas, guacamole, and other delicious foods. My flat has been cooking some delicious meals together and we all sit down and eat like a family. I am slowly learning my way around the kitchen.

The weather is slowly getting cooler, although it is nothing compared to our winters at home, it is more like fall weather at the moment. I am slowly preparing myself to come home. It is definitely going to be a bittersweet experience. As much as I am excited for summer, no school work, and seeing everyone, it is going to be very hard to leave everyone here not to mention leaving this gorgeous country. I have loved every aspect of New Zealand and all it has to offer. The people are so kind, and very genuine in everything they say and offer. they never try to fool you and if they offer you an invitation for something it is absolutely sincere. Not to mention the basic fact that the country is just flat out gorgeous!

So I will leave it there. I do not expect to write another blog, but then again who knows? I am looking forward to seeing everyone at home and hope everyone is doing well. It won't be long now. But until then, I intend on taking advantage of every second I have remaining here in New Zealand!