Oh the Places You'll Go: Pacific Edition

This weekend a group of 7 of us roadtripped up to Rotorua and Waitomo. We got off to a bit of a rough start when I went by bus with Sydney and William to pick up the rental car on Thursday evening. When we got on, the bus driver told us we were on the wrong bus (we weren't) and we ended up at a Burger King far away from the closed rental car location. Thursday also happened to be Cruising along with Mount Ruapehu ahead. my birthday so that wasn't the best thing that could've happened, but when we arrived home defeated the entire program sang me happy birthday. My friends also bought me a cake and we celebrated despite the lack of rental car. The next morning we got up early and retrieved the rental car more successfully than we did the first time around. Once we got going, the next 6 hours were smooth sailing with me driving and Brian DJ'ing. When we arrived in Rotorua, we went to Te Puia which is a mixture of Maori culture sites and geothermal sites. Rotorua is

Deciding if the emu will try to eat me First things first...I forgot to write a blog post about my adventures last Sunday! Marissa, Sydney, and I decided to spend the day at Wellington Zoo. This turned out to be a really awesome decision even though it doesn't sound that exciting. The Wellington Zoo has lots of animals that we don't have in the US and it was super interactive. I got to feed some sheep which was way cool, and basically a life goal for Marissa, as well as almost get eaten by an ostrich. The zoo also had an Australian section with lots of the Australian animals. What was super cool about this section is when I walked through the gate, an emu just came right up to me and started walking down the path with me. Petting the friendly emu was certainly a once in a lifetime experience! Taranaki Falls This weekend our entire Pacific Program group traveled to Taupo which is about 4-5 hours away from Wellington. When we arrived, a large group of us wandered towar

Evidence that I really did drive on the left side of the road! Our entire group when we pulled over to see this view. So I said that I really do study on study abroad, but we have 3 day weekends...so maybe I lied just a little. Today we took advantage of our Friday off and road tripped to Martinborough and the Putangirua Pinnacles. Fun fact: Kiwis drive on the left side of the road instead of the right so that was a first for me. All of their rental cars actually say keep left on the dashboard because so many foreigners drive in NZ that have never driven on the left before. Adjusting to that change was actually not as hard as I thought it would be and I have to say I felt really adult renting a car for the first time. After leaving the city, we had to drive through the Rimutaka Pass which was a fun curvy mountain road. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves after making it through that without a hitch until we missed our turn (it was one of four turns too). Not only did we

Succulents in the Botanic Gardens Classes officially started a few days ago (yes I swear I do some studying on study abroad) so my outings into Wellington have been fewer. However, I've had the chance to make a couple more trips to the Botanic (not Botanical apparently, Kiwis are strange) Gardens and hike Mount Victoria, the highest point in Wellington. One of the many walkways in the Gardens. Yesterday, Lindsey and I took a morning walk through the Botanic Gardens which, it turns out, are even more beautiful than I originally thought. They have multiple gardens each with a different theme, some of which I still haven't even explored. Some areas we passed through looked like rainforest while others were filled with succulents and cacti. There was even an Australian themed garden which was fairly barren...a sign of things to come or maybe just some Kiwi-Australian hostility? I guess I'll find out in about 6 weeks. Later that night, I returned to the Gardens with

"Congratulations! Today is your day! You're off to great places! You're off and away!" Well technically my day was two days ago, but Dr. Seuss still nailed it; I really am blessed to be off to great places. I want to remember all these great places that I visit on this trip and so I started this blog. Maybe (hopefully) other people will enjoy reading about my travels as well since I'm already positive it's going to be a wild ride. 12 weeks of just a girl and her suitcase, I sure hope I'm ready. My trip started off well enough making it to Houston followed by Auckland with not only me, but my bag as well. The group arrived in Auckland around 6am New Zealand time to try and catch an 8am connecting flight to Wellington. It turns out this is definitely not enough time to pick up your bag, go through customs, recheck your bag, and make it through security once again. Out of the 70 group members scheduled to be on that flight, 69 of us missed it. Our progr