 |
| 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 towards town and eventually decided to go swimming in Lake Taupo. Lake Taupo is actually a caldera created by a supervolcanic eruption that is now filled with freshwater. The lake is stunningly beautiful, but extremely, extremely cold. Summer in New Zealand is very deceiving sometimes and that water was a lot for a Southern girl to handle.
The next day (Friday) was planned as part of our program. Half of us were supposed to do the Tama Lakes hike with a guide named Doug and the other half (who are in a specific Bio class) were supposed to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. I was in the half doing the Tama Lakes hike, but our hike got cut a little short. Tongariro National Park (where both hikes are) is located in an alpine environment which as Dr. Garton (our program director) told us is "highly unpredictable and can
 |
| Mount Ngauruhoe aka Mount Doom |
change at any moment!" This meant even though it was sunny for the beginning of our hike, there was a chance that we could get hailed on if we tried to complete the entire hike. So instead of hiking 10 miles, we hiked about 5 miles and went to Taranaki Falls. A bunch of people in our group went swimming underneath the falls, but after Lake Taupo yesterday I wasn't about to go get in the water. When we were hiking back, I ended up in the front with Doug (our guide) who was an incredible knowledge source about New Zealand that I was able to learn a lot from. Since we didn't do the full hike, we went to a thermal pool afterwards to kill time. The pool was basically a warm swimming pool, but at least it was warm.
 |
| Trying not to freeze and/or fall at the Emerald Lakes |
Saturday (yesterday) was a free day for us to do whatever we wanted in Taupo or the surrounding areas. Thomas, Jordan, Chloe, and I decided that we wanted to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing that the other half of our group had done the day before. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is the most popular day hike in New Zealand. It's 19.4 km (12 miles) with 800 m (~2624 ft) of altitude gain. Since the weather
 |
| Lunch with a view! |
wasn't good the day before, the other group made it less than halfway and had to turn around when some of the group members started getting hypothermic. We, however, were lucky enough to have nicer weather and managed to complete the entire hike (with the help of the winter jackets we rented from our shuttle bus company). Along the way we saw Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings), the Red Crater, and the Emerald Lakes. At the highest point of this hike, we were in a cloud with snow on the ground and winds hitting us from every direction which was pretty intense. There was also a downhill section right after the peak where we had to hike/slide/fall down through volcanic rock/sand. Remember the alpine environment I mentioned? Well that meant my attire ranged from a tank top to full winter coat, hat, and gloves and we managed to go through 4 vastly different climates. Besides the nature, this hike was a cool place
to meet other travelers. For the last 5 or so km we hiked
with another young American from Seattle named Andrew who was traveling around New Zealand
 |
| The final kilometers of our hike...through a rainforest! |
so he could work for a travel agency. We also met a young woman on our shuttle bus who was from Canada and quit everything to travel the world. All in all that made for some experiences I will never forget.
Once we got back, we rewarded ourselves for completing that hike by going to a natural hot spring nearby. That was a unique experience and brought some much needed warmth into my life. After all of that I was completely sapped of energy and actually fell asleep sitting up on the floor of my hotel room. The lack of energy just meant that I lived this weekend to the fullest and made some really great memories. Now it's (somewhat) back to reality for me...homework and laundry await!
~S
