So where were we?  I believe I got as far as the last night in Sydney in my last post, so we'll start there.  The trip over to the west coast was nothing noteworthy (we're becoming flying experts at this point).  I did watch the movie "Real Steel" with Hugh Jackman, and that was pretty good.  The only thing that really stands out about this day is how ridiculously long it was.  We were up by 4:45 Sydney time, which is equivalent to 1:45 Perth time, so that we could catch our shuttle to the airport by 5:30.  Our flight left the airport in Sydney at 8:15 Sydney time, so our five hour flight landed us in Perth just after 10:00 local time.  What this all means is that when we landed in Perth (at 10:00), we had already been awake for over eight hours, with the entire rest of the day ahead of us.  Our shuttle to take us from the airport in Perth to school in Fremantle was late (which made me look bad because I booked it), but we eventually got here safe and sound.  The rest of the day was just unpacking (finally), getting to know our surroundings, and catching up with other Bennies and Johnnies. 

Day two at the P&O Hotel (our home for the semester) was pretty low key.  The first thing we had to be at was a talk from some of the administrative staff at 1:00.  Immediately afterwards, we went to the Student Administration Office to pay for our residential bond, community dinners, and student I.D. cards.  Basically, they just took all of our money.  The good news is that we get the residential bond money back at the end of the semester if our room is intact, so that's something to look forward to.

Day three was the scare tactic day.  Following an extremely brief morning tea, we sat through an academic meeting at which we were basically informed that school in Australia is going to be SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult than what we are used to, and that we should not expect to come in and do well.  I'm not sure yet if I believe them, I just think they want to get some of the slackers in gear.  After this lovely meeting, we got a free lunch at a place called "Sweet Lips", which is an amazing fish and chips place right on the local beach.  The two hours following lunch included a number of presentations, including one about maximizing your time, and three relatively unhelpful ones about our insurance coverage, law enforcement in Australia, and public transportation.  In the evening, all of the study abroad students got together for a welcome dinner, at which we were able to meet some people from Saint Mary's and the University of Portland.  It was a good time.

Thursday was the big day around here.  The call it O-Day (short for Orientation Day), and they take it EXTREMELY seriously.  We started the day with a socializing session at our respective schools (most of us went to the school of arts and sciences because we are taking a bunch of random classes).  This was followed by a couple of speakers, and a parade throughout the streets of Freo.  After the parade, we were essentially on our own (but we were expected to continue participating).  There were club booths and information desks everywhere you went, and it was a really good way to see what types of things are offered here at UNDA.  The noteworthy things we did after the parade included a guided library tour (I expect to be spending some time there this semester), and walking around town to find our respective classrooms so that we didn't look like lost puppies once classes actually started.  All in all, it was a good day.

Friday was (in my opinion) the most fun day of orientation week.  All the study abroad students participated in a knock-off of "The Amazing Race" tv show.  In teams, we had a to find and take pictures of a number of things both in Freo, as well as Perth.  The idea of this game was to help us get more comfortable with both the public transportation in the area, as well as the area itself.  It definitely worked.  The only downfall was that we were in such a hurry to find things that we didn't have the chance to stop and appreciate some of the amazing things that Perth had to offer while we were there.  Needless to say, I'll definitely be going back on my own time very soon.

Saturday was a really fun day around here, and I am going to (as humbly as possible) accept some of the credit for it.  During our crazy scavenger hunt the day before, I had come across a local woman who told me about a place called Cottesloe Beach that was supposed to be a great place to hang out.  I told one or two people about it once the scavenger hunt was over, and before you know it, almost our entire 30 person group was planning on going there the next day.  So we caught the train to Cottesloe for the afternoon, and everyone seemed to have a great time.  Saturday evening, a bunch of us went to a place called "Little Creatures" for dinner, and had a really great time there as well.  Many of us tried kangaroo for the first time, and I personally thought it was very good (it tastes like our steak).

Sunday was a pretty low-key day again, as people were just trying to get prepared for classes to start.  I went out and found some cheap board shorts (which I had been searching for ever since I realized my only beachwear was my swimsuit).  I also found an affordable watch (because my phone is out of commission for the semester, and I was quickly realizing that it was my only mode of telling time).

That should just about catch us up to the present.  It's now the third day of classes, and nothing too exciting has happened so far.  Classes only meet twice a week around here, once for lecture and once for what they call "tutorials", which are basically smaller divisions of the class that are meant to stimulate some good discussion.  I can already tell it's going to be a little different trying to follow the professors thoughts and ideas, as they are obviously speaking mostly to students who have lived in Australia their whole life.  But isn't that what study abroad is all about, being different?

So for anyone who actually follows this blog regularly, I am VERY VERY sorry for taking so long between posts, it's been a crazy couple of weeks.  That being said, put your reading caps on, because I'm going to catch you all the way up on the past two weeks (plus a few days). 

After we dropped the JUCY van off at the airport, we spent one last night in Queenstown to round out our New Zealand experience.  We went to a place called Fergburger for dinner, and I got a "Double Ferg".  It was probably the biggest, best, messiest burger I've ever had the pleasure of consuming.  If you ever happen to find yourself in Queenstown, get one. 

A lot of the romanticism of Valentine's Day was lost because of the fact that we spent almost the entirety of it in airports.  Nonetheless, it was great to be able to be with Brenna; I know a lot of couples aren't so lucky.  We probably came the closest we have to being seriously injured or dying so far on the trip on our shuttle ride from the Sydney airport.  Our driver announced that he "just wanted to get home and have a beer", and then proceeded to turn a 45 minute drive to our hostel into a 20 minute one, almost crashing what seemed like hundreds of times in the process.  At any rate, we made it alive, and our Sydney adventures began.

The 15th was our "settle in and book things" day in Sydney.  We became acquainted with our new roommates, whose names were Chris, David and "German Guy" (we never quite got that one down).  We called and reserved our place on the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb for the next day, and Amanda, Kaylee and Christine signed up to do a little skydiving on that Friday.  After this was all taken care of, we got some directions to the nearest beach and went on our way.  It was about a half hour walk from our hostel, but it was absolutely worth it.  It was a small, clean beach with a great swimming area and not too many other people.  This was our first opportunity on the trip to actually swim in the ocean, and we found out pretty quickly that swimming with your mouth open in salt water isn't going to make our list of smart ideas anytime soon.  We also found out that swimwear in Sydney is more of a suggestion than a requirement.  I'll let your imagination do the rest.  In the evening we walked about half an hour in the other direction down to the harbor, and got the stereotypical Sydney experience.  We saw the Harbor Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, and the beautiful downtown skyline all at once.  It was about that time that it set in (for me anyway) that we were going to be climbing to the top of the bridge the next day.  Then I got nervous.

Thursday we headed back to the same beach in the morning (it was called "Red Leaf" by the way).  In the afternoon we returned to our hostel to get ready for our first big undertaking, climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  This was just as cool an experience as it sounds like.  Unfortunately, I can't promise any facebook pictures of this one, because we weren't allowed to bring our cameras, and they charged us for the pictures they took.  I did order one 5x7 and had it sent to my house, so if you're REALLY interested, stop on by and ask my family to see it.  If you're a part of my family, you should be getting it soon (I hope).  If you're not sure what I'm talking about when I say the Sydney Harbor Bridge, pull up a picture of it on google or something, then imagine climbing to the top of the arch.  Yep, it was amazing.  For dinner after our bridge climbing adventure, we used the pocketpals the hostel had given us to go to McDonald's and get a Big Mac, small drink, small fries and a hot fudge sundae for $5!  What a deal, huh??

On Friday Brenna and I needed something to do while the other three went and jumped out of a plane (apparently that's fun for some people).  I was in the middle of a great book, and she wanted to journal, so we decided on a trip to the park.  It was here we discovered just how fun people watching in a place like Sydney can be.  And if that's not your cup of tea, there are plenty of unusual birds to feast your eyes on.  We got back and found the rest of our group alive (thankfully), and we all decided we should go out and celebrate their accomplishment.  We got dressed up and walked down to the harbor again to see what we could find.  We ended up coming across this restaurant with drinks and great pies, and we split a few different slices.  In our excitement while ordering, we made a poor decision.  The waitress offered us still water, sparkling water, or tap water with our meal, without addressing the fact that they weren't all free.  Being the dumb Americans we are, we assumed they were, and ordered still water for the table.  We should have known when it came in a classy looking green bottle that we were in trouble.  Long story short, we ended up getting charged $12 for a bottle of water that wasn't even enough to satisfy all of us.  Lesson learned.  Still water = bad.

We had been hearing during our time in Sydney that Manly Beach was the place to go, so on Saturday we decided to do it.  We had to splurge and pay $14 each for a round trip ferry ride to get there, but in the end I think we all agreed it was worth it.  I figured Manly Beach would be, as its name suggests, just a beach.  Turns out I was very wrong.  The area had tons and tons of shops and restaurants IN ADDITION to a massive beach that just HAPPENED to be hosting the 2012 Australian Open of Surfing while we were there.  For lunch we grabbed some meat and cheese pies (which are much better than they sound), and eventually met up with some other people from St. Ben's and St. John's.  All around, it was a very eventful, very enjoyable day.

On Sunday we realized we had been in Sydney for 5 days and only seen a few select places, so we decided to do some exploring.  We saw the Royal Botanic Gardens, which had some extremely cool plant life that we would never have seen at home.  Otherwise, nothing terribly noteworthy happened during this little adventure, but it was probably one of my favorite things we've done so far.  It was really interesting getting to see some of the less tourist-driven areas of the city, and get a better idea of what life in Sydney might be like.  Sunday night we were planning to go across the harbor to a place called Luna Park, but just before we were going to get on the ferry, it started to rain.  We decided it wasn't worth it, and caught the train back to our hostel (which was an experience all its own).  We called it a night pretty early on Sunday, as we had to be on a shuttle to the airport by 5:30 the next morning. 

It turns out I made it less than halfway through getting everyone up to speed on the goings on here in Australia, but I have to hustle to class right now.  With any luck at all, I'll be able to pick this back up with another post right after class so there's less waiting around involved this time.  Wish me luck!

Now that the journey in the Jucy van is over and we have access to the internet again, I’ve got plenty to tell you guys and gals about.  For clarity’s sake, I’ve decided to just take this day-by-day, so here goes!

On Tuesday we picked up our Jucy van from the airport, and being the confident drivers we are, decided to get the full insurance coverage for $25 a day.  We knew it was going to be an interesting six days when we got sympathetic looks from everyone we told that we there were five of us staying in the campervan.  The side of the van even reads “This condo campa is perfect for two, great for three, and a party for four!”  What does that make it for five?  Too small?  We were about to find out.  Once we were all packed up in the van, we left Queenstown and headed for a town called Te Anau.  It didn’t take us long after arriving to realize that there wasn’t much to do in Te Anau compared to Queenstown.  We did find a really cool beach that we hung out at for awhile, and the girls all got sunburned (despite numerous warnings from yours truly about their lack of sunscreen).  After the beach, we met up with our four new Australian friends that we met canyoning and got some dinner.  I ordered a steak burger, and it was delicious.  Complete with steak, fried onions, lettuce, beetroot relish and mayo, it was definitely a nice change from the usual.  After dinner, we all decided to go see a movie we had heard about from a number of different people when asking about what to do in Te Anau.  Basically it was a half hour of professionally recorded camera shots taken from a helicopter flying over Milford Sound and the surrounding area.  It was definitely a worthwhile experience.  Tuesday night things got a little dicey.  Tuesday night marked the first of many adventures involving where we could park our van overnight.  Apparently the Te Anau/Milford Sound area has a lot of campers come through, and in the interest of the towns not being overrun, they’ve developed strict rules against camping overnight for free (we’re talking instant $250 fine strict).  That being said, we were told at the visitor’s center that there were numerous campsites between Te Anau and Milford Sound that would allow us to park our van for $5 per night per person, the first of which was about 20 kilometers outside of town, so we headed that direction.  Problem was, it was getting dark and starting to rain pretty hard, and we had no idea what exactly we were looking for in terms of a campsite.  Long story short, we were pretty freaked out even after we found the campsite because it was tucked way back in the woods and we hadn’t seen another vehicle for quite awhile.  It ended up turning out great though, which leads me to Wednesday.

Turns out once it was light out, our campsite wasn’t sketchy at all.  It was in a great location, and we had our own personal beach!  Even with all the incredible things we’ve done and seen so far on this trip, it was the simple act of bathing in a lake surrounded by mountains in New Zealand that is right near the top of the list for me.  The girls don’t quite agree (something about the water being cold), but I found it quite refreshing and unique.  The big event on Wednesday was driving up to Milford Sound (for those who aren’t aware, a sound in this case is a portion of the ocean that projects into the land).  We were going to the sound to take a boat tour, but we had just as much fun driving there.  Up and down mountains, past other mountains and waterfalls, and directly through a mountain via a creepy, dimly lit tunnel, the drive to Milford was potentially the most interesting one I’ve ever been a part of myself.  AND I got to drive!  Nothing I can say would do the trip justice, and my pictures probably won’t either, but keep an eye on facebook if you’d like to see those.  Something really interesting we came across at Milford were Kias, the world’s only flightless parrots.  These little guys, like the rest of the birds we’ve encountered so far, were extremely friendly.  They tried to join us in the van on a number of occasions, but it was probably just because they wanted to eat our food.  After all this adventure, we finally made it to the actual sound for our boat tour.  The tour lasted just over two hours, and was a fantastic way to see every part of the sound all in one day.  The boat took us all the way out to where the sound became the ocean, and then circled back and brought us to the harbor again.  On the way, we got EXTREMELY close to one of the many large waterfalls that can be found on the walls of the sound (and I mean close as in the front of the boat was under the water).  In addition to the boat tour itself, we found the best deal we’ve found on anything so far on our trip.  Ours was the last tour of the day, so they were attempting to get rid of the food they were selling on the boat.  Let’s just say we got delicious soup and sandwich combos that normally would have cost us $9 for a measly $2.  Pretty sweet.  After our tour, we headed back towards Te Anau, making a couple more scenic stops along the way.  One of these stops was prompted by a sign advertising something called “The Chasm”.  Honestly, how do you pass up something whose name literally means a giant hole??  Surprisingly, after all the hype, we were NOT disappointed.  I have pictures that I’ll put up on facebook, but it literally was a GIANT hole in the ground that has been formed by water rushing over rock for so long.  Eventually we made it back to our campsite (we liked it so much the first time we decided to come back), and concluded what we all agreed was one of our favorite days since getting to New Zealand.

Thursday was one of the more stressful days we’ve encountered so far on the trip.  We drove from Te Anau to Dunedin, which was fine until we actually arrived at our destination.  We found out very quickly that driving straight into the heart of a city the size of Dunedin without any sort of plan when you aren’t familiar with the area is NOT a good idea.  While seeing the part of Dunedin known as “The Octagon” was a unique and interesting experience, it would have been much more enjoyable on foot than in our big old Jucy van.  As a quick side note, we did find a Subway, and I concocted a new and amazing soft drink.  It’s a mixture of a pop known as L&P, Schweppe’s Raspberry, and Orange Fanta.  Fantastic stuff.  Finding a place to park the van at all was stressful enough, but we were also quickly informed that “freedom camping” (camping overnight for free) was not condoned by the Dunedin City Council.  Additionally, all the “recommended” campsites would have run us at least $20 per person per night.  In other words, we needed to find a place to camp for two nights that wouldn’t get us a big obnoxious fine, but we didn’t want to pay 20 bucks apiece.  This ended up being WAY more frustrating than any of us could have imagined.  After driving around for what seemed like hours, and probably spending just as much money on gas as we would have on most of the organized campsites, we settled on a gravel lot near the top of a hill on the outskirts of the city.  Sketchy?  Yes.  Just when it seemed as though Dunedin had absolutely nothing to offer to a group of young, inexperienced travelers such as ourselves, we discovered a small path leading into the woods from our otherwise disappointing gravel lot.  Guess where it led?  If you said the moon, you’re wrong…Give up?  It was the ocean!  Our seemingly worthless camping spot turned out to be just a hop/skip/jump away from one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen.  Funny how life surprises you sometimes.  We hung out at the beach for a while, and then a giant raincloud came and spoiled the fun (although it was cool to watch it roll in).  We set up camp, watched a movie (The Other Guys), and crossed our fingers in hopes that we wouldn’t get busted for freedom camping where we weren’t allowed. 

Friday morning we woke up to heavy engine sounds, and I personally was SURE we were getting towed.  Once I finally worked up the courage to look outside, I was pleased to find that it was just a city bus getting ready to make its morning rounds.  Once we were all ready for the day, we headed to the one thing that sounded interesting in Dunedin, the Otago Peninsula.  I had spoken prior to this trip with someone who lived in New Zealand for a year and a half, and she said that Allan’s Beach was a must-see while we were here, and fortunately it was a part of the Otago Peninsula.  We headed in that direction, and despite some less than fantastic weather, made our way out to the beach itself.  It was as good as advertised.  Not only was Allan’s Beach another incredibly beautiful place, it had more than just sand and water to look at.  It didn’t take us long after getting to the beach to come across our first pair of sea lions resting together on the beach.  As we continued walking, we realized this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.  Towards the end of the beach, we came across an injured sea lion resting on a rock.  He looked like he’d been attacked by some sort of shark, and has several long, deep gashes on his stomach.  We named him Frank and decided we would pray for him as a group.  We can only hope things worked out on his end.  One thing I had been told about Allan’s Beach that didn’t end up being true was that there were penguins there.  Since this was the main reason we all wanted to go there in the first place, we decided to continue up the peninsula to a place called Penguin Beach, in hopes of finding a few of the little guys.  This is where the disappointment started.  We drove for quite some time, up a number of steep inclines, just to be informed that the only way to access Penguin Beach was to take the $55, hour-long nature tour that included the beach as one of its stops.  Being on a budget, we all agreed that we could spend our money more wisely.  As long as we were now at the top of this mountain, however, we wanted to make the drive worth it by making use of the restaurant’s power outlets.  We hadn’t had access to any of these since picking up the van, and most of us were about to lose our ability to take pictures (which is the last thing you want on a trip like this).  We ordered shakes, and sat down to wait for our cameras to gain some life.  There was only one problem with this plan.  Once we got back in the van and started down the mountain again, two of us (myself included) realized that we hadn’t turned on the outlet that we had plugged our chargers into (an easily overlooked necessity in this part of the world).  In other words, our cameras were still on their last leg, and we had gained nothing from the long uphill trek.  As unfortunate as the lack of penguins and battery power had been, none of us were willing to let it ruin our day.  Once we were back into town, we decided to seek out another challenge we could conquer.  It came in the form of Baldwin Street, the “World’s Steepest Street”.  We had been told that if a person walked up and down this vertically imposing roadway, they would be rewarded with a certificate of achievement, which is exactly what we all needed after a disappointing afternoon.  We found the street (I have no doubt whatsoever that it IS in fact the steepest street in the world), and climbed up and back down, with a few pictures along the way.  Back at the bottom, we got our certificates and headed on our merry way.  We hadn’t spent much money on food so far on the trip, so we decided to end the day with a night out for dinner.  We found a cool little pizza place called Filadelfio’s, and Brenna and I split a chicken pizza with cranberry sauce.  It was amazing.  After dinner we all walked around the flower garden across the street from the restaurant, and we came across a very friendly one-footed duck.  He came right up to us and sat down, as if expecting some sort of help.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have anything to feed him, so instead we named him Jeff and decided to pray for him as well.  We had a fun night back at the same gravel lot campsite.  We made a music video and watch Despicable Me.  It was a good way to end our last day in Dunedin.

Saturday was relatively uneventful compared to the rest of the trip.  We woke up to another city bus, celebrated another night of not getting a ticket, and packed up to head north to Christchurch.  Most of the day was spent driving.  We thought we would be smarter about driving straight into town in Christchurch than we were in Dunedin, but it didn’t end up working out that way.  It turns out that “City Centre” around here literally means the center of the city, not a useful place to get information like its name implies.  At any rate, we basically drove into town, parked, and did some exploring.  We saw some areas that were still pretty beaten up from the earthquakes they’ve been having recently, and we came across a couple pretty cool beaches.  Ultimately, we found out that freedom camping was permitted in Christchurch, so we settled into a nice parking lot in the middle of a park and set up there for the night.  The girls decided they wanted to make a video of how “repulsive” we had all become from not having bathed in so long, so that ended up being our activity for the night.

Sunday was basically a continuation of Saturday in Christchurch.  We were going to walk one of the local trails that supposedly led to a cave, but it was closed due to potential falling rocks…we didn’t think this was a safe warning to ignore.  Instead, we headed back over to the beach and watched some surfers, in hopes that we might pick up some useful tricks for our time in Freo.  It didn’t really work.  We made lunch by the beach, and then a couple of us bought some ice cream for dessert.  I got the flavor “hokey pokey” just to try something different, and it ended up being really great.  In the afternoon we went downtown and walked around what’s known in Christchurch as “The Red Zone”.  Basically this is the area that took the hardest hit after the earthquakes, and has been deemed unsafe for civilians.  For this reason, it is entirely fenced off, and you aren’t able to get very close to any of the major damage.  Even the buildings in the surrounding area that aren’t part of this zone have signs on the door indicating that they’ve been inspected, and many of them are considered structurally unsafe and have been shut down.  Seeing this area was one of the more sobering things we’ve done so far on the trip, but at the same time it was extremely interesting.  Don’t be sad though, it’s not all bad for Christchurch.  Due to the fact that so many businesses have had to shut down, there are all kinds of railroad cars around town that have been converted into makeshift shops, and it has formed some extremely interesting communities.  You also get the sense from walking around that the hard times in Christchurch have brought the city together, and forced them to rally around one another, which is really cool to see.  After seeing the earthquake damage, we stopped at a nearby candy shop and bought some mango licorice.  It was fantastic.  After we were done exploring, we drove out of Christchurch, stopped to grab a quick dinner, and ended up stopping in a little town with a population of 318 called Lake Tekapo.  This is where we spent our last night in the Jucy van, and basically wrapped up the second leg of our pre-travel adventure.  Now off to Australia!

I can now officially confirm that canyoning IS in fact one of the coolest things ever invented.  Basically, they put you in a wet suit and a life jacket and run/swim/jump/zip-line you around the New Zealand wilderness.  That may sound too awesome to be true, but it’s not, that’s EXACTLY how it went.  They cut us a deal on the CD of pictures and videos from the trip, so I’ll put those up on facebook as soon as I get the chance…I really don’t think I’ll be able to explain it any other way.  On our canyoning trip we met some cool guys from Australia, and ended up hanging out with them later that night.  It’s really interesting to make decent conversation with people our age who are from this part of the world.  They are really cool people, but they see the world in a completely different light, which is really interesting to hear about. 

After something as rigorous as canyoning, we figured we would tone it down and go with a little less strenuous activity the next day.  So we climbed a mountain.  Again, I know I may sound dramatic, but it actually happened.  The mountain we climbed had the option of a gondola ride to the top available, but we decided to be go-getters and hike it up instead.  I’m glad we did, it was a really great experience in my opinion.  At the top of this mountain, they had a “luge” course that a few of us took advantage of, and some pretty incredible views of the city of Queenstown.  It was a gratifying end to an extremely difficult hike.  Later that day, Brenna and I had our first example of why remembering what they told you at the pre-departure meetings can come in handy.  While out to eat at a local restaurant called "Devil Burger" (which was extremely good apart from this incident), we both ordered milkshakes with our meals, forgetting the warning we had been given about this very thing just months before.  Turns out in this part of the world, a milkshake is exactly that--shaken milk.  Long story short, we each paid $4.50 for something you can get in America for about a buck.  It makes for a good story though, so all is not lost.

As great as everything has been so far in Queenstown, this morning was the most surreal experience for me personally.  We went on a guided kayak tour that turned out to be THROUGH a former Lord of the Rings movie set, and was led by a guy who was actually IN one of the movies!  His name was Sam (no, not Frodo's buddy), and he epitomized the laid-back New Zealand personality that I've come to love since we've been here.  Disclaimer:  What I'm about to tell you about the trip would probably not be approved of by my parents, so they can feel free to stop reading now if they so choose.  Anyway, Sam picked us up in a van and drove us about 45 minutes out of Queenstown, to where he had our kayaks waiting.  We then kayaked out to an island in the middle of the lake, and settled in on the beach to have a snack that he provided.  Turns out it's ok to take van rides and food from strangers once you're an adult, everything works out great!  After we got back from our kayaking, Same drove us partway back to town and then stopped to show us a waterfall that was tucked away in the woods that nobody knows about (except him, obviously).  It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.  All I could think afterwards was: "We just got a private tour of a secret waterfall from a guy who was in Lord of the Rings!"...pretty crazy.

That brings us up to the present.  I'm sure I've missed plenty, but if I took the time to pick everything apart on here, I wouldn't have the time to go out and experience more stuff to write about!  I'll be putting pictures/videos on facebook as soon as I can "potentially tomorrow), and if you have questions about any of those, feel free to shoot them my way.  For the time being, I should inform everyone that we've come up with a name for our glass-floored airline!  The sales pitch now goes as follows:  "Sunshine Air, where EVERY seat is a window seat."  It's a winner, and I refuse to let anyone tell me otherwise.  Hopefully we'll be able to sell the idea to someone when we get back, because I for one will be flat broke.  That's all for now!  Cheers, Mates!

It happened.  After much anticipation, it FINALLY started to sink in tonight that we are actually in New Zealand.  It took some bagpipes, a guy on a unicycle juggling fire, and an incredible view of the mountains from the beach, but it's finally starting to hit me.  My internet use is going to be limited (apparently they're pretty protective of their wifi around here), so I'll summarize the plans for the next few days as adequately as possible.  Tomorrow we are doing something called "canyoning", which looks like it has the potential to be the single coolest thing that has ever been invented.  Basically, it looks like a combination of extreme hiking, zip-lining, and river rafting without a raft.  To say I'm excited would be a gross understatement.  On Saturday, we have plans to hike to the top of a mountain that has a "street luge" track that we can ride down, while simultaneously getting what looks to be an unbelievable view of the city.  Sunday morning we are scheduled to go kayaking, which looks to be slightly less invigorating than canyoning, but every bit as fun.  Monday is our last full day here in Queenstown, and it's slightly more up in the air.  At this point I believe we are planning on potentially going mini golfing and walking around part of the lake, but anything could happen in this town!  For example, today we made good use of our unlimited weekly bus passes and rode around town like the tourists we are, taking in everything we possibly could in the process.  In terms of pictures, I had planned on having more to see on this blog, but the internet we've actually been able to connect to hasn't been terribly excited about the idea of me trying to upload any pictures, and there's a good chance I'll only have internet one out of the next ten days, so just keep an eye on facebook and I'll get those up as soon as I can.  That's all for now, I'm tired and don't want to put anyone to sleep by rambling on about nothing.  CLOSING QUOTE!

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.  An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered." ~Gilbert K. Chesterton

Well, we made it.  We arrived in Queenstown about 1:30 this afternoon (New Zealand time), got our luggage, bought bus passes, and FINALLY got to our hostel.  I hear the best way to avoid jetlag is to stay awake until bedtime for the locals comes around, so it’s a good thing we all got some decent sleep on the long leg of our flight.  Once we all got settled in and showered, we decided the next order of business should be finding some free internet, as our hostel doesn’t provide this particular service.  We weren’t successful.  Here we are, five college students on the other side of the world, just wanting to (at the very least) let our families know that we made it here alive, and the only free internet we can find is a half an hour’s worth that comes with a purchase at McDonalds!  This isn’t even a good deal, by the way, because everything is so much more expensive at McDonald’s here…$5.10 for a McChicken??  Try again.  We very well may end up biting the bullet and paying the $3 a day that the Starbucks down the street requires for the use of their internet, just so we can make sure everyone knows we still exist. 

Other than the internet thing, our hostel is actually really nice.  It’s in a great location, not more than two blocks from the water, and our room has a balcony with a great view!  On top of that, we ended up getting the one and only five person room in the entire place, so we don’t have to share a room with a random stranger.  There’s also a sauna, a big common area with nice leather couches, a pool table and a kitchen, AND the best part of all…*drum roll* FREE BREAKFAST AND DINNER!!!  I think this place will end up being a really enjoyable spot for the next 5 days, everyone seems really friendly, and most of the people staying here seem to be about our age.

Queenstown itself is an incredible place.  Apparently it’s known as “the adrenaline capital of the world”.  We’re already planning out our activities for the rest of the week, and among our options are skydiving, kayaking, “canyoning” (which appears to be a combination of white water rafting and running through the woods), or this crazy looking cable car ride to the top of a mountain:

I’m sure whatever we end up doing in Queenstown will be great; this really seems like a special place.  We also found out tonight that my outlet adaptor works here!  Settling in one step at a time…

It’s true!  We just landed in Aukland, New Zealand, and I’m here to put all the confusion to rest…the toilets really DO flush the opposite way on this side of the world!  Now that that’s settled, it’s time to let the fact that we’re really on the other end of the planet sink in (which I’m pretty sure it hasn’t).  I’m just worried about getting to the south island where we’ll be spending the next two weeks.  It would certainly appear as though all the major hurtles are out of the way (aka the three and a half hour flight to Los Angeles and the thirteen hour flight here to Aukland), but I don’t want to jinx anything *knocks on wood*.   From here we are just one hour and fifty minutes away from our final destination, and some much anticipated rest and showers.  

We got overseas on one of these bad boys:

It was awesome to say the least.  It was by far the biggest plane I’ve ever been on, and certainly the first one with built-in personal TV’s.  These TV’s, by the way, allowed you to watch movies and shows, play games, listen to radio stations or CD’s, AND had a built-in “flight tracker” function that allowed us to see where we were at all times throughout our journey.  They also gave us a blanket, pillow, two meals, and a bag of snacks!  Maybe this is all normal, but I haven’t flown much, so for me it’s quite the adventure.  We crossed the International Dateline on this flight, which ultimately resulted in the loss of a day.  We took off form L.A. on Monday, January 30, and landed in Aukland on Wednesday, February 1.  That’s right, on Tuesday, January 31, Brenna, Amanda, Christine, Kaylee and Joe did not exist, along with the rest of the passengers aboard flight QF 26.  Anyway, it’s time to go, off to Queenstown!

Due to the fact that airports don’t have free internet (which I think is ridiculous), my next couple posts will all show up on this blog all at once.  You’ll have to take my word for the fact that the events depicted really were spaced out, and didn’t all happen at once (as cool as that would be).

We’re at the airport in Los Angeles (which is enormous beyond all reason) and I’ve never seen so many huge planes in my life.  The international airport, by the way, is far more interesting than the domestic one (in my humble opinion).  There are so many different countries with planes here, and they ‘re all kind enough to roll past the window we’re sitting by so we can get a good look at them.  Singapore Airlines, Air Switzerland, Air Philippines, China Air, Qantas (our ride to New Zealand/Australia), and a plane that says Lufthansa on the side…where the heck is that one going?  In other news, airport food is OBSCENELY expensive.  I just got a Whopper and a medium drink from Burger King and it cost me $7.37…didn’t see that coming.  We also flew in on a Boeing 737…coincidence?  I think not.  We found a currency converting station a lot quicker than I personally expected, so that was nice.  In fact, we were a little too efficient at re-checking our bags and running our other errands, because now we have a solid 4 hours to sit and do nothing but wait.  No worries though, we’ve got plans to watch a movie and possibly explore, so we’ll get through it together.  It ‘ll be good practice for the 13+ hour flight to Aukland, New Zealand that follows this wonderful layover.

All of this interaction with planes has got my marketing mind going a little bit (you’ll soon understand why I have no future in this area).  Here’s my idea:  Planes with see-through floors!  And that’s not even the best part, that distinction is reserved for the slogan that comes along with these transparent beauties.  Here goes:  “__________________ Airlines, where EVERY seat is a window seat.”  Get someone you know who has a nice low commercial voice to say that line to you and just try to tell me it wouldn’t be a successful franchise.  Would I get on one of them?  Absolutely not, I’m terrified of heights.  Doesn’t mean other people wouldn’t.  I can’t help but feel as though it would make flights (especially the long ones) just a little more interesting.  I’m open to any suggestions for names, as it might be hard to pitch this idea to people in the airline business without one.

I haven’t flown anywhere in a long time, but it was my understanding that pilots are supposed to be reassuring when they speak to the passengers.  Evidently our pilot from Minneapolis to L.A. didn’t get that memo.  As we were passing over the Rockies, we hit some pretty bad turbulence.  About halfway through it all, we were oh so pleasantly greeted with the following message from the pilot: “I’m sure you’re all wondering about the bumping around we’ve been experiencing these past few minutes…so are we.”  Nothing inspires confidence like a pilot that has no explanation for his plane rocking around like he just flew through a flock of pterodactyls.  At any rate, we made it here alive, and soon enough we’ll be on one of these skyscrapers on wheels they call planes here at L.A. International.  New Zealand or bust!