Mid Semester Break Travels

Well kids, I'm saying goodbye to Auckland for 2 weeks and hello to Sydney, Australia and the South island of New Zealand! Mariel and I will be flying out in the morning-the 30th to Australia and spending the week there staying with one of her friends from high school who lives there ( yay for free housing!) It's supposed to rain a few of the days we are there, but we're praying for nice weather:) It's abnormally warm there right now for this time of year so we're hoping to soak up some sun!

On Friday the 4th of September we will fly into Christchurch, which is in the South island of NZ where we will meet up with 5 of our other girl friends! We are all meeting there and have booked the same backpackers to stay in for the night. Then early the next morning we'll be picked up by STRAY bus, and we'll spend the next week or so touring the South island.

I will detail more of the trip, of course when I return to Auckland on the 12th of September! Please pray for us and for our travels, we have been so blessed to be able to be here and to travel around to many places. I'm just so excited!

oh, and here's one picture from this week so I don't just bore you with my babble :)

Hike a Volcano........ Check!

Yes, today we took the ferry to Rangitoto and hiked to the summit! It's a small island that is a volcano that has not erupted in over 600 years, with a trail leading to the summit. It was about an hour hike, and the view at the top was gorgeous! We had a perfect view of the city and some of the other places that we have been already. Again, I'm just amazed at creation and can't believe I get to experience this! We had a beautiful day, although not very sunny. It didn't rain and it wasn't cold, so in my book it was fabulous! This trip was through Arcadia, so the ferry was paid for, and as always, it was great to see Kate again :)


This was also on our big list of things to do. My friends and I actually did sit down in the beginning of the semester to make a list of all the places we wanted to go and all the things we wanted to see! I'm sure we have way more things on our list than we have weekend time for, but we're going to try to do as many as we can for sure! Here's a few pictures from our hike up Rangitoto.









I guess I'm backtracking, but Saturday night we celebrated my birthday! (We went out for ice cream on my actual birthday) We got semi-dressed up and spent a night in the city! Since I have a new found love for Indian food we went to Pankawalla, a restaurant in the Viaduct! I got mango chicken, and we all shared an order of naan bread.





After that we went to Minus 5-- an ice bar. (It's a bar made completely out of ice, including the glasses.) This was really fun! It was about $20 USD which included one drink. They give you huge winter coats, booties, uggs, and thick mittens and send you into the bar area. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I did anyway without using a flash, so most turned out blurry. I believe the drink I had was called a "frisky penguin" :) It kind of tasted like a green jolly rancher. They let you stay in for about a half hour-- and I'm not sure we would have lasted much longer anyways! So, here's a few of the better pictures!






right to left back row-- Amanda, Meredith, Becca, Mariel, Sarah, front row--Katie, and Colleen

We went out kind of early so we were home by 9:30 :)Mariel and I stopped on our way home for some good old dunkin donuts coffee!! Meredith made a giant cookie and they all sang happy birthday! Then as we pigged out we watched Pride and Prejudice and called it a night! It was such a good way to end the week! I know I probably say this all the time but my friends here are really great and they made my birthday so much fun!




This week I have one paper due and a test! Then it will already be our mid semester break for 2 weeks!! Next week Sunday, Mariel and I are leaving to spend 6 days in Australia and following that we'll fly straight to the south island to meet up with the rest of our friends to take an 8 day bus tour! I'll write more about that next weekend! I also somehow got sick again. A few of my roommates were sick this week and I'm afraid they've passed it on to me... Pray that I feel better this week so that I can finish up my work ahead of time for break and that I'll be healthy for our upcoming trips!

Have a great week! I miss you all!

Bec

"Animal Weekend"

Another week has just FLOWN by and now it's less than 2 weeks until mid semester break! Signs of spring are here, the temperature is getting warmer and we had a weekend full of rain. I missed home for the first time this week. I missed family vacation, which I've always gone on, and two of my very good friends got married. I really wish I could have been there for both things! We did have a really great weekend, despite the rain!

Here's the weekly recap! I had my first test (in STATS) on Monday; it went well! Other than that, classes went on like normal--my eyes hurt from all the reading we are assigned! Two of my classes have required movies to watch, so that is fun homework to do! Wednesday we ventured to a new area of the city known as "K Road" because no one can really pronounce the real name of it! First we got waffles for "waffle Wednesday" Now, I love ice cream, but I can't eat it for breakfast--and these waffles were more ice cream than waffle :) I stuck to a cappuccino instead! (and it was free, because she made the wrong drink for my friend and offered it to me for free) We heard of an Asian supermarket that sold good produce for cheap so we stopped there for some fresh "fruit and veg" and made our way to Foodtown* for the rest of our groceries. We also spent 4 nights this past week watching The Lord Of The Rings series.. I've done this once before--watching them all in one week, and I swore I'd never do it ever again, but I gave in and watched them. A few of my friends had never seen them before, and when we go to visit the South Island over break we're going to see more areas where the movies were filmed, so we thought that everyone should watch them! We all stocked up on some junk food to keep us sane while watching all 10+ hours of the movies because, of course, we only had the "extended versions" to watch! I'm putting it in writing this time: NEVER AGAIN WILL I WATCH THEM ALL IN ONE WEEK.

Here's a few pictures from walking around the city this week!





We deemed this weekend "Animal Weekend" Saturday afternoon we went to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter Underwater World. We took a ride through the penguins habitat and rode a moving walkway underneath the big water tank to see all the creatures. I'm not much of an animal person, but it was pretty neat. The rest of the girls went to the zoo today (Sunday) but I passed. I've never been a fan of the zoo and it down poured the whole day! Here's a few pictures from Kelly Tarlton's.







Lastly, here's a picture of the building of S tPauls church. It's even more beautiful on the inside :)



I'm looking forward to my birthday this week Thursday--the big 22!! yikes! And it's kind of like I get two birthdays because I'm a whole day ahead of the States :)I'm planning on working hard these next few weeks to finish the assignments due just after our break ends so that I won't have to worry about them during break or even the weekend we get back!

92 more days here... I plan to make the most of them :)

Jumpin in the water....learning how to.. surf??

I seem to look forward to blogging every weekend after an awesome week! It's fun to think back and remember all the fabulous things we've done. I feel like each weekend I come back saying, "That was the most fun I've had my whole trip!" My time here just keeps getting better and better. It finally hit me this past weekend. I'M IN NEW ZEALAND. I can't tell you how many times I just sat quietly (I know, hard to believe) and just took in my surroundings. I'm just amazed each day that I'm here!

This week at school was a pretty typical week. I've been having trouble sleeping but hopefully the combination of some hot tea and my Disney lullaby CD (thanks, rach) I will help me to start sleeping better. I feel healthy and I'm not homesick so who knows!

This past weekend we had our "activity weekend" with our group from Arcadia University. Friday afternoon Kate came with a big van just outside of our building and picked us all up for our much anticipated weekend at the Waitomo Caves- to see the famous glow worms and Surfing on the West coast at Raglan (Tasman Sea). When we arrived in Waitomo(smallest "town" I think I've ever been in) we saw a documentary on glow worms at the information center and had a look around there for a while. Then we walked up the road to our "backpackers" where we stayed for the night. We were free the whole rest of the night so the group walked down to the only restaurant/bar in town to eat some dinner. We played some pool and had a fabulous meal! We were all exhausted and around 8pm we were all in our rooms ready to call it a night.

The next morning after breakfast of Milo(healthy hot chocolate made out of barley) and toast we headed our to The Legendary Blackwater Rafting Company for our "3 hour underground adventure where we worked our way through tight squeezes, took leaps of faith over cascading underground waterfalls and floated serenely down the river and enjoyed the glow worm show above our heads." That's not an exaggeration, it was AWESOME. Check out http://www.waitomo.com/cave-tubing.aspx -- if you want to see what we did. No cameras were allowed during the trip, however the guides did take pictures for us, so once I have those I will post them, but for now here are a few we took before.


us at dinner. not the best picture..it was a long day!




Mariel and I before we went caving. The wetsuits we put on were sopping wet and freezing. they included an overalls pants suit, thermal shirt, jacket, booties, boots and helmet with headlamp. We were basically frozen the whole time, but it was still an awesome experience. Not many people can say they've jumped backwards off a waterfall in an underground cave with an innertube attached to your butt..

Following our underground escursion we rinsed off in hot showers and they provided us with hot tomato soup and bagels to warm us up! The remainder of the afternoon was spent driving to Raglan where we checked into another "backpackers." We got there a bit before dinner time so we had a chance to walk around for a while.

**sidestory**
Mariel and I came to New Zealand wtih basically the same color coat, so everytime we're out people in our group always say, "just look for the green coats, or follow the green coats" On multiple occasions we've come across something green that matches our coats, and here is one of those occasions while walking around Raglan



We also took a walk over a bridge and along the shore for the sunset. It was beautiful, of course. Following that we had a homecooked pasta meal and we watched the movie Whale Rider. I would highly recommend watching it! It's about the Maori people! I also had a surprisingly good night's sleep on Saturday night. I think this is due to the bed slept in. This backpackers we stayed at was REALLY nice for a backpackers. We were able to stay in a two story house so I got to sleep in a queensize bed all by myself (and it was JUST like my bed at home) :)







Our day Sunday started early with our 9am surfing lesson! I never really thought I'd ever go surfing, but there's something about this place.. We got set up with our wetsuits, boards and instructors and soon we were off riding the waves! We stayed in waist deep water and took small waves, but it was still fun. Let's just say I'm not going to quit school and become a surfer, but I managed to stand a few times, and my wonderful friend Amanda, our photographer (b/c she has a knee injury) and she happened to capture a lot of good pictures.. here are a few of the group and a few of me as proof that i did it. :)














This was such a good weekend. My descriptions don't do it justice whatsoever! We arrived back to Auckland in time for the evening church service, too! We are still very much enjoying St. Pauls church. I would love to post more of my thoughts, but I'm exhausted and going to bed and hopefully sleep like a baby :)

Family, I love you and I miss you and even tho I'm in NZ I wish I could be enjoying beautful Silver Lake with you this week.....

Thank you for your thoughts and your prayers for me throughout my time here! I've really been blessed and can't wait for another week here in Auckland!

Waiheke Island

well.. It was another great week here in Auckland. The more I am here the more I love and appreciate the fact that I AM here right now. Have I really almost been here a month already??? The time sure is flying by, but I've enjoyed every second of it!! I switched one of my courses this week. I was having trouble understanding my professor(her accent and the way she spoke)So now I am taking WOMENS 101! I've only been to one lecture, but I've already caught up on reading the 2 novels the rest of the class read within the first two weeks!

Saturday, I took my first ever ferry ride to Waiheke Island. Hard to believe, but this was also my first time riding on the ocean too.. My friends here couldn't believe that this was only really the 3rd time I'd been near an ocean :) It was a pretty cold ride; we decided to sit on the top deck for the views! It took about 45 minutes and we were there. We had big plans to go sea kayaking! I haven't been kayaking in probably 8 years so I was pretty excited! Our excitement dropped when we approached the shed and no one was there... We did call and e-mail ahead of time, but no one returned either of our attempts to contact them. We found out that due to the weather, they were not always open. So, we improvised and found an i-site (visitors centers) After speaking with a woman there we had our plan and we caught Bus#2.

We bought an all day bust pass for 8 bucks so we could get on and off as we wished. We stopped at a "vintage market" It was more like a rummage sale, but it was pretty interesting! They had a mini farmers market, too. People enjoyed crepes and snow cones while we were there.

We got back on the bus in plans of finding some alpacas..which we never did find. We ended up passing up the farm on the bus but they weren't out (because of the weather). We got off the bus at the end of the route which was right by a bay. A woman was also getting off the bus and she could tell we weren't locals :) She asked what we were looking for, and told us a cool hike to take, so she walked us there herself on the way to her weekend home.

We took the short hike down to the beach where it was part of a regional park. We collected shells and saw some rare protected birds, just as it began to rain down on us. We found this little bathroom hut thing so we stood under it for a while because not everyone had an umbrella. We decided that we should probably just make our way back to the bus stop, not knowing if it was going to get worse or not. We had a map and decided to try to take the road instead of the trail we took down to the beach because it was all mud! We actually ended up on the trail that we started up on because the road was taking us too far out of the way. It was a bit slippery and we were a little dirty by the end but we made it back to the bus stop!

Everyone was wet, tired, and cold and thought we should just go back, but I thought we should try to go to the Olive Oil tasting that we thought sounded cool. So the bus driver let us off in front of the place and we took a little tour of the garage where the olive oil is processed. It was a little family owned business, but very cool. We got to taste some different kinds too :) It turned out to be a good stop! After that we made our way back to the ferry and took the next one back to Auckland. We sat underneath this time, but it was a lot more rocky and a few of us definitely felt a bit sea sick and ended up falling asleep because if our eyes were open we felt too sick. All in all it was a fun outing tho! We got out of the city for the day and got to see some beautiful landscape!!

Some other things we did this week:

Friday night, Mariel and I went to the Overseas Christian Fellowship meeting where I met some leaders who are actually from Wheaton, IL. (go figure) It was a good time, and the first time since we've been here that we were able to meet other Christian people (besides at church). We also went to the evening service at St. Pauls where we found out is the service that most of the younger people go to as well. It has definitely been a challenge to be surrounded by all different kinds of people with different beliefs and different faiths or people with none whatsoever. If you'd like to pray for something for me this would be it. The opportunities to witness here are basically endless. Sometimes its hard to know what to say or not to say. So pray that mariel and I will have the words to say and the actions to accompany our faith. 1Peter 3;15 says, " Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."

Thursday our whole group that came here through Arcadia got to meet with one of our directors for coffee to catch up and meet some women from the U.S. who work for different schools/organizations that help students study abroad. It was great to catch up with Kate and share our experiences with those women. Plus, I never say no to a free cup of coffee :) We also went out for sushi. I got the Japanese equivalent to chicken fingers which were delicious! We also shared a vegetarian Korean pancake which was also delicious!

This week is another busy week of classes. Friday we are leaving in the early afternoon for the Waitomo Caves and Raglan. We'll come back late Sunday evening. This is a planned activity weekend through Arcadia so we don't have to pay anything!

Here's a few pictures to highlight our trip and our week!