Hello faithful readers. I'm back after taking a week break from updating. Although I can't say I've got any more to say because of it. The pics in this entry are from the (I think) third week of our trip where we went canyoning a little bit outside of Auckland. Now for those of you who don't really know what canyoning is (as I didn't before I went) it's basically putting a wetsuit and a helmet on and jumping off of cliffs, repelling down waterfalls, and sliding down fast moving streams. Also, on a side note, wet suits have got to be some of the most uncomfortable apparel every invented (and this is coming from a person who wear awkwardly tight shirts and jeans). They make me feel like I'm trapped in a tight sponge that smells of mildew and sweat (yeah, they're that good).
Anyway, canyoning was a lot of fun. It was pretty grey and rained the whole time we were out, but it doesn't really matter when you're in a wetsuit jumping into and wading through water the whole time your out. Our guide was named Neil and I'm pretty sure he was crazy. The five of us would spend about 40 minute total repelling down a waterfall and he would just proceed to jump off of it like it was not a big deal at all. However, I've found that I oftentimes think most kiwis are crazy in one way or another, so I guess he's pretty standard considering his country of residence.
I must admit that I'm not the most comfortable person when it comes to heights. Now jumping off of a miniature cliff into a pool of water is not that big of a deal to me, but repelling down a large waterfall was a bit anxiety producing to me. To all of you who love to go climbing and are used to repelling and belaying and all of that then I commend you, but I don't think it's for me. After repelling down one waterfall I was pretty sure I could manage okay (even though I was far from comfortable with it). However, the next (and last) waterfall we were supposed to repel down proved a bit trickier for me. I don't find it particular natural to lean all my weight back when the only thing holding me from falling down a large drop is a rope and some metal. So the last waterfall we went two at a time (on different ropes but next to each other). I was doing alright to begin with but about halfway down the waterfall I managed to lose my footing, because you know rocks covered in moss get kind of slippery when it's raining and there's water running over them. So I lost my footing and kind of crashed body first into the rocks. That would've been fine in and of itself, but knowing me I have to outdo myself and I proceeded to unsuccessful get back into a position that was comfortable to repel down in and about every three steps would do the exact same thing, slip and crash in the rocks (I guess that's one reason why they make wetsuits padded). It helps further when you're trying to avoid crashing into a friend repelling next to you all the while two of your friends are at the bottom laughing at you, not so much elegantly repel down the waterfall as stumble your way down holding onto a rope every time you lose footing and slam into a rock wall. Anyway that's pretty much all I have to say about the canyoning experience. Aside from a few scrapes and bruises it actually was really fun and I would recommend it if you ever get a chance.
Aside from recollecting a little bit about a portion of our road trip I don't have a whole lot to update you all on, unfortunately. I have a presentation and paper due at the end of this week. A final next week, a take home test the week after that, then a week to study and my last two finals. Then I have six days off until I'm on a plane back home. I really feel like I'm in a wind down mode right now. I don't have a frantic desire to go out and have a last hurrah and see more of the country or go out and live it up every night. I'm really more in the mood to just relax the last few weeks, get work done and finish up this semester. I've been feeling a little spacey and removed lately, but I'm not entirely sure why that is, maybe a lack of sufficient sleep or a lot of work building up to the last few weeks, or maybe some combination of those two things. I'm looking forward to getting home, but I don't think I'm giving enough consideration to the amount I'll miss the people and things I've seen here. I guess that'll come more after I've left and returned home.
Also I think part of me is a little scared about going home. I know it'll only have been five months away, but I feel like a lot has changed in five months. Plus in about 10 more they'll be even more change when friends start graduating and moving to different parts of the country, getting on with their lives and whatnot. I think a part of me always wants to stay in the present even if it's not entirely where I want to be, just because at least the passing of time is one less thing to worry about. I was walking outside yesterday and it kind of hit that I've grown up quite a bit while I've been over here (and no that's not in reference to my awesome manly beard, although it should be), but I think oftentimes the mentality I just mentioned gets me too caught up in trying to stay in one place and not realizing where's I've been or how far I've drifted from where I started. I guess it's normal to worry a bit about how other people have changed if I think I've changed over the past few months, but only time will tell if that's valid or not. Alright well I feel like I've gone off rambling a bit to compensate for me not having much to write for this entry so I'm going to call it quits here. Hopefully I'll come back next week with a bit more of a spark.
The pictures in this entry are from a place we went to on the northern tip of the south island called Cape Farewell. We learned about it after getting hopeless lost in the Abel Tasman national park and had to stop in at a random spall bar/restaurant to get oriented. We met an American women named Jane who, a few years past, had moved to New Zealand and told us about a few of the prettier sights around the area. It's a bit off the beaten track and we arrived there right at sunset. It was an absolutely gorgeous place with cliffs, beaches, huge caves, and sweeping fields. It was probably one of my favorite places that we saw on our whole three week road trip. I don't have a whole lot to say about it, I feel it's easier to let the pictures speak for themselves here. It was really a breathtaking place to wander around and explore.
Aside from that I suppose I'll give an update at where my head is at this point of the study abroad experience. Being homesick has started to set in, somewhat significantly. Maybe this is because I know I'm done with the majority (if not all) of my traveling around NZ, or because I have to do papers and study for tests for most of my remaining time here, or maybe because it's starting to feel like winter here while it's summer back home, or maybe it's all (or none) of these things. What I think really is resonating with me right now is how quick life passes by. It's an odd mental twist because you would think that the aforementioned mentality would make me cherish my last few weeks here and value every limited minute I have left on this country, but it's surprisingly somewhat the opposite. I find myself thinking more and more about how most of my friends are now home in NH (or will soon be) and that this is the last summer where most of my classmates will be home for a significant period of time.
It struck me while sitting in my room for most of the day while it was grey, cold, and raining/sleeting outside that you can immerse yourself as much as possible in a foreign environment and fall in love as much as you want, but that it's still just that: a foreign environment. I know it's probably trite to say home is where the hear is, but that sentiment has really been resonating with me. I find myself wishing I could just be at home hanging with friends and family lately maybe it's just a temporary thing in the next week I'll be wanting to stay here, but it doesn't quite feel temporary in that manner. There's only so much time that we have on this earth and it's ultimately up to us to decide how we spend it, and I truly feel that, while scenic beauty and a foreign environment can cause feelings of awe and amazement, that those are ultimately a distant second to the awe and amazement you feel from just the most ordinary personal experiences you have via the relationships with the people you love. I do enjoy the company of the people I've met here and have made lots of good friends, but so much of the culture here is around going out and drinking and partying that it seems somewhat watered down.
I keep coming back to this line from a song by the format: "you know the night life is just not for me, cause all you really need are a few good friends". I guess my mind works lyrically and musically and I could probably cite a lyric or song for any mood that I'm going through, but that's really what has resonated with me over the past few days, just a single line from one song. It's odd that you find the deepest truths in the simplest of phrases so often. Something written does have to be profoundly complex or packed with SAT vocabulary words to insight the simplest and most powerful emotions in us as humans. Sorry that was a bit of a digression, but it all comes back to having really realized what's so important about life and our short existence in a massive world. A person can be inspired by any number of things (music, sport, dance, etc.) and most times you can transport your passion wherever you go in life, but you can't transport that feeling of home. That sense of belonging that you only feel at certain places in life and maybe it's a temporary feeling and people can learn to call home wherever they want it, but right now, at this point in life, home means one, and only one, thing.
I'm not sure why I get quite nostalgic and homesick from time to time. It's weird that trivial things trigger a deep onset of emotions in me. Not in a sad or depressing way, but I guess in a happy way. I mean I wouldn't feel this way if I didn't have so much I care about back home, and it would be much more unsettling if I was never homesick and didn't miss anything back home, but that is obviously not the case so I guess I can rest assured. It just seems like while I do only have a finite amount of time left here, I also only have a finite amount of time left at home before adulthood comes crashing in hard (as if it hasn't already has). I'm at five year school so I may be a little behind everyone else, but the real world with graduate schools and jobs and families and all the glorious and terrifying aspects of truly accepting that you're an adult can take to you far reaches of the country if not the world. I can't help, but feel that I'm missing out on some things while I'm over here these past few weeks. Of course you could just as easily flip that statement and say if I was home I would be missing thing over here in NZ for the next few weeks. It's just not the same, I guess I'm just so much more invested in my life back home than I am here (quite understandably).
Oftentimes I find it's harder to get away from things over here. Yet another somewhat contradictory statement, after all, how is harder to get away from things when you're halfway around the world from everything? I guess since everyone is so adamant about making the most of their time in NZ that they're always looking to go places, meet up, hang out, go out, and so on and so forth. Meanwhile at the same time I feel like I should be doing all of those things so it's hard to find the mental determination to put off all of that and just spend some time alone. There are always people around our flat, or on campus, or anywhere really (I mean we're in a city after all). What's weird though is that I can always find solace in walking around in Boston at night with just my iPod and an empty mind, but I don't find that I can do that here. I think I just don't have the same comfort with this city as I do Boston, which is to be expected I've only been here for a few months (and will only be here for a few more). I guess I just miss being able to escape in that sense (if that really makes any sense, which it might not to some of you).
I feel that I should probably reiterate at this point that it's not like I'm disliking my time here and am counting down to my departure this entry is more of a venting of these feelings, because it's often just a whole lot easier for me to lay back and enjoy myself after this is all put to paper (or to screen I guess would be the correct way to phrase it for this blog). I'm still enjoying being here, it just doesn't have the same allure that it did in it's initial stages or that it did while driving across the country. This entry was a lot more profound and insightful in my head when I had it all jumbled in a mess up there, but I hope it wasn't a complete bore and you've at least made it to this last sentence. I keep saying that I'll update with some more brief entries with a few pictures and a description of places we traveled to (and maybe I will, who knows), but as of now you're going to have to get by with my weekly entries that are a bit too long (sorry people, I just like to make things difficult). Until next time I hope all is well with everyone reading this.
So I've completed my first week of academia after returning from three weeks of vacation. I must say that, while three weeks off is great for study abroad students who want to travel, it is an absolute crap system in terms of structuring a semester. I can take three plus weeks at the end of a semester (i.e. our winter break back home) because you've had closure to the term and all your finals and assignments are done, but when you do it halfway through a semester it's just enough time to really suck all the motivation to do work out of you. I pretty much just got into the swing of not doing anything work related for the entire duration of the break, so this past week has been a little rough. Luckily, unlike some of my friends, I had no assignments due the returning week, but I've got some papers that I could use a head start on if I could've found the motivation this past weekend.
I really wanted to get some work done this weekend, but as it turns out this blog entry is probably the most productive thing I've done in the past week. I've been both antsy and exhausted this past week, and I'm not quite sure that's a good combination when I should be awake and attentive in the classroom. Oh well, I'm sure everyone reading this feels terribly sorry for me that I got three weeks off in a foreign country to go galavanting about. I'm sure I'll come around in the coming week(s), after all I really have to since I actually have papers and assignments due relatively soon. I'll just take the past 7 days as a buffer period in which I have slowly re-immersed myself into the world of learning.
I've got to admit, even though I've got a little under two months left here I'm starting to get excited about getting back home. Not to jump the gun or anything, it'll just be great to see everyone during the summer I was contemplating staying here a couple of weeks after the semester ended, but I actually really want to be home for the last summer that kids in my class will be home. I mean after this we've all got to face the terrifying real world. I guess it's gotten a little weird knowing that everyone back at home is winding down their year and gearing up for summer break when it's autumn over here and I've got a few more months left of school. It's easy to convince yourself you're not missing out on things back home when you're going on a road trip all over the countryside of New Zealand, but it gets a little less convincing once you're sitting in a classroom while it's getting colder outside when it's summer back home.
Anyway, that's probably enough of me complaining about how hard I have it over here is tough ol' kiwi land. The pictures in this entry are from the sand dunes we went to on Cape Reinga on the norht island. This cape is home to the 90 mile beach (which in actuality is only about 60 miles, go figure) which oftentimes people drive along. We, being the wise college students that we are, also decided to go driving on the beach. Unfortunately it's tough to complete the whole stretch when you're two wheel drive rental car is riding quite low to the ground due to 5 passengers and a trunk load of luggage and you have no real idea of what the tide is doing or whether it's coming in or going out. The drive was an adventure to say the least and after gunning it through a somewhat large stream of tidal water we reached a rocky slow that we could not pass over (not for lack of trying mind you). In the end we turned around and retraced our steps back to the starting point of the beach (we didn't quite make it to any of the four or five other entry/exit points). I'm sure the rental car company would be delighted to hear we gave their vehicle and nice coating of sand and saltwater, because everyone knows those two things go really well with automobile paint jobs.
Back to the dunes, we spent a good chunk of the day exploring and running around the sand dunes. It may not be that amazing to those who's seen sand dunes before (because I feel like if you've seen one dune you've probably seen them all), but being that this was my first dune experience it was one of my favorite places we went on the trip. They were renting out dune sledding boards in the parking lot, but my friends and I preferred to go with the cheaper method of hiking up the giant sand dune slopes and then sprinting as fast as we could all the way down. I will admit that I took a few epically great spills and proceeded to wake up the following days finding sand in pockets, ears, hair, shoes, and everywhere else that sand is near impossible to remove in full from. We also spent a lot of time jumping off the edges of the hills, which made for some of the more interesting photos you can see in this entry. It kind of felt like a natural playground for adults, which in all honesty there should be more of. At the same time though it was also a really surreal and serene place to just walk around. You venture off and feel like you're in a totally alien environment, which is kind of a terrifyingly liberating feeling. You feel like you could just walk into the horizon and get lost in this desert world (which is really in the middle of a very temperate and well forested region).
Anyway I'm sure the pictures speak relatively well for themselves and there's only so many ways I can describe a sand dune, so I'll just leave you all with that and give an update hopefully in a few days most likely on our canyoning experience. However, given my current work ethic it might be more than a few days before that entry actually surfaces.
Hello faithful readers. I'm back after taking a week break from updating. Although I can't say I've got any more to say because of it. The pics in this entry are from the (I think) third week of our trip where we went canyoning a little bit outside of Auckland. Now for those of you who don't really know what canyoning is (as I didn't before I went) it's basically putting a wetsuit and a helmet on and jumping off of cliffs, repelling down waterfalls, and sliding down fast moving streams. Also, on a side note, wet suits have got to be some of the most uncomfortable apparel every invented (and this is coming from a person who wear awkwardly tight shirts and jeans). They make me feel like I'm trapped in a tight sponge that smells of mildew and sweat (yeah, they're that good).
Anyway, canyoning was a lot of fun. It was pretty grey and rained the whole time we were out, but it doesn't really matter when you're in a wetsuit jumping into and wading through water the whole time your out. Our guide was named Neil and I'm pretty sure he was crazy. The five of us would spend about 40 minute total repelling down a waterfall and he would just proceed to jump off of it like it was not a big deal at all. However, I've found that I oftentimes think most kiwis are crazy in one way or another, so I guess he's pretty standard considering his country of residence.
I must admit that I'm not the most comfortable person when it comes to heights. Now jumping off of a miniature cliff into a pool of water is not that big of a deal to me, but repelling down a large waterfall was a bit anxiety producing to me. To all of you who love to go climbing and are used to repelling and belaying and all of that then I commend you, but I don't think it's for me. After repelling down one waterfall I was pretty sure I could manage okay (even though I was far from comfortable with it). However, the next (and last) waterfall we were supposed to repel down proved a bit trickier for me. I don't find it particular natural to lean all my weight back when the only thing holding me from falling down a large drop is a rope and some metal. So the last waterfall we went two at a time (on different ropes but next to each other). I was doing alright to begin with but about halfway down the waterfall I managed to lose my footing, because you know rocks covered in moss get kind of slippery when it's raining and there's water running over them. So I lost my footing and kind of crashed body first into the rocks. That would've been fine in and of itself, but knowing me I have to outdo myself and I proceeded to unsuccessful get back into a position that was comfortable to repel down in and about every three steps would do the exact same thing, slip and crash in the rocks (I guess that's one reason why they make wetsuits padded). It helps further when you're trying to avoid crashing into a friend repelling next to you all the while two of your friends are at the bottom laughing at you, not so much elegantly repel down the waterfall as stumble your way down holding onto a rope every time you lose footing and slam into a rock wall. Anyway that's pretty much all I have to say about the canyoning experience. Aside from a few scrapes and bruises it actually was really fun and I would recommend it if you ever get a chance.
Aside from recollecting a little bit about a portion of our road trip I don't have a whole lot to update you all on, unfortunately. I have a presentation and paper due at the end of this week. A final next week, a take home test the week after that, then a week to study and my last two finals. Then I have six days off until I'm on a plane back home. I really feel like I'm in a wind down mode right now. I don't have a frantic desire to go out and have a last hurrah and see more of the country or go out and live it up every night. I'm really more in the mood to just relax the last few weeks, get work done and finish up this semester. I've been feeling a little spacey and removed lately, but I'm not entirely sure why that is, maybe a lack of sufficient sleep or a lot of work building up to the last few weeks, or maybe some combination of those two things. I'm looking forward to getting home, but I don't think I'm giving enough consideration to the amount I'll miss the people and things I've seen here. I guess that'll come more after I've left and returned home.
Also I think part of me is a little scared about going home. I know it'll only have been five months away, but I feel like a lot has changed in five months. Plus in about 10 more they'll be even more change when friends start graduating and moving to different parts of the country, getting on with their lives and whatnot. I think a part of me always wants to stay in the present even if it's not entirely where I want to be, just because at least the passing of time is one less thing to worry about. I was walking outside yesterday and it kind of hit that I've grown up quite a bit while I've been over here (and no that's not in reference to my awesome manly beard, although it should be), but I think oftentimes the mentality I just mentioned gets me too caught up in trying to stay in one place and not realizing where's I've been or how far I've drifted from where I started. I guess it's normal to worry a bit about how other people have changed if I think I've changed over the past few months, but only time will tell if that's valid or not. Alright well I feel like I've gone off rambling a bit to compensate for me not having much to write for this entry so I'm going to call it quits here. Hopefully I'll come back next week with a bit more of a spark.
