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[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY TWENTY-THREE: SAN FRANCISCO -> COLLEGE PARK

The final day in San Francisco was highly anticipated. I’m not one for homesickness but I’ve got to say, at that point, I was finished living out of a suitcase. Lauren, Theresa, and Chloe all left bright and early for their morning flights while I tried to get some more sleep. After checking out of the hotel, Sam and I went to lunch to kill time before our late afternoon flight. We got some great sushi and even got some free miso soup!

After an infuriatingly stagnant security line and a subpar brownie we boarded the plane to DC. Now, I hate domestic American flights. They’re just long enough to be tedious but short enough where they give you absolutely nothing to do. Luckily, Sam had Miracle and some trivia games to keep us entertained. This was especially good because sleeping on the flight would have completely thrown off my attempts to readjust without jetlag. Five hours in a plane and an hour in a car finally got us back to College Park. Classes start on Wednesday so let’s hope readjusting goes well.

Stay tuned,

E

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY TWENTY-TWO: WHEN WE SAW THE GOLDEN GATE FROM A DISTANCE BEFORE AND AFTER EATING OUR FACES OFF

Day two in San Francisco was quite the Californian experience. Well, I guess that’s sort of debatable but it’s definitely different. When you’re returning from another country it’s more prominent the things you hardly notice in everyday life. Because I’m adjusting here, I’m not only noticing the differences with New Zealand, but Maryland also. There’s no particular incident or example that comes to mind. Something is just different here.

This morning we had the complimentary breakfast at the hotel before checking out. We then took a shuttle back to the airport. What are they doing at the airport, you ask? Essentially, the only transportation we have and are willing to pay for is the public kind. So the closest train station and/or shuttle stop is the airport. Our travels this morning took us from the first hotel to the airport where we picked up the shuttle for our new hotel. After learning that our room was not ready we checked our bags, got back on the shuttle to the airport and got the train. It’s exciting, I know, but I figured you should hear about how we spent several hours of our morning (literally just transporting).

From the train we decided we would walk along the piers to the wharf. Instead, we walked six blocks in the wrong direction. So from there we took the shortest route which lead us through Chinatown and Little Italy. We had a delicious lunch at Acquolina which is a little Italian place. Lauren and Theresa got amazing looking pizzas while Chloe and I indulged in calzones. It was great but we had to save room because we knew an epic dessert was coming later in the day.

After lunch we trucked along to the wharf. Pier 39 ended up being our destination and the view was pretty awesome. There were some amazing sailboats and people watching. You can also see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. So basically, I didn’t do very many of the San Francisco site seeing or excursions but I did get to see them from a distance! There were also some sea lions which reminded me of going to see the seals on the spit out in Oregon. San Francisco actually reminds me a lot of the beach. Anyway, our trip to the wharf ended with my purchase of a shirt so I wouldn’t smell quite as bad on the plane tomorrow since I haven’t been able to do laundry in almost 2 weeks. Fun times.

We then took our highly anticipated walk to Ghirardelli Square. Now most of you may think, “Who cares? You can get Ghirardelli anywhere”. False. You may be able to purchase Ghirardelli a lot of places but those places are not the original chocolate shop that now serves the most scrumptious desserts EVER. Milkshakes, sundaes, and a million others, all infused with Ghirardelli chocolate. So yeah, tell me you can get Ghirardelli anywhere. I personally had a sundae that consisted of vanilla and cookies and cream ice cream, chocolate chip cookie, chocolate drizzle and whipped cream. I think I gained 10 pounds from it. Lauren was the only one to actually completely finish their dessert. I only had a bite or two left but those are just details. When we ate we were serenaded by a pretty jazzy clarinet player who made me quite happy when he whipped out “Over the Rainbow”.

Our next move was back to Chinatown for dinner. I know, I know, do we do anything other than eat? Well that answer is no because when you don’t have that much to do, the only thing to plan your days around are meals. So, on that note, was walked back down to Chinatown. On the way I got distracted by an art gallery with some amazing Dr. Seuss in the window. Turns out that they had some of his original sketches on display. I adore Dr. Seuss as he is one of the things I remember most vividly from my childhood, so seeing the drawings was incredible. There was some other really impressive art being displayed along with some more cute cartoons (these were Charlie Brown though). Unfortunately, I couldn’t take pictures to share with you.

Once we finally made it to Chinatown we quickly found a place to eat since we’re all still tired and done with walking constantly. I ordered a pork lo mien that was pretty good while Theresa order tofu and Chloe got potstickers. Once again, I failed to take a picture because by that point in the day my brain is dead. Despite my high standards created from spending almost a month in China, I still considered it a decent meal but I really appreciated the conversation. While I won’t bore you with details or overshare the discussion between friends, I have to say it’s nice to talk about topics that aren’t a general conversation. Sometimes the little things that no one wants to, or feels the need to, talk about casually becoming great conversations that lead to different thinking. I appreciate that about the people I’m with. It always seems to be an intelligent conversation.

We finally got back to the hotel and tried to check in. Turns out Comfort Inn is absurdly difficult. Reason One: You must be 21 to check in, regardless of who pays for the hotel or how long you’re staying. Reason 2: If your name is not exactly the same as the person who booked you cannot check in. Reason 3: You cannot change the name of the reservation online because Expedia sucks and tells you there is a change option BUT THERE ISN’T. Well, I guess that last one is was Expedia is difficult but I had to change through Expedia because Comfort Inn wouldn’t let me do it through them. We finally, got to our hotel room and our door was stuck shut. After throwing some shoulder into it, Theresa finally got us in. Thank God so we can all prep for another travel day tomorrow. Hopefully this one will actually get us home.

Stay tuned,

E

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY TWENTY-ONE: SAN FRAN EXPLORING

Yep, it’s the 23rd again. I know, it’s messed us up all day too. Anyways, for our 2nd January 23rd we wandered around San Francisco. I suppose I should mention that the collective “we”s and “are”s no longer include our entire study abroad. Basically, the Education Abroad department said the weather isn’t their problem so we’re all on our own to get ourselves home. Thus many of us have chosen different flights, hotels, and activities to do while we’re here. Theresa, Chloe, Lauren, Amber, and I are sticking together with Sam, Dan, and Sang. The girls had lunch at In-n-Out (so California, I know) while the boys had burgers at some other cute outdoor option in the city. After, the collective “we” went down to Haight Ashbury and explored a little bit. This was a bit harder to do than anticipated due to a combination of travel exhaustion and public transportation limitations.

The highlight of the afternoon for me was definitely going to Amoeba Music. Basically it’s this giant store with a gazillion records, CDs, DVDs, posters, and even VHSs. The music range is huge from BB King to Fleetwood Mac to Adele to the Grateful Dead. Essentially, it was heaven. I’m not exaggerating when I say I could’ve spent hours there. It’s just never ending stacks of incredible artists and albums and movies. Honestly, I may be even capable of living there.

When that time of our trip came to an end we wandered around a bit more before having dinner. I’ve found that I greatly admire houses these days. I personally blame my father for raising me with the knowledge of construction and rebuilding but no matter whose fault it is, I’m always examining houses now. It’d be one thing if I just thought, “Hey, that’s a really nice looking house” but no no no. Instead I ask questions like “I wonder what kind of permit process they have to go through to rebuild here”, “Do they have to maintain the framing or can they do a complete tear down” and “Why do those shutters look so bad?” So, thanks Bo, I’m asking the real hard hitting questions now while I admire the houses that should just remind me of Full House.

For dinner we found a nice little Japanese restaurant because some of us were craving sushi. I was one of those people and then forgot to order sushi. Even worse, I forgot to take a picture of my dinner even when it did come, sushi-less. I think this is the real indicator of my mental state. I forgot one of my favorite foods and to document the food I was eating. I’m sorry to disappoint all my foodie fans out there; I have failed. After dinner we were all pooped and headed back to the hotel. Now we have the heat cranked up because contrary to popular belief NOT EVERY PLACE IN CALIFORNIA IS WARM. Learn your geography people, we’re north where it’s 50 and 50 degrees is cold! Right about now I’m kind of wishing I had taken the “official advice of Air New Zealand” and remained in Auckland until I had a guaranteed flight to DC. At least there it’s still in the 80s. Oh well, I can’t fly back now.

Stay tuned,

E

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY TWENTY: BACK TO THE FUTURE

Time traveling is quite the experience. We left Wellington about 20 hours before landing in San Francisco. Here’s the cool part, we left Saturday at 1:45pm and arrived Saturday at 7:30am. Mind blowing right? Okay, I know it’s not that cool but sometimes I like to pretend I’m cooler that Marty McFly.

We took a short little hopper flight from Wellington to Auckland. Then we power walked to the international terminal to take our 13 hour flight to San Francisco. I powered through customs because I knew I still had to take care of my flight issues getting to DC. After watching my bag stay stuck at the top of the baggage claim for 10 minutes I finally was able to retrieve them and begin what seemed like the never ending process of finding a United agent to finally talk to me. The first place I could find only serves Premium members, so I was just too menial of a customer to be served there. I walked another few minutes, but they only accept baggage. I was then told that I had at least 6 more doors to go before I could find an agent to rebook me. So 15 minutes of walking and fuming later I finally got in line to see someone. To be fair, once someone would finally talk to me they were very helpful but damn was that difficult. Also trying to get me on a flight was difficult but then again the backups are unreal when you shut down at least 3 airports for over 24 hours. Ultimately, I will (hopefully) be flying out Monday afternoon. The silver lining of this means two days in San Fran! I guess the universe was just trying to let me check another place off the list before I go home.

Stay tuned,

E  

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

There is no lover sincerer than the love of food -George Bernard Shaw

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY NINETEEN: NETBALL, MEAT PIES, CANCELLED FLIGHTS, AND CRICKET

Our last day in Wellington was certainly full. Bright and early, well not that early, we traveled to ASB Sports Centre and got to speak with both a facilities representative and the general manager of Netball New Zealand. Now, I know most people have no idea what netball is. Imagine basketball without a backboard and no dribbling. You catch the ball, you have to stop moving and pass it off. It’s harder than it sounds. Anyways, netball is the most popular female sport in New Zealand. And sadly, yes, I do mean exclusively female. There has been more gender integration in recent years but the entire sport was created as a “female-appropriate” alternative to the all too masculine basketball. *Insert eye roll here*. Anyway, ASB and Netball NZ we’re super helpful in explaining how the organizations relate to each other in business decisions. Also, fun fact, a lot of the national teams of various sports train at ASB Sport Centre. Even cooler, NBA player, Steven Adams, grew up using the ASB Wellington facility and still comes back to do workshops with the kids there. They gave us a crash course on playing netball and touch rugby. It was good fun to get a chance to actually play the games.

We then took a lovely hour long walk (hike, at times) back home. On the way we picked up MEAT PIES! I am aware that this probably doesn’t sound like the most appealing thing, especially to all you vegetarians out there, but it was fantastic. I got steak, cheese and mushrooms. It was phenomenal. Dad, if you’re reading this, you would LOVE meat pies. It’s like they stuffed a cheesy, steak, mushroom roast into a pot pie biscuit. Pictures will come.

Then, SURPRISE, we all got the super exciting, thrilling news that our flights to Dulles, Jersey or New York have been CANCELLED! Yaaaaaaaaay. *Insert yet another eye roll*. So basically we all spent our time between netball and dinner trying to sort out flights and hotel rooms. Even during dinner, most people were in and out trying to get in contact with airlines, hotels, and family. It was harder to enjoy our Asian fusion dinner at Manson Poon with the looming thought of an indefinite stay in San Francisco. Luckily Lara pulled through and at least got me on standby. Granted its standby for Monday but it could definitely be worse.

After dinner we walked out to Westpac Stadium on the water for the Black Caps v. Pakistan game. Now, I walked into that venue with pretty minimal understanding of cricket. By the end I was actually fairly invested in the game. We actually picked a perfect match to watch. Not only did the Black Caps win but they won in wickets! So basically it was a T20 game, meaning a team’s turn to bat ended with either the completion of 20 overs or 10 wickets. Wickets are essentially like outs in baseball while overs are 6 pitches. The Black Caps ended their run in overs but the managed to end Pakistan’s chase in wickets, finishing the game before they could get all of their overs. I hate baseball but I found cricket greatly enjoyable. Maybe I’ll get to watch some cricket while I’m stuck in San Francisco.

Stay tuned,

E

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY EIGHTEEN: THE DAY WE DECIDED WE PROBABLY WEREN’T COMING HOME

Well our second to last day here in Wellington, and New Zealand, started with a solid debrief with the group. We got to talk about our final papers a bit, not that I feel any more prepared to write it but that’s probably my own fault. The students were also able to give some feedback on the program to make sure that the next trip is even better than this one. To be fair, most of the hiccups or let downs we had this trip were nobody’s fault, it was just accidents and things no one particularly thought of preparing for. The other problem with a winter study abroad is the constricted time frame. Pre-departure work has to happen in a tight window and there isn’t a lot of wiggle room for adjusting departure and leaving. The other problem with travelling to the southern hemisphere is that everyone here is not only on holiday following Christmas and New Year’s but also for the summer holidays. Because of this it’s hard to get in contact and set up meetings with people because they’re just not physically around.

Our big topic of debrief this morning though was the impending snow storm. About a week before leaving I thought to myself, “You know, it is January, what is the likelihood that we don’t have delays leaving or coming back.” I then dismissed this idea because how bad could it actually be? Well apparently 18 inches bad according to the conservative models. Basically the assumption as of now is that we’ll make it to San Francisco and then just have a little pause while DC gets its act together. Honestly, I’m not all that bothered by potentially being stuck. A) Its one less day in the snow, B) I’ve never been to San Francisco, and C) It would be nice to have a longer break from planes than 2 hours. Granted, as of now, I’m supposed to be in class Monday morning but you know what, class will still be there next time.

Once all the jitters were out in the open we moved on to our visit with New Zealand Rugby Union. After about a half an hour walk, we arrived in the business-like district of Wellington. As the capital city it makes sense that there were plenty of people running around in business attire but me, being sheltered and mildly ignorant, forgot that people still work and that it wasn’t a weekend. We first got a tour and a bit of background on the All Blacks and the other national rugby teams. NZRU encompasses all of the rugby play in New Zealand including all levels and genders. We then got to have a Q-and-A with Stu, a commercial lawyer with NZRU who is also filling in as Integrity Manager for the time being because the usual manager is out on maternity leave. (What a country that actually gives reasonable maternity leave time?!) He was super helpful in explaining NZRU’s role in New Zealand rugby at both the grassroots and high performance levels.

One of the things that I found most interesting about not only our discussion today with Stu, but also in our discussions with Sport NZ and Rick, was sideline behavior. I did not realize New Zealand was having such a problem with parents and spectators and their behavior towards coaches, players and officials. I know this has been an issue in the US also but I never thought it would be a problem in such a small, peaceful country. Apparently you would never recognize a kiwi for their peacefulness on the rugby pitch. Luckily, the NZRU and Sport NZ are both taking initiatives to combat the yelling with the “Applaud” campaign. Basically you are supposed to clap instead of yelling. On a sassier note, they also hand out lollipops to people who are being too loud so that they can’t talk. I really enjoy the lollipop the initiative haha. We also touched on gender topics particularly in leadership inequality along with corporate sponsorships at the team and individual level.

Tonight was taco night! Adam and Shannon were kind enough to cook for all 22 of us in the hostel. It was pretty good with lots of options. Most of the meal was spent discussion accommodations in San Francisco.  A lot of our group have already booked hotel rooms. I am not in that group because in true Hollenczer fashion, I’m wingin it. I mean, sleeping in the airport isn’t thaaaat bad. I guess we’ll find out on Saturday! We thought the day was over but alas, we all went and got waffles! I got some a caramel cookie crumble and it was fantastic. Well worth the trip outside in my pajamas. 

Stay tuned,

E

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY SEVENTEEN: WHEN I TRIED INDIAN FOOD

Today started relatively late, not departing for our site visit to Sport New Zealand until the early afternoon. Before that I took a lazy-ish morning of setting up a work schedule, catching up with family and lounging around. For lunch we went to a nice little sushi place which was super delicious.

At Sport NZ we were able to talk to two individuals who work particularly with the community aspect of New Zealand sport. Jo, a UK native, and Roger, a kiwi, both had interesting perspectives to share about New Zealand sport and the role of their organizations. We talked about a wide range of topics from fast food influence, professionalization of sport, to their new initiative, the Young People’s Plan. The overall theme of the discussion came to be that New Zealand is in a transitioning state and is trying to work out the bumps in the road. They admirably put a significant emphasis on grassroots sports and recreation which I think is something the US needs to work on. At the same time, New Zealanders are struggling with the resulting complications of professionalization and sponsorships, which we have discussed in other lectures.

After the 2 hour talk, we had some time off. Originally we had planned to walk around a bit and enjoy the nice weather but after 2 ½ weeks of going non-stop we all just needed some down time. It was greatly appreciated by all. For dinner we had Indian food. I’m not really notorious for eating Indian food because I don’t really do spicy food and to quote Lauren, “It looks like baby food”. But I powered through in the hopes of remaining open minded. It was okay but I have to say I wouldn’t order it again. On the up side, I got some gelato. I couldn’t make up my mind so I got half peanut butter chocolate chip and half salted caramel. That part was very delicious.

Stay tuned,

E 

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY SIXTEEN: A CHILL DAY

We’ve reached the final leg of our journey in Wellington. It’s disappointing because I’m really enjoying my time here but at the same time I’m excited to go home and start a new semester. Today we started with a tour of the Hurricanes training facility. The Hurricanes are a Super rugby team which is essentially the equivalent of an NFL team in American terms. You would never know the importance of Super rugby just by viewing the facility. It was smaller than some high school football fields. Compared to the Highlanders facility we saw in Dunedin, rugby seems to operate very efficiently on a relatively low budget. It’s quite the contrast to professional American sports with their large budgets and lavish facilities.

Our Q-and-A was with Rick W. who is a manager for community rugby. He spoke with us about gaining and maintaining participation rates, coaching requirements and education, and Maori culture. I really appreciated his point of view as a Maori because before today, our lecturers have only been Pakeha (the term for European descended). I, cynically, was not confident in the information being given about Maori by Pakeha who have not experience being Maori but Rick confirmed that race relations are as harmonious as we discussed before. I guess as an American this is hard to wrap my head around since there seems to be a constant dialogue at home about race and religious issues. Here in New Zealand, race relations are peaceful and religion is not an emphasized part of the culture.

Originally this afternoon, we were supposed to tour Westpac Stadium but that fell through. Essentially it was pouring rain sideways and our walk would’ve been a half an hour. Instead we took a quick trip to the Te Papa which is New Zealand’s national museum. Honestly, I didn’t have much of an interest because I’ve been spoiled my whole life by the Smithsonian’s but there was a Dreamworks exhibit that lured me in. After searching for it, we finally found out that it required a purchased ticket to go into and I was not interested enough to pay. We left Te Papa and took a detour on our way back to the hostel for some ice cream. For dinner some of us went to Dominos for $5 pizza. As you can probably tell, I’m trying to stick to a budget. That budget includes a nice night of staying in and watching Big Bang Theory.

Stay tuned,

E

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

Some of the food I've indulged in during our time in Queenstown and our first day in Wellington

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

1-18-2016 Bungee Jumping Queenstown, NZ

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY FIFTEEN: QUEENSTOWN -> WELLINGTON AND SOME EXTREME SPORTING

Another early morning in the New Zealand life. My 6am alarm went off and I have to say I was tempted to throw it rather than get out of bed. Luckily, I did the latter. We then got dressed and ready and proceeded downstairs to start walking into town. While doing this we realized that we had to check out of the hostel by 10am which was far earlier than we anticipated to be back. So, in 15 minutes we all finished packing and emptying out our rooms. All of this was in a last ditch attempt to go sky diving at the 7am time slot. This effort was to no avail since the clouds refused to clear up. I think we all knew that our rescheduled dive was unlikely to happen but we all wanted to hope.

Because the thought of not doing anything crazy in the adventure capital of the world was driving Lauren, Amber and I crazy, we hung around town waiting for booking shops to open. At 8am we walked into AJHackett Bungee. After a long talk with some employees and an extensive debate, we all decided to do the Nevis jump. This is the tallest jump in Australasia at 134m (approximately 440 feet). Why any of us thought this was a good idea, I do not know, but somehow we ended up in the middle of nowhere with harnesses strapped on, being ushered to a suspended pod between two mountains by a tiny little cable cart. I held it together for a long time but when they asked me to stand up and walk to the platform I couldn’t handle it. I took the tinniest, tiniest penguin waddles up and felt the voices in my head start to argue with each other. The guy holding me in counted down from 3 and the milliseconds after he said 1 felt like an eternity. There was debate and hesitation, resistance and all-consuming fear. I thought I had been there, arguing with myself forever by the time I weakly fell forward. Turns out it wasn’t that long because in the video there isn’t much of a visible hesitation.

The fall was incredible. At the beginning I couldn’t believe it was real. I would have thought I was dreaming or hallucinating. Not only was the view beautiful but the sensation of free falling is indescribable. Don’t get me wrong, I was terrified the whole way down, but once you get the first bounce back up it is just fun. Naturally I couldn’t get the cord to release that would let me sit right-side up, so they pulled me back upside down, spinning and spinning.  It was a doozy but I would definitely do it again.

After bungee jumping I inhaled a $7 personal pizza and we headed back to the hostel to collect our things. We headed to the airport to catch our flight from Queenstown to Wellington. Luckily this was a quick, easy flight with no complications except that the flight attendant skipped me when she was handing out candy. We got really lucky with our flight because the weather was becoming quite bad. As we were waiting to get our luggage they began making cancellation announcements on the overcom. The rain has been coming down substantially since then.

After 20 minutes in our new hostel, we had to leave again for our welcome dinner. We went to a restaurant called Southern Cross which is apparently very highly regarded. After a passport mix up and delayed service we finally got our food. I HATE ‘gourmet’ dishes solely for the reason that ‘gourmet’ is just code for ‘we are going to give you a baby’s portion of actual food but at least it will be pretty’. I ordered the salmon and prawns since I love both of those seafoods and also because it came with risotto. The food tasted good, not the best I’ve ever had but definitely not the worst. I guess I was just frustrated that we waited so long and yet, I could eaten another meal after that. Hopefully, I’ll find some fun food to try tomorrow.

Stay tuned,

E

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

Ray Bradbury

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

1-17-2016 luge approved and stuffing my face with a ferg burger of the same size Queenstown, NZ

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

1-16-2016 from our hike Queenstown, NZ

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY FOURTEEN: NO WE DIDN’T GET OUT OF THE PLANE

Yes, the title is the truth. We never jumped out of our plane today. Instead, as Amber and I were zipping up our flight suits, the host told us that the winds had gotten too strong and they wouldn’t be allowing any more jumpers today. So alas, it was not a lack of nerve but rather a botched opportunity.

Lauren and I started our morning bright and early so we could use our luge tickets. Essentially we didn’t bother to check what time the luge closed yesterday and missed it. Luckily New Zealanders are just infinitely nice and allowed us to transfer them to today. We did six rides down a windy track that I progressively got faster. By the last run I even ended up passing some people. Probably one of my greatest accomplishments considering I’m terrible at driving games.

This is when shit started to hit the fan (excuse my language). Lauren and I went to the skydiving shop where we were supposed to register and catch the bus to the air field. When we arrived the woman said that all of the morning jumps had been cancelled due to weather but there would be an updated weather report coming in for the noon jump (ours). The all clear was given for the noon jump and they started registering us. After about an hour of coordinating video packages, groups and buses we were on our way. Then we proceeded to sit at the air field, hanging out and watching the earlier groups jump. The fourth group went up in the plane and Amber and I, as part of group five, began to prepare. Like I said before, we were actually zipping up our flight suits, about to be matched with a tandem master (professional that jumps with you) when they told us it was a no go for the rest of the day. At this point we had been with the skydiving company for 3 hours. Everyone came out a little testy. When given the option to refund or reschedule, we choose to reschedule for tomorrow morning in the hopes we may get an early jump in, if not we could just get refunded then. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

To console our poor spirits we went to Ferg Burger which is apparently the best place around for burgers. You can tell this is true because the line is literally out of the door on to the street. After waiting through said line I got the Tropical Swine which was a burger with bacon, cheese and pineapple. It was delicious and well worth the wait. I also got ice cream but let’s be real that’s not a surprise to anybody.

In the late afternoon we decided to get kayaking. Originally I was dragging my feet a bit because I was comfy on the couch and after the disappointing start to the day I just wanted to wallow. But somehow I pulled myself up by the bootstraps and went to kayak. It was probably the best decision I made all day. The water here is incredible and calm, making the trip relatively easy and peaceful. I can’t do the scenery here justice because in pictures it just doesn’t look real. Even looking at it with your own eyes for hours, it doesn’t look real. It looks like someone has painted an exquisite mural and that’s all you can see. The night winded down nicely with us making spaghetti and playing some this-or-that questions. It was a good end to a relatively disappointing afternoon.

Stay tuned,

E    

[elizabethnewzealand2016]

DAY THIRTEEN: THE HARDEST DAY OF MY LIFE

On our first full day in Queenstown, Amber and I decided to start our morning with a leisurely walk around Queenstown. There’s an incredible path that traces the waterfront and the forest. In the three hours we walked there was not a single bad view. I’m not sure you’ll be able to see them in this post because photos don’t really upload well here but I assure you, the views were phenomenal. For lunch we walked into town to a small Latin food stand where I had a delicious burrito. I may or may not have had another Mexican food lunch a few hours later (taco instead of burrito).

And this my friends, is where the hardest day of my life begins. Some of the others went ahead to hike the mountain all the way from the bottom. Lauren and I wisely chose to take the gondala the first half. We then proceeded to hike 2 ½ hours up to the summit of this mountain which sits at over 5500 feet. It was hard. It was really, really hard. It was harder than Dianna Cuatto’s snow scene hard (BTMers will understand). At one point we were actually rock climbing.

Alas we made it to the top. Do you know how long we stayed at the top of this massive mountain that took 2 hours, blood, sweat and tears to hike? Less than 5 minutes because a bird tried to eat us. Luckily we didn’t kick the bird of the side of the mountain because after further investigation we found that not only could it fly but it was also an endangered species in New Zealand. After being chased off the summit, we managed another 2 hour trek down that was also fairly difficult. My legs, feet, and heart currently hate me. I think I’ll wait until tomorrow to decide if the walk was worth it.

Tomorrow is skydiving day! See you then ;)

Stay tuned,

E