A Weekend to Remember

Classes: We started looking a J.S. Bach in my Music class this week, lets hope it will continue to get a little more exciting.  In Neurophysiology lab on Monday, we stimulated a rat nerve and were able to calculate the conduction velocity, threshold, and refractory period (super exciting for all my science geek friends out there!).  I have been going frequently to the $3 lunches that the student association runs; they give you a ton of food, it is vegetarian and delicious.  Another archery lesson on Friday, it was a lot of fun, but I was not on my game that night. I was very tired.

On another note, this past weekend was amazing! A couple of friends (Cat and Colyer) and I rented a car (sorry to my parents for driving) and went down to Curio Bay, which is a couple hours south of Dunedin.  On the way to the bay, we stopped at a place called Purakaunui Falls, a fantastic waterfall.  It was spectacular.

We took a little bit of a detour back to the main road, thanks to my directions, but it was well worth some of the views.  We arrived at Curio Bay to the campgrounds were the surfing hire was. He was not there. He was out at the beach giving a lesson so we decided to have some lunch until he came back and walk down the beach.  An hour later, when the lesson was supposed to be over, we still could not find the guy who ran the small surf shop.  So we decided to just walk down the beach more, then we saw the Dolphins! They are so little and we saw so many playing around in the waves. We decided that we did not care how cold the water was we were going in to them! It was well worth it because the dolphins were not too scared and we were able to get within a few feet of a few! I did not get pictures of the dolphins, because I did not want to risk my camera's life.  After swimming and then warming up in the bright sun, we went exploring on the rocks.  Over by the rocks I saw many interesting things including a few starfish and a rotting seal carcass (I was not expecting it and it creeped me out! - not fun and a little smelly).  We got a milkshake after this expedition on the rocks and headed to the petrified forest to hopefully see a yellow-eyed penguin. And we did! As soon as a women from the department of conservation came by saying that sightings have been a little scarce lately because it is molting season, there one pops up on the rocks.  Thanks to Colyer's binoculars we were able to get a great view of the penguin waddling and hopping on the rocks towards his home.  After watching the penguin we headed back to Dunedin, with a couple of scenic stops on the way. I went back to Colyer and Cat's flat to watch a little Pirates of the Caribbean, but we were all extremely tired and only made it an hour in before calling it quits. 

Sunday's adventures started at about 9:30am and a new friend Mackenzie joined us.  We started off the day by going a little further north of Dunedin to the Moeraki Boulders.  These boulders are awesome and I had a lot of fun climbing them.  It was a little too populated for my liking, but I am glad we went there.  We then stopped at Shag Point on the way back into Dunedin, to hopefully see some more of these boulders, but the tide was a little too high by the time we got there. But there were so many seals!

After Shag Point we went back to our flats to make lunch before heading back out.  This time we went to the Peninsula to the Royal Albatross Center. We were a little worried we would not see an Albatross because be were not going to pay to go on a tour, but as soon as I parked the car, one flew right overhead! But of course none of us had our cameras ready yet, so we had to stay longer until we saw a few more. After we saw enough Albatross we headed to Allan's Beach where we were hoping to see some little Blue Penguins to make a perfect ending to a great weekend.  We did not see Blue Penguins however, but it was still fun to explore a beach I have not been to yet. Then Colyer and I went to return the rental car and walked all the way back to our flats, good thing it was a nice night out! And that was my SPECTACULAR weekend! I won't be posting until after mid-semester break, where I will tell you all about my 5-day tramp on the Heaphy Track and Horseback riding in Queenstown!

Showing some Denison Love <3

Adventure Weekend with the Girls

So far my classes are going great! I think Environmental History and Music in Western Culture will be difficult only because I don't have as much interest in them so it is harder to motivate myself to do the readings for those classes.  My favorite class so far I think is Sensation and Perception, the way the lecturer teaches it and how we all perceive the world can sometimes be mind-blowing.

Anyway...on to the fun parts of the week that don't involve work.  I few of us went to the Bog for trivia night on Monday, and we were simply terrible at it.  You would think all those years of watching Jeopardy with my family would pay off, but it hasn't.  Tuesday night was our first flat meal, and I was cooking! Those who know me well, know that I can't cook very well and don't like to cook.  But I got a recipe from my mom (thank you!) and was able to make a decent casserole.  Some of the ingredients are different here is New Zealand so there was a little improvisation, but it still turned out ok.  My kiwi host Pri and I watched the new episode of PLL together on Wednesday night, and we are excited for the next one! Thursday night, after doing a little bit of work, my friends and I continued our LOTRs movie. That was a long and fun night and I am so happy that I had Juan and Janessa to walk home with (Thursday is the big party night around campus).  Friday was pretty eventful. I started the morning off with attempting to Skype with my friend Debbie all the way over in Copenhagen. It is a 12 hour difference so it is hard to find a decent time to Skype. We talked for about 20 minutes until we realized that we were both too tired and in no condition to be Skyping.  Then it was to the rugby game friday night! My friends Sarah and Alexis bought some face paint and hair spray, so we were going all out for this one! So Sarah, Alexis, Colyer and I got ready at my flat and we were decked out in blue and gold to support the highlanders! Unfortunately they lost this game, but it was still a lot of fun anyway! I had another archery lesson after the game ended.  And I am improving! I was so close to the bullseye this week, so next week I will for sure!

Now to get on to the events of Girls Weekend.  We rented a car for the weekend and named it Pegasus. Saturday morning we met up at my friend Nia's flat at 10:30am to plan our activities before heading to Long Beach to campout in the caves.  We ended up going to Tunnel Beach, St. Clair, St. Kilda, and Sandfly bay before heading over to Long Beach. It is amazing what you can do when you have a car to go places and not just a bus and your feet!  Because of all the places we went to however, we didn't get to long beach until it was very dark (we stayed at Sandfly bay until sunset because we saw some yellow-eyed penguins!!!) and we had no ideas where the caves were. So we listened to the little voices in our heads to turn around and we ended up having a sleepover in Nia's flat. It was a Blast, and we all bonded and had some girl talk, and yes there was a little drinking but we were all super tired that we didn't stay up too late.  We got up around 8am and went off to see the Mole, over in Aramoana. We saw some seals there as well, and some cool birds! Once I got home I too a nap for a couple hours and then did some work to prepare for my lab tomorrow. It was a great weekend full of amazing adventures with the girls. But hopefully next weekend will be spent surfing with dolphins!

We got fully decked out for the game!

Let the Girl Weekend commence!

I hope you can see that spec of a Penguin! I hope to get a better and closer shot VERY soon!

Us and our trusty car Pegasus, which actually got amazing fuel mileage! 

Random Update

Not too much has happened since the Queenstown weekend.  Monday was back to class, and it was also the day of my first neurophysiology lab (practical).  The lab was actually pretty fun as we got to use some new technology that I have not previously used.  This included hooking myself up to an EEG using recording electrodes and measuring the difference in brain waves as my eyes were either open or closed. Very cool. Not much else happened besides class and studying, so I won't go into it and bore you all.  Thursday night I grabbed some ice cream and tried to make some weekend plans with some friends.  We were going to try and rent a car to go down to Curio Bay and surf with dolphins, but we were a little late in planning and all the cars were gone by the time we got to calling the companies friday morning.  Friday night was my first archery lesson and it was so much fun! I am not too bad either! The instructors said I had pretty good form, but I have not yet hit the bullseye!

This Weekend was a blast, even though it was not spent surfing with dolphins.  On Saturday, Me and a few friends (Janessa, Kelley, Juan, Cat, and Eric) took the bus over to Macandrew bay and hiked over to sandfly bay (they have not been there before) The hike was not easy, but it was worth it. We saw a few seals, but not as many as there were the first time I went.  We had our lunch on the beach and started the hike back.  Now, I know my mother may not be happy about this, but Cat and I had our first hitchhiking experience.  The two of us got picked up by a nice malaysian couple, and it wasn't for long, but Cat and I didn't want to walk up the gigantic hill again.  We got dropped off at an intersection 2km away from Larnach castle and walked there as we waited for our other friends to make it up.  It is $28 NZ to get through the gate.  Since we didn't want to pay that we just took a picture of the top tower - the only thing we could see.  Cat and I then met up with the others and commenced the walk back towards the us stop.  We took a completely different way down than we did on the way up, but the views were awesome.  The total distance of the walk was a little over 10miles! Then Sunday, Colyer, my flatmate Ellie, and I went to walk around the botanical gardens in the morning/early afternoon (can't get enough of that place).  We fed the ducks and went to the aviary.  There were some amazing birds, and we even had a conversation with a parrot! The parrot had some attitude let me tell you.  After some lunch we met all met up again (with the addition of Nikki, and my kiwi host Ryan) and we caught the bus over to St. Clair. I got a little more wet than I wanted, but it was a lot of fun.  Sunday night some people came over to my flat and we watched part of Hercules and then part of the first LOTR, it was a fun night and I was surprisingly able to get up early for my 9am class without a problem!

Very Fluffy Sheep

The Jet Boat

If you still were wondering about the jet boat activity that I mentioned from Queenstown, my friend Colyer found this YouTube video.  This is the exact area where we had our ride as well! I would love to do it again if it wasn't so expensive.

EPIC

This past weekend at Queenstown with all the Arcadianz can only be described as EPIC.

We left at 10am from Dunedin on Friday morning for our amazing adventure to Queenstown.  One of the girls got sick on the bus so we had to stop every so often, but oh well! We still got to Queestown in time for out Jet boating ride! This may have been my favorite part of the weekend, but the whole experience was just so amazing I cannot be sure. These jet boats are extremely fast and can operate on very little water, they do 360o turns and make you feel like you are going to crash into the stone cliffs.  Super fun! Unfortunately there are no pictures of this fantastic event because water, tight turns, and a camera do not go well together.  After the jet boats we checked into the pinewood lodge and we had a free night to roam around Queenstown.  Dinner was at the all-famous Ferg Burger! They have the most delicious burgers, but also the largest, which was good fuel for the upcoming day.  We ate the burgers by the lake and then explored around the other side of it and climbed some trees (or attempted to).  Because it was an early start saturday and the tramping (hiking) day of the weekend, I tried to go to bed a little early, but the beds were not too comfortable.

6:15am start! The Routeburn Track awaits! The Routeburn is one if the Great Walks of New Zealand and you will see why! I did not know how I would handle 9 hours of hiking, but I didn't do too bad! But also not as well as I would have liked.  The views were amazing, however, and I had a blast! We started out at about 9am and returned at a little after 6pm and I have the blisters to prove it!  One of the best parts of this hike, apart from finishing (just kidding!), was that Haylie, Alexis, Sarah, and I were stopped on the trail so that someone could set off an explosion for construction.  We heard the 3 warning sirens and then nothing happened. Them BOOM! I almost started crying because it scared me so much, but it was an experience. The area was still smoking when we walked by shortly later.  I won't go into any more details of the hike, because there are not words to describe the beauty.  Here are some of the highlights from the hike, but my camera did not do the scenery justice. My camera is nothing like the ones used in LOTRs. :)

So after a day of gorgeous hiking we were treated to some fantastic flatbread pizza back at Queenstown.  And let me tell you that pizza never tasted so good! At the end there was even a dessert apple pie pizza...it was different, but extremely good.  Haylie, Sarah, Janessa, Alexis, and I then went over to the gardens along the water and found a beautiful water fountain that changed colors and where we could also see the stars.  After a little we went back to the lodge for a well-deserved shower! Then it was bed time just as some of the others were going out to explore the Queenstown nightlife :)

We got to sleep in a little more on Sunday. The wake-up call was set for 8:30am, not too bad.  At about 9:40 we left for a gondola ride up to overlook Queenstown.  Now, I don't know which view was better, Routeburn or Queenstown, but they were both just so amazing. Here is the view from the top of the gondola.

At the top of the gondola there are luge rides and we each got 3 rides!  I ended up being able to go 5 times because some people had to leave early to go bungy jumping and didn't have time to use all 3 rides. I almost tipped over once and had to put my foot out to keep my head from hitting the pavement, but don't worry I was wearing a helmet. I would love to find another place to go luging again because I loved it!

 After completing the luge rides we had some free time to get lunch and explore a little more of Queenstown.  Alexis, Sarah, Haylie, Janessa, Nikki, Colyer, and I went to Ferg Burger again for lunch and ate it in the beach with a beautiful view of the late.  We did have to fend off the vicious seagulls and  few ducks.  We then found a souvenir shop and I got a little Kiwi bird with a New Zealand shirt.  I have not decided if I will keep this or give it as a gift yet, but I am thinking it would make a great birthday present for my baby cousin.  We all got on the couch bus to head over to the bungy to watch some of our courageous friends, but not without a quick stop to Arrowtown.  A scene from LOTRs was filmed here! Does the quote, "If you want him, come and claim him" mean anything to you? If you can't place the scene please look it up. And while I did not bungy it was amazing being able to see my friends take that enormous leap off of a bridge. Then it was back on the old bus that Nikki and I named Gerty for the 4hr journey back to Dunedin.  Gerty has a little trouble with the hills these days, I got scared a few times that we were going to start to move backwards.

Well that was my AMAZING weekend with some really great friends. I feel like I am starting to use the words beautiful, amazing and gorgeous too much in these posts.