First I'm sorry for not posting when I said I would yesterday. It's just been tough to find a long enough chunk of time to write all that has happened since I last posted.
Next, if you haven't checked out the photos I've posted on facebook (the link is on the left sidebar of this blog) I would HIGHLY recommend it because they will give you visuals of what I'm going to talk about.
After out stay and hike at Aoraki/Mt Cook we traveled to Te Anau. (By the way, I felt like I really connected with Aoraki and the mood and feel and atmosphere of the place. It was so beautiful and peaceful and just like I could really spend a longer time there and also find a place to meditate and just be for a time.)
Te Anau is just a small town that basically serves as the gateway to Milford Sound. The next day we traveled to Milford Sound, which is not actually a sound at all but a fiord. The boat cruise around the Fiord was nice and there was really cool cliffs and waterfalls and the mountains going right into the sea, but it just didnt resonate with me. Maybe it was too touristy or the fact that we didnt really interact with the place. Anyway, the following day we traveled to Queenstown. I guess I should mention that when I talk about traveling from one place to another we are just driving in a big coach bus since there about 30 of us including the professor, grad assistant and field guide. Now bus travel doesnt sound to bad in theory but I swear I cannot sit in those bus seats for more than and hour before I need to walk around or as I've now taken to, sitting up on the armrests to see above everyone's heads while knitting. Yes, I'm knitting a scarf from 100% NZ wool, in NZ!
Ok, on to Queenstown. This is a verrry touristy city, but still beautiful. It also seems to be the adventure, extreme, let's try to kill ourselves capital. Most of the people in my group decided to either bungy jump or sky dive during our free day in Queenstown, but I went hang gliding instead. This was sooo amazing and I'll have to find a way to post the pictures and video I bought from them. I also rode the gondola which was fun and then later that day I got the top cartilage of my ear pierced (others got nose and pierced).
After our time in Queenstown we left to head to Fox Glacier on the West Coast (and very wet western side of the southern alps). On the way we stopped at Fork Farm and got to learn about sheep farming. We also crossed over the fault line and I got to stand on both the Indo-Australian plate and the Pacific plate at the same time! The morning at Fox we woke up early and took a sunrise walk around Lake Matheson, which was really beautiful and peaceful since I mostly walked alone, for some time apart from the group. (I guess sometime I'll have to talk about the other students on the trip. But mostly they've been great, I'm starting to make some friends but its been slow going. I was surprised that there are not as many environmentally conscious people on the trip, but that's ok too)
Continuing though, we then took our hike to and on Fox Glacier, which was probably one of the most AMAZING things I've ever done ever. First we walked across this huge rock...area/desert thing until we got to the side of a huge steep hill covered in temperate rain forest (yes, rain forest next to a glacier). Next we proceeded to hike up 800+ steps until we were high enough to walk onto the top of the glacier. We got to put on crampons, which are strap on spikes for your boots (that were lent to us), and we also had sticks for balance. But actually being on the glacier was soooo incredibly awesome. It actually wasnt that cold at all, in fact it was colder next to the glacier than on top of it. The ice was sooo blue and it was fun to stomp around with the crampons.
It was really sad to leave the glacier and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to visit one.
The next day we rode on the bus again and stopped at a dairy farm as well as a town famous for lots of jade. We went through Arthur's Pass and finally ended up back in Christchurch. Here we met our homestay families who we've been staying with this week while we take our Global Issues class in the mornings. My host parents are so wonderful. There are actually three of us from the trip staying with them. Bev and Nathan have been welcoming and friendly and feeding us delicious food, so I'm glad we've had the chance to peek into a NZ home for a bit and I think I'll be sad to leave.
Today I went for a long (35min) bus ride out to Lincoln University to visit and see the campus and talk to some of the faculty about graduate studies there. It's much smaller (4,500 students) than I expected but could be a potential option for grad school esp with their new water initiative/research thing they've got going on.
So, again, I'm sorry this has had to be so long. Maybe I should have broken it up but I figure you'll either skim or just brave through it, either way, I wish all of you could be here with me. Hopefully I can talk to some of you soon and I can't wait to let you know how the second part of our adventure fares.
Love,
Kate
p.s. If you're interested in more details about any part of this just ask, I'd love to share more but I dont want to type too much.
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