Pics from Lake Taupo and Mt Taranaki

So here are some trips from the road trip I took with friends a few weeks ago:

Huka Falls


Orokai Korako: This is a geothermal park and in this picture you are actually seeing steam come out of the ground!


These are some of my traveling buddies at another geothermal area called Craters of the Moon.

It did not really look like the moon.

This is a spot called the Three Sisters. We stopped here when my friend puked in the car.


We wanted to see Mt. Taranaki but there was too much mist. This is a picture I took from a "scenic viewpoint".

Back from Traveling

Yes, I am back from traveling! I have a zillion pictures just waiting to be loaded up on to the blog, but unfortunately, my internet connection is not cooperating. Instead, let me regale you with stories and promise to get some visuals to accompany them soon:

Taupo and Taranaki
The highlights were seeing geological stuff, which means geysers and bubbling mud and steam coming out of the ground. We visited two different parks where you can see this stuff and it was amazing, except it rained the whole day and we got soaked. In fact, the bad weather kept us from seeing Mt. Taranaki, except shrouded in mysterious fog.
Low points were when we had a fender bender with our rental car, and when one of the guys laughed so hard that he puked out the window of the car. Gross.

Christchurch
Loved this town! They have a pretty nice cultural center where I got to go to the art museum and theater. I could not pass up the chance to see Arsenic and Old Lace on stage again. Rent the movie with Cary Grant if you've never seen it--it's hilarious!
I also took a day trip where I got to see the famous Hector's dolphins (awesome picture forthcoming!), which I believe are native to New Zealand. They much smaller than other species of dolphins, so that much cuter.

TranzAlpine
I took the train across the mountains from Christchurch to the west coast of New Zealand---really great views of snow and mountains!

Milford Sound
I took a boat ride on a rainy/misty day but it turned out great because you get some really great light and photos of this waterway to the sea.

In general, it was cold but lovely in the South Island, and it was a nice relaxing trip before school gets going again. I'll be tutoring for four sessions this semester and finishing my thesis! Check back soon for some more stories with pictures!

Plans!

Yay! Today I finished my last day of tutoring for the semester. The day never seemed like it would end as we calculated the final grades for each of the 400+ students in the course. But, thankfully, we got it all done which means I am officially on holiday!

So here are my plans for my time off:
---Road Trip with Friends:
I am heading on a 4 day trip with some of friends from my building. We heading south to Rotorua, Lake Taupo, and Mt. Taranaki for tramping and sightseeing.

---Road Trip by Myself:
After that I will take a 12-day trip to the South Island where I will make my way from Christchurch, through the mountains, to the Franz Josef glacier, to Queenstown, and then back again. It will probably be cold and wet, and maybe even snowy! Expect some amazing pictures when I get back. It will also be a good time to recharge my batteries before my final semester.

---Read Books:
Here's what I have in the queue to read:
Emma by Jane Austen
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Midwinter Nightingale by Joan Aiken
The Birth of America by William Polk
Beware of God by Shalom Auslander
By the way, book recommendations are always welcome!

Check back in mid-July for some sweet pics!

Halfway Point

The semester is nearly over! Looking forward to a much-needed break...
I am actually fighting of a cold today (it's winter here), so I'll try keep this brief:
So far, I have written about 20,000 words of a rough draft of my thesis, so I've made some good progress.
I finished tutoring for the semester, except for some exams I have to mark. It was a great gig, and I'm hoping to get re-hired for next semester.

I am learning German! Well, sort of. I have several German friends here right now, so I have been learning a few phrases---another unexpected experience that comes from living in New Zealand.

Here are some tunes I have been spinning in high rotation lately:
"Skinny Love" by Bon Iver
"Everybody Here is a Cloud" by Cloud Cult---check out the entire album Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes)
"Go to Hell" by David Ford (not as angry as the title suggests!)
"OK, It's Alright With Me" by Eric Hutchinson (thanks Bethany!)
"I Love the Rain the Most" by Joe Purdy (again, thanks Bethany!)
"The Cure for Pain" by Jon Foreman
"Loose Lips" by Kimya Dawson
"Crown" by Mason Jennings
"Sun Down" by Nik Freitas
"Bag of Hammers" by Thao

Sailing!

Here are some pictures from a recent sailing trip I went on.

My friend Marleen invited me to go with her friends, and we had a lovely day.

We caught fresh mussells and ate them right on the boat!

Yum!

I wanted to climb the mast like Jack Sparrow, but that was not allowed...

Ahoy!

Some Highlights

---On Mother's Day, Christine, the regular leader for children's church, was away, so I was left in charge. We had no major mishaps and we didn't lose any of the kids, so I was quite pleased.

---My adviser asked me to come and talk to one of his classes. I spoke briefly about choosing a topic for my thesis, researching, and writing. I think I was a bit rambly, which shouldn't be too hard to imagine....

---A few weeks ago, I got together with some girlfriends to watch the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, which is fantastic, and also about five and a half hours long. I really didn't expect us to watch in all in one go, but after the first disc ended--right after Mr. Darcy proposes---we could NOT turn it off. And we had a ton of cookies, and tea, and Thai food making it the perfect girls' night.




---A friend of mind threw a murder mystery dinner and the theme happened to be set in Chicago in the 1920s. I ended being the resident historian and got to explain to the Kiwis about things like the Black Sox scandal, Al Capone, and Prohibition. It was a great night, except I was wrong in guessing whodunit.

---I recently finished reading Children of Men by P.D. James. It's a British novel that became the inspiration for a fantastic movie from a couple of years ago. Then, a couple of days later, I found that Children of Men would be showing on tv! So I told all my friends on my floor that we needed to watch. However, after about ten minutes I realized that probably it might not appeal to everyone, and when it ended, only one guy seemed to liked it. Everyone else seemed slightly confused. I always forget my love of bleak, dystopian futures is not necessarily the norm....

A Year Without Music

Last November I made the decision to not buy any music (cds, records, downloads...) until I had completed my Masters degree. If you know me at all, you know that I am a bit music obsessed. I love finding new bands and rediscovering I missed out on due to the unlucky chance of being born in the wrong decade. But I realized that I just couldn't reconcile spending money on music when I have to pay for school. Plus, it never ends. I mean, the need, the desire for more music is never quenched so you just need to get more and more of it. It's the definition of addiction, and I hate having an addiction. I realized I had songs on my computer I did not recognize, and cds that I have not listened to since the day I bought them! That is just wasteful.
So, no buying music until 2009.
It was very hard at first, but now I am really learning to enjoy the music I have. By this time, I no longer feel that itch to buy every album under the sun. Plus, there are plenty of ways to get free music (legally), that I still get to entertain my hobby.

So, that being said, let's have some fun! It's time for Random Rules:
"Night and Day" Sondre Lerche covering Cole Porter on the album Duper Sessions
"Chicago (adult contemporary easy listening version)" by Sufjan Stevens from The Avalanche
"Patty Lee" by Les Savvy Fav from Let's Stay Friends
"Just Like You" by Waterdeep from You Are So Good To Me
"The Greatest" by Cat Power from the album The Greatest
"You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (outtake)" by The Beatles from Anthology

Remember, the original version of this game can be found at the AV Club website--check out the link to the left...

Thanks for reading. Peace.