Fly By NZ Time

Time flies!

I have exactly two weeks left in New Zealand! How is that even possible? I feel like we just got here last week.

Life has been very low-key for the most part. Classes are very enjoyable- but I have so much homework!

Can I just say how excited I am to come home? I love it here, but ten weeks is a long time. It will be so nice to hear my family and friends' voices!

But for now I'm just going to enjoy my time here and finish all of my school work. I thought I was just going to stay in Auckland solo during my week break and do some me-time shopping, etc, but it looks like I might be going to a beach house with some cool kiwis we met via Jen. We'll see!

Here are some random photos!

My fox sweater. It is easily the best thing I've purchased here so far.

Pool. They cleaned it for us! It had a layer of leaves at the bottom for the first week.

Ever since Valentines day I've been taking pictures of my food. This was my breakfast the other day. 

Lunch consisted of cucumber, baby tomatoes, rice crackers, cheese and a little mustard to dip it all in. I was very proud of myself for making this so cute looking.

This is what my bed side table looks like at the moment.

I feel kind of silly sharing this with everyone. It feels unimportant compared to all of the exciting adventures I've had on this trip. But at the same time, I hope this illustrates to you how laid back New Zealand is. There's always stuff happening- but it's not as earth-shattering and mind blowing as Australia.

I think I actually like it better here!

Thanks for reading!

One Does Not Simply Walk Into Hobbiton

One must pay $75 dollars first.

Here are some pictures of my quaint little visit to Hobbiton!

Bag End!

Look familiar? I hope to edit these pictures later, since the lighting was a little off.

Where Bilbo and Gandalf blew smoke rings in the movie!

Luca and Steph. Playa's gotta play (Steph being the player, obviously)

Sophia and Harpreet

Me!

Frodo's swing!

Sam's house!

Sam's laundry....?!

The Green Dragon. I felt like Aragorn lurking in the corner drinking my ginger beer (way better than ginger ale, but similar?)

I'm determined to edit these photos a bit!

Anyway,

Thanks for reading!

My Super Hot Dates. Yes. Plural.

Happy Valentines Day!

I have a lot of photos to share so I wont write too much; I'm trying to limit my super long posts!

To sum my day's events up I had my first New Zealand field trip today. We went to One Tree Hill, which ironically didn't have any trees at all. The "one tree" was cut down some time ago by Maoris to make some point.

I feel like I'm letting everyone down for not remembering the details of this story! I think it was pretty interesting.

But what can I say- I'm painfully human.

At the second stop we hiked a bit through a chunk of forest. We had to disinfect our shoes twice because there is a super contagious tree-fungus that lives in the soil there. I'll probably wash them even more thoroughly when I get the time!

Lastly we went to a beach and, like everywhere else, I forgot the name of it. We saw a colony of birds (forgot the species- sigh) and got to see some blowholes. You know, the holes in rocks that water shoots up through when a wave fills the cavern underneath? The tide was pretty much completely in, so there wasn't a lot to see. Still Beautiful!

After that we bused back home and got ready for our dinner. "We" meaning both the Kayla's and my hot date, Mlee. We got reservations to a super nice seafood restaurant called Harbor Side; at least I think that's what it was called.

Here we go!

Monument/statue thing at One Tree. I really need to pay more attention to what things are called

View from One Tree Platform

Where the last tree stood- the Sky Tower's in the background

Emily!

Forest place/thing. We were at a kind of museum and this was the view

Mlee and StephSteph

Right before our hike

Jordan, Britha, and Amanda. I'm not sure who's on the ground.

Just kidding! Mackenzie's on the ground!

Cool tree

Trail

This bird was about the size of a chicken!

Beach...obviously!

Bird colony

More birds. It smelled so bad!

Kind of where the blowholes were

My lovely date!

Our view

Grilled king salmon with something tomato on top and a basil sauce. And fried fennel. It was pretty good.

I feel like I'd be a terrible food blogger.

My new hair, everybody!

Kayla#2, Kayla#1, Mlee, and myself

Panna cotta, as fiercely recommended by our cute waiter!

Chocolate mousse cake with a cherry compote- so yummy!

...

 I haven't been feeling well lately, and today I was nauseated by pretty much all food. Except, weirdly, apples. So when we stopped for lunch, I asked a few people if they had an apple they'd share. Britha did, and she insisted I take it even though she wanted it; I was very appreciative!

But it was a few minutes later that my cousin Hannah came up to me and held out a big, shiny, red apple. She said that she bought it for me because she didn't want me to feel sick!

I'm so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people. And even more lucky to have two amazing cousins who love and look out for me!

I hope that everyone who reads this has their own apple givers in their life.

Happy Valentines day- again!