The rollercoaster that is my life.

It really is amazing how much can change in only a few days. Since the earthquake, things have been pretty stressful and all over the place. My friends and I had planned out a nice two week road trip to pass the time while we waited for school to resume at Canterbury. After a delayed flight, I finally made it out of Christchurch last Friday and was looking forward to a fun next few weeks. However, things changed quickly when I found out some bad news. A lot of the new friends I had made at school were being forced to transfer to a different university because their home school programs did not want them to lose credits. We had all travelled to Dunedin and most of my friends were going to transfer to the university there called the University of Otago. I was really sad that our close group of friends were being forced to split up. Some other friends were transferring all over New Zealand and some were told they might have to go back home to the US. So you could say we were all a little emotional. I ended up staying in Dunedin a little longer to figure out what was going on. We did have a little fun in between all the stress. A few of us went out to explore Dunedin and did some stress relieving shopping. We went on a tour of a brewery which was a blast. One of the main beers here is called Speigh’ts. So we saw the Speight’s factory and learned how beer is brewed and even learned the Egyptians were the first to brew beer. Interesting? At the end of the tour, the bar opened up for 30 minutes of beer tasting. So what did we college kids do, under tons of stress and high emotions? We drank up! The best part was the bar was serve yourself. You could say we were feeling pretty good after that. Then later that night my friends and I went to the “Penguin Place” to see Dunedin’s penguin colony. We got up close and personal with penguins and saw them swimming and playing on the beach. They were so cute! 

The next morning, Monday, I woke up to an email I did not want to see. My study abroad program was giving me two options. One, stay at Canterbury in a city that is broken and destroyed, hope for school to eventually start and that the aftershocks settled down. I would have to take a chance and hope school did start because if not, I would have to go home and not receive any credits. My second option was to transfer schools but they did not guarantee I would be able to go to the same school as my friends. I was heartbroken. I was falling in love with Christchurch and was starting to call it home. I did not want to leave and have to get to know another city and school. Worst of all, it was Monday and school had already started that day for the other universities. I had no idea what to do! Lucky for me, I had my close friends in the same boat as me and we decided to talk to the international office at the University of Otago. They did not even hesitate to help us. As soon as we mentioned we were from Christchurch they did all they could to help. So before I knew it, I was filling out enrolment forms and signing up for classes. I was shocked at how accommodating everyone at the university was. Of course I was still an emotional wreck and didn’t want to go through registration all over again and was very angry at the earthquake for making me start all over again with a new life in Dunedin.

Up until Tuesday, I felt like everything was falling apart and only getting worse. But things finally started to turn around. I was still homeless and living as a nomad on friend’s floors but Dunedin was growing on me as well as the University of Otago. My friends and I were starting to feel like we made the right choice. I had found classes that worked for me and after the long process of enrolling, I had a student card and was an official student at the University of Otago in Dunedin. So I guess I should change the name of my blog now? Haha. Tuesday my friends and I drove back to Christchurch to get the rest of our things. It was so eerie being back there…the city really is destroyed and has become a ghost town in certain parts. So we said our final goodbyes and drove away from our old life for the last time.

I went to my first class on Wednesday and was feeling pretty good. I was happy to be back in school and learning again. Three months is too long of a vacation for me, I think I was starting to lose brain cells. My professors talked about paper assignments and readings…how do I do this again? Thursday was my first full day of class and it was great. I love my classes already and find them very interesting. I decided to only take three because the past couple weeks had stressed me out to the max and I wanted the rest of my time here to be fun fun! The best part of all is my schedule. I have no class on Monday and Friday. Four day weekend every week? YES.

And now for the best news. Yesterday my friends and I got the best phone call. The university had found a flat for us and we could move in that afternoon. No more being homeless!! My flat is SO CUTE. It has an old Victorian look to it and it was newly remodelled and painted. The university bought brand new furniture and appliances for us. There’s even a dishwasher! There are 5 bedrooms (although there are only four of us living there now), a fully stocked kitchen and a big sitting room with huge windows. Also, there’s a little backyard and porch. My friends and I felt like the luckiest people ever. Rent is super cheap here so we feel like we are definitely getting our money’s worth. So last night was the first night in almost a week I slept in my own bed and room. Since I had no class today I slept in, made some tea and sad in my living room feeling completely stress free. My personal favourite part of the house is we have our very own washer and dryer in the house and it’s free! Now I have not had this since I left home three years ago. I love doing free laundry in my own house. Woo!

So as you can see, life really is a rollercoaster. But I’ve learned that bad news can lead to more bad news, but eventually the good will come. I still call Christchurch my home when people ask. I am getting a little sick of people asking “What did the earthquake feel like!” Well…the ground was shaking. A lot. Sometimes I still think the ground is shaking and I panic shortly thinking it’s an aftershock. When large trucks drive by our house the ground shakes a little and I always think of the earthquake. Every store I go into has a donation box for Christchurch and it makes me a little sad. My friends and I are planning to visit and volunteer for the day to help clean up the city.

Well, that’s all for now so thanks for reading! Check back in the next week or so as I’ll try to upload pictures on here.

(PS. If you noticed some spelling errors, they aren’t. I’ve changed my laptop to British English since that is how New Zealanders spell as well and I don’t want my professors marking down my paper grades for spelling errors. I think the best, weird spelling is the word yoghurt!)

Cheers!

UPDATE: Pictures of my flat!

 The long hallway of rooms

 FREE LAUNDRY

 My favorite room!

 My room. I had to add a little kid touch with a dinosaur blanket :)

Crisis In Christchurch

So before I talk about everything that’s happened since I got to Christchurch, I’ll fill you all in on the biggest news that you may or may not heard about. The earthquake!

First and foremost, I am safe and okay! I was lucky enough to be in school that day and not much damage was done to the University.  So I will tell you my side of the story.

School had started this week and I was pretty excited to get back into a routine and have a schedule. My first class was at noon and only lasted for an hour. We were dismissed a little before one and I hung around because I wanted to speak with my professor and introduce myself. All of a sudden, the room started shaking and I grabbed onto the table closest to me. The shaking kept getting worse and I probably would have fallen over if I wasn’t holding on. Growing up in California, I had Earthquake training since kindergarten and I knew I needed to hide under a table. However, as I glanced around the room no one was jumping under tables and my professor was just standing there staring at the ceiling. So I thought maybe this was just one of the aftershocks from the previous earthquake. I didn’t want to be the “overreacting American.” Finally, what seemed like an hour the shaking stopped. Everyone in my class started clapping and cheering. My professor told us to head outside and not stay in the room. I still hadn’t gotten to talk to him so I waited in the hallway while all the students around me went over what just happened. Out of nowhere some guy in a suit comes sprinting down the hallway yelling, “GET TO THE CARPARK NOW. GET OUT OF THE BUILDING. GO GO GO!” So I followed the crowd of people as we were pushed out of the hallway like a herd of cattle. I had no idea what was going on and stood outside waiting for direction. I had another class in an hour and I wanted to go back to my apartment to get a raincoat. I headed home and instantly texted a few of my friends to hear where they were when the earthquake hit. My friend Carla called me and she was telling me her story when the ground started shaking again. I froze where I was and watched buildings and cars sway.  It looked like the whole school had been evacuated because hundreds of students were outside looking like lost sheep. I told Carla I’d meet her at the apartment and once we got back everyone was standing outside freaking out. We were told we weren’t allowed back into our rooms until they checked each building. People were saying the earthquake was somewhere between a 6 and 6.9. I decided to call my Dad and let him know I was alright because I knew once the news hit the US they might freak out a bit. At the time no one was aware of the damage that had occurred downtown.

After a few hours we were finally allowed back into our apartments but since I lived on the top floor the aftershocks felt even worse. A group of us piled in the lounge area of my apartment and cuddled in blankets and watched movies to get our minds off everything. We had no power or running water so once night fell it was a little creepy. Some girls had radio on their phones so we listened to the emergency stations. It was then we discovered the sad news. About 60% of the buildings downtown had been destroyed. 65 deaths had been confirmed and people were trapped in buildings. The aftershocks kept occurring about every 20 minutes, some worse than others but I was starting to get used to it. The power finally came back around 9pm and we were relieved. No one wanted to sleep alone so we had a giant slumber party on our floor so we made the situation the best we could. We turned on the TV to get an update and were depressed to see all the destroyed buildings. The beautiful Christchurch Cathedral had fallen which was very sad especially because the day before I had gone to see it and took pictures inside and out and now it is ruined. It was unbelievable. Most of the worst damage was downtown and only a small amount of damaged was done to the university. So everyone did the best they could to sleep even though we were woken up about every hour to aftershocks.

This morning we all woke up and felt a little lost. School has been cancelled for the rest of the week and potentially for all of next week. We decided to get out of Christchurch for awhile and let things calm down. We booked flights to Dunedin and are leaving tomorrow afternoon. The aftershocks aren’t as extreme as yesterday but they are still around. Most of us are used to them by now and don’t really pay attention to them. The water is still not safe to use so I feel like we are camping in our own home with bottles of boiled water lying around the kitchen and no showering. The town is like a ghost town and only the grocery stores are packed as people are stocking up on food and water. But despite all this, we are making the most of it and can’t wait to escape for a few days and hopefully come back to a better situation.

So that’s that. However! Before all this happened. Things in Christchurch are great! I love this town already. All last week I spent time getting settled into my flat and meeting my neighbors and making new friends. We went to the mall and found it entertaining that the escalators are on the opposite side just like their driving. And even when you pass someone on the street that is coming towards you, instead of moving to the right, you move to the left. Weird. We also went to the beach for a hike called Taylor’s Mistake. We never found out why it was called that? We climbed to the top of this hill and had the most beautiful views. There were gorgeous houses on top and I picked my future home…haha! As I mentioned before, on Monday I went to the city center and saw the cathedral, which was beautiful. It was definitely weird seeing all the buildings on TV destroyed when we just saw them standing the day before. Hopefully in a few weeks we can go back and take some “after” pictures. That’s all for now!

Views from the hike:

 

 Downtown Christchurch:

 The coolest place for night life.. Sol Square :)

 The fanciest Starbucks I've ever seen

 Yes. ALL BLACKS.

 The beautiful cathedral, day before the quake. :(

 I can't believe this is all destroyed now!

As always, look to Facebook for more pictures!

Roadtrip Adventures!

First off, I changed the date on my blog so it will be in my time zone so don’t let that confuse you all!

Second, this is going to be a loooong post so hope you are willing to read. :)

Well I survived my roadtrip around the North Island of New Zealand. We tried to go to as many places as possible and feel like we did a good job but there is still so much we were not able to see. So where to start…we left last Monday the 7^th. Five of us went, my friends Carla, Alexa, Ben and Suzanne. We rented a sweet station wagon and decided to name him Frodo. 1. Because we are in New Zealand and Lord of the Rings was filmed here. (If you did not know that, shame on you!). and 2. Because our car did not like driving up hills and Frodo Baggins seemed to complain a lot about carrying the ring up hill to the mountain. We left Auckland headed Southeast for Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty. Driving on the left side of the road was really weird at first but we started to get used to it quickly. The only difficult parts are turns and roundabouts because they go the other way! We all felt like we had taken a trip back in time since our car had no CD player and not even a cassette player. The radio barely worked so we kept ourselves entertained by counting sheep and singing random songs. We had no GPS, simply a map of New Zealand. I loved the freedom of no time limit or stops. We could pull over whenever we wanted to for scenic outlooks and make random stops where we felt. We stopped for lunch in Matamata, also known as Hobbiton. We tried to drive through the movie sets of Lord of the Rings but they wanted to charge +$100….no thanks. So we continued on and made it to the Bay of Plenty. After checking into our hostel we wandered around the town and went into random shops. Our hostel owner told us about a fish market near the water that was known for the best fish and chips in all of New Zealand. And wow was she right. The Fush n’ Chups (as NZ people say) were DELICIOUS. I thought San Francisco was my favorite but these melted in your mouth and were so fresh since it was caught that day.  We made friends with a local woman and asked her why the Bay of Plenty was named the way it was. She claimed because it had plenty of everything: beach, sun, food, bars, etc. We agreed with her answer!

 View from our Hostel. Not bad I'd say?

 One of the Volcanoes near the Bay of Plenty

 Beach!

 More beach!

The next morning we headed off to our next stop in Rotorua.  Rotorua is known for their geothermal systems. The closer we got to the town, the stronger the smell of sulfur. It was kind of gross at first but I got used to it eventually. Our first activity was to hike around the Waimangu volcanic valley. The scenery reminded of a Jurassic Park movie. We came across lakes and craters that were steaming and looked magical. Rivers bubbled and boiled and the smell of sulfur was a little overwhelming at times. But it was definitely one of my favorite hikes. Nature is so cool! Haha.

 Where's the dinosaurs?

After hiking we had to go Zorbing. What is that you may ask? Well, it’s kind of a ridiculous activity that you would only find in New Zealand. Basically, you roll down a hill inside of a giant ball filled with water. It was hilarious! I went with Suzanne and we laughed the entire time. It was like being inside a giant washing machine. My friend Ben took pictures of Suzanne and I inside the ball so once he puts those on Facebook I’ll put a few on here.

 My official Zorbing Certificate

The hill we rolled down!

 Suzanne and I at the top of the hill in the Zorb

 Woooo!

 You can kinda see us here

 View from inside the Zorb after we made it downhill

 I couldn't stop laughing!

After dinner we decided to do one more activity to conclude our trip Rotorua. We decided to relax after our long hike and soak in the sulfur baths. It was an interesting experience. There were seven different baths, all different temperatures. The best part was the baths overlooked Lake Rotorua and at night it was a gorgeous sight. It was definitely a great day and one of my favorites.

Next stop, the wine country of Hawke’s Bay to the city of Napier. We arrived around lunch time and wandered the cute town. We found a little café with delicious pannini’s and I splurged on an amazing slice of cheesecake. Then it was time for wine tasting! We went to two different wineries that were very nice. The best part was tasting was free! Then we headed to the chocolate museum for chocolate tasting and bought some amazing truffles. Our last stop was at the beer and cider brewery for more tasting. All in all it was another great day as our trip seemed to continue to get better and better.

 One of the prettier wineries, Mission Estates

Wiiiine!

Our finally destination was Hamilton. On the way we stopped for lunch at Lake Taupo, New Zealand’s biggest lake. It was a long day of driving and our longest yet. We decided to go to bed pretty early because the next day was going to be our most adventurous yet!

 Lake Taupo

Lake Taupo again

Friday was the day we had all been waiting for. We got up very early and headed to the Waitomo Caves, also known as the Glowworm Caves. We booked a tour with a company called Rap, Raft and Rock which I HIGHLY recommend if anyone ever visits. We were surprised to find out it was just our group with a guide and no one else. It definitely made the trip more personal and fun. Our guide drove us back in the hills to a little shack so we could suit up. Our outfits consisted of a wetsuit, pants over the wetsuit, boots (called gummies), a wetsuit jacket and helmet with a headlight. We laughed at ourselves and felt like spacemen. Then our guide drove us a little further to the actual middle of nowhere. He had us practice abseiling for about five minutes and then told us it was time to go. I was a little freaked out when I saw the giant hole and cave entrance we had to rappel down. But our guide was really friendly and joked a lot with us so that helped. Before I knew it, it was my turn and I was rappelling down about 30 meters suspended in mid air. I could not believe what I was seeing or doing. The cave entrance was beautiful and mysterious all at the same time. It almost looked fake it was so cool. (I’m so used to fake caves and rocks like at Disneyland! Haha) Once I reached the bottom, I had to wade across some water and wait for our guide to join us. He told us to turn on our headlights as we walked down the into the dark cave. The whole time there was water about knee deep (sometimes waist for me!) but it was really cool.  Our guide had us crawling through tiny holes in the cave walls and most of the time we had to army crawl. It was so awesome. There were no bats in the cave but plenty of Wettas (GIANT New Zealand crickets) and Eels in the water. Our guide had us sit on a pile of rocks and told us to turn off our headlights and look up. I was amazed at the sight. The glowworms above were beautiful. Their lights were light blue and looked like stars. Our guide told us they did this to attract bugs. He made a loud banging noise and the glowworms shown even brighter because the noise created vibrations similar to insect wings. We turned our lights back on a got a closer look at the worms. They were actually larvae that created sticky strings of web that hung down to catch prey. We all felt like we were in the middle of a Discovery show! It was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. After the glowworm lesson we walked back through the cave where a pile of inner tubes were sitting. Our guide told each of us to grab one and jump on. We all attached inner tubes by grabbing onto the feet of a person behind you. It was so fun! So we went black water rafting. It’s pretty much what it sounds like. Pitch black floating in the water, going down waterfalls. We all laughed and had a great time. Our guide made games out of it, we had races and jumped off rocks, it was a blast. When it was time to head back we had to rock climb to get out. I found it a little difficult because the big boots and mud made it hard for me to find footing but I made it out! At the end of our trip we got soup and talked with our guide for a bit.

 We're ready!

 Cave entrance, view from the bottom

 Here I go...

 Weeee!

 Into the dark we go

 This is too fun!

 Us with the glowworms

 A better picture of the glowworms

This is what they look like up close in the light

 We felt like a bobsled team, little did we know our guide was about to push us down a water fall backwards

 We didn't make it over very well...haha

 I made it out!

Us and our guide, Marc

Saturday, the next day it was time for us to head back to Auckland and catch our flight to Christchurch. We said goodbye to Frodo and the North Island and set off for the South. The airport security thought we were all nuts chugging our water bottles before boarding and bagging liquids. I asked if I had to take off my shoes and the guard said, “Why? Are your shoes uncomfortable?” They even let you go through security without a boarding pass and a pat down.  Definitely interesting. We arrived in Christchurch around 9pm and made it to our apartments. I unpacked and went straight to bed since my lack of sleep seemed to finally catch up with me. This morning I went grocery shopping which was an adventure all on its own. No more brand names I recognize or even food for that matter. Tomorrow is the international orientation for my school so I am really excited to meet more people and potential classmates. School starts next Monday...what is that? Thanks for reading, bye! :)