For one weekend adventure down to the Catlins (a national park) we had to rent a car. Seeing as only Michael and I were old enough to rent a car, it meant one of us would be driving. That ended up being me. At first, driving on the left is pretty freaky. I kept want to turn into the right lane and I'd get confused when turning onto roads. Thankfully one of my flatmates happens to be from the UK and she went with me, so she would yell at me everytime I went into the wrong lane. Eventually I figured it out and now it's pretty standard, but I do have to pay more attention to what lane I'm turning into and whatnot. Driving on the left is definitely an experience and is quite fun. It throws you off though because you drive on the right side of the car so you have no idea where the left side of your car is so I kept drifting far left but nothing to serious happened as a result. Also, the wipers and blinkers are on opposite sides so whenever I'd go to turn on my blinker I'd end up turning on my wipers which is quite confusing at first.
Anyways, the Catlins are our equivalent of a national park. It's about a 2 hour drive from Dunedin to get there. We got there at night so we weren't able to see what we were camping around, but we set up camp anyways and cooked food and had a great night. The next morning it was pretty windy so that woke up everyone up pretty early. When we got out of the tent it what we were camping on was essentially a river delta. There were big cliffs on either side of us with a really big and nice sandy beach in between with a river running through the middle of it. The beach was also inhabited by sea lions. At one point, I crossed the river (nobody else was man enough to cross it at that point) and began wandering this beach by myself. I started following some tracks in the sand because I had no idea what they were. Just before some grasslands I looked up and saw two or three (probably a family) of sea lions sleeping in the grass, no more than 15m away from me. I got a little freaked out because sea lions are big and if they charge you they can outrun you. And assuming it was a family I wasn't trying to get attacked, so I got out of there. I kept wandering and came across more sea lions either sleeping on the beach or doing whatever they do in the surf. I got some pictures, checked out some cliffs and then decided to head back across the river.
After I crossed, we began some more exploring. We found a rope swing that was on a hill and had a ton of fun on that for about an hour. I've never had more fun on a swing before and could have stayed there all day, but we had more exploring to do. The first place we went to was a waterfall that was about 10m tall and consisted of three sections. It was pretty neat but nothing to special. After that we drove for about 15 minutes to another waterfall. This one consisted of a 20 minute hike to get to it, and when we got there we were not disappointed. It was about 22m tall and was amazing. There were rocks all around it that we could climb on and some people even went swimming in the water at the bottom of it. We hiked up the side of the waterfall on a pretty steep hill and climbed out on a tree that was hanging over the top of the waterfall. It was incredibly freaky looking down but very cool. We hung around the waterfall for a good while and got plenty of pictures. After that we drove to a forest with a 'mirror' lake. I say that because what you saw in the water was an exact mirror image of the ground in front of it. It was very pretty and cool. We hiked around there for a little while before heading to petrified forest.
The petrified forest was kind of a let down because it wan't a real forest; the forest had been buried by volcanic ash thousands of years ago and we were walking on top of it. But what was cool was the beach directly off the ocean in front of it is also home to the rarest penguins in the world, the Yellow-eyed Penguin. These were really cool and we got pretty close to them (10m was as close as you could get to them and I was about that far). We hung out there for a little while before calling it a day.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Silver Peaks Track
The Silver Peaks Track is a 40km (26 miles) round trip tramp through various different ecosystems and took us two days to complete. The terrain wasn't extremely exhausting but physically it was very exhausting, (13 miles a day hiking with gear). We left the first morning at around 7am and began our trek out of town. As soon as we get onto the track (about 3 miles out of town) it begins to rain. Nothing to hard, just a very light drizzle. We figured it wouldn't last too long and that the clouds would burn off after a couple of hours. Boy were we wrong. The clouds didn't burn off at all, they actually got thicker the further we go into the track. For about 3 hours while traversing the peaks of these mountains our visibility wasn't more than 100m; we were literally hiking through clouds. The rain also never stopped. For 8 long hours it rained on us non stop; but like I said it wasn't heavy rain, it was just constant. It was also very windy. Needless to say it was pretty brutal conditions, especially since most of the people in our group had never done any real hiking (there were 13 of us in the group). Anyways, we pushed on, hiking through all kinds of wetlands, forests, shrubbery, pines, tropical trees, grasslands, every kind of 'land' you could imagine, chances are we hiked through it. ALso, since it was raining and had been for quite some time, the ground was no longer solid and we were pretty much hiking through mud the entire time, so it got pretty muddy. Luckily nobody ate it. Despite the rain, wind, and clouds, it was still a very nice tramp with plenty of decent views. One of the main things that kept us going was the hope that the next day would be nicer and we would actually be able to see what we were tramping through.
The last part of the hike (which would also be the first part of the hike in the morning) consisted of us basically climbing down this 400m spire known as 'The Devils Staircase'. This was actually pretty tough since it was still incredibly muddy and very steep. After making it down that there was a little river that we hung out at for a little bit while everybody got down and ready to move on to the hut we were planning on staying in for the night. The hut was a pretty decent sized place with two bunks that could fit about 5 people on each of them. Since it was so cold and wet we decided to huddle about 8 of us onto one of the bunks to stay warm, which worked amazingly well. The next morning we got up at sun rise and were actually able to see what we had been hiking through, and it was very nice. We packed our gear up, put on our still soaking wet and cold shoes and prepared for the journey home. The tramp back was very nice as it wasn't cloudy, wasn't raining, and wasn't windy. After the long walk home I though my knees were going to give out. I couldn't properly walk down stairs for the next two or three days. The hike was long, cold, wet, dirty, but a ton of fun.
The last part of the hike (which would also be the first part of the hike in the morning) consisted of us basically climbing down this 400m spire known as 'The Devils Staircase'. This was actually pretty tough since it was still incredibly muddy and very steep. After making it down that there was a little river that we hung out at for a little bit while everybody got down and ready to move on to the hut we were planning on staying in for the night. The hut was a pretty decent sized place with two bunks that could fit about 5 people on each of them. Since it was so cold and wet we decided to huddle about 8 of us onto one of the bunks to stay warm, which worked amazingly well. The next morning we got up at sun rise and were actually able to see what we had been hiking through, and it was very nice. We packed our gear up, put on our still soaking wet and cold shoes and prepared for the journey home. The tramp back was very nice as it wasn't cloudy, wasn't raining, and wasn't windy. After the long walk home I though my knees were going to give out. I couldn't properly walk down stairs for the next two or three days. The hike was long, cold, wet, dirty, but a ton of fun.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Arrival in Dunedin
We arrived in Dunedin on the evening of July 6th and were met at the airport by an Otago (the university I'm attending) rep. He gave us our keys to our flats and gave us a little rundown on how things would work for the next day or two. We were then driven to our respective places. My place was a little confusing to find at first, but once I found it I was able to settle in. I was the last of my international flatmates to arrive. Our flats are 3 stories with 2 bedrooms on each floor and a kitchen, bathroom and living room on the main floor. My floor has a shower as well and the 3rd floor has another bathroom. The place is relatively new and is a nice place, and to boot I have a balcony directly off my room, but unfortunately it's been too cold to properly use it. My flatmates are all nice, interesting, and cool people. There is a girl that lives in Vermont, a guy that lives in Santa Barbara, a girl from England, a guy from Czech Republic, and then my Kiwi host who is from the North Island.
The first night here we found this neat little Irish pub that is kist 2 blocks away from my place, but unfortunately those 2 blocks consist of long and steep hills (if I want to go anywhere I have to walk up and down these hills, which sucks, but at least I'll have legs of steel by the time I come home). Anyways, the pub is a great place and we go there pretty regularly. After that I was introduced to "Scrumpy", which is basically the nectar of the Gods. It's a spiced cider that comes in 1.25 litre bottle, is relatively cheap (relative to the rest of the alcohol here which is quite expensive), and is delicious. Scrumpy does wonderful things and can be used as a noun, adjective, verb, adverb, and any other part of speech you want to use it as. Enough about that, I'm here to explore, not to drink, right?
As far as my classes go they are all pretty interesting and enjoyable so far. I'm taking 2 film classes, a music class and a business class. My film classes are Film Genres which focuses on science fiction films, Film Music which is all about musical scores from films and seems very interesting. My music class is a world music class that focuses on African music and is a ton of fun. The other day I learned to play the djembe (an African drum). My business class is a management and organisation class which is incredibly boring and uninteresting (there's a reason I switched from a business major to a film major). However, since it counts as a 300 level course back home and is only a 100 level course here, I'm taking it as part of my minor.
The first week in Dunedin (also called O-Week) is when all the fun happens. All the students return and really the only way to phrase it is "shit gets crazy". Unfortunately I had a pretty bad cold that week, but I didn't miss out on all the fun. There were bock parties for 2 or 3 days in a row, in which the fun thing to do is burn couches. Yes, light couches (that you sit on) on fire, and enjoy. There is a whole section on the Wikipedia article for the University of Otago on couch burnings. They even addressed it in an introduction lecture we had to attend. A couple of students get arrested here and there and everyone has a good time (except those that got arrested).
That weekend I started doing a little exploring. We went to Aramoana Beach, which is way out on the Otago peninsula. Despite the weather being cloudy, raining, and cold, the beach was still an amazing place. The beach itself was really nice and fine sand covered in sea shells. Directly off the beach was about 50ft of grassland. Behind that was a pine forest. Next to the pine forest was a tropical area with palm trees and various kinds of large plants. It was a very diverse and cool place, like nothing I'd ever seen before. The pine forest was so dense and thick with pines that just walking around felt like you were walking on a mattress. We walked further down the beach and there were these large cliffs coming almost straight out of the water and since it was foggy it literally looked like a scene straight out of Jurassic Park. We climbed around on some rocks for a while attempting to dodge the incoming waves and it was fun. While we were there we saw our first penguins playing in the surf! Very cool stuff.
The first night here we found this neat little Irish pub that is kist 2 blocks away from my place, but unfortunately those 2 blocks consist of long and steep hills (if I want to go anywhere I have to walk up and down these hills, which sucks, but at least I'll have legs of steel by the time I come home). Anyways, the pub is a great place and we go there pretty regularly. After that I was introduced to "Scrumpy", which is basically the nectar of the Gods. It's a spiced cider that comes in 1.25 litre bottle, is relatively cheap (relative to the rest of the alcohol here which is quite expensive), and is delicious. Scrumpy does wonderful things and can be used as a noun, adjective, verb, adverb, and any other part of speech you want to use it as. Enough about that, I'm here to explore, not to drink, right?
As far as my classes go they are all pretty interesting and enjoyable so far. I'm taking 2 film classes, a music class and a business class. My film classes are Film Genres which focuses on science fiction films, Film Music which is all about musical scores from films and seems very interesting. My music class is a world music class that focuses on African music and is a ton of fun. The other day I learned to play the djembe (an African drum). My business class is a management and organisation class which is incredibly boring and uninteresting (there's a reason I switched from a business major to a film major). However, since it counts as a 300 level course back home and is only a 100 level course here, I'm taking it as part of my minor.
The first week in Dunedin (also called O-Week) is when all the fun happens. All the students return and really the only way to phrase it is "shit gets crazy". Unfortunately I had a pretty bad cold that week, but I didn't miss out on all the fun. There were bock parties for 2 or 3 days in a row, in which the fun thing to do is burn couches. Yes, light couches (that you sit on) on fire, and enjoy. There is a whole section on the Wikipedia article for the University of Otago on couch burnings. They even addressed it in an introduction lecture we had to attend. A couple of students get arrested here and there and everyone has a good time (except those that got arrested).
That weekend I started doing a little exploring. We went to Aramoana Beach, which is way out on the Otago peninsula. Despite the weather being cloudy, raining, and cold, the beach was still an amazing place. The beach itself was really nice and fine sand covered in sea shells. Directly off the beach was about 50ft of grassland. Behind that was a pine forest. Next to the pine forest was a tropical area with palm trees and various kinds of large plants. It was a very diverse and cool place, like nothing I'd ever seen before. The pine forest was so dense and thick with pines that just walking around felt like you were walking on a mattress. We walked further down the beach and there were these large cliffs coming almost straight out of the water and since it was foggy it literally looked like a scene straight out of Jurassic Park. We climbed around on some rocks for a while attempting to dodge the incoming waves and it was fun. While we were there we saw our first penguins playing in the surf! Very cool stuff.
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