New Zealand Part II: Queenstown, the Kepler Track, and Te Anau

After Christchurch, I took a flight to Queenstown to begin the more outdoorsy part of my trip. Queenstown reminded me of a summertime Breckenridge with much cooler accents and many more signs encouraging you to jump off or out of things. Since paying money to be scared shitless is not exactly my thing, I decided to forgo the bungee jumping and skydiving (don’t worry mom) and focused on getting ready for my 4 day backpacking trip I was leaving on the next morning. When I got back to the hostel with all of my groceries, I met a very nice Aussie woman who had been in Queenstown for a while. I told her I only had one night in the city and my goal was to eat all of the best things possible, so she took me to The Fergburger, where I had an excellent original Fergberger and fries with garlic mayonnaise, which was (strangely) AMAZING. The woman was very interesting- she basically had been traveling on and off for about 10 years and had lots of funny stories about traveling around the US. After The Fergburger, we went to a café on the wharf that boasted to have the “Best Hot Chocolate in New Zealand,” and boy, they might have a point. Flavors included ginger, chili, and lilac, but I decided to stick to dark chocolate. Yum. We returned to the hostel, happily stuffed, where we joined with another group of girls to override the boys and watch Legally Blonde. It was a great last night in civilization.


Queenstown.



They weren't kidding.


The next morning, I woke up earlier than I want to talk about to catch a bus to the Kepler Track, where I was doing my first hike. The first day started with an hour stroll by a lake to trick you into thinking things were going to be easy before it turned into a relentless four-hour uphill climb. Within the first twenty minutes I met two girls (Canadian and Finnish) who were studying in New Zealand. We kept passing each other all day and exchanging words of encouragement/ looks of agony. The day was gorgeous and when I got to the top I had some great views. During all of my hiking in New Zealand, I stayed in “huts” that the conservation department had set up. Really, they were more like huge cabins with bunk beds, mattresses, running water and gas stoves. It was great! I didn’t have to carry a tent or a stove. Also, I met a lot of people since every night the same group of people would stay at the same hut together. I met some Israelis (the first of many!), along with a lot of “Kiwi” families on Easter break.
The second day of the hike was insane. As in, I was insane to do it. The hike was along the saddle of these huge mountains, which in theory was supposed to supply some great views. In reality, it was super foggy and so windy that I almost got blown off the mountain! It was probably for the best that I couldn’t see how high up I was. I ended up hiking with a German couple, since I wanted to make sure someone was there to witness me blowing off the side so they could point the search and rescue squad in my general direction. The plus side to the miserable weather was that we were rewarded at the end of the day by the brightest rainbow I had ever seen before we descended into the valley. We all oo-ed and ahh-ed for a couple of minutes, then zipped off to the shelter of the trees before another huge gust of wind came. I’m happy to report that I made it to the next hut, along with everyone else that had set out that morning. It was quite an adventure and bonding experience.
The rest of the hike was through the valley. It was mostly rainy, but turned pleasant by the end. I spent the last night in a hut overlooking a very pretty lake before I hiked out with a Kiwi family the next morning.


Brod Bay on Lake Te Anau. The last chance to relax before all of the up.



Luxmore Hut. More like Luxmore Two-story-luxury-cabin.



The saddle in the crazy wind, rain, and fog. That little dot is a person.



Still smiling!



Rainbow!



Walking through a valley cleared by a "slip" caused by heavy rains in the 1980s. On the left you can see one of the many waterfalls that were pouring out of the mountains due to... the heavy rains of the previous night. Uh oh.



Lake Manapouri where I spent my last night. It's finally sunny!



Mist coming off a lake/marsh in the morning.



The Waiau River. For those of you who are interested (Zach), the Waiau River played the River Anduin in the first Lord of the Rings movie when the uruk-hai chase the fellowship down the riverbank.



I'm smiling because once I cross Rainbow Reach Bridge I'm done!


I spent the day in a little town near the Kepler where I showered and got ready for my next hike. The big plan of the day was to see the famous glow worm caves, which had been recommended to me by several Aussies and randomly happened to be near the town I was in. So basically, I had no choice but to go. On my way back from the grocery store, who should I see but 4 guys from Wash U! They were in town to see, you guessed it, the glowworms. I was very happy to have some glowworm viewing partners. The glowworms were at the end of a very cool, very wet cave. They took us in a boat in the pitch black, and it looked like someone had thrown a net of Christmas lights over the ceiling. Actually, it could have been a net of lights and I wouldn’t have really known the difference. The worms glow to attract insects to it that get caught in sticky mucous nets that dangle from their bodies. Eww/cool. Afterwards, I had dinner with the boys, and then met one of the Israelis I had befriended on my hike at the only bar in town where I thoroughly embarrassed myself at pool.



Dinner with the Wash U boys.

New Zealand Part I: Christchurch

G’day everyone!

I just got back from over 2 weeks worth of adventure both in New Zealand, and on a field trip to Lady Elliot Island, which is part of the Great Barrier Reef. I’m pretty exhausted, but I couldn’t be happier!

I started off my trip to New Zealand by flying into Christchurch, which is the biggest city on the south island. I got in late because my flight was delayed, but the next morning I was ready to go and explore the city. The day began with my first bagel since arriving in the southern pacific. It only rated a “fair” on the international bagel ranking system, but because of the scarcity of bagels on this side of the world, its rating was inflated to a “very good.” After eating my bagel in what the guidebook called the “bustling” Cathedral Square, but I would describe more as “deserted,” I realized with a sinking feeling that I was in a city called Chirstchurch on Good Friday. I started to walk around the city, but pretty much everything was closed. I ended up talking to a very nice guy at one of the few open coffee shops who pointed out that the very touristy things were probably still open. As luck would have it, I was a tourist, so he told me to take a bus out to a gondola that would take me up to a mountain from which I could view the city. An hour later, I found myself at the top of a mountain looking at Christchurch. The views were very nice, and it was harder to tell everything was closed. After hiking around for a while, I ended up talking to the gondola guy, who recommended a boat tour in the neighboring town of Lyttleton where I could see the endangered Hector dolphins. I was a little skeptical, since I could see Lyttleton from the top of the mountain and it looked like a busy industrial port, but since there wasn’t much else to do, I hopped on another bus to Lyttleton in search of the elusive Hector dolphins. I saw so many dolphins it was RIDICULOUS! They came right up to the boat and were jumping around and everything. Even I, the worst picture taker in the world, got a semi-good picture of one. I don’t thing I have ever been more happy/seasick. On the boat, I ended up making some friends with two guys from Ireland. We had a good time together even though I couldn’t really understand their accents. The rest of the day I spent at the huge botanical gardens back in Christchurch. Christchurch is considered the most “English” of all the cities in New Zealand, and is also known as the “garden city,” so needless to say, the gardens were fantastic.



The Cathedral of Cathedral Square. Alternate caption: The Church of Christchurch.



A "punt" on the Avon River.



They had a tram that went around the city, which made everything seem even more old fashioned.



View of Lyttelton from the top of the Gondola. Christchurch was on the other side, but it wasn't as pretty from afar.



I can't believed I hiked for an hour just to see this stupid women's memorial. All the sign says is "They Passed This Way."



Lyttleton from the dolphin boat. Back in the day, a ball would drop down the pole on top of the castle-like building everyday at a certain time to help sailors set their clocks.



View of the harbor from out at sea.



Hector dolphins! I'm very proud of this photo. I think I have a future working for the National Geographic photography department.



My Irish friends who weren't too excited about being in a picture.



Fountain at the Botanic Gardens.



More punting.



Why is there a UFO in the middle of the gardens??????


The next day I had plans with two girls (American and Scottish) I had met at the hostel the night before. Because it was raining, we decided to go the Canterbury Museum, a natural history museum, which was very nice. Afterwards, we decided to warm ourselves up with coffee from a famous coffee shop creatively called “The Coffee House.” My cappuccino was very pretty, but more importantly it was very yummy. After saying goodbye to them, I went off on a search for Rutherford’s den. For those of you who aren’t aware, Rutherford was the scientist that discovered that the atom had a small, dense, positively charged nucleus. When I read a two-sentence blurb about his den being located in Christchurch, I knew that my afternoon’s mission was to find it. His den (and lecture theatre!) was located in the old University of Canterbury, which has now been turned into the city’s Art Centre. There was a great crafts fair out in front, and all of the different buildings had been turned into artists’ workshops that you could go and observe. After spending some time poking around the center, I finally found the entrance to the little wing of the center dedicated to Rutherford, where I spent a happy hour reading the displays and playing with the self-timer on my camera in order to get a shot of me in the lecture theatre, since (obviously) no one else was there. Cathy, I think Frye would be proud. It was a climatic ending to a great two days in Christchurch.


The Canterbury Museum.



The coffees were so pretty it was kind of sad to drink them. Not too sad though- yum!



My two friends Katherine and Claire outside The Coffee House.



The Art Centre/ Old University of Cantebury.



They jazzed things up a bit.



In Rutherford's lecture hall. (One out of 8 self timer attempts)



When I walked back through Cathedral Square, a huge chess set had appeared.

I have so much to write, the trip is going to have to be written about in sections. More later!

Sport and Bush

G’day!

As promised, my post will begin with a recounting of Duch Bowls. This was a much-hyped event where all the girls in my college dress in white granny outfits and go lawn bowling. The Op-shops were closed, so we ended up having to make a run to K-mart (good thing I came all the way to Australia for that,
huh?). I ended up finding a dress that was kind-of granny like, but at the same time was trying to be trendy in a tragic sort of way. I wore it with my “joggers” (sneakers) and my glasses, and the end result was that I mostly just looked awkward. Of course, the Aussie girls went all out with costumes, as usual, and it was really funny to watch everyone stare at us as we walked through campus on the way to the St. Lucia Lawn Bowling Club. Lawn Bowling turned out to be a lot like Bocce Ball, except that the balls weren’t perfect spheres, so you had to take into account how they would curve. I’m proud to report that I’ve found yet another sport I completely suck at.
All in all it was a successful afternoon, only to be topped by the fact that the entire college went straight from bowling to a night on the city- in costume!


Duch girls in costume.



Claire and I on the walk over.



Stephanie, my bowls partner, in her fabulous outfit drinking $2 wine (classy!).



More duch girls.



The bowlers.



Action shot!



Maybe we need some more practice...


On Friday, Mandy and I decided we wanted to see a rugby game. We were going to go with some Aussie boys who we were going to force to explain the game to us. Suddenly, 8 more people wanted to come- so it turned into quite the party! Of course, the Aussie boys missed the train, but luckily we had some Duch girls with us who knew the ropes. Rugby is a lot like football (“grid iron” here), except with more downs (“tackles”), no forward passing, and no pads. The Australians are especially keen on pointing out how the Rugby players aren’t “wusses” like the Americans since they don’t use helmets, shoulder pads etc. I was especially keen to point out that maybe the Americans had a point, considering the amount of brain damage/injuries rugby players sustain, but nobody really listened to me. We saw the Brisbane Broncos, who are a "Rugby League" team, as opposed to the Queensland Reds who are a "Rubgy Union" team. Apparently, "League" isn't as popular as "Union" is in Brisbane, which explains why our tickets were so cheap. People I've talked to here are very loyal to either "Union" or "League," but when I've asked what the difference is between them, people have been very vague in their answers. I'm not sure if this is because any explanation would be lost on me because I don't understand rugby in general, or because there really isn't much of a difference. It seems suspiciously to me like the difference between the American and National Leagues in baseball (ie. none, as far as I am concerned).
The game turned out to be very exciting- double overtime! Then, we loss. Of course, I had no idea what was going on, so I ended up cheering at then end until somebody pointed out that the other team had scored the goal. Oops.


Suncorp Stadium. Strategically located (I noticed) next to the XXXX beer factory.



Caroline and I in our suprisingly good seats. Nobody is at the stadium yet, because apparently games don't actually start until an hour after the ticket says they will (we missed the memo).



Rugby players not being wusses.


Later this weekend, I went with a friend I made in my Marine Biology class, Casey, to the botanic gardens on Mt. Coot-tha, (only about a 20 min bus ride from the city). It was a really nice day (as usual), and it was nice to go walking in a new area. The gardens were very tree and bush oriented- nothing like the flowery, manicured Chicago Botanic Gardens. They had a really cool Bonsai exhibit which we spent a lot of time in. Also, we saw a lot of wild life including water dragons (lizard-ish creatures) and funny turkey-like birds that ran away every time I tried to take a picture. Mostly, there were just a lot of very strange trees. We saw a “lookout point” labeled on the map and set out for it. 45 minutes of convoluted trails later, we arrived- and wow! We could see the whole skyline of Brisbane! Very cool. Later, while we were waiting for the bus back to campus, we decided to step into the little planetarium near the gardens, where we watched a silent animation of the Mars Rover landing. Thus, the day ended up being a slightly bizarre mixture of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial.


River Dragon Island.



I'm excited because I'm as tall as a tree.



Casey demonstrating the shear monstrosity of the the leaves on the tree.



I picked the biggest tree to hug in the whole forest.



My new favorite plant.



My other new favorite plant.



Overlooking the gardens to Brisbane.


Well, that’s all for the next couple of weeks- I’m off to New Zealand for the Easter Break. Many photos to come. Chag Sameach to all my friends and family!

Love, Anna

Shalom Chaverim, Shalom Chaverim, Shalom, Shalom...

I was just talking to some girls in my dorm that went to an Australian Catholic high school called “Shalom.” I soon discovered that their school song was “Shalom Chaverim,” the song I sang at Beth Emet Preschool! We spent a while singing it together/ comparing lyrics and pronounciations (ex: “chaverim” has been Aussie-fied to “ka-ve-rim” (“rim,” not “reem”). I fear this might be the closest to meeting Australian Jews I’m going to get!



The Shalom College coat of arms (remember college doesn't = university here).
http://www.shalomcollege.com/coatofarms.htm

L’hitraot!