Rotten Eggs...

This will probably be one of my last posts - perhaps they’ll be one (or mayyybe two) more after this if you’re lucky =). Anyway, I just want to say thanks for reading these. I hope they’ve been both enjoyable and informative (with a little bit of humor of course). On Sunday, November 14^th I’ll be boarding a plane to leave Australia. Leave Australia….that’s such a weird concept to think about. Australia has become my new reality because I’ve lived here for the past four months – life back home seems more like a dream, a distant memory to some degree. Even talking with friends and family from home doesn’t always seem real. I’m sure once I return home, Australia will feel like the dream. Either way, I hope they’re both dreams I never forget.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about leaving. On one hand, I’m very excited to get to New Zealand and then return home; but I also get very melancholy when I think about leaving this country and these people who I have become close to (especially my host mum – she’ll always be my Australian mom). Whenever a Qantas plane flies overhead, I experience heaps of different emotions – happiness, sadness, anxiousness…. It’s time for me to go though. I have no doubt about that. This has been one of the best experiences of my life – it’s definitely been hard, but it’s also changed my life for the better. Australia has altered the way I look at things, the way I see situations and events, the way I go about my daily life, and how I see other people. It’s all a bit hard to explain at the moment, but if you’re interested (and have heaps of time) ask me about it sometime. I’d be more than willing to share it with you.

Anyway, next on the horizon for me is New Zealand. I’m so incredibly excited for this. We all have a week yet of “class” once we hit Kiwi soil – a week of experiencing and participating in the Maori culture that is. Sounds like a pretty good class, eh?

November 20^th brings about the official end to my study abroad experience. After that, I will be flying to the South Island of New Zealand for a 19 day adventure tour – lots of hiking, cycling, sleeping in tents, glaciers, kayaking, rafting, maybe some skydiving… The South Island is where all the action is. If you didn’t know, New Zealand is home to extreme sports. It’s actually the birthplace of a lot of them, including bungee jumping and zorbing (look up zorbing sometime on google if you’re bored. It’s quite hilarious). Did you know the first person to ever summit Everest was a New Zealander – Sir Edmund Hillary. Also, Sir Edmond Hillary was the first person to drive a vehicle to the South Pole – he drove there on an old Ferguson tractor nonetheless. These people are intense, and they definitely have a love for sport! After all, they were originally a warrior culture…

Here are a few interesting things about New Zealand that you may not already know:

-New Zealand is also known as Aotearoa – it’s the Maori name for this small country. The Maori culture is very much a vital part of everyone’s day-to-day life in New Zealand. It’s an example of how things could have gone had relations between Native people and white settlers been different in places such as America and Australia. Here, there’s more of a unity and mutual respect/love for each other. The Maori language is even equal to English.

- Auckland, one of the most well known cities here, is only about 7 miles wide. In those 7 miles you can find almost 50 volcanoes.

-New Zealand is home to 90 million sheep and 4 million people… (I love that statistic, by the way. It’s probably my favorite).

-3 main fault lines converge right through New Zealand – that’s why they have so many volcanoes, mountain ranges, earthquakes, and dramatic changes in landscape.

-New Zealand is known for its black sand. Beware: you MUST wear shoes when walking on this sand – it’s crushed lava and will give you blisters if you’re not careful.

-There are no major mammals here – they’re all birds. A lot of them are huge (the Moa was about the size of a giraffe, but it’s extinct now…sad). Most of these can’t fly. When you think about it, there’s really no reason to fly anywhere because New Zealand is so small. Oh, and the Kiwi is the only bird with nostrils at the tip of its beak…

-You may smell rotten eggs when you’re near Rotorua in the North Island. Don’t be fooled though - it’s due to all of the sulfur from the hot springs. There probably aren’t any eggs involved.

On December 9^th, I’ll be making my way back up to the North Island to join my parents for a few days. I’m not entirely sure what we’ll be doing, but hopefully it will involve some volcanoes/thermal springs, glowworm caves, and more Maori culture. I’m not exactly sure which part of my New Zealand trip I’m most excited about - jumping out of a plane in the South Island or hanging out with my parents in the North. Seriously, it’s a toss up. December 17^th is the day I’ll officially return home to the States with my parents in tow, just in time for the Christmas season. I’ll only be home for about three weeks though before my final semester at IWU begins January 11^th…

By the way, can you believe it’s already November! It seems especially weird for me because it’s transitioning into summer over here. Where’s the cold weather? the snow? What happened to fall? I missed my favorite season… Random fact: After all of this is over, I will have spent half of my year in the Southern Hemisphere (Mozambique, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand) and half in the Northern Hemisphere. That’s crazy! All I can say is I’m ready to be in one familiar place for a while! Enough of all of this traveling.