I love New Zealand!!

I had a great time this past weekend.  On Saturday John, Keatin, and I spent like seven hours climbing at the quarry.  It was wonderful!  I can't remember a time my muscles have worked that hard.  On Sunday I had a field trip to the island of Rangitoto, which is a volcanic island.  We spent the day identifying various plant species in different plot sizes among the a'a lava.  The lava was very sharp and would have cut us to shreds, basically, if we fell.  After my group finished we decided to hike to the cinder cone up the volcanic mountain.  We hiked for a half an hour up and then realized we only had 20 minutes left to get down to the ferry.  We decided to literally run down the volcano in order to make it to the ferry on time.  It was a great, and sweaty, run.  Later that evening I went caving with a new kiwi friend I made, named Dave, into a lava cave.  It was very cool.  I saw fools gold littering the ceiling of the cave.  We went through a squeeze several meters long.  The only way I can describe it is that it was like crawling on my stomach underneath the bed I had as a kid, only in a cave, in the dark! It was so thrilling! 

Coromandel

Coromandel was probably one of the coolest places I have ever been to!  It was honestly a perfect day!  We started the weekend off by picking up our rental car from ace rental and then proceeded to drive to the Coromandel peninsula.  The drive started out looking a lot like what we've already seen throughout New Zealand and then we see these mountains forming in front of us.  Of course we are all hoping we get to drive through those mountains and we did!  The road was this windy road that everyone drives super fast on right by cliffs and such.  We arrive in Whitianga (Fi-tee-ang-ah) and checked into our hostel called the cats pyjamas.  The first thing we did was throw on our suits grab the scrumpy and tui and headed for the beach at Cathedral Cove.  It is literally the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my entire life!!  We saw some wicked looking stingrays swimming on the sandbar and many different fish.  We saw this huge rock in the middle of the bay so Keatin and I decided to swim out there (finding another cliff along the way) and climbed up so we could jump off.  It was so much fun.  The second day it was raining so we decided to just drive up the coast.  It was so beautiful.  It constantly amazes me how much the terrain here can change.  The coast looked more like a european coast line, but it was so beautiful.  We found more rocks to climb and decided to check out the tidal pools.  While looking into one I didn't see the huge wave coming right at me, and got totally soaked!  It was a great time though.

I just wanted to say to everyone at home!!! I MISS YOU!!!

Love, Dani

University of Auckland

I have finally arrived here and it is wonderful! I'm very glad I have internet now as well. 

We've done a lot of really amazing things.  First in the airport I met all of my fellow australearn students, they are amazing!  The plane ride was 12 hours from LAX airport, but overall wasn't that bad of a ride.  When we arrived in the Auckland airport they loaded us on a bus and we rode 3 hours down south to Rotorua.  Our bus driver, Chops, was soo cool and very entertaining.  The first day was spend exploring the city and getting to know the other people in our group.  We stayed at a hostel called the Kiwi paka.  Nice people and great food!

Day two was all about experiencing the great things Rotorua has to offer.  We started the day off with a trip to the live sheep show at the Agradome.  It was very entertaining.  After that we headed to the adventure zone to go zorbing. For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a ball filled with soapy water that rolls down a hill.  Heather, Keatin, and I hopped on in and rolled down this giant hill, and laughed so hard!  After zorbing we went to the Maori Tamaki village for a wonderful cultural experience, and some great food!  The dinner was a traditional hangi dinner which is cooked outside on New Zealand rocks!  It is so unbelievable.  The kiwis are very proud of their Maori culture which I found so interesting coming from the states where we tried to destroy rather than celebrate the native culture.

On the third day, he rose again, haha...jk (it's been a long day).  We went to Waitamo to go caving.  So cool.  It was very physical and exciting.  We abseiled down this 80 foot drop into the cave, then proceeded to crawl through holes and shimmy and abseil some more through waterfalls and caverns and anything you can think of.  We ended up being 80 meters below ground at the lowest point and saw glow worms.  Glow worms are not actually worms at all they are maggots that are sexual shit shiners according to the guide.  There were 5 people in our group, me being the only girl, and also the only one to actually rock climb out of the cave!  It was amazing.  The guide heard that I like rock climbing and challenged me to climb the wall rather than use the ladder, so I did!  Craziest thing I have ever done!

Departure Day!

Wow!!!  So I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to LA to depart and I'm starting to get nervous.  Up until now I've only been excited, but never nervous, until I could no longer see my mom and sister while going through the security.  The feeling of, wow I'm really alone right now, just settled in.  This is my first time ever traveling alone and it is more than overwhelming, but I would never let her know I feel that way.  

It's hard to believe that in less than 24 hours I will be in Rotorua bungee jumping and zorbing.  The one thing I am probably looking the most forward to is the rock climbing.  I found a website for this pretty sweet climbing gym right by the university.  I'm sure I will be visiting the facility a lot.  There is also some wicked outdoor climbing opportunities as well.  I'm very psyched about it.  Well that's all for now, since I am paying for the internet :(.  

Love, 

Dani

Climb On!!

Just thought I'd share a photo that is currently making me laugh!! Andra isn't really choking me, this is what happens 3 red bulls in 20 minutes later! haha..gotta love hyper people. We were on our way to the hollidazzle parade, which we missed, but had just as much walking through macy's mechanical version of the nutcracker.

So today I got to rock climb finally! It was so fun. I tested out my new black diamond harness and it is so comfortable. If anyone has any suggestions of some rock climbing places in New Zealand just comment and I would super appreciate it!

Danielle :)

Birthdays and such!

My brother got a Wii for his birthday and we played so much that none of us could move the next day! Brady found out that this is a video game that I can actually beat him at! Yay for Wii!

I started packing this week and realized that 50 pounds of luggage is not nearly as much as I thought it was! You try to plan for any event and realize that you just can't. Oh well...I guess that just means more shopping :) I found the coolest rock climbing wall in New Zealand and am so excited to test out my new climbing gear. This trip is going to be so amazing! I can't wait!

Anticipation!

On February 18th I leave for New Zealand and I am so psyched! It will be summer when I arrive there and right now it is so very cold here! I found this picture from my cabin randomly in my computer and it really got me in the summer mood. I'm looking for some really cute tank tops to wear there with a New Zealand vibe to them so if you have any ideas message me back! Well that's all for now!