Mini Road Trip!

In September, I took a few days away from my studies to go on a mini road trip with my boyfriend Justin and his parents. We rented an SUV, picked a few spots on the map, and saw a few sights! It was great to get out of the city, although I got quite a bit less work done than I'd anticipated ...

This is the crazy fog that set into Auckland the day we left. I can only assume the city was sad to see us go!

We stopped at Tauranga for lunch, and enjoyed the lovely beach view. DEFINITELY too cold to stick our feet in, though!

Nice scenery in the mountains above Rotorua, where we stopped for our first night.

These swans were shockingly uninterested in the shortbread cookies we were sharing with them! Fortunately, there were a few ducks that weren't too proud to pick up the crumbs.

Gorgeous waterfall somewhere between Rotorua and Napier. I have NO IDEA where.

Beautiful black sand beaches outside of Napier. Again, much too cold, although Justin did give it a try!

Absolutely hideous "art" in a park in Napier (according to a plaque nearby, it's called "Bio-morph").

Very cool bridge going over a river, where we stopped to have lunch on day three. And where we returned to a few hours later, when we realized that Justin's dad couldn't find his wallet. Which, as it turns out, was in the car the whole time ...

The river itself. And I'd like to make clear that I in no way messed with the colors in this photo - it actually looked like that.

SO. MANY. SHEEP.

Australia again ...

So back in July, when I was in Australia, I took a day trip up to the Daintree forest, a rainforest on the northeastern coast of the country. We stopped at a wildlife sanctuary on the way, and wound up the adventure at gorgeous Cape Tribulation. (And then drove four hours in the bus back to Cairns.) Here are a few of the better pictures. Sorry for the delay in getting these posted!

Not nearly so cuddly as I'd hoped! In fact, if you can't tell from the look on my face, I was terrified. Apparently, if koalas are nervous, they dig in their claws, which I definitely didn't want to happen ... so I didn't move. At all.

I've seen worse vandalism ...

The problem with crocodile photos is you can't tell how HUGE they are! However, this one wasn't all that huge, so it's not that big of a problem ...

How can you not appreciate the visuals?

Don't worry, this isn't a real cassowary - which, if rumor is correct, would have killed me in a manner of seconds.

White water rafting in Australia!

So I've fallen a bit behind on my blog postings, and for that I apologize. The requirements of my thesis, Rotary obligations and social life have finally caught up with me, and I forgot that I'd never finished posting on my trip to Australia over winter break. Anyhow, here's the most important part of my trip: white water rafting!

I took my trip down the river my last day in Cairns, and had a GREAT time! The rapids were classes III and IV, and we had an amazing guide. He did purposefully lose about half of us from the raft at one point - retribution for when we refused to fall out for a staged photograph earlier in the run - but he was a lot better than many of the less experienced guides, and took us through some amazing rapids!

Don't worry, I didn't buy these photos - I "won" them on the 2 hour bus ride back to Cairns after the 5 hour trip. I'm excited that I did get them, though, as a memory of the best day of my visit to Australia!

(If you can't tell, I'm in the front of the raft. Obviously. That's where all the fun is!)

Scuba Diving

After Sydney, Lydia and I headed to Cairns in Northern Queensland, which was supposed to be a good destination for fun vacation activities in the sun (which it absolutely WAS). The day after we arrived, we embarked on a five-day intensive Learn to Scuba Dive course. This was mainly Lydia's idea - diving was the one thing she had promised herself she'd do while in this side of the world - but I jumped on the bandwagon pretty quickly, despite the fact that I'm not a great swimmer and am kind of afraid of the ocean. Fortunately, I passed the required swim test (thanks to Lydia's lessons and my own trips to the pool for the previous two months), and after two days of classroom and pool training, we headed out to the ocean for two nights living on a boat and diving in the Great Barrier Reef.

And then I punked. I was having a really hard time getting my ears to equalize (even at 2 meters in the pool, the pressure gave me a bloody nose), and the ocean hadn't gotten any less scary. The upshot: instead of doing 4 dives and getting my Open Water Certification (allowing divers to dive solo up to depths of 18 meters), I did 2 dives and a bunch of snorkeling, and got my Skills Certification (which means I can handle my own equipment, but have to dive with an instructor, and can only go down to 12 meters). Essentially, I did the same things underwater that the rest of my class did (sitting on the ocean floor and taking off my mask, removing all the equipment, etc.), but fewer times and at less depth.

Ultimately, it was a fun experience, and I saw some things while diving that would have been impossible to see while snorkeling. I got to scratch a turtle on the shell, and stick my hand in a giant clam (and then freak out when it started closing). But the GBR is so beautiful that even the snorkeling was cooler than I'd imagined, and snorkeling is certainly a lot easier and less stressful, at least for me. I'm glad I can say I went diving, and it's cool that I'm partially certified, but I have to admit it's a skill I'm not sure I'll be utilizing any time soon.

One of the big problems with diving is that it TAKES SO LONG to get ready! I'm sure that, with experience, it's faster ... but when you're new at the game, it always seems like there are so many things to check, and better to take a bit of extra time on the surface than to run out of air or something 10 meters down!

The boat did have a very cool dive deck, that at least made it easier to get in and out of the water.

The "Giant Step" entry method ... very easy as long as you remember to hold your mask and regulator (breathing apparatus) in place.

Going under with my instructor to complete my skills certification. We sat on the floor of the ocean under the boat while Lydia hung out, so that we could all go for a dive afterwards ... apparently, there was a reef shark just behind me, but I missed it!

Out of the water after my second (and last) dive - although I had to get geared up a third time the next day to practice my surface skills, including towing my diving buddy and taking off my vest and tank ... a LOT of effort to get all geared up, and then afterwards I stripped back down and went snorkeling!

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the marine wildlife ... I'd thought about getting a disposable camera that could go underwater, but there are so many things going on while diving that I thought a camera would be one more thing to distract me. And then, when I realized I'd be doing more snorkeling than anything else, I was out on a boat with no stores in sight! Oops ...

Sydney!

Now, I'll be the first to admit that winters here in Auckland are pretty tame, compared to either Boston OR Idaho. I'm not sure there's EVER been snow here, but if so, it was newsworthy and melted in like 10 minutes - instead, the winter seems to be cool (like, sweater + lightweight jacket weather), with ridiculous wind and random, frequent rainstorms. I've had worse. All the same, when I had the opportunity to go north to Australia for a couple of weeks over winter break, the lure of escape proved strong indeed.

I started out with a weekend in Sydney, where I met up with my friend Lydia (she'd been staying there for about a month). Sydney is the city I'd expected Auckland to be ... large, bustling, and clearly international. It's just a cool city, with a fun culture, plus lots of beaches, etc. Also quite expensive - I was grateful I had a free place to stay. All in all, though, I definitely enjoyed my time there (although the weather wasn't much better than what I'd left behind here in Auckland).

The Harbour Bridge is in the back right corner of the above photo - you'll get a closer view of it in a few pictures.

Very cool tree-lined walkway in the middle of Hyde Park - my memory says it smelled like eucalyptus, but I won't guarantee that.

Really really really ugly fountain, also in Hyde Park.

This is Lydia's "favourite church" - I don't know what it's called, but it was pretty spectacular inside and out. (I always feel bad taking photos inside of churches ... I wouldn't want to show up in someone's vacation photos while worshipping, and assume other people feel the same.)

BATS. Lots and lots of them. Apparently, they've taken over this bit of the botanical gardens and are killing the trees (not maliciously, of course). And they're no longer nocturnal, either ... they were swooping overhead and making all sorts of bat-like noises.

MORE BATS. Crazy, right?!

This is called a "bottle tree." Lydia went on the tour of the gardens and says that it's called that NOT because it's shaped like a bottle, but she can't remember the real reason ... any helpers?