We headed out on the town for Friday the 13th as it is one of mine and Mary's favorite days of the year. I had decided the week before that I was going to try a Down the Rabbit Hole at Alice. It is a Long Island Iced Tea with absinthe. I figured that's all I would need for the night, but of course we didn't go there first, and I wanted to try other drinks before that. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to you to decide, but the long islands here are not nearly as potent as they are back home. At home its a full glass of straight alcohol with a splash of coke. In NZ it is about half and half. So needless to say, that one drink did not do me in for the night. But this did not keep me from having a good time. I kept up with the best of them, and Nicole and I boogied all night long while singing our hearts out to the best of the 70s and 80s.
It is getting to be that time in the semester where everything needs to get finished up. I've gotten an early lead on studio because I've heard that the third years have five hand-ins this week, which means there won't be many computers open. Plus everyone else has projects due so finding a computer to work on will be tough. But I have a good portion of my drawings already done. But its crazy to think there are only two weeks of class left. And once this week is over, there isn't much to do that last week since studio will have been handed in already, and I don't have much to do for my other papers. I finally handed in my practice and management project. I was over that project a few months ago. I hate group work in school, and it was just a really bad project especially because no one had any idea what we were supposed to be doing. But it is over and done with, and I don't have to worry about it anymore.
Mary, Jess, and I planned and booked a five day trip down to the South Island in June. We leave the day after we get back from Tonga so its going to be a very quick turnaround, but I am so excited. We're flying down to Dunedin, which is on the southeast coast. We're then driving around the coast and up to Queenstown. On my birthday Mary and I are going on a tour of Milford Sound, which I am ecstatic about. It is my birthday present to myself. It is the one thing I have wanted to see since I got here, and now I get to do it on my birthday. June is just going to be ridiculously awesome. I'll finish up the last few days of class, head to Tonga for a week, head down to the South Island, spend my birthday in Milford Sound, head back to Welly to take two finals while celebrating my birthday with everyone else, then maybe doing one last trip before packing my bags and heading home. While I can't wait for June, the time is just going too fast. I only have six weeks left here, and I'm not ready to leave. Don't get me wrong, I miss home, but this has been a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it's almost over. I started planning this trip in November of 2009, and while it was something to look forward to, here I am enjoying the experience, and it is almost time for me to go home. I'll never get this chance again, which is why I am spending ridiculous amounts of money and having the time of my life.
The field trip I talked about last time got rescheduled for today, and I am so glad I went. Plus, this time it was free because we didn't take a bus.We headed east out of Wellington and through the mountains, which were gorgeous. We then stopped in the middle of nowhere at the archaeological site, which was the whole point of the field trip. We had to climb a small hill to get to it. A few months ago I would have grumbled about walking up that hill, but after living in Wellington it was like a walk in the park. Anyways, the site wasn't too big. Peter gave us half an hour to map it out, which consisted of us pacing everything off. There wasn't a whole lot to see, but you could see the old kumara pits, terraces where there may been houses, and ditches and banks that the Maori people would have built to defend themselves.
We then headed to the coast to eat lunch and enjoy the view. We were supposed to go see the oldest house in NZ, but we were running out of time, so Peter took us further along the coast to go see some seals. This was the absolute best part of the day. The scenery on the way out was breathtaking. Mountains on one side, the Cook Straight on the other. So we stop at this lookout area, which could easily be one of my favorite spots in NZ so far. There are these huge rocks with tons of seals everywhere and these huge waves crashing into the rocks. We spent a good hour out there, but I would have loved to have stayed longer. The seals stink, but they're fun to watch. They sort of flop around, and its really funny to see them try to move fast. And they make these crazy noises. There was one point that I heard one making sneezing noises, and it was coming from a shrub. Then he started growling and stuck his head out at me. Jess got a little too close to mama and baby. Baby ran away while mom started towards Jess and made some not very nice noises. There were tons of babies playing in the water. It was really cool to see them in their natural habitat. This was definitely worth the drive out there.
Last but not least, I saw a Weta. It is NZ native bug, and it is nasty. I walked outside to see what the weather is like, and there it was making its way to my front door. So did I kill it? Nope. I grabbed my camera, took a couple shots, then used my jandal to shuffle him into the street.
Kia Ora,
Laura
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