This will be my last post from my room in
Student Village as tomorrow morning (we get kicked out at 10) I’ll be leaving
Waikato University and my first semester behind me as I set off down to
wellington and officially start my New Zealand Road Trip!!
This past week has been crazy. I love my
to-do lists and I write them all the time to make sure I get everything done
but to-do lists went out the window this week as each list was pages and pages
long! But me and George now officially own a car! I’ve officially had my last
exam and handed in my last assignment! And I’ve officially packed my entire
life into a suitcase again!
Apart from all the exams, essays and
packing it’s also been a really fun week. We went for cocktails at Easy Tiger,
quiet drinks at Little George, had an amazing Halloween Night Out and went for
a lovely meal with my pod!
Me and Tash
Me and Axel (with his amazing fake tattoos that I scribbled on him for his costume!)
Me and Lulu
Our attempt at getting a group photo before going out!
(Caitlin, Me, Amanda, Tash, Axel, Lulu)
At the house Party before town!
All dolled up for our meal at Iguana (which was delicious)
Because there's always a hundred weird photos for every good one of us together!
I've had an amazing time at Student Village, and although there's been a fair few lows overall I've had a great time and met some very cool people. But I'm more than ready to move out and start my Kiwi Adventure with full force!
Matt just text me, he was driving home from work and saw a Possum! So i threw on some shoes and ran out to finally come face to face with the much talked about New Zealand Possum!
My verdict? SO CUTE!
In New Zealand they're seen as a pest as people basically kill them on sight, and the way people had described them to be I was basically expecting a giant rat. As it was it was a mix of a squirrel, mini kangaroo and a little bit like a cat!
I'm glad I've finally seen one, it makes me even more sad about how they're seen in New Zealand now though since I've seen one in person.
(I did want to get a photo but they're nocturnal and it was just too dark to even try and get one without using flash and scaring the poor thing)
Since I first crossed the Waikato River (probably on my second day in New Zealand) I really wanted to walk along it but every time I had a free day it was cloudy, or I forgot, or something got in the way. Well the past week the weather has been GLORIOUS! It has really started to feel like summer so Saturday I had a much needed lie in then set off to the river, it took a bit longer to get there than I thought, about an hour, as some roads were closed and not knowing the area that well I had to walk the long way round - when I finally got the river I was surprised to find it all paved really well (better than most of the roads actually) and there was a memorial park too!
Starting off my walk by trying to find my way down to the river
Memorial park
You can just see the plane at the end of the path
There were lots of really nice places to just sit, soak up the sun and enjoy being next to the river
I came across this sign after about an hour of walking and so i set off on a hunt for the promised 'Wellington ST Beach'!
I found so many little benches along the way and I can't wait to make use of these spots
This part of the Waikato river was beautiful and it felt like I kept stopping every 5 minutes to take pictures but I just couldn't resist it was so pretty!
I had to take a picture of this house as I thought where it was situated was so interesting
I can only imagine the views from the house were pretty beautiful
Just as I was becoming sure I'd either gone the wrong way or wellington st beach didn't exist the path opening out to grass with this giant tree and....
On my right I find the 'beach'! It was tiny, but it had a mini pier, sand, sunbathers and water so I guess that qualifies it as a beach - very cute!
I was surprisingly tempted to take a dip since the sun was beating down
(probably not the wisest decision to go at midday)
The Victoria bridge on my way back from wellington beach
And finally the view from Victoria bridge
It was a lovely walk and I'm really glad I finally got to explore the river - I know it's going to a place I visit regularly. Campus can sometimes feel a bit.. claustrophobic which seems weird as I never found the campus at Lancaster that way but the past few days I've just really needed to get away from people so escaping to the river was just what the doctor ordered!
I meant to start this blog on the plane to Thailand, and then when that didn't happen I was going to do it on the plane to New Zealand.. and then when that didn't work out it was definitely going to be written in my first week in New Zealand.. well over three months on and I'm finally getting around to it.
In short the first half of semester B at Waikato University has been a really mixed bag - there's been some great highs with meeting new people and travelling. But tempering that I've had a pretty big dose of culture shock and homesickness- which I think hit me so hard because I just wasn't expecting it! I'm feeling much more settled into New Zealand now and I'm more than ready to start doing some serious travelling over the summer!
As a quick catch up, I flew to Phuket before coming to New Zealand and it was amazing! I absolutely loved the heat, the manic hustle and bustle, the charming and sometimes over friendly people as well as the beautiful scenery - the Phi Phi islands were the highlight as well as seeing a baby turtle!
(Karon view point - you can just see my hotel from here!)
I stayed near Karon Beach which was perfect as it was 10 minutes in a tuktuk to Patong which has all the touristy things as well as an.. interesting night life. And yet Karon is much more chilled and relaxed and if you head in the other directed for 20 minutes your away from all the tourists completely!
(Phi Phi Li - I still can't get over the amazing colour of the water! I snorkled here when i was on a boat tour and it was so amazing - they threw bananas to attract the fish)
(Phi Phi Don - paradise)
(the view while i had lunch when i was exploring the islands around Phuket)
I did a few organised tours, one to FantaSea and another touring the islands, FantaSea was descibed as a mini, thai disneyland and I wouldn't necesarily go that far but it was really fun with lots of thai dancing and food, elephant rides and hundreds of shops selling all sorts of touristy things.
('elephant palace')
(feeding the fish)
(this is jamba)
I saw some stunning sunsets along the beach
I had some delicious food on the beach (the thai love condensed milk - who knew!)
My last day in Phuket was spent absorbing the views and seeing the sunset up at the 'big buddha'
(the buddha is still under construction as it's working on donations)
(everywhere you walked you heard these bells tinkling - it was weirdly relaxing!)
(a smaller golden buddha)
New Zealand has mainly been spent socialising but I did manage to squeeze in a trip to the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves which were beautiful - such a shame I couldn't take photos inside. And I had a great day at the hot pools, a naturally heated outdoor swimming pool with life-threatening slides, it certainly wouldn't have passed a single health and safety inspection but it was fun if nothing else!
(we had a masquerade ball which was really fun)
(at the hot pools)
A video Julia made of our day at the hot pools
(my caving team)
The academic system has also been a bit of a shock to the system, I'm used to a couple of essays throughout the year and one big final test, huge lecture theatres and then smaller seminars, here I'm tested almost weekly and I'm in lectures of 20 people! The first half of this semester has been hard academically and emotionally (dramatic i know).
