SCUBA DIVING!

So this weekend I hopped on a bus and headed up to Whangarei (pronounced fang-are-aye) which me 10hours instead of 4 (don't even get me started on that drama) Anyway because I was so late I had to stand on the deserted edge of town for an hour waiting for my pick up - which had left after waiting half an hour… I did eventually get to my hostel though and then it was quickly packing things up for the morning before hitting the hay. As I had an early start the next morning because I had to get to Tutukaka to go SCUBA DIVING!!

The ride to Tutukaka (too-too-car-car) flew by as I met a guy called David from Edinburgh and we chatted the whole way. Once I got there I filled in the deluge of paperwork and it wasn't long before we were on the boat, calypso, off to Poor Knights Island. 

(I swam through this cave! Or rather I stopped moving and let the swell propel me under it!)

The trip out there was rough. It was only a few days ago that the cyclone passed through so although the visibility of water was back up to 20metres there was still a large swell and there were about 5 of us who were pasty by the time we arrived. 

Poor Knights is a marine reserve area and so if you're found on the island its and instant $250,000 fine! The good bit is because of it's status as a marine reserve the area is incredibly beautiful

At our first stop I got to do some snorkelling and it was so much fun! I've never seen water so clear! The area I was snorkelling was around 16metres deep and I could see the sea floor perfectly, it was honestly a little unreal how utterly transparent the water was, and since it's a marine reserve the fish here have never known fishermen and so they were pretty fearless!

I have to say getting into the water didn't particularly help the seasickness like it usually does, probably because the water was still quite turbulent where we were snorkelling. 

After snorkelling for over an hour we headed to a massive sea cave where you could create the most deafening echo! This was when everyone had lunch (I skipped this as I did not think eating was a good idea when I was already struggling to keep water down) 

After the cave we set off to the final dive sight of the day, on the way over there Marie talked me through all the equipment I'd be using, as well as lots of safety instructions and the exercises I'd need to do as we descended to 12metres (we had to do this in stages as I couldn't look up for very long without feeling nauseated)

Now my dive didn't get off to the best of starts… The weight belt came loose, so my legs were getting dragged under, and then once that was sorted my flipper came off! Once everything was back on and tightened me and Marie started to descend. 

Every metre you need to correct the air pressure in your ears and sinuses, that was fine and we got to about 6 metres down before I had to do the harder exercises. The first one was I had to let go of the mouth piece and then find it again, and since you can't hold your breath without damaging your lungs I had to blow out a steady stream of bubbled while trying to get hold of the mouth piece. That was easy enough, and most of the exercises were fine, you just had to watch your breathing and not panic. 

The last exercise was the one that really got to my though. I had to let water into my mask and tilt my head back while breathing out my nose to push out the water, but obviously once you tilt your head back the water in the mask rushes into your eyes and nose. This one took a few attempts for me to do it without having a complete panic. I detested this exercise. 

Scuba Diving was amazing. It really is a completely different world down there and I can completely see why people fall in love with it, once you're under it's utterly amazing. Having said that, the exercises you need to do were terrifying. 

For some reason it never occurred to me that scuba diving would scare me. I think I just assumed it was an intense version of swimming, and since I adore being in the water I just assumed I'd love diving just as much. But this weekend was the first time I've ever actually been scared of the water. 

Being 8 metres below the surface with water rushing into my nose and eyes while my mouth piece was floating off behind my head and my flipper coming loose, all the while trying not to panic and continue to breathe out, despite every instinct calling for me to hold my breath, was probably the most scared I've ever been. I'd rather do 50 bungy jumps than go through that again. 

Once I was back on board and the other divers were coming up Chris, a lovely lady from Oz who has done over 600 dives, mentioned that she thought I was really brave doing my first dive at such a challenging spot. As although Poor Knights is a truly beautiful and unique diving spot it's not easy. (no one had told me that…)

Basically I'm so glad I went scuba diving but I'm in no rush to do it again any time soon. I am tempted by some of the training course you can do in aquariums and swimming pools though as I think that'd be a great way to get the hang of the exercises while feeling more secure.  

One the ride back to land a massive pod of dolphins decided to join us! I've seen my fair share of dolphins since coming to NZ but this was by far the most I've seen all together and they just kept swimming along the boat for ages!  (not that I saw too much of them as I was attempting to not throw up more than 10 times in one day- that's one record I'm in no rush to beat)

(embracing the salty waves and crazy hair a day at sea delivers!)

Once I caught the bus back to the hostel I decided to rejoice on being back on solid land with the threat of drowning behind me and go for a walk to the Whangarei Falls 

looking down at the waterfall from above!

So glad I made time for this trek (although towards the end of the uphill stretch my legs weren't too happy with me putting them through 6+hours of swimming and diving and then a 2hour trek..)

I thought the sunspots made this picture really lovely so I thought I'd share this one rather than the others I took without. 

By the time I got down to the base of the waterfall the sun was just beginning to set so I had the place to myself and it was such a beautiful and tranquil spot!

I've been playing around with my camera setting recently and I thought the in-action shots of my attempting to use the self timer were worth sharing!

 (my poor nail polish chipped so badly after getting in and out of my wetsuit!)

Blurry!

I did eventually get the hang of it though and I think I got a few good photos! 

I've had the most amazing weekend at Whangarei, one I doubt I'm going to forget in any hurry!  

Settling In

I can't believe I've been at uni 2 weeks already - this semester is simply going to fly by! 

The first week we had lots of activities for being an international student, and I spent most of the days doing forms and paperwork but almost every evening we did something which was great as I feel like I already know so many new people here!

One of the best activities (which we all thought would be a bit rubbish) was the Scavenger hunt! Orchard Park was split into 3 groups and we had a list of tasks we had to complete and take photos of, we started off on Campus but soon we ended up in town and then we got to play a free game of bowling!

we got bonus points if we got strangers in the photos so here's my group with a busker!

 We needed to make a Hum Pyramid but none of us fancied standing on each other so we did this instead!

We managed to fit 25 people into a Public Toilet!

 Then there was O week - basically Fresher's Week. I don't have too many photos of this but every evening was a fancy dress theme!

 Cowboys and Chiefs / Jungle - the night I got given a free cowboy hat

The BOCs Party - we had to dress up as something beginning with O or P (for Orchard Park)

A Princess, A Pineapple, A Prisoner, A Painter, A Panda and a Panther!

Mt Maunganui

I had the most amazing day at the beach! Everyone from Orchard Park who was going on the trip gathered together before heading over to the bus - we were running late as we had to wait for people but needles to say, it's New Zealand, so the bus was running late itself!

The journey there was pretty smooth although quite a few of us weren't feeling too great towards the end - however the view when we got off the bus was so worth feeling nauseated!

Hanne, Me, Anna and Alyssa 

(Anna's photo)

It was the perfect day at the beach - the water was crystal clear, the sand soft and golden, the sky was the perfect blue, and it was an ideal 38degrees! 

I think the day was made even sweeter by the fact we'd only paid $5 for the bus there and back, and they threw in free snacks, and a lunch of fish and chips!

Yuka and Ash 

 Sunning ourselves after a swim! (Yuka's photos)

Once we got back to the uni we were told momento was offering us free food as well! So we all sat down and bought ourselves a pint of the locally made plum cider (which was yummy) so we watched the sun set while sipping our ice cold drinks over the lake listening to an amazing DJ (Yuka went up to ask where he normally DJs and we're definitely going to be going to electric soon!)

New Room!

So I'm finally in my new room at Orchard Park. It's a lot bigger than my past few university rooms, its got two windows and unlike my last room at Waikato it doesn't make me want to cry (it's the little things). I'm in cottage 25, room one with Ana from Sweden, Ana from Norway (nice and easy to remember) and Sherie from China :)

 My little bamboo bowl with opal lining I picked up in Singapore

 new keys :)

 My little collection of keyrings- I'm trying to get one from each place I visit!

Venice, Verona, Phuket, Sydney, Dubai, Singapore and Brisbane

 My bits and pieces on my shelves

 Window number 1! Looking out over some grass and a small carpark

 And Window number 2 features a tree

 And from the second window at the front of the 'cottage' you can see our little deck and that's outside the front of the house!

I'm already much happier with this room compared to the last one which smelt, had wallpaper peeling off and where everything with chipped and looked like it needed replacing! 

Getting to Uni

-this is just a ramble, so it's not very interesting, but I wanted to put it up so I can read it when I look back on my Year Abroad- 

Getting to University from Brisbane was by far the most nightmarish trip to date (I'm sure worse will come in the future but anyway)

Starting at the beginning, I had to get up at 5am, or rather I had to get up at 5am after getting 3hours sleep because 2 girls in the room decided it was a good idea to have a silent war over the air conditioning meaning the room was either constantly freezing or roasting. Getting the train to the airport went smoothly though - I’m savouring the small things which went right

But things started to go a little sour as soon as I got to the airport really, the lift was broken so I had to try and maneuver my suitcase on the escalator where it didn’t really fit… Then there was a Korean Pop group arriving so the airport was packed! Meaning I had to detour and squeeze past the massive crowd of screaming girls and paparazzi. Then I was told my flight was delayed… by 6 hours! They checked me in though and gave me a $15 food voucher (which I thought was really nice and I made good use of)

After a quick skype the internet disappeared from my kindle, and the internet wasn't available for my laptop so I went to change some of my random currency which I've steadily accumulated into something useful… but they couldn’t exchange half of my notes because they weren't accepting dirhams for some reason(?). I did eventually get change and sat down at one of the computers but then the computer swallowed my money, so I couldn't contact anyone.

By now I was 4hrs into the supposed 6hr delay, however while I failing to access the internet the time for departure was steadily getting later and later. Which meant instead of getting into Auckland mid-afternoon I’d now be lucky to get in before midnight so I wouldn’t be able to catch my bus. And since i didn't have access to the internet, or a working phone, I couldn't ask a friend to pick me up.

After a minor breakdown when tiredness caught up me, it soon became clear that I the midnight prediction had been optimistic, and the early hours of the morning was looking increasingly likely. 

The plane did finally arrive, although it took another 2hrs to ready it. And then they decided to change the boarding gate from 21 to 75… 10 minutes before we were meant to board. The mad rush from one end of the airport to the other was the perfect end to my time at Brisbane airport. 

My seat on the Airbus was pretty good though I have to say - 3 whole seats all to myself again!

Getting through customs took an age, there weren't very many people on (it was 3am so I wasn't surprised) but there were a lot of people to get through. It also took me 4 attempts to fill in my form as well - I was so tired I just kept making silly mistakes!

Anyway I got through fine (although I forgot I had Banteel dates so I had to declare them which was a bit of a pain). Then I found out I had just missed the bus was going to catch into Auckland, typical. Only as soon as I sat down, consoling myself about the hours wait, the bus rolls up! The joys of everything being late in NZ!

Once I got to the hostel I had the fun of trying to navigate the lift. The buttons didn't correspond to the right floors, so you could press level 2 and end up on 3 or you could press 4 and end up on the ground. When I did eventually find the right level everyone was awake and playing tennis in the corridor. Then I noticed receptionist hadn't written the number of my room very clearly so I had to just go around and try all the different doors and see if any worked!

And then my room was the only one where everyone was asleep so I felt really bad coming in dragging my suitcase! Oh and the guy in the bed beneath me came in at 5am and decided that was a good time to try and have a conversation with me… not quite sure what made him think that…

And the final little drama, i asked at the hostel desk where i could get a bus, she told me every single bus leaves auckland from the ferry stop. So I got the joy of pushing my suitcase down Queens Street (the busiest street in Auckland) for 15 minutes only to be told they don't actually leave from here, no they leave from the other end of the street. Another wonderful 20 minutes passed as I walked to the other end of Queenstreet… Once I booked my bus I then got the truly lovely news that the bus stop was behind the Skytower. The Skytower is on top of quite a steep hill. So then I had to push my suitcase up the giant hill. And I have to tell you, if you've never pushed a 26kg suitcase with a 9kg backpack up a hill in the middle of the a city centre, at lunch time when the streets are packed you haven't lived. I suggest everyone gives it go, oh and try it when you've had no sleep, it's especially fun then, even more so when you're in a maxi skirt which keeps getting tangled. 

The woman spelt my name wrong on the bus list… I'm now R Hashwood. Then there were road works so the bus arrived into Hamilton 2hours late. Then the ATM wouldn't accept any of my cards, I tried all three, so I had to ask a taxi driver to take me to an ATM on the way as by now schools were out so there were hundreds of children at the transport centre and there was no way I could get through them with my suitcase. 

When I eventually got to Orchard Park the office had closed at 1:15 and I don't have a phone yet so I couldn't ring the number to get someone so I had to walk around to try to find someone - luckily a girl let me borrow her phone and stayed chatting to me until someone came to let me into my room.

All in all, not been the best 48hours, but I'm in my room, I'm in one piece and it could definitely have been worse.

P.S Then when I did a wash the machine left my clothes all soapy :( 

Mt Coot-tha

Today was a little cloudy, so I figured today would be the nicest day to walk up to Mt Coot-tha. Which might sound strange but it’s just been too hot recently to even think about walking up a mountain so the cloudy weather looked promising. Oh how wrong I was

Love this photo!

The blanket of cloud seemed to simply increase the humidity and after 20minutes I was already slightly regretting the decision to walk up rather than simply catch the bus (I didn’t get the bus because then I’d have to bus a $10 card and top it up and it seemed like a lot of hassle when I didn't have much time left)

About half way up it rained.. which was pure bliss for about 5 minutes until it stopped and the humidity returned with a vengeance. Needless to say by the time I got to the top I was wishing I’d just caught the stupid bus, but the views from the lookout really were beautiful and definitely made up for how sticky it was getting up there!

From the point you can see Brisbane in all it’s sprawling glory, and I definitely just stood there for 5 minutes taking it in!

I bought myself an ice cream and proceeded to spend most of the afternoon up there in the café reading and enjoying the view, the weather also really picked up towards the end of my walk and by the time I reached the top the sun was starting to come out. So all in all it worked out pretty well and I’m really glad I made time to go to the look out!

 After making my way down I popped back to the hostel before going to Southbank and having a dip in the 'lagoon'! From walking around the past few days I figured out the quietest times to go and 2pm on a Thursday was the quietest I'd ever seen the place, and by this time the sun was shining so it was perfect to spend one of my last days in brisbane

 I basically had it all to myself!

 The clouds returned in the early evening and as I strolled through the city I stumbled upon a little market setting (There was also a political rally happening in the same square which gathered momentum as I was leaving)

 handmade soy candles  - I wanted to get one but I wasn't sure my package allowance could handle a candle

Goats milk soap!