McClell.and.Tell

Ever since we arrived in New Zealand, we knew that we had to make it to the South Island, so we could visit the Adventure Capital of the World, Queenstown. We were very fortunate because we flew in on a clear afternoon, so we were able to catch a glimpse of the breathtaking views and snowcapped mountain peaks. Our first night in Queenstown, we stayed in Nomads, which was in the center of town and not to mention the Taj Mahal of all hostels. Because we were so excited to be back in the land of the Kiwis, Caelyn, Alix, and I decided to go out and celebrate.  Maybe it was the hype of being in Queenstown or maybe it was just a good time, but I would have to say that it was one of the most fun nights that we have had in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the fun night made for a not so fun morning. Earlier in the week, we had found a three nights accommodation “deal” on GrabOne, which is essentially New Zealand’s Groupon; therefore, we had to leave the luxury suite of Nomads and make our way to Reaver’s Lodge. Reaver’s was subpar at best, but we were so excited to get up the mountain, so we decided to overlook it. The first day, we went up to Coronet Peak, and saw some of the most phenomenal views that absolutely took my breath away. Alix and I haven’t been skiing in a couple of years, so we decided to start out slow and get used to being on skis—after a couple of runs and a few embarrassing falls, it felt like no time had passed. We were thrilled that we had such an incredible first day, and we were looking forward to a week full of skiing. The next day, we woke up to find that it had snowed overnight, we were ecstatic because the mountain was in desperate need for some fresh snow. I think that we may have prayed a little too hard for the snow, because when it snows in Queenstown, it pours. By the time we had reached the top of the mountain, we could not see the ski lifts because it was like a blizzard.  We got a few good runs in, but at one point, I looked over and Alix was waist deep in the snow- if it had been me, the snow would have been up to my ears. We decided that we would call it an early day, wait for the storm to move out and come back up tomorrow, or so we thought.  

The skiing in New Zealand is very different from what the three of us are used to. Because they don’t have ski-in/ ski-out resorts; therefore, if you want to go skiing, you have to take a bus up the mountain. When we got back from skiing that day, we discovered that lovely Reaver’s was chartering a bus to take people up the mountain the following morning. Excited that they were going to one of the best mountains in the area, we decided to sign up and join them for the day. The next morning, we woke up at 7:00 am, and we jumped on the bus at the top of the very steep driveway. We were a bit wary of the road conditions, but we thought, “hey, they live in a ski town and they have chains on their tires- certainly, they know they are doing” WRONG! The moment the driver turned the bus down the driveway we started picking up speed. Immediately, he nailed a car that had crashed the night before, but instead of stopping, we continued to skid down the extremely steep driveway horizontally and almost plummeting to our deaths. Thankfully, the bus driver rammed the bus into an embankment, which saved us from falling off the hill and on top of a house. Because no one was hurt, the wreck became more comical than anything; however, still a little shaken up by the close call, we decided to veto the skiing plans for the day. Apparently, Queenstown itself gets very little snow, so the whole town seemed to shut down with the snowfall. We were all a bit bewildered as to why a ski town doesn’t really know how to deal with a snowstorm, but unfortunately, they don’t therefore; for the next couple of days, we felt like we were dealing with a snowstorm in Georgia. We had to walk everywhere because no cabs were running, which resulted in a number of brutal falls in the middle of town. We ran into a bit of a debacle trying to get a refund from the bus trip, as the Irish girl at the front desk tried to have a fun-filled day of snowboarding and skiing on our dime; however, after some words were exchanged, we left Reaver’s full refunded. As Alix so humbly pointed out after one of our Reaver’s run-ins, “Why would they try to mess with Americans? We are the most powerful people in the world!” Reaver’s truly was an experience, so we left there in style. In an attempt to avoid any other casualties on the driveway, we rode down on our suitcases and never looked back. We spent the remainder of our time at Nomads, where we belonged all along.

We went up the mountain two more times in an attempt to ski, but we were faced with debilitating obstacles each time. Due to the weather conditions of the week, I am very thankful that we got that first day of skiing. Although it was fun to ski in Queenstown, it really made me appreciate the luxuries of ski-in/ski-out resorts and a plethora of ski lifts, so I am really looking forward to returning to the States to ski again.

Because Queenstown is the Adventure Capital of the World, Caelyn and I decided that we wanted to partake in what it had to offer. On the day that our bus crashed, we decided that wasn’t exciting enough, so we chose to do the Nevis bungee jump, which is the second highest bungee jump in the world- falling just short of the one that Alix has done in South Africa. I was all talk on the way to the bungee jump, but the moment we reached the bungge jumping site, I became a limp noodle and my legs turned to jello. The guys strapping me in simply ignored my nervous babble and had to show me some tough love. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. The next day, Caelyn and I tried to go skydiving, but right before they suited us up, they cancelled the jumps for the remainder of the day, due to high winds. We attempted to skydive two more times, and each time we got the same result. I guess it simply wasn’t in the cards for us, but I will go skydiving one of these days.

Although the weather put a damper on a couple of the weeks activities, we still had a fabulous time in Queenstown. It was a great way to end our two weeks of traveling, and I must say that by the end of it, I was ready to get home and spend the last two weeks with my class because I knew that it was going to fly.

      I have recently returned from our two weeks of traveling and it was absolutely incredible! Our goal was to fit as much traveling and adventure into two weeks as we possibly could, and four flights later, I would say we came pretty darn close. Allow me to go back to the beginning.
     On Friday afternoon, Pauline dropped all of us at the airport for what we thought would be a 9:00 pm flight. Turns out that our flight was delayed until 12:30 am, and the plane did not end up pulling away from the Auckland airport until 3:00 am. I must say that the excitement for our two weeks of traveling dissipated during our eleven hours at the airport, but the Rhett family game night games proved to be quite useful to pass the time. We finally arrived to our hotel in Melbourne around 5:30. Although we were elated to be in Aussie, our heavy eyes outweighed the excitement, so we hit the sack and didn’t move until 11:00.

       We were thrilled when we woke up because we had a fifth person to add to our travels. Alix’s best friend Caelyn joined us for the holiday, and I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to see a familiar face… Not to mention that Caelyn was the best traveling buddy that we could have asked for. After getting a little sustenance (little being deliciously fabulous French toast), we set out to explore Melbourne. Because we had heard people rave about it, our first stop was the Queen Victoria Market, which had rows upon rows of clothes, jewelry, and random little knick-knacks. Although I did not find anything that tickled my fancy, it was just so wonderful to walk through and see what it had to offer. While we were shopping, we discovered the food market, which was right next door, was about to close; therefore, we hustled over to it before they closed up shop. The food market was absolutely fascinating. The food genres, if you will, were broken up into different corridors. It had fruits/ vegetables, meat, seafood, bread/dips, desserts, and wines, yet each section was just as marvelous as the next. All of the vendors were extremely friendly, and they played into our touristy visit by answering our questions, letting us taste test, and tossing me a fifty pound octopus to hold. If I were a Melbourne resident, I would make a visit to the food market each Saturday for the experience in itself. Being the foodies that we are, we decided to buy a couple bottles of wine, some “Melba-toast,” and some brie for a mid afternoon snack. I was hoping they would have some Syd-toast when we got to Sydney, but we had not such luck- Oh well! After the food market, Alix, Caelyn, and I decided to make a pit stop in Federation Square to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and celebrate being in Australia. That night we had a delicious dinner in a little Italian restaurant tucked away on DeGraves Street. We had a terrific first night exploring the different hot spots in Melbourne, ranging from quaint little bars with live music to swanky clubs that got Alix to order a $20 martini. Since we have heard that Melbourne is known for its shopping, we couldn’t help but see what it had to offer. We had the most fun roaming the streets and simply getting a feel for the city. Before we knew it, it was time for us to get on a flight and make our way to Sydney.

       Our first day in Sydney was everything that we could have asked for and more. Ever since watching Oprah’s trip to Australia, I have had an extreme desire to hold a koala bear, but apparently, Oprah receives special treatment because no one is allowed to hold a koala bear in New South Wales- news to me. Regardless, we made a trip to the Wildlife World, hoping it would restore our faith in zoos/aquariums. The majority of the animals in the Wildlife World are native to Australia, so it was really neat to see some animals that I have never seen in person before. In the end, the Wildlife World pulled through, and let us get up close and personal with the koalas and kangaroos. Our next stop was the world famous Sydney Opera House. We took a guided tour throughout the Opera House, where we were able to learn about the history, construction, and tales of the incredible structure. If anyone has the chance to make it to Sydney, I highly recommend taking the tour because it was incredibly interesting and one of my favorite things that we did while we were in the city. While we were on the guided tour, we all agreed that it would be amazing to actually see a show in the Opera House. Once the tour concluded, we immediately made our way to the ticket office to purchase tickets to a play. We ended up getting tickets to see Faustus that very night. We were hoping that Faustus, being in the Sydney Opera House, would knock our socks off; however, we weren’t completely sold on the perplexing play. In all honesty, the experience of the Opera House in itself was worth it, and I would not change a thing.

       The following day we were set to do the Sydney Bridge Climb—I was happy find that this wasn’t an Oprah only thing as well. It was recently reported in USA Today that the Bridge Climb is on many travelers Top 10 bucket list, and I am proud to say that I am able to check it off of my personal bucket list. Unfortunately, it rained 95% of the time that we were in Sydney; however, we were fortunate enough that the 5% of sunshine happened to be during our Bridge Climb. The views were absolutely spectacular, and we had the most incredible tour guide, Mitch. Mitch charmed us from the get go with his sharp wit and good looks. When asked if anyone was scared and wanted to join him in the front, all of our hands shot up in the air before he was able to finish the question. I have told Alix multiple times that the guy has to get my jokes, and Mitch—he would get my jokes. Shying away from the flirtatious banter that I may have been imagining, we missed our opportunity to get Mitch to meet up with us for the rest of the time in Sydney. I wish I could tell you that Caelyn did not place international phone calls to the Bridge Climb company to get his information, and I wish that I could tell you that we did not try to find him on Facebook in desperation; however, I can’t honestly say that, so I am going to plead the fifth. Mitch, it was love lost, but the Bridge Climb was great!

       We had a few really fun nights out in the city, and some that were not so successful due to faulty suggestions. But all in all Sydney and Australia as a whole were a great success. I really wish that our time in Melbourne and Sydney did not have to be so short-lived, but it simply gives me an excuse to come back some day to do the things that we missed. Next Stop: Queenstown!

For our final weekend of traveling, Alix and I decided to take a four-day weekend and make our way to the Bay of Islands, which is about three and a half hours north of Auckland. We are very lucky because the Assistant Principal at our school very much believes that traveling is just as much a part of our experience in New Zealand as the teaching; therefore, she is very flexible about us taking days off to see the country. So after school on Thursday, I made my way into the city to meet Alix and Caelyn for Caelyn’s last night in New Zealand. After taking a quick tiger snooze at the hotel, we had a wonderful dinner on the viaduct and then we hit the town. With it being a Thursday night, we weren’t sure what to expect of the nightlife, but once again, Auckland did not disappoint. Caelyn seemed to have a great final night, but in order to make it complete, she insisted that we make a pit stop at “one of Auckland’s most famous burger shops,” The White Lady.  The food was delicious, but there is still a little bit of discrepancy of how famous the Burger trailer may be. The next morning we woke up, had brunch and said our final goodbyes to Caelyn before we hit the road. And then there were two.

Alix and I kicked off our honeymoon getaway to the Bay of Islands with a relaxing spa that looked over the beautiful ocean view. We quickly realized that Piahia, the town where we were staying, does not have much of a nightlife, so we had the luxury of sitting at a two person table in a silent restaurant… Just what the honeymooners were looking for. The next morning we woke up and decided to rent bikes to ride around the town. The moment that I got on the bike I had a flash back to the Hilton Head days, and I immediately regretted the decision. Luckily, we quickly found an alternative form of transportation, and I didn’t have to admit defeat with the bikes. Alix and I have wanted to kayak ever since we arrived in New Zealand, so we seized the opportunity when we saw that we could in the Bay of Islands. We had the option to rent them for four hours, but fearing that we would seem like showoffs on the water, we settled for two. It was the most perfect day to be on the crystal clear water. After kayaking around several of the islands, we headed back to the hotel and returned to the spa- a habit that I could definitely get used to.

As many of you may know, I have wanted to see a whale since the day I arrived, and that desire only grew stronger when I saw the whale fin from Rangitoto. Alix and I said that that if there were one thing that we were going to do while in Bay of Islands, it would be a whale watching tour. When we got into town, we immediately started looking at brochures, and we were able to find a whale and dolphin discovery tour. Not only was it a tour, but also if they were able to find a pod of dolphins, we would get to swim with the wild dolphins. (If anyone is wondering, you can’t swim with the whales… Apparently, that is a really dumb question. That’s neither here nor there.) Alix and I thought we had found the cream of the crop discovery tours… right until we stepped on board the boat that is. Not only did the weather inhibit us from seeing the Hole in the Rock, one of Bay of Islands most famous attractions, but we also did not see a single whale, dolphin, or any fish for that matter. Although we were pretty bummed that the whale watching was a total failure, we did get to see many of the 144 islands amid the Bay of Islands.

Despite my griping, it was a great way to end our travels in New Zealand. A restful weekend was exactly what the doctor ordered after our two weeks of traveling- spas, going to bed early, waking up late, and getting to see yet another beautiful sight. The blog post from the two weeks is coming soon- it seems like a very daunting task to write about all of our adventures from the two weeks, but it is coming.

As I have mentioned in several of my preceding blogs, New Zealand has the fabulous thing, Morning Tea everyday at 10:40. It was one of the first things that made me fall in love with this country, but it has also led to my demise. I have lost all sense of self-control. Anyway, because Owairoa has been so gracious allowing us to partake in their fabulous Morning Teas, Alix and I decided that it would be a great idea to set up an American Morning Tea for one of our last days. We decided that we would make homemade biscuits from scratch, pigs in a blanket, and rice krispie treats. For those of you that know Alix and me, you are right to assume that it was very much the blind leading the blind. New Zealand grocery stores don’t have shortening for the bisuits, regular marshmallows for the rice krispie treats, or crescent rolls for the pigs in a blanket, so we had to improvise. The Morning Tea is yet to come, so I will let you know if everyone makes it out alive.

WAHOOOO!! I have officially completed my two weeks full control, and it is an amazing feeling. This past week was Leadership Week at Owairoa, and all of the students wore red socks all week in memory and support of the efforts of Sir Peter Blake. It was an incredible week in the school where the children had the opportunity to display their leadership skills and vocalize what they think it means to be a good leader. On Friday, we had an assembly in the Hall to celebrate the week. The Hall was covered in red socks that the children had decorated throughout the week, and each year level showed a snippet of what they had been doing for Leadership Week. I was mesmerized throughout the entire assembly, and I got chills as I looked around at all of the students. The majority of the assembly was student led, and there was a sense of pride and unity that filled the Hall. As my two weeks were coming to a close, I began to tear up because I knew that this incredible experience was rapidly coming to a close. I will cherish the couple weeks that I have left with my students because I have never been in a school like Owairoa before, and I will always remember it as the place that reminded me why I want to be a teacher.

On a lighter note, after school, Marissa picked Alix and me up, and the three of us were off to the Coromandel Penninsula. Morgan’s old au pair, Tania, lives in New Zealand, so within moments of finding out that I was placed in Auckland, I messaged Tania to let her know that I was headed this way. I thought that it was a small world knowing someone that lives in New Zealand, but the world got even smaller when I realized that she lives right next door to the school where I would be teaching. Tania lives so close to Owairoa that she can hear the bells and announcements throughout the day; therefore, within my first couple weeks of being here, I walked to her house to have lunch and catch up. Anyway, back to Coromandel. Tania and Jerrod have a caravan and Tania’s parents have a beach house in Matarangi, which is a gorgeous beach town on the Coromandel Penninsula; therefore, Tania offered to let us stay at her parents’ house.

Everyone had told us to be very careful driving to Matarangi because the roads are extremely windy, but we didn’t really think that they could be much windier than the roads we had driven to get to Rotorua or Ohakune; therefore, we were taken aback when our trip really got underway. For the last forty-five minutes of the trip, I felt like I was on a never-ending rollercoaster. There was a moment in time where I thought I was going to a have repeat of the notorious night in Danielle’s mom’s suburban, but thankfully, I was able to hold it together this time and make it to Matarangi in one piece. Upon arriving at the beach house, we were greeted by Tania and her sweet parents. After briefly getting acquainted and scheduling our plans for the following day, we hit the sack. The next morning, Alix, Marissa and I headed to the Hot Water Beaches. We were told that if you go to the beach at low tide, you can dig holes and find extremely hot water that will rise to the surface. We are going to have to take everyone’s word for it because the 7:00 am low tide was not very appealing to those of us who love our sleep. We thought that we may have a shot at finding it at mid tide, but we had no such luck. After digging five very dry and very cold holes, we accepted defeat, and retreated to a nearby café where I indulged in some delicious banana pancakes.

Once we were finished with breakfast, we made our way to Cathedral Cove. It was a forty-five minute hike to Cathedral Cove, and it was worth every step because the views were absolutely spectacular. There were several bays on the way. Our first stop was Gemstone Bay, which attracts many snorkelers in the summer months. It was extremely difficult to look at the beautiful water, as we were bundled up in our long sleeve shirts, and know that we couldn’t get in. If there is one thing that I know, I will definitely be making a trip back to New Zealand in the summertime, so I can actually swim in the water and lie on all of the fabulous beaches that I have seen. After seeing Gemstone Bay, we walked/ rolled down the hill to Stingray Bay. Although we did not see any stingrays, we saw some of the most beautiful sights. On our walk to Cathedral Cove, I took quite the tumble and skinned my knees, so now, I look like a five year old. I have learned that I am not very steady on my feet when it comes to hiking. Between our hike up Rangitoto and our hike to Cathedral Cove, I had a number of close calls. There really aren’t words that can describe the sights that we saw, so the pictures will have to speak for themselves; however, I don’t think they will be able to do it justice. After our strenuous hike, we finally made it back to the car, and we headed to the Lost Spring, which is a geothermal hot pool. Since we missed out on the hot pools earlier in the day, we seized the opportunity to soak in the hot pools. After a relaxing evening in the Lost Spring, we had a delicious dinner with Tania’s whole family—mom, dad, Tania, Jerrod, Noah, and Millen.

It was a perfectly relaxing weekend, and now, we are off to Autralia. It is the last day of term today, and our flight is leaving in a couple hours. First stop: Melbourne. We will spend three nights in Melbourne and four nights in Sydney. Once we have seen and done Australia, we will hop on a flight to Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world, for the fantastic skiing that we have been waiting for. While in Queenstown, we hope to hit the slopes, skydive, bungee jump, hike a glacier, and see the famous Milford Sound. We have a very busy two weeks ahead of us, but we could not be more excited! I also realized that in exactly a month, we will be landing in Atlanta- see y’all soon!

            Once again, I am behind on my blogging. My apologies, so let me go back two weeks. After our first full week of teaching full control, we were absolutely knackered. The Kiwis use this term quite frequently, and after being here for a month and a half, I have just recently realized that they are saying “knackered” and not “naked”. Once again, the accent has gotten the best of us, and although we are both speaking English, there is definitely a language barrier. I’ve digressed. On Friday afternoon, some of the teachers were going out for some drinks to celebrate the end of a very long week, and they were kind enough to invite Alix and me to tag along to celebrate the completion of our first week of full control. Afterwards, Alix and I headed to Marissa’s house. We immediately hopped in the spa, and made plans for the night. We decided that we would grab a quick dinner and check out some of the local pubs in downtown Howick. However, after a delicious meal, nothing sounded more appealing than a warm bed, so we paid the bill and called it an early night. The next morning we were off, and our final destination was Rangitoto’s summit. Rangitoto is one of Auckland’s main attractions—it is a dormant volcano that looks the exact same no matter where you are looking at it. I have take so many pictures of it since arriving—starting with the ones from the McAlpine’s back porch to one’s from our ferry rides to and from Half Moon Bay. Seeing as I have had zero physical activity since arriving to New Zealand, the trek up Rangitoto proved to be much more difficult than it should have been. Despite the tough hike, we were able to make it to the top, and we saw some of the most spectacular views of Auckland. After reaching the top, we had a quick picnic while we were enjoying the breathtaking views. Although we dreaded leaving the summit, we were on a strict schedule because we had a private ferry picking us up at the wharf, so we could not be late. Earlier in the day, we had found out that the scheduled ferry times would not work, so after some wooing, we convinced the captain to swing by Rangitoto to pick the three of us up. While we were waiting for the ferry at the wharf, Alix caught me in a daze staring at the ocean, and before she could ask me what I was looking at, I broke into a dead sprint towards the ocean. I was absolutely ecstatic because I had finally seen an orca whale—something that I have talked about seeing since the day we arrived. I was only able to capture their fins, but I was elated nonetheless.

After the ferry docked, we had to hurry home because Pauline was throwing a party in our honor that night. Because we were so sad to be away from home, Pauline wanted to throw us a 4^th of July. All week long she asked me all about what we do on the 4^th of July because she wanted it be just right so we felt at home. When we walked in the door, the house was covered in red, white, and blue streamers, balloons, and pompoms. We grilled out (American hotdogs and hamburgers), shot off fireworks, and spent time with friends and “family”. Amber, my mentor teacher, even came out to Maraetai to celebrate with us. It was so amazing to look around and see all of the wonderful friends that I have made since arriving in New Zealand, who took time out of their weekend to celebrate our Independence Day because they knew it was important to me. Everyone is always surprised to hear that I have not gotten homesick while being here, but people like Pauline, Amber, Barry, and the majority of the staff at Owairoa make it very easy not to be homesick because they have made every effort to make New Zealand feel like home. 

While many of you are cranking up your fans or running up your power bill because the Air Conditioning just can’t get cold enough, I have just turned on my trusty electric blanket as I snuggle up for bed. One of the first things that I noticed upon arriving in New Zealand was that no one has central heating; therefore, I find myself turning on every heater, electric blanket, and heated light bulb in sight. Unfortunately, I think my tactics defeat the conservation effort, but a girl has to stay warm somehow. We experienced our first run in with the cold winter weather in Ohakune this weekend for Mardi Gras.

            There were a few moments in the past couple weeks where we thought that Mardi Gras was just going to be this incredible weekend that we missed out on. As we looked for accommodations, we quickly learned that we were a little bit late jumping on the bandwagon, and there were exactly zero vacancies in any hotel, motel or backpackers anywhere remotely close to Ohakune. But thankfully, Alix and I don’t have any problem inviting ourselves to places in a desperate circumstance, so we coyly asked Jodi if we could stay at her bach for the weekend. Lucky for us, she was more than happy to have the two Americans that she barely knew stay with her for the weekend.  Since we found a place to stay and since we gave ourselves the day off on Friday, we picked Jodi up Friday morning and we got on the road. Immediately after walking through the door, Alix and I tirelessly tried to build a fire… And a good forty-five minutes later, we were successful. I was very proud of our fire making abilities, so if you need someone to build a fire, you know who to call. Just make sure you have loads of paper, barrels of wood, and several boxes of matches in order to get the job done.

            As we waited for the boys to arrive, we made dinner, played cards, and discussed our plans for the weekend. After the boys got unpacked, we headed to the Suitcase bar. We were all having a great time—Alix whipped out a few dance moves (I have promised to keep the pictures to myself), and before we knew it, we were all separated. At some point in the night, I realized that someone had stolen my jacket from the table where we had put our stuff down, so I started scanning the bar for anyone who may have had it on. I was even, not so discreetly, touching peoples’ jackets to make sure that they weren’t wearing mine. Throughout my investigation, I stumbled upon Alix sitting in the corner, close to tears, because she thought that everyone had left her at the bar. We both realized that we had left our phones at the house, so we decided that it was probably best to call it a night before we lost sight of one another again. The next morning, James (one of Jodi’s friends) and I both woke up pouting because both of us had lost our jackets during the night. James told us that he was going to go back to the bar to look for his jacket and return the one that the lady gave him to wear home. As he pulled out the one that he wore home, I slowly began to realize that the lady had given James my jacket. We teased him about wearing my girly, gold buttoned raincoat home, and hoped that he would have the same luck that I had in finding his belongings. Before the morning was over, James had found his wallet in the driveway and his jacket at the bar, so we knew that it was going to be a good day.

            We walked around Ohakune looking in the different ski shops and doing some great people watching all morning. We heard that there was a snowstorm up at the top of the mountain, so we decided to test out the wheels and make the trek up the mountain. We had way too many close calls with Jodi driving up the slippery mountainous road, but we managed to get to the top in one piece. We convinced the guy to let us jump on the chair lift for a quick photo-op. If we were going to miss out on the skiing, we wanted to at least document that we were up there. Although we were really bummed to miss out on the skiing this weekend, being up there got me that much more excited about skiing in Queenstown in a few weeks. It also taught me that I need to invest in some much warmer clothes before I head south.

            When we got back to Jodi’s bach, we relaxed for a little bit, and then we started getting ready for the Mardi Gras party. With it being a costume party, we could not figure out what we wanted to wear, so we just decided to do something easy. Alix and I were super pumped because we were seizing the opportunity to dress up as the hippie, festival-going type. Since we can’t seem to pull it off at home, we thought we would give it a shot abroad. Not sure if it was any more legitimate, but I was happy as a clam, so it didn’t matter. We bought face paint, glitter, glow sticks, and ribbon for a headband, and we were set to go. (Nanc, we wished you were there the whole time.) The party itself was an absolute blast. We made our way back to Suitcase for a little bit—I made sure to hang on to my jacket this time. Afterwards, we headed to the main stage where they had a bunch of different bands playing. The set-up of the party kind of reminded me of a small town carnival with bands, rides, games, and random food vendors. We had met some of the boys’ friends the night before, so it was a lot of fun running into people that we knew throughout the night. Familiar faces are very few and far between over here, so we get quite excited running into people—even if “familiar” is just a day or so.

            Our 9:00 am wake up call was extremely brutal, but we had to power through and get ready for our four hour drive home. We quickly cleaned the house, and Alix, Jodi, and I got on the road. We had a hysterically nerve racking start to our trip home, but fortunately, everything worked out, and we were able to carry on. Now, we are back home, and Alix and I have officially started teaching full control. I have experienced an entire range of emotions—it has been liberating, stressful, inspiring, challenging, and exhausting. Despite any emotion that I may be feeling, I have never been more sure that this is the most worth while schooling for my professional development. It has been incredibly difficult trying to adjust to a completely different school system and plan lessons without any of my teaching resources at my fingertips. However, I have never felt more prepared to teach my own classroom, and that sense of self-confidence is the exact thing that I was looking for in New Zealand. 

The view walking into school one morning!

            We are looking forward to a low-key weekend, which will give us a chance to rest up. I am trying to forget the fact that I won’t be in the States for the 4^th of July, but I hope y’all have an incredible weekend celebrating! I am trying to scrounge up some red, white, and blue to wear to school on Monday—just because I am sixteen hours away doesn’t mean I can’t be patriotic and celebrate!

Due to my lack of wireless internet at home, here is my blog post from last week. Although a week behind, I’m trying my best to keep up with my blogging. We have just returned from a fabulous weekend in Ohakune, so a blog post is coming soon!

         In the past few weeks, I have gradually been picking up new subjects every week. This past week I was teaching everything except for Math, or Maths, as we Kiwis like to call it. Nonetheless, my very busy week made the approaching weekend that much sweeter. When the day was over, I finished up our newest bulletin board, and we headed to the ferry.  While the ferry had to wait for Alix’s wallet to arrive last week, this week the ferry had to wait for Marissa’s phone to arrive—who knew I would be the responsible one of the group? Once we were all set to go, we headed towards the city for our very first Rugby game to watch the Auckland Blues defeat the Otago Highlanders. I am happy to say that both of the athletic events that I have attended—Rugby and Rugby League have resulted in victories for the teams that I have been pulling for. Victories are one thing that I have learned to cherish in the past four years at Georgia, but I am hoping that they will be more frequent with the famous Dream Team on the field.

            Upon arriving at the stadium, we were disappointed to discover that they would not sell us a beer without our American passport. Apparently, the Eden Park vendors have not gotten the memo that waltzing around with your passport is not the brightest idea when you are traveling; however, despite our attempts to flash a cheeky smile, they had zero intentions of budging. With the drinking age in New Zealand being eighteen, it was as if they thought we were seventeen years old trying to sneak a beer with a fake ID. That is exactly how old I felt too, yet instead of actually being underage, I am nearly five years older than the legal drinking age. I must say our egos were quite bruised, but we brushed ourselves off and reveled in the victory. After the game was over, we walked through Kingsland, and we stumbled upon a Mac’s Brew Bar. We had to go in for old times sakes, so we could reminisce on our first night in Auckland. After fighting to get a seat in the packed bar, we happened to sit next to a guy from St. Louis. I am pretty sure that he is the first American we have met since being here, so it was nice talking to someone from home. I even spotted someone wearing a Braves hat from afar. Unfortunately, it would have taken a skip and a leap to make my way over to him, so we had to settle for talking to the guy from St. Louis. When the bar closed, we hopped in a taxi and headed back to Carolyn’s house. Alix and I enjoyed a spacious night of sleep as we curled up into a cozy twin bed for two.

            Anticipating rainy weather, we were thrilled to wake up to sunny, clear skies for our Taste of Waiheke. Our day in Waiheke was everything that I could have hoped for and more. Our first stop was Stonyridge Vineyard. Our Australian vineyard guide, Josh, talked about the ins and outs of Stonyridge as we tasted a variety of their homegrown blends and snapped pictures of the beautiful landscape. We enjoyed a delicious lunch in the Stonyridge restaurant complimented by a bottle of Faithful, one of their most recent Merlot blends. Faithful was created in memory of the vineyard’s thirteen-year-old black lab, Norton, who passed away last winter. Josh told stories about how Norton would run through the vineyard eating grapes off the vines, and he said that he was one of the most faithful members of the Stonyridge family: therefore, we had to taste the wine blended for this sweet dog. After Stonyridge, we headed to Rangihoua Estate, which was the first company on Waiheke to create Extra Virgin Olive Oil from the olives grown on their land. Although the harvest season just recently came to an end, the tour guide gave us a demonstration of how the olives are stripped from the trees and spun into oil through their impressive machine. Next, we had the chance to taste some of their award winning olive oils. I have never been a huge fan of olive oil in the past, but consider me converted because the Rangihuoa brands were absolutely delectable. I am jealous of Marissa because she walked away with a jar of an amazing olive oil and herb spread, which I fully regret not purchasing. Although we could have made a meal out of the tasters, there was more to be seen, so we were off to the next vineyard—Wild on Waiheke. While it was our least favorite of the four stops, it was still a beautiful sight to see. Interestingly enough, Wild on Waiheke serves as both a vineyard and a brewery, so we got to taste a wide variety of their products. And last but certainly not least, we had the opportunity to visit the beautiful Mudbrick Vineyard. The boutique vineyard was started by a young couple who shared a love for wine, and it has flourished into an extremely successful sixty acre vineyard and restaurant.

Stonyridge Vineyard

Wild on Waiheke Vineyard

Mudbrick Vineyard

            After we were told that our fabulous tour was coming to a close, we asked our very accommodating tour guide to drop us of at one of the local beaches that we had seen earlier in the day, so we could take a walk on the beach. I quickly realized that my lack of exercise has definitely taken a toll on me because I am not nearly as agile as I was a month ago. As I was trying to stick my feet in the water, a wave rushed in much more quickly than I was expecting and drenched my jeans from the knee down; however, nothing was going to get me down after such a wonderful day. Or so I thought… After our beach walk, we boarded a bus that would take us to the Kina backpackers. As we were getting off the bus, we asked the bus driver for some quick directions. “Just walk up the 184 steps, take a left, and you should see it,” he said. I chuckled at his joke, said thank you and headed to the steps—only he was not joking at all. Alix and I had to carry our rolling suitcases up each and every step, while setting stopping points for ourselves, so we could take a breather and shift our carrying holds.

            As we walked into the backpackers our wheels came to a screeching halt as all of the barefooted wookies stared at us with our rolling suitcases. Note to self: Take the name backpackers more literally next time—leave the rolling suitcase at home. Right off the bat, one of the guests asked us if it was a requirement for American girls to wear tall boots… Each of us bashfully looked down to see our matching footwear, and I so badly wanted to be barefoot just like the others. Despite the questionable looks and the teasing jabs, we managed to make a couple of friends who were very friendly and welcoming. One of which offered to take us to the ferry the next morning. When he realized that we had an hour before we had to catch the ferry, he offered to take us to Waiheke’s very own Palm Beach. He also showed us the fine dining of Waiheke’s Lazy Lounge for breakfast, which did not disappoint. Before we knew it, we were back on the ferry and yet another incredible weekend had come and gone.

            We have a short week this week because we are headed to Ohakune for Mardi Gras on Friday. Unfortunately, due to the mild winter weather, there is not enough snow to open the mountain this weekend like we had hoped, but we are headed down for the Mardi Gras experience nonetheless. Looking forward to another weekend of traveling!

     I wanted everyone to meet my new friend Nikau (pronounced Niko). One of the substitute teachers at Owairoa announced that she had a four-month-old boxer puppy that needed a home on Tuesday, and Nikau was here on Friday. He is the sweetest and most playful puppy. Cruise hasn’t taken a liking to him quite yet, but I’m thinking a friendship will develop soon enough. Between Nikau and me, the Rutherford family has grown immensely in the past month. Hopefully, I will be able to show him the ropes since I am no longer the new kid in the house.

Nikau and Cruise

     Unfortunately, Deens, Barry, and Pauline were all sick last week. Since it was making its way through the house, I was bound to catch it, so this week I have been trying to fight off a sore throat and a cold. Thankfully, Barry’s mom is a nurse, and she was nice enough to fill a perscription for me and save me a trip to the doctor. Between the winter weather and a class full of five year olds, I knew that it was going to be tough not to get sick. Nonetheless, we powered through and geared up for another weekend in the city. We had plans to go to Waiheke this weekend, but because of the bad weather, we have decided to hold out for a prettier day. After being here for three weeks, we finally met up with Marissa, and the four of us enjoyed our first weekend together. Since it was raining, we ate a delicious lunch at Velvet Burger, a local restaurant that reminded us of Flip Burger, and we decided to go to see the Hangover 2, which was a very relaxing way to spend the afternoon. All four of us were craving Mexican food, so we decided to eat at Mexican Café for dinner, which is a restaurant that Scott recommended to us our first weekend here. Although they don’t have the real cheese dip, it was still delicious, and we were able to satisfy our cravings. I promised Pauline that I would make the real stuff for her before I leave, so perhaps I won’t have to go three months without it.  We met up with Marissa’s host mom, Amy, and her friend Jodi for the night. It was really nice to go out with some locals instead of trying to figure out which bar to go to on our own. After they introduced us to a few good bars, we made it back to Snapdragon, which turns into a bar later in the night. It was the perfect first weekend in the city together. After Pauline picked us up from the ferry this afternoon, the whole family went to Barry’s mom’s house to watch the Warriors play. I decided to stay home and unwind from the weekend, and I realized that it was probably the first time that I have been by myself for an extended period of time since we have arrived. It was so nice to have a little time to just sit down by myself and reflect on this incredible trip. Three months ago I didn’t even know if I was going to be in New Zealand and now, I have been here for a month teaching the sweetest children and traveling all over the country. I am so thankful that I have had this opportunity, and with that being said, on to the next week. We are all looking forward to next weekend where we will go to the Blues Rugby game on Friday night and then head to Waiheke on Saturday (rain or shine) for a tour of three different vineyards. 

Me, Carolyn, and Amy at dinner 

The four of us at the Viaduct

The skyline from our ferry ride home