Last week Daniel and I traveled to the North Island during our “study week”. After one of the bumpiest flights of my life, we finally landed in Auckland safe and sound. We had an entire day to venture around Auckland before catching an early bus the next morning. Because we had already spent a significant amount of time there during our Fall Break, we decided to take a ferry to Rangatoto Island, which is a volcanic island off the coast of Auckland. We spent the afternoon hiking up to the top of the volcano, and then walking on the coast of the island. It was great to finally have some warm, sunny weather again.
The View of Auckland from the Ferry
Rangatoto Island
The next day we caught an early bus to Waitomo Glowworm Caves. There, we had booked a caving adventure with the Blackwater Rafting Company. After being issued a wetsuit, booties, and all of the proper climbing equipment, our group of 6 (I was the only girl) jumped in the vans and headed towards the cave. In order to enter the cave, we had to repel 110 feet. From there, we walked around the cave with our guide, who educated us on the history of the cave. Then, our guide told us that we had to zip line down the cave in the complete dark. Because it was dark, we had to scream the entire way down to let the other guide know when to stop us. I had no idea we were going to be zip-lining, and I thought this was a really unique and awesome feature of the tour. After having a quick snack, we jumped from a platform into absolutely freezing cold water to begin our venture to the far side of the cave where the glow worms live. When we reached the end of the cave, our guide had us turn all of our headlamps off and slowly paddle back so we could lay back in our tubes and enjoy the sight of the glow worms above us. We then ditched the tubes and continued through the rest of the cave on foot. To exit the cave, we climbed up two waterfalls without being clipped in to anything! It was a wild adventure!
We used mud to paint each others faces
getting ready to go caving!
Our next stop on our trip was HOBBITON. I was really worried about scheduling this part of our trip, as it was suppose to rain the day of our tour. Thankfully, the weather cleared as we were driving to Matamata from Rotorua, and we had sunny skies. This was probably my favorite part of the trip, mostly because I’ve wanted to visit hobbiton since LOTR came out in theatres. I felt like a 3-year old on Christmas waiting to open presents as we rode the bus to the set. Seeing the set was amazing, completely undescribable. There are 44 hobbit hosues that have been permanently set up on the farm after the production of “The Hobbit”. Our guide talked about specific places on the set that you can see in the film and other nerdy references which of course makes me want to watch LOTR all over again.
Bag End
hobbit hole
sam's house
Once again, the weather held out for us as our journey continued down the North Island and we were able to hike the Tongariro Crossing. This hike is known as the best day hike in New Zealand. It is a 6-8 hour hike that crosses between two active volcanoes. The crossing is the coolest hike I have ever done. The views of the volcanoes were amazing and it was such a unique hike that is difficult to find other places.
mt ngauruhoe
We returned to Christchurch late on Sunday evening, and I have spent the majority of the week studying for my upcoming finals. On Monday, the Dalai Lama visited the University of Canterbury. In typical UCSA style, instead of giving His Holiness a pristine place to speak, UCSA set him up to speak at the college bar. He’s actually a very funny person with an amazing laugh.
Hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather, I am extremely jealous as I am now sitting in the library in my winter puffy!
Erin
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