More North Island Pictures

It's been a bit, but I'm back from break and starting to get into school work again. I had a test and project due the first day back, so Sunday night and monday morning were occupied with that, but the week was done after that. Had a birthday celebration with all the IES kids (my flatmate outdid herself putting that together!). It was a good week of celebration and not much work. Even got Wednesday off to go climb at Flock hill for ANZAC day (veterans day equivalent, except the entire country has the day off, supermarkets are open for a few hours, everything else is closed).

Back to break though, here's a few pictures I didn't have time to post on the boat.

I got to stay with a few Kiwis on this bit of my trip, all family friends. Our families met during WWII when my grandpa's ship was nearly sunk and in the drydocks for 3 weeks. He decided to take a tour of the country rather than sitting in a bar for the month, ran into Les Morris, dropping milk off at the dairy in the morning, went to the Morris house (I stayed in the same house 60+ years later!) and kept in touch after he left in the evening.  A few generations later, here we all are!

Auckland Sky Tower! been her before. Didn't remember how hilly the downtown is.. you notice a whole lot more with a big, heavy backpack on containing 2 weeks of clothes, shoes, swimming togs, cold weather layers, some food, my laptop and gifts - I needed my big bag

..Museum in the bottom of the sky tower. Carrying that bag got old.

Here's how you get on the bus! Pretty nice system

The redwood forest in Rotorua. I was shown around by a kind off duty policeman

Aratiatia Rapids they flood the river for 30 minutes 3 times a day. Pretty spectacular and interesting. I'm with the James K. here!

On top of Mt. Tauhara in Taupo with the James and Nicola K. Fun hike up through the bush

Zorbed!! 

One of Brian's old cars. This was a Bedford, driving around opening gates for the fertilizer truck coming around the next day.

Here's the truck! I got to ride around for a bit, they had a pretty cool gps system that showed  exactly where had been sprayed, hydraulics to adjust the arms as we went around turns and hills. All home built! I spent a bit looking at how it was put together. It was well done

View from the Hawera water tower. The ocean is just beyond wat you can see. Lots of pigeons nests right outside windows... nice closeup view of life there

Real NZ weather

Took the bus down the coast, transferred in Palmerston N. and went to Wellington where I got to stay with a HS friend for the night! We walked around town for a bi then stayed up late catching up. It was a great 12 hours in a city that deserves more time! Took the Interislander (as seen previously) across. Thought this map caught the landscape well (most maps do... but the ruggedness and valley fill is so clear!)

Tranz Scenic down to Chch! The viewing car was great on such a sunny day. Got to sit with a friend from school who happened to be riding as well!

Coming up to Kaikoura. Fun to see the same mountains and rivers as when we went up to sawcut gorge. Even saw our tiny little rock of a campsite. Must have gone through 20 tunnels in as many km. 

I'M ON A BOAT ... DON'T YOU EVER FO'GET

It's goin fast and... I'm about to arrive in harbor. There was wireless onboard so I took advantage of it, did my registration for next semester (only 2 days late or so) and got everything I wanted! Little nicer being an upper classman now I suppose. Even got all the recitations, which is kinda essential as I'm looking at 24 credits again. That was fun, but never, ever do 28! So I'll be doing Fluids, ASL, Discrete Math, Java, Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering Dynamics. Might drop one of those, but I think it's doable to complete both the Computer Science and Electrical/Computer Engineering minors.

So that was my last hour, I'm going to get off here, hop straight on one of the most scenic trains in NZ and go down to Christchurch. The weather is great, so it should be a fun trip!

Pictures from the journey:

Both are as we left Wellington, around 8:30. Had to get up at 6 and run to catch the bus after a quick breakfast with a friend from high school! We had a few hours reunion the night before, ate kebabs (kababs, but more of a wrap rather than a skewer, delicious!) and walked around Wellington at night. She has a flat way up on one of the hills above the university, right by the botanical gardens, so it was a pretty walk.

We're about to dock now so I'll leave you till tonight when I get home! Lots to do there before heading out to the do the Kepler treck.

Cheers!
Thomas

Rarotonga, my first time in the tropics!

I'm sitting in the Auckland public library (with frightfully slooow internet, I'll be lucky if this uploads before they close in an hour) after quite a week of travel, sun, scenery, and Pacific Island culture.
Nearly all the students in IES went to Rarotonga for the break. TINY little islnd out in the middle of the Pacific, 4 hour flight from Auckland. Look it up on Google maps, because it's so small, you'd never find it in that atlas you tote everywhere with you!
The cooks are a protectorate of NZ, you can use NZ money there, they do defense and help with some aid, but the cook currency including $3 bills and triangular coins (got some of both!) are no good back here. Only 13000 people live across an area nearly double Alaska with only 93 square miles of land! Tiny!

I need to go and enjoy Auckland before it gets too dark, so here's some pictures. I'll try to do a bit more on their culture later :)

Too cool to not look at. Just in the airport giftshop. I did get told off for photographing in there though.

Off we go from Auckland!

I won the coconut husking "competiton" with IES kids, but even the 12 year old boys could beat me no problem. If ever you're stuck on an island without anythign to eat, give me a call and I'd be more than happy to come join you and share coconuts.. they are SO good and filling. All you need is a big sharp stick to husk them! If you have two husked, bang them together just right and you have a liter of the best water!

There's better pictures of us driving, but there were too many unusual expressions to pass this one up. Just rolling along at the island speed limit of 50km/h. I spend a lot of miles with my head just stuck out the window, enjoying the wind and beautiful island.

On the cross Island walk, right next to the needle. Not the highest point on the island, but the needle is... pointy! Awesome looking peak,  just rises 50 m straight up from the ridges around. Home was just along the shoreline, a little to the right.

I only really own one of the 5 garments in this.. hm. The flowers returned to the earth, hat to adam, and rochester will go back to rochester. Proudly mended my nationals backpack with my mini sewing kit though!

Sunset at the house of one of our stops for "progressive dinner" awesome experience wherein you get entre (apetizers in this hemisphere) here, main down the road, and desert (amazing!) off in the woods!

HOT! I got a little addicted to these peppers, then I rubbed my forehead, and OW, that didn't go away for 4 hours.

AMAZING culture show. All the elementary through high school students showed their best. Some of the routines were amazing. The little elementary kids were just plain cute. I took some video of the final high school performance, it was so so fun to watch again too (sadly it's 4 times the size of my internet quota). The girls shake their hips like mad and the boys.. well youtube it. They move their knees and bounce, and somehow balance.