No, I’m not talking about myself twice in the title— there happened to be another Lauren in this program that I traveled with around the North Island of NZ for the 10 days following our semester. In fact, there were quite a few “Laur” people aboard…
 |
| Lauren, Laura, Lauren, Laura, Lauren |
Before all of us students said goodbye to each other, most of us spent another couple days in Auckland together. When we were dropped off in Auckland, we were beyond excited to see that the Robert C. Seamans was still there! We thought they had left that morning, but due to weather, their departure was delayed. So we had to go say hello again! Unfortunately, we came at lunch time and didn’t get to meet any of the new students, but we did get to see one of our scientists and one of our engineers from our trip-- they stayed on for the next trip. The next trip is currently taking place sailing around New Zealand. We imagine it is completely different because of colder weather, heavier winds, and maybe because we were just more awesome…
While in Auckland, a few pretty awesome things happened. One was that my good friend Rebeca talked a group of us into Bungy Jumping off the Auckland Bridge.
 |
| Left to right: Monica, Ed, Bryn, Lauren, Me, Rebeca |
 |
| That's me... hanging upside down after my jump! |
It was insane, not going to lie. However, it was extremely fun and I would be up to do it again some day. Bungy jumping kind of started off our New Zealand adventures in the most cliche and utterly thrilling way possible. The night before Lauren and I took off on our own, it was hard to finally say our last goodbyes. Crying definitely happened, and I’m still trying to get over the fact that we all won’t be meeting up again to recap on our travels and what we learned. Nevertheless, everyone has said we’d keep in touch and see each other… so we’ll see!
 |
| First time using seat belts in a longggg time |
… and then we were off! Lauren and I began our travels on charter-like buses around the North Island. I think the best way to describe our travels is in picture form because other than the fun adventures we went on, our time was mainly spent schlepping all our baggage around, catching busses, moving into hostels, continuously struggling to purchase hardly adequate wifi, etc. New Zealand is absolutely beautiful like everyone always says, so I hope this captures some of that...
Our first stop was Waitomo:
 |
| Our first little hike |
 |
| Black Water Rafting |
 |
| A picture I wasn't supposed to take of a kiwi |
Second stop was National Park in Tongariro National Park:
 |
| We ran into Monica and Hugh on the bus! Sooooo exciting to see them <3 |
 |
| Yep, that's snow. |
 |
| Second little hike |
 |
| And the big 17k hike begins... |
 |
| Taranaki Falls |
 |
| Every inch of the hike was gorgeous |
 |
| Almost there... (yes we started at Whakapapa) |
 |
| Lower Tama Lake |
 |
| It's freezing, but we made it! |
 |
| Upper Tama Lake (left) and Lower Tama Lake (right) |
Third stop was Taupo:
 |
| Lake Taupo |
 |
| Doesn't look like much, but these are hot springs! |
 |
| Waikato River |
 |
| Huka Falls |
 |
| Huka Falls |
 |
| White Water Rafting |
Fourth stop was the Bay of Plenty, staying at Tauranga and then Hahei:
 |
| Hahei Beach |
 |
| Hahei |
 |
| Cathedral Cove |
 |
| Cathedral Cove |
 |
| Cathedral Cove |
 |
| And that's about it! |
It was an amazing 10 days, and I am so thankful for everything that we got to do and how smoothly it all went. We met some awesome women from all over the world traveling alone throughout New Zealand. It felt great to be apart of that. On Thanksgiving day we headed back to Auckland for our flight back to the States! We ended up spending the whole day in the airport, but it was a nice time to relax, see a deckhand from the ship that was leaving that day too, and do some shopping.
Taking off from Auckland was a little emotional for me. The reality of it truly being the end really sunk in. Everything new and exciting was done, and all the people I had become close with during this semester were now going to be just as far away as we started. I was lucky enough to have the other Lauren join me for Thanksgiving with my family in Hawaii (because of NZ being a day ahead we had Thanksgiving day twice), so it was a slow release back into reality…
Now I’m home, trying to push through this last blog post so I can finally call it a day. Maybe however, my subconscious didn’t want to finish this post because it would mean yet another end to this semester. I don’t really know how to bring this all to a close, but I will say this: I cannot say enough how much I appreciated everyones positive words and encouragement. I’m having difficulty answering people when they ask “so how was it?!” because I truly can’t sum it all up into one statement. Thus, for those of you that have taken the time to read these or even just some of them— I can’t thank you enough!
Overall, has this trip changed me as a person? No. Am I a sailor? No. This trip gave me perspective on how I want to live my life, the people I want to be surrounded by, and of course the itch to continue exploring the world-- but I'm still me. I do hope to be a sailor one day, but the reality is I have a long way to go…. This was just the beginning of it all.
No comments:
Post a Comment