Tongariri's Taking Over

Hello!

Last weekend we went on a trip to Tongariro where we got to hike Mt. Doom, an active volcano! This hike was unlike any that I've ever been on! we were literally getting blown away from the strong winds coming at us. The land was completely barren and rocky, the first part of the hike was very flat and along man made paths and board walks. Then it turned into a dramatic incline with lots of stairs. It wasn't until about 3/4th up the mountain that it turned into natural path with ligit hiking and climbing. The view from the top was so cool, we could see the whole volcano and a few of the Emerald lakes! This hike was one of the coldest ones I've been on, at the top a few of us laid down in a spooning train just to try and warm up from the cold winds!
Getting back into the swing of school has proven to be difficult. I am just not in class mode yet, the set up is different here, instead of all lectures we have either 2 or 3 lectures a week with a mandatory 1 hour tutorial which is smaller than our lecture forcing us to participate more. This set up makes skipping lectures very tempting (sorry mom). I'm thinking next week I'll be better about doing my readings and being prepared for class.
I have decided to join club basketball and club rowing.... and tramping (hiking) and white water kayaking? There is just so much to do and participate in at Victoria I want to do it all! Last night from 4-8pm I went to this basketball clinic run by former NBA coach of Kevin Love. I was by no means in shape enough for this. It was more of a camp geared towards younger kids looking to play college ball in the states. Woops missed the boat on that one! As hard as it was I had a really good time playing serious ball and working on my skills. Rowing was supposed to start this morning but I couldn't pull myself out of bed, I am so sore from basketball! I'll have to get into it next week.  Gotta get my rowing in if Lindsay and I are going to make it to RIO!
After Basketball last night Jackie Shoshana, 2 of Jackie's roommates and I went down to Cuba Street (Very similar to Church Street in Burlington) where they had a night market with lots of food and venders. We got this delicious hallow spiral bread, the outside was covered with cinnamon sugar, and they coated the inside with chocolate. I was salivating just looking at and tasted even more great that I can describe! Wellington is such a cute wonderful city!
I just booked my trip up to Auckland for Easter break with Shoshana and Sean and 2 other girls from another program. I'm so excited we are going to be going to the Bay of Islands and some other really awesome places up north, it's coming up so soon! 

Week 1 in Wellington!

This first week in Wellington has been absolutely crazy! There are just so many little housekeeping things to do when you are trying to adjust into a new county. I've had to get a phone to contact people locally, open a bank account in order to get the best conversion rates, sign up for classes and a million and ten other little things in order to settle in. Today was the second day of classes, my schedule is pretty manageable too, I have two classes everyday except Wednesdays which I have off! But here they do school very differently, usually the locals only spend three years in University, jealous. They also have this thing called tutorial, which is an hour of scheduled time every week with a group from your class that's mandatory to attend making my schedule seem a bit busier than just two classes a day. Getting adjusted to school is tough now that I've had the last two and a half months off, hopefully I can get into the swing of things soon, however that's going to be difficult seeing as how the weather has been so nice! Its been hanging around a perfect 70 and sunny with no humidity, very different from Fiji! This has been making beach trips very tempting since its only a 15-20 minute walk from my flat. I live with three Americans, Becca who goes to school in southern Cali, Nick who is from Michigan, and Tommy from Mass.
Wellington has been wonderful so far! Campus is literally on top of a mountain, in order to get to town we have to walk up and down this gigantic hill, its so steep walking up it has been one big struggle especially when I have my arms full of groceries! My legs are finding it to be a love/hate relationship because it burns but that also means I'm getting a sick workout just by walking home. Last week we hiked up to this wind turbine where we could look down on all of Wellington it was beautiful! On this hike we were supposed to be able to see the south island but it was too hazy out that day. We ended up going with probably three other groups which made for about 30 of us hiking up through town up to the trail #tourists.

A few people in my group are going paddle boarding today, Jackie decided to skip class to go even, but not me (ehem Mom, see I am a good student!) I'll be going tomorrow when I don't have class. :) This Friday night a bar downtown is having a Space Jam party, yes, Space Jam. Like the looney tunes/Michael Jordan movie. I wish I had brought my Jordan jersey here with me so I could wear it out this weekend! (not that I actually have one...) I'm stoked there's so much to do right in Wellington and hopefully I can start planning some bigger trips throughout New Zealand in the next few weeks, there is just so much to do and see I can't wait to get started!