I cannot believe I only have two months left in New Zealand! The semester has flown by! I have been fortunate enough to travel around the south island of New Zealand almost every weekend with my friends. So far I have only spent 1 weekend in Dunedin, where I go to school. I have been to the Catlins, Queenstown, Wanaka, Christchurch, Mt. Cook, and even Samoa to name a few! Exploring and hiking has consumed the majority of my time. The University of Otago allows students to rent camping gear like tents, sleeping bags, stoves, and everything you would need which makes camping and hiking a lot easier! Some of my favorite weekends include Queenstown, Wanaka, Samoa and hiking the Routeburn Track. Six of my friends and I spent a week in Samoa for our mid-semester break. We travelled around both islands, Upolu and Savai’i. I didn’t know much about Samoa before we went, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Samoa blew away my expectations!! We swam in the ocean, cave pools, waterfalls, and a trench pool; we swam with sea turtles, went snorkelling, did a canopy walk, and slid down sliding rocks. It has probably been my favorite vacation so far! My friends and I also hiked the Routeburn Track, which is one of the nine Great Walks in New Zealand. It took us two days to hike 32 kilometers or 19 miles. It was beautiful!! I have never been hiking before so I was nervous that I would hold the group back, but luckily I was able to keep up. We hiked 12 kilometers the first day, camped at Lake McKenzie, and then hiked the remaining 20 kilometers the following day. The most exhilarating thing I have done so far was bungee jump in Queenstown. Queenstown is known as the adventure capitol of New Zealand, so it only made sense to bungee jump while there. I did the Nevis Bungee, which is the tallest bungee in New Zealand, 440 feet tall!! I have never been so nervous and excited at the same time to do something. It was awesome! Finally, my favorite hike that we have done so far is Roy’s Peak in Wanaka. Wanaka is about a 4-hour drive from Dunedin. This past weekend me and three other friends went camping and hiking around Wanaka. Roy’s Peak is an 8-kilometer (5 miles) hike up to the top, winding up the mountain to help with the steepness. The view at the top was breathtakingly beautiful! Luckily for us, we had a perfect day. The sun was shining and since we started around 9 am, we were the only ones at the top. Overall New Zealand has been nothing short of perfect. I can’t wait to see what the remaining two months has in store for me!!
To Sua Trench Pool, Samoa
571 Feet Waterfall, Routeburn Track
Roy’s Peak