More IFSA time

Another IFSA weekend! This weekend is our cultural event/Volunteering Event. We went to my first rugby game ever! It was lots of fun. We saw the Hurricanes (wellington’s team) play the cheetahs (South Africa). We lost, sadly, but it was still really interesting getting to see the game and experience it first hand. After the game we were all starving so we headed to a cheap place in town called the Cadillac Diner. It’s an “All American” Diner and was chock full of cheesy American stereotypes. And we LOVED it. We all got milkshakes and some other random food. Tess got pancakes, I got a burger and Dani got a Veggie burger. Molly just stuck to an ice-cream sundae. It was a really funny place and very delicious and filling. Then we went home and met up with Sam, a girl we met on the Adventure Weekend with IFSA. Sam and her three friends were staying in my room for the night while they visited Wellington. (MY ROOM IS HUGE!) So we met up at my house and got ready and then took them to see the nightlife of Wellington! The next morning we had to get up pretty early and go do some Volunteer work with IFSA. We went out to Matiu/Somes Island, which is in the middle of the harbor. We took a little ferry and when we got off the boat we had to go into a room immediately and check our bags for ‘pests’. The island is a sanctuary and so all pests have been removed. After that we moved on to do some re-graveling of paths and tree trimming for a few hours. It was actually really fun, and the island is so amazingly beautiful, but what here isn’t, honestly. So we got to wander around and look at the sights. This is where we learned about what the bunkers near our houses were. There are more bunkers on the island, and they have a sign explaining them. So we read up on the gun battlements and how they were never used. Apparently there are 6 different sights where there are old abandoned bunkers around the bay! After volunteering we headed back to Wellington, right on the waterfront to a delicious pizzeria called One Red Dog. We were all starving, and so the already delicious food tasted even better than usual! YUM. It’s great when IFSA feeds us, because they give us SO MUCH FOOD.  It was a great little weekend. That was also the weekend that we had Daylight savings time here, just to make the time change back to the US even more confusing.

excitement!

 pancakes!

 Giant american burger, conquered by a New Zealand flag!

 too early for pictures

 working hard....

 Dani's new best friend. the Weta carcass.

 scary, all knowing sheep

 There's something behind that smile... wait... WHY IS A SHEEP SMILING

 lighthouse over looking Wellington

 other less-graffiti-ed bunkers

The Bunkers

Dani, Tess and I had heard of a cool hike up to the wine turbine fields on the other side of a large hill/mountain hear us and we decided one night that we wanted to do it! So we set off with a very basic set of directions that really only told us where the hike began but not anything else and set off. Turns out it’s a track used by runners, walkers and mountain bikers. But there definitely isn’t room for more than a single file line of people in most places. So naturally we came into many situation where we had to perch in trees or down the sloping hill to let bikers and runners pass. At one point I was leading and almost got smushed by a biker going really fast. We all manage to survive though, and it was a beautiful maze of tunnels through densely vegetated hills. We heard a bunch of Tui birds calling their BIZZARE calls and it was great.

 Those three white houses with red roofs in the middle there, lit up by the sun, well the one in front is my house and the window on the right of the house is my ROOM!

We didn’t really have any idea of how long the hike was, we’d been told 45min by one person and an 1 hr 45 min by someone else, so we weren’t really sure what we were in for. We also came to MANY forks in the road, so we made some impromptu decisions and kept climbing upwards. Now and they the trail would lead us out of the woods and give us spectacular views of Wellington harbor and Kelburn, where our houses and campus are. I could see my house the whole way up! Then at one point we came to a fork in the trail where one side led further on in the same trail-like fashion, but to the left was a make-shift staircase. We decided to take the stairs, and when we emerged at the top we were in a neighborhood. We got really confused but eventually found another trail continuing on to the wind turbines. Once we got up on the trail and started walking again, the closest turbine came into view and we realized…. It wasn’t close at all. There was MUCH MORE HIKING TO BE DONE. And it was starting to get dark, so we decided to give up and head back and sit somewhere to watch the sunset.

So close and yet... SO FAR.

We ended up discovering one of my favorite places in Wellington so far. We came across a bunch of abandoned bunkers, which we later discovered had been gun battlements placed all around wellington harbor as a defense system. They were, of course, never used, because who would attack New Zealand? ITS TOO PRETTY! But now the skeletons of the cement bunkers remain, covered in graffiti art and filled with broken bottles and trash, but they have a really fun and exciting feel to them. ALSO, the view from the bunkers is unreal. On a clear day you can see all of wellington harbor and all the way to the South Island. We watched the sunset, had a little mini feast of Pesto Bread, Wine and Tim Tams (a chocolate cookie treat) and I played ukulele. It was so fun.

Then, it was dark, and we realized we needed to get home, and all we had was the tiny ‘torch’ on my cell phone to guide us. So we VERY SLOWLY, in a huddled group, stood in the light of my cell phone torch and made our way back through the maze of trees. It would’ve been scarier if there were things that might have attacked us here, but everything in New Zealand is nice… just like the people! It was great because we also got to see hundreds of glowworms on the side of the trail. It was beautiful, magical and made it really clear why so many movies are filmed her. Everything is beautiful, even this close to the city. When we finally made it home, we went to Dani’s house and made a late dinner. While we were cooking, a cat wandered into Dani’s open door and we made a friend. Overall it was a fantastic day.

Packed Week

Saint Patrick’s Day! For St Patty’s day we decided to do it big! We started our morning kind of early… around 9, and went directly into town and got $6 breakfasts at J.J. Murphy’s, an Irish Pub on Cuba Street. From there we walked around town a bit, went to another Irish pub called Molly Malone’s, saw some Irish Dancers and headed to the water front. It was an unbelievably beautiful day and we  made the most of it by the water. Then we headed home for lunch and watched a movie. By the time the night rolled around we were getting pretty tired and ended up only being down town for a little while, but when we got down there it was UNBELIEVABLE. I have never seen that many people in one place in New Zealand at one time. I think people from other cities came in for the special night and crowded every bar and club, so getting in anywhere was a challenge and there were fights breaking out everywhere, girls crying on the street… basically it was CHAOS. So we called it a pretty early night. But overall I was proud of our spirited and enthusiastic day! 

Dani, Tess, Molly, Molly’s boyfriend Philip, Tess’s flat-mate Adam and My flat-mate Gerard all went to see the Hunger Games movie at midnight! We had a great time and all thought the movie was pretty awesome, though there were quite a few squealing pre-teen fan girls there.  It was quite an event with girls dressing up by carrying around bow and arrows like the main character in the book. The midnight premiere was on Wednesday, by Friday we had another fun thing to do. Friday morning Dani, Molly, Dani’s flat mate Zach and I woke up at the crack of dawn and walked down in to town to stand in line for Flight of the Conchord’s tickets! They are one of New Zealands biggest claims to fame, maybe behind Lord of the Rings. But Flight of the Conchords is a comedy group that does shows and also had a TV show on HBO, made up of Bret Mckenzie and Gemaine Clement and they are HILARIOUS. So we stood in line for about 2 hours and got a bunch of tickets. We were allowed two tickets a person and ended up getting as many as possible. 8 tickets total, one for each of us, then one for Molly’s boyfriend, one for Dani’s other flat mate Fin, one for Tess and one for Tess’s flat mate Matt. The draw for tickets was so big that a radio station came to the line and had competitions, like judging who could throw a paper “concord” or airplane the furthest and giving them two free tickets. They also gave out free coffees (AWESOME) and a few other things. Then some news crews showed up and we were on the NZ news! WE’RE FAMOUS ALREADY!! Here’s the link to the news clip. We’re standing in line right at the beginning and the camera scans by us at about 1:16. Pretty exciting!

http://www.3news.co.nz/Business-time-for-diehard-Flight-of-the-Conchords-fans/tabid/312/articleID/247745/Default.aspx

The next night, on Saturday, Tess, Dani and I went to The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra concert at the San Francisco Bathhouse downtown. The group is comprised of about five or six men and four women all who play ukulele and one man who plays the upright bass. They mostly cover songs, but do so very creatively and adorably. They’re just a cooky bunch of people and they have such a great time doing what they do. Here’s a couple pictures and songs from the concert! ALSO: we saw Bret Mckenzie from Flight of the Conchords at the concert! He used to be a part of the band and so he came to support them and they invited him on stage for the encore. He was probably three feet from Dani, and needless to say, we all FREAKED OUT. And in case any of you were wondering… he’s just as amazing and cute in person as he is on the show.

 Here's a music video of one of my favorites of theirs: (i've been to many of these places in the video!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqynAAYdLW8&feature=related

On a less exciting note, I turned in my first essay that week too. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that I’m here for school… mostly. =)