Rain, Rain, Go Away

Hello all,

It's been almost 20 days since my last post, and I apologize to those of you that think I died or got abducted. I said I would write again when I did something worth writing about, but the truth is, I haven't done a whole lot lately. May has been kind of a bad month for me. Not that anything particularly bad has happened, just not a whole lot has gone on. First of all, the weather's been quite gloomy, and I kid you not, it's rained every day for almost 3 weeks. This has prevented much of the travel and outside activities that filled my early months here, and I have been spending a lot of time just sitting in my apartment. I have also been kind of sick on and off, which is probably a combination of the weather, homesickness, and my less-than-excellent diet. Now, some of you may say "you're in New Zealand! You should be living it up, having a ball!" and I would agree with you, I should be. The truth is, I may have let my homesickness get the best of me for the past few weeks, and seeing pictures of everyone back home enjoying the beautiful summer weather and all their free time kind of makes me wish I could be there with them. I guess you never really know how much you will miss the people who matter most to you until you are uprooted from your life and whisked away to the other side of the globe.

Anyway, with a month and a week (35 days) left to go in New Zealand, I have resolved to make the most of the rest of my time here, cause I am sure that you folks don't want to read any more of these lame, melancholy blogs posts. :-)

This coming week is my last week of classes, and then immediately afterward my friend Haylee and I are going to the South Island for a week of adventures. The projected activities include whale-watching, lots of beautiful natural sights, and climbing a glacier. It should be a very enjoyable breath of fresh air for me. After that I have exams, and then the whole gang will be capping off exam week with a trip to see a professional rugby game!

All in all, I have absolutely loved my time here, but I think one more month will just about do it for me. Thank you all for reading, and I promise my next post will be far less dreary. I can't wait to see you all and tell you firsthand about my adventures in Kiwi Land. :-)

Till next time!

-Connor

P.S. I finally got out of the apartment tonight and went to see the musical Avenue Q with my friends Mallory and Haylee. If you haven't seen this show, I cannot recommend it enough. Absolutely hilarious. :-)

Week 13: The Windy City

No, not THAT Windy City, The one to which I refer is Wellington, capital of New Zealand.

I took a trip there last weekend to see Regina Spektor in concert, but before we got to that, I spent a couple of days just seeing the sights. I went with my friend Alana (a fellow AustraLearn student studying in Hamilton), and we stayed with her friend Carly, a Kiwi she had met at camp back in the States the summer before. It was wonderful having our very own tour guide to take us all around the beautiful city of Wellington. On Saturday, Carly took us on a little tour of downtown Wellington, after which we visited the Te Papa museum and took in some of the history and culture of New Zealand. It was a really cool museum, with an exhibit on marine life that I really loved. Afterward, Alana and I went to see the movie "Boy," a New Zealand film about a young Māori boy growing up in New Zealand. It was a very funny and well done film, and surprisingly, I got most of the humor (even though I was warned ahead of time that it might be too "kiwi" for me to understand).

The next day we went to the Wellington Zoo, and we had a blast! There were so many cool animals that I had never seen before, like kangaroos, emus, and dingoes. It was a load of fun, and a great way to spend the day. I definitely felt like a little kid again. :-)

After the zoo, we met up with my friend Colin (whom I spent a good potion of Fall break with on the South Island), and he took us up a big hill to see the "Trippy Tree." Now, I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical at first because Colin talked this tree up a lot. But when we got there, we discovered it really was as cool as he had claimed. The root structure of the tree was so strong that you could climb all the way up to the canopy and sit on top of the branches at the top. From that height, we could see all of Wellington, and it was a lovely sight indeed.

The following day, we headed to the cable car which took us up to the Carter Observatory, high above Wellington. We spent the day learning about space, and took in a very cool video presentation. That evening Alana and I went to the Wellington Opera House for the Regina Spektor Concert. She put on an excellent show, and I had a great time. Tuesday morning I took a 12 hour bus ride back to Auckland, and here I am!

More to come when I get out and do something worth writing about!

I love and miss you all,

-Connor

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