I love New Zealand!

Hello! It has been forever! There is so much to update you on yet again. I know I can’t include it all but here’s a brief overview of everything I could remember easily. I have so many amazing pictures but they take forever to upload so hopefully more will be coming with time. It is so amazing here!!!

Since I last wrote we have been to Mt. Cook, Queenstown, the Routeburn, and now we’re in Wanaka. It has been a crazy week! In Mt. Cook we were surrounded by beautiful mountains and the weather was quite a bit cooler than we had been used to (in the lower to mid 60s). Everyone kinda split off and did their own thing here. I did a bit of hiking and catching up on homework. We also finally got to the do a really cool glacier tour. When we left Mt. Cook we headed to Queenstown. This is by far my favorite city we have been to! It is the adventure capital of New Zealand. The first night we met up with the other Pacific Challenge group, had pizza all together, and hung out for the evening. Then we spent a full day in class to make up for all the class we had missed because our professor was unable to get here until now. On Friday the 13^th I got to Bungee Jump!!!! It was incredible! I’m not a very superstitious person but I was also #13 when I jumped ;) CRAZY! It turned out very well though. We got to watch people bungee at 3 different sites and then we took a gondola up a mountain and went luging at the top (comparable to extreme go-carting). It was awesome. The views were unbelievable! On Valentine’s Day we were woken up to omelets which were a great change from our usual breakfast and then we all split to do our own thing. Due to some complications and confusion bungee jumping at one of the sites the previous day, my friend Brittney and I managed to be in the right place at the right time and got to go on the Nevis Arc at a ridiculously cheap rate. The Nevis Arc is the largest swing in the world and you swing over a huge cannon right near one of the bungees. It was so awesome!!! Quite scary. The following day our group split in two and we were off to the Routeburn. The group I was on started with a nature cruise on the Milford Sound which is a beautiful area and is up for the running in being voting into the Natural Wonders of the World. It was unbelievable cold and rainy that day but it was still amazing. The next 3 days we hiked the Routeburn Track which is a 19.9 mile hike through the mountains. It was extremely difficult both physically and mentally but when we finished it was incredible. It brought the group a lot closer. We are all very sore and are now just taking time to catch up on everything in Wanaka. Yesterday we watched Lord of the Rings and got to see a ton of the places we have been, very cool. Today I jumped off of a 25 foot bridge into the river and I didn’t land quite right, I have a pretty nice bruise forming but it was great ;) We are about to have dinner now and then we are heading off to rock climb and hopefully go repelling before dark. We only have 6 days or so left in New Zealand. That makes me very sad cause I don’t want to leave but I am very excited to go to Australia. I miss you so much and I can’t wait to share all my pictures with you. Talk to you very soon.

Love you heaps, Kate

guess what...

...I WENT BUNGY JUMPING!!!!

Alright I have extremely limited computer time right now so I will give you a full update hopefully soon but I just had to tell you that bungy jumping was INCREDIBLE! I know this is a bold statement but I think I could honestly say I liked bungying a bit more than skydiving. I'm so glad I did it. I have never felt so free and independent ever. It was awesome :) Well I can't wait to talk to you soon. We have a ton going on here in Queenstown so I'll be in touch when things calm down a bit. I LOVE IT tho hehe. Miss you alll so very much.

Heaps of love, kate

The last couple days...

Hello! I will fill you in once again...

It has been a pretty low-key last couple of days. On Thursday we had class for awhile in the morning and then we had to do a scavenger hunt project for one of our classes finding info and photographing cites around the city of Christchurch. It was interesting and very pretty. When we got back to the YMCA we had a bit more class and then we all went out to a delicious greek restaurant as a group. After that we went to a karaoke bar together. It was a little crazy. On friday a few people were feeling pretty sick. We had to load up and check out of the YMCA fairly early and then we had breakfast, took naps, and explored the city a bit more. Nothing too exciting. After buying groceries in the afternoon, we headed to an eco-lodge in the middle of the Peel Forest. It was very different but cool. Everything was run by solar panels and whenever you used the toilet you had to cover it in saw dust. Quite a different experience. Also being out so far in the woods was a bit creepy, we could here possums and other strange animals at night. On Saturday we got up very early to go white water kayaking. It was very cold and rainy but we were told we would be going anyway. I was not too excited. We had a training course on the water in the morning and the water was FREEZING. We all wore thermals under our wet suits and I ended up falling in twice. We had a quick lunch and then we got to start on the rapids. It was amazing!!!! I absolutely loved it. It was a bit scary at times and I did fall out more than once hitting quite a few large rocks which is quite painful ;) But it was worth it. I'm not sure why I enjoyed it so much but as the day progressed, the rain stopped and we warmed up because we were constantly moving. It was great! When we all got back to our lodge we had a barbeque and invited our kayaking guides to join us. After eating we played charades and cards. The night turned out to be quite fun. Today we left the eco lodge and drove further south to Mt. Cook. The scenery is unbelievable! Its quite hot and very windy today so our glacier tour was posponed until tomorrow as long as the wind dies down. We also have some pretty intense hikes coming up these next few days. There are mountains everywhere. Its just so unreal.

Well I hope everything is going great! Hopefully talk to you soon. Love you very much!

I miss you!

love, Kate

Hello All!

Hello again. Since the last update, once again so much more...

We started off Thursday morning mountain biking (something I realized is definately not for me, I hated it!) I was very sore and did not enjoy the morning at all. But after that we went on a wine tour which was awesome! I learned a lot and discovered I like many new things. We visited 3 vinyards and a brewery. The whole afternoon was a great time and we ended up having a wonderful supper when we returned to the hostel of rice and chicken. YUM! Then we did laundry and packed for our 3 day hike. Friday morning we left nice and early and drove to our kayaking destination. We had to sit through a 2 and a half hour training session and then we got to sea kayak to the Able Tasman National Park. There were a lot of white caps and it was quite a difficult task but it was well worth it when we arrived to our campsite. Absolutely incredible!!! We spent the next 3 days camping and baking on the most beautiful beach you can imagine. We did a ton of hiking, napping, swimming, and exploring. It was amazing. On the last day we did a 3 hour hike back to the vans and headed to Kaikura. One of our group members severely injured his foot and ended up in the emergency room. We ended up sitting most of the day just waiting but they finnally released him and we headed south. The next morning we had to wake up at 4 am and we got to swim with the dolphins. This was much different than I expected because we actually got to swim with completely wild dolphins. It was the most bizarre/incredible expirience ever. It was so unreal. After that a group of us managed to find a pub and watch the super bowl. There is nothing quite like watching it in a bar full of kiwis on a monday at noon, but it was a great game and ended up being quite fun. On Tuesday we woke up and loaded the vans and headed to Christchurch. We are currently staying at the YMCA haha! We ended up going out for lunch and then spending the afternoon catching up on homework. That night we had an amazing supper and went out to the pubs. Today we went to an indoor rock wall and practiced rock climing. I didn't love it but then we went to the 'clip and climb' there are only 2 locations in the world and its similar to rock climbing but you are completely on your own. I loved it! We had a bit of class today and then had pizza hut for supper. Very good times ;) tommorow we have class and then a free day. It should be great!

I hope everything is going great! Love you lots. Miss you. Cheers!!!