E noho rā Aotearoa

The time between when my dad was here and today, my last day in New Zealand, seems to have flown by. I can't believe I'm already leaving, living in Auckland for 6 months has made it seem like home.

As I sit in this lovely egg-shaped chair in the Auckland airport, I've been thinking about the things I'll miss most about New Zealand...

13:

The number of days I have left in New Zealand. It blows my mind how quickly the time has gone by here; who knew 5 months could go by so quickly?

I just finished up my internship, and I have to say I'm pretty bummed out. I learned a lot but also had heaps of fun while doing it, and the experience has definitely given me something to think about for the future. Anyway, here are a couple pictures from my time there (and some examples of New Zealand style):

The showroom!

A little late, but...

...here are some pictures from our trip to Rotorua! 

Lydia and Eryn go Zorbing!

Post-Zorb giddiness

South Island Pt. 2 (and some North)

Just finished up an amazing three-week Easter break - another trip around the South Island and a little of the North Island with my friends Matt and Tori. After Sydney we all flew into Christchurch and started off our adventure from there. We rented a car this time, which made getting around so much easier - and I got to experience my first time driving on the left side of the road!

Just kidding!

While packing for the South Island today I gave my camera one more shot...and it decided to work! :D So I'll write about Sydney now, before I forget everything that happened.

We flew into Sydney on the 9th, and got there in time to go catch the end of the Surry Hills Festival. There were two locations and we stumbled upon both of them; there were tons of little booths with food, clothes, jewelry and crafts - I wish I had had more time to poke around, but it was getting dark...and we had some celebrating to do for Kaylee's 21st!

April Break!

Just got back from a 6-day trip to Sydney to visit my friends Kaylee and Ray! It went by so quickly, and I'm kind of regretting not allotting more time to explore Australia. Unfortunately my camera pooped out during the trip and I don't have a way to get the photos on my computer for now :( Since I know the post will be pretty lame without pictures, I'll do another entry (with lots of pictures!) when I get back from the rest of my break. 


I'm off to the South Island again tomorrow to do some more exploring! Matt, Tori and I will be heading down to Dunedin and then up around the northern part, then taking the ferry to Wellington and back up to Auckland. I'll be back by May 1st, so expect a hefty post by then!


Until then, I'll leave you with these facts:
Formed in a crater, New Zealand's largest lake is Lake Taupo, extending to 616 square kilometres (or 238 sq miles). This makes it almost identical in size to the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia and slightly smaller than Singapore.


In addition to 'Aotearoa' (Land of the Long White Cloud), New Zealand is also known as 'The Shaky Isles' because of it's geothermal activity and numerous earthquakes. (This is something I just found out recently, and is also the name of the Internet cafe that my friends and I go to at least once a week.)


New Zealand claims the longest place name (85 letters) in the world - Taumata whakatangi hangakoauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu - which means: 'The hilltop, where Tamatea with big knees, conqueror of mountains, eater of land, traveller over land and sea, played his koauau to his beloved'.


And also, this:

The Great New Zealand Muster aka "The Running of the Sheep"

Unfortunately we didn't find out about the Muster until after it happened...maybe someday...


xx
Tessa


Images from here

Coromandel Adventure

This past weekend we took an amazing trip to the Coromandel Peninsula, on the east coast of the North Island. My friends and I rented a 10-person van for the weekend and camped out by Hot Water Beach and in Coromandel Town (they're really creative with naming things here).

Our van in the gorgeous sunset