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