You know who you are. Y'all did miss out. A few of us had planned to go to Rangitoto Island (a nature preserve off the Auckland harbor) for a day of adventuring and trail running. Like an overexcited third grader, I laid all my clothes out the night before and bolted out of bed the second my alarm went off. Right as I was getting ready to go and placing my PB+J in my running pack (I really am a third grader), I noticed the group had been blitzing out thinking about canceling because it might rain (RAIN RUNNING IS EVEN MORE FUN, ya goofs!). I sent out several frantic blitzes that went unanswered then realized people were most likely not going, and my host mom consoled me a bit, then I decided to go rogue instead. AND ROGUE I WENT! Despite my morning delay, I miraculously made it to the only morning ferry with 5 minutes to spare. I arrived to the island at 11 and spent the afternoon scrambling up and down the volcano and various paths on the island. By the time my afternoon ferry came, I had done about two hours of scampering, ate a PB+J on the edge of a crater, met an American who knew a friend of mine from high school, and explored some lava caves. Not a bad way to spend a day off of classes. I honestly think I may have had a better day alone than I might have with a bigger group. I didn't realize how much I needed a big chunk of alone time (besides just watching tv on my laptop). A day alone, exploring, feeling the overwhelming silence of a nature preserve with no real animals and no human activity was so therapeutic. The only weird moment in my day was when a guided tour rover drove by me on a dirt road I was coming down and a Chinese tourist kept pointing at me and taking photos with his hi-tech camera. I felt like some weird creature that they all felt entitled to photograph. But hey, maybe they just thought I looked awesome in my trail gear. (My neon running pack and assorted water bottles + the hippie headband I bought at the market probably look horrific to non-runners but I felt like a boss regardless.)
I got back to my homestay a little before dinner and promptly showered, put on my comfiest pajamas, and watched tv while eating chocolate. It was definitely my version of Treat Yo Self 2015 - I got to do everything I wanted to and didn't have to worry about anybody else. I'm so grateful and happy that I went. Normally I probably would've just sat around my homestay moping all day and being mad that everyone bailed and it would have been terrible. Instead, I scampered around volcanic rock and mossy forest and decreased the homesickness I'd been feeling tenfold from the first moment my feet began to strike springy, technical trail.
In the words of my girl Jenn Shelton, "That's what I love - just being a barbarian and running through the woods."
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You know what’s a great idea? Chugging a liter of extremely low quality cider by the name of Scrumpy’s after eating weird meat all day! (No, I did not get sick. It actually WAS a great idea.) Despite how my body felt the next morning, I had a wonderful (and somewhat – okay, very -- disgusting) weekend which involved delicious food, a middle school-esque sleepover, and RUGBY! I basically didn’t stop moving from the second class got out Friday at noon. A bunch of us spent that afternoon at St. Heliers, a beach nearby, then quickly shuffled back to our homestays for dinner. That night, I met people for drinks* (*to drink cheap cider in the park like teenagers) then to the movies. After somewhat of a disastrous attempt at all of us trying to go out post-movies then basically no buses running, we ended up at Ling’s house for the night. We watched Key + Peele and Fresh Off the Boat and then all curled up in different corners of the house for a solid 4 hours of sleep – from which I was awoken by both Justin and Singer giving me crazy eyes. Justin and Terence went to the grocery store and brought back stuff for a very unnecessary but still lovely brunch, and then we headed off to the Otara market in South Auckland. At the market, I had to interview people for a linguistics assignment, and part of interviewing people meant buying things from them AKA I ended up with an excuse to buy myself a new headband, a $5 hat, and a disappointing churro. After the market we went to Auckland’s chinese new year, which was basically wandering around in the hot sun eating delicious food. I had what seemed to be the bottom half of an octopus in sweet chilli sauce and some dumplings and a mango smoothie and it was all amazing but I didn’t need to eat any of it. AND THEN from there we had to go straight to a barbeque at our prof’s house! Thus it was pretty much an entire day of walking a few feet, eating, walking some more, eating again, etc. That night, we went from the barbeque to the Chiefs vs. Blues game, where I imbibed a lot of scrumpy’s and had a wondrous time yelling and trying to convince Apoorva that rugby and American football are not actually the same thing. I went there with the intention of rooting for the Blues (home team), but similarly to my American football mentality, I chose my team allegiance based on uniform colors. (Sorry Blues, the Chiefs uniforms were fierce.) It was a grand ole time.
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS + SUCCESSES:My birthday involved a crazy amount of travel time and a lot of meandering and it was exactly what I didn’t know I wanted. Terence, Apoorva and I made the trek to Wellington for Saturday + Sunday and left Friday night after our Waitangi Day at Bastion Point (which included an awesome powhiri and a lot of food trucks, but I digress). I could go on forever on all the wonderful little bits of my weekend but for the sake of anyone reading, I’m making it a listicle instead. You’re welcome, Mom*. *we all know it’s most likely just you reading this. 1. I SURVIVED TWO 10+ HOUR BUS RIDES! I feel like I deserve a tee shirt with that across the front and a really sweaty-looking me on the back inside a logo. I’m so impressed with me. My usually motion-sick, bus-hating self sucked it up and acted like a reckless youth and did an amount of traveling that would seem absurd if were anywhere but New Zealand. And it was totally worth it. 2. Running Adventures On Saturday morning, Terence and I run-scamper-hiked for two hours up into the mountains surrounding the city and saw some amazing views. Exhibit A: If I were in the states I would’ve been gunning for 21 miles, but since I’m in New Zealand and Terence and I had just stumbled off of an insanely long bus ride, we just ran for fun without tracking miles. Besides, we definitely did at least 21km, so that’s New Zealand-y and festive.
4. ALL OF THE FOOD + the outdoor market ...which included Thai, indian, and Malaysian, as the highlights. We stumbled into an outdoor festival/market the ngiht of my bday where I had some delicious Malaysian shrimp thing and listened to live music and watched a flash mob haka of Ka Mate – it was almost too perfect. 5. The evening I did not expect We somehow ended up in the middle of the crowd of every drunk sevens fan in town for the tournament and finished off our night at a weird outdoor clubbing scene dancing on a raised centerstage. We were the only vaguely sober people there (woo 21! Go hard!) as well as the only people not in racist costumes, but it was a great time. 6. Sunday Brunch (o the homesickness) I know this should be lumped in with delicious food but brunch deserves its own category. We spent Sunday checking out the cable car and wandering around the massive botanical garden. We then ate rhubarb crumble for brunch in the rose garden. It was all very English. I had such a great birthday. Terence, Apoorva and I were basically little children on the loose, running around a strange city and eating our way through it like Pacmen. It was glorious.
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