Beach.  A word you typically think of when you come to New Zealand considering the islandic aspect of it.  Well, I finally ventured there.  Since none of you care much about my words heres my photos: 

Apparently the surf in Dunedin is the best in the country, so I think I may try to learn when the weather warms up a little. 

Thats all for now

Otago Peninsula

Many new things have been happening lately, but I only have like ten minutes so I am only going to name a few:

1. I just went to a cafe, ordered an ice coffee, and came out with a coffee frappe.  I guess I just need to accept that they don't have real coffee here: only flat white's.... FML.  

2. I went to my first all-blacks viewing. For those of you who don't know, the All Blacks are NZ rugby.  For those of you who don't know what Rugby is; its basically NZ football.  So clearly, I need to follow it.  The game was fun.  Went to the Baaaaah which contains too many puns to even speak about, so figure it out on your own.  It shouldnt be too hard

3.  So the cruise we went on was awesome!  Albatross are so badass, sometimes they even break thier wings when they dive into the water to catch fish.  You gotta respect animals that would risk thier arms for food.   Here are some pictures:

Apparently they sent all the sick people here and its now called exile island.  

more exile island

Sunny day, but don't be fooled, it was freezing!

They gave us winter coats to wear = mad bulky yet cozy.

keeping warm

The whole moutainside was covered with sheep but you can't really see that in this.  Everywhere you look there are little white dots which are sheep in the distance.  

If anyone watches cars, this truck looked a lot like the old hick truck.

Albatross colony

Cave in the Otago peninsula.

If this summer (winter?) has taught me one thing, its how great sea lions are!  This one just came up like right next to our boat to check us out up close and personal.  Brilliant!  

Earthquake?!?

Apparently two nights ago in New Zealand there was the largest earthquake in eighty years.  But no worries family, I am alive and kicking!  I am not proud to say that I did not even notice the earthquake in the slightest bit.  But, that has been the buzz for the past few days.  

In happier news, today I saw something that I'm sure many of you have never and will never see: 30,000 chocolate balls (in NZ lingo: JAFFAs) roll down the steepest street in the world.  It was a big deal over here in NZ, there were TV stations, radio DJS, rappers performing, free chocolate balls for grabs, ETC.  Overall, it was a great time.  After the race, which was a very intense 30 seconds by the way, a friend and I attempted to climb to the top of the hill.  I probably shouldn't say attempted because we completed the task, but I'm sure my bum will be a little sore tomorrow.  Speaking of tomorrow, I am going on a cruise around the peninsula to see penguins and all sorts of animals and all the good stuff.  So pictures from that soon!  

Sorry friends, but no juicy gossip yet!  I'll keep you posted... :)

Much love,

Kirsten 

Hello!

So the past week has been crazy busy but I am finally starting to feel a bit settled in.  I started classes two days ago, so I guess technically they havent really started.  I have a pretty large workload but i dont think its anything I cannot handle, and if worse comes to worse than at least none of my grades transfer over to the my G.P.A.  The last few nights have been party, party, party.. but all in good fun!  Kiwis love 3 things:  techno, dressing up in costumes, and crappy beer, so obviously I fit in just fine.   The kiwis I have met so far are really nice and really friendly, but in a much different way than the U.S.   Here are some of my most recent pictures from my orienation in Rotorua and my first few days in Dunedin. 

I went to the cadbury factory!!! It was delicious.

My bedroom (minus me)

The outside of my flat.  Its not the most attractive building in the world but it makes do.  

There are botanical gardens literally 2 minutes from my flat.  This is just one of the many unique trees there,.

There is this shop next to my flat where the artist makes animals out of old car parts.   Its really interesting, I will try to get more pictures of his work.  

More from the botanical gardens.  

This is the old railway station in Dunedin.   Many of the buildings here are awesome and have really unique architecture.  This train station is one of the citys most famous buildings.  Also the boy on the left is my roomate from Penn.  

We went on a train trip by gorges ( I thought of Ithaca), and it was so beautiful.  This landscape literally stretched for a good twenty minutes and probally went for much longer.  

It is not unusual at all in NZ to look around and see lots of little white dots along the mountain side.  Its sheep.  In fact New Zealand doesnt have much overgrown grass because the sheep are always munching on it.  

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Another gothic architecture building in Dunedin.  

View from the plane from Christ church to dunedin.  Im not sure if you can tell the difference between the mountain and the clouds but it was much more distinct from the window! So beautiful 

Maori's are the indigenous people of NZ.  We went to a sort of plymouth plantation like place but with Maori villages and stuff.  They also put on a dance and song show at the end.  

This was wayne.  

Maoris greetings are a bit differnt than ours in the u.s. 

Red woods forest!

The trees were massive

Ok,

So yesterday I feel like I got to see a little piece of NZ that is typically shown on National geographic or the travel channel. We took a little train ride through the country side of the south island. It was soooo so so beautiful. Everyone was just silent for a while. I will put pictures up soon. In the meantime, I am starting class soon (monday.) The honeymoon phase is almost over, I suppose. In New Zealand they do not go out on Fridays because rugby is either on or played. I watched my first game last night, Its no football. How are the Sox doing? I went out on Thursday for a international student party which was awesome. Im excited for Kiwis to move back here, though. Ill be sure to put some pictures up here soon from NZ. Meanwhile, Here are some pictures from San Diego.



This was at the wave house in Mission beach, I believe. This guy was doing all sorts of tricks.


Sunset was bright so i took it through my sunglasses. It was beautiful. This was taken from Mount Soledad




Sunset right near jacobs house. Pacific beach, California



The next few are from the San Diego Zoo!



Street festival on another beach (maybe ocean beach). This was very neat.

Sunset cliffs.