Easter weekend and I'm 21!

Dudes and Dudetts!
This past weekend was awesome. Here in NZ they have Monday and Tuesday off for Easter as well, so I had a six day weekend! A bunch of my friends and I decided to head down to Taupo. It was about a 6 hour bus ride on a real cramped bus. Once we got there we stayed a night at a hostel camping outside on tarps and sleeping in hammocks. We had decided to hike to Tongariro Crossing over the weekend. We woke up at 6am and got another bus to Tongariro. Once there we began our hiking journey. The scenery was absolutely amazing. Also located on the trail is Mt. Ruapehu- AKA Mount DOOM!!!!!!!!! It's 2797 meters high. It's very high up. After hiking the trail (can take up to 4 days, we only did a part of it) to a camp site, we dropped most of our gear and headed over to hike up the mountain. It was around 1:30pm. There is no set path on the way up the still active, but dormant, volcano. You have to make your own way up. Holy Crap! It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, physically and mentally draining and all I wanted to do was go down and sleep. (we had been hiking for 5 hours earlier) On the way up you can hear people yell "ROCK!" and you best look up and figure out if the rock is on it's way down to hit you or you might not have a choice about going down. Once we reached the top we realized we were out of water and three of us split an orange and 2 granola bars. That was the best orange I had ever tasted, EVER! I had taken about 3-4 hours to get up Mt. Doom. Getting down also seemed to be an issue, unless you know how to ski. If you found the right path, you could ski down the sand and gravel and reach the bottom in about 30-45 minutes. A dangerous but extremely fun activity. I did get a few bumps and cuts. While we were on the mountain we made sure to throw something "precious" into the crater- we chose the orange peels... We slept well that night after we got back around 8pm.

The guys I was with decided that since there wasn't a lot of food left, that they were too tired to continue, so the next morning we got picked up. I was Easter morning. I read the Easter story out of John that morning as the sun rose. An amazing sunrise service. I was a little torn about leaving so soon, but we had accomplished hiking up Mt. Doom, so I wasn't too sad. We went back that morning and met up with some other friends in Taupo. We hit the beach and relaxed the rest of Easter Sunday. Later that night, we went to an Irish pub with an all you can eat buffet! We had potato salad, lamb, ham, chicken nuggets, rolls, beef stew, salad, and some sausages. A good end to a relaxing evening.

The day, Monday, began well. I had slept in a hammock the previous night and woke up to birds singing in my ears. They even tried to build a nest in my hair.... We were going white water rafting this afternoon with the three people we met up with. This adventure was absolutely stunning and awesome. We went on Kiwi River Safaris. We rafted the Tongariro river, a grade 3 rapid. (on a scale to 6) Not to easy, not too hard. The six of us were in one raft, talk about a fun experience. The whole time we kept our river guide, MP, laughing. And he had some good jokes and stories as well. He spends half his year in NZ and the other half guiding in the states. He has worked at the same river Mom, Dad, and Jeremy rafted when we were in CO. The rivers in NZ are very secluded compared to the states. We only saw the other rafts. The cliffs were stunning and covered in lush green trees. The rocks seemed to hang in mid air as we passed under them. (the tree roots kept them from falling on our heads) The trip was a total of 2 hours on the water, over 50 rapids, and a Subway sandwich to finish off the trip. All for only $99. Highly recommended if you ever find your way over to Taupo. This one rapid took us straight into the side of the cliff, on the bounce back I fell out of the raft and into the water. I was the only one that went swimming that day. I hurried back into the raft as we came up on some more rapids. The people in the boat said all they saw was me in the boat one second and then I had disappeared underneath the other second. I was a fantastic trip. I learned that in NZ there are schools were you learn how to be adventure sport guides, rafting, kayaking, hiking, climbing, and so on.

Tuesday morning 4 of us headed out to Huka Falls. The river that fed to falls was soo clear and deep at the beginning and had a huge current running through it. I would have been nice to dive if I knew I wasn't going to be swept into the falls. It was beautiful.

Our bus left at 3:30pm on Tuesday and we got back around 9pm. I worked on a paper that I had due on Thursday. Wednesday came about and I continued to work on the paper when I wasn't reading all the awesome birthday cards and emails. Thank you all soo much. My roommates made me supper that evening. It was awesome. Around 7 we (me and 40 of my friends) Decided to head out to do a little karaoke. I sang a lot of songs and my friends helped make the birthday a great time. The whole bar sang happy birthday to me. And this one girl brought me a homemade cupcake. (Had to make when you only had a convection oven in our apartments). I had a fantastic night. This weekend I hope to go diving at a spearing competition. We'll see if that works out. Thanks again for all the birthday wishes and cards. I made it to 21!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hiking for 4 days and dive trips

Hey all, I'm having a good time still, for all of you who were worried my good time would fizzle out. I'll be hiking what Frodo and Sam hiked this weekend (Happy Easter too!) I'm taking "the precious" up to Mount Doom and I'll consider throwing it in the lava.... It's gonna be interesting, no hostels, just tarps, sleeping bags and the stars to sleep under. I'll tell more about it when I'm finished hiking (I leave Friday and return Tues.) HE HAS RISEN!

Ok, I met with the Bluefins on Wed night... Awesome experience. The Bluefins are a spearfishing club here in Auckland. I was able to meet some excellent divers who had some amazing stories to tell. I'll be joining them March 29th for a diving competition, Sweet-as! They are also planning on more dive trips soon. Ryan, I'll shoot that Kingfish soon! These guys got a lot of experience, from guys who have been diving for over 25 years, to newcomers like me (who have 2 years diving) We all learn a lot from each other.

I went to Goat Island, a national marine reserve. Supposidly tons of fish and huge fish too since it hasn't been fished since the 1970s. But, the visibility was terrible, I saw 4 fish... kind of a let down but I'll be returning soon to gather more video and pictures.

I'm playing Ultimate Frisbee in the UniGames- a four day event where the 4-5 colleges/universities play sports. But thats in April (you'll hear more later)

(picture) A concert I filmed at our school, this camera gets me everywhere!

(Picture) Some friends I hang out with a lot

Left to Right- Mark from Holland, Jakob from Germany, me, and Zach from NY

Thanks again to all who sent me cards and Mom and Dad- thanks for sending the calendar. Jeremy, have fun and don't do too much homework this weekend!

Busy with classes, fun weekends and filming

Hey all, it's been a while since my last post. I've been pretty busy getting situated with classes and finding other classes to take. The two classes I came here for are only offered next semester, so I had to find different classes to take. I am taking a film class, although it's very similar to one I've taken at BSC. I'm also taking a TV writing class, a Maori culture class, and Radio Production. I won't have a radio show until mid April, and that's still not a guareentee. And access to editing labs is brutal, they only let certain classes get in, so I'm constantly trying to find people to talk to so I can show you all some videos or films I've made. I'll keep trying to find an edit lab somewhere.

This past weekend was great. We (about 80-100 international students) went to the Noho Marae weekend. It is an opportunity to learn about the Maori culture through songs, games, FOOD!, and other activities. It was an amazing weekend. We started on Friday with an international dinner, everyone brought a dish from their home country. I made homemade chicken noodle soup. We all ate food and and then we started to learn songs in the Maori language. There were a lot of countries represented this weekend, German, Holland, France, Austria, Mexico, Canada, USA, Sweden and Norway and the UK. We all went to a concert the school was holding later that night. The Black Seeds was the band. They are a fairly popular reggae/ska band and I was able to film them. Having an expensive camera can get you places (people thought I was part of a TV crew or filming a docu on them). I was soon pulled aside and I talked my way out of having my tape taken away. All I have to do is give them (the Program Committee or AuSM) a copy of my tape. Something about legal rights and copyright, but now my film will actually be used for some good instead of just sitting in my room! On Saturday we sang a lot, played this stick game which strengthen wrists for battle (the Maori are warriors) and also learned how to weave flowers and a ball with this seemingly unbreakable plant. And finally we learned the HAKA- type in All Blacks or Haka in youtube and you'll see an amazing and intimidating form of scaring the crap out of your enemies. We spent 3 hours learning the history of the Haka, the words, and movements to accompany them. It got all of us fired up and ready to go to battle. Slapping our thighs and chests until we began to bruise. It was so intense. There is supposed to be a leader who calls out the commands before everyone begins to scream.... I was that leader. I got it on film and once I can get to an edit lab you will see me lead 40 men in one of the most spectacular battle cries ever! And as I learned in the bar later that night with everyone else, I was the first international (in 8 years after 15 weekends) to hold this wooden weapon, normally made out of whale bone, during the Haka- a great honor. When we first began the girls sat in the front row, I guess we were able to put some fear into them, because they seemed to move back a little by the end. I assured all of my girl friends that I am not normally that angry or commanding. The girls did this dance and it was pretty awesome, I also taped that so you'll see it later. We all went to a restaurant/bar that night and there was a live band. We sang our hearts out (those of us who had voices left). The leaders (actual Maoris) bought me a drink, a great honor to lead these guys in the Haka. We all slept in the Marea, the meeting house that evening. And breakfast was at 11am. That after noon we had a closing ceremony where they left us with a song, and every country represented also sang a song from their country. In the Maori culture a song is the highest form of thanks and appreciation. "We sing, we laugh, we love, we live" (and go to battle). The US sang a compelation- American Woman, Kokomo, Sweet Caroline, and I've had the time of my Life......... and I owe it all to yooooooooooouuuuu. The other songs were also funny, mostly children songs and national anthems. The French taught us a shouting song where the international students yelled against the Maoris who taught us this weekend, a difficult task to beat them. We all recieved necklaces as gifts and left with a bit more knowledge about the Maori culture and New Zealand. It was a great weekend.

I'm eating well and am constantly meeting new people. The apartments are awesome, 500 people who love to hang out, talk, and party. Thank you all for your prayers, I know I'll be able to talk to some of you soon on Skype. Thursday and Friday I don't have class, so that gives me a nice 4 day weekend to travel, talk, and get some papers done. Don't worry I haven't forgotten about doing homework.

Jeremy, Mom, Dad and Waldo, I miss you. Looking forward to seeing you in a few months. Pat, Ryan, Karson, Lael, and all my WBIM folks we'll be talking soon.

Peace