Sorry it's been so long since I updated this. Things got a little crazy for a while there. We had our Taupo weekend, which is a 4 day group-wide trip to Lake Taupo and some volcanoes in the area. Dr. Volcano (Dr. Parker) is the Kiwi professor we had for the first 3 weeks of our Island Biogeography (biology) course. He taught us about plate tectonics, rock types, etc. and then showed us all of those things in the field. We took a ski lift up Mt. Ruapehu. We were then chased back down Ruapehu by a storm and bugs. On Saturday we hiked to the saddle between two mountains, one of which was Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings). This was an exhausting hike, but I enjoyed it. Also, every night was movie night in mine and Allison's room, which was a lot of fun. I was not aware that 12 people could fit in a tiny hotel room, but apparently it's possible. Those were the major things we did last weekend, but a lot of little things happened to take up our resting time.
Last week was no less busy. Monday was a normal class day, but Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were field trip days. Our field trip days involve climbing around on rocks to check out tidepools, counting how many birds visit feeders in the wild life reserve, and meeting the US ambassador to NZ. Sort of exhausting. This weekend we stayed in Wellington for the NZI Sevens Rugby Tournament, which translates to the biggest party of the year. Everyone dresses up in crazy costumes, gets drunk, and has a giant 3 day party in the streets of Wellington. There's supposedly some rugby being played while all of this is going on, but I think that may just be a rumor.
Today is Sunday, and everyone is resting and recovering from the excitement of the weekend before we start another week of classes. Only 2 weeks left in NZ, and nobody is ready for this half of the adventure to be over yet.
Stream we hiked along
Our lab, the tide pools are in there somewhere
Stream we hiked along
Our lab, the tide pools are in there somewhere
