The Final(s) Month

Dreaded June....

With finals spread out all along June there was limited amount of time to travel. Instead, I just explored around Auckland

All Blacks Rugby Game

We were those rowdy Americans everyone loves to hate and hates to love (me, Maggie, Caroline, Anna, Hannah, Claire, Marco, Avery, Pat, Bart, Mickey, Ryan) It was finally the day when we were able to see the famous "Haka" dance from the All Blacks. I had no idea what was going on the entire game (apologies to my 10 year rugby playing dad). The All Blacks were playing against England which is a big rival and it was a close game. Don't worry though, New Zealand took home the win!

 

Bungy Jumping

What better way to start off finals month then to literally jump off a bridge?! To celebrate, Ryan, Pat, Mickey, Bart and I went bungy jumping off the Auckland bridge. Since we had prior bungy experience we were able to do fun things rather than the standard jump. The boys all did lovely flips off the bridge and I decided it would be fun to go backwards. I had to walk backwards with my feet tied to the end of the platform and pivot my feet on the edge. It was the weirdest feeling and the man who worked there kept pulling me back and forth. There was no warning to when he would let go. And then he did. I think my stomach came out of my mouth and sure enough by the time I got pulled back up I was about to throw up haha. That was no way to end a bungy experience though so Mickey and I did a tandem jump. We had a lovely swan dive and were in sync the whole time (time to go pro?)

Devonport

The hometown of the newly famous singer, Lorde. After an afternoon of exploring around the docks with Maggie and Caroline we spur of the moment decided to take a ferry over to Devonport for lunch. It was a quaint and sleepy town for a Friday afternoon but we managed to find a pub where I had the most delicious steak sandwich. As I ate, I sang Lorde in my head and thought that maybe one day we could share in this magical sandwich together one day

Last Group Dinner

For our last supper we all met up at Jack Tar's on the waterfront and had a lovely meal filled with laughs and "remember-whens"

Bowling & Ice Skating

A majority of the group were off traveling the South Island while some of us were still in Auckland. One evening me, Mickey and Ryan went to the local bowling alley. Back home I'm often known as "gutter girl" which is why I ideally like to play with bumpers. The boys were so chivalrous and allowed me to go first. Surprise surprise, I got a strike on my first bowl! The rest of the first game I got two more strikes which was a nice surprise, but  gutter girl reappeared the second game... later in the week the three of us decided to go to the ice skating rink downtown. It's temporarily set up for the winter season and it was fun with the lights and music. We also got to wear the most boot-looking ice skates which were definitely roller blades in a past life. I'm no Christina Yamaguchi but I could hold my own against the little ice monster children.

Ice House

Oh the perfect bar for an ice queen..The ice house should be called an ice bar because there were no beds. Pat and I spur of the moment went to the ice bar and surprisingly no one else was in it so it was just the three of us (the bartender included). We got to place ice hockey and at the end smash our ice cups.

Queenstown

The South Island

Thursday, May 29th
In the early hours of the morning 7 of us (Caroline, Ryan, Mickey, Pat, Maggie, Bart and I) departed Auckland and were off to Queenstown, NZ. This is one of the top tourist locations and as we were landing I could tell why. There were so many mountains that had been freshly touched with snow. There were also tons of rainbows! Our plan for the day was to pick up the rental car and explore until we could bungy. Because of the rain we opted to delay our bungy jump and instead we headed to the apartment we rented and went grocery shopping. By the time we were done grocery shopping the sun had come out! Queenstown is a quaint ski-town that sits on the edge of a lake. When we settled into our apartment we enjoyed the rest of the day sitting by the fire and taking in our awesome view.

Friday, May 30th
Rise and shine at 5:30am! We had a 3-4 hour drive to the infamous Milford Sound. The scenery on the way to Milford was beautiful. We stopped off at a few locations to take pictures such as Te Anau Downs, 5 Mile Lookout and Mirror Lakes. When we arrived in Milford we had some time to walk on the edge of the lake and eat our sandwhiches before the 2 hour boat ride. The boat ride was somewhat interactive and we pulled up right beneath a waterfall. The water is so clean that we were able to drink it too! After a long day trip we headed back to Queenstown and stopped off on the way to check out the stars.

Saturday, May 31st
An all-day event of sky-diving. The stranger I strapped myself was Wesley or "Wez". He was awesome and I told him to flip us when we jumped 15,000 ft out of the plane. Since we each had a tandem sky diver and professional photographer, the 7 of us had to split up. This turned out being really cool because we were able to watch the other group land. Mickey, Ryan and I went first and then Maggie, Bart, Caroline and Pat went so we got to watch them float down. Skydiving was by far the coolest and most exhilarating thing I've ever experienced. Queenstown skydive may have been my first experience, but it will definitely not be the last! After the 7 of us experienced the craziest adrenaline rush we decided to head over to the world famous Fergburger!

Sunday, June 1st
Today I woke up and decided it would be a lovely day to jump off a suspended hut into a canyon 440ft above the ground. The Nevis Bungy is famous in New Zealand for its height and after taking a little trolley cart over to the hut I could tell why. Even after jumping off the bridge, this felt like a whole new experience. I had to wait for at least 9 people to go before it was my turn to jump. As I sat in the chair I gave myself a nice little pep talk and that's why I look so quiet in my videos. Basically my thought process was "hey, Meg. You're jumping off that ledge 3ft away and you're going to love it so why don't you suck it up and go have fun with it" So hence the real cheese-y smile and goofy ears as I'm on the ledge. This bungy was actually 10x more fun than the bridge because the free fall was SO long. Also, I had a go-pro attached to my chest, I've yet to see it but I guess there were tons of thoughts spilling out of my mouth. Fun fact about that skydive: I had such a lovely swan dive the guys asked me if I dive (out of adrenaline I said yes...) and I got a bloody nose mid jump!

After a crazy morning, 5 of us (Caroline, Pat, Mickey, Ryan and I) grabbed a quick lunch in Queenstown before going on a horseback rided tour of Paradise. Paradise is an hour drive out of Queenstown where films such as Narnia, Lovely Bones, Wolverine, Tracker, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The horse I got paired up with was Presley. He got his name because one day him and another horse (Elvis) escaped. When I hopped up on Presley the tour guide told me it was great that I got such a small horse but watch out because he's a trouble maker. Presley is also the alpha male of the hierarchy so he has to go first in line.. and he would bite other horses if they tried to pass. He also was one of the horses with the strongest neck and I had to prevent him from eating..needless to say, we had a hate love relationship.

Monday, June 2nd
Sadly it was our last day in Queenstown. We rode on the gondola to the top of a mountain which overlooked the town and the lake. I had to ride the whole trip with a bloody nose which was a pretty nice to have tissues shoved in my pockets. Thankfully I got the opportunity to ride on the luge which was so much fun but my hands were frozen by the end of the ride haha. After sipping on a nice hot chocolate we headed back down and went to check out the Sensory Museum. We weren't allowed to wear any shoes or having anything in our pockets because we would be crawling around. There were rooms filled with exercise balls, mirrors and lights, a jungle, a mirror maze and (my favorite) a room filled with balloons. I got a little too excited in the balloon room and face planted into the floor and accidentally kicked a wall so now I have a lovely purple toe. It was definitely worth it and I would do it all over again.