Well, I’m back from New Zealand and it was amazing. Spent a week there, half in Christchurch and the other half in Auckland. I flew first from Brisbane to Christchurch, which was an experience. They should really tell you on your itinerary that if you have a foreign passport then you need your itinerary for your return flight before you can board the plane. That caused lots of drama. Fortunately I was there with plenty of time so I still made my flight. The flight there is a little over three hours, which isn’t that bad. I landed and got to my hotel, which was a bed and a bathroom in a closet like room with no window. But it was very nice, and I knew when I made the reservation that that would be what it was. They had this thing that you could set an alarm and five minutes before it went off a light above the bed would start to glow like a "morning sunrise" so you could slowly wake up to that. I did not take advantage of this. Instead I woke up to a pitch black room and blasted my eyes with a halogen lamp.

Christchurch is beautiful. For a city it was very unpopulated and it is situated right around the mountains of the canterbury region, near the southern alps. My first full day there I went on a Lord of the Rings tour where they took us into the mountains to see where they filmed a lot of the second movie. I was there really for the scenery, which was amazing, but it was a little cool to learn all about the movie.

We drove through a lot of the mountains and then walked up the hill where they filmed it, the town of Edorus. The hill is in the center of the valley surrounded 360 degrees by snow covered mountains. And if that isn’t enough there is a little stream at the bottom, which is actually a class 5 rapid, but since we couldn’t get high enough it just looks like a dried out river bed. I got a taste of real New Zealand farm land on the drive out there. We got in two traffic jams, one caused by sheep and the other by cows. Certainly an experience.

My second day in Christchurch I went and saw the Ron Mueck exhibit at the Christchurch Art Gallery. Amazingly enough the all glass building withstood the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that hit the city two months ago, and none of the pieces were damaged. Unfortunately though, the earthquake damaged a lot of the old buildings, many of which were still under construction when I was there. After the quake Christchurch has already had over 1800 aftershocks, one of which occurred my first night there, it was 3.1 magnitude. But apparently no one gets out of bed for less than 5. Well then. Luckily enough no one was killed and only one person hospitalized, but they have since been released.

Later that day I took a bus about a half hour outside the city to Sumner Beach. It was pretty nice, reminded me a bit of Colorado, with the small town right next to the mountains.

After Christchurch I flew into Auckland, which was not nearly as impressive, although still very cool. It was just like any other city in any other part of the world really. Lots of people, tall buildings, and the like. The first day there I met up with Meaghan and we walked around the city and went to One Tree Hill. The tree that sat up on the hill is no longer there due to protestors, but it is still a beautiful walk around the domain and is a great lookout place. There were tons of sheep roaming about, which was also a nice touch.

Our second day in auckland we went bungy jumping off the auckland bridge! It was terrifying and awesome. The feeling of free falling is completely foreign and was terrifying, but after the initial drop it is more enjoyable. They dunked me in the water, which was also a new experience. It’s the only bungy that can do that. Then we took a ferry over to Waiheke island and explored a bit. Lots of small towns and beaches.

Our last day we went to a dormant volcano, Rangitoto Island. We hiked up it, about an hour and a half and got awesome views of the city and the water. I had never been to a volcano before, so it was a new experience. It's the youngest volcano in New Zealand, having only erupted 600-800 years ago.

New Zealand is hosting the Rugby World Cup next spring (for them) so everywhere we went was an advertisement for it, or a place selling clothing. They have countdowns everywhere and it's still a little less than a year away. Crazy. They take their rugby seriously.

Now it’s back to life on the Gold Coast for five more days before I depart for America. 13 hours to LA, 5 hours in LA, and 5 1/2 hours to Boston and I'll be home. Crazy how fast this went by. It was certainly a life changing experience and I recommend that anyone who can study abroad definitely should.

This past week I was lucky enough to travel down to Sydney. We were there for a total of four days and managed to fit everything in. The first day we went to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Botanical Gardens, and walked down George Street, famous for it's shopping, and found Gap australia-only the second to be here, the first is in Melbourne.

The second day was spent in the Blue Mountains. We went on a group tour so we learned lots of fun facts. The Blue Mountains got their name because when viewed from a distance there is a blue tinge. This is caused by light reflecting off vapours from the eucalyptus leaves. The mountains, which are actually not a mountain range, but a plateau made from mostly sandstone, border metropolitan Sydney. They begin on the west side of the Nepean River. They are part of the Great Divide and are dissected by gorges of up to 760 meters deep. It's World Heritage listed, the fourth area to be listed in New South Wales.

In the mountains is a place called Scenic World, which houses the world's steepest railway, which I had the pleasure of riding. The steepest grade is 52 degrees. You start out on a flat surface and are laying down in the seat. As it goes up you sit straighter and straighter. It was slightly terrifying, but awesome. You're caged in essentially though, but that doesn't stop everyone from feeling the need to hold on to the cage. The railway is Guinness certified, so it really is the World's steepest.

Probably the most recognized feature of the Blue Mountains is the rock formation called the Three Sisters. Legend has it that three sisters, Meehin, Wimiah, and Gunnedoo lived in Jamison Valley as part of the Katoomba tribe. The sisters fell in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, but tribe law forbade them from marrying. The brothers, unhappy with this decision, captured the sisters causing a major tribe battle. A witch-doctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the sisters into stone to protect them from harm. Unfortunately he was killed before he could turn them back. Now the sisters remain in their rock formation as a reminder of the battle. The sisters stand 922, 918, and 906 meters tall.

On our way back from the mountains we stopped at a National Park to observe some wild kangaroos. We saw a mom and a baby joey about 18 months old. Now I had no idea how cool kangaroos are. The most often seen kangaroo is the Eastern Grey. Now kangaroos have fixed hips, so they can't walk, they hop. But their hind legs have stretchy tendons that store elastic strain energy, so they use hardly any muscular effort to move. Also, there is a link between their hopping and breathing. So as their feet leave the ground air is expelled from the lungs and as they move their feet to touch the ground their lungs are refilled. Because of this increases in speed require very little extra effort. Female kangaroos are the cool ones though. They are essentially always pregnant. And inside their pouch is four different teats and they can produce two different types of milk to provide for joeys of varying age. They can also suspend the development of a joey when there is little food or water to provide the best chance of life. Kangaroos are shy by nature, though the males will often 'box' with other males for play or territorial reasons. Their tail serves as a fifth limb and often when they are fighting they will balance themselves on their tail. Aboriginals use kangaroo for their meat, hide, bone, and tendon. And a little fun fact, kangaroos and emus are featured on the australian coat of arms because they are the only animal that can't walk backwards. And australia is the only country that eats their coat of arms.

We then went to see an aboriginal carving. Now did you know that aboriginals banned graffiti? They only allow it if it tells a story. The one we saw was of a kangaroo that had been taken down by a hunting boomerang and then killed by a spear through it's heart. The way it was facing pointed to where they then went and it's legs were in a wide stance, indicating it was moving fast when it was taken down. Very interesting. Aboriginals also get a tattoo when they are a teenager of their tribe symbol. When they want to marry they go to the tribe elders and show their tattoos. If they don't match they can marry. This prevents inbreeding. Crazy business. Their traditional instrument, the didgeridoo, is traditionally only played by the eastern kimberley region, and only by the men.

And have you ever wondered why the australian sporting colors are green and gold when their flag is red white and blue? Well that's because of the wattle tree. With it's green stem and golden leaves. There are over 985 species of the wattle tree in australia. And so they use the golden wattle for their sporting colors.

Our third day in Sydney we went to Bondi Beach, a very famous beach. This art thing called Sculpture by the Sea was taking place so we walked around that which was cool. And then we headed back to the Gold Coast.