Milford Track

Hi! Wow, so this weekend was absolutely amazing! Classes were finished and on friday at 2pm me and some other americans, 1 canadian, took a bus from Dunedin to Te Anau and arrived at 6:30pm. We stayed in a backpacker on the lakefront which wasnt the best ive stayed in nz but not bad at all and really nice scenery overlooking the lake. The next morning we were picked up at 8am and taken on a bus to te anau downs where we got on board a boat. This boat ride was about 2 hours and took us to the start of the milford track. Now, due to some avalanche reports, they told us to be careful because we werent equipped for snow. The track is supposed to take 4 days, but most do it in 3. When we got off the boat we walked 1.5hrs to the first hut, stopped for lunch and then continued on to the second hut, 6 more hours away.







On day 2 we woke up and begun to hike back towards the first hut and then after 1.5hrs decided to turn back around and continue on to the 3rd hut over the mountain pass-7 hours away. We ended up hiking for 9 hours on the second day. I was in so much pain, every step was a struggle! The top of the mountain was absolutely gorgeous though and we got lucky that it happened to be our best weather! The pain was totally worth it!












On the 3rd day we woke up early again and walked 5.5hrs to the end of the track...Milford Sound, finally! It was raining though which was a bummer but still beautiful! I ended up hiking over 40miles in 3 days......im not eager to do that again any time soon.



Milford Sound!!!



We were picked up by a tiny tiny rubber dingy- no joke- and taken to shore where we then took a 2 hour bus back to our backpacker in te anau. I ate pizza that night after my first shower in 4 days(gross huh?) with Colleen although we were so tired we could barely walk to the pizza place. The next day we woke up early, once again, and took a bus back to dunedin. It was a great time and SO pretty but i must say i am still beat from the trip. I am so glad i got to see milford sound though, I had a blast:)
Miss yall so much....be home in 25 days!!!

Wine Tasting

Hi everyone! so Molly and I had our final wine-tasting of our 5-week course last wednesday. It was held at the winery and we had a blast! Everyone brought a bottle of wine and lets just say there was a lot of it! We had a great time and were sad to say goodbye to our "wine teacher" Geoff Weston. See pictures below:)

The Catlins and Queenstown

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated in a while- my internet is horrible here and it takes forever to upload pictures therefore I always put it off...im sorry but here I am now! First of all I only have one month and 2 days left till I come back to texas- crazy how fast it has flown by! It is finally starting to warm up here but we still have our really cold days. A few weekends ago i went to the Catlins which is the southernmost region of NZ and it was absolutely beautiful! It was full of these huge amazing waterfalls and probably one of my favorite places here. We went to:
Nugget Point,

Purakaunui Falls,

Jack's Blowhole,


Curio Bay,

Slope Point (the southermost point on the south island of nz looking out toward antarctica-really cool),


McLean Falls,



Florence Hill Lookout, -o I guess while we were there they were having a bike rally in the catlins and there were harleys and farleys(fake harleys) everywhere! I asked this one guy if I could take a picture with him and his softtail to make yall proud:) see below:)


Matai Falls,

and Cannibal Bay.

anyways it was a really fun weekend and i took some amazing pictures! This past weekend I went to Queenstown with a few girls in my group to go skiing and snowboarding. It was the last weekend of ski season and it ended up snowing! The skiing wasnt nearly what were used to in the us- there are no trees and its really open, not as pretty as utah, etc. Anyways so that sat night in Queenstown I met a few girls from syracuse who were studying abroad in australia and ended up partying with them all night! We had a blast and they invited me to come visit in australia and if not new york when we get back, it was a crazy fun night! The next day since i was kinda bored and skiing alone i decided to switch to snowboarding and teach myself. If yall dont know, the last time I tried snowboarding- my 8th grade church trip to brekenridge i ended up with a pretty pink cast after day 1 so thats all the previous experience ive had. I didnt do too bad, i would creep in on other's snowboarding lessons and listen to the instructor while i was pretending to be "resting" nearby...free lessons! haha





This week is our last week of lectures and then we have a month for finals- its so weird how they do things here. We had our arcadia going away dinner last night which was at a really nice restaurant....probably the best meal i have had in 4 months, im not kidding!



This weekend I am going to do the Milford Sound hike and am so excited! Ill put pics up as soon as I get back:) I miss yall so much and am ready for THANKSGIVING! i seriously dream about the menu....haha LOVE YALL! <3 mantha