Things in New Zealand are still absolutely wonderful! The sun has been out the past few days, I went to a Maori welcoming ceremony, been noting all kinds of differences between New Zealand and the States, I’ve found some beautiful running routes, met my two flatmates, and classes offically began 27/Feb. However, first and formost- before you all topple off of the edges of your seats, I think I am going to tell a story. It’s a story of adventure, excitement, leaf collecting, picture taking, sky diving, left hand-driving… An Odyssey.

*Clears Throat*

The Great Odyssey Road Trip consisted of 7 young Americans: Seth, Alida, Aurora, JC, Solny, Dan and Jason. Barely familiar with one another, the 7 of us loaded up into a Honda Odyssey and started on our way, me being the first driver. Driving was much easier than I had imagined, and I caught on quite quickly.

The roads throughout New Zealand are loooong, windy, and have little to no shoulders on them. But the scenery was gorgeous! Our first stop was in Tongariro, where we had considered hiking the crossing. It’s supposed to be one pretty darn cool hike:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/Explore/002~Tracks-and-Walks/By-Region/007~Tongariro-Taupo/008~Tongariro-Crossing.asp
However, not everybody was quite up for the hike, and it was later in the day than would have been ideal to start, so we did a shorter hike instead, which was still quite beautiful. The Tongariro Crossing will be completed before I come home though, I can assure everybody of that!

That night we drove up to Taupo, a very touristy city along Lake Taupo. The Maori Legend of Lake Taupo is that a party of Maoris working their way inland came across this huge basin. Dismayed, the Leader of the group, Nagtoroirangi, plucked a huge totara tree and hurled it into the bottom of the basin with intention of reseeding a forest. However, the tree landed upside down and the branches pierced holes in the earth, allowing water to gush upwards and fill the basin, creating a giant Lake. On the scientific side, the Lake was actually the result of a number of volcanic explosions. The most recent of which was about 1800 years ago, about 60 cubic kilometers of earth blasted and left a massive crater.

The rumors are true… there are sheep EVERYWHERE. They’re really quite beautiful roaming the hill sides. What I also found especially cool was the textured paths the sheep made on the hill sides while roaming back and forth to get up and down the steep climbs.

After waking up in a free camp ground we had come across the night before, the Odyssey Gang ventured over to Huka falls, “New Zealands most visited natural attraction”, to enjoy some breath taking scenery before jumping out of a plane 1200o ft above the ground. Huke falls is a river sacred to the Maori tribes.

The Great Odyssey then ventured on a good 2 hour hike up to some hot springs- making many many stops along the way to check out the vast variety of different foliage in this part of the world.

Then it was time. We packed up, got organized, and headed to the airport while listening to Tom Petty’s “Free falling”. (How appropriate). The guys went up in the plane while the girls got all suited up on the ground. Then it was our turn…

I’ve got to say that Sky diving is quite possibly one of the coolest feeling things I have ever done in my life. From the height that we did, we experienced a 45 second free fall before the parachute was pulled. However, because of the height we were above ground, the acceleration felt like nothing, and I could rather just enjoy a pure view of the ground that I’d never had before. WOW!

After cooling down from the excitement and the altitude, we headed further north to Rotarua- famous for the boiling mudpits. We stayed at a back packers place that night called Cactus Jack’s. It was all set up and decorated like an Old Western town, which was kind of cool to find in New Zealand.

The next morning we had intentions of making a short drive to check out the Craters of the Moon (Where there are also mud pits- two in one!) We didn’t realize, however, that the drive took us all the way back into Taupo. Luckily we love it there. Most of us… :o).
The next adventure in store for us: Zorbing!

What on EARTH is Zorbing you might be asking? It’s basically rolling down a hill in a giant orb. The “Z” comes from New Zealand- where the idea was developed. While I didn’t personally take part, those who did said that it was a whole lot cooler than it initially appeared to be.
Those who take part in Zorbing are known as Zorbonauts… I was almost convinced to zorb simply for the title!

…The rest of this blog won’t fit I guess, so I’ll try to finish the tale of the Great Odyssey tomorrow…