Kia Ora!

     If you ever get the chance to study abroad and you don't take it, you're an idiot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQL6PD94yFA). This summer I took advantage of our study abroad program and traveled down under to New Zealand! I say "took advantage" because I traveled there to take two upper-level English courses in three weeks and paid a reasonable amount of money to do so, and ended up having the best time! Who knew school could be fun?

We stayed in Wellington for two weeks and Queenstown for one week. 

     Ok, I'm going to go ahead and answer the questions I normally get when I tell people that I went to NZ. No, it is not Australia, nor is it connected to Australia. I didn't see any castles. Kiwis speak English, so I was completely able to function. It's a first world country, so I was staying in a hotel not a grass hut. I flew there, because you kinda have to. There was a major time difference and it was winter. I know I went in June, but I promise it was winter. 

     WARNING: You are now entering the nerd zone. Enter at your own risk.

     I took a travel writing class which was really cool. I learned a lot about writing a travel piece and about non-fiction writing in general. I feel like non-fiction isn't covered as well as it should be in most writing classes, so I really enjoyed everything I learned. I also learned some random trivia about faraway places through all the reading. 

     Here's where things get weird. The other class I took was a LORD OF THE RINGS class!!! I'm going to shoot you straight. I had never picked up a book or seen a movie before I signed up for this class. I read all the books (including The Hobbit) the week before we went and finished the third book of LOTR once we got there. I really enjoyed the books. Then, we watched all three LOTR movies back to back to back (9 hrs of the precious!) and I couldn't help but become obsessed. We spent our class days discussing how the books and movies went together and the difficulties in creating Middle Earth. We also went on an awesome LOTR filming location tour! We stood in Rivendell (sort of) and in the forest from the Fellowship (where the hobbits hide under the tree roots and such). We also went to the WETA Cave! WETA is the company that did all the special effects. They did Avatar and a lot of other movies as well (Google it geez). We also went horseback riding at the base of the Misty Mountains, NBD. It was a nerd's paradise. The only thing that made it better was knowing the stars of The Hobbit were lurking about filming (Sir Ian McKellan, Orlando Bloom, Martin Freeman**, etc.). Unfortunately we never saw them. Three of us were lucky enough to paint models of Aragorn and Frodo while we were there! It took three hours and they are perfect. Real Talk. 

     We went to a Crusaders rugby game! We also saw a play about a weird family with technological difficulties, one about the All Blacks, and one about Churchill and his dysfunctional family. I rode a freaking horse. It was a great experience and I'm glad I did it, but this girl was not meant for large animals. It's just a fact. We ate a million apples and mentos and drank wayyy too much coffee (if that's possible). I could go on and on and on forever about the rad things we saw and did, but I won't. I'm sure they'll just be referenced throughout future posts, so be prepared. I'll save all the dirt about my classmates for another blog post. Cliffhanger!!

 Crazy Coffee from Fidel's 

WETA Cave 

 Scenery from The Fellowship of the Ring

 Me and Cecile (which they pronounced Sessile-- which must have been a joke)

 Who's this hottie?? 

 Frodo chilling in the forest 

 Sauron

 Wellington 

 Wellington 

 Wellington's Cable Car 

 Queenstown

Queenstown 

Wellington

Note to my future boyfriend: You don't have to love Tolkien, but you need to pretend you do. Otherwise I'll spend hours making you watch the movies and convincing you to like them. Also, you'll need to love New Zealand, even if you've never been there.

**My six degrees to John K. took a turn for greatness in NZ. As many of you may know, Martin Freeman played Tim Canterbury on The Office (UK). Tim is the character that Jim (US version) is based on. This was my in! I was in the same city as someone who more than likely knows or has definite connections to John K! I kept my eyes peeled for the entire trip, but no luck. One day John and I will sit in our living room and laugh about this. Then we'll watch LOTR.