Balloons Over Waikato

Balloons Over Waikato is an event where they inflate "heaps" of hot air balloons and fly them over the city. On Thursday morning, I went to Hamilton lake before dawn to watch them inflate the balloons.

Once all the balloons were inflated we got some breakfast at McDonalds (how American) and saw the balloons flying over us.

On Saturday night, a selection of balloons were brought to the fields at the University of Waikato and the balloons were illuminated in an orchestrated Balloon Glow Show.

The announcer said there were about 18,000 people in attendance. There were also a few carnival rides, concession stands, and live entertainment.

After the Glow Show, they deflated the balloons and had a seven and a half minute fireworks display. It was such a clear night out =) so beautiful!

International FASStival

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences put on an International FASStival at school. Here are some clips from some of the entertainment.

Road Trip to Rotorua

A group of us took a road trip South to Rotorua this weekend. We rented a car and booked accommodation at a hostel in the city for a night. Our first stop was to go lugging. If you're wondering what that is, check out the website: http://www.skylineskyrides.co.nz/rotorua/ssr_luge/

Not the safest activity, but it was definitely fun. You would never find anything like this in the States without some kind of lawsuit hanging around.

 These helmets were just about the only safety feature on the luge.

That afternoon, we booked an appointment to Hells Gate Mud Pools and got our mud on. I was looking forward to this for days. It was a bit pricey, but well worth the experience.









The only other downside was that we all smelled like sulfer for about two days. Imagine five people that smell like fart in one little hostel room... It was not pretty.

The next day we went to Paradise Valley Springs and got to pet seven month old lion cubs. I was surprised at how huge they were... Too big for us to get inside the cage with them unfortunately. There were two cubs, and we got to pet the male, which was the larger of the two. The fur was surprisingly very coarse.

Paradise Valley Springs also has a freshwater spring that you could drink from. Here is the mo'olelo attached to these sacred waters:

Centuries ago a curse was placed on Hinemoa, heroine of the Te Arawa legend Hinemoa and Tutanekai. It was placed before her birth, and long before the deeply in love Hinemoa defied her tribe and swam through the night across Lake Rotorua, into the arms of her forbidden lover Tutanekai.
A great Tohunga (priest) took Hinemoa to Te Waireka, the finest, purest spring, and drawing on ancient ceremony removed the curse. Blessed, Hinemoa lived on to create a Legend.

I had so much fun on this trip, but by far my most favorite part was getting to feed the wallabies. I've never seen wallabies before, and they were soooooo cute! Like miniature kangaroos with big rat tails. They were so quirky, I could have played with them all day. These little guys were actually really really soft. I wish I could have snuggled them all. No giraffes at this wildlife park, but we found some corrugated creations on the way home in Tirau. I had to stop to take a picture =)

All in all it was a great weekend spent with great people!
Thanks to my Norwegian roommie Marte for the pictures.

Care Package Part 2

Care Package Part 1

St. Patrick's Day

Not as big of a deal in NZ as it is in America, but we still had a good time =)

I made a massive dinner of corned beef and cabbage!

Then I partied it up with some of the best people I've met

And of course, no St. Patty's Day is complete without a few cuts and bruises =P

HAH???

$7 for one can spam? You kidding or what?

Puka Teet!

This is what a pack of cigarettes looks like in New Zealand! I'd say this is a lot more effective than our Surgeon General warning.

The Māori is hilarious!

Waikat-O-Week

O-Week is just one MASSIVE week of partying at Waikato. In town, there's a strip that is just bar after bar after bar. It's pretty crazy how the school advertises this insane week where students go out every night to different theme parties at all the bars and clubs in Hamilton.

Paint Party at the Outback Inn with Jen, another American girl from Penn State

 At the paint party, the bar is covered in black plastic and they load up a sprinkler system with paint in florescent green, orange, pink, and yellow paint. The idea is to dress up in all white and get ready to become an art piece. In addition to all the paint raining from the ceiling, a bunch of guys are shooting paint into the crowd with water guns, and eventually start dumping buckets of it on everyone.

Foam Party at the Outback Inn with The Whiskey Club

 This was actually my first time at a foam party, and it was a blast. One of the other bars was also having a foam party that night with a slip and slide!

Beerfest at House

 The first 300 people at the bar could buy this 1-letre stein for $10, and refills were $6 until midnight. They also had a live band playing some German bar tunes and free food! The ribs were sooooo good!!

Toga Party with my German friend Øve.

 The dress codes are pretty strict in Hamilton, and the bouncers wouldn't let my friend Øve in without a toga, so I let him use my pareo =P

80s night at CBD, I was an 80s rocker chick. The two with the light hair are my flatmates, the red head on the left is Betty from Penn State, and on the top right is Marte from Norway.

Soundscape

O-Week ends with a block party similar to Hoʻolauleʻa, but a lot rowdier with all the bars in such close proximity. The block party went until 4am and had outdoor stages with live music, DJs spinning A LOT of dubstep in the clubs, and even an amusement park ride. After all of the nights out coming home soaked in foam or paint or just sweat from dancing, by Soundscape, I caught a cold and decided to play this night completely sober, but I still had a good time. The party scene in this party of New Zealand is pretty crazy!

Orchard Park

The residence I am staying at is called Orchard Park and consists of 27 cottages in its own little area on campus. As soon as I arrived, we had a number of events set up to help us get to know each other before classes began.

Inter-hall sports competition

The halls of residence challenged each other to a sports competition which included some interesting relay type games as well as some typical field games. I got some good scratches and bruises on this day.

Waingaro Hot Pools

Just a couple of heated swimming pools, but also has the longest hot water slide in New Zealand!

The Black Ninja team, winners of the Orchard Park scavenger hunt.

The residents of OP broke off into three teams and went on a picture scavenger hunt, which ended at the bar of course. Some of the tasks included, taking creative team pictures, kiss a stranger, collect coasters from 5 different bars, several location photos, and many many more.

RUGBY!!!!

Waikato Chiefs mascot... I dunno about this one

2nd row seats, pretty awesome!

Scrum

Sonny Bill Williams flirting with the crowd

Chiefs 29 - Blues 14 

And there's me =)

Disconnected

Hey everyone! I am alive, just a bit disconnected. Getting internet set up took a little while, and unless I decide to increase my internet or "top up" as they call it, I am limited to 1.5 GB per month. I still haven't figured out how to activate my phone yet, so that's a little bit frustrating. I registered for classes the day I landed, and have been taking part in the residence activities at Orchard Park where I am staying. Most of the students living in the cottages at OP are all international, so it's been pretty cool meeting new people from all over the place, and it seems like most of our orientation activities have been ending with parties or at the bars in town, which is pretty hilarious.

I'm going to my first professional rugby game tonight!!! Hamilton Chiefs v. Aukland Blues... so excited!

Other than that, I'm pretty much unpacked and settled. Once I get all my stuff in order, I'll update with another post and show you guys where I'm staying.

Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand is a really nice airline, which makes up for the 9 hour flight from Honolulu to Aukland. Each seat had its own monitor for your audio and visual pleasure =) I watched In Time, The Descendants, and How I Met Your Mother. 

It's true what they say about international flights serving free wine and cocktails. I felt so fancy.

Well hello to you too! Giant billboard covering an entire wall as you come down the escalator at Aukland airport. Too bad they couldn't accompany me on my 6 hour layover, of which I was only able to access the internet for 5 minutes =P all for a 25 minute flight to Hamilton.

And I thought the plane to Moloka'i was small! This little propeller plane had a total of 19 seats!

Waiting For Departure