The rest of Easter break was really great. We went to a night festival and ate delicious foods (which seems to be the trend). And we went blackwater rafting, which is caving with a wetsuit and a helmet-light thing and an inner tube. That was fun. We also went to Queenstown, where we were exhausted and stressed because we didn’t know how we were going to get back to Dunedin. Queenstown was beautiful, the weather was fantastic, and we made it back to Dunedin safely.

Since then, we haven’t done much at all. We’re still playing rugby, which has become one of the greatest things we’ve done since we’ve been here. The rugby culture is something that is somewhat familiar since we have such an affinity for Tennessee football, but there is an element of rugby that is quite different. Everyone here plays rugby. We play rugby. Everyone here watches rugby. The country is so small that professional rugby players share the same training fields as novices. There is a sense of connectedness when you’re directly a part of something that is held so dear to so many people and has so many wonderful traditions. We’ve met girls who we have come to love and who have accepted us for the American rugby rookies that we are. We’ve made incredible friendships that we hope will last well beyond the five months that we’ve been here. Rugby has given us the opportunity to experience New Zealand in a way that many people never get to. We’ve almost become Kiwi in that we aren’t just here to travel every weekend, but we’re here to live and experience a part of what this country is about.

Every Saturday since we’ve been here, we have woken up fairly early, gone to the Farmers’ Market and then gone to our rugby game. Usually we try to make it to one of the guys’ games afterward, depending on which teams are playing on what fields. After the games, all the teams are required to meet back at the clubhouse around 6 that night; we call this Clubbies. At Clubbies, we all get to hang out together and some coaches and board members make speeches and announce player of the day for each team. After the speeches and the business side of things, we get to mingle with people (guys) from the other teams and make new friends.

This has been going on for years, and is an incredible way to get to know New Zealand and Dunedin. It has become the thing that we look forward to most on the weekends, getting to see our friends and meet new people and learn more about rugby.

I know this probably isn’t an original epiphany, but I realized something as I sit in the library procrastinating my paper: Y’all want to hear about all the cool stuff we do.  And we want to tell you about all the cool stuff we do.  But if we are always doing cool stuff and filling in the other time with stupid, necessary stuff like school work, when do we have time to write it all down?!!? A blogger’s dilemma.

The next day we woke up to disgusting weather and tried to decide what to do. We decided on Jet boating. It was pretty fun and really cold and really wet. Once we got back to our hostel, we were still really cold, so we decided to head down to some hot springs Henry had told us about the day before. It was a bit of a walk and we were wet, so we decided to drive. We walked out to our car, only to find it not there. Oh! What a hilarious misunderstanding! We must have been parked somewhere we weren’t suppoed to be. It probably just got towed. We walked back into the hostel to enlist Henry’s help in finding our car. He seemed a bit skeptical, like towing cars wasn’t a common occurrence. Well, we’re from Knoxville and people get their cars towed on the reg.

Henry rang the owner and asked about towed cars. The owner advised him to call the council or something and see where towed cars end up. He did just that, only to find that cars weren’t towed from that area, or ever really.

So, our car wasn’t towed and we hadn’t moved it.

Stolen.

Henry rang the police to report it. And then we called the rental company to inform them. Naturally we hadn’t bought the extra insurance because we’re college students on a budget in a foreign country and we weren’t worried about our car BEING STOLEN. We found out how much we had to pay for the car, had a little moment, and then headed to the police station to make a formal complaint because that’s what we thought we had to do. There was a guy at the hostel who was picking people up for Jet boating who offered to give us  ride.

Did we mention that all the power was out in the town of Taupo and that everyone was freaking out? Yeah, apparently the North Island had the worst weather that they’ve ever had ever, and there were storms and wind and no electricity.

So, when we got to the police station, they asked us to wait a while. While we were waiting the man who had given us ride (Steve) came inside to check on us, at the same time the officer told us that we would have to come back in a few hours. Steve gave Rita a gift card to the grocery store and said he didn’t want us to have a bad impression of Taupo. She began to tear up a little and I saw that she was crying, while I had just spoken to the policeman who said we would have to come back and our car just got stolen. Then we both started crying. There were many apologies and mumbles and eventually the policeman told us to follow him and wait in an office. We composed ourselves and marveled at the power of crying girls.

We spent the next hour or so retelling our car story and noting the absolute lack of urgency that characterizes this country. Since there was no power, our report wasn’t going to be put into the computers until power was restored. We were told to come back the next day and check up on things.

We left the police station and went to the grocery store to get some chocolate milk, noodles, chocolate, peanut butter, wine, cheese, and other things that are scientifically proven to help find stolen vehicles. We then headed back to the hostel to mope.

That night the power didn’t return until around 11. Until then, everyone in the hostel made dinner on the gas stove in the kitchen and we all played games by candlelight. It was an incredible bonding experience. We made three new friends, one of whom ended up spending the next few days with us. We met Otso from Finland, Kanai-eh from Japan, and Tamara from Switzerland.

We ended up having an incredible night meeting new people and hearing their stories. Everything worked out great and we get to tell some great stories. Our car being stolen wasn’t the end of our trip and we got $50 worth of free groceries, so all in all it was actually a great day.

Last week was New Zealand’s version of spring break, however, since it’s fall here, it was Easter break. Rita, our friend Laura, and myself ventured to the North Island to do some traveling. We left early on Friday morning (the 22nd) to drive to Picton which is where we catch the ferry to Wellington.

We got to Picton around 6 and took a 3 hour ferry to Wellington, which is apparently a beautiful ferry ride, but we wouldn’t know because it was dark. We got to Wellington and checked into a hostel and promptly when to bed.

The next morning we woke up and proceeded to walk around the capital city. We walked down a couple cool streets and saw the Botanical Gardens and we saw the Beehive, which is New Zealand’s Parliament. Also we ate at Wagamama, which we first came across in England and hadn’t seen since.That day was kinda rainy and not super pretty, but Wellington was super cool.

The next day we woke up and went to church for Easter and then went to brunch afterward. We then went to a super cool museum called the Te Papa Museum. We also watched some rugby that night, which has become one of our favorite things to do.

Monday we woke up fairly early, rented a car, and headed north towards Taupo.

Taupo is about five hours north and the drive there was incredible. I know the stereotype that New Zealand is super rugged and incredibly beautiful, well it’s all true. It’s one of the most untamed, vast places there is. And the terrain various with every kilometer. We saw rainforests and snow covered mountains and oceans and deserts and pasture land and everything in between. We’re not going to describe it, you just need to go there.

We got to Taupo around 4 that evening and checked into the most adorable hostel with the greatest front desk worker ever. His name is Henry and he is from England and he called us all loves. We didn’t do much that evening, mostly dinner and movies with new friends from the hostel. Then we went to bed.

So, we actually haven’t traveled much since the last post, or actually at all. A few weeks ago we went to a place called the Catlins. The Catlins is just a region of the south that is BEAUTIFUL. We went up for the day, on a Friday since no one really has school here. We saw some waterfalls, which were pretty I guess, but not necessarily anything extraordinary. The walk to the waterfalls were pretty and rainforest-esque, which was really cool. We also stopped at a place called Nugget Point. I’m not exactly sure of the significance of said point, but there was a lighthouse, and it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The weather was beautiful and the sky was so clear. Everything that had a color was precisely what a color should be. The sky was blue blue, the grass was green green, and the water was the color water should be to the max. It was a beautiful place indeed. We also went to a place in the Catlins called Cannibal Bay where we saw adorable sea lions, who are actually quite scary up close.

We are still playing rugby, which is primarily the reason we haven’t been traveling. When we joined the team we had to make a choice between traveling every weekend or staying in Dunedin and playing rugby. I think we made the right choice. We have made so many friends here, and we have come to love so many people. Our study abroad experience thus far has been mainly living and being a college student in New Zealand. We feel like we have become a real student at our university, rather than merely an international student here on exchange. It really has been incredible, and I think it’s going to be really hard to leave this place.

Though we haven’t done much traveling, we’re planning on heading back up to the North Island next week for Easter Break with our friend Laura who is wonderful and Rita’s flatmate. We’ve also gotten our exam schedules, so I think we’re going to travel a bit at the end of our trip, which should be super fun.

We still love it here, probably more so than ever. New Zealand is great. Y’all should come, for real.

Our kiwi friends played this for us.  Have a listen.  We find it quite funny.

I like Bruce Pearl and I’m going to miss him.