New Zealand!

As promised, this one is all about New Zealand!!

PS. This is going to be extremely looooooong^^

My mom makes fun of me everytime I go on vacation, becuase I always come home claiming that someday I will live there. And, as expected, I came home from New Zealand saying the same thing.

HOWEVER, because of NZ, I'm cancelling that statement for all other places. It was definitely the prettiest place I have ever seen and the whole country is vastly different depending on what part you are in. I'm pretty sure after I leave Korea, New Zealand will be my next place of residence, thanks to their working holiday program.

We went to NZ in August, so while it was the middle of extremely hot summer here in Korea, it was winter in NZ. The weather was so nice.

After a minor no-seats-left-on-the-bus-to-the-airport scalaffle, we made it to the airport. Of course we then found out that we booked tickets on a ridiculously cheap airline that made you pay for all bags(which could only be like 30 pounds), made you pay for any food or WATER on the plane, had no in flight entertainment, and made us recheck our bags in Malaysia. It's about 16 hours of flying time to NZ from Korea....:( After all that, I was beyond happy to finally arrive in Christchurch, NZ!

The next day we started our roadtrip. After a full year of not driving, it felt so good to drive again. Though it did take a while to get used to driving on the opposite side of the street. The turn signal and windshield wipers were also switched. As a result, my windshield stayed very clean, and people rarely knew when I was going to turn...

With the car!

The first day we headed from Christchurch on the east coast to Punakaiki on the West coast. On our way, we stopped and played in the huge rock formations at Castle Hill. 

Castle Hill

That night we stayed in a cabin that was in the rainforest, and 5 minutes from the beach!

The beach at sunrise

 The next day we walked around the Pancake rocks. Then headed down the coast to Franz Josef.

Pancake Rocks

Day 3 was spent on the Franz Josef Glacier. I rode in a helicopter for the first time, and it dropped us off in the middle of the glacier! We strapped on our spiky crampons and hiked around. They took us to look at a waterfall, crawl around in ice caves and we even went bum sliding! The Helihike was definitely my favorite part of the trip. 

Lake Matheson (down the road from Franz Josef) at sunset.

  The next day was my BIRTHDAY! Hmm...what should we do?

How about SKYDIVING in Wanaka? It was awesome. There's nothing like jumping out of a plane and plummeting towards the earth :) Actually, it was surprisingly serene.

Lake Wanaka at sunset.

Sheep in the road!!!

The next day we headed down to Milford Sound for a cruise. Apparently it's really a fjord, not a sound. It was really cool. To get the full experience, it seemed obvious that we should spend the whole cruise on the deck. So we did :) Unfortunetly, it was pouring and extremely cold and windy for most of the trip.  We also (without warning) went almost directly underneath a waterfall. As a result, I got to spend the 2 hour bus ride back to the hotel soaking wet.

I thought I was going to have to settle for this one :(

From Milford, we headed down south through the Catlins. We had only one mission that day: Find a penguin. After many hours of stopping at random beaches, when all seemed lost, we found PENGUINS. Real ones. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aren't they cute!!

The southern-most point of NZ (Pretty much Antarctica^^)

Random shack in the middle of nowhere.

Heading up. Doing good^^

We continued on to Dunedin on the East side of NZ. As the sun set, we made our way up the "Steepest Street in the World!" It was legitmately steep.

View from the top

Al....mo...st.......Th...ereeeeeeee

The next day we explored Queenstown, Glenorchy and Paradise. We were enjoying it so much, that we forgot to move the car out of the spot when the time limit was up...oops. Melissa then got her first ticket. Luckily the fine was only like $15. ha.

The view from our hostel in Queenstown.

Looking down onto the city. I kind of wish I lived in this house.

Glenorchy. Many commercials and movies are shot in this tiny tiny town.

The following day I said goodbye to the South Island, and flew up north.

That night we went to a Maori Cultural show in Rotorua. It was terrifying. Lots of screaming and scary eyes.

The next day was Lord of the Rings day! We drove out to Matamata to visit the Hobbiton Set!! Because they are currently filming the hobbit, they rebuilt the entire set. Unfortunetly they made us all sign a confidentiality agreement, so I can't post any of my photos. But it was AWESOME. I got to walk the path to the shire, see the party tree and sit on Frodo's front step.

Afterwards, they treated us to a sheep-shearing.....not so fun. Poor little sheep. And we got to feed them!

That afternoon we went Zorbing. Essentially they put some water in the giant ball, and you literally take a running jump to get inside. Then they seal you in there and push you down the hill. It was so fun.

 

To end the day we went to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. Ridiculous name, but very interesting. It was essentially a (very)mini Yellowstone. 

Sooooo smelly!

Then we went on Lord of the Rings Tour #2 while we were in Wellington. This one took us to many locations around the area. Unfortunetly, all the sets have been completely wiped out, so there wasn't really a lot to see. Our guide was an extra in the movie, so it was interesting to hear his stories, though he was a little on the crazy side. He REALLY liked re-enactment pictures.

Here is an example.

Our trip ended with a gorgeous drive through wine region in Blenheim. There were wineries everywhere.

It was a really great trip. Everyone needs to go there (and take me with them^^)

Oh, Korea.

Well,

I've made a decision. 

Korea will be my home until the summer of 2012. 

And as much as I really really really miss everyone at home,

I just can't leave yet. (So you should come visit instead!)

FINNNNALY.

Heading to New Zealand for the next two weeks!!

I promise I will update upon my return^^

Pink Taxis, American Dollars and Same Same: Southeast Asia

It's a bit delayed, but I am home from vacation.

Oh man. Everyone should go on vacation right now to Southeast Asia.

It was awesome.

I am so excited to go back sometime.

I can not even tell you how rough it was leaving the warm tropical weather to come back to the snow and ice of Korea.

Just a few highlights:

• Seeing the floating villages of Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia
• Seeing the temples of Siem Riep in Cambodia-- I have wanted to see those for a long time. Its hard to believe I actually got the chance to, and they were even better than I had expected
• Swimming in the ocean--Being from Kansas, this does not happen often
• Riding an elephant in the jungle!!
• Eating authentic pad thai, in Thailand
• Experiencing a relatively painful Thai Massage -- "happy tears"
• Visiting the temples in Bangkok
• Wearing SAME SAME shirts!
• Riding a pony up the active Tagaytay Volcano in the Philippines
• Kayaking down a river, and then swimming under a waterfall in Pacsanjan
• Seeing a monkey on the side of the road

The trip as a whole was really too great to be captured in pictures, but I took a million anyways.

Ttuk Ttuks in Cambodia

At Ta Prohm. The trees we so cool.

Angkor Wat!

On the inside

That evening we climbed up to watch the sunset on Phnom Bakheng

Wat Phra in Bangkok

Wat Phra

Riding Elephants in Pattaya!

We got to swim with this temple in the background in Pattaya

The boat we took to get to the volcano. We had a bit of a mishap on the way back and the wing of the boat broke.

At the edge of Tagaytay Volcano in the Philippines

!!!

Thailand, Cambodia, Phillipines.

VACATION.

It's the holiday season...

I feel like I could make the subject of every post something like “How is it [month] already?".

December came and went quickly. Thanks to online streaming from STAR 102, I was still able to listen to Christmas music (and of course Jon Tesh) for the entire month of December. I did a lesson on making snowflakes with my kids at school, so I was able to somewhat decorate my apartment for Christmas, even though I was tree-less. We also watched Elf in my classes at school which was great at first, but by the end of the two weeks I had seen the movie 22 times. That was a little too much.

It was strange being away from home on Christmas, but it wasn’t too bad. For the first time ever, I woke up at noon Christmas morning to no tree, lights or presents from Santa. We had a very white Christmas, and I have yet to not see snow on a daily basis since then, which is obviously great. I was able to skype with my family in Olathe on Christmas Eve and watch them open all of their presents, and then with the big family in St. Louis on Christmas to say hello to them. It was a little sad not to be there in person.

And then my family flew 14 hours to see me in Korea for New Years!

I had english camp every morning, but I was able to spend the afternoons and evenings showing them around where I live and making them eat a lot of great Korean food! I think overall they liked it and of course it was sooo good to see them after 5 months. Derek was pretty successful at saying "Thank you" in Korean (out loud) by the end of the week. It was hard to say goodbye knowing I won’t see them again until the summer.

Here are some pictures:

Dad and Derek's first meal in Korea at the Home Plus Cafeteria :: Dongas (pork cutlet) and Omirice (Rice wrapped in egg), soup (of course), radish kimchi and pickled radish. Mmmmm good.

New Year's Eve tradition. The night would not have been complete without a game of Monopoly.

Making our Shabbu Shabbu. It is boiling water with spices that you add vegetables, meat and noodles to. This was actually what I had for my Christmas dinner this year.

Visiting the Giant Buddha.

Dad clearly loved the Kimchi!

Sledding with the kids from church. Apparently in Korea, sledding is done on bags stuffed with straw. Surprisingly, they worked really well.

I had to get them hodduks from my favorite street vendor.

Mmmmmmmm.

Visiting a big palace in Seoul.

They look so good as Koreans.

Beef Galbi. This was my mom's favorite. It's always more fun to make your own food right at the table.

Also, I have decided to stay in Korea for at least six more months than I had originally signed on for. So around December of 2011 I may come home. This means that all of you now have an extra 6 months to make plans to come visit me! I mean really, look at all the exciting things my parents got to do ^^...