In the Mind of Mike

Just as fall is setting in back home it's starting to get nice(r) down here! I don't have time for a full post since I actually have school work to focus on which feels quite odd. But don't worry my last assignment is due on Friday so after that I should be all set. I just wanted to give everyone an update on how nice it's getting. Yesterday I went on my favorite hike so far. Caroline and I went to Karekare Beach which is about an hour away and took some really narrow trails through all kinds of areas. We started in a forest with tons of birds, then went to marshes that reminded me of the walk through the swamps in Lord of the Rings on the walk to Mordor. Then we ended up walking around some black sand dunes to get to the beach and take the quick way back. This best part is that I was able to do the whole hike in shorts and a t-shirt and even did part of it barefoot. Less than an hour after we got back I got a knock on my door from the F flat crew telling me to play u...

So over two weeks later and I'm still writing about spring break. Sorry it took so long but there was so much to cover. I'll try to get caught up to current events soon. Day 13 The train station. This was our last full day in Dunedin so we did some sight seeing. We heard that the train station was cool so we went over to check that out. Then we made our way over to Baldwin Street which is the steepest street in the world. Megan and I tried racing up it. We both stopped running before reaching the top but I went farther so I consider that a win on my part. From there we went over to the botanical gardens. It seems like each city has one. The one in Christchurch was much better in my opinion but this one was still pretty cool. There was an avery which had some really unique looking birds in it. We didn't spend much time there since we had to pick up Adam for our trip to the Otago peninsula. We were trying to find some seals, sea lions and penguins. The penguins were wh...

Hey just a heads up, I made a new page where I'm going to put some of whatever music I'm listening to each month. I hope to change it every month so you should always be able to find some new songs on there. Look for the last spring break post tomorrow!

Day 11 The view from the southern most point of New Zealand (excluding Stewart Island). This day was mainly driving. We took the Southern Scenic Route from Te Anau to Dunedin. This brought us around to the very southern point of New Zealand in the town of Bluff. We went on about an hour and a half hike down there. We tried to find the famous sign that is at the southern point but we didn't see it. After the hike we went to get some lunch. We heard that this area is known for its oysters so we had some of those for lunch. They were expensive but really good. After lunch we continued to Dunedin with some quick stops along the way. We went to a beach that had fossilized trees on it. They were kind of hard to see but I guess it used to be much more impressive. Lauren and Caroline saw a penguin but I was not lucky enough. The next stop brought us to Nugget Point which has an old lighthouse on it. As the sun was setting we continued the ride to Dunedin. We got there right before nin...

Day 9 This day started with another scenic drive over to Fiordland National Park. I actually did a project on this area back in high school so it was really cool to actually be there. This is the area that includes Milford Sound. We didn't actually go to the sound that day but we had to follow the road until we were almost there. About 45 minutes before we would have reached the sound we pulled into a parking lot for a hike. We hiked part of the Routeburn Track which is one of the great walks. The great walks are a set of walks in New Zealand that are really well maintained and take multiple days to complete. We would only be doing a day of it since we still had a lot to see. It started off a little cool but warmed up quickly as the day went on. We stopped for lunch at one of the huts and had a little picnic. The area was right on a lake and had some awesome views. There were tons on sandflies though so we didn't hang around long. After lunch we continued to our destination wh...

Sorry for not having an update the last few days. I ran out of internet from trying to put up videos and photos, half of which didn't even make it up. Then I went to Rotorua for Adventure Weekend with IFSA-Butler...more on that later. Now back to the the Spring Break updates: Day 6 Continued Part of the view from our balcony. Upon arriving in Queenstown we drove straight to the hostel. When we pulled up we thought we entered the wrong address into the GPS. It looked like a hotel complete with balconies and a large lobby. Not only that, but they had free dinner five days a week in addition to the free breakfast. We had a four person dorm so it was just us in the room and we had a balcony which had a pretty nice view. There was even a sauna! So if you are ever in Queenstown be sure to stay at Nomads. We got there around 6pm and get ready for the night ahead. We signed up for a pub crawl that started at 8:30 over at The World Bar. It is a sister bar to Cassette which is where w...

I just noticed I didn't even mention who was on this trip with me. I went down with Megan, Caroline and Lauren. They are three other American study abroad students who live in the Massey Accommodation. We figured it would be best to go with just Americans since many of our New Zealand friends had already been to a lot of the south island and didn't feel like spending all the money. But anyways, back to the summary. Day 4 We woke up and drove over to the Abel Tasman nation park to go sea kayaking. We had a half day freedom rental which means we didn't have a guide. We went around a couple islands and some seals followed us. The kayaks were a little different than I was used to. They were two person kayaks and had rudders with foot pedals that the back person used to make it turn. It felt like cheating to me but it was still fun. We stopped at an island for a snack and a seal came right up next to our boat. We weren't expecting this and almost tipped over in sh...

I'm back! Don't worry I didn't forget about the blog. I've been on a two week road trip which was the most exciting break ever! Sure beats working at Market Basket. I've never been on a road trip with friends before so it was a new experience for me and I loved it. I was really cool waking up each day in a new place with new adventures. It really changed my views on a lot of things too but I will get to that in another separate post. For now I'll just tell you all about the adventures. Warning: There are going to be a lot of parts posted over the next week. I was going to do three parts but that just wouldn't do it justice. Day 1 Restart shopping center: home to the best pizza I've had here. Leave for the Auckland airport at 3:30am for Christchurch. Let it be known that the All Blacks game was the night before and was a blast. We ended up going into town after and I got back to my flat at 3:15. So no sleep for me. Thankfully I bought a redbull and...