Spring break is in session!!!

My last day of class was technically supposed to be on Friday, but I decided to reward myself for all my “hard work” at uni (university—it’s how Aussies refer to school) and started my holiday (that’s what they call breaks in Oz) on Thursday instead. Haha, I actually only left early because the flight was cheaper. =P

Gosh, I just have to put it out there that I’m HORRIBLE at preparing for trips. I swear…ALL (there have been 4) of the trips I’ve gone on, I literally finish (sometimes not completely) packing 2 seconds before I leave my apartment. See, the first time it happened (on my Sydney trip), I was actually super proud of myself. My flight was really early on a Friday morning, and I went to an International Grand Gala the Thursday night right before it. That night didn’t end so well for me. At that moment, that night was the closest I had ever gotten to blacking out. I went to bed ridiculously early, and miraculously woke up on my own at like 4am and was like “CRAP! I need to pack!” So I drunkenly start packing for my weekend in Sydney/the Blue Mountains, and surprisingly, I didn’t forget anything! I even remembered to bring my cell phone charger. I was impressed haha. But unfortunately, I think that this led me to believe that I’ll be just fine every time I try to pack at the last minute. =P

On my rock climbing trip to the Grampians/Mt. Arapiles, I had a project due the day I was supposed to leave. So what did I do? I finished my project at about 6:30am and frantically started packing. I don’t own one of those backpacking backpacks so I was trying to stuff everything (clothes, a towel, toiletries, food, etc.) into my school backpack. Didn’t really work out as planned. I ended up having to weigh the importance of items against each other and thinking things like, “Shorts? I don’t need that” and proceeded to remove them from my bag. “Another pair of jeans? Don’t need that either. They’re just going to get dirty anyway.” =P

This past weekend was my trip to Straddie (North Stradbroke) Island, the 2nd largest sand island in the world. I had an assignment due on Friday, but my flight was on Thursday. I pulled another all-nighter, and finished my project with a good amount of time before I had to leave. But I still had to pack, shower, and do some work on this group project that’s due first thing after break but that I won’t get a chance to work on while I’m gone. As I’m working on my group project I notice a problem in our calculations and am sitting there trying to work it out as time keeps ticking away. I’m multitasking like no other—packing, getting ready, trying to think of how to solve the problem, and trying to print out my flight itinerary info. SHIT. The next thing I know, it’s 10:25am. The shuttle that I have to catch is coming at 10:30am, and I still haven’t turned in my assignment yet! My computer’s being a bitch and has frozen on me so I can’t print out anything. Luckily I already printed my assignment so I grab that and literally run all the way to uni and back. As I’m bookin’ it back to my apartment Whitney calls me asking me where I am and says how the bus driver wants to leave NOW. I tell her that I’m on my way, run up the stairs because I didn’t want to wait for the elevator, grabbed my bag which wasn’t completely packed, and barely caught the shuttle. That driver was PISSED. He was telling Whitney how they normally only wait 3 minutes and was grumpy during the entire drive. He must hate his job.

Anyway, I made it to the Gold Coast and Straddie Island just fine. There was a heck of a lot of riding around in a bus, but I definitely enjoyed the trip. The beaches I went to were probably the most beautiful ones I’ve ever been to in my entire life. The water was a vivid blue-green, and the sand was litter-free and so fine that it squeaked with every step that we took. Just amazingly breathtaking sites.

While in Straddie I had a couple of more firsts—first time surfing, sandboarding, AND sea kayaking. Sea kayaking was “eh.” I mean it was alright, but we didn’t go out for very long. Surfing was a lot better than I thought it would be. Before, I was super scared to even attempt surfing since I’m not a strong swimmer. But I got to give it a go in about chest-height water level so my swimming skillz wasn’t that big a deterrent. Although, I did swallow a mouthful of water when I was trying to go out and encountered a huge wave. It was ridiculous. The waves just didn’t quit. Despite the fact that I wasn’t that far out in the ocean, the waves were still a decent size and just kept coming in these continuous sets. In the end though I was able to stand up for about 2 seconds! Yup, I know. I rock. =P

Sandboarding was definitely the best activity out of all them. You’d think it’s like snowboarding, and it sort of is, but much harder to steer. You’re feet are only strapped in by straps that go over the top of each foot. So you basically just slip your feet in and go. I did well at first, but when I went down the longer and steeper slopes, that meant more time for my board to go completely perpendicular to my direction of motion, which caused me to eat it BAD with face-fulls of sand. Every inch of my face was covered and thanks to the many layers of sunscreen I put on, it was almost impossible to get the sand off.

We also got to go to Brown Lake, which is this awesome fresh water lake that’s brown because of the tea tree oil in the lake. It’s supposed to be a “lake of youth” or something like that because of that. I really enjoyed playing around in that lake, even though I didn’t notice a dramatic change in my skin/hair. Others claimed that their skin felt softer though. =P I just liked the peaceful setting of it. All in all, the Straddie trip was great! We had perfect timing because it was drizzling right at the start, and pouring with thunder and lightning at the end, but throughout our trip the whether was ideal. It’s kind of sad to think that I only have one more trip left with Arcadia. =( At least I’ll have one more with Melbourne Uni too.

I’m in New Zealand right now, and again, I ended up pulling an all-nighter before getting on this flight. But at least this time I finished packing with a decent amount of time to spare. Even so, I decided to stay up for the rest of the time because I was afraid that I wouldn’t wake up if I went to sleep. I’ve only been here for 3 days. I started off at Christchurch and didn’t do much the first day there. Just met up with Whitney, checked out the city a bit, and had dinner. Epack joined us the next day and we visited a botanical garden, a museum, and biked 20+k’s along the Avon river. That was super relaxing…well at least during the non-windy times. I swear, there were points when it seemed like regardless of which direction we were headed in, the wind was ALWAYS against us.

I’m currently at Lake Tekapo (teka-po’) but am going to leave tomorrow morning for Queenstown. Lake Tekapo is an unbelievably stunning turquoise lake that’s next door to snowy mountains and a tiny town. Its flamboyant color is from “rock-on-rock” grinding between glaciers and the lake’s basin, resulting in rock-flour sediment that floats in the melted glacier and refracts the sunlight. I’m so sad that my camera’s broken right now. I don’t know why, but when I take pictures with it, the images become overexposed and have horizontal streaks going across it. I’m still going to try to take pictures, and if anything I’ll just end up stealing pictures from Epack and Whitney. =P It’s only 8:30pm NZ time, but I’m surprisingly tired. I don’t know what I plan on doing with the rest of my night, but I can’t wait to continue on with my Spring Break adventures tomorrow. =D Hopefully I'll be adding pictures in the near future.