"JESUS CHRISTCHURCH! .... ohhh... too soon?"

Semi-uneventful day yesterday. We stayed on campus the whole day but did a lot of in-classroom stuff. Started the day off right with a nice 30 minute run with the girls really gearing it up at the end. It was another rainy one and all the sitting around gave me a lot of time to get kind of sad and homesick. Facebook doesn't really help the situation because you see pictures of all your friends. There are a lot of things I'm missing back home, especially UNH Cycling related, but there will be plenty of time for that in the spring.

Today was loads better. Got up before my alarm again at 6am just as the sun was starting to peak over the Coromandel Mountains and went for a run again with a few of the girls today. It was a lot faster today, and by that I mean 3 of us dropped the rest of the group in the first 10 minutes, and by the time we were 3/4 of the way back, there was only 2 of us, and we raced back home. It was invigorating and I've never felt so good on a run! I'm really loving it. Took lots of time to stretch, ate a big breakfast, packed my lunch and got my pack together for our first tramping experience!

We took a 45 minute drive to the Hunua Falls. The Hunua Ranges are literally right to our west, but the falls and dams are only accessible by road on the western side and there are no roads crossing through the park and as a result we had to drive that far. We split into 2 groups and did an approximately 4 hour loop. The only real objectives today were to orient ourselves with compasses and directions (have the sun in a different spot in the sky really screws with my naturally excellent sense of direction!). The first challenge we had, however, was about a quarter mile into the hike when we encountered a "steam crossing"... a stream which was now a river. Maree told us that New Zealanders never take their boots off to ford rivers so we sucked it up and crossed in our boots and just hiked in soggy shoes the whole day. Even though we were all really skeptical ("Can't we just change into our Keens?!") they were right, your feet warm right up even if it was a little squishy (and it was in the low 50s for temps).

The forest here is SO different, and now I understand why they call it "going into the bush," because the vegetation is SO dense. The Hunua Ranges are basically a temperate rain forest, so everything is very muddy, very wet, very cold, and very dark due to the many layers of growth in the canopy. One of the first things we saw was a waterfall that was easily as tall as the tallest waterfall in New Hampshire, Arethusa falls. I told Maree this and she said this is considered small as far as NZ waterfalls go, and that I'll be amazed at what we'll see on the South Island. We learned about all the different relationships between trees and vines and flowers and birds and insects. It was interesting because there was not one species of plant that I recognized. I felt like I should see velociraptors flying through the canopy or tarzan swinging from vines. They even showed us a special wide leaf that typically grows on the sides of trails nicknamed "Bushman's toilet paper" because the underside literally feels like the softest TP you can imagine haha. Good to know.

At lunch Maree and Dale let us in on a little secret after much begging. As we were complaining of the cold and wet, they said that we could look forward to a warm surprise at the end of the day! When we returned back to Whakatiwai and ate dinner, they would take us to the Miranda Hot Springs, about 15k down the road, so bathe and relax. Needless to say, that gave us something to look forward to when we got the chills :)

Tonight was my first turn for kitchen duty and I worked with Sara, Drew, and Emily. We made chili (veggie and non-veggie) with brown rice and then baked a chocolate cake for everyone. It was really weird working out of NZ cookbooks, since their measurements are all done differently and the oven is in celsius but it came out great! Everyone looooved the cake so that made me happy. The Miranda Hot Springs were really fun. It was basically just a gigantic pool with different levels and we played typical pool games (Marco Polo, Chicken [which brought me back to spring break!], and volleyball) and exhausted ourselves until our hands and feet couldn't possible get more pruney. Getting out of the water was torture because it was probably only 45 degrees or so, but it was worth it :) The ride back was hilarious as we were all loopy and tired and Dale was babbling away as usual and being his goofy self, causing us to laugh until our abs hurt.

It was a good day! Tomorrow we are doing some field work on the coast and then we have the whole afternoon off to do as we please (our first non-programme time). There is talk of a beer trading/tasting party, hmmm. I really hope to get out on a bike tomorrow and go exploring the hills. I'm craving some 2 wheeled adventure.