Mid Semester Break Part I- Wellington, N.Zed
I have
three weeks off during my semester at University of Canterbury in
Christchurch. I decided to spend 4 days
in New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington.
I wanted to go to Auckland since it is a bigger city than Wellington,
but I had heard positive comments from two of the Frontiers Abroad Geology
crew, Ben and Rowan. I had wanted to
travel by myself because I wanted to see what solo traveling was like. However it turns out that when you travel
alone, you never really travel alone.
I actually
met with a few people and spent a good amount of time with them. I took a taxi with David to the airport early
Easter Sunday morning and met up with him later on in the city. We had dinner at Istanbul on Cuba Street were
we shared a bottle of wine, ate spiced lamb and chicken dinner, and a fabulous
chocolate dessert. We talked about
non-transaction friendships where you receive something from the person and you
are not expected to give anything back.
It is harder to receive something than to give something.
I also met
up with Jessie and Cole from Frontiers Abroad Earth Systems and stayed one
night with them in this absurd house nestled in the hills of Wellington. This house had two staircases located right
next to each other, built in loft beds with little headroom, and crazy tweeting
singing birds in the hilly backyard. The
house was something out of a quirky storybook.
I met
Jessie and Cole on the plane to Wellington and that morning we found a sweet
spot where we ate all you can pancakes.
We both each had about 5 plates, but their pancakes were mini and had
bacon and syrup and all these treats with them.
It was a better Easter than previous Easters I have had and I was glad
to spend time with people I know on Easter.
Easter is not a big deal in my household, but it is still a holiday I
spend time with family. When I went to
New Zealand, I travelled on New Years Eve because it was a cheap flight and
skipped New Years Day because of the International Date Line.
After
spending a couple of days with people from Uni, I split up and started to do my
own thing. I spent a lot of time on Cuba
Street shopping, sitting in cafes, and just wandering. Cuba Street is awesome because there are so
many boutiques and neato venues that I felt like it was part of my place to
just chill out. I told my family that I
feel the most comfortable with people who have an excessive number of tattoos
and piercings and funky clothing. I seek
out places where people change their hair color at least once a month and have
more tattoos than the number of years that they have been alive. I spent time writing at this little café on
178 Cuba Street Midnight Espresso and just wrote and chilled out to their
music. It was one of the cheapest
eateries on Cuba, which was why I wandered in there.
Sunrise Stroll up Mount Victoria overlooking Oriental Bay
Another
memorable experience was walking up Mount Victoria very early in the
morning. I had this purpose to get
really early because I love watching the sunrise. It was wonderful to walk up the trail and see
the city in the morning.
Now I am
off to the South Island with a group from Frontiers Abroad Earth Systems.
Sincerely,
CHD
