Goodbye Auckland...

Today was my last day at work at the Carlson School for Cerebral Palsy. I started working there around mid-march, and spent most of my full days there. I became really attached to all of the students and staff, so today was a sad day for me. I was good all day, and then at the end of the day when we had our actual goodbyes, I had a bit of a cry.

My class threw me a party, where they fed me amazing new zealand meat pies, sausage rolls and pavlova...I was given a one-off shirt from a new zealand company, a greenstone necklace, which was picked out and blessed by Maoris in my school, and a bottle of wine. My card is amazing, with pictures of the kids, some of our favorite activities and so many nice words. The next BU student that gets to spend time at Carlson is so lucky to be around such amazing people.

My last day (tomorrow), I have a massage practical final...then I pack up and move out on saturday morning. I had a great time here, and although i'm happy to see everyone at home, i'll miss New Zealand and the people I met here sooooo much!!

australia trip

so...my dad and I are going to australia tomorrow at 3 am!! (in 4 hours). we are flying into brisbane, and driving up the coast to cairns, to do some scubadiving. :) that should be really fun. i'll write more when it happens :)

Internship

Well, I haven't updated much about my travels, but they have been good.

Last weekend (Easter) I went with Alex and Ben to the Great Barrier Island. We camped for 4 nights, and mainly spent the whole time relaxing on the beach. On Easter night, we stayed at a christian campground, but we happened to be there for their annual Easter Camp. There was late night Jesus rock and then a polar bear plunge at about 4 in the morning, proceeded by more Jesus rock music. Pretty intense. The last day, Alex and I tried fishing and snorkeling. We didn't catch anything, but we were offered a huge fillet of smoked snapper, so we took that and had a nice dinner.

Since then, I have been to my internship, which has been quiet a good time. I am enjoying it very much. It is a school for cerebral palsy, and I am a teacher aid, which has already been rewarding. Next week we have an overnight camp, and that should be interesting...

Bruce in NZ!

bruce's visit to NZ went really well...i didn't write anything, but he wrote tons and put up pictures.

for pictures, and blog

enjoy

South Island Trip

So I just got back from being on a 10 day trip to the South Island with Nicole and Cindy (Roommates) and Alex. It was pretty good...

We went from Christchurch to Kaikoura (seals!), to Nelson (wine country!!) to the Abel Tasman National Park (rained out our kayaking plan!), to the Franz Joseph Glacier (OMG so much hiking and climbing!), to Haast, to Wanaka(sledging) to Queenstown, to Milford Sound (diving), to Dunedin (speights brewery and the cadbury factory), Timaru and back to Christchurch. And i did all of the driving. phew.

Here are the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/naomibutler/SouthIsland

I'm a real photographer now

I am a photo finalist for the school for field studies calendar..I won a nalgene...and I guess if i actually get put in the calendar I will get that too. haha. here's the picture...i think there were better ones I submitted, but okay...

pictures from the trip!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/naomibutler/RoadTripWithJohnny

soooo....the trip was great. after skydiving we went to wellington, went to a nature sanctuary and saw sooo many cool birds, then went to the south island in akaroa, where we went on the Fox II and saw Hector's dolphins (smallest and most rare dolphins in the world!!), some fur seals from far away, a single swimming blue penguin (!!!!) and so many shags (birds..like cormorants) ...

good times! we drove sooooo much!! just look at the pictures..it's better than my writing. :)

Road Trip

hi!

So me and johnny (cousin) have rented a car and have been on a little road trip...we left Auckland on feb 4 and that night stayed in a motel in Hamilton...next morning we drove to Rotorua where we climbed a thermal volcano (i think it was created in 1886..so pretty recently)...then we attended a Maori Hangi (with the Mitai Tribe). That was pretty neat...we saw their village, some cultural performances and ate some food cooked in the ground (hangi) and then saw some glowworms. :) Pretty good time. Then we stayed in KiwiPaka YHA (hostel), where i proceeded to get my soap stolen. ;( my own fault though..i accidentally left it in the shower for a few hours..but WHO STEALS SOAP?? that's so weird...

This morning we left Rotorua, and came to Taupo...we went to Huka falls and found a free campsite (Reid's Farm)...then we went to Craters of the Moon...some more geothermal stuff..pretty cool i think....and in about 1 hour, Johnny and i will go skydiving with Skydive Taupo!!! yayyyyy. I think it will be good fun.

That's all for now, i'll post pictures when I get back to auckland!!

pictures!!!

newest pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/naomibutler/Auckland2

includes going to Russell (leather tannery, printing press), Waitangi (meeting house), sand dunes and mack attack super fast boat in the Bay of Islands. :)

Gastronomy and Kebabs

Well, this has been a looongg week. I started another summer class: gastronomy. It's only 2 weeks, but from about 9-3. ugh. I had a test on thursday, it was okay i think. It is only terrible because it is so slow, there are high-schoolish class activities, and I had class from 5-8 later that day. sheesh. but there is only 1 more week of gastronomy, where there will be a final exam, and a 2000 word essay due.

Also, I've eaten 3 kebabs in the past week. goodness. they are really good, but make me so full that I want to pop. I just ate another, and then about half of a watermelon. this morning I had 6 crepes too! geez. what a lazy eating day. i'm so full i want to just sleep.

Other than that, this week I submitted my Letter of Evaluation/Dean's Letter application for med school stuff, and the SRF application, for researching at KU Med this summer!! Hopefully there will be good results with both of those. :)

Northland Trip

This weekend was another traveling weekend for me...

Friday the BU group left UniLodge (where i live), and drove to Dargaville, then the Waipoua Kauri Forest, where one of the largest Kauri tree lives, Opononi for sand dune sledding, then Paihia where I stayed in a backbacker's lodge for 2 nights. We had a barbeque and bar night, complete with karaoke and everything. The bar we ate at was really quite neat...it had sand/beach floors. kindof a cool feeling.

The next day we went to Russel, where the first Maori people and Settlers were interacting, and we went to see the first printing system and tannery in NZ. (don't worry bruce, i took pictures of the leather stuff!)

We took a boat around the Bay of Islands, a group of 144 islands, on a speed boat. A cyclone was coming in, so it was extra exciting! We went to one of the islands to the Hole in the Rock, but it was far too wavy and dangerous for us to go in. But there was a small cave nearby that we went in instead, which was amazing, because the water was sooooo choppy, but the instant we got into the cave, it was completely calm, and really misty. Cool experience. Another night for everyone in the bars...

Today, Sunday, we left Paihia for Waitangi, to the Waitangi Treaty House. This town is across the bay from Russel, and is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. This is a controversial treaty right now..because the Maori signed it with the British settlers (Pakeha), assuming equal rights, and protection that land would not be taken. BUT it was. So right now the governemtn is working on trying to right the wrongs that happened because of a broken treaty signed in 1840...

After that, we went to Haruru Falls (waterfalls), took pictures, and made our way back home to Auckland. Now i'm back in my apartment, just made dinner, unpacked, and got my application for a letter of evaluation (premed stuff) completely ready, for me to send out tomorrow. :) yay.

-naomi

Hello!!

Hi! This is my first official post!! hehe.

So I am here in New Zealand for 6 months, doing a study abroad program at the Auckland University of Technology. So far, so good.

The first weekend here I went on a trip to Mt. Eden...where we played on black sand dunes, went sand dune jumping/rolling, swimming in the ocean, and wine tasting.

On wednesday we instituted "Wine Wednesday" in my apartment of 4 girls, where we proceed to drink a bottle of 1 white, and 1 red wine (although we also added champagned to the mix), and lots of cheese. :)

The second weekend (this past weekend), I went to Coromandel Peninsula, where I went to Cooks Beach, Lonely Bay, Cathedral Cove, Ferry Landing, Hahei Beach, and Hot Water springs. All very nice places. :) I went with a group of 13 other BU study abraod students..we rented 3 cars and drove for 3 hours, and it was terrific. We camped the whole weekend, one night at Cook's beach, and the next at Hahei. From Cook's beach, we hiked to Lonely bay, a shell beach (Soooo cool!), climbed on rocks, and hiked back. We had a bonfire later that night on the beach, were a few kiwis joined us. :) After we drove to Hahei, we set up camp, and went to Cathedral Cove - a 1 hour hike to a beach, where at low tide you can walk through a cove to the other side of the beach. very nice. The next day we went to Hot water springs, where you can dig in the beach at low tide and boiling hot water will come up. It was relaxing.


Well, I have rambled for far too long. Just look at pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/naomibutler/Auckland1


Also, for those of you who want my mailing address, here it is:

Naomi Butler
Unilodge, Apartment 1108D
138 Anzac Avenue
Auckland, New Zealand