Ray of Sunshine Travel

I’m behind again – imagine that! This post will cover May 6-12.

Not gonna lie, this week was rough. Most of the week I was super stressed about an AI project to the extent I was considering dropping the class, and then over the weekend I learned that my grandpa lost his short battle with brain cancer.

I’m doing better now; I met with my tutor (NZ’s equivalent of a TA) and am sticking with the class. I’m still trying to process life without Grandpa, and it’s going to take time to heal, but I know God is good through it all.

Apart from the project, I didn’t do much during the week, but I did make time to go to my flax-weaving class again! This time we made a two-cornered kete (aka basket, pronounced kinda like kitty). Quite a bit harder than the flower we did last week, but I made it through!

Friday I took another study break to go to the Otago Museum with some ISA folks, which was really cool! The highlight was the planetarium show: we sat in these ultra-reclining seats (think movie theater-style, but reclining til you could look at the ceiling) and watched as they projected the night sky on the inside of a dome. They were able to point out constellations, rotate the sky, zoom into different stars, etc. The only thing better is looking at stars in reality.

The science exhibits were also really cool. Pictured here is a room with tons of mirrors and lights, a room where a special type of light made everything appear to be monotone, and a specimen from the butterfly room.

There were also several interesting history exhibits, including a huge room full of model ships and other seafaring history.

Unfortunately, it closed before I had time to get to a lot of it, so I’ll definitely have to go back.

Saturday morning we left Dunedin for our final ISA program-wide trip. Shortly after we left, I got the call that Grandpa had passed away. I had learned just the day before that he had started to decline, and I’m so grateful I wasn’t traveling Friday because I got the chance to call him and Grandma. Thankfully, I was surrounded by my best friends here when I got the news about his passing, and though it definitely put a damper on the rest of the trip for me, it was probably really good that I was kept busy.

One of our first stops was the Elephant Rocks, which were actually the site of the battle scene in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. We had a good time climbing on them. (You can spot me in the silhouette picture, creds to Margaret. I’m the one sitting down with the ball cap on.)

We also stopped to look at some Maori rock paintings, and a fossilized whale bone. I didn’t take too many pictures, but here’s the site of the paintings.

Our next stop was this lake overlooking Mount Cook, which is the highest point in New Zealand – it looks light blue in these pictures. Apparently we really lucked out, because Mount Cook is often hidden by clouds. All I can say is wow.

Next we arrived at the sprawling metropolis of Lake Tekapo (haha, just kidding: it’s tiny), which was our final destination for the night. Shortly after we arrived, we hiked part of the Mount Saint John Summit Track, which provided some amazing views.

If that water could get any bluer, I don’t know what I’d do…

After we finished, we were free until 11:00 that night. The group I hung out with decided to first go to the quaint little Church of the Good Shepherd on the lakefront.

Once it got dark, we starting looking for places to eat and settled on a sit-down. I treated myself to a pork chop special, which was really tasty.

We then went back to the motel and hung out for a couple hours while we waited for the group to reconvene. Our final activity for the night?

Stargazing.

Lake Tekapo is said to be one the of the best places in the Southern Hemisphere, if not the world, to stargaze. We got really lucky; it had been cloudy most of the day but had just happened to clear up that evening.

This was our primary reason for going to the planetarium at the museum, to get ourselves familiar with the sky here. Did you know that we see very different stars and constellations here? No Dippers or North star, but we do have the Southern Cross, along with a few other unique ones.

We went to an official stargazing place, where they had very fancy telescopes and we could get a close-up look at Saturn and Jupiter, along with some nebulas. The Milky Way was insanely obvious to the eye. After using the telescopes for a while, we got access to their hot pools and spent a good while gazing from there. Though it was a late night, it was definitely worth it.

The next morning we got to sleep in a bit, then got our picture by the Church before heading off.

Our first stop that morning was the Salmon Farm.

It was kinda fun. The only salmon I’d ever really had before was barbecued salmon, which I found really weird and really turned me off. I tried some again this time, but still found it just okay, so I didn’t get anything.

Our big stop was Oamaru, which is a town known for its steampunk vibe. Before you ask what that means, here’s a definition: “Steampunk is a quirky and fun genre of science fiction that features steam-powered technology. It is often set in an alternate, futuristic version of 19th century Victorian England steam powered devices – the ‘world gone mad’ as Victorian people may have imagined it.” Anyhow, the town, particularly Harbour Street, looks pretty cool.

Next up was the Moeraki boulders, which was one of my favorite stops. If you have a Windows computer, you’re pretty much bound to have seen these at some point on the lock screen. They were so cool!

Afterwards it was a short drive to Katiki Point. This is most known for being home to yellow-eyed penguins, which the sign said are the rarest penguins in the world. We were lucky and got to see about four! Unfortunately I didn’t really get any good pictures of them, but the views were still sweet.

This was our last stop of the trip, so it was back to Dunedin afterwards for some much needed homework and alone-time.

Hopefully I’ll have my next post up within the next couple of days. However, you’ve clearly been able to survive more than a week without a post from me, and I have a group project due soon, so no promises. Until then!