Hoo boy. I am really having to stretch my brain to remember what happened this week. I’ll make it work though!
This was actually a pretty busy week. I did take a couple minutes to explore the campus a little more, as I hadn’t been inside the clocktower building yet. Didn’t disappoint!
Monday night Momma Dee taught the ISA group how to make pavlova! If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s a classic Kiwi dessert made from egg whites and sugar and topped with kiwifruit and flaked chocolate. I have to say, there certainly were a lot of cooks in the kitchen! Definitely a good time though.
We had to hold off tasting them until the next day because we had to bake them and let cool overnight, but I’d say it was worth the wait. Pretty unique, but yummy!
Tuesday I also had my fourth flax weaving class and started making placemats. I was pretty happy with the how the first two came out! I have to say though, they look a lot different now that they’ve dried some, but still pretty cool.
Wednesday a good chunk from us from ISA went to the annual Otago Uni Capping Show. I learned after the fact that it’s a long-standing tradition: this year was the 125th anniversary of the first one, making it the second-longest running student production in the world! In true Otago style, it was incredibly obscene and profane, but definitely entertaining. This year’s theme was “Lord of the Degrees” – think a magic ring that will give automatically give you straight A’s and everyone else bad grades, and all breeds of academic ‘creatures’ fighting to get their hands on it, and you have the basic premise. There were several other skits and small performances spread throughout the show; a lot of Otago and New Zealand specific humor, though my personal favorite was a Brexit-themed Scooby Doo skit in which the gang tried to unveil Theresa May, only to find out she wasn’t actually a monster. I have almost zero knowledge or opinion on Brexit’s recent happenings, but the chase scene in the skit sure had me howling. Some of the performances also were apparently traditions; one was the Capping Sextet, an a capella group dressed as clowns, and the Selwyn College ballet, a ballet performance by all the first-year guys in one of the dorms on campus. It was quite the night!
I had my big HCI project due this week, so there was a lot of work on that going on in between classes and all this other stuff going on. Got it turned in Friday, so that felt pretty good. I then made biscuits and gravy for dinner and got to make biscuits from scratch for the first time because refrigerated biscuit dough (or even biscuits, for that matter) aren’t really a thing here; biscuits are cookies here! I was pretty happy with how it all turned out though; so tasty!
After chowing down, my flatmate Autumn and I headed out on the town for Disco Night at a local bar. Despite definitely being on the younger side of people in the room and not knowing too many songs, it was a great time.
The next morning it was up early to head to Milford Sound with Logan and Maddie L. from ISA with additional friends Emily and Sally. The sunrise that morning was incredible, but I should have remembered the saying “red skies at morning, sailors take warning” as foreshadowing for the weekend. I had had an incredible streak in terms of weekend weather up to this point, so it was about time that my luck would run out.
We stopped in Te Anau for a brief lunch and made a photo stop at the speck-on-the-map called Te Anau Downs.
We also couldn’t resist getting a good ol’ ISA picture at the next stop.
We were driving to our next destination, the Lake Marian track carpark, when it started raining. We decided to do the hike despite the rain; we’d heard it was only an hour and a half return, so we weren’t too concerned. We quickly learned that the track turns into a small stream when raining, so we carefully picked our way up, trying not to get our boots soaked.
They say that on a clear day, Lake Marian (the endpoint of the track) is almost a mirror lake, but this was not a clear day. It was also kinda unfortunate that a fog rolled in just as we got there, which kinda obscured the mountains. Still pretty though!
We didn’t spend too long admiring the views, however. I quickly realized that it had taken us an hour and a half just one way, and that we had about one hour of daylight remaining. Needless to say, we were a lot less concerned with keeping our boots dry on the return trip. Despite getting slightly lost and even separated at one point, we were able to make it back to the carpark before dark. Shew!
Our troubles weren’t over yet, though. We had planned to camp overnight at a campsite nearby and were hoping we could find a sheltered spot that wasn’t soaked through. No such luck. On top of this, we had rented our tent and were completely unfamiliar with how to set it up, so we got it completely soaked and still couldn’t figure it out. We decided to take the loss and retreat to the car to make a plan.
Other than sleeping in the car, we basically had only two options: backtrack to Te Anau, where we were pretty sure there would be lodging for us somewhere, but we would lose time and gas; or head on to Milford, where we weren’t sure if there was lodging, but we would be close to our destination the following day. None of us had cell phone service and weren’t likely to for a good while, so we couldn’t look anything up. After much debate, we decided to take the risk and head to Milford.
Upon arriving we found a single lodge that had just five beds left, which just happened to be the exact number of people we had. I’m entirely convinced we were being watched over on this trip! We hung up some of our wet clothes, played a couple card games, and then called it a night, falling asleep to the sound of a now raging thunderstorm outside and feeling so thankful to be inside and dry.
The next morning we awoke to looming mountains all around us. This isn’t the best picture, but you probably get some idea.
I would say that Milford Sound is probably one place that looks as spectacular, if not better, when raining as when the sun is shining. This is because of the insane amount of waterfalls, which really roar when it’s raining.
The thing to do in Milford apparently is take a cruise around the sound, so that’s what we did!
And the views were spectacular, despite the crazy weather. The wind was so strong you can see the waterfalls being blown sideways below.
And here’s a little behind the scenes photo of what it was really like…
…some of us taking cover, and the rest hanging on for dear life though the waves!
Unfortunately, my phone got so wet that it decided to shut down, so the next few photos are courtesy of Maddie. Of course, the rain stopped almost immediately after my phone quit…
After the cruise, we piled back into our wet car and began the long drive home, though not without stopping briefly at the Chasm, a really cool spot in a nearby river where the water had carved out some potholes. (Sorry, no photos… phone was still a no-go).
Also not pictured is the incredible drive up to and shortly after the Milford Tunnel, which basically drills through a mountain at the base and spits you out on the other side. If you’re curious, I highly recommend Googling it!
My phone was finally revived an hour or so later along the road, just in time to get this shot!
I was definitely glad to get home and be warm and dry after this weekend. It’s times like these that make you so glad for shelter.
P.S. Yes, I am home, and very happy to be home! I’ve still got about three weeks of NZ adventures left to cover, which I’m hoping to squeeze into two more blogs. The next one will probably be really long, and the final one should be shorter; I’ll try to get them out ASAP so I don’t start forgetting what happened! Love you all! Yay for the USA!
Ray of Sunshine Travel 