Tramping

One of the main attractions of New Zealand is the great tramping ("tramping" is NZ-speak for "hiking"). During my autumn break, I went on two tramps: a 4-day tramp in the Tongariro National Park and a 3-day tramp on Stewart Island.

Tongariro National Park is right in the middle of the North Island. It has active volcanoes and beautiful rock landscapes. The track I took actually circumnavigates Mt. Nguarahoe, which appeared as Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies (Kiwis are extremely proud of these films.)

View of Lake Tama. It was steep climbing up here, so I was the only one there. A perfect place for lunch.

I started the hike bursting with pep and enthusiasm. I really enjoyed myself - on the first day.

Taranaki Falls

But alas, it was too good to last, and it came to pass that a mighty storm struck the land. The second day was, well, miserable. It turns out that active volcanoes have toxic gases, and instead of smelling the trees I got a nice whiff of sulphur throughout the hike. As the wind blew volcanic gases into my eyes, my eyes were so irritated I shed a few manly tears. 

Unfazed by the rain, I hiked for a good 8 hours all the way into the active volcano zone. The clouds were thick, but I could still enjoy the beautiful scenery and see for centimeters on end. Finally, I returned to the hut, my shoes swooshing with water the whole way. 

At the hut, there was only a few brave geologists and the warden. The warden warned me that it would be too dangerous proceed because of gale-force winds. Since I would likely be the only hiker on the track, he admonished me to turn back. Being a novice hiker, I resignedly accepted his advice.

The rain did not stop all night, and continued all of the next day. I hiked back to the first hut as fast as I could. This time, there was just one other hiker at the hut (there had been about 20 the first night) and the warden. We talked and played cards for about 10 hours since the weather was so terrible outside. At least I had some pleasant company.

It continued to rain all night, and sure enough when I started trekking home the last day it was still raining. Finally, when I was nearly off the trail, the rain stopped.

So, my first tramp was hugely disappointing. I was therefore not expecting much when I went to Stewart Island for my second tramp. Stewart Island is a small island south of the main two islands of New Zealand, and is the southernmost point of New Zealand.

After a long bus ride, I boarded a humble 8-passenger airplane to start my next adventure. The pilot did not look much older than a senior in high school. But alas, I had come too far to turn back.

One lucky passenger gets to sit in the cockpit

Stewart Island from the plane

To my delight, the weather was much better on Stewart Island. It only rained the first night. So I started my tramp off full of confidence.

Entrance to the National Park

When I got to the first hut, I met some friendly fellow travelers: a German, a Czech, and four New Zealanders. It turned out that we were all doing the same route. They were all nice people, which only added to the experience. On the second night the New Zealanders went to the beach to collect some fresh mussels for dinner, and were kind enough to share some with me and the others too. We ate, talked, and played cards together. When one of the New Zealanders saw my pitiful dinner (canned sardines and muesli mix; I did not have any cooking gear to bring so al my food had to be dried or canned), he even gave me some of his hot dinner.

After nightfall, I went kiwi watching with the German. Kiwis are nocturnal, so we patiently waited in the forest with our headlamps (offered to us by the New Zealanders!), not expecting to see anything give their rarity. But to our delight, we were lucky enough to hear the call of the kiwi. I even recorded it on my phone.

Stewart Island is abundant with wildlife. In addition to kiwis, it has a wide variety of bird endemic to New Zealand. I heard some truly beautiful songs and exotic calls. I also saw some white-tailed deer too. One was right outside our hut, and even posed.

Stewart Island also has some interesting industrial ruins. Many decades ago there were saw mills, and there are a couple old machines scattered around the park.

The tramp was simply unforgettable. But I had yet another surprise waiting at the end.

Since travel can be so expensive, I though I would save some money by couch surfing. For those not in the know, it's an internet website where you meet strangers who are willing to let you sleep on their couch for the night, for free. I thought I would try it, so I did couch surfing for my last night on Stewart Island.

I wasn't expecting very much, but I ended up with the saintliest hostesses you can imagine. She was an older woman, and she treated me as if I were her grandson. When I got to her house, I was greeted with warm muffins and tea, a perfect refreshment after a long hike. She continued to feed me well, despite the fact that I had packed my own food, serving fresh fish and chips for dinner. Instead of a  humble couch, I had my own guest suite downstairs. She even drove me around the island for sightseeing and dropped me off at the airport the next morning. She was an inspiring example of the kindness of strangers, and I hope I too can pay it forward some day. New Zealand might be the friendliest country in the world. The geologists, trampers, and my couch-surfing hostess were some of the nicest strangers I've encountered. 

We went to the lighthouse for a good lookout view

So, despite the rain, my autumn break was a great success!
I'm done adventuring around New Zealand, and will probably just stay in Christchurch for the rest of the semester. After all, it is still study abroad. I'm glad I could see so much of New Zealand and meet so many inspiring people.

Wellington

I am in the middle of autumn break. I recently returned from a week-long trip to the North Island to see Wellington and hike in Tongariro National Park.

Wellington is a gorgeous city, and if I had no ties to the US I might even move there! Wellington is New Zealand's capital city, on the southernmost tip of the North Island. Often compared to San Francisco, it is hilly and overlooks a bay.

There is a bird sanctuary within walking distance of Wellington. It is well preserved and has a giant fence that's partially underground to keep predators out (NZ has no native mammals.) It's like stepping into a completely different place. It feels like you're in the middle of a forest, not near the second-largest city of NZ. I saw plenty of beautiful birds and heard exotic calls. Definitely a treat.

This is right outside Wellington, though you'd never guess from the photo!

None of the bird pictures turned out, but his fellow actually posed for me

I also toured the capitol. It's popularly known as the Beehive, and it's a humble-looking building. It has a friendlier, small-government feel compared to some of the other mammoth capitols I've seen. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside.

The Beehive

Parliament

After that, I walked around the botanical gardens, then toured the Carter Observatory to learn about space.

I also did a Lord of the Rings tour in Wellington. We went to several filming locations, and our guide forced us to do embarrassing reenactments. He would innocently ask us if we wanted a picture, then pull out the most ridiculous costumes after we had accepted. We all had a good laugh over our embarrassment as random people passed by. We also drove to "Rivendell", a park with more filming locations.

Oh no! A black rider!

 Let's keep this picture small

All said, I had a splendid time in Wellington. Though overlooked by most, it's a charming city.

Queenstown

The leaves are starting to fall, so Christchurch is particularly beautiful. I'm still busy with schoolwork, but a post is long overdue and I've just gotten some more pictures. In two weeks time I'll be on autumn break for three whole weeks, and I'm planning to do some extended hikes. In the meantime, read about some of the adventures I've already had.

Queenstown is a very famous New Zealand city, known as the adventure capital of the world. True to its reputation, it has much to offer: paragliding, skydiving, zip-lining, mountain biking, white water rafting, bungee jumping, horseback riding, kayaking.... you get the idea. I came down to Queenstown with my sister and cousin who were vacationing in New Zealand.

The first thing we did was zip-lining. What is zip-lining? See for yourself:

You fly through the air with greatest of ease! Zipping along at high speeds, you can do cool tricks or just enjoy feeling like superman. My poor cousin was terrified at first, but ended up loving it by the end.

My favorite part of Queenstown was going horseback riding through a valley. You really feel powerful riding a horse. The valley was stunning, and we rode along a creek. Truly an idyllic way to enjoy nature.

I would like to say that I boldly rode through the valley with the fierceness of Ghengis Kahn, but the horses had other plans. It soon became apparent that my horse was not nearly as impressed with the experience as I was. Having walked the route so many times before, my horse mostly always ignored my commands. At one point my horse even started to sprint up a hill, completely ignoring my panicked admonishments to stop. Eventually, we came to a river crossing, and there the horses staged a sinister coup. My cousin's horse refused to cross the river. Inspired by his civil disobedience, my horse too refused to cross, despite my attempts. Even the Dutch couple riding along with us was having problems. So we turned back, but afterwards we had a good laugh about it.

 

Before leaving Queenstown, we also took a day trip up to Milford Sound for a cruise. Milford Sound has a reputation as one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand. What do you think?

 

Adventure is all well and good, but sometimes it's nice just to relax. After Queenstown, we took a trip to Akaroa. I wrote about the penguin tour there in my last post. Anyways, we had a small cabin to ourselves, complete with a private black sand beach and a sheep farm next door.

What do penguins, fairies, and waterfalls have in common?

I know my blog has been slow in starting. My apologies, but I have been having trouble getting pictures. I will be doing many posts once I have them, but I thought I'd at least give a sneak peak of what I've been up to.

My wonderful sister and cousin actually flew out with me to Christchurch, and we spent the first couple weeks vacationing together before they left.  We went all around the south island of New Zealand.

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting a penguin colony. Most people take a boring old car to go to such places, but as intrepid travelers we hiked from the French city Akaroa to the colony. (Though due to an unfortunate accident involving mud and family abandonment a centaur, my sister could not accompany us on the hike.) We hiked along a stream, and there were plenty of waterfalls to see. The hike ended in some rolling hills on a sheep farm.

 

 

 

After the hike, we settled in to our lodging. There was a beautiful black sand beach within walking distance, so I went for a quick swim. Akaroa was an ancient volcano, hence the black sand (pictures to come)

That evening we toured the penguin colony. There are three species of penguins in New Zealand. This was a blue penguin colony; blue penguins are the smallest penguins in the world. Since they are endangered, the owners of the colony put up shelters for the penguins to nest in. We got to peak in some of the nests. The tour guide also fed some of the sickly penguins. 

We were lucky and saw some of the rarer yellow-eyed penguins too. We watched until it was too dark to see them anymore.

Blue penguin, during molting

A peak inside a penguin nest

Yellow-eyed penguins, viewed from afar

The next morning was even better. I went on a kayaking tour. I didn't risk bringing my camera,  but suffice to say I saw lots of wildlife, including penguins both on land and in water, fur seals, and even friendly dolphins.

 I will be posting about more of my adventures soon.

I also want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes! Actually, the drinking age in New Zealand is 18, so I've been legally able to drink since I got here. My awesome flatmates gave me over a kilogram of chocolate as a present. We also played a game of hearts: the winner won a bag of jelly beans, while the loser was forced to clean the kitchen floor. I also ate a deep-fried Mars Bar.

I also had fairy bread, a traditional New Zealand birthday treat. It's simple - buttered bread with sprinkles on it - but oddly satisfying.

Viszontlátásra, Magyarország!

My semester in Hungary has come to an end, and I flew back to America this Thursday.

Looking back, it has been my most successful semester yet in my college career.

First, as you can tell from my blog, I’ve been able to go on many adventures, both inside Hungary and to neighboring Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, and Romania. I’ve made many unforgettable memories on my travels.

More importantly, I’ve also made a great many friends at my school. With fewer than 40 students, we were all forced to get to know each other, and we really were a community. We slogged through classes together, partied together, and traveled around Europe in smaller groups. So the end of the semester feels very bittersweet to me as we all go our separate ways. I’m ready to be done traveling (for a while!), but I do feel poignant about leaving my friends. Not to mention that I may never come back to Hungary again.

I’ve also grown and matured this semester. I’m happier and more outgoing than I was four months ago. I’m more confident about traveling and living by myself too. Finally, I was academically successful this semester too. In many ways, the past four months have been a highlight of my college career.

So, what now? I will be in Minnesota until New Year’s Day. Then I’m off to Maryland to work at my cousin’s vet clinic for a month.

Then it begins again in February, when I leave to study abroad in Christchurch, New Zealand. So while I am sad to leave my friends and Hungary behind, there is much to look forward too. I think I will keep travelling my whole life!

Romania

For my final weekend trip of the semester, I met one of my friends from Princeton who lives in Romania.

I took the train out to Bucharest on Thursday. It was very long - about 15 hours - but I enjoyed watching the mountains in the Romanian countryside. I toured Bucharest by myself on Friday. I saw a couple art museums, the palace of the parliament (Europe's largest building), and a couple extensive parks. At night my friend flew in, and we walked around Bucharest some more.

The Palace of the Parliament

On Sunday, we took the train to tour a castle in Transylvania. Unfortunately, pictures were forbidden inside without paying an exorbitant fee, but suffice to say the interior was gorgeously decorated, with lots of marble, gold, and an extensive weaponry collection, including jewel-studded blades. After the castle, we took the train to Brasov. It's an old town with lots of churches, a charming bell tower, a giant Christmas tree, and plenty of shops.

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The Black Church in Brasov, so called because of a fire long ago

The Bell Tower in Brasov

My friend's parents also drove up to Brasov, so on Monday we traveled by car instead of the train. First we went to Bran Castle, better known as Dracula's Castle because of its connection to Vlad the Impaler, the Romanian ruler Dracula is said to be loosely based on. This castle was over seven centuries old, so it had lots of fascinating history, even if it wasn't as extravagant as the first castle I saw. The castle sits atop a rocky cliff, and together with the wintery forest and mountains in the background, it lacked only lightning to look exactly how you'd imagine Dracula's Castle.

Bran Castle

The secret passage

Castle courtyard

It's Count Dracula!!!

We drove through the beautiful Romanian countryside to Sighisoara, a very well-preserved medieval city. In the old part of the town, practically all the buildings are several centuries old. An old church and nearby cemetery add to the medieval atmosphere. The city is fortified with several historic towers, each dedicated to different guilds such as butchers, iron workers, or carpenters.

A Guild Tower

Cemetery

Not surprisingly, I enjoyed eating some Romanian food. The most unusual thing I ate was brain, a delicacy in Romania. I also was fortunate enough to get a homemade breakfast from my friend's family. Romanians prefer salty things for breakfast, so in addition to putting jams on toast special vegetable preserves are popular on toast.

It was a wonderful weekend trip, and having native Romanians to show me around made it all the better. I'm very thankful for their kindness - it was a perfect end to the semester.