The Song Is Over

Well, here it is. I'm sitting at my desk in Wellington, New Zealand at the end of one of the most important journeys of my life. I've spent the last week packing and preparing for my long journey home and finishing the few things off of my checklist that I meant to do. Two days ago, about ten of us leapt off the Wellington Harbor into the unfathomably frigid ocean at about 6 p.m. on a very cold and windy night. When asked by friendly passers-by just why we were doing it, I replied "just because!". "Good on ya, mate," they replied. We did it for no other reason than to know that we could. I've never felt more exhilarated in my life. My few seconds in midair were transcendent as I hurtled toward the freezing water below. I have only snapshots in my memory. The adrenaline that flowed through me rendered me impervious to cold or fear. I felt as if I could stop a moving car. Jumping off of the edge of the wharf into the water far below required me to overcome every instinct and primitive thought in my head that screamed for me not to. I feel as if this was a perfect way to wrap up the experience I've had coming here. I flew halfway across the world with nothing but myself. I made great friends, saw amazing things, and have created for myself an immense sense of personal satisfaction and pride. In short, I know that I did something initially very difficult and ultimately something to be very proud of.

I don't know how, but I can sense that I see things differently. I am especially aware of this when I remember back to how I saw certain things back in June and compare to how I see them now. My last night here was fantastic. A few of us are leaving today, so my group of international friends all had a nice dinner on the wharf and proceeded to watch a fantastic fireworks display over the harbor. I was really happy to be able to celebrate Guy Fawkes day officially. This country being part of the English commonwealth, takes part in England's celebration of the foiled gunpowder plot. The most fantastic part of then night was after the fireworks show. Everyone, EVERYONE had fireworks of their own that they launched on and off all around the harbor for hours afterwards. It was odd to see so many fireworks launched by civilians; I've grown to used to fireworks being illegal in Rhode Island and many other states. In what was probably not the best use of judgement, we all held our firework sticks above our heads as the bursts of brilliant color launched into the sky. It was a magical experience and a perfect ending to my time in Wellington. I spent the night reflecting on my time here and appreciating the friends I had made. I'm now going to feel weird come November 5th...It'll feel uncelebrated.

I'm being picked up by an airport shuttle in about 3 hours. I have 20 hours of flying ahead of me, and if all goes well, I'll land in T.F. Green airport at midnight on Friday the 6th. I am feeling waves of sentimentality and bittersweetness as I look at Wellington on this beautiful, 67 degree spring day. I'll never be able to adequately communicate what it feels like to look out your window at the Misty Mountains and a beautiful, shining harbor at the same time. New Zealand can only truly be understood by really seeing it in person. At the same time, I feel pure excitement to see all of the familiar faces that I've missed these four months. My appreciation for my normal life in North Kingstown has grown exponentially while being here as I realized just how much of an important part of my life all these people and places are to me. This, I think, will be one of the greatest benefits of my journey.

On a similar note, I cannot wait to eat an American pizza and drink a root beer. I have been deprived of both and never realized just how delicious they were until I was without them.

I will put up a few more posts with anecdotes and pictures after I arrive home and shake the ridiculous jetlag and disorientation. For those of you who complimented me on/read/commented on my blog, sent me e-mails, and wrote me letters of support and greetings during my time here, I thank you. Everyone has been so very invaluably supportive of my unbelievable decision to live here in New Zealand for four months. I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. I'm going, now. I think I'll take one last walk through the Wellington Botanic Gardens and take my last glances at New Zealand. I look forward to seeing everyone in the good old U.S.A. very soon.

Thanks for Reading,

Bill

Final Days

My last week has been rather Lord of the Rings intensive. This is not and never will be a bad thing. Last Sunday I joined a group of friends on a Wellington Rover tour. These guys bring you to all of the shooting locations in the Wellington region. We ended up seeing a lot more than I expected. Just across the central city was Mount Victoria, where Jackson shot the first scenes for the trilogy ten years ago. The locations on Mount Victoria included the scene when the Hobbits fall down the hill and subsequently hide and run from the Nazgul (“Get off the road!”) and several shots of Dunharrow, an area near the Paths of the Dead where the Rohirrim camp. Our guide’s knowledge of the practical and anecdotal details of the shooting was impressive, and he was a really personable and genuine guy. I got the felling that he was really into what he did, which added to the experience. He had all sorts of cool camera angles figured out from countless times giving this tour. I'm going to do a screencap-to-camera shot comparison so that you can see which shot is which. They were all in the exact spots filmed, and you can see the similarities, especially in the trees. Our crowning achievement involved 3 people forming the widely-circulated Nazgul silhouetted on the horizon shot. 

 

I'm the head, by the way

After this, we checked out a quarry where Jackson and his crew filmed the entire Helm’s Deep sequence as well as several location shoots for Minas Tirith. Apparently the company using the Quarry didn’t want to be bothered by Jackson, and quoted him three times what it would actually cost for them to stop working there for a year. He instantly agreed and paid them the money anyways. Life is good when you have a 300 million dollar budget. 

Helm's Deep seen from Somes Island

We continued North to the Hutt River, where Jackson shot the Fellowship’s journey down the River Anduin at the end of “Fellowship”. Interesting to see the unique rocky gorges that looked so beautiful in the film.

Further North to Rivendell. Although I had been here before briefly with my flatmates, the weather had been horrible and we had no idea where things were actually shot. I had a much more fulfilling experience this time, as the guide showed us where certain shots were staged and the weather was sunny. 

One particular location was where virtually every promotional photo of Legolas was shot, and the guide insisted that we all pose with various props between the two trees. I really don’t think an elf with a beard cuts it. It was a good time, though. Everyone had good laugh looking equally as ridiculous as everyone else. I also re-attempted the vine swinging from before, and it worked out much better. I think all I needed was some practice. 

The shores of the park also yielded a shooting location for a scene in the extended Two Towers in which Eomer finds Theodred and his men ambushed by orcs and close to death. Our last location was the forests of Isenguard, including the gardens where Gandalf and Saruman speak and the beautiful giant trees which are ripped down by the Orcs to fuel Saruman’s industrial fires. I could see a faint impression where the grass was re-planted in place of the long road that Gandalf rides up to Orthanc on.

Overall the tour went about 4 hours and proved to be very much worth the money. Although I had been to several of the locations before, the presence of a knowledgeable guide added to the experience immensely.

A couple of days ago myself and most of the same friends took a bus down to Miramar peninsula. Miramar is where Jackson and his associates maintain their headquarters. The area hosts such places as Weta Workshops and Weta digital, creating the special effects, costumes, makeup and miniatures for many Hollywood productions such as The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Hellboy, and King Kong.

They’ve been around a lot longer than LOTR; in the past they’ve worked on projects such as Xena: Warrior Princess, Heavenly Creatures, and Jackson’s early films such as Braindead and Bad Taste. Needless to say, it was a very interesting place to visit. It was obviously impossible to get a full access tour of the facilities (mostly due to confidentiality agreements), but the museum and informational video that they provided inside the premises was fulfilling. The artists put together a 20 minute DVD that showed a lot of the processes that go on behind the locked doors, and I got to see a lot of the miniatures, costumes and prosthetics that went into LOTR, Narnia and King Kong. 

Peter's Armor: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Ringwraith's glove from Arwen's chase scene in "Fellowship"

Amon Hen: Climax to "Fellowship of the Ring"

Weta really reminded me of what I imagine Pixar animation studios to be like, and a sort of place that I’d dream of working. They’re really just tons of really, really creative people paid a lot of money to do what they love and bounce creative ideas off each other all day long. It makes you feel excited just to visit such a place. I got caught up in the heat of the moment and almost bought an entire miniature of a LOTR set, but then reconsidered after asking myself what I’d actually do with it after I bought it other than look at it every day until it got boring. I’m really glad I thought about that.

Since we had purchased day-long bus passes (they were cheaper than buying a one way to Miramar), my friends and I spent the rest of the very sunny day being chauffered around Wellington, compliments of the GoWellington Public Transportation System. I checked out a lot of regions I hadn’t been yet (my goal is to cover most of the area before I leave, I’m almost there) and confirmed my belief that every location in this city yields an entirely new, beautiful view.

I spent a few more overnights on the island volunteering this weekend. It's sort of become my thing to do in Wellington, and it's cool being on a first name basis with everyone at this point. I was given some more responsibility this time, and my tasks included analyzing and recording markings on bait traps. I was trained how to analyze bite marks to distinguish Wetas from rodents, etc. It was great to have a job involving less labor and more responsibility; I was happy to have gained their trust.

In other news, I’m departing for good old America in a total of five days. My feelings on this matter are similar to those that I felt while coming here. I’ve noticed some real bonds developing with a lot of friends here over the last three weeks or so, and I’m surprised how strange I feel about possibly never seeing them again after only knowing them for four months. However, I’m also very excited to set foot on American soil again and see all those people familiar to me. At this point, I think the excitement is outweighing the bittersweetness, just as my excitement outweighed my nervousness on my journey over. I guess excitement is a good thing to have in excess. I also tell myself that it’s a small world, and I’ll hopefully pay host to some of my friends if they ever visit America some day.

Two more interests have sparked inside of me in the last few weeks. I’ve grown very fond of photography. When I first came here, all of my photos were “big picture” images, fully zoomed out photos of the city and surrounding environment. I began to notice that although the photos looked beautiful, they lacked an interpretive lens. In other words, anyone could have pointed the camera right there and taken that picture. There’s less of an opportunity for creative interpretations when you’re that zoomed out. I’ve taken more of a liking to capturing smaller images, little snippits of everyday life caught in a small plant or the archway above a door. In close-up images, there’s more room for change and creativity in terms of angles, brightness, colors, depth perception, etc. I had never really applied my love for video and film to photography before, but I think I’ve started to catch onto it.

Having a group of multinational friends has also spurred in me an interest to learn another language. Like most things in High School, my language classes were not relevant or real to me. I saw learning another language as an obstacle to be overcome, a foreign school of thought that I never really, in my core, considered as part of everyday life. I also tended to disassociate from people speaking another language. As language is probably the most fundamental tool in communication and human identification, someone speaking foreign Spanish or French is obviously going to appear foreign to me, and thus I tended to distance myself from them. It’s not that I didn’t consider them as people, but I just didn’t see them in the same lens as I saw my English-speaking friends. Living here, I’ve grown to be good friends with people who speak French, German, and Chinese. Because they spoke English, I was able to identify with them more than I would have been able to if they had not. Over time, my subconscious began to connect their inner self, the self that exists beyond language, with their native tongue. I finally realized that every language is a doorway to a real person who probably had just as much in common with me than anyone else. I’ve had fun practicing my (very, very limited) French with those who speak it infinitely better than I do. These experiences have placed foreign language on a new pedestal for me, and I consider them a wealth of knowledge and information as well as a doorway to millions of people’s points of views and opinions. I don’t want to insinuate that I didn’t consider foreign language speakers people, I just identify with them much more now than I did before. It’s as if the foreign language doesn’t act as a barrier for me anymore; it’s rather become an opportunity. It’s sort of hard to put this revelation into words; it’s just something that clicked inside of my head. It’s also been interesting trading information about our own languages. I especially enjoy learning about the workings of eastern Chinese languages, as they are so very different from our own. I do think that when I get back, I’m going to take some more French classes and try to learn the language again from the ground up, ignoring my extremely failed and unmotivated attempts at learning the language in high school.

Yesterday was Halloween. The holiday is acknowledged here but is hardly celebrated with as much excitement and vigor as the United States. This was very odd; I felt as if something was fundamentally wrong with the world. I never realized just how much my inner clock depended on the sound of “trick or treat” at the door. It’s a good thing I’ll be home for Thanksgiving, I’m not sure if I’d be able to handle a complete erasure of that holiday. Side bar: being asked “What is Thanksgiving?” is a very, very jarring experience. Although I consciously knew that America was the only country that celebrated it, my subconscious just sort of assumed that Thanksgiving obviously existed everywhere. Nay.

I had a ten-minute conversation yesterday with a guy serving my ice cream at a place downtown. I’ll very much miss how friendly and personable people are here, especially when it comes to everyday interactions. In New England, it’d be very off-putting for a restaurant employee to ask you “So, what’ve you been up to today?” Not here. It’s nice to have conversations that consist of content other than the arbitrary exchanges that just “keep the system running”.

Today is the nicest day I've experienced so far in Wellington, and I'm spending it walking along the harbor, taking some pictures and enjoying the sites while writing this blog post. Wellington has such a great atmosphere...everyone is active and moving, and the clean air is almost intoxicating. I will miss this city.

I’m in the library right at the moment and there’s a guy sitting by himself, reading a book and chuckling every five seconds in a very odd manner. I think I’m going to move now.

In any case, I’ve got a lot of things to do in the next five days before I depart. I have to sell my guitar, sleeping bag and cell phone on TradeMe (New Zealand’s eBay), shut down my bank account, make sure all my bills are paid, and disperse all of my extra things/food to friends who will be here for a while longer. I have a ridiculous excess of frozen vegetables…I have no idea how this happened.

I'll be publishing one last retrospective post the night before I leave. That'll be 4 days from now, so stay tuned. Until then, 

Non-threateningly yours,

Bill

 

 

Sharks and Politicians

Two posts in one day? Unheard of!

I now have three weeks left here. I have mixed feelings about leaving. On the one hand, it'll be weird to say goodbye to so many friends, many of which I probably won't ever see again. I will also miss the scenery, the fresh air, the accent, and the general friendliness of the people here. On the other hand, I am very excited to go home. I've been feeling more and more of a draw to return home during the last week or so, and I think this feeling will increase as my days here decrease. I remember a scene in "Jaws" when Quint recalls the disaster of the U.S.S. Indianapolis. He said that the worst part of his five days stranded in shark-infested waters was the last few minutes that he spent waiting for helicopter to pick him up. I would hardly equate my beneficial time here to a horrible experience like Quint's, but I think I can relate to becoming more and more anxious for something to happen the closer it approaches. I'm looking forward to how different things will look to me after being here for 4.5 months. I already look at many situations differently in my head. This is certainly proof that I've grown as a person, although I'm not yet sure in what respects. I suppose I'll find out soon enough.

Two days ago I joined a friend of mine who was walking down to Parliament. He's a political science major and was going to watch a session. Watching the collection of New Zealand's representatives, I drew many comparisons between the U.S. House of Representatives and New Zealand's Parliament. It's certainly very similar in structure. There's a speaker who delegates the proceedings, and the individual "MPs" (Members of Parliament) do not speak directly to each other while questioning. The one major different that I noticed was the level of noise allowed in the chamber. Every time an MP got up to speak, they were heckled and degraded on all sides. I soon realized that this extreme opposition was mainly due to the high number of different parties represented in the room. Where the U.S. has two major parties, the New Zealand Parliament has seven parties present in the proceedings. I began to find it comical how immature and rude the MPs were to one another. I couldn't believe these were the leaders of a country. I know Congress can get a bit loud sometimes, but it was nothing like this. They literally screamed and heckled every single speaker, leading to a pointless escalation in volume until the Speaker finally stood up and called for order. There's no gavel, by the way. He just stands up. Sort of cool. After the call for order, the heckling started up again. John Key (The Prime Minster of New Zealand) was there as well, so I got to see him speak finally. It was a great experience, and it made me want to re-visit Congress again when I get back. 

One positive thing that I've noted about New Zealand is their treatment of their native population. The Maori are treated with immense respect here, and I don't think they realize how good they have it in relation to Native Americans or the Aboriginals of Australia. Maori language is an official language of New Zealand. Most signs have Maori and English translations on them. The heritage and culture of Maori life is ingrained into the culture here...every kiwi I know is privvy to a large number of Maori terms and words, along with traditional songs and tales. They teach them to children in grade school. The Maori also have their own TV station in their native language, and have several seats in Parliament, along with their own political party. Can you imagine so much opportunity and respect given to the Native Americans? We basically gave them some reservations and told them to talk amongst themselves. I didn't see the Maori MPs speak at all during my visit to Parliament session, but seeing their party represented in the government made me realize just how different the kiwis are to Americans in their treatment of their native population.

Last night I laid down some tunes with some friends of mine. We had access to an electric guitar/amp, a piano, a drum set, and an acoustic guitar. I mainly stuck to playing rhythm acoustic (my soloing skills aren't too fantastic), but I experimented a bit on the drum set after a while. I admit I wasn't exactly show-stopping material, but I feel like I'd get better with practice. My problem is the bass drum...the coordination sort of mirrors tapping your head and rubbing your stomach, especially when you're trying to play the pedal on an off beat. Anyone who's spent time around me knows that I'm a fan of tapping a beat on a table or my legs, so it was really cool to be able to finally channel my rhythms through a drum set. Yet another thing to check off the list of things I've learned here in New Zealand.

I'm now hoping to check out the south island for a week or so after exams. It'll leave me a few days to get my thing together before I leave. It'll probably end up being a bit rushed at the end, but it'll be worth it if I'm able to see the other half of the country; The only part of the south island I've seen is its snow-capped tips off in the distance viewed from Wellington. 

That's about all that's new for now. See you in three weeks.

Onward and Upward!

My free week has been very, very productive and eventful. The weather has been half beautiful and half downpour (in keeping with standard New Zealand weather procedures). On the rainy days, I have been learning the wonderful board game of Risk from my kiwi neighbors. I consider this extremely productive and unfathomably beneficial. However, I've also been fully taking advantage of the nice weather by exploring outer reaches of Wellington. There are uncountable tracks, forests and rolling green mountains surrounding the greater Wellington region, and the last couple of days have consisted of nonstop exploration. On the 19th, some friends of mine and spontaneously decided to scale a mountain that we saw in the distance from Oriental Bay, the Harbor of Wellington. 

We chose a random staircase going upward, and basically followed the logic that anything going upwards was a step in the right direction. This method proved to be foolproof, as we found ourselves on top of the mountain several hours later. Being on top afforded a view of the suburbs outlying Wellington from the otherside of the harbor, along with yet another unique perspective of the city itself. 

From this height, Mount Victoria itself (a frequent object of mountain scaling) seemed to be small and insignificant. I considered myself high and mighty, and remarked that I couldn't get much higher than this. I'd say this trip consisted of about five kilometers. It was a decent challenge, not too straining, but enough to make me feel alive and active. 

I really enjoy tramping...it allows me an opportunity to get out of the city region and see more nature. I've decided that I really don't like living in a city. It's too claustrophobic and man-made. Although Wellington has more fresh air than probably any other city in the world, it's impossible to filter out the sound of public bus systems, cigarette butts and honking horns. This, I am sure, is the same for any city in the world. I enjoy suburbs and quiet communities. My explorations around the suburbs have therefore provided me with some very peaceful and contended moments (even when the mountain wind literally moves my body with its force).

My tramp on the 21st was much more substantial and epic, constituting 15 kilometers in 5 hours. I woke up around 7 (this is very early for me, by the way..I'm a 9-9:30 guy), and jumped on a bus with some friends. As the sun rose, we walked through a quiet suburb and ascended the nearby mountain chain. This chain consists of the tallest mountains surrounding Wellington City, and is known as the Skyline Track. 

Leaving the streets and entering the mountainside

It was incredible...the view from the right was of the ocean and the very distant but startlingly clear snowcapped South Island, and the view from the left was Wellington Harbor, seen even higher than ever before. I was amused to glance upon the mountaintop from a few days previous...it was as small as Mt. Victoria once looked from that very summit. This made me consider the relativity of things and how we judge things according to our position and size. Perspective is important. I also don't think there's ever a point where you should stop and consider yourself "done" having scaled as high as you can go in tramping or in life. Always onward and upward.

We stopped for lunch at what appeared to be "the summit"...a lookout which afforded a beautiful view of the entirety of Wellington. The lookout structure contained a stone table which provided the direction and distance to major nearby landmarks in kilometers (Antarctica, Mt. Cook, Sydney, Invercargill, etc.) This was really impressive and the weary traveler feel as if they had conquered something massive. However, I soon learned that we were not yet 25 percent done. Turns out 15 kilometers is, in fact, a very long distance indeed.

The trek was long, hard, and epicly windy. However, I can say with confidence that I had a great time and a great experience. At certain heights I felt myself being almost pushed over int othe abyss. The wind is so powerful that it rips through your nostrils and forces its way through your nasal passages. It feels like there's some sort of liquid in there, but it's just very potent wind.

Highlights of the trip include: two very cool old men who wandered the mountainside with walking sticks and beards, 

a stretch of half a kilometer of track consisting of nothing but pure mud, wind turbine farms speckled over the mountainside,

a random brick chimney in the midst of a wooded area, 

impressive piles of cow poop that were larger than a small human (I did not take pictures of these), and the Cow version of Gandalf the Grey. Let me explain.

On several occasions, we came across a minor cow barricade. These cows usually dispersed at the first sight of humans, and nobody was the wiser. About halfway through our long journey through the mountains, we turned a corner and found ourselves directly in the path of two solitary cows. They weren't eating or looking off into the distance. They stood very still and stared right at us. We all stood still for a moment or two. If the fields of New Zealand had  tumbleweeds, one would've blown by in the middle of the frame.

 

Tom slowly got some grass and offered it to the cow. It was a simple peace offering meant to request safe passage. Grass giving, it would seem, carries a different meaning in cow language. The cow jerked his head and began to literally charge us. All seven of us displayed near superhuman reflexes by hurtling ourselves onto the side of the cliff walls, climbing up out of range of the cow. It was clearly a priority that no non-cow entity pass through this point. The two cows continued to stare up at us from an uncomfortably close proximity. After a few minutes, the cow realized that we were not coming down. We proceeded to scream scary sounds at it simultaneously until we scared it enough to run off into the distance. This has been a true story. New Zealand cows hold their passageways sacred.

The 15 km track proved to be a quite a feat, and the wind was so strong at points that we had to literally lean against it to prevent tipping over the other side. The scenery changed from rolling green fields, blue ocean, murky forests and wind turbine farms. One of these turbines powers 1000 homes. I had no idea they were that economical. Overall, it was a fantastic experience. It was also a huge challenge, and the nap that I took afterward is in contention to be in the top 5 of all time. 

Here's a link to the album of photos I took. Give them a gander, they're quite nice if I do say so myself.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024540&id=1487820100&l=08efde5b8e

Fun Fact

It's just been brought to my attention that I'm on URI's film media home page. Wooooo. The picture is from over a year ago and I don't even remember it being taken, haha. I'm moving up in the world.

http://www.uri.edu/artsci/film/

DONE!

Fifteen weeks and one day since I began my journey, I'm officially one hundred percent done with my classes here in New Zealand. The only things that I have to worry about is two final exams on the 4th and 5th of November. I'm really excited for my last 4 weeks here, I'm finally going to be able to go do things without worrying about assignments and getting up early the next morning for 9 a.m. classes. I'm also going to have much more time to update this thing, which I'm sure everyone is thrilled about. 

This week was pretty great in relation to a regular school week. Being as it was my last week of lectures, I took it relatively easy in the attendance area, if you know what I mean. A little bit of sleeping in won't kill you. Class grades here basically consist of two papers and a final paper/essay. So if you've finished two of your papers and have already researched your third, there's not much incentive to drag yourself out of bed, especially when freedom is so close. 

I'm proud to say that went on epic laser tag marathons twice in the last week. This place downtown has a Thursday special: four hours of straight laser tag and any video games you want in the place for 15 dollars. Laser tag is more of a workout than I thought it would be. Also, I think it should be counted as an olympic sport. The intelligence and strategy that goes into laser tag is unparalleled. Sadly, I lost my watch the first night I played laser tag after taking it off to play. I think someone took it. Ah, human nature. It's funny how vulnerable my wrist feels after wearing that watch for four months; I was never a watch-wearing person before. It was a necessary sacrifice, though, for the amount of fun that I had. Me and my flatmates/neighbors did a lot of 3 on 3 games last night, and I slept really well afterwards. The intense physical exertion (including diving, climbing on places that should not be climbed on, and crouching/hiding in uncomfortably small places) combined with the mental strain and paranoia of someone trying to shoot you around every corner really takes its toll on a man. My knee's won't be back to their normal non-red state for a week. I'm convinced that my flatmate Lauren picked up an invincible vest. We executed coordinated velocirapter-inspired "distract and attack" movements on her, and our point-blank range shots would not deactivate her suit. Because of this technical anomaly, the females won the majority of the games.  I for one would rather have a loss than a tainted victory.

My plans for the next 4 weeks involve a lot of fun and a small amount of schoolwork. I think I'm going to join my flatmates and a few of our neighbors in another road trip. They're going around the North Island again, but they're going to a lot of places that I didn't go last time. Because of the fact that we're taking two cars (which don't have to be rented because people own them) and the fact that potential for good weather is exponentially greater (it's mid-spring now), I swayed myself into agreeing to another road trip. Sure, it was tiring, but I'll get to see even more of the country before I leave. Seeing New Zealand is what I wanted to do by coming here in the first place, and all the schoolwork made me lose sight of that. So anyways, we'll probably be leaving Tuesday and getting back on Sunday. This trip is also a bit shorter, so maybe I won't be as drained getting back as I was the last time. I'm planning on doing a couple bungy jumps at Lake Taupo and maybe some river kayaking. The jumps at Taupo involve falling just far enough that you're dipped into the river headfirst, before being plucked back out and flung back into the air. I can't wait. Again, it's a great feeling having school over, it's been a huge inhibitor in the amount of fun things I can go do. I feel like a lot of possibilities have opened up. After we get back, I have to write a quick paper, hang out for another week, and take two exams. I'm not to worried about them because they're for my english classes. After that, it's nine days to home. 

Oh, fun fact. Remember those scary monkey noises I heard in the bush at night when I volunteered on the island? The next day I found out what the noise was coming from. Matt needed our help moving speakers embedded in the woods and powered by the sun. He told us that these speakers turned on at night and emitted loud mating calls of endangered bird species, encouraging them to come to the island and mate there. I asked him if the birds sounded anything like homicidal monkeys, and he affirmed my suspicions. What we had heard the previous night was a prerecorded mating call. This made me feel much better about my personal well being. So the rest of that day was spent setting these speakers up on the side of a steep forest hill. The weather wasn't perfect, but that was alright. It made for a very exciting ride back on the ferry. Fabien and I stood on the top of the storm-swept vessel and got pelted with ridiculous amounts of wind, hail, and spraying salt water. My face was dry red from all the salt for the next few days. Again, though, completely worth it for the exhilarating experience of approaching Wellington harbor like a world-weary sailer, beaten along on the salt-crested waves.

Everyone who goes to England always has their stereotypical "Mind The Gap" picture, 

so I thought I'd take a New Zealand version.

My flatmates and I took a trip to the Rivendell filming locations a couple of weekends ago. Again, the weather was fairly lousy (this is really becoming a trend), but I still had a great time taking it all in. We're planning on going back and camping in Rivendell, maybe going rafting down the river. It's funny how you can almost sense the magic in these places, even though they're very much a part of the real world. It smells different as well, probably from all the plants I'm not used to. Still a plant-y smell, but different. Walking through the forest, we found a couple of swinging vines hanging from the trees and decided to pull some Tarzan moves. Here's the thing about vine swinging. You stand on an elevated ledge, grab onto the vine, and swing. It's a very fun experience going forward. However, the mind fails to acknowledge the fact that as you reach as high as gravity will allow, you're going to go backwards. So after all of our vine, swinging experiences, all of us had some respectable bruises on our legs and backs from slamming into the large trees on our accelerated journeys backwards. Again, completely worth it for the UPWARDS swing. Life lessons here, everyone.

I'm trying something new this week. My friend Allen and I are going to practice a couple of songs together on the guitar and go busking. Busking is a term for playing guitar on the street. I hadn't heard it before but apparently it's common. Playing on the street is big in Wellington, particularly on Cuba street where most of the culture is. I don't expect to make a great amount of money doing it, I'm just looking forward to trying it out. I just hope nobody discourages us by throwing tomatoes and other unsavory vegetables at us. We were going to go tonight, but it's raining, so maybe Sunday night will work. I've been trying to think of simple songs for two people to harmonize with, and I've come up with "Teach Your Children", "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley, "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd, "Don't Look Back In Anger" by Oasis, "We Can Work it Out" by The Beatles, "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" and "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young, and "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who. The playlist is growing. We're about to practice for a bit, so I'll talk to you very soon. Take Care

Bill