Category Archives: Study Abroad

Spring Break: South Island Adventures!

Twenty Day South Island Adventure!

I broke down my 20 days of traveling and stories in the South Island to day-by-day to make it easier for you all to read (as well as for me to write and keep track of everything).  This post is gigantic, but I manged to see and do so many things that there is a lot to cover.

For my adventure I had signed up for a trip down the west coast of the South Island offered by my program, TEAN, which started on March 30th and lasted until April 6th.  However, I found out that if I left a few days earlier I could save money on flights so I made a few arrangements and spent an extra couple days in the Christchurch area and visited some friends that attend Lincoln University.  My Spring Break also lasted longer than April 6th so I decided to leave tack on an extra week to travel travel further south and then back up on the east coast again to see some fellow TEAN’ers at Otago University in Dunedin.

I would like to wish you the best of luck in making it to the end…Ready. Set. Good luck.

South Island Bound!
South Island Bound!

Continue reading Spring Break: South Island Adventures!

Rotorua Weekend!

This past weekend I went to Rotorua with some fellow TEAN’ers!

Edited note: The entirety of Rotorua smells of Sulfuric Acid.  Essentially it smells like one old big fart- but once you get used to the smell the place is pretty spectacular!

Friday –

My fellow TEAN-Palmy friend, Ashley, and I decided to get the most out of our time there so we left on the 10:05 pm bus from Palmerston North which was scheduled to get into Rotorua at 3:40am on Friday…  We didn’t have any set plans once we got dropped off because nothing was open for at least another 4 hours and we couldn’t check in to the hostel until 11am.  So smart of a plan, right?  But hey, we managed to explore the city in the very early morning!

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Windy Welly 1

This past weekend I took my first trip to the capital city of New Zealand, Wellington!

Welly_01Welly_03 (2)

It was nice to go visit the city and to meet up with some of the other students in TEAN.

The weekend ended up being very Lord of the Rings filled as a group of us are a little obsessed. Hey, I mean we are in Middle Earth after all!! We just have to take advantage of the sights and attractions while we can!

Continue reading Windy Welly 1

It’s a Palmy Life

Palmerston North city sign
Palmerston North city sign

Well I have arrived and settled into my dorm at my home for the remainder of my time in New Zealand!!

Tawa 8 – Massey University – Palmerston North – New Zealand

Continue reading It’s a Palmy Life

Manawatu Gorge Trail

It’s been week since I’ve arrived in Palmy and I’m beginning to discover the surrounding area!
Today, a few of us went to go hike the Manawatu Gorge Trail.  I was super excited because I heard the trail was gorgeous and had some incredible lookouts.  I was not displeased at all! Overall the trail was 10.1 k (or roughly 6.28 miles).  It took us about 3 1/2 hours to hike, but we also stopped and took a lot of pictures! Check some of them out below —


 


 

It was great to be outside and explore the area today! I definitely needed the hike with classes coming up here next week.

On the next post I’ll talk more  about the life here in Palmy and how our Orientation (aka ‘O’ Week) went.

Until then wish me luck on classes!                                                                          – Brad