Surfing...

Surfing was incredible. I went into this thinking that I would totally hate it but I really enjoyed it. Our surfing teacher was named Wayne Hill and is a total surf bum. Literally. He lives in essentially a shack, spends his time teaching people how to surf and making his own boards. Oh and also he hasn't worn shoes in over 20 years. His feet look like hobbits feet. I'm not even joking.

So the first few days of surfing were awesome. We practiced pop-ups which is where you pop up onto a board and catch a wave and then they just threw us in the water and let us go crazy. The first few times I tried it I ate a whole lot of salt water, but then I really started to get the hang of it and it's awesome.

By the end of our surfing adventure I was able to catch a lot of waves and could even stand up! Well mostly stand up. I had one leg up and one knee bent. It takes a lot more arm strength then I really possess to pop yourself up on a surfboard while your on a wave. It's is also very hard to balance while standing up.

One not so lovely thing that happened is that I got hit in the head with another girls surfboard one day while I was surfing. She didn't have a good hold of it and a wave caught it and smashed it against my head. I got a huge goose egg from it and was out of surfing for the rest of the day.

The other awesome thing was that I wasn't scared of sharks! I was totally worried that I wouldn't be able to surf because I'm to scared of them but while I was out there all you can think about is can I catch this wave and your just worried about the board and the waves. Of course I also strategically placed myself between other people in case a shark did bite someone I wouldn't be the first one he went for.

Kayaking...

Wow. What an adventure this was. So for part of our classes with S.I.T. we got to learn how to go white water kayaking. So fun.
The first time we were in kayaks was in the swimming pool. So we got all geared up, helmets and everything and went down to the local pool and hopped in our kayaks. They basically had us practice flipping over. Well and then letting people rescue you. Basically what happens is when your white water kayaking, there is a good chance you will flip over so we had to practice what to do if we flipped over. How to rescue ourselves and other people.

The first kind of exit is called a wet exit which is where you pull the spray skirt off your kayak and swim out from underneath your boat. (The Spray skirt looks like a skirt that hooks around the edge of the kayak to prevent water from coming inside and helping you not fall out if you flip over).

Next we did a t-rescue. When you've flipped over in your kayak you feel along the side of the boat with your hands till someone gets there kayak to you and you grab the nose of their kayak and flip yourself back over.

Then the hand of god. You sit in you kayak and flip the other persons boat over with your hand. And just as a little side note you can flip yourself back over it's called an Eskimo roll, but it requires more skill than most of us were able to acquire in the short amount of time we had to practice.

So basically this is super terrifying, waiting for someone to come rescue you, and we flipped over and over and over in the pool. Lot's of water in the ears and chlorine in the nose. We also practiced paddling.

Then we got to go out in the open water the next week! We went to a place called Borland for a 3 day kayaking trip. The first day we practiced on the lake, turning, and paddling in a bigger body of water. Also we learned how to rail which is where you lean so one side of your boat is going to be against the waves. Stops you from flipping over if you do it right.

Then we got to go down the rapids. We went down a Class 2/3 rapid (on a scale of 7) and went down 4 actual white water rapids, and I only flipped over once! Which is quite an achievement. Actually it was superbly fun and I loved it. It was so different actually being on a moving body of water, but it wasn't too hard. We also got to spend some time just practicing our skills in a rapid and that was fun too.

We went on another kayaking trip again to a place called Mavora Lakes. Basically we got to more of the same fun stuff we did at Borland. The rapids at this place were only a Class 1 though so it was easier. I didn't have the best time on this trip because it was raining the whole time so you didn't really want to get in the water. Plus we were practicing our skills in this one particular area and would go in and out and I kept getting carried away by the current and had to get out of my kayak, and hike up a hill and through brush to get back to where we were practicing.

Still it was awesome to learn how to kayak and I love it! I'm going to have to try to do it when I get back to the states.

Our Kayaking Teacher - not actual facial hair, seaweed from the river.

Routeburn...

This was my first ever real backpacking trip. We went for 3 days to this beautiful hike called the Routeburn Trek that is 32 Kilometers. It was awesome and incredibly hard at the same time.

The first day wasn't so bad but the first time you are hiking with a massive pack on your back and you are not used to hiking with said heavy pack (that weighs about 30 lbs) is a little bit hard. So basically the track was uphill for the first 3 hours and then it evened out and even went downhill a little. Fortunately for me I had my hiking buddy Lindsay with me who likes to hike slow, like I do, to bring up the rear with me. Actually I was quite proud of us because we weren't even at the back the whole way, and believe me we like to take our time.

That night we got to sleep in huts, which were basically just rooms with big bunk beds to sleep on. Unfortunately none of us got a terribly good night's sleep because it was a snoring jamboree in that room. I am typically a very heavy sleeper and can sleep through anything, but even I was woken up by the sheer amount of snoring in that room. It was truly the loudest thing I've ever heard. I don't know how that much noise could come out of people.

The next day was a super beautiful day and we got up and hiked along the ridge of the mountain which I really loved. There were stunning views










of huge mountains and huge canyons. It was the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. The second day was easily my favorite, mostly because it was quite flat or downhill the whole way, which my legs appreciated, but I also loved hiking along the side of the mountain and being able to look at the views.

The last day was a super easy day and we only hiked for about 2 hours before we got back to the cars. It was also lovely because we were so close to Queenstown (which I'll talk about my first visit there in a different blog) we stopped and got Ferg Burgers. I'll save the description for the Queenstown blog, but lets just leave it at they were the most delicious things I have ever tasted in my life. I am driving 2 hours to go back there just so I can have one again. And my sweet director Brad, treated all 11 of us to burgers as well and these are $10 burgers. So it was a great end to a beautiful hike.

Queenstown...

I love love love this place with all of my heart. Queenstown is basically the big tourist destination on the South island and where they have all kinds of crazy adventure stuff. It's a pretty small city, but very beautiful. The best way that I can describe the feel of the city is like Park City. It's very scenic, but more upscale and expensive.

So a bunch of people decided to go bungy jumping while we were here which is something that I had no desire to do at all. I did not want to jump off a huge bridge with only a stretchy piece of string holding me. So I did something completely awesome, which I totally loved. A Lord of the Rings horseback ride. It was called Ride of the Rings. I know I'm a dork, but it was incredible.

I got to see the woods of Lothlorien, and for all you none obsessed people that's where the elf Galadrial lives, and Isengard, and also pretty much the whole scene at the end of the first movie where Boromir dies and the hobbits roll down the hill, etc. I even saw the particular tree he died on. So cool. I also saw where they filmed Helms Deep. Pretty much it was the best horseback ride of my life.

So after my awesome incredible horseback ride, I had the burger to end all burgers. There is this awesome place called Ferg Burger, that is famous. It's only in Queenstown and people from all over the world know about it. It is to die for. The burgers are absolutely huge and full of goodness. I had the "Tropical Swine" which was so delightful. It was a huge meat pattie, with aoili, which is a kind of mayonnaise they have here, tomato, pineapple, streaky bacon (like American bacon), and this awesome barbecue like sauce they put on all their burgers. To die for.

Oscar: Riders of Rohan's Horse

Then to make life even better I went to the Patagonia Chocolate Company. I had the most delightful ice cream I have ever head in my life. Better than gelato in Italy, better than Move n' Pick in Jordan. And that is saying ALOT trust me cause those were some dang good ice cream. I had Banana Split, and if you picture the best banana split that you ha ve ever eaten in your life, mixed together with chocolate chunks and the best caramel and chocolate fudge you've ever had swirled into that, you have that ice cream. It was to die for good.

Invercargill...

Me and Julianne painted a church.

This is the city that I have been living in for the past month. It’s a small town on the south of New Zealand and is the most southern city in New Zealand.

My roommate Julianne and I live with a host family named Jason and Annie Sagmyr who have 4 kids. Hannah-18, just left for University in a nearby town so I haven't met her yet. Ruth-15, Tim-13, and John-8. They are a lovely family and we absolutely love living with them. We actually started the first couple of weeks with a different host family, but had some problems so we moved. Jason is a guitarist and he works at SIT, the school we are attending, which I'll talk about a little later. They are basically just a typical family. It is such a joy to be around them because they are very close and love to have fun. There is always humor and laughter going on in the home and it's nice to see such a close family. It's something that we discuss in our classes and this family emulates it. They often spend time together just hanging out or going to parks, or watching movies.

So my day to day life here...I am attending classes at the Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) as well as doing classes from our BYU professor, Brad Harris. Monday through Wednesday is

our classes through SIT. These are all of our outdoor classes and the courses are called Certificate in Adventure New Zealand. They are mainly taught by a man named John Kappa, as well as other assistants depending on the activity. John is the most incredible professor I have ever had. He is an awesome outdoors man who goes surfing, kayaking, rock climbing, tramping, hunting wild animals (not kidding, hunting wild boar and things like that), and outdoor survival skills. In addition to all this he also has a broad knowledge on numerous subjects. There are a variety of majors on this trip and through talking to John and listening him speak to others he can give you fabulous advice and talks and knowledge on biology, psychology, recreation majors, indigenous tribes. Anything you could want he’s practically an expert on. That is something very interesting about the New Zealand education and just attitude toward life. They are very broad in their knowledge. It’s not like America were you are so focused on your one area of focus.

So our Mon-Wed. has been spent learning kayaking, surfing, rock climbing, and tramping (hiking). I'll write more about those in their own posts, but needless to say it's the most fun I've ever had in class, and the most I've ever had class held on the beach.

Thursday I have a full day of class from 8-11:30 then from 1-4:30. It's a very long day, but we are lucky and don't have class on Friday because of it. I have a Family Life class which is basically about how to have a happy family later in life, and a Strengthening Marriage and Family through Recreation class. The Rec. class is probably my favorite because we talk a lot about how doing recreational activities together can really make a difference in a family and that is not something I've ever thought about before.

So that is my class schedule. The weekends are typically spent exploring around Invercargill, going on bike rides, or just hanging out with friends. We like to go to Queens Park which is a large park in the center of town, on the same idea as Central Park but on a much smaller scale.

Queens Park Rose Garden

One favorite weekend activity was going floundering where you take big nets out into the ocean and one person goes out deeper and the other stays shallow and you drag poles, that are holding the nets, along the ocean floor. Flounder live on the bottom of the ocean so you pick them up with the net. We only caught 1 but at least I got to see one. It’s quite a small fish and very flat.

I also tried slack lining a couple of times over the weekend. That is where you take a flat rope that’s used for belaying. I can’t remember the technical name, and you try it between two trees and then try to balance and walk on it like a tightrope. People get super awesome at it and can do things like yoga on this rope. It’s incredibly hard to do though because the rope is dynamic and shakes a lot as you are walking on it.