I am currently 10 days away from my last final and 5 away from my fist. This semester has flew by and I can not believe it is almost over. I have been in full study mode the past week or so it is the only thing that has been on my mind recently. Prior to that, I have been on some excellent adventures. Most recently I visited Mt. Cook which is the tallest mountain in New Zealand. We did the Hooker Valley track which is mostly a flat walk along the Hooker River that leads to a great viewing of the mountain itself right in front of a lake. While we were on the trail we saw multiple avalanches and were lucky enough to see some melted parts of the glacier in the lake itself. We ended up actually going for a dip in the lake and touching one of the glaciers. It was definitely refreshing. After doing the trail we visited the hot pools near by and did some star gazing to end the night. My visit to Mt. Cook was definitely one of my favorite trips.
During this second half of the semester (post-break) I have spent a lot more time around Dunedin itself. There are so many cool shops and cafes around campus that are all walking distance away. I really think that after I leave Dunedin I will miss the luxury of excellent cafes so close to where I am living. I have also been playing a lot of basketball recently at the rec center and experiencing the Kiwi/ European game play that they have here. I have really enjoyed seeing this new type of game play. I have found that basketball, but more specifically the NBA is very popular here. A lot of university students follow the NBA and it is very common to see Kiwi’s wearing NBA jersey’s around campus or at the gym.
For right now my main focus is on studying but I do look forward to some of the traveling I will be doing in the near future. After my last final I will be going to Sydney for a few days then heading to Wellington for a week long internship. Updates coming soon.
Joe