Kiwiland!

So, I'm in New Zealand...crazy shit yo. I already told you about how I've been kayaking, hiking, and mountain boarding (resulting in the unpleasant sheep poop experience), but so much has happened since then that I don't know where to start. I've been in Dunedin itself since last Saturday...in case you have a map, we flew from Auckland to Christchurch to Dunedin...then at the airport we found out that a bunch of our luggage had been left in Christchurch. No toilettries after travel makes Kae sad and smelly. We made the most of things though...I moved into my flat, which is kind of like my house at Sarah Lawrence, although my flatmates are three Americans, a Canadian, and a Kiwi (aka New Zealander). I wasn't there for long though...at 8:00 my orientation group went out to dinner at a pizza place nearby, and then my friends Sarah, Ethan, Gillian, and I bought a bottle of Captain Morgans and went dancing. Sarah is awesome...she is a writer who also likes to write about dark and dismal things, like me...she's also a complete hippie at heart and loves to walk barefoot, sleep outside, and smoke a ton of pot. Ethan is brilliant...he goes to Brown, but is originally from Berkeley, so we bonded over the wonders of northern California...I'm almost completely convinced that he's gay, even though he claims that he's straight...he has a lot of the same manneurisms as Keith, which just doesn't scream "Straight!" to me...and Gillian is really nice...sometimes she can come off as a bit ditzy, but I think she's smart nonetheless. Anyhoo, they were all at orientation with me, but we don't live in the same flats...we have to walk to each other's houses, but that's okay because they all live really close. Anyway, we all went dancing at a bar/club about fifteen minutes walk from my place called Captain Cook's...it's really popular with university students...it was also just like I imagined a college club would be...crazy dark lighting, sticky floor, bodies squeezed so tightly together that you can tell whether the person next to you is wearing cotton or nylon...that kind of thing. It was a lot of fun, but we only stayed out until 2:00 or so because we were all tired.

Erm, what have I done since then? I've been to the beach and I got soooo sunburned...did you know that the holes in the ozone layer are situated above New Zealand? I look like a tomato. Anyway, we also went on a gorgeous train ride through the Tairie (sp?) Gorge, which was beautiful...it's this huge gorge that passes through all sorts of vegatation and fields...I felt like I was in Lord of the Rings the whole time. We also got to stand between the cars on the train so that we were actually kind of outside as the scenery passed...I took lots of pictures...I'll have to post them. I've also done boring things like sign up for classes and open a NZ bank account and whatnot. For the most part though, I've been drinking and hanging out...a lot. Dunedin is definitely a college town......a ridiculous proportion of the population here consists of college students...you can wander through the streets at night with open containers of alcohol and not worry about getting arrested...since I've gotten here, I've seen people running around in togas, people painted blue and yellow, people in wigs, all smashed...I've seen students knock a fence down and throw eggs at freshmen...I've also seen them duct tape their friends to chairs and force them to drink massive quantities of alcohol through frighteningly large funnels...I pass about ten houses every day where the yards are unabashedly littered with dozens of beer bottles/cans/cups...the bars stay open all night here and people go out to drink at 4:00 in the morning...just to paint you a picture of the crazy shit that goes down here. I've heard orientation week is especially crazy, so I wonder if the madness will continue next week after classes have started. We'll see.

Well, I have to get going because my friends and I are going to see some sort of traditional Kiwi dance thing at the Monkey Bar, an old cathedral complete with full-sized organ that someone turned into a bar...it's exciting. I'll try to write more soon though and post pictures. I miss you, ferrit girl...good-night sleep tight.

written by  snookyferrit on February 21, 2008 from Dunedin, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Mel and Kae's Craaaaaaazzzzy Blog
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