I arrived in Taupo late in the evening after a 7 hour bus ride. The plan was to sleep on the bus, but there were too many pretty sights! There first hour of the trip was along the West Coast of the North Island, right on the water. The waves were almost crashing on the road! The rest of the way was rolling hills and LOTS of sheep.

When I got to Taupo, it was a lot warmer than Wellington, because there isn’t as much wind! It was great. I made my way to the hostel and it is definitely my favourite by far. There is a little garden in the center of the hostel where everyone hangs out and plays music at night.

I woke up at 4:30 am the next day, to catch my 5am shuttle to the National park to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It’s 19.4km not including the side tracks. I got there at 7am and went on my way ! It was incredible. The last shuttle was scheduled to leave the end of the crossing at 4:30pm, so I had 9 1/2 hours to complete the crossing. It usually takes people 5-6 hours, and the extra side tracks – are supposed to take – (foreshadowing the end of this story) 3 hours. I decided I was going to do one of the side tracks… Mount Doom ! The mountain from Lord of the Rings.

I didn’t realize until about a quarter of the way up that it got harder and harder as you went, and by about halfway up, there was no solid ground, only volcano rocks and dust to grasp onto. It was really difficult.

After 2 hours, I finally made it to the top ! I thought it would be the most rewarding thing ever, but then I looked down, and realized that I had to get to the bottom at some point, and suddenly I was terrified.

I started climbing back down, and slowly realized that climbing was not the way to go! You had to basically slide down on the rocks, almost using your shoes as skis, but making sure you lean back in case you tripped!

About three quarters of the way down I stopped staring at my feet and looked out and realized how incredible the view was, and that’s when I felt super proud of myself!

After about an hour and a half of climbing down, I made it to the bottom. I couldn’t believe I had done it ! But I didn’t have any time to wait around, so I headed out. I was already behind by a half hour.

After about 2 more miles, there was another fantastic view! The red crater :

After the red crater, it was all downhill from there! Phew. At this point, it was about 1pm. I had 3 and a half hours to get back to the bus, and about 4 hours left of walking to do. Hurry!

After walking down the hill and around the corner from the red crater, there was another stunning photo op : the emerald lakes :

From the emerald lakes, you could also see another lake in a different shade of blue :

I had about 2 hours left to walk up and around that lake, and then back down to the other side! At this point I realized I might not make the last bus, but I kept trying!

After you round the corner behind that lake, you can see the end, but it’s very far away! And not a very straight route! There was no way I was going to make it! The bus driver told us when he dropped us off, that if we weren’t going to make the bus, we needed to call them to let them know so that they didn’t call New Zealand Search and Rescue. I reached for my phone but realized I had no reception! Why would I ? I was in the middle of the mountains. I kept going until I ran into another person and I asked if they had reception, but they didn’t ! Oh no!

The clock hit 4:30, and I was only about 10 minutes away ! Man, I was so close.

I made it to the end and when I tried to make the call, my phone wouldn’t turn on! I asked another friendly bus driver if he could call my shuttle, and he so kindly did, he even offered me a ride! I made it !

The next day, my legs hurt A LOT, so I just went on a nice short walk to the nearby waterfall called ” Huka Falls”

On my last day in Taupo, I went sailing on the Great Lake, and saw maori rock carvings.

Onwards to Rotorua!

I arrived in Wellington on a late flight. The first thing I did was go to the phone store in the airport and get a really cheap little flip phone because I was going to be doing a lot of hiking in New Zealand and you never know !

I then got a taxi to the hostel, and when I got there it was so windy! Wellington is right on the Cook Strait, which is the body of water between the South and North islands of New Zealand, and the wind is crazy coming off it! When I got to the hostel I went right to bed.

The next day I woke up and went to Zealandia, which is a wildlife sanctuary near Wellington. I saw so many amazing birds and lizards. I even met a Tahake! There are only 260 left in the world :

After going to Zealandia, I took the Wellington cable car back into town :

From the cable car, I walked to the New Zealand parliament buildings, one of them commonly referred to as the ” Beehive.”

I went inside the parliament buildings and took a tour. The inside was incredible and is even built to not collapse with earthquakes! They took us into the basement to show us the “earthquake-proof” pillars.

Later than night I went to the Cuba street night market and ate churros!

I spent the whole of the next day in the Te Papa museum, which is New Zealand’s national museum. At the time, they had an exhibition on the war :

That is a wax sculpture of Lieutenant colonel Percival Fenwick.  He was one of the first doctors ashore during the war. He saved hundreds of people in the 2 months he was there before he got sick.

The next day was a Lord of the Rings day. I went to the woods behind the Mount Victoria lookout and found a Lord of the Rings film location :

After that, I went to the Weta Cave. The weta cave is where they made a lot of the props for Lord of the Rings. They also have a bunch of life size sculptures :

I learned a lot of cool facts when I was there! Here are a few :

• They made 30,000 arrows for the film, but only got about 5,000 back, which means there are still thousands of them floating around the filming locations of New Zealand!
• Elves are supposed to be light on their feet, so during the scenes where the fellowship are in the snow, they had Legolas (Orlando Bloom) walk on crates while everyone else dragged their feet in the snow.
• The actor that plays Boromir (Sean Bean) is so scared of flying that he had to take a boat to New Zealand, and he even had to hike to one of the filming locations and made his makeup artist hike too !

After that, I had a 7 hour bus ride.

Onwards to Taupo!

I landed in Sydney early Tuesday morning. I completely skipped Monday which was very confusing. I did not feel jet lagged at all which was great. I headed right to the hostel in central Sydney, where I would be staying for the next 2 nights. I had a six person room but there were only 3 people in it ! Hooray!

I dropped off my bags and started adventuring. I went to Darling Harbor and walked around all of the stores and food courts, trying to see if I could find some cool Australian food place… I found a gelato place that had BBQ flavor… Close enough. I also saw one of these birds that I have never seen before, I later found out that it is an ibis.

I then went to Bondi Beach, one of the most famous Australian beaches. It was a little windy and about to rain, so it wasn’t very busy, it was great! The water was freezing.

The next day, I had a day trip planned to the blue mountains. I woke up and it was very foggy so I was quite disappointed, as you can imagine, but it ended up making the landscape look even better, and the mountains even bluer! The tour bus guide, Jason, was hilarious, which made the tour that much better.

Our first stop was Lincoln Rock. The view was absolutely insane, and the fog came and went, making it eerily cool. I guess the fog was too much for some people, because there were cars that had driven off the edge.

Lincoln Rock is salt rock, and when it gets wet, it becomes slightly malleable. ( VERY very slightly) When it is malleable, you can brush your finger against it and it works as paint. People used to use it as face paint!

And it took me a while, but I convinced myself to sit on the edge of the rock.

We then headed deeper into the mountains, and saw the three sisters. The three sisters is a grouping of three rocks in the mountains. There are many stories/myths of how this came about, but this is the one I heard :

There was once a father and his three daughters who lived in the forest. They were always told to be quiet because there was a monster living in the woods ( the name of which I can’t remember,) and he could not be woken, because if not he would attack them.  One day, the father went out hunting, and left the three daughters alone. BUT !!! They made too much noise and woke up the monster! The three sisters ran as fast as they could, and the father tried to chase after them to protect them. He had a bone that could change things into whatever he wanted, so he tried using it on the monster, but it did not work, so instead, he turned the three sisters into stone. The monster began chasing him, so he turned himself into a Lyre bird ( a bird that is very common in the mountains and is known to scratch the ground for food.) As he was running away, he dropped the bone, but he made it to safely. The story is now that he spends his days searching for the bone to turn them back, scratching on the floor of the rain forest, just like the lyre bird!

( You can sort of make out the Three sisters on the top left !)

My final day in Sydney happened to be Australia day, so I spent it down by the Sydney opera house watching the ceremony and all of the boat races.

At 12 noon, the whole crown of people around the harbor sang ” Advance Australia Fair.” It was crazy!

My school orientation doesn’t start until February 7th, so now I am heading to New Zealand for a week and a half!

Onwards to Wellington!

I left Boston at 7am on Saturday, on a flight to Los Angeles, my first stop !

I arrived in LA at 11am and was picked up by a family friend and we went to get lunch in Manhattan beach. On our way there, I saw palm trees for the first time and was mesmerized by them! We ate at a place called Sloopy’s beach cafe, a cute little cafe right next to the beach decorated with hundreds of plants, I would definitely recommend going there if you get a chance!

We then went for a walk down to the beach, which is when I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time

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After our walk on the beach, we made our way towards Hollywood, where we saw Walt Disney’s old house. We then drove up to the Griffith observatory where we saw the Hollywood sign, and had amazing views of the sunset over LA.

( Was I looking at the sunset or the dog?)

Onwards to Sydney!!

Follow this Spring 2017’s Office of Study Abroad & International Experiences Global Correspondent, Madeline Scott, on her studies in Perth! Madeline is a UMass Lowell double major in World Languages and Music Performance studying this spring on a UMass Lowell partner-led study abroad program, Education Abroad Network: Murdoch University in Australia.

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