Not Too Shabby, Abbie

Many of the Maori legends that shape New Zealand history are fascinating and creative! One of my personal favorites was the one behind Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown. As you can see from this photo, this lake is a very unusual shape, with several little islands jutting into it. The Maori believed that this was the result of a fallen giant who was bested by a boy in love. There are many versions of this story, but my personal favorite rendition was told to me by a sweet old man as he drove a shuttle full of exhausted tourists around the beautiful blue lake. Long ago, there was once a Maori chief who had a lovely daughter known throughout the land for her beauty and kindness. Fearful that she would be taken away from him, the chief kept his daughter close and refused to let any man court her. Unfortunately for a simple commoner, this meant he could only love the lady from afar. When word of the lady's beauty reached the ears of a terrible giant, he stormed through the ...

The trip to Milford Sound was an...interesting one. It seems out bus driver took his job incredibly seriously, so much so, in fact, that he called out the students on the bus who were listening to headphones or falling asleep, regardless of the fact that we were up and out by 6 AM and were now sitting on a bus for 4 hours. We called him Crusty Craig. He did have a huge wealth of information about Queenstown, though, so I combined what I learned from him with what I learned from Rees, a shuttle driver I actually respect as a human being. So here are some interesting facts about New Zealand. 1. Bats are the only mammals native to New Zealand Hundreds of years ago, when the Maori first arrived on the island, they could barely hear each other over the cacophony of bird calls. New Zealand was home to thousands of bird species, many of which are either extinct or endangered now. The only mammal on the island then was also winged, so not much of a change there either. When hu...

I really love sheep dogs.  When I was little, we had family friends who had the most beautiful sheepdog, Molly. This was long before we got our own dog, so I was especially in love with this dog. When her family went out of town, we took her for the week. I got up early every morning (first and last time I've ever done that voluntarily) and walked her around the culdesac. It felt like a substantial walk at the time. Give me a break, I was seven. Anyway, the point is that I LOVED that sheepdog. When our tour bus pulled up behind a flock of adorable sheep on a country road in New Zealand, I almost exposed how much I obsess over love sheepdogs when I saw one go to work for the first time. There were three dogs that we could see, one in the back herding the sheep away from the road, one on the left of the flock keeping them from leaving the path, and another standing majestically at the hill on the right of the sheep. With coordinated barking and running, they guided the...

Hobbiton One of the most magical tourist locations in New Zealand (and possibly the world) is the Shire, located outside of Auckland on the North Island. Assuming you've seen The Lord of the Rings movies, directed by Peter Jackson, exploring the rolling hills and mountains of New Zealand is like taking your own journey through Middle Earth. (Granted, you'll probably be in cars and buses and planes, not running in armor with the majesty and grace of the Fellowship.) However, the one place where you don't need much imagination to place yourself in those iconic scenes lies in the Hobbiton movie set on the Alexander's farm. In the early 2000's, Peter Jackson found this little farm and immediately envisioned the idyllic scenery that would help create a true Hobbit paradise. They set up everything with careful attention to detail, missing nothing, not even the plum trees that were only seen for three seconds of the extended edition of Return of the King. They...

20 Little Things of New Zealand 1. Black ducks that dive smoothly under the water for ages 2. Aoili sauce on fresh chips 3. Bright blue shells peaking out of the sand 4. Three colored bins for recycling 5. Crystal blue water 6. Real fruit ice cream 7. M&M McFlurries from Maccas with hot fudge 8. Hokey Pokey flavored sweets 9. Flakey, savory meat pies 10. Upside-down constellations of the south 11. Getting window-seat on a flight somewhere beautiful 12. Artist markets set up on Sunday mornings 13. Slamming a sleeve of TimTams in steaming hot choc 14. The purples, pinks, and golds that light up the sky at sunset 15. The bleating of little white sheep ready to be sheared 16. The impossibly green grass of the countryside 17. Soft-spoken murmurs of "Kia ora!" in hello 18. Fish and chips on the warf 19. Golden kiwis on a hotel balcony 20. Wandering on paths unknown because nothing and no one is there to tell you you can't. These a...

Technology isn't so much an amenity as it is a way of life. It's not an extra, it's a necessity. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if all the smartphones, tablets, computers... if all of it suddenly stopped working. What would we do? I somehow doubt we would shrug our shoulders, say "Oh well, it was nice while it lasted," and continue on our merry way. But there were a few brief days where I felt like I could. On my study abroad to New Zealand, wifi was sparse, data was limited, and battery power was draining constantly. To some, it was a nightmare. To me, it was freeing. Granted, for our assignments, we were expected to take video footage of anything and everything worth capturing for our class projects, so I had my phone out almost constantly anyways. Then there was the road trip. Normally, I would make sure to download all sorts of content to read, listen to, or watch for several hours spent in the car. However, with the limited wifi situat...

For a world-class nerd like me, one of the best things about New Zealand was the bookstores. In the States, bookstores are rapidly disappearing. Used bookstores are almost nowhere to be found! They are a dying breed and a bit of my heart is dying with them. In New Zealand, however, you can still find them tucked away in street corners or resting peacefully beside shopping centers. They. Are. Everywhere! So here are five reasons why we need to keep these beautiful places alive. 1. There's something for everyone Collectors, connoisseurs, and amateur readers alike can wander into these beautiful stores and get lost in the piles of books that stretch haphazardly from the floor to the ceiling. They have children's books, reference books, histories, biographies, textbooks, classics, mysteries, overrated YA fiction, etc. Anything you are looking for, you'll probably be able to find it there. 2. They're frozen in time Modern book stores are so worried abou...

Never have I felt so dark and depressed in a museum as I did stepping into the modern art exhibition in Wellington, New Zealand. I felt like my soul went wading through a tar pit. I felt tired. I felt... wrong. We were wandering the streets in search of a new adventure when we stumbled upon a gorgeous building with interesting, glass windows, and stone etchings reaching three stories up. As soon as we saw the words "City Gallery" we sauntered right in. The inside was surprisingly empty. The front hall had nothing to show except for a vast entryway, some strange pipes, and a glass elevator. When we headed upstairs to where we thought the artwork would be, we quickly realized that this was not at all what we were expecting. The whole thing, sounds, visuals, frighteningly blank walls... all of it was awful and grim. I consider myself a fairly spiritually tuned-in person, so when I walked through the strange and bizarre exhibits, I knew in my very soul that it wasn...

Some people love to travel, some people hate it. There are pros and cons to the whole experience, of course, and sometimes the process of adjusting is really difficult. Lucky for you, I took note of the things that required some adjustment in New Zealand, so you'll be better prepared than I was for your trip down south! Here are some things that my Study Abroad friends and I struggled with. 1. No Wifi New Zealand is a little behind the times with access to wifi. The airport has very slow, low Gig wifi accommodations,  and only for a limited amount of time. The hotels are also subpar with their bandwidth. Some of us got local Sim cards that provided a small amount of data to use as we were out and about as well. But the best way to stay connected was to take a trip to the local library, which was awesome. 2. Sunburn There's a hole in the Ozone layer down undah', which means the sun is angry and cruel. You can feel the difference as you step outside and in...