The third week

Hi everyone! Today is already the end of the third week of school! Time flies! I know, everyone said that already when I still was at home, but I didn't believe them. So yes guys, you were all right ;) I guess it's a good sign though, it means I am having fun and being busy. And you can be sure about the last part, because wow I barely have had time to sit down and realise where I actually am and what I am doing! But writing a blog is handy for that, I guess.

Everything is going well, I was actually in bed a night ago and I looked around and thought to myself: Yeah, I do feel quite at home right here. Of course I miss everyone very very much and I would like to be back home in the Netherlands, but I will be fine here too the coming four months! However I would really like to have holiday, it has been a long time (7 months! :o) since I had time off study. So I am realy looking forward to when my parents are coming. In two weeks time I will have two weeks midsemesterbreak, so then I can really go and explore the country with them! So excited for that!

My week was good, not very special. Monday I had school and tried spinning at the gym, which was fun. After that I had a wine tasting (Yes, this university also has a wine club, of which I am a member of course ^^) It was fun! On tuesday I had school and went to the gym, then I had the long boring lecture of three hours again. To clear my mind I went to the gym again after that, so on Wednesday my body was not really happy with that. Sore with muscle pains I had lecture and went on a field trip. We went to the Hororata river to look at a farm with crops and dairy. We have to do a project on this farm about the environmental challenges it faces. That will be quite difficult but interesting too! It was very windy so we were all frozen by the time we got back, but in the evening I got a bbq with some friends. It was really good! On thursday I went to a hangi in between my classes. This is a traditional Maori meal cooked in a hole in the ground on stones. We had kumara. potato, cabbage, chicken and pork and the meat was so tender! It was delicious and cool that we had the opportunity to taste it, because it takes hours to cook. In the evening we had the midwinterball, everyone was dressed beautiful! All those pretty dresses and men in suit! On friday I did a maori workshop after class, where we learned a few maori words and made a poi. This is a small ball on a rope which maori used to talk and dance with.

All these maori activities were there because it was maori week this week. A lot of fun to learn a bit more about their culture!

I had my car fixed this week so this weekend it was time for another weekend trip. Okay, almost fixed cause he still has some difficulty starting, but I just need to treat him nice. His name is Robbie by the way and with some encouragement Robbie brought us where we wanted to be: Lake Tekapo. This lake has a bright turquoise colour because of the 'rock flour' in it, which reflects the sunlight in such a way that the water turns turquoise. It was stunning! We hiked up to mount John which gave us an amazing view on the lake and the surrounding mountains and meadows. Along the shore of the lake we hiked back to the village where we went out for dinner. I had a meat pizza which was really good! Then we were all very tired so went to our hostel where we played cards the rest of the night. So weird, they didn't know 'Pesten', so I taught them that. We went to bed early because we wanted to wake up before sunrise. The next morning we sat on the beach watching the sun rise up above the mountains, it was gorgeous! After that we had breakfast in the lounge of the hostel with the view of the lake and mountains right outside the window. In the morning we went to the Tekapo regional park to stroll along the beach and around the forest a bit, then we went to grab lunch. In the afternoon we went on another hike which led us through the village, the forest and through the meadows. It was so wide and deserted, we really felt like we were in a Lord of the Rings movie! After that we went to the dog statue and to the church of the good shephard. Then we went home, it was an amazing weekend!

Thanks for reading again! Love you <3