CanyoNZ

On a beautifully bright New Zealand day, 12 Loyola students packed into two ten-seater vans- one of which was Death Trap from the Coromandel- and journeyed off into the Waitakere Range to test their mortality.

Our kidnap..., I mean, guides drove us up, up, up into the forest and finally told us to get out of the vehicles at an undisclosed, remote location. One of the guides opened a shed to reveal racks of wetsuits and shoes, helmets and harnesses. We were instructed to grab all the necessary equipment and then get back in the vans to be driven to another undisclosed location. Once at this second location, we were lined up and made to trek a half hour's walk into the middle of nowhere. Finally, after much panting, we stopped at a mountain stream and put on all of our equipment. Then, our guides forced us to jump into the water, and sumberge ourselves completely. Only then would they consider letting us go free. I was the first to jump and as my head dipped beneath the surface of the water, I felt the chill of the liquid run all through my wet suit. Wide-eyed and a little breathless, I surfaced again to meet the gaze of our smiling guides who said "Congratulations, you're initiated!"

My friends and I jumped, slid, and rapelled, one by one from pool to pool, making our way down this unsuspecting river in the middle of the North Island wilderness. Some jumps were free jumps and we were allowed to enter the pool however we wished. Others had to be executed just right, or else there would be consequences. When we came to slides, we'd lay down, head first or feet first, and swoosh down a naturally formed water chute. Rapelling was perhaps the most exciting part of the day, however.

With no one at the bottom of the first high waterfall, our guide called out my name because she knew that I'd been able to tie my ropes correctly and that I'd had experience rapelling before. I was first and I was to go down with no belayer below. So she strapped me in and down I climbed to belay for the rest of the group! I'd done this sort of thing in gyms before on man-made rock walls but being in the outdoors and rapelling with water crashing on your helmet is a different experience entirely. It is so fun!

We stopped for a bit of a lunch beside a pool that was home to two fresh water eels. I wasn't sure how I felt about knowing that there were creatures like this in the deeper pools into which we'd been jumping, but I preferred not to think about it...

I was able to have a great conversation with the our guide Connie from Chile as well. She'd gone to school for Eco-tourism and Adventure Tourism management, which I thought was the coolest thing, and it got my wheels spinning about grad school. What if I moved down to Chile, just picked up Spanish as I went along with my classes learning how to do all sorts of great adventurous things in order to make a living!?!?!

After a long day, we were driven back to Auckland and we quickly found ourselves in Father Ted's pub with some good hearty food and live music. Who could ask for anything more?

For the past few days I've been puttering around Auckland, and I've noticed some random things, some of which I guess are signs that I'm settling into life Down Under. The first was that I called cookies "biscuits" today without even thinking about what I was going to say. That surprised me, but not the boy I was talking to because he's from England. So I had no one to share my matriculation in NZ with. Secondly, speaking of biscuits- and this is a shout out to Christie- I was walking through the convenience store today and I was in the cookie isle and I saw them. Sitting there in all their glory were the chocolate covered HobNobs that Christie and I lived off of during our drives to and from Scotland 4 very long years ago. As soon as I saw them I thought, "uh-oh," but as I sit here now eating the buttery digestive, I feel nothing but bliss, which I'm sure I'll pay for later, but for right now I'm perfectly content.

Another thing I'm getting used to is which way to look when crossing the street. I may also just be paying more attention to the traffic lines painted on the ground. Whichever.

My hindsight is starting to kick in, too. I have this awful habit of being so wrapped up in traveling and the differences I encounter while traveling that I forget to simply enjoy where I am and I have to wait until I've been away from a certain place for a few months in order to fully appreciate it. So it's getting to be that time when the weather gets cooler and the leaves begin to turn and I think to myself, "I just experienced autumn not so long ago, only I was in France." I miss things like being able to sit outside at cafes, the chime of the tram when it is about to stop at St. Eloi, and the freshly baked baguettes. I miss the friends I made when I was in Europe and I miss the culture and history I was able to discover with them in so many different places.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love New Zealand and I think I am able to love it more at the present because I can pick out the things that are different about this country that I appreciate and that I know I will miss in hindsight when I am back in the U.S. France and New Zealand are just so completely different though. People ask me which I like better and I tell them that there is absolutely no comparing them. They are just at opposite ends of the spectrum.

While Europe has been inhabited for thousands and thousands of years, New Zealand has only known civilization for less than one thousand years and was only colonized less than 300 years ago. It is such a young country that is celebrated for it's natural wonders and breathtaking scenery. Europe has the art, the architecture, and the tradition. I think it is such a neat thing to compare these two places and see what from Europe has made it's way down here to the Southern Hemisphere and, for that matter, what is unique to thise region in terms of landscape and Maori culture. I think about France being the seat of higher thought and the avant-garde approach to government while I live among people who belong to a thriving indigenous culture that is protected and maintained so well here. It's just too cool for words.