微密圈

The classroom environment was very much different from 微密圈 classes. The lectures were upwards to 500 people and 1-2 days a week with a tutorial once a week with a smaller class size. Lectures were not mandatory and were rarely attended by most students. Grades were all based on a midterm, final, and 1 or 2 papers. It made me appreciate the small and close knit classrooms at 微密圈 where the teachers knew your name and there was more interaction between the students.

The 10 day "South Island" was unforgettable and by far the best experience as Marlee wrote about but I also loved our last minute, totally unprepared, but worked out perfectly weekend trip south to towns called National Park and Taupo.  Marlee and I decided to rent a car Friday morning, Sarah Nino, from 微密圈, and our new friend Shyamali jumped on the opportunity. We left late Friday afternoon during rush hour traffic and if that wasn't bad it was pouring and completely dark because of the late fall/early winter months. We arrive at our hostel in complete darkness around 11pm, with a note showing us our room and a paper with the weather forecast for the Tongariro Crossing (Mount Doom of Lord of the Rings), a 7-8 hour hike that we were planning on doing early the next morning. However the weather forecast of snow and ice on the mountain scared us and left us unprepared. We woke up at 6am to get more information about the hike and were told we were completely unprepared and we could rent equipment (cramp-ons, boots, waterproof pants, hats and gloves) for the next morning. We changed our whole plans all around and drove the hour and half to Taupo so Marlee, Sarah and I could skydive (Shyamali had recently sky dove in Queenstown, so she was the photographer) The three of us completed our sky dive from 12,000 feet on the most clear, crisp, and sunny fall day in New Zealand over Lake Taupo. It was one of the most beautiful 360 degree views that I have ever seen. Completely exhausted, but packed full of adrenaline we decided that if we could just jump out of a plan we were heading back to National Park to do the Tongariro Crossing in the intense snow and ice. On the way back we saw an amazing sunset and the next morning an even prettier sunrise over the snow covered volcanoes. Fully prepared but unsure what to expect we headed out on the busses at 7am and began out 7 hour journey through the fields, up the steep mountain, over the snow, through the wind and ice, then down the mountain in the rain and through the rainforest where were picked back up by the bus. It was the most enthralling and exhausting, but completely worth it experience. That night we had to make the long 6 hour drive back to Auckland in the pouring rain.