Since the last post, I've been on a few different adventures, so I'll give the overview of each here along with some photos.
A few Penn State kids and myself made a day trip to the Hamilton Zoo. It was pretty cool, although not anywhere the size of the Philly Zoo. Still worth doing to kill some time.
I also bought a car for my time here in New Zealand. Traveling on day trips is SO much easier with my own wheels. Here she is, Dirty Diana!
We also made trips to Raglan and Tauranga, beach towns along the west and east coasts. Raglan is about 45min away, so it's an effortless drive that doesn't require a ton of planning to get some time with the sun and surf. Tauranga is a bit further, about 1.5hr away on the east coast. It's a nice area with some really cool scenery! On the way home from Tauranga I took everyone to the falls that Dave and I had climbed weeks before. It was a nice hike, aside from me falling into the stream and getting stung by a bee. We were sure to get a group shot in the sunset with Dirty Diana though!
I also had the chance to go with a group and do the Haggas Honking Holes adventure in Waitomo. In short, it was a 2hr abseiling (repelling) trip through some really cool caves. We did 3 abseils, crawled through some really tight spaces, and got to see some glow worms along the way. Another worthwhile trip!
This past week was the Balloons Over Waikato Festival. It's a large hot air balloon festival, so it was a great place to get some shots. I got up very early for the first day of the events, but sadly the balloons couldn't take off due to poor weather. The pilots were still nice enough to do some tethered flights for kids to enjoy though!
Last Saturday, the finale of the festival was an event called Night Glow. The balloons inflate at Uni and light up in sequence to a soundtrack. Fireworks followed, providing an entertaining end to the week.
Study break starts on Friday and we are headed to the south island for 8 days, so stay tuned for some jaw-dropping shots of LOTR-esque scenery!
...and as usual, you can check out more of my photos at www.flickr.com/danielbott since there is no way I could include them all in these posts!
-Peace
