Our last weekend in Palmerston North before the break, a bunch of us went to see a rugby game (my first!).
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| Getting bucket-ready. |
It was the Manawatu Turbos vs. the Waikato Mooloos (still not entirely sure what that means), and it was lots of fun. A strange tradition here for Palmerston North rugby is… wearing buckets on our heads!
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| Be-bucketed Wisco! |
I don’t entirely/at all understand how it came about, but fans cut holes in green buckets and wear them like helmets, thus becoming “Bucketheads”! Fascinating.
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| We got ambushed by people with paint! |
We got buckets at the dorms and made our helmets, then got our war paint on when we arrived at the game!
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| Caitlin getting her stripes. |
The game was fun (we won), though I’m still working out all the rules, haha.
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| The crowd. |
Definitely enjoyed the crazy energy of the fans. (:
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| Craziness! And blurriness. Oops! |
A friend of ours, Peter, participated in a halftime race around the field – with stops along where the competitors had to do crazy things like eat a whole pie or chug a bucket of milk. Pretty bizarre, but smiles in the end.
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| Tired, uncomfortably full, covered in milk, but still smiling! (: |
On Sunday, we went downtown to see a movie as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival – Arrietty, a new film from Studio Ghibli! It was great! (:
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| Yay! |
In the following week… blooming trees on campus!
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| Pretty trees! |
Close encounters with our crazy black swans.
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| Oh hello swan! |
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| They act all tough but then just get confused when you don't try to run away. |
And ducks!
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| Pretty blue feather. |
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| Enjoying the sun out on the lake. |
A fun outdoor lab for Applied Ecology and Resource Management, we learned about trapping and tracking methods for wildlife population surveys.
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| Traps and tracks for catching and counting mice and rats! |
I was also introduced to what is possibly the best idea ever – peanut butter in a caulking gun! Yummm…
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| Mmmmmmmm. Just think about the sandwich potential. |
We also radio-tracked a “kiwi” plush toy! Still haven’t seen a real kiwi bird yet though. ):
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| Learning how to use the crazy antenna. |
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| Ready, set, go! |
In Vertebrate Zoology lab, we were also given a special treat… our very own possum heads!
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| I think I probably named mine Fluffy. |
Awww, so cute and fluffy.
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| Getting closer! |
For our term project, each of us has to clean off a possum head to produce a museum-quality skull! We got started cleaning in lab, and I resumed after break (in the mean time, it hung out in the lab freezer). After we cut off the meat and icky stuff by hand, we would then boil the skulls, do some more cleaning, and then let them dry! Can’t wait to see the final result! (:
I finished up with the midterms and assignments I had before the break (I had a midterm, a paper, a project, and a lab report all due the Friday before we left, ahh!), packed my bags, and got ready to hit the road!
We made plans to travel around the North island, getting around by Nakedbus (one of NZ’s cheap bus services), and staying in hostels and couchsurfing!
The initial group was me, Wisco (his name is actually Michael, but he’s from Wisconsin and pretty much always goes by Wisco), Mauren, and Robert (both from Hendrix in Arkansas)!
The plan was to work our way up towards Auckland, starting in Wellington, then heading to Napier, Taupo, Rotorua, Hamilton, Auckland, and back home!
We crammed everything we’d need for two weeks into our backpacks, and headed for the bus stop!
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| Looking like true travelers. |
I’ll break up each stop of the trip into its own post (so that it’s not a billion pages long!), and hopefully have them up soon! (:
That’s all for now!
Ariel
Up next: Wellington!
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