New Zealand is Incredible

This isn't completely up to date but it'll fill you in on what I've been doing!

1/24 Today we left dreary, cold but wonderful Christchurch. Yesterday I woke up with vertigo, first time in my life, I had no idea what was wrong but the whole floor and room was swirling around me. That was definitely a strange feeling but it was unaccompanied by any other symptoms and as the day went on it got better and I could pass up high tea of course! About 9 of the students and both professors went to a nearby hotel for high tea, with yummy scones, sandwiches and cakes and of course all the tea you want! The previous day we went on the Heavenly Creatures Tour but the tour guide never showed up so we kind of just went around by ourselves. Afterwards me and Rachel decided to go see a movie in the most adorable theater. Their cinemas here are more like actual theaters so they’re super nice. We saw the British film Creation about Charles Darwin and it was very good!
Back to today…the drive to Mount Cook was just incredible. I just uploaded all of my pictures onto my computer and I swear they all look fake. I can’t believe I’m actually getting to experience all of this! On our way to Mt Cook we actually stopped in Lake Tekapo which is where we’re traveling to tomorrow for two nights so we got a preview of that and it looks wonderful! We went to the Planetarium here and saw 3 shows—one on Mt. Cook, one about black holes and another about the universe in general—super cool. There is also a museum here devoted to Sir Edmund Hilary since he is super famous and has climbed to the top of Mt Cook before his expedition to Mt Everest. We ate dinner at the café here, it’s extremely isolated, and not very much of a town, but the view was magnificent as the back wall was all glass! We then chilled in one of our amazing rooms afterwards. Sky gazing was futile as it was cloudy but hopefully in Lake Tekapo we’ll have a good night!

1/25 Sadly we had to leave Mt. Cook today but not before going on the most amazing glacier tour! It was incredible jetting around a huge lake that was only 2 degrees Celsius full of icebergs. The glacier there has been steadily retreating over the past few years, so it was pretty crazy knowing that about 6 years ago the water we were in was actually the glacier itself. The water is very opaque because of the rock flour, or the sediments from the rocks that the glacier is on, mix with the melting ice. We got to take a chunk off of one iceberg and eat it! So I ate 300 year old ice! It super dense compared to normal ice so it’s a lot heavier then you expect. After that it was back on the bus for the drive back to Lake Tekapo. We quickly changed into bathing suits and ran out to lay out by the lake and read. Later in the evening once it finally got dark, which isn’t until a little after 10 pm, we got to see all of the beautiful stars without the light pollution we’re used to. The moon is a little over half illuminated though so that did wash out a lot of the stars. It’s so weird to get to see Orion upside-down. Tomorrow is a free day here then Wednesday we’re off to Dunedin.