New Zealand
This past spring break I was lucky enough to be able to go to New Zealand with my aunt to help her on a research study she was conducting in Auckland. The research study was about measuring the air quality at multiple different sites around Auckland to see if the huge container ships, which anchor very close to downtown Auckland, have an affect on the air quality there. We had been planning this trip since I've been really young so that she could show me some of the lab work she does and show me her favorite country in the whole world. Of course, because she never stops talking about how incredible New Zealand is, I was so excited to go. It was all planned really last minute, because the trip was originally supposed to be in February, but it still all worked out (magically).
We got to Auckland on a Saturday morning, even though I left CMI at 5 am on Thursday. We stayed in an Airbnb in Davenport, which is a 15 minute ferry ride away from downtown Auckland. On Saturday, we went to the Takapuna Beach Cafe, where they, hands down, have the best salted caramel hot chocolate in the world. They even gave me chocolate to go with my hot chocolate! This is the one most important thing about New Zealand: the food there is amazing. It's hard to explain how good it is, because it's not that special in theory. New Zealand doesn't even have its own special cuisine, it's basically food that can be found in the U.S. or Europe as well, but New Zealanders make it so well that it eclipses any other version of that food you've had before. My aunt explained it to me that since New Zealand is an island, which luckily has incredibly diverse weather regions, they have to and can grow all their produce themselves. Shipping it from other countries would simply take too long and all of the food would be rotten by the time it gets there. Also it would be very expensive. Therefore, everything you eat is extremely fresh and therefore tastes delicious. It is so easy to find a good place to eat, because every restaurant you'll find will be incredible.
On the next day, we went to Waiheke Island, which is a gorgeous island a 45-minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland. On this island I had the best breakfast of my life, went kayaking through the harbor, went on a hike along the coast in my Birkenstocks, and had a lunch/dinner at one of the many beautiful wineries that Waiheke is so famous for. It was a very incredible day. The next 3 days we worked in the lab in Auckland. Though this work was mentally very exhausting, it was still pretty fun and I learned a lot about the lab work that environmental scientists do. After these 3 days of work, my aunt and I rented a car and drove down south to see a little more of New Zealand, as the lab work was basically done and we just had to wait for the samplers to be collected. We drove through farm country, which apparently New Zealanders call the boring part of their country? Honestly, it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. We went to the Waitomo glow worm caves, which was the most incredible experience of my life. After spending a couple of hours floating through an underground river staring at cave walls lit up by glow worms, we drove to Rotorua. Rotorua is built on top of geothermal fields, and therefore you can, in addition to seeing beautiful geothermal pools and geysers, smell the ever-present scent of foul eggs wherever you go. You get used to it pretty quickly, but it was difficult to eat with the smell. After a night in Rotorua, we drove back to Auckland, and I sadly had to leave the next day to go back home and take my Physics midterm.
On the next day, we went to Waiheke Island, which is a gorgeous island a 45-minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland. On this island I had the best breakfast of my life, went kayaking through the harbor, went on a hike along the coast in my Birkenstocks, and had a lunch/dinner at one of the many beautiful wineries that Waiheke is so famous for. It was a very incredible day. The next 3 days we worked in the lab in Auckland. Though this work was mentally very exhausting, it was still pretty fun and I learned a lot about the lab work that environmental scientists do. After these 3 days of work, my aunt and I rented a car and drove down south to see a little more of New Zealand, as the lab work was basically done and we just had to wait for the samplers to be collected. We drove through farm country, which apparently New Zealanders call the boring part of their country? Honestly, it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. We went to the Waitomo glow worm caves, which was the most incredible experience of my life. After spending a couple of hours floating through an underground river staring at cave walls lit up by glow worms, we drove to Rotorua. Rotorua is built on top of geothermal fields, and therefore you can, in addition to seeing beautiful geothermal pools and geysers, smell the ever-present scent of foul eggs wherever you go. You get used to it pretty quickly, but it was difficult to eat with the smell. After a night in Rotorua, we drove back to Auckland, and I sadly had to leave the next day to go back home and take my Physics midterm.
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