Oh how the time flies!

KIA ORA~

So it's my last night here in Dunedin, New Zealand and I'm overwhelmed. I can't believe the 5 months have gone by so quickly, and all I can say is that I've fallen in love with this country. The landscape, the lifestyle and the friendliness of the people.

My parents left yesterday after we did a roadtrip of the south island. I thought I had a pretty good feel for how majestic NZ was before they came, but our travels up the west coast showed me just how endless the southern alps really are. We had beautiful clear weather the whole time, and we saw almost all of the south island. We went on 2 brewery tours, 1 winery tour, cruised Milford Sound, took a helicopter up to Franz Josef Glacier where we hiked around the crevasses, my mom bunjy jumped Kawarau Bridge (where I jumped a few months ago), mountain luged, snowboarded at Coronet Peak, checked out Christchurch , etc, etc, etc.....

Being away from the states has made me realize just how bad I want to go back overseas after I graduate from Mizzou. I love being emersed in new cultures, and I LOVE TRAVELING and meeting new people! I would love to come back to New Zealand and get a job in either Wellington or Christchurch in a few years time. Either that, or move to Europe. Or do both, haha. Its funny because even though I'm from the states, I sometimes feel more comfortable here in New Zealand with their laid-back lifestyle, than I do in the US. It sucks because I'm at the point in my stay where I'm finally feeling like my flat is home to me, and that Dunedin is home, yet tomorrow I'll have to leave all of that behind. Sad.

The world is too big to stay in America, and I hope that I'll be able to return to the South Pacific in a few years with a degree or two.