jennysblog

Procrastination

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 11:36:56 GMT

You know that the exam is approaching when it becomes utterly important to read all the "Questionable Content" comic strips ever drawn till this date... Pintsize is definitively this weeks hero.
The last three of four weeks we've made some new acquaintances. Me and Jeanette have become very good friends with the guy down in the video store, and enjoy his passion for playing the same Muse concert DVD EVERY time we pop by. (We have to make a list over all the movies we've rented so far). We've also found a new friend in the man who owns our favorite indian food booth. We were a bit late the other day, and there was nothing left of our favorite dish, - so he told the chef to make some more, 5 minutes before closing time. :p Of course we got complimentary naan breads too, as always.

Apart from "exam preparations", the rec. center and enormous amounts of Jeanette's chocolate cake, there's not much going on.
But, in less than one week the exam is over, and the vacation begins! I can't wait!
Lasse will be here on the 19th and we'll leave for Samoa on the 21th.

I promise to try to keep my blog a bit more up to date once I have more to tell than the fact that my "System analysis and design" book is really a load of crap.

Now I have to go to bed to get some sleep. I've promised to go with Jeanette to a bar at 4 o'clock this morning to see Sweden beat Tobago in their first world cup match...

Holy mackerel!

Thu, 25 May 2006 10:22:34 GMT

Last Friday I went back to Taupo. Anna and Petter (a swedish couple) were driving down there in their car, so me, Jeanette and Ben went with them.
First we stopped outside Cambridge to "climb" Mt Maungatautari (797 m) and visit the "ecological island". (The ecological island is a project which aims at removing introduced mammalian pest, and restore endangered plants and animals).

When we reached the top of Mt Maungatautari the splendid view we were hoping for was blocked by tall trees. Even from the top of the lookout post, it was difficult to get a good look. But the walk was nice.
When we came back down, we walked inside the fences of the ecological island, but the closest we came to see a kiwi, was a sign saying: "Beware! Kiwies sleeping!"

This time, we tried a new backpacker place in Taupo, called Burke's. It wasn't as good as the Rainbow lodge, and my bed was horrible. Someone had made a big bump in the middle of the mattress.. :(
We went to buy some pizza, but found out that there was an indian place just above it, so all (except for Ben who went for "Hell's pizza") bought indian food. Yummy! The rest of the night we spent playing pool and eating cookies.

Petter and Ben went fly-fishing on Saturday, so me, Jeanette and Anna had to figure out what we would to do. We wanted to go horseback riding, but it was either too expensive or fully booked for the weekend, and the kayaking was either closed for the season or we were too late to book. We found out that there was a national championship in cross country riding up by the Waikato river, so we took our lunch and sat down and watched all the horses. The weather was wonderful, so I had a great time! Sadly we missed the obstacles called "the mushrooms" and "the scandinavian grave".
Not to drive Jeanette crazy (;)), we walked down to the Waikato river to see the dam opening and the river filling up to its original size, before we went back to get the car.

Petter had caught a rainbow trout of 3.5 kg, and Ben had had a great time and learnt a lot on his first day of fly-fishing. (He hired an instructor). We ended the day by making dinner and playing some more pool.

Sunday morning we went back to Craters of the moon and Huka falls (since Ben hadn't seen them), before we drove towards Rotorua. On the way we stopped and had a look at some smelly, boiling mud, before we went to Kerosene creek and had a bath in the warm river. That was really, really nice! (I only hope my bikini one happy day will stop smelling like shit...)

Rotorua smells awful. We had lunch and drove home.
The end.

(Oh, yes. And the pictures are of course in my gallery)

Waitakere beaches

Mon, 01 May 2006 10:29:17 GMT

Hi!
On Sunday morning, at 7 o'clock in the morning, Jeanette woke me up and asked if I wanted to go to Piha with her and another Swedish girl, Anna. I was dead tired and the weather forecast simply said "Showers". I have no rain clothing. So of course I came along with them.
Anna and her boyfriend has a car, so getting to the Waitakere Ranges went smoothly - we only had to ask for the way 3 times. :P
Along the road to Piha, there was a large amount of cars parked along the way, and after speaking with a parking guard, we found out that this was the day for the "Oxfam Water for Survival Programme Nihotupu Tramline Walk". This is a walk around in the area that serves Auckland with drinking water, and this particular Sunday was the one day of the year when you could walk through the tunnels made for the water pipes. It took us about 2 hours to do the walk, and we had a good time trying to walk through the (some of them quite long) tunnels, without a torch. Luckily most of the other walkers were better prepared than us.

After the digression we continued to Piha, where we had lunch, fell asleep in the sand and climbed the Lion Rock. We also found some really good cake and coffee, before we continued towards Karekare beach.
Karekare beach is the beache where they did the scenes for the film "The piano".

Some guy told us where to drive to get to Karekare (Oh! That makes the the asking-for-the-way count increase with 1), and we started walking down a long hill. We saw this beautiful, seemingly inaccessible beach, which we doubted was Karekare. (It is actually called Mercer Bay). We met some people who told us that Karekare was another hours walk away, but that we could -drive- all the way down to Karekare beach (go figure). So we walked back, drove to Karekare, and walked on the beach. It is big!
The sun was about to set, so we returned to the car, promising each other that we have to go back some other time and spend more time around in the area. Some nice walks around there.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. The showers never came, and the sun was shining the whole day.
I have to do this more often. (The pictures are of course already in the gallery).

Mordor and volcanoes

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 12:04:41 GMT

Hellu!

Last Thursday me and Jeanette got up early in the morning, and took the bus to Taupo, by the biggest lake in New Zealand, Lake Taupo. The bus took about 5 hours, and I could finally have a look at the green New Zealand landscape. Beautiful.

We arrived Taupo around noon, and after checking in and leaving all our luggage at the "Rainbow Lodge", we went for a walk up by the Waikato river. We walked by Taupo Bungy, where Jeanette's friend Maria jumped a couple a weeks ago. It was a long way down... By the river, we passed a smaller river running out into the Waikato river. This was a hot river, and there was lots of people taking a bath in it. (Taupo is situated in the most active volcanic area in New Zealand, so there is a lot of those kind of hot streams around).

Further up (or down?) the river, we came to Huka Falls, where we together with lots others had to stop and take some pictures. We continued our walk up to "Craters of the moon" and had a look at that strange volcanic area, with lots of hot steams and boiling mud. Quite fascinating, and quite smelly because of the sulphur in the steams.
We soon realized that we would not be able to get back to Taupo before it became dark. We didn't feel like walking around in the dark all by ourselves, so we were relieved when some other youths asked us if we wanted a ride back to Taupo.

Back at the "Rainbow Lodge" we were too tired to do anything, so we just went straight to bed after dinner. Had to get up at 05:40 in the morning to catch the "Tongariro Expeditions"-bus to the Tongariro National Park. The mission of the day was to do the "Tongariro Crossing", straight through the area where they filmed the scenes for "Mordor" in the making of Peter Jacksons "The Lord of the Rings". Of course Jenny had to take a little look at the top of the volcano Mt. Ngauruhoe as well. (Also known as Mount Doom from the previous mentioned film). Leaving Jeanette with her camera all by herself, I found a guy from Israel (Amir) to climb with. The whole volcano is covered in sand and small lava stones, so it feels like wading all the way to the top. It was exhausting. Fortunately we found a lava stream to follow, allowing us to climb along some bigger rocks, which made the climb a lot easier.
It was a bit foggy this day, but when we got to the summit of Mt. Ngauruhoe, we were above the clouds and fog, and got a spectacular view. We could see Mt. Ruapehu, and all the way to Mt. Taranaki (Mt. Egmont).
Absolutely worth the effort of the climb. I can report that there was no smoke coming from the crater. (The bus driver informed us that this volcano used to erupt approximately every ninth year, and that it hasn't erupted since 1975. :P) There was a hot steam up there, though.
I was not looking forward to the descent since the climb up had been relatively difficult, but the return from the summit was the most fun part. We could just slide all the way down on our heels, in deep sand and small rocks. Great fun! :D

We finished the rest of the Tongariro Crossing pretty quickly. It was an easy walk, passing the "Red Crater", the "Emerald Lakes" and the "Blue lake". The landscape up there is of another world. I can easily understand why they chose this area for filming "Mordor".
Me and Jeanette arrived at the car park on the other side almost at the same time. We took the bus back to the "Rainbow Lodge", and had no more energy to do anything else but to eat dinner and go to bed and get some sleep.
On saturday morning we rented some really horrible bikes, and took a ride around in the Taupo area. We had a wonderful ride through the woods, along small tracks by the river, and ended up by something called the "Honey Hive". Here you could taste different kinds of honey, and learn a bit about bees.
We spent 5 or 6 hours on those bikes, and were pretty fed up by them when we returned them around 6 o'clock in the evening. With sore butts and tired leg muscles, we spent the night solving sudoku and talking to others staying in the lodge. Jeanette also played a bit on the piano. She's multi-talented, that girl! :D

We were leaving on sunday, and planned to walk a bit about in the center of Taupo before taking the bus back to Auckland, but it was raining a bit too much, so we just stayed in the lodge and wrote a couple of letters and post cards instead.

And we all agreed that it had been a nice weekend. :)
The pictures are already in my gallery. (http://folk.ntnu.no/jennyme/gallery/Taupo)

Back in Auckland I've been working on the 340 project every day this week. The Easter break is over on Friday, so on Monday I'll be back at the uni doing other papers as well. Wonder how I'm going to get time to do everything. Right now it feels like I could work solely on the 340-thing, and still have more than enough to do. I've decided to drop one of my papers. I haven't got enough time to do the assignments for it, so it's no use wasting the time.

I have to go to bed now, but I'll write more some other day. :)
Real soon now! [tm]

Good Friday Party

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 11:02:23 GMT

Finally, the easter break is here. :D

Yesterday, me, Jeanette and Ben had a party here in our apartment. Almost half my 340 class was here, and Jeanette and Ben also had some friends visiting. A good blend of people from all over the world.
Katarina kindly brought her loudspeakers, so that we could listen to Jeanette's carefully compounded playlist. We found lots of fun music on her computer the other day.

I can no longer remember when the others went to bed, but we (me, Mischa, Nick, Nathan and Lynn) left Steve sleeping on the living-room floor, and went out and had some breakfast. We went back to the apartment, and the others went home after a while, in time to reach the first bus. All, except for Steve who was sleeping on the flor again. At 8 o'clock in the morning I left Steve a note, and went to bed.
I woke up around 12, when Jeanette was getting ready to go to Bay of Islands. I was SO envious... She told me I could come too, but I have some project meetings to go to, so I couldn't go. :(
Steve was gone by the time I got up. I had some breakfast, and went for a walk up to Mt. Eden. It took about an hour each way. Good view of the entire Auckland region from up there.

Back home, I sat down on my mattress with my computer, and I've been here the entire day. Haven't done anything useful. I'm just looking forward to get some more sleep... 4 hours is not enough for me.

Ben is going to Florida for his easter break, so from tomorrow of I'll be all alone for a couple of days. When Jeanette is back from her Bay of Islands trip, around wednesday, we will get on the buss and drive southwards, to Taupo and Tongariro National Park. We're planning on doing the "Tongariro crossing", a one day walk over a volcanic area, also known as "Mordor" from the filming of "The lord of the rings". If the weather is good, I plan to try to get to the top of Mt. Ngauruhoe (2287 m).

The next few days I'll just take it easy, work on my project, and try to go out for some walks around here in Auckland. I'll write again after the trip to Tongariro.

And, yes. The pictures from the party is of course in my gallery: http://folk.ntnu.no/jennyme/gallery

Long hours and no sleep

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 12:22:36 GMT

Hi!
I'm sorry it's been such a long time since the last time I wrote something here. It's been really busy with assignments due, tests and project deliveries lately, so I have been working 12-14 hours every day. Even the Recreation center has been left pretty much alone this week.
I held my first project presentation today. I knew what to say, but having to speak english kind of freaked me out, so I was pretty nervous. I went OK, though. Apart from a few ehm's and uhm's, I didn't make any big mistakes.
Afterwards I just went straight home and did nothing. I still have to assignments due on sunday and monday, but I wasn't able to work on any of them. I slept for an hour, and cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom instead.
Later I went with my project class to a restaurant and ate Middle Eastern food. It was really good. Our teams supervisor even got up and joined the belly dancer. ;) At last, me and some others went down to a bar not far from my apartment and had some drinks. They had frozen daquiries! :D

I sent my first postcard today. The honor goes to my grandmother. It was ment for her birthday on the 14. April, but since I've been so busy lately, I'm afraid she wont receive it until a few days later.

Easter break starts on friday, and hopefully I will have a few days off. We're throwing a party in our apartment on friday, and me and Jeanette is planning to get out of Auckland for a couple of days. Go tramping or something like that. I'm really looking forward to do something outside, instead of being stuck in front of my computer every day. (I don't mind using my computer, though...)

Well, I better go to bed now, since I've got two assignments to finish tomorrow. There will be some new pictures out on my gallery shortly.

Pictures

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 04:22:37 GMT

Hi!
A bit busy nowadays, with assignments due and meetings with Peace, but I've finally managed to toss some pictures out on my gallery (http://folk.ntnu.no/jennyme/gallery/).
Take a look. It's not much there yet, but hopefully there will be more soon. I promise to write some captions to the pictures as well. One happy day...
Must go!

BNDC and brown cheese

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 02:37:10 GMT

Today I joined the recreation center! I found a decent bike, and spent about 40 minutes on it, before I had to give up. I'm out of shape! I'm afraid the chocolate-spinning balance is a bit unbalanced... :$
They've got spinning as well, and me and Jeanette are planning to check it out. (Lasse, Magni, Stian and everyone else on the mailing list "blodslit": I promise to write a nice, long report with lots and lots of criticism and sarcasm!) They have incredible 4 spin lessons a week (where one of them is a "Beginners spin"), about 20 bikes, and there's carpets on the flor... I may just stick to the bike I found today. I could even use my bicycle shoes! :)
The recreation center is nothing like 3T, but it'll do for now. At least they've got a small climbing wall that is free to use for members, and a squash court. And hundreds of students all over the place... (Since the recreation center is situated in the middle of the city campus).

I had this great plan of saving for long hair again. But yesterday Jeanette told me that "Toni&Guy" was looking for a female model. So I just had to go... (Sorry, Lasse. It will grow out again). The hairdresser spent 2 hours, and I paid nothing. I'll do that again any time. :)

When I came home from the hairdresser, the big packet from my mother had arrived. Together with my digital camera and webcam, my mother had added 0,5 kg of norwegian milk chocolate, "Tom&Jerry" biscuits (old favorite), pineapple sodas, brown cheese and hard bread. Jeanette had never heard of brown cheese before, and Ben had only heard another norwegian girl talk (a lot) about it. So of course they had to try, both the cheese and the chocolate. I don't know if they're only being polite, or whether it's true, but they said they liked the brown cheese.

I haven't tried the webcam yet, but the BNDC is working perfectly. Now I can add photos to my gallery! :)

St. Patrick's day

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:03:23 GMT

Weekends on the corner of Queen's and Victoria's street are usually pretty loud. Today it's St. Patrick's day, and it's even worse.
Me and Jeanette just came back home, after taking a little stroll around in our neighborhood. There's people dressed in green clothes and hats everywhere. We also got a glimpse of some tourist trying out the "Bungy Ride" up by the Sky Tower; three persons in a "cage", being shot up into the air at 200 kph, and bouncing up and down for a while. Looked kind of fun.

Right now I'm looking forward to go to sleep. Yesterday, 30 minutes past midnight, I found out that I had to deliver a tutorial this morning, so I had to finish it, and didn't get to bed until 06:25 this morning. I slept until 8, and rushed up to the University to deliver my 340-team's proposal to our professor. I survived one hour of boring language implementation stuff, and barely 2 hours of System Analysis, before I went to a computer lab and got some help with my Visual Basic programming.
Afterwards I went home and slept for two or three hours. Jeanette came home soon after I got out of bed, and we made risotto, and looked around on Google Earth, before we took a walk.

They announced the result of our 340-proposals just a few hours after we delivered it, and my team got our first choice, Peace. Another team also had Peace as their first choice, but we obviously beat them. ;) We're having the first meeting with the sponsor on Monday. I'm excited, and a tad scared too. This is a large project and our supervisor is known to be though.

I have decided to join the Recreation Center up at the University. I cannot continue like this, not doing anything. I'm constantly restless, and feel like I have to do some physical exercising, but Auckland isn't exactly made for jogging...

I'm still waiting for my BNDC, and we still have no furniture. Me and Jeanette will probably go and buy some bar stools tomorrow, and I will check the mailbox again...

Bedtime!

"Group dynamic Workshop"

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 20:16:14 GMT

Hello!
This weekend I spent at the "Group dynamic workshop" at Huia, with the rest of my INFOSYS 340 ("Kundestyrt prosjekt") class.
Huia is a small place 45 minutes away from the city, nice and quiet, by the sea and the bush. We arrived at 8 o'clock, and started with a short introduction. We did some some practical exercises, like the classic falling backwards and being caught by another person. And a more hard core one, where one person stood on a small stair, and fell backwards while the other 6 persons caught him. Great fun! Of course not everybody found this equally comfortable.

We divided into 3 groups which we stayed in for the rest of the weekend. Every assignment we were given was awarded in "Huia dollars", according to the outcome, and whether we solved the problem or not. We were given 4 different assignments;
Number one: Get across a pool full of pirhanas, using the small islands in the pool (pieces of wood) and three long planks of different sizes. We spent half an hour before we found out that we could also use the rope which marked one of the borders of the pool. Then the assignment was easy to solve...
Number two: Tower of Hanoi live. Need I say more. The sticks were placed 15-20 meters apart, and the second one (the buffer), was placed on a small hill. I ran like a madman for 16 minutes...
Number three: Easy. Four poles, get the whole team over to the other side and back, without touching the ground.
Number four: Fill a barrel with lots of holes in it, so that the water runs over the brim. Only allowed to plug the holes with your body parts. We plugged the lowest holes, and used the two buckets we were given to fetch water in, put the second one upside down on top of the other, and pushed them down in the barrel so that the water splashed out. Everyone was soaked. Except for me. (I don't know why!)

Saturday we dressed up in our wetsuits and went to the beach. The mission was to make a fleet out of old tires, some rope and some pieces of wood. The mission was to transport the entire team around two points far away from the beach, and to transport a bucket with some liquid in, to a man on the beach, without spilling it. My team was the only one who made it passed the two points and back to the beach. The other teams didn't make it around the first point, because of the tide. (We ran along the beach before we started swimming, to take advantage of it). Off course we found out later that the assignment said nothing about the fact that we didn't have to bring the bucket with us out on the fleet. ;)
But we won, and received a lot of "Huia dollar". It was hard work, but I had a great time. And my wetsuit worked perfectly.

Later on saturday we went out in the bush. The assignment this time was to set up a restaurant in the bush and to serve some spoiled, rich tourist a meal, and give them entertainment. We had fun. I had to act as a waitress and our customers kept asking me all sorts of questions. Banana plantations in New Zealand. How should I know? ;) Of course our professor (Lech Janczewski) filmed the whole thing, so it was even more embarrassing.

Sunday morning it rained cats and dogs. The previous to days we'd had good weather, and since we were only doing inside activities, no one really cared much. One of the goals with this weekend was that we were supposed to find our team members. I was asked to join another girl (Natasa), and we bundled up with Ken, who is a good programmer. Natasa is my tutor in INFOSYS 320 (System analysis and design).

I had a great time this weekend. Oh, yes. And my team of course ended up earning most Huia dollars. :p I had the chance to get to know some other students, and before I left Huia, Kerry, one of the instructors, invited me to go sailing. I'm already looking forward to that. :)
I'll try to get hold on some pictures and maybe a piece of video, and put out on my gallery. I haven't got my BNDC yet, but i expect it any day now.

This weekends best comment (by Nathan): "Oh, yes. It's not a bull. It's a cow. It's got no horns."
This weekends don't-need-to-know (by Janczewski): "Huia is a very special place to me. It's beautiful. In polish, it is the most vulgar word for a mans most noble parts..."

I'm back!

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 12:35:51 GMT

Finally, now we've got Internet connection in our beautiful apartment!
Me and Jeanette moved in on friday, and spent most of the day looking for mattresses, pillows and duvets. Saturday we bought half of "The Warehouse", and equipped our kitchen with cutlery, pots and pans. We celebrated our new home by making our own version of Moussaka. (Couldn't find any eggplant, so we used squash). Yummy. :)

On Sunday me, Anna Marie and Sonja went to Piha beach and attended a surfing course. We spent about 1 hour in the water with our surfboards, and it was more than enough! It was great fun, but I was completely exhausted afterwards. I actually managed to stand on my board 4-5 times! :D What a rush! I want to do it again! I look pretty bruised at the moment, but I'm used to that. My poor knees got the worst bruises, since I kept forgetting how shallow the water was, and landed on my knees whenever I fell off my board. Which was quite a few times. ;)

Today I paid the fee for the "Group Dynamic Workshop", (which is this weekend). I talked to the infosys340 professor again earlier today, and he was very encouraging, and advised me to take the course. So I guess I'll just have to try. It sounds exciting. I doubt that I'm qualified for such an assignment, but... We'll see!

I bought my first wetsuit today. Usually tourist returning from NZ bring Jade-jewelry and beautiful pictures. I'll be returning with wetsuit, gaiters and a duvet made of NZ wool.
I've finally polished my tramping boots. Guess it's about time to find some spare time activity. I checked out the recreation center up at the university, but they've only got 5-6 spin lessons every week. That's not enough! I need to figure out something else. Guess I'll sign up for the tramping club and the climbing club. There's a club for almost everything at the uni. For example; the meat club, the dessert club and the drinking club.

Gosh! I have to go to bed. Boring lecture tomorrow at 08:00... I'll promise to write again soon, now that I've got Internet in my living room. :)
My mother has sent me my BNDC, webcam, cheese slicer and so on, so soon I may even be able to take some pictures. :)

See ya!

First week at uni

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 10:24:40 GMT

Hi, everyone!

It's Thursday night, and tomorrow the first week at the University of Auckland will be over.
It's been a busy week, with lectures, hundreds of things to keep track of, thousands of students running around like ants, (just like me), and attempts to try and find out when all my tutorials are. (Still working on that one...)

I've enrolled in the NZ version of the course "Kundestyrt prosjekt". It's frightening. The course lasts for two semesters. It demands a whole lot of work, you have to work in teams of 2 or 3 students, and you are expected to deliver great results. This course makes "Kundestyrt prosjekt" look like a kindergarten... Today 7 different companies came and presented for us the projects we're supposed to participate in. It's big stuff, and I certainly don't know if I'm competent to take on an such an assignment. What do I know about building software products from scratch?
Next weekend we'll be spending in a place called Huia, where we'll attend a 3 days "Group Dynamic Workshop". I don't know much about it yet, but I know I have to bring a wetsuit. Don't know where I'll find one of those yet, but...

Tomorrow me, Jeanette and Ben will be signing the contract for the new apartment we've found. It's gorgeous! Right on Queen's street, on the top floor, with a veranda around the whole apartment. Big windows, big kitchen, and the biggest shower booth I've ever seen. Me and Jeanette will be moving in tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it.

We'll be without Internet connection for a while, but I guess we'll survive.... Presumably. We'll probably be busy trying to find everything we need for the apartment anyway. It's unfurnished, and we don't have as much as a fork...
I met a nice, german girl (Sonja), the other day, and she's going to take over my room, so I won't have to pay double. I'm helping her move her things here tomorrow after school, before I make my attempt to bring my own stuff downtown. Strange how fast things pile up... I've already got a whole lot more than I brought in to this house...

On Sunday me, Sonja and Anna Marie are going to a beach called Piha just outside Auckland, to learn how to surf. (In one day. Hihi. Just a tad optimistic.) I'm excited though. I've never tried surfing before, and I think I'm a natural disaster at it. :p

When I move in to my new apartment, I will have to give my address to my mother, so she can send me my BNDC (mark: not a BNIDC(*)), webcam, cheese slicer etc. I also have to apply for a VISA. Almost forgot about that. :|

I hope we get Internet connection in our apartment in a couple of days. Until then, I guess I just have to do school stuff instead. After all, I am supposed to be a student. :)

(*) Brand New Imaginary Digital Camera

Rangitoto

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 11:21:21 GMT

Kia ora!

Today we went out to the Rangitoto Island, just outside the city. It's an extinct volcano, so the island is full of black lava rocks.

We first walked 2km to the "summit" (it's more like a bump in the middle of the island). From there we could see really far, and got quite a good impression of how big Auckland is. It stretches out over a large area.
We then walked around the crater, and continued down to take a look at the caves. Me and three other girls went through a cave (it was like a tunnel). It was narrow in the ends, but in the middle I could stand up straight. It was pitch dark in there, but we were well equipped with a lighter. :p

We had two hours left, so me and two other girls (Anna Marie and Katrina) decided to take the long path along the shore, back to the wharf. When we reached the sign saying that this was a 2 hours and 15 minutes walk, we had 1 hour to get back before the ferry left the island...
We tried to hurry as fast as we could. The path didn't go along the shore, but turned into the bushes, where it zigzagged it's way up and down small hills.

We ran into other students heading for the wharf as well, but they were walking a bit too slowly for me and Anna Marie, so we just hurried on in front of the others. We reached the wharf 10-15 minutes before the ferry arrived at the wharf.(We never thought we would make it). The other students made it back in time as well, just to find out that there wasn't enough seats for everyone on the first ferry, so we had to wait another hour for the next one. :p
Well, at least we met a lot of nice people down at the pier. :)
(And it felt really great to finally move around (running) for a while. It's been a while...)

I will add pictures in my gallery when I have had a chance to copy them from the other girls. I'm afraid my BNIDC(*) is not working too well...
And Lasse: I'm sorry, but because we made such a bad path-choice, we didn't have time for a swim, and thus there are no bikini pictures. Some other time.

Tomorrow it's Sunday, and I think I'm just going to sleep till I wake up. No alarm clock on Sundays! There's something called "Summer Series" down in Albert Park tomorrow; New Zealand bands playing concerts in the park, and the entry is free. I think I'll take a look at that. :)

Now I need some sleep!

(*)BNIDC = Brand New Imaginary Digital Camera

The land of the Kiwis

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:44:49 GMT

If only I could get some Internet connection in my bedroom, I would consider myself settled. But, since the wireless signal doesn't reach my room, I'm stuck in the living room for now.
I managed to make the wireless network work yesterday. It's just such a shame that the router keeps loosing it's connection with the rest of the world every now and then, and must be restarted...

Well, well. The last few days I've been down at the university, attending the "Orientation week". Most of it was quite boring, but there's been some fun stuff too. Like the "Living in Auckland" session yesterday. We learned a couple of things about Kiwis. Like how it's rude to sniff, but that it's OK to blow your nose in public. Or how Kiwis wear shoes inside, and walk bare feet outside... And that and invitation for tea, actually is an invitation for dinner. :/ I figure it may take some time to learn to know these Kiwis.

I've met a some Scandinavian, American and German students during the week. Some of them are looking for places to stay, and I'm considering to join them if we can find a flat to share. I think I'll do fine where I am too, but I'm a bit afraid that it will be a bit lonely here all by myself. It would be nice to have some flatmates to talk to from time to time.

I'm also thinking about joining the "Recreation Center" down at the City campus. The fee includes use of the climbing wall, and since I brought all my equipment, I would like to use it. I met a norwegian girl who would like to join me too.
It would be nice to have a bicycle, so that I could have a look around Auckland, but I think it's going to be a bit too expensive.

There's so many things I would like to do, and there's never going to be enough money. I will have to sit down and try to figure out what I would like to do the most. That's not going to be an easy task...

Very well. I don't really know what I'm going to do tomorrow, but on saturday we're going on a trip out to Rangitoto Island. The weather forecast is good, so hopefully I'll have a chance to take a swim!

And! Remember: "dub dub dub" is "www" in Kiwi land.

Finally

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 09:51:16 GMT

I found somewhere to live!

I'm so glad I no longer have to stay at that backpacker place anymore. Finally I can have some privacy again. And a wardrobe.

I went looking at a room on friday, not far from the University. It was the strangest thing I've ever seen. The room was very nice and clean, and with a good view, since it was on the 7th floor (or something like that). And. They cleaned your room every week. Made sure you had clean towels, and changed your linen... Quite like being at a hotel, and equally expensive. :p

Saturday I felt just a "tad" depressed. I couldn't find anywhere to live, I was bored, I felt lonely, I was sick and tired of the backpacker place, and I couldn't find a decent Internet café (since the computers at my backpacker place had no electricity). It would have been nice to have my boyfriend around that day. (Well, every day, actually...)
To cure my sudden depression (I have not cried yet!), I took a long walk (3-4 hours). Had a look at Tamaki Drive and Mission Bay, and all the lovely villas in the suburb Parnell.
When I got back to the backpacker place, I remembered that I had "Pride and prejudice" on my computer. Together with a bottle of Coke and some Anthon Berg chocolate (from the airport in Singapore), the day didn't turn out so bad after all. Thank you, Lasse! :D

Sunday morning I pretty much spent at an Internet café (found a decent one), talking with Lasse and my big brother via Skype, and MSN. Webcam is a great invention! ;D
I surfed around for somewhere to live, and finally called Faith. She picked me up in her car, and took me to her house, so that I could have a look at the room. It's not very big, but with 20 kilos of luggage, I really don't need much.

It's a bit strange to live in someones house like this, but I guess I'll get used to it. I've met everybody today, Faith's husband and her three children, and the german girl who also lives here. They're all very nice.

Tomorrow I'll try to help Faith set up the wireless network, so that I can get access to the Internet from my bedroom. Now I'm going to bed. I need to get ut early tomorrow, to take part in the "orientation week" down at the university.

Looking for somewhere to live

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 08:42:44 GMT

Today I started the day by eating breakfast at a cafe. Continuing with shopping. :D
I had run out of clean socks and underwear. :( Nice to see that clothes are cheaper here than in Norway, though!

The rest of the day I've been looking for somewhere to live. I went looking at a room just a couple of hours ago. It's probably the worst I've ever seen. I simply HATE wall to wall carpets. It's dirty! Disgusting! The apartment in general was dirty, the room had no window(!), and the carpet in the room was probably the dirtiest in the whole apartment. With old sigarettes on the floor... The guy who let me in seemed quite nice and was very friendly, but the rest didn't even bother to say hello.

I think I'd rather follow Ann Katrine's advice, and "pick the one with the private pool". ;)

The hunt continues tomorrow!

Backpacking

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 08:50:10 GMT

Finally, at midnight yesterday, I arrived in Auckland. Took ages to get through the passport control, and another decade to get through the "bio-something control". Well, at least they cleaned my tramping boots for me. :p
Got picked up by a guy from the university, and stationed at "Railroad campus" for the night. Unfortunately I had to check out before 10 o'clock the next morning. Not much time to find some place to live...

I've spent most of the day at the University, talking to lecturers, international office etc. etc. After hours of paperwork and looking for somewhere to live, I had to take a break. Went to see if I could find some stuff that I needed. Who would ever think it would be SO difficult to find towels... Well.

At the end of the day, I ended up at "The fat camel", a backpacker place. I'm staying here at least till tomorrow. Maybe longer. Depends on how many drunk people will keep me awake tonight...

Now I'm going to bed. Dead tired of walking around all day.

In the air

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 08:25:30 GMT

As I write this, I'm situated high up in the air, somewhere between Amsterdam and Singapore.
I'm dead tired of sitting still, and I've got more than 13 more hours of flight time left.

I of course started the day by missing the first bus to the airport in Trondheim. I didn't want to go back inside and have to say goodbye one more time (I actually did it without crying the first time. I'm very proud.), so I waited outside for 20 minutes instead. Cold. Raining. Typical Trondheim.

The flight from Trondheim was delayed, so I had to run like a maniac through the airport in Oslo to reach my next flight, to Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam I had to walk half the airport to get to the right gate. Big plane this time. These asians certainly know how to take care of their passengers! I even got chocolate! :)
(Ann Katrine: I'm afraid I forgot "Et lite stykke Norge" (norwegian milk chocolate, "A little piece of Norway") at home.:(
Lasse: You may have it, if you promise to bring me a new one when you come visit! :D)

It's been dark outside my window for hours and hours now. I hope they bring me some more food soon, and that this flight will soon be over, so that I can stretch my legs a bit...
Most of all, I hope my luggage is still with me... :/ I cross my fingers. And my toes.

Departure

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 03:14:18 GMT

So the day has finally come.
My rucksack is waiting for me in the hall, and the bus to the airport is leaving in barely 20 minutes.

Right now I'm so tired, I'm not sure I understand that I'm actually leaving. But, -Yes, mum, I've got my passport, some money and my tickets.

I've pulled Lasse out of bed too. He looks a bit tired too.
Lucky him can get back to bed in just a few minutes now.

I hate to leave him, and all my friends here in Trondheim.
You better come visit!

Got to go!
Wish me luck in the jungle of airports.

Gratulerer med dagen!

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 18:56:52 GMT

Jenny gratulerast herved hjartelegast med dagen, litt på forskot. Her kan du halde oss oppdatert om liv&levned i New Zealand!

Happy blogging!