The First Ten Days

Hey! Luckily Nols headquarters has a wifi connection here so I am able to make a quick update about my trip. So I left ten days ago and it took my 60 hrs, 5 flights to get here with 33 of them being in an airplane. I'll explain more about that later but it was actually surprisingly enjoyable and not at all miserable like you would expect after spending 2.5 days traveling. Once I got to NZ I spent three days in Christchurch, but that was really three days to many since the city is pretty much dead since the earthquake. The entire downtown area is blocked off and essentially a ground zero. I was able to catch up on some sleep during that while in CC which was nice. The hostel that i stayed as was a former jail but other than that CC was pretty lame so I immediately bought a plane ticket and set off for Queenstown. This was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Queenstown is the self proclaimed adventure capital of the world so I knew this would be a place where there would be constantly something to do, and there was. Hence why I never updated this blog in the first week. (Also everywhere charges for $3 per hour so wifi so that has prevented me from posting so much) To keep it short, I stayed in a hostel called Southern Laughter, where there were lots of people my age from all over the world with many different crazy accents. I even met a fellow American guy named Ripley that is a junior at Vandy and that is good friends with Anton and Keith. While in Queenstown I hiked Ben Lemond Peak and I did a day trip tour to Milford Sound. Check out my photos that I've posted on facebook or just google image it. It's some of the most spectacular landscape I have ever seen.
Anyways, I caught a flight back to Christchurch on Friday and got a room for two nights at the dorms in YMCA.
This morning I met all of the people that are going to be on my course with me and they seem like a cool crowd. I'm definitely psyched about the next 77 days. I'll post again then with some more stories as after that!
Cheers!

The Introduction

Hey thanks for checking out my blog! For those of you that do not already know, this semester I am taking a semester off from UT studying abroad in New Zealand with NOLS (The National Outdoor Leadership School).  I am going to be in New Zealand for three months and on my way back I will be stopping in Singapore and Malaysia to visit with my brother Sean, whom I do not get visit alot since he currently lives in Japan.  Over the next 100 days, I am going to be on quite an adventure and hopefully I will be able to share some incredible stories with you.  Whenever I have internet access I will try to post a new update or story!