Today we spent an hour in the morning at the Te Papa Museum. It definitely was not enough time to see much but Erin and I went through the Natural Forces and Maori Culture exhibits. The first was all about the earth's core, magma, tectonic plates, etc. The biggest feature in that exhibit is an earthquake simulator where you stand in a tiny little fake house and watch a video about New Zealand earthquakes and then the whole thing shakes. Honestly the video was more terrifying than the little house moving. It made me extremely glad that I live in a relatively earthquake free area and hopefully don't have to deal with such destruction in my life.
I didn't take this video but here is a glimpse of what it was like.
I didn't take this video but here is a glimpse of what it was like.
The Maori exhibit was also amazing but a lot of it went over my head because I really don't know much about the history of New Zealand and the Maori culture. The carvings were incredibly beautiful and I can't wait until we get to learn more about this culture.
We spent most of the rest of the day in the bus driving to Tongariro National Park where there are three volcanoes. We stopped during our drive and took pictures of Mount Ruapehu, Tongariro, and Ngauruhoe (better known as Mount Doom to Lord of the Rings fans). We even took a walk to Tawhai waterfall and on our way back to the bus the sun was setting and cast a beautiful glow over the mountains and forest.
We spent most of the rest of the day in the bus driving to Tongariro National Park where there are three volcanoes. We stopped during our drive and took pictures of Mount Ruapehu, Tongariro, and Ngauruhoe (better known as Mount Doom to Lord of the Rings fans). We even took a walk to Tawhai waterfall and on our way back to the bus the sun was setting and cast a beautiful glow over the mountains and forest.
We finished driving to the hostel which had a beautiful view of the volcanoes. It was quite a cute little place. For dinner that evening my group made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. I absolutely loved it! For those who know me well, you'll know that cheese is not one of my favorite foods. I honestly don't think I'd ever eaten a grilled cheese before. Definitely going to be one of my new go-to meals. Later that night a bunch of us played Cards Against Humanity and I kicked butt much to several peoples' surprise. It's always the quiet ones...