Tag: university of denver

Milford Sound & Australia

Published on by MolayMediaLeave a comment

The Milford Sound is one of the most visited tourist towns in New Zealand. It is an extremely small village that is in the North-East region of Fiordland National Park and connects to the Tasman Sea. Fiordland National Park is known for having many fiords, which are super steep mountainous areas with deep valleys that were carved out by glaciers. Seeing these formations in person can best be described as standing between incredibly steep valleys which require you to move your entire head and neck to see the top of. It was stunning and was easily the most incomprehensible place I have visited in this country. The main attraction is taking a 90 minute boat tour through these valleys and turning around halfway through once you leave the country’s “border” and start traveling into the sea. Another aspect that is important to note before describing the boat tour itself is the drive to get to Milford Sound.

THE STRUGGLES

I was able to do the Milford Sound cruise with two other friends that I have met since being here, however these two other friends and myself happened to be the only remaining exchange students that I knew of that had not done this tour. This is because our tour on October 25th was my third attempt. It is quite the effort to get to the Milford Sound. It requires roughly 2-3 days to comfortably complete the tour. It is a 5-6 hour drive from campus. The distance, far in-advance scheduling, and financial commitment it requires is just the beginning. Weather has been the determining factor in my struggles. The incredibly scenic drive on SH94 is the only way to get to Milford Sound. The road navigates through dangerous avalanche territory and can be closed by the NZ Transport Agency. The road is closed on average eight days out of the year. It just so happens that the two weekends we picked to travel were each closed the day before, the day of, and the day after, which accounts for 3/4th of the total average road closures. Planning to go with a different group each time, we were each lucky enough (or unlucky) to pick random weekends for the road to get closed. Considering that this boat cruise is one of the only things I was determined to have completed before leaving the country, it was indeed demoralizing.

THE STRUGGLES PAY OFF

With my third and final group we had decided to go October 25th, and this was the last chance I had to make it happen. Given my past traumas with this event I was constantly checking weather forecast and radars the weeks leading up to our planned date. My friends were quick to judge my attentiveness to the predicted weather as it understandably would not change anything no matter how many times I checked. New Zealand received one of the biggest rain storms of the winter on October 23rd and 24th, and with rain means snow at the elevated regions. This new snow significantly increased avalanche risk, especially on SH94. The road was yet again closed both on the 23rd and 24th. The group thought it would be canceled yet again for the THIRD TIME. We made phone calls to the transportation agency to see if we could to perhaps receive some sort of insight on the road’s opening on the 25th. We drove from the nearest town, which is 90 min away from Milford Sound, to the point at which the road closes. We have been here before, both times let down because the road stayed closed all day. We rounded the corner, and the road had just opened up, it felt like a miracle had just unfolded before our eyes. Myself and my friend Devon, (the only two that had gotten the tour canceled twice before) screamed and produced noises that I didn’t know were possible. We made it.

THE TOUR

Now that all of the anticipation had finally come to fruition, it was time for the actual event. To begin, the drive into Milford Sound was one of the most beautiful drives I have ever experienced. Given the rainstorm the day prior, the fiords that surrounded us were impeccable. Hundreds of waterfalls, daunting slabs of rock walls, snow capped peaks, and a low-ish fog to solidify the unique environment.

We arrived to the parking lot and ran for the tour boat. We got to the top deck and could not believe we were not only about to embark on one of the most scenic experiences in the world, but also simply that we had finally made it. The tour was filled with an ambient narration from the tour guide of the myriad of fascinating structures and formations, but I was honestly too engulfed in the scenery around me to care. This was one of those experiences that no photo or video can properly serve the environment it’s proper portrayal. Again, I have never experienced such dramatic walls of mountains before, all whilst being surrounded by waterfalls. The boat turned around once we got to the sea and we got to experience the same tour but in reverse. I am not sure that I will ever be able to accurately articulate the emotions that such an experience can invoke, and for that reason I will be forever grateful for being able to experience it in person. Core memory!

(We were unable to see penguins or dolphins of which the tour is also known for being one of the better ways to experience them)

AUSTRALIA!

I was fortunate enough to squeeze in a quick trip to Australia in the middle of my final examination period. I flew into Sydney and was immediately greeted with a public transportation system that was undoubtedly way better than anything New Zealand has to offer. I couldn’t fathom being able to so easily get on a train and go a significant distance, that process is something that is laughably absent in NZ.

I have a few friends who were studying in Newcastle which is just an hour drive north of Sydney which allowed me to have free tour guides for Sydney and Newcastle, (the only cities I was able to go to). The weather was noticeably warmer, and better, than NZ. This is something I appreciated especially when packing for the trip given that every NZ trip I’d been on required packing my heaviest clothes.

Seeing the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House in person was quite incredible. Just like any sight, photos never do it justice unless you are able to see them in person. I was so impressed by these sights, and one of the more special parts of viewing them was from the ferry. Using the ferries to navigate the town was something that became one of my favorite parts. Seeing the entire city from the water was super unique for me.

We were able to go to the Tangaroo Zoo and see some new animals, which were namely Koala Bears, Kangaroos, Wallaby, Red Pandas, and more. I specifically enjoyed all of the food we ate, whether it was breakfast for dinner, a ginger ale accompanying every meal, or discovering Malatang, a Chinese cuisine that is basically hot pot but is much quicker in preparation. I was in the biggest Lego and Apple store that I’ve ever been in, both companies that I am a nerd for.

I had the privilege of being able to attend my friend’s end-of-year ball which came with meeting new people, free drinks and food, and a fun night out afterwards. I truly enjoyed getting to experience my friend’s lifestyles in their new home and learning everything that I could about Australian culture in the short time that I was there. Woohoo!

Photos and videos linked below!

Divine Timing

Published on by rhiannalewisLeave a comment

Let me start by offering a disclaimer, which might arguably be the worst way to start a blog post: I am not (necessarily) endorsing the actions I took this past weekend, but desperate times call for desperate measures. You’ll see what I mean in a minute.

My roommate Sarah and I made somewhat last-minute plans to hike part of Mt. Olympus last weekend. Sarah is a fellow DU student and was missing the mountains as much as I was, so we put together a trip for the two of us to stay in the town of Litochoro at the base of Olympus National Park. Trains aren’t a reliable mode of transportation here as they are in most of Europe, so we decided to take the bus. To ensure we were purchasing the right tickets, I picked out everything with our ISA program advisor Eugenia, who is Greek. She called the bus company for me to verify that once we arrived in Litochoro Friday night, we’d be dropped off somewhere in town near the bus company’s local branch. Sarah and I got out tickets, booked an Airbnb with a view of the ocean, and packed to see the home of the Gods.

The ride from Athens to Litochoro is close to five hours long. Once we finally got close to the town after what felt like eons on the bus, it was pitch black outside and we were ready for bed. As the driver announced our stop, we packed up and walked off the bus with only one other passenger. In the time it took to get our backpacks on, the bus had pulled away and was heading to its final destination. This is when we realized that we hadn’t been dropped off in the town center, but at a tiny bus stop on the side of the highway. The only thing we could see was a gas station glowing faintly in the distance.

No need to panic yet, I had phone service and plenty of battery! I opened the FreeNow app, which is how you can get a taxi in Greece, and a message read: “Service unavailable in this area!” I open the Uber app, which is slightly less reliable but still worth a shot, and the same message pops up. At this point, it is almost 9:30pm. Our last resort is to check public transportation thinking there is a local bus route still running at this time of night. No such luck. The town center is close to a two-hour walk away uphill from our location. We are stranded in the mountains of Northern Greece.

As soon as this realization hits, we start calling Tess and Eugenia, our ISA advisors here in Athens. Eugenia is (we learn later) in class, so she doesn’t pick up my call. Luckily, Tess answers her phone, and I explain the situation to her while Sarah, understandably, sits on the bench motionless, nearly in tears. Tess is just about as lost on solutions as we are because, honestly, there are no good answers to our problems. As her and I brainstorm, a car pulls off the highway towards us.

“Do you two need a ride to Litochoro? Into town?”

Well, yes, I think to myself. But also, not like this.

We get closer to the car and see a middle-aged Greek woman driving by herself. She asked us again and said she could see we looked lost, which was the understatement of the century. Meanwhile, I’m relaying all of this back to Tess and asking her what to do. After a minute, Tess sighs and gives us the ‘ok’ to get in the car. I share our live location and the license plate number with Tess and hang up the phone, praying Sarah and I are not buckling straight into a slasher film.

The woman could tell we were hesitant and told us that she had two kids of her own, a son and a daughter around our age. She explained that she lived in town with her husband and had an Airbnb that she ran for tourists like us. We learned about where she attended university and where she got her master’s degree, and by this point, we had figured that we were probably more safe than not. When we finally got into town, we drove down a quiet street where we were shown her house, met her husband, George, and got to see her dog. She then proceeded to drive us around for another 15 minutes when we couldn’t find our Airbnb and the host wasn’t picking up my phone calls. When we finally found the correct building and tried to give her a few Euro as a ‘thank-you’, she refused and instead met us both with warm hugs, telling us to come knock on her door if we needed anything else that weekend. After that, she went home to George and we called Tess to let her know we had survived hitchhiking for the first time!

The next day, Sarah and I hiked about 8 miles of Mt. Olympus. It was a surreal experience that I will never forget. I felt more connected to nature and humanity than I have in many other places I have traveled to. When we were finished and went back into town for dinner that night, after verifying the bus schedule and pickup location for the next morning, we talked about how bad we felt that we never got the woman from the previous’ nights name. No sooner had we said that I spotted a small dog with two owners across the small square. It was her! We waved her over to our table and exchanged hugs. She asked how Olympus was, and we thanked her again no less than fifty times. I asked if she could write down her name and address, just in case we ever needed it again. Αρετή (pronounced A-ret-ie) also gave us her phone number, telling us to call or text her if we needed “absolutely anything” while in Greece. She told us that next time we came back to Litochoro that we could stay with her. She was the definition of “the people make the place.”

That is, of course, until she ran back up to Sarah and I ten minutes later with two small gift bags from a shop on the town square. Inside the bags were body lotions made with herbs from Mt. Olympus. “Gifts for you girls,” she said as she stood up with us to take a picture. We tried to tell her that it was too much, that WE should be getting HER a gift, but she wouldn’t have it. The three of us took a photo and said goodbye. We waved at her husband George as they walked home and finished our delicious meal, and left Litochoro on time from the town center the next morning.

Hiking Mt. Olympus is a bucket list activity that I have dreamed of doing since I was a kid. Hitchhiking and connecting with a middle-aged Greek mother, however, was not. I’m pretty sure the second one has become more important to me. If there’s anything I’ve learned over the past month and a half, it’s that maybe the Ancient Greeks were onto something. You might be stranded on the side of the highway, looking painfully American, with your roommate in emotional shambles, debating if you should get in a strangers car, but if you’ve made the long journey to see the Gods, they will reward you. You just have to have a little faith in the divine. (And the kindness of strangers)

Sarah, Αρετή, and I at dinner