Last days of the long summer

My three month summer holiday is over! It's been the longest holiday I've ever had and it's gone the fastest. I changed host-families last Wednesday and school started on Friday. First school day was dedicated to pair-support (year 13 and year 9) and actual school work starts on Monday. I'm changing some of my subjects and only taking five this year which means I'll have a free (study) period! So the upcoming (half) year looks pretty good. Here's some photos from my last days of holiday from Paihia, where we went paragliding and swimming with dolphins.
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Nyt ois sitten kolmen kuukauden kesäloma ohi. Loma on ollut pisin ikinä ja tuntunut lyhyimmältä. Vaihdoin keskiviikkona host-perhettä ja perjantaina alkoi koulu. Vaihdoin muutaman oppiaineen ja valitsin vain viisi ainetta tälle (puolikkaalle)vuodelle, joten päivittäin jaa yksi tunti (opiskelua varten) vapaaksi. Tässä kuvia viimeisiltä lomapäiviltä Paihiasta, missä käytiin liitovarjoilemassa ja uimassa delffiinien kanssa.

Ready to fly with Bex

I never though paragliding would be so wet business

Nice dinner after great day

We got an excellent tour around Bay of Islands since it took us three hours to find the dolphins

Delffiinien löytäminen kesti kolme tuntia, mutta saimmepa hyvän maisemakierroksen

 And finally some dolphins:

Random people swimming with the dolphins

Enjoying NZ sun after (hard-ish) swim

 That night we had our dinner at Russel:
Illalla käytiin syömässä Russelissa:

The only proper way to end a holiday <3

South Island tour, part 3, the Routeburn Track and Milford Sound

 
The Routeburn Track is one of the great walks of New Zealand. It's located in Fiordland national park. We started our tramp from close to Queenstown and walked 33km East to the Divide.

The track was an amazing experience and one of my highlights of the South Island tour. I loved every step, even the ones that I hated...

First brake and little snack.

Water in the mountain streams was perfectly drinkable

Not my pic, credits to Alice

The walk took us four days and we stayed the nights in huts. The first hot was Routeburn Falls hut and the view was amazing!

Tired and sore after a long walk with more than 100 kilos in our bags!

And this is what the sleeping hut looked like from inside. It was terribly cold but otherwise quite nice.

How many languages can you recognise?

On second day we started our walk early in the morning and it was snowing! For many European students this felt like christmas, but I'm not too sure what the South Americans and our California girl were thinking.

South Americans and snowfall

Morning tea in a cave

Tracks in great walks are always easy to walk and follow

That line on the cliff is our track!

Lunch break, some soup and muesli-bars in a hut that was as steamy as sauna

Our second hut is by that lake

Apparently it's a tradition for exchange students to have a swim in the lake McKenzie but for some reason I was the only one doing so!

It started snowing again on our second night

Kiwi style!

After a (freezing) night we started our last day on the Routeburn Track and this is what it looked like:

Do you want to build a snowman?

Last break

Last challenge of the Routeburn was the Key Summit which is a high peak just before the end of the track. We were allowed to leave our heavy bags to the bottom (thank god!) and then we hurried to the top (it became sort of a race) where we saw an amazing view.

More flag pics:

Me and maple leaf

And finally after a hard three days we arrived to the other end of the Routeburn Track

This pic was actually taken the evening before Routeburn

After Routeburn we spent night at the Milford Mariner which is a nice cruise boat at the Milford Sound. Swimming in the ice cold sea, penguins, seals, warm showers, comfy bets and good food. Quite perfect after hard tramp!

Getting a closer look of the Sound

It's a seal! <3

There was something fishy about the wind close to that waterfall:

Poor Max wasn't finished with his dinner when the program began

Boys, this is what happens when you take selfies with my camera

Trying to spot those penguings

Sunrise at the penguin corner

 

We met a kia on our way leaving the Milford Sound