Kia Ora: Good Health

Hello!

“Good health,” from New Zealand! This week I am on break before I return to JCU for finals, so I hopped on a plane to explore the North Island…but don’t worry, we’ll get to that! So the last I talked at you, I had just returned from Cairns.

So the past few weeks have been a little slow since the semester was coming to an end. While everyone was finishing their final assignments, we were looking for some low-key things to do in our down time. In that time I conducted my first photo shoot, watched the first Lord of the Rings movie for the first time, met some fire spinners, and “learned” how to slack line.

The photo shoot was something that I had wanted to do for a period of time before that day. However, I was not able to spare time between traveling and classes until then. I met with my friend Alex, who had never done anything like this before, and we both just rolled with it. I had to set her up for the first few shots until she was comfortable, and then she began to suggest ideas of her own. It was a really interesting experience to see her grow behind the camera and learn to make the proper positioning adjustments with some minor direction.

After some friends had learned that I was to travel to New Zealand and had never seen the Lord of the Rings movies, they made it their mission to sit me down and watch at least the first one. Good news: I thought it was great, despite how useless hobbits are and how creepy everything else is! I’m actually looking forward to watching the next one.

The fire spinning was an amazing experience. It’s crazy that they have to be so carful to not burn themselves or catch anything else on fire. We got to sit on the beach on a lazy Sunday night and enjoy the refreshing breeze off the coast while they made beautiful designs against the night sky.

It was the weekend after watching the fire spinners that we had some more down time and one of the other students on college had set up his slack line on the lawn. I had gone over to shoot him walking across, but he was intent on everyone having “a fair go.” It was with much difficulty, and plenty of help, that I was able to stand on the line.

As I mentioned earlier, lectures are now finished and I am traveling the North Island of New Zealand, but you’ll just have to wait until next time to hear more about it!

Aussie Slang of the Week:
A fair go- everyone gets a fair turn
Bloody- very
Footy- Australian Rules football
Servo- petrol station
Cheers!
Erica