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By Nora_Wolcott

Thanks to the University of Auckland's forgiving exam schedule, I had a full week free before the start of my exams this month. I used this time to go explore the Coromandel Peninsula, and embark on what was likely to be the last major tramping trip I'd be able to take in New Zealand. So, on a Wednesday morning I picked up my rental car and headed South, towards what would prove to be a thrilling week of adventure.

My first day kicked off with a trip to Hot Water Beach, a beach formed over a bed of hot lava. Because of this phenomenon, if you wait until low tide at the beach and dig a large hole, it will fill with hot water from the lava-heated springs below. I knew this in advance, but somehow didn't expect the water to be quite as hot as it was. The water, I later found out, was about 65 degrees Celsius, or around 150 Fahrenheit. In comparison, when I had visited Rotorua I had found any of the hot springs above 42C to be too warm for me, so this was definitely off the table. Still, the beach was beautiful, with turquoise waters and none of the sulfuric stench I had grown to associate with geothermal activity. Back at the hostel I was staying at, I was lucky enough to meet a wide array of other solo travellers, from countries ranging from Austria to fellow Americans, who were eager to join up for some adventuring. This became my group for the next day, when we headed off to visit Cathedral Cove.

After seeing almost the entirety of the North Island, I can conclusively say that Cathedral Cove is my newfound favorite spot. To get to the Cove requires a 90 minute hike, weeding out some of the prospective tourists, and includes detours to several other smaller beaches and lookout points. It was one of those first lookout points that we we hiked up to, atop one of the many cliffs overlooking the Cove, from which I saw a large ray swimming languidly through the waters below. The water in the Cove is so clear that, even from the top of this cliff, it was easy to make out the ray swimming amongst the waves, getting covered by sand then shaking it off again. After this sighting, we hiked down into the cove itself, which is full of waterfalls and caves and huge rocky formations, pieces of the cliffs now part of the ocean. We continued exploring the cove until sunset, which rewarded us with a startlingly pink sky over the Pacific. I headed back to the hostel more than satisfied, and went to bed early in anticipation of the next couple days.

...continue reading "One Last Tramp"

By reuben31

So, why Israel? In my first blog in this series, written all the way back in the beginning of February, I posed this question to myself. Prior to leaving, many of my friends asked me why I chose to study abroad in Israel. I always felt disingenuous in my answers. I would reply with some cliché about finding my Jewish identity, or experiencing what it really is like to live in Israel, but to be honest, I was not quite sure why exactly I had chosen to study in Israel. At the beginning of the semester, in the first blog I wrote, I hoped that by the end of the semester I might have an answer to this question. So here goes nothing.

As a Jewish person in the US, before my time in Israel, I saw my Jewish identity as a religion. But since being here I figured out that being Jewish is not a religion at all. It’s an identity, it’s a community, it’s an ethnicity, it’s a group of people with common thought and morals and values and language and slang. So, first, I chose Israel because Israel feels like home. As cliché as that may sound, studying here has provided me with a sense of security, even in a place that at times has been insecure. When I have travelled in Europe and felt homesick and alone, I didn’t crave to hear an American accent, I craved to hear Hebrew, or see a yarmulke. My Jewish identity was torn down to its core here in Israel and built up even stronger than it was prior.

Israel is more than what one hears in the news, from either side of the political spectrum. It is more than what lively campus groups from both arenas argue it to be on campus. It is more than the Arab-Israeli conflict, and it is more than just a Jewish homeland. Israel is a diverse, beautiful, vibrant, and unique country. It is a Jewish state, it is a democracy, it is surrounded on all sides by unstable war-torn countries, and yet, through all of this complexity, Israel is thriving. After generations of persecution and massacre, one might expect Israelis to be afraid, but they are simply not. They are strong and they are proud. So second, I chose Israel to sort through these complex issues and find a true understanding of what Israel actually is. I didn’t want to be told by the news or any group what to think of the State, and studying here this semester I have found, for myself, what Israel really is all about. And that connection and understanding that I have created with this place is something that will last with me for a lifetime.

...continue reading "So, why Israel?"

By reuben31

So, why Israel? In my first blog in this series, written all the way back in the beginning of February, I posed this question to myself. Prior to leaving, many of my friends asked me why I chose to study abroad in Israel. I always felt disingenuous in my answers. I would reply with some cliché about finding my Jewish identity, or experiencing what it really is like to live in Israel, but to be honest, I was not quite sure why exactly I had chosen to study in Israel. At the beginning of the semester, in the first blog I wrote, I hoped that by the end of the semester I might have an answer to this question. So here goes nothing.

As a Jewish person in the US, before my time in Israel, I saw my Jewish identity as a religion. But since being here I figured out that being Jewish is not a religion at all. It’s an identity, it’s a community, it’s an ethnicity, it’s a group of people with common thought and morals and values and language and slang. So, first, I chose Israel because Israel feels like home. As cliché as that may sound, studying here has provided me with a sense of security, even in a place that at times has been insecure. When I have travelled in Europe and felt homesick and alone, I didn’t crave to hear an American accent, I craved to hear Hebrew, or see a yarmulke. My Jewish identity was torn down to its core here in Israel and built up even stronger than it was prior.

Israel is more than what one hears in the news, from either side of the political spectrum. It is more than what lively campus groups from both arenas argue it to be on campus. It is more than the Arab-Israeli conflict, and it is more than just a Jewish homeland. Israel is a diverse, beautiful, vibrant, and unique country. It is a Jewish state, it is a democracy, it is surrounded on all sides by unstable war-torn countries, and yet, through all of this complexity, Israel is thriving. After generations of persecution and massacre, one might expect Israelis to be afraid, but they are simply not. They are strong and they are proud. So second, I chose Israel to sort through these complex issues and find a true understanding of what Israel actually is. I didn’t want to be told by the news or any group what to think of the State, and studying here this semester I have found, for myself, what Israel really is all about. And that connection and understanding that I have created with this place is something that will last with me for a lifetime.

...continue reading "So, why Israel?"