Follow the Journey

Hello from Auckland! Our group has spent the past three days in Auckland New Zealand which has been pretty sweet. It is a drastic change from the village life we are used to but everyone is adjusting and having loads of fun.  There are so many things to do in Auckland and as a group we took advantage of this. On Friday a group of us (Me, Lucy, Kelsey, Hannah,… Read More

Bula!!!   Our last week in Nananu was AWESOME we had so many fun activities and time with the villagers and our new families.   On Tuesday of last week we took a group hike to a natural water spring where Nananu gets their water supply. Following the Fijians we found the beautiful spring with waterfalls and all went swimming and most of us even climbed it at one point. On the… Read More

And so continues the amazing adventures of Carpe Diem in the South Pacific:  We spent the first week in Nananu constructing the footpath until an almighty rain came down from the heavens (no literally it rained for 3 days).  We finally got to continue our work on the footpath after 3 days of sitting around.  Our free time is spent hiking, swimming, and playing with all the little kids.  Gotta… Read More

Greetings from Carpe Diem Headquarters, As the group is continuing their journey in Fiji and remain out of communication with email and internet, we wanted to post a word or two to address any concerns about the most recent earthquake in New Zealand. As many of you may already know, Christchurch, NZ (the northern part of the South Island) was devastated with another earthquake on Monday. This is the second… Read More

We’re coming to you from the downtown Nadi backpacker’s hostel. After a long flight we’re finally here!We spent our first day swimming at a very scenic beach, along with some orientation activities and everyone is getting along swell! Today, the boys went on a run (except for Kareem who was busying running around every girl’s head  ;)). While some of the girls, Lucy, Hannah (me-holla), Kelsey, Cliff and Ryan had… Read More

We’ve just received word that all are present, accounted for, and checked in for Nadi, Fiji. Woot! More from the group when they arrive and get settled. Until then, this is HQ signing off…… Read More

Bula, from your very enthusiastic trip leaders, Karen and Cliff! This blog is a place for you to post photos, tell stories and share your experiences with friends and family back home. Send your loved ones this link so they can see and read about the places that your adventurous spirit is taking you. Throughout our semester, each of you will have the opportunity to post to this blog, documenting… Read More

So we now come closer to the two week mark of the end of our trip through Fiji New Zealand, and Australia.  To some of us it might feel like it was all a dream, composed of beautiful landscapes, wonderful scenarios, crazy, and sometimes inappropriate, characters, and of course, fried shapes.  Coming back home can be like waking up from a dream.  Suddenly we realize many of the responsibilities awaiting… Read More

It has been a fabulous last week here in beautiful and sunny Cairns. We spent our week getting scuba certified in the classroom for two days and then off onto our overnight live-aboard on the Kangaroo Explorer. During our dives, we spotted much colorful wildlife including clown fish, many types of coral, sea turtles, sharks, manta rays, sting rays, sea cucumbers, and many more. It was a very exciting trip… Read More

Hello back home,We sit here in Cairns after our plane ride this morning from Brisbane.  We intended to board a train last night that would have taken 22 hours, but the train was canceled due to flooding.  Instead, we got the whole day to check out the city and find out all the information we needed for our next group activity.  Tomorrow at 9, 7 of the 11 members start… Read More

    Hey all! We had a great time on the Groovy Grape with our new enthusiastic companion, Steve, (BRILLIANT!). We started off our journey through the Outback by driving over to Uluru a.k.a. “Ayer’s Rock”, the biggest attraction in the Outback. We spent two days here and on the second night we got to experience a once in a life time opportunity of a thunderstorm over Uluru. The next day we… Read More

G’day Mates!     Unfortunately after spending a wonderful time at the Maori, it came to say goodbyes.  With tears and laughter, we departed Otoko Pa by taking a four hour bus ride to Wellington.  Once we arrived to Wellington, we as a group decided that we were going to save money and stay the night at the train station to catch an extremely early flight the following morning.  But little did we… Read More

Howdy yall!     We have had a very busy week since you last heard from us.  We started off in Rotorua relaxing before we took off for the Maori restoration project.  During that time we went zorbing.  For those of you that don’t know what zorbing is, it’s where individuals leap into a giant hampster ball spritzed with water and are pushed down a hill.  Silly boys, Ross and Penrod forced… Read More

After a night in the ghostown that was Wellington, we headed off on our 5hour bus ride to the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Center.  The week was spent doing some fun and unusual activities.  The first day we went streaming up a river, knee deep, for some of us short people waist deep, and for others who fell in head deep.  Without too many bumps and bruises, we made… Read More

Hello friends and family,Sorry it’s taken so long to get our free travel blog out (which seems like forever ago now…) but it is finally here! After spending two magnificant days in Queenstown exploring the city and eating delicious Fergbergers and Fish &Chips;, the group decided to venture out on two different free travel options.Part of the group- MoMo and the minors (aka Simone, Samira, and Gabe)-decided to rent a… Read More

Hello Stalkers! Samira and Tate here reporting from Marama Farms! The group had mixed experiences in the city of Auckland. For most the time was spent exploring the city and even taking time to have a ride on a dolphin at the world famous Sky Tower. We learned lots of things like: Where to find delicious gelato, kebabs, and burgers. We learned that nothing good happens in a hostel bathroom… Read More

Greetings from Auckland,      We have just arrived in New Zealand after having a wonderful experience at our homestays in Togovere Village. We were wlecomed with a sevu sevu ceremony where we were offered kava and where we met our Nau’s (mothers) and the people of Togovere. The first night we got aquainted with our homestay families and went up the hill to watch an amazing sunset (which we did night… Read More

Watch out Fiji, because here comes Carpe Diem. After what seemed like the endless days of traveling, we arrived in Nadi during the wee hours of the morning. While the lack of sleep was prevalent on the faces of all the group members, the Fiji sun rising over the mountaintops and the excitement of reaching our destination pushed us through our first day. The next morning Ben and Simone took… Read More

It’s officially happened, the Walkabout group is walking now, through security, and onto the great beyond towards FIJI!  The group thankfully didn’t experience any difficulty in uniting and if that doesn’t bode well for a wonderful semester than I don’t know what does! … Read More

Walkabout, the final Carpe Diem group is all together and ready to ship out to the many challenges and adventures that await!  Look for more from the group itself in a couple of days.  Until then, this is Carpe HQ signing off….… Read More