Finally, some sleep!

Tuesday July 6, 2010
After the crazy past few days of being shuttled from one place to the next, I took full advantage of finally be able to settle down to sleep in-well at least to the very late time of 9:00 in the morning that is. I know that this is slightly extreme, but some days you just have to sleep in. The lazy day continued with the grand scheme of unpacking my bags (Derek, I found my belt!) and making my room feel like home.


My roommate, Britney, and I decided to walk down to the mall to do a little shopping for the necessities. This was deemed successful since we were able to (a) not get rained on and (b) not get lost! The mall is exactly like every other mall you find in the states; loud and full of tweens/moms with strollers/cranky shoppers. The babble has a different accent, and the stores, while they look the same, are named entirely different things- well beside the McDonalds and Starbucks of course. But the general atmosphere is extremely similar. As a reward for our successful walk we agreed to get ice cream, in particular a flavor called “Hokey Pokey” which is the flavor NZ is famous for. This vanilla ice cream is swirled with yummy, crunchy, candy bits and is quite delicious, definitely beats Vegemite!

The interesting thing about shopping here is that much of the food is exactly the same, except in different packaging, or called something different. Walking through the grocery story is quite the adventure; Cheddar Cheese is white not orangy yellow, Bread can be “Toast” or “Sandwich” style, there is 10 different varieties of Nutella, and plastic bags can cost as much as 10¢(best bring your own).

We also added another roommate today, which brings us up to five. Ruth and Rachel are Kiwis, Britney is from Oregon, and Julie is from Chicago. They are all fantastic girls, and we’re off on the start of an excellent semester together.

Here's a picture for the Crew Team:

Your magical towel turned out super cute! Love it! Thanks!

Some days just never work out the way it's planned

Monday July 5th
It became very obvious today that we are in a total different culture; the Rotorua airport doesn’t have any security. Everyone can just walk in, sit down, and watch the planes take off. It is very laid back, almost like a coffee shop where you just happen to look out over the runway, then an international airport. I would know this because I spent 4 hours there this morning waiting for my plane to Christchurch. I just happened to be eating breakfast at the exact wrong moment when our coordinator needed two victims to send ahead. Our conversation goes like this:

Jane: “I need two Canterbury Students to go early to the airport since the shuttle can’t fit all of you at once” She spies poor Nick and Anna trying to hide in the corner, they just happen to be the only two Canterbury students awake at that time “Anna! Nick! Great! I’m so glad you two can go! Meet Kate at 8:00 with your luggage.”

Anna(starting to panic at the thought of the giant mess that is her luggage) “But Jane, I haven’t packed my bags yet! I wasn’t expecting to leave until 10:30!”

Jane “Oh don’t worry dear! You’ve got half an hour!”

Anna *Full out sprints out the door*

I made it (with a very ungraceful packing job-sorry Derek!), checked said luggage, toodled around the coffee shop, I mean airport, for two hours waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. Only to find out midway through that our flight was canceled. Two hours later we are shipped off in a bus back up to Auckland(a 4 hour trip north) so that we could get on a plane to fly to Christchurch. Part way through the bus ride, Jane got a call saying that my luggage was left at the Rotorua Airport- even though they had told me that they had already shipped it on to Christchurch before we left. Fantastic, so now it will get there late, if at all. Meanwhile we just barely caught the plane because our bus was about 10 minutes too slow. Thankfully, the plane was just a touch delayed, which possibly could have something to do with the frantic calls our coordinator was making. Hmmm..

Anyway, back to the story. I got to sit between two cute little old kiwi men who talked my ears off the entire trip. They had advice on pretty much everything, but didn’t actually want to hear you speak (in fact, the one time I got a couple words in, I was told I spoke to fast and no one would understand me in this country) However, listening paid off because half way through the trip the one next to the window offered to switch seats. Slightly mystified I agreed, and WOW, was that the best decision of the day! They clouds that had been haunting us throughout the day gave way to gorgeous snow covered mountains and green valleys. The view kept me smiling right up until I got off and they told me they had no idea where my bag was.


Finally we reached the Ilam apartments at Canterbury. Our home for the next 4 ½ months. We sorted our luggage (or lack thereof) out, and then went to celebrate with Pizza at a fabulous pizza place just down the street. Midway through the meal, the airport calls and says it has two of my groups missing luggage, including mine! They delivered it right to the pizza place. Never have I been so happy to see a piece of baggage.

Phewda! What a day! But now I have a room of my own, and can unpack the poor lost suitcase. The flat is fantastic, and massive! My room alone is twice the size of the single rooms at St. Kates. I live with two kiwi’s and an American from Oregon. Sadly, I haven’t been here long enough to know anything more about them, or life here at Canterbury. Hopefully tomorrow will bring some excitement(or at least a proper night of sleep!). Kia Ora!

Kiwi's anyone?

Sunday July 4th
Let’s start this post with food again; Fresh fruit here is AMAZING! I ate my first NZ kiwi for breakfast, and let’s just say that it might just become the main staple of my diet while in this country. :D Day two of vegemite was much better than day one! Definitely still an acquired taste though.

Our adventure starts at the geothermal wonderland near Rotorua. We were told we would get to watch a geyser erupt at 10:15 this morning, that it magically erupted every morning at the exact same time. Most of us were thinking along the same lines as old faithful. But no, not this geyser! Lady Nox (as the geyser is fondly referred to as) is only about 100 years old. She came to be a geyser when some convicts who were working in the bush decided to wash their dishes in a hot spring. The soap they were using reacted with the chemicals in the hot spring causing it to violently erupt-much to the surprise of the dish washers! Now a days the park officials don’t use soap, but rather a chemical that induces the eruption without leaving residue on the surrounding environment. Who knew there are such a thing as a artificial geysers? The rest of the park was completely Au natural; full of beautiful hot springs, deep caverns, and the stink of sulfur.


Despite the chilly weather, our next stop was the thing I was most looking forward too: Zorbing! In case you didn’t know; zorbing is where you are rolled down a hill in a giant plastic ball! The balls are actually two balls, one inside the other. You are tossed in to the middle one along with a bunch of hot water and 2-3 other people and shoved off the top of the hill. It’s a bit like I imagine being inside a washing machine would be like. So much fun; there’s water wooshing everywhere, and you’re just sliding around, having a magnificent time; laughing, screaming, smiling, the entire way down the hill! It’s a task that should be on(and checked off of) EVERYONE’S bucket list!

Finally we ended the day by visiting a village set up like a traditional Maori village would be. We got to watch them dance a Haka, and we were able to eat some of the traditional foods. Lamb, Fish, chicken, carrots, potatoes, their sweet potato(Not nearly as sweet as ours but still yummy!) mussels, bread, and a type of pudding/custard with kiwis for dessert. All of it was baked in the earth using geothermal cooking. Mmmm, Delicious!

All the way back to the hotel our Maori driver kept us singing, joking and driving illegally. We finished off the night with a round of The Star Spangled Banner- after all it is the 4th of July, even if we’re in the wrong country.

Almost caught up #3 Some days you just feel like a tourist

Saturday July 3, 2010
Today’s the day; today I made the valiant attempt to eat Vegemite. After carefully toasting my bread and then spreading a single corner of it thinly (per instructions) with the dark, devious spread. One sniff, and a quick glance at the curious eyes around me, and I quickly bite in to it. This turns out to be a horrible idea; the bitterness of the spread completely overwhelms the taste of my toast turning it all in to one unpleasant mouthful. My cowardly audience erupts in laughter as my face displays just how tasteful I find this new cuisine. Only a couple of them are brave enough to try for themselves, and they too go through the same horridness of my experience. New Zealand may be one of the most gorgeous places on earth- but they most certainly do not know what to put on toast.

After this morning’s regretful experience we drove from Auckland to Rotorua, This involved a three hour bus ride through the beautiful North island countryside. Along the way we learned a little about the history, such as the Maori Land wars and how they struggled to be seen as first class citizens. We made a stop at an extremely touristy farm to learn about sheep breeds and watch a ewe being shaved… the two farm girls from Minnesota were extremely bored, but all of the city kids loved it. I’m not sure how often I had to explain that no; shearing them does not hurt, and is actually better for them in the long run. It’s amazing how ignorant people are of simple animal care. End rant of the day. Anyway, back to New Zealand, we finished with the farm (bleck) and went to a little zoo/nature trail area, Called Rainbow Springs, where we got to see some pretty awesome native birds and were shown the kiwi bird enclosure but couldn’t find the actual Kiwi birds that supposedly lived there.
Our day ended with a relaxing trip to the hot springs in Rotorua. Which left me thoroughly exhausted, so it’s off to bed!

Late post #2 Pinch me, I'm dreaming

Friday July 2, 2010
We landed In Auckland about 5:30 in the morning. I slept most of the trip, even through “How to train your dragon”  After a long wait for customs, and a biosecurity officer giving me the third degree because I live on a farm- it was off to explore Auckland with all of the Arcadia Students.

We started with a short walk about the city, learning about a few things here and there (they’re extremely proud of beating the Americans in the American cup!) then we separated and went for lunch. My group chose a tiny café that was down a kind of shady alley, but the food was fantastic, and the staff extremely friendly-as are most Kiwis’s I’ve met so far! Auckland is the largest city in NZ- and you can definitely tell. While it’s 1.5 million inhabitants doesn’t seem like a lot of people compared to some American cities. However, it is incredibly diverse-Japanese, Maori, Kiwi’s from European descent etc. All of this diversity means you can feel the city vibrate with energy. After lunch we were off to the North Shore to explore bunkers that had been built during WWI. We climbed a fairly good sized hill (not easy when fighting jet-lag!) only to find that the bunkers were overshadowed by the expansive view of almost the entire city of Auckland. This gorgeous view was what cemented the fact that, yes; we were actually in New Zealand. Everyone’s jaws dropped, and the cameras were quickly pulled out.

Once we finally got over our awestruckness from the view we headed back in to Auckland to head up to the top of the Sky Tower. This is the tower that many people associate with Auckland/New Zealand. One quick ride up a glass bottomed elevator and we made it to the top! I’m not sure how tall the Skytower actually is, but, in my opinion, with the glass sections in the floor, that looked straight down, it is plenty tall enough! The Sky Tower also offers bungy jumping, so we were able to watch a few people’s rather fascinating expressions as they jumped off this tower.

Finally we all grabbed pizza together for supper. By this time all of us were ready to drop-and I even fell asleep before we were done eating. Oops! So with that note, it is only 7:30 here, but I am off to catch some much needed sleep!



(P.s) Pictures will come, it's hard to upload them because you have to pay for internet based off of megabits used. So uploading will eat up a lot of them. They are worth the wait though!

Updates of the late days 1) Sitting in the Airport

I’m currently in the LAX airport waiting for my flight to New Zealand to take off-my third flight of the day. My first flight from Minneapolis to Denver passed in a dream, literally. As hard as I tried to stay awake, the very little amount of sleep I’ve accumulated in the past week or so caught up with me. I fell asleep almost as soon as the plane’s tires were off the ground. Needless to say I don’t remember much of it. Once in Denver there was just enough time to catch breakfast before off to Los Angeles were the fun begins! Due to a small misread I ended up having a nine hour layover at LAX. This turned out to work in my benefit; as soon as I got off the plane from Denver I quickly realized that I didn’t have a clue where to go next. After getting lost, being assaulted by a bible salesmen, cramming in to a sardine can, I mean a bus, standing in a massive line at the check in desk, and standing in the wrong security line(the family in front of me got stopped not once, but three times! It took forever to sort out!) I finally made it to my gate where I shall happily stay until my plane takes off- if only in fear of getting lost again!

Survival of the Sleepiest

Just a quick note to say that I made it too New Zealand! I'm hunkered down at a internet cafe for a few minutes, so this really will be a short post. But never fear, I've been keeping track of the past few days and have posts ready to go once I find internet for my laptop. :) New Zealand is amazing. All of those gorgeous pictures people find in travel books? Yeah, those are real. We spend a few days in Auckland(won't go to much into that since that since I have a whole post, with pictures, on it ready to go) and now we're in Rotorua for the weekend. I will give a longer more detailed post about it later(I promise!. With that note it's off to hunt up some dinner and then relax at the hotsprings!