Kia Ora from Dunedin!

I have been here in New Zealand for a solid 5 days and it feels more like a month! So much has happened in these last few days, and i will try to recount most of it here.

Things got off to a grand start when I spent my 13 hour flight from LA to Auckland with the Australian and Samoan rugby sevens teams. They were all so muscular and handsome, so that was an awesome perk to such a long flight. After arriving in Auckland me and my fellow Arcadia (The program I came through) members got on a bus and I experienced driving on the left hand side of the road for the first time! It was crazy, taking a right turn was especially thrilling, no joke! In general the first day was really disorienting, cause I hardly slept on the plane and had to try to stay awake all day in Auckland. We just walked around and had a tour of the city and I think it looks and feels a lot like any other big city. I was disappointed to see a bunch of starbucks and mcdonalds.

I went to bed at the grand old time of 8 pm that first night, and slept like a rock. The next day we left for Rotorua, a town about two hours away from Auckland. This area is very touristy, as it is known for its heavy Maori culture and crazy cool geothermal activity and formations. The only major drawback was that the whole place stinks of Sulfur, it was like smelling rotten eggs every time you took a breath. There we went to this little zoo place where I got to see a real life kiwi! It was a furball with a beak, which makes me wonder why New Zealand has chosen that for its national icon. Then we went to a sheep show! It was on a huge farm (a very nice respectable sustainable farm, just what i like) and we saw a bunch of different sheep as well as a sheep being sheared. The show was actually way cooler than I expected. At the end the host asked for volunteers from the audience and had about 4 people come up onstage. He gave them all white bottles filled with liquid and didn't explain what they were for. Then he went and opened a door to the side of the stage without explaining what the surprise animal behind it was going to be. It happened to be a bunch of lambs, and the bottles were just milk for feeding them. Now, one of the volunteers was a Korean boy, prob no older than 10 and when the lambs came out this kid just about jumped out of his pants. He threw the milk bottle and immediately latched on to the sheep show host. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. This poor boy was petrified of lambs!

That night we went to the hot springs in Rotorua and I enjoyed many naturally hot pools while gazing up at the lovely New Zealand night sky. It was a great time to chat and get to know people in my group.

Thennn the next day was the coolest! We spent the morning touring a geothermal wonderland (thats actually what it was called) and I saw some crazy rock things. There was even a lime green pool! Its hard to describe all the cool naturally occuring things that I saw so I will have to post pictures.

In the afternoon we went Zorbing! And you prob have no idea what that is! Basically, it's this GIANT plastic ball that you partially fill the inside with water and then it is taken up a hill and you get in the ball and roll down the hill in this giant plastic ball. It sounds strange but IT WAS SOOOOO MUCH FUN. New Zealand claims Zorbing as its own invention, and I have to say I like they're ridiculous thinking cause Zorbing is the bomb diggity.

Thennnnn that night, the last night of orientation and traveling and cool activities, we went to have dinner at a Maori village. It was a little more disneyland-feeling then I would have liked but it was cool just the same. The people were legitimate Maori people and they were dressed authentically and did everything the traditional Maori way. When we first arrived they performed the Haka for us! (The war dance that the All Blacks rugby team infamously performs before each game)

And now I am in Dunedin, in my flat, and I love it. I have my own room, my bed is a full size bed, which apparently is the college standard in New Zealand. Much better than the twin size standard in the US! My flatmates are all really nice and really cool which is great.

And now I am dead tired so I will have to explain more about Dunedin and the university of Otago later. And pictures to come!