happenings thus far

Alright, I guess now is an appropriate time to give you all an update on what my peeps and I have been up to these first few weeks down here. We've done a lot so I may have to start this post now but finish it later, just a warning. Lets begin.

Traveling to the other side of the world:

Flying down to New Zealand involved a total of 32 hours of travel time. That is, once we took off from the Boston airport. The flight to LAX was 6 hours, followed by a 13 hour lay-over in LAX, followed by a 13 hour flight down to Auckland. Auckland is on the north island and it was where we spent the first few days in NZ for IFSA-Butler orientation. Here is a picture of what the Boston airport looks like at 5:20 a.m.

Orientation:

The 22 students that traveled down here with IFSA-Butler, myself included in that number, spent our first few days here at the Shakespeare Lodge in a regional park outside of Auckland. The place was absolutely beautiful. It was located on a peninsula with some rolling hills, cliffs, and fews of the Pacific from pretty much every location. During our time at the lodge, we all got to know each other and such as well as take part in a bunch of sweet activities. One of the very first things we did while there was go kayaking and play kayak polo, I think thats what it was called. You and your fellow paddler, seeing as they were 2 person sit-on-top kayaks were part of 1 of 2 teams. Each team had squishy balls that they had to try and hit Mike's, the head of Shakespeare Lodge, kayak. Getting to go out and kayak was definitely a lot of fun, and kind of strange considering we were out in the ocean in winter and it wasn't too too cold. By the way, the weather in Auckland was pretty warm every day with a rain shower almost each day, but they would only last a short time and then it would get real sunny and nice. After kayaking, we were taken to these natural hot pools where we could relax and such. I'll spare you with explanations of the pools cause I'm sure you can figure it out. They're pools, and they're naturally hot. Get the picture? Cool.

Within the next couple of days at the lodge we got to do a bunch more activities. Such things included mountain biking, this crazy scavenger hunt thing where everyone ran all around the park to find little markers of sorts that were set up on trees, fences, walls, etc., cricket(which is a really sweet game after all), touch rugby(I gained a lot of respect for the game after playing cause its a pretty good time), a fake pub quiz(pub quizzes down here are a very popular event where people dress up in costumes and get teams together) and just some wandering all over the park. Oh, and during the quiz we had a fashion show where one person from each team was chosen to strut their stuff in some sort of dress-up outfit. I was chosen, and let me tell you, strut I did. I took home the victory for my team with my moldy old nurses' dress, flippers, scuba goggles around the neck, and a sparkly top hat.

When we departed from the Shakespeare Lodge, we were taken to the museum in Auckland before spending the night on a Marae. A Marae(roughly pronounced ma-rye) is a living place for the Maori(mar-e) people. Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand, and it was very special for them to allow us to spend the night at their hood. They demonstrated some of their customs and told us some stories about their people. It was definitely a very unique experience and I feel very lucky for getting the opportunity. Here are some pictures from the lodge and the Marae.

Journey from Auckland down to Dunedin:

When we left the Marae, it was time to head towards the airport and get down to Dunedin. On the way to the port of air though, Mike's Mystery Tour led us to the Villa Maria Vineyard/Winery. We got to go on a tour and have a tasting session for what is apparently one of the better Wineries in the country of New Zealand. It was definitely cool to go on the tour, and yes, the wine was very good as well.

After the Winery, we skidooshed over to the airport to begin our travels even further south. We flew from Auckland down to Christchurch, and then Christchurch down to Dunedin. In the process, we flew over the Southern Alps and it was so incredibly clear with absolutely no storm systems. It was pretty cool. Oh, and the total travel time from Auckland to Dunedin was shorter than my flight from Boston to LA, so that was pretty nice.

Alright, thats it for now. I got you down to Dunedin and I'll write some more later. Right now its a beautiful Saturday afternoon, so I may just take a trip down to the beach or the Otago Peninsula. I'll tell you about them later.