First few days in Middle Earth

So here's my little attempt at blogging. Basically, you fine folks are gonna get read all about what I'm doing, because I know you're all so interested.. yeah, right. But I also want to know what you're up to too. So you better be emailing me back or something.

I've been in New Zealand now for about 3 weeks, so I'll try my best to catch you up!

We landed at about 5 am after three long flights sitting next to some awesome people, especially the ones that decided to eat three cans of tuna throughout the flight. Really? Tuna on a plane? Anyway, saw my first NZ sunrise, and hopped on a bus with the people I'll be spending the next few months with. First stop, Mt. Eden with a nice 360 view, including the Auckland skyline. After that, we had a long day full of stupid meetings when all I could think about was the shower I had wanted since I landed in Chicago a good day ago.
The next morning, we were off to Rotorua, about 3 hours south of Auckland, where we stayed in a hostel and ventured out from there. In the next four days I went white water rafting for the first time(sweet as! <--- kiwi's add 'as' to everything, which means that it's to the next level), learned a haka (the Maori war dance, the All Black's also do this.. google it. it's sweet), went caving(crawling around through caves on a torn up knee with a tight wetsuit on is not fun, but it was pretty sweet) where I got to abseil(german? for rappell) down some waterfalls, wandered around geothermal heated bubbling mud, and hung out a Maori elementary school and got to learn all about their educational systems and chill with some kids(I actually liked them). Coolest thing about the school, the kids had their own gardens that they grew food in, and then cooked it all at the end of the season to teach sustainable living. yay. Overall, it was a really cool way to spend the first few days here, even though I'm sure I got ripped off a ton through my program, but ya know, what can ya do. Here are some photos for ya:



Grand Canyon(ish?) from the plane... I'll get there one day.



Auckland skyline



These two are photos of the geothermal activity around Rotorua. If you didn't know, NZ is basically comprised of volcanoes, mostly still active or dormant, as it lies across a fault line. So hopefully I don't get blown up. I'll know more about it later.. I'm taking a geology class about New Zealand. How fun.




This was near the caving site.


This is a photo of a Maori woman weaving a basket from leaves one night before the dinner we went to called a Hangi. Think New Zealand version of a Luau. It's apparently an authentic Maori village and meal, cooked in a hangi, which is an underground stove of sorts. Authentic, that is, for hundreds of tourists a night.



These two are of the school we went to. The kids above asked if I knew Snoop Dogg, and when I said I had seen him twice, they insisted I take a photo and show it to him when I get back to the states. Hilarious, yet the signs they're throwing up are actual gang signs. The kids in elementary schools are already involved in gangs, which are apparently very prominent in NZ because of American music videos and such, so they're trying to do the whole educate the kids away from the gangs thing. Sad stuff. Below is a boy that's in a full immersion Maori language class. He was reading me books. Cute.





Rest stop en route. It's a sheep. You walk in and there's Icebreaker shit for sale everywhere. Yes please.


Apparently this is a really cool touristy stop to take pictures. I don't get it.




Maori Flag, where we went white water rafting. Before we went in the river, the guides always do a prayer to the gods in Maori tongue, thanking for the natural playground and beauty that we get to experience. Realllly cool. I think that's the stuff that makes treehuggers like me obsessed with New Zealand.

Well, that's it for blog number one I think. I tend to babble a lot when I type, so apologies for that, but you can deal with it. The beginnings of my adventures in Auckland are up next!