Arrival

Hey everyone, just a little about my trip so far.

I traveled to Auckland on a group flight with other study abroad students in my program.We arrived in Auckland at 8am on Tuesday February, 12 and took a 4 hour bus ride to the town of Rotorua. Rotorua has been voted the most beautiful city in New Zealand for the last couple of years and is located on Lake Rotorua. It is a thermal town and smells terribly, but our hostle, or backpacker as the kiwis call it, had a thermal heated hot tub the size of a small pool. The first day we spent recovering from the previous day's travel and exploring the town. The second day began with a trip to the Agrodome to watch a sheep show that displayed the nineteen different types of sheep currently in New Zealand. Then in the afternoon we had the opportunity to go Zorbing. A Zorb is an 11 foot inflatable ball that a person goes inside and rides down a hill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd20tgUd9oU

That evening we went to a Maori cultural center for a cultural experience and a traditional dinner. We were part of a large group that was greeted as the Maori would traditionally greet a visiting tribe: through displays of strength and aggression. We then ate a meal cooked in the Maori's traditional earth ovens.



On Thursday our group went caving in the Waitomi Caves. We all got wetsuits and took a 3 hour tour of the cave system. There were a number of rappels, or abseils as they call them, and some of them were down waterfalls. At our deepest we were 80m underground. We saw some crazy rock formations and the ceiling of most of the caverns were covered in glow worms.

Friday we spent traveling again. After a short plane ride to Christchurch we were shuttled to our flats. My flat is 6 bedrooms with a common living room and kitchen area. So far there are only 3 other people living here besides me, and I think that it may stay that way. Two of my flatmates are from Carbondale, Il. Justin goes to SIU and Rich goes to Drake in Iowa. Abdul, my third flatmate, is from Saudi Arabia and is here studying English.

I've spent the last couple days getting settled in and exploring Christchurch. On Sunday we went to the beach for a while and then went to Castle Rock to hike and climb around. It was only about a 25 min drive from the center of town and offered some amazing views.




The busses here are great for getting around the city, but i'm hoping to get a bike in the next couple days. I made it down to the climbing gym yesterday with a group of about 15 other kids in my group. Its a nice gym and its nice climbing with so many people.

I finished all my registration today so I'm off the hook until Monday so I may go camping and bouldering with some people up at Spittle Hill for the next couple days.

Hope all's well back home.

Nick

P.S. I have a phone now and its free for me if you want to call. 064-210-234-7872