University of Auckland

I have finally arrived here and it is wonderful! I'm very glad I have internet now as well. 

We've done a lot of really amazing things.  First in the airport I met all of my fellow australearn students, they are amazing!  The plane ride was 12 hours from LAX airport, but overall wasn't that bad of a ride.  When we arrived in the Auckland airport they loaded us on a bus and we rode 3 hours down south to Rotorua.  Our bus driver, Chops, was soo cool and very entertaining.  The first day was spend exploring the city and getting to know the other people in our group.  We stayed at a hostel called the Kiwi paka.  Nice people and great food!

Day two was all about experiencing the great things Rotorua has to offer.  We started the day off with a trip to the live sheep show at the Agradome.  It was very entertaining.  After that we headed to the adventure zone to go zorbing. For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a ball filled with soapy water that rolls down a hill.  Heather, Keatin, and I hopped on in and rolled down this giant hill, and laughed so hard!  After zorbing we went to the Maori Tamaki village for a wonderful cultural experience, and some great food!  The dinner was a traditional hangi dinner which is cooked outside on New Zealand rocks!  It is so unbelievable.  The kiwis are very proud of their Maori culture which I found so interesting coming from the states where we tried to destroy rather than celebrate the native culture.

On the third day, he rose again, haha...jk (it's been a long day).  We went to Waitamo to go caving.  So cool.  It was very physical and exciting.  We abseiled down this 80 foot drop into the cave, then proceeded to crawl through holes and shimmy and abseil some more through waterfalls and caverns and anything you can think of.  We ended up being 80 meters below ground at the lowest point and saw glow worms.  Glow worms are not actually worms at all they are maggots that are sexual shit shiners according to the guide.  There were 5 people in our group, me being the only girl, and also the only one to actually rock climb out of the cave!  It was amazing.  The guide heard that I like rock climbing and challenged me to climb the wall rather than use the ladder, so I did!  Craziest thing I have ever done!

Departure Day!

Wow!!!  So I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to LA to depart and I'm starting to get nervous.  Up until now I've only been excited, but never nervous, until I could no longer see my mom and sister while going through the security.  The feeling of, wow I'm really alone right now, just settled in.  This is my first time ever traveling alone and it is more than overwhelming, but I would never let her know I feel that way.  

It's hard to believe that in less than 24 hours I will be in Rotorua bungee jumping and zorbing.  The one thing I am probably looking the most forward to is the rock climbing.  I found a website for this pretty sweet climbing gym right by the university.  I'm sure I will be visiting the facility a lot.  There is also some wicked outdoor climbing opportunities as well.  I'm very psyched about it.  Well that's all for now, since I am paying for the internet :(.  

Love, 

Dani