I Felt Lost and Found with Every Step I Took: Leaving smelly Rotorua; first day in Auckland.

So the next day started with us going to a sheep sheering show. This was completely interesting and totally tourist-y. I couldn’t believe how many people showed up to this. Literally, they put 20 different breeds of sheep on a stage, shaved one in less than one minute, and then we watched a dog herd them into pens. Weird.

Later, we all performed a traditional hukka. Which is a type of Maori dance depicting something through words and hand movements. It was about some chief who was being chased by 100 men from Wellington to Taupo. The chief pleaded with a different chief and his wife to save him. As the army was approaching the chief got into a pit that was meant to store food. The other chief’s wife stood over the pit. When the army got to the man, they couldn’t kill him, because it was forbidden to ‘go through a woman’s legs’. It was an interesting story to say the least, but

So then we all had a choice between lugeing and zorbing. Zorbing is basically getting into a giant hampster ball and rolling down a hill. It was a little more expensive, and the ride lasted about a minute. Alyssa, Max, and I chose lugeing. This was awesome because we got a tram ride to the top of this mountain in rotorua, the view of the surrounding lake was amazing but sadly I forgot my camera. Luging is basically sitting in a plastic kind of go-cart, when you pull back you break, and when you don’t do anything, you let gravity do its thing. We got to go down three courses and it was so much fun, people were wiping out off the course everywhere.

Later we went to a maori dinner, where they performed some of their dances and gave all of us a meal. It was again interesting, but at times I couldn’t help but feel we were being sold their culture.

So the next day we had to all wake up, go to one last information session, and then we dropped all the waikaito university students off in Hamilton. Hamilton is a small town an hour south of Auckland. This was a little bittersweet because then we headed back into Auckland.

This is where it started to feel real, and I still kind of have a knot in my throat, thinking that I am here, so far away from home. Hopefully my nerves will ease up a little bit after the next week of orientation. There is just so much to do, internet, phone, sign up for classes, find the dairy, open a bank account.

We wandered around a bit, I found a pillow and some sheets, we ate at a kabob place. The city is so easy to navigate, but I haven’t been to the outer parts (parnell, newmarket, and ponsonby) yet.

Today I had an orientation presentation. All 4,000 of us were there, representing over 20 countries.
Afterwards, a few of us got our schedules sorted out, and Alyssa and I turned in our applications for the HANZ 18plus cards so that we can have proof to drink. Otherwise, we just meandered throughout the city.

Here are some pictures from my first full day in Auckland:

The view from my bedroom