"Day 13"

Already Day Two and it feels like I fit a dozen into the first day in New Zealand. When I woke after sleeping like a log for about 10 hours, I was reminded how refreshing a night's solid sleep could feel. Good thing I got my rest because Day Two was even more action-packed than the first!

(The sunrise at the lodge)

 (Breakfast under strikingly beautiful clouds)

The IFSA-Butler group began our day with a hearty breakfast (kai!) and then took part in a "pub-less quiz." In many parts of the world, including NZ, many bars and pubs are bringing in customers with hilarious game-show-like quizzes and games. We took part in something similar that morning, minus the actual pub. The 25 or so of us divided up into teams based on the puzzle pieces we pulled out of a bag. My team of 5 named ourselves "The Spuds," having only 15 second or so to name ourselves, we were inspired by the leading brand of potato chips in NZ. Points were given to the most creative named teams. We didn't receive any.

But fret not! Through our combined efforts, my team managed to come out on top after answering several questions about New Zealand, from categories ranging from travel safety to New Zealand academia. My contribution: Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand and it means "Land of the Long White Cloud." I also wrote the answers the rest of the team came up with on the answer sheet!

However, the game was not finished! The last round of the pub-less quiz was the ROGAINE round. Despite the name, it had nothing to do with hair growth. Instead it was an anagram standing for Rugby Outdoor something, something...see how closely I paid attention? Basically, we were given two copies of the same map, a piece of paper, and a pen. Our mission was to locate about 20 little plaques located around Shakespeare Park, record the shapes on them, and return to the lodge in 45 minutes. In order to protect our first place position, The Spuds decided to divide and concur, the faster members of the group deciding to run to the furthest plaques. I was not among them, but I did help find some of the closer ones.

After nearly an hour of tramping up and down hills, dodging sheep (or at least their "cowpies"), racing up uneven stairs, and with 20 seconds to spare, we ran through the finish line and won the grand prize! The grand prize was reaching into a bag and pulling out whatever we touched first. I got a tiki bottle opener!

(Taken by another IFSA student.)

(The sheep didn't really seem to mind our "adventuring" around them)

We were also rewarded with another round of kai (the other teams got some, too). Being fed 2-3 hours a day really gives you the impression that hobbits do live in New Zealand. I think "elevenseys" are my favorite meal of the day.

After a filling lunch, we divided once again into groups. Some people decided to go for a mountain bike ride. Others chose to do a climbing wall. I chose archery! I've never had a formal class and I'm pretty sure my aim proved it. But it was still a lot of fun and I gained a great deal of respect for the people who do archery as professionals. Like Legolas. Gained a lot of respect for the guy.

More kai! Then we headed down the hill to a flat piece of land to learn rugby! Unlike archery, after my first experience with rugby, I didn't gain respect. I lost it for American football players. What? You mean you have to stop and rest after every play? Wait, you pass the ball FORWARD towards the goal? Are you kidding? Seriously, though, rugby may be the most intense game I have ever played. We only played touch rugby, so I can hardly imagine what it's like with tackling. Non-stop tackling, that is. Not like in American football where you tackle, then have your mates help you up and catch your breath. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to watching my first professional match in a few months.

(Taken by another IFSA student from the sidelines. I'm not in this one, sorry!)

After our next batch of kai, we headed into the shade for our briefing on the marae visit the following night. We were going to spend the following night at a traditional Maori house and the people from Te Hana came by the lodge to explain what we should expect when turning up the next afternoon. One of our IFSA guides asked our group why IFSA thought it was important to learn about Maori culture. I'm not exactly sure why, but an answer to that question came to my mind almost like I had been asked why it's important for people to wear a raincoat when it's raining. My hand went straight into the air (I must have been channeling my inner Hermione) and I said "Because the Maori culture is such an integral part of New Zealand's culture." The staff member looked at me and asked, "Why do you say that? What makes it integral?" And I answered immediately, "Because it's the history of New Zealand; because one can't be without the other." The staff member looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone have anything to add to Rachel's answer?" No one responded. He then turned to the whiteboard, and said "Yeah, that was a good answer...a really good answer," while writing the word "integral" in red marker.

I'm pretty sure my sunburned blushed, just sayin'.

Day One

Between where my last post ends to when this one begins is a gap of about 4 hours, story-wise. I finally managed to sleep without waking up for about that amount of time. Once I woke up at that point, I was relatively awake. I killed a few more hours with another film and by nibbling at breakfast. Time seemed to go pretty quickly and I was doing my best to remain calm and patient and not excite myself too much. 

Oh! And at even though I felt America at 10PM on February 17th, it was now about 8AM on February 19th! Because NZ is located on the other side of the International Date Line, we flew over it, meaning we skipped the 18th altogether. This means, when returning, I will leave NZ on Thursday, fly for about 24 hours, and it will still by Thursday when I get back. (NZ is 18 hours ahead of Indiana time.) 

Once we began the decent, I was able to peer out the windows and was able to see bits and pieces of New Zealand. After landing and heading towards baggage claim/customs/integration, I got my first real look at my home for the next five months, and the place I have been waiting to see for ten years.

My first photo in NZ!

Right off the bat you can see why Aotearoa, the Maori and native name for New Zealand, is called the land of the long white cloud. 

Besides the long lines, Integration (when they stamp your passport) took about 2 seconds, baggage claim 15 minutes, and customs 5 minutes; everything was super easy and quick. I was immediately greeted by my Student Services Coordinator (SSC), who works for IFSA-Butler but is also a graduate (or post-undergrad) at Victoria University. He directed me to the group of IFSA student and faculty towards the exit (called the "Way Out" here). I quickly called Mom on the airport phones (cost us about $7 for the first minute of talk, then 50 cents after that) and then went with one of the faculty (who happens to be from Indianapolis) to the bus which would take us to our Orientation location. 

I met the rest of the IFSA-Butler students, most of whom are from the east cost. Once all 26 of us arrived at the bus, we took off for northern Auckland, and finally got to see the landscape. 

My first impression of New Zealand: Everything is so GREEN. Not just regular green. Even the best Indiana spring day's green is pale in comparison to New Zealand green. It's shockingly green. It's positively vibrant. On that same note: the sky is the bluest blue you could imagine. Scratch that, it's more blue that you could imagine. Oh yeah, and the ocean. I didn't know it could be this blue! The colors here hardly look real, frankly. The purity is incredible. Even when driving through downtown Auckland, the biggest city in NZ, the colors are electric, they are so bright. 

The following pictures were all taken from a moving bus, so forgive the reflections in some of them. Oh, by the way, I think I forgot to mention in NZ they drive on the LEFT side of the road. At first this was very easy to accept but I've found the longer I'm here the more disorienting it is. 

Also, some of these pictures may be best appreciated in a larger quality. Just click on them to see them in a larger size! Enjoy!

My first sighting of sheep!

The latter pictures where taken in Shakespeare Park on the way to the Lodge where we spent the next few days. Once arriving, the staff fed us kai (Maori for "food"). For the next few days, we were fed kai once every 2-3 hours. After our first of countless kai breaks, we had just enough time to put down our luggage and figure out where the bathrooms were before, what's that? You think we would rest after nearly 24 hours of traveling? On the contrary, the best way to combat jetlag is to get active! 

The first thing we did was go kayaking! It was a first for me and now a new favorite. We spent about 3 hours on the water. It was a perfectly clear day, as you can see from the pictures, so we could see all the way to downtown Auckland from the water. Also, the temperature that day was about 64 degrees F. We went all the way across the little bay to a beach. From there we climbed across rocks and cliffs (at most a foot away from the waves) then found a spot to jump and swim in the Pacific Ocean. 

Allow me to try my best to explain what this was like. The water was as warm as bath water. It was so clear I could see the tips of my toes. The water was moss green in some places and teal blue in others. It was unreal. Superb. Beyond words. 5 hours into my trip and there I was, right in the middle of New Zealand ocean. 

We returned to the lodge a little later for more kai. Then back on the bus and on to the hot pools! Only half an hour away was a little spa that pumped natural thermal water from underground to what look just like swimming pools at home. These allowed us to rest our muscles and recover from all the traveling and kayaking. 

Then it was back to the lodge for more kai, of course. I took a few more pictures from the window in the dinning room. 

(No, that orange strip is not a trick of my camera. That is the real New Zealand sunset creating that gorgeous change in color.)

Taken by another IFSA student who climbed that orange hill:

(You can see the lodge lit up on the hill opposite)

Exhaustion hath no name like a day of airplanes, buses, kai, kayaking, and hot pools. 

Somewhere Between Here and There

Traveling abroad is a pretty unique thing, to say the least. I think what is even more interesting is that there is really no way to know how you're going to react to the idea of being away from home for 5 months. I think even if some psychologists somewhere did a study to understand the behavior of travelers, we still wouldn't really have a clear idea of what's really like until you do it.

It's a really hard thing to explain. So I won't. I'll just say that as soon as my mom pulled away from dropping me at my friend's apartment and I walked up the stairs to where I would be spending my last night in the States, I did quite a bit of crying. Sad, happy, excited, or maybe just so much emotion it all cancelled out into numbness. So much numbness that I had to cry about it. I don't really know. Like I said, hard to explain.

The same thing happened on the drive to the airport. But as soon as I walked through the doors of the Indianapolis Airport, I was dry-eyed and nearly out of my mind with excitement. I don't think I've ever felt more ready for anything in my whole life. Not to say I wasn't nervous or anything. I was just very ready for whatever was ahead of me, including the things that made me nervous.

Such as my bag weight. For those of you biting your nails since my last post (and it's been about 5 minutes since I posted it, so I'm sure all of your nails are still intact), here is the final weigh in:

Success! From the check-in counter I grab a quick breakfast from the food court and relaxed before heading through security, which took about 5 minutes. 

(Indianapolis Food Court)

I waited for about two hours for my plane to board (which flew by unbelievably quickly thanks to my Nintendo DS). The plane to Chicago took off on time with no problems. It was supposed to be an hour flight but it felt more like 20 minutes. It seemed that as soon as we hit 30,000ft, we began our decent. 

I scored a window seat and got a good hot of Indiana and a little bit of Lake Michigan:

Once at the O'Hare Airport, I was immediately greeted by an extreme increase in population. Just in the walk from one terminal to another I probably saw 200 people or more. Since I had an additional 3 hours to kill I decided to get some exercise and walked an equivalent of a few city blocks. I was highly entertained by the airport, despite the huge crowds of people.

 (Shots of the moving walkway light show between terminals)

(A picture of an advertisement for Chicago's museum. A guy I lovingly christened the Wifi-o-sarus.)

After walking around for a good half hour, I picked up an Auntie Anne's soft pretzel out of sheer tradition's sake (I thought of you, Mom!) and walked around some more. Realizing the pretzel only made me hungrier, I made a healthier decision and got a chicken salad wrap and cup of fruit.

Finally, I boarded the second plane. Behold my second window seat! After about an hour and a half of flying (this flight ended up being about 4 1/2 hours total), I looked out my window to see we were beginning to cross the Rockies, something I had been looking forward to doing. I've never been any farther (further?) west than the Rockies, so I took full advantage. I've included just a fraction of the pictures I took while flying:

It was really a perfect day, flying-wise. I have never had such luck with flights. Everything was on time. Everything went smoothly. And by this point, it was late afternoon, so with a clear sky and setting sun, I got some excellent pictures of my home country. I think it's a good thing I saw a different side (literarily) of the US before leaving it for so long. I was reminded just how big the US is and how drastically diverse it's geography is. As much as I enjoyed seeing it, however, by the time I landed in LA, I was seriously craving summer colors. The US is quiet brown when not covered by snow (not just in Indiana) this time of year.

Speaking of LA, you would think that one of the most traveled airports in the country would be a little more user friendly, wouldn't you? That was not what I found; on the contrary, I walked for almost an hour before I found the Air New Zealand terminal, despite asking for directions and following signs correctly. So once I got up to the counter, I was sweaty but relieved. From there, I made a few last phone calls to Mom and Jeff (SO glad I got to hear their voices before I left!) and headed through security a second time (this one took about 10 minutes).

By this point in the day, it's nearing 8PM and my boarding time is around 9:15PM. I was also nearing starvation after a full day of travel. I had hoped I could find a place that served nice, warm, filling food. My only options, however, turned out to be a restaurant that served a hamburger at $11 and Burger King. I decided to go with the $1 burger, which I finished, but reluctantly.

My last meal:

After that, I found a few fellow IFSA-Butler people at the gate and began to get to know a few of them. Then it was on to the biggest airplane I've ever seen.

Finally my luck ran out and I was in the middle of the middle row of seats. On the bright side, I did sit next to a rather attractive, under 30 year-old, extremely polite Australian that I think a few of my friends back home would trade their left arms to sit by, so it wasn't a complete loss.

I was highly impressed by the entertainment options: 25ish movie selections with no limit to how many you could watch, 15ish television shows, not to mention countless music selections. (I was a little less impressed by the airline food, but I was too tired to eat much anyway.) I decided to kill the first 2 of 12 hours by watching 500 Days of Summer (which I highly recommend) and then found myself struggling to stay awake. So I switched over to some very low-key Debussy piano music and settled in for a very uncomfortable sleep. The few Z's I caught were only managed by means of the pillow the flight supplied, the extra neck pillow I brought, and Lumpy, my blue and brown stuffed dog and ever faithful travel companion.

To be continued!

Pre-departure

Hello! This is a long overdue post, but so much has happened in the last week it's hard to keep it all straight. I think I will try to divide things up into chronological order and just start from the beginning. *Takes deep breath* Here we go!

Before setting out on my journey, I had to make sure my bags were all the right weight because many airlines are extremely strict about how heavy the bags are. It seems like most American airlines don't make a huge fuss, but it seems to be a big deal abroad. Just to put this into prospective, according to some New Zealand natives, it's very easy to point out an american at an airport because of how much luggage her or she has on them. IFSA-Butler made it pretty clear (in my opinion at least) that it was very important to keep your (ONE) carry on under 7kilos (15lbs) and your (ONE) checked bag under 23kilos (50lbs). While taking this and the advice of some experienced study-abroad travelers into consideration, I did my best not to overpack (and avoided packing shampoo).

Before:
The carry-on (backpack):

 The checked bag:

 After:

Impressive, but you'll have to wait until my next post to see if I was successful in my goal to stay under 50lbs, I'm afraid!

With everything packed up and an excellent farewell dinner devoured, it was time to take off!

At my bon voyage dinner of Mom's famous Tandori Chicken (my favorite!). From L to R: Uncle Mike, Mom (Kathie), Me, Randa, Aunt Jane, and Uncle Gonzo (Nev)

Investments

One of the things I've spent a fair amount of time researching about NZ is its weather. I will be in the country from late summer to early winter season-wise, but from what I've heard the weather in Wellington is pretty mild. Though the weather doesn't get too extreme in terms of temperature, the weather can change rather rapidly. One minute it can be nice and sunny and the next, windy and rainy.

Considering how much time I hope to spend in NZ's great outdoors, we thought it best to invest in some quality outdoor wear. 

This jacket is completely wind-proof and rain-resistant. Frankly, it is the nicest jacket I have ever owned. It comes complete with ventilation zippers and adjustable hood. I can't wait to try it out!

Seeing as my old Keens (brand) were beginning to come apart, some new water-proof, hiking shoes were in order. They are unbelievably comfortable and I can hardly notice I'm even wearing them. The arch support is excellent. The backpack was a gift from my brother who knows more about quality backpacks and hiking gear than anyone else I know. It's specially designed to keep the weight of the bag off my back and shoulders and redirecting it onto the hips. It may be hard to see but this particular bag is designed to carry an ice ax should I feel so inclined (that's what the little clip in the middle and loop at the bottom are for, but perhaps I can find a different use for those parts?). Thanks, Jeff! :)

Lastly, I was just informed of my university housing! I will be living in the Te Kotahinga flats (single room, 4-6 room apartments with complete kitchens, washing machines, and relaxation areas) which are located about five minutes away from the Kelburn Campus: (http://www.victoria.ac.nz/university_hall/accomm/te-kotahinga/index.aspx). I was given several options for housing and this was my first choice! I'm thrilled! 

2 weeks and 1 day left for those of you keeping track at home. 

New Zealand Fast Facts

Size: 268,021 sq km (103,483 sq miles): slightly larger than Great Britain, almost the same size as Colorado, slightly smaller than Japan.

Distance from Australia: 900 miles east

Population 4 million, 32 million sheep

National symbol: Kiwi

Languages: English and Maori (4.2%)

Government: Parliamentary constitutional monarchy

Largest city: Auckland

Capital: Wellington

About Wellington:

Population: 393,400

Warmest month: February: 17 degrees C  (about 62 degrees F)

Coldest month: July: 8.7 degrees C (about 47 degrees F)

About Victoria University:

About 22,000 students

About 2,000 international

For more information about the school I will be attending, you can visit the official website: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/home/default.aspx