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.