Day Two

Day two:

The second day of this trip started right after we landed in Auckland. We went through customs and headed out into New Zealand. The drive to Rotarua was incredible. It felt weird to be on the left side of the road but the scenery was so beautiful that I hardly noticed. If anyone ever asked me what New Zealand looks like I would just say “green.” We stopped in Hobbiton which was super awesome. There was a model of a Hobbit’s house and a statue of golem. While we were there I got to try a pie for lunch. It was phenomenal. The pie I got was steak, cheese and bacon. It was so fabulous that I wanted to eat two. Lunch that day was interesting because we had to navigate the new currency. The bills were easy to figure out but the coins were really confusing. The lady that worked at the bakery laughed. From Hobbiton we went to Rotarua. In Rotarua we went on the lugewhich was interesting. I personally was not good at it at all. I crashed several times because I got scared when it was too fast. After doing the luge we went to our hotel in Rotarua. It was right next to mineral springs so it smelled heavily of sulfur. After bringing our things up to the hotel rooms we went out to dinner at a place called Burger Fuel. It was delicious! I have no idea how I ate the whole thing. It was sort of like a Portillos but nicer. 

Daily Journal

Prompt: Last 48 Hours Response / 3 Culture shocks / Looking forward to

Response: As you already know the last 48 hours have been insanity. I am the second most tired I have ever been. My first impression of the international flight was surprise. I had no idea how much longer those flights are and how much they do to make sure that you’re comfortable. I was extremely grateful. Going through customs wasn’t nearly as scary as I had thought it was going to be, they were much less intense than I had imagined.

Upon seeing New Zealand for the first time I thought it just looked a lot like America. But I didn’t want to form a set opinion so soon because we hadn’t even seen that much. When we started to hit the countryside all I could think was green, green, and more green. And then I started to freak about the bus being on the left side of the road. It was extremely weird seeing all the steering wheels on the other side of the cars. The two hours on the bus was both difficult and fun. Difficult because I was so sleepy, and of course fun because there was so much to see and Alec had a lot of interesting things to say. I loved learning about the things we were seeing. In Hobbiton I had a pie for lunch. I was excited to eat something that was specific to the country’s culture. The hotel is really cool, I liked how everything is similar but at the same time very different. Dinner was really fun because, again I was eating something that doesn’t exist in the U.S. And now I’m falling asleep as I write this.

Today 3 huge culture shocks were driving on the left side of the road, the extreme green of the hills, and seeing those big cogoo ball things. I found it interesting how different this country is from ours.

I am most looking forward to learning first hand about the culture of New Zealand from our pen pals. I feel like these are bonds that we will keep for a very long time. Somehow meeting these kids has been my biggest excitement. Other things I am looking forward to are the opera house and Mauri village.