Goodbye America, Helloooo New Zealand!

Kia ora! I am finally here in Alexandra, New Zealand after more than 36 hours of travel! While we have only been here a few hours I am already in love with this country. Everything about it is beautiful and so far the people have been very nice.

My flights went very well. I started in Cedar Rapids and had four different flights. First to Dallas, then L.A., next to Auckland, and finally in Queenstown. I met up with my roommates (Alex, Ellen, and Krystal) in Dallas. It was so much more fun to travel with others. Our flight from California to Auckland was very long, thirteen and a half hours, however, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was anticipating! The seats were very comfy and we were supplied with a blanket, a pillow, a sleeping mask, toothbrush and paste and two (very yummy) meals. We had movies, TV, music, and games on demand, which certainly helped the flight go by faster as well. Shortly after getting on the plane we were fed dinner and dessert (around 3a.m. Iowa time) and when were done they brought us a ‘snack bag’ to get us through the night. Then all the lights were shut off and it was finally time for bed! Sleeping was not the best, but I managed to get quite a bit of sleep in! In the morning they brought us a warm breakfast and slowly turned on the lights. They started with an organish light, so it looked like the sun rising! After that we got off our plane in Auckland there was a lot of confusion with my bags and the person checking us in that we got on our plane only 5 minutes before take off. But we made it and the flight was nice and short.

In Queenstown we were greeted by Mick, he is the Assistant Dean at our school. He drove us the hour home and was a super fun, nice guy! On the way home he drove us around Queenstown and we stopped at the AJ Hackette Bridge. This is the place where we will be bungee jumping in the near future. I had seen pictures online, but seeing it in person was so scary! I’m not sure how I will be able to do it!  We then stopped in a small town about 20 minutes outside of Alex for lunch. I ordered a steak sandwich and Krystal ordered a chicken kebab wrap, which we spilt. They were both DELICOUS, but I think the sandwich was one of the best I’ve ever had! Then we finally got to Alex and got to drive around the town and see the Terrace School where we will be teaching.  Then Mick took us to our house and introduced us to our proprietor, Denise.

Our house is really nice and cute. It is more spacious then I was expecting. Alex has his own room and bathroom (the bathroom is actually outside of our house) and Krystal, Ellen, and I are sharing a room and bathroom. We have a large living room and kitchen area as well. When we got to the house we were surprised and excited to see that Denise and some people from our school had left us food, wine and beer. While in NZ we have a van to help us get around. It was so funny driving for the first time when Mick had left us. Krystal got to drive first and it was pretty hilarious trying to remember to stay on the left side of the road! Ellen also took a shot driving on our way to the grocery store. We got a little bit of food for tonight. Everything was VERY expensive! It seemed like everything cost twice as much as it would at home!

Last night we unpacked all of our stuff and got settled in. This morning I got to Skype with mom and dad which was really fun! We don’t begin teaching until Tuesday so with our long break we are planning on traveling. We are not sure where we will begin yet, but our plan is to end up in Dunedin, a college town, to watch the Rugby World Cup. It takes place in Auckland and the New Zealand All Blacks are playing against France.

I can already tell I am going to love it here! It is so beautiful. Every morning when I walk out the door I will be seeing mountains. I am really enjoying my roommates as well. I think we are all going to ‘mesh’ together very nicely. So far I am not feeling too jet lagged. I went to bed around nine o’clock last night, or three in the morning at home, and didn’t find it too hard to stay up.  I am excited for everything that lies ahead! I can’t wait to meet more people and do new things. It will be very fun and interesting getting used to the kiwi lingo, but I think it will be easy to pick up. Stay tuned for what comes next!