Spring Break in New Zealand...Those words sound so magical. Unfortunately the week is over now. :( It was a lot of fun though. We started out in Auckland for two days and then we went to Wellington for a day and a half. After Wellington we flew back to Auckland to take a 3 hour bus ride to Rotorua where we spent two nights in a hostel and one night in the Maori village. The time change was really amusing for me because I went from being behind everyone to being a day ahead of family back in Iowa.
In Auckland, I went to two museums one art and the other history. It was really neat. My sub-group of the main group, which I call the quartet because there are four of us, walked around town and ended up finding some bean bags scattered around a grassy area in the middle of the city. It was really nice and we just stayed there for a while. The hotel we stayed at in Auckland was really nice too, with the rooms being more like apartments than traditional hotel rooms.
In Wellington, I was able to visit another museum but that one reminded me more of the Science Center back home because the exhibits were interactive. Also while I had free time, I ended up going to the Zoo alone because Kelsey wanted to see a movie. It was really neat. I was hoping to see a Kiwi (the animal not the fruit) but people kept coming in and making noise so it didn't work out. All of the other animals were really neat as well. I was able to see a Red Panda so that made up for the Kiwi.
Rotorua was my favorite town of the three. Part of that was because that is were the Maori village is situated and the other was because the town itself really reminded me of home due to the small town feel. It did smell like sulfur there since there are geysers there and lots of geothermic activity. I did most of my souvenir shopping there. While in the Maori village, I learned a lot about Maori life. Unfortunately I did not get to sing to the Maori like we were told that we were going to be able to do. Although, I did take a bath in an open air bath in the geothermic waters. It was like a hot spring and super warm. I was really nice and my muscles were relaxed for the first time since being abroad. Two of the other girls joined me and it was really interesting since we were not allowed to wear bathing suits or anything. It was dark out so our nudity didn't really bother me.
The 3hr drive back to Auckland followed by a 5hr flight to Tahiti was fairly uneventful. Though once we landed in Tahiti, the group had our picture taken for the local newspaper. I liked the write up I saw in it.
NANA
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| Getting on the plane in Tahiti to leave for New Zealand. |
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| New Zealand from the Air. |
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| Auckland view from my window. |
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| A piece of art outside of the art museum. |
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| Pretty fountain! |
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| Clock tower! |
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| From left to right: Caroline and Kandi chilling in the bean chairs. |
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| Me and Kelsey on a bean chair. |
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| I wish our money was as colourful. |
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| We had an audience while we were eating. |
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| AHH Medusa!! The wind was whipping my hair on the ferry. |
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| Auckland skyline at night. The lights are so pretty. |
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| Oh ya! I'm cool in a tree! |
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| Yes the blurry flowers are on purpose. |
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| This is in my hotel in Wellington, but all over NZ they use switches on the outlets so that there is no power wasted. I think it is a great idea. |
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| These are not power lines, they are for the electric buses. |
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| Tuatara (a lizard only found in NZ) |
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| Lemur!! |
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| Red Panda |
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| Simba all grown up. |
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| Kangaroo!! |
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| Serval. |
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| My first time seeing a Porcupine |
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| The sign says to ask the cheese mongers for larger pieces of cheese, but these look really large to me. They were bigger than my head!! |
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| Pretty sunset on the way to Rotorua. |
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| Someone likes Green. lol |
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| Hot spring like the one I bathed in. |
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| This is where the food was prepared. |
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| Geyser!! |
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| This is the Meeting House where we spent the night. We had to take our shoes off at the entrance to show respect. |
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| My steam cooked |
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| Our Guide in the Maori, Waimaria |
