My first week in New Zealand

Hey there!! I can hardly believe that I have been gone for a week!! I can't believe all that I have done and experienced in such a short time. I will try to keep this brief but I do want to share several things with y'all. :)

I left Los Angeles, California on Saturday August 6th at about 12:30am (2:30am Texas time) and then arrived in Auckland, New Zealand at 8:30am Monday August 8th. I flew Qantas and to be brief I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone to use them when you can. There are tons of nice touches and great food during the flight. Alcohol is even free, which I did not realize until my seat mate ordered one. You are even greeted, on your own personal screen, by none other than Mr. John Travolta!! I had a very sweet, seat mate from Germany who was also spending a few months abroad working but in New Zealand. His English was excellent since he had spent a year in Idaho in high school. I was terrified going through immigration and customs but it was very easy and only a little over an hour process. I did have to have my beef jerky examined but after a few minutes of him looking at the package I got the all clear.

My First Stamp on my Passport this trip!!

I caught a shuttle that went straight to my hostel. Since it is winter here there are not as many tourist so I was on the shuttle alone and was able to talk with the driver. He was very sweet and gave me tons of advice on what to do and see in Auckland. I was not able to check into the hostel until after 1pm so I had some time to kill. I headed out to the streets alone and amazingly felt very safe and quite natural to do this. I want to say that this was also a huge step for me as I do not do many things on my own for some reason so going out to explore by myself was a growing experience. I headed down Queen Street to the harbour to do a tour. I signed up for a tour and then walked around while I waited. When I was getting on the boat a lady recognized the Double T on my fleece and said "Hey Texas Tech!! We are from Texas too!" This was very exciting for me (as most of you know) and she and her husband took me under their wing for the tour.

Auckland skyline from the boat

My first time in the hostel was very nice. I was in a co-ed 6 bed room with 5 others all from England (4 of them were traveling together). There was another lone girl traveler and she was very quiet but after I kept talking to her, she warmed up and gave me some great advice on where to go in Australia and New Zealand. I will say there was quite an interesting experience when I first arrived into the room but to keep this G-Rated I will not post it here. Let's just say a young couple was staying in my room too. The other 4 had just arrived a few days before me and were starting their year abroad so had not done anything yet.

My first ever hostel stay

I headed out on another excursion on my own that evening to the Auckland Skytower. I was told it was great to see during the day and at night. I tried to get several of my bunk mates to go with me but no one seemed interested. It was a short 4 block walk from the hostel and I got the backpacker discount which was a plus!! It was a beautiful view and I am hoping to go back during the day time someday too.

Looking up at the Skytower

My tour with Topdeck Travel started on Tuesday August 9th at 12:30pm. I did not do much this day besides getting ready for the tour. I met a girl, Janita, on the elevator on the way down to meet the tour. We hit it off right away. She is from Melbourne, Australia and we have hit it off so well that others on the tour thought that we had known each other for years. It is crazy how that happens but I know it is a God thing that I met her and know that I have a friend for life.

My ride through the countryside for the next month (Scotty our driver)

We headed up to the Bay of Islands on the top of the North Island of New Zealand. The scenery was beautiful!! The Bay of Islands is a bay (obviously) with around 140 uninhabited islands.

Just a few of the islands ~ Beautiful place!!

Wednesday August 10th, we had the day to decide what we wanted to do. We headed up on a bus to drive down the Ninety Mile Beach (an actual highway here) and to the very tip to Cape Reinga, where you can see the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean join. I would advise anyone that comes here to go to Cape Reinga. It is a spiritual place to the Maori (indigenous people of New Zealand) and so it is very peaceful and absolutely beautiful there!! I will be coming back here one day for sure.

Tasman Sea coastline

The Northern most point of NZ ~ This is
where you can see the Tasman Sea & Pacific Ocean joining

Thursday August 11th, we headed back to Auckland to drop off some people and pick up some more for the tour. This is something we do several times on the tour and only a handful of us are doing the whole 19 day tour. We did stop at a beautiful waterfall along the way and then in Auckland for lunch. We then headed down to Coromandel for the night. This was a beautiful but quiet little town since it was winter. I will probably just say now that everything thing here is beautiful and so green even for winter. I was told it is so much more beautiful in Summer but that is hard for me to imagine.

Whangarei Falls

I am jealous of the cows here :)

Friday August 12th, we headed to the Hot Water Beach where the water naturally warms the sands. None of us were dressed in swim suits (since it is winter) but we all headed down to at least put our feet in. There were quite a few other people there in suits enjoying the hot water. You can't actually put your feet in for very long, or at least I couldn't because it is quite hot.

People not worried about the cold

That night we stayed at a traditional Maori Marae. This a very, very big deal and we had to go through a welcoming ceremony to be able to come into the Marae and stay there. This is something that not many people get to do and actually not many New Zealanders will ever get to do. The reason we are allowed to do this is because the guy who founded Topdeck has been adopted by this certain Maori tribe and they gave him permission to do this. The only way to do this is through a Topdeck tour. The Maori man that greets us, goes through the traditional greeting to us and does it all in the Maori language. He then sings us a song in Maori and we have to stand up and sing a song back to him, loud and proud!! We had to pick a song and we choose to sing Stand By Me. We each then go up to everyone who has come to greet us, shake their hand, and then press our noses and foreheads together (you may have seen this in Whale Rider). There is no real way to express this experience but to say it was a very moving and spiritual experience for me. I am not allowed to post any pictures of this because out of respect for them we are not allowed to do this. Later I sat down with one of the Maori men, who designs personal tattoos for people, and told him my life story and he designed me a very beautiful tattoo. The tattoo will be placed on the inner side by my right ankle, and we had to tell him where we were putting it so that it is designed to go with the flow of our body. I have not gotten the tattoo yet but will probably do so by a Maori in Australia. This whole experience at the Maori Marae was quite simply amazing.

The whole group in front of Marae (morning we left)

Saturday August 13th, we had a fabulous breakfast at the Marae and then headed towards Rotorua. This was another optional day on what we wanted to do. I opted to head to Hobbiton for the morning. They are in the process of filming the next two movies and so it was all done up for them. I was allowed to take pictures and video but I can't share them. You are required to sign a legal document saying you will not post anything or give out any information you might receive while there. I am allowed to post those pictures after both movies have been released. I expect all of you to wait in anticipation for the next two years for those to be posted. :) It was pretty cool to be there and was actually feeling a little bit of a dork because I got so excited about it all.

Super EXCITED to be there!!

I found this right outside the bathrooms

I had a lazy afternoon this day and got a chance to Skype with my family for a little while. Janita and I were lucky enough to get cheap tickets to a local Rugby game for that night. The stadium was like my high school stadium but the sport is so much more aggressive and the players are VERY fit. They are out there without pads or helmets and in short sleeves shirts and shorts. It was such a blast!! I don't understand all the rules yet but I am working on it.

I got some pretty good action shots.

Let me tell you how in shape they all are!!

I think I will end the post there for now. :) I have been thinking how crazy it has been that I have been here for such a short time and done/seen so much!! I am not able to post pictures now but will add some soon to this blog and on Facebook....well at least the ones I will not get sued for posting. I am sure things will not be as exciting once I am working in Australia but who knows. I hope all of you were wonderful and thank you so much for reading!!!