The land with three types of kiwi

Just some advice before I continue on.... NEVER ask a New Zealander if they like to eat their kiwis with the skin kept on -- they aren't cannibals.

Auckland sunrise!

So, after the mess of traveling we finally arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on Friday morning. Jesse, Katherine, and I met up with Brendan and Marta and after a quick stop at duty free (legal here!) we each grabbed a trolley (not a cart), and made it through customs! We changed and attempted to make ourselves somewhat presentable before heading out for a few hours in Auckland. Our first stop was a nice patch of grass on the side of the highway. We probably could have stayed their all day, but it felt a little strange napping on the side of the road. Marta had met a man in the airport who gave her some directions to a Butterfly museum/farm/giftshop/restaurant/playground so we decided to go there for some real food. After a delicious cranberry and brie sandwhich we all whipped open our travel books and started planning all that we are going to do over the next few months -- so exciting!

 

 

We made it!

Goofing around in Auckland

We made it back to the airport plenty early as to avoid any sort of catastrophe like the LAX incident and after a few more attempts at crossword puzzles as a group we hopped on our flight to Dunedin! Jesse and I got to sit next to a really nice lady from the US who had recently published a romance novel. We spent the entire flight playing a New Zealand Trivia game on the TV together and became fast friends. I also started quite a commotion on the plane when I spotted whales outside the window during take-off - oops!

Almost to Dunedin!

We arrived in Dunedin and got into a shuttle with 5 other students studying at Otago for the semester. Our ride into the city consisted of lots of pictures of sheep, the hills, and our driver praying as we putt-putt-ed up the hills. We made it into the city and picked up our house keys at the University security office then the nice shuttle driver dropped us all off at our varying flats. When I got into the flat - home for the next four months - I met my Kiwi-host Bernice (Bee), Theirry, and Taylor. My fourth flatmate, Jacob, I met later that night. Bee and Thierry took me grocery shopping right away and I picked up the staples, hummus, crackers, applejuice, and cheerios. My walk to the grocery store is through a BEAUTIFUL botanical garden that is only about 2 blocks away. It makes the walk to the store a lot more enjoyable, though I need to watch our for what time the garden closes. Last year Bee got locked inside during her walk back - so check back the blog in the future to see if it happens to me!

My walk to the grocery store

After taking a much-needed shower Jesse and Emily came over for a visit and to see my room and only about fifteen minutes after they left, Willy, Isabel and Emma came to visit too! It was so nice to see some friendly faces during the overwhelming settling in time.

On Saturday I slept in until 11pm our time (13 hours of sleep yay!) and then started walking in the direction that I hoped Jesse and Emily lived. It was sort of fun to try to find my way to their flat, and I was surprisingly successful. After seeing their flats and meeting their flatmates, Jesse, his flatmate Nina from Bosnia, and I headed off to the grocery store (again..).  Apparently in New Zealand you can sign out the shopping carts and take them home with you, which made things a lot easier and presented a fun photo-op in the park! Next we went to Kmart and ended up being the very-obvious tourists trekking home carrying laundry baskets full of cups/bowls/towels and other necessities.

Jesse and Nina with the rented grocery cart

On Saturday night Jacob made dinner, pasta, meatballs and red wine, YUM! Then as a flat we headed out to a birthday party which was a lot of fun, except jet-lag took the best of me around midnight and I went right to bed.

Yesterday/Sunday we slept in late, aka I slept until 9am. It was so sunny and warm out so I did some laundry, hung it on the clothesline, pulled out my kindle, and read some more of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (thanks Chantal!). At around 11 Bee started making breakfast, she made eggs, bacon, muffins, spaghetti, mushrooms, and hash-browns - it was unbelievable and we all stuffed ourselves silly. Then we all did the dishes and took an hour or two of digestion-time. Since it was such a beautiful day, Bee suggested we go for a walk up to the Aviary in the botanical garden. Apparently the garden that I cut through to go to the grocerystore/bank is HUGE and contains multiple walking trails, gardens with species from all over the world, fountains, and an aviary with all sorts of tropical birds. It was the perfect weather and a great day to do it to work off the huge breakfast. I am definitely going to spend a lot of time in the garden napping, reading, and walking around over the next few weeks while it's still warm.

The garden and the hills around Dunedin

Our Flat

Pretty flowers!

We came back from the walk and Bee and I sprawled out in the large field behind our house and enjoyed some fruit that we picked up from the grocery store, apparently I have made it a habit of going to the grocery store daily... Then for dinner I cooked up some stir-fried veggies and had them with some leftover and got to chat with Taylor and a couple of his friends from home who are also studying abroad here. It's absolutely insane how many Americans there are here, but it's great to get to know people.


After dinner Emily came over followed by Willy and Andrew. We hung out for a bit with my flatmates and just chatted. Then Em and I put on a couple of episodes of Friends before calling it a night. There are 16 of us here from St. Lawrence, and it's nice to have eachother once in a while. I think we are doing a good job of getting to meet new people and get to know the people we are living with, but it is also nice to get to know eachothers friends/flatmates and check-in every so often.


Today was registration day! YAY! Their registration consists of standing in lines, getting a sheet of paper, going to different departments, standing in more lines for hours, getting signatures, getting in another line to make sure the times don't overlap, and finally getting in line to get your student ID card. I got lucky and the longest line I had to wait in was for Geology and it was a 45 minute wait. There were only about 15 of us in line, but the professor in front was interested in each student and what they were taking, which was nice, but made the line go a little slow. After getting through registration I was supposed to get my ID card, but the line was so long that they had actually stopped people from getting in line. I think I'll try to go back and get that done tomorrow.

Bee and I spent the afternoon shopping in downtown. There are so many stores and places to go that these next few weeks could get dangerous! Now I'm back at the flat, finally decorating my room and attempting to decide what I am going to make for dinner. Starting next week each of us will cook one night a week for the entire flat, so if you have any recipe ideas let me know!

Tomorrow I leave for a 6 day geology field study in Maerewhenua (can't pronounce it). It should be a lot of fun and we'll get in some good hiking. There are 3 of us from SLU on the trip as well as our friend Pat from the airport, and a few friends of friends.

I'm sorry this has been such a long post, this blog is also for me to print out as a journal-type-thing at the end, so it might not all be very interesting to you! Hope everyone is doing well at home or abroad, I will be sure to keep you updated as my adventures continue!