In the last few days, I adjusted to the new environment as good as possible, but I still have to admit that I miss Australia. A lot of people in my group share this opinion…It is simply a different city with a different culture and I think we all need more time to see how beautiful New Zealand is. This is what the last week looked like:
Monday (02/11): Our last day in Cairns, we walked around the Botanic Garden and had a great lunch with the girl from Denmark, before we took a shuttle to the airport and left back to Melbourne. A nice old lady sat next to me on the plane and we talked a bit- the stories she told were really funny. The time went by pretty fast and without really realizing it, we were back in our old rooms at Newman College. I repacked my suitcase and went to bed early, since the bus left the next day at 8am.
Tuesday (02/12): We flew with Air New Zealand to Auckland. There was a short delay, which did not bothered us at all and during the flight, I finally watched “Bohemian Rhapsody”! We landed, waited for the bus to pick us up in Auckland and drove to our home for the next weeks: Mount Albert Lodge. It is actually a Motel with a pool and I share the small apartment with two other girls. To be honest, my first thoughts were: How am I going to survive the next weeks? But it got better…
Since we did not have time to go grocery shopping, Megan, our teacher, order Pizza for us- YUM!
Wednesday (02/13): Like on the first day in Melbourne, we also did a Scavenger Hunt in Auckland. It was a bit more difficult because it takes us 30 minutes to get into the city and even there all the “hotspots” are spread out. At some point, neither of us wanted to do the Scavenger Hunt anymore, which is way we spent two hours in a bar, drinking Cocktails and playing “Cards against Humanity”.
Thursday (02/14): That day was so far the most exciting one! We went to the Unitec Campus, close to our home, and were greeted by the Maori people. They held a ceremony for us and sang a song for us. You have to greet a Maori by bringing your noses together! We also had to take off our shoes before entering some rooms at their place. As the first group from Green River, we got to sleep there and it was an amazing experience! So, besides lunch, diner, supper and a lot of tea breaks with delicious scones, Papa Ho and Whaea Jazz played with us an introduction games, assigned us duties and took us to a beach, where we learned how to fight with sticks (Taiaha) before going for a swim. It was a really nice day!! As a bedtime story, Whaea Linda told us about the history of the Maori, which was interesting. And the most funny part about this was, that Bruce, our teacher, fell asleep.
Friday (02/15): Whaea Jazz woke us up at 6.45am, which made me feel like we were in a Boot Camp. We then had breakfast and learned some basics in the Maori language, like “Kia Ora” (which you can say pretty much all the time) or “Toku ingoa” (which means “My name is”). I love learning languages and the children still learn the Maori language here in school. This culture is really common here compared to the Aboriginals in Australia. Around noon, we had to say goodbye to them, which was really sad but they assured us that we can and should come back. We had the rest of the day off, so I decided to take a nap, since I was so tired. On that day, we also found out, that we have a ghost in our apartment. We named him “Norman” and he sometimes really freaks us out, but he is a mid-30-year-old nice man!
Saturday (02/16): Saturday is Beach day! We went to Piha Beach, which is a black sand beach where you can surf, hike and boogie-board. I got sunburnt a lot that day although I put on sunscreen. I have the feeling that the sun is more intense here. In the evening, a friend of mine and me, we went to the Lantern Festival, which was also pretty cool but really crowded!
Sunday (02/17): Today, a bunch of us students just went to the city, got lunch, did some shopping…that was the plan for the whole day.
Stay tuned for the upcoming weeks!
Let the memories begin 