Orientation!

(click on pictures below for a bigger view)

I arrived at Auckland Airport an hour earlier than expected and since it’s their winter it was pitch black out for the first 3 hours I was there! But I got to see the sun rise as we drove to the Whangaparaoa peninsula.  I was expecting to be freezing cold but it really was not bad temperature wise!

So this is where I was staying the first 4 days and 3 nights into my adventure:

I was lucky because I was hardly jetlagged. I was dead tired by 7:00pm but otherwise through the day I was wide awake. The orientation crew purposely kept us up and filled our days with activities so we didn’t just sleep all day. Our days started at 8:00am and the first night they let us go to bed at 8:00pm, the second night around 9, and the last night we got to bed around 10pm. I along with almost everyone else tended to wake up at 5am. Although it was 1pm back on East Coast time so why 5:00am was the popular time to wake up I don’t know. 

The first day we went on a nice wander (hike) around. What’s awesome there is that there were no paths…we could literally wander wherever. There were gates but they served no purpose other than landmarks to know where you were.  They had steps so people can hop them.  There were no boundaries and there was something incredibly exhilarating running about gorgeous rolling hills.

That night we went to hot pools and it was INCREDIBLE! The pools were fed by natural thermal mineral water and the water actually felt different on my skin than plain water. It felt very nice after being jetlagged and sore from being cramped for around 24 hours on a plane. My new friends and I also met a group of New Zealand/Scottish guys who were incredibly entertaining to talk to. They were doing pranks for “points” and whoever had the most would win. Two of my friends and I joined in and tied for 2^nd place!

Day 2 of orientation began be doing some ROGAINE (Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Nature & Exercise).  We got into groups and had a huge scavenger hunt all over the peninsula.  We had only 45 minutes and we had to use a map to find landmarks and then hidden by them were little wooden blocks with symbols on them.  We had to draw the symbol for a certain amount of points and whomever had the most points won.  The ones further away were worth more so thank god my group was athletic because we were sprinting up steep hills and jumping fences and it got pretty intense.  We came in 2^nd place by only 10 points so my group did AWESOME! This was one of my favorite things we did.

We then went kayaking in the ocean.  This was awesome to sum it up the best I can.  The water is crystal clear blue and actually really warm.  Like warmer than the Atlantic Ocean even though it’s winter there and very close to Antarctica.  I was in shorts and a light windbreaker and was soaked head to toe and still very warm! We played a game of Ultimate Frisbee but in kayaks…my team blew everyone else away with some awesome moves and ended up winning. 

I also went mountain boarding…its pretty much skateboarding down mountains.  Through this experience I learned I cannot mountain board to save my precious life. I was the single only person to never get the hang of it.

We also went into Auckland and explored the city! This turned into me and 3 of my new found friends sitting in a random cellphone store for over an hour because we had wifi for the first time in 4 days! I got to talk to my mom and Connor, which was just so nice.  Seeing them type a response to me for the first time made me cry. It's funny how when I was isolated in the rolling hills of this new foreign country I was able to forget all the worry of being alone across the world from everything I knew. When I was finally able to have contact with that side of the world I knew and left, it made me severely homesick. Wifi here is hard to come by anyway.  You normally have to go into a café, buy something, and then get a code that lasts about an hour and then you buy something else to get the updated code.   When we finally realized how lame we were being crying over WiFi, we left and I was really home sick and sad but it didn’t take long until I forgot all that and was excited again.  My friend and I went up into the Skytower and I took these sweet pictures!

Some girls I met from the group

Sky Tower from below

Auckland from above (and a rainbow)!

Aaaand we ended up holding up the bus that was to take us away from Auckland and so Marilyn, Anna, and I had to sing a song to the bus.  It was quite funny. But then we drove to the Marae! There was a whole ceremony that I will explain briefly…If you’re bored reading this skip down this whole explanation!

Ok so women are in the front, men follow and after one of the Maori women makes a high pitched call we walk into the meeting house (taking our shoes off first).  Then the Maori sing a song and talk, and then it was the visitor’s turn to talk (us) and this was followed by the hongi, where we all lined up and pressed noses with each of the Maori people.  The hongi (pressing of the noses) is a traditional Maori greeting.  I was quite uncomfortable at first but it was a cool experience. 

This is where we slept that night……

We also went on a night walk. They have a traditional Maori village set up where the Maori people dressed up in traditional clothing and went through the process of what would happen in the old days when visiters came. They did the Haka—a traditional war cry where they dance intensely and buldge their eyes out and stick out their tongue. The visitors must not flinch while this happens. This is what it looked like….

Then they sang us some songs and it was all fun!

The next day I climbed a volcano.

volcanic crater 

This same day I flew to Wellington.  OH and I never mentioned.  There is only one other girl from the group attending Massey Wellington.  And she is awesome so I’m so glad she was (and is) with me! Most everyone either stayed in Auckland or went to Victoria University in Wellington.  Same city, different school. 

And with that, Orientation was over!