When we arrived in Auckland, I met Ellen, Jenny, Nick and Dave getting off the plane. We went over to baggage and had a grand time carrying it all over to customs and then waiting in that line. I had to declare my hiking boots, so they looked those over (but I had cleaned them before so they were fine). Next we signed in with the Australearn woman waiting for us and headed straight out to the buses. It was brisk and chilly outside. Still dark because it was around 5-6 am in the wintertime there and we split up our luggae and headed into the buses. University of Otago had a separate bus with only Massey Uni people in it with us because there were 29/70ish people total going to U of O. Watched the sun rise as we finally pulled out of the airport parking lot, on our way to Rotorua.
We made a few stops along the way and during these, going to the bathroom, getting coffee, postcards, on the bus, etc. I met many more people from our group especially those headed to Otago. About four hours later, by noon, we arrived at Kiwi Paka in Rotorua, NZ. It is technically a backpacking hotel but was very nice with a meeting room, a bar, a hangout area, and a dining room. Our group stayed in Chalets with four people in each. In my room (the largest I think actually) we had two beds downstairs along with the bathroom and a pullout couch and upstairs on a loft-type area were two more beds. I roomed with Jessica, Brooke and Jak. They were all awesome and we got along great.
After dumping our stuff in the rooms we went to the meeting room for lunch and then shortly after headed out for a walk through downtown Rotorua. I'm not sure what it was but my stomach hurt bad so I went with Liz to a pharmacy to pick up some tylenol, which here is called Nurofen. Took some of that and it helped a lot. Liz, from South Carolina heading to Otago with me, and I headed to Lake Rotorua, saw some geese and ducks and enjoyed our little walk around town. We saw some geysers, smelled them too, and Lava Bar where we went the next night. The only bad part was the off and on light raining, but we were all just so happy to be in New Zealand.
We just could not believe how amazing all the country was just driving through the hills and land to Rotorua. There is so much beauty in New Zealand you really do feel like you are on a movie set or something, not to be corny or anything :) We headed back for dinner and I called my parents then I plunked right to bed around 8pm. It was a very long day and night and all day I thought it was 5 hours later than it really was. At lunch, I said "Yes, dinnertime!" until I was corrected with a "OMG, it is only noon, shit - I am so tired."
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