Amazing first days in NZ

So many amazing things have happened in the last few days!


Seven days ago I got on a plane at JFK and flew through LAX to Auckland. My travel was relatively simple and easy though there were way too many huge flights going out of my gate at LAX and I went to a considerably quieter corner of the airport. You know you’ve found the quietest place in the airport when you realize lots of Jews keep coming over to stand and pray because it’s Sunday.


The 13 hour flight from LAX to Auckland was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The two seats next to me were free which was fantastic. I watched Man on Wire which I really liked. It seemed perfect for the occasion. I also watched a few episodes of Flight of the Conchords. I read a considerable portion of “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” which so far has been a good read. Around dinner time (whenever that was) the stewards and stewardesses came around again and again with a different bottle of wine in hand each time! Free wine on a long flight = great idea. At some point I took two Benadryl and enjoyed a decent sleep at what was actually from about midnight to five New Zealand time. I think this is why I experienced little jet lag.


As I stood up to exit the plane I saw an IFSA folder in the hand of a girl who was sitting in the row in front of me. I found out she was from Alabama and goes to Vanderbilt. I definitely didn’t expect the first person I’d meet in New Zealand to be from my school! We left the gate together and found the IFSA staff and the rest of our companions. We took a bus from the airport to the YMCA Lodge at Shakespear Park on the Whangaparaoa peninsula north of Auckland.


Our three nights at the YMCA Lodge were great. The days were filled with educational, athletic, and social activities including fantastic food 5+ times per day. Our crew was comprised of some 14(?) Wellington bound students and 18 Canterbury bound students. I’ve found all of the study abroad people including the staff to be really friendly and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these friendships last through orientation (though that does seem a rare event for orientation programs).


Three nights ago the whole IFSA crew stayed at a proper Maori Marae. We rehearsed a few songs and elected a couple group speakers the night before for the Welcoming ceremony. We all stayed on foam mattresses in the Marae’s community meeting building where celebrations and funeral services take place. The night we were at the Marae we enjoyed a performance by certain individuals of the Marae who perform to communicate certain aspects of Maori culture to people like us. They taught the gentlemen of the group, myself included, how to do a Maori haka. A haka is a sort of battle dance performed to both intimidate opponents and prepare a warrior to take hits in combat. Some New Zealand sports teams including the All Blacks (rugby) perform a haka before matches. The Marae experience was fantastic. The Maori community was very warm to us and I feel very lucky to have had the experience.


The day after the Marae the group traveled to the Auckland Airport where the Cantabrians said farewell to the Wellingtonians and we flew to our different cities. We’ve been staying in a hotel/hostel called Thomas’s because the dorms do not open until Monday. We’re cooking for ourselves in the hostel kitchen and trying to get a feel for the city. We did a sort of scavenger hunt in the city in teams yesterday which was quite fun. Last night we went out to celebrate Nick’s birthday. We hit two clubs and a bar before and retired at about 4 A.M. We all had a blast despite the fact that most drunk folks on the street seemed to want to fight us and the kiwi ladies were turning down all of the bros.


This morning we were all woken up by Kate (our IFSA “caretaker”) at about 8 meaning we had only a few hours of sleep. She came around pounding on our doors telling us we had to have a meeting. Apparently a lot of things went wrong at the Hotel in the recently passed hours including stealing of food from the kitchen, the displacement of fire extinguishers from the walls, and a death threat over a game of pool this morning. All of these things have of course been pinned on us for being 18 rowdy college kids and so Kate had to bark at us. We weren’t responsible for any of the things we’re accused of but what can you do, eh?


Today it’s free library internet, a dinner and cake celebration of Nick’s birthday, and a considerably more tame night as Kate has demanded that we stay in so that if anything goes wrong we can all prove it was not us and IFSA’s relation with the place doesn’t sour.