Made it!

After a smooth 13 hour flight I arrived in Auckland where I then barely escaped a 200$ fine when customs found that I had mud caked on the bottom of my hiking boots. Eeeek! This adorable old Scottish man kept telling me "Just cry, they always let a crying lass off easy"...so there I stood trying to well up a few convincing tears.  So, after 5 grey hair and ulcer inducing minutes, the uptight customs worker comes out with my boots in a bag and says “You got really lucky” in a thick Indian accent. 

I then bussed down to Rotorua where I spent 4 days with Australearn’s orientation to NZ program.  It was fabulous! We went hiking around Blue lake, saw a sheep show at the Agrodome (where I milked my first NZ cow) thermal hot pooling, repelling and climbing through caves, learned the Haka (the native Mauri chant/dance), attended a traditional Hangi dinner and went out on the town where I gladly accepted a 20$ free tab for winning a costume contest with my homemade mermaid costume at this foam party at Lava Bar. 

My trip to Palmerston North proved to be a bit of a nightmare, I got locked out of my room at 3am the last night in Rotorua, caught the flu after spending 3 hours down in the wet caves, and somehow my biggest bag (which was in Australearn’s possession) was left at our hostel.  The 10 of us were plopped at a bus stop on campus where we got our keys and moved into our dorm/pod.  Lucky me was placed in the oldest most jail like dorms with no internet access anywhere for the past couple days but it isn’t so bad now that I have acknowledged how dependent on the internet I am.

I am beginning a big orientation for international students which will last the whole week.  We took a tour of the city and campus and it is lovely! I am looking forward to starting my classes, their dairy and sheep production is top of the line!