6000 miles later

And so after months of waiting I'm finally here.  We arrived in Auckland Thursday morning and spent the day touring and swimming in the pouring rain.  Its the first time I've been in the Pacific in years and it has not changed much, but it was good to get back in.  

The next day we drove several hours to Rotorua, and on our way passed through "hobbeton" aka The Shire.  Took a picture with Smeagol, his statue is quite prominent, and stopped at a farm to see a sheep show.  Never have I seen a sheep sheared, but these guys can do it in under a minute, quite impressive.  There are also over 20 types of sheep here, some used for their wool, others more for bbq's.  That night we had some down time to catch up on sleep.  

The next day we toured the area's main attraction, a geothermal "wonderland" which was very similar to parts of our Yellowstone, which made the whole town reek of sulfur.  It was great for a few days but I can't understand how anyone with a functioning nose could live there.  Then we were off to go Zorbing, a kiwi phenomena where you jump into a massive inflated, round 3D donut of sorts, partly filled with water and then roll at break neck speeds down a hill.  Sounds overrated but it was actually quite a ball.  You see what I did there?  That night we visited a Maori village, learned heaps (kiwi slang) about their culture, song, dance, traditions and most importantly, food.  We were treated to a most delicious dinner, cooked traditionally over piping hot rocks in an underground oven.  After much singing we returned to the hotel for one final night before departing for Wellington in the morning.

We flew into Welly yesterday, and I made it to my flat and then we walked around the city to start to get our bearings.  Its a very hilly but beautiful and vibrant city.  This morning I started to wrap up some loose ends, got a voltage converter so I don't fry my computer and also went to the grocery.  Although the dollar is stronger here food is still relatively pricey- after dropping $80 NZ dollars I hope I'll be able to eat for the week.  We'll see.  Tomorrow we have the international students orientation, never before have I been an international so we'll see how that all goes.  The rest of the week then is totally unstructured and I'd love to get out and maybe get in some trekking.  

Thats all for now, more to come later.