Kia ora Aotearoa: 10 days 10000 miles from home
TÄnÄ koutou katoa. Ko Appalachian te mÄunga, ko Mississippi te awa, ko Nantucket Sound te moana, ko Lizzie ahau. NĹ reira, tÄnÄ koutou, tÄnÄ koutou, tÄnÄ koutou katoa.
Upon arriving to New Zealand in early February, I knew the names of about three other students on my study abroad program. Yet there are over 30,000 students studying at Auckland, heaps more than the ~8000 undergrads I am used to at Tulane University. I knew very little of what to expect of the university system here, of my living situation, of the access I would have to get to the grocery stores, or of how easy it would be to travel around the city and surrounding areas of the North Island. Luckily my flights to LA and continuing onto NZ were a breeze, and I was not stopped at customs for anything out of the ordinary. Before our plane even landed, however, all I could notice was the beauty of this country from above. The coastlines were mesmerising to watch as we circled around to begin our landing, and the grass was so vibrantly green.
Our first stop with the IFSA study abroad group was at Shakespear Regional Park, just north of Auckland, for orientation. Although those first few days were rainy, it didnât stop us from enjoying hiking, kayaking, ROGAINE-ing (go team Wop-Wops), and learning how to play touch rugby. The other IFSA students and I were able to get to know each other very quickly, through many card games and shared tea times in addition to the planned group activities. I quickly fell in love with the idea of tea time; one time we actually had 7 planned meals in a single day! Breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, snack time, dinner, snack time! I also tried archery for the first time, jumped a couple of electric fences during a scavenger hunt, and made some sheep friends.
The next stop on our journey was to the city! We completed a short scavenger hunt to find a few key points of interest, such as the grocery store (called Countdown), the Auckland Domain (a really large and hilly park adjacent to campus), the Britomart transportation centre, and Queen Street (the fairly touristy shopping hub of the city). This was the first sunny day of my time in New Zealand, and the sun here is SUNNY AS. Fortunately, I only burnt a very small area of my right arm, as I am trying to be religiously dedicated to my sunscreen applications.
That evening we traveled to the Te Hana Marae, where we were welcomed with a Powhiri, a Hangi welcome feast, and a bit of storytelling. We all slept in the marae together, before packing up to head back to the city to go our separate ways to various dorms or to the airport to travel to different universities.
I moved into my flat in the Carlaw Park Student Village, which is about a 10 minute walk to campus or to Countdown. Although it was currently Mardi Gras back in New Orleans, I was having too much fun celebrating Valentineâs Day in Auckland by enjoying nachos and my first legal drink out with my new friends at a Mexican restaurant to notice that I was actually, for the first time since attending Tulane, successfully participating in the âtequila sunriseâ tradition without falling asleep too early... if I were on NOLA time +5 hours later!Â
After settling in, some of us decided to take a day trip to Mission Bay beach, which was about a 15 minute Uber drive from the city. The island in the background is Rangitoto Island, and can actually be seen from many points in and around Auckland. This volcanic island doesnât really have any developed buildings, or any pests on it, as it is protected land. However, there is a ferry that will take you there, and there are walking trails that lead to the summit.
A few days later, we decided to climb Mt Eden, another volcano in the Auckland region! From the summit, there are beautiful 360 views of the city, Rangitoto Island, and beyond. At this point, I had made many amazing new friends to explore New Zealand with, settled in to my flat, learned my way around the city, and purchased an AT Hop public transportation card and a few cooking essentials. Everything was going great! On our next adventure, however, things went a little differently...
Piha Beach, on the west coast of the Auckland region, was on my âmust visit ASAPâ list. Public transportation doesnât go this far out of the city, so it required renting a few cars to get our group of friends there for the day. So, three of us went online the night before, and we each submit a booking request for the following day. In the morning, those of us who tried to hire cars, walked to the rental places only to be told that they were already completely booked. I frantically trekked around to 5 more rental places, and was only given the same news. As you can see from the picture above, though, we did eventually make it to Piha! One of my friends ended up calling a rental company, albeit one that I had already visited in person to no avail, and was told that they actually could rent him a car for the day! We called instead, walked back to that rental place, and successfully rented three cars. We were on our way!
As soon as I pulled over to park at a lookout above Piha Beach, another car pulled up next to me, asking to roll down my window, and the woman inside began very angrily reprimanding me for driving âdangerouslyâ slowly. Granted, it was my first time driving on the left side of the road, steering from the right side of the car, through a very windy road with constantly changing speed limits. It would jump from 50 km/hr to about 20 km/hr around a curve like every 100 feet, and I was doing my best to follow those changes. She threatened me with the fact that she was filming my perfectly legal driving, and that she was going to take it to the police. Although last time I checked, using a phone while driving was illegal but safely staying within the speed limit on a treacherous road was not... All should be fine, but this experience still had me feeling pretty down for the rest of the day.
On the way back to the city, we stopped to hike to Kitekite Falls, which lifted my spirits a bit! I wish we had more time to climb to the top of the falls, but we were racing the clock to return the rental car in time.
Since then, I have been busy with international student orientation at university, buying more groceries, and..... getting sick. I spent two days in bed, and also accidentally broke a glass while washing dishes. Fortunately, I am better now, hoping that the bad luck Iâve had these past few days is over, and I am looking forward to classes starting on Monday and my 21st birthday on Wednesday.
Te aroha, te whakapono, me te rangimarie, tatou, tatou e.
