Jeez, i suck at blogs

So I realize it's been over ten days since I last posted.. and my last post was just a tease. I guess i'm not cut out to be a blogger!
My first week in Rotorura was amazing, it was filled to the brim with adventures, new friends, and great times. The first day we learned the Haka, painted intricate beard-like tattoos on our faces and stripped down, if that doesn't bring a group of about 70 closer in .2 seconds than I don't know what does! The whole idea of the Haka and the Maori is really interesting. The Haka is an old war dance used to scare  rivals, with intimidating words, bulging eyes and contorted facial expressions that'd send me running for the hills too!
I found this little clip and couldn't resist, it's actually very similar to the Haka we were taught except much less intimidating, enjoy! Kamate Haka
On Tuesday we had our day of adventure, I chose to go white water rafting and then to a mineral spa. The rafting was probably the funnest thing i've ever done and i might just have to go back while i'm here. Funny thing about Rotorura is that it has A LOT of thermal activity so you can walk just about anywhere and see steam rising, oh and it smells like rotten eggs! I don't think i could get used to that one...
Wednesday we visited the Maori village for what was supposed to be a community volunteer day but they didn't have anything for us to do so we just walked around and ate their amazing food, I wasn't complaining! At night we went to another Maori village and they prepared a traditional Hangi for us. A Hangi is a meal cooked in the ground with hot rocks, it was probably one of the best meals i've had here so far.
Thursday we went caving or spelunking. We could choose from two different tumi tumi toobing adventures or repelling. I chose the tumi tumi toobing, it was something I never thought I would ever be able to do. They dressed us in wet suits and made us walk about a 1/4 mile in rolling fields filled with sheep. We stumbled upon a little hole in the ground with a ladder. Once our guide disappeared under the earth's surface we made our way one by one into underground networks of caves and rivers. It was so cool! At one point we turned our head lamps off and looked up to see a simulated night sky... not really.. it was actually millions of glow worms.

After the culture and adventure program I wasn't looking forward to coming to Wellington. I made so many great new friends, I just wanted to continue adventuring everyday and living disconnected from the world. But Friday morning came and went and I found myself in Wellington, Wellywood, or Windy Welly take your pick. I think this was the culture shock I had been waiting for. Wellington, New Zealand's capital is chock full of fashionistas, hipsters, free spirits and just overall trendy people. I never thought I'd stick out for being plain! The first day I felt really overwhelmed, I didn't know where anything was and had so much to do. After adding some homey touches on my room I started to feel better and really began to enjoy this city. Since i've been in Wellington i've gone to the beach (about a 25 minute walk) multiple times, Te Papa (a museum you could spend 2 days in without even brushing the surface), the Botanical Gardens (so gorg!), clubbing on Courtenay Place, bar hopping on Cuba St, hiked Mt. Victoria, adventured all around the city, oh yeah I started school too. I kind of forgot I'm here to go to school... kind of a bummer.
Since I've been here i've noticed many things:
-New Zealand is a little obsessed with America
- internet and cell phones really suck
- food and clothes and pretty much everything else is really expensive. Thankfully the currency exchange rate is on my side!
-Wellington is real loud. waking up to construction and traffic every morning is kind of a downer but the ocean and mountain views makes up for it :)
i'm going to come back with buns of steel because you can't walk anywhere without a huge hill, and we have to walk everywhere!

Some things kiwis say:
keen: "I'm  keen to clubbing on Courtenay Place"
ideal: "How ideal!"
sweet as, bomb as, cool as, mean as: "I just came back from swimming with dolphins and unicorns" "Oh sweet as bro!"
dodgey: "Don't go down that dark alley way, it looks real dodgey"
oh yeah and they call flip flops jandals, and swim suits, togs.
togs vs. undies


Well that's recap on my life for the past few weeks. Hopefully i'll remember to update this more!

After caving!

Sheepies!

Botanical Gardens

...

View from my room

First night, sunset in Auckland

AHHHHH!!

I don't have much time to write but i'll try to make this as informative as possible :)
I arrived in Wellington today around noon after a week of jam-packed adventures with a great group of people. It seems as though this trip is coming in stages and each stage has it's own intimidating and challenging feat. just as soon as I got comfortable and really started to get to know the people I met in Rotorura I get whisked off to Wellington.
Let's see, this has been a trip of many firsts
- international flight
- first time in the southern hemisphere
-first time leaving the U.S aside from Canada
-  spelunking (caving) it was really amazing and nothing like i could have ever imagined
-  luging down the side of a winding mountain
-spending the day with the Maori (NZ's native people) and learning the Haka!
-white water rafting in the most beautiful place i've ever been to and have decided that it must be done again this trip! The river was truly a sight from Jurassic Park!

There's really no words that give NZ's landscapes justice, just completely inspiring. 
Anyway there's too much to write in the 10 minutes I've paid for. Hopefully I'll get the internet situation sorted out shortly.
Until then,
Kristen

here we go!

I've been up for 14 hours, traveling for 12 and still have at the very least 18 more to go. Keeping that in mind, bare with me as I struggle through this first post. I've never kept a blog just because, so it'll be interesting as to how much I actually keep up with it AND if I even have the knack for keeping a blog. I've read some good blogs in my time and if I can even hold your attention for a fraction of what the good blogs do then, well bravo! Why am I rambling on about my insecurities about blog writing??! ...Oh yeah I almost forgot, I STILL HAVE FIVE HOURS IN THIS AIRPORT!!
Anyway, enough about that, i've already realized and pondered some things since i've been gone.
1. Why do they have ash trays in the airplane bathrooms?! ...isn't that just asking for trouble?
2. We flew through Canada to get to LAX from New Hampshire... doesn't that seem indirect?
3. If you've seen one airport store, you've seen them all.
4. Airports can bring out the worst in people.
5. I think I have restless leg syndrome.
6. People watching is truly a great pastime. Someone should start a website called "peopleofairports.com" like peopleofwalmart.com... but with airports. I'm lame, I know.
The thing I pondered most on my flight from NH was landscapes. I looked outside and saw the most mountains i've ever seen, it was crazy. The lack of human life and the amount of snow make for a pretty incredible, yet bewildering/humbling experience. I've come to the conclusion that big things make me feel insignificant and overwhelmed, things like, mountains, large bodies of water, the population, the world, the universe etc. But I think it's kind of good to feel this way just to keep things in perspective, so I suppose i'm okay with feeling insignificant. Back to my flight to LA ( I diverge from topics often), the coolest part was in the span of about ten minutes I looked outside to find the snow covered mountains to the desert back to the snow covered mountains then a mixture of the two... No worries, I took pictures :)

Sorry this is such a boring post, but why am I apologizing... I doubt anyone's even reading this except my parents.
Alright well that took up a couple minutes of my time. Next time you hear from me i'll be in NEW ZEALAND!!@#$%^&

I'll part with my theme song for this neck of the adventure

click it.

up on a plane and i'm going to a foreign land


cheers,
kristen