Once again I have nothing but positive words to say about my time in New Zealand so far. The views here are absolutely breathtaking, the atmosphere at my school is so uplifting and our host family has been amazing!!!
This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Waiheke Island. I took a ferry from downtown Aukland to the island. The ferry took about 40 minutes and there was beautiful scenery to look at all the way there, and it ended up being a very relaxing ride. Once we arrived on the island the zip lining company brought a van to pick us up and shuttle us to the highest peak on the island. Once we arrived we went through a tutorial and then they helped us get into our gear and get ready to go. It was also a great time for me to use my go pro which I ended up strapping to my helmet to capture our awesome adventure. We were able to go on three different zip lines with little nature walks in between. On our nature walks we saw the tree that was used in the movie Avatar, so that was a pretty cool experience. I was a little nervous at first because I had never done something like it, but after the first time down I was so pumped to go again.....definitely an event that I will never forget.
After we went zip lining we wanted to find a fun place to eat on the island. We ended up going to a little italian restaurant downtown with a beautiful ocean view. The food was amazing, and so was the $12 Diet Coke. Yes, you did in fact read that right. Turns out in New Zealand you will go in debt if you order anything other than water at a restaurant. They also do not do free refills, which me thinking they did, ordered two cokes. Lesson learned, I will stick to water.
This upcoming weekend will be an adventure because we are hopping on a plane to Wellington, which is the capital of New Zealand. It is only an hour plane ride so it will go by really fast. We booked a bed and breakfast right on the ocean to stay at while we are there. Our plan is to go to the Zoo, a museum, and do a little bit of shopping (although we seem to do a "little bit of shopping" every weekend....OOPS). There is just so many cool little shops here that it is hard to say no, and everything is more expensive than in the US.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Waiheke Island. I took a ferry from downtown Aukland to the island. The ferry took about 40 minutes and there was beautiful scenery to look at all the way there, and it ended up being a very relaxing ride. Once we arrived on the island the zip lining company brought a van to pick us up and shuttle us to the highest peak on the island. Once we arrived we went through a tutorial and then they helped us get into our gear and get ready to go. It was also a great time for me to use my go pro which I ended up strapping to my helmet to capture our awesome adventure. We were able to go on three different zip lines with little nature walks in between. On our nature walks we saw the tree that was used in the movie Avatar, so that was a pretty cool experience. I was a little nervous at first because I had never done something like it, but after the first time down I was so pumped to go again.....definitely an event that I will never forget.
After we went zip lining we wanted to find a fun place to eat on the island. We ended up going to a little italian restaurant downtown with a beautiful ocean view. The food was amazing, and so was the $12 Diet Coke. Yes, you did in fact read that right. Turns out in New Zealand you will go in debt if you order anything other than water at a restaurant. They also do not do free refills, which me thinking they did, ordered two cokes. Lesson learned, I will stick to water.
This upcoming weekend will be an adventure because we are hopping on a plane to Wellington, which is the capital of New Zealand. It is only an hour plane ride so it will go by really fast. We booked a bed and breakfast right on the ocean to stay at while we are there. Our plan is to go to the Zoo, a museum, and do a little bit of shopping (although we seem to do a "little bit of shopping" every weekend....OOPS). There is just so many cool little shops here that it is hard to say no, and everything is more expensive than in the US.