Last day of orientation

Saturday (or Friday for those of you back in the states) was the first day that we were actually able to sleep in during orientation. It was much needed considering I woke up with a pretty significant cold. The extra time in the morning also gave me the chance to Skype with my mom, Tom, Jilly, my dad and Tina! It was quite the morning of beautiful smiles and faces I always love to see! :)

I went over to Grafton Hall for lunch around noon and then we had three consecutive sessions regarding school. We were told about the Auckland academic scene, how to make our study list, and then we had a question and answer session about things we felt were unanswered. After a very delicious afternoon tea time (complete with chocolate covered cream filled doughnut holes), Annie, Jeff, Joann, Angel and I sat at one of the picnic table to plan our upcoming trip. We all gave our input as to where we wanted to travel and what we wanted to do...

Time goes by so fast here! I went home to get ready for the evening, and before I knew it I was meeting Annie to go and walk down to the wharf to catch the ferry to Devonport for dinner. We all met in this beautiful town to go to dinner at Duders. The restaurant was beautiful and the dinner was amazing! A perfect way to spend our last night together as one big group. We were able to take a giant group picture and spend time on the balcony together talking and looking at the stars. We were able to see the Southern Cross, a constellation that is only visible in the southern hemisphere! We all had a wonderful time acting totally goofy and posing for all sorts of random pictures.

At about 10pm we all raced downstairs to make sure we were able to sit on the top level of the DOUBLE DECKER Greyhound bus that came to take us home! The anticlimactic part of that statement is that we ALL were able to sit on top! hahaha Woo Hoo! The bus took us over the Auckland Bridge and offered us an unparalleled view of the city at night! The skytower looked incredible!

When we returned to Grafton Annie and I hung out in her room until about midnight working out the logistics of our trip. We bought our plane tickets to Christchurch and booked our rental car. I am pretty nervous about driving here! I just keep having to tell myself "left turns are tight turns and right turns are wide. The driver is always on the inside of the lanes". Good thing a lot of the road we are going to be taking are not heavily traveled.

This morning I woke up at 7:30 am and thought sure it was 2 in the afternoon...I guess I'm still not used to the time exactly. I had breakfast at Grafton (have to take advantage of free food while I have it because the next two weeks I am going to be eating more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches than I had ever hoped to consume).

I met friends for coffee at FRED in the early afternoon and then helped Annie move her things into my flat for the night before we leave. We spent much of the afternoon planning out the stops for our trip to the south island, figuring out time between destinations and where we wanted to stay the night...meaning hostels, campgrounds, or where we are hoping to park our car for the night. :)

We took a break for coffee around 4:30 to discover that all of the local shops close at 4 and all of the chain stores close at 6. I guess I'm going to have to get used to a city that values their free time a lot more than Los Angeles. Anni gave in and got Starbucks, and we went to a convenience store where I purchased the biggest Kit Kat I have ever seen...It was just ONE BIG Kit Kat. We met up with our traveling crew, went to check out International House, and then came back home to hang out with some friends in the apartment downstairs. There are FINALLY people living in my building!!! Soooo exciting!! And most of them have accents!!! Double exciting! Still no one else living in my apartment, which works out well because my friends are able to stay here for the night before they all leave on their NZ adventures in the morning.

It's time for me to sleep. I have to kick this cold before we leave tomorrow night! But first I will leave you with a wonderful picture that is a testament to just how much mosquitos love me... :) o ya...and a wonderful view of the island we explored the other day!