Fast Forward

For those of you interested in my first few days in New Zealand and still reading, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to cut my first few weeks short since so much is happening here in Wellington and I'd hate to forget something. The first few weeks with the Globalinks people was one of the best parts of my trip so far but I'll have to talk about it later or at another part of my blog before I lose my train of thought of all the unique experience during my time in school.

So to quickly sum up from July 2 to July 7th with the other badasses at Globalinks:

We went out to the bars in Auckland got back around 2, woke up, ate breakfast, stole an extra yogert and jumped on the bus to head out to the very unique town of Rotorua aka RotoVegas.

On the way we stopped over at Hobbiton for about 15 minutes to take a few pics and grab a coffee: 

 

After that we hopped back on the bus and about an hour later, we walked off the bus and got hit with the nauseating smell of sulfur and we were in Rotorua. Rotorua was a quaint little town that for some reason gave me a 1970's vibe as I walked down the street. There were dozens of Inns and hostels along the road to the liquor store and burger king. I was told Rotorua was one of the north island's biggest tourist spots, kind of like the Queenstown of the North Island. The buildings were no higher than 2 floors and the landscape past  the street from our hostel was flat for a few miles with mountains over the horizon. Very New Zealandish. They had some mud baths that I didn't get to try which is my motivation to go back eventually.

View from the road in Rotorua - Google Maps

We unloaded our stuff, had a small lunch and got our room keys. I was roommates with the bros Shea and Conner (Chief), Wyatt, their friend and frat bro, Mike, one of the dudes studying with them in Auckland, and Cameron another dude studying in Canterbury on the South Island. We all bonded but I was bummed when I remembered that they were all headed up about 300 miles North from where I was studying down in Wellington and one dude was on the South Island. I was told Bus rides to Auckland were about $40 and 8 hours so if I was going to pop over it would take half a day there and back.

Auckland to Wellington - Google Earth

Nonetheless we partied and rafted together and it was a genuinely good time. Later that day I forget what happened because it was almost a month ago then I went to sleep.

The next day was the god damn 4th of July and I woke up feeling proud to American. It was our day of adventure and I grabbed all my Gopro gear and American attire and headed for the bus. What happened next that day will take me time to put up all the video but I will get to it eventually.

 That night I went out to one of the fine dinning venues with Kristen, Daniel and Sam and experienced our first awkward tipping situation, and also met up with Alyssa, who was my Norfolk county buddy, from the next town over from my hometown, and Julie. We grabbed some more absurdly expensive alcohol and headed back to the rooms to pregame were I handed out some US gear to the girls and got drunk. I heard loud people in the kitchen, played some flip cup and we all headed out to the Lava Bar to get shithoused.

The Lava Bar - James Sales Photography

Some people were rocking their American pride but I personally think I was the most patriotic:

and the most attractive.

The bar had a bungie rope and everyone tried to show how loud and cavalier Americans are at bars. I did my best but by the time my turn was up as the very last attempt, my adrenaline was already gone from starting USA chants and motivating everyone else:

Big thanks to Sean for the cinematography

People started to leave around 1ish while others stayed out until 4 like nutcases.

The next day was community day:

 

Views: Pyes Pa, New Zealand by Dennis C (D)

where we planted saplings along this hillside to slow erosion,

And then stopped at Mount Maunganui on the way back:

Views: Tauranga, New Zealand by Dennis C (D)

Views: Tauranga, New Zealand by Dennis C (D)

and then Maori Day and then we left Rotorua for our caving adventures. I'll cover these days in a later post. After that we made the trek back to Auckland where everyone parted ways to go to their own Unis and then I arrived in Welly friggin Woo.