After about 24 hours of travelling, our plane finally arrived in Auckland at 6:00am, still pitch dark out seeing as it's winter (a fact which I seemed to ignore while packing). Luckily our plane was full of about 100 kids doing the australearn program. Knowing there was 100 kids just as confused, sleepy, excited and grumpy as I was, was definitely a comforting fact. I met 3 girls on my flight from Chicago to LA: Andreana, Lauren, and Ariel. So knowing some familiar faces helped.
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| Ancient Volcano Cone with Downtown Auckland in the distance |
To keep us awake we drove to the top of an ancient volcano cone (Auckland sits on 44 of them). Took pictures..walked around. However, being outside early in the morning in a freezing mist with no sleep and in the clothes I was wearing since Chicago is not the first thing you want to do once you get to New Zealand. Either way, the first day was pretty laid out. Meetings about culture clash, do’s and don’ts, how to deal with getting phones and money…ect. After, we got a few free hours before dinner to actually go get the phones, money, ect… and to explore the city. I was amazed by the amount of hills you have to climb to get anywhere, hopefully I come back with some toned calfs. Pooped out, a group of us decided to sit down and have a pint at what advertised itself as “the oldest pub in Auckland”. After a group dinner (very chaotic with 100 people in a little Italian restaurant), some of us decided to stop in an Irish pub near our hotel. We figured a live singer and a few drinks might help to stay awake, but with all of us feeling quite lame, we left at 9 to go to bed.
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