DAY 24: Off to the Races!

That morning, we got fancy and headed off to the Auckland Ellerslie Races! We looked a little overdressed for the bus on a Saturday, but we didn't care.

Tickets for general admission were $10, and we were not going to pass that up! On our way in, a wine company was handing out free glasses. Now this was my kind of racetrack!

I won on the first race! The horse's name was Joey Massino. I only bet 5 bucks, so I made that back and then some. Won a few other races as well. Overall, I came out probably $10 in the hole, which wasn't too bad for a fun day at the track!

DAYS 19-23: Oh right, that's why I'm here...

Monday through Wednesday- Days 19-21: Class. I haven't done that in 3 months. Oy-a-may-a.

My friend Haley
during our hour Photography session

Haley in front of the church
down the street from our classroom

I'm taking 2 education courses here: one for teaching Math (or Maths as they call it here) and one for Reading. The Math class is seriously boring, but the reading class I might actually learn something. Also, the professor is from Canada, so I don't spend half the class time trying to figure out what the difference is between a Kiwi accent and a British accent is. My roommate laughs every time I try to imitate him. My only comfort is that the only American thing he can say convincingly is "Sup Dude."

Another of my classes is Te Ara Poutama which is a Maori Leadership course. It's actually kind of cool; we are going to learn about all the important past Maori leaders. Also, class is held in the Marae.

FUN FACT #16: A Maori meeting house is known as a Marae (pronouced Mer-aye). The inside is painted with the colors of the rainbow and it has carvings on all of the walls, beams, and pillars. Don't forget to take your shoes off before going inside!

Auckland buildings during Photography hour

In AUT's (Auckland University of Technology) Marae, there is an overhead projector that our professor uses. There are also a bunch of comfy mattresses that we put out on the ground for us to lay down on. Very comfy.

My last class is Photography. I was actually fairly excited to take this class even though I'm only doing it so I can be classified as a student and not get deported. So far my professor pulled up google images for 2 hours and clicked on different photographers and let us walk around campus and "take pictures of different mediums of light" for an hour. Whoop-dee-doo. I'm learning so much, thats 3 hours of my life I'll never get back. Seriously, do not shut the blinds and read off Google to me at 8 in the morning. It's just not going to work out in your favor.

Thursday- Day 22: BEACH BABY! Soakin' up the sun while I still can.

St. Michael's Church

Friday- Day 23: UVM has a special relationship with the Education Department at AUT in that they set up teaching experiences for us. Each UVM El-Ed student will be sent to a school within the Auckland Area. My friend Lizzy Fanning and I were sent to St. Michael's School in Remuera. Not knowing much about the New Zealand school system, I was excited to see what I could learn. Lizzy and I got a bit lost on our way there, but the principal was really nice and understanding. She showed us around the school and explained as much about it as she could before handing us off to a couple of teachers.  The set up was neat: There is the actual church out front which is very big. Then behind it are a series of buildings. The first holds the gymnasium/theatre hall. The second has the secretary, principal, and vice principal's offices, the teachers lounge, and the Year 4, 5, and 6 classrooms. The third building has the Year 1, 2, and 3 classrooms.

I learned some really interesting things on my first day. Such as New Zealand students start school at Year 1, which is the U.S. kindergarten. What they call kindergarten is what we call our pre-school. Keep in mind that the school year in New Zealand starts when the summer ends in February. Kiwi children start school on their 5th birthday, or if their birthday is during the summer, they begin when the school year starts. This makes the Year 1 teachers start with a class size of about 13 students and end the year with about 24. It's really weird; I'm not really sure why they do it that way.

In any case, the classrooms all open up to a patio that overlooks a tennis court, a lawn, a playground, and a shallow swimming pool. At "Morning Tea" a.k.a. Snack Time, the kids just go outside and eat wherever they like. They get an hour for Lunch and Recess where they do the same thing; they eat or play, play or then eat. The kids have a lot of free reign here, I was very surprised. Kids climb the trees, teachers pay no mind. If they fall, they fall. If they get hurt, its their fault. In the States, there is no way that would fly because the school would get sued. But because you can't sue in New Zealand, so it doesn't really matter. Of course, the teachers keep the students as safe as possible, but they do it without smothering the kids. Let's just say "Imaginary Dodgeball" is an o.k. thing here, unlike at Barstow Elementary.

One day a week, the younger grades have a swimming lesson. The pool is only about 2 and a half feet deep, so the kids are always safe. It's nice seeing that the school takes responsibility for making sure its students are safe around water. As an island nation, swimming is a really important thing that unfortunately not enough kids get to learn.

FUN FACT #17: There are usually no guidance counselors or nurses at New Zealand elementary schools. They will bring qualified and trained professionals for any students who need any special needs with medical problems, but there is not actual school nurse. Strange, I know.

Day 18: Island Hopping

For our last day in the Bay of Islands, we decided to rent a small speed boat and go island hopping! We woke up early, got a relatively normal almost-American-like breakfast and went to the pier. We rented the boat for about $50 each, the guy gave Brett a little boat driving course, and before we knew it we were on the water!

We perused around the small islands keeping our eyes peeled for dolphins. The islands were really pretty. The day was a bit cloudy, which was kind of disappointing, but we still had fun.

We went into one small little inlet to find quite a few boats anchored there. We figured that this must have been a good spot to stop, so we anchored and swam ashore to the smallest prettiest beach ever. We goofed around in the crystal clear water and decided to hike a grassy hill behind the beach. Hill was a bit of an understatement: this thing was fairly steep. Right as we reached the top, the sun came out. The view was amazing!! You could see a bunch of different islands all around us and the whole place was gorgeous!

We didn't stay too long, we had to get back to catch the bus back to Auckland at 4 o'clock. Brett let me drive the boat for a little, which was wicked fun. When we landed, we grabbed some lunch at Tito's and went to get on the bus.

Now, the "Naked Bus" on the way to the Bay of Islands was a small thing that was pulling a trailer. This Naked Bus was a giant coach bus. We though, "Yeah, this is sweet as, this is what I paid for."

We were wrong. It was not what we paid for.

Before even entering the bus, the bus driver was yelling and swearing at another costumer who was yelling and swearing right back. I won't use the language here, but it was rather colorful profanity. We were kind of freaked out, but we and the other 20 people at the bus stop got on the bus. Once everyone sat down, the bus driver proceeded to bad mouth this former customer and swear in front of the entire bus.

Someone yelled to the driver, "You're the worst bus driver ever!"

Bus driver, "Excuse me??!! I don't have to take that s*#t! No I don't! I'll kick you off the goddamn bus, I will!"

Person, "I'm a paying costumer!"

Driver, "Do you think I give a damn?! I do not have to be treated that way from you. You shut your f-ing mouth or your gone!"

The girl shut up quick, and we started driving. As soon as we pulled out, he was politely chatting with the nice middle aged chinese couple right behind him. Dude was psycho.

At the next stop, a girl got up and asked if she could go to the bathroom. Scratch that, the toilet.

FUN FACT #15: They don't call it a bathroom here, its called the toilet. I once asked if an establishment had a restroom, and the guy looked at me funny. "No, we don't have a hang out room to watch tv or something if that's what your asking me...." Well no duh dude, this is a restaurant. Truth be told, I find it kind of crude to just call it "the toilet" but then again it does make sense...

So the girl asks to go to the toilet. Not an unreasonable request, the ride takes about 4 and a half hours. The bus driver whips around, "No, you cannot go to the toilet. We are on a tight schedule because SOME OF OUR PASSENGERS HELD UP THE BUS!!!! No toilet for you."

"B-b-but, I really have to go..."

"Well hold it! Or get off! We are not stopping so you can piss, go sit down."

HOLY. CRAP. Bro was trippin. I had to pee too, but I wasn't about to go get my ass kicked by this dude to do it. So I thought "Be the Camel" and we got back on the road again, and although I didn't see it, Emma swears she saw him rolling a cigarette while driving. ON NEW ZEALAND ROADS.  If sky diving wasn't going to kill me, I thought that this was some sort of God's cruel punishment for scaring my mom so bad.

Mind you, the entire bus is freaked out at this point. I mean terrified. Everyone is too scared to talk for fear of being yelled at. Meanwhile, the driver is chatting away with his middle age chinese couple best friends like nothing is happening. We just plugged into our i pods and kept to ourselves. That is until Amy saw some sheep. I think she must have had a momentary brain lapse, because she literally turns to look at me and Lizzy, and yells "BBAAA-AA-AAA!!!" Jesus, Mary, and Joseph I thought the bus driver was going to pull over and kill us all. But the chinese people distracted him as we punched Amy's arm and the rest of the bus gave us dirty looks. Dear Lord.

So we finally made it to Auckland, snagged our stuff, and sprinted to the nearest McDonald's to pee. The whole ride had just been unreal, we laughed our entire walk home. The next day we received an email from Naked Bus informing us the bus driver had been fired and our next ride was half price. Not bad for a full bladder and a silent ride (minus Amy's sheep incident).

Day 17: Two words- SKY. DIVING.

So we woke up, carefully picked what to eat for breakfast, and waited for the van to take us Sky Diving. Made a few phone calls just in case I died. 16,500 feet is a long way. 75 seconds of free fall. Definitely intimidating. So we got in the van and drove to "The Sky Dive Zone" which was in Kerikeri, a town not far from Paihia which was where we were staying.

Fun Fact #14: New Zealand drivers are crazy. No joke, actually cray cray. They fly around the insane turns and twists of the roads like its a straight freeway. Seriously, these people are worse than Vermonters on dirt roads in winter. They think they can go as fast as they want, and that their cars can take it! I'll admit it, I'm a pretty cocky driver in the snow... But these people ain't got no trucks or subarus, they're driving little 2 wheel drives that'll cop out in 5 years with how they treat them. My Dad always told me if I took care of my car, the car would take care of me. But in the States, cars are expensive. Here, they can trade hands with the exchange of a thirty rack of beer and twenty dollar bill. Fo' real. That happens.

So back to the story- this van ride was pretty hardcore. I was thinking, "If I can survive this ride, I can do Sky Diving no problem." And I did.

We got to the Sky Dive Zone, and immediately set about the task of signing our lives away. While I signed, the girl behind the desk was swearing into her cellphone.

"Yeah, screw this place. Yeah, I'm done. No, Like seriously, I'm printing my resignation right now. I'm so done with this crap."

My friend Emma and I looked at each other, like what the hell are we doing here. This chick is peaceing out and bad mouthing the owner right in front of us, what kind of place is this? But it didn't really matter at that point, we had paid, the deed was done.

Emma was the most terrified of all of us. I mean, this girl is afraid to jump 10 feet into water. And who gets pulled out of the group to be the first one to go up with some other people? Emma. Of course. She goes off with the flirty Spanish man with the funny hat, and we go get briefed in the lounge.

The video essentially consisted of "Make your body shaped like a banana. You get in the plane, the only way out is jumping. Don't fight us, we WILL hit you." Well that was informative, thanks guys.

After the speech, we suited up and put on our harnesses. Emma made it down, we congratulated her and got in our own plane. Lizzy, Sara and I climbed into our dinky little rickety airplane with each of our instructors. I got lucky with my instructor: his name was Andrew and he was very very normal. Lizzy and Brett's, on the other hand, was called "Cookie" because his name was German and it sounded similar to that. He was a pretty sketchy dude who didn't speak English all that well. Gave off a serious creeper vibe. Sara's guy just looked like he had a few too many the night before. Can you say Vom dot com?? Doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence in his abilities when your scared he's going to throw up on you mid flight. Emma and Amy's was a Spanish man who was flirting with them the entire time. It's just a little bit weird to get hit on while you sit in this man's lap for 25 minutes with no means of escape...

Anyways, we hopped in, they yanked down the garage door opening, stuffed a towel in the top to stop the wind from getting in too much, and we took off.

Suited up!

In the plane. Door about to close. No turning back now.

We flew around the Bay of Islands for about 20 minutes. This was the view. Absolutely incredible.

At 8,000 feet, they made us put on oxygen masks. 

This was me (straight ahead), Lizzy (blonde) and Sara (hat) sitting on the laps of our instructors as we fly over the Bay of Islands. At 5 minutes till the jump, they strap you in. At one minute, they take off your oxygen mask, put your hat and goggles on, and butt scoot you to the garage door on the left side of this picture.

I was the first to go. One thing that I can say was that I did NOT fight him. Or pee my pants.

Okay, maybe a little pee. 

Just kidding. But I did drool like crazy!

Sayin' hi to the Brohan.

And the parental unit.

When he pulled the chute, I was thinking, "Oh man! I wanted to go more, why'd you do that?" Then I realized, "Oh wait, it actually worked. I'M ALIVE!!!!!"

My instructor let me spin us in circles for a little bit. Kind of made me dizzy, I didn't do that for too long.

Enjoying the view down.

Landed! Now to call my family and let them know I survived. Phew.

We hung around for our other friends Brett and Amy to jump. It was a beautiful day for it, we had a nice time sitting out in the sun waiting for them. My ears were all weird though from dropping so fast, it took me a while to get them back to normal. After, we got in the car with the crazy receptionist who was quitting. She actually ended up being really nice and because she was resigning, she decided not to charge us for our van ride. Yay for saving money!!!!

She told us to go to a restaurant next door to our hostel called "Tito's". We waltzed in with our Heinz ketchup like such bad asses. 

"Hey guys, guess what? We jumped out of a plane today."

Day 16: Russell Island in B.O.I

We had gotten a deal on "Grab One" for a coupon to go to the SkyDive Zone in the Bay of Islands, which was one of the big reasons why we went there. But Friday morning gave us lots of clouds, and our jump was postponed.

Unwilling to sit around in one of the most beautiful places in the north island, we went for a short hike while waiting to see if the skies would clear up. The hike took about 30 minutes, and it overlooked the entire bay. When we got to the bottom, we received our phone call informing us that our jump had been moved to the next morning. We were bummed, but decided to make the most of a cloudy yet gorgeous day.

We took the ferry across the bay to Russell Island. It had a small town on the shore which we walked through on our way to Long Beach. Now this was a beach to rival Maunganui Beach. It was absolutely marvelous. Emma and I went shell searching and enjoyed a nice nap on the beach. We had a blast with Amy's underwater camera in the insanely blue water.

After goofing around on the beach, we returned to the town and bought some pizza and pineapple fritters. We bought a liter (not a gallon people, this ain't 'Merica) of ice cream for Emma's 21st birthday and watched the sun go down while we waited for the ferry. Although we didn't get to sky dive, we had a very successful day.

FUN FACT #13: For those of you who have never had a pineapple fritter, you have not truly lived. Although New Zealand pizza is not great, and most of their food doesn't hold a candle to Mamma Rodolfy's cooking, pineapple fritters are the bomb diggity. They are essentially fried pineapple rings rolled in cinnamon and brown sugar. They're like a warm pineapple donut. In essence, they are heaven in your mouth. So yeah, try one. And become an addict. They are that good.

Day 15: BAY OF ISLANDS BAABBBYYYY!!!!! the hostel life

We woke up early to catch the "Naked Bus" to the Bay of Islands, which is about 4 hours north of Auckland. And don't worry guys, thats just the title of the bus company. Get your minds out of the gutter.

It was a beautiful ride! The New Zealand countryside is truly incredible. (Some friends did not exactly enjoy the twists and turns of the road though; student night in Auckland can have that effect...)

After arriving in Paihia, we settled into our first hostel. A few people were already occupying it. Apparently they had been working for the hostel for several months to get a free room. Slightly awkward at first, but they ended up being very nice. Except for their scraggly little black cat named Panther. He was slightly vicious. We were very careful not to let our feet dangle from our beds. That was just asking to get pounced on.

Anywho, our groups split up after we all claimed our beds. Amy, Lizzy, and Emma headed straight for the beach while Sara, Brett and I went for a long hike to Haruru Falls. It was about three hours in total to walk from our hostel to the trail and then to the falls. We had a nice walk through the "bush" as the Kiwis call it.

The falls were pretty big. We quickly found out that it was a very large tourist site. A hotel resides just down the road, so we decided to take the main road back to the hostel. Prroobbably not the best decision.... we didn't realize we would be walking on a main highway... but we made it back safe and sound, no worse for wear.

The hostel had a hot tub as well as a bar, and we decided to enjoy both. We met up with some other friends who were in the Bay of Islands from our Global Links trip and hung out at the bar for a bit. Went to bed early with dreams of skydiving in our heads!

Day 13: Rangitoto Island

Down by the bus station, called Britomart, is also where you go to catch a ferry to the many different small islands around Auckland. My friends Sara, Brett and I decided to take one to Rangitoto Island for the day.

It was about $28 round trip and well worth the money. We enjoyed the short 20 minute boat ride to the island. I was very excited to hike Mt. Rangitoto, as I had heard it was much more of a climb than Mt. Eden. Rangitoto is also an inactive volcano, and has massive amounts of dry volcanic rock fields all around the island. (I snagged some to bring home. Hopefully customs lets it through. Fingers crossed!)

We enjoyed our hike up the mountain, and viewed the massive crater of the volcano at the top. What I found most interesting about the top of Rangitoto was an old World War II look-out building. Apparently, some of the New Zealand Military was based there to keep eyes on Auckland and to house some American troops. It was a very cool site with an incredible view. Sara, Brett and I really enjoyed our day exploring the island and its history.

Days 9-12: Beach, Roomies, and Lantern Festival

The next few days we spent exploring Auckland. I met my other two roommates in addition to the two UVMers I already had. Dylan is from Wellington, New Zealand which is the capital. Its at the very southern tip of the north island. Alex is from Hong Kong. They are both exceptionally nice.

Me reading Game of Thrones on the Beach

A few days after we moved in was Dylan's 18th birthday. Since the drinking age here is 18, as Americans we were really excited for him. Most of us will be turning 21 here, so its pretty anti-climactic. So as his brand new friends and roommates we took it upon ourselves to actually celebrate his coming-of-age. Needless to say, we had a blast.

For the other days, we soaked up the sun and hit up the local beach, which takes about 15 minutes to get to by bus. The beach is called Mission Bay. It was definitely no Maunganui Beach, but it was still nice. Almost reminded me of North Beach in Burlington. Almost.


FUN FACT #12: Auckland's transportation system sucks. It costs me about $3.40 to get anywhere, and I almost never arrive on time. What ever you do, don't count on the bus.

One evening was the very famous Auckland Lantern Festival. It is celebrated every first full moon after the Chinese New Year. There are some performances as well as authentic crafts, but what we enjoyed most was the food vendors and the actual lanterns. We bought cheap Thai food and walked around the park while viewing the incredible display of lights. I took some really amazing pictures, but I am only putting up my absolute favorites. On the last day of the weekend, there was a firework display off of the Sky Tower in the middle of the city. The whole weekend was wonderful.

Day 8: Mt. Eden And A New Friend

Mount Eden is a very old and inactive volcano that resides in Auckland. But no worries, it is very very very inactive. It hasn't blown in hundreds of years. (I'm not going to die Grandma, promise.) We were told that one of the first things you have to do in Auckland is hike Mt. Eden. They were right.

FUN FACT #11: The crater of a volcano is considered sacred to the Maori people of New Zealand. So if you're ever down here, don't walk down into the crater. You WILL get yelled at. Just don't do it.

Although it isn't necessarily what I would call a "hike"(more of a leisurely stroll... I'm from Vermont people) it had an amazing view of the city. I went with quite a few of my friends on a very hot day, and we had a blast.

After we returned from Mt. Eden, I met up with a friend of a friend. My best friend, Marisa, works at a summer camp on Lake Dunmore in Vermont called Songadeewin. A few of her fellow counselors happened to Kiwis. Her friend Sam lives in Auckland, and we decided to hang out.

Sam picked me up in her awesome purple car in front of the bus station and we headed to her house in the suburbs outside of Auckland City Central.  We became instant friends, so much so that her roommate thought we knew each other for years instead of fifteen minutes. Sam brought me to her house for dinner, and I met her family. They were so nice and very funny. We ate chinese food and pizza, which instantly made me feel at home. They made fun of my accent for a while... I never knew how weird I say some words. Like "mirror". That one was a definite crowd pleaser.

When we finished dinner, Sam took me to her "touch" match. When she first said it, I had no idea what she was talking about. But essentially, it is like 2-hand-touch football except they play rugby. She was in a co-ed league with a bunch of New Zealand cops. There was so much scoring, I couldn't keep track, but I think Sam's team won. It was really cool to watch.

Sam brought me back to my apartment, and my friends and I went out for the night. Overall, a very great day: saw some beautiful sights and made an awesome friend.