Hello all!
I have safely arrived and settled in in Hamilton, New Zealand. Before I start telling you about the nice day I had yesterday (May 1, 2012), I wanted to show you the hilarity of the Air New Zealand safety demonstration video that I got to experience at the beginning of my long 13-hour flight. Below are three videos (which were mish mashed together in the video on my flight) that are shown on Air New Zealand flights - take a look and laugh!
Air New Zealand Safety Demonstration - Fit to Fly (Richard Simmons)
Air New Zealand Safety Demonstration - All Blacks Rugby
Air New Zealand Safety Demonstration - Body Paint
I landed in Auckland at 5:00 am on Tuesday, May 1st, 2012. It was already about 14 degrees outside when I arrived, but it was still too dark to see the wonderful scenery outside. So far, it seems that New Zealanders are all very polite and helpful (so the airport staff have shown me so far). At about 7:00 am, the sun started to come up and I could see the hustle and bustle of the day begin to start. The wind started to pick up a bit as well. I caught a bus at Auckland airport to a city called Manukau, and then transferred buses to Hamilton.
First Breakfast in Auckland Airport - Bacon/Egg/Veg Baked good with Cappuccino
Second breakfast before boarding the bus to Manukau/Hamilton - Muesli with Yogurt and Sweet Marmalade
View of Auckland from the bus terminal...
Things to remember:
1) They drive on the left her (steering wheel on the right). Look both ways when crossing the street!
At the Hamilton bus station, Susan (my homestay mum) picked me up. She is an older woman, with a warm smile and a kind heart. She also seems to have a good sense of humour. Susan and I got into her little right-hand-drive BMU car, and she drove us past WINTEC (Waikato Institute of Technology College) where I'll be taking some classes, and then on to her nice little home in Hamilton East. Susan gave me time to unpack my things and settle in to my little room, which has three large windows, so is quite warm during the day when the sun is out, and quite cool in the evening.
Susan set out a little lunch for her and I, some bread with assortments of ham, veg, cheese, and fruit. I tried a native New Zealand fruit called Feijoa, which are only around for a short period of time in the early fall season, and then they are unavailable until next year. Here is a picture from the internet so you can see what they look like:
Feijoa NZ Fruit
After lunch, Susan let me have a well deserved shower, and then she took me on a drive around town. We passed by the Waikato University (different from WINTEC) and then stopped at the Hamilton Gardens, which were really quite stunning. I've included some pictures of those below. After the Gardens, Susan took me to a restaurant bar names "iguanas", where we met up with her collegues from WINTEC to celebrate one of their graduations from the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Masters program. Susan bought me a glass of a New Zealand white Cabernet Sauvignon, which she was very proud of.
Indian Garden
Chinese Garden
Italian Renaissance Garden
Me in the Maori (native NZ) garden
In the evening, Malcolm, one of Susan's collegues, along with Susan's neighbour David, attempted to get my laptop connected to Susan's home WiFi, but no such luck. So I will be using the connection to her Ethernet cable until I am set up with my WiFi student account at WINTEC tomorrow. Tanya, Susan's flatmate who lives at Susan's during the week in order to teach the Midwife program at WINTEC, came home after a long day's work, and we all had left over pasta and meatballs with a light garden salad. For dessert we got to have coconut pound cake with rhubarb and whipped cream. Yum! And then...I was exhausted, so I went to bed (I woke up at 4 am thinking that I was ready to get up, but I managed to doze off until 7 am when Tanya and Susan were up getting ready for work). Now it is the morning of Wednesday, May 2nd. I will blog again (hopefully with a video) in the next few days or at the end of the weekend.
I hope you are all doing well!
Love,
Karen Trotter
