R like Rugby World Cup, Rotorua and Rafting

Tuesday, 13th September 2011

Kia Ora,
the weekend is over and a new school week starts.

I enjoyed my free week with sleeping in and just doing nothing. After I had my two hours art on Thursday, we went to the beach with this beautiful weather and there we got sunburned for the first time -.-

On Friday it finally started: the Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand and I'm taking part :D
Therefore we went to my hostfamilies friends to watch the fireworks and it was just amazing. Meanwhile in Auckland the biggest party New Zealand has ever seen started and even on TV it was fantastic!! :D
Sadly we missed the Haka and the first minutes of the game, because we got in a traffic jam after everyone wanted to leave at the same time.... Nevermind, the game was amazing and we won against Tonga 40 - 10.

On Saturday I had to get up early again to be at school on time. From there we went about 4 hours in a Van to Rotorua. In Rotorua we got picked up and got our wetsuits. Our guide told us how to react and what to do, how to hold the paddle, when we have to paddle forwards or backwards and how to sit in the boat.
There we go.... the first waterfall was around 2.5 metres, the second on 2 metres and the last one around 6 metres high :D I was so glad that I didn't fall out off the boat or we flipped over!!
However two of the boys fell out after we smashed into the wall :D
But otherwise it was great fun and the weather was nice as well.

After that we went into the Gondola and up the hill, just to go down again in a Luge. Everyone who comes to New Zealand should do that I think, it's sooooo much fun :D
We were sleeping in a little hut and after dinner in Rotorua we went into the Hot Pools :)

On Sunday we went to Wai-O-Tapu a thermal 'city', where we watched a Geyser breaking out (hope you can say that in English??), saw some Mud Pools and sulfur pools. Actually really interesting (even if it's smelly) if it wouldn't have been raining that heavily and we wouldn't have been soacking wet :(

Auckland Skyline



Rotorua from Gondola

Wai-O-Tapu Artist's Palette

Lady Knox Geyser

So a really good but wet weekend.
Beginning of the week it was still raining and I hope we'll have some sun soon ;)

Greetings from wet New Zealand
Lea ♥

About traffic, busconnection and the daily life

Monday, 5th September 2011

Kia Ora :)

I'm already in New Zealand since 6 weeks and time passes by so fast (okay I write that in every post, but it's true). It feels like it has only been 2 weeks since I'm here.

Unfortunately I still don't know when I'll be going home, because my parents can't book a flight yet. But I guess it's around 11 month left (or a little more).

The weather this week wasn't that nice, lots of showers and rain. At least last weeks weather was gorgeous, so we spent the weekend on the beach. On Sunday we finally went to (the beach of) Red Beach. The beaches here are just amazing and this fresh salty air. I'm gonna miss that so much when I'm back home!!

Orewa Beach

Red Beach

On Friday I went out for dinner with some friends and yesterday I went to Auckland. Because it takes us about 1 hour to get there, we left at 10am and were driving through Auckland for another 1/2 hour before we got to the Outlet (Dress Smart in Onehunga).

The traffic here is just horrible sometimes!! You have to wait hours for the traffic lights just to stop 20m further again at another one.
Then there aren't traffic lights at each crossing and sometimes I'm really scared of getting run over by a car that come around the corner, when I cross the street.
So a pretty dangerous way to school :D
As well as the people on bikes who don't have a bell or ask you if they can pass, no the just drive past you how they want... left or right and you get narly run over again ;)

Another hting that annoys me: the bus connections! If you miss your bus you have to wait an hour for the next one (at least on the weekend, but when do I take the bus during the week??). Most of the times the busses aren't on time and we once had to wait for the bus for 20min, just to miss the second bus we had to catch -.- As well you have to somehow understand the bus timetable, which doesn't even has my busstop on it, so we have to look it up on the internet each time.
There is a positive thing as well: all the busses have a ramp for weelchairs (which most of the German busses don't have), just needed to notice that ;)

Last Thursday we went to the Wavebox in Albany. There you can surf on produced waves (wet) or on a surfsimultation (dry). Of course I didn't go in the water (even if I regreted it a bit afterwards).
You could climb on the walls, go down a massive slide or play pool as well. The surfing was still nice and fun to watch. It's obviously not that easy to stay on the board (I couldn't even stay on a surfboard with real waves for more than 5 seconds) :D

This weeks we have 'Mock Exams' (final exams) at school and the Internationals who are here since 3 month now don't have to write then, therefore we are off for one week ;)
However my art teacher said we can't do exams so we all have to come to school for 2 hours to finish our paintings. Therefore I have to come to school on Thursday, not happy... but it's art ;)

Oh and I booked my South Island tour and I'm sooo looking forward to it (even if it's in January) :D *yaaay*

Nearly forgot: 'HAPPY FATHERSDAY'!!! Thats today in New Zealand, as well as my hostbrothers birthday.
So we went to Auckland with the whole family to have a walk in the harbour (yeah sounds interesting :D), because they built all kind of things for the Rugby World Cup. There is a massive Rugby ball (from England) next to the Ferry Building and a big hall behing it, to party after the games :D

It starts in five days and whole New Zealand goes crazy, because it's RUGBYTIME!! :D
Go the All Blacks!!

Rugby Ball in Auckland Harbour

Regards from New Zeland, that finally gets some Spring ;)
Lea J

________________________________________________

Oh and I changed my blog layout, I hope you like it?!
I really need to catch up with my posts... don't wanna write them all when I'm back home ;)