I Made It! Orientation in New Zealand

Having a good time at the Irish Pub.

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Alright, I am finally here! First off, let me apologize for not updating this blog as much as I should be. I have not had access to the internet on a regular basis, but as of yesterday I am settled in and connected.  What a relief!

So, orientation was great and I met lots of really nice people. We’ve been out to bars almost every night which is alright, but drinks are expensive so I am learning how to make a glass of beer (which I don’t even like but is cheap) last about and hour. It is fun just to go out though. Anyway, as part of our orientation activities we went to this gigantic museum in Auckland that somebody could have spent a week in and still not covered everything. It was 4 floors and was HUGE. We saw a traditional Maori song and dance performance, which was very entertaining, and I walked around the museum for at least a couple hours after our EAP group headed back because there was so much I wanted to see. I also did some sightseeing around the city on my own time. As far as cities go, Auckland is very beautiful with tons of huge parks and lots of trees, which I sure appreciate! The neighboring islands are also lovely. For another orientation activity they loaded up all 60 of us UC students on this big tour boat at the harbor and we spent the day at Tiritiri island sanctuary about an hour off the coast. It was very cool. We went tromping (that’s what they call hiking here) through the forest and saw a bunch of rare birds (including blue penguins – so cute!). While that was fun, the best part of the day was the beach! The water was much chillier than Fiji, but still wasn’t as cold as Santa Cruz. The island actually reminded me a lot of what Fiji looked like, but there were not as many flowers there.
On our last night of orientation they took us across the island on a ferry and to Devenport where we were treated to a formal dinner party, courtesy of the UC regents, who supplied and unlimited supply of fine wine for their students (of course, we prepaid for the event within our EAP costs, but what the hell, we will give them the credit anyway). It was a blast! Devenport was lovely and the food was gourmet, which was a great break for cafeteria food we had been eating all week. For our transportation home they hired a huge double-decker party bus and piled all 60 of us on. Our crazy driver blasted all the best classic rock songs (really, I thought I would go deaf) and everyone was singing and dancing up and down the isles. It was crazy hilarious and great fun!

Post Maori preformance snap shot.

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Well, that about sums orientation up! Of course, we did attend lots of meetings and lectures about matters of actual importance, but who wants to hear about all the technical stuff? Not me, so I will spare you all the details. Overall, it was a great week full of tons of information and fun. Can’t wait for the international student orientation to start this week! Hope it is as fun (if not more) as the last!