This past weekend I took my first trip to the capital city of New Zealand, Wellington!
It was nice to go visit the city and to meet up with some of the other students in TEAN.
The weekend ended up being very Lord of the Rings filled as a group of us are a little obsessed. Hey, I mean we are in Middle Earth after all!! We just have to take advantage of the sights and attractions while we can!
Well I have arrived and settled into my dorm at my home for the remainder of my time in New Zealand!!
Tawa 8 – Massey University – Palmerston North – New Zealand
It’s been week since I’ve arrived in Palmy and I’m beginning to discover the surrounding area!
Today, a few of us went to go hike the Manawatu Gorge Trail. I was super excited because I heard the trail was gorgeous and had some incredible lookouts. I was not displeased at all! Overall the trail was 10.1 k (or roughly 6.28 miles). It took us about 3 1/2 hours to hike, but we also stopped and took a lot of pictures! Check some of them out below —
It was great to be outside and explore the area today! I definitely needed the hike with classes coming up here next week.
On the next post I’ll talk more about the life here in Palmy and how our Orientation (aka ‘O’ Week) went.
Until then wish me luck on classes! – Brad
Kia Ora! (Maori [native people of New Zealand] for, Hello!)
The orientation to New Zealand begins! First off —
I”M IN NEW ZEALAND!! MIDDLE-EARTH!!! THAT”S AWESOME!
As we stepped off the plane and made our way through the airport, this was one of the first signs I saw:
Needless to say it gave me goosebumps!
WOW!! What a way to begin a semester!
First, the flight from LAX to Fiji was the longest flight I have ever taken; roughly 11 hours! I will never complain about a two hour flight again… But the plane was huge and incredible!
We arrived in Fiji around 5 AM and from there rushed through customs to get to the exit and (hopefully) arrive to the ferry on time to get us to the island that we would be staying at for the next 4 days. At this point I didn’t really know many of students I was traveling with because my time in LAX was cut a lot shorter than I would have liked. [Thank you issues at the check-in counter…. *sarcasm eye roll*]
Once through the Fijian customs I had to quickly switch around a few belonging in my bags because we could only take a backpack to the island. Our bigger checked bags were then taken to the Radison Hotel on the mainland, where we would spend our last night in Fiji.
Luckily the entire group arrived at the ferry with just enough time to spare. Finally, after several plane rides, very little sleep, and tons of airport stress we were all able to relax on our three hour ferry ride to Naviti Island. This also finally gave us all time to get to know each other. The scenery wasn’t too bad either:
Once we arrived on Naviti Island we welcomed with chilled refreshments and some Fijian music and song played by the resort staff.
Emerson Was Right 