Good News!

6/30/18-

Spooky or cool?

MY USA BUDDY IS HERE NOW!! ROOMMATES! FRIENDS! Finally, someone to go out to eat with! Disclaimer: don’t be misled by my extreme excitement. NZ is extremely welcoming so don’t be concerned if you are coming alone. I’ve gone out alone at night and felt extremely safe and when eating out alone I felt very comfortable making new acquaintances as well. In all honestly, the only thing you’d have to worry about is traffic.

My roommate got here late week on the 24th and we went over to Rotorua this weekend. We stayed in a backpacker’s hostel. Getting to it was rough- we got there at 11pm and the town was dead. Not a person was in sight except us. Once we got there, we went right to bed- and got woken to a 4am fire alarm. Luckily it wasn’t anything serious but there was a dad who had to balance on one shoe while half naked. It was a very surreal 4am experience…

Anyways, Rotorua is a place known for its natural hot springs and boy oh boy did it smell like sulfur.
Most springs were fine but there were definitely a couple that smacked you in the face. To add on to that, the hot spring in the picture above was huge! While walking through, there were times that you couldn’t see a foot in front of you. It was a cool and unique experience that made that 4am fire alarm all worth it. While walking around in the park with hot springs, we came across a cute market- locals were pointing out what to try out left and right. It was cheap and delicious- how aren’t people rolling around if this is every week?? Then we went to a spa which uses the natural hot springs’ waters. We stayed in there for about 3 hours and chatted with all sorts of people. Unsurprisingly, we slept like babies afterwards on the bus ride back.

Smiling because I can see again

We’ve got a bigger list of places to visit now:

• Taupo
• Rangitoto
• Waitomo (glow caves)
• Hamilton (hiking)
• Toi Gallery
• Auckland Museum
• Tip of the Island
• Hobbiton