Hello from New Zealand!!!!! 
Ok. So I have found my future home. Mom dad, we are moving to New Zealand. It is soooooo gorgeous. Rich green fauna and rolling green hills 100 yards away from a world class river in the jungle. Unbelievable.
The plane ride was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. True, it was long, but we had tons of movies to pick from, and the food was pretty good. We were all pumped to land in NZ. We stood in the longest line possible to get through immigration. And then again to get through customs. Talk about a hassle. We definitely got a lot of funny looks and questions while waiting for customs with our boats. After finally getting into the country, one group took off for “home base” while the other group (my group) stayed behind to wait for Nick, our new student from England. It was pretty easy to find him…he flew with a boat as well 
Then we drove five hours to get to where we are staying. It was cool getting to see a little bit of NZ. I kept freaking out thinking we were going to hit a car! I cannot imagine having to drive here. We stopped at a gas station for some lunch. They made the chicken fingers from scratch in front of us! They had spreads of mince pies, sausage rolls, mutton pies, and so on. Talk about weird. Anywho, the drive went by fast and in no time flat we were rolling into our picturesque new home (at least for the next two weeks.) It was still morning in NZ, so we suited up and hopped onto the river!
It was so surreal. 8 hours earlier, I’d been on a plane. All of the sudden I was immersed in jungle and ice cold water. The hole is at a high level, but it is still super fun! No time was wasted in throwing big tricks. The river is in this gorgeous gorge. It is so pretty. I am so pumped to spend the next two weeks here!
We got to go into town yesterday. Crossing the streets terrified me! New Zealand drivers do not slow down at all for pedestrians. Plus, I kept looking the wrong way before crossing!!! There were lots of cafes and cool shops. I bought some sweet slippers! All the boys bought these foam swords. They then persisted in hitting me with them for the half hour ride home. Awesome. I think I may break them all before our time is up here. I really hope we get more time in town. There is so much to explore!
I cannot get over how amazingly beautiful New Zealand is. All the greens are so varying and overwhelming (in a good way). Everywhere you look there are exotic plants and flowers. It is stunning. I am so happy to be here!
Keep it real!
-Tracy
