Sunday we drove about 2 hours to Waitomo caves. We had two choices of adventures to choose from, one which involved getting wet and one which kept you dry. I obvi chose the dry one. We drove out to what felt like the middle of know where and I’ve learned that feeling is very common because of the constant rolling hills and lack of cars and abundance of cows, sheep, and goats that are in this country. Another side note, kiwis are some CRAZY drivers. I guess they’re used to not having many cars on the roads with them, but still. Crazy. Anyways, we ended up at the top of one of many hills. Picture a fully fertilized fairway (with miles of fairways around it) that is in the shape of a giant funnel with a diameter of about 150 yards. AND filled with about 125 sheep… “Baaaaa” everywhere. We climbed down this funnel into the middle where we entered the cave! It looked like it could’ve been right out of a movie. We abseiled down about 100 meters and began the 3 hour adventure through the cave. This particular cave is apparently NZ’s prettiest cave… sorry, but it didn’t really strike me as “pretty”, but I guess I just don’t know how to appreciate cave beauty. It was a semi-strenuous trek through and we even reached “complete darkness” (when we turned our headlamps off) at one point. There is one part that you can’t walk across so they built a zipline aka a flying fox in kiwi terms. Yes please! We did the zipline in complete darkness and I thought I was going to run into one of those pointy cave things at any second. We all came out alive and well through a little hole on the side of yet another rolling, green, fairway like hill. The land, views, and scenery here continue to amaze me in literally every direction I look in at every point of the day. It is so amazing that God created something so flawless and beautiful. It’s such a cool reminder that whenever I look outside and am reminded of Him, which also reminds me that He is with me even though I am halfway across His world! So comforting.
This morning we left the hostel (thank goodness) and headed to Hamilton. We got here at about 9, got into our rooms, dropped our bags off, and went to an orientation meeting. From there we were sent to get registered for classes aka a big wild goose chase. Library, education building, library, finance window, library... and then I decided that I wanted to switch some classes around so that I don't have any on Fridays, but to do that, I have to go BACK to the education building... ANYWAYS, hopefully that will all get sorted out. I have definitely taken the online registration process for granted at Furman.
I am once again, at a McDonalds after a 20ish minute walk off campus down near the river, with a map of course. I think this will be a common spot for me because we have to pay for internet usage on campus. Hopefully I learn to use it sparingly and not dilly dally around. Everyone here has single dorms and mine is on the second floor of my building, Bryant Hall. There are 3 other rooms in my little wing and we all share a bathroom. A guy named John is in the room next to me; he is from Hawaii and goes to Oregon. The only thing that we have scheduled for this week is another orientation meeting on Wednesday, so I plan on getting my classes all set, doing lots of exploring, and walking around in hopes of figuring this city out. Hamilton is the 4th largest city in NZ with about 125,000 people so it's not too big, but not too small either. There are more houses around than there were in the other farmland-ish cities that I have been in the past week. The houses here remind me of my brother Drew's neighborhood of Vine City in downtown Atlanta. Picture the houses downtown next to the dome or the ones near Turner Field. For the Greenville folks, picture the houses near Radius Church/Frazee Center downtown.
I had a mini breakdown this morning. It's starting to slowly and randomly hit me that this is my home for the next 5 months. I am feeling pretty lonely most of the time, but I think it's because I haven't really met people that I connect with or get along with really well/have really gotten to know. I am thankful that I have people from the Australearn crew that I already somewhat know. Familiar faces are always nice, right? Right. Prayers for christian community would be greatly appreciated (and friends in general)!
I now have my mailing address, so email me if you would like it! Or email me your address and I'll send a postcard your way!
Interesting Observations:
-when passing someone on the sidewalk, you pass on their left, just like the cars go here. Also, round-abouts go clockwise.
-trash=rubbish
- "sweet-as"=cool, good to go, etc. Example: “Yeah, bro, that’s sweet-as”
-Kiwi’s often add “as” to the end of any word, like “true-as” “hungry-as”, “tired-as”, etc.
-drive-thru’s are on the opposite side
-Kiwi’s doing American accents are HILARIOUS.
-the flushers on the toilets are buttons on top on the toilet that you push with your finger. Or if you’re a germophobe, you push it in with your heel J
-apparently I have an accent.
-Sandals=jandals
-bladders have jet lag too
-McDonald’s wifi has a usage limit. Bye!
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