Culture shock

Two years ago, I solo traveled around New Zealand and fell in love with the country. At the time, it was my favorite place in the world. Well, I’ve recently verified that. I’m still in love with NZ! As Peace Corps Volunteers, we get 2 days off per month, which we can save and add together for a total of 48 days during our two years. It’s not much when I think about wanting to travel back to the States for Christmas and also wanting to explore the South Pacific. But, another volunteer and I decided to use some of our days and give ourselves a trip to New Zealand during the Term Two break.

Annise and I started in Auckland, on the North Island. We were immediately in culture shock and climate shock. It’s currently winter in NZ, so coming from our hot humidity to wearing long pants was quite different! In Auckland, we saw the famous SkyCity tower and walked down to the water to see the Harbour Bridge. Nine months in Samoan villages makes Auckland seem like the biggest city in the world!

So many tall buildings!

From Auckland, we went to Matamata to tour Hobbiton. I’ve never seen any of the movies and opted out of this tour on my first trip to New Zealand, but it was so worth it! Without any movie references, the set was still incredible! It’s located on acres and acres of rolling hills, which are just stunning. We got to learn so much about the creation of the Hobbit houses and all of the scenery for the movies. It was a great day!

We're too tall for the Hobbit houses!

We then made our way to Rotorua. This is a town full of geysers, bubbling mud, geothermal pools, and sulfur! You can smell the sulfur from anywhere in town – it’s pretty crazy. We made our way to Te Puia, which is a geothermal site on the edge of town. The geyser there was insane! Then, we went to the Redwoods, which is a different part of Rotorua, completely full of Redwood trees. Rotorua is pretty neat because you can go from geysers to a forest in a matter of minutes. It made for some great exploring!

Sulfur steaming in the air!

Our next stop was Wellington. Auckland felt like a huge city when we arrived, but Wellington was essentially New York City to us. It’s huge!! There were so many buses, trains, skyscrapers, etc. I was pretty overwhelmed. This is the southern most point of the North Island, so we caught the ferry to the South Island. Annise and I both live on Savai’i, Samoa, so anytime we have training or want to do shopping, get groceries, etc., we have to take our ferry to Upolu. It’s 1.5 hours of feeling like you might flip at any given time. We boarded the Wellington ferry skeptical at best, but we were blown away. This was a cruise!! There were cushioned seats, tables, and televisions. Not once during the ride could I ever feel that we were on the water. It was incredibly smooth. It was also insanely gorgeous. Once arriving to the South Island, the boat was weaving among mountains until reaching Picton. It’s safe to say that was our best ferry ride in 9 months!

The view approaching the South Island.

From Picton, we went to Christchurch. The drive was incredible. Each way you turn, there are rolling green hills and tons of sheep. I could drive the hills of NZ forever; the views would never get old! Christchurch is another large city. I never got used to the big cities coming from Samoa – it was still culture shock every time. In Christchurch we found the beautiful botanical gardens. There were flowers, fountains, and a peace bell. It was a great city to walk around!

Picture perfect New Zealand hills.

Next stop was Dunedin. This was one of my favorite places on my first trip to New Zealand and that remained true this visit. I love Dunedin! The Cadbury chocolate factory is located there, so we got to tour it! I definitely felt like I was Charlie in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. The smell was incredible. We got to see a literal ton of chocolate be poured into a machine and got to try every type of chocolate they had (the best part)!

Posing with the Cadbury car!

Our final destination was Queenstown. We made it just in time for the closing of the Winter Festival (which we had no idea about). We arrived to a motorcycle show with men flipping in the air and then landing, giving me heart palpitations! There were also live bands and lots of crafts. We got to see a man drawing with sand, which is actually much cooler than it sounds. Also in Queenstown, we took a gondola up the mountain to overlook the town. It is absolutely breathtaking! Since it’s winter, there was snow on the mountaintops above the lake. I couldn’t convince myself to leave!

The amazing Queenstown!

All in all, New Zealand was incredible!! It was even more amazing going there from nine months in Samoa. Hot showers and actual restaurants were such a great feeling. We ate so much cheese and chocolate, just because they actually exist there! The trip was of course much too short, but a great halfway point to the school year.

Now back to Samoa and it’s time for Term Three to begin!