Sweet As Adventures in New Zealand: February 2011

Better late than never, so I have officially been in New Zealand for 3 weeks and have had heaps of adventures. I arrived on February 6th in Auckland and the AustraLearn group went straight to Rotorua the next day.
In Rotorua, we had a cultural and adventure program filled with activities for each day. We stayed at a place called Kiwi Paka and once we got settled into our rooms, we had a session where we learned how to do the Haka, which is the Maori culture's traditional war dance. Tuesday was our adventure day, and while many went white water rafting, Nicole and I went to explore the town. We found the Zorbing on the lake, and I entered a Mana Ball and tried to run. Imagine a hamster in a ball on the lake, I was the hamster. Wednesday we volunteered at Rail Trust and helped play with kids all day, it was pretty easy community service. Later that night, we went to Tamaki Village to experience more Maori culture and we enjoyed a traditional 'hangi' dinner. Thursday our adventures in caving began, I chose to explore the Tuma Tuma Tubing Cave where I was under the impression it would be mostly water and inner tubes, unfortunately my clumsy self had to climb many rocks as well, and there were many falls involved. Friday we left Rotorua and headed back to Auckland to get settled into our apartments that I will live in for the next four months.
Valentine's Day was the next adventure, a group of us from AustraLearn headed to Mount Eden to watch the sunset, it was the most beautiful thing I have experience. We had all packed up dinner and wine and camped out in the grass. The boys that went had bought us Tim Tams, which are delicious chocolate cookies that are a New Zealand delicacy, it was very sweet of them and all together that night made one of my best Valentine's. The following Thursday, we took a ferry to Devonport and camped out on the beach, the group of us bonded over a question book and once again watched a beautiful sunset and the following morning rise. The hours of midnight til 6 am were miserable and cold, but the view was worth it. Saturday a group of us went to the Auckland Domain and we checked out the gardens, there were such beautiful flowers. On Sunday, a group of us went to Albert Park where there was a Chinese Latern Festival, later that night there was a firework show as well.
Orientations started the following week, but we still managed to escape to the Bay of Islands for three days. We arrived in Paihia, then took a ferry to another island where we camped out on the beach, luckily we had purchased sleeping bags to battle the cold that we had endured during our camp-out in Devonport. We enjoyed playing poker with various seashells as money and telling scary stories throughout the night. The next day I layed on the beach and fell asleep with my back to the sun and no sun screen and got a terrible burn. We made it back to Paihia to catch an early ferry for Friday morning, and camped out at a very dodgy (NZ term for sketchy/dirty) trailer trash campsite. Luckily we all survived and made it back to Auckland safely.
Now, onto the most recent of activities.... Raglan and my surfing adventure. We arrived in Raglan Friday night and stayed in a lodge with a sweet as view of the ocean. Saturday morning we woke up early, ate some breakfast then headed to the beach to learn to surf. We learned the basic steps to getting up then headed to the ocean to surf the waves. It took me a while to successfully get up, but by the end of the day I managed to make it up 5 times. Saturday night, we went on a harbor cruise where we once again were able to watch the sunset. On Sunday, we headed back to the beach for some more surfing, unfortunately for me though, my surfing trip was cut short due to my clumsy self tripping over my leg wrap and spraining my ankle. I had to be carried out by lifeguards and even made it on the local tv station for accidents on the beach.
This is probably the longest post I will ever post, and I apologize for the length if anyone is actually reading it, but that pretty much sums of my life in New Zealand as of today!