Coromandel, New Zealand.

January 29, 2012 

What a wonderful week. Probably the best week so far here in New Zealand (I think my  mind will change about this soon.) This was the last week of classes! That means I am completely done with classes as an undergrad. All that is left is my 6 week practicum here in New Zealand and then an internship (hopefully) or student teaching. CRAZY! 

We finished off the week with more science and social studies. It was a lot of fun. In science on the last day we made rockets out of film canisters and alka seltzer. Who knew you could do that. It was so fun to watch all of us girls laugh and chase them around. 

We were a little nervous on Friday because we were headed off to go camping, but it was raining. It rained all day long. As soon as class was over we packed up and headed out. We must be quite the sight. 20 American girls packed into 2 vans. We have lots of fun together. We were going camping with the Joseph family up at Coromandel. It is usually at 3.5 to 4 hour drive, but we hit some nasty traffic and it took us a lot longer. I am glad that it did though, because by the time we got out of the city the sun was shining. We drove for awhile and finally saw the water and the sunset. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. IT WAS AMAZING. 

Camping was a lot of fun. I shared a tent with 6 other girls. It was fun to talk and get to know them a little better. It was so cold the first night, but luckily our host family let us borrow some very nice sleeping bags. We woke up and got ready and headed to the beach. Oh man was it great. The weather was finally warm (a little cool but just about perfect). The water was beautiful. It was just a great day. We stayed there all day and just played and laid around. I got sunburned in a few places, my back, shoulders, back of my knees and half of my face. Yep that’s right I have a nice line down the middle of my forehead. Oops. 

This morning we packed up camp and headed back to Auckland. I was sad to leave, but ready to start the next adventure. Basically our trip is divided into 4 parts. The first part was school: check!, the next part is the South Island, then practicum, then Northland. We are done with school and we head to the South Island for 10 days tomorrow at 5 am! I am so excited. The first thing we are doing is the shotover jet and then a whole bunch of other adventures. It will be great. 

Because we only get to take our backpacks (full of stuff for 10 days) I will not have my laptop so there won’t be any updates until February 8.