Road Trip

New Zealand is honestly one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Today, my family and I, along with some friends, went in a motorhome and had an adventure.
We traveled to a beach area about an hour and a half away from Inglewood. It was a beautiful place to travel to. We went past beach houses, which they call a batch, we went past cows and sheep, we went past a lot of things. After that we went to a mountain water fall. Which was most definitely an adventure.

We first started up this winding road in our motorhome, it was okay at first but afterwards that changed. About a quarter way up the road got really thin and was still very winding. I was laying on the floor at that time, and got up onto the seat. That was a bad idea. I looked out the window and saw how freakin' high we were, I'm a bit afraid of falling so that wasn't to fun. I proceeded to go and sit back on the floor. After a 45 minute, 27km drive we finally made it to the waterfall, kind of.

What the sign didn't tell us was that we had to take a 15 minute walk to get to the waterfall. Fun right? No. We were already tired from the long drive to the waterfall spot, another 20 minutes wasn't what we really had planned; But we did it anyway. and the waterfall was lack of a better word, crappy. It was probably one of the least impresive things I've seen, but it was pretty and I got a picture.

After that adventure we went into a little town and got some icecream. Yum. Later that night Suse and I dyed my hair back to dark brown/black. So that the tips of my hair weren't lighter than the rest of my head.

Now I'm at home, about to go to bed, watching the olympics. Have school tomorrow, yay?

Went to a Farm

Today, Danielle, Suse, and I went to a friend's farm. It was a really neat experience.

We went and watched Tracy (friend) feed her horses, They have four of them.

Next I went into the horse pen and picked up a chicken, they were really friendly chickens.

Later, after feeding horses and holding chickens, we went to see the calves.

It was really sad, because when we drove up, there were a couple dead calves on

the side of the barn. I had to look away. Anyway, the babies were so cute. If you stuck

your hand into the calf area they would come suck on your fingers, it was such a funny feeling.

They think it's their mother's teats.

That picture up above. yeah, that's the calves saliva. it was gross.

I could feel the sucking feeling for a couple minutes, even after they had stopped.

Later when we got home we had dinner, which consisted of mashed potatoes, sausage rolls (yum!), quiche stuff, mince pies, and sausage.  

Overall i had a really great day. Tomorrow we're going in a motorhome and going up to a beach area, about an hour away.  





First Rugby Match

Today, our school went and watched a Rugby match.
It was really cool, our school's team played first and then the Taranaki Team played.
The school team lost 27-29, so it was super close! The Taranaki team won 67-16.
I think I'm more interested in American football, I think it's because I'm closer to the
team I watch. Rugby, in my opinion, is a little bit like American Football and soccor combined.

I didn't bring my camera, so I didn't get any pictures. I wish I had!

Went for a Drive

Today we went driving around Mt. Taranaki (it was too cloudy to get a good picture). It was a really great experience! There's a bunch of beach area in New Plymouth and even more farm land. We started in New Plymouth and drove along the coast. We went around the Taranaki area and saw where Glen and Suse (host parents) used to live, where Danni (host sister) was born, and then heard how Glen asked Suse to marry him!

Beach View!

At one point we stopped at a Light house, where cows and birds were sitting around. I got some pictures of the cows and the birds. We also stopped and got pictures of baby cows (Calfs).

Cows on our trip!

It was a great time, and I hope we can do it again sometime!

I've Made it to 15 Days

So I have been here for 2 weeks and a day now. I have to say that I really like New Zealand! Although I could do without the rain, but it's actually been sunny for the past two days! I like how there's farm animals everywhere I look in Inglewood. I rarely take a trip anywhere, without seeing a cow or a sheep, it's a lot different than the city/suburbs where I'm from. It's honestly like a different world here! I hate how cliche that sounds, but hey, it's true.

Today during dinner, my host sister, Danni, started quizzing me on the word differences from New Zealand to American English. It was so funny! The amount of different words was amazing! For example, a COOLER is a CHILLY BIN, a BAND-AID is a PLASTER, and an ERASER is a RUBBER. There were a bunch of other ones too! We were laughing for a good half an hour.

After that, we watched a television drama called Shortland Street, it's like a doctor/soap opera show, and it's actually pretty good, It's on every night at 7:00 or 7:30, I can't remember. Half way through that we went to Glen's (host father), mother and father's house, where I watched their jumping dog. When we got home, we started watching a movie called "Room Mate" I think, but got up and "went to bed", I'm actually gonna go to bed, I'm just writing this first!


  

Second Day of School

Second day of School today. Everybody is really nice to me, I'm just guessing it's because I'm the "new girl" but whatever. I've found that people like my "accent", and to me, it's funny thinking I'm the one with the accent. Since everybody around me sounds like they're the ones with the accents. I got my time table set up to, so I'll be taking History, English, Geography, Computers, Math, and Science. I found I'm good at the math stuff, since I've learned it before. We're working on some Algebra stuff. In science we're learning about concrete, which is a bit boring. History is about black segregation in the USA, So I've learned that before, considering I just took American History! In English I've gotta read stories and watch movies, then write responses on them.

I think this year should be pretty easy, I'm just worried about the credit system and if I'll graduate on time. Whatever happens, happens though. I think I'll be fine :)

After school, we went to get my school supplies (stationary as they call it), now I've got all the correct notebooks and stuff!

Hopefully school will stay good, like it is now.

Start of the Adventure

The rain has been falling for the past couple of days and it's cold, but honestly I don't care. I'm in New Zealand! I arrived to Inglewood, New Zealand on the 7th of July, it was actually sunny then! For the week that I have been here we've done a lot. On the first night we went out to eat on a mountain volcano! I had the lamb shank with mashed potatoes, it was yummy. On the second day we got a cell phone and some shoes for me, and then went out to lunch. The rest of the week flew by! Today (July 16th): I started School. I get to  wake up at 7:30 which is awesome, and school doesn't start until like 8:40/50ish. Everyone I met today was really nice.


Okay, well that's it for now.

Lily :)