Sorry for taking so long to update this, I switched host whanau back in labour weekend (26 Oct) and they haven’t been able to find the password for me to access their internet.
School ended for years 11-13 on 11 November but up till December they had to take the NCEA exams. I didn’t have to take them, being an exchange student and also because I had the rotary south island tour the 15th-30th. The south island is the most beautiful part of New Zealand, and also the least inhabited. It’s also where most of Lord of the Rings was filmed.
Day 1- I met up with the 9 other exchange students in Wellington and we did a scavenger hunt around the city and then stayed in the youth hostel.
Day 2- We took the ferry down to Picton and bused it to Motueka, where we stayed the night in the Top 10 Holiday Park.
Day 3- We took a scenic cruise along the Abel Tasman National Park coast and spent the day at Medlands Beach where we swam and tramped up the bush. Then we headed south to Punakaiki and stayed at Te Nikau Retreat, where we stayed in lodges out in the bush.
Day 4- On our way to Greymouth, we stopped at the Punkakaiki blowhole and pancake rocks. Then we went to Shantytown, which is a replication of an early 1900’s town, and we got to pan for gold and dress up like the era. There, the Greymouth rotary prepared dinner for us (dad-this is where I had my first hamburger in years and actually loved it).
Day 5- We took a short drive to Hokitika where we stopped at the Jade factory. According to the Maori belief, greenstone can only be given as a gift, you can’t purchase it for yourself, and each design has a meaning and brings good luck if blessed. Then we drove down to the Franz Joseph Glacier where we did a half day walk and spent the night.
Day 6- On our way to Queenstown, we drove through the picturesque Haast pass and stopped at Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawera.
Day 7- We got up early and did the Kawarau Jetboating on Queenstown’s Lake Wakatipu. Afterwards, we took the Skyline Gondola up to Bob’s Peak where we had a lunch buffet overlooking Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown. After lunch, we got to go on luge rides on top of the mountain. The rest of the day was spent souvenir shopping in Queenstown.
Day 8- Today we did the Kawarau bungee jump! It’s the world’s first bungee and it goes 43m off a bridge. Out of everyone that was there, I was the only one that screamed. That was one of the best parts of the trip though and I definitely want to do it again!
Day 9- We got up early today and took a long bus ride to the Milford Sounds, stopping along the way to take heaps of photos. We stayed on the Milford Wanderer Cruise over night. On the ship, I met a couple from America. They talked and talked and talked about their kids and travelling. Americans are annoying. Also on board, we got to go kayaking in the sounds and see seals and penguins. It rains 2/3 of the year so the first day was rainy, but when we woke up the next morning, the clouds cleared and there was a perfect rainbow in the mountains.
Day 10- Today was a long day in the bus. We were supposed to take a scenic flight out of the sounds and then take a scenic train ride to Dunedin, but the flight was cancelled so we had to bus all the way to Dunedin (which was actually only 6 hours, but for New Zealand, that’s a long ways) . We spent the rest of the day on the beach; it was so beautiful. The beach went on for ages and there was white sand and barely any people.
Day 11- We went to Tunnel Beach, which is a beach that you can only enter by climbing down a tunnel. It was so incredibly windy though, we didn’t stay for long. Afterwards we went back into Dunedin and walked to the Cadbury factory (girls’ choice) and the Speight’s brewery (boys’ choice).
Day 12- On our way to Oamaru, we climbed up Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world according to the Guiness Book of World Records. Then we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders, which are a bunch of huge spherical boulders along Kohekohe beach. When we arrived in Oamaru, we sat and watched the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony return to shore.
Day 13- Today we travelled north to Christchurch and spent the day in the International Antarctic Centre. We got to go for a ride on a Hagglund on a terrain course, which was awesome. There was also this room that replicated a blizzard, because most people here have never been in a blizzard, let alone even touched snow. They raised the winds a little and the temperature dropped to 10 degrees. I was standing there waiting for it to get really cold while everyone else was huddled up shivering.
Day 14- This morning we explored Christchurch and then headed off after lunch to kaikoura, where we spent our last night.
Day 15- We had to get up real early to go swim with dolphins. We got on our wetsuits and then they took us out to sea. There were thousands of wild dolphins everywhere, it was so mean! We swam with them for at least an hour then just followed them around on the boat. Afterwards, we drove back up to Picton and returned on the ferry to Wellington.
Now that it’s summer vacation, I just go to the beach or go shopping or hang out at friends every day. On Christmas eve, we didn’t do much. My host dad is against church and he says all people that go to church are hypocrites, but he took me to the midnight mass anyways, so that was a little uncomfortable. It was an Anglican church too so it was real different. There’s no Lutheran churches in the Wellington area at all, they’re mostly Anglican and Baptist, and only very few. I’ve only met one person here that goes to church. So Christmas isn’t a religious holiday at all here, it’s more of a party-and-drink-with-your-friends holiday. And because kiwis are just relaxed people, there are few decorations and people don’t tend to go out of their way to do things…unless it has to do with alcohol, they have a bad drinking culture. On Christmas day, we woke up and opened presents. From my host whanau I got lollies, tshirt, NZ towel, tickets to Big Day Out, a 50$ gift card, and a greenstone necklace. Then at about 12 we left to go to the bach on Hokio Beach, about 1.5 hours away. Upper Hutt was real sunny and hot, but as soon as we got over the Akatarawas, it was overcast and cool. That’s NZ weather for ya. It can be hot as in Upper Hutt and then windy and cold in Lower Hutt, it changes so quick. The beach was nice though, despite the weather. But it didn’t feel like Christmas at all, everyone was in a real bad mood. My host mum is kind of spastic most of the time…and she was freaking out about everything, which was making everyone else freak out. But once she went to bed, my host siblings, dad, and I had a huge bonfire in the sand dunes. That was real fun, we didn’t put it out till 2. The next morning, we had breakfast early and then went home. I attempted to make spritz cookies, but they turned out tasting more like shortbread. The flour here is really rough apparently, and the shortening was weird too. At 4pm I went to Anne’s daughter’s place for a Boxing day bbq. That was fun, I get along better with their family.

Sorry for the lack of photos, it takes so long to upload them, but I have more on Facebook.

These are just random photos from the trip: milford sounds, abel tasman, dolphins, and me bungee jumping.

It's been over a month since I've last written, so I'm gonna try to summarize everything up. ^these pics are from the beginning of September when the other rotary students and I walked through the Wairapa.

8 September I had dinner at parliament with 2 mps, Chris and Trevor something. I went with Peter and Phil (rotarians) and Kendyl and Pia, 2 other exchange students. We got a tour around the "bee hive" and then just had dinner there.

Wednesday 9 September was the last day of school till mock exams, which we got a week off for. I took english, spanish, and maths. The grading system really makes no sense. The grades are "not achieved", "achieved", "achieved with merit", and "achieved with excellence". (NA, A, M, E) And there are specific points that you must include in an answer in order to get a certain grade.

Monday was my birthday and Danielle and Anna came over with a cake. Anne made me go to rotary (because apparently it's absolutely necessary that I attend every week), but afterwards I went to Danielle's house where she threw me a surprise party.

On Friday, I was put on a bus and sent to Paraparam to stay with my couselour for the night and then go with her the next day to Tatum Park for the Rotary orientation weekend. There are 10 inbounds and 6 outbound students and we all just listened to lectures and speeches and did some team building activites all weekend. Saturday night, we were supposed to have dinner and speeches by the students, but the All Blacks were playing the Wallabies so the speeches were postponed (we won 26-6). When we actually did them, I talked about how NZ is unique and I think it went well. Kendyl (the other American) spoke about what NZ can learn from America. She talked about how NZ has no national pride and it should be more like America. Most people in the world don't like America because of its national pride and because we like to flaunt that we're the best. So you can imagine how her speech went over. I could hear the rotarians in the audience grunting and I was sitting there watching her make us look bad, just waiting for it to end.

Anyways, Monday I went back to school for one week because we have 2 weeks of holidays now (like spring break). It was kind of a pointless week really, we just got our mock exams back and talked about them. I brought a bunch of candy and things that mom sent me for my birthday and people really liked them. Especially shockers, I don't know why, and reese's and everyone thought twinkies were a really big deal, but most people could only eat a few bites of it.

Over the holidays I've been going to the beach, mall, laser strike, movies, hanging out at friends houses..nothing real special.

These are all from Belmont regional park, which is right behind Anne's house.

And this one is for dad cause he always makes me put people in my pictures...

So last week 2 girls in my school got back from America. They did some kind of exchange program that lasted 5 weeks. They are both in a few of my classes. It's really funny because I hear them talking to other kids about what America is like. Most of the things they say, I just think, hmm I didn't know that was special. Like dollar stores and drive throughs at starbucks. Other things I laugh at and think, yep that's America for ya. Like our super ginormous serving sizes. And a few things I wish I could argue about.
I also brought my yearbook from last year to school and gave it to my kiwi friend. She kept it for a few days. During the week, people came up to me and said they saw my yearbook and asked me about it. Everybody expected the cheerleading team to be like the movies, but it's quite the opposite. They went crazy about our football field saying it's a giant stadium and they were very amused at the fact that people dress up and actually go to all the football games. Overall, everybody was way impressed and thought my school looks way cooler than Hutt High. Which is true. There's no school spirit here, competition between schools is not as epic as it is back home. Students don't attend any sporting events and no one really cares how the school teams are doing. I saw the Hutt High yearbook from last year also. It was very boring. It was black and white except for a few really random colored pages and there were'nt any individual pictures. It was everybody in their form classes. And of course I couldn't even make out who was who because the pictures were so small and blurry. Even though Hutt High is probably one of the best schools in the Wellington area, it feels like they have nothing compared to my school back home. They use chalkboards here and overhead projectors are thier "modern" technology. Very few classes have them. Also, we have to pay for all our school books and uniform and everything is ridiculously expensive.
Every couple weeks or so we have assemblies. Our year goes into the assembly hall and we all sit with our form class. Then the deans walk in and we all stand silently. If you talk, you get a detention. Then when all the deans are on the stage, we sit and they just stand there and stare at us, straight-faced. It's a very formal process, I see why there is no school spirit. Then they introduce the principal and we stand again and clap. The principal goes up on stage and starts lecturing us from a written speech. It's never very motivating. One time, it was a cold, rainy day and I was wearing a black zip-up (same color as the school one) and the dean took it from me. I went to get it after school and she said next time she'll keep it the whole term.
But anyways, school is alright. Math is hard now. We're doing calculus and of course, I've never done anything like it but my classmates have for a few years now. I also wrote a big history internal last week. Which went well I think, even though the teacher even said it doesn't matter for us international students.
Today I stayed home from school, sick. It was a very productive day. I watched the Little Mermaid I and II (although I would not recommend the 2nd one, it was quite a disappointment), did some laundry, and attempted my math homework. I think I'm going to go back tomorrow, even though I can barely talk.

These pics are from last saturday (Aug 15) when Ann took me around the bays.

On Saturday night, my next host family had a surprise birthday party for the mom. It was fun; there was lots of entertainment. I met the whole family too. There are 2 girls that are like 21 and 24 or something and a son that is 20. The family is really into music too, they all play instruments. Unfortunately, they live out in the middle of nowhere and it's like 45 min from my school. The son Jay's girlfriend is from New Jersey, so I talked to her alot. She has a major Jersey accent even though she moved to New Zealand 7 years ago, its pretty funny.

On Sunday, I slept in till 10, which is the latest since arriving here. Then at 3 pm I took a train with a bunch of friends to Wellington for the Pheonix soccer game. It was ok; soccer isn't as intense as rugby.

Monday night I did my rotary speech. I think it went well, even though it was only like 10 minutes long. People had lots of questions though. I think I kinda scared them when I started talking about winter. Everyone was shocked when I told them how cold it gets.

Tuesday I went to Wellington again. The drama kids in my school made a movie and it was playing in the Paramount Theater, so basically everyone from school went. It was a legit movie too, like 1.5 hours and really good effects.

Wednesday and today I went to the mall after school. Tomorrow is the ball and I'm really excited!

I know its been a while since I've written anything, so I'm just gonna go through my week.

Friday (July 31) I went to the Wellington rugby game versus Otago. I went with 25 other kids, half were kiwi half german. It was really fun:) The first pic is me Danielle and Dezi

On Saturday, Me, Anna, Danielle, and Dezi took a bus into Wellington and went shopping. Sunday Peter and his wife took me and the Brazilian girl Carol out to breakfast then for a cable car ride.

Monday and Tuesday I just went to school and then to the mall afterwards. Wednesday I went smallbore rifle shooting haha. I was really good actually, considering I've never shot a gun before.

Today (thursday), I didn't have my chemistry homework done. Not that it really matters, we don't get graded on it. Anyways, the teacher gave me this paper and it was to replace the homework that I didn't do. It said, "Copy the words on this side of the page onto the other side in neat handwriting." and then there was this big apology to my teacher. As soon as she gave it to me, I started laughing cause I thought it was a joke. Then I got in trouble again.

School is really easy here. Especially since we don't get homework or tests (none that we're graded on at least) until the NCEA exams. School technically ends on November 2, but starting on Nov. 14, there are the exams which go throughout the month and basically you just show up at school whenever you have a scheduled exam.

During history, we usually get one page to read and then we do nothing for the rest of the hour. For spanish, I can probably speak better spanish than my teacher, and he's not even in the classroom for most of the spell. In english we're just reading a Shakespeare play. For math, we're starting calculus. We just took a math "test" a couple days ago, but you only needed to get 2 questions right in order to pass. As for tourism, my teacher actually came up to me and told me I might want to switch out because the class is so easy and slow paced. Chemistry is basically the only class that requires any amount of work from me.

Yesterday, Peter Harvey (he's the rotarian in charge of all the inbounds) took me and Emiline, the French girl, tramping (aka hiking). We started at 9 am and got back at 3 pm. It was a long day. We stopped for 10 minutes for lunch, but other than that we took 2 minute breaks maybe every hour. So basically it was like walking up mountains for 6 hours straight. But it was way worth it; the sights were incredible. These are just a few random pictures from our hike...

School the past couple of days has not been so fun, mostly cause I actually have to start working now. At the end of the year (November) I have to take these NCEA tests, which test you on the whole year. I'm starting mid-year so I have to get the notes from all my teachers on what they learned the first half of the year, and if I don't pass with 80 credits by the end, then I can't move on to year 13...
I've been having fun after school though. Both today and yesterday I walked to the mall after school with like 15 other exchange students, mostly Germans. My closest friends here are probably Christoph and Lucas, both German. I have other friends that I talk to and hang out with...but I don't remember any of thier names! haha there's too many to keep straight. And lots of them I cant even pronounce.