First days - Auckland to Dunedin

I've been in New Zealand for three days, but it feels much, much longer. Maybe I should blame the jet lag, but as my adviser Goeff Wyvill says, "If you sat in a stationary aluminum box for thirteen hours in which you were shaken around and served second-rate microwave food, you'd be tired regardless of whether or not you crossed eight time zones." More likely, it feels so long because I've packed so much into the past few days.

I flew into Auckland and then Christchurch on Sunday morning. Being Minnesota-raised was no help at all in adjusting to how cold it was, especially since United was kind enough to lose my bag with my coat. Regardless, it was a fun time blearily wandering around Christchurch. I had no real plan but the guidebook said there were shops on Columbo Street and so my super keen survival instincts pointed me there. Unfortunately, I hadn't realized the city center was still under construction from last year's earthquake and found a bunch of tourists like me gaping at boarded up buildings.

I ended up seeing the Re:Start mall, which is a bunch of boutique stores and coffee shops in brightly painted shipping containers. Definitely a very cool exercise in design. After crashing at 6 pm I went to the newly reopened Canterbury Museum, which had a few interesting exhibits on the history of New Zealand and a model of a Christchurch street in the 1800s, complete with creepy as fuck mannequins looking directly at you.

Monday afternoon after the museum, I got on a bus headed to Dunedin. If the residents of Christchurch kindly dealing with sleep deprived me asking questions like "Does the room have heating? I can't figure out how to turn it on" weren't enough to convince me of the truth in the stereotype that New Zealanders are nicer than the rest of the world, the mom who put her 9 year old on a bus alone for 6 hours was. I would never imagine that happening at home, but everyone else seemed unfazed. The level of trust the mother put in the bus driver and passengers to be decent people just blew me away, but in a good way.

The ride itself was uneventful but very beautiful, as I had a window seat facing the sunset. Many roadside sheep later, we pulled into FREEZING Dunedin, where I picked up ("uplifted" as they say) my keys, met my Kiwi host, and promptly crashed.

More to come after dinner and Speights.

Asked a fobby looking couple to take a picture of me