Monday-Thursday

Monday
Today our orientation began and we had an introduction to Kiwi culture. In the afternoon we went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum where there were some Maori artefacts and also some other interesting exhibitions. The best one was the simulation of a major volcano eruption. There is a whole set up of a house, a TV with the news, and a screen which was the window overlooking the volcano. The house shook and everything, it was a little bit scary if I must admit!
Tuesday
Again in the morning we had some orientation. This time in the afternoon we visited a Supakids camp at Muriwai Beach. We played with the kids for a bit then I went for my first bush walk which took us to a beach beside a creek which had fantastic dunes! I braved the shame of having white legs and went into the water and slid down the dunes with all the rest, but I paid for it later as the sand was black and very hard to wash off! My first impression was that the kids are far more polite and quiet than kids back home...it could just be these kids tho! They were also very friendly and kept making me say 'The Luck of the Irish' even though I'm not from the south! At night we watched Whale Rider which gave further insight into the Maori culture in small-town New Zealand.

Wednesday
We finished our orientation this morning with setting out our aims and objectives for our placement. In the afternoon the interns were set loose on Auckland city! We tramped up and down Queen's street and the Westfield shopping centre and bought a few things in Warehouse (the equivalent of the late Big W!). We then went into the Sky Tower, but we didn't climb it becuause we thought we might like to do the sky walk at another date.
After a bit of confusion, we finally caught the bus to a woman's house to have dinner. Afterwards she took us up another landmark vantage point - Mt Eden - which is also an ex-volcano! There was an awesome sunset tonight and I have lots of photos of it.

Thursday
Today was just getting everything ready for the stall at the Parachute festival and talking about how that was going to work. I spent the rest of the night packing up again!