Day 6- January 27

We were buzzing with excitement when we woke up at 7 this morning to get ready for the day. We ate the hotel’s free breakfast, then left at 8 AM. Ready to learn more about the history in New Zealand, we felt the Auckland Art Gallery Tao o Tamaki (technology) is a must. Jill noticed that on their website they had great reviews and many people were raving about the beautiful and historic artwork that was within the museum so we decided there was no way that we couldn’t go.

 

Just walking up to the museum had us in awe. The structure itself was beautiful, with warm lights to illuminate the outside, and a crazy looking over-hang. As we entered the beautiful building there were many different sculptures and light displays which amazed us all. As we walked through the museum we noticed that there were many different holographic type displays as well as intricate thought out moving displays that we were all amazed by. One art piece consisted of flowers moving in a pattern that looked as if they were blooming, dying, and then re-blooming like they were going through their life cycle which we all agreed was our favorite of them all. 

As we continued walking through the museum it was an incredible experience we learned about many historic events and cultures of Auckland. One of our favorites was the ancient tale about how New Zealand’s islands became to be. The tale talks about how the demigod Maui went fishing with his brothers. When he caught a fish he told his brothers to wait before cutting into it, or because he needed to please Tangaroa, the god of the sea, yet they did not listen.When the brothers cut into the fish, the ridges and deep cuts made by the knife represent New Zealand’s rivers, valleys, and mountains, then forming the island of New Zealand as a whole. After learning about this amazing tale we had a whole new outlook on Auckland culture.

Rachel and John's bagels

Sooner than we realized, lunch time rolled around, and we were all ready to have out next meal for the day. We decided to go to a bagel place for lunch that was only 8 minutes away from the Art Gallery. As we were driving John looked up the “Best Ugly Bagels”, which was the restaurants name, and saw that it had a 4.5 out of 5 star review so we expected our meal to be delicious. We all ordered the most raved about bagel on the menu and agreed it was one of the best meals we’ve ever had.

Bilbo Baggins's house in the movie.

While enjoying our meal we all discussed how excited we were for our next adventure which was to “Hobbiton (ecosystem)”. Hobbiton is the place where The Hobbit movies were filmed. We left Best Ugly Bagels at 11 AM, since the Hobbiton is a 2 and a half hour drive away. We all talked lively in the car, sharing jokes and expectations for the Hobbiton tour. We arrived at the hobbit place at about 2:20 PM and the tour started at 2:35 PM. This place is where the hobbit movie was recorded and all of the houses are still there and are able to be viewed and walked around for people's pleasure. We took so many pictures from Hobbiton world due to the difference in size of this land and it is a once in a lifetime trip.

A house in Hobbiton

 After this excitement we drive home and stopped for dinner at a McDonalds right next to the Royal Park Lodge. It was a fast, easy, and cheap dinner option for us, and we all enjoyed out greasy meal in our hotel rooms. After making plans for tomorrow and watching the sunset, we finally went to bed.

Day 5 - January 26

As we woke up this morning we decided that today is the day we want to focus on historical and monumental places within Auckland. We felt that it would be beneficial to learn some things about the history and culture of New Zealand while we're here. So what better place to go than the Auckland War Memorial Museum (history). It was extremely convenient because it was only a 15 minute ride from the hotel. Rachel drove us to the museum, though we're all still adjusting to the new rules of the road here in New Zealand. Our short 15 minute drive almost ended in a tragic accident because Rachel wasn't fully paying attention to the road, luckily we didn't crash into the oncoming traffic but we were all a little shocked. John. Rachel, Jill, Jackson and I (Alyssa) arrived to the war museum and entered the beautiful building. The stone pillars rise tall, holding the top of the building up above of us. The whole area is just magnificent. We chose the more expensive ticket option because then we will to see the Maori Cultural performance(culture) after we were done exploring the museum. As we walked down the endless rooms filled with beautiful artwork and sculptures we learned and discussed with the workers about every exhibit that interested us. We were all a bit bummed when we reached the end of the museum but we were all ecstatic for the Maori Cultural performance that was next to come. This was a wonderful addition to the day and we all immensely enjoyed watching the cultural performance that is home to New Zealand.
When we visited the Great War for New Zealand section, we learned many different things about New Zealand's military back in the day.

• New Zealand soldiers began referring to themselves as "Kiwis". It is said that it's because New Zealanders had a sense of separate identity.

• Around 18,000 New Zealanders died because of the war.

• The names of those who died are recorded on approximately 500 civic war memories all across New Zealand.

We headed to the Cornwall Park cafe within the Cornwall park district. They have a great dinner selection for all of us and we ate around 6 PM. Driving home at night was so pretty.The Sky way illuminated by a beautiful moon, and we talked all the way home. We got to the Royal Park Lodge and stayed up and watched movies on Netflix. It was around 12 AM when we all went back to our own rooms, and I was out the minute my head hit the comfortable pillows.

Day 4 - January 25

Waking up to the smell of pancakes from the breakfast buffet was a blissful start to all of our days. Today began at 7:00 AM and packing up the car was a priority because there are 2 places we wanted to visit. These are 2 popular, historical places that have been labeled a must-see on multiple different New Zealand headlines. This being said, we hopped into our rental car and drove an hour and 40 min to the first stop, “Tree Church (ecosystem)”. This is located in Ohapu and is a stunning sight to see when in New Zealand. The quote “One man's dream has turned into this naturally growing chapel made of almost nothing but trees” describes the feeling of a dream in which one person gets when viewing this amazing place. The founder Barry Cox drew the plan and wanted a place of peace in his backyard. This wish turned into construction plans and actual work put into this dream. The quote above was said by him in addition to the journey. Seeing how fulfilling the sight is, all of us were ecstatic to finally arrive. All of this excitement cause a bathroom break halfway through where Jill, Alyssa, and Rachel stretched their legs while the boys John and Jackson bought a newspaper and talked about the sports before reading the rest of it during the ride. Once arriving at 8:30am, we found the tour guide and walked around the area taking tons of pictures. The sight was so amazing and hands on, that the pictures looked professionally taken when Jillian took them all herself! 

We left the “Tree Church” after walking around for quite a bit of time, to head to the Te Wairoa Buried village which is about 20 min away from the Church. This village is special to New Zealand because it is a Maori village obliterated by an 1886 volcanic eruption (Lake Tarawera). It is widely raved about by tourists and is a special piece of history by showing the village now that was affected by an earlier weather pattern in past times. Jill and Alyssa loved the buildings while John, Jackson, and Rachel were more interested in the scientific components such as what exactly happened to cause the eruption. We got out our bars we took from the hotel snack bar this morning and ate some of them to keep up our energy before the car ride back to the hotel. 


Heading home was a tiring journey from walking around all day. This being said, a Restaurant called “Pita Pit” is right off of the highway we are going down to get back to the Royal Park Lodge. It is fast food which we were all willing to eat because we just wanted to get in a warm bed after the chilly adventurous day. The menu items we choose were fairly similar throughout the 5 of us. This includes Jill ordering a Garden (V) Pita, and Alyssa, John, Jackson, and Rachel ordering a Chicken Breast Pita. All of this food was the handed to us at about 4:30 PM as an early dinner/late lunch as we got back in the car ready to hang out back at the hotel. Once we arrived at the hotel 1 hour and 45 min later, Jill told us about her vegetarian journeys and about how she was willing to eat meat on this trip just to get a full feel of the culture and lifestyle of this astonishing place. We were intrigued by her decision to give up being a vegetarian and wanted to see more of what she plans for her future due to this big change in her diet and daily lifestyle. After this discussion, we finished eating the pita from the car and watched some Netflix until the drowsiness once again took over. This drowsiness was the call to bed as all us shut off the lights to get some shut eye along with preparedness for the holiday which lies ahead tomorrow.

Day 3- January 24

 We're here! 

 After finally landing in New Zealand, we rushed to the hotel, eager to sleep, considering the jetlag we were all hit with when we sat down on the plane taking off in Sydney. 

 A screeching alarm woke the girls up in our room, prompting us to get up and wake the boys, who were in the room next door. The time we spent in the morning was slow, but despite the sluggish movements, we were ready to start the day! 

The first thing we did was switch our money for the currency in New Zealand. Once done with that, the boys went out to rent a car at about 12am, picked us up an hour later, and took us to the new hotel. We can't check in until 4pm. This being said, we ate breakfast/lunch at Sierra Café at 1:15pm which is 5 minutes away from the hotel, The Royal Park Lodge. We figured we could take time relaxing before check in. We went to Cornwall Park (Ecosystem) to pass the time. This is different from an American park because it has various landscaping features. These different features can include it is centered on a volcanic cone, and directly adjacent to the park is One Tree Hill Domain. This is where the parks donor Sir John Logan Campbell is buried. This hill domain is administered by the Auckland council and is a center point of the park which is something different from what you would see in America. This uniqueness gave all 5 of us a great time walking around and enjoying the fresh air and greenery of the park. This being said however, the later hours rolled in quicker than expected! Our clocks struck 5pm queuing us it was time to leave. We then took the rental car to our hotel for the trip and we checked into the hotel. We all spent some time in the girl’s room, making a plan for the week, and finding cool destinations that would be fun for us to do while in Auckland. After sorting the next few days out, we took a little "rec time", doing nothing in particular until we all eventually crashed. 

Day 2- January 23

The flight leaving LAX to go to SYD was at 11:25pm. The flight landed at 9:25pm, Australian time.

Flight leaving the LAX airport

From LAX, we landed in a completely different time zone. The flight was overnight, so we got a good amount of sleep on the plane. Our whole group got the five middle seats, which made the flight much easier. We hit some turbulence, delaying the flight by 10 minutes in the air- but other than that the landing was smooth and safe.

The airport had many different places to eat. Even though it was night time in Australia, we were all ready for some Brunch. Wanting a last taste of home before trying new cuisine in New Zealand, we all chose Subway. We purchased our Subway which was three footlongs that we all split amongst ourselves.

We debated buying a hotel room for the 7 and half hour layover that was ahead of us but decided against it so we could use that money on food and other expenses. After about 2 hours of waiting at the gate we became very bored and decided to explore the rest of the airport which only occupied us for the next hour. After we got back to our gate it was pretty empty and we were all able to grab a few seats that we could lie down on and rest because there was nothing else to do for the remaining time. Luckily Alyssa set an alarm on her phone before falling asleep because if she hadn’t have woken us up then we may not have made our flight on time. As Alyssa woke us up around 4:30 we had 15 minutes to get ready before boarding we used this time to use the restroom and grab some snacks for the plane.

Our flight left from Sydney to Auckland took off at 4:50 pm and the predicted landing in Auckland New Zealand is at 9:55 pm. We were very excited to be on our last flight because the past two days have been filled with traveling and we all want to be able to sleep in our own beds at a hotel. Although we were very excited to be landing in New Zealand soon we were also very tired and because of that we spent most of this plane ride sleeping and playing on our phones. Once the plane landed in the Auckland airport we rushed to baggage claim, grabbed our bags and went to our hotel, which luckily was attached to the airport so we only had to walk a little bit to get to our rooms. After we checked into our rooms we all crashed immediately and rested for the next day.

Day 1- January 22

Today Rachel, John, Alyssa, Jackson, and I, Jillian, left for New Zealand. We will be staying there for 11 days exploring the beautiful country! Our flight left at 1:25pm, so we all met at RDU at noon, giving us time to park and meet at the gate. We boarded on time, with a ten minute delay for engine check, and we were off! The first layover was at JFK, in Queens, New York. We landed at 3:10pm, and the next flight boarded at 5pm, where we would then be going to LAX in Los Angeles, California. While we waited for the next flight to board, we bought some water bottles to take on the plane.

When we boarded, we all got comfortable in our seats, and chat amongst ourselves until the plane took off. Alyssa, Rachel, and I were conveniently sat next to each other, with Jackson and John behind us. The flight was about 3 and a half hours, so we all took it as an opportunity to sleep, as we had a long night ahead of us.

We landed at LAX at 8:35pm, California time. The layover lasted 2 hours and 50 minutes. In LAX, we realized how hungry we all were once we got settled at the gate. We didn't want to spend too much money on the plane meals, so we  bought a large cheese pizza from Fresh Brothers Pizza, which was great not only in taste but the fact that it was very cheap! We ate, then made our way to the gate, where we recharged our devices, took a bathroom break, changed, and then stretched our legs for the flight to come. This is the longest flight that we will take, but we're all still very excited to land in Auckland tomorrow.

We boarded the plane to Sydney, Australia at 11:25pm, and are set to land at 9:15am Australian time.

 Trip Itinerary-  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qzULWSOuMwftV8U3innqjPjsEQW_aNniYSqxABlIp6M/edit?usp=sharing
Financial Spreadsheet- 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FSJP_MLT7Xg1w0HerJU0HkbJrd7I0Elc7wsOgmH1s4I/edit?usp=sharing