Day 3- Kia Ora

Today was such a busy day! We started lectures at 8 am and went until 1 and had a tour at the cantebury musuem at 2. Katelyn and I were in a hurry and quickly read the map and ended up going 20 minutes the wrong direction. With 3 minutes til our your time we realized we made it to the outskirts of the city with no musuem in sight. We asked a lady an she laughed and said we needed to walk about 25 minutes til the road ended and then turn right. We were running and sweating and got there 15 min late. We walked around learning about the Maori culture and how the land got inhabited here. They got here 700 years ago by canoe! On our way to the musuem we also passed a building that's under construction with a big banner on it that says it's new zealands most sustainable building! That made me excited. After the musuem we shopped and explored and talked with the different kiwi people at the stores. The people here are called kiwis so you have to call the kiwi you eat a kiwifruit. It's one word and we have been told you have to say fruit at the end. If you go to a store saying you want a kiwi they'll think you want a person.

So it was 72 degrees today... So hot!!!

I don't know how many of you have ever met someone from new Zealand but don't let their closeness to Australia fool you, they are nothing alike and talk so differently! They say the letter e as it sounds. So escalator is  eeeeescalator. Forgeeeeeeet. Haha I'm starting to catch on to the differences. 

Another different thing here is how they check your signature on your credit card after every single purchase! I don't think my card has ever been checked in America. We have fun telling them how strange that is everytime we check out.

We went to tamaki maori village tonight for a perfomance and cultural dinner. It was so fun! We rode a double decker bus... (bringing back memories from when we lived in England) and we rode on the top of course! Went up the mountain to the tamaki village and were fully entertained for 3 hours. They took us through ther culture dating back to the 1850s and they did mock battles and dances and song and they put on this whole performance. They had a village for us to go through and learn about everything then we took a little train to a building where they fed us a Maori dinner! It was actually very good. We had katura I think is what it's called.... Which is similar to a sweet potatoe, they also had new Zealand lamb and it was amazing!!!!!! Everything we ate was very cultural and we learned some of their language. Most important phrase to learn is KIA ORA which means be well, have a happy life. When someone says it to you, you say it back. So now you know if I say Kia Ora it means be well! The people dressed up like the Maori people from years ago and spoke in a differbt language for the most part... They looke really scary by the way, and they purposely tried yo scare us. One guy came up to us and asked us to come back to his village later (not serious, he was in costume and playing his role) and Katelyn responded "sorry but we aren't supposed to go home with the locals." hahaha that was one of 3 rules we've been given here so it was reall funny! After dinner we rode back to Christchurch and got changed and a group of us when to the bars. We went to boogie nights but we were the only people there haha so we went to another bar which was packed! Wr had to show our passports to get in and the guy said damn Americans! He happened to be American! The music is so different, mainly techno with an accent and the dancing is definitely different!!! We wanted to video them dancing because it was so different! We just got back and packed out bags because were off to our second destination tomorrow... Mount cook! Google it if you want to see what it looks like. We will be in queenstown next week which is adventure capital so we want to sky dive or canyon swing which is when you're strapped in and they unhook you and you free fall then swing across to the other side of the canyon! Can't decide which one to do. Waking up at 6:30 am so I'm going to go to bed now but I love and miss you all! 
Mom, dad, Sarah, and Jessie- miss you all like crazy! I'll be calling you within the next few days on the calling card so answer!! Love you guys!!

&tyler I didn't forget you, I miss you so much too!!!!!!!!!


Kia Ora!!! 
Caitlin