I'm Still Here!

Kia ora, everyone!

Well, as I thought, I didn't quite believe this was real until I woke up this morning and was still here. I woke up all sweaty, which was unpleasant (I'm on the 6th floor of the hostel in a tiny room with no ventilation and no windows), but I got 12 hours of sleep and woke up at 9, so I feel like I'm on Kiwi time already!

So, here are a few more notes:
-I sent my T-Mobile SIM card through the wash accidentally yesterday, and it's now gone forever, along with all my numbers. I can only blame this on jet-lag, as I would never usually do something like that. It's a bummer, but the upshot is that if you can send me your phone numbers via email it would be much appreciated in case I need to call from my NZ number while I'm here.
-I wondered at first why New Zealand was called "The Land of the Long White Cloud," but it all started to make sense when I saw it from the plane yesterday and everything looked like it was covered in cotton. It seems that it's cloudy here until about 10 or 10:30 in the morning, and then it clears off and is sunny all day. It's nice!
-I LOVE the crosswalks here! All traffic stops for pedestrians at the same time for 30 seconds, so you can cross either side of the street, or even diagonally without being hit. It's a brilliant system.
-I'm worrying about money already because after scrimping and saving for 6 months I'm now spending without any income, and purchasing anything is freaking PAINFUL. I had to spend 200 dollars yesterday just getting set up here (food, deposit for my room, pair of shorts, internet, locks and straps for my luggage, etc), and I'm not very happy about it. BUT
- I went to a Kiwi grocery store for the first time and bought some food so I won't have to eat out as much. I love going to grocery stores in new countries and seeing what they have. One thing I really like about NZ is that they have country of origin labeling laws, so everything says where it came from, which, for people like myself who like to try to eat local, is very handy. I got me some NZ apples, cheese, granola bars (which they call muesli bars), and carrots! All local! Awesome.
-I've seen information on so many cool things to do that I'm bursting with ideas. A year may not be long enough, guys...

Anyway, I was so busy and jet-lagged yesterday that I didn't have time to do all the errands I needed to do, so I'm finishing errands and planning today, then doing the Auckland siteseeing bus tomorrow, then Waihiki island on Saturday. Still trying to figure out what to do after that.

And now, a quick intro to Kiwi words and phrases, along with pronunciation:
Kia Ora! = Hello! Pronounced kee-ORA, as one word, with the r flipped slightly.
Maori = The native people of New Zealand. MOW-ree, with the r flipped
Dairy = Convenience store
Brekkie = Breakfast
Chook = Chicken, pronounced chook or chuk
Courgette = Zucchini
Heaps = a lot. Used OFTEN
Nought = used for the number zero.
Zed = used for the letter Z
Sticking plaster = Bandaid
Togs = Swimwear of any kind

But my favorite is still "sweet as!" I plan on introducing this to my lexicon asap. In the meantime, I'm off to do some exploring and running about.

Talk to you later!