Day One: First Impressions, Culture Shock, Hopes, and Summary

After arriving in New Zealand, I have many first impressions of the country. New Zealand is one of the most beautiful countries I've ever seen. The natural scenery is rich and green and diverse everywhere you go. The people in this country have all seemed to be nice to this point in our vacation. People are cordial as they ask us where we are from and seem interested in everything we are doing. Our rourguide and the groups we have been in have all treated us with respect, which only furthers my first impression that New Zealand will be a very pleasant experience.

New Zealand has proven after only one day that it is very different culturally from the United States. There is definitely a very noticeable culture shock that exists between New Zealand and America. The accent and written language (even though it is still English) is different from America. Many words are spelled differently even though it is the same word. Certain brands that are the same are given different names (Axe in USA is Lynx in NZ). The accent and slang in New Zealand are also very different. Sland words and certain expressions are tossed around a lot in New Zealand that don't exist in America. Finally, the driving methods in Australia were a huge culture shock. Cars steer on the right side and drive on the left side of the road. This makes it automatically more difficult to cross streets and be aware of traffic. It would be very difficult for me to adapt to the types of driving that differ in New Zealand.     

In the coming days, I hope our trip will continue to be as organized, smooth, and fun as it was on our first day. It has been very enjoyable so far and I can only hope the coming days are just as good. Everything went smoothly and there were no major issues which made the trip thus far more enjoyable for everyone. I hope to continuelearning about the culture of New Zealand and gain a new perspective for different groups of people.

On our first day, we endured the seemingly endless plane rides from Chicago to Los Angeles to Auckland. If that wasn't enough travelling, we immediately boarded a bus and went two hours to the small town of Mata Mata, a major filming site for the Lord of the Rings. We stayed here for a couple hours and explored the city then boarded the bus and travelled to Rotorua. This is the town we were to call home for a few days, a town that wreaked of sulfur from the thermal springs. The journey to the town showed us some of New Zealand's amazing scenery. After a brief tour of the city and some time spent lugeing down a mountain, we returned to the hotel after a busy day.