Auckland Day One

Today I made a lot of progress in the "growing up and figuring things out on my own"  part of the trip. I able to successfully go through customs (they had to wash my boots before I brought them into the country), pick up my car, get NZ $$ from a bank, and drive my car into the city.

I'll have to admit my mom was right in suggesting that driving on the wrong side of the road "might be tricky." Basically, it's terrifying. You have to turn on your blinker with your right hand,  put the car into drive with your left,  and manuver through many round abouts at high speeds trying to remember what side you should be on. Luckily,  I got a lot of practice driving around Auckland when I was searching for my hostel and now my car is now parked for the weekend.

After I checked in, I took a long walk around the city. I checked out Queen Street (the main drag of the city), sat by the harbour, and went up in the Sky Tower. I got talked into doing the Sky Jump off the tower (NOT bungee jumping) by a 10 year old girl who was on her way up to jump herself and signed up to do that tomorrow. I'm also climbing the Auckland Bridge in the morning.

Opinions of the city:   
It has been very lively today because schools are on holiday - they go year round with 2 week breaks every few months. I wonder how flexible businesses are with this set up and if parents are able to take off when their kids have a break.
It's "winter" here but many people wear winter coats and hats even though it's 60 degrees. I'm personally loving life and will take this temperature over 100 and humid any day!

I have already met a ton of interesting people! Two gentlemen I met today are on a month trip to film a Zales Diamonds commercial, met a few Canadian girls, met a guy from Atlanta who moved here because he's obsessed with rugby, and met a nice family from Wellington. I love the kids accents so much! They sound super cute and I can't wait to see them in school next week.

My roommates are 19 year old German girls who are spending a year working in NZ. They are busy now finding work and seeing the city.They explained that it is popular to take a year off after high school to travel before attending college. One of thre girls lived in Nashville for her senior year and had travelled just about every where in the world!  She loved how many special subjects we have in the US and explained the course load in Germany: everyone takes math,  German,  English and another language of their choice.  Then the choose to be in the science track or language track and pick courses according to their track.  She said that sports are not very popular and they do not have school teams like we have in the US. 

It's 2pm now and I'm wondering if it is too soon to call it a night. I could use a good 15 hours of sleep especially to prepare for my exciting day tomorrow.