Looking back on New Zealand by: Maggie and Finn

Maggie: 

When I thought of the idea of going to New Zealand it made me feel really nervous. At first I really missed my friends and family back in the states. At first I could not wait to go back home but once we were leaving it was hard to let go. I really liked going on all of our trips. I really like Queenstown because the first day we were there we got to go on a luge. This sounds really weird, but it was so much fun; We were in go karts and we got to race down the mountain. Finn at first was scared, but that did not surprise me. I also liked Mountain Cook; it was so fun there I really liked it. I remember that the first day my parents said we are going on a hike and I was kind of mad. When we got to the hike it said 40 minutes, but we were sooooo speedy and did the whole thing in about 15 minutes. The one thing that was not so good about new Zealand was their ketchup. Now, there ketchup was different every where you went--sometimes it tasted like AI sauce and other times it was just so sweet and just terrible🤮. Overall I really liked New Zealand and am very grateful for this experience.

Finn:

When we were first going to New Zealand I was really scared and I didn't know what it was going to be like being away from all of my friends and family. The flight was pretty interesting with the sky couches and stuff. At first I was a little nervous, but after I was nervous I had so much fun and I didn't want to leave almost at the end. When we were driving from Auckland down the North Island I was thinking, "this is going to be such a long drive!" Then I realized we do like 10 hour drives all the time. We were doing like three hour drives and saying they were so long. 

I had a lot of fun when we were in Rotorua and when we were in Hobbiton. Rotorua was fun because the Canaopy Tours was a fun and an interesting experience. And it was just kind of fun being in the small house, so we all had to talk and hang out with each other, and that was kind of nice. 

When we first arrived in Christchurch, I was thinking to myself, "this is going to be really fun." And it was super fun! At first I was thinking, "this feels like such a small town how are we going to hang out here for the next two months?" It kind of helped going to different houses on trips because sometimes I got sick of doing the same attractions in Christchurch. I really liked going to Dunedin because it was fun because everyone had a really strong accent. Also, it was a book city and I thought that was really interesting. 

But there's one downside to being on the other side of the world, you start to miss your friends and there's a lot of times when I just wake up and say to myself, "okay, maybe today I can have a playdate with one of my friends and I realize I'm on the other side of the world and it kind of just hits me harder." But after the whole experience of being on the other side of the globe, it is all together a pretty amazing experience. 

goodbye 11A Montana

Last school day in the house 

Goodbye to Yann, our French teacher

Maggie's bedroom 

The Kiwi's took flight...Next stop, Aussie! 

Some last photos from Chch that didn't make it in the other blog posts...