Rugby and Rotorua (October 23 and 24)

All of New Zealand has been aflutter because of the World Cup and there is All Blacks spirit everywhere. We have been watching all of the games religiously and, luckily, the school chaplaincy provided group viewing with delicious snacks, so we could watch it with a huge group of people without having to go to the bars. After the All Blacks won their quarter final game against Australia, the country was crazy! We had the opportunity to go up to Auckland the weekend of the Gold game because Marian's brother were flying in to see her and travel. Sage, Magge, Josh, and I opted out and voted for Rotorua instead.
We arrived in Rotorua Sunday night just in time to watch the final game. We went to an Irish pub attached to our hostel, ate New Zealand nachos, and watched to close game between New Zealand and France. When the All Blacks won, there were fireworks, shouts, horns, and everyone was going nuts. There was even a middle-aged woman sitting in front of us who was crying because she was so happy. The only people who were not happy about the win were these two French guys who were at the pub too. They were being pretty creepy to Magge and Marian, who had met up there with her brothers. The French men's accents were so thick and stereotypical that I thought they might be fake. They had strange French flags tied as cape on their backs. We luckily dodged them after they stared at us from the street.
We did not do too much after that because we had so much planned for the next day, so we wanted to be well rested. We go up early, checked out of our hostel, ate breakfast, and headed to the main event: zorbing! Zorbing is essentially being in a huge soft plastic hamster-like ball with 40 gallons of water and rolling down a hill. I was a little nervous but mostly excited for this crazy experience. I went in a ball with Magge (look at the video on Facebook, if you haven't) and it was a blast! We loved it so much that we went twice! I would go again in a heart beat.

Rolling down the hill

We love zorbing

We love it so much that we jump for joy! 

After we dried off, Sage, Josh, Magge, Marian, her brothers, and I headed to a free geothermic park. Rotorua has a lot of geothermic activity which makes for nice hot springs, but also for the disgusting sulphur fart smell. Not great. We walked around the park, played on the playground, and headed back into town. Marian and her brothers headed off to do their own thing and then rest of us went to an animal reserve to "pat" baby lions! We were really excited, especially Magge. We waited in line for what felt like forever, but then we patted the adorable lion cubs. I was really obsessed with lions when I was younger and even had an imaginary lion friend living in a tree in my backyard, so this was perfect! After our patting, we headed to the lion feeding and then saw the rest of the animals.

The crew

mud pit

Sulphur fumes, yum

It can be pretty sometimes 

Pre-lion excitement

lion cubs

I felt pretty cool

Before the feeding

Beautiful canopy at the reserve

We then went back to the hostel, watched a movie, and rested. We did not have a bus back until after midnight, so we had a lot of time to kill. We went to dinner and played cards for a long time. We then then went to another hostel where we were storing our self (I know its really confusing) and watched another movie. We finally got on the bus and attempted to sleep for the next 5 hours, but was relatively unsuccessful. We got back on campus at 5:40 am and fell into our beds quickly. 

This last week was study break in preparation for finals that start on Wednesday for me. I have struggled to hunker down and study, but hopefully motivation will come quickly.