New Zealand Day 1

I was feeling terribly exhausted and just had to get out. The whole process of booking a package tour with the travel agency and packing happened in a blur. Before I realised what was going on, I was on a 10 hour flight to New Zealand!

The view from the plane when we were nearing NZ was awesome!





I didn't have any proper sleep as a little girl sitting behind me kept kicking my seat! As soon as we touched down, we were sent off to the Christchurch Antarctic Centre (http://www.iceberg.co.nz/). The thrilling Hugglund ride jolted us from our sleepy state and we all emerged wide eyed after the ride. Then, it's the Snow and Ice Experience, with the Antarctic Storm. From strangers, the tour group started gathering at one corner of the room when it got too cold!

After lunch, we went on a city tour. Most of us tried to stay awake but I think we all dozed off with our tour guide's voice droning on about Cantebury University campus... it must have been a beautiful campus.

Then we went on an interesting cultural experience at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve (http://www.willowbank.co.nz/) after an early dinner. We were given a brief introduction on the way of life of the Maori people, and I really enjoyed their songs and dances. After that, a guide took us on a leisurely walk around the reserve and showed us some of the native NZ animals - Kea, Kiwi, Blue Duck (Whio), etc. We learnt a lot of new vocabulary that night but I just cannot remember any now!

It was pretty late when we finally reached our first hotel - Elms Hotel.