New Zealand!

I'm baaAAAaaack!
I arrived from New Zealand today at 6:30am Melbourne time (9:30am NZ time & 4:30pm on Friday Ontario time).
What an amazing trip!! 8 days, 6 backpackers, 5 cities, several tours, 1 rugby game and a partridge in a pear tree.
Since this trip was so incredible and I don't want to make one giant post about it, I will be breaking up the trip by city and posting everyday for the next week. This will help with the fact that now that spring break is over there are only THREE weeks of classes left before exams which means EIGHT weeks until I'm back in Canada on Aussie summer holidays.
To begin, I will briefly outline the trip and the wonderful companions I had along the way. Then tomorrow I'll blog again on the specific city, and so on so that I'm not clogging up your inboxes and I'm able to post a lot of pictures.
I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand at 12:30am last Friday morning (NZT). My friend, who will be referred to as Danish as he is from Denmark, was on a flight just 40 minutes behind me, so I waited for him in the airport and we cabbed to the hostel together. We toured Auckland all day on Friday with Guelph, my fellow Canadian who basically organized this whole trip for us, and then Saturday morning we were on a bus bright and early to Taupo. Taupo showed us a very exciting time- us being Newmarket, Guelph, Danish and I. We spent 3 nights in total there and nearly 3 full days. Then Guelph and I headed to Napier to meet up with the girls Denmark and Chicago to prepare for the Canada vs. Japan rugby game. The boys did not originally have tickets and therefore stayed an extra day in Taupo. However, they ended up getting tickets and meeting us at the game on Tuesday! Wednesday meant 2 quick flights from Napier to Christchurch, Christchuch to Queenstown, where I spent the last 3 days of the trip. Finally friday night I flew back to Christchurch, spent a few hours sleeping in a hostel and then caught the 6am flight back to Melbourne saturday (this) morning. It was a whirlwind vacation but I was able to see both islands and experience a lot in the 8 days (as you will soon read).
Here are a few teaser pictures to get you pumped for tomorrows post and get you acquainted with my fellow travellers (all international students I've met during my time at La Trobe):

Danish, myself and Guelph

Guelph, Newmarket, Danish and I

Guelph, Chicago, Denmark

And now to sleep- It's only 8pm here but I was awake at midnight Melbourne time and stayed up the entire day! Time change, even if only 3 hours and all the travel has me super exhausted, but very happy :)