As I said in Auckland - City of Sails Day 2, I arrived to a freakishly cold, barren, ghost-town-like Palmerston North. Not a very good first impression, I thought to myself. But as I had no other choice, I braved the winds, the 2-degree Celsius temperature, and the constant chills I began to exhibit and made my way to my homestay. By this time, I had Elbert (boyfie who so kindly accompanied me in my long journey toward Palmy) and Ishi (roommate who I met in the bus terminal about half an hour after I arrived so I had some company with me to battle the unforgiving cold night air. =D
Arrived in Ate Neva's place, which was still cooler, but a few degrees warmer than the outside, so it was like a breath of fresh air. =D Since it was dawn, we slept for a few more hours and then daylight broke and I had to send Elbert back to the bus terminal coz his bus was scheduled to leave back to Hamilton at 9am.
Met my housemates that morning and the day went by in a blur. I was still a little hungover (not the alcohol-type, mind you) from all the eating and roadtrips that we did in Auckland, so Palmy's quiet neighborhood shocked me quite a bit.
Monday to Thursday, 8th to 11th October, 2012
First day in UCOL. Woke up really early, partly because I was anxious of my first day of orientation, and partly because I was freezing. No, the bed wasn't heated so I slept in a 9-degree Celsius bedroom. =p
Our day was like it was described. Just an orientation. We had plenty of time to walk around the city centre and orient ourselves to the environment. We just met for about half a day for some little information from the UCOL staff, and then were dismissed right at lunchtime.
Did some grocery shopping (as we had to cook our own food, something I'm not really very good at, I admit, but I'm slowly learning. No more mommy to cook my food for me), some sight-seeing, and then all 4 of us (housemates who are also CAP classmates) opted to go home as we just couldn't take the cold weather and the harsh, cold wind giving us a whiplash front and center.
We opened up our bank accounts, did some shopping at a 2-dollar-a-bag store (you fill in a plastic bag with as many items as you want and all that would cost you would be 2nzd a plastic bag...I got 12 turtleneck-long-sleeved shirts...not a bad trade aye?), and caught up with our friends on facebook, skype and kakao. I also got to visit the Cathedral (which was waaaaaay far away from where I was staying) and my first impression? It was lovely, but it lacked people. =p
The week pretty much went by in the same routine and ended fast. The next thing we knew, it was friday, and we were headed for our group outing.
Friday, 12th October, 2012
CAP group outing, let's just call it that. It was great. Got to see lots of sights, and got to experience more of Kiwi life, which is entirely different that the one I'm used to.
We first headed to the Windmill Farm. As you might notice, we are wearing winter jackets in the middle of spring. That's because, being as there are hundreds of gargantuan windmills in the place, the wind was pretty rough and strong, and very, very, very cold. But getting to stand beside a 70-foot windmill was awesome! And since it was high up in the mountains, you can see a vast valley spread all around you, filled with greens, and trees, and just the exhilarating beauty of nature.
Before we got frostbites or at least frozen from the cold, we headed down and on toward Manawatu Gorge. It was a beautiful forest reserve that's got some huge, tall, slim and sometimes wide trees that I've never seen before, and full of the Silver Ferns, one of New Zealand's most notable species of ferns. We walked around the reserve for about 2 hours, taking our fill of the untouched greeneries and taking pictures in between.
It was lunchtime when we finished so our next stop was FishSpot, a famed Fish-and-Chips spot in Woodville, a town some distance from Palmy. I just ordered the cheaper mini-fish meal (5 reasonably sized fish cutlets with a huge serving of chips) because I can afford it and because I knew the servings were generally huge. My companions weren't as lucky and they had to bring their leftovers back with them as it was too much to finish all in one go. =D
Finally, we spent the rest of our day at Victoria Esplanade, a garden in Palmerston North famed for its beautiful landscape and flowers. Pictures absolutely do NOT do justice to the pure and unadulterated beauty of the place. It was spectacular! We rode the train which allowed us to tour around the entire area without over stressing our already-tired-from-the-gorge-walk feet. The place was absolutely beautiful! It was a sight to behold and I am lucky enough to have experienced such a fine scenery in my life.
The day drew to a close, and then we were headed home to contemplate on our coming first official week at UCOL.
Saturday and Sunday, 13th to 14th October, 2012
Spent the weekend generally at home, coz I had no money to spend and I really had nowhere to go. =)
And that was about it for my first week in KiwiLand. =D
xoxo
-hny-
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