(from September 1, 2013)

I have safely arrived in Auckland I just checked into my hostel where I will be staying for a few days with my HECUA group. I am so happy and relieved to finally be in this wonderful country that I have been dreaming about for the last year of my life. After weeks of preparations I checked into my flight in San Francisco last evening with a hiking backpack and daypack to sustain me for four months, three seasons, and city and backcountry living. To say it was challenging to fit all those parameters into a bag would be an understatement.

I feel like I’m in for one of the best adventures of my life and I have absolutely no idea what it will entail. I know that my group is traveling around the North Island of New Zealand for 5 weeks or so, I have a week to travel myself, and then I’m doing a homestay for 8ish weeks in Wellington and doing an internship there as well. Before departing America I watched 180° South, a movie about a man who voyages down to Patagonia for the ultimate adventure by way of a sailboat. While watching the movie I heard a quote that really resonated with me: “Fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all”. So as I do not know my itinerary and I anxiously await more detail about my program and what exactly we will be doing in this beautiful country, I am perfectly content with the thrilling unknown. As I had a glass of Chardonnay with dinner (my first legal drink, whooo) I cheers to the unknown and to the adventures to come because I know that they will last me a lifetime.