I'm in New Zealand!

I arrived yesterday afternoon after nearly 24 hours of airtime, from Boston to Sydney to Christchurch. I was a little upset when I set out, because flying to Sydney added several hours to my trip, but it turned out to be well worth it, because I got to fly in from the west, which meant flying over the Southern Alps. Talk about gorgeous! I will try to post pictures sometime soon, but the internet is a bit too slow and expensive at my hostel to try and upload anything.

I had orientation today for international students, and then got a chance to explore the city with some of the other exchange students. Christchurch is a beautiful city- it's clean and open, with a lot less air pollution than most of the cities I've visited in the US, and a lot of plants and not very many high rise buildings. If you drive through the city, it looks like most people have their own houses, each with a small yard, and you see hardly any apartment buildings. I was also very happy to see lots of rugby fields in the city, especially near the University of Canterbury. :)