After 36 hours, 3 plane flights, and 8,300 miles of travel, I finally got to my hotel in Auckland, New Zealand. Although I have been out of the country before, this is by far the longest trip and the first time I have been to a different continent. At first, it honestly didn’t feel like a foreign country aside from the fact that traffic was on the left side of the road. It was a modern city with nice cars, paved highways, and high-end stores that could be found in the States. However, a few days into the trip we took a ferry to an island and went on a short hike along the coastline. Now I felt like I had traveled somewhere special. Everything was absolutely beautiful, and was made even more incredible by the lighting since we were hiking around dusk.
Hiking is definitely the aspect of this trip that I am most excited about. Over the next three weeks, we will be traveling all over the island of New Zealand visiting some of the most gorgeous scenery in the world. However, seeing beautiful vistas is not the only thing I will gain. This expereince will also help me grow in the way I understand American society and my role as a citizen. I have already been asking myself tough questions about the ways I connect with other people, the values our government are built on, and the role I play in creating a healthy society. Through our class discussions and continued presentations from and interactions with locals, I hope that I will return a more active and informed citizen.