We left the Marae Tuesday morning after a delicious breakfast and farewell ceremony, where we shared our gratitude for them allowing us into their culture. We were to fly out of Auckland at 2:10PM, but had one last stop before our flight -- the Auckland Museum. I'm not usually a museum-goer, but it was really fun to walk around and learn more about the culture and history of New Zealand. They had a lot of cool displays, even a room that shook like a volcano! Obviously, that was my favorite.

After the museum, we headed for the airport. Luckily, we got there in plenty of time to completely rearrange our bags and make sure they were no more than 25kg (50 lbs) each. That should be easy since I had just arrived 3 days before having done it for my flight over, right? False. The main issue was my ginormous sleeping bag, which I didn't realize was so huge until I got over here. As a rough estimate, it is approximately 8 times larger than the ones that all of the other ultra-outdoorsy enthusiasts brought with them. With help from others, however, I was able to squeeze all of it in, chiming in with 2 checked bags -- 24.7kg and 25.0kg. Thank you, thank you very much.

We had a flight from Auckland to Christchurch, then another from Christchurch to Dunedin. On my 5 hour flight from Charlotte to LA, I didn't so much as receive a peanut, unless I wanted to pay $7 for a meal. On my 45 minute flight from Christchurch to Dunedin, I received chips and a glass of wine. I'll take it.

We were dropped off briefly at each of our flats before the bus picked us up again for dinner at a local pizza restaurant. The food was good and it was fun to get a taste of Dunedin. I returned home to hang out with my flatmates and unpack after a long day.

The top picture is one I took from the plane ride. The bottom photo is a view from the bus on our way to Dunedin. Not too exciting, but it gives you a small idea.