!New Zealand! - whoa oh oh i'm on fire!

giday loves,
it is 11.30 on monday night in auckland -- i have touched down! i have (almost) all my things! i've eaten foodstuffs! -- and i'm pretty wiped. after a 13 hour flight with only a little sleep (but wonderfully chipper service and great wine!) and a pretty grueling trek through security and customs, I AM FINALLY HERE. and it feels amazing. we've done so much today i barely know where to begin, but i'm afraid i may have to save the exploits for a later date. suffice it to say my weary state stems from a full day of bus-ing and walking up and down hills and swimming in the ocean and getting a real winner of a v-shaped sunburn on my chest and nowhere else. i've already seen some incredibly beautiful, wonderful things but i will wait to do them justice in a later post. by the time we got back to the hotel round 7 i was pooped, put on some clean dry things and snuggled up in my bed by the window...got a picture of the sunset through palm trees in the park that abuts our hostel :). pictures to be posted soon too! basically the title of this post is in reference to the cause of my violent awakening after 2 hours of precious sleep in a real bed - a fire on the roof of our hostel! the kids who didn't go out on the razzle and i and the remainder of those staying all had to shuffle outside in a bleary confusion and watch the fireman actually tackle a real, living fire on the roof, extending hoses up with ropes and everything. miiiiiles from the fordham fire drill at 1 in the morning outside ohare where people have to be peeled from the beds via air horn and wait for 40 minutes while RA's check every single godforsaken room for life forms. nope, real fire! how and ever the boys got the blaze under control almost immediately and we were back in our rooms in about 25 minutes. i figured if i didn't update now i wasn't sure when my next shot would be -- tomorrow we are getting up early for a 3 hour bus ride to rotorua, a resort town with geothermal activity and hot mineral baths...i cannot wait! i also am very exhausted. more soon!
:)