After leaving Sydney, I went to stay with my roommates in their hometown of Hamilton, New Zealand. I flew into the Auckland airport where they picked me up and we made the 2 hours drive back to Hamilton. I was definitely glad to be back in good ole NZ, it felt like home.
On a quick aside, the flight from Sydney to Auckland was the WORST FLIGHT EVER! I sat directly in front of a honest-to-god homeless man, with the matted, oily hair, dirt-covered skin and clothing, and falling apart canvas backpack. The smell was horrendous, I can't even describe it. I can say that I was surrounded by a literal cloud of stench, but that would not do it justice. I actually gagged at one point. Needless to say, I was very unhappy the entire flight and spent all my energy trying to breath as little as possible. I was finally able to Zen out and relax myself, hoping to catch a little nap and miss most of the horrid flight when the homeless man decides to go to the bathroom. So in his attempt to stand up from his seat, he grabs the back of mine. However, he must have been a very uncoordinated homeless man because he missed the back of my seat and instead ended up planting his hand directly onto my head. I could feel the tiny microbes of grime connecting with my hair and skull. SO GROSS.
Well I ended up keeping it together fairly well, though I thought when his hands were groping my head I was going to lose it. And while it may seem otherwise, I actually felt pretty mad for the poor, smelly homeless man. Everyone, myself included, was annoyed with his stench and kept sending him sideways glances. I tried really hard to keep it together and be as kind and forgiving to him as possible. I hope where ever he is now that he's had a nice long shower and is on to a better life.
Ok, back to Hamilton. I stayed with my roommate Bridie, her mom and her brother Jackson. Their house was a one story, similar to my families, but was very open with lots of big windows and glass doors. It had a very comfortable, fresh feeling to it. It was so nice to be back in a home with a family, fighting and all. It made me miss my family an
d even my petty arguing with my sisters. They were so welcoming, her mom cooked me "real New Zealand dinners"- 1) burger with beetroot, mayo, butter and 
a fried egg on top, and 2) lamb roast with kumara and pumpkin. The burger looked so bizarre but was one of the best burgers I've ever had. I fully intend to bring home the egg on burger tradition. The kumara on the other hand, not so delicious. I couldn't get past the kind of chalky texture (and it was purple!). Her brother was fascinated by the fact that I was from the US and asked me tons of random questions like "do you eat tabasco sauce with everything?" and "do you know a lot of people in gangs?". Unfortunately I wasn't really able to give him the desired answer to 
most of his questions but it was pretty funny to see him image of the USA through all his random inquiries.For the most part we just hung around her house,
watched movies, baked, played Rock Band, etc. It was very nice and relaxing. One day we took a road trip to Rotorua, which is notorious for its sulfur smell. It is a pretty small town but has so many cool things to do, we were limited by money but we ended up going down the luge a few times which was so fun, I could have gone down it all day. And to get up to it you take a gondola with amazing views of the city. The city itself was pretty small-town, but then again pretty much everywhere is here in New Zealand. It was so charming though, which a nice little museum surrounded by a huge grass field with people playing botche ball (spelling?). Another unique thing was that randomly around the whole town were little, steaming and bubbling geysers. They all sm
elled pretty gross, but were 
really cool to see. We also had a nice little fish and chips picnic lunch on the water!It was a FANTASTIC semester break. I never wanted to leave Hamilton or Bridie's family!
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