INTERNeX New Zealand: past, present, future in one!

Hi there!

As an international intern in New Zealand, it’s an interesting thing to know more about the country were you are and what happened before it became this beautiful country. Because there happened a lot before you came here…

Think about the Maori’s, who came in the early Middle Ages and expelled the originally residents. Or the fights between the Maori’s and the British Army for the distribution of the land. And how Auckland is actually created?

I knew something about it, but in my opinion, not enough! Reason to go to the Auckland Museum. Yeah, that awesome building! When you arrive you’ve got already a really nice view over Auckland. When you go into the museum you can jump in a Maori Experience. They show you their traditional dances and songs, be at an additional cost. BUT! If you want to see what kind of weapons they use and how they sailed across the sea in their typical boats, the Auckland museum got it all for you.

The museum is very diverse, because on the top of the museum you can learn all about the first and second world war and how New Zealand at that time, was situated. And between the Maori’s and the wars there you can experience how it feels when there erupt a volcano in Auckland. Pretty cool! Also you can see how they lived like a few hundred years ago, explore the sea life and look behind the Wild child area with originally candies!

I recommend to spend a few hours of your weekend in the museum. You get a good impression about the earlier New Zealand. Entrance is only $10. If you want to know more, check –http://www.aucklandmuseum.com

Cheers,

Lies&Luus

INTERNeX New Zealand: STRAY trip north Island

Hi there,

Wow, wow, wow, what an awesome trip was that. Last week Luus and I went on a trip to the North Island with the STRAY bus. For so far we only had seen Auckland, what we really enjoyed, but it was really fun to see the real stuff of New Zealand, the Nature!

It was an week full of amazing activities, STRAY did a really good job! We went on a trip from the 18^th till the 22th of September. It was an trip around the north island of New Zealand. We will tell you about every stop we made, to get a good view from what we did and what you also can do!

Wednesday we left from the office off stray early in the morning, so we still had the hole day. We first drove to a supermarket, so don’t worry if you’re not prepared (as we did). After the supermarket we made a quick stop at an beautiful waterfall from eleven meters high. Then we drove to the highlight from that day namely Raglan, the surf paradise from New Zealand.  It was an beautiful day for surfing, so we were really lucky. It also is an really quiet beach, what’s good. But maybe that was, because it was winter season. You can get a lesson from two hours from some really kind surf teachers. You start with practice on the ground and after a few minutes they bring you to the beach, where you can practice your surfing skills. If you don’t like to surf, there is also an possibility to hike in to the mountains (the sleeping lady). In the evening we did an harbour cruise to see the sunset. You sleep in an amazing hostel when you go to Raglan. The hostel is in the bush bush, but still with an view over the sea.

The second day we went to waitomo caves, were we did some caving. That is absolutely amazing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or boy, you definitely think this is extreme. You go via a really small entrance into the caves and then you follow some small course. You go abseiling for 80 meters under the ground, also along some waterfalls. A cool part in the caves is that you can see a lot of glowwurms. After the caves, we went to a maori family to experience their culture. First you do the ceremony with the maori traditions including the hongi (nose kiss). After the ceremony, you got some really good food, made by the family and then you’re going to watch to some maori dances. Of course you also going to try them by yourself, what is fun! Post a good night you will sleep together in a beautiful maori house.

 

The next day we went to a national park called National park. Because of the wetter we were not allowed to do the hiking. But if you go there, try to do one of the beautiful walks. Instead of hiking we went to the hidden pool from Gollem, of the Lord of the Rings movie. The hostel were we stayed that night is absolutely relaxed. You have a good room for three people, so you just share your bathroom with two other people. Besides that, you have two hot tubs, were you can relax the hole evening. Or you can go to the bar just 100 meters further. That is what we did, a cool place to grip a beer.

After a good sleep in the hostel, we went to a place that called the blue duck station. Is was in the middle of nowhere, what makes it very special. In the midday we went haunting. You go with an jeep into the bush and see the beautiful nature and if you want you can go shoot some goats  or rabbits. In the evening we make an fire and enjoyed some beers and have some good talks and good sings. So conclusion, the STRAY trip was absolutely amazing!!! If you also want to go with stray just ask Chris or Luus or Lies for more information or experiences and you can book it via INTERNeX (if you’re from INTERNeX) with some discount.

Cheers,

Lies & Luus

INTERNeX New Zealand: All Blacks!

Hi there!

Everyone always says that you de-fi-ni-te-ly have to go to a rugby game when you are in New Zealand. So, we did…

Thé tickets!

And it was GREAT!

 

What a fantastic atmosphere in Eden Park. Of course we did face painting and went support the All Blacks. Do you know their typical Maori warriors dance? It was pretty awesome to see that in real life. We did not what to expect from a real game, but was going hard-to-hard, bloody stand.

 

But hé, they won the game against South Africa!

Check: http://www.allblacks.com/ for more All Blacks!

 

Cheers,

Lies&Luus

INTERNeX New Zealand: Looking for a Kiwi bird?

Hi there,

If you’ve been to New Zealand, there a lot of things you must have seen before you leave. One thing of that is an Kiwi. And then I don’t mean residents of New Zealand, but the birds! They actually are really hard to find, because they only come out of there holes in the night. So if you spot one in the night in the wild, you are really lucky! If you don’t want to spend your time on waiting for an Kiwi bird in the night, you also can go to the Auckland Zoo. It is a fun place to go and see in Kiwi bird. But there are a plenty of other animals you can see there.

A few weeks ago they had a new baby giraffe and she is already outsight so you can see here at the moment in the zoo, we also saw here:) What else did we saw in the zoo, elephants, lions, birds, monkeys, red pandas, rhinos and more and more animals. It is a pretty big zoo. You can walk there for three/four hours. They also have some special shows, were they will show you how to feed the animals. We saw a show were a lion was eating his dinner, it was pretty cool to see that. You could almost touch him.

It is easy to come to the zoo. You can leave from the big bust stop close to the harbour. Just ask at the bus driver if the bus goes to the zoo, plenty of them does, so you never have to wait long.

If you be there don’t forget to taste an ice-cream, because I can tell from my own experience they are really good!

Cheers,

Luus & Lies

INTERNeX New Zealand: Mount Eden Sunset

Hi there!

If you are done with your work or you have a free evening and you don’t know what else to do? Go watching the sunset on Mount Eden. We’ve done it and it was so beautiful! When the sun is falling you see more and more lights in Auckland which give you a great view over the city by night.

Mount Eden is the second highest natural point in the whole Auckland region. You can easily go by bus from the CBD district. Go to Britomart and there will be a lot of busses who will bring you to the volcano. You can take the Outer Link busses 274/267/625/258/277 and many more I guess. One trip costs only $1,90 NZ dollar and you travel around 20 minutes.

View Mount Eden

Last but not least, we met our first Maori’s over there! They teached us a real Maori game. First you have to say welcome to each other on the ‘Maori-way’ like nose – to – nose and then you have to do a game with your hand called Papaki Rere – translation ‘Flying Hands’. They were also singing during the game.

Imaging… you stand on a volcano in the middle of New Zealand, with sunset views over Auckland, doing Maori games with real Maori’s is pretty awesome!

Maori game – Papaki Rere

So, check it out!

Cheers,

Lies & Luus

INTERNeX New Zealand: Visiting Rangitoto

Hi There,

If you have a day off and up to do something sportive, you definitely can go to the volcano Rangitoto! It is really easy to get there with the ferry, it cost like NZ$ 28 retour. It is not that cheap, but really worth your money. There are different times for leaving the ferry from the harbour.  You can see them on the scheme below,

It is possible to book an trip before you leave, than you can get up the volcano with an small train. But I will recommended you to not book anything and just walk up the volcano, it is also a good workout.  It takes an hour to get up the volcano and you have a great view from above, it is really fantastic! You can see the whole city from the volcano and also a great skyline. When you look to the other side of the volcano, you see a lot of sea with small islands in it, beautiful! When it is an good day you can look really far over the sea and see how big Auckland actually is.

When you walk down again, you can take on the left side an way to the lava caves. There  are some cool tunnels were you can walk through. They are really small and dark, so you will feel like an real adventurer.  There is one thing you should keep in mind, namely the last ferry goes at 4 p.m. at the weekend and 3.30 p.m. at weekdays. So be sure you won’t miss that one, otherwise you have to sleep on the island. What actually is possible, but then you have first walk to Motutapu and you have to prebook that first. So conclusion don’t miss the last ferry. What you also should keep in mind, there aren’t any shops on the islands, so bring some food and drinks, because you definitely will need that after a day hiking up the volcano. It is sometimes pretty intensive. Enjoy!

 

Cheers,

Lies and Luus

INTERNeX New Zealand: Lies and Luus introduce

Hi Guys,

You already enjoying you’re time in New Zealand? I hope you do, my name is Liesbeth Kleinrouweler. You can call me Lies, that will be easier. I am 19 years old and I am from Holland. Where from Holland, I live in the south called Breda, maybe some of you know it from the carnaval. Otherwise if you don’t know, you probably know Amsterdam, I live like an hour with the train from Amsterdam.

I am going to my third year of the study Leisure Management. For the people who don’t know what it is, it is a little bit similar to the study Event management. I am here in New Zealand for doing my internship for seven months and helping you guys with having a great time. Me and Lucinda will organise some cool events for you, like pub crawls and weekends away. To getting know each other better and to having a great time in New Zealand. We also will try to arrange some discounts for you in bars or restaurants, so you will save some money for other things and also keeping the social media updated.

Some little things about me, I love to play soccer, go out with friends, explore new cities, travelling, meeting new cultures, visiting festivals, listening to music. I really look forward to meeting you all and having a great time together in New Zealand.

Cheers,

Liesbeth

 

Left: Lucinda (Luus) Right: Liesbeth (Lies)

 

Hi there!

Wondering who write all blogs and social media posts? Well, I’m one of the lucky ones who is going to do that for the coming 7 months! Today I started my internship at INTERNeX International Exchange New Zealand, very exciting! Together with Liesbeth we will keep you informed of different newsflashes, pub nights and other events.

Well, let’s introduce myself, I’m Lucinda and 19 years old. For the coming 7 months I’ll live in Auckland, but normally I live in Breda, the south of the Netherlands. I study Leisure Management, that contains organize events and actually everything what you are doing in you free time. Because, you have to work hard here in New Zealand, you also need to fur fill your free time with nice people, isn’t?! We go to arrange that for you! Organizing pub nights and weekends away, so you can meet the other interns, is part of my job here.

A bit about me… I love to travel, play theatre, visit festivals, meet friends and discover all small places what this interesting world has to offer!

I hope we’ll meet soon for a drink! See you!

Lucinda