My Home Stay In New Zealand !

reported by Takako Uchida

24. July 1999
I took the plane to New Zealand from Nagoya airport. The members who went to New Zealand with me were 10. We were selected as the exchange students of Okazaki city. This trip was my first trip abroad. When I came through the detector, my FIREWORKS were taken away. I only wanted to show the fireworks to the host family...
25. July 1999
The plane stopped over in Fiji on the way. Green island and blue sea... The view from the plane's window was very beautiful ! I arrived in New Zealand. Going out of Auckland airport, it was cold. I went to Tauranga by bus. In the afternoon, we each met our host family. But my host family didn't appear, because they all were busy. So I stayed at another host family's house until my host family came to meet me. My host family were Kate (mother), Kerriden (older daughter), Rennaya (younger daughter) and Jaim (son). At night I gave them Japanese souvenirs- T-shirt and print of Okazaki castle. Then Jaim said, "NINJA are fighting in the castle!"
26. July 1999
From today I started to go to Mt. Mounganui College to study English. We took MAORI Welcome. MAORIs are the native people in New Zealand. Among MAORIs, the way to KISS is to touch each noses. We met the mayor of Tauranga. He is very kind. In New Zealand there are many orchards of KIWI as I had thought.
27. July 1999
We climbed Mt. Maunganui. Mt.Maunganui is not such a high mountain, but it was very hard for me to climb Mt.Maunganui. The view from the top of the mountain was very very beautiful! I thought it was good that I succeeded in climbing it.
When I reached the top of the mountain I took the above picture. 28. July 1999
We went to elementary school to teach Japanese culture to students. I made KABUTO with newspapers and ORIGAMI. The children of school were a lot of fun and cute! They often said " SUSHI!!"This word was well known.
This night I ate PAVLOVA.
29. July 1999
Tonight's dinner, I made OKONOMIYAKI and SHIRATAMADANGO with Azusa. Azusa is Kerriden's friend. She had stayed at Kerriden's house before, and now she came back to Tauranga and lived near Kerriden's house. It was delicious for Azusa and me but not so much for the host family. Jaim only like the OKONOMIYAKI sauce. He ate bread with this sauce.

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