10 Days to Go!

Hello everyone!
Thanks for checking out my blog. I've never done one of these before, but I figured now was the time to start. In about 10 days I will be traveling to New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji as a leader on a People to People Sports Leadership Academy trip. My group consists of 8 middle school students from New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and we will be meeting up with groups from Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan when we get to the airport in LA. All told, our delegation will consist of 32 students and 4 adults from over 10 different states. I'll try to keep this blog updated as often as possible with news of our travels and pictures as we move along.




Our basic itinerary looks like this:

July 5th:

Fly from JFK airport in New York to LA. In LA we'll meet up with our delegation members from other states. From there we'll fly out to Auckland, New Zealand!

July 7th:

Arrive in Auckland. Yeah I know...long flight. We'll also be crossing the international date line, so we lose a day in transit. The flight from LA to Auckland is about 18 hours, though. While in Auckland we'll be checking out some local sports like cricket, rugby, and net ball, as well as visiting the Auckland Sky Tower.

July 10th - 12th:

We'll be spending these days in a town called Rotorua on the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. While in Rotorua we'll be visiting with some of the native Maori people, eating food cooked on hot rocks in a pit oven, and hiking through some of the mountains of New Zealand. Rotorua is known for its geothermal activity, so we'll be checking out some geysers and hot thermal springs.

July 12th - 14th:

On the 12th we'll fly back out of Auckland to Sydney, Australia. While in Sydney we'll be touring the famous opera house, but we will also be taking sailing lessons on Sydney harbor, harnessing ourselves onto the turret of Sydney Tower (850 feet above the city), and taking some surfing lessons at an Australian beach. (I know, eat your heart out Beck and JD.)

July 15th - 17th:

Next up we'll be heading a little further south to the Australian capital city of Canberra where we will be spending a few nights on the campus of the Australian Institute of Sport. In Canberra the students will be spending a lot of time training with Australian Olympic trainers and the Olympians themselves. We'll also have a little time to explore the city and tour the Australian War Museum.

July 18th - 19th:

Australia becomes yet another fond memory as we board a plane from Sydney to Nadi, Fiji. In Nadi we'll be having a little Amazing Race of our own, splitting the delegates into groups and racing around the island in vans chasing down various clues.

July 20th - 22nd:

The island of Yasawa (Barefoot Island) in Fiji has no electricity, no running water, and only around 1000 native residents. We'll be spending 2 nights in huts, called bures on a beach on Yasawa after a day of sailing around the islands of Fiji. The delegates will have to show off their best Survivor skills on the island and working in teams. We'll also get to sail in 108 foot topsail schooners and eat out of a tradition lovo earth oven.

On the 22nd we'll head back to Nadi, fly back to LA, and arrive back at JFK airport at 12:30 AM on July 23rd.

As you can tell I can't wait for the trip! I'm sorry this blog entry was so boring, but I'm planning on only sharing this blog with my friends, so I'll offer my own little takes on the trip and opinions as we go along. That should make it a little more entertaining for those of you who find me entertaining (meaning my mom - the rest of you can feel free to be bored to tears if you so choose).

Hopefully I'll be able to get an internet hookup from time to time throughout the trip to keep this updated.