My New Zealand Adventure Begins!

My trip is now officially off and running. I arrived in Auckland last Sunday. It is a beautiful city with very friendly people. As I made my way into the city on the shuttle from the airport a Christmas parade was being set up downtown, right where my hostel was located, so my street was closed off. Since the bus driver wasn't going to be able to drop me off near my hostel, a friendly "Kiwi" sitting next to me offered to drive me to the nearest road possible (with my bags) as her husband was picking her up at the next stop. So, I've been introduced to Kiwi hospitality since my first moments on the ground in this country. Right now I'm in a town called Rotorua visiting a friend who is a white water rafting guide here. He was able to get me on two rafting trips here (for free!) down two amazing rivers. Really fun and thrilling rafting trips. On the first trip, on the Kaituna river, we rafted down the largest commercially rafted waterfall (7 meters) in the world! I was in a raft with 6 people from India on vacation, they definitely made the experience more fun and memorable. Yesterday I was on the Wairoa river, which is flooded every Sunday in the summer here by a dam. The river was long and windy, with many fun rapids and beautiful vegetation. At one point I was able to hop out of the raft and swim through some rapids- very fun! My friend and his girlfriend have also been showing my some great local spots here, including a geothermal creek that you can bathe in (locals love it and few tourists know about it).
So, overall my trip has been off to a great start and I feel very lucky to be here and be shown such amazing Kiwi hospitality from the get go. It's light out until 8pm here and temps are in the 80s, so it's hard to believe that it's December! The hostels are fun; just in a few days I've met people from England, Australia Ireland, South Africa, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Austria... very international and interesting crowd.
I'll post more as internet access allows. Sending much love for now. p.s. Above is the route I'll take as I tour around the two islands via bus.