Home stay experience by one of our ambassadors

Day 12 July 3rd

Homestay from a delegate:
Today I got to sleep in!! I woke up at 8! YES! Breakfast was pancakes made by my homestay mother, Sarah, which were flat and super delicious. Lemon and sugar taste good on pancakes, surprisingly. I learned that from our other family members, Phoebe and Lachlan. They also have an adorable black Lab named Benson, who rocks. After breakfast we packed our beach bags and drove to three different car wrecker shops to find New Zealand license plates, which Connie collects. We ended up with eight of them. Then we drove to a beautiful beach with black sand and walked around, climbed rocks, and picked up shells. It was so cool! The sand was fine and really black, embedded with the kind of shells you see in the movies and in overpriced souvenir shops. Benson had a blast splashing through the water, too. After the beach we had lunch, which was composed of Crunchie bars (chocolate-covered hokey pokey), pineapple lumps (chocolate-covered pineapple deliciousness), L&P (iconic NZ soda that tastes like sweet Sprite). After that we went home and had a real lunch, though. L & P It was still tasty. After our proper lunch we relaxed a bit at home and played Band Hero. Then we got to visit the dairy farm their family owns for the daily milking of the cows. I was envisioning a lone man plunging at cow udders, but instead there was this massive rotating device that the cows got on, had things attached to their udders, and were fed in the front. It was really cool and efficient, too. We also visited the calving area, which was full of sweet baby cows, and the family’s pet reindeer named Patty. I got to feed a reindeer! Then we drove off to a natural geothermally heated pool and had an evening soak, which was very relaxing, before heading home for dinner. It was a pretty awesome day! I hope everyone else is having just as good of a time with their homestay families!