Kiwiana Aroha!: Sweet As Weekend!

View from the summit of the Volcano

To begin, I would just like to say this has been one of the best weekends ever! I can never fully describe the amazingness of this country and all it has to offer but I will do my best! It started off on Thursday because we do not have to go to our primary schools on Friday's due to future travels and adventures. So Thursday night a bunch of us girls got together to play bunko, yes, you heard me correctly, bunko! It was actually really fun and was good to catch up and hear all about the girls school adventures since we do not see each other every day anymore. Well, to back up a bit, we went to Christine and Jessica's house who live with a little old single lady named Phyllis. She is funny, because she never really says much but when she does, its like minutes after you have already asked a question and moved on to something else because you thought she didn't hear you. She is pretty conservative as well. Anyway, we love her. But as we went outside to play, we were all racing for the chairs and as soon as Neeley sat down, RIP, right through the chair! We were all laughing and apologizing and Phyllis just stood there, not saying a word, awkward! So of course we tease Neeley but time goes on and as I am playing my round of bunko, all of a sudden i hear a noise and I look down, I broke another of her chairs! So again, we all laughed and finally Phyllis cracks a smile but doesn't say much! Anyway, we felt pretty dumb but told mum when we got home and I have never seen a lady laugh so hard! She always says how little we eat but now she says we eat too much! haha She told us "I bought you girls some NZ chocolate, but that was before I knew you broke furniture!" She is the greatest!

Pt. Chev beach with Auckland City in the background

Moving on to Friday! At the last minute, a bunch of us decided to go to the beach. I love that we have that option! So we caught a bus and off we went! It was a more quiet little beach that was simple relaxing! later that night, Natalia (my sister) took me, Whitney, Emily and her kids to the lantern festival which was amazing! It was a huge event full of crazy cool lanterns and lots of entertainment and food! It was really fun with her kids because of how excited they get! I love that little family so much!

Saturday was one of the best days ever! The only thing that could have made it the very best, would be to have gone skydiving that day! Anyway, it started off at 6:30 A.M with a 4 hour hike around Rangitoto island! We took a ferry and then hiked to the summit of a dormant volcano. It was a lot more intense then any of us expected and I am feeling the effects in my legs today! We then hiked back along the ocean and stopped at a beach for lunch. After that, we were super tired but knew we had to continue our full day so we took the ferry back to the city where we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant which is very unusual to have here in NZ so we were all in heaven, I've missed chips and salsa! We then walked to Albert park to the lantern festival again where we ran straight to the pineapple stand to have a delicious pineapple filled with ice cream!! They were sold out the night before so we made sure to get them first and oh boy that was the best 6 dollars I have ever spent! By now it was 6:30 p.m and we were ready to go to the rugby game!! I can not even explain the excitement I felt! I was so worried I would miss the kick-off or whatever they call it in rugby and luckily, Nancy was the same way. So as soon as the bus stopped, we were off and basically ran to the stadium looking like idiots with our backpacks! Oh we made it though, we felt like children so giddy! The atmosphere was amazing, as are many sporting events! So after watching and loving it for a bit, we begin talking with a fan next to us. Come to find out, the two teams that were playing, The Auckland Blues and the Crusaders form Christchurch, are huge rivals and the main teams that most of the All Blacks come from! So basically, I watched the infamous All Blacks players play against each other at one of the biggest games here!! Not to mention, we got to see apparently one of the best rugby players in the world, Dan Carter who is the highest point scorer in history for the All Blacks! And on top of that, we were on like the 14th row!! This was an amazingly close game with the Blues barely winning at the end, 24 to 22! The fans get pretty intense so all the drink bottles are made of plastic because they get thrown all over, I thought that was kind of funny, great idea though! Anyway, it has been a wonderful weekend but I am ready to get back into the classroom and work!