Day 13 - Sounds in the Sun

Sounds in the Sun is a huge FREE outdoor concert that the Unitec Student Union puts on every year. Thousands of students show up for music and beer. There were some huge New Zealand bands that played. Two really great ones were Tahuna Breaks and Katchafire. The video is Tahuna Breaks, they were a wicked funk band... unfortunately my little camera couldn't handle the heavy bass.

Day 8 - Auckland Zoo

I took a trip to the zoo to see the kiwi birds. They're so neat. I couldn't get a picture of them because they're nocturnal, so I just took a picture of the sign (although there is a weird reflection on his face). Other than that the zoo was pretty normal. I was hoping they would have had caribou and beavers... but they didn't. I should start a petition...

It was also pretty funny to see that pretty much every exhibit that had even a puddle of water had an "emergency inner tube". Lets just say if I happened to fall in the lion's cage, I'd be a little more worried about something other than the 2 inches of water in his drinking pond.

Day 7 - Auckland Double Decker Bus Tour

The international office organized a bus tour for all of the international students to see some cool sights around Auckland. We got to see the Harbour Front and climb up some mountains, one of which had a huuuge crater. Most of the mountains here have craters because they were once active volcanos. You can see how big it is because there's a little black line in the centre of it which is actually a 15 year old kid.

The mountain in the background of the beach shot is Rangitoto Island and is the most recent and the largest of about 50 volcanos around Auckland. Rangitoto is a Maori word meaning "bloody sky".

We also went to Mission Bay to sit on the beach for a while. We also ate New Zealand's national food: Fish and Chips... most of it is batter and the fish is Snapper... lets just say I prefer poutine and back bacon ha ha!

Day 5 - The Lookout and Piha

With a couple of hours to burn before my roommate had to start work, we decided to take a short trip up to Piha. On the way there's an awesome lookout point. Piha is the best beach I've been to so far... I just wish the sun would come out! We're definitely going to go back on a sunny day for a longer trip. Piha is the best place to surf close to Auckland. I'm hopefully going to have some time to take some surf lessons :)

Day 4 - St Heliers Bay

Today I got pretty bored pretty fast so I decided to find a new beach. I went to St Heliers because its close by (not as close as Mission Bay though). It took me an hour to get there by bus, but I only had to take one :) Its part of the same shore line as Mission Bay so it looked pretty much the same, but the tide was out this time. There were lots of restaurants and shops on the strip and a big board walk. All of the benches had little plaques on them with different things written on them. The houses and apartments there were unbelievable! So big and great architecture. It was nice and sunny for an hour or so then overcast afterwards. It started to rain as soon as I got on the bus. I under estimated how strong the sun is here, even behind the clouds. Going to get some sun screen tomorrow!

Day 3 - Mission Bay

Mission bay was beautiful! Its a large beach area with shops and restaurants. There's also a hill with a memorial and view point you can drive up to. From this point you can see the whole downtown area. The beach was neat because where the tide goes out there's a huge layer of seashells. There's literally millions of them! It was too bad that the weather has been kind of crappy because on a clear day the water is supposed to be so blue. We're all waiting for a sunny day so we can go to Piha. Its suposed to be one of the nicest beaches in NZ!!

My Dorm

At first I wasn't sure what to think of the dorm because I got roomed with one other girl (as requested) and the head RA (the warden). It turns out the warden is pretty cool and he said he's going to take me sight seeing during the rest of the week, which I'm looking forward too. Things turned out to be great. Not only that, but by rooming with the warden, I get a living room twice the size of everyone else's, and the dorm is somewhat separate from the rest of the dorms so I don't get any of the noise. Its also right beside the laundry room!

Its very warm in the dorms, so I have to keep my bedroom window open at night and the locusts are soooo loud. I've been told that eventually I won't be able to sleep without them lol.

Day of Arrival

So I got to my dorm at 6 am and got settled. I had slept so much on the plane that I was wide awake. I was feeling a little homesick so I decided to go wondering around. Within the first few hours I had found a public library and taken the bus to the mall to get some food and necessities. My campus is stunning and HUGE! There are trees everywhere! I think I'm going to enjoy it :)

You know you're in LA when...

I had a 5 hour lay over in LA and I left security so I could enjoy the nice weather while I wait... and this is the first thing I saw... I thought maybe a movie star was going to hop out of the car. The trip went by pretty fast because I slept most of the way (thank you Gravol) and I arrived in NZ at 5 am the next morning.