AUCKLAND WEEKEND!

So! Insanity in New Zealand forthwith! Much has passed since I last blogged!!! Now I shall tell you of all my adventures since then! First, Becca and I took a weekend up to Napier AND SPENT THE NIGHT IN PRISON…

It is the oldest prison in NZ, and has been turned into a backpackers… We got to stay in a cell-type room, though it wasn’t an actual cell. It was just a room… We were told later that some girl had a ghost-experience in it, but we couldn’t decide if they told us that just to make us feel brave and what not. Nevertheless, it was fantastic and a great place to stay. Plus they had a cat, who didn’t like me very much…

Other than that, we pretty much just wandered around Napier. It’s a really beautiful city on the coast… I even took a dip in the water for just a second, because it is the Pacific (or possibly a bay… we weren’t completely sure)…

directly afterwards, we saw a sign that said not to swim at all because it was a deadly body of water… so that was scary and I was glad that I was only in for a moment! There was also a really pretty waterfall…

and we ate some fantastic Indian food, as well as seeing a drunk guy run down the street wearing only a sock… and then no sock… but I did not take pictures of that. The whole town is filled with art deco architecture, so it was fun just walking and looking at the buildings. They also had some nice craft stores, and they had these huge pine trees along the streets that had Christmas lights in them all year long.

I got back from Napier and literally had about four hours before I was leaving for Auckland. Bri and I still found time for a quick drink at the Celtic though. We took the overnight bus up to Auckland, and had a very trying morning wherein we were shanghaied by a taxi driver to a faraway suburban mall just to get dunkin donuts… but I got my damn donuts (which they have only in Auckland) and I was quite happy. I’m hoping to get one of those “I did stupid crap for a sugary pastry” stories there. After that misadventure, we took a BUS back to downtown Auckland and finally met up with Allison, our intrepid tour guide and bestest friend!

Bri’s on the left and Allison’s on the right…

Bri did the SKY JUMP in Auckland, which is like a controlled bungee jump. It was pretty frigging awesome to watch and I was very proud of her doing it. She is quite scared of heights, so it was cool that she conquered that!

Then we dressed up in colours and headed over to the ALL BLACKS game… We took the bus over, and amongst the many things yelled on it, my favorite was “GO THE BUS LANE!!!” The All Blacks won, of course, despite some scary moments. Then we got to mock all the Aussie fans that had shown up. Ha ha, lame os!!!! Then we ended up walking all the way back to the downtown area (don’t worry, it was through safe areas, just a long walk, and there were three of us… plus some kiwi guy who we befriended along the way). After powering up with some Chinese food (I had Mexican food made by Turkish people, I believe), we headed over to Tourist Central—a little bar called Minus 5. The whole place is made of ice, including your cups and what not. You pay 30 dollars and then go in for a half hour or something like that. Plus, you get a free drink! AND SNOW JACKETS AND GLOVES!!!

Then we walked over to a sports bar to chill for a bit, and I got come cider!!! And ran into an old friend…

That’s Shakespeare for you slow ones… And then we headed back and collapsed in bed. Sunday we headed over to a place called “Butterfly Creek”, which was out by the Auckland airport.

We were all looking at the airport, sighing… home… and then we were like, anyways, back to having fun! So Butterfly Creek is a butterfly house… example:

AHHH ATTACK OF CUTE BUTTERFLIES!!! But really, it was cool because they’d just land on you and flutter about. Then we found out that there was also a PETTING ZOO. So, of course we had to go… I got to hold a floppy bunny rabbit, further convincing me of the need for an angora bunny in my life…

We also met Bruce the Goat… And fed him cheezles, which we were told was okay… ish… anyways, best picture of the trip so far:

Finally to end our trip we went down to the wharf for a bit. And I got an awesome picture of ME! We also got ice cream and did a ton of shopping…

Then we once again took the night bus home and got back to Palmy at about 5 am on Monday, just in time to begin classes. Luckily we have mastered the art of sleeping on buses, once Bri figured out how key it is to hop in your sleeping bag… That made it ten times better. I had an uneventful week, gearing up for midterms. Then that weekend, we rented a car to do a case study of a natural area. Which we finished in about 3 hours, and quickly realized we had the car for the whole day. So, after stopping by an interesting museum

and a salvo army to buy some yarn, we headed out to Wellington. There, we tried desperately to find some tree that Orlando Bloom stood next to. Instead, all we found was a path that he probably walked on. And we tried to overhear what one of the movie tour guides was saying, but couldn’t figure out where to go next. Lots of fun, despite all the rain and cold. Then we had the best Mexican I’ve had here yet, and I got some huevos rancheros, which y’all know made my heart happy. On the way back, all the raining had caused a flood so it took almost 5 hours to get back… And the radio got about no channels, so Becca and I nearly drove Bri nuts by singing Newsies the whole time. At the end of it, Bri realized that she had her ipod the whole time!!! Ha!!!

Oh yeah and on Sunday, Bri spent 10 HOURS (I love you Bri!!!) DREADLOCKING MY HAIR!!!!!!!! I am currently needing to keep it back in a bandana…

otherwise, it looks like….

So that’s exciting, now I’m just keeping up with it and hoping for the best!!!

Over the last week, it was midterms, which was quite stressful but is now thoroughly done and over with… which means, SOUTH ISLAND!!! That’s right. Tomorrow morning we depart for a week of insanity. I will tell you all the wonderful details when I get back, and also next Saturday or so is my birthday!!! Oh and also I got my package from Papa Steve, and totally couldn’t hold back and opened it!!!! This is what my room looked like afterwards:

So, thanks so much to everyone that did anything for it!!! And for those of you that didn’t, I will deal with you later. Bums… Ha!!! Also, just to show how awesome I am:

It’s now on my wall… For real… Okay, time for me to get to bed so I am rested for the fantastic week ahead!!!! My love to all…