LETS SALSA!

we dance at the sky tower where they have a casino, a few dance clubs, and a nice restaurant

 

they even have a live salsa band!

I think I have good salsa hair

reed and katelyn 

look at that salsa attitude

For the past few weeks I have been learning to salsa.  I have taken a few lessons here and there at school, and one here in the beginning of the semester, but I never really continued with it even though I really liked it.  Well, my friend Tim is really into salsa dancing and he invited Katelyn and I to go dancing with him at sky tower.  I was really nervous because I was not confident in my salsa dancing skills, but I decided you have to start somewhere.  Anyways, they had an incredible live salsa band and the dance floor was filled with excellent salsa dancers.  It was an incredible sight!  The people there were really friendly to beginners and I soon learned some more basic steps and ended up having an amazing time.  Since that night, about 4 weeks ago, we have all been going salsa dancing every wednesday night and building up our entourage of people.  These pictures are of Tim's last salsa night, because he will be leaving for the south island and then Australia with his family on tuesday:(  

I think salsa dancing is something I really want to continue with!  I love the music and I love the dancing!  

southern cross

the southern cross constellation, only seen in the southern hemisphere

my new southern cross tattoo!

we had seven friends come to watch, here is Adam, my roomie Will, and Tim with the video camera

admiring my tattoo in the mirror

Katelyn got a tattoo as well, she designed and drew it herself

So I know I didnt give you guys any warning, but I have been thinking about getting a New Zealand tattoo for awhile now.  

 

The first trip I went on in New Zealand was to Waiheke island off the coast of Auckland.  When the stars came out that night it was incredible, I felt so small looking up at all the stars.  Then I remembered reading that the southern cross was one of the main constellations here (it is also in the NZ flag).  So a kiwi that was hanging out with us showed it to me in the sky.  There are actually three crosses in the sky, but two are false.  The way you can tell the real one is that their are two indicator stars which point to the cross.  For some reason the image of the southern cross has really stood out in my mind.  To me it represents my time spent here as well as my new found love for traveling.  Also, I feel comfort when I look up in the sky, I don't know if it is because of everything that has happened over the past few years, but when I look up in the sky I have that feeling that there is something out there, and I am small in comparison with it.  Not small as in insignificant, but small as in a part of the vast universe, connected to everything all at once.  I get to take a piece of New Zealand home with me and whenever I look at it it will remind me of all the friends and life experiences I have gained in this amazing country.

 

Anyways, I drew the tattoo myself and I am really happy with the simple design I came up with.  It looks a lot better in person then in the picture , and in the photo it is swelled up a bit because I had just gotten it done.  It will blend ito my skin more as time goes on.  Anyways, I can't wait to show it off when I get home:)  

ALL BLACKS GAME!

ready for the game

emmas an england fan

all blacks vs england

score!

we were right on the field

I have to say I have never felt so a part of NZ as when I went to the All Blacks rugby game.   It was so exciting leaving our apartment with hordes of other students to make our way to Mt Eden stadium.  When we stepped out into the stadium we were amazed at how close our seats were!  We were only 5 rows back from the field!  Its cool here because the cheap seats are the closest because they are not undercover.  Therefore these seats become the student seats and definitely the most rowdy and fun place to sit in the crowd.  

The haka was definitely a highlight for me.  The All Blacks face the opposing team and and do a extremely intimidating traditional Maori dance and chant.  You should watch it and see what I mean: the haka

It was a pretty good game, the all blacks slowly got stronger as the game went on and they ended up beating England 37-20.  Another highlight of the game was getting to see 2 trys close up on our corner of the stands!  It was amazing! Hollin and Wade I wish you could have been there!  

I am happy to say my kiwi roommates said we did New Zealand proud that night. . . even if we are Americans :)

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

Welcome to hobbiton!

our little cottage

hobbiton at last!

our view of the "party tree" from inside Bag End

So my final trip in New Zealand was to Matamata where the Shire is located.  We took a bus and stayed in a little cottage in a locally owned Holiday park.  It was a very nice place to stay, it even had hot mineral pools we could lounge around in.  

Hobbiton is located on a working sheep farm about 6 km out of town.  It was so exciting to see the set and learn all about the process of making and using it.  Apparently it is the largest green set in history.  Basically it was almost like a real little village.  Unfortunately when we got there it was raining and it was a bit cloudy.  O well, I still enjoyed my visit anyways (even if I didnt manage to escape the group and live in a hobbit hole:).  

After the tour we found a newspaper article talking about how much business and tourists having the set in this little town has brought.  It also said that the town is excited to have New line Cinemas back in 2010 to film the upcoming hobbit movies.  Jenny and I have decided we want to come back for the filming and try to be hobbit extras.  They told us the requirements are that you have to be under 5'4'' (check), and have a roundish jolly face (check).  I even have curly hobbit hair!! I think we can do it, we'll just have to keep our eyes and ears open because filming is very secretive.

Also, I definitely wanna live in a hobbit hole some day!

 haha check this out : my future home?

Northland Roadtrip!

Hanging out at Matauri Bay

 Monument to the Rainbow Warrior; the ship that was sunk by French saboteurs in Auckland Harbour

I found an octapus!

am I still in New Zealand?

lighthouse at Cape Reinga, the northernmost tip of the north island

This Kauri tree is called the Lord of the forest.  It is about 2,000 years old!

For one of our last trips, we decided we needed to venture north.  Our first day we woke up in Paihia after driving late friday night.  It was a cute little town on the water, and along the outskirts we visited a waterfall called Haruru falls.  We headed further north and visited the beautiful Matauri Bay.  The beach was nice, andthe view of the Cavalli Islands a short distance away were incredible.  While we were there we climbed a nearby hill and visited the Rainbow Warrior Monument.  The view from the top of the hill was beautiful and we saw several rainbows because it was raining somewhere off the coast.

 

The next day we beach hopped along the east coast.  The first beach we visited early in the morning was pure white and full of little curly sea shells.  The next beach had big rocks that you could climb out on to look at tide pools and find tons of little creatures!  We saw lots of starfish, hermit crabs, and these wierd pink plant covered crabs.  The highlight tho was when I decided to wade into some shallow water and not 5 feet away drifts an octapus!  He was bright orangish pink and he hid under a rock.  then he decided to float gracefully out and sprawl across the sandy bottom changing colors to match the ground right before our eyes!  It was so amazing! Later that day, after taking a nap on yet another beautiful beach, we headed for the northern most tip of the north island called Cape Reinga.  But before we got too far on our way we ran into a town called manganui which had a world famous fish shack.  I had some freshly caught snapper, mussles and scallops. mmmmmm.   After that we stopped off at some sand dunes.  To me it seemed so random!  It doesnt fit the green sheep covered landscape at all, but there they are!  People were sledding and boarding down the huge dunes and I wished we had brought something to slide down on.  David and Jacob thought that was unecessary and pencil rolled down the huge hills solidifying their sandy state for the rest of the trip.  After the dunes we drove to Cape Reinga just in time to catch the sunset.  We climbed up a big hill to watch the bright misty sunset over the ocean.  There is also a really cool lighthouse at cape reinga that is solar powered.  The combination of  rocky cliffs, the lighthouse, and the sunset made for some great pictures.   

 

The last day we made our way down the west coast and visited Waipou Kauri Forest.  There we saw a tree they call the Lord of the Forest.  It is about 2, 000 years old, 13.8 meters wide, and 51.5 meters high.  It was huge!!After that we made our way home to Auckland.  It was definitely a great trip and I felt good that I had explored more of the island that I've been living on for 4 months.  

oooo I almost forgot their are TONS of wild hedgies up north!!  Seeing them made me really miss Ollie:(  This entry is for you my little ollie!