Enjoying Auckland

Wow! It has been quite some time since I've updated you about my time in New Zealand!  I suppose this is a sign of me enjoying myself and getting used to life here in Auckland.  I have been having fun here, spending time with friends, celebrating birthdays, sharing good meals, yummy desserts, and many memorable nights.

I've been enjoying ten dollar steak evenings at the Irish Pub, Father Ted's. 

I also went up the sky tower.  

And after enjoying the views, I was success in my first gambling winning $15 free dollars from the free money they given you to sign up for a rewards card.



It's also been great to have been welcomed into New Zealand homes.  I've shared a lovely family meal complete with kumara (NZ sweet potato, yum!) lamb roast and homemade dessert.


I was also shown a true Danish birthday as a friend welcomed us into the home he is staying at, with his New Zealander housemates.

 Walrus

Rather than baking a cake, they went for the Danish beer!

And here comes the cinnamon...

…. A LOT of Cinnamon!!

This cake not only looked beautiful, decorated with intricate designs and even a chocolate motorcycle! But it was absolutely delicious!!

 Twister. 

Yup we know how to have a good time! 

We certainly had fun at the birthday.  The highlight was the heaps of cinnamon we poured on Toke as is Danish tradition if you are unmarried on your 25th birthday.


It is becoming sad as I think of my final weeks in New Zealand, but I am making the most of my time here.  I have a couple more travel plans, but I keep those a surprise and fill you in later.

As for now it's off to work to finish my final few presentations and assignments, luckily I've even been able to get ahead on my work and the finish of the semester is not very stressful for me!

Thanks for following along on my travels and adventures, I'll be sure to tell you how my final weeks and days finish here in New Zealand.

Skydiving!

Opps… It's been over a month since I sky dove and I just realized I did not write any blog entry about this note worthy event. So I'll fill you in now!


Our travels began with our three hour road trip to Pahia at the Bay of Islands.  There were eight of us in the van and we all enjoyed singing along to music and chatting, making new friends as we traveled along.  Altogether we had ten as Marlette road the bus and joined us and Toke road his motorcycle.  We also had an international bunch with people representing from America, Germany, UK, Malaysia, Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.

Honestly these pictures say more about this amazing experience than I can.  It really was unbelievable, such excitement!  

We arrived on time to our sky diving appointment and luckily had great weather all day!

Our first group to go!

The smiles say it all!

Sarah and Devon my American girls.

 Learning to line dance as we waited. 

 You can just see the friendship being made! 

 Aggghhh I'm upside down. That was unexpected. 

 Me and Erik finally got to get suited up to go. Last but not least!

 Yay! We did it!

After our busy day and smiles still from the excitement we had a nice barbecue dinner, walked on the beach,  and relaxed in the hot tub at our hostel.

The following day we went to the Waitangi Treaty Center, and then went kayaking for the day.  The weather was beautiful again and we really enjoyed ourselves.

We certainly were good and tired on our drive home, but not to worry Erik and Sarah kept us awake screaming to try and give us all a scare.  They were successful, we all jumped awake fearing we were about to crash.  There was no real danger and we all arrived back in Auckland tired and happy.