Honeymoon Cove, Jellyfish Fights, and a Kimono Fashion Show!

This week was just wonderful, as expected. We had school all week again, and it was full of adventures. Isn't it always? Haha. The kids are great though. On Monday, we gave them an assignment to watch over an egg for a week. They had to give their egg a name and treat it as their pet. Those kids who still had their egg "alive" on Friday were given a special prize. We were trying to teach them responsibility and how to take care of something. So we distributed the eggs and the kids were all super excited about the project. Some of them had some really funny names too. 2 of the girls named their eggs after me. But the boys had some of the funniest names. We had a Bob Marley egg (complete with permanent marker dreadlocks), a Vanessa Hudgens egg (because Stephen is in love with her), and a Megan Fox egg (because Kairyn is in love with her). Those are just the funniest ones, but there were quite a few good ones.

Victoria with her egg "Emily"

Gardenia with her egg "Riley"

Torigrace with her egg "Rua"

Kaipara (the kid who has been getting in fights since day 1) has only gotten worse with his behavior. Poor kid, I really feel bad for him. I wish there was something I could do to help, but on Tuesday they removed him from my classroom and he is with a minder all day every day. It's sad because he hates that, but he also can't be trusted in the classroom because having him there puts other kids in danger. I've been praying for him though, and I always talk to him at swim practice to see how his day went. All I know is that even though he has been destroying things left and right, he kept his egg alive until Friday (even though he was suspended on Thursday so he didn't even get to take part in the party for the remaining eggs on Friday).

Tuesday, as I'm sure you all heard, there was a massive earthquake in Christchurch. Although this earthquake wasn't as big as the last big one that hit them in September (a 6.3 compared to a 7.1) it was a lot closer to the surface of the ground (5 km deep as opposed to 33 km deep) so it caused a lot more damage. Luckily, we are nowhere close to Christchurch--we're on a whole different island. But even though we didn't feel the earthquake or experience physical damage from it, Auckland is certainly feeling the effects of this tragic event. The current death toll (as of Sunday 27 Feb) is 146 dead and more than 200 still missing. It is really hard on this country to see that many people dead, missing, injured, and uprooted from their homes. It is such a small country and when something big like this happens, everyone is affected. There are students in my class and on my swim team that have family that lives down there--some are still missing, others injured, and others are ok, but have had no water or power for a week. It is devastating to watch the news and I'm just doing what I can to comfort those students in my class that are having a real hard time with this. What scared me the most is that I was just there less than 2 weeks before the earthquake. I just barely missed all the damage and I'm so grateful that I'm back--safe and sound--in Auckland. It's hard to believe that just a few weeks ago I was standing in front of a cathedral that's now in complete ruin.

What's left of the Cathedral in Christchurch

On Friday I went to the library and to Parnell with Julie, Nicole, Whitney, Diana, and Janet. It was a lot of fun! I checked out a few children's books that were recently recommended to me at the library ("Love That Dog" and "Hate That Cat" both by Sharon Creech). Then we drove out to Parnell--a small suburb of Auckland where there are lots of really cute shops to look at and spend to your hearts content. It was great! I saw only a million things I wanted but did my best to restrain myself and not spend TOO much money. I did, however, find a ring there that I absolutely loved. But it was just out of my price-range so I decided not to get it. Of course, upon getting home and talking to my parents, I regretted not buying it and they (being the awesome parents that they are) offered to pay for it if I went back to get it.
The rest of our evening was spent grocery shopping (which is surprisingly stressful considering the lack of simple ingredients needed for great desserts like cheesecake...) and hanging out at the house. It was a very relaxing and fun day!

Saturday morning, the whole group went with Dr. J, Linda, and James out to Piha Beach. It is absolutely gorgeous there! There was a grom surf comp. going on at the time so we sat and watched the little boys paddle into these massive waves for a little while. It was pretty awesome. Then we hiked around the cliffs over to Honeymoon Cove. It was pretty cool because we were the only ones in the cove and we could hike up a bunch of rocks and swim in the waves and eat lunch on the sand all by ourselves! It was great!

climbing over the rocks to get to the cove
(that's James in the green helping people down)

Nicole and me in front of a cool little cave

Lookin cute at Honeymoon Cove

Me on the edge of a cliff at Honeymoon Cove (I didn't jump)

Yoga!

Future Roomie Pic! Nancy, Nicole, and me :)

After Honeymoon Cove, the tide was coming in so we couldn't hike out the way we hiked in. We ended up having to climb up a huge rock and over the edge to get back. But it was all good and we all made it back to Piha safe and sound. Once we got there, a few of us decided we wanted to hike up Lion Rock (a GIANT rock in the middle of Piha Beach). We were told it was about a 10 minute hike to the top, and we didn't have a ton of time, so we told Dr. J we would run up and run down--we just really wanted to do it. So he gave us 20 minutes to get back to the car and we started towards the rock. Nicole, Nancy, and I (future roommates for this year) were running up the path the whole way and we made it to the top in just 4 minutes! Impressed? You should be. Haha. It was gorgeous though, and quite a good little hike. I was feelin' it at the top for sure.

Me at the top of Lion Rock!

Nancy, Me, and Nicole on Lion Rock

View of Piha from Lion Rock

Then we left Piha and headed over to another beach (which I don't know the name of). We had to wade through a river and walk a little ways before we made it to the beach. But it was TOTALLY worth it. It was so pretty! I found about a million jellyfish washed up on the shore and I brought one over to show the other girls (some of whom were VERY excited about seeing a real dead jellyfish for the first time in their lives. haha). But of course, being the tourists that we are, we all got a picture with the jellyfish. It was fun though!

Me cooling off in the beautiful water

I will call him squishy, and he shall be my squishy

After we'd had our fill of jellyfish, we hiked to Karekare Waterfall (not too far from where we parked the car). It was seriously beautiful. Some of the girls swam out to it and sat on the waterfall itself, but I was feeling lazy so I opted for pictures from in front of it. Haha.

The BEAUTIFUL waterfall at Karekare

Me in front of the waterfall

After Karekare, we were supposed to head home, but I convinced Linda to take me and a few of the other girls back to Parnell so I could purchase the afore-mentioned ring of destiny. We got there (with help from my awesome navigation skills) and I got the ring. It was pretty exciting. And I also bought some chocolates from the chocolate shop up the street (they were DELICIOUS. feel free to be jealous).

You can't tell how sparkly it is, but I LOVE it!

Once I had my lovely ring, I was happy as a clam (are clams really that happy?) and we headed back to Auckland. It was great because back in Auckland, we were preparing for a surprise birthday party for 3 of the girls who turned 21 this month. 21 is a big deal in New Zealand and we had a great time celebrating together. Sister Talamaivao (Nicole and Neeley's mum here) hosted the party and fed us waaay more than any of us should have eaten. It was so much fun!

The birthday girls with the hugest cake EVER!

Sunday after church, our new Japanese roommate, Emi, and her friend Saya dressed Whitney and me up in kimonos! I'm not sure why, because sometimes we have a hard time understanding what Emi is saying, but it was a lot of fun! We looked pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. But you can be the judge...

Whitney and Me looking awesome

I could totally be Japanese, right?

Don't be TOO jealous of how awesome I look

Whitney, Emi, and Me

All in all, it was a wonderful week. (When is it not a wonderful week?) I am looking forward to our trip to Hot Water Beach this coming weekend and some more adventures in the school. Hope everyone is doing well! Thanks for your concern when the earthquake hit! I have never felt so loved! Love you all!