Last Weekend in Auckland!

So this was officially our last weekend in Auckland. And even though this makes me a little sad, it was a wonderful weekend.
On Friday, we didn't really do a whole lot during the day, but in the evening we had a huge sleepover planned for all 16 of us at the Talamaivao's house. It was a lot of fun, and I brought a cheesecake and the guitar. We had a great time just playing guitar, eating dessert, and talking for hours. But then everyone decided to leave at 11:30 because it was easier than sleeping over and figuring out buses in the morning. So Whitney and I were the only ones who ended up sleeping over. But it was a lot of fun! We always have fun when we all get together. It's great.
Saturday morning we woke up and got picked up by a taxi to take us into Auckland. We all met at the Skytower and we got to go up to the top where there is an observation deck and you can see the whole city. It is amazing!

Our feet on the glass panel on the observation deck!

the harbor bridge

another beautiful view from the observation deck

aaand another

here I am!

here is someone doing the "skyjump" (are you surprised it
isn't me jumping off the building?)

You can see Rangitoto here! 

Jess, Heidi, Nicole, and Me

Then we got to have brunch at the Orbit Restaurant--a revolving restaurant at the top of the skytower. It was seriously amazing. I have never had a meal that fancy. I loved it!
The waiter started out by bringing us complimentary danishes and croissants with honey. Then we got to choose from a bunch of different juice flavors (I got pineapple). Then we ordered our first course. I had a fresh loaf of ciabatta bread with 3 different kinds of spreads. It was amazing! Some of the other things they had were: toasted muesli (kind of like granola) with fruit and greek yogurt, a fruit bowl, calimari, and I don't remember what else. Then it was time for the main course. I had steak with asparagus and squash, but I was tempted to get either the chicken or the smoked salmon. I was very happy with my decision though. We also split sides of french fries and steamed vegetables. For dessert, I split the selection of ice creams and sorbets with Nicole. They brought us 4 scoops of ice cream (1 chocolate, 2 macadamia, and 1 passionfruit sorbet) on a boysenberry sauce with a wafer stuck in the top. It was seriously delicious. The passionfruit sorbet was incredible. The entire meal took 3 hours because it was so involved and amazing. I couldn't believe how good everything was. I loved it!

Our table! Me, Anna, Kara, Nicole, Allie, and Diana

Mr. T wrote the description of Pavlova

After our meal, we came back home and took a nap/did homework. I was very very tired. But then our friend Derrick picked us up and we went with him to the Auckland Blues vs. Wellington Hurricanes rugby game. It was a lot of fun! The game itself wasn't quite as exciting as the last game, but it was nice to have some friends there with us. After the game, we all went to Burger King and had a good time hanging out there for a while. It was a ton of fun and we were dead tired when we got home.

Here I am with my FREE Blues flag!

Whitney and Me getting excited!

Nicole and Me at the game!!!

I love it when they do this

Every time the Blues score a try, there is fire.
This is my kind of game.

Sidenote: the moon looked really cool

Isn't the sky so pretty here??

Stephen Brett...so hot right now.

That's my boy!

Sunday we went to church for the last time in the Swanson Ward. Bishop Talamaivao met with us after sacrament meeting and invited all of us to dinner at his house this Tuesday which was super nice of him. It will be a lot of fun. He is great.
It was great way to spend our last weekend in Auckland though, and I'm really going to miss it here! It feels like home!