Life Lesson: East Facing Beaches Don't Have Great Sunsets

Again, another great week in New Zealand. Nothing super eventful happened at school. But I did do a fun art/math project with some of the kids. They had to make a "body garden"--using measurements of their body (wrist, hand, ankle, etc) they created flowers or trees. Some of them actually turned out pretty cute! Here are some pics for yous to see.

Ellie and Victoria with their flowers

Remedy posing with Chyna and Junior and their trees

Kenny and Tyrese with their trees

Tre-D insisted on having his own picture
since his tree was on its own paper

From the title of my blog, you're probably wondering just how dumb I am... Well the answer is: dumb AS. Haha. So on Friday, we didn't have school (because we always get Fridays off) and Whitney and I spent the day sleeping in and doing homework. Nicole and I were talking on facebook chat and we decided that we didn't want to spend our Friday evening in New Zealand doing homework when there were so many great things to do here. Nicole suggested a sunset picnic on the beach, and then we remembered the name of a beach a lot of people had recommended to us. So we looked up how to get there and bus times and whatnot. Of course, the bus came way late and some of the info we got from the website was wrong, but we got it figured out and soon enough, we were on our way to Takapuna Beach. Halfway there, Nicole asked if I had looked up where exactly this beach was located and which direction it was facing. I looked at her and laughed, because I hadn't even thought of that. Being from California, the direction of the beach is not something I really think of all too often. But when you're on an island, that's definitely something that needs to be thought of. So we kept an eye on the signs that we were passing to figure out which direction we were going, and sure enough, we were headed east. We got to the beach though and still had a fun evening eating Pita Pit and walking around (even if the sunset was behind us completely...)

Me, Neeley, Nicole, and Whitney
(notice the view of Rangitoto in the background--that's
the volcano we hiked a few weeks ago!)

Bein crazy, as usual...

Nicole and Me with our delicious pitas

Look everyone! My hair is just long enough
to go into a ponytail!

The non-sunset...but it was still pretty!

For some reason, girls always have to take the
foot picture... notice Nicole and my matching
anklets--Nancy has one too. We got them
at Hot Water Beach!

After we finished our little adventure there, we caught the first of 3 buses we needed to get back to Henderson. We had no problem catching the first 2 buses, but when we were at the stop right before the one where we needed to get off to catch our last bus, we saw the bus that we needed pass right by us. We had our faces up against the window hoping that for some reason the bus driver would stop for us, but that obviously didn't happen. It was like a scene from a movie. So we got off at the next stop and checked the timetable for when the next bus would come. Just our luck--we had another hour to wait. It was already 9:45pm and we've been warned about being alone in the West Auckland (or the Wild West, as Sister Talamaivao refers to it) at night so we pulled out our trusty nokia brick cell phone and rung up Sister Talamaivao. She just laughed at us and came to get us (we were only about a 5 minute drive away from home). She is the best. So luckily, we made it home safe and sound. It was an adventurous evening--as it always is with us.

Saturday was a great day. We went to Pasifika--a HUGE festival they hold at Western Springs Park in Auckland every year. It was really cool! They had "villages" from a bunch of the Pacific Islands including Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati, Tokelau, Cook Islands, Niue, Tahiti, and of course, Aotearoa. Each village had a bunch of booths set up selling various island-related souvenirs and food. And there was also a huge stage with dancers or singers at every village. It was pretty awesome! We had a great time walking around and looking at all the cool things to buy. I got another one of those delicious ice cream filled pineapples at lunch and it was delicious, as expected. We had a great day, but after about 5 hours of walking around, we were tired as! So we headed home and both Whitney and I took a much needed nap.

Nicole and Me in front of our "home" island's sign

We would have taken more pictures at the festival, but we were too lazy. Haha. Sorry everyone. I know pictures are more exciting than my words, but it takes an awful lot of effort. I think next time I go on a big trip, I'm going to hire someone to follow me around with a camera so I don't have to deal with the hassle.

PS I just wanted everyone to know that I officially have 1 weekend in Auckland, 1 in Rotorua, 1 in Northland, 1 in Sydney, Australia, and 1 in Apia, Samoa before I come home. That is the craziest thought ever. And I'm not gonna lie, even though I'll miss New Zealand, I'm getting really, really, ridiculously excited to see my family and friends again.