Party Bus to Jam Session

We rode this huge party bus to a jam session in otara where some chick was going on a mission so she and her friends put on a concert. It was amazingly good. I like their music. Little bit of reggae, ukelele, and a little somethin somethin of r&b and junk.

I matched the bus!


The group...minus the three guys that were taking pictures with every single girl's camera. I hate group picture time. No offense other girls.

Just riding on the bus

This city had murals on every wall. It's the most ghetto crime area in NZ so I think it is to cover up the graffiti or to keep them from graffitiing.

Orewa Beach

Highlight of the beach today? Well there are many highlights. One is that we were there for 6 hours. Another is that I went SURFING! For the first TIME! And I kind of GOT UP! And that is really impressive for me because I can't even balance on even GROUND!

The other highlight is that when you swam out to atleast waist deep, there were palm sized and bigger sand dollars every foot! And finally. When you swim out there, same region, there are also little clams! (They call them "pippies")

And you break them!

And you eat them! right there!

We didn't know that it was a superstition of the maori culture to NOT do this. You aren't supposed to eat seafood on the beach or near the ocean. They feel it is a mock to the sea and the sea creature's spirit.


But hey! We're just American Women! Hopefully the curse won't affect us!

ON THE WAY BACK HOME...


This here is a ski slope. Just in the middle of a hill. On the way back from the beach. Yeah we have to TRY to get cold here. It's really hard. I don't mind it though, not really.

And this is me again, trying to be artistic with reflections and vain at the same time. but those trees, wow. Amazing.

MAKE A COMMENT AND TELL ME HOW THE JUNK YOU ARE DOING!

Seafood Festival

Here we are at the edge of the wharf!
View of the skytower...I am holding it in my fingers. OUCH!

I had a great time trying the fresh oysters. The first 3 were interesting but I could hold them down. The 4th one? Let's just say I had to suck the lemon slice they gave me.

In the poster you can see our reflection. Can't wait till this comes out so my friend can download it illegally! uhhh...

In New Zealand the pedestrian always comes first. It's really nice actually.

A beautiful place behind my house

My roommate and I went exploring again this week. Last time we ended up in an ugly marsh behind our house and ran off as the mosquitos attacked us. Well this time we decided to see what was on the other side of the marsh. As we were walking down a dead end street parallel to ours, we noticed a secret passageway between two neighbor's fences. We bravely entered and found a gorgeous green field with big trees and yes, the other side of the marsh! This was practically our backyard!

As we strolled through the field we saw where it ended... and it looked exactly like where belle went after the opening song on beauty and the beast! Where she sings "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere" and blows the dandelion seeds! So we brought our friends with us last night and took pictures.




I am making fun of the girls that do this all the time here. They hold the camera out in front of their face and take like seventeen pictures of themselves because they are so vain. Plus I wanted to capture the sunset and the silhouette of trees behind me. kehehe

And because you read down this far I will update you on corianton.

He hasn't called. He added me as a facebook friend, (congratulations like that even means anything.) Whatever I shouldn't be thinking about men anyway. This country in and of itself fills my heart!

FHE in the park

The twelve girls from BYU and their homestay families were invited to get together for FHE on monday! So we went to a beautiful park next to the zoo. And there were eels in the water and humongous geese and roosters that would walk right up to you. But they wouldn't let me hold them in my arms.
just some girls I spend most of my time with (from l to r: michelle, juliet, heather, lauren)

They initiated our meeting. But they would not let me hold them.

Random statue. This is just before I realized that the statue's head had bird poop all over it.

My little 3 year old friend named Richey. He lives upstairs.

The cat that followed us to school

This cat followed us all the way to school today. kehehe it was so cute! We love you kitty!

Parnell

Uh we are so cool. We found some graffiti. And posed. And that bling? 30 thou. Yeah.

Aquarium

kissy fishy










30 second challenge: keeping my hand in ice for 30 seconds. don't try this at home.










No, I'm not on a mission. but that is where I am! I promise!













hahaha crazy huh? two penguins just being penguins!










This shows you how far away I am from all these places!!










Here's auckland in the day across the bay!










Here I am in the aquarium. So great.

The underground tunnels

So on Friday night we went to these underground tunnels where the New Zealand army waited to be bombed after pearl harbor. These tunnels are just left open at night. And there are no lights in these tunnels. It's creepy in there! But we wanted to spice up our lives and go. so we went. And we were scurrd! But it was fun at the same time.



Uh...Why is the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car? hm.


View of Auckland at night from the tunnels


We got trapped in the underground tunnels. i am the only one who seemed to enjoy it.


We were so afraid. It was too dark to capture the tunnels, but yeah. You should go to them.

Auckland!

me trying to be all artistic by taking a picture of a reflection of the sky tower. cool, eh?

click on this one - it's auckland!


The bus ride...mmmhm

Kebabs. You can find them every other block. they are these turkish food thingers, they remind me of gyros. They are good.

The city


Kayaking for FHE...random to insert this I know. But here's another story. I was trying to get in my kayak. And it kept tipping over right when I would let go of the wall. And so I would tip with it.

"How many times did you try to get in and fall, Hallie?" would be an exemplary question to ask.
I would say "no comment" if you asked me in person.

but since I don't have the satisfaction of seeing your face while it happened, or telling you in person, I guess I'll tell you. I just fell 4 times. almost drowned. k not really about the drowned part.

A day in the life

So I couldn't show through webcam really what my house looks like or what my street looks like so I decided to just take pictures. Brillant, eh? So I just carried my camera around with me today and this is what I get to look at and live with daily. Hope you didn't think I lived in a grass hut. Because I DO NOT! Enjoy!
Here is the front of the house I live in, we live with an LDS fam that has two boys. The mom is american and the dad is tongan but raised in NZ. They live upstairs, we live in their basement apartment.

Here is the bottom floor where I live, the sliding glass door is the entrance
Here is our living room / kitchen. around the corner is the sink fridge, pantry, and the door to the bathroom.
Here is our bedroom. My bed is on the right. Things don't dry very fast here so we hang stuff on our footboards
Here is our backyard. If you walk down that hill beyond the fence you will find a creek. it's muddy. And there isn't really a trail. But if you're rugged, you'll go down just to see what's there.

My street (the sidewalks are black. But there ARE sidewalks!)
My classroom

My school (the local church building)
The local grocery store

See? It is very homey here. Love it! Just click on the pics and they will explode to a very large size that you probably don't really care to see that much but I can't upload on the large setting because the internet connection is slower than heck! K love you miss you bye!