Friday night was just a relaxed night. We hung around at Miranda's home and watched Finding Nemo (a must watch movie when you are basically living in Australia!). It was a really nice way to spend a Friday night, relaxing and being able to just sit around for one of the first times since we have gotten here!
Saturday came and that meant that we got to go to the aquarium! Miranda and I decided that before we would start our adventure, we deserved some coffee from our long week. Coffee is not as common here as it is in the states. People tend to drink more tea, which is also delicious, but sometimes a girl just needs her coffee. So, we went to the cafe that is right in town and decided that we would make a breakfast out of it. Unfortunately, we were tormented by an annoying bird the entire time who really wanted to join us. Mind you, if we had been sitting outside then I could say that we asked to be annoyed by a bird but we were INSIDE! After our lovely bird encounter, it was time to meet Amanda.
The first stop on our adventure was to have a Chinese lunch with Amanda's parents. We had yum cha, which is a Chinese style morning or afternoon tea. It was the coolest experience to be apart of. These people come around with all sorts of Chinese dishes and you tell them if you want what they have or you send them away. We ended up with all different types of pork, chicken, fish, prawns (also known as shrimp), dumplings of all varieties, and many different vegetables. The pace was so quick and it was nice to have Amanda's parents with us because they know exactly what to get and what not to get. After about an hour of constant eating, it was time to go to the aquarium.
We arrived at Kelly Tarlton's aquarium and I was very confused. There was just a small building that said aquarium. It didn't really look like anything that was exciting. However, the aquarium was underground! It was created in the old pipes and septic tanks that used to be part of the city. The first thing that we saw when we walked in were the penguins! Of course, I was happy as could be at that point and didn't need to see anything else :)
Some of the penguins were sitting on eggs and some of the penguins were molting. It was so much fun to see them waddling all around. There were so many penguins and some of them were huge!
After the penguins, we got to see sharks swimming in a tunnel above us and we saw some of the biggest stingrays that I have ever seen! The aquarium had really beautiful sharks and there were so many of them. It was awesome when they would swim right over your head. We even saw one shark who looked like he had been recently attacked by another shark!
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| "Name's Bruce" |
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| "You so totally rock dude!!"- Finding Nemo :) |
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| I found you Nemo! |
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| Ahhhhh! Sharks! |
On Sunday, Miranda and I ran a 6K through Auckland. It was a last minute decision and needless to say, we were not exactly ready for it. Neither of us has done any running since we have arrived here but we ended up doing really well in our race. We finished in about 40 minutes and were pretty close to the beginning with our ending time. Running a race in another country was never something that I had thought of doing but I sure did enjoy it!!
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| Pre-race. Making sure to represent the Spartans :) |
I hope everyone has a wonderful week and a very happy Thanksgiving. I know I will be thinking of my family on Thursday as they all gather together for a delicious meal. This Thanksgiving, I am especially thankful for my parents who have made all of this possible for me. Thank you mom and dad. I love you both!
Kia Ora :)
Elizabeth
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