Days 9-12: Beach, Roomies, and Lantern Festival

The next few days we spent exploring Auckland. I met my other two roommates in addition to the two UVMers I already had. Dylan is from Wellington, New Zealand which is the capital. Its at the very southern tip of the north island. Alex is from Hong Kong. They are both exceptionally nice.

Me reading Game of Thrones on the Beach

A few days after we moved in was Dylan's 18th birthday. Since the drinking age here is 18, as Americans we were really excited for him. Most of us will be turning 21 here, so its pretty anti-climactic. So as his brand new friends and roommates we took it upon ourselves to actually celebrate his coming-of-age. Needless to say, we had a blast.

For the other days, we soaked up the sun and hit up the local beach, which takes about 15 minutes to get to by bus. The beach is called Mission Bay. It was definitely no Maunganui Beach, but it was still nice. Almost reminded me of North Beach in Burlington. Almost.


FUN FACT #12: Auckland's transportation system sucks. It costs me about $3.40 to get anywhere, and I almost never arrive on time. What ever you do, don't count on the bus.

One evening was the very famous Auckland Lantern Festival. It is celebrated every first full moon after the Chinese New Year. There are some performances as well as authentic crafts, but what we enjoyed most was the food vendors and the actual lanterns. We bought cheap Thai food and walked around the park while viewing the incredible display of lights. I took some really amazing pictures, but I am only putting up my absolute favorites. On the last day of the weekend, there was a firework display off of the Sky Tower in the middle of the city. The whole weekend was wonderful.