The End Of Fiji/The Beginning of New Zealand

Kia Ora all!

My apologies for not being able to check in before I left Fiji, I was unable to get internet access.

The last week in Fiji was amazing. I think it was because we all hit the point of turning from guests in our homes, to becoming part of our homes. We spent the last week finishing up the concrete path and hanging out with are families. We also had the opportunity to visit the Fiji water factory, which is only one town over from Rabulu. It amazes me the amount of waste, both in plastic and fossil fuels, that is created to ship essentially Fijian tap water all the way from Fiji to America, then to wherever its headed. Is the water that much better? All that aside, it was kind of cool to see the factory and visit the place that all Fiji water comes from.

After a teary goodbye, we left Rabulu, heading to Nadi for one day. Though the tears were sad, it shows how much of a part of the community we had become, I know I will always have a welcome place to stay in Rabulu. Nadi was great, we were only there for a day, so I did not get a complete feel of the place. I did make it to an outdoor market however, where I was able to get my barter on, something I always enjoy doing.

I am sitting now in an internet cafe in beautiful downtown Auckland New Zealand. We arrived two days ago, just in time to get to our hostel in downtown, go out to Dinner for Colin Tutelian's 19th birthday dinner, and eat some celebratory cake(this hostel has a kitchen). Yesterday, I spent the morning wandering the city with Lydia, then we met up with Colin T. and Tara, and we all took a short ferry to Davenport island. Davenport Island is a cute little island right in the bay, kind of a similar feel to the San Juans in Washington. It had a cute lsmall historic downtown where we got a nice lunch and enjoyed some homemade Davenport chocolates. We then hiked up two small hills on the island, soaking in some great views of the bay area and the city of Auckland. The second hill actually used to be a navy outpost and they have old ruins that you can explore, which was a lot of fun. After our exploration we took a ferry back and returned to the Hostel, hungout, did some laundry(my khakis are going to be like gens sweats, still haven't washed em', and ate some delicious homecooked spaghetti. Today, Jamo, Sam, Nick, Lucy, and I visited the Auckland Musuem in the morning and saw an awesome free photo exhibit! It was a wildlife/landscape photo contest run by National New Zealand!(similar to nat geo) So we actually got to look at all the finalist photos, and vote for our favorite ones, it was a really fun time. The Auckland museum is very impressive, three floors of exhibits. We have also begun to plan our free travel week, and I am in charge of planning a 3 day-2 night trek, so I started my research on that, it is looking awesome. Then in the afternoon we took a bus to a beach town 15 minutes out of the city called Mission Bay for some lunch and relaxation. Returning back to the city in time to check out the awesome Auckland art gallery. It is a free gallery that shows artists work from all over New Zealand, picked up some postcards to send y'all in there gift shop.That leads me up to where I am right now, sitting in a netcafe about three blocks from our hostel. Dad, I bet you could find a map of Auckland online or on google, we are staying at a hostel on the intersection of Albert Street and Victoria Street West. Queen Street is the main strip of Auckland, especially in the area down by the wharf. I'm sure you could find and trace all of my steps so far, if you are interested. Mission bay is North of Auckland. I really love Auckland, I wish we had some more time, its a beautiful and very clean city. It is made up of a very diverse population of about 1 million, which leads to having a wide range of delicious eats to gorge myself at! Great introduction to New Zealand.

Next stop, WWOOFing!

-Arthur

P.S. Enjoy these photos! I am now using a Flickr because the uploading is faster. Click this link and have a look at some of my pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amoss-hawkinsphotos/