To jump or not to jump

I know that many of you will be disappointed with this post so I am going to tell you up front: I did not go bungee jumping. I watched 14 of my friends do it and cheered them on as they dove off of the Auckland Harbor bridge. It was insane to watch! They were all so fearless! And their pictures turned out great! I was the designated photographer for about half of them. There were four of us who didn’t jump, but we were able to still go up to the launch pod and get front row seats. Most spectators have to pay $20, but we somehow got to go up there for free. It was quite the deal. The view is incredible from the bridge. You can see the entire skyline of the city and many of the little islands that dot the harbor. Brooke gave me her camera to hold and I couldn’t help but take a lot of pictures.

I have changed my mind about bungee jumping. I used to think it was unsafe and dangerous, but I now think it’s harmless. It’s just as crazy as skydiving…you’re just putting your life into the hands of a bungee cord instead of a parachute. And I know it seems silly to say now, after I’ve already passed on the opportunity, but I would do it if I got another chance (and it was paid for…) I think I’ve figured out the secret.

After bridge jumping our group split and half of us took ferries to different islands just off of downtown Auckland. We took a ferry to Devonport, a small town at the edge of a peninsula just across the harbor. My original plan had been to take a ferry to Ringitoto, the island with a volcano, but we all decided on Devonport because it was cheaper, had shops and two volcanic cones. Just for the record, a volcanic cone is not the same as a volcano. Not even close really. What the volcanic cone turned out to be was a large hill named Mt. Victoria. It was a very steep climb but took all of 10 minutes to reach the top. The view was beautiful! We could see all of Devonport laid out beneath us and the skyline of downtown Auckland stretching across the horizon.

Upon further exploration of Mt. Victoria we discovered a field of fake mushrooms. I’m not sure why they were there or what their purpose could be, but they entertained us for quite a while. The coolest part was that in the distance we could see the island of Ringitoto, the real volcano.

After we missed a ferry we meant to catch, we caught the next one and sailed back to Auckland. We found out that the train left every fifteen minutes but that my bus would not arrive until 7:30 that night. Instead of leaving me to wander the streets of downtown Auckland on my own Mikaela graciously volunteered to stay with me until my bus came. We were hoping that we might be able to do a little shopping…but unfortunately everything in New Zealand seems to close around 6pm. Instead we walked around the block a couple times looking for something to eat. We found a large group of drummers trying to raise money for a particular cause. Unfortunately, their cause wasn’t very clear and there was no way to ask with all the drumming…especially because my voice is kind of quiet anyway.

Mikaela and I then decided to walk around the mall. We found that the only store still open was The Warehouse which is very similar to our Walmart. While we were browsing the racks of clothing that we couldn’t afford we stumbled upon a rack of colored T-shirts for only $5!! It was probably funny to see how excited we got about finding something so basic and unexciting. We just hadn’t seen anything at such a low price…since the States. We thought about buying the shirts to decorate for the Hunger Games midnight showing, but decided against it when we couldn’t seem to find any sort of fabric paint. We weren’t sure if they decorated shirts in New Zealand. So we both left empty handed, just in time for my bus to come pick me up! It was my first time riding the bus without Brooke and it felt a little weird. Especially because we do everything together and it was beginning to get dark. I made it home though! Safe and sound.

Saturday morning Brooke and I woke up early and caught another bus to the Pasifika Festival, just by the Auckland Zoo. People had warned me that it would be a big deal with lots and lots of people, but I was still surprised to see just how crowded it actually was. It was really cool. It’s the best way to travel all around the Pacific Islands without leaving a park. Each island had a different designated area. There was Samoa, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Fiji, and a ton of others. Brooke and I spent most of the time wandering and seeing where we’d end up and it just so happened that no matter where we went we always ended up in Tonga again! I think we visited that place at least 7 different times. Unintentionally.

 

While in the Cook Islands we got to try some of the traditional umu cooked food. Umu cooked food is food that has been cooked upon rocks. I ordered a plate that consisted of this:

It was actually really good! Or most of it was. I’d never had chop suey before and I was surprised at how much I liked it. The one thing I was not a fan of was the banana poke. I’m still not sure what exactly a poke is.

We got to see a ton of different cultural performances in all the different areas! It was so cool to see the various traditional dances. I think that I often lump the Pacific culture together as a whole and it was very interesting for me to see the different varieties of food and dance that each island had to offer. There was even a Hula Fitness club that was being advertised. Some of the women were out front showing off the hula work-out technique. A lot more fun than sit-ups, right?

At the end of it all I decided I really needed ice cream. Not just any ice cream. They were selling ice cream in a watermelon bowl. It was delicious! I have to say that I didn’t particularly like it when the watermelon juice mixed with the ice cream…and perhaps that was the point…but I really liked the idea.

After we had seen all that we could see at the festival Brooke and I headed downtown to the harbor. We got to experience something I’d never heard about before. There’s this race called the Volvo World Ocean Race. Sailboats from various different countries race around the world. It was just about the coolest thing I’d ever heard! I was blown away by the video they showed us about the race and the sort of conditions that these people race in! It was a very big event because the entire pier was covered with fun activities, performances and people in costumes. We spent a good deal of time looking for the first sailboat which was supposed to have arrived at noon earlier that day. It wasn’t until later that we found out that something had happened and none of the boats would be arriving until at least midnight that night. Unfortunately for us, the last bus left at nine so we had to catch it or spend the night downtown on the pier. It was a little disappointing not to see any of the sailboats, but being there was an experience in and of itself.

 

 

 

While we were there Brooke saw her very first draw bridge! We also avoided a very near-dance-experience with a stranger at the beanbag concert. As we were walking to the end of the pier hoping to find the sunset we ran into a small gazebo with a piano player. He happened to be playing a song I loved! One of my favorite parts of the night didn’t happen on the pier. Brooke and I just so happened to find those same T-shirts in The Warehouse from the night before and they had been reduced to $1.97! How lucky is that!? In spite of the fact that we didn’t actually see what we came to see I had such a good night. Those little things, regardless of how strange they might seem to someone who is not me, really do add up.

Fun in Whangarei

Everywhere we travel we are accompanied by our tour guide, James Ah mu, and this weekend he kindly invited us to stay at his house in Whangeri. He’s got a lot of patience to put up with 20 college girls all the time. Because there wasn’t quite enough room inside we got to camp out in tents in his backyard. It was so fun! James took the time to move about 10 mattresses into the two tents for all of us to sleep on. James and his wife Janet live in the farm country of New Zealand. They have a really long driveway with two loops and a huge canapy of trees that form sort of a tunnel. (Just like back in Maryland!) Their house was beautiful and they had a huge yard, perfect for night games and volleyball.

Upon arriving in Whangarei we first dropped off our stuff and then drove off  to a small children’s book store in the downtown area. Because all of us are El Ed majors we all loved the store and loved looking around. They had so many books that were specific to New Zealand that a lot of us bought as souvenirs for our future classrooms.

We then headed out to a cow milking factory. The factory is owned by Janet’s family. While we were there we had the opportunity to meet Sid Going, the famous rugby player mentioned in a conference talk! (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/preparing-the-world-for-the-second-coming?lang=eng&query=sid) He was also a part of a Mormon Ad! We all had to have our picture taken with him.

After taking a few fabulous pictures with the cows by the fence we headed off to the cow shed where the milking took place. We walked into what looked like a carnival ride mixed together with a hospital room. It was a large circle with stalls that had tubes and pipes hooked up to each one. The man working it opened the small gate for the cows and let the first one in. After that cow had moved into the stall the entire circle started to move until it rotated just enough for the next cow to get in. While this was all happening the worker hooked the tubes up onto the cows udders. No gloves or anything! It kept spinning and he did the same for the next one and the next one and the next one. He repeated this process for 54 cows. Once the cows had completed a full circle the tubes just fell off and they backed themselves out of the gate. One of the coolest parts of this was that the cows knew exactly what to do! They just came when they were ready and they backed out when they were finished. Once the cows had left and backed out of their stall it was opened up for more cows waiting in line. There were so many! I lost track after the first 54 but I think there were close to 300.

After a while some of the girls asked if they might be able to try putting the suckers onto the udders. We all watched as one of the girls gave it a try and then formed a long line after her! I couldn’t tell if the worker was amused or annoyed at us wanting to all take a turn. He made it look so easy, but we all quickly discovered that it took a lot of practice! I guess if you did it everyday, twice a day, for 300 cows you might develop a talent for it. The trickiest part was avoiding the back end of the cows. Tehre were a couple that decided that right then was a good time to use the bathroom! One girl in our group got a little splattered. I kept a close watch on my cow so that I could leap out of the way at a moments notice. It was quite the experience.

That night we had a huge BBQ with the YSA of James’ stake. We played volleyball and missionary tag and ate tons and tons of food. I really mean tons. I haven’t seen so much meat probably ever. (I never went to AP Camp…)

The next day we split the group and headed off to two different beaches.

My group went to a beach to learn how to surf. It was so cool! I loved it and would love to go again. It was actually freezing when we arrived and it started raining the minute we stepped out of the van. Luckily we were provided with wet suits and they kept us very warm. I’d never worn a wetsuit before so the whole thing was an eye opening experience. I felt like I was wearing an invincibility suit. Seriously. People can even go surfing in the winter if they’re wearing one of those! We all sat in a circle and our instructor, Simon, taught us the steps to standing up on a board. I got up a few times! I always forgot to bend my knees though and I’d fall down a lot because I’d often lose my balance. Unfortunately, no one got any pictures of me actually standing and riding a wave in…so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

That same afternoon my group was dropped off at the second beach where they had tubing and kayaking. A lot of us were so drained from surfing (it’s hard work!) that we just wanted to lay out in the sun. I did something kind of crazy though. I got back on a tube for the first time since I broke my mouth. I even told the boat driver what happened and asked him to go a little slower for me. All boat drivers are the same though. They think they know what you want…and what you want is always to go faster. No matter how many times I gave him the thumb down he pretended he didn’t see me! Believe it or not, I’ve decided that I don’t particularly like tubing. I like surfing much, much more.

James’ house only had one shower and after being at the beach we all wanted to feel somewhat clean again. We were all going to take 2 minute individual showers until we decided that if we kept our bathing suits on that we could fit about 4 girls in at a time We got through 8 girls in about 5 minutes!

Once we got back to James’ we ordered enough Chinese food to feed an entire army. We had a lot of leftover desserts from the night before as well and Ramona went out and bought us bags and bags of lollies. We went through James’ movies and games and basically had a huge girls night. One of James’ friends brought over a huge karaoke set and as the night went on more and more of us gathered around that. It was so fun! Brooke, Brittany and I sang Titanic’s My Heart Will Go On and received the highest score. Our prize was that we got to take home one of the 20 leftover containers of Chinese food. Haha.

We went to church the next morning and it was a lot of fun to meet everyone. James’ friend who brought the karaoke the night before also happened to be the first counselor in the bishopric. Becaouse of this and because he heard us all singing the night before he thought it would be a great idea to have us (yes, all of us) sit up on the stand and sing the prelude music as everyone came in for sacrament meeting. It was actually a really cool experience.

After that we had testimony meeting and I couldn’t believe how many people came up to us afterwards to tell us how happy they were that we had come and boosted the numbers of their ward for that day. So many people also told us how much they love America. I’m never going to get over how welcoming and accepting they are here! I feel like they go above and beyond what is normally expected when one has visitors. I was really happy to have the opportunity to be there on a Fast Sunday because I loved hearing all their testimonies. My testimony grows more and more upon hearing others here. I can more fully see the extent of our Heavenly Father’s plan and that we’re all His children. He cares about the people over in America just as much as the people in New Zealand. When I think about how many of us there are it’s mind-blowing. He loves each and every one of us in countries all over the world and yet we’re able to feel His love as individuals and not only as whole groups. I’ve really been loving being able to see this with all the different wards I’ve had the chance to visit while I’m here. I love seeing the consistent similarities and some of the cultural differences. It’s put into perspective how very far the Gospel extends.

They had us go into the cultural hall for Sunday school class so that we’d all fit. The funniest part was that after we sat down we realized that our group made up the entire YSA class! Apparently there had been on other guy that day, but he had been asked to teach the youth. James’ was our teacher and he did such an awesome job. During class Janet’s sister came in and asked if any of us would like to volunteer to teach primary in the last hour. Being future elementary teachers almost every single one of us volunteered. Amanda and I were chosen to teach the sunbeam class. There were just three kids: Chastity, Fae and Texas. It was a bit of an interesting lesson and I really hope that they got something out of it, but I think they enjoyed it regardless.

After having a group break-the-fast with a huge buffet dinner we all piled into the vans and headed home. I had so much fun. It was nice to see Phyllis again though after we got back.