Day 17 -- Devonport and the Last Paradise

This week was the first week of school! Things went pretty well. It took a little while on Monday for them to figure out what classes they should put me in and the teachers and students all seem to be figuring out what to make of me, but overall it was very positive. Next week once I'm more settled in with classes and am more sure of what I am doing I will post photos of the labs and give more information about my classes.

Until then I will report on the happenings of this weekend!

Most of the international students went on trips this weekend but I really wanted to stay closer to home, keep settling in, and see more of Auckland. Luckily my flatmate Laura had the same idea...

On Friday we decided to hop on the ferry and check out Devonport in North Shore.









There was an army bunker on the top of a hill that apparently holds Folk Music gatherings every Monday!






All of the little water meters (or whatever they were) were decorated to look like Mario64 mushrooms!




















Found a kitty to cuddle with!












Then me and Laura met up with our friend Kamil and saw the film "Last Paradise," which is a part of the Auckland International Film Festival. It was a fantastic film about the pioneers of extreme water sports mainly based around NZ. There was also a strong message about global warming and how much we as humans are ruining beaches that were once so beautiful. I highly recommend this film, so see it if you can!



We saw the film at the Victoria Theatre which was built in 1912 and is the earliest purpose-built cinema still in existence in the Southern Hemisphere.



We missed our ferry back so we had to hang out at a bar for about half and hour until the next one.



We closed the night by watching a rugby game back in the common rooms of the apartments. The All Blacks (New Zealand's team) creamed Figi (60 to 7) in a fundraiser game for the earthquake victims in Christchurch.

It was another fun-filled-adventure-packed day in New Zealand!