Auckland International Cultural Festival

Alrighty, it's time for last weekend's activity and the final post for the month -- the International Cultural Festival! We set out at about 10 on Sunday morning and took the bus out to Mt. Roskill. From there we walked to the War Memorial Park, where the festival was held.

We were greeted by a slightly muddy park, four stages, and lots and lots of food vendors! Since we know our priorities, we made a quick circuit to scope out who was selling what, and then sat down for a delicious multicultural meal.

Once we finished eating, we took in some of the performances. There were dancers, some more adorable than others...

and drummers, shadow puppets, and even some bands, two of which ripped their shirts off mid-performance.

Next up was another round of the food stands and miscellaneous vendors, who mostly were selling jewelry and hair wraps.

After about four hours of fun, we packed out our stuff and made our way back in time to take an afternoon nap/food coma.

(The goat statue is from a different park, I just thought it should be included somewhere.)

Around town

Now that the semester has started, things have slowed down a bit, so I'm going to compress a few weeks of activities into one superpost! First there was birthday week. Arleah's birthday was February 29th, so we went out to dinner at a French restaurant and got crepes.

Next there was my birthday on the 1st, where we went out for cake and then to karaoke (I didn't take any pictures though).

Classes started, so things started to get a bit busy, however, we went to the opening concert of the Pacifika Festival where people came from all over the Pacific Islands to perform. It was in western springs park, which had a nice lake and some beautiful waterfowl.

The performers were numerous and wonderful, but since it was getting pretty dark I didn't take too many pictures.

The next day, I headed off on my entomology field trip from friday to sunday. We bussed out to Waharau regional park and learned how to collect and preserve insects. Some highlights were encountering this beauty on a trail at night:

And finding a Puriri moth, a beautiful and giant native moth of New Zealand.

I thought about keeping the moth for my collection, but let it go, not just because it's a lovely animal, but also because it's so large you have to gut it to preserve it properly, and it comes out looking brown and shriveled. Yuck.

I got a good start on my collection and now I feel a bit like a taxidermist, but it's a pretty interesting field.

O Week

For orientation week, we decided to do a few things around town. Auckland is a pretty big city, so there's always something going on. First up, we finally went up the Sky Tower.

Pretty tall, isn't it? The elevator had a glass floor and moved ridiculously fast, which was mildly terrifying, but we made it up to the top in a very short amount of time. The floor of the first deck was studded with glass panels and plaques explaining that the glass was 32 cm thick, and as safe as the concrete. Of course, this just made me think that the concrete probably wasn't as safe as it should be.

The view was pretty spectacular!

There was a bar, so we bought some wine and waited around until sunset. Even though it was a little cloudy, the colors of the sky were still fantastic.

It really gives you perspective on how big Auckland really is. Its got a tiny central core of tall buildings and a city feel, and then miles and miles of suburbs. With more than a quarter of New Zealand's population, I guess that shouldn't be a surprise.

The final activity before the semester began was a free concert, featuring two of the more prominent bands of New Zealand. First up was Zowie, who was not my cup of tea, kind of a mix of Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, and metal. Next were the Kids of 88, who were pretty good. The concert was outdoors, but it was still hot and crowded. Overall, it was a pretty fun show.

On another note, we finally solved a little mystery, which was "The White House."

We'd been wondering what it was. It looks pretty legit, with a plaque on the front door proclaiming it to be a place for rest and relaxation. Ultimately, we found out it's an American themed strip club, which I thought was pretty funny.

Lantern Festival (belated)!

Auckland is quite an international city, so it only makes sense that there would be a festival for Chinese new year! Though the crowds were daunting, we made our way down the street to the park, on the way buying as much delicious Asian food as possible.

(The pink unicorn balloon reminded me of Scarlz)

There were lots of lanterns all over Albert Park, including the obligate Chinese baby lanterns.

As night fell, more lanterns became apparent, glowing in the trees. I like the one with the goats!

And then, fireworks lit up the skies!

We headed back through the teeming crown, and got ready for the school year to begin.