Day 14

Sorry I didn’t get around to posting yesterday, I had quite a few friends over last night and they stayed pretty late! Yesterday was wonderful, I’m so glad I don’t have classes on Fridays. I went with Jo (an Australian girl) to see the Sky Tower, which is Auckland’s most famous landmark. It’s the highest point in the southern hemisphere, and we went up 60 floors, to the observation deck. The whole tower is over 1,076 feet high and the views are amazing. You can also walk around the outside of it if you pay for a “sky walk” or you can jump off of it bungee style. We didn’t do either of these things but we watched other people jump off of it! There’s also multiple restaurants at the top and we stopped and got a cappuccino at the top at the café.

It’s really cool because you can see all of Auckland, surrounding islands, highways, and Rangitoto (which is the volcano island we’re going to hike up tomorrow). The elevator in the sky tower also has a glass floor, so you can see yourself travelling further and further from the ground. There’s also panels in the ground of the observation deck of 38 mm thick glass that you can stand on so that it appears you’re standing over nothing at all. Supposedly standing over the glass is the same as standing on the concrete floor.

After spending some time in the Sky Tower we took a half hour bus ride to a shopping center which had cheaper clothes and jewelry than you can find in the city. It was a free shuttle- I feel like now I’m getting a little bit better of a hold on the city bus system.

Last night I also had a ton of friends over and we all played a whole bunch of card games and really got to know one another.

Today was a recovery day, as I haven’t had a chance to just relax ever since I got here. If the weather was nicer we were going to go to Waiheke Island and relax on the beach, but it was cloudy and rainy all day. We walked to the bookstore where I returned one of the books I had gotten for physics and then did some homework. Finished off the night with a New Zealand ice cream bar and “The Parent Trap” film with some good friends!

Off to hike a dormant volcano tomorrow!!