It was the best of times, It was the worst of times

Yesterday was an adventure let me tell you! We started off the day by going to the Otara fleamarket with our family. It kind of reminded me of New York's Canal Street where there are just a lot of booths with random cheap souvenirs, clothes, purses, products, etc., to buy. When we were there we got our NZ necklaces that are Maori traditional necklaces which are popular around here (they are also good souvenirs :)!) As we walked around the fleamarket, we were pretty much the only white people there and so we stood out like a sore thumb. It is weird how much I feel out of place sometimes as I am just this little white girl from America. But it has really been a good experience for me. 

After the fleamarket, our family dropped us off in Auckland city where we met up with two other girls (Mikaela and Amanda). Our plan was to look around the city and then take a ferry to go to a beach, but the weather changed our minds haha. The weather is SO bipolar over here. All day long yesterday it would rain for a bit, be sunny for a while, get windy and cold, start pouring rain, then get sunny, then get cold, and so on. We were literally taking our jackets on, off, on, off, and opening, closing, opening, closing our umbrellas all day haha. Because of this we decided to save our money for the ferry and go to the beach on a day that is warm and sunny ALL day! So we just walked all around the city and had a fun time seeing the sights. Auckland reminds me of NYC, so it brought a familiar feeling when we were walking around :). 

At the end of our Auckland city tour we had a little adventure. We needed to catch the train to get back home and COULD NOT, for the life of us, find the train station. We literally walked for an hour trying to find the right road that the train station was on haha. It was funny because the weather was being bipolar too and so we were cold, hot, cold, hot, and pretty LOST. A nice man with a long beard, and HIGH blue shorts, ran into us and told us the way we should go. So after following his directions, and only taking a couple more wrong turns, we FINALLY found the train station. Then we were able to get home. Our legs were absolutely dead once we finished walking home from the train. We had been walking all day around the city and then walked for over an hour trying to get home haha. But don't worry everyone, we found the train, and made it safely home before our parents could worry about us. 

Getting ready to go to the fleamarket. Don't worry about
how I look in all of these pictures. I have found my new
love in life here....it's pulling my hair back into a BUN.
Yes people, I will be doing this a lot. It was the best
feeling in the world

Siah

Here we go Richi!

A little girl singing to earn some money. 

They were matching today...not on purpose. 

Maori traditional necklaces. A lot of the girls wear
these here so we had to buy one to wear too :). These
are the authentic ones that are made out of bone. 

These are also the REALLY authentic ones made out of
Jade. But that means they are also VERY expensive. The
jade ones cost around $50 and up, where the bone ones
you can get as cheap as $5. 

Each necklace carving that you get has a different
meaning. The ones that we see the most of are the
twisty ones, like mine, or the fish hook ones. 

What my necklace means. 

My traditional bone Maori necklace. Which means
"friendship".

All of us with our necklaces. We each got a different one, representing
different things. 

Getting ice cream after the market. Phil LOVES this place.
 It is called Pokonoes ice cream and is like a famous
landmark that you HAVE to at least try once if you come
 to NZ. (Notice the different amounts of scoops.)

There is a 12 scooper!!!!!

yumm

Our host dad Phil with his triple scoop. Phil loves his
food, especially sweets!

Welcome to Auckland City

The Town Hall

Our group for the day!

Doesn't it kind of look like NYC?

Cute little shopping center. 

This is the food court. I have never felt MORE out of place in my whole
life than I did here. Everyone was staring at us as we walked around trying
 to figure out what to eat. I just ate my sandwich I made from home lol.

My necklace :).....and THE SUN (for a short bit). 

This is a famous thing here called the "barn dance". You can cross the street
anyway you want to, which means crossing right through the middle of the
street, on the sides, or whatever you need to do haha!

Sunny and blue skies....for a short while. 

The Hilton hotel is on the dock!!

The Ice House is a bar that is all made out of ice. The seats, walls, tables....
EVERYTHING is made out of ice. We didn't go inside because it cost
money and was a bar lol, but it was cool to see the pictures. 

Yes I still miss him every day!

I think the toilet buttons are so funny. These ones
were huge so I had to get a picture. Remember to only
push the small right one for going pee. But anything
else you need to push the BIG left one. 

Skytower. And I'm cold again cus it's windy, see my jacket is zipped up. 

Mandy and Amanda! Or I guess I COULD say Amanda
and Amanda. But I like going by Mandy :)

Margo doesn't know how to keep her eyes open when we take pictures!!

The Skytower is like the Space Needle in Seattle. 

Maori artwork

Beautiful! We are going to take the ferry out there once it gets sunny!

Dork...? Yup that's me!

Raining now. I love this picture of me and Brooke though :)

I am going to buy this shirt if I can't find another one
like it that is cheaper. I just loving the saying, "sweet as".



And here's where we got LOST for an hour or so haha. 

We have NO IDEA where we are!

Amanda was literally asking people for directions as
they were stopped at a red light. What makes it even
better was that it was raining haha

Umm lets go this way.....?

Sure, why not! (Shortly after we met the bearded man with the high blue
shorts, who helped get us back on track to the train station.)

Agh! We can see the train tracks, just can't find the station to get ON the train.

Best thing we saw ALL day. After walking up hills and through random streets
we were exhausted. 

Yup our legs hurt!

But we made it

Riding the train back home. 

Thank you for getting us home train. We will be seeing you soon
once the sun comes out so we can go to the beach! :)