Museums and gardens and rugby Oh My!

The walk to museum was cool. We stopped to take photos along the way and saw a neat cemetery. We also stopped to take pictures with an old tree and the. The winter gardens. The winter gardens were spectacular! Such a beautiful place seated right in the middle of auckland.

The gardens had a large pond in the middle filled with water plants and small koi fish. There were white statues surrounding the pool and two greenhouses on either end. The one had cacti and beautiful bright flowers. The other had a pool of lily pads and pitcher plants hung about three feet above. I was very excited to see a brightly blooming bird of paradise plant. I got to really try out the settings on the new Nikon camera we have for the department. The macro setting is so cool!

After the gardens we ventured over to the Aukland museum. Each floor had a different theme. Ground floor was Maori history and artifacts. The second floor was Polynesian art and animals and plants and the top floor was military history. There were so many cool displays and it was a unique museum.

We were only at the museum for about three hours, not enough time in my opinion. Could have stayed there all day it was so interesting. After the museum it was lunch time. Unfortunately some of our group decided not to wait for everyone resulting in us getting separated. After a quick lunch we were supposed to go to the art gallery but that never happened :(. I did have the most ridiculously tasty lunch at The Turkish Cafe on Kurangahanga Road, or K Road to the locals. Omg it was tasty.

We wound up hanging out at the hostel until it was time to leave for the rugby match. Two of my students opted out of rugby, they had a 5 pm tattoo appointment and we left for rugby at 5:45. Aim excited to see the end result! Also...w need to go buy some tegaderms for them as we go to a natural hot spring/hot pools in Rotorua tomorrow. We have been in Auckland for two days and tomorrow at 5:30 am I get to call for cabs to take us to the bus meeting point.

The rugby match was quite interesting. Blues vs Chiefs quite a good game. We all got our faces painted with blue and white to root for he Blues and the students really got into the game. Unfortunately they stuck out like sore thumbs as Americans with their constant yelling and commotion raising. Well...at least they had fun! As I type at 10:50 pm the students have chosen to "go out" because it isn't like they need to pack to leave at 5:45 in the morning or anything.

Well goodnight...I have to go and find my B12 because I am not dealing with 13 hungover students on a 7 hour bus ride!