Rangitoto and Lanterns

So Yesterday (saturday) was the last day of orientation before school starts. There was an organized trip to a volcanic island 30 minutes off the coast of Auckland called Rangitoto. We got to the Ferry around 8:30am and to the island around 9am. From 9 to about 2 the entire group split and hiked the island, its not huge by any means but there are dozens of paths and caves so its easy to keep secluded for a while. I was with with my friend Summer the whole time and we kind of switched between groups, we hit the caves then the summit, laughing the whole time cause when you are tired and in the sun for a while, most everything is funny, even if its not. This island was beautiful, truley beautiful. The views from the Summit were fantastic because you could see the whole island which was so green but then it hit the water which was so blue and you could also see the city. It was a severe contrast of color and texture. I also went into some lava caves which were kinda creepy, but cool in theory...made by lava. After a while of hiking we headed back to where the ferry docked and people went swimming, i didnt bring my togs (swim stuff) so i took pictures of people jumping off the docks. At around 3 the ferry came back to pick us up and Summer and i went to foodtown. The plan was to make dinner and cookies. So we did. LAter that night was a Chinese Lantern festival for the chinese new year (which is a huge deal here) in Alfred Park up by Uni. It was amazing, there were hundreds of lanters in the trees and vendors selling chinese food and trinkets. The park looked beautiful, i had never been in it even though is is just past the university, i cant wait to go back when its all cleaned up. After that we found out that the opening ceremonies for the AK05 festival was that night on Queen st. so we made our way there. At this point it was Summer, my roommate Allison, and our frineds Jora and Kate and me. SO the 5 of us headed to the ceremony. Now this was no traditional Maori ceremony, this was a crazy NZ style "we love our country" rockin bash. There was a huge stage set up and bands played and there were comedians and dancing then at the end there were fireworks out of the old clock tower,it was a really good time, Kiwi's love their city. After the ceremony we walked to a pub over by the railway called the Rose & Crowne, its just a local place, small but there was a great cover band playing American music of the late 1990's (my favorite). The night ended after realizing that we hadnt stopped walking since 8 that morning, the tired hit us and we headed back to bed. I have pictures but im waiting for my internet to kick in in my room, once it does you will be bombarded by pictues from the aucklnad domain, pubbing, rangitoto, the lantern festival and the AK05 ceremony, so get ready.