Albert Park + Caipirinha

Last day of conversation class, because we don't have it on Fridays.
Today I tried Indian Food. It's really not so bad, if you know what I mean! I have no idea what I chose, but was something spicy and expensive! :P
In the afternoon we had class in Albert Park, a place I could see from Sky Tower the other day, but I had not visited it since I got here. It's a good place to relax, read a book in a shade of some tree or just chat in a group of friends.
It was nice there, but there was a string wind blowing, so we went to Queen Street, to a 'Tea Shop' to have a cup of ... tea, of course. I could find 'Yerba Matte', raised in Brazil, Peru, Uruguay and Argentina (you can drink that in a mug here :S ). Interesting, no? I found on the menu an iced chocolate drink, that would certainly be my choice. Some people were absent today, so it was just me, the teacher, a Korean guy, a Swiss man and a French girl to speak about anything we had in mind (yeap, this is an easy class).
After some 'tea' we went to the harbor, to be more specific, to 'Provedor', the pub where I've had the 'shaved pussy' drink two weeks ago. Now we were looking for another kind of drink! :P The 'shaved pussy' is a shot and it's not the right thing to drink in the afternoon, so I asked for 'caipirinha'. Well, two 'caipirinhas' were enough to feel relaxed and happy in the pub, where we could see the ocean along the harbor. We were in about 10 people (I knew 2 of them, so far)! :) I found out that they meet there almost everyday. I should've known this before! :S
At 8:30pm I took the bus to come home, have dinner and sleep!
Even Lisa (my host-mother) is saying that I have to go back to Brazil, but TO SLEEP! :P I guess she thinks I'm looking tired! :S

Empty day 2

The classes are getting better and better, and I'm leaving!
Today I had to make a new plan to survive here in New Zealand. The problem is that I'm running out of clean clothes! Doing the laundry is very boring, so I have a stack of dirty clothes in the bedroom.
The fact is that I'm leaving in four days, so I'll need about 4 t-shirts, 4 underwears, 4 pairs of socks (I'm not worried about the pants right now, they look clean). What to do?
The answer is very simple, I stopped by Dress Smart (an outlet) and bought a few t-shirts and a few underwears. I still have some pairs of socks clean too, so Mom, get ready, because you're gonna have some work to do when I get back to Brazil! :P

Empty day

Today was a pretty much boring day, a day that I couldn't do anything interesting.
To be honest, the closer it gets to Sunday (day that I'm leaving), the worse it gets. It seems I don't have enough time to do anything else.
Well, the only nice thing I did today was stop by Starbucks to have a Hot Caramel Chocolate (try to picture it), something that unfortunately I won't find in Brazil, even more because I think that not even in Porto Alegre they have Starbucks.
There's a korean guy in my afternoon class called Daniel (it's very common here Koreans choose an usual ocidental name) that is also very upset to go back to his country.
Let's see if the future gives me an oportunity to live somewhere out of Brazil soon!

Cinema

Well, my time here is running too fast, so I have just a few days before I come back to Brazil. :(
After good time going to many places, now I wanna stay in a 'routine' around Auckland, from my homestay to school, stopping at some places in Downtown and then going back home.
Today the only different thing I did here was to go to the movies, to see 'Yes Man'. It's actually a good movie, funny and with a nice message.
At the moment there's one thing concerning me, my clothes. I'm running out of clean clothes here and I couldn't get home in time to do the laundry today! Tomorrow it's gonna be a priority! :S
Right now it's 11pm here and I'm using internet in my bedroom (amazing), because some friendly neighbor has an open wireless network around here! :)
That's it for today ... no big surprises.

Sailing

After a few days with bad weather, the sun came back in New Zealand's sky. This is all we wanted, because today was sailing day!
In the morning we left in a group of twelve people to go around many islands in Bay of Islands (it's possible to understand why they call it 'Bay of Islands' when you're sailing). I could see some incredible beaches, with extremely calm green water. It was finally a relaxing day just to enjoy the view and rest! In one of the Islands we got off the boat. I swam to the cost, in a very cold water (and it made me pretty tired). In the Island we climbed a mountain where we could see all the Islands around. Awesome!
The beaches are a little bit different compared to Brazilian beaches, because the water is shallow for 5 or 10 meters and then it's like a hole, turning to deep suddenly.
I really don't have the words to describe it, but it was one of the best things I did here (or in my whole life).
In the best kiwi accent, all I will remember to describe is - AWESOME!

Cape Reigna

Everybody woke up early, even after parting last night.
After breakfast we started the journey to Cape Reigna. The weater wasn't helping, once again, with many clouds and even some rain drops.
It may sound really idiot, but here I sand borded in some sand mountains! :P I know, we have many of these things in Brazil and I've never been interested, but here I did. It was ok. I think this was only an activity to relax in the middle of the way to Cape Reigna.
We kept driving north, heading Cape Reigna, the northern most point in the north Island of New Zealand. History says that Cape Reigna is believed to be the place where the Maori's souls goes after they die, so you cannot eat, drink or smoke in Cape Reigna. This is not a closed place (like a Museum), this is where the Tazman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, the day was not good, with many coulds on the sky and a strong wind crossing the mountains, but I have to admit that I could see the green colour of the Tazman Sea crashing the blue Pacific Ocean. It's something amazing to watch. I could stay there for hours. It's a very relaxing place, with a light house in the end and a huge ocean in font, where all you can see is the horizon!
The return to Paihia was long. Everybody was sleeping in our small bus. New Zealand doesn't have straight roads, it seems to be always in zig zag! :S
When we got back in Paihia we went to a pizzaria and then to a party, another one! :)
The party was great, but the most impressive thing to see was Robert (out bus driver and guide - from Poland) drinking tequila's shots and beer naturaly! Amazing! I think I saw he taking three of those!
Well, we all hope tomorrow he'll be 'ok'! :)

Trip to Bay of Islands

Friday is not a normal day in Crown Institute, because every student that's levaing has 'the graduation'.
At first I thought it was only for those who had taken a long program (6 months studying english, for example), but as I wrote, that's for everybody who is leaving the school or New Zealand, so I'll possibly have my 'graduation' next week. It's not a big deal, it's just about 100 people looking at you while you receive your certificate and then listening to your final words. Every student has to say something like 'thank you bla bla bla'.
Because of the graduation every Friday, we don't have classes in the afternoon.
Today, after the graduation we went to eat with a different group of people. We had 2 brazilians (me and Michel), 2 swiss (Patrick and Mark), 1 german (Andrea), one colombian (Steban) and one mexican (Pedro). We could stay at the restaurant chatting before going to Bay of Islands, once the bus was leaving just at 2:30pm.
This time it was a little bit different, compared to the trip to Rotorua. The majority was from Korea (14 people), with another 7 brazilians and one german, mexican, colombian, japonese, chilean, dutch, french and russian. The way to Paihia (main city in Bay of Islands) is long and we took the whole afternoon to get there. I was realy tired of staying inside the bus. We arrived at night, so we just went to a bar to eat something. After we had grabbed some food, a 'band' started playing some songs and it became a party, so we stayed there to have a little bit of fun. It was quite good, because most of the nice people (it means, no koreans from the trip) was there.
We enjoiyed some bottles of smirnoff ice and then went to sleep in the backpacker (really tired)!

Fish and Chips

The alarm clock woke me up at 7:01am, like usual, but today it was very hard to stand up after 4 hours and a half of sleep. Fortunately Jimmy is a good teacher, so I could stand his class in the morning. In the afternoon we went to a beach hidden here in Auckland, to have a different kind of class.
We took the bus togheter to get there. Without our teacher (in the afternoon Helen os the teacher), we would never get there. The beach is small, calm and quiet. We chose a shade below a big three to started. It's a conversation class, but today some people went into the water, some were on the sun and some on the shadows of the three.
Somehow we started speaking about fish and chips, something that kiwis eat very often here. In out discussion some classmates were saying that it was from europe, once they have taste it before in London and somewhere in Holand (everybody here say that Holand sounds better than Neterlands). After this talking we set a 'Fush and Chips' reunion after the 'class'.
We went to Mission Bay and bought a portion for four people. It was a big portion with 2 types of fish and french fries. Here the put some newspaper around it when yu want to take it home (or somewhere else). Mission Bay has a nice grass with many shades around some threes, so we sit there and ate all the food we had just got.
In my way back home I called Hoja (also known as Rosa, mom and others) and we spent more than 1 hour on the phone (this time I was paying for that, so daddy was happy too :) ).
I got home after 8pm. The dinner here is served around 6pm and when I'm not home at time, Lisa put the food in the microwaves. Guess what I could find there? Yes, fish and chips! :) I ate it all again! :P

War Museum

I woke up really tired today, but it's ok!
At schooll everything was just fine. We could set everything up for the afternoon's class tomorrow. It'll be at the beach.
Around 4:00pm we left Crown Institute (the school) to go to the War Museum, very famous here. The only problem is that everything here closes at 5 or 6pm. We arrived in the Museum at 4:50pm and the attendent told us it closes at 5pm. Very nice isn't it!?
Well, we could take a look around the first floor, that seems quite impressive! Beside the Museum they have a garden, called Winter Garden. This is what was really worth it to see!
The garden is wonderful, with very colorful flowers in a nice building, that made me remember the Taj Mahal (it's like a miniature :P).
At night we met in Downtown to party! I have to admit that I was desapointed with the parties tonight. The first place we went was the Irish Pub to have a few drinks. After everybody meet there we left to 'Barzuca'. What the hell, right? Well, that was one of the worst places I've been here. The great majority of people were from Brazil and there was a band playing pagode (in the break they put some funk to make it even better). There was a frined of mine from Chile that wasn't enjoying that much, just like me, so we could convince the rest of people to go to Globe Club. Globe is a night club for kiwis. They are 95% of all the people inside the place. When we got there, there was a huge queue and the words I could hear more frequently were fuck, fuck you, fuck off and some other fuck derivations. Unfortunately there were some queue jumpers, just like in Brazil. After some minutes in the queue whe got inside the place. It's a basement with many crazy people and a very loud sound. The place is really nice, however, kiwis don't seem to be so polite there. They are always looking like someone that wants to get in trouble, what was really making me very upset. Our last destination was the harbour, in a Pub I went a week ago. It was not so bad, but I was very tired, so I came back home.
Before I take the taxi to bring me home, I stopepd by Mc Donalds to take some food to eat when I got home. The taxi driver was a little clumsy, with maps instead of GPS, but after some lookups on his maps, he could find a way to bring me here!

Homework

Today was a very normal day here. The classes actually were very boring (in the morning and afternoon).
After the afternoon class I went to Britomart (bus station) to buy some bus passes and I met many brazilians from the trip to Rotorua there.
Walking down Queen Street I saw a very young boy, I think he should be 14, playing a guittar amazingly. It's a very common thing here to have some 'artists' on the corners playing some instrument with a little hat or box to get some coins. The difference is that this boy didn't get just some coins, he had a few dollar bills (here the lowest dollar bill is 5 dollars).
still in Queen Street I could taste some cookies, known here as the best Auckland cookies.
When I got home I had to do some homework. It was nothing complicated, but I really got into it, so I started writing and I finished it at 1:30am! What the hell, it wasn't supposed to go that late!

Sky Tower

Ok, after a week off, I'm back to school. I have to admit, traveling was so much fun that I didn't fell like I wanted to go to school to study. Even so, this was a very different day at school, with new teachers and new type of classes. In the morning I could have a kind of grammar class with Jimmy, that seems to be a very good teacher, and in the afternoon I had a conversation class, that is much better than keep sitten on a chair and listening/writing/reading some IELTS tasks. I could meet people from Mexico, Switzerland, Korea and, once again, Brazil.
After class and after many cloudy week days in Auckland, today we could finally go to Sky Tower (very famous here in Auckland). The Sky Tower is a tower with about 140 meters, located in Midtown (beside Downtown) where it is possible to see everything around the city (buildings, ocean, bridges, museums, roads etc).
The sight from up there is amazing, even more there're no building higher than the tower. The elevator (or lift, like they say here) goes up so fast that it's possible to feel something uncomfortable in the ears. The elevator is panoramic, so you can see how high you're going.
The place is quite big and impressive, with a cafe and restaurant.
Michel (a friend of mine) and I took a look around town and then stoped by the cafe to have a cup of coffee (Hot Chocolate in my case). We took out laptops up there to share some pictures, once we had already been in the trip to Rotorua/Taupo/Waitomo together.
While we were seeing some pictures and 'working' we could imagine what it would be like to work in a office with this incredible view.
I must say that I really didn't want to go down the tower anymore. I could stare at the city and the ocean for hours, but unfortunately I had to come home to take care of some clothes (Mom, I miss you doing the laundry).

Waiheke

Different from the last days, this Sunday was a very sunny day. This was possibly my last opportunity to go to one of the many islands they have around Auckland. After some 'stomach problems', because of some 'shaved pussy' drinks, I could go downtown and then take the ferry boat to go to Waiheke. Waiheke is an island that is 19km from Auckland, what takes about 40 minutes by ferry boat.
Getting in the island I could see that it's hard to give any kiwi (New Zelanad citizen) any reason to go to Brazil. The speech 'we have amazing beaches' does not work here. I could take some pictures during the journey, but when I got to Waiheke I could see what they have in the island.
Waiheke is a civilized island, with streets, buses, stores etc. I rented a bike (there was a long time I didn't ride a bike), and started following the map. The hole way around the island would take the hole day, with 24km. After 200 meters I could feel that I shoud've rented a scooter, because I'm not in shape to ride a bike up hill and down hill so much. Well, at first I have to say I regreted a little bit to rent the bike, but after a few minutes it was being a nice time (I'm talking about the down hills here :P). I've been in 5 or 6 beaches and it took me almost 2 hours, then I returned the bike and walked to the first beach I've been before to get into the water. This is where I found an advange in brazilian beaches. Here any water is very cold. In Taupo, in the river where I was it was also very cold, but even so it was amazing.
This time I was not so stupid. I passed my sun cream many time, even more because I've been told that the hole in the ozon layer is just here, in New Zealand. That's nice, insn't it? That's probably why the clothes get dried so quickly.
At 6pm I took the ferry boat back to Auckland and returned home. Tomorrow, after a week, I'll have classes again! :S

Party in Auckland

Saturday, first day back in Auckland, after a week traveling to some nice places. In the morning I did something very unsual here, I slept until almost 11am. The day was not helping, with many clouds on the sky again, so this could be a good day to go to the movies, actually, to IMAX (giant screen).
I called a friend that I met in the trip to Rotorua to go there at 2pm. but when we met we could see another guy from the trip, known as 'hi guy' (asian, for sure). After awhile we were in 7 people from the trip to Rotorua and it started raining. Some wanted to go to the movies, some didn't. During the discussions about what to do, Marlon (yes, brazilian) showed the public library of Auckland (for those who know Unisinos library, this one is much better, and public, and with free internet). That was something interesting to see.
Well, this was the last day of baiano here in New Zealand (sorry, another brazilian guy from the trip to Rotorua) and we had to have a goddbye party, so at 9pm we met once again in the front of Starbucks Cafe, in Queens Street! :)
At first we went to a Irish Pub, where there was a guy singing like I had never seen somewhere else. It was just guittar, drums and voice. He played John Mayer, The Police, Snow Patrol and many others, always with a unplugged versoin. It was awsome, but the best part is that here you don't pay to get in the party, you pay only what you drink (or eat). For this reason everybody went to the harbour latter. WTF!!!!! Unbelieveble, these place has many pubs along the harbour, all of them crowded, in the front with a giant cruiser and the ocean. Great place!
We got in two pubs and the drink I enjoyed the most had a strange name. Actually, at first I was a little unconfortable to ask the bargirl, but after some laughings I did. 'Please, I want a shot of shaved pussy!'. heheheheh The drink is very good, sweet, of course.
To come back home I had to take a taxi, but before I do that I had to eat something. The Queen Street was full of people and I stopped by Mc Donalds (typical) to eat a Big Mc (typical) and then I was ready to sleep again!

Last day

Everybody was very tired from all the activites we had the passed 4 days.
The first thing we did in the morning was to visit two lakes, but it wasn't so good, because the weater didn't help. Anyway, the water of these lakes are so amazingly clear as Lake Taupo.
We stoped by Rotorua once again (and this was the last time) to eat something before start the way back to Auckland. I went to 'Burger Fuel', another very healthy fast food chain they have here, but this one is actually from New Zealand (you can't find in the USA :P). This is what we can call a real hamburguer, large, with real taste!
Still in Rotorua we went to Agroventure Park and another one. I couldn't see much interesting things to do in any of those.
In the way back to Auckland we could get a traffic jam and I have no idea why this happen, because there were no accident on the road and everybody seemed to drive safely.
When we got here in Auckland we ate togheter, many brazilians, a tawain guy and a saudi arabian. It was fun, except for the fact that I had to take a taxi to came back home, because today is still a public holiday here, so the last bus I should take was at 6pm.
I arrived home at 10:15, pretty tired, and crazy to take a shower and go to bad! :)

Welcome 2009!

First day of 2009 and everything was set up for rafting.
We woke up a little bit latter than usual, because of New Year's party, where we had our champagne confiscated by cops! :P At 12:30pm we left the backpacker to the place where we were going to do the rafting.
The boats had 7 people each, so we were separated in teams to go down the river. This rafting was composed of three water falls. The first one is 1 meter high, the second is 3 meters high and the last one has 7 meters (they say it's the highest fall in commercial rafting in the world - as I have already written somewhere, they like advertising).
Well, at first we received all the instructions how it was going to work, some rules, what to do in some cases and how to work (paddle forward, paddle back forward, go down, one hand etc). I liked to do all the rafting, but honestly, I was expecting more. After each water fall te boat stopped to more instructions, so it was not fast. Anyway, it was nice!
When we moved back, Robert (our guide, from Poland) drove us to the supermarket and to Burger King (the diet is going very well) to eat a little bit.
After 'lunch', if we can call that lunch, Robert took us to walk in the park in front of our accommodation. I had already walked around the park, but Robert always has the explanation for many things, so it was even better going there with him!
Some guys from Chile wanted to go to the Polynesian Spa once again, so I took the chance and came back there, to pretend I'm rich and relax!
So, in the first day of 2009 I could have some adventure, some walking and a relaxing time in the Spa. Let's see what's comming up next!

New Year's Eve

The last day of 2008, what to expect?
The first thing we did was to go to a hot geothermal park, with nice views to some geothermal pools in the middle of a forest. It's is something very interesting, once I haven't seen nothing similar with it before. Next thing we could see, still related with the hot water they have in New Zealand, was a geyser, that erupts at 10:15am. I was wondering if there's a button they push to make it erupt! Ok, the magic is simple. Some prisoners used to work where there's this geyser this geyser today, and the water reacting with soap, makes the geyser erupts, so at 10:15am a guy put some soap in the geyser and it 'naturally' spit up the water. Before the next 'activity' we stopped by a place with 'boiling mud'. It's something stupid, but also not seen around Brazil. It's just like thermal water (here the water is so hot that it boils), but it's mud.
Today was the day of 'radical sports', or extreme, like a few say around here, for those who likes adrenaline (not my case).
Still in the morning, we drove to Taupo, a city that's 80Km from Rotorua. The activity was Bungy Jumping, something I'm not interested (something Mom would like me to do :P). The place to bungy jump is amazing, and it was good enough to me just look at that wonderful view. The water is unbelievable clean and it's possible to see the bottom of the river, with all the rocks and colorful effects from some plants, turning the water from green to blue.
To lunch we could choose one of many cafes in the front of Lake Taupo, in another amazing place, while some crazy students were ... skydiving!
After lunch some people (myself included) went to a park with a beautiful river, that goes to Lake Taupo. The water in this river runs fast, but there are some places where it's good to get inside the water. The water is very cold, but where we were there was a little water fall (LITTLE) that put hot water into the river. Some people (I did it too) got into the water to refresh, because the sun was incredibly hot!
When everybody was feeling cool (or cold :P) we took a walk beside the river, until some real water falls. The walk took more than one hour, but the views are very impressive.
All the students met again in the water falls (those that were skydiving and those that don't like skydiving :P) and then we went back to our accommodation, to prepare our party!
Some of us bought some pieces of meet (they say is 'BBQ Steak' :S) to have something similar with our real 'BBQ' (barbecue). We cooked, we ate. I, lucky, bought two bottles of champagne (as you know, I love it). Lucky me! We went to a park where they had a few concerts and then fireworks. Here in New Zealand they have many 'Liquor ban area', and it's not a surprise that this place was one of these. The police officers took our champagnes and we have to see the fireworks with nothing to drink (except one of the brazilians, that could hide his bottle ts ts ts).
There were many parties in the city and we wanted to go to one of those, but before that, we wanted to stay in our backpacker (yes, our accommodation is a backpacker) to chat and enjoy the first minutes of 2009. Here's where I could actually pop up my champagne! :)
We walked to a bar around 3am and some people had to stay home, because they are under age! Ok, this time we were not so lucky, once they don't let people get in after 2am (WTF)!
After that ... all that we could do was ... rest!

A little bit of 'New Zealand tourism'

The day started early in the morning. We went to a Maori village, here in Rotorua. This village has many geothermal pools and native Maori people living there (of course, it's a Maori Village). In the end of our 'tour', still in the Maori village, we saw a performance of some Moaris singing traditional songs, dancing (the popular 'Haka') and heard a few stories. After this they stayed on the stage where we could take some pictures and talk to them.
In the beginning of the afternoon we drove to a park with the famous 'Luge', the little car that people ride down hill in roads (beginner, intermediate, advanced). We've gone up the mountain, by a gondola, to take 'The Luge' and drive it down hill! We could drive the luge twice down hill, but it was so exciting that we paid an extra ticket to ride it down a third time.
At this time I could see that tourism is really the main business here in New Zealand, because they have too many options to have fun and enjoy beautiful places.
After 'The Luge' we went to the Lake Taupo to take a ride in a boat that is told the second fastest boat in New Zealand (they love advertising here), which can get to 85Km/h. It was fun and, with all the spins, in the end we were all wet!
Around 6:30pm we had dinner and Robert (our guide) found another activity. Go to the Polynesian Spa, where they have thermal pools to 'relax'. The temperatures of the pools vary. They have pools with, 38, 39, 41 and 42 degrees. The best one, in my opinion, is the 39 degrees, although I spent most of the time in the 41 degrees, because this one has the best view of all. In front of it is possible to see all the thermal lake. I have no words to describe it. I was feeling very rich at this time! :P
At first I wasn't planning to go to the Spa, but now I know, I would have regretted it.

DAMN!

Monday, day to go to the 5 days trip. I got earlier than usual at the school in a very bad day. It was rainig, my bag was really heavy and the bus stop is about 3 blocks from my school! :S The depitarture was set to 10am, but a few people were late, so it left a little after the planned time. Everything I didn't want to happen here, happened. The bus was full ... of brazilians ... speaking ... portuguese. Ok, lets go to our first destination, Waitoma, a small town with some caves. I have to admit that the cave we've visited today was quite impressive. It was not allowed to take pictures inside the caves, but I bought some post cards with pictures to remember how the place looks like. Latter on, we started our journey to Rotorua. Another 3 hours on the road! We arrived in Rotorua at 6:30pm and we went out to eat something at Burger King. I thought that Novo Hamburgo's Mc Donalds was the worst fast food restaurant I could have ever seen. I was wrong. I was wrong, Rotorua's Burger King suck! They didn't have ice there, because the ice machine was broken (no cold drink today folks, only warm drinks for you). Anyway, that's something surprising in Rotorua. It's a city with 60.000 people that has Mc Donalds, Burger King, Burger Fuel (New Zealand fast food chain), KFC (Kentuky Fried Chicken), supermarked that opens at 6am and closes at midnight etc, so it's very different than brazilian 60.000 people cities. Back to Burger King 'dinner', I could join a group of people with two japonese girls, three brazilians and a guy from Saudi Arabia. It was good to know a little bit about their culture and some characteristics about their countries. The guy from Saudi arabia, for example, told us that in the summer the temperature in his country gets to 60 degrees celsius and, when this happens, they declare it a holliday because it's too hot to people leave their houses. After dinner we came back to our accomodation, chat a little bit and then ... slept!