We arrived in Aukland a few days ago, and it was a great recharge to be in a big city after Nananu. We had some relaxing time, did a little bit of shopping, ate a lot of food. We all bought clean clothes, which felt good after wearing the same dirty outfits for the first few weeks. Aukland is such a beautiful city. It was great just to walk around and get a feel for the city. It’s very different from the USA in that it was rare to see a person walking alone or on a cell phone; this city is much more social than home. We visited an art gallery, where we got to see some interesting photographs, and we got to learn a lot about the Maori culture, which was really cool. We took a ferry one day to Devonport, where we walked up a volcano, which had a beatiful view of the surrounding islands and the city of Aukland. We walked around Devonport to another volcano, and we slid down the hill on a piece of cardboard, which massacred most of the people who went down. But it was a very good time. On our last night, we went up to the top of the sky tower, which, for people who are afraid of heights, was mortifying. We got a witness a spectacular view of Aukland and of the sunset. Then after dinner, we all went to see a movie, Wall-E, which was very light-hearted and funny. These few days in Aukland have been great; we did go back to our old habits for some time, but after talking together, we were able to step back and see how the change from Nananu to a bigger city affected us. Now that we realized this, we will be able to avoid reverting back to our habits from home. We are now headed for the Woofing farm, where we will spend a week on an organic farm; we are all looking forward to working hard.
