All Blacks Rugby

If there is one thing that is quintessentially Kiwi, it is rugby.  And rugby in New Zealand means the All Blacks.  That is the national team.  Rugby is quite cumbersome to explain, but I wanted to go to an All Blacks game before I left.  Luckily they played the end of August in Wellington so some of the girls and I went!

Natalie, Erica, Susan, Megan, Karin and me outside the stadium before the game!

The All Blacks getting ready to do the "haka" which is a Kiwi thing too.

This is a scrum.

This is Jo, she posed with a red nose as they were raising money to cure cancer in kids.

One of the more recognizable All Blacks.

And this is the most recognizable!  This is Richie McCaw, who is the All Blacks captain and most Kiwis are gaga over him. We had amazing seats that allowed us to be this close, without even zooming in! :-)

Dinner and dancing with the girls

My friend Erica, who I happened to meet up with one night while I was out with other friends, wanted to go out the Friday before she left.  So we meet up with another friend of hers before heading to dinner.

Then we went to Chow and had dinner.  I had coconut rice and steamed veggies they were really good!

Then Sheryll, Joanna and I went out dancing.  Of course I was out until like 1:30 a.m. because I love dancing!!!! :-D

Diving video: Fiji

First attempt at uploading some of the videos I took while in Fiji!  I thought this was awesome!

Dinner with Te

Me and my friend Te, meet up for dinner at Pizzeria Napoli.  I love it!  It is like eating in Italia!  And it is always good to catch up with my friend Te.  He is a radio host and so can't always get away, but we always ahve a good time when we meet up.

Diving Mayor Island, New Zealand

So ever since I got scuba certified, I've been doing everything I can to go diving with the people who certified me.  I got an opportunity just after my trip to Fiji.  We went up to Taruanga, which is up by the Bay of Plenty.  This is the harbor.

On our boat heading out to to Mayor Island.

Views of Mayor Island.

Before heading down into the water.

Such a beautiful place!

All of the guys taking photos. Lol.  Most of the people on the dive were cool.  I hadn't meet anyone before except for my instructor, but considering I was on a boat with a whole bunch of strangers, it was tons of fun!

I loved the line of red...it was probably a line of lava that cooled really fast which kept it red.

Our boat at the end of the three nights.  We slept in the hull of the boat, it was really tiny and there were 12 of us down there.  I fogot to take a photo, but there were bunks and I had to take a top one so that I didn't get too claustrophobic.

This is the captain and the cook.  They were both a lot of fun and I think the cook had a bit of a crush on me!  Lol.

Amazingly beautiful!

An amazing trip and I'm so glad I went!

Fiji day three

The one thing that I really wanted to do in Fiji was to go scuba diving.  After getting certified in New Zealand, any where I go that I can, I want to be able to dive.  So instead of doing a day-trip, I went scuba-diving and left Erica and Andrew to their own devices.

This is out on the boat, heading out to the dive-site.  We drove out through the channel of the reef.  That is why there is only waves to a certain part.  The waves break on the reef and there is none where the channel is. 

This is my self-portrait while scuba diving.  

Unfortunately, my camera would only go down to 12 meters (or 30 feet).  So I couldn't get photos all the way down where the fish were. 

Coming up to the surface after my first dive, which was called "Bigfoot" as there is usually a shark that lives down in one of the tunnels, but he was gone when we were there, which I'm totally ok with! 

After my first dive!  It was incredible, couldn't wait to go back down! 

On our way to our next dive site, called "The Edge". 

Some of the people I was diving with. 

An Aussie that was diving with us took a photo of me. It was awesome! 

This is the view as I'm coming up to the boat.  Quite a site. 

After my scuba diving, I headed back to the hotel.  Erica and Andrew were just getting ready to head out, and I said that I wanted to just chill at the hotel.  I was hungry, so ordered the local spinach soup and a salad, and finished it off with an apple juice.  The soup was INCREDIBLE! 

This is what Fijian money looks like. 

Dory! 

Snorkeling 

I loved these fish!  Just my kind! :-D 

An anneonomy and the fish that lived in it.  It was really cool to watch them swim in and out.  I got a video, but I have to figure out how to embed a video on the blog...

Fiji day two

We spent the day relaxing on the beach.  Our luggage finally showed up so we had all our clothes.

This was the only photo that I took of me on the beach.

The hotel had happy hour and Erica wanted to show her "island" look.  So I got a fruit punch, fresh blended fruit was SO good! 

Then we went to dinner with an American couple that we meet at the hotel.  She tried the local drink and said it wasn't too bad. 

Here is a close-up of it. 

Andrew went ahead and tried it.  I still wasn't up for it though.  Dinner was ok but I really wanted to eat at our hotel, so I told them that I really wanted to eat at our hotel our last night.

Fijian dinner and show

 For dinner, we went to the Outrigger Resort for dinner and a show.  They had a traditional dinner.  Most of the Pacific Islanders cook dinner in very similar ways. 

This is kokado.  It is a fish dish, with coconut and veggies, that is just SO good! 

Erica, me, and Andrew 

Here are the women dancers performing a traditional dance. 

Then the guys.  It was quite funny to watch them "scare" the little kids that were sitting down in front watching. 

This is a traditional drink that is made with herbs.  I didn't try it but Erica said it kind of tasted like mud.  Lol. 

Farewell dinner at Bedarra Inn

Our last evening at Bedarra we ended up eating dinner at the hotel. 

The beautiful flowers throughout the hotel. 

 

The three of us at dinner. 

My dinner, I started with fish pancakes.  Sounds weird, but they were SO good! 

Then I had the spicy fish with prawns and their sweet potatoes.  It was AMAZING! 

Then fished it off with passionfruit cheesecake.  

An amazing dinner to finish off my wonderful time in Fiji!