My Relaxing Vacation in Auckland

For the past two weeks I have had a vacation from my internship because of their school break between terms. In the beginning I thought it would be a nice time to travel, but after being here and traveling around New Zealand for about 3 months now, I was in need of some relaxation. I was able to finally sleep in most days and enjoy the beautiful spring weather that Auckland was finally getting. It was warmer and barely rained at all. So with my newfound free time I did some walking around Auckland. First there's K Road, which is a fun part of town that has tons of shops, great nightlife, art galleries, and restaurants. It's such an eclectic area with mostly ethnic restaurants like Japanese, Thai, Korean, Indian, and Chinese. You're always bound to find something good to eat on K Road. Then there's Queen Street, which is always fun to walk around. There's tons of shops to walk into and a huge Borders that I spent time reading in.

Although I had a lot of free time during my vacation, I had a lot of work to do as well. I was working on essays for my classes that are due at the end of the month. For my gastronomy class we had to choose a cuisine and research it. I obviously chose the cuisine that I love and miss the most: Louisiana cuisine! It was so fun to write a paper on the history and influences of Louisiana cuisine. I was able to research some of my favorite dishes like gumbo, red beans and rice, and crawfish etoufee, and see how they came about. It definitely made me hungry though!

Last Thursday a bunch of us went to the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra (APO) as an organized BU affiliated event. The concert was Vivaldi's Four Seasons and it took place at Auckland Town Hall. I didn't know what to expect going into the concert, but I was pleasantly surprised! It was an all strings concert so there were tons of violins, violas, and cellos. The music was beautiful and I really enjoyed it. We were even invited to have wine and cheese with the APO Guild. It was a very classy event and we all had a lot of fun. The picture is of where we were sitting inside the Town Hall before the show while a few people were practicing. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the concert.


Today Rachel and I spent the day at the Auckland Zoo. It was a beautiful zoo with so many interesting animals. We saw elephants, giraffes, rhinos, zebras, hippos, orangutans, otters, baboons, kangaroos, emus, tortoises, sea lions, spider monkeys, tigers, cheetahs, lions, and even the famous kiwi bird! We were also able to see two animal encounters, one with the elephants and one with the orangutans. It turned out to be a warm, sunny day and we had a great time!


Now, my vacation is over and I have to go back to work. I only have three more weeks working at Oranga before it's over. We also only have two more weeks of school. It's crazy how everything is coming to a close. The next few weeks will be spent finishing all my work and planning my upcoming trip to Australia! I hope everyone is doing well!

Love, Dafna