FROM CINCY TO SYDNEY

people who die have lived."

Day 6 – Friday

Today was sad day for us as we all had fallen in love with Queenstown, however it was time to leave the south island of New Zealand and head to the north island. We boarded a plane in the morning for Auckland, the biggest city in New Zealand. We really didn’t have any plans for anything to do while in Auckland like we had in the other cities.

When we arrived we noticed a huge change in climate and were very happy that we could actually wear our shorts and t-shirts that we had packed. We took a shuttle to our hostel and put away all of our stuff and proceeded to walk around the city to explore.

We found out quickly that there was nothing to really do in Auckland. We did run into a Wendy’s and we ended up eating there twice during the two days we were in the city.

That night we ended up going to a casino because they were giving away $20,000 to one person that night. This was my first time in a casino and I really don’t know too many of the games, but Nick was helping me out on roulette as this was “his game.” I ended up catching on really quickly and turned my $40 into $205 in a matter of an hour. I got out of there as fast as I could. I was pretty excited to have won some good money.

Day 7 – Saturday

The only thing we had planned for today was to go to the zoo. Spenser’s friend from school is doing an internship in Canberra, Australia (the capital of Australia) at their zoo, so he was keen on going to the Auckland Zoo. This zoo is considered one of the best in the world and even has a weekly TV show on Animal Planet called Zoo (how original.)

This zoo was really nice and they had some neat animals. However their was a festival going on next to the zoo which meant that none of their shows were going on because the animals were startled. We ended up going to this festival. The festival was for people of the samoan decent and had all different countries represented. It was pretty cool to walk around and see what kind of food they served (none of it looked any good.) We also saw lots of U.S. sports apparel. I saw 8 Cincinnati Reds hats.

Day 8 - Sunday

Today was departure day. We had a 4pm flight and just wanted to relax most of the morning. So we went and saw a movie at the theatre. Its funny because all the movies in New Zealand and Australia are the same ones we see in the states. Auckland did not seem like it had much to offer us, but that could be because its hard to compare any city to Sydney.

This trip was one of the best trips I have been on in my life. It was sad to leave New Zealand but we were ready to be home in Sydney and get back to the usual life. This trip has confirmed that one of my greatest passions in life is traveling the world. Its amazing how much you can learn from different cultures. I hope to one day come back to New Zealand, especially Queenstown.