Sinah was finally back in Auckland after a couple weeks of traveling around the South Island so I was really excited to see her again and hear about her travels. The only catch is that this weekend was her last weekend in New Zealand :( I’ve been getting lots of practice at saying goodbye lately. Oh the life of an Au Pair... But I still would not trade any of it!
I excitedly picked up Sinah on Friday afternoon. We spent the day looking for souvenirs, catching up on trips and looking at pictures. We waited for Jenni and Verena to finish work to go out for dinner. We walked to Mission Bay to the Mexican restaurant where we met up with Felix and Lena (who were also leaving the next week). We had a wonderful evening of Mexican food, good conversations and lots of laughter.
But it didn't end there! Felix and Lena had been traveling around New Zealand in a van with a bed in the back and so now they had to get rid of the bed before selling it. So Felix came up with the idea of putting the bed on the beach! So as Jenni, Sinah and I walked back to Kohi Beach, Felix and Lena dropped the bed on the beach. When we got to the beach there it was, it looked hilarious! We spent the next couple hours laying on the bed chatting and laughing!
Saturday we decided to go to Devonport. Devonport was where I spent my first weekend here about 7 months ago! We were all excited because it was a beautiful day and Devonport is a beautiful suburb on the north shore of Auckland across the water from the city. We went to Mount Victoria for a 360 degree view of the surrounding area. We sat and enjoyed the view and company and then took A LOT of pictures haha!
 |
| Sinah VS |
 |
| Me... |
After our cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing we went to go get some coffee and ice cream.
Jenni needed to get back home for a Passover dinner with her host family. Sinah wanted to go to the night market for one last time. On Saturdays the night market is in Pakuranga which is just down the road from where her host family lived, so it was kind of special.
After Jenni’s dinner was done we picked her up and went back to my house for a movie night.
 |
| To give you a view of the Night Market |
 |
| Our favourite! 15 dumplings for $5 |
Sunday morning we ventured even farther north to the Waitakere Ranges. Felix had been there before and highly recommended it. It was a really interesting place in the middle of no where with sand dunes on one side and a lush forest on the other with a river running in between them. We walked along the river making occasional stops to try out the sand dunes. We got covered in sand because we found that running and rolling down worked better then the boogie boards we brought.
We continued until we got to a lake. We stopped and had some lunch on a dock over the lake. We debated going swimming until we saw a group of kids bring a huge plastic slide. They laid it along one of the sand dunes straight into the water with a little jump at the end. We watched a few kids go down first, it was FAST! And when they hit the end they went flying off the jump into the water. I finally got the courage and went down. It was a blast! And the water was suspiciously warm for Autumn weather. I had so much fun the first time that I decided to try again. This time I didn’t have as much luck. I didn’t go down straight so I ended up slipping off the side and rolling down the sand into the water. It got some good laughs from the spectators! After some swimming around in the lake we headed home so Sinah and Felix could get packed up and do all their last minute things before their flights home.
Monday morning Jenni and I went to Sinah’s house to spend a few last hours with her. We laughed about pictures and reminisced about past times. Then it was time to go, this part is never easy. There were lots of hugs and tears. But this was not a goodbye just a see ya later :)
We continued until we got to a lake. We stopped and had some lunch on a dock over the lake. We debated going swimming until we saw a group of kids bring a huge plastic slide. They laid it along one of the sand dunes straight into the water with a little jump at the end. We watched a few kids go down first, it was FAST! And when they hit the end they went flying off the jump into the water. I finally got the courage and went down. It was a blast! And the water was suspiciously warm for Autumn weather. I had so much fun the first time that I decided to try again. This time I didn’t have as much luck. I didn’t go down straight so I ended up slipping off the side and rolling down the sand into the water. It got some good laughs from the spectators! After some swimming around in the lake we headed home so Sinah and Felix could get packed up and do all their last minute things before their flights home.
 |
| First round: success |
 |
| Second round: fail |
Monday morning Jenni and I went to Sinah’s house to spend a few last hours with her. We laughed about pictures and reminisced about past times. Then it was time to go, this part is never easy. There were lots of hugs and tears. But this was not a goodbye just a see ya later :)
Thank you for always making me laugh Sinah! You are greatly missed!
No comments:
Post a Comment