Saturday I think it all caught up with me because when Sara got up at 7 to go play basketball with the YSA I hardly remember telling her that I was going to stay in bed. It felt so good to sleep! I had breakfast and had already started on my laundry by the time she got back. Everything here is a lot smaller than in the states. Trash cans are about 1/3 the size of what we have and you have use a specific type of black bag that you purchase for the trash company to be able to pick it up. The washer is also a lot smaller and no one has dryers. Everything is hung up instead.
So our big event for the day was heading into the city to see the Auckland zoo! Julie helped us figure out the bus system (which is pretty expensive 5.60 one way but cheaper if you get an all day pass that allows you ride any bus you'd like to anywhere in the city). We were so proud of ourselves when we got off where we needed to be with the right bus. The plan was for us to meet up with the other girls around 11 but our bus got to the zoo closer to 11:30 so we worried that we had missed the girls. We ended up meeting up with two others from our group and we found out later that the other girls had changed their minds about going. Our little group of 4 was so much fun!
The zoo had quite the range of animals and it was really clean and well organized. The weather cooperated and it didn't get too hot until a bit later in the afternoon. We got to see a little elephant show where they showed us the elephant's teeth (it was an asian elephant) and feet and even made it lay down and then get back up. We saw tigers playing with balls and flamingos sitting on their eggs. We also met cousin "it" the orangutan (look at the picture) and of course we went through the Aussie Walkabout exhibit and encountered kangaroos and emus. But the best part was seeing a real live kiwi bird! They are native to NZ and are only found on their islands. They are extremely rare in the wild and there are lots of conservation efforts to keep their species alive. They are brown, flightless birds, about the size of a turkey with super long beaks to dig for bugs under leaves and dirt. While waiting for the bus on our way home we walked through a park near by called Western Springs that had chickens and pukiko birds (see picture) everywhere.
Then to top off the day, a missionary from the stake got home from his mission on Monday so they had a big celebration for him and we were invited. He had served in Tonga and so they had decorated the cultural hall with different maps of the islands that he had served on (he served on the same island as John Groberg for about 6 months). Of course there was lots of food and then a few amazing cultural dances and songs welcoming him home. The costumes were lovely and all of the entertainment was put on by the returning elder's family. Afterwards there was a dance for anyone who wanted to dance. I didn't recognize many of the songs but it was so much fun! I'm starting to get the names down of all the ysa. We didn't get home until late and were pretty tired but it was such a fun ending to an awesome day!
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