Fall Break!

Alas, Kiwis do love their vacations. I am currently in the middle of a three week long “fall break”, after only a little over a month of school here. I suppose I can’t complain.

To kick off the break, we head over to the Auckland Domain (essentially Central Park) to watch the Red Bull Grand Prix, an excellent show of fearless Kiwis hurling themselves down a hill in flimsy soapbox racers.

Events like this make me happy to be in Auckland, as no other city could really draw a crowd of 100,000 with such massive theatrics. The day is filled with good friends, good food, great jokes, and plenty of underemphasized injuries.

Next, after a few days of boredom, a couple friends and I decide to hit up Rainbow’s End, “New Zealand’s Premier Theme Park.”  Lord knows why anyone would decide to build a theme park here, but they attempted to, and fell quite short of magnificence. Imagine the California Mid State Fair without the charm, or funny drunk people (although a few of the ride operators looked pretty buzzed). Despite the shortcomings of the place, we make the most of it, determined to get our $47 worth.

I’m headed to Australia tomorrow to meet up with my friend Jake from Berkeley. I will be there for about two weeks, and good adventures seem imminent. We have already booked an RV for the whole time, and our only plan so far is to eventually make it from Sydney to Melbourne.

Australia is massive. Almost as big as the contiguous US. Apparently, there’s not much in between the cities either, so it should be pretty and quite interesting. I am very much so looking forward to the trip, but am terrified after looking up videos of “Dangerous Australian Animals.” Mom and Dad, for your sakes, don’t look them up.