Flying to Fiji

Just a warning, this is gonna be a very negative post because Fiji Airways SUCKS MAJOR

Okay so story time (in a New Jersey/New York Italian guy accent bc idk why just because). Once upon a time, Fiji Airways was recommended to me by several parties for my flights to and from Fiji. Okay cool they're cheapest anyways. So I book my flights, the going and the return. It's all good. Then I get an email maybe like 5 days before my flights, eh idk maybe more point is it was close. So they say they cancelled my flight and put me on a later one for the next day. But that's not cool man because the next day I got a final I gotta be in Auckland for. So I email em back and I'm like yo change my flight (but nicer of course) and they're like sorry man no and I'm like yo I gotta be in Auckland I got a final you gotta change it man. And they're like call me. And I'm like no. And they don't help me. We send about 12 emails, no joke man. Still no help. I post on the facebook and I'm like yo you suck you cancel my flight and don't help me. Oh I forgot to mention in the emails I was like fine if you don't wanna change it just give me my money back and I'll book with someone else and they're like no refunds and we'll charge a cancel fee (but they're the ones that cancelled on me!). So I was a very angry. And they're not helping me. And the facebook page messages me and they're like 'yo let us help you' and I'm like please! and they still don't help. So my momma calls them bc she's a doll and they say they fix it then they send me another email saying it still ain't fixed. Then she calls again and gets it sorted or maybe she had to call a third time. Then they send me an email saying badda bing badda boom it's fixed. Then the facebook page message me again and they're like yo you gotta call us if you want help and I'm like yo I already told you it was fixed. They don't even communicate the email group and the facebook group and the phone group. So i don't really know if it's fixed or not but imma go with it.
okay back to english now.
So I get to the airport and there's no problems and I'm waiting for my plane and I'm sitting across from these two beautiful humans which is important because they'll come up in the story for the next day because fate man, and anyways they're cute but I'm tryin not to stare bc some people think I got a staring problem bc I'll zone out and it'll look like I'm staring at you but these guys were cute so it wouldn't be zone out it would be I'm staring at you bc you are fine. So they got these red passports and I'm like oh that's not english or spanish I wonder where you're from. So I chew on that then 40 minutes after we were supposed to board we go get in line to board and I'm in line before them and I think no more of them.
Then we get on the plane and there's a problem with the flight. 6 seats are double booked and there's only 2 empty seats in first class. 2 of the overbooked seats were right next to me so I was wondering if mine would be double booked too but it wasn't. I don't know what they did with the extra people but we sat on the plane for an hour and a half while they tried to figure it out.
I was a little freakin because my taxi guy was supposed to get me at 3:55 at the airport and now we were like two and half hours late and idk if he would wait but oh well nothing I can do
I watched the first three episodes of season two of the Flash instead of writing more blog posts. Oops.
So the guy that won the seat next to me in the double booked war was a new pilot for Fiji Air from Switzerland. He worked with some other airline for 10 or 30 years idk and he was nice. I do not blame him for Fiji Air sucking.
I was sad about being late to the airport but I was even more sad that I was gonna miss a Fiji sunset because they were supposed to be the best in like all the world. Then Mr. Pilot dude asks if I wanna trade seats with him so I could be at the window but I'm like no I'm okay but then I realize that WE ARE THE SUNSET. So like I can't look out the window at the real sunset because I didn't trade seats because I didn't realize what/why he was asking but then I saw like the reflections on the wings and we were like super colorful and I should've taken him up on his offer but i didn't realize but oh well
So then the sun is already down when we land.
But they're like "if you're connecting to Honolulu run to our staff so you make the flight" and I'm just like OMG ARE YOU KIDDING ME because Bethany Hamilton is in Fiji and idk when she's going back to Hawaii but if she was on that flight and we got there earlier I might've seen her and it would've made my life to meet Bethany. Like I was so upset. She prob wasn't even on that flight; they prob have Hawaii flights every day, but still. The thought that she could possibly be literally within like 50 feet from me and I missed her is very upsetting. I woulda tried to detour to go check but they were very like hawaii boarding passes only and such.
So then I'm in line in customs and I see the pretty boys again and they're way behind in line so sucks to be them.
So then I get out to the waiting area and the guy with my name sign is like "I've been waiting here for 3 hours!!!" (our flight only landed 2 hours late, thanks tail wind) and I'm like "my flight was delayed. not my fault" and he was weird and kinda creepy and lol thank God for best friends like Patrick because I used him as a fake boyfriend but I'm sure he wouldn't mind.
Then we finally get to the dock and I get on the ferry boat thing and Fiji has literally no lights and it's so dark and I've never seen so many stars in my life. Like when I told Autumn the glowworm caves looked like stars, I wasn't kidding. I felt like I was in the caves again. Like I thought we had lots of stars at home being in the woods and such but I guess Ocean City and Baltimore are too close because they're literally nothing like I'm ashamed to think that that was a lot of stars because it wasn't. I should've taken a picture but honestly I didn't even think to because I was so in the moment. We were goin through this river and it was like all trees and such on the sides and it was all fishy and it reminded me of home and it would've been perfect to just stop the boat and go night fishing but i couldn't and that was sad but it was a nice boat ride and i liked it. & there were jumping fish, like a lot of them. I wonder if there was a shark hunting them that we couldn't see but it was cool to see all the jumping fish and the boat ride was nice and i'm glad it was at night because it wouldn't have been the same during the day and it wouldn't be as nice.
Then we got to the island and they show me my room and take me to dinner because I just made it in time and it was beef and vegetables on mash just like I make in the microwave. I might only be able to eat microwaveable and raw foods due to my lack of domestic skills but apparently that means I can still eat good.
So then they're all like movie time and we're all like no bonfire so they make a bonfire for us. There's a German couple, Stella and Marcus, and a Canadian couple. The Canadian couple really isn't Canadian tho, I feel they're more homeless, tho nomad would probably be a more appropriate term, because apparently they're literally always traveling and they travel the world on their boat. They're those people you hate to meet that literally do nothing but brag about where they've been and what they've done. Like I've been and done a lot of things/places but you don't hear me bragging every chance I get (this blog is different because that's literally the purpose of this blog). Ugh it just irks me. That might be my new least favorite kind of people.
So then the worker dudes find out I'm not gonna be here for the fire show because I leave right quick so he's like "i'll teach you how to fire dance" so then I fire dance, yay! (see opening picture)
that was super cool and i'm v grateful he decided to show me fire dancing and let me try. I'm like a real islander now.
then we chill at the fire some more and then I go back to my room. I'm in a cute little bungalow I forgot to take a picture of but you open the door and there's the bed and that's it because it's small and cute and it has a leaf roof and it's like I always thought I would be fine living in - a little shack on the beach with nothing but like a bed but i've decided i'm too much of a princess and i need a real house, but it can still be on a beach.

nope, not on this island

until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Waiting for Wellington

My morning started off very bad. Like I wrote a solid 4.5 pages on how bad my day was going, all before noon, but I'm not gonna type it out for ya because they're my problems not yours. Included in those pages tho are how my Uber driver left me like a mile from where I had to be in the pouring rain, my smoothie tasted like stuff I would not eat, and my flight got delayed. It was not off to a good start.
So then when we finally got in the air, it was only a 45 minute flight to Wellington. We fell out of the sky for a few hundred feet and I thought we were gonna die. But we made it.

My face with the pool being overrun
by children.

None of the ATMs would accept any of my cards. I tried all cards at all ATMs and none of them would give me money. So then I just used a card for a cab to the hotel and since the flight was all delayed, it was too late to really go do anything because it was almost dark and the hotel is like way uphill so no way am I gonna be walking up and down to town. There was no wifi either so I had to use my data so I tried to plan out what else to do besides my seal safari as quick as I could. Unfortunately it was a little too quick and I still had an hour before the restaurant would be open for dinner. So I just chilled. I thought of writing some of my way overdue blog posts but I just couldn't because my head hurt because I was having a rough week.
Then finally it was time for dinner so I go to the restaurant. I got the ribs because apparently pork is my new favorite food along with fried chicken (jk we all know I love all meats and fishes) but the ribs didn't make me feel any better so I had to take the rest back to my room because I was done being at the restaurant.
So then I went to the swimming pool but it was overrun by 7-12 year olds so I went in the sauna and hoped they would leave soon but they had big buckets of KFC and they had more of their friends join them every couple minutes and they lasted way longer than I lasted so I went back to my room and took a warm shower because the room was freezing and I don't think the heat was working but idk how to work their heating systems here because it seems no matter what I do they don't work.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

My face after eating my ribs,
barely any bbq sauce on it

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Taking it to Taupo

Before you ask "What's 'it'?", I dunno. I just needed a title. 'It' could be lots of things. 'It' could be myself. 'It' could be my cameras. 'It' could be my backpack. 'It' could be both my sense of adventure and my laziness as I plan to have a very relaxing weekend. 'It' could be just about anything (including the book Sarah let me borrow for the long bus rude. Shout out & thanks to Sarah!).
So yeah, I'm in Taupo. And I still have to write my blogs about Waiheke, Hobbiton, and Waitomo, but I'm currently sitting on this little patio thing at the hotel (the pool and hot tub were both freezing), looking at the most gorgeous view (and no, it's not a mirror), so those other posts can wait. And yes, it might only be 2 in the afternoon, but I'm not doing anything else today except maybe go to the lake and drink more tea, so really my day is done enough to write my post.
This morning I got up (several times before I had to then eventually) at 6:30 to catch my bus to Taupo. I was on the bus from 7:15 (a bit earlier actually, 7:10ish) to 12:30. Thankfully, the bus had wifi and my iPod was working. I took up the entire back row the whole time so I could lay down. (Hey if they wanted they back row they should've gotten there earlier.) This one family tried to sit there but then I tweeted a not very nice tweet and they must've read my mind because then they moved. Yeah, nobody said I was a nice person (except maybe Ted but that's because he's super nice). So anyways, I spent the first couple hours reading the book Sarah lent me

(Reese Witherspoon recommended the author to the whole internet, so that was really all the confirmation I needed. Also idk if that word should be affirmation because idk what affirmation means. But you get my point. What Reese says goes). It's not a sad book (tbh I'm not really sure what the plot is yet because apparently I'm a much slower reader than I used to be), yet I found myself holding back tears like four times. The first time, she was describing the steam releases in the roads in New York. I miss America so much that that description almost had me ballin'. Only in New Zealand could a book about Australia have me missing America. The other times she was talking about Janie, a daughter that died, and yeah, Pal, that doesn't really need explaining. It's a sad life nowadays. A year and a half ago (when he was totally healthy) everything was fine. Crazy how fast life can change.
Aw man. I finished my tea. Might have to go in soon to get more. Plus it's getting cold.
So anyways, after I heard enough about the mom grieving the dead girl, I switched over to my iPod. I started with Madonna, a solid choice. So like Vogue comes on and I'm like "I've heard this before" and I mean, obviously I've heard Vogue before, but I mean in a different song. Then it hits me - "Gaga". So I switch over to Lady GaGa and then turn on Born This Way to see if I'm right and I'm totally right. Born This Way is a faster (I'd guess 3-5x) Vogue melody. Obviously the words are different but the beat is definitely the same. At first I think that I was more upset that it's taken me 5 years to notice than I was about the actual music, but now I've realized I didn't notice because, although definitely different from her other songs at the time, Gaga has a certain style (like where she talks in parts in all her songs) that just made it seem Gaga-y (although when Born This Way came out I remember thinking it didn't seem too Gaga-y...oh well) so I just went with it. But yeah.
So then we took a half hour stop in Tokoroa but we couldn't bring hot food or drink back on the bus. So I found all the fried chicken in New Zealand; it's in Tokoroa! I was sad I couldn't get some because I wouldn't finish it in time and I had no way of sneaking it back on the bus.
Tokoroa isn't that far from Taupo, so I just listened to some Green Day (love them) and enjoyed the scenery (fun fact: I'm currently listening to Green Day as I'm typing out this post that I've already wrote [and yeah it should be written but wrote and post kinda rhyme in my mind]) until we were in Taupo. In Auckland, leaves fall but they never change color until they hit the ground. It's the strangest thing. The tree will be super green with dead leaves around it. But from Tokoroa to Taupo, the leaves were orange, yellow, green, red. A lot of them were still green but the colored ones were beautiful and reminded me why autumn (fall in America because leaf fall down) is a top contender for my favorite
season. I thought it was strange that the leaves are colorful now when at home it's almost summer, meaning here it should be almost winter, but then I remembered most of the North Island doesn't have winter, so it would make sense that their fall would be a bit later.
Okay I have to go in now; I'm too cold.
Okay I'm back inside now but I'll definitely have to go out again later to take pictures because it's seriously so beautiful. But I'll get there. (Future foreshadow: It rained every morning so I couldn't get a decent picture.)
Okay, wait, before I get back to the sequence of events, I just got more tea. The water is literally boiling, yet when I got outside it cooled so fast it was like legit cold. So that's how cold it is out. Okay back to the story.

Once I got to Taupo, I grabbed a map from iSite and started just wandering. I needed to grab food. I wanted fried chicken (shocker). I feel like I was actually wandering for quite a while. This one place said 'Fried Chicken' and I was like YES! But they only had breasts and I like legs and thighs. So I kept walking. Eventually I found this place called Prime Roast. Like that literally screams Tasha. So I go in and it looks amazing. And they have friend chicken thighs! But the food looked so good I got a pork platter instead.
When I was so full that I couldn't eat anymore, I walked more. I stumbled upon a taxi company so I took a taxi to my hotel but it was actually pretty close. I could've walked. Oh well.
So this room is super cool because it makes me feel like I'm in a log cabin which is cool because I've always wanted to stay at one of those resorts.
So then I took a look at the map and reconfigured my plan. I was going to go to the honey hive today but it's close to where I was going tomorrow, so I'm just gonna go first thing tomorrow. It's a bit far from here.
Then I attempted to face time my mother but it didn't work. I tried the pool and it was freezing. The hot tub wasn't much warmer. So I made some tea and went to the deck thing that overlooks the lack (and the mountains and the houses). It's so lovely it makes me wonder how I could miss the States.
I wrote out some postcards and started on this blog then I got cold and came in where I'm still writing and jamming to my Avril Lavigne pandora (love her). So yeah. That's where I'm at. I'll probably go to the hotel's restaurant for dinner, perhaps catch up on another blog post, perhaps not, shower, and bed. I'm exhausted.

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

"Did you fall off a motorbike?"

No. No I did not. I went surfing. But as soon as I board the plane from Bali, that's what the two people I'm sitting next to ask. "Did you fall off a motorbike?"

I suppose I should start with my flight TO Bali first. So Friday the 15th I had class from noon-five. I actually had a test in my noon-2pm class. So I was up as per usual on class days. Then after class I made sure I was all packed and around 6:15 called an Uber to take me to the airport.
I was all by myself. I don't know if I clicked the wrong one or they sent the wrong one or it was just the closest one, but they sent a whole large van for my Uber ride to the airport, for just me. It was a little crazy. But it took me where I needed to go and dropped me off at the airport that was quickly becoming as familiar as BWI to me.
I didn't bring my headphones because it's an international flight and I figured they would provide them along with the television screens that Air New Zealand even has for domestic flights. But I wasn't on Air New Zealand, I was on Virgin Australia. Not only did they not have any television sets or headphones, they didn't have any snacks, food, blankets, or pillows either.
Luckily there was a little girl next to me that thought it was totally awesome that I was an American so she talked to me for a little bit. I also tried to pass the time by playing games on my phone, but it almost overheated my phone and it killed my battery in like a half hour, which was not good because I still had Brisbane and another flight til Bali. So then I attempted to read the magazine in the seat pocket in front of me, and that helped a little as well. Somehow, I made it to Brisbane.
After my night on the town, I made it back to a completely empty airport. I was really hoping that this meant the flight would also be empty and I could possibly spread out and get some sleep.
No such luck.
Once we started boarding, the gate/plane/airport suddenly filled up and the flight was practically full. It was too full for me to even get 1 empty seat between me and a stranger, let alone have a row to myself. Times like these I really miss my dear Southwest.
Again, there was no television, no blankets or pillows, no headphones. We did however get a breakfast meal, but I wasn't feeling very well so I didn't take it. I don't know what it is about planes these days but I can't seem to be on one without getting sick. It's really not okay.
Because I had been awake for the past 24 hours or longer, I tried to get some sleep, but the most sleep I could muster came in 20 minute intervals. Add that to the plane sickness and it was quite a miserable flight. & there was no little girl next to me to entertain me this time.
Thankfully, we had a tail wind and made it to Bali 30 minutes early (which we then spent being taxied to the gate, but at least we were back on the ground).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Coming back from Bali, there was like a million different securities I had to go through to make it to check in and then again to make it to the gate. It was ridiculous!
Once at check in, the lady stared at my New Zealand Visa for like a solid 15-20 minutes and she kept questioning me about it. Like I don't think she understood English, so I don't understand why she was working for Virgin AUSTRALIA, an English speaking company. Like go to Indonesian Air or something if you don't speak English, but my Visa is good now let me through.
Finally I convinced her that it was fine and she let me go. I wasn't sure if they were going to feed me or not on this flight, and I thought I might sleep on this plane, so I looked for food on my way to the gate. (Plus I still had 70,000 IDR in Cash to spend.) I saw a Hard Rock and just had to stop. We had passed 2 Hard Rocks on the way to the airport and I was thinking about them ever since, so it was like destiny to see one in the airport as well. Hard Rock is my soul restaurant. It's where I go when I'm not feeling well. It's so healing to me. When I'm physically sick (and we're traveling), I always get chocolate milk and a breakfast meal (that I usually only take like 2 bites of because sick) and it always makes me feel better (shout out to my mother for taking me there). Tuns out when you're homesick it has the same healing affect but on your soul. There's just somethin bout rock n roll man. I swear it is magic. Most people don't understand, but for those that do, I appreciate you (shoutout to Ted).
So anyways. I got pulled pork and sweet tea because TEA IS LIFE and I miss sweet tea dearly.
Hard Rock is amazing to me and I thank it for being literally everywhere in the world when I need it most. (I believe that whole sickness chocolate milk thing happened in Denmark or Sweden, as well as Myrtle Beach [good ole USA].) Anyways, I thank God for Hard Rock.
At the gate, there was MORE security to go through. Eventually I made it through and we were shuttled out to the plane via bus because there was no actual gate walkway. So then I boarded my plane, where I was then asked "Did you fall off a motorbike?" as soon as I sat down. No ma'am. I attempted to surf. 'Twas not a good time.
That was as much conversation I had the rest of the way to Auckland.
Thankfully, each flight was significantly shorter on the return. I have no idea why, but going to Bali from Brisbane was 7 hours, while coming back it was only 5. Then, Auckland to Brisbane was 4 hours and coming back it was only 2.5. I was glad for the shortage tho. The sooner I got back the sooner I could go to bed.
I didn't get sick at all on the return flights. I would like to thank the Hard Rock. Maybe things are starting to look up. There still was no television, blankets, pillows, or headphones, but on the Bali to Brisbane we did get a meal, though we did not on Brisbane to Auckland.
I didn't sleep at all, but I did try a little. I mostly just sat there. I wrote some of the earlier Bali blog posts while on the plane, but either I'm a slow writer or I get tired and put it down because I didn't really get very far, I don't think. But because of the flight times, I had 4 hours less time on the return flights than I did on the outgoing flights so it was all good by me, and soon I was back in Auckland.
I took the SkyBus back to Auckland and it was my first successful SkyBus ride! I'm really proud of the SkyBus company and myself for successfully getting me back to my flat incident free so I could type this up for you.

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Beautiful Byron

So as we all know, my posts quite often get quite long. Therefore, this post isn't gonna be about my trip to Byron so much as like Byron in general, I guess. Like it's still gonna be a pretty much daily account of my actions in Australia, but it won't include my actual activities, such as the diving, kayaking, or Bluesfest. Those will all be separate posts. So yeah. Look forward to 'em. 

Okay. So like I was totally hype to go to Bluesfest, but then the Bluesfest people totally screwed up the schedule and scheduled UB40 and the Wailers at the same time so I was like totally bummed and wasn't gonna go anymore. But then in Queenstown I won the Kayaking with Dolphins trip in Byron Bay so I like totally thought it was like fate telling me I just had to go. & then I when I got back on the Bluesfest site they totally fixed it and they weren't playing at the same times anymore so I was all like "yeahhh" so I booked my flights and stuff and yeah now we're here at this post about my time. (Also lol I'm not really sure what it is, maybe it's the fact I have to argue my grades with the idiotic professors here but I've totally gone completely Cher from Clueless, but typing that paragraph kinda annoyed me so I'll get back to being Tasha now...haha)

So. 7am flight from Auckland. So like obviously when I was booking I realized it was a 7am flight but like I apparently didn't realize what exactly that meant or I totally would've booked a later flight. 7am flight means I have to get up at 4am to take a $40 taxi at 4:30am to get to the airport in time for check-in and security and such. Such a pain. But soon I was on my way to Sydney, Australia on my should-be-new-favorite-but-sorry-it-can't-be-my-favorite-because-it's-no-SouthWest airline, Air New Zealand. Okay like it's an international flight, no need to charge $10 for movies because I'm so not paying. Second, um why is there no in flight snack? I can totally understand not having a full fledged meal because it's only a 3 hour flight but like where's the peanuts? Southwest spoils me. Air New Zealand needs to get with the program.
So then we land, right? And the flight attendants are all like "if you have a domestic transfer just go to the domestic gate" so I go to go through customs to get to the domestic gate and the guy is like "is this all your luggage?". Like uh, no. So I had to go to baggage claim to go get my suitcase so it could go to the domestic gate instead of just going all the way through. There were no dogs, no x-rays, no security; I just had to go take it myself from the international terminal to the domestic one because they're lazy. Good thing the customs guy was looking out for me or I'd be suitcase-less. 

My flight to Ballina Byron (I still have absolutely no idea how to correctly pronounce Ballina btw) was a Virgin Australia flight, not Air New Zealand. At first I kinda felt like a traitor bc when we came to Australia last time we always used Qantas, but Virgin treated me very well so soon I didn't care. (Ik, why would I even feel like that in the first place? It was 4 years ago and it's just an airline. But yo I can't even get rice from a different [closer] Chinese place without feeling like a total traitor.) Although my flight to Byron was only like an hour, I was put in first class so it made life better 'cause now I'm first class, up in the sky. [Not] sippin' champagne, livin' the life, in the fast line; I won't change by the glamorous, oh the flossy, flossy.
Oh yeah maybe I should also mention this is my first ever like legit solo trip. And I'm going to Australia. Go big or go home, right? Or I guess go big or stay home, haha.
So yeah.
On my way out of Sydney I got some aerial pictures of the city and harbor, which you can see one below. Carnival was also docked to make sure I made it out okay (both the Legend and the Spirit sail from Sydney according to www.carnival.com.au so for those of you who tried to tell me the Legend didn't sail from Sydney you can suck it, I know my ships). 

Eventually I landed at Ballina Byron, an airport smaller than the one in Salisbury. Like only two airlines come through (Virgin and Jet Star) and it's just a really tiny airport. I almost made a friend, Brandon, but then my bag came and I left to go find my shuttle. Oh well.

The shuttle took me to my AirBNB where I dropped my stuff off and headed into town. After exploring town, I headed back to the airbnb but instead of going in I went past it to continue to the beach. I could hear the waves from several streets away so obviously the surf was rough and huge. Plus I was wearing pants and clothes because I hadn't changed yet so I didn't go swimming but I just went to check it out then I was gonna sit in the grassy area that I went through to get to the beach. Bad idea. I sat on a wasp and it stung my butt.

Even my pants touching it hurt really bad. So I awkwardly waddled back to the accommodation to take a shower. The shower helped but I had a bump on my butt where it stung me (also apparently stang isn't a word - thanks, auto-correct, & Maryland for making me think for the past 19 years that it is a word). So I just had to post a status about it on Facebook and I think that's the most likes I've ever got on a status. So thank ya'll for loving my pain (also since you can't tell bc it's via computer, that was my attempt at sarcasm. I do not approve of everyone loving my pain). 

Anyways I sucked it up and got dress and headed back into town because that's where the food is. I got invited to a backpackers bbq but it wasn't for another two hours so I got a smoothie to hold me over and kept walking until I found another beach. This beach was obviously the place to be. There was music, dogs, surfers, swimmers, everything. So I just chilled on the beach until dark when a sand crab decided to pinch the other side of my butt. Lovely (more sarcasm, look I'm getting pretty good; I guess that's what pain does to a person). So then I was cold, stuffed from my smoothie, and had two sore butt cheeks, still with time to kill til the bbq so I decided to just forget it and head back to my bed. 

Look this post is already pretty long and I'm only at day 1. Maybe I'll just do each day it's own post. That'd prob be best, although it took me like 4 days just to finally sit down and write this one, but oh well. I can do what I want. It's my blog. (Yeah maybe I am tryna convince myself of that based upon how many times I say it if you hadn't noticed. Also if you hadn't, you're really unobservant and probably don't even fully read my blog. Lucky for you I don't really care right now because I'm super tired. So yeah good for you. Goodnight)

Oh also I forgot to mention that a combination of the sun, the stings and pinches, the smoothie, and the lack of sleep, as I was just chillin' on the beach (the second one not the bee one) I was all like "aw it's so beautiful here this is so beautiful Australia is so perfect" lol (yeah no punctuation it was just all rambley) if someone could read my mind they would think I'm like legit insane or like on something or something. But yeah. I've thought it about a million and twenty seven thousand times, but I've never said it out loud for fear of being deported, but New Zealand sucks major, especially compared to Australia. Like the reason I picked Auckland instead of Australia was because 1) I had already been to Australia and I had not yet been to New Zealand, 2) Melbourne was my absolute least favorite part of Australia, and 3) Australia was close enough I can just visit (which I've obviously done), but like no one told me New Zealand was like not like Australia at all. Like I was not adequately warned or I might've put more consideration into Melbourne. Actually, maybe my mother and grandmother tried to ask me but why would I listen to them? But yeah so Australia is a million and five hundred thousand six hundred ninety two point seven six times better than New Zealand, which I could go on about for a whole post, and maybe after I've successfully completed my semester here and therefore cannot be deported or marked down for it, maybe I'll write such a post. But for now I guess you can just wait for my next post about day 2 in Byron Bay. 

Until next time,
xoxo,
Tasha

Auckland Arrival

So this is totally late, but I've been busy. Anywhos, on Feb 16 mi familia y yo made the trek up to Newark, New Jersey for my flights to Houston then Auckland.
The drive up was long. We had lunch at some Portuguese diner. Then we went to the airport and I was left with Aissa and other Loyola kids to fend for myself for five months.

The ride to Houston was not smooth sailing; it was the roughest, bumpiest flight I think I've ever had and it made my ears hurt. It's probably a good thing I couldn't dive in Cayman - my ears probably wouldn't've been up for it. But after finally touching down, I had just about the BEST burger at the airport. Like it could compete with Fat Fish. It was that good.
Okay so let me pause here to explain Fat Fish to those of you whom? who? that? might not know.
So Fat Fish is like the equivalent of restaurant heaven. Right now it's in West Ocean City, but they're looking into expanding and making an uptown location for North OC. It's got this really chill vibe and super good food. It is amazing. Oh, and smoothies. I LOVE smoothies. Like yaassss. Anywhos, Joe, the owner, is opening Madi & Tay's Bagels so that'll be waiting for me upon my return, hopefully. For visual reference, please see my Houston burger below (I can't find my pictures of my Fat Fish burgers :( ).

So after our outstanding burgers, it was time to board our 14 hour flight to Auckland. Having survived a 23 hour flight before, I felt this flight honestly wouldn't be as bad/seem as long as our flight to Houston, especially considering the turbulence we had just encountered. I was wrong. But, I was the only one whose name was on their screen, so I guess its okay, and I did get to sleep on the plan a bit, so that's good. Also no blood clots, so I suppose if ya take a step back and look at the bigger important life things, it was a good flight. 

We got into Auckland around 6am Auckland time, noon OC time. Customs was a bit odd; you go through customs before you get your bags and when you get your bags there aren't even any dog sniffers. I saw one off to the side but that's it. It was a yellow lab. Strange. But then we took the cab to our Auckland accommodations where my luggage needed to be lugged up three flights of stairs. Thankfully, one of my flatmates was there to help me. My bitterness towards Kenny for messing up our housing situation was alleviated a little when I saw that we had two fridges. Not one, two!! But I can't cook anyways, so I'm not sure why I was so excited.

After collecting our bearings, we toured campus. It was a tour in which I retained absolutely nothing. I retained the same thing war is good for. Lol please excuse my random song references; they might occur more often than ya'd like. 

We then headed over to Parnell to see how the other half lives. James' balcony - bedroom balcony - view is spectacular. He gets the water, the city, the train, the green grass, literally everything. What do I get back in Uni Hall Apartments? Freshmen. My bedroom view stares directly into the rooms of first years. It's super awful, extremely disappointing, and bound to become awkward when I forget to close the curtains while changing. If they weren't so far away from campus (although they are much closer to town), I would be way too insanely jealous of the Parnell kids.

View from James' balcony

On the way back to my sad flat, I stopped by the lantern festival then returned to my bed and went to sleep. 

Til next time,
xoxo,
Tasha