You only turn 21 once...

So after break, I only had one week before there was another exciting event, MY 21ST BIRTHDAY! So technically my birthday was on a Friday in New Zealand, but the night to go out is Thursday night. So my group of girls got all dressed up to go into town on Thursday night. Sam let me borrow her tiara and boa from her birthday and after taking forever to get ready and pregaming a bit, we left for town.

The girls! Emma, Sam, Me, Elyse and Lannette

The first stop on the birthday circuit was the Mad Cow. They are the bar that usually sends a party bus to campus so the rest of our friends had taken the bus into town from the boonies known as Lincoln. We added our friends Kevin, Jared, and Nick to our group and moved on to the next bar.

We ended up at the Billiard Bar which has these drink mixes in teapots. Jared bought me a tequila shot as a pre birthday shot. It was 11:45 so we decided to stay there till my birthday at midnight. Jared ordered a teapot and as soon as it was midnight, everyone had a shot for my 21st with me. We then moved to the upstairs area where they had live music and had fun dancing around. I also had another shot...

Apparently staying at one place was not an option, so we moved on to the next spot; a place called My Bar. I really like My Bar since it looks like the clubs in Auckland and has the best setup for dancing. We spent a while there just dancing and attempting to avoid creepy boys. Then it was on to Sol Square. This happens to be one of my favorite places to just chill so it was perfect for the end of the night. We went to the Yellow Cross where I had my last drink of the night and hung out a bit before everyone began getting sleepy. They also wouldn't let me in anywhere else (they have this no intoxicated people rule at the bars, its weird).

My birthday crew

The following day was the hangover from hell, which I guess is a requirement for the day after your birthday. Unfortunately, it was my actual birthday and I spent the whole day sick, hungry, and horizontal. Finally by 4:30 I was able to drink a smoothie and skype with my parents. The first thing my dad says to me, "Malia, you look hungover." "Thats cuz I am Dad." By 5 I was finally vertical, and completely fine. I had awesome mexican tacos for dinner and then the best birthday cake that Elyse and Lannette made me. It was chocolate with chocolate pieces and oreos on top. I took my birthday night easy by watching movies in the lounge, ignoring everyone hassling me for not drinking on my birthday.

The following day was Saturday and meant it was actually my birthday back home. In an attempt to salvage my birthday plans, I chose to celebrate on my American birthday by going into town to have delicious sushi for dinner. Sophia came from Canterbury, as well as Cody and his entire apartment.

Elyse, Lannette, Emma, Me, Cody and in the back from left, Sam and Sophia at an awesome Sushi restaurant

I got birthday ice cream before my dinner which was odd, but good nonetheless. We took Sophia home with us to Lincoln and went to the Grouse for a couple of birthday drinks. Then we hung out at Farm Road for a bit before going home.

The next morning, I woke up early to drive to Akaroa with Lannette. We had signed up to swim with the world's smallest and rarest dolphin. Its equivalent with seeing a panda in china. We got outfitted in our wetsuits and took our spot at the front of the boat. I became the dolphin spotter and even got to see one jump out of the water (they aren't known for their acrobats). We saw a bunch of different pods of about 2 or 3 dolphins. We even saw some penguins which had been on my New Zealand checklist. We were waiting for the dolphins that stuck around even when the boat was turned off. Finally, one single dolphin was swimming around and the guide told us to get in the water.

So excited to finally be swimming with dolphins!

I jumped in and was given rocks to bang underwater to interest them in coming over. The water was fairly cold because it was so overcast. I knew these dolphins were small but once you are in the water with them you really can see how tiny they are. They are about the length of my arm span. Right as I got in, one was circling the group and darting in between everyone. Next thing I know, there is a new group of 2 and another new group of 3. One went zooming by so close I think he was inches away from my body. I of course screamed.

It was incredible to be surrounded by these tiny dolphins. The fact that they were endangered and extremely rare made it that much better. I had wanted to go swimming with dolphins my entire life and was never really comfortable with the thought of paying an absurd amount of money to sit in a pool with dolphins in a life jacket and doing kissing poses with them. While I wasn't allowed to touch these, to know they were wild animals and had chosen to spend some time with us really made it special. Unfortunately, they only stuck around for a bit and they were off to eating once more and it was time for me to get out of the freezing water.

Aren't they adorable! The babies are said to look like rugby balls with flippers.

Overall it was an incredible birthday weekend. Despite being in a country where the drinking age is 18, it still felt like my 21st was an important birthday. I got to experience with my new friends here, and while I missed celebrating with friends at home, it was still incredible. I also got to have great food (a nice change from the dining hall) and got to do one of my life goals by swimming with dolphins. It was definitely a weekend I will never forget!

Alli's bday and Wildfoods!

So this has definitely been the most eventful week/weekend. So much so I'm splitting it into two entries for an easy read. We started the weekend festivities early on Thursday because we were celebrating Alli's 21st birthday. While we are not in the US and are already allowed to drink, it doesn't mean that a 21st will not be truly celebrated. It was a lot of fun because us girls all got dressed up to go out on the town. I think it had been the first time all of us went out as a big group.



The following day we left for Hokitika which is on the west coast of the south island. The reason being WILDFOODS festival. It's basically this big festival where they sell really interesting and wild food. Oh and people also dress in crazy group outfits. We arrived later in the evening after a beautiful drive through Arthur's pass. I rode out with my new floormates including Lannette and Kevin from the epic road trip on the North Island. I stayed at Alli's friends house that night, eagerly anticipating the festival on Saturday.

We got to a late start on Saturday since we all wanted to sleep in. This was Alli's actual birthday and we began the morning with Happy Birthday and a candle in a muffin. After dressing up (my friend Liz and I were jungle cats) and drawing on our whiskers and noses, we were ready to go.


The whole gang

We arrived at the festival starving which was perfect. I wasn't too adventurous and began my morning with a delicious strawberry waffle. We began wandering around to see some of the rather crazy costumes. There was a man in a Borat thong, avatars, too many wheres Waldos, and much more. We ran into more EAP kids which was really awesome. There was also a lot of weird food to choose from. There were grubs, snails, worms, and more insect varieties. I think the worst was a stand called Rocky Mountain Oysters, which was in fact, bull testicles. Definitely steered clear of that one. I did have a friend encourage me to eat something that looked like a chocolate truffle. Turned out to be ground up worm with chocolate inside. It wasn't too different from a regular truffle except with a weird after taste. I also had moonshine which was pretty gross. That was it for my food festival, I really didn't have an adventurous palate and the money to support buying all the food.

avatars, complete with tails and wigs

That night I went to concert they had which was really great and fun. I ran into my kiwi freshmen friends and danced and sang to some good classics. After a few hours I realized I hadn't had dinner and went to have a classic kiwi cheap food, fish and chips. We then wandered to he beach to chill at a random bonfire before heading back to the house. I piled on the layers to sleep in a tent in the backyard and was quickly asleep.

Heres a link to the craziness of Wildfoods.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=163360&id=665896295&l=c8365c4aa2