Kia Ora 2007

Last night we went downtown for the new years festival "First Night, Pacific Bright". New Years here is a very pacificy celebration, I cant think of any other way to describe it. Other than hawaiian for a reference. There were flowers everywhere, strung from the ceiling, in peoples hair. Women had booths in the building stringing flowers together for necklaces and hair halos. There were hula dancers and island music....all very tropical! It was really something else to be among another culture ringing in the new year. JoAnna and I were walking into the building to see what it was all about when we passed a long line up...we checked to see what it was for and it was free face painting...we laughed to each other about how long the line was just for face paint...until one girl turned around and it looked amazing! So of course we did an immediate 180 and got in line. We waited for 45 minutes and then someone came and told us they were going to stop now so we could leave unpainted. Oh well...things like that happen. It wouldve been nice though if they had gone down the line earlier and said look, we're not going to get to you...go have fun somewhere else. So we went upstairs and watched the women flower, and then listened to the island music and watched a fashion show with hula girls showing you how to tie a sarong. After they went through their different ties they called for volunteers from the audience to tie one on themselves. No one volunteered...so the lady started pulling people out of the audience...she grabbed on girl who 'no speak english' and me. So I stood up on the little dance floor and showed them all how I would get ready for bed. Then they made me dance. The MC said that we should go home and wish that we were pacific ancestry. I hope that wasnt a burn on my dancing moves. Because my hips dont lie either! pfft. hahaha...I dont even want to know what I looked like up there! After all that we went in and watched a lady singer, who was apparantly #1 in NZ. It was getting close to countdown so we got a spot in front of the balcany where we had learned from watching the little kids make glow flowers and learn to drum a beat that there would be a parade. It was pretty neat when all the kids came out with the crafts they had made and the drummers added a nice flair. Then a haka or haku or something singer came out with the warrior dancers to bring in the new year. Just like on whale rider...then the sky tower erupted with fireworks and it was 2007. And for you all in NS it was 2007 just an hour ago. I will go home and toast it twice. Today we got our train/bus/ferry passes and tried to find where we both worked. We had no luck with either. I didnt have the exact address for my work building and nobody in tankinin had ever heard of such a place...even the hospital...and one lady said she couldnt believe that they would send us both out into the middle of nowhere. Over all it was a pretty discouraging trip, but I tried to remain optimistic. I will find it. We ran out of time to search for JoAnnas because the busses only run back to the city at 9pm so we wouldve had to be there all day. We came back to the city and instead had supper and went to the sky tower to see if we could go up it. It cost 18$ to ride the elevator up so we declined. We are going to ride the ferry somewhere tonight just to see the city from the water at night. And tomorrow go try and find JoAnnas workplace and tour a winery. I think I pulled a ligament in my foot (one of the calcaneo ones) so now I have a very attractive limp. The first thing I will work on with my clients is fine motor and strength in the fingers as they use massaging my feet as therapeutic activity. Sounds good to me. I had been trying to get the phone to work for three days now and finally got to call home this morning from jo's room...talked to dad for awhile and everyone else was away.