Day 7
by Kamryn, Mariah, Chelsea

Once again we woke up at 8:20 am for a breakfast of toast, cereal, fruit, and muffins.  We were able to go to our rooms and sleep but instead we watched TV till 10 when we had to meet again.  We had to dress in jeans , and jackets, seeing as it was about as cold as Jacksonville in the winter here.  We all met in the lobby at 10 and got on the bus to go to Mount Eden, a decades old volcanic crater.  We learned from Andrew, the bus driver, that all of New Zealand rests on top of a massive ocean of lava, and that occasional eruptions cause craters in the ground.  He also told us not to wander down to the bottom of the Mount Eden crater beacause it had an ancient curse from when two chieftans met and one was killed.  The village of the dead chieftan went crazy and baricaded those who lived atop the crater in, preventing anyone from leaving.  That year a drought eventually forced those who were trapped to come down and declare peace, at which time they were massacred.  Even since a curse has been placed upon the site and it is greatly disrespectul to ignore the curse and enter the crater.  Once on top we took a lot of pictures, you could see the whole city from atop Mount Eden. 

After a while we got back on the bus and headed to the ferry station.  We walked down a famous shopping area called Queen St on our way which had a million little stores everywhere.  Then we walked across to the station and bought tickets for Davenport.  The ferry ride was short and a little windy but we could see the whole city from the water.

Upon getting there we split into groups and ate lunch at a restaurant called Attitude.  The food was really good with the exception of Nikki’s crab cake.  After lunch we got desert at Tip Top ice creamery and then boarded the bus to return to the hotel.  Their was a lot of traffic leaving the city and it took an hour and a half to get back.  Once back we had just enough time to get dressed and head off to our games.  The gym was extremely cold and it took us a long time to get warm.  Pretty soon our match started against the New Zealand under 17 national team.  The first set was close 25-23 team Jax was victorious.  Though we put up a fight, we lost the second game and continued on to a third.  The final game to 15 was hard fought, and even though we came back from being down we didn’t win.  The older team took the court, started off strong and defeated the New Zealand team 2 games to 0.  After we finished playing we got to socialize with the New Zealand girls and all had a good time laughing at stories.  It was not long before we were asleep dreaming, resting for tommorow, and wondering what Dan, the best tour guide ever, was doing in Fiji.