auckland townhall, a few hours before 2005

sky tower, 1 hour before 2005

we did both things that we wanted to do:
1. first night at aotea square
2. carnaval at sky tower

we met up with my high school friend and her boyfriend again and walked around aotea square, which was having a dry (sober) first night celebration (we never attended the many first nights in santa cruz despite all our years there), then we walked to sky tower to check it out, and then headed back to aotea square. gloria and i guessed that this is our third new year together. out of 14 years of being friends! crazy. there was one point where we communicated but hadn't actually seen each other for 5 years. i joked that it's gonna happen again, starting now.

happy new year! (2005 = rooster)

the thrill of being one of the first in the world to experience the change from 2004 to 2005 was exhilarating. or so i had hoped. it was much like any other moment of my life. i think the south island will give me the thrills i seek.

musicians were performing throughout the evening at aotea square, including a few famous artists in new zealand. we checked out a few songs from deceptikonz featuring merko and savage (hip hop group we went to see because the video/song "swing" by savage is so dumb it makes us laugh) and goodshirt (because we wanted to know what kiwi rock/pop is like). the second song goodshirt played was fun but the rest was just so-so. we left during their 4th or 5th song.

reflecting back on 2004, i came to appreciate the year. i thought the only significance was that it was a transitory year for me. it was a marker of the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. but looking back over all of it, and truly reflecting on it, i came to the conclusion that 2004 was a great year for me, fantastic! however, 2005 will be even better.

first few seconds of 2005