Flipping adventures in Kiwiland...

Hey all,

I am now back in Tucson after spending about 24 hours on a plane or in an airport. I finished up my internship at Tri Star Gymnastics in Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday. Besides playing in the gym with all sorts of new tricks and making friends with New Zealand's best male gymnasts, I managed to see a few places around the City and the North Island. The picture above is the Auckland cityscape, taken from one of the beaches across Waitemata Harbor.

These three are from the Auckland Museum. The first is of Maori (native New Zealanders) doing the haka dance, which has apparently been made famous by the New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks (or so I hear). The second is myself and three of the other people there through the same program, though they were working at primary schools or newspapers. The third is of the Maori or another Pacific Islander tribe mask poles. They were pretty fantastic to see, probably about as tall as me!

This first picture is of me, James and David. Both guys also coach at Tri Star; but David is also an elite gymnast for New Zealand. He actually went as a part of the New Zealand men's team to Melbourne at the end of April to compete in the Pacific Rim Championships, and nearly made the event finals on floor. He trialed to make the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team, but unfortunately he didn't have the best competition. Four other Tri Star lads made the team though! The other picture is, of course, part of Tri Star gym. It was one of the best club gymnastics set ups I'd seen outside of a US camp or national program.

So that's pretty much it, I have lots of stories to share for y'all later and would advise EVERYONE to take a trip to New Zealand. Though you might want to try when it's summer there!

Love & Loyally,

Emily Copperud