A week or two before we were due to fly to Auckland, I found out that West Side Story was in the city! The musical cast from New York was in town for 2 weeks-ish, and since we had quite a few days in Auckland and little planned, I managed to convince my BF (and his mum!) to catch the musical with me. It was going to be my 4th musical.
We got our tickets online. Seats weren't great cos they were the cheaper ones lol and tickets were quite limited because we had 3 pax and you're not allowed to leave one seat empty. Nevertheless, I was rather excited.
The musical was in the CBD, held inside the Civic.
The Civic amphitheater was a rather small one, compared to the ones I've been to in Singapore and the UK. I liked how they made the interiors look like exterior- it was as if we were in the outdoors with lovely stars in the sky!
Sadly to say, West Side Story turned out to be my least favorite musical. I felt it was dry and draggy :( I was expecting so much more of it and myself to like it. I don't regret watching it. I am just glad my BF gave in to my incessant whining and pleading. Also felt bad for his mum because it was her first musical. Haha. Don't think we all enjoyed it too much. The cast was crazy talented though, thumbs up!
The next day, we went to the Fo Guang Shan Temple in Auckland because my BF's mum wanted to go check it out. I must say it was rather impressive to see such a huge and beautiful temple in New Zealand, but then again, I think Auckland is super duper Chinese-infused, what with an Asian and Asian eatery in every corner.
I am fascinated by temples and cathedrals, so this was rather pleasing.
The Fo Guang Shan temple's headquarters is in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and was founded by Hsing Yun.
The temple was around half an hour drive from our place down in Albany.
One with my BF's fam
The temple also acts a community centre that runs programmes like meditation classes, Tai Chi lessons and Dharma classes for children. There is also a Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery which displays arts and masterpieces on the religion, culture and knowledge. There is also a "Tea House", the Water Drop Vege Cafe which serves vegetarian foods.
It was a rather gloomy day as it started to drizzle shortly after we arrived
Majestic
A pretty good selfie-stick selfie, I must admit. We had to quickly snap these as it was starting to rain and we had to run for cover!
The Fo Guang Shan temple was the only Buddhist temple we visited on our trip. In case you were wondering, we didn't see any other ones through the entire trip. We did see cathedrals (we didn't actively search for them) but they were not like the grand ones we saw in other places like Europe or even Seoul. But then again, we did not actively search for them. I remember seeing a Jewish Community house in Wellington though! Not something I see everyday (or ever) :P
xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment