18.SEPTEMBER.2007

Woke up early in Picton. Snuck into the backpackers to snag a shower. Then started our driving west to Nelson. Arrived in Nelson and found our way to the Info Center. Where about three hours later we figured out what we wanted to do and booked our two-day trip in Able Tasman National Park. Drove on to Motueka where we got to stay in this wonderfully nasty campsite. They did however have a large cage with an insane amount of different birds in it, didn’t realize I was at a bird sanctuary.

17.SEPTEMBER.2007

Woke up to lovely Wellington and started our exploring. First at the Botanic Gardens, then walked through Newtown, and ended our day at the Te Papa Museum (which is ranked top ten in the world). Eventually found the ferry station and drove our van onto the ship. Three hours and a little seasickness later we arrived in Picton at 11pm.

16.SEPTEMBER.2007

Left Auckland at 11:30 am. Actually correction. It was more like 12:30 since we had to turn around and go back cause someone forgot a passport. Then we almost had to come back a third time for the crazy pills. The germans in the parking lot thought our quick return was quite humorous.
We drove south through Taupo (a beautiful enormous lake with picturesque mountains in the background) and ended in Wellington where we stayed at a campsite.

Taking a holiday

We leave tomorrow for our south island trip.
Jeremiah, Duga, Jessica, and I in a van for 3 weeks. I'm praying we don't end up killing each other or one of us committing suicide.
We'll be back Oct. 6th and I'll try to keep this blog updated best I can.
We'll travel the west coast of the south island first and come back up the east coast.
Adventures will consist of a glacier hike, sky diving, 3rd highest bungy jump in the world, seal swimming/whale watching, etc.
I think I'll pee myself I'm so excited.

In other news..
I went to go buy a sleeping bag yesterday for the trip. In the means of looking for a place to part amileo Jeremiah was like, oh you can park there (in a parking lot across from the store) we'll only be 15 min anyway. So I did. Well 15 min is never really 15 min. Its more like 40 min. Soooo. I get back to the car and see this big orange sticker on the window and a boot on the front wheel...and its starting to rain too. Duga says, "just be like homer simpson and drive it anyways." Thanks Duga...haha I actually considered it for a moment. Ya know, just to see if it could actually be done. But we all know where that episode ends up. Turns out the parking lot was one of those pay and park and you display a ticket. Well if I actually would have seen the pay booth I would have just payed the $4 and been okay. But of course I just made the assumption that it was free. Well that was a ridiculous thought because nothing is free in New Zealand or for that matter the world. So I'm the worst at talking myself out of a situation like this too. And the point I was wearing my short shorts didn't help either. And making the guy feel guilty didn't work. So I owned up and payed the fucking $130!! so we could drive home.


No comment.

Mexican Party

The mexicans threw a party last night in the village. They'd been planning this party for a week now and I figured it was just going to be in their flat with some food. Boy was I wrong. I walked out of our flat and was totally caught off guard by all the decorations..They seriously went ALL out. I'm talking decorations, party poppers, mexican candies, chips and beans, then came soup, and then came a fajita dish, and they finished it off by passing out tequila shots for everyone. I mean its not a mexican party if there's no tequila. But I must hand it too them it really went off with out a hitch. Looks like Jessica and I have some big shoes to fill for our Thanksgiving shindig.



Mexicans who threw the party..


So I have to put this picture up to show the after part of the fiesta. I woke up to the sun shining in my face, glanced out the window and saw the reaping aftermath of last night. It was truly classic...all that was missing was someone passed out on the cement wearing a sombrero.

Muriwai Beach

A big group of us loaded in a couple cars and headed to Muriwai beach saturday.
A black stand beach located about 45 minutes west of Auckland.
We rented some wet-suits and boards and got down to business.





Hey mom I found what I want for my birthday..


The water was prolly around 40F degrees. Pretty cold, but the with the wet-suits it makes it warm..specially when you pee in them...but you didn't hear that one from me.
I stood up a bunch of times, but once I stood my feet were so numb I couldn't get my footing right and I'd fall off. Next time I'm renting booties too.

adventures.

Friday we left for Tauranga with the plan of a surfing adventure..
Once we got to Mt. Maunganui there was absolutely no surf. We probably should have checked on that before we excitedly rented wet-suits to use. Figures. We go on a weekend surfing adventure and turns out there's no waves till Tuesday.
So we climbed a mountain, attempted to tackle sheep, chartered a sailboat and took in the views.

Saturday:
enjoying the view a top mt. maunganui..looking at the bay of plenty.


this is our sweet ride. amileo. equipped with turbo ignite button and surf board.


mt. maunganui we climbed.


mt. maunganui town


travel crew..myself, ben, davis, jessica, and duga atop the mountain.


Sunday:
coromandel peninsula. taken atop a look out on a winding ass road through the bush.


rated top ten beaches in the world by national geographic. secretly located in whangapua.


went sailing in coromandel.
this was our skipper.
he made the sail boat entirely himself.


By far this was the best weekend trip i've had since i've been here!