River eels

If everything goes according to plan, tomorrow we're traveling an hour out of town to a small beach village called Whangamata. There will be no computer there so no updates for a while. Today our friend Lydia drove us to this secluded little swimming hole. It was cold but we swam anyway (that's right, I swam).

The view down to the river.

Where we swam.

This is the weird termite mound/sand castle I made the other day that we then enticed Mr. Peanut (the dog) to destroy by throwing his ball into the tunnel underneath it.

The Mount

On Saturday we went to the Tauranga A&P show which is basically a farming and animal show. We saw horses barrel racing, intense (and somewhat horrifying) sheep shearing competitions, and cattle shows. I even milked my first cow.

Here is a baby cow being cute but not letting me pet her.

The next day we walked to and climbed up Mount Maunganui, which is about an hour hike for someone as out of shape as me. Simon did just fine. I was so hot and sweaty at about half way up that locals who passed me on their way down kept jokingly saying things like, "Oh, hurry up now! You're almost a quarter of the way there!" However, when we got to the top to eat our avocado sandwiches the view was amazing and it seemed well worth it. Plus it only took about 10-15 minutes to climb back down again.

Here is the Mount from Leisure Island, a little jut of land just off the beach.

Here is a view from the bottom at the beginning of the climb. There are trails and stairs all the way up.

Immediately after taking this photo I saw about twenty dinosaurs.

Amazing.

HOORAY FOR THA' VIEW.

Heading down.

Tasty looking little fruits.

A better view of Rabbit Island.

A striped marlin that Simon's uncle and his friends brought in. At 116kg it was "only a little guy".

The embarrassing above eyebrow and upper forehead sunburn I got at the A&P show. This has become a pretty serious face/chest/back burn after I climbed Mt. Maunganui with no sunscreen on because it was overcast. Apparently overcast means nothing over here. Lesson learned. At least I have lots of freckles now.



First contact

So after 30 or so hours of travel we arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. We've been enjoying 20-25 degree weather since we got here, and the trees and birds are amazing. The people we stayed with in Auckland were absolutely lovely and took very good care of us, including making us an itinerary of things to do around town.

Here we caught a $3.00 train into town, which took us on a very scenic route through the forest. We walked from the big transit station up Parnell rd. which had lots of ritzy little shops.

It was so hot (and so uphill) that we stopped at Chocolate Boutique to get cookies and cream smoothies. They were amazing. Look how amazing Simon thinks it is. Amazing. We walked all the way up Parnell until we reached the Auckland museum, which is hands down one of the best museums I've ever been to.

Here are some wetas. They are enormous. People say they don't bite, but I don't know about that.

LOOK A KIWI! Oh wait, it's dead. So far we've seen only taxidermied kiwis. Still pretty cute though.

Hanging out with my bro the moa. My broa. If they weren't extinct we would probably be allowed to ride them. If this broa wasn't surrounded by glass I probably would've tried to ride him anyway.

With our excellent timing we got the Maori meeting house to ourselves. The detail in all the carving was amazing.

Every part of the walls had these guys.

The next morning Olivia (who we were staying with) drove us up One Tree Hill to get a nice view of the city before she kindly drove us to the bus station where we caught our three hour bus to Mt. Maunganui.

Our last view of Auckland from One Tree Hill.

This is the beautiful, warm never-ending beach about two blocks away from where we're staying with Simon's aunt in Mt. Maunganui.

We're going to find a way to get to this weird tall island.

The in-house dog Peanut.

The most amazing seed pods on the sidewalk outside the house. They are hollow and incredibly tough, and make a fabulous sound when you throw them at things.

This little darling joined me in the shower this morning. He is about the size of my thumb and I named him Sebastian before I flushed him down the toilet. Apparently "if you squish them the eggs come out and hatch everywhere". Who loves cockroaches?

Now we have to go have a little nap in the porch after eating some local avocados. SEE YA.

-P