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.