Quick update

I realize that the updates are rather sporadic but I seem to do a lot less writing here. It's difficult to write when I'm DOING so much. Quick summary which will hopefully be updated later:

1. Trip to Waitomo, Tainga and someplace else which is the Sheep Shearing Capital of the World where we took pictures with The Big Shearer. The players that weekend were Brian (my flatmate), Junsuke (Japanese student), Vera (Russian student), "Mister Joe" (Junsuke's Chinese flatmate) and myself. We went blackwater rafting through glow worm caves, horse trekking through New Zealand wilderness and sheep pastures, and finally miniature golfing. The back window in my car got stuck in the open position and we suffered many hours of cold on the 3 hour drive home! Great fun. Pictures to follow eventually.

2. Katherine has returned!! Another week and we'll be acting like a married couple. We do just about everything together and there is great comfort for us in certain American traits we both posess. We are both terribly charismatic and enjoy a really good sauce...also she's now dating my flatmate.... :-)

3. Junsuke, Vera, Katherine and myself went to Piha and Kirikiri beach (the black sand beach featured in The Piano)

4. Back to the Cormandel, this time with Junsuke, Vera and Gonzo (student from Spain)

Fabulous trip. Left early Saturday morning and stayed in a nice motel (the same one that Steve and I borrowed our kayaks from previously) and spent Sooooooooo much time in the jacuzzi!! Junsuke cooked dinner and breakfast for us in Japanese style...so nice. We did the usual Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach. It was a very relaxing weekend with a lot of time spent on various beaches.

Sea kayaking- Vera and I in one kayak and Junsuke and Gonzo in another... Vera and I were great- so fast! Junsuke and Gonzo were very slow and gave up quickly, but Vera and I continued to paddle to an island very far away. Unfortunately, the sea was very strong and when we were on our way back it was too difficult. We had to paddle very very hard to even stay in the same place and not be pulled out to sea.

We decided to make for the nearest beach with houses and see if anyone could drive us back to our beach (two cute girls in bikinis- I figured this would not be too hard!) however, making it to shore was very difficult. After about half an our we were a few feet closer but still a long ways away when Vera saw a boat! We waved him down and he (David from Auckland) offered to tow us back to our beach. So...we had a nice motorboat ride back to our shore and he dropped us off on the far end of the beach so that the boys wouldn't see how we got back. Then we walked along shore towing the kayak back because we didn't want to paddle anymore! They saw us though. :-) Oh well.

It was a great weekend!! Junsuke leaves in a couple more weeks to go back to Japan. I'll be very sorry to see him go.

This weekend is a 3 day weekend and we're going to the Bay of Islands and skydiving the week after.

Stay tuned!!

Long overdue update...
Let's see, a few weekends ago I went with a friend (Steve) to the Coromandel. http://www.vnz.co.nz/photos/coast/025h.shtml Click on the link to see the pictures.

Steve is a wonderful guy that I met the weekend Jeannine and I did the thermal pools. He's a handsome redheaded English mechanic with a huge heart. He helped me when I went to buy my car (on a Friday) and then we drove to the Cormandel Peninsula that Saturday.

Cathedral Cove is a huge arch of a cavern formed by the ocean that is most accessible at low tide after about a 30 minute hike. Please check out the pictures...it is a bit like being inside of a picture of paradise. The colors of the ocean, the white sand, the starkness of the huge rock jutting out of the ocean into the sky...heaven.

I don't think that we DID much that weekend, but it was very relaxing. We also went to the hotwater beach, a beach where you can dig a hole in the sand and it will fill with hot water from the thermal heated pools below ground- even in winter. Very cool indeed.

I remember that we got lost a lot. Steve is a grand person but a terrible navigator. (No offense, Steve- it's just not one of your finer qualities).

On the hike to Cathedral Cove we ran into Sarah (from work) and her boyfriend. They invited us for a beer later and told us where they were staying - a fact which we promptly forgot since we knew that we never found anything that we went looking for. Later that night when Steve and I were driving to the lodgings that I had planned, we discovered that our map was a little unclear in the matter of roads- apparently "Ferry Landing" meant we couldn't cross and we would have to drive 70 km around. We decided that by the time we got there it would be 9:30 at night by which time everyone would be in bed (yes, they do that very early in N.Z.). We began looking for a place nearby. We found a cool one with cabins, but no one was in the office or the owners home, but one of the cabin lights was on. We decided to ask whoever was in the cabin if they knew about the owners whereabouts. When the door opened...it was Sarah!!

Steve and I found a place up the road and then came back to see Sarah and company with some food, wine and my guitar. We made a collective dinner that couldn't be beat and talked and had a great time before finishing of the evening with a few songs on the guitar. Sarah had a lovely harmony!

The next day was filled with bird watching, driving and finally sea kayaking. We saw King Fishers, Pukekos http://www.accessible-tours.co.nz/nzpics.htm , Pareras, Fantails, Kahu (the carrier hawk), the NZ falcon, the NZ Snipe, Tomtits and many more. If you are interested in NZ birds (they certainly are colorful) please visit http://www.nzbirds.com/Gallery.html
We nearly hit a large turkey standing in the middle of the road, and around a bend on a scenic turnabout there were a great many chickens of many varieties standing about and charging cars. We stopped for a few minutes but were alarmed by the agressiveness of the large plumed roosters and finally left. Oddly, they looked alot like a gang of show chickens protecting their turf. Strange picture.

Breathtaking scenery, fresh air, wild birds, many sheep...the typical New Zealand really. We stopped to eat and I got a hamburger which was a half raw piece of steak with arugula and beets and carrots. Sigh. No one understands hamburgers outside of the States. In Spain they take it a bit literally and use ham in their hamburgers. sigh. Oh well.

All in all another good weekend. Steve, I had a fabulous time and I'm better for knowing you. You are a very special guy and I'm happy to have shared the time with you. Peace and health to you on the rest of your adventure.