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!!