More of my story!

Day 2
It started with an early morning because we needed to check out of our current room and move into another one to save a few bucks of course. The main theme of the day was RAIN. We maybe had maybe a couple short breaks from it during the day, but it was pretty constant throughout. We walked towards downtown on we found a church with a service about to start so I saw my first catholic service that wasn’t for a funeral, it was really interesting, and an experience I’m glad I had. After the service we meandered to down to the visitor center to find some things to do in Auckland on a rainy day since originally we were going to hike for the day, We found out that the museum was only 5 dollars so we were pretty sold on that. It was really cool, it was three levels and had some really cool exhibits especially about maori and south pacific peoples. After that we headed back to the hostel to jump online and update everyone who cared about our lives, and to check out our tent situation to see if we needed to purchase a rain fly or what. Well we had a rain fly, what we were missing however was our tent poles . But we figured oh well shit happens we’ll figure out something and maybe be able to make some sort of a lean to with it anyways, who knows. Then it was dinner time again and time to get ready to go out on the town, even though we had to get up at six the next morning. We had an awesome lasagna and salad for dinner with a couple pints then met up with a friends friend who attends Auckland Uni. He took us out to show us a couple bars, we had an awesome time. After a quick stop on the way home at McDonalds we found ourselves in bed at 1 or 1:30 am.
Day 3
We rolled out of bed painfully at 6 am packed up and hit the road to find our bus stop and check in and whatnot. After eating cheap micro waved eggs and toast at the café next to the bus stop we loaded up our bus which to our surprise was a tour bus, so we had a guide to tell us all about the areas along our path. The bust was really cool too it had windows all along the top giving us a panoramic view of the sky which today was a beautiful blue with the few spotty clouds. The only problem with the bus and it being a guide bus was we were planning on catch the second 4 hours of our needed 8 hours of sleep on it…but the guy didn’t stop talking, obviously greatly inhibiting our ability to pass out. After getting to Piahia we needed to find a place to stay, I had found that campsite for $12 a night which between the two of us seemed like the cheapest and best option, so after the bus driver drove us around to all the hostels to check the prices we went for a long long long walk to the other end of town only to find out the site was 12.50 per person, we had found a hostel for just 15 dollars, so the choice was pretty obvious. We moved into our hostel to find that not only did we have a sweet game, free kayak rental, bike rental, and a hot tub but we also had a 5 person dorm completely to ourselves! It was amazing! Since we had already spent the day looking for places to stay we grabbed one of the kayaks and headed out to one of the many island the Bay of Islands has to offer. It was really cool, we pulled up on one and explored it around and just explored around for awhile. When the weather looked like it was going to turn we headed back and played a little ping pong and darts, where we met and awesome Canadian couple we talked to til we went to bed for the night.
Day 4
Because of recent storms the water was a bit murky and not so good for snorkeling so instead we found a sweet guided sea kayak tour. They took us all over the place, out to this awesome waterfall where I conveniently tipped my kayak and made a bit of a fool of myself, but it was all in good fun. The was a bit cold and took my breath away upon hitting it but overall it was nice to do a little swimming, although I did end up looking my sun glasses because of it . After the waterfall we had a nice little tea and biscuit (cookie) lunch and had a nice chat with our guide. He was an awesome guy, from Maori descent, with tons of knowledge of the area, historically, ecologically, he just knew a ton. We also got to talk him about the difference between our cultures and lifestyles and general attitudes in life, which is always fun. After lunch the tide and come in and filled with mangrove swamps with water once again, allowing our kayaks to get back and into them. It was so fun! We got to go off on our own a bit and weave in and out of the trees and just explore in general. The weather for the most part cooperated with us too, on and off showers, clear blue skies then not so much but it really was pretty enjoyable being in the rain in the mangroves, so it didn’t really matter. We got back pretty early in the afternoon and were certainly ready to take full advantage of the hot tub and did we ever. After the tub we got back into regular clothes and headed into town just doing a bit of exploring. It’s certainly a cute little town with a bit of history, being the town adjacent to where the treaty of Waitangi was signed. We made ourselves some dinner following then decided to go back to the game room to enjoy the rest of our night.

Start of the great adventure

Day one!
We’ve arrived in Auckland! Exhausted but we’ve made it. We have got to stop drinking the night before we have to get up early and do things, so irresponsible. We had our first mishap right off the bat buying a round trip bus ticket to get back to the airport…well we didn’t need to go back to the airport since we’ll be taking off from the sky tower via a bus to Piahia. Oh well only five dollars lost. After checking into our hostel we moseyed down the street to enjoy an awesome six dollar breakfast! From there we ventured into downtown heading for the sky tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. We found it after some wandering but we found it none the less. We took this really cool glass front and glass floored elevator to the first observation tower giving us a great view of the city however it paled in comparison to the view from the sky deck the high view point we could reach. We could see the entirety of Auckland from the sky deck, it offers a full 360 degree walk around to see out. It was gorgeous. On one side was the city the other looking out in the bay and beyond to the ocean. Although a bit nerve racking at times it was pretty cool to look down and see how high up we were. After the sky tower we got on a bus and headed out to a place called one tree hill. On the walked up the hill we found ourselves in a green pasture dotted with sheep and new baby lambs! They were soooo cute. I took far far too many pictures of them but as stated before, so cute! At the top of the hill we again found ourselves looking out at a spectacular sight all around. Although not as high up as the sky tower the location was beautiful and the sights were as well. After that we moved into town and got fish and chips, a deep fried hot dog and seasoned wedges for me. After lunch we went back to our room to catch a much needed nap. We woke up and went for another walk downtown just to check out what Auckland at night was like, after a short walk we decided to head back to the hostel to get our free meal which came with the room and hang out at the bar there. We went up to our room to find 8 crazy punk kids drunk as all hell inside it telling us that they over booked the room and needed to talk to us. Well we ended up getting moved to another room but they did upgrade our free meal, we got a burger, baked beans and fries, It was great! We then got a jug of Tui one of the greatest beers and played some pool, by ourselves then with some locals. We also tried our hand at come slots, which went well for Luke at first then poorly for him and poorly for me throughout, which sucked. Then it was time for bed seeing that we hadn’t got much sleep as of recent and had to switch rooms early in the morning to save a few dollars. After a short talk with our Australian roommate me and Luke crawled into bed.

I'm back again

Ok ya'll i'm back! Last time i talked about starting all my classes. Well for the most part they're still pretty dull. However, i did drop my psychology class to take a social work class which so far is way better! Other than that yeah classes are all the same. It's been pretty darn rainy as of late so there really hasn't been that much adventuring and fun things happening in my life. I did however as you saw venture out to akaroa, about an 1 and fifteen minutes away from Chch (christchurch), and it was absolutely gorgeous. We wanted to do a hike there up to a couple summits but instead went down some crazy one lane road that ended up leading to some awesome views, but no hikes. We were on that lane where you see me and my mates standing on top of the car. This past weekend we found our way to lyttelton, click to see pictures, which was also pretty cool. We took a pretty sweet tunnel through the mountains to get to it then took the road over the mountains on the way back. It was again pretty rainy there so we only spent the afternoon there but it was still pretty and cool, i guess making it pretty cool. This upcoming weekend Lil' Jon some ghetto rapper is coming and doing a free concert so we're going to that, it should be a riot. Then one more week til my Two week break! Me and my friends have that whole trip planned out too, that's mainly what we've been doing on our rainy days. It's going to be awesome. But i'll tell you all about that as it comes. But now i guess i need to get to updating more photos and the like, and i guess perhaps doing some work for school...perhaps.

Akaroa!

I went to Akaroa on Saturday here are the pictures!
Akaroa