Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know, its really serious

Orewa
This is why I stayed a second night!
Stone Store and Kemp House
kauri tree
Cape Reinga
Cape Reinga was so awesome! We went to the kauri forest (gigantic trees, you aren't alowed to cut down even if its on your property). Apparently its good luck to hug one.

Then we drove to Cape Reinga, a super spiritual place for the Mauri people. The spirits of dead people go there 7 days after they die according to their religion. So we chilled out there for a bit. The Northernmost postbox in New Zealand is there and they still hand write the date and stuff there so those postcards are collectibles items!

We went to a bay for lunch, gorgeous. Then drove along 90 mile beach (actually its 65 miles, but still long!) Stopped at a Buried Kauri forest and museum on the way home. The wood is so expensive but very durable I guess. We also went sandboarding at "The Giant Sand Dunes". I was the only one to bail because 1) I went first and 2) did not listen to instructions. It was a kind of sandboarding where you lie down rather than stand like in Oz. So I flippen rolled and got sand EVERYWHERE. I did it right the second time though. haha.

Sunday I went to a Farmer's market and tried cheeses, wines, tamarillos (south american sour/sweet fruit), jams, chutneys, olive oils and much more. Its a famous market and I can see why! The locals were so friendly and happy to chat to me for ages about their products. I bought 100,000 avocados, blue cheese and a flat white. Good morning!

I went for an 8km run at the Rainbow Falls track by the Stone Store. Super old houses around there, like 1838 or something. I originally thought 1838 was how far the stone store was from town but turns out its when it was built. I was like 'wow they are precise! everything else was like 3km or whatever'. haha.

I was stoked though, longest run I have done in ages.

Monday I went for a lazy coffee and muffin sitting outside a cafe reading a magazine. Such a hard life I lead! Went for another run along the rainbow falls track that afternoon and lazed around the rest of the day. My roomie left on Sunday, she was really cool, shes a kiwi travelling all over NZ taking photos to sell at an art show next year.

Tuesday I drove to Waitangi, said goodbye to kerikeri, also home of the dirtiest hostel ever. Never ever stay at the Top 10 Holiday Park there, its absolute filth. They never one cleaned my room.

In Waitangi I went for a 10km walk on the Hururu Falls track. It was nice, a hot sunny day too. Would have gone to the Visitor centre to learn about the treaty but I didn't have my working holiday visa so I would have had to pay 25$ rather than 12$. Shame.

My plan was to stay in Paihia, but to be honest it looked like a hole, so I kept going. Drove around the toll highway this time (I paid the first time, 2$ for like 5 mins of highway. Thanks soooo much for that. The coastal highway was beautiful and wind-ey. As I was coming down a massive hill i saw this long stretch of beach and thought "I have to stay here". I prayed that God would provide a cheap hostel (20$ or less) and I drove to the first hostel I came across (one of two in town). It cost 20$! God is so good. I chatted to the owner for a while since I was a bit lonely from being alone all day and he upgraded me to a private room with a TV! I walked along the beach for a few hours and then went to Countdown and got some food. Proceeded to watchTV until midnight. I haven't watched TV in months and months. We don't get channels in Welly since we have no bunny ears. It was so good! How I Met Your Mother was on and I died laughing.

The next morning I couldn't leave, Orewa was too gorgeous. I ran about 6km along the beach yesterday am and again today. Yesterday I sent some more postcards and bought some gifts for the family. Got a discount voucher for the Waiwera Thermal Park so I went there for a bit, cost 10$ instead of 25$! I lounged in the natural hot pools that smell like sulphur and then went to the Movie thermal pool. They actually show movies on a big screen, so cool!

Today I'm going to Tauranga to surf and maybe see my plane friend again.

LOVE!

We were strangers many hours and I missed you for so long

Here I am in Bay of Islands. I drove for 12 hours on Monday. It was intense! I stopped for groceries in Taupo and for gas a few times since my car is so brutal on petrol. I also stopped in Tauranga to visit my friend who I met on the plane from San Fransisco to Auckland back in January. That was sweet. We just had a coffee and caught up for a bit and then I was on the road again! If I go back to visit him, he said we could go surfing, mountain biking and spear fishing! awesome!

I arrived in Kerikeri just after midnight, so I slept in the MacDonald's parking lot since it was the only place that was open 24hours. Crap sleep of course. Checked into the hostel in the morning and slept until evening. It was like having jet lag! My roommates were 3 girls from Sweden, super nice. They had been fruit picking for 2 months! The room was a mess, the cleaners never clean the rooms, they just change the sheets between guests. Supposedly.

Since I've arrived I can't say I've done much except read and go for runs. Yesterday I went with my roommates to Rainbow Falls, it was like a 2 hour walk, but the falls were gorgeous. We walked behind them, it was so hard to get back there, we had to crawl along insanely slippery rocks and Ellen almost fell in! We got completely soaked and then walked back to the hostel. Luckily it was sunny so we weren't too cold. That night we watched Adventure land. Terrible movie, but some funny parts.

Today my roommates are gone, hopefully I will get some new ones, but fruit picking season is officially over so mostly everyone is gone now. Kinda sad for me, but its good to have time to think and pray and read.

I went for a bike ride to try and find the beach. Sadly got completely lost, but found a pretty stream. The bike I was using didn't have functional gears so I was dying on the hills, the front brakes were also broken. Cars here always have right of way so the roundabouts really scared me! No wonder helmets are mandatory. You can get a ticket if you don't wear one!

So now I'm in the library with my free wifi. Love it.

Plan is to do the Cape Reinga Boat Cruise tomorrow (which I got for half price on Grabone.co.nz)! Then there's some house that is the oldest in NZ or something. Back to Wellington next week!

LOVE!

Random stream I came across when i was trying to find the beach

Rainbow falls

1,000 other boys could never reach you

I'm finished with Sektor Payments! I'm so happy to be done. Friday just dragged on and on. My boss asked for my honest opinion about the peeps I was training. So, I told him their pros and cons. I can pretty much guarantee he'll take the girl on regardless of what I said. For some reason they like to have a girl in the warehouse. On the drive home I couldn't stop smiling. That job just went from bad to worse. The repairs boys were giving me crap about not keeping the newbies busy, but we really didn't have much to do once the 850 810s were done and the 250 670s were loaded. And, since we figured out how to pinch internet I was pretty busy on Facebook. Haha!

Last night Katie and I ordered butter chicken, painted our nails and watched Precious, such a flippen sad movie. We had tons of candy but the movie was not the kind of movie where you can eat and watch.

Today the plan was to drive up to Turoa and board for a few days, but unfortunately there was a massive thunderstorm Friday which busted windows and caused a house to catch fire! There was hail and everything. Pretty wild. So all that said, Turoa was closed due to bad weather and is probably going to be closed for a few days. And I want to stop there as it would break up my driving to Bay of Islands, its kind-of on the way.

Man, I woke up so early, annoying because I could have slept in. Instead I went trail running, it was awesome, I know I'm going to be sore tomorrow! So my new plan is to leave Monday morning and hopefully Turoa will be open by then, if not I'll just drive as far as I can to Bay of Islands. I'm not sure I could manage all 12 hours in one go... But I am a Jackson so odds are I can do it.

Went for coffee with Kate at McD's. Good times, got some new jeggings and stuff too. I'm so bad at spending money. This has to stop! When we got home we watched the Office and had another coffee. Such caffeine addicts!

I'm thinking a lot about going home lately. I'm a bit freaked out about living with my parents because I'll be 24 in December. But, the plan is to start looking for either a job in BC and moving out west OR get hired full time at TOH and look for a house in Ottawa. I so want to just keep travelling, but I also am keen to get into real life as well. Buying a house would be a solid investment and if I want to travel more I can just rent it out. This is why I get freaked out, I think WAY too far in advance. Snap. One thing a time, I still have 6 weeks to chill out!

LOVE!

Is you can't hold yourself together, why should I hold you now?

At the train station
Fun at Cherie's
Watching the rugby, Lions won!
Belgian Biscuits I made for youth dessert night last week.

I gave my 2 weeks notice at work last Monday! Best decision I made all month. It was just getting too boring and I just felt like I was wishing away my days, its no fun to live for the weekend. I have a whole new appreciation for TOH, I'm actually really excited to get back to working as a dietitian. I applied to a part-time job there, would be pretty sweet to get it.

Yesterday at our work lunch we had brunch. I made peach french toast bake, Dave made BLT's and Mama T brought in bakery treats. I am so loving custard squares. So that was the highlight of my day, as well as reading numerous David Thorne (aussie comedian) articles on his website

www.27bslash6.com/missy.html

Thats my favourite article. Overdue account, Simon's pie charts, Blockbuster late fees and 5pm are also hilarious. FYI some are inappropriate.

So on Sunday morning around 1am a man was assaulted in Upper Hutt. He was walking home from a bar and was jumped by 4 guys. Thats like someone being jumped walking home from Westboro or Wellington West. He died in hospital Sunday afternoon. He was just 26. So sad. Pretty shocking too for us, you think you live in a safe place... Katie and I have walked home from the same bar at the same time. Never again!

My weekend was really good. Pretty low key really. Went to a women's event at church Friday night, a speaker from a massive Auckland church. She was a but too over the top for me, very American. But she was born in Canada. Wild.

Saturday I skyped heaps and then walked into town with Katie to go to the Upper Hutt fair. It was pretty fun, we walked around the stalls, I bought some Gallaz jandals for $10! Tested some delish fudge and went to McCafe for coffees. I got a VIP card finally, $4 for 2 coffees. Choice! Had homemade melting moments with our coffees. We then walked home and our eyes were wounded by obese belly dancers. Very unfortunate but good on them for not caring. I guess.

Later Katie went out and got us 2 more coffees from McCafe and we ate them with Tim Tams and mini Squiggles while watching Friends. We did face masks and our nails and then I went to Kirsten's. We got ready to go out towning and then went to Cherie's. We were laughing hysterically for ages and I don't even remember why!

We took the 1130 train into Wellington and went to the Big Kumara then The Grand (aka Shooters). Danced a bit and went to Burger King. Went to Boogy Wonderland and then Kirsten and I got tired and took the bus to Petone and then I drove us to McDonalds and got Big Macs (my first one in like 7 years!). Filthy. I slept over at K's and then got up early to go to church. Awesome message about how attitude is a decision. It was a Promise Keeper's guy who spoke. he did some healings before the service which I had never seen. He was like "someone has a deadness in their right thigh" and this lady was like yes! And she said it felt better after. I'm usually skeptical about that sort of thing but he seemed really genuine.

Sunday after church I went home and had lunch with Katie's sisters and their significant others. Sooo yum. Afterwards I passed out on the couch and slept for like 2 hours while katie was in "my room" which is the only place my computer gets an internet connection and she needed a PC. The couch was actually quite comfy and I was so tired from going to bed at 4am that it probably didn't even matter. That night I watched CSI Miami and lazed around. Skyped for ages more and then went to bed.

Today work was decent, went by pretty quick. Boss man made an appearance (he was supposed to be gone 2 weeks and I thought I'd never see him again. He wouldn't even look at me, he's not happy. I have to train 2 people for 4 days starting tomorrow. Will not be fun.

Looking forward to Bay of Island this weekend, although its school holidays so might be busy up there!

LOVE!

Hannah

Forgot from where I came

Flippen heck, I only have 2 months left here in NZ. Time has been flying by! I just found out today the boss is going to be away for 2 weeks, I have been planning when to give my 2 weeks notice, I think I might have to give it while he is away! Saves me the confrontation. Hollaaar. I really, really don't want to train the new person, especially as the last girl was super irritating and asked 100,000 questions that were utterly ridiculous. As my mom always says: there are no stupid questions, only stupid people. What up! (Thats for all you 'How I met your mother' fans).

This week has been good, especially in comparison to last week where I spent an entire Sunday secretly passed out in Kirsten's bed after a bit of a wild night in town, then had a wicked flu and took a day and a half off to sleep and watch movies, plus got my hair dyed a lovely shade of orange/red/ugly. Clairol dye is complete crap, it smelled bad and instead of going blonde, I got red. Thanks for nothing. But, I called them up on Monday and Jade and Tracey helped me get my money back.

I played laser strike (laser tag in Canadia) on Tuesday night (came in second place!). It was so much more fun than our version. The guns actually work and there are two settings of shooting so you can be pretty precise. Also lots of places to hide, which was ideal for me seeing as I was wearing white jeggings that glowed like no other in the black light. We played a few games of pool after, yep I still suck.

Wednesday night Josh helped me fix up my lovely bike so I could start biking to work. Sadly, this was not meant to be. He put my front tire on, not quick release, but sloooooow release. Involved gadgets and tools. Then he turned my handles bar the right way and tightened them. Then tightened the seat. I took it for a spin. The tires were flat. Pumped them up. Test ride number 2 (in the dark I might add). Good until I heard a clicking sound. Oops a spike broke. So Josh ripped it off. He took it for a spin and noticed the front tire was catching on the mudflap thing so he took that off. Tire still rubbing something and losing momentum. Sigh. The front tire is mad warped and rubs the new brake pads. Flippen bike is a piece of crap. I give up. I don't care enough, I'm going to try and sell it on trade me. The new tyres and tubes are worth 80$ alone. I'm a bit gutted, but what can you do?

We watched part of the sequel to "Once were warriers', classic kiwi films. So violent and disturbing and sad though.

Now its Thursday and I have some skype dates to look forward to over the weekend as well as a youth thing and getting my hair fixed. Oh, and its Father's Day in NZ on Sunday. First day of Spring was yesterday, gorgeous day. Followed by today where it rained super hard all day. Yuck. I really can't wait for Tonga and Bay of Islands!

I finally found an amazing bridesmaid dress the other weekend with the help of Mama T. Its awesome, I love it. Accidentally also bought a designer handbag made by Kathy Von Zeland, and another dress from Stax to wear to Matt and Carlos' wedding.

This am I got up at 630am to hit the gym, but when on Skype first and got to talk to Matt and Rach, awesome start to my day!

LOVE!