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
Did you know we have a Lake of Bays in Ontario? They say it's no Bay of Islands though. Or they would if they knew about Bay of Islands.
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