hey hey hey! wew..... where to start... its been almost a week since ive really been able to post anything. Lets see, soooo I want to thank the Blacketts for their awesome hospitality. Jess Dorman picked me up last tuesday and took me to her house just outside Auckland city. It was a beautiful house and her family was a riot. I walked up to One tree hill just outside her house and it was a pretty cool sight of the whole city and tons of sheep! Those things are everywhere. Got talking with this australian lady for like an hour and a half on top of the hill. It was pretty funny. That night i tried to some Kiwi pizza. Certainly not the same as good old Sal's but it was interesting. I have been trying food all over the place and trying not to be picky and so far its great. I think that the portion sizes are most alarming. US seems to supersize everything. haha makes sense why so many americans are supersized themselves.... That night jess took me out to meet a few of her Uni friends at a mexican bar just outside of the skytower in downtown Auckland. It was pretty cool. Such a nice city. Didnt seem to have the same hustle and bustle as New York yet there are still like a million residents. The next morning we headed off to her bach (no i am not spelling beach wrong) but rather a bach is a beachouse. The difference between the two is that a beachhouse tends to be a rather luxiorous place, while the bach is a bit more lowkey. The ride to Mangawhai was pretty. Leaving the city and going into the countryside was neat and its quite like home actually. Rolling hills and a ton of farms. We drove through this kind of dense wooded area where apparently a section of Lord of the Rings was filmed. it actually did look familiar. The bach was awesome. its right on a tidal bay that connects to the ocean. it was low tide so i went for a walk up the beach as jess napped. The Dormans were such awesome hosts. They also had some family friends from the UK staying witht them the same nites as i did. Sarah and her daughter Alice. We all hung out and it was fun distinguishing differences between the kiwi accent and the british. That nite we went to dinner about 45 minutes away at another friends house. Theres was actually a beachhouse and it was impressive. Glass walls almost all the way around with just sliding doors to let air and light in. Decorated to the nine's, its certain they had a bit of money. We had an amazing dinner of lamb and kiwi potatoes which are actually a mix of sweet potatoes and regular potatoes. More mussels, salad and tiramisu for dessert. Oh before i forget there were pink sheep on the way! a great debate centered around how they were pink, whether it was dye on the outside or whether they actually fed them things that grew pink wool. haha i was slightly gullible! At the beach that same day i quite stupidly forgot i had my cell phone in my trunk pockets and pretty much killed my phone i had for all of like 2 days..... haha..... oh im special........... tried our hardest to dry it out, but that didnt work...... the next day was new years eve and we went back to the beach but did an awesome and stunning trek alongside the moutains overlooking the white sand beach. it was so cool. then we walked the beach back and walked through this super cool rock archway. Jess had other plans for NYE and i was getting picked up by the Tour bus the next morning closer to their house, rather than driving an hour and a half back to Auckland. Had a great dinner with Jess's parents, Sarah and Alice and then we went to the Mangawhai tavern to bring in the new year. it was a cool tavern, with most of the doings happening outside where a few bands were paying. Drinks were a bit pricey, but i hadnt really spent much money at this point so i didnt mind enjoying a few. Said some goodbyes the next morning and jumped on the magic bus to Paihia in the bay of islands. I am still here at the moment, sitting at an open fronted cafe overlooking the beach. I didnt realize how tropical this place is. Spent the first afternoon after i settled into the Hostel doing a cool trek called Haruru falls. It was about a 5k walk through the bush and a neat mangrove swamp. The falls at the end were pretty cool. Wish i didnt have all my gear and camera equiptment tho! I would have jumped into the water like all the others were. it was prolly a good 25 foot drop but it looked like a blast. The walk was also a reserve for some of the last kiwi's in the north island, though their nocturnal, so i didnt get to see any. Grabbed some food and walked around that night. Hung out with 4 NZ'ers in my 6 bed hostel room. Talking about uni and things in the US. They were super chill. So that was the 1st. The 2nd i went over to Waitangi where the treaty grounds are between the Maori and the Pakeha or Europeans. Its quite a historic site. Saw some really neat things. A giant Maori war canoe was awesome and the lodge with all the great wood carvings was pretty cool as well. That afternoon i used one of the hostels sea kayaks and paddled out to Motomaire Island. It was about a 20 minutes paddle. but pretty secluded once i was out there, minus the crazy bird that kept dive bombing me!!! haha. i think i may have been kinda near its nest. Did a bit of walking around and in and out of the souvenir shops towards the end of the night. Then walked and sat on the beach as the sun was going down, though it was opposite the beach. Back to the hostel my nz roomies were gone and i had like 4 korean girls and another girl from Europe somewhere. Didnt realize that these hostels were co-ed. haha. even the bathrooms are! it was alright tho. Except i really wanted to get a good nights sleep and was in bed by 10, but they were up till like 12 and there was only one light so it was one. and someone was talking loudly outside my window as they smoked a few joints. haha. needless to say i slept some, but was concerned i wouldnt wake up for the bus that was supposed to pick me up around 730am. Well i woke up, but for some reason my alarm went off like an hour early. I didnt realize it, made a mad dash to pack up and such and then realized it was barely 645. haha. i had turned in my keys already so i just like sat by the road with my pack. Wellllllll the bus never came. haha...... i was a little peeved. Went to the bus place and they rescheduled me for tomorow, Monday the 4th. Didnt plan on staying another night in Paihia, so i checked out of the hostel and walked with my veryyy heavy pack about 20 minutes to a camping site where i only paid 10$ nzd or like 7$ US prolly. Put my tent up, took a nap and here i am sitting in the cafe mooching off wireless! I bought a sandwhich tho, so i am a customer. haha............ soooo this afternoon i am going to do another walk because i have some time to spare, do the day trip (not missing the bus) to Cape Reigna which is the very northern tip of NZ along 90 mile beach. on the way back down i am going to get dropped off in Coopers beach where i have a contact George Van Valkenburg who grew up across from the post office in my hometown. He owns a B&B along the beach up there. Spend 2 nights there then back to Paihia wednesday night, where i will catch the bus back towards Auckland on Thursday morning, going down the west coast. It may be a few more days before i get some computer connection! But i hope everyone had a great New Years! and to all my Hartwick friends heading off on their J-term adventures in the next few weeks have a blast and enjoy!!!!!!!! love to all!