Camping and Downtown

This past weekend, Kaylee and Darren took me to Matauri Bay to go camping. I had so much fun! Kaylee's aunt and cousin where also at the campsite, and the beach was so incredibly beautiful. The water was incredibly clear: Even in water up to my chest I could see my feet.

I proudly wore my CC glasses all weekend... I couldn't resist taking a picture of them against this beautiful beach.

One of the days we were up north we went to a different beach to see Kaylee's friend Shannon and her daughter Imogen. We were all of the way at the top of the Karikari Peninsula. While there I started rereading When Crickets Cry, the book I read for my honors program orientation the summer before my first year of university. Oh, how far I've come in 3 1/2 years.

The evening before we left, Kaylee and I took a hike up to the point above the beach. It was such a steep path, but the views were totally worth it! At the top, there is a monument to the Rainbow Warrior, a New Zealand ship that was sunk by the French in the 80's.

After we packed up our tent and piled back in the car, Darren and Kaylee took me up north again to walk around Kerikeri. We went for another hike and found a beautiful waterfall, and went by one of the oldest stone buildings in New Zealand. We went hiking again after and found another waterfall, but it wasn't nearly as impressive after the first.

We got back into Auckland and settled in for work the next morning. After work, I took the train into downtown and walked to the Sky Tower. The views of the city were cool, and the elevator was neat but slightly terrifying...

We noticed this building only had white cars parked on the roof. I want to know why.

So... that's my week thus far. While walking back from the Sky Tower to the train station a couple of teenage boys from Auckland stopped me to ask for directions. "Excuse me, mam, do you know how to get to *this* street?"

Being called mam gave me a strange back-in-the-south feeling, and I immediately felt a bit relieved that I didn't look like a tourist. Act like you know where you are going and, so long as you don't look completely different from the natives, you can fit in almost anywhere. The look on their faces when they heard my accent (starting to get accustomed to thinking of myself as the one with the accent...) was beautiful.

Also... my accent got me a discount at the sky tower. Apparently they have an international student discount that isn't advertised on the website. Love it when that happens. I'm working a Saturday this weekend, so I probably won't have as much exciting around the city/country stuff to write about, but I will see what I can come up with this weekend/early next week. :)

How do you end a blog post? How about with a

picture of that kitten who I want to ship back to the states? Do you guys think Gingy can come home with me? His brother Sock Monkey is in the background, and their brother Fluffy is hanging around somewhere... I'd snatch them all if I could.