Headed for the Bayside

This weekend, I am going on a class trip to the Bay of Islands. There are a ton of activities planned for us, one of which includes a ride on Excitor, a speed boat that passes through the famous Hole in the Rock. It will be lots of fun and I will be sure to post all of my pictures by Sunday (Saturday your time). Have a great weekend!

Wow!

Auckland is so beautiful that sometimes I feel that the only word that can describe it is, WOW! I feel as though pictures will never do this place justice but I often wonder if the locals think it's as great as I do. Sometimes when you have been living in a place for so long, that you don't appreciate the beauty of your surroundings. This all hit me when I was walking to class one day and on either side of me, I saw incredible views of the harbor and the luscious green hilltops. Yet, not only is the scenery great, but so are the people. They are genuinely kind, caring people but not a contrived way. Their favorite saying is "no worries" and here they really do mean it. I feel infinitely lucky to be here and I hope that the pictures and comments I put on my blog will, in some small way, capture the essence of this place.

BK Was Here

Honestly, there is always something happening in Auckland to write home about but luckily this took place in my very own backyard. Today at the Railway Campus, Burger King was shooting a TV commercial in the building's foyer! The advert is set to air a week from today throughout New Zealand. Of course, being the dork that I am, I was elated that an actual commercial was being shot here. So, I whipped out my little camera and took pictures like a paparazzi. Suddenly, a crewmember told me that taking pictures was strictly prohibited. She probably worried that McDonald's would get ahold of the footage.

The Ladies

Before the hike commenced, everyone was so excited to be tramping this weekend. Little did we know what was in store for us. From left to right: Bethany, Jess (my roomie), Christa (my other roomie), Liz, and Leslie.

Way in the Distance

I look totally crazy in this picture but I wanted to use it to illustrate how much hiking we did. Way in the background, behind the mountains, you can see the ocean. We hiked through those very mountains to get to the beach.

Final Destination

As difficult as the tramping was, I had never felt as exhilerated as I was on this trip. For goodness sake, I hiked through the jungle! How cool is that? On the mountains, the air was cool and crisp but what I liked most was that there weren't any bugs! It was definately my kind of jungle. Did I have a great time? Absolutely. Would I do it again? NO. I fell down nine times, my body aches, and I busted my knee. But at least I can say that I went tramping in New Zealand.

Here's Piha Beach, the final destination of our tramping trip. We hiked approximately 14 miles this weekend to get to this beach and FYI, the movie "The Piano" was actually filmed at this location.

Meet the Flinstones

Here's Rory, my group mate, looking like Bam-Bam.

Real, Real Rustic

Here is the "hut" we overnighted in this weekend. As you can see, it was not a hut but rather a shack that probably took two people to assemble in a few hours. The "hut" was rustic to say the least but charming nonetheless. After we got back from our 6 mile hike that night, we all sat around the fire eating dinner, playing games, and laughing (I will post that picture as soon as my group mate sends it to me). I met lots of other internations students who are also staying at TRC. Four of them are from the UK, another from Canada, eh, and one from the US. We had loads of fun that night!

The Jungle Book

Many of you, like me, probably thought that I would be hiking along a pretty, scenic nature trail as part of my tramping weekend. WRONG! As you can see from this picture, we were in the jungle! The grounds were tretcherous and on several occasions we walked along narrow, muddy, debris-ridden paths, that with one slip, anyone could have fallen down the steep mountain. Bare in mind, this was merely the "easy route" for beginners that I had taken.

Note To Self...

This evening, I returned from my tramping trip barely in one piece and as a word of advice to anyone thinking about hiking, DO NOT HIKE IN SNEAKERS! The grounds were so wet and muddy that literal quickmud (as opposed to quicksand) puddles were created and would suck my shoes off, which subsequently led to me falling in the mud about nine times! I was a real trooper though, I would laugh, brush myself off, and keep on tramping.