So I've kind of been slacking at the whole updating my blog thing. I have a legitimate excuse though, my blackberry stopped working for a couple days. Well the last time I wrote I was about to fly to nz from fiji. I got into auckland around 9:30 and on my way into the city I realized I was dreading it. I guess I really don't like cities. A county girl through and through ;) So I booked myself on a stray bus trip north for the next day. I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and went to the bar next door. While grabbing a drink I met an english guy who invited me to come sit with him and his friends. His friends ended up being hilarious. There was a male stipping contest that one of them entered. He stripped down to his boxers and poured beer down the front of himself. Everyone was laughing hysterically. Needless to say he won and got a bar tab for the night. I ended up drinking off their bar tab for the rest of the night and getting beat at a couple games of pool. We decided to head to the next bar, which ended up being completely dead. At this point the original guys two friends had met some english girls to talk to. I was stuck with the only strange one of the group and decided it was time to head home. I woke up extremely early to catch the stray bus to the bay of islands. I was hung over and definately not looking forward to spending the day on the bus. The first stop we made was at a giant tree so that we could all hug it. Haha. I met a girl from california and she took my picture because my camera was dead. :( we headed up to pahina or the bay of islands for waitangi day. Turns out I showed up on a national holiday in honor of the signing of the treaty that started new zealand. I dripped my stuff off at the hostel (the pipi patch) and headed downtown. There were vendors everywhere and men dressed in traditional clothing (yup large men in loin cloths). I walked around the fair and got something for heath ( and a matching one for me). I can't say just in case she reads this! I walked over and got some sort of sausage thing. It was awful but I was starving!! After that I went to see what was going on at the stage. There was a band playing so I hung out there for a bit. The stage was right by the water and a huge native war boat. I have some pretty cool pics if I can ever get them up. after that I headed over to treaty grounds to watch the navy do their sunset ceremony. The treaty grounds had a gorgeous view of the bay of islands. There was also a native meeting house which was absolutely amazing. It was made completely of carved wood and you had to take your shoes off to go inside. There were little wooden men carved everywhere. I watched the navy ceremony. I may be a little biased but I thought it was a little messy. There seemed to be a lot of foot shuffling (does our navy do that?). The navy band was pretty entertaining though. After that I decided to go exploring on the coastal walk. I'm not sure anyone has used it in the last 10 yrs because it was all overgrown. I'm glad I went because it was stunning. On one side I had the sea and on the other a semi-tropical green forest that went as far as I could see. It was like that scene at the beginning of ps I love you. I couldn't get over how amazing it was. Trully beautiful and peaceful. I didn't end up seeing a single other person. The end of it came out to a golf course. I stayed there for while longer to take in the scenery before deciding to go down and explore the coast. The coast was surrounded by rocks so I left my purse on a rock and climbed down. I stayed at the edge where the waves came up. I was standing there enjoying the view when a huge wave came up. I tried to climb back up the rocks but as I tried to do that the wave swept my sandal away. There was no way I was climbing between the rocks to get it. I had no idea how deep it was. I patiently waited and it eventually got washed up to shore. I don't wear my sandals in the ocean anymore. Haha. After that I decided to walk back to the concert area. Sat around and listened to a band called the lady killers sing some good songs (Like sweet home alabama). Ended up heading back to town and stopping at the market. Went out again with two new zealanders, a canadian guy, and a german guy. One of the new zealanders ended up getting in a fight with the bouncer and got his eye split open. He was bleeding pretty bad so we went to go get him cleaned up. Had a couple drinks by the water and headed home. We got up early to go to cape regina. All the guys from the night before ended up on a different bus and I got stuck on the old people bus. :( we stopped at this gumdiggers historical site (the other bus went swimming instead). It was really boring but the old people seemed to like it. After that we headed up to cape regina which had an awesome view of the white beaches. There was a lighthouse and a large hill. We were asked not to climb the hill because it was supposedly an old chiefs head. I took a ton of pictures. After that we went to the giant sand dunes to go sand boarding. This is like sledding but with a boogie board. The sand dune sucked to climb up but it was fun going down. (It was also quite amusing watching the old people try to climb the sand dunes and then scream the entire way down). After that we headed to 90 mile beach (which is really only like 60 miles long) and drove along that for a while. We stopped to eat some sort of clam like shellfish. After that we headrd back to the bay of islands. I wanted to go out again but was exhausted and only lasted for one drink before I headed home. The next day I went on a walk with the french guy down to the beach. We ended up renting kayaks with 2 english guys. It was a lot of fun but definately tiring. When we decided to head in I was almost at the shore when I turned sideways. A huge wave came and tipped my kayak upside down on top of me. I came up covered in mud and my knee was bleeding. Haha. Just hung out for the rest of the day before grabbing the bus to auckland. After I dropped off my stuff I headed to mickey Ds for their delicious 50 cent ice cream (25 american cents). I found out there were going to be fireworks of some sort so I started following the crowd. Turns out it was the last day of chinese new years and they were having a lantern festival in the park. I walked around looking at funny looking men with samauri swords all lit up for a while (I doubt this is how it really is in china) and then settled down to listen to some awful kareoke and watxh the fireworks. The fireworks were awesome. I'm not sure I could have planned this trip better. Randomly stumbling upon two huge festivals is pretty good. Went to bed early and woke up for my free city tour with the kiwi experience. Kiwi ended up cancelling so I went with the stray bus. We saw the sky tower (one lucky girl got a free jump off of it because she put her hand up faster than I did) and some dormant volcanos. It was a pretty good day. Caught the bus to the airport for my flight to christchurch. Got in pretty late and went to bed. Woke up the next morning to walk around only to find out that there is not much to do in christchurch. Went to get some groceries and read a book in the botanical gardens. Watched some street performers for a while and then took a nap. Walked around for a bit and then went back to bed. Haha. Pretty boring but a nice recovery day. This morning I got ona bus to graymouth. The view was amazing! There were snow covered mountains everywhere. We met up with another bus and headed on to franz josef. I just checked into my hostel (the rainforest retreat) and signed up for a full day glacier hike tomorrow. That's it for now. On a side note. All of you slackers who read my blog and like to see what I'm up to its about time you write me back! If you'd rather email me its: schongej@yahoo.com.