The Bay of Islands...

This past week has been quite a turn around from the beginning of the trip. I have met a ton of new people and even made a few close friends. All of my flatmates are now here and they are from all over the world. In my flat there is me representing America, Alisha (a Kiwi), Sophie from France, Val from Vanuatu (yes... Survivor!), and Ohm from Thailand. A mix for sure, but we all seem to get along just fine. Orientation was on Tuesday, starting off with a speech from the Vice Chancellor of AUT and then followed by some handy advice from a sword swallower.

On Wednesday, the 27th of February, 5 of us rented a car and headed up the North island for a 5 day excursion. The first day we made it up to Whangarei where we did some grocery shopping and ate at a great little place called Frings that had some excellent New Zealand style burgers. We stayed at the Bunkdown Lodge hostel, owned by a friendly Dutch man and his wife.

The next day we found Whangarei Falls and the Kauri Tree Forest in Whangarei. The trees were huge! We left Whangarei, making our way up the coast on the scenic route where we stumbled upon the beautiful secluded beach in the picture above. It was in Oakura and highly worth the lunch stop. We ended up spending a decent amount of time there and Evan and I went for a swim in the bright blue water while the others walked the beach. We continued on and made it to Paihia in the Bay of Islands in time to go spend some time on the beach and explore the area a bit. We stayed at the Bay Adventurer hostel that night and the next. We also found a great ice cream place in town called Cellini's.

On Friday we drove up to Kerikeri to check out the Rainbow Falls and a quiet little cove. Later in the day while Tim went spearfishing in Russell, the rest of us took a boat tour with Dolphin Discovery. It took us all through the Bay of Islands, past Urupukapuka and through the Hole in the Rock. We also managed to see a dolphin while we were pulling into the wharf in Russell. That night we ate at The Salty... they had some pretty good pizza... nothing like Pontillos at home though...

Saturday we woke up to the sound of rain but still managed to make it out to Cape Reinga at the very tip of the North Island. The last 20 km of the drive up there was a little crazy but Evan did a great job getting us all there in one piece. After the stop there we made our way back down to Auckland. I drove for a good deal that day... I was the lucky one that got to drive through the Giant Kauri Forest on some of the most curvy roads I have ever seen. Driving on the other side of the road is actually kind of fun and seems like normal after you do it for a while. The only thing that kept getting to me was the wiper. I kept turning on the wipers instead of the directional. Haha... oh well. We stopped for dinner at Shiraz in Dargaville (the sweet potato capitol of New Zealand). Good Indian food there... Evan got a steak of course. :P

Overall the trip was a lot of fun and this week I have finally started my classes. I am taking Introduction to Culture and Society, Genetics, Food and Environmental Analysis, and Organizational Behavior. They all should transfer back perfectly for credit at Clarkson. I also have Fridays off so that is excellent news.

This week is Orientation, or "O-week" as the Kiwis call it, so there are lots of events on. There are Tui challenges at the student bar, Vesbar, and all sorts of free concerts to check out. It should be a lot of fun and a good way to meet more people.