getting the hell outta dodge!

We finally got to see Penguins! but it was at the aquarium, but still cool! They were way bigger than we expected, they even had one named Fat Boy.

all those little white dots are sheep!

So we FINALLY got out of Auckland and rented a car to head up north. We stopped and stayed in Paihia for a few nights. Its a quaint little beachy town a little like Southport actually. It was nice, we took a speedboat ride to a cave and through a hole in one of the islands in the Bay of Islands. We also got to do some really pretty hikes through forests that really looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss story. A few days later we got to go horseback riding to a volcano called Mt. Te Puke. The ride was awesome, Laura had a little Paint Pony and I got to ride this HUGE Clydesdale that was just not interested in me at all and did whatever she wanted.

Paihia

View of the Tasman Sea

After we visited Cape Reinga lighthouse we headed back out and on our way we stopped at a place called Te Paki and got Boogey Boards and went sandboarding. This has easily been the best and most thrilling thing we've done. The dunes were absolutely enormous and you feel like you are in the desert cause all you can see is just rolling sand dunes everywhere. We were just throwing ourselves down these huge mountain of dunes and you can't imagine how fast you get going and how steep it is.

We went to our first Rugby game last night! It was so much fun but we didn't understand ANYTHING that was going on..... So a nice group of kiwis who were really really into the game sat with us and tried to explain the game to us, although I think they were just picking on us the whole time cause every time Auckland scored they would yell "TOUCHDOWN." (its actually called a 'try')

We're finally here!

So after a LONG 30 hours of traveling we finally got to New Zealand. We wandered around Auckland from about 6:30 am until we were allowed to check into our hostel at 1:00 pm. We were exhausted but there are tons of coffee shops everywhere, so we powered through :)











In the airport customs line in Auckland I (emily) ran into a friend from UNC who was also and EXSS major and we had several classes together. He is living in Wellington and playing water polo so we may try to go see a game sometime. When we got to the hostel, we were roomed with a couple that we had met on the bus from Oregon (about our age) and made good friends with them and one other of our roommates who is an extrememly funny French guy named Ben. His English isn't great so he's been pretty entertaining tagging along with us. We all went out together last night and had a blast. Ben keeps calling us his 'team' and when we do things for the other people, we are "doing it for the team"

We've decided we are going to move away from Auckland to live, we don't know where yet but we have talked about buying a car and possibly living with the couple we are rooming with in the hostel. We'll see what happens. Tonight we are going to a Rugby game and then going out with "the team" to have some fun.

Travis, Tara, Me, Laura, and Ben - "The team"

down by the harbor

Wandering around Auckland, we found The White House, and a fun climbing tree