A lovely day!

On December 5th we found another beautiful hike north of Piha called the Te Waha Point Track.  Great views and of course the black beaches at the end.  Enjoy some pictures!

Pulling up those soggy pants!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Ed Jespersen clan came for a 15-day visit over Christmas and New Years.  More details to come but here's a festive picture for the holidays in the meantime!

Americans in New Zealand

Hidee ho neighbours!

At the beginning of November I was lucky enough to have three friends make the long haul from USA to NZ to see little ol' me!  Well, and the amazing country I live in.  Mostly the country.  But I'm here too so...bonus!  Cari and her husband, Matt, met our friend Julia here in Auckland for a week before they headed to the South Island for the second week.

We kept them busy with activities everyday.  We took them to Piha Beach for a hike (and an accidental soaking when the tide came in).  We spent a day walking around the island of Waiheke exploring the vineyards and drinking in the wine and the views.  Then three of them drove down to Hobbiton to take the tour of the movie set.

Piha Beach

Matt and Cari lost their luggage for a day after a series of unfortunate events and Matt had to borrow clothes from Lance.  Being the long torso-ed type, Matt basically had a belly shirt on the whole time.

I know what you're thinking and the answer is yes.  Cari was wearing knee high socks over her jeans.  Or they were wet.  But picturing them as knee highs over jeans was much more humorous in the retelling to Lance via pictures that evening.

 

Cari, commanding the waves.

Fail, Julia.

The water was significantly higher on the return journey as the tide came in.  If you zoom in on the faces, Cari and Julia look relatively serene during their crossing.  I look like Rambo on a mission.

Stonyridge Vineyard

Hobbiton

I wasn't there that day, but this picture was too embarrassing to not put on the blog.

Shakespear Regional Park

Over the weekend we did an overnight houseboat cruise up at the Bay of Islands, about 3 hours north.

The Rock Adventure Cruise was a blast!  It was just one night but it was busy with activities.  There was paintball target practice off the back of the boat, fishing, night kayaking (with AMAZING stars and bio-luminescent plankton that sparked when you paddled!), roasting marshmallows, hot chocolate, tasty meals, snorkeling (the water was SO COLD), sea urchin collecting and eating, beach time, and hiking with views.  Overall a very enjoyable weekend.  Cari, Matt, and Julia drove separately (and successfully on the other side of the road) because I had to wait for Lance to get off work.  We recommended they stop at some glowworm caves along the way since they had more time.  We've done those caves before ourselves and they are lovely and you feel like an adventurer!

I'm pretty sure he said this particular species of urchin has the largest teeth to body ratio of any animal.  Those are the 5 teeth in the middle.  They tickled my scalp.

Cari, Matt, and Julia departed for the South Island to explore Queenstown, Doubtful Sound, and Lake Wanaka.  Cari and Matt flew back through Auckland after a week while Julia took another week to drive from Queenstown to Auckland before heading to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef.

It was so nice to see friends from home and share my beautiful adopted country with them.  Thanks for making the trip, guys!