4 Months Ago...

Wow, been here for 4 months already, and I'll be heading back home in only 16 days; whew! Classes ended on the 5th of June, but I haven't taken any finals yet. They give a month for finals here, which is weird...an entire month?! That seems a bit excessive. But, whatever, it gave Quinn and I an excuse to go on another trip. My first final is tomorrow, but I needed a study break, which is how I found myself writing this.

So, Quinn and I went on an adventure of the North Island, and it rained EVERY SINGLE DAY. No joke; suuuuuper lame. Also, we were at a different beach every day on this trip too, which was interesting because it's winter here, so it's not like we could go swimming or lay out and get a tan or anything...but it was fun nonetheless.

We left in the afternoon of June 5th after our classes were done, rented a car, and that night drove up to Napier, which is on the east coast in Hawke's Bay.

We then continued up around the Bay to Gisborne, which is typically the big surf spot in New Zealand...in the summer, not the winter...it was quite cold.

Also, Gisborne is one of the most eastern cities in New Zealand, and since New Zealand is in the first time zone just after the International Date Line, when the sunrises, people in Gisborne are the first in the world to see the sunrise for the day. This was our attempt at seeing the first sunrise on Sunday June 7th, but seeing as how it was raining/cloudy, this was the best we got.

We then attempted to go north towards Whangara, which is where the movie Whale Rider was filmed; however, we are convinced that the town of Whangara does not exist because we drove towards it, and never saw any town....but we did see this magical rainbow.

An old wharf near Tolaga Bay, just north of Gisborne.

Adorable old man fishing on the end of the wharf

A random beach, somewhere near Whakatane, I think, on the Bay of Plenty.

Cool looking tree and what I'm guessing is a volcano.

In Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula. One perk of all the rain was we got to see a neat waterfall, I suppose.

Cathedral Cove, which was suuuuper cool, and would have been spectacular, had it not been raining. It was about an hour hike to get there and an hour hike back...in the rain. Cathedral Cove was where they filmed the scene from the second Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, when they first go back to Narnia. It's not very good quality, but the clip from the movie you can enjoy here. 

Bay of Islands. We were supposed to take a boat cruise of the islands, but guess what? It was RAINING so they canceled it.

Magically colorful clouds from the sunrise in Bay of Islands; however, that was the end of the magic of the sunrise, because the rest of the sky was cloudy.

Cape Reinga; the northern-most point of New Zealand. Also where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet.

Looking back at the rest of the country from the Cape. You can also see the end of the 90 Mile Beach and the giant sand dunes.

The giant sand dunes (although in this photo, they don't really look so giant i suppose). We went body boarding down them, which I guess is similar to sledding down a hill in the snow, except here you get sand everywhere, which can be quite unpleasant.

Frolicking on the 90 Mile Beach, which is actually only about 55 miles long...

Cool looking fog/rain clouds

About the only place on the North Island where the leaves actually turned colors in the fall/winter.

Whangerei Falls

Ok, so now I suppose I should get back to studying. Final tomorrow; another on Friday; All Blacks game on Saturday; last final next Thursday; fly home on the 2nd. And there we have it.

PEACE.