Rugby anyone?

This past weekend I finally got a chance to go see a rugby game in Hamilton. It's one of those experiences that I couldn't come home to the States without and, as it was the last game of the season for Waikato Union, we knew we had to go. Andrew, Amanda and Ashleigh and I ordered the tickets the night before the game (it had only just occurred to us that it was our last chance to go) and were able to get seats 7 rows up on the mid-field. It was pretty awesome, though admittedly a bit confusing... None of us really knew the rules or the positions, but we were able to get into it and understand the major things... like when you're team's about to score a goal, that sort of thing. :O)

One of the cool things about rugby is that it's pretty much continuous playing. There aren't timeouts or downs; they just take the ball and go. If there's a tackle, everyone piles on and the ball is rather incredibly passed between bodies and through legs until someone on the outside gets it and starts running again. My favorite thing to watch was passing in the ball after it went out of bounds. Three guys from each team would cluster together and two would cheerleader-lift the third in the air in attempts to get the ball.

I'm proud to say that Waikato dominated against Northland 20 to 16. Overall, it was a pretty sweet day.

Other than that, as my dad said, school seems to be getting in the way of my adventures, but it's almost over! Only 2 more weeks of classes before study week and then three weeks of finals... *sigh. I can't wait for it all to be over. I should probably help it along by working my Geochem essay thats due tomorrow, eh? :O)

Well, it looks like crazy adventures throughout the North Island are going to be halted for a while. School's definitely picking up. In the next couple of weeks I have a few essays and a couple of exams to survive.

Currently, the big news in New Zealand is that the All Blacks, their national rugby team, is definitely in the running for the World Cup, which is currently taking place in France. People here are a bit obsessed and have no problem staying up to watch a game that's coming on at 2am. I'm officially an All Blacks fan now, even though the American team is still in the running. :O)

Andrew has been working with an engineering group on a battery-operated car to participate in the Aussie solar challenge taking place next month. On Wednesday, Amanda and I went to the Uni's Performing Arts Centre to see the unveiling of the car (and Andrew's custom made headlights, of course). It was a neat ceremony because the Minister of Energy and the Environment of New Zealand made the opening speech. The Kiwi's have a healthy respect for their environment and it's cool to see the efforts they make to keep New Zealand as clean as possible.

I asked my friend, Hannah, once if she ever got tired of the ocean or felt trapped by it. In New Zealand, you're never more than 2 hours away from the coast. I remember that she gave me a funny look and said "We know that the ocean is our biggest resource... How can you not appreciate it?" Good point. It's hard to get bored in a place where every 50 km on the road brings out an entirely new ecosystem; forests, plains, the ocean, mountains....

















(Cathedral Cove Track, Cape Reigna Bay and Rainbow Mountain)

Anyways, yours truly has since then made it into the New Zealand Herald. Whoot! It turns out that the photographers caught me and Amanda in the background with the car in the foreground (we're in the top left corner of the pic). We both saved a copy of that day's issue. :O) Here's a link to the article if anyone's interested in reading it: Petrol takes back seat to battery power

All of my papers are still going well. I must say that my favorite paper at the moment is my Human Perspectives Chem class. We've been going through the periodic table and discussing the medical applications of the transition metals and the radioactive elements. I find it all pretty fascinating and my teacher clued us into an awesome periodic table made by the Royal Chemistry Society. They've basically represented each element with a picture that depicts their uses or a unique characteristic (Mom, Dad... I'll probably be asking for a Wallposter of it! :O)) Even if you're not interested in the sciences, I think that you should totally check it out:

RSC Visual Elements Periodic Table (If you click on the element, it'll give a history of it's discovery, uses and a explanation/description of the picture). Enjoy!

Alright, day two of Ash's and my crazy adventure. :O) After the Far North Tour we were pretty exhausted, but today, we were inspired to get out on the water. We decided to take a 4 hour boat cruise to see the Bay of Islands at its best. It was a gorgeous day as we weaved our way through the bay and were told some of the history of the settlement of the bay. The highlight of the trip was getting out of the bay to Cape Brett and to the Hole in the Rock...

a very poetic name, I know, but it gets the job done, right?

Asleigh and I talked for a few days about doing the two day walk to tramp over the dragon spine to get to the Cape. We then determined that 20km over the tough terrain that is the dragon spine might not be our best option. :O) Anyways, it was really neat to see the islands and the cape from the perspective that we did and our tour boat even took us through the hole. I say it a lot, but it was awesome! On the way back to the Paihia Harbor, we stopped at an island for an hour of swimming (if you brave enough to test the spring-season waters), tramping, beach-lounging and, my personal favorite, coffee drinking.

Before leaving Paihia that afternoon, we went to the Treaty Grounds of Waitangi. This is where the nation of New Zealand really began, when Maori chiefs from all over the island came to Waitangi and signed a treaty with the British in order to ensure protection from external powers. It is also the place where the longest war-canoe is stationed (35m). Sadly, the place was a bit of a letdown, as the treaty is in Wellington (south part of North Island), but it's an important part of NZ's history.

We then went to Haruru Falls on the way to Kerikeri.

A wonderful little brother to Niagara in the States, where we also happened to catch a rainbow. :O)

Kerikeri was voted a few years ago to be the best small town in New Zealand, so of course, everyone moved there. It also happens to be surrounded by orchards, art galleries and have a fair amount of historical importance to it. The backpacker's place that we stayed in there reminded me a bit of the Grapes of Wrath motor camps. Ash and I weren't terribly comfortable there, but we had each other and we had our own room.

Day three included heaps of driving throughout the Mid-North before finally heading down to the Coromandel Peninsula about nightfall. We basically decided to drive west and do some forest and coast driving on the way back down to Auckland. After getting turned around a few times (I'm not quite sure how it turned out to be so difficult to just go west), we made our first stop at a beautiful coast town named Opononi, where we took a scenic walk to see the ocean and dunes against a great mountain backdrop.

The highlight of the day was driving through the Waupoua Forest a few hours later, which is a famous Kauri tree forest in Kiwiland. It's a national reserve and I thought that we would simply turn off the road and take a hike into the forest itself. Nope, the main road goes right through it with a few stops to see the particularly impressive Kauri trees. It was quite the drive; everywhere you looked was incredibly green and the road was impossibly windy. One tree we got out of the car to see was Tane Mahuta, or the Lord of the Forest in Maori.

This tree is 52m high and sprang to life during the life of Christ. Truly, it was a protector of the forest with how overwhelmingly big it is.

After about 8 hours of driving through the north country, we drove down pack Auckland and drove to Thames, the entry of the Coromandel Peninsula. People may ask, "what is so great about this place?". Well, it's a little piece of paradise that people just can't seem to get enough of. It boasts mountains and some of the best beaches on the North Island... Not to mention the much-loved Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove, which we eventually got around to. The first two days were spent touring some of the mountains on a sweet train-ride, shopping in Coromandel Town and carving our own bone necklaces in Whitiangi. Our last day in the area, we tramped down to Cathedral Cove, which was more of a work-out than I think we were anticipating. However, I don't think we would have appreciated the scene quite as much if we didn't have to work for it. :O)

It was a beautiful stretch of beach with some interesting rock formations and the cove, which was formed through erosion of the hillstead by the sea.

Hot Water Beach. Mention it to anyone around here and they'll start raving about the time they had and how you definitely have to go. It's basically a surf beach with a very special feature: geothermal activity. There are hot springs under the beach that can be accessed by digging a foot or so into the sand at low tide. You can rent a spade from the beach shop and in a matter of minutes you can have your own hot tube at the beach. We tried to dig a hole with a austrian couple, however the waves kept knocking over our walls. A group of people offered us a space in their large pit and we gladly accepted.

It turned out that the water coming up from the spring we were over was too hot to sit in. In fact, at one end of the pool, the water was boiling as it rose to the surface. We basically had to stick our toes in at the other end and slowly ease our way into it. A few times the ocean flooded in with a particularly large wave and that helped to cool the bath down to a comfortable temperature. I may not come from a family that spends a lot of time on the beach, but man, that is the way to go if one has a beach day planned.

That night we headed to Waihi Beach before heading back to Hamilton for the night (we were sick of pulling out our debt cards by this time). The next morning we returned the thankfully undamaged car to the rental company and bussed back to Hamilton after a day of wandering/shopping in Auckland.

We really didn't have all that long to rest however, as we were scheduled to head to Amanda's family's house in Tauranga (about 1.5 hours away) the next evening. We spent the weekend enjoying the comforts of home and doing some activities with Amanda's parents. As I had done with Hannah two weekends prior, we headed to Mt Manganui, which is at the entrance of the city's port. It turns out that Tauranga is one of NZ's largest ports and thus, we saw a lot of ships. Anyways, while with Hannah we simply walked around the base of the old volcano, Amanda and her mom wanted to climb it. Wow, was that a hike. I must say that I appreciated the numerous breaks that we took to catch our breaths on the way up to the summit. It was pretty funny though, because we had people passing us quite a bit, including elderly men and women running up the track as a part of their daily workout. Don't let me fool you though, it was quite a climb, especially for my not-so-fit body. :O) The view on top was awesome and as soon as I can bum Amanda's camera from her, I'll post some pictures of the view.

We also went kayaking the next day up the Waimarino River, went out to eat, went shopping and had Amanda's dad serve us some of the best lamb I have ever had. It was a wonderful way to end our two week teaching recess. Admittedly, I did have some homework (or a lot of homework) to come home to though. I had a rather large Geochem exam the day we came back into town and I was definitely up late studying. What an appropriate way to get back into the school groove right?

It's looking like the next couple of months will be pretty chill until school has finished. Andrew and I will head down to the South Island together once the school year finishes. He wants to rent a campervan and do as much tramping as possible. I'm pretty excited about it and may even be able to meet up with some people from the christian communities here in NZ along the way. I'm also working on planning my trip to Aus. It might be bigger, but the Kiwis' strong dislike for anything Aussie and their excellent point about Aus's poisonous/huge creatures... not to mention snakes, has also definitely made me appreciate me time here as well. :O)

Man oh man. It's been a busy couple of weeks.

The after returning from Waihi Beach, Andrew, Ashleigh and I headed to Auckland to pick up our rental car. To date, I've only found one rental company that'll lend a car to people who are under 21: Explore More. We were able to rent the car fairly inexpensively, though the insurance bond on the car was a bit terrifying if you're between 18 and 20. We decided not to pay extra to bring the bond down in price because 1. we are college students with small money reserves and 2. I had already driven to and from New Plymouth and was fairly comfortable with driving on the left/wrong side of the road. So off we went in our Mizda Grizzly, which I thought looked more like a tattered cat than anything else. After spending the day in Auckland, seeing the penguins at the Kelly Tarleton Aquarium and dropping Andrew off at the airport, Ashleigh and I headed north.

We drove to Paihia, which is the gateway for the Bay of Islands and checked into the Mousetrap Backpackers Hostel. The next morning we woke up early and stood on the curb waiting for our 7.15am pickup for the 4x4 Dune Rider Tour to the Far North region of New Zealand with Joyce, a Dutch girl staying in the Hostel, and a Russian guy who didn't speak a word of English the whole day. Barrelling around the corner, came this huge converted army supply truck with wheels that reached my chest. The name of the tour definitely began to make better sense from this point forward. It was pretty amusing to drive up to hotels and see the 50-somethings boarding the regular boring charter buses and glancing warily are the 4x4 while the youngers stumped up it's steps.

The first stop we made was in the Manginangina Forest. New Zealand is famous for its Kauri trees which grow extremely straight and produce valuable sap and wood. This particular forest walk was built for the queen's visit back in the 90s. It's about a kilometer-long walk through the forest, which displays Kauri trees that are upwards of 750 years old. It took several months and heaps of labor to build and apparently, when she arrived, she walked onto the first platform, said "Very nice" and went back to the car... People weren't too happy about the whole thing for some reason.

This is a picture of our Dutch friend, Joyce, and a French guy who never quite seemed able to follow directions... Anyways, the Kauri trees were quite interesting and now they've been so exploited for their products that now people aren't allowed to cut them down. Commerically-usable Kauri wood today is extracted from swamps and have been dated to be up to 60,000 years old.

We then drove to the famous 90-Mile Beach. I thought that we were mearly going to drive into a carpark and walk the beach for a bit, but was I wrong. Notice the speed limit sign at the beach's entrance:

It turns out that if you're vehicle can drive on the beach, you're allowed to drive it. And drive it we did. I think that we drove about 80% of the beach's length. So, while it was quite interesting, after awhile, you would look to one side and see the water and then at the dunes without the same initial wonder.

However, we did spot a wild baby seal and at one point our driver said, "This is an area where wild horses like to come down to the water from the dunes" and veered hard to the right, drove up an old creek bed and soon we were being thrown around in the bus while he drove over what felt like a sand mogel field. I had the fleeting thought at that point that this was probably not the most subtle way to see horses in their native environment, but I think it was as much for the horses as it was for showing off what the truck could do. Can't blame him, I suppose, he does do that drive every day.

90-Mile Beach, it turns out, isn't actually 90 miles long. Apparently, it was believed that cattle could walk 30 miles in one day and when the farmers would drive their herd along the beach, it would take them 3 days to walk it; thus 90 miles. It turns out that it's only 64 miles long. So, do they change the name? Nope and for good reason. The Kiwis' arch reveal, Aus, has an 80-Mile Beach and of course, we can't be out done by them in everything! However, it also turns out that Aus' beach is only 72 miles long, but what does actual distance have to do with national pride, eh?

Once reaching the end of the beach, we drove up another creek bed and went into the dunes. We piled out of the truck and after being handed boogey boards, hiked up a HUGE (in my opinion) dune to do some sand surfing. It was an awesome experience, but once was definitely enough as far as my calves were concerned. The guys, however, were pretty much circling Ashleigh and I was we trekked up the dune. I think they each went 4-5 times.

We then drove to Cape Reigna, which is the end of all things New Zealand. It was a really clear day, so you could see for what felt like miles. One unique feature were these cresting waves several hundred meters off shore. I asked our guide and he said that that's where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean tides are meeting. Cool, right?

We later went to get Fish 'n Chips from the "world famous" Mangonui Fish Shop, where they serve fish that is less than 3 hours out of the ocean. It was delicious to say the least. Finally being dropped of at the Hostel, Ashleigh and I toured the town for a bit and booked a water tour for the next day before crashing in our beds.