Bay O' Islands part 2

Alright so here are some dolphin and other pictures. My dolphin pics don't really do them justice. It's hard to time them perfectly, as the little bastards are quick. Actually they aren't little either, as they can grow up to 400 kilos. Anyways, they seemed to have a good time playing in the boat wake and jumping around. The rest of the cruise was neat but it was worth it just for that. The boat was probably going 20 and they were easily keeping up.

Hole in the Rock. That water was the craziest blue I've ever seen, with the possible exception of the teardrop pool on South Sister for all you Oregonians

The Crew

Yet another pretty beach. Gorgeous

Bay of Islands Pics part Uno

So here are some pics from my bay of islands trip this past weekend. Kelsea, the other OSU exchange student, and a few friends crammed into a rental car and drove up there this weekend. It was about a four hour trip or so, and fortunately the car was pretty efficient so petrol was pretty cheap. Along the way we stopped at a cave (cost mucho dinero so we didn't enter), saw some artistic toilets (not my idea, but they were actually pretty cool) and gaped at the green vistas along the way. We spent the night in a hostel after making some mexican food. All 5 of us were americans, and dammit we miss fajitas (not pronounced Fah-Jit-ahs dad). The next morning we took a cruise of the islands and saw the hole in the rock. It is navigable but not in the rough seas. I'm realizing that I get seasick pretty easily, so that took away some of the luster, but it was still awesome. We saw bottlenose dolphin up close, learned some history of the area, and snapped a bunch of pictures. All in all we were tourons (part tourist-part moron) but I loved it. On the way back we detoured over to the west coast and stopped in one of the few native Kauri forests left in the country. Most of the Kauri trees were logged decades ago, but there are some left in the hard to get to areas. Here are some selected pics.

Jake, Kelsea, Serena, Melissa and Janice in Paiha

Doing what I do best, monkeying around on the beach

During the Island cruise, there are so many cool beaches and isolated islets there. Overnight camping is not allowed unfortunately

Sweet advertising for bike parts

Serena posing for the Oldest Kauri tree

A bunch of Dudes Hugging... I mean rugby match

So here are some pics from the rugby match. All in all it is you typical sporting event. Drunk fans, Cheerleaders and a bunch of behemoths out on the field ready to bring on the pain. The blues destroyed the visitors, the Warotah's from S. Africa. Basically rugby is like football without downs and with less padding. When the ball goes down they keep going, but you can not pass the ball forward, so they are constantly pitching laterals. Pretty cool.

Weekend Pics

Here are some pics from my Bay of Islands trip this weekend. There'll be more later.

One of the many green vistas

Sunset at an estuary

The West coast

Kauri Forest

The oldest Kauri tree, over 1000 years old!

Terminology

So I'll be headed up to Northlands to the Bay of Islands this weekend hopefully. A group of exchange students and I are still waiting to hear back from the car rental agency. The bay of islands is supposed to be a real touristy area (hey, you gotta be one sometime) with lots of tour boats, snorkeling and other activities. The weather is supposed to deteriorate sometime during the next month so now is the time to go check it out. I'd like to check out 90 mile beach if I get the chance too. I'm headed to a Rugby match tonight, where the Blues are playing... uh... somebody. Hey it's the national sport, I have told by numerous kiwi's to go see one game. The game makes almost as little sense to me as cricket. But maybe I'll have it figured out by this evening. Not much else is going on here. I've been busy with projects and studying for my upcoming exams. I'll get 2 weeks off from the 6th-20th of april. Here's some NZ terminology for you to get you by till I post some more pictures.

Stuffed up= screwed up
pissed= drunk
headtorch= headlamp (I still laugh every time at that one)
Dairy= corner store
Togs=swim suit/ trunks
Jandals= flip flops (do not call them thongs)
Span= stem (climbing term, for you climbers out there)
abseil= rappel

And some random facts

-They put shredded carrots on almost every sandwhich I've ever seen here.
-Chips = French fries, but be careful, sometimes they are made out of sweet potatoes, bleah.
-Wendy's tastes like crap here too
-Potatoes are not the most popular vegetable in NZ
-They must have 122,354,590 types of cadberry eggs here, and they had those before easter was even close
-Drunk driving appears to be the national sport, just like the U.S.
-you can't say "man, your car turns on a dime" 'cause they don't have dimes (should have known that one)
-Kiwi's almost always say "yeah" twice in rapid succession

NZ rock virgin no longer: Part Duex

Joanna lost in a sea of pockets.

Because I can't get over how cool this climb was

Anthea tearin' it up on lead

Your typical panorama at the crag

Resting between sends

NZ rock virgin no longer

So I went climbing outdoors at a real crag (the 20 foot tall quarry in Auckland doesn't count) for the first time during my stay here.

It. Was. Rad.

*ahem* anyways, the rock climbing club went on our orientation trip. We introduced about 30 or so first timers to some real rock. Most of them had a great time, although we got rained out on Sunday. We drove a couple hours south to this area called Wharepapa. It is mostly farmland with green, rolling hills with cows and sheep everywhere. Pretty ordinary sounding, I know, but the geology of the area doesn't make any sense. Creeks flow in weird directions all haphazardly and there were little hollows everywhere. The rock type of the area is Ignimbrite and it pokes out of the ground here and there, much to the delight of climbers like myself. It is the most pocketed rock I have ever seen, Jugs abound, and there is everything from thin slabs to roof climbs. All in all it is beautiful country, and as the locals tell me, it is pretty much always green there. Ok, commence Pictures!

A pretty lake we stopped at

Climbing Orientation, Saturday. That's the club Prez Andrew in the goofy orange headwear

Start of the 22 I led. Fun!

Tricky Feet

I don't know why I look like I'm in pain here

A few Pictures

A picture of Herne Bay

Lantern Festival

Sentinal Beach, about a 5 minute walk from my place.

Some fuzzy fireworks for Auckland festival

Extreme Edge Climbing gym (pump factor 9.2)

Auckland University (right behind the park closest to the camera) from the Sky Tower

Dances with Clams

Saturday, Cloudy and about 18 degrees C outside.

Hey everybody. So last night was the Lantern Festival, commemorating the Chinese New year and bringing in the year of the pig. The United States is not the only country that is a melting pot, I'm beginning to realize. Auckland had a big celebration in Albert Park which is literally right next door to the University of Auckland. They had all kinds of lit up cloth and some paper mache' sculptures, and as you probably guessed, lanterns. It was quite beautiful. As it happened I forgot my camera, so no pics. Sorry. The best parts were the performances. The whole thing began with, I shit you not, a speech by Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The leader of the opposition National Party, John Key, was also there. So basically the two highest government officials were about 30 feet from me. Being a country of 4.2 million in this corner of the world apparently makes it a lot easier to get in touch with your government. As I wrote earlier, you can look up Helen Clark's address in the phone book, or you could call her up and chat with her at home about any concerns you may have. Crazy. Anyways, there were some awesome drum performances and some impressive acrobatics after that. And all that for Free-fitty. Pretty cool.

School has been interesting so far. Classes here seem very paper oriented, unlike the tests and labs I've found in most of the science courses I've taken. They also have a canoe club, climbing club, a tramping club (hiking for those who don't speak Kiwi) and a Mt. biking club. I signed up for a few of those. I did pass on the: meat club, who's goal is to provide an "inexhaustable supply of meat", the drinking club (I think you can figure that one out), and the dessert club, which sounded fine and dandy (I mean hey, I like dessert) but I'm not going to join a club for it. Thanks for all the inquiries guys, I appreciate it. Oh, and just so you realize that all the moonbats aren't in the US of A, here's this gem I found on a billboard in northtown.

The Inner Potential Centre

A black swan I saw at a park near my place. Sorry for the poor pic.

My place. The small windows below the red roof in the middle are my room.