Back in Auckland

Well, we are back in Auckland. We had a beautiful house lined up in Wellington. It had 180 degree view of the entire town and valley, as well as the bay. It was fully furnished at awesome, but he wouldnt do a short term lease. There is really nothing else to rent there, so we headed back up here to let a place, as there are tons of places in Auckland. We did enjoy our stay in Wellington, although everything got pretty expensive. $4 an hour for internet got ridiculous, parking was also $4 an hour in town, and its not even a major city. Food, beer, everything got pricey. Auckland, although it is like 3 times larger, is a lot cheaper. Its all about shipping over here. Since most stuff comes in through Auckland, most of that stuff is cheaper. Plus, the competition is greater, so that drives the rent down. However, Auckland is not nearly as visually stunning. It is much more similar to like Toronto, whereas Wellington was a lot like San Francisco or Vancouver. Toronto is pretty, but its no Vancouver. Anyway, I also had a couple job prospects that I was forced to leave behind in Wellington, one at the Wellington academy for tennis, and another at the Renouf tennis centre, which is where the women's ITF chamionships are played. This is a large int'l tournament. We did a drive the other day before we left, out of Wellington. We headed up to Featherston, then headed east to Martinborough. We were about 35 km away from the coast still when the road turned into a dirt rally course. The drive was amazing, dotted with sheep and cows around every turn. The mountains were awesome. It just suddenly opened up to this. The river flowing in the valley met the ocean, and we were treated to a completely untouched stretch of beach. The weather was pretty cool, but the views were the best we've seen yet. Alright guys, lets get those Seahawks this weekend. I hope I get to watch some of it. It will be on monday morning at like 9 or something, so I could possibly get to watch it, and that excites me. Alright, hit me up! And check out my link, I got a video clip with more to come. later.....ARGH, it takes SO long to upload pictures. I'll put some on later, goin to the beach, later

More Pics

Here are 2 pictures of the beaches at Whangerei...We were so amazed when we walked out because the drive in is all on the bay side. You literally take a turn and there is the open ocean. This is located about 2.5 hours to the north of Auckland, one of our first stops....The next 2 pictures are from Mountain Biking in Rotorua. We had to climb to the top of this hill and bike down. It was a gravel road and we had to carry our bikes...We later learned there were shuttles to the top, but we are dumb. More coming from wellington....GO BEARS

Wellington!!!

Ok, so this place is sick...After driving through snow covered mountains, then through cow and sheep covered rolling pastures, you come to the abel tasman sea on your right, then you dive through a valley and you are here. The roads are crazy, all single lane and fast. I am at the X backpackers. we have a four bedroom dorm we are sharing with one other tonight, haven't met him yet. we are going out for happy hour. A good night to get drunk. Tornados in Illinois? cheers.

Bummer

So we are in Rotorua...This place is pretty sick. There is a huge lake with a little island in the middle, basically an old caldera. The surrounding terrain is dominated by little geysers and thermal areas. Every lodge and hostel in town boasts about mineral pools and springs...Its a lot like Yellowstone. There is also a Redwood forest just to the east of town. There are 70 km of single track biking trails, which are sick!! (i will get pics on here). Jake and I rode a trail called "Hot Cross Buns". It required about a 4 km walk straight up this mountain side, with our bikes...We were ready to ditch out when the rains hit, but we figured fuck it, we'd come this far, lets see this damn thing. The trail starts at the very top of this plateau with a view to both sides. Its the hardest trail I've ever ridden. I was getting like 4-6 feet of air on jumps, there were burms that dropped off 3 feet, extremely technical sections where you were winding at like 90 degrees, through trees! I almost took a nasty fall, but all in all just came out sore, thirsty, hungry, and extreeeeeemly pissed...why you ask? Well, at the trail's bottom, a New Zealand fellow was asking people if "anyone was with an american lad, shes hysterical at the bottom of the hill over a theft". I asked what the hell had happened and he said "basically, everythings been stolen". This meant 80% of my clothes, some toiletries, a Mountain Hardwear winter jacket, books, dvds...Awesome. I am drinking wine right now to drown my sorrows, but it stings...The car window is fixed and still runs fine, but I want to strangle a Maori. The cop said that they had it narrowed down to about 100-200 possible people in town, so there is a chance that the clothes could turn up. I guess the locals always do this in Rotorua, cruising tourist hot spots, looking for valuables and making quick heists. Anyway, we push on to Taupo tomorrow, and leave behind the number one crime center in New Zealand...Later guys

hey again, im trying to get pictures on here but this blog site is a real jerk....anyone can leave comments now though...ciao

First Day in New Zealand

Hey guys. We are safely in Auckland. Today, we bought a car. Its a 1996 Subaru Legacy, a pretty nice car. It went of about 4,000 NZD, or 2600? Its perfect for what we need, 4wd, lots of space. As soon as we bought it, we drove up to Whangerei, a 2 hour drive from Auckland. The entire drive was amazing. The tree combinations are incredible. It looks like a mix between the rainforest in South America, the Serengeti in Africa, and the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. When we got to the ocean, this was what we saw. A completely pristine beach, nobody around. The weather is still a little chilly, so swimming was not an option, but hiking around and drinking some wine was good enough. Well thats it for today, we just got back and need some sleep, because tomorrow we are heading to Rotorua, the Volcanic Area, which is 2 or 3 hours to the south east. After that, we are going to hopefully push on all the way down to the South Island and possibly Snowboard before the season is over.