Postcard Perfect

Since I last wrote, I have FINALLY seen the amazing scenery that I've been waiting for, been diving & have met more great people. We checked out of our Auckland hostel on Wed & traveled by bus to Whangarei to this really great small hostel with just wonderful people. We met Adam and Peter, a couple of local Kiwis,  two American guys Ryan and Sean who were on R&R from the Coast Guard, Andrea from England, a guy from France, as well as a girl from Germany, a woman from Scotland, and a few other local kiwis. On Thurs night, we all played cards outside at the picnic tables, had some drinks, and then Adam suggested that all of us walk up the road at 11:00 at night in the pitch black with just our torches (flashlights) to go see some glow worms. So, a group of 10 of us set out on a 20-25 minute walk, took this crazy path through these woods, and all had to walk single-file when we got to this point where on the left was a steep drop where you could hear waterfalls & on the right was a rock wall that we had to stay as close to as possible. We got to this point where a long time ago, some men had started to carve out tunnels through the rock looking for some "buried treasure." (They didn't find any, so the tunnels didn't go far). Nonetheless, we all crouched down and went into the tunnels with our torches and looked around for a bit. Then, we went back out onto our path outside the tunnels and walked up a little further, turned all our torches off, held hands walking up some stairs since you literally couldn't see anything without our torches, then we looked to our right and there were hundreds of these glowing lights covering the rock wall. It was just perfect--you could hear the waterfalls to the left, then see these glowing lights to the right. Definitely one of those nights that I will always think of fondly.

Thurs during the day, I went DIVING!! A van picked us up from the hostel & took us on a very high-speed 45-minute ride on mountain roads to the town of Tutukaka. From there,  Andrea and I went on a dive boat that took us about 50 mintues out to Poor Knights Islands. It was incredible. I look back at the pictures of the dive site and still can't believe that I went diving there. Wonderful day! Friday, Sonja, Brigita & I checked out of the Whangarei hostel, which was quite sad since the group there was just so much fun. That is something I've learned you have to get used to around here---you meet great people, but you usually have to say goodbye to them very quickly.

Our next stop was Paihia in the Bay of Islands, which is where we will be until Tues. The hostel istself here is the best yet--so cute, clean & spacious--plus, it is set with the New Zealand mountains in the background on one side, and the beaches on the other! Yesterday, I met a girl at the new hostel named Annki from Germany. So, the four of us borrowed some bikes from the hostel and took them with us on the ferry across to Russell. We biked around for a bit, then found a beach called Long Beach that was just incredible...it literally looked like a postcard picture. We stayed there all day swimming and laying on the beach (and..uhh..getting sunburned). It was a really wonderful day though. We are now in the process of figuring out where to go next & how to get there. We are considering jobs in Kerikeri an hour north, but we need to make some phone calls first. Well, internet isn't free here, so I will be logging off now.

Cheers,
A