A Busy Week

So again, I find that I have lacked writing to you guys since a week ago. I apologize for this. I will try to start doing it more. At any rate, last week I left you on Wed. afternoon. That evening I did indeed go out for drinks and had a good time. Nothing to exceptional happened that evening, but it was still a good time had by all. On Thurs and Friday I took things pretty easy. As Chris and I had made plans for early on Saturday. So after not much happening on Thursday and Friday, I woke up early on Saturday and went to Chris's house. Upon arriving I realized I had left the back door unlocked however, and had to travel all the way back to the house, close and lock the door and drive back. Oh the dreary things in life. Well Chris and I left shortly after I arrived. We had decided to make a day of it. We planned to go to Piha which is a beach on the west coast where all the surfers hang out. Its black sand and supposedly beautiful. The wheather had been incredible all week long with temps in the high 60s I'd say. But wouldn't you know it on Saturday it was overcast and rainy. Oh well. We planned accordingly and brought a change of clothes. On the way to the beach we stopped and picked up a case of brews and some chips. We figured if we were going to be the only people around for miles on a beautiful black sand beach in the rain, we may as well have a brew and some chips. So we stopped and picked those off at literally "the last stop before Piha" as the sign warned us. And we drove. We kept driving along until we came to the turn off to Karekare (another gorgeous blacksand beach I had been to before). We decided to take a detour to Karekare for a bit. We arrived, and went for a walk along the beach. We were thoroughly enjoying ourselves, and decided we should lose our sandals rather than carry them with us along the beach. Howeve after walking a ways we found a really cool rock outcropping which we wanted to walk out on. We got about a third of the way out and then realized what a horrific idea it was to try and do without shoes. However being boys as we are we decided to continue anyways, and made to the end after much pain and shouts of agony. What we found was worth the pain though (sort of). On the other side of the outcropping was the roughest water I had seen churning everywhere full of waves and undertoes. I felt just looking at it that I would be in danger if I tried to swim anywhere near there. It was really cool to watch though. And we got a good view of some surfers catching waves. (I should say that the West coast where Karekare and Piha are is famous for its undertoes and its roughness. They used to have a commercial for them saying no one had ever died between the lines (which are markers they put out) but the commercial had to be removed because it was a blatant lie and lots of people have drowned even when swimming between the markers). So after Karekare we decided to hit up Piha, which was actually very different then I imagined. There were actually buildings and stuff around Piha (which there are none at Karekare)While we were at Piha the rain picked up and after playing around close to the surf we were pretty soaked and cold. So we decided to get back in the car and get more gas. On the way back from Piha we noticed a pull over on the side of the road that had a set of table and chairs at it. It was to comical not to pass up. So we pulled over and had a beer at a pair of plastic table and chairs in the middle of no where on the side of the road in the rain. We were rather amused by it. We returned back and got more gas, but then we had enjoyed our day so much we went right back out to Karekare. It was a fun filled day to say the least. All we did was mess around on a rainy day at the beach, but it was a blast.

Well when I returned home, there was a message for me from Leigh's brother-in-law, asking me if I wanted to go to a sporting clays coarse with him. I of course responded and said I did. The next morning he (aka Andrew) picked me up at quarter till 8 and we set off for a tiny Pennisula north of Auckland on the East coast. The land is military land, but they put up a rather nice sporting clays course on it that is run by volunteers. The course runs down a mountain ridge which leads to the ocean and a gorgeous bay. So needless to say it was spectacular. I was beating myself up all day for not bringing a camera but I never would have thought it would have been so beautiful. There was a gorgeous little Island in the bay and a sailboat would actually pass by in the ocean beneath us. All the while the bangs of 12-20 gauge shotguns were going off all around you. It was a special place. haha. Andrew is a very nice man and was really cool to me. He let my use his 16 gauge, and didn't embaress me to badly by outshooting me. After shooting he dropped me off and I had a lazy Sunday with Leigh and Christoph.

On Monday, I found myself exceptionally tired for some reason, and took a nap. After that I studied German, exercized, and read as I usually do. That evening I had my 3rd improv class. They are going well and I am enjoying them.

And now it is tuesday and Yannik is currently in his room watching Fireman Steve. At 5 tonight I'll take him swimming, and then later tonight hopefully an American that I know who lives in Sydney will be in Auckland for an week, and we will meet up. It should be a busy week. I'll tell you all about it as soon as it happens. Enjoy.

Wes