Whananaki Fun

Hey guys, so this time I really have let to much time go by between posts. I really need to pick up the pace here. Its nice to know someone reads it though, I got an email from someone telling me to update my blog. Thats when you know its been to long. Well, without further ado, I suppose I have a lot to tell you guys because I had a sweet as weekend.

I last posted on Tuesday morning of last week. That day I pretty much spent the whole day baking, ending with a dinner of Cheese Rolls and Coconut Curry Shrimp. It was pretty tasty and a success I think. On Wed. I went out to Couchsurfer's as usual, but I left early because Chris offered me a ride home. However he parked at the grocery store in town, so we had to leave before it closed. Which was a good thing though because it means I saved money for the weekend. Thursday, I can't really remember anything special happening. (see this is why I aught to write more often, because I forget what happens during the day) But lets just pretend nothing of grave importance happened on thursday or friday morning.

But at about 6:00 on Friday afternoon I got picked up by Chris, we had the car packed and were ready to go by 6:30. You see, (I don't think I've told you) we had planned a trip with essentially Nanny's, Manny's, and Mark's. There is a guy named Mark from Couchsurfing who is a native Kiwi, and he and Chris planned a trip to Whananaki (pronounced "fun-a-naki) for the weekend. We had 8 people going in total: Chris and I (the Manny's), four Nanny's including two of the german au pairs I mentioned (the Nanny's), and Mark Russell and Mark Cruz both kiwi's (the Mark's). So Chris and I then picked up Lauren and Nikki (two nanny's and both American actually) and then met up with Mark who had the rest of the people. And hit the road around 8:30. Whananaki is in the Northland (sorta) and about 2 hours north of Auckland just above Whangerei. Road trips in NZ are so nice because you just sit back, relax, and crack a brew and wait till you get there. People here look at me weird and don't understand when I tell them you can't do that in the states that not even empty open containers are technically allowed in a car. At any rate, this trip wasn't necessarily stress free. About half way through we pulled over and realized we had a flat tire. We quickly changed it in the dark (I'm glad I had brought a torch as they are called here aka flashlight). However without anymore incidents we arrived at the house or "batch" it was pitch black outside except for the stars, but you could still hear the ocean fairly close to you. That night we had a good time, and threw it down. The next morning though we woke up to find exactly what kind of place we were in. We were surrounded by just 2 other houses on a massive gorgeous beach. The ocean was about 20 feet from our door, with an island out in the bay a little ways. It was magnificent, or since someone was getting tired of my usual word of amazing this time I will go with "stupefying pretty". That day the girls and I took the rowboat out to this big island. We landed and decided to hike to the top. However it was pretty steep pitch, and with fresh rain it was a giant mudslide. So in order to climb it you had to grab a tree and pull yourself up the mud. However every once in a while the tree would break or pull out, at which point you would slide about 20 down again until someone grabbed you as you slid past. Needless to say it was pretty funny to do in sandals. But we made it to top, and then immediately returned again because of an incoming storm. As soon as we pushed off and were in the boat again, the clouds parted and the sun came out of course. Halfway back in the boat I decided I would swim the rest of the way in. I obviously was not having a very intelligent moment, which i realized as soon as I dove in. At that point I realized the water was about 50-60 degrees. I had a mental flash of my dad saying to me once in Maine when we were in a boat surrounded by about 40 degree water, "Wes if the boat flips right now swim straight for the shore, you have about 5 minutes before hypothermia sets in and your body shuts down". With that in mind I quickly made my way to land. Once the girls made it in we had lunch, and then headed into "town". I say "town" but really it couldn't even be called that. And this is coming from a kid that grew up in Staunton for crying out loud. The town was tiny enough that the general store there was just called "the store" as its name. We bought some Ice cream and played with some cows, and took some pictures of an awesome rainbow. Then we headed for the beach where some kids had built a flying fox aka a zip line. We rode on that which was sweet as, and then we headed back home. Back home we played some Pictionary and some Scattagories both of which were hilarious. We had a awesome dinner of chicken breasts and delicious things fresh from the grill. The next morning we woke up and packed we left by about noon although we all were very confused because it seemed that while we slept everyone had changed the time on our clocks but no one elses. Then we realized that actually daylights savings time had happened over the weekend. At any rate, on the way home we swung through Whanagerei and saw a awesome waterfall. It was "grand". It was about 25-30 metres so like 75-90 feet. And just there right off the road. It was gorgeous, and I was tempted to jump off of it. After we finished at the waterfall we took another little detour and pulled off the road again, at which point we hiked back a kilometre or two to a series of caves. There was just a little sign reading caves as the only information given, but you go down in the caves. And its pretty sweet spelunking with knee deep cave water, (two of us stepped on eels while we were down there). We had two torches, and went as far as we could into these "wondrous" caves. And then we turned all the torches out, and the ceiling of the caves are covered in glowworms, so it looks like the night sky. And with the water running past you it is like your outside by a stream looking up at the stars. It was sweet as. I wish I could put it in words, or describe it better so you got the full effect of just how "legendary" it was. Needless to say I had one of the coolest weekends ever. And then an hour and a half later, I was in downtown Auckland again. This is a great country.

Monday started school holiday's so Yannik is fortunately enrolled in a holiday program, but it still means my schedule is pretty different then normal. I took him to his program and then returned and had a fairly normal day until about 1 when I went to grab some ham for lunch. However, I then discovered that I had left the lights on that morning and the battery was dead (neither their truck nor their car makes any noise if you leave the lights on . Its really annoying) Anyways, so I looked around for some jumper cables and found them and finally worked the nerve up to knock on random doors since neither of their neighbors that I have met where home. So I found a woman with a 1 and 3 year old in her house and so she ran out started her car and ran in again. Unfortunately for me, the truck refused to start. It just made a clicking sound. I thought that wasn't good, so I let the woman return to her children, and called Christoph. I thought maybe there is something I don't know about diesel engines that would cause this. He suggested I try a rolling start down the hill. This also failed. Luckily another neighbor had returned who I knew. So I asked her to try a jump again. It again did not work. By this time it was 2:30, I hadn't eaten that Ham that I still wanted so badly, and Yannik had to be picked up at 3. I mentioned I was going to have to hire a cab for Yannik, and the kind neighbor offered to drive me. Which was really nice of her. Christoph called a friend who suggested heavier jumper cables for the diesel engine. (The advantage of being a craftsman is that you are friends with a bunch of other craftsman like mechanics and plumbers and electrians and the such) So we bought bigger cables and when Leigh returned we jumped the car again and it started no problem. (Thank Goodness!) I went to improv a little late that night.

Tuesday was a pretty simple day, with not much happening. I made vege burrito's with my first ever homeade salsa. It was decent, but next time I know what I will change.

Wed. I had to watch Yannik all day long because it was his day off from holiday program. So I decided to take him to the Miranda Hot Springs. They are about an hour southeast of Auckland, and they are the largest geothermal pools in the southern hemisphere (or so they brag). So I drove down the East Coast Highway all the while listening on the radio of a Tsunami warning from the earthquake in Samoa. I kept thinking if the water level recedes quickly I need to drive to higher ground FAST!!! Luckily a Tsunami never hit us. We arrived at the hot pools and only 3 people were there. It was "bang-up" fun. The pools are between 36-38 degrees Celsius which is like 95-100 for us. And it is a massive swimming pool essentially. I expected it to be like rocks and stuff but no its a large concrete swimming pool with vents in the ground where super hot water comes out. The trip pretty much ate up the whole day cause it was 2 when we returned. That night I went out as per usual. I had a good time. More people are starting to come now that its warming up which is nice.

Well, this is a wicked long post, so I will leave it at that. I am going to start posting more often hopefully, which hopefully encourages people to read it more often. Its hard to tell sometimes whether just my parents read this or not, but hopefully others are enjoying it. I hope everyone is doing well. We are now 17 hours apart. Much love.

Wes