Rangitoto Hike

Well, as Ta asked for, here is a more frequent blog update. Since Tuesday, my only real big adventure has been a hike up to the top of Rangitoto. Rangitoto is a large volcanic island in the middle of Auckland's harbor. It appeared there about 600 years ago. How cool/freakishly-terrifying would it be to be sitting on your hillside Pa, as a local Maori man 600 years ago and suddenly see the ocean spit fire and ash. Then the next time you look there is a massive mountain where there used to just be water. I mean that would be quite a sight to see I imagine. Anyways, I cleaned the house up early and took a bus into town. I arrived at noon at the ferry terminal where I met up with Devika (a friend of mine who at one point in my stay here I got evicted from her house (but thats a whole other story)). To get to Rangitoto you have to take a ferry across the harbor. So we jumped on the (if I do say so myself, expensive) ferry and made our way over. When we got there we started the ascent. The day was lovely as all the days here have been recently. Cooler than the rest actually which is good since it has been about 80 and really humid. The hike was about an hour 1 way, and we went straight up the mountain. It was a fun hike, and the views were spectacular. The island is now covered with plant life, but it is still very much a volcano. Every once in a while you would walk through a huge field of nothing but volcanic rock where no trees had planted themselves. From the top you could see in all directions with City Central to the south, North shore to the east, and Waihike to the west. At the to Dev and I enjoyed a gourmet meal of 1 single bag of sour cream and chive chips and a massive bottle of PUMP water. The hike down was equally as quick, which was good cause we were catching the last ferry home that day.

After we returned to the city we went grocery shopping and had dinner at her place of Curry Chicken and then I made homemade milkshakes (AWESOME!). After which together we headed over for weekly wednesday's at our couchsurfing meeting. There it was American Chris (the other Manny's) last night. Along with Kiwi Mark. Not only that, but it was Aaron's birthday! So needless to say it was a full night with a lot in attendence.

On thursday morning I awoke to find Leigh horrendeously sick, and thus helped care for her in the morning. In the afternoon I took Yannik out for a nice long swim so we were out of the house. That evening it was apperant that Christoph was getting sick as well. At that point I decided to remove myself from the disease ridden second floor, and retreated to the sanctity of my room downstairs.

Thus here we are.

Oh and I shaved my head on Tuesday. I forgot to mention that. So...
I'm bald.

To be honest I kind of have a skinhead/white power look going on. Unfortunately there is little I can do about this however until my hair grows back.

Love ya all,
Wes

P.S. Here are some shots from Rangitoto and my bald self.