New Zealand... That's as Clever as it Will Get

Ooops. I guess spending 36 hours in cities doesn't allow much time to blog. At this point I'll have to put pictures up when I get back but I'll break the country of twin coasts down for you.

Rotorua: B E A utiful. We had the pleasure of crashing with a high school friend of my faja's and his wife, Jeff and Claire Schnell. It was so nice to be in a quiet house, sleep in a warm and cozy bed and have amazing home cooked meals. They were so gracious to let us stay. Jeff took Margo and me on a mountain biking trail one morning and it was soooooo cool to put it plainly. The foliage in New Zealand is amazing. There are so many layers of grasses, ferns, trees - you name it.

Later that day Marg and I hit up a spa that used water from the sulphuric lake which it overlooked. It was a great way to complete travel and a morning of mountain biking.

That was all we had time for so we headed out in the morning to Paihia.

Paihia: Beautiful, quiet beach town in the bay of islands. Very quiet since it is the off season and a storm did roll in, but only after we made a trip to Waitangi where the treaty between the Maori and settlers was signed. We got to see a cultural performance and since there was no one there we had a private guided tour of the grounds WHAT WHAT. Living it up in Paihia in style :). Oh and we saw a dead pig washed up on shore. That was fun. Margo pointed out we are three for three on dead animals in our respective countries: seal in cape town, dead wallaby in our car in Australia, now pig in Paihia!

Auckland: It has been rainy and cloudy but we went across the bay today to Russel and the sun poked out for a bit. It was great walking along the water and seeing the skyline from afar. It's a cute little town set into the hill and I had an amazing breakfast with a BOWL of coffee.

This morning I went out running and within 5 minutes I slipped and took a spill at a cross walk. Literal legs in the air, cell phone flying action. It was pretty awesome and my bleeding leg made me look bad ass as I continued on the path. There was some kind of biking race that seemed like a time trial going on and there are surprisingly a lot of young adults that do serious cycling in the area. I also saw a YWCA running group...well a few... which gave me an idea that this is kind of an active town. With so much open space I could see why cycling is a popular sport here.

Tonight we might be touristy and grab a drink at the top of the needle, which surprisingly isn't that big. It's no Empire State Building but it is still high enough to satisfy my vertical limits.

Tomorrow evening we fly to San Fran. I am really excited to see what it is like and honestly, I'm broke and need to get a real job. I miss my Letha Bear and hope she hasn't forgotten about me!

Summary of New Zealand: Beautiful countryside, very nice people, weather not as bad as the locals thought it was :).