Auckland, New Zealand

I had a great week in Auckland, though the weather wasn't as nice as I would've liked (really windy, and random rain). I stayed with Gareth and Jeremy*, native Kiwis, and two German girls, Sarah and Lora, who were staying in their spare room while on their working holiday. The whole front nook of the living room was my "room," with the Chinese folding divider wall thing and everything, haha.
While helping Sarah and Lora put their English CVs together in an internet cafe, I made a new friend named Jack, and on a whim, invited him to join me rafting that weekend (as I needed a second person to make a reservation) and he said he'd love to! We rented a car for the weekend, drove the two hours to Waitomo Caves, and had an INCREDIBLE time caverafting! Abseiling, cave exploring, glowworms, black water rapids, and rock climbing! Nothing like it.

If you've seen the In-betweeners(UK), you know why this car is funny

On our way!

Knee-driving and hydrating on the wrong side of the road - LIKE A BOSS

Where we stopped for lunch

Kiwi humor

Almost there!

We're here!

Sheep

The "before" picture, L-R: Jack, Me, .....and the 3 lovely girls whose names I've forgotten.....all decked out in our gear and 'sexy pants' (the colored cloth pants to protect the wetsuits from the rocks)

Practicing for the abseil

steps down to the first platform before the drop

Me first! Me first!

100ft Abseil into the cave

That was some crazy cold water

Glowworms!

Cheers!

This part was a lot harder than it looks

Group shot :)

Me and Jack

Our climb out 

Made it without a single slip! 

The "after" picture - we made it!

Jack hung out with me in the city on Monday as well, so all pictures of the city are courtesy of his camera. :D Apparently that week/weekend was also the World Triathlon Championships, so we watched a bit of that Monday as we wandered the city.

Auckland from the bridge

Watchin the athletes...with my nice warm coffee

HUGE dog :)

Still really windy

Watchin the runners while we ate lunch

SO delicious!

lol as the poor hungry athletes ran by

What's funny is that the 'before' picture is actually the manager at the restaurant LOL

Alfred Park

The effort it took to get to that spot was yet another painful reminder that I'm not quite as nimble as I was when I was 15 

Alfred Park

Alfred Park

Alfred Park

This made me so sad :'(

Jeremy was gracious enough to drive me to the airport at 5:30am on Tuesday, and after checking in and breezing through the short flight to Sydney, I had the most relaxing, enjoyable 9 hour flight to Bangkok I've ever had - watched several movies, was frequently fed, didn't get too cold, and didn't hear a single crying infant. Cheers, Qantas - You Rock. :)

*Jeremy and I bonded over language-learning Sunday night, as he's been teaching himself Spanish and French (and took a few years of Japanese and Chinese(simplified) classes), and is pretty hardcore about it. But I couldn't be left in the dust, so when he busted out his Spanish work, I busted out my Thai, and we sat and laughed and worked and had a great time. The best part was stumbling our way through "No Hay Nadie Como Tu" by Calle 13 - Go ahead..see if you can keep up. (Yes, Mom, I know YOU can...)


Learning all the lyrics to this song has now become my mission.