our trip up north part 1

Our trip up north part 1

Last week we left for the northern part of the north island. We stayed about 20-30 minutes away from whangarie in a town called nunguru. We stayed in a nice place that was right next to an estuary. The estuary was pretty and we went fishing there a couple times. It was about a 5 hour drive to whangarie, were we ate dinner at a really good place called the fat camel. It was a middle eastern restaurant and I got the camel kabob pita. The first full day we were there we went to sandy beach. That is one of my new favourite beaches. There was a stream running down the beach that we made sand castles by. Then we went boogie boarding for a while. I got the worst sand rash ever!!! Then i had lunch, then, went surfing for the first time!!!! It was awesome, it took me a while to get up the first time, but then it got easier, that was an awesome day, (besides the sand rash). The next day we went out into the estuary and paddled around a bit. After a while my dad came out and we paddled up into the mangroves. As we are paddling around my dad suddenly yells "STINGRAY!" Oscar and I were like, no way, and thought he was kidding. But then he herded it towards us, and it was coming right at us. We didn't see it until it was literally right below us! We followed it around a bit until it got cornered, it stuck its tail out of the water and shook it. It was pretty clear that it wanted us to leave. When we got back, my dad took my mom and sister out and Oscar and I got a snack. 

Surfing

Surfing

I have now been surfing 3 times. Surfing is very fun and I plan to surf much more in my time here. The picture you see above is shipwrecks bay outside Ahipara. It has the longest left handed ride in the world! A left handed wave is where you have to right to the left instead of to the right. What happens at this beach is that the waves crash in on the other side of the spur and the current whips them around all the way to the beach and you can get up to a 3 minute ride! Unfortunately I was to chicken to do the whole thing because if you didn't turn in time, then you got crushed against a reef. I only caught the small waves. The cool thing was that I turned and rode the length of the wave for the first time. When you surf, you have to paddle out past the break of the waves, then wait for a good wave. Once you see it coming you start paddling about 20 ft early to come to the right speed. Once you are soundly on the wave you pop up to a standing position. Then if you can, you turn and ride down the length of the wave. The professionals make it look so easy, but it is actually a lot harder. It took me quite a few tries to stand up for my first time. Surfing is a real rush, once you do it you will want to do it again. But you have to respect the ocean because it can get pretty scary out there.

after surfing

not the best picture

Coramandel peninsula

The Coramandel

On the weekend after the first week of school they had a 4 day weekend. We decide to go to the coromandel peninsula. The coromandel peninsula is right above the bay of plenty, it is the part that juts out from the upper right hand corner. Whangamata (where we live) is right below it. We first drove to Thames where we went to the the market there. I was feeling really crummy. From there we drove directly to the corromandel. When we got there I was feeling really bad and unfortunately was sick the whole time. Once we got there my family decided to go on a walk, but I couldn't come. :( I was sick, that night they went on a train ride through a pottery garden. They said it was really cool, I had to miss out. That night I woke up at about 11:00 and went out into the kitchen to get a drink and see my dad watching soccer! So I stayed up and watched it with him, it was a great game and the manchester city won. The next day we went on a drive around the coromandel. I wasn't feeling to well but I was feeling better then the day before. But then they decided to go on a "short" hike and I ended up staying in the car for about 40-50 min just waiting for them to get back. As we were driving we saw a beautiful bird called the Rosella, they are in the parrot family. They had red heads and beautiful green body's, with a touch of blue on their tails. They were amazing! The next day we went home. On the way we stopped because we saw a bunch of wild pigs running around! We got out and the guy who live there showed us some stuff like how when you scratched their stomachs they rolled over! My parents got into a long conversation about bee's and stuff while we held the little piglets. The baby piglets were so cute! One was barely bigger than my hand! After about an hour there we finally left and drove about 10 minutes to a water fall where we went on a short walk. It was really pretty there and I enjoyed it because I was feeling quite a bit better. We then drove for a while to a town near home called hahei. It was awesome, there were awesome cliffs, islands, and best of all an awesome beach with a bunch of caves! I got in a couple of them. And that was what we did on our coromandel trip.

One of the cute little pigs

At the water fall

On our hike at the ocean

In one of the caves at the beach

first week of school

First week of School

      I am going to the Whangamata area school. It ends up that I am actually in high school!! The kids here are really nice. The kids had been on vacation while we were in wellington so I was joining at an OK time. One thing was we didn't know what the uniforms were so I didn't start the first day. In the high school, and middle school we had to have all black shoes a white top that says Whangamata area school on it and these navy blue shorts. The shoes were these normal black converse that would be like $20 in the US, but were $90 here!! The stuff here is almost 2x as much. The uniform isn't my favourite but it could be worse. The kids at school are really nice and loved my "accent". I didn't even know I had an accent! In year 9 as they call it, they do a bunch of extra curricular things that are required, for example they do fabric, graphics, art, IT, library, and more! They have 2 breaks, one at 11:00, and one at 1:40, they are both 40 minutes long. School starts at 8:45, and goes til 3:00. My school has an awesome field that my dad and I sometimes play soccer at. It is walking distance from my house, so if someone is running late, then they have to walk, my brothers going to get in great shape!! Over all I really like my new school.

wellington (and side trips)

Wellington (and side trips.)

             After we arrived in Whangamata we un packed or stuff and got settled. We stayed the night but in the morning we got packed and headed out. We were going to wellington with some side trips. We stayed in turangi, otaki beach, wellington, lower hut, martin borough, Hastings, rotorua on this trip. We went to a lot of awesome places but in this entry I'm not going to go into to much detail. So any ways, we left whangamata and drove for about 5 or 6 hours to turangi where we stayed in a little house that was really cold for some reason. That night we kind of vegged and watched x-factor and a bunch of other shows that night. The next day we drove for about 3 hours to Otaki beach where we stayed in a "cabin complex" that had a fun little courtyard that my siblings and I played tag in. Later that evening we went to the beach which was really windy and rocky but we had a lot of fun. There was no one around for as far as the eye can see so we went kinda crazy in the wind. It was fun. The next morning we drove about 1 hour to wellington where my dad was having his orientation. We then went to our hotel, it was called the ibis hotel and it was nice. We stayed there for three days, while my dad went to his orientation, we went to the museums and stuff. We went to the city art gallery, the city and sea museum, and the Te Papa, they were all really cool but i think my favourite was the Te papa. It had a giant squid! As for meals, well, those were amazing. I had the best Indian food ever, I had great Chinese, but I did get sick after a Malaysian dinner at a kinda sketchy restaurant. For lunch we went to some delis that were good, good cafes and for breakfast we had cold cereal with yogurt. Once my dad was done with his orientation we went to the lower hut which is like 5 minutes away. That night we had some good fish and chips, and we stayed at a nice holiday park that night. In the morning we went to zealandia which is basically a big reserve. It was awesome! There were Takahe, Tuatara, kaka, Tui, and a lot of other awesome birds all over!! The next day we left and drove to martin borough where we stayed at a really nice place where we had a really nice dinner. The next day we drove to Hastings and stayed in a motor lodge and we went up to a cool hill and ran around. The next day we went to a couple of wineries around Napier where my parents tasted some wine. At the last on I forgot my jacket. We then drove to rotorua and went to a hangi that night. It was really interesting to learn about the Maori culture and see how they would live. The next day we drove home. This was  just a brief entry on my trip to wellington.

A Takahe, there are only 250 left in the world.

Arriving in New Zealand

 In New Zealand finally!!

Our flight to New  Zealand was a lot shorter than the Tahitti flight which was verging on nine, it was only about five. It was on the same plane as going to Tahitti and the plane had a TV, pillows, blankets, and other stuff. When we arrived I was in the middle so I couldn't see very well. Our plane was really big, an eight seat to a row so as you can imagine it was quite hard to see out the windows. Once we got out of the plane though I was surprised at how similar the climate was at the time! It was super windy though. We then had to find where the security was so we could get our bags. We had to throw away any fruits, vegetables, or other stuff like that or we would get fined something like $250, it was crazy! I think that they did this to keep un-indigenous plants out. Once we were out of security we walked in to the really busy part of the airport. We rented a car called a highlander which was nice, and set out for Whangamata. It was about a five hour drive but it was welcome not to be in an aeroplane seat.When we finally got there we unpacked our bags and explored! It has a hot tub, three rooms, (I get my own), one has two twin beds which my siblings get. It is a nice little place.

As you can see, the land is quite developed for farming purposes.

Tahitti

            Our hotel in tahitti was really nice, it was a 4 star hotel, and it came free with the flight!! It had a cool fish pond out front, a sand bottom pool, snorkleing in the ocean, and many more delights. We stayed for 3 nights in tahitti. Our first full day we went snorkleing, went to the market, and got a great dinner of crepes. The next day was very much the same. The third day on the other hand was very different, we toured around the whole island. It was really cool, we saw waterfalls, mareae, caves, whales, and much more. I think the coolest was the whales. We saw whales breaching out in the ocean, the main one was small, but we saw a huge one jump once, it was over probably 45 feet!!! The next morning we had to get up at 3:00 a.m to catch the plane!
So this is a brief summary of our stay in Tahitti. :)

my 1st entry

This when we where snorkleing in Tahitti. We stoped in Tahitti for  three  nights on our way to New Zealand

A cool cave in New Zealand on the beach

 My new school in Whangamata.

 One of the Maori statues to ward off evil.

 A tuatara, lived before the dinosaurs and has changed very little, unfortunately they only live in New Zealand. When born they have a third eye.

 A Kaka, one of the native parrots.

 A Takahe, very endangered, only 250 left! Awesome to see one!

 A Puriri moth, live aslarvae in trees for up to 8 years only becoming a moth for 5-6 days to mate. Cool to see one.

 A Maori meeting house at Te Papa.

 A nice view of Wellington

 A Maori canoe at the Te Papa museum in Wellington.

 An amazing black swan!!!

 Waiting for our connecting flight to New Zealand, woke up at 3:30 that morning.

 My siblings and I at a waterfall in Tahitti.

Another one of the may trees in Tahitti, great for climbing!

 One of the trees we found in Tahitti, a tahitian chesnut tree.

 One of the caves we visited in Tahitti.

 In the forest near the Mareae.

 One of the Mareae we visited. Mareae were sacred ceremonial sites of the tahitian natives.

 One of the many beutiful birds in Tahitti, it's  called a noddy tern.

 Snorkleing in Tahitti.

At the market in tahitti 

Walking around town in tahitti.

 This is what the Hangi feast looked like while it cooked. How the maori would traditionally prepare it is to build a fire with fuel in a pile roughly 3-5 feet and put lava rocks in but they used river stones. They then would put the food (wrapped in tin-foil), on top of the rocks then they would put wet green boughs but here they used wet blankets instead. They then would steam the food for hours and the result was an amazing meal!

 This is us on our way back from the Coromandel penninsula for our 4 day weekend! Unfortunately I was sick the whole time! 

 This is in Papette Tahitti where we are having amazing crepes!

In Roturua we went to a Hangi, which is like a Maori feast or festival.