HHi Everyone! I'm at Endless Summer Lodge in Ahipara on ninety mile beach. The hostel is straight out of a surfer flick. Right on the beach, hammocks out front, boards in the back, smells like sun tan lotion and sand. We went sand boarding on the huge sand dunes nearby, which was quite hot and sandy....and not as exhilarating as I imagined. We walked about 45 minutes in low tide to get to the sand dunes. Rachel was the first up, and after 20 minutes of walking to the top of the sand dune I couldn't see her anymore. I began [View Full Entry]

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Once we got into our second rental car, affectionately named "Hot Tamale" we were back in action. This time we had brakes that worked, and a radio (plus a Coldplay tape we got from the cottage). Our drive was about 3 hours long. From the Bay of Islands, on the Pacific, we were headed west to Ahipara on the Tasman. Along the way we stopped at Matauri Bay in the Bay of Islands and spent a few hours soaking up the sun, reading, and snacking. The wind was a bit chilly, so we made 'pods' in the sand, to keep us [View Full Entry]

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Organic Farming and WWOOFING Orgnic food is something very important to me. I see the need for the support of naturally grown food and naturally fed/housed meat and poultry. Farming with the use of genetically enhanced food products, toxic chemical sprays and pesticides, and harmful eradiation is becoming a massive worldwide problem (this is especically true for the United States) Deadly diseases such as heart disease and Cancer (which is becoming a huge epidemic) are rampant, and are linked to toxins, harmful synthetics and injected hormones and chemicals which are found in our fo [View Full Entry]

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Howdy friends, We left Rotorua around noon and after arranging to work and stay at KeriKeri Organics Farm, we headed to the Bay of Islands. At first, everything was golden- we were on the road (again) and had all our luggage packed neatly and safely into our little white car. Around 2 pm I noticed the car had a really strange sound coming from it...a loud ringing sound. This persisted for the entire duration of the 8 1/2 hour drive. On top of that, our radio did not function properly either! Luckily, Rachel and I are excellent singers ;) and did [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, Thanks for keeping up with my blog! I have been a little busy and have made some entries before others- leaving it all out of chronological order. My Apologies! Keep on reading them and checking out the photos though, there are still several left to update. When I was visiting Te Papa museum, I met Faith and Poiharare,the lovely maori ladies who worked at Te Puia, the maori carving institute in Rotorua. They invited me to come visit them up in Rotorua, and since Rachel and I were so close while in Taupo, we headed that way after saying [View Full Entry]

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Kia Ora! I've been really busy lately, finishing exams, hanging out in welly, saying goodbye to friends, and moving out of my flat in Wai te ata. I'm in Lake Taupo right now- and it is beautiful!! Internet is super slow and really $$ here, so a real update will have to wait until later this week. Just wanted to let you all now, I am still alive, and living all that NZ has to offer. I have tons of pictures and stories to share, as soon as I can get my hands on a decent computer. SO- stay posted!! Cheers!! [View Full Entry]

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What a way to celebrate Halloween!! For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to sky dive. I think it’s just the whole concept of pushing yourself to the ultimate edge...and jumping from a plane. Considering al the other adventurous, adrenaline pumping things I have done in NZ, I thought "what the heck, I might as well sky dive here too!" Luckily, I had a few friends who wanted to do the same, so on our final hoorah weekend, Rachel, Liz, Ngaire, and I all leapt out of airplanes. FANTASTIC! We woke u at 6 am to call the [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone! The week after exams was bittersweet, it was tons of fun seeing all my friends in NZ but saying goodbye was difficult. For a 'final hoorah', a bunch of us (Rachel, Liz, Ngaire, Tonja, Corrina, Christian, and me) all went to Lake Taupo to stay at Liz's bach (pronounced batch...it’s a kiwi version of a 'lake house') The Lake is about a fiver hour drive north of Wellington. I hopped into Christian's new car, named "Hektor", and enjoyed the ride. We stopped for lunch at a little cafe, called soul food somewhere in between Welly and Taupo. We passed [View Full Entry]

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HHi Friends! Sorry for the lack of blog entries- life in NZ has been going by so quickly! Things have been nuts lately, with hurricane Wilma hitting my hometown (everyone is OK, but without power and gasoline!!) and trying to find ways to communicate with my family in Fl, I also had to study for exams! Since my trip to Kapiti, life in Wellington was focused on studying for final exams while trying to simultaneously soak up all that Welly has to offer me before I leave. Helma and I were clever and chose to meet for study sessions at the [View Full Entry]

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Hey friends! Just wanted to let you 'meet' my mate Ngaire Leighton! She will be my 'guest blogger' for the day. So treat her well, and look forward to meeting her one day:) Exams are next week and I’m busy studying, so enjoy this blog and photos, I might be MIA for a little while! Until next time, Shelly *For a map of our route Click Here Tena Koutou Katao, Ko Ngaire toku ingoa, Hello my name is Ngaire! I'm Shelly’s guest blogger for the day here to tell you about our visit to Kapiti Island. First of all, I want [View Full Entry]

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