Getting my Roll On.

Did you know that they only have roll-on deodorant in New Zealand? I have been searching for a regular stick for over a week now and have found nothing. I finally caved and bought some roll-on this week but I am not happy about it.

LA and I spent the last 5 days in a Tourist/Surf town called Whangamata that is located on the Cormandel Peninsula on the East Coast of NZ. We had spent a couple days in Auckland last weekend(which is a massive and pretty cool city by the way) before heading down the Coast. We had plans of doing some surfing this week but the conditions were junk, so we spent our days doing other things on the Peninsula. We also worked out a deal where we could stay for free at a campground in exchange for an hour or two of work... The offer was too good to pass up.

We went snorkelling at a place called Gemstone Bay earlier in the week and saw a pretty huge stingray resting on the sand underneath us. I had visions of me getting Steve Irwin'd so I didn't stay for too long - but it was very cool nonetheless. There was all sorts of other fish swimming around us too. We did the short hike to Cathedral Bay that afternoon to one of the nicer beaches in the area. I can't upload any pictures at the moment as I'm typing this in a small campground office, but I'll throw them up when I get a chance. It was a pretty amazing spot.

Some other highlights from the week were a 10K hike through a rainforest type area and an afternoon at a place called Hot Water Beach, where everyone digs holes in the sand when the tide goes out and the water that fills them up is on fire. I'm talking boiling in some places. We were lucky enough (I guess) to have one of the hottest spots, which meant that we had lots of people stop and look/take pictures... but it was also too steamy to sit in for very long.

We arrived in our latest destination - Tauranga - yesterday afternoon and will probably stay here for the next little while. We're going to try and get some work in the city and the place we're staying at seems very nice. We're the youngest people here by about 35 years and they play contemporary listening in the bathroom. It's great. Although I had to double check that we weren't posted up at a nursing home when we first arrived.

Anyways, Beatrice and the Girls have challenged me to a game of Bridge so I must run! Later!

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