Intro to New Zealand

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I stayed in Auckland for three days (which is too long really b/c it's not that special - it's kinda like North American cities but with some mild differences). I met some really nice people there - Mike and Adrienne from Wyoming, Jenny from Montana, and Veronica from Munich, Germany. The five of us hit it off so well and we were all tired of Auckland pretty fast so we decided to head North together to a cool little town called Paihia.

It's really beautiful little town but there wasn't a lot of work so we decided to head further North to Kerikeri to look for fruit picking jobs. We booked the bus for today actually but I was getting kind of antsy about not working so I went to a bakery in Paihia to ask for a job and they gave me one!!

To celebrate, we all went on a day trip across the bay on the ferry to Russell. There was a really great beach there called Long Beach and it was beautiful and almost deserted, no hotels or anything so we chilled there for a few hours. Later we were enjoying some fish and chips when this Swedish guy approaches us to ask if we're travellers and we say "yeah" so he asks us if we'd be interested in learning to sail on a traditional schooner.

He's part of a crew on this boat called the "Alvei" and they're looking for more crew. You have to pay US$25 / night because it's a non-profit boat, not commercial, so for 25 bucks you get to learn to sail, navigate, tie knots, whatever you want, and included in the price is accomodation on the boat, food, and of course free travel. We'll be making stops all around the North Island of New Zealand. So this morning, I went to the bakery and quit before having started, but they seemed cool about it. We're moving onto the schooner in a couple hours and we sail tomorrow!

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Photos

Love at First Sight
A view of New Zealand from the airplane - stunning!!

The Gang
L-R Jenny, Veronica, Rachel, Mike, Adrienne
Waiting for the bus to Paihia!

Park in Auckland
Check out the cool ferns.

Auckland Skyline
Featuring, the Skytower! It seems every big city has to have some sort of spaceship on a stick.

Long Beach
Russell, Bay of Islands

Rachel
Me in the Bay of Islands.