The past few days...

Hey all! (This was written a few days ago)

While Liz spent her day in Whangerei, a few friends and I headed off to a bird sanctuary and beach. We took the car across the bay on the car ferry and then drove about 45 minutes or so through bright green hills dotted with white sheep. I love just driving through New Zealand. It's always ...so peaceful. Plus, I always SERIOUSLY feel that a hobbit is just going to come around the bend. 

Anyways, the bird sanctuary was amazing and completely deserted. The paths could barely even be seen and we spent most of our time forging through tall, wild grasses. We ended up on a COMPLETELY empty beach with HUGE waves that were taller than me. Everyone just ran through the water, laughing and swallowing enough salt for a whole month's consumption. We then ate lunch on the beach before heading back. One problem though: I had to be back for a doctor's appointment (another story) and we were worried about trying to find our trail back in time. So we decided to just try and walk around the ocean on the black rocks. Everything was fine and we were making great time until.......we were about 15 feet up from the ocean on the rocks and the rocks suddenly DROPPED OFF in a cliff. There was about 10 feet of open space until the rocks picked up again in another high cliff. And you couldn't just jump and swim; the waves kept slamming into the rocks, forcing up sprays as high as 15 feet. We didn't want to backtrack because we didn't really have time to do that. So what did we do?

We climbed UP the rocks. 

We climbed about 30 feet up the black cliffs to the top where the woods (and path) were. It. was. epic. We climbed, with only cracks in the rocks only big enough for our fingertips and toes to help us climb. IT WAS AWESOME. I felt like some super sick climber. (I mean, I'm sure it really wasn't that cool; I just felt it was.) So we finallllllly got to the top, hearts pounding, and feeling pretty proud of ourselves. :)

Funnily enough, now that I think about it, we only saw one kind of bird in the bird sanctuary. Hmmm.

And now - TODAY:

I managed to get a free ticket on "The Magistrate", a dolphin cruiser. So I was able to go on board and have an AWESOME day! I got to sit up in the "cockpit?" (whatever the place is called where the skipper sits) and watch him drive the boat. I got free tea and biscuits. I even got my picture taken by the "official photographer" for free. It was great. :) 

But even better?! THE VIEWS! I saw SOOOO many dolphins! None were really jumping about; they were all just fishing. Some cool dolphin facts that I learned today:

- Dolphins spend 60% of their time mating. They mate for pleasure and do not discriminate between the sexes when it comes time for having fun. 

- Female dolphins can carry sperm inside of them for 6 months, allowing them to choose EXACTLY when they want to get pregnant.

- When a baby dolphin dies, the mom will literally carry the body on her back until it disintegrates. This process takes about 2 weeks. (This fact I found the MOST interesting....a natural grieving process for dolphins...hmnmm).

The boat stopped off at Urupukapuka Island for about an hour and I was free to roam about until the boat took off again. Most of the passengers headed off to the lookout point, but I headed for a small path that took me through hills and hills and hills of sheep. AND LAMBS! AHHHHH!!!! They were absolutely ADORABLE. I must have looked like such a tourist, giggling and smiling and taking pictures of SHEEP. But it was great! I was just trudging through these fields (I guess that's the right word) around the island, surrounded by the bright blue ocean, all by myself. It was awesome! (Except for the sheep poop now covering my flip flops.) 

Then I came back and had to go to work. Blah. 

 

Enjoy the pictures! :)