Changes in Latitudes

On January 15th Marius and I left Auckland for a road trip around the North Island. We drove along the east coast to the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed in Coromandel Town at Long Bay Motor Camp. When we walked into the camp office the hosts were cooking mussels and there was a cat patiently waiting for its helping. Smelled delicious! We then drove to Hahei, where we hiked to Cathedral Cove and stayed the night at a holiday park at Hot Water Beach (kind of like a fancy campground with full facilities - kitchen, bathrooms with showers, TV room for kids). The Kiwis are very creative with the names of their towns. There is one farther south that we drove through on our way to a national park called National Park. We drove south down the peninsula and occasionally stopped at a spot where we could hike to a waterfall or other scenic location. Next stop was Tauranga/Mount Maunganui. We climbed to the summit of Mt. Mauganui and also did a walk around the base. As we continued the North Island...

Marius got in Saturday (Jan 9) morning. We got him to the beach so that he could not stand out as a pale, white Norwegian too much when everyone here is summer tanned. We went to Father Ted's with our friends Becca, Frank and Mike. When we got there the owner was walking around to get everyone's requests to sing karaoke. We sang "Don't Stop Believin'," "Sweet Caroline," "Santeria;" and then all of a sudden the Star Spangled Banner came on and the owner rushed over with the microphone to us wanting us to sing it. Towards the end of the song a drunk guy came over and screamed the remaining verses. I laughed so hard that I was crying (that is the other picture)! Today we are heading out to Coromandel Peninsula and Taranaki for some camping, hiking and snorkeling. Should be a nice retreat from the noises of Auckland City.

It's 2010 and I have spent the past five days in it at work. Customers have been VERY unhappy and I could probably whine and complain about those days for hours, but it's just part of the job so I'm over it. Here are some pictures from New Year's Eve. Didn't do much; just watched a movie with the flatmates and then a few minutes to midnight we went downstairs to the street to see the fireworks. The other picture is from playing poker with my flatmates.