Winter Olympics during the summer

Friday night I went to hear blues music at Blockhouse Bay beach reserve with a few friends. That night I stayed at Malini's house and had a girls night. She will be moving to London and eventually Norway in a month. In the morning I made her family pancakes and as soon as we had our shoes on we drove to the Waitakere Ranges for some hiking to a number of waterfalls.

The hike led us through a valley following a stairway of waterfalls. It was a simple walk... until after the first waterfall Malini said "O.K. now across this rock and that one and then we climb up that hill," which was all mud and roots. I was starting to get a little muddy and that was only the begging. At one point there was, what seemed like, an 80 degree angle of rock face. We had to climb up using the few little rocks as hand holds. After some more climbing up mud, through bush, and across rocks we finally made it.

The second to last waterfall had a pool of chilly water that we had to swim across to get to the final destination. After a little photo shoot with the girls, we climbed back down a rock face and I jumped into the pool before enjoying a relaxing lunch and then heading back down the obstacle course of a "trail." Marina wore white shorts on this hike and managed to not get a single speck of dirt on them! Mine, however, had two brown circles on the bum.

[Pictures to be added when Malini emails them to me.]

Watching the Winter Olympic games when it is summer on this end of the earth is strange. New Zealand only has 17 athletes; a little group compared to Canada's 204. Watching the games makes me miss the snow and cross country skiing with the family.

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