After Taranaki I pretty much had a whole week to entertain myself in Auckland for the rest of break. What's the best place for that? The zoo, of course!
The Red Hat Society exists in New Zealand, too, Mom!
I couldn't get a better photo, but the orangutans were playing hide-from-baby-monkey-under-the-blanket. Long story short, my brother is a monkey, too?
I finally made it to the beach in Auckland the next day. Yep, I'm the creeper taking photos of children.
And then I got to go climbing! A few of us decided to go to a new crag they've been developing. It sounded easy enough... but it took us like 4 hours to find the place. I decided extreme crag finding is a hobby in itself. Anyway, this is a bug I found on me once we finally got there. The kiwis called at "sticky bug." Technical term right there.
View from the top of a climb.
Joerg belaying from up top. It was a really cool place once we finally found it. I was hoping to finally get some multi-pitch climbing in, but we were basically in a cloud all day, so weather/time wouldn't permit. Maybe next time. And maybe then there won't be a drill chillin' at the top of a climb, leading me to believe the bolts were only a few days old. Sketch.
I think this was the next weekend. I finally made it down to the Quarry in Auckland for some climbing. I got there real early, but lucky for me there was soccer! I ended watching the whole game and got really into it. I'm pretty sure the parents thought I was a girlfriend to one of the players. Nope, just a creeper watching some highschoolers play soccer. Anyway, I'll spare you more climbing photos since most of you don't know the difference between a crimp and jug, and move on to my yachting adventure!
My friend Connor invited me for a day on a boat with a friend of his parents. Uh, yes! I've always wanted to go sailing.
Turns out we're going yachting on a catamaran. This was like THE biggest boat in harbour. Sweet as.
I've decided to re-evaluate my life so I can buy a yacht and sail the world. Brain surgeon? Mwahaha.
Fancy schmancy.
We sailed to Motuihe, another island near Auckland. I spent most of the time talking to the couple who brought us, because A. I don't get along with people my own age? and B. They had the coolest stories. Anyway, I found out that during WWII(I think two) these military guys had influenza(I think it was influenza... I need a better memory) and were sent out to this island to be quarantined/die. Pretty rough.
Pretttttyyyy.
After a swim back to the boat from the beach, a serious reconsideration about the triathalon I'm aspiring toward, and a failed attempt at gracefully jumping of the railing into the ocean, it was back to the harbour! I even got to sail the ship for a while.
People are always talking about Cormandel and how there are hot water beaches. Basically, you dig a hole and the geothermal activity(which I can tell you all about... I just finished a ten page paper on geothermal energy. woo!) heats of up the water and you have a hot pool to sit in. Cool concept, but not worth the money, in my opinion. People keep trying to get me to go. I keep saying no. Anyway, I was awoken on a Friday morning by a group of girls who had rented a car not knowing they needed someone over 21 to drive. I said sure if I didn't have to pay for petrol. Yay for a cheap trip! And I got to drive! On the left side of the road! Surprisingly, we survived.
Well, because of the car fiasco, we got there too late and it was high tide, so no digging holes for us. We could still see the geothermal activity bubbling though, and it was hot enough to burn your feet while standing in the middle of the ocean. I had a blast playing in the water/sand. But no one else did. Wasn't I the one who didn't want to go? People are weird.
We then jetted on over to Cathedral Cove. Apparently this beach is real famous. Pretty cool. I thought the coolest part was the caves you can kinda see in the background. You could totally go into them and chill out on another mini beach inside the cave. Coolest camping shelter ever? I think so.
Oh! And here's a video of some other monkeys(Siamangs) at the zoo. Siamang couples guard their territory by coming up with their own little duet. It can be heard for over a kilometre. It's intense. Just watch. (And sorry for the head tilt you have to do at the beginning, I always forget I can't rotate videos.)
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