An eventful first week in New Zealand.

Well hello friends, it has been quite the eventful week in the old NZ. I've got to surf at least once every day, been camping, discovered the best tasting beer I have ever had (Monteith's Summer Ale), done a fair bit of hiking and exploring as well as get mauled by the only dangerous thing in New Zealand. The surf has been pretty fun, the water is pretty much like Hawaii, a tad bit cooler due to the wind at times, but its usually just trunks or maybe a vest. The beach is just a short walk down the street, and there are a bunch of other breaks around as well. We have been surfing the main beach at Tauranga a good amount, and have got some pretty fun waves. Really fun on the low tide, and little bit hard to work on the high tide but still very fun. There are all sorts of people out surfing too, its pretty good people watching in the surf break. A lot of girl surfers, way more than in California, and there's a fair amount of older gentlemen, super young rippers and Maori guys that are out of control. Literally. Had a few near death experiences in the water with people falling out of the sky. The people here, in and out of the water, are so nice! They are always very nice and friendly. And being in such a small town they fully remember your name. I've had an obsession with the kebab place down the street and the lady fully knows me now. A New Zealand Turkish kebab is much different than what we call kebabs in the states. Here they aren't little meats and veggies on a stick. No, better, full plates of meats and veggies, toppings and sauces. You can get the wrapped in pita or flat bread, just on a huge plate or some other ways that have weird names and I haven't tried yet. But they are so good. I could easily live on kebabs. I have been getting this avocado sauce with a garlic aioli on mine. So good. And I will usually go with chicken, some carrots, hummus, lettuce if I'm feeling sassy, couscous, and the sauces of course. Meat pies are also a new found gem for me, as well as ginger beer (which isn't even alcoholic, but its delicious). The eat pies are exactly what you would imagine, a little pie, with different meats inside, and maybe some cheese or veggies. They have them everywhere. I even bought one from the gas station on the way camping and it tasted just as good as the one I had from the bakery! They probably aren't the best thing for you, but after a surf, they make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The "gourmet steak and cheese" are my favorite so far, but they have these chicken alfredo ones down at the gas station that I really want to get into soon! Camping was another awesome adventure. Got to see some amazing site, and scored some really fun waves at Hot water beach and my new favorite place to say "Whangamata." (WANG-ah-mah-tah). All the places we have surfed have been beach breaks too, which is nice after Tahiti and fearing for my life on that reef. We went to this place called Cathedral Cove also that was his like 45 minute hike down this mountain to a gorgeous enclosed beach. The hike down was so pretty, and once we got to the beach, that was unbelievable. So pretty and serene. I have actually been doing a lot of hiking since I have been here. I feel like an old man half the time though, if I hike too long or run too much my knees go south and I gimp around the rest of the day. But I love it. Some friends from California were out visiting NZ for a couple days and we hiked to the top of Mt. Maunganui. The view over the whole peninsula from the top was unreal, and looking off the side of some of the cliffs on top of it was terrifying but so beautiful as well. Looking down like 2,000+ feet to the water and nothing really protecting you. Pretty heavy, but so pretty. The sites and land here is unlike anything I have ever seen, but if i had to call it I would say its a mixture of Hawaii, Santa Barbara and Laguna with a fraction of the population. There is so much beautiful undeveloped land here. And some of the ranches on these massive plots of land are the coolest homes I have ever seen. There are a lot of very modern and contemporary designed homes here that are so cool looking, and what looks like a lot of newly made homes. Not really what I was expecting to see, but there are quite a few and each one is cooler than the last. The camping trip Andy and I went on was incredible too, driving around the country side here, you see so much green open land, rolling hills, sheep and cows, as well as some of the most picture perfect landscapes and ocean scenery's I have ever seen. Pictures could never do it justice, though I tried. I took so many just out the window of the car that ended up not looking as cool as it did when it was happening. I still have not really gotten used to sitting shotgun on the left hand side of the car. It really weirds me out, and crossing the street is always a scary experience... looking left when I should look right, and vice versa. Overall though our camping trip was great, driving up we surfed Whangamata, took a nap on this little beach under some trees with nobody else around and let the wetsuits dry, checked out Cathedral Cove, surfed Hot Water Beach and set up a perfect little camp site near the ocean. he day after the swell kind of died, but we still got a couple waves back at Whangamata. The Waves we got at Hot Water Beach were probably the most fun I had so far. And looking in from water at the landscape there was something special. It was exactly like what I had imagined NZ to look like and more. The sun was setting behind the mountains and the green rolling hills were glistening. And speckled few and far between on these amazing green hills were amazing ranches with a few cattle looming around the hillside. I don't feel like my description does it any justice, it is just something you have to experience.

So anyways, apparently there are no real deadly creatures or animals in New Zealand, not even any really poisonous things here, besides the white tailed spider. They are supposed to be very rare though, and only around during summer time for a little bit. And sure enough I got a nice little bite from one of these little guys. I won't go into much detail about describing how it looks, but I will just say my face looks like some one cut a tennis ball in half and shoved it under my skin in my cheek and corner of my mouth. Super attractive... I can see the corner of my mouth when I look down. Not to mention it is one of the most painful bites I have ever had. I can't really even open my mouth, or smile. Eating and brushing my teeth are horrible tasks at this point. I had to go to the doctor today and he knew immediately what it was. But I guess I just had a bit more of a reaction to it. Anyway I got set up on some antibiotics and some pain meds to get me through. Hopefully it is gone by Tuesday. I am going to try to head down to the south island by myself this week and rent an RV to scope out the beautiful areas down there. It is supposed to be prettier than the North Island, and I cannot even fathom that because it is truly breath taking here. So hopefully I avoid spiders and further injury and can embark on my south island travels soon! So until later, goodbye!