Rain drops are falling on our heads...

Apologies for the lack of posting lately, but (1) we've had no internet and (2) it's been raining nonstop!

Here's the recap:

We spent our last two days in Auckland with Yali and Gary, our yogi buddies.  We spent one night outside of the Hilton where our friend Gary was staying, and the doorman brought us fresh coffee to drink right on the water in the morning - it was amazing! All in all, we ate well, sampled (too many) New Zealand wines, and then headed to Raglan for a west coast beach experience.  Nolan and I drove down Friday afternoon through the back country, which looks a lot like England.  Rolling hills and sheep farms everywhere dotted with pockets of jungle along the way! At one point, we even drove through a herd of sheep that magically appeared in the road. It was radical!

Two hours later we arrived to beautiful turquoise water surrounded by lush green cliffs and rolling hills.  At the bottom of the cliffs is the world's longest left-hand break.  We spent the first hour or so driving up and down the windy roads, similar to the 2.5 hour drive down. After a spell, we set up camp at a holiday park (family campground) that was located between the beach and the town of Raglan. Almost as soon as we pulled in two young surfers came up to us asking about our van. After a brief talk with their parents, we may have sold the van to them! They let us borrow their boards and we surfed that evening in the Tasmin sea.  It was so amazing that they lent us their boards immediately after meeting us - Kiwis seem to be the nicest people ever!

The next day poured with rain, so we spent the day wandering around town, eating fish and chips, and watching movies in Gary's nice villa he rented.  The next two days continued to rain - we spent our time driving to a climbing area called Wharepapa South.  We planned to camp out there until the rain cleared, but it was so buggy, wet, and isolated, that we scrapped the plan and drove down to Lake Taupo to spend the rainy day in a city with Farideh, Emma's awesome friend from college!

Now it's Wednesday, and we're heading to Whanganui Bay to climb and camp for two days before heading back here for the weekend.  It's finally beautiful!! Yay!!

Gary, Nolan, and me at the lookout point in Auckland

Gary snapping shots on the rocks in Raglan

Gary, Yali, Nolan and me in Raglan

Just realized that most of our pics are on Nolan's other camera...more to come!