New Zealand- Week 10

Hey guys!

I would love to have some wonderful excuse as to why I haven't written my blog these last few weeks.... Buuuut I don't have any enthralling tales or fascinating adventures that have held me up. I just couldn't be bothered to sit down and write it honestly.
However, here it is and there should be some cool pictures so I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. 

Three weeks ago the girls dyed their hair. Hazel went with Pink and Frances purple, it was quite adorable and made me miss my two toned hair I used to rock in my stoner days. Sorry mom. Haha.

Two weeks ago I went to the Coromandel for the weekend, It's home to the ever famous Cathedral Cove. Cathedral Cove is a large triangular hole in the center of a cliff... Of all the huge holes in rocks I've seen, this one takes the cake. Pretty radical. Also stopped past stingray bay, which is absolutely stunning, even if I didn't see any stingrays. Amidst all of these cool things was an extremely sweaty and painful walk.. Painful because I made the decision to walk barefoot the entire day and the gravel did not do great things for the bottom of my feet, I was basically crawling the way back. Not an exaggeration, it sucked. Lesson learned. 

I finally made it to Waiheke Island last weekend! Its a 45 minute Ferry ride out to a very beautiful and popular Island of NZ. I went with a couple super cool ladies, we took a nice walk on the beach and explored some cool rocks and a shell graveyard. Then we worked our way to a Vineyard and sat in the sun on a blanket with a bottle of Rose. It was positively lovely. After that we took a short nature walk, chilled on a different beach and headed back to Auckland. 

That's really all the highlights of what I've been up to these last few weeks, I hope you've all made some kickass memories and have enjoyed your lives to the fullest. 

All my love,

Sidni

Cathedral Cove

Stingray Bay

Waiheke! 

                                                                     

New Zealand- Week 7

Hello Everyone!

I'm sorry my blog is late this week, but it was well worth it.

Friday I went to the kiddos Assembly because Hazel's class was performing. She was in the front row and did so well singing her songs with everyone. She's an absolute delight (: As I mentioned last week, I learned the National Anthem and it was way cool to sing it with everyone. I feel like I'm belonging here more and more.

Friday night, we took a 4 1/2 hour road trip to Tongariro and stayed in a hostel so that we could be up bright and early Saturday morning to hike the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It's also the crossing where they filmed the majority of Sam and Frodo's journey into Mordor. One of the active Volcanos there, Mount Ngauruhoe, was actually staged as Mount Doom in the movies. Way Cool. So I obviously brought my replica of the One Ring with me for the journey. Super nerdy, but completely worth it.

Aside from it being famous for LOTR's, its just an amazing adventure. It's a 19.4 Kilometer hike up, around, and down an active volcanic summit and it is the most amazing thing I have ever done. Also the most exhausting.

The hike starts out just innocent and beautiful on a windy path through the mountains, then you walk up to this sign that literally warns you that you're about to get your ass kicked, and maybe you should consider turning back. After you convince yourself you can do it, you walk/climb up about a million stairs and stretches of rock. At the end you're practically clawing up the side of this mountain. Just kidding, I'm being dramatic. It was a lot of cardio though. When you reach the top of the summit its just this beautiful view stretched out of Mountains and landscape and Sky all blended together like a beautiful painting. Then the crazy shit starts and you have to hike back down the summit and that was almost as hard as climbing up, because there is no staircase down. Its spongy, volcanic rock matter and you literally slip and slide on this 40 foot stretch... Honestly, one big slide and you would literally plummet off the side of the summit and fall to your death. It's crazy. But then you reach the Emerald pools  and honestly my pictures don't do them justice. They are breathtaking and make the entire trip worth it. After that, theres the blue lake which is a crystal calm stretch of water amongst mountains. When I saw it from the top of the Summit, I thought to myself that if theres a heaven, that has to be what it looks like. Breathtaking.

The hike down was interesting, we took another little trip up through some mist and then across a landscape of cloud, you could've lost someone in it, thats how thick and wet it was. After it cleared and we started the journey down the Summit, the landscape was beautiful and the windy path down the mountain and through the woods was pretty cool, but once you've done 12 miles of hiking up a volcano, the car park is also a really wonderful sight, haha.

I'm going to stop talking and just let you guys check out the pictures because they're really fantastic.

I hope everyone had a marvelous week/weekend! I love you all!

Sidni

New Zealand- Week 6

Hello!

So, if you haven't seen on Facebook yet, I went surfing last weekend. It was incredible. A group of us Au Pair girls took a little road trip down to Raglan for a two day surf package at this cute little hippy hostel. The first day we had a lesson with a couple of instructors and then hit the beach where they helped us catch some waves, which I did successfully! I even caught some all by myself and rode the last wave of the day in. I was honestly super surprised, I didn't think I would even be able to stand up on the board let alone stay on it. 

After that the hostel had a "barn" party. Everyone dressed up in funny outfits and exactly how it sounds, partied in a barn. It was fun. I was DJ for a little while until it became too stressful and I pawned that duty off on someone else. 

Despite the partying until 2 AM. We got up at 7, got ready and hit the beach. The second day was where champions were made. It was quite a rainy/windy day so the current in the sea was really strong and the waves were just brutal. We had fun watching each other eat shit and taking pictures of it, haha. We then stopped by Whale Bay on our way out of town. It was beautiful. Thats why I made it my profile picture, that and Mel told me I should change it because in her words "How does your poor mom feel when she talks to you on messenger and you're flipping her off?" haha. 

March first started Autumn in New Zealand, so this weeks weather has been pretty changing. The last two days have been incredibly windy. I woke up to my doors to the balcony shaking last night. It was terrifying. I jumped out of bed ready to attack someone! Its been a good week other than that. I learned the National Anthem!! In Maori and English, so be prepared to listen to me sing it when I get back. Its beautiful really. 

So Hazel decided this week that she wanted a more grown up room. No more toys or pink girly stuff. I took almost everything out of her room up to the toy room, and I have to say her room looks great. We added lots of plants and grown up decor. Its quite adult for a seven year old girl. She's so cute though, she was so excited about it. We also worked on our scrapbooks together and even Francie joined in! (: 

I hope you all had just as awesome of a week and Ill see you soon!

All my love

Sidni

New Zealand - Week 5

What up party people?!?

So this week was also pretty damn amazing. Any week in New Zealand is really wonderful though. I feel so blessed to be here :)

So, I made a new friend, his name is Marshall. He's from the West Side. They actually call them "Westies" and I can't stand how hilarious that is. What I can tell you about Marshall is that he's a bright happy ray of sunshine except for that he's not. He's a total sarcastic dick, but he reminds me of my friends back home, so I just naturally gravitated towards him. Thanks guys. You know who you are. Honestly though, he's really great and he's been showing me around some pretty cool places in Auckland. I know you all will be curious as to what he looks like so I've added a pic of him at the bottom. You can tell why we get along. Sorry again to my mom who hates obscene gestures. I love you. You're the best for loving me through all of my unladylike habits, ha.

Friday we went to the North Shore and got 14 dollar margaritas which I immediately knocked onto the floor because thats my life. Then I drank away my pain with a bottle of vodka, sorry mommy. haha. Sunday we went to Bethells Beach, It's a black sand beach...All the beaches on the west side are black sand beaches just for your referance. We walked into some caves on the shore line, it was totally rad. Then we took about a mile walk through this little river to lake Wainamu. The water was absolutely perfect for swimming and I didn't get burnt!! Super excited about that.

Honestly, other than that it was a pretty normal week. I chilled with the super cute kiddos and Francie tried to teach me the macarena in Moari which I totally failed at and she found it very funny. Tony was in Australia for the week for work so It was just me and Mel. Mel and I had a nice little dinner outing on Wednesday together :) But other than that I had to make my own dinner every night, it was sad as. Haha Shout out to Tony for being a spectacular host dad and making me dinner almost every night. You da bomb, T-dog. If I haven't mentioned it before Tony is on the down low a fantastic rapper. T-dog is his rap name. *Cry laughing face*

Anyways, thats about it! I hope you all had a fantastic week as well and I will talk to you from the future soon!

All my love,

Sidni