Uretiti Beach, Northland

This weekend I went on a trip with my flatmates plus 2 up to Uretiti Beach about two hours north of Auckland to camp for two nights. It poured the whole way up to there in our 7 passenger wagon that wasn't that good at handling the weather. We arrived Saturday afternoon and was able to set up our tent and make some lunch without too much rain.



















Here I am all ready to take on whatever nature has to throw at me!



















This is the entrance to the beach side campsite. Followed by the view of the sand dunes right in between our tents and the beach.















Sunday was absolutely beautiful. The clouds would pass over every 10 minutes or so, but even with the on and off sun it was warm enough to go swimming--it's only Spring here--for a while and to enjoy the sunshine!





























Here, Saskia, Colleen, and I are with our awesome seashells. I think we are going to make box picture frames with them!















There was a beautiful rainbow after some storms!

We returned early Monday morning just missing the next downpour during packing up the wagon. All in all a very great trip

Sydney with Mama Miles!

For one week of my mid-semester break, i flew to Sydney to meet up with Mama Miles from September 5th to the 11th to do touristy things. Below are a just a select few from the 300+ photos that we took.















Mama Miles and I went on a breakfast cruise that was delicious and gave us a chance to see how expansive the harbour was.






























This beautiful house sits just around the corner from the Sydney Opera house pictured above. This is the Old Government House- we did a tour inside which was long and featured paintings of every governor. I think it was a bit too touristy for Mama and I.
















We went to two zoos. (this was unintentional of course, but the second one was way more up close and personal.) The Kangaroos are lounging at the Taronga Zoo. Followed by us posing with a kwala at the Featherdale Wildlife Park which was the unexpected stop on our Blue Mountain tour.





























The "waterfall" that we went to wasn't more than a stream off of a cliff, but it sure makes for a good addition to the "tour that we aren't sure what we paid for" story.
















Behind me are the Blue Mountains, Australia's version of the grand canyon. It really was a beautiful sight to see and we stayed here for only a few minutes before heading to the main lookout point where we went to get some awesome hot chocolate after a little bit of shopping.




















On the way back from the Blue Mountains, we stopped at the site of the Sydney Olympic games and i tried to snap a few good photos, unsuccessfully, of the Atlanta 1996 marker. Then we boarded a ferry back to the Circular Quay (pronounced "key" or "kay" i haven't figured this out yet).

















We went to Bondi beach to enjoy the sunshine and sand- and to have a leisure day after the continuous stop and go from the previous Blue Mountain tour.














The view from the cliffs was beautiful. I was so impressed by how clean the city was and by how far you could see up and down the coast.
















On the last day of our trip we rented bikes to cruise along the bike path on Manly beach just a short ferry ride and bus ride away from the Circular Quay, which we used many times as one of our many modes of transportation. We were able to bike a good distance up onto the cliffs for views and down along right in front of the beach.
















All in all a very fun trip with Mama. I'm glad I got the chance to make it to Syndey, by far one of my favorite cities i've ever been to. I could even picture myself living there, :-)

Waiheke Island

Waiheke Island is only about 45 minutes away by ferry from downtown Auckland which is only a 15 minute walk from my flat.





























I found a beautiful variety of flowers along the path towards the bus stop.















I took the day bus to Onetangi Beach where you can see my shoes as I sit in the sand after I enjoyed chocolate cake from the beach cafe.


















Alison Park would be much cooler if it was "Allison" park. :-)

Devonport

I went for a short afternoon trip to Devonport to take photos of the sunset and the Auckland skyline a few days ago with Colleen and her friend Amanda. We were able to make it to the top of a volcanic cone in order to take some great shots of the city. When my friends post their pictures I will include them since the quality from my phone isn't that good.