Kaikora

Hey everyone, it has been a while since I've updated you all on my activities so here goes.
Kaikora: Last Weekend I went with Nathan, Lori, Kendra, and Tenise (Kendra is Nathans cousin and Tenise is her friend) to Kaikora where we met up with Allison, Alex (it was her birthday weekend), Brad, Jen, Mandi, Sarah, Hannah, Julia, and Rachel. The busride was uneventful but scenic as always. Upon arrival we met everyone at a nice cafe and had a deserved breakfast, which was really good, after having gotten up at 6am and driven into town for the bus by Nick and Tracy. After getting our things put away in the hostel we all decided to go on a walk around the penninsula however instead of turning right we turned left and procedded to walk a long way down the beach in the wrong direction.

Although we eventually figured out our mistake we decided to keep walking since it was really relaxing and peaceful.

The beach was a black pebble beach and the pebbles were almost grains of sand, but not quite so they were really easy to dust off and pleasant to lie down and play in. After spending a while there messing around we cunningly left Nathan and Hannah on the beach leaving them a stick message of our new destination.
Later that day Brad, Rachel, Lori, Julia, Mandi and I went sea kayaking with NZ Fur seals. That too was really enjoyable. We got to get really close to the seals, less than a meter away and follow them through the water.

They were two person kayaks and since I was in the back I could control the rudder with my feet, however it took a while to get used to controlling it because unlike conventional rudders if you pressed right the kayak would go right. On the way back to land Mandi and I also saw a couple cows grazing on what I would deem a cliff. I now assume that cows in NZ have been bred with mountain goats.
When we got back to the hostel we all quickly jumped in the hot tub since everyone else was busy cooking one of the best meals I have ever had. It was Alex's birthday dinner and we ate pasta with a really good sauce, salmon, risotto, salad, and shrimp. Jen provided some good wine and for desert we gave Alex a birthday cake along with champagne for everyone and then finished off the night with Amarula which everyone really enjoyed.

Later that night we all went out to a pub called Strawberry Inn where we danced the night away to every genre of music and had a really good time.
Luckily our weekend was not done yet. We decided to go on a sunrise walk around the peninsula, so at the ungodly hour of 6am and only a few hours of rest we woke up to walk around the peninsula. Along the way I carried the girls over a small river so they wouldn't have to get wet, watched the sunrise, got really really close to awakening fur seals and had a really nice walk. We got back at around 10 and had breakfast. The six tuplets aka Mizzou girls and Brad left at noon but Nathan, Lori, Kendra, and Tenise had to wait till 3:30 for our bus. We went to the beach and lay there till it was time. At one point Lori and I were bored so we made some more stick messages. Kaikora was really beautiful so I will now just add pictures and you can get a better feel about what I am writing about.



Overall that weekend was: