Raglan!

This weekend myself, Eva, Leigh, and Christophe went down to a little surf town on the west coast called Raglan. Its actually a world famous little surf town, so if your into surfing, you probably know it! We left on Saturday morning and spent forever trying to find somewhere to sleep! The entire town was booked but we finally found this place were we had our own bathroom and sink and it was only $25/person/night. Not bad at all if I do say so myself. We attempted swimming but it was so cold it was more of a polar bear dive than anything else.
On Sunday morning we found a place that rented surfboards and full length wetsuits and hit up Ngaranui Beach. It was quite possibly the windiest day I have ever spent outdoors but still a heck of a lot of fun! When we arrived at the beach, there was nobody else there so we just headed out and surfed for 2 hours. When we came in for a lunch break, the lifeguards kindly told us the beach was closed due to dangerous weather! Whoops!
Monday was relatively uneventful due to poor weather again. We did hit up our favorite cafe again, The Tongue and Groove, and studied for a couple more hours. I think we got in about 6 hours of studying this weekend on top of surfing, swimming and exploring the town.
Some friends of mine may be heading up to Piha beach this week for some more surfing and I think I am going to try to tag along! I'm absolutely horrible at it, but its so much fun that I have to do it a couple more times before I head out of this crazy awesome country! Pictures...

Surfboards hanging off the front of the car!

Christophe, Myself, and Eva all lookin sweet!


Ngaranui Beach

Leigh shocked that they beach we were surfing at was closed!

They didn't have this sign up when we got there!

See the perfectly crashing waves? This is the world famous Manu Bay.

More of Manu Bay

Pinnacles at Coromandel

I went out for a real short tramp this weekend. It was only about 2 hours of actual tramping each day but it was definitely nice to be outside for a couple of days. We went out to the Coromandel region and hiked up to the Pinnacles. It used to be a huge kauri tree logging area and so throughout the whole tramp there were little remnants of the massive logging operations that were running in the early 1900s. The hut up at the top slept 80 people but there were two classes of schoolkids coming through so we opted to tent outside of the hut despite the massive rainstorm. It was the first time I have slept in a tent in New Zealand and unfortunately, the last as well. We got to talk to the hut warden for a bit and I discovered that he is a little bit crazy but also incredibly friendly.
This was my last tramp in the North Island; kinda a scary thought. That being said, I do have several non-tramping excursions planned for my last month in the Auckland region. This coming weekend, Leigh, Eva, Riley and myself are going down to Raglan on the west coast in a van and spending 3.5 days figuring out how to surf. Then, about 10 days later, we are heading up to 90-mile beach for 4 days and surfing a little bit more before we all have to leave and go on our respective adventures.
My future adventure is going to include Abel Tasman, Heaphy, Barrytown, Franz Josef Glacier, Mt Cook, Kepler Track, Te Anau, Queenstown, and Christchurch.... Should be interesting!
Here are some pictures from the Pinnacles! Lots of green...

More NZ landscape..

One of the old dams

The ~600 stairs up to the top. Yes, stairs in the middle of nowhere...

Part of the Pinnacles

The "hut" which is larger and nicer than any house any of us will probably live in ever.

Waterfall...

The river that we did a proper crossing on and then ate lunch on the other side.

2 Minutes of Fame

Click on the link to watch the video!

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/497100/1394058

Its pretty sweet!

A Few More Derby Pictures

Posing with some friends after the bout!

Friends outside the rink before the bout

Me Jamming!

Jamming, Im the front white helmet in a black uniform

Huddle!

First Bout Action!

Last night was the first bout of the season and my debut bout. It was Dead Wreckoning versus the Blackheart Bruisers; I was with Dead Wreckoning. I dont even know where to begin with describing the bout! We sold out all 400 seats a week in advance and sorta snuck some more people in illegally so that we could fill up the rink completely. When we came out of the our locker rooms, the music was blasting and they announced up individually while the crowd was going crazy. The Blackheart Bruisers all wear little plastic blue brass knuckles so one of my teammates got her hands on some real brass knuckles and wore them are around her neck! The refs made her take it off during equipment inspection. Anyway, long story short, we won! We had over 90 points and they only had about 48 points so we really won! It was a good clean bout, no fights, just a couple of major penalties. At the end of the bout, the referees and score keepers named me Player of the Bout! It was so cool! They said it was because I was skating hard the whole game and playing cleanly.
20/20 New Zealand has been videotaping us and they are making a show that will be on this Thursday night. We should have a youtube copy up as soon as it airs so keep an eye out for it if you want to see a little snippet of the bout! It was absolutely amazing! Our next one is on October 27th and I cant hardly wait! Here are some pictures in the locker room. I will put some more up when I get them from my friends.

Stace (Pieces of Hate), our captain, gearing up

RG Bargee helping Bonnie Blaggard tape down here guards (we have to for bouts)

Skate the Muss just posing!

Working on painting her face!

Helmets on our beautiful new benches! (notice the beautiful green one?!)

Me (L'exi-cuter) all decked out!

The Kaimais

I had to get out of Auckland this weekend and voiced this issue to a member of the tramping club named Richard; and so a tramping trip was born. Four of us left on Saturday morning at 7 am for the Kaimai ranges which are about 2 hours south of Auckland on the Bay of Plenty (which I discovered is not a bay, rather a fertile valley). It was Richard, myself, a young guy named Tommy and an alumni named Chantelle.
The first day was half spent on a track that was frequently used by dirt bikes and 4 wheel drive trucks, so it was not so scenic. Then we ducked into the dense bush to try and find the hut we had been told about. The bush was so dense, it mostly bushbashing and trying to find a few trail markers pinned to trees. The amusing part is that this hut we were headed to is not on any modern maps and minimally recognised by the DOC, so we were mostly just hoping it still existed! Needless to say, we found the hut, and just before the rain came.
The next day included so more dense bushbashing but the trail opened up and made for a nice 6 hour hike. We got to the car just as it started to rain and headed over to a city called Miranda for some good post-tramping hot pools. Pictures...

Richard and Tommy posing by a waterfall on the first day

Erosion on the trail before we hit the dense bush

A view from about half way up.

The "Bay" of Plenty, just to clarify

Our beautiful hut for the night. Its currently scheduled for removal whenever it next needs work so the local trampers are keeping it up.

Richard cooking some delicious oatmeal!

The view you were waiting for...

Getting into a Rhythm

I realized that I haven't updated in about 10 or so days so I figured one was due. The reason for my lack of updating is that I seem to be settling into some sort of rhythm here in Auckland. I haven't gone on any wild and crazy trips in a little bit mostly because I have been staying home for the purpose of schoolwork. Only four weeks of classes remain and then the three weeks of final exams begin.
I have recently begun to make some sort of acquaintances at a nearby bike shop called Calibre Cycles. I had to drop of my bike there for repair (it felt so weird to do!) because I lack most of the tools that were needed. I completely wore my chain out so I guess I am riding here more than I thought! The slightly annoying factor is that I told them exactly what needed to be done and I am pretty sure they didn't do it because the problem is persisting (look ticking and creaking in the bottom bracket).
Also on a bike related note, I have been trying to get out to the velodrome lately. I have ridden out there twice in the last week only to find that nobody was there to let me in. One of guys at the shop told me that he basically lives at the velodrome and that I could come with him. I found out recently that he is the NZ velodrome champ with the fastest 200m on record here among other various achievements. He's also raced at our velodrome in Blaine! So, needless to say, Im a little nervous about riding with him. We are going to try and get out there Tuesday morning, barring the usual bad weather here.
This weekend Im going out backpacking, nothing crazy, just a little trip. It will be a good excuse to get out of Auckland and skip a couple derby practices. October 6th is our first bout and I will be playing with Dead Reckoning. I think it will be a whole lot of fun! All the girls are skating really well, we have three well trained referees and many score keepers. There are also tons of people coming and a live band at half time! Ill definitely be posting pictures! Hope everybody else is having an awesome September.