Feeling happy.

As this weekend comes to an end, I can’t help but continually think how happy I am that I’m in New Zealand. I could have prolonged college and finished my degree this spring as normal with my friends at UF, I could have looked for a “real” job in America, but instead I chose to come to New Zealand, and I can’t really imagine myself anywhere else at this moment. There’s something about going to a new place, away from anyone you know, that seems to be like a cleanse (not sure if that’s the right word). Not saying that I don’t miss both my family and friends, but sometimes having to do things on my own makes me learn even more about myself.

Being in a new country, and especially living so closely to a family and spending so much time with them, it’s interesting to learn how people of a different country, and even class, live their lives. People are so unique and it’s so neat that I am able to learn about others here. I’ve found that New Zealanders are so nice, just like every review on New Zealand I read before I came here hinted at. The other night when I was trying to pay for a parking spot and the machine wasn’t taking my coins and the credit card part wasn’t working a guy riding by on his skateboard stopped to help without me saying or asking anything. Even though it just needed a few more tries, it was so nice of him to help and offer his larger coins to see if that would work. I was wondering if someone in America would do that, I think that there are some that would, but not to the same extent as a lot of New Zealanders.

I am so lucky to have access to a car when I’m not working for the family, and I’ve been able to explore these past couple of weekends. Auckland is made of several suburbs, I probably won’t even know the names of all of them by the end of the year, that’s how many there seem to be! It’s exciting for me to be in such a new place because every time I go somewhere I haven’t, it’s enjoyable! I’ve been able to check out the “uber-cool” suburb of Ponsonby where  I got a yummy hot chocolate (rated one of the best in Auckland), a set of NZ coasters, a NZ magnet, and browsed in a few shops on the main road. I also have gone to the Parnell French Market on two Saturday mornings, getting a freshly made juice and chocolate croissant each time! They have a large selection of fruits, vegetables, breads, hummus, spreads, bakery items, flowers and some meats. I love things like that and there’s always so many people there, it’s like the place to be on weekend mornings.

This weekend I spent Saturday shopping at a mall I hadn’t been to (after the French Market) because the weather was pretty awful - hot, humid, and random drizzles of rain. I got two nice tops and a pair of “sunnies” (sunglasses). Today I spent the day west of Auckland. I headed toward Piha, a popular destination, which is a black sand beach on the Tasman Sea. On my way there I stopped at the Nihotupu Waterfalls. It was about a 20 minute walk to the falls. I probably spent about 20 more minutes at the larger fall, taking photos and enjoying the scenery. It’s awesome to listen to the rushing of the water too. I then finished the drive to Piha and got a cheeseburger from a local place right on the beach. I ate that on the beach (along with probably a half mouthful of sand because the wind was so bad). Then I layed out and tried my best to ignore the sand that was blowing at me from every direction. You should have seen me at the end of my time on the beach…my face has sand all over it, my ears had sand in them, and it was even all under my hair. Oh well – nothing a shower when I got home couldn’t fix. Like I said, it was very windy, and partly cloudy, but I still got some sun for sure! There is a large rock/mountain thing on the beach there that looks like a lion that people walk up, but the wind on the beach was so strong, I didn’t trust myself to walk up that with that strong of wind – I will have to do that on another trip back. I made it back to Auckland on a different route given to me by the GPS! Nothing too exciting happened the rest of today (Sunday) but I’m happy with how I spent my weekend, and looking forward to all of my other adventures that I’ll have this year exploring New Zealand!

 

At the larger waterfall!

Piha Beach

A view of Piha from an overlook on the side of the road

Sorry for not doing a post on the first week (I will get to that this week) but I felt like I should write about this while it was all fresh in my mind! I think that everyone should travel to New Zealand at some point in their life, it’s so beautiful and will take your breath away so many times!