back from isolation!

so its been five or so days and i am back and SUPER SUPER dark. the sun here is ridiculous!! i even burned which never happens!!

anyways...ill try to touch upon everything. on the 18th we left from Auckland for an island in the Bay of Islands called Urapukapuka. It was a 3.5 hours drive, and we had to take a ferry and a boat to get there. We stopped in a town called Russel first to get some food and some supplies for the week. Once we got to the boat that the Department of Conservation was using we unloaded all our stuff out of the van and took a ten minute boat ride to the island. It was amazing. The scerny was awesome and never gets old. Green green mountains and super blue water. (tho the water isn't as warm as you would think). Once we got on the island we had to upload all the stuff (which was a work out) and set up our tents. It was a relaxing first day on the island, which was nice because the rest of the trip was intense. A few of the girls went for a hike around the island, which is huge and def. went in the ocean. its so nice, but a little too seaweedy where were at. there are def better beaches out there. We all pretty much passed out after dinner. so tired from the long long day.

on day two, we all broke up into groups. I, along with Audra and Dominick, cleaned out a water drain...woo hoo! haha and then Audra and I week whacked (scrub baring - in NZ terms), whihc was fun at first, but then got old real fast. Afetr that we had lunch -- YUM and then all of us herded 200 sheep to another padock. That was AWESOME. it was a lot of planning ahead and making sure all the sheep were found (they weren't -- we eneded up herding three today, but still -- so much fun!!). After herding sheep we all kinda plopped down and relaxed till dinner. (we all help cook -- have our cooking days). We then made friends with the locals, who are all insane and huge drinkers. (it was cool bc one party were there for a wedding on this remote island -- so cool -- reminded me of Steph's sisters wedding on top of a moutain). The hills on this island were super steep so to get to anywhere was a good work out, but we eat a ton of food to make up for it because all the work makes us super hungry.

Showers here were freezing cold, and the bathrooms were AWFULL...i hated going into them. they smelled so bad because they were compost toilets. yuck! oh well...thats over..thank goodness. Oh and apparently NZ isnt that environmentally friendly because of all the sheep they have and their farts create A LOT of C02 emissions, making the country the worst for those emissions. weird, eh?

Oh yeah...our neighbors. besides the wedding party with the annoying kids who followed maragret around there was Charlies group, who got us all drunk on our second night and then Bob and Lil' Wayne, who showed us a good time as well (last night). It was a lot of fun.

On the next day we went to another island called Moturua island (with Chris and Tobey -- part of DOC - deparment of conservation) and cleaned out more water dicthes and then we went to Robertsen Island to take down wire fences. those were touch jobs, but so rewarding afterwards when you kno wyou did something good. Maragret, Dom and I went out to the lookout of Robertsen and saw amazing views with a side of a tough work out. phew.

at this point, the group is becoming a lot closer. we all seem to be meshing very well.

the next day we went to Cape Brett (and the Hole in the Rock -- it is what it sounds like) and we made a new trail (marg, bennett, katie and i) and then got to go in the nice lighthouse, which was recently painted and restored. it was really cool because it was so old. However, this day was a little uneventful. We picked up some hikers form Cape Brett and gace them a ride home on our boat. They were from Holland and Germany...pretty cool.

The last full day we were in the Bay of islands, we cleaned some underwater information panels so snorklers could see what they read, cleaned up another trail and touch up some posts with a new coat of paint, and then went dolphin/blue penguin watching. We saw a whole family of dolphins and the occasional penguin which was soooo cute. Once we got back from that trip, we all went the local bar and hung out there. That was fun and we got to use FLUSH toilets, which are AMAZING. that night was fun -- we hung out with Bob and Wayne. OY.

Today we packed up and herded three more sheep and went back to the mainland. it was sad leaving, since that had become our home and i was super used to having Ba-ing sheep around me....i swear i still hear them bleating. oh well. took some good pictures and will upload when i get the chance. We stopped back in Russel on the way back to Auckland and got some lunch and then we took the 3.5 hour drive back home. it was uncomfortable but i slept a bit, which was nice.

once back in the city most of us did laundry and took a REAL shower, which was amazing. FH girls...i have the rash again...GROSS...like all over my hands. i think its heat rash tho because its worse when im under the sun too long. sigh. hopefully it'll go away before we go out our first adventure trip -- where we will be repelling off a 300 ft cliff, caving for 3 hours, treking through the woods (with our heavy bags on) for 9!! hours, making our own shelters, and floating down a river on tubes. it should be sweet an di can't wait to update you guys on that. But for now we are back to civilization, and probably going to watch some fireworks and maybe get a drink tonight. Should be fun. I'm looking forward to seeing what Auckland's nightlife is like. But i def need some sleep too because on sunday we have to wake up at 5:30am...not looking forward to that.

well if i forgot to mention anything im sorry. I'll probably come back tomorrow. but i hope you are all well. ill get photos up as soon as i can. miss you all!!