A lazy day on the beach...

makes for the best day of camping this girl has ever had! We spent our Saturday at the Coromandel out on the beach. The water was beautiful, although it was very cold because of the  cold front that moved into the area while we were there. But we braved the water anyway and it was so worth it! We to the beach around 10 I believe and we spent the whole day in and out of the water, some when kayaking, others tried surfing, others stayed on the whole day reading books and working on their tan. I did a little of everything...except kayaking. The kayaks were occupied most of the day so I just did the other things. I did a lot of laying...a lot of reading...and some time in the water. We have been warned so many times that the sun here is stronger than in the states and that we need to be really careful about applying sunblock when we are out in the sun. After my first big burn at Omaha beach I have been more careful about applying sunscreen...though still not as careful as I probably should be. Anyway I did apply two or three times that day I think and I only had a little bit of pinkness on areas that I did not cover quite as well. Not nearly the burn I had after Omaha! It was a beautiful day at the beach! After our day at the beach we headed back to our campsite and some people showered to get the beach feel off of them...I really roughed it and I didn't shower when I got back...instead my hair just went up in a lovely ponytail or something and I put on some warm clothes! Then we had some more sausages for lunch/dinner/every meal really. We played some Scum in one of the tents, chatted, exchanged back massages, and just had a good time! It was the first time we were really able to go as a group somewhere overnight, so it was just a big bonding experience! Also it was nice to be bonding with the Joseph's a bit during that trip. That night, the Josephs cooked up some Paua, which is like an abalone, for those of you who know that that is...basically I learned a lot more than I really wanted to about that shelled creature. First of all I learned that it has teeth, which you have to pull out when you are getting all of the meat out of the shell, and I learned that it is really nasty work to clean out the Pauas and I avoided it altogether! I did help clean up the dishes afterward however because it had to be done and no one was too quick to volunteer! I didn't try the Pauas...I should have, but after the Kenna that I tried earlier in the day I felt completely justified in saying no to another new and foreign food...plus it looked like green goop and I didn't know if I could handle it...for those of you who have seen Better Off Dead...the stuff that his mom makes that eventually slides off of his plate on its own...that is what the paua mixture reminded me of...not really that appetizing! We turned in kind of early that night because we had gotten a few noise complaints the night before, and we were planning on getting up kind of early the next morning to head home. Plus we were all pretty tired after a long day at the beach! Night two we planned much better and we stayed much warmer than we had the night before! The next morning, one of the first things that I did was run up to the out house to use the toilet...I wouldn't normally share this information, except that something funny happened...well I thought it was funny...I got up there and there were two little girls waiting outside so I joined the line of people waiting. I waited for a while, and a bit later an older lady came up to join the line. We all stood there for a while and waited and waited. She looked at me and asked if I knew if someone was actually in there. I said no, I had just joined the line behind the little girls and assumed that they knew someone was in there. She decided that wasn't good enough and she knocked on the door to find out for herself. When she knocked on the door and asked if someone was in there, a man responded with a yes and I'll be right out...When he did walk out he was carrying a very thick book in his hands and he walked past saying sorry...After he had passed the older lady started laughing and then she looked after him and said something about the "typical male"...then she talked to me about how she couldn't imagine why anyone would want to be reading in the toilet, especially one as smelly as this one...so maybe not so funny, but at the time I thought it was really funny because I couldn't help but think of my dad and all of the books and magazines that he keeps lying around in his bathroom!
So we ate some breakfast, and started breaking camp. With about 30 people, working on tents it didn't take long to get it all cleaned up, and we were on the road before it got too late. We headed for home and all prayed that we would be able to sleep some of the time as we were driving home since we were all headed for a late night of packing and an early morning flight! We drove home, stopped at a gas station to get some gas and use the restroom...got kicked out and told we couldn't use the restroom because we weren't customers so we had to go out and ask the people driving to move the cars to the pumps since they intended to fill the vans up with petrol and then politely go back in and tell the lame man at the desk that we were customers and we needed to use the toilet...he couldn't deny us then thank goodness and we finally got to use the toilet...that is one thing that I've noticed here in New Zealand...it is difficult to find a public restroom that you can just walk into and use...also it is very difficult to find a drinking fountain...they are almost non-existent! I guess it is part of them doing their part to conserve or something but I much prefer the convenience of America when it comes to public toilets and drinking fountains!
Once we got home, we threw clothes into the washer right away and got started packing for our next adventure. After getting our laundry out to dry, we tried to pack everything else that we would need for almost two weeks into a carry on bag...after just a little while I think that all three of us resorted to getting a larger bag and taking the larger bag and a smaller bag in order to fit all of the stuff we needed...I was pretty impressed with myself for getting it all to fit in! We were up most of the night doing this and then when I finally went to bed I set an alarm for 3:45 and 4 AM so that I could wake up and skype with Mom, Dad, Mhari, James, and Andrew...they were all at Mhari and Jame's house in Austin so it was 9 AM there and they were more than willing to get up early to talk to me! Unfortunately I slept through my alarm and it was about 4:30 when I woke up...so I had to hurry but I was worried they may have already given up on me. Unfortunately things were working against me and Micah's computer which was the one I was using to skype on took like 20 minutes to turn on so I finally got connected at like 5 minutes to 5...and my taxi was supposed to be there at 5...I got on anyway because I wanted to talk to them really bad and luckily they hadn't given up on me yet and I had a few minutes that I could talk to them before we had to go jetting off to the airport which would take us to Queenstown...I was so glad that I caught them because I really needed to see some familiar family faces! Well, until the next time...I don't know if I'll ever catch up at this rate but thanks for being patient with me!

Camping will never be the same...

after camping so close to the beach! We drove up to the Coromandel peninsula the day that our classes ended. The Joseph's set up this camping trip ages ago...it was supposed to be for all of the YSA in the stake, but then it got nixed by the stake presidency so it was just 17 of the BYU girls (3 didn't want to go), the Cutri family, all of my Joseph family except Pascal, and Erin's brother Nat who lives in our ward and who we had met a few times before brought 2 of his kids. It was about a 3 or 4 hour trip to get to our camp site, and it was a few hours of heaven! The drive was seriously through some of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. We drove by a lot of cows as we were going, and my favorite line of the drive was, "these cows are so lucky and they don't even know it. They must be the happiest cows in the world...happy cows don't come from California, they come from New Zealand!" I don't remember who it was that said this, but it was a really funny conversation. The whole time that we were driving we kept saying that we had to take a picture of one area because it was so beautiful, then we would drive just a little further and we would see something even more beautiful and we all wanted a picture of the next scene. It seriously felt like we were driving into heaven because it was so beautiful. I wish that I could spend forever there because a picture will never be enough to show the immense beauty of the place. Our campsite, funny enough, looked a lot like any place that you would go camping in Utah, big trees, mountains and nice little outhouses all around a big open grassy field filled with tents. The only big difference came when you went down the road a bit and over a hill...all the sudden you were standing on a beach on the edge of the most beautiful water that you had ever seen. Anyway, it was an amazing ride, some girls got a little sick because of all of the twisting and curving of the road, but I am a lucky one who is not affected by motion sickness.
We got to the campsite in time for a nice sausage sizzle dinner, and then we played some games while it got darker and darker...that was another big difference between here and camping in Utah...we weren't allowed to have a campfire so we all sat around a propane lantern and wrapped up in blankets (because a cold front was moving through) as it got later. After dinner, we just visited and played some games, and had a ball! We were singing along to Erin's guitar and playing games until like midnight or later. It was so much fun, and the next day we were all very sleepy because of it! After we went in to bed, Brittany Babcock (the other Brittany in our group) read to us from this book called Telesa. It is a book written by a lady in our ward here and it has gone around to a lot of the girls to read, I haven't read it yet but I plan to sometime soon. Anyway, to get us to go to sleep, Brittany did a read aloud from a chapter of Telesa...it was highly entertaining. The next day we got up semi-early, not too early like some of the girls who went diving in the morning. We had a nice New Zealand camp breakfast of cereal followed by some Kenna... For those of you are confused now, wondering what a kenna is, I will post a picture eventually but for now I'll just say it is a sea urchin. You cut it open and eat the orange part inside which is actually its tongue. It is salty and rubbery and probably one of the worst things I have ever eaten, but I did eat it! I think that we got a video of me eating it...another thing that I'll post sometime. I really thought I might throw up after eating that, but I was really proud of myself for giving it a try!

School

I was going to write a post all about the fun things that we did in school for the rest of our class time, but there is so much to say and it is much more exciting when I can post pictures to show and help explain what we did, so I will wait to tell you more about school until I have a chance to tell you all about stuff with pictures and videos to explain all of the fun that we had in our classes! Because they were so condensed, I thought we would have so much work to do each day, but because we had so little time, and I think because we had so much time in class each day our teachers took pity on us, or they were just really awesome teachers and they let us do a lot of really fun things, while still teaching us a lot about the subject that they taught! I think maybe it is a combination of the two things!

Now I never finished introducing the family so I'll finish doing that now...
Rose, is the mum of the Joseph whanau. She chases/chauffeurs the two babies around all day everyday, and she does it so well. She works so hard, and is an amazing mum to all of us. She is always looking out for her kids and praying for the best for them. It has been a lot of fun getting to know her a little better and to learn from her as a mother. She is an amazing lady and I feel like I learn new things about her everyday. I appreciate so  much all that she does for us while we are here and I feel lucky to be a part of her whanau even if it is only for a few months.

The last member of the whanau that you need to meet is Pascal. Pascal is 14, she goes to high school, and is a member of the kapa haka group at her school. She has all the attitude that is required of a 14 year old and she is very strong willed and opinionated. She is fiercely defensive of her family and she is a very powerful and independent daughter of God. She is intense, and doesn't think much of me, but I really admire her and her strength.