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!