Thursday night spur of the moment (once again) we ended up going to Bethell’s Beach with our host family sister and her boyfriend. It was so sweet of them to take the time out of their night and offer to show us around. Taylor Swift actually shot a music video on this beach so it is very popular among tourist. We ended up running up a steep sand hill and then climbing through a sandy area to get to the top of this mount that overlooked the whole beach. It was simply amazing!!! The climb up was nothing, but the climb down--- legit was a little scary. It was steeper than it looked that’s for sure, but we made it! We then went to the lake right after where Selena Gomez did a photo shoot! The view was incredible. It was literally sand hill after sand hill to get to the lake. They call it the moon because all the sand hills literally look like the moon when you see it. People actually sand surf down these hills—we might try it one weekend because it looks that fun!
Saturday, of course started off with a coffee from my favorite café down the road, Redwoods. I swear this café is going to make me go broke. I cannot go a day without coffee, so this is definitely a frequent stop for me. We then took the train and went into the city again to finish up some shopping. We were hoping to hit up the Auckland beach, but the weather did not cooperate with us and it was windy and cloudy. But, when you’re in New Zealand it is hard to complain about anything, so we obviously made the most of our day downtown! The train into the city was out of service for the weekend so we had to venture and take the bus part of the way. We were so confused when the lady told us we had to get off the train when it wasn't our stop and thought she was going crazy, but turns out they were doing construction. We have never taken the bus anywhere so it was interesting to try and figure out how the bus times worked and where each bus was going. It ended up being a fun and relaxing day.
Sunday morning Frankie and I woke up early to go with her cooperating teacher, Bex, to Mount Mauganui, which is about a 3-hour drive from Swanson where we are staying. The drive was so cool. It is not like a drive in Wisconsin where you are looking at nothing and end up sleeping. It was filled with views. As we were driving around one of the mountains on the way home, I was freaking out because of how close we were to the edge. It was so so scary, it actually felt like we were going to drop off at any second. The roads here are very curvy and people are absolutely crazy drivers. No one really pays attention to anyone else and they speed like no other. I thought I was a bad driver, but I definitely am not as bad as these people. Anyways!!! The views at Mount Mauganui were amazing! We walked around the mountain and then climbed up some rocks at the beach. The waves were huge! I was in awe watching these guys surf. It did not look safe at all, but they clearly new what they were doing. For lunch, we checked out a place called Brookyln’s. It was a restaurant with outdoor seating facing the water—It was beautiful. The restaurants, atmosphere and overall vibe of Mount Mauganui reminded me a lot of Florida. There were a bunch of cafes, shops and restaurants on the beach and what looked like palm tress (I forgot the name of the trees here) all over the place. It was such a pretty place to visit and I am beyond grateful that Bex took the time out of her weekend to take us. It was very sweet of her to do so. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got back after a long day of walking and 6 hours of driving, so it was an early bedtime for me.
This week at school we have a lot to look forward to. I will be talking with my students about Thanksgiving and even making them a pumpkin pie to taste. We are also busy packing up EVERYTHING in our room because next week we are moving into a new classroom. It will be a crazy, busy week!!! Stay tuned later in the week for an update on how this week in the classroom went!
