SEPTEMBER 23-30 2006

September 30,2006
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!

We are still on The Rock. Dave went for a walk on the island we were parked at. Sydney, Victoria, Kate, Sam, Jasper, and Jasper all played spoons inside (an extremely fun card game). The group went diving for muscles earlier and some fed the fish (Lori and Dave) then the whole boat went to thsi other island for lunch and a hike. You could either go by kayak, the dingy or swim. We had an interesting chat with teh crew and Lori found 2 manterays on the way back and a huge crab. The Rays were ENORMOUS! (by Lor's calculations). Peter showed us how to eat muscles and sea erchicns (Gross!). By about 5:00pm, we were satnding on the pier waving good-bye to the FANTASTIC crew!

September 29,2006

Finally, the day when we ahve swam in the South Pacific Ocean! Brr, is it cold though. Well, today we are on Carino sailing with the dolphins. We found a pod of bottlenosed dolphins but couldn't swim with them because there were babies in the group. They swam under the boat, did tricks and did the dolphin things. Before our fantastic b-bq lunch, we were dropped off at an island to go swimming, scuba diving and lay on the beach. On the way back Lori and Tor fell asleep in a sunpuddle and Dave, along with Syd, helped the crew sail. We left the sail boat at around 4:00pm and headed down the peir toward The Rock.
Sadly, when we double-checked with the people for our trips the Rock had to sak if we could go earlier because the other customers cancelled. By the end, we went straight to the Rock after we got off the Carion.
Now, to the Rock. There were around 30 people on the boat. The crew nams were: Peter, Jasper,Jasper, Tom, Tom, Christina, Kate, Sam, Kam, and Yvonne. The special guests were: Stacy, Donna, Mike, and Kate. After supper, Lori suprised Dave with a carrot birthday cake. HE had the whole boat sing him happy birthday and wish him happy b-day. At night we went fishing off the back of the boat, phospherescent kayaking ( there are playkton in the water and when desturbed they give off eergy by light), had a shooting contest, and played pool. Everyone asks us were we are from and someone said that they had Americans with Canadian Flags on their bags (now that is very rude). Everyone was amazed when we told them where we live and the animals we have around. Really by the end of the night we were talked out.

September 28,2006

Today we pretty much drve from Auckland to Pahai (The Bay of Isalnd). The drive was beaustiful, it looked like the okanogan, but it had an ocean and hills. The hostel we are in is the Saltwater Lodge. It is extremely nice here and the water is so blue.

September 27, 2006

We haven't exactly had a chance to go on the internet with our labtop to put photos on so bear with us as we find out how. We went to the Hot water beach today. We arrived there at around low tide and sat on the beach for about 30 min. Eventually, we wandered over to the place to dig and walked around dreagging our feet to find a hot spot to start digging. The one place that we found a part of it was so hot that you could only really stand on it for 5 seconds without burning your feet, also it made bubbles in the ocean water. Once the sun went behind the hill, we decided to start heading back to Auckland area. We found a motel and had hamburger for supper.



September 26,2006

We know, we know! Why has it been 2 days since our last entry? We'll tell you why. Our plane as you should know landed in Auckland at 5:00 am Auckland Time. WE collected our luggage, went back through customs, found our way to door 6 for our rental car, and rode in a strange white bud to the rental location. The van was very straqnge, it looked like it had a nose. Ate around 7:00 am we drove away from the rental place. Now this we have to exaggerate on. Dave ended up driving to our hotel and every time he hit the signal ligh the windshield wipers went off. (remember that NZ drive on the wrong side of the road to us and everything is opposite from Canada). Eventually, after many giggles over Dave's driving abilities we pulled into the hotel. Our room was so small that there was enough room to walk around the beds, luggage and clothes to get to the bathroom. By 10 we were headed to downtown Auckland to see Anna and Bevin (friends of ours) at the Sky Tower. On the flight over, David's tooth start to act up, so we decided to go to a dentist in the time we had to spare before meeeting Anna at noon. The dentest said that he could fix teh tooth, but we would have to wait until the next day. Lunch was great and we had a wonderful conversation with them.
Today, we are headed to Cormandel teh to the Hot Water Beach were you can dig a hole in the sand, at low tide, and have a kind of hot tub thing. The hostel we are staying at is cool, but kind of moldy smelling. And dad's tooth got fixed this morning. We also went to The Warehouse Extra for groceries and shoes. We then had a convo. with these girls who went to India not long ago and Toria really doesn't want to go for a while.


September 23,2006
PLANE TO SAN FRANCISCO

It is now 3:5:00pm and our flight started about 40 minutes ago. The view from the plane is amazing! Lori found the Frank Slide and Victoria thinks she saw Sparwood, Fernie, and Koocanusa Lake. We probably could have found a lot more towns and cities but the cloud became fussy and blocked our view. Our wait for the plane wasn't as long as expected. There was a Cole's bookstore in the Calgary Airport so we bought ourselves so books. Going through customs took about 1 and a 1/2 to 2 hours. The plane we are on is really small and skinny (who would think that plane could be so tiny?). Soon we will land in San Fran and wait for our next plane to Auckland New Zealand.

PLANE TO AUCKLAND

Although we are in economy, the plane is huge and awesome! At the San Fran airport we had to wait 4 and a 1/2 hours until we could board the plane. We had supper at a Mexican restaurant and bought sleeping pillows. There are video screens on the back of the seats instead of in the isles and you can choose your own movie, music and game. We won't land until 5:30 Auckland time (11:30 am Elkford Time). Later.