this weekend was my first away trip. what a great time! New Zealand is absolutely gorgeous. we left school early on Friday, thank goodness or we never would have made it with all the stops we had to take, and headed to Thames (pronounced Tims) where we stayed in a cute little hostel right near the beach.

saturday morning we got up and cooked eggs and breakfast stuff for ourselves and headed out to go kayaking in coromandel. we ended up taking somewhat of a wrong turn somewhere along the way and wound up two hours out of the way of where we needed to be. luckily it was easy for our tour to wait for us, and i'm so glad we did go the wrong way because we had been driving all along the coast. just indescribable, each view was different and beautiful in its own way that could never be captured except in our memories. the two hours went by so quickly because we all have so much fun together and the scenery was breath taking.

we made it to the beach finally! and if it was possible it was even more beautiful. we met the rest of our group (8 of us went all from America and teaching here), and our tour guide who was Maori (native sort of) and very easy to look at. we teamed up, i was with Macie and headed out. we had on water proof wind blockers and the kayaking skirts, so we were very warm. we went pretty far out and circled some huge cliffs. it was pretty intense. we also saw a mamma seal and her babies, up close and personal. and she was swimming around beside our kayaks.

we then kayaked across to the Cathedral Cove and got out on the beach, which was ahh awesome. and i needed a little time with stand on solid ground, i was surprised but i got a little sea sick and maybe claustrophobic in my kayak skirt. we got to walk around on the beach and then Rewi (our cute tour guide) made us hot chocolate on the beach. how cool. its just so wonderful sitting on the beach and looking out at the vastness of the Pacific ocean and the mountains in the background, with huge cliffs rising out of the water. and then to sit in the middle of it all in your little kayak. it just makes you realize how much is so easily taken for granted and how small we really are in the scheme of things. its peaceful and overwhelming all at the same time. and the joy felt in these moments is hard to put into words. i guess i find it hard to put things into words quite often but thats the only way i know how to describe it.

we then found a cute little hostel right up from where we kayaked, which was two cottages connected in a place that looked like it would be thriving and tons of fun in the summer time when everyone could hang out and barbeque. we were in Hahei beach which is a tiny little town with a quaint restaurant where i enjoyed some delicious fresh scallops. we were a little tired but decided to venture to hot water beach which is a beach where you dig down at low tide and find hot water because of the thermal heat from the ground. we were quite early and just layed out on a blanket for a while watching the stars. remember i mentioned the stars earlier? another image i will never be able to explain but i will always always hold close to my heart. seriously the most insane night sky i have ever seen in my entire life. no joke we saw at least 13 shooting stars. anyway let me get off my stars tangent and back to hot water beach. we had shovels, and just started digging a pool like we did at the beach when we were kids. it was crazy how hot the water was in some places, i couldn't even stand on the sand in some spots because it was burning my feet. so we dug our little pool but it wasn't that great so a nice kiwi man (again the nicest people in the world) told us we could use their pool. it was awesome the pool was steaming up and we just laid in the water and could keep ourselves warm by digging down a little at a time. getting out was probably one of the most miserable experiences i've had. we just grabbed our clothes and sprinted through the sand. but cold sand, with wet feet, basically feels like running through snow. i'm sure it would've been funny to watch.

after a warm shower trying to remove all the sand from our hair we had a good nights sleep in our cute hostel (with heat!) we found our way to another sweet little cafe near hot water beach where i enjoyed probably the best breakfast i will have this entire trip and then we made our way back to Auckland.

i'm sorry this is so lengthy but i had just a fabulous weekend! i'm looking forward to another great week at school and "animal antics" day is coming up which will be lots of fun. happy fathers day dad!! its already happened here but hope tomorrow is great. still feeling blessed always. cheers!

some photos (more to come)....

 these are both taken at Cathedral Cove (fun fact Narnia was filmed here)