spending my day packing my bags. weird. more to come on that. wanted to stop in for a brief weekend update! we spent saturday-monday at kawau island. this is located about an hour north of auckland, the same path we took while driving to bay of islands. it is only accessible via water taxi or boat, or helicopter (they had a heli-pad in the backyard) and there's not really anything do there at all except be at the beach and relax. the house was gorgeous, nice and simple and cozy and place perfectly at the top of one of the steepest hills i've ever climbed, and what a stunning view. we really just spent our days reading, watching movies and hanging out by the fire. it wasn't the nicest weather, just really windy but it was still wonderful.

on sunday morning i got up and pj, reagan and olivia were out on the wharf fishing. with reagan's help (he actually felt the bite) i reeled in my very first, and only, NZ snapper! i was very excited but dropped him twice, i even stuck my hand in his gills to pose for a photo. we also found some time sunday to walk through the bush walk which led to a road on the other end of the island and down to the beach. it was fun to be on the beach, and this bay is the only one on kawau with a sandy beach so that was awesome. we walked along the beach, then took the rocks back to get around to our wharf. it was very adventurous and cool. then we played a little bit of what we liked to call "backhands and beer" at mell st. it was fun. granddad john joined us for doubles and we named ourselves venus and federer after we defeated olivia and reagan haha. then pj came and reagan and i lost, but we played really well thats all that matters!

it was great weekend filled with good food, good relaxing time, and good company. i loved my time at kawau. also here's how they make s'mores in new zealand: put marshmellows (which are a little sweeter here) inbetween two chocolate chip cookies, wrap in tin foil and put over the fire. very tasty i must say. what a wonderful way to spend some of my final days here!

the outside fireplace.

 my snapper!

 view from the porch.

our walk on the beach.

 tennis time.

 goodbye kawau.

 our house at the top of the hill.

 what's a ferry ride without a little wine? haha.