It's time for a change of scenery - leaving Paihia!

Well, tomorrow I leave Paihia! I've been here for over a month now! Hard to believe...time sure flies when you're having fun :-)

I still have been spending much of my time meeting new people around the hostel and spending time on the beach during the day and playing pool in the bars at night. I have a fun little family to hangout with at the hostel and around the town. It's great!!

Last week, I decided it was time for me to kayak to Russell! So, I hopped in Little Red Ruby and away I went! Dan (the Coastal Kayaker guy) let me use a dry sack for my camera and stuff which was definitely needed.

The kayak there went great! I was worried my back would start to hurt, but I did fine. Davina and I had talked earlier about swimming to Russell, but after kayaking through the middle of the bay, it was definitely something that I think would have been a poor decision on both our parts. Kayaking was most definitely the way to go.

I pulled the kayak up on the Russell beach and decided to do some exploring of the town. I wandered around the streets – it's really quite a quaint little town. Cute, but extremely small with lots of older people walking about. Russell was actually the first capital of NZ. Interesting, eh?

I hike up the hill to the lookout point called Flagstaff. It was a beautiful view of the bay and the city of Russell. There was this really cool sundial at the top with a mosaic of all the islands and towns in the Bay of Islands. Really neat! I took lots of pictures :-)

Another big happening during the last couple weeks...I had a job trial/interview on board “The Rock” overnight cruise boat. It sounded like a really incredible opportunity – working on a boat, leading night kayaking, snorkeling, and fishing for a 22 hours cruise. Sounds ideal, right? Unfortunately, it was too good to be true. I ended up working for 22 hours in a 27 hour period (the five hours I didn't work, I was sleeping on the boat...) Not that I mind doing hard work, but it really wasn't that much fun...the staff was overworked and anxious all the time and the owner was really demeaning and not very welcoming. It was a definite deal breaker when I found out that I would only get paid $50 per cruise (which comes out to about $2/hr!) Hmmm, I am all about not making a lot of money when the experience is awesome, fun, and laidback – but a combo of hardly any money and a no-fun atmosphere? Eh, not so into that...so, I said, adious after my trial and got the heck off that boat!

There were a few good aspects about the cruise though. Like, I got to see about 6 dolphins swimming and playing next to the boat. That was really cool! And, we got to hike up to a beautiful lookout on this picturesque beach and see a stunning view of the Bay of Islands. Thank goodness for those moments...it saved the experience from being totally bad ;-)

And, of course, it was St. Patty's Day last week as well!! The whole hostel was in a festive mood. We had a BBQ and dressed in our best green outfits. Hugo and Paula took the cake with the best outfits of the night! We all had a great time dancing and taking a crazy number of pictures. It was a very happy St. Patty's day indeed! :-D

This past weekend I went to a local rugby match of some kiwi guys that I had met in Paihia! I had just about zero clue as to what was going on in the game...just lots of scrums and pulling down of shorts and lifting up guys by their shorts...it's quite an intense, but also kind of silly, game. I had about as much interest in rugby as I do in American Football...which, is not much. But, Davina, Megan, and I enjoyed our time checking out the cute rugby players socializing throughout the game :-) Pretty much the same thing I would do at a game back in the states!

I ALMOST went skydiving yesterday!! I made my appointment and walked all the way down there with my friend Matt, but when we got there, they said it was too windy to jump. What a bummer! I had totally gotten myself all psyched up and everything. Ah well, just knowing that I'm here for another 11 months makes it alright – I've got loads of time to do all that fun stuff :-)

Alright now everyone...it's time for me to hear some updates from you! I love hearing about what you are all up to. Send a note to guavanna@gmail.com. Hear from you soon!