Monday, April 4, 2011

Russell

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011
The day of our lunch with Ian finally came. I heard about this day way back in January when we had Ian Mills for science. I never thought the day we were going to have lunch at his house would actually come, but it did today. Time flies by so fast.

We did our rap role call in the van with James and then took the car ferry over to Russell, where we first drove up to the flagpole where a Maori warrior cut down the British flag shortly after the treaty of Waitangi because he did not like the British. From the flag pole there was a gorgeous view of Russell and the Ocean. I just love all of the spectacular views in New Zealand. We then drove down into Russell and explored through the shops. It is such a quaint little town.We even saw the Crusty Crab like in Sponge Bob. Who would have thought? Only in New Zealand.

We follow the road out of town to the summer home of Ian and Leslie Mills. Their house is absolutely gorgeous and looks out over the ocean. We had a nice lunch with them of subway platters, cookies, chips, and L&P. It was fantastic. All of us then walked across the street to the beach. It feels like so long since we had a good sunny day at the beach. A few weeks I guess, but this was our first beach day in April. The beach was so nice and gorgeous. It felt so good to just sit in the sun. It was also a great day for fishing. I caught a piper fish with my bear hands. So sweet as!! James then showed us this cool octopus that could camouflage with its surroundings. We got to see it so close to and it was a good size. I swam from where all of the girls were to the tide pools, which was a pretty good swim and it felt so so good to go for a swim. I just loved having a day at the beach. After a few hours on the beach, we packed up and headed back towards Pahia.
I explored Pahia for a while with Whitney and Diana and then on our walk back to the motel we found some of the other girls and decided to go kayaking around an island. It was so fun Diana, Whitney, and I caught up with James and the girls that had started before us and got out on the little island. We went swimming around and did some synchronized swimming together. We had so much fun just laughing and splashing and doing our dolphin swims.

Diana, Whitney, and I then got back in our kayaks and continued around the island. It was so cool to be kayaking around our own little island. We kayaked around to the other side of the island and stopped at a cove and I went exploring and climbing on the rocks. It was so much fun.  When we started kayaking again, it was so much harder because the waves had picked up and there were lots of rocks to maneuver through. It was still so much fun though. Kayaking is becoming one of my new favorite things. I finished kayaking around the island and then headed back to shore and back to the motel.  We watched Gulliver’s Travels on James’s laptop. It was a pretty funny movie. I actually liked it. I then went on a walk with Nicole and Emily and watched the sunset. We then walked over to a little park and played on the playground before watching the stars. I love how I can find the O’Ryan’s belt and the Southern Cross so easy; makes star gazing so much fun. We came back and watched Along Came Polly. I love our trip up North it has been so much fun so far.

No comments:

Post a Comment