Good news and bad news

Bad news first - I suck at updating this thing. Not really news as most of you have noticed this fact lately. But I have excuses! (who doesn't!?!) The first is, I can't access Blogger at school anymore. The second is, that I have been really, really busy preparing for the end of the year - i.e. coming home, half ironman triathlon, etc.

Good news now - I am updating the blog now AND adding some pictures. My sister has arrived for her 2.5month working holiday and we did some travelling so I have some stories and photos from that.

My last post was in July, during the term 2 holiday. I mentioned that we were going to Tahiti during that holiday. We did and it was incredible. We were mostly on the island of Moorea. The weather was awesome, the scenery was great, and it wasn't as expensive as we thought it was going to be (it definitely could be expensive but our room had a kitchen and we drank duty free alcohol every night.) The place we stayed at was owned by two American guys who were some of the first foreign owners in Tahiti. (They bought/built the first Club Bali Hai in the 60's.) One of the owners hosts happy hour every night at 5:30 (BYOB) and he had some great stories. I would recommend Tahiti to anyone looking for a beautiful, relaxing holiday.

After Tahiti, we were right back into school. Term 3 is the longest and toughest term in my opinion - there are no holidays and it is packed full of academic "stuff" that needs to get done. Luckily I made it through with no scratches or bruises.

Shae arrived near the end of term 3 and we have been doing some travelling together. Last week Jess, Shae and I went up to Northland and toured around. Rain was forecast for the entire week, and we did get some, but not enough to put a damper on the trip. On the first day we went to the Auckland Zoo. It's not a big zoo but it is well kept. (There is a TV show here every Sunday on the happenings at the zoo and it was good to see it for real.) Then we went up the West coast, stopping at the massive trees in Waipoua Forest - Tane Mahuta and Te Matua Ngahere. We stayed in a sleepy little town called Omapere the first night. Day 2 saw us sandboarding on the massive sand dunes across from Opononi. It was great fun - like being on another planet almost. We crossed the ferry at Rawene and drove onwards and upwards to Kaitaia via the scenic route. We decided that since the weather was still cooperating we would go up the cape and try to stay nearer Cape Reinga. We made it to Pukenui, found a hostel and the weather was still good so we sped up to Cape Reinga. On day 3 we took our time down the east coast, stopping at cafes, wineries, cheese shops, and a confectionary. All were very yum. We made it to Paihia and decided to stay for 2 nights there since we had been going hard up until that point. That night Jess and I went fishing. We were wandering down to the water and a kayak rental guy yelled that we wouldn't catch anything with our setup. He gave me one of the kayaks with a lure and line attached and set me in the right direction. Long story short, Jess caught a small Kahawai soon after throwing her line in and I caught fish, after fish, after fish in the kayak. We kept 2 good-size fish for dinner. I think it was the highlight of my trip. Day 4 we laid low - kayaking, wandering, eating, drinking, general merriment really. Day 5 we had a long driving day all the way to Coromandel Town. We stopped at the Hundertvasser toilets in Kawakawa (they are these public toilets that a one huge mosaic,) Sylvia Park, and along the coast. Day 6 we went to Cathedral Cove and Whitianga and back to Tauranga. It seems like all our road trips end sooner than we plan for but it was still a great trip and Shae really enjoyed it (I think...)

This week I'm preparing to go back to school for term 4. It's another 10 week term but my seniors are only around until week 5 so I lose 3 classes and my tutor group. I'm also trying to catch up on some training this week. I'm planning on doing the Taupo Half Ironman on December 8th (2km swim, 90km bike, 21km run.) This sees me training almost every day (2 training days for each discipline per week.) And I'm reading heaps of graphic novels - I just finished the first 4 Y:The Last Man compilations and Torso. Both are great reads.

I'm counting down the days until I come home. (76!) The boxes have been sent, the tickets are booked, I just have to make it through 10 weeks of school and a couple triathlons. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

My pictures have been moved to Flickr since Yahoo! Photos is shutting down. The link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/laheychris/ and I will change it in my links section too.

Well that's about it for me folks. Hopefully another update will come soon.