June Beginnings

June. Here we were, the homestretch of my time here in New Zealand. I had a lot of mixed feelings about this, but didn't have time to really sort them out because there was so much activity happening. At the start of the month, I was preparing for the end of my internship; goodbye dinners and putting together a portfolio, as well as finishing lectures for my anthropology course. We also had a nice final group dinner at an Indian restaurant where we were all together for I think the last time since there were a couple people leaving right after.

 This was also when we had our talent show that we had been planning since the beginning of May on the Rotorua trip. I am so impressed with the participation and amazing enthusiasm, thought and talent that went into everyone's acts. It was a truly memorable night. Everyone was so supportive and wonderful. Dylan and Joe were our MC's, and they definitely made the show awesome. The lineup of acts was so diverse; there was origami folding, juggling, stand-up comedy, an original rap performance, a very impressive drawing of Spongebob Squarepants, one armed pushups while eating marshmallows, a flute and whistle duet, a choreographed lip sync to the final number in Pitch Perfect, and a hula hooping show. Wow! 

Here are just a few of the great acts of the night:

MCs Dylan and Joe

Erin drawing Spongebob

The ladies performing Pitch Perfect

Jenny hula hooping

In June I did several small day trips to different places with different people. Unfortunately many of the days were rainy, but that didn't stop us from having fun! I went back over to the Coromandel Peninsula with a group of  4 friends and we visited Hot Water Beach where you can dig your own jacuzzi in the sand due to the hot water springs that are under one particular stretch of beach. Then we drove over to Mercury Bay and hiked down to Cathedral Cove. What a beautiful spot.

View from above, before descending to the beach

 And because it was a rainy day, no one was there. The rain lifted as we arrived and so we enjoyed the beach to ourselves with a little bit of sun shining through. 

On the car ride back we chatted happily and exchanged stories. I found out Katie had ridden a giant pig in Ireland. Not something I was expecting to hear for sure! All in all it was a good day for sure after a nice hot shower on returning to the apartment. 

Another small trip I did was just out to the west coast of Auckland where there are black sand beaches and rocky outcrops. For this trip I went with my roommate Jenny, Dylan, Katie and Blair. It was a fun time, although the rain did do a number on us (yes more rain, can you believe it?!). We climbed up some of the rocky cliff areas and watched the raging sea as it battered against the beach and broke against the rocks. 

Piha Beach

Me, Blair and Katie

Dylan and Blair

Dylan, Jenny, Blair, Katie

We then went in search of the lake nestled in the sand dunes that we went to our second day in Auckland with the group. We found it but it was way too windy, cold and wet for us to stay very long. So we returned to the car and drove back to the city, stopping at Pak'n'Save to stock up on cheap groceries on the way back. 

Bethel's Lake

It was around here, in mid June that it started to really kick in that our time was coming to an end. People were leaving and we were organizing our suitcases and planning out the rest of the month. I had one more multi-day trip planned to Wellington with Angie and Allison and then I was going to have to buckle down and study for my final exam which was the day before we left.