Orewa Beach and Waiwera

January 7, 2012 

Today we went to the beach! It was called Orewa beach. Unfortunately a big storm rolled in and it rained the entire time. I only got into the ocean up to my knees. The water was soo warm but I knew that if I got in all the way that I would freeze when I got out. We will be going to a lot more beaches while we are here so I don’t think I missed out too much. 

Because there are so many girls we had to take two large vans, one driven by Ramona Cutri’s husband and the other driven by James Amu! He is the coolest guy ever. He always takes the BYU girls around. He used to work for CES but is retired now. He loves to show us around and tell us all about New Zealand. 

Part of the girls in the van! 

Mandy, me and Margo

Orewa Beach

Kirsten, me and Alishia!

After we got freezing at the beach we decided to go to Waiwera. They are natural hot springs that they have turned into a business. There were so many pools and slides. My favorite pool and the one I spent almost all of my time in was called the Sapphire pool about 40 degree Celsius or 104 Degrees Fahrenheit. It was so warm and relaxing. I loved it. I also went to the movie pool and watched the end of Hoodwinked 2.

Us in the sapphire pool. 

When we got done playing around there we headed back to Auckland. They decided that they were going to drop us off at our house and Stephanie (my roommate) and I were in James’ van. He asked us where we lived and all we could give him was our street name. We had no idea how to get there. After many failed attempts we finally found a petrol station that looked familiar and made our way there! I believe we now know how to get to our house and will be able to tell people! 

For dinner we had Butter Chicken. I had NOOO idea what that was. I figured it was you know, chicken with butter on it! WRONG! It is an indian dish and the chicken is cooked in this tomato kind of sauce. You eat it with this kind of garlic bread (but that isn’t what it was called). Again everyone should be proud of me, because I ate it! I figured it would be spicy but it wasn’t. It was really good! Look at all these new things I am trying! You should be very very proud of me! 

Love you All!