Finally in New Zealand!

I left San Francisco on Monday night, and arrived in Auckland at 5am on Wednesday. I did absolutely nothing on Tuesday, April 17, because of the date line. (I forgot to mention, it was so smoggy in California! The picture of me and Erika on top of the Twin Peaks actually has the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, but you can hardly make it out.) The flight was 13 hours long, but it was okay, because they had little screens in the back of every seat and you could choose from tons of movies, tv shows, music... And not just a few, the book said there was over 450 hours! There were actually a bunch of things I was interested in, but I decided to sleep. Which also worked out well, since the plane was mostly empty and nearly everyone had their own section of seats. So I spread out over 3 seats with 3 pillows. Not bad for a plane ride!

South Piha from the Lion's Rock.

I dropped my stuff off at my mom's cousin Susan's place and shortly thereafter we got together with my mom's aunt Malle for coffee. I spent a few hours walking in the city with Malle. Then I went to Piha with Susan and her boys, Vito and Luca, for a couple of days. I thought it was going to be a long drive, since that's what they were saying, but it turns out long means 45 minutes. It was a winding road, and it did go to the other coast. Once we were there, it was nice to just relax. We went for a walk on the beach and it was just gorgeous! Luca took me up Lion's Rock.

On the beach between Milford and Takapuna, Rangitoto in the background.

Back in Auckland, I met up with Malle again and we walked all over the place. We had some excellent fish and chips, which we ate looking out at Takapuna beach. We walked along the beach and across volcanic rocks on the way to her place where I spent the night. We walked back the same way in the morning. There's a castle on the hill above the beach and the original wall runs along the side of the beach. There's a HUGE chair built out of rocks at one point. It was built in the last 100 years by someone from Scotland (?) who probably missed home.

Taranaki from the bus.

We went to my mom's cousin John's for dinner. It was really good! He's an artist and his place was full of paintings. It was really interesting. I stayed there for Saturday night and got on a bus at 7:40am headed for Wellington via New Plymouth, because all the direct buses were sold out a few days ahead of time since the school holiday was ending. The bus ride itself was only about an hour longer, but there was a one hour stop in New Plymouth, which was okay because I got to stretch my legs and get ice cream. And I got to see Mt. Taranaki from far away. It just sticks up out of the middle of some hilly farmland, all alone. I finally arrived in Wellington at 9:30pm on Sunday. I'm staying at Rein and Hazel's apartment in downtown Wellington. It's pretty convenient. It's a 5 minute walk from Te Papa museum, and right near the water.

Rain and Hazel's building.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading off on the ferry for the South Island. And then hopefully I'll do the Abel Tasman Coastal Track

San Francisco

We went to Stanford on Thursday. Dennis, a phd student from Estonia, showed us around. Erika's friend, Leelo, came with us. It was pretty interesting. Stanford was built by the Stanfords when their only son died, so it's essentially one huge memorial. There is a Rodin sculpture garden and also a cactus garden. The architecture is just so different from anything in Canada. Actually, most of the buildings I've seen so far in California have been quite different. After Stanford we went to the Stanford shopping centre for lunch. It's an outdoor mall. So Eaton Centre without a roof. And much more high end. There's a Coach store, Louis Vuitton, and a number of other stores I've never seen except on Bloor or in Yorkville. Definitly not 45 minutes from a major city. But that's where it is.

On Friday we went into San Francisco for Erika's birthday. We went to the Twin Peaks, where we got a great view of the city. Erika had bought a half sized bottle of champagne and we drank it from the bottle because we didn't have glasses. Very classy. We couldn't/didn't want to finish the bottle, so we gave it to some tourists from the Netherlands and Germany. We went to a vegetarian restaurant at Fort Mason right on the water with a view of Golden Gate Bridge. The food was good, too. Then we went on the search for shoes and met up with Leelo again. We went to a restaurant for dinner where we met up with a few other people. The food was good there, too. I had a veggie burger that was nice and moist, which is what most veggie burgers lack. After that we went to the Palace of Fine Arts to see the Whirling Dervishes and hear Sufi music. They were celebrating Rumi's 800th birthday. The dervishes were really mesmerizing, almost hypnotic. They just kept slowly spinning. The music was obviously telling a story, but unfortunately, we couldn't understand.

On Saturday, we hung around and found me a pair of shoes. Yes, a pair of shoes I actually like. We went to a party later on. I was the youngest person by a decade or 2, but it was still fun. The people were really interesting and friendly.

On Sunday we went to Half Moon Bay and ate lunch in a restaurant on the beach. It was notorious during prohibition and apperently had all sorts of secret spinning cabinets to hide alcohol from Canada. We drove along the coast to San Francisco and it was breathtaking! One side fell away into the ocean. I wish I had pictures! In San Francisco, we went to the Wave Organ, but the tide was really low, so there was no noise. It's supposed to make different sounds as the waves enter some tubes. Then, we made our way to the Otsmaa's house in Orinda for dinner. Their house is up on a hill and the view was beautiful! Mikk played piano for us and Kai was showing us all sorts of tricks.

Today, my last day in California, started at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was pretty neat, but I liked the one in Vancouver more because it has an outdoor section. Driving there, you go through what is essentially desert. So there's a big pile of sand, and at the bottom is an artichoke/strawberry farm! There isn't even proper soil there naturally! Let alone enough water... Wait, doesn't California always have problems with water shortages...? Anyways, the ocean was beautiful and we made our way up to Santa Cruz. It was so warm I would maybe have even gone swimming. Maybe. We drove back to Erika's through a gorgeous, hilly forest. Much nicer than the farms in the desert. And now I'm getting my last things together to head to New Zealand. So sorry if this is full of typos, I should be leaving right now! I'll add more photos later!

Easter in Vancouver and arrival in San Francisco

I spent Easter in Vancouver and have just arrived in San Francisco to stay with my godmother Erika. It was sunny and warm today. Vancouver was nice too, temperature wise warmer than Toronto, but it was so damp, so I was freezing the whole time.

A chilly picnic in White Rock with my cousins and aunt

I spent a lot of time with my cousins in Vancouver. They have a trampoline, which I only went on once, but I'll be back in June! The kids next door came to play a few times. One was this really shy little boy, 4 or so, who all of a sudden started talking and didn't stop for about an hour! My cousins kept asking my uncle about trouble he got into when he was young. I didn't hear too much about him, but a story or two about my mom.

It was nice to see my aunt and uncle, too. And Rory, of course. Rory and I went to Granville Island, when we finally found it after taking a wrong turn. (And walking right past Granville St. and the big sign that said "Granville Island"...) I had to take a commuter bus back to White Rock, so Rory got on to go a stop or two with me. Except that being a commuter bus, it didn't make drop offs until somewhere a ways out of Vancouver by the side of the highway. Luckily, the bus driver let her off somewhere where the regular buses still ran.

Rory on Granville Island and me on a heated patio in California...

I've had a pretty busy day with Erika so far. She picked me up at San Francisco airport and then we were off to lunch and a bunch of little shops and food markets. At lunch we sat on this covered patio that had heaters! Yes, heaters, in nearly 20 degree weather in California... Later on, we went to see "This Gun For Hire", from 1942, at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto (near where she lives). It's this really neat, restored 1920's movie theatre. We're just making eggplant enchiladas for dinner. I chopped so much eggplant! Hope they're good!