day full of activities

We had a running joke(?) that Scott and Owie planned an itinerary full of activities with snack times built into the schedule.  Today, their itinerary was implemented with a day full of all sorts of activities!! 

First, playing around the property. We found a praying mantis. He was praying just because it was Easter Sunday!

Then we loaded up into the mom van again and headed north. 90 Mile Beach:

what a bromance

cause we're the 3 best friends...

you know you love me, xoxo

if you look closely, you'll see a full moon a risin'

and jumping pics became quite a theme...

After our photo shoot, it was off to Cape Reinga- the northern most point of New Zealand! Owie and I managed to tag team some great pb&j sandwiches on the ride amidst the singing and intense games of HEY COW {basically, you scream out the window "hey cow!" to any herd of cows on the side of the road. the more looks from the cows, the more points you get. if they run, added points. boy, did we get some cows running... and we also found that the game works with sheep particularly well as they are skittish animals anyways}

There was also a couple car fulls of friends from back in Dunedin who were staying with us for the night. They couldn't keep up with the speedy mini van though, so we had some of our own adventures. 

what a great crew!

erin and I

and the boys came skipping down the hill

sorawrity gurls

more jumping!

the crew!

just gazing away

 

everyone!

And some drama for the afternoon: Lindsey's (of course it was Lindsey... just her luck...) hat blew off her head onto the side of the cliff. Valiant Joshy risked his life to crawl along and pick it up. It gave us all some grey hairs... 

reunited at last!

 Next stop: the sand dunes! They were incredible! We could've spent an entire day there just playing in the giant sand box. So. Fun.

here we are back at the sand dunes. yes, we all raced down that mountain of sand

sand angels!

stuck in the desert... for a matter of minutes...

 

in the words of owie: "how do you guys ever make any friends???"
we don't. we have each other

look at how fast we run!

going up was much harder than down

Scotty flying!

look at her go!

all of us at a pit stop

tomorrow

**lots of photo cred to Lindsey

bay of islands bound

Flights were significantly cheaper from Christchurch so yesterday, we loaded up the car and headed north. We stayed at a sketchy place... but luckily we only had to endure for a few hours until our 7 am flight this morning. Here's some footage of our road trip to Christchurch:

Scott and Owen/Owie (his friend from home who goes to Uni in Auckland now) picked us up in Auckland after a night spent in Christchurch and the 6 of us headed straight up to Scott's bach in the Bay of Islands.  We did a lot of singing, stopped for groceries and booze, and bonded in the soccer mom mini van.

We pulled up to the bach with a large gate and wall and entered to find a paradise of breathtaking views and immaculate gardens.

our faces upon arrival to the gates:

After a quick unloading of bags and groceries, we hit the road for a quick tour of the area and surrounding towns. Truly an island place. 

First stop was a beach:

pretty much epitomizes our trip. scotty with the video camera. owen and his mismatch black socks, sitting on the ground. and erin and joshy being fools

dawww

Then we drove to town to check out the cute stores and for a celebratory beach beer from the oldest inn in new zealand

a beach beer to celebrate making it up there!

now look who's special

Then the rains came and we made our way back home for Owie's famous cheese platter. It sure was tasty!

owie's cheese platters. delicious!

Then we got a tour of the dungeon. {the property used to belong to some drug lord} it was sketchy as. 

Our precious erin:

And I decided to sleep outside under the stars. It was beautiful except for waking up to heaps of bug bites all over my face and arms...

erin creeping as i slept blissfully on the deck all night

tomorrow

**some photo creds to Lindsey

funday quote

In honor of this weekend's time well spent in the great fall air... 

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air." 

Nathaniel Hawthorne

And, well my sunday was spent downhill mountain biking {new favorite hobby} in some beautiful country.  My ass is quite sore, but I'm still super pumped from it.  We like to think we looked something like this: {and this video is actually from the same trails we rode today! super cool, eh?}

Btw, I've decided that I am going to live in Queenstown. Post and pictures to come

fool's day

Despite our wild birthday night last night, we were all (Erin, Lindsey, Katie, Joshy, Cory, Bryan and I) up for some downhill mountain biking today.  I'm actually quite jealous of Erin and that she got to spend her 21st birthday like this!

After a hardy breakfast, we suited up into armor and hit the gondola. It was really one of the coolest things I've ever done. I'm so hooked!

so. excited.

gondola ride up

ready to hit the trails!

Lindsey and Katie weren't such fans of it... instead, they had photo shoots with the incredible backdrop. Lindsey had a wipe out on her face and completely bent her left brake handle... then threw her bike in disgust at the bottom of the hill– totally epitomized the experience for her.  She and Katie headed in after a couple of laps down the mountain and opted for ice cream and a nice sunny nap instead.

The rest of us exhausted our gondola passes up to the last chair.  You know that great feeling of skiing all day– legs too tired to walk properly, but you keep going anyways because it's too great to pass up? That's exactly how this felt too.

Met some pretty neat people on the mountain too... well, of course. Who here wouldn't be cool? One guy is here on a work conference and came a few days early to play– expenses covered by work. Now that sounds like a sweet deal.

one of the lookouts

 Then back to Fergburger for round 2! 

what katie gets for leaving her camera with us...

 Before hitting the road for home again... :(  

We've all agreed another trip to Queenstown is a must before we leave. Hopefully during the ski season!