Yes, I'm still alive! I apologize profusely for the lack of blogging. I won't make too many excuses, but the main one has been that settling into this town socially has been very, VERY hard. I've been trying to stay local as much as possible so I can MEET some local people, which I have, but the making friends part of things has been tough. I live in an AMAZING spot of the country with FANTASTIC weather, but just was wishing I'd have better luck making some mates (like the great ones I made in Hawera and Blenheim and Wellington!)
Regardless, have no fear, I'm still keeping busy. So time for an overdue update!
Am I still embracing NZ fauna? You bet! The Alpaca Exposition was held in Mount Maunganui several weeks ago, and you bet your butt I went!
For the bargain price of $2, it was a convention of alpaca breeders and enthusiasts. I learned so many interesting facts!
Such as, the alpaca is part of the camelid family.
A baby alpaca is called a 'cria'.
Alpacas are pregnant for 11.5 months (yeah no thanks!)
When an alpaca gives birth, it is called "unpacking".
Alpacas make a soft humming sound when they talk to each other.
Their wool is super fine and soft, much higher quality than sheep. They had a wool judging competition. Here are the ribbon winners. (I couldn't tell the difference!)
Speaking of ribbons, they had a coloring contest, too. Look at these smarty pants kids that glued some alpaca fur on the pictures. I was impressed! Apparently the judges weren't.
So many different types of alpacas! They had a live auction, which had shaggy ones like this, called a suri.
This one went for $12,000! Dang!
And there were fluffy alpacas....
And sneaky alpacas....
And just simply gosh darn cute alpacas!!!
Moving on, I've also embraced my town's local speedway.
There were sprint cars, stock cars, saloon cars.. the works! I can finally appreciate why people like Nascar. These cars go fast!!!
Some even were smoking worse than Smokey, my trusty 1998 Hyundai!
I was warned not to sit in the first 3 or 4 aisles. I soon found out why--- as the cars shoot around the corner, the clay from the track shoots up into the stands! Messy messy.
There's also a nice rec center in town where I played a season of basketball. Yep, no more New Zealand netball. True blue American basketball instead, a sport I understand! The team was a nice group of guys and gals, and we had about a .500 season. And no major injuries for me! Score.
One Saturday night, the rec center hosted Tauranga's first Roller Derby Match! It was the Mount Maunganui "Dangerous Curves" in purple....
against Whangarei's "Hells Wives" in Red.
The latter definitely looked more intimidating, but the Mount Maunganui team won by over 100 points!
I've been keeping active and fit despite the difficulties making friends. In addition to basketball, I've been doing a beach boot camp four mornings a week. We do all sorts of exercises--- squats, pushups (Kiwi's call them "press-ups"), burpees, sprints, etc etc etc. It's gotten me in great shape! Plus you can't beat working out with the beach as your backdrop. :)
Also, my crazy side signed up for a pole dancing class.... it was so much fun I've signed up for ten more weeks!
I haven't given up my bike challenges, either. I rode my mountain bike in a road race around Lake Rotorua... fittingly called "Bike the Lake".
Lake Rotorua, a beautiful morning for a ride.
At the end, after biking 42 km in under 2 hrs. Yay!
I've done a few hikes as well. On one of my Wednesdays off, I ventured into the Otanewainuku forest for a short walk. Here's the view from the trig.
Of course, it rained as I made my way to the Whataroa Falls. But without rain, there'd be no waterfalls, right? :)
I drug one of my basketball buddies up to the summit of Mount Te Aroha. On a clear day one can see all the way to Mount Taranaki and Mount Ruapehu. Of course we got to the top and were literally in the clouds!
But the clouds broke for a little bit. No Taranaki/Ruapehu, but we *were* able to see the Mount (where we live, almost 2 hrs away)
Chillin on top of the Te Aroha Trig!
On the way down, the clouds cleared a bit more. The clouds in this picture kind of remind me of the Opening Song of the Simpsons TV Show!!
I was excited to get to the bottom so we could go check out Mokena Geyser, the only natural soda water geyser in the WORLD!!!
I was uberly disappointed when this is all it was.
Oh well, at least the soda water thermal hot pools were a relaxing treat at the end of a strenuous walk!
Lastly, a friend of mine who was born and raised in the area showed me some of the local gems.
Here's the view from a walk up the Papamoa Hills, a regional park which is made up of forest, farmland, and Maori historical sites.
The views were great. See the Mount in the background?
He also showed me Moturiki, which is a little rocky outcrop that is pretty much at my doorstep as well.
It's also called Leisure Island, as there used to be a fun park on it! Now it's just rocks and trees. Here's a view from on it, looking back towards the Mount. Gorgeous!
From this island, you can also (barely) see the Rena, the container ship that's stranded on the Astrolabe reef a few km's from shore. This is the ship that leaked oil into the Ocean and all along the beaches here, and (I think) made international news. The good news is the oil is cleaned up and no longer leaking a lot. The bad news is the ship is still stuck with about 1000 containers either still on the boat or lost at sea. Here's a picture of the ship (not the greatest, but if you use your imagination you can see it tilting to one side!)
So that's my update for now, of what I've been up to locally. I have a few more updates invovling an East Cape adventure and some VISITORS coming to see me, so stay tuned!
