Photos from walks

Tawharanui:

The beach

A panorama from near the end of the track

Just a random bunny/guinea pig shot

The bunny, the bunny, ooh we love the bunny... (Eloise and I made it up one day, we often call him the bunny instead of BamBam (his name))

Piha:

The waterfalls: you can only see the bottom '3' from the rocks where the lake is as see below: the top one is the one we walked up to.

A plane flew above us... was very clear (not so much by picture)

The top waterfall at the end of the extra not so much of an official track walk

End of Semester One

With only one more exam to go, I am nearing the middle of my Nursing Degree.  I am taking a break from study because it seems to be all I have done for some time now.  My next exam is Monday so I do have five days left before it.

This semester apart from writing assignments and being out on placement I have done some extra uni and non-uni related things:

- Bungy jumping in Taupo with Bianca and Sarah (flatmates)

- I have done an 11km hike

- Been in a flight simulator 

- Been on flat outings with my flatmates (beach, dinner, pub quiz (we won!), JUMP)

- Had nursing class dinners

- Learn't all about Auckland traffic in the mornings and evenings (before/after placements)

Basically I have been a lot more social things than previously...

Throughout this semester I have also in a way conquered my fear of public speaking... well, gotten over it, as I have had to do two presentations! One marked and one not marked (just course work).

Early Morning Beach Walk

This morning I woke up at 4.30am.... Yes, that early, and couldn't get back to sleep.  So at 5.40am when I had had enough of lying in my nice comfy warm bed watching the sky I decided to get up and have a shower and throw some clothes on and head out to Browns Bay beach.

Its morning like this where I wish I was back in Orewa and had a the beach a two minute walk away... as it is now a 10minute drive to the closest beach!!

Looking out to Rangitoto Island

North end of the beach

I got out there at 6.30am when it was still pitch black and went for a walk along the beach and took some photos as I went, there were a couple of other people but not many.  The sun rose at 7am and it became a little busier.  Once the sun was right up I went to find the closest supermarket for bread and milk and well... I went to put the bread in the toaster earlier and found it was mouldy. Yuck! And the milk.. well, can't have a coffee without can I?

About 6.45am

Browns Bay

South end of the beach

Browns bay beach at 7.15am

I plan on going into Uni as soon as the library opens at 10am to finish (hopefully) my essay and sheets to do to hand in on Monday.. well that are due Monday.

Spontaneous night to the City...

..Taylor and I started off by Taylor deciding to come to my flat after she finished work and then we wanted to do something different, spontaneous and just to get out of the house... so we went to Takapuna Beach, then headed off to have dinner at Pita Pit.

...Taking random "selfies" (I hate that word with a passion..) at the beach...

KiwiYo for dessert..

This is just the beginning of our random, just cause we felt like it trip into the city on a Saturday night.

After eating and as we were about to head back to Albany we were on the road to the motorway on/off ramps, talking about how I love the massive bendy curve bit from Esmonde Road North, and how Mum always forgets and hates it and seems to end up heading into Auckland City.  

On our way into the city we had a few options of where we wanted to go and explore and ended up at the Skycity parking lot where we thought, hey, lets go up the Skytower just for the fun of it! 

Down to buy the tickets... I didn't have my student ID on me but he let me get in for student prices! YUS!

Going up... up... up... 51 stories up! 

You could see the city from inside the lift!

Taylor's first time EVER going up the skytower!!!

Random skytower photos..

AUCKLAND CITY!!

Standing on the glass.. scary when it decides to creek!!! haha..... we jumped on it too!

Taking photos of the magnets.. (I should keep this in mind sometimes...)

Love this one!!

After the skytower we went for a walk to look at the cathedral.. (Skytower is the red lit building in the distance)

......Photos....

Sad to be leaving... 

actually it was cause these people tried to use the ticket booth before us..... we were there first.. :)

It was a rather awesomely spontaneous trip into the city but it was pretty cool to see the city at night and walk around Hobson Street and down a couple others... walking past clubs and bars... Hurry up and turn 18 Taylor!! 

Finished my night off with a cider at my flat :) 

Exploration walk across the rocks...

Eloise and I had already decided before we went up that we needed to go and explore the rocks and see where it took us basically, to the bay along the coast a bit.  We were not gone for too long, but we found a few interesting things along the way and took heaps of photos!

Getting over the first of the rocks.. there were lots of oysters to avoid with our hands!

Looking back over the the bach

We found a little seat type thing in a hollowed out rock!!

Just views

Quite a way down from here!

Eloise

Taking photos of each other.. also trying not to fall in (and successfully so!)

My feet dangling from the rocks a couple meters up

Me

We found a tyre buried in the rock/sand and it was jumpable on!!

(There is a video of me actually jumping on it.. just trying to upload it)

Dead crab....

Eloise thinks she's strong.... 

Summer at beach cottage 2014- Day Six

...And I am getting further and further behind....

Lets just say that our last day, well half day as we had to leave by 3.30 in order to be back on time we ended up getting up pretty late and got breakfast at like lunch time! With rushed packing kids gear into the car and heading off.

I am going to leave this holiday here and continue on with life... its been a month since we went.. WOW!

I have news! A lot of news! Good news! Good happenings!

I am saving it for another post or two.

Yes, family already know :)

Summer at beach cottage 2014- Day Four

DAY 4

Exam results came out… I woke up at 7am and couldn't go back to sleep… waiting anxiously for the results to be released online, I got up just after 8am to create a hotspot and go online to check them… I was rather surprised with some of my results.  These are my final results for 2013 examinations.

Biology:

Not Achieved

Not Achieved

Achieved

Classical Studies:

Achieved

Achieved

English:

Not Achieved

Merit

Social Studies:

Achieved

I also did maths but did not have any exams for it.

I had already got University Entrance and got the credits to pass my NCEA Level 3 certificate, so the exams were mainly getting the credits needed to get the credits needed to do the actual nursing course, which I got enough bio credits for by just passing one standard luckily enough.

The rest of the day we spent outside relaxing in the sun on the deck and just hanging out.

Myself and Eloise

We went for a beach walk the day before and found a tree branch we could sit on and use as a trampoline! Also found a tyre 3/4 of the way into the sand that we could jump on.

Elosie took this picture cause she liked my hair cause it was all wavy from the sea salt and swimming.

Summer at beach cottage 2014- Day Three

Today was another late start, but also one where we went swimming straight after breakfast was had! We got two swims in that day because it was high tide in the morning and then high tide in the evening.  The water has also been freezing throughout the week, with the winds high and it gets quite chilly quite quickly.  At least there was a warm bath waiting afterwards :).  That night the four of us older ones… well, 13, me, and two adults played monopoly once the little kids were in bed, around 9pm until 1.30 in the morning! ...and I won, it was a not knowing who will win until about an hour before it ended when there was just Carla and I still playing against each other.

One of the photos I have of the beach from the deck- this is about half way in... When the tide is right it you can't see any beach, when it is right out you can see the reef that is past the tip of the rock that you can see out there.

Summer at beach cottage 2014- Day Two

We went swimming at the bach! With the beach cottage going right out onto the beach we have been fortunate enough to be able to look at what the tide and water is doing and be able to judge swimming times, it has been very good to be able to go:

"oh the tide is in",

Lets go for a swim- instead of having to guess because we didn't have the internet unless we created a hotspot from one of the cellphone (but that didn't mean for much useage- I used it to check my emails briefly to hear from uni if they told me if I was in or not and also to check my exam results on the Wednesday morning). 

Note: Yes, my results are coming, and I will be finding out if I will be going to uni tomorrow morning hopefully when I ring the Bachelor of Nursing co-ordinator.

I'm still doing it...

....And I still try to turn on a completely normal shower how I have been doing for this past week multiple times a day whilst being on holiday up at Whangarei Heads at a friends beach cottage...

I went to go and turn on the shower this morning by trying (and failing) at pushing in the turner thing that you use to turn it on... then I realised. I am back in reality, back in normal everyday bathrooms that use normal shower turners that don't need to use force or anything to turn it on, to make it hot (or even water to come out for that matter).

Did the same trying to turn it off too............

I will have more, LOTS more, to post on that- also including my exam results etc. so stay tuned :)