Blue skies shining down on me...

For two days in a row, I've had blue skies overhead and sunshine (though not warmth)... So, I packed my backpack and took the ferry out to Rangitoto island. It's a dormant volcano, uninhabited at present, but great for hiking.

It's a bit hard to hike on the lava flows but about halfway to the summit it turns more into a rainforest and I made a slight detour for the lave tubes. Check out the cool fern frond.

Then onwards to the summit!

After eating my lunch I headed down to Mackenzie's Bay to the lighthouse.

Then did the coastal walk back around to Rangitoto wharf.

Neat grove of trees...I loved the shadows on the road.

After a long 5 hours of hiking I was thrilled to catch the ferry back. Heading out to Sky City Theatre to see "The Housemaid" as part of the international film festival tonight.

"All Black' sandy beaches!

I finally had a sunny saturday afternoon that coincided with me being off (took a month for that to happen)...so I packed up my new camera and headed off to Auckland's western beaches.

A mere 15 minutes from Auckland you pass through the verdant pastures of the Waitakere region where I finally saw, and heard, my first sheep.

From there I turned onto the scenic route and it slowly becomes a tropical rainforest as the cypress trees are replaced with palms and ferns. I descended down the windy one lane wide road to Karekare beach. 'Karekare' means breaking surf in Maori. The windswept cliffs of the Waitakere range part for this small beach of metallic black sand which is silky smooth.

Panatahi Island is just off the coast and I think it looks like a shark's tooth.

From there I took windy roads back up the range and back down to Piha Beach.

It's probably the most popular of the black sand beaches. The beach is amazingly flat and wide...Here I dipped my toes in the Tasman Sea (and froze them). It's known for Lion's Head, the rock outcropping from the beach. I hiked to the top and enjoyed the views until sunset.

Lion's Head at sunset (from the beach).

Piha at sunset from the overlook.

I finished the day watching the New Zealand "All Blacks" beat the South African "Steinboks" at rugby. Awesome day!!!

So, its been over two weeks since I posted and despite having purchased a new camera, I haven't taken a single shot! 50 cases in 4 weeks and some major sleep deprivation have overshadowed everything else New Zealand has to offer. But here are a few of my recent discoveries here:

On Baking...

Um...yeah...so it was hard enough trying to figure out how many grams I needed when I wanted ounces. And butter isn't sold in sticks. And the convection oven is in Celcius. By some miracle of guesstimation I managed to make (from scratch) forth of july chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing and red velvet cookies with icing and blue stars. I think I need to import some measuring cups and spoons...

On Walking...

I am slowly mastering driving on the other side of the road, but who decided that people needed to walk on the other side of the sidewalk here? Or that the escalators are reversed... I never thought that such a basic skill would come into question here. And back to rule number one though, always look both ways before crossing the street...did you know that you can cross a street diagonally here? Craziness... I'm not that trusting...

On Shopping...

I asked around last week where I should go to get some basic supplies...everyone said the Warehouse. Let me just tell you, the Warehouse is like a giant Dollar Tree...crappy, junky, expired items on falling apart shelves with poor lighting and trash everywhere. It was frightening. I want my Target.

On Work...

My house officer (intern) failed to show up for rounds any morning last week and quit 3 times in one week...you may wonder how that happens but that's the NZ medical system. No accountability. When asking her why an important scan didn't get done, she replied "well if it was so important maybe you should've just taken care of it yourself." Right...luckily she's history and my dependable house officer is back... On a bright note, the nurses decided to have a Fourth of July party at work for me. How truly sweet of them!

I guess the long and the short of this post is that I'm a little homesick. It's almost like the harder I work the more I miss the little things, like picking up the phone to say hi to family/friends, not having to worry about the drive home, just falling asleep in my own bed.

Hope everyone has a great week!