Coromandel Trip—A slice of heaven

What a fun weekend! Our trip to Coromandel beach was so much fun! As soon as classes got out we loaded in our two vans and got ready for the 3 and 1/2 drive. I felt so bad for Ramona because she had to drive a big van full of 11 people, on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car, and a stick shift which meant the wrong hand shifting. It was insane, but she did a good job and got us there and back safely. We got home with just enough time to do our laundry, eat dinner with our family, catch up on e-mail and skype with our families, and re-pack to leave for our south island touring tomorrow morning at 5am!

Here was our beach camping trip:

Isn't that awesome? Nisha braided it for me so that I
didn't have to do it on the camping trip. But unfortunately
it gave me a big headache so I had to take it out lol!
She's got talent. 

Ramona driving us in the van. I forgot to mention that towards the
end of the drive the roads got really SMALL and windy up the hills. 

Look at those little roads! The view was absolutely beautiful though. 

The last part of the drive was all ocean on our left. 

We all said we could go home now after the drive because it was so pretty.

And after the ocean, we got beautiful greens to look at. 

Finally at camp! We were put in two big tents.

It was literally FREEZING cold that first night. We were all huddled up
cuddling together because we were so cold. I hardly got any sleep
because I was frroozzeenn. Oh and my nice spiderman sleeping bag is from
my cute little host kids (either Richi's or Siah's). Sweet as. 

Our campsite. Beautiful huh?!  (I was in the middle big green tent)

Gotta love camping!

Even the porta-potties were cute!

Lunch time! That is a live Crayfish I'm holding.

Crayfish and Sea Urchins

Yummyyyy......ish

Even yummier...not! haha. These are Sea Urchins that some of the girls
dove for in the morning from the ocean. All you do is cut them in half
and scoop out their tongues. It was weird because they were still moving
when we cut them in half. I guess they are really good for you because
they have a lot of iron!

Sea Urchin tongue. Yes people, I tried it.

Here we go!

All I can say is that it was REALLY salty and kind of
tasted like ocean sand. I didn't like it. But I got a good
video of me eating it, and I'll have to upload it later. 

On our way to the beach. We couldn't have asked for a prettier day.

Man do I love New Zealand!

There's always sheep everywhere

And here it is. . . .Coromandel Beach. It did not disappoint :)

Almost lol

It was really so beautiful

To think we have been in New Zealand for almost a month and this is
the first time we have been able to actually get in the water at the beach!

The green hills were sooooo green and pretty next to the ocean.

Party!

Ramona and her son Atticus

Wahoo!!!

And here's where we all got a little fried haha

Kayaking with Margo 

LOOK AT THAT! It was so pretty. Especially out there in the middle of
 the water.

I was doing pretty good until I realized that a shark could be under me
and could eat me at any minute. Then I freaked both me and Margo out
and we headed back haha!! But we were out there for a while and got
to soak in all the beauty around us. 

Me and Margo raced back...guess who won?

These fish were stuck on shore so we threw them back in the water.

This was our dinner both nights we were there. Sausages on bread with butter
and Ketchup. I guess it was lucky for me because the night we were supposed
to have fish, the fishnet broke during the day so they lost the fish. I
didn't mind this sausage meal lol...it was a life saver for me. 

We did however have Abalone (or they call it Paua). We had to cut them
out of their shells, take out their teeth, and then grind them up. After that
we cooked them with onions on the stove. 

It actually didn't taste TOO bad. They tasted like hamburger helper to me
but the texture was way too much for me. yyuuccckk. I guess they are
a delicacy here. 

Love these girls!

Our whole camping crew. We were there with one of the families from our
homeward, the Josephs. 

Good Bye Beautiful Beach. 

Thank you for the fun weekend :)

And now we are off to the South Island to have fun for a week and a half. 

Hopefully I can get up the courage to ACTUALLY bungee jump. 

Here you can see that I am living on the North Island,
and we are going to take a plane tomorrow morning
to fly to the South Island to tour!!!