My Time in New Zealand: Rock the Boat

My first weekend was pretty great in New Zealand. We only have 4 more weekends left! The weather was amazing for our trip to the Bay of Islands. Our weekend started off going out to dinner Friday in Botnay and to do a little shopping. Saturday we had an early morning to catch a bus in Auckland to the Bay of Islands where we would get on our boat, Rock the Boat, to travel around the islands. The Bay of Islands is made up of over 140 islands! It took 4 hours by bus to get there! Once we got there, it was so hot out we decided to go to the beach and explore the town before we had to get on our boat at 5. The trip was so much fun and went so fast.

Since we were traveling around, we only brought one backpack each, so you may notice I'm in the same outfit a lot!

First thing we did on the boat was have a paintball shooting competition, girls vs. guys. The crew attached a plastic duck to the back of the boat and we had to shoot it while the boat was moving! It was really hard and the boys won the game. Next, we fished of the boat and went swimming and hung around the boat. We had dinner and the fun began once it got dark. We did night kayaking off the boat. It was awesome. We got to see phosphorous algae and it looked like the water is sparkling. Once we got back onto the boat, we went night swimming and finished off the night with roasting marshmallows over the fire. It was so relaxing.

On Sunday, we woke up, ate breakfast, then had to pack up our stuff. The group went snorkeling, but I opted out because I don't like to snorkel, so I spent the time taking pictures of the gorgeous islands around us. After snorkeling, the boat took us to an island to hang out for a while. We got to go on a hike and once we got to the top, you could see everything. It was a perfect day. Sadly our weekend had to end and it is back to reality and teaching tomorrow.