Weekend trip to Tauranga

21-2-10 and 22-2-10
Hey so I decided that I would leave school by myself and make it to Tauranga, which is on the east coast of the North Island. One of the RA's hooked me up with a family to stay with and after getting off at the wrong stop and being driven to the right stop by really nice people I got to Tauranga. I arrived in the middle of town and it seemed smallish, but it looked like a lot was going on. The mother of the family picked me up and drove me to their house and they have a beautiful view overlooking hilly cattle farms and you can just see a vineyard on the farm hill. Reminded me a bit of home, or at least Petaluma (smelled much better though). There is a lot of green and lots of trees. I went with the daughter (whom is coming to Waikato for her 2nd year) to climb "the mount." Climbing Mount Maunganui gives you a great overlook of the city as well as the ocean. You even get a interesting view of sheep with beach and water in the background. We got some good ice cream that ended up all over me by the time I was done with it and headed back. That night we went to the hot pools and I challenged on of the brothers to Halo... I don't even want to tell you how that ended. The hot pools were really nice and relaxing, the sun had gone down so you had a good view of the stars as well.
The next day I got the luxury of sleeping in and going to McLaren falls all day. I brought a snack lunch (tuna and crackers) and we did a nice walk/tramp and ate our snack on top of the falls. A guy jumped off the bridge, but apparently if you don't hit it right you might end up somewhere you don't want to be. It was really relaxing not much noise. We jumped from rock to rock following the water upstream and even were so relaxed we took a nap. The water was refreshing and when we ended up going back to town she showed me a local chocolate store and a equivalent of a jamba juice from the states. It was great fun, the family was incredible they treated me like family and I am really happy I got the experience to stay with them. I think they are coming to the states at some point hopefully I can house them and give them a good time as well.