Internship

Well, I haven't updated much about my travels, but they have been good.

Last weekend (Easter) I went with Alex and Ben to the Great Barrier Island. We camped for 4 nights, and mainly spent the whole time relaxing on the beach. On Easter night, we stayed at a christian campground, but we happened to be there for their annual Easter Camp. There was late night Jesus rock and then a polar bear plunge at about 4 in the morning, proceeded by more Jesus rock music. Pretty intense. The last day, Alex and I tried fishing and snorkeling. We didn't catch anything, but we were offered a huge fillet of smoked snapper, so we took that and had a nice dinner.

Since then, I have been to my internship, which has been quiet a good time. I am enjoying it very much. It is a school for cerebral palsy, and I am a teacher aid, which has already been rewarding. Next week we have an overnight camp, and that should be interesting...

Bruce in NZ!

bruce's visit to NZ went really well...i didn't write anything, but he wrote tons and put up pictures.

for pictures, and blog

enjoy

South Island Trip

So I just got back from being on a 10 day trip to the South Island with Nicole and Cindy (Roommates) and Alex. It was pretty good...

We went from Christchurch to Kaikoura (seals!), to Nelson (wine country!!) to the Abel Tasman National Park (rained out our kayaking plan!), to the Franz Joseph Glacier (OMG so much hiking and climbing!), to Haast, to Wanaka(sledging) to Queenstown, to Milford Sound (diving), to Dunedin (speights brewery and the cadbury factory), Timaru and back to Christchurch. And i did all of the driving. phew.

Here are the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/naomibutler/SouthIsland

I'm a real photographer now

I am a photo finalist for the school for field studies calendar..I won a nalgene...and I guess if i actually get put in the calendar I will get that too. haha. here's the picture...i think there were better ones I submitted, but okay...

pictures from the trip!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/naomibutler/RoadTripWithJohnny

soooo....the trip was great. after skydiving we went to wellington, went to a nature sanctuary and saw sooo many cool birds, then went to the south island in akaroa, where we went on the Fox II and saw Hector's dolphins (smallest and most rare dolphins in the world!!), some fur seals from far away, a single swimming blue penguin (!!!!) and so many shags (birds..like cormorants) ...

good times! we drove sooooo much!! just look at the pictures..it's better than my writing. :)

Road Trip

hi!

So me and johnny (cousin) have rented a car and have been on a little road trip...we left Auckland on feb 4 and that night stayed in a motel in Hamilton...next morning we drove to Rotorua where we climbed a thermal volcano (i think it was created in 1886..so pretty recently)...then we attended a Maori Hangi (with the Mitai Tribe). That was pretty neat...we saw their village, some cultural performances and ate some food cooked in the ground (hangi) and then saw some glowworms. :) Pretty good time. Then we stayed in KiwiPaka YHA (hostel), where i proceeded to get my soap stolen. ;( my own fault though..i accidentally left it in the shower for a few hours..but WHO STEALS SOAP?? that's so weird...

This morning we left Rotorua, and came to Taupo...we went to Huka falls and found a free campsite (Reid's Farm)...then we went to Craters of the Moon...some more geothermal stuff..pretty cool i think....and in about 1 hour, Johnny and i will go skydiving with Skydive Taupo!!! yayyyyy. I think it will be good fun.

That's all for now, i'll post pictures when I get back to auckland!!

pictures!!!

newest pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/naomibutler/Auckland2

includes going to Russell (leather tannery, printing press), Waitangi (meeting house), sand dunes and mack attack super fast boat in the Bay of Islands. :)