nz pronunciation guide: "wh" pronounced "f"

wow!  i have internet!  granted, i am paying $10 USD for 24 hours of wireless access which is completely ridiculous, but leah and vicky can use it too, so it's not completely selfish. 

i finally put up my auckland photos, as you can see.  i haven't even been there since tuesday and it is now...friday, so it took me long enough.  i have been here in hahei just doing very little.  it's been sweet as, really.  tuesday evening leah and vicky met me in whitianga where we ate dinner, and then took the ferry crossing.  drove here to tatahi lodge which is this fantastic little backpackers that i especially love after being in the 500 bed base hostel in auckland.  wednesday i read on the beach and walked to cathedral cove with vicky and admired the wonderful views, then yesterday morning we woke up really early to go to the cathedral cove carpark to watch the sunrise.  i'm going to try to make a slideshow/video of my photos...it's a project i thought of that will be really cool if i can get it to work.  i went to te pare point (an old maori fortified village at the south end of hahei beach) early in the afternoon, and then as i was walking back along the beach i ran into the gals as they were going out for a dive (they are taking a dive course this week).  i went along and sat in the boat while they were doing that, and then after they were finished we drove to hot water beach and sat in a little pool in the sand.  and when they say hot, it's HOT!  the sand under my feet kept burning them! 

today has been gray and dreary so i haven't done much, but vicky and leah's dive got postponed until tomorrow, so i think we are going to go to a vineyard and maybe whiti, and have some dinner later on.  tomorrow i am supposed to leave the backpacker's and i think i am going to call about a farmstay here in hahei i saw a sign for last evening.  maybe i can stay here another week doing that, i am really unsure of where to go next.  perhaps i will try to head south to tauranga or whakatane.  i really want to be on the east coast, i really want to find a way to go around the east cape on my way down to gisborne.  i think that whole area is really the main part of new zealand that i want to see, that area (or perhaps between gisborne and napier?) is where whale rider was filmed, and what i think of when i think of new zealand.  either way, it'll be beautiful i am sure as this whole country seems to be!

well, auckland was okay, but this is definitely more of the "real" new zealand.  although i really did love waiheke island and the jazz festival, sitting on a hill drinking wine and listening to music in the sun.  a fantastic sunday afternoon!

here is a little video i made of dinner the other night.  while on their dive, their instructor caught a crayfish and leah fixed it for dinner.  i ate a bite but didn't care for it, but it was as a whole a fun meal.

edit: i can't tell if the video thing embedded...can someone please tell me so i can try to fix it if it's not working?