Already, I feel as though I am fully in the swing of being an honorary kiwi. Most of my time was predictably used up by my internship, but I made a great amount of progress on my project. I have now converted and optimized all of the blog posts for Tomahawk’s client and will be doing some final revisions on them before they are fully complete. I’m unsure of what my next project will be but based on the clients that they are working with, I am very excited to find out!
This week I also said bye to Dana. We grabbed dinner a few more times, including a wine tasting on Wednesday night as a farewell. We tried a flight of white wines and roses all from New Zealand and I surprisingly preferred all of the roses to the white, even though I generally prefer white wine.
Our wine flights from dinner as we sat by the water
Through the week, I was very excited about our planned adventure to Coromandel, a 2 and a half hour drive from Auckland. While there was initially some debate over going on Friday or Saturday night, I am so glad that we chose to leave after our internships on Friday. Due to clear skies, a major lack of light pollution, and the new moon, we saw astronomy unlike anything else I have ever seen. The entire sky was littered with lights and the milky way was incredibly clear. Seeing the sky in this way quickly made the trip worth it.
The amazing colors we saw in the sky Friday night
Saturday did not go as planned, but everyone still enjoyed our time at the Airbnb. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy all day and sudden downpours came through nearly every hour. Despite this, we made the most of our time. We were a 3 minute walk from the only local cafe open for breakfast and thankfully it was delicious.
After regrouping, we made our way to the hot sand beach during a break in the rain. The famous sand is heated by a natural hot spring found under the beach, leading to a tradition of people digging their own personal hot tubs to enjoy the natural attraction. While our team of 7 tried very hard, we ultimately failed to make a jacuzzi that stayed warm or did not immediately get filled in by cold ocean water. Despite this, we enjoyed the time on the beach relaxing and throwing the football around.
Pictures from Hot Sand Beach
After another rain shower cut our beach day short, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the Airbnb. Ryan and Dom got supplies for the grill and we all enjoyed burgers and hot dogs for dinner. We had one final chance to walk along the beach before it got dark but then we all spent the rest of the night enjoying each others company through listening to music and deep conversation.
Sunday we revisited our newly found favorite breakfast spot before driving back to Auckland. I spent the rest of my afternoon preparing for the week with groceries and doing some meal prep for dinners.
This weekend made me realize how easy it is to put together a very fun and memorable weekend on a relatively small budget. I feel that I will reflect on this and hope to continue to have small getaways in this manner when I go back home and maybe even try to plan a short trip with some people when I return to Lewisburg in the fall.
This week looks as though I will be back by the ocean a good amount due to both our trip to Waiheke island and the team activity we have scheduled at Tomahawk. I look forward to writing about those experiences next week!