My third week in New Zealand was probably the calmest so far, but still brought me a lot of adventure!

During the first few days of the week, I finished my first project in my internship and began to pivot to learning how to copyright blogs with search engine optimized content to increase the amount of people visiting the client’s website. I was introduced to a software platform that helped me understand the terms that Google looks for and feel as though I have a much stronger understanding of digital marketing as a result. Outside of work, I got back into a structured routine of going to the gym. Thankfully, I was able to readjust to my normal distance runs and have been easing back into lifting as well.

Thursday was a very exciting day. Following a half-day of work, the T-Hawks and I braved the cold and rain to go surf at Orewa Beach, about 40 minutes outside Auckland. Throughout my time leading up to leaving for this program and while I have been abroad, I have frequently been asked if I plan to surf. I never ended up doing so in Sydney, using the excuse that once I do it once, it will be yet another activity that I become determined to try and be able to succeed to do. This first time on a board fully supported my prediction. While I did have a few successful attempts at catching waves, I feel that I am so close to being able to consistently get up onto my board. I feel that this was an awakening for me to try and surf anytime I have the chance, something I hope happens more in my future.

Here is where my photos from surfing should be. One major issue: after successfully riding my final wave of the day, I was swept by the ankles off my board, preparing to fall once again as I had throughout the day. What was different this time was that my GoPro which I thought was securely fastened to my wrist was swept by the wave as soon as I made contact with the water. Seeing this happen, the surf instructors and I immedietly sprung into action for a recovery mission but were unsuccessful. Due to the rain, the current was somewhat rough and even if we had seen exactly where the camera had landed, it likely would have moved extremely quickly from that spot. After about 20 minutes of searching and hoping, we finally accepted defeat. Tomahawk did make a short video for LinkedIn highlighting the day which can be seen here, showing the conditions of the day.

I spent the rest of the nights during the week with the other Bucknellians, first at Thursday’s catch-up dinner and Friday watching the first Lord of the Rings movie for the very first time which I thought was pretty good. Thankfully as we approached the weekend, the weather drastically improved and allowed us to have a great day at Waiheke island.

While we traveled in a very small group with Ryan exploring Queenstown and Sienna being sick, Dom and I met Mary from GAV and spent the entire day exploring the island. Immediately after disembarking the ferry, we rented ebikes and began a route of the island to Onetgani Beach. Along the way, we stopped at Oneroa beach and its costal overlook, other outcroppings higher up the mountains, and grabbed lunch at Soho Vineyards. During lunch, my phone exploded with texts from my childhood hockey teammates group chat as my favorite player of all time tied the all time goals record for a player in their career. While I was hoping to watch it as it happened, I am happy to have had such a great reason to have missed it.

Photo from an overlook path we hiked looking back at Oneroa Beach

A photo from a lookout at the top of the island

We eventually arrived to Onetgani and briefly enjoyed the beach before finding some ice cream. We happened upon a very cool restaurant set up along the beach with a live guitar player and singer serenading us as we enjoyed our desserts. While this made me miss having my own guitar even more, I truly enjoyed this period of relaxation with my only stress coming from needing to have the bikes back by 5:30. We eventually went back toward the pier and since I was in charge of navigating on the way back, I was able to take us on a path along the coast which was amazing. in both New Zealand and Ireland last summer, some of my favorite experiences have been biking along the coast of smaller islands. We took the ferry home and spent the rest of the night in watching Mufasa.

A photo of Onetgani Beach

Sunday was the best kind of lazy day. I started the day grabbing groceries for the week before heading to meet Sienna (who was feeling better) at Mission Bay to enjoy the great beach weather. I finally finished my book and enjoyed getting to relax, feeling the calmest that I think I have in a very long time. Once the tide had come in and the temperature dropped, we returned to the city and called it a successful day.

A picture I took at Mission Bay

The final thing I want to add to this blog continues on the story of Alex Ovechkin, my favorite athlete of all time, and my unfortunate timing to watch hockey history. After he tied the record on Saturday, I had an extremely strong gut feeling that he would break the record in the next game he played. This happened to be a matinee game at 12:30 pm Est, or 4:30 am in Auckland. While I considered waking up for the game, I ultimately decided to trust the Islanders to delay history one more game. Unfortunately for me, I awoke to more texts and notifications that he had broken the record.

This upcoming week is the least structured so far and I will be trying to figure out how to spend my mostly free weekend in Auckland, especially with most of the people here planning to travel. I look forward to whatever I get up to and anticipate writing next week’s blog!