It's been a while. A while since I have last blogged, a while since we have touched American soil, and far too long since our last summer. I'm glad that the last month of what has turned out to be nearly a yearlong winter has finally come to a close. August has flown by and we have been working our butts off to save enough cash for our epic road trip. Come December the sun will be shining and we will be living it up in backpacker style, i.e. absolute freedom. It'll be amazing to finally have a birthday on the beach instead of indoors running from rain and cold. In the meantime, here's the lowdown on what we've been up to in this relatively uneventful month.
My position working for the Unitary Plan Feedback Team of the Auckland Council has come to an end last week and before I even had finished Friday out I was offered a role with another branch of the AC processing building consents. Not the most thrilling of jobs, but hey, that's data entry for ya. The office is across the street from my old high-rise and the view doesn't match the magnificent one of the former, but overall it's the same deal.
August has been a dreary and grey month with plenty of rain, so hiking hasn't always been an option on the weekends. By the latter half of the month I was quite cabin bound and decided I was going out anyways. I ended up at Fairy Falls in the Waitakeres and it made me question why I don't know why I don't go out in the rain more often, as the waterfalls are flowing heavily and you often have them all to yourself.
The only downside is a little bit of mud, but it didn't bug me when I was 6, so why should it bug me now? Getting to the falls was all downhill, and I did run into one odd couple and their dog once I reached the main fall. The dog was friendly enough, but the man was pretty creepy and looked about with what seemed to be barely contained disgust and contempt. He sang a song to the waterfall, made some angry comment about the pollution in the water and walked off. I waited around to put some space between us before slogging back up to the car.
Today Kayleigh and I shared a mutual day of leisure for a change, and it just so happened to be one of the only beautiful sunny days this month. We loaded up the car and headed west, back to the Waitaks. When we first arrived in New Zealand we met an Irish couple in the hostel who gave us a book called NZ Frenzy which is an outdoor guide to some of the North Island's off the beaten track destinations. After flipping through the book we decided to head back to Bethell's Beach in order to find Lake Wainamu, and find it we did. Lake Wainamu is a beautiful lake created by the natural damming of Wainamu Stream by some massive black sand dunes.
Once we found the trail head we followed the stream to the lake and after coming to the conclusion that the water was too cold for a swim without the towels we left at home, we relaxed on the dunes for a while before venturing onto the track around the lake perimeter. Given all the rain from the week, it was a muddy disaster of a trail. Luckily I had chosen to wear my water shoes to the lake, while Kayleigh had, more regrettably, chosen to wear her running shoes. She is a trooper and we pushed on anyway. I'm glad we did because as we rounded the far end of the lake we were pleasantly surprised by the presence of a waterfall. After washing off our feet and shoes we headed back down the other side of the lake, and when we came upon the dunes again there was a group of people body boarding down the steep side of the dunes into the stream. While we had originally planned to camp out, we decided to head back home due to the dubious legality of staying in the carpark overnight. It was an absolutely fantastic day, so thanks for the book Ryan and Laura. We'll definitely be putting it to good use come December.
Between the rain, the work, and our gradual acclimation to life in New Zealand there hasn't been very much to report on. As it turns out, the daily grind is pretty much the same regardless of where you're doing it, but having so much natural splendor all around sure as hell makes every weekend feel like a vacation.
P.S. The well has been running dry on original kiwisms, so I'm going to introduce a new way to close out each post, I just haven't thought of it yet :)
