sizzle sizzle. that is the sound my skin made after this weekend. crispy red is a tan colour right? whatever i got it was oh, so worth it!
blackhead beach, hawke's bay, baching it with maire's family
yeah, i totally just rode that wave right in... to jon's arms? don't get to excited friends, he's married to beth. and i was fake surfing (surprise)
beth and jon are fellow canadians from church who came along as well. good times! me, maire, beth

um, pretty self explanatory. if you don't understand, try turning your head to the side.

me being adventuresome-looking by climbing a rock on the reef. at low tide there were excellent hot pools to chillax in


we also managed some dirtbiking and boogie boarding at the beach. i have some sweet athletic bruises from the boogie boarding! found some crabs and starfish as well. oh the beach!

more pictures! this is a sign at one of the beaches in wellington called oriental bay

charlotte (france), aoife (pronounced eefa) and cliona (ireland)--getting ready for a big night out after our chinese feast @ vicky and lynne's
maire (my-ree) and i, preparing to head to her family's bach in hawke's bay- hooray!

gorgeous sunset on the way....
it was on a narrow sheep path climbing up this hill, with a steep drop immediately beside me that i realized that i am still afraid of heights.

the marlborough sounds! this is where i spent new years, with a heap of friends from church.

round the table (clockwise): quinn, rob, heather, ollie, zander, kristen, danielle, maire, claire, me!

relaxing in the front yard of zander's batch, where we stayed. ocean right behind us!









the poster of lies, so i thought as we left stormy, windy wellington. this is a picture of picton, where the ferry arrives, and consequently where the weather was much nicer.


lovely english friends vicky and lynne, who cooked us an amazing chinese feed ( i think this pic was supposed to be on the next blog- slightly unrelated to the Sounds, lol)

not gonna lie... i'm a bit frazzled right now. just want you to know that i really did try to send pictures, but after an hour... yes, ONE HOUR, trying to upload them properly onto a memory stick to upload them onto the computer, i gave up. so the pictures are coming- i may just need a little help first :S technology.
aside from that, my boss alison and her brother jimmy came back from malaysia this week. they were there for their father's funeral and, because he was buddhist, the ceremonies surrounding his death lasted for just over 2 weeks. it is good to have them both back- alison is already threatening to cook the new puppy in her curry and jimmy is back trying to set me up with all his eligible clients.
this weekend i'm headed up to hawke's bay with my friend maire, and a canadian couple i've met out here. we're staying at a cabin with her family for the long weekend in an area that is known for it's beautiful weather and beaches. so stoked.
i also went 10-pin bowling for the first time last weekend and that was quite exciting. i pretty much suck and nearly chucked myself down the lane a few times, but it was good fun.
i think i'll head over to new world and shop for groceries, and after that, to bed. it's gonna be a wildly exciting evening, let me tell you.
anyway, adios for now, hope to hear from you soon!
cheers,
becki

greetings!
in response to stephanie's comment about the weather in my last post, i would like to let you know that i went to the beach not once, but twice this week. i tell you these things so that you can live vicariously through me, not to make you jealous- no, no of course not.
the first time was with my flatmate ally. it had been a beautiful day and so instead of going to see Happy Feet as planned, she decided to tour guide me to the beach. we drove to the beach at scorching bay, gung ho & ready to go.
then we stepped in the water.
we decided somewhere between the point where our legs stopped hurting and, well, stopped feeling in general, that a swim would not be a wise thing. so we played on the rocks, looked at different sea creatures and enjoyed the scenic views of the mountains jutting out of the ocean, with a beautiful sunset background.
after leaving scorching bay, we drove down to nearby lyall bay to check out the beach. our trip was impeded by ally mangling her car on a gas pump. it was a big dent/scratch, but i think her angst was compunded since she had just dented and scratched the other side that same afternoon. oi.
yesterday was a beautiful day until i got off of work, when it proceeded to rain all evening. this did not phase my friends maire and ashleigh when, at 11pm, they decided we should all go for a swim in oriental bay. so we did. it's documented and you better believe it's going on the blog. funny thing is the pictures turned out great but i think the flash reflected a little too much off my legs and they stand out like beacons in the dark water.
on wednesday i went to friends place for chinese food and then we all went for a big night out- even if there were no dance parties, i'm pretty sure we started some. tuesday went dumpster diving with christopher and we were quite successful. so pretty much had a superduper week, and tonight i go bowling, so i think it's gonna keep getting better.
how is everyone doing in canada (or wherever youmaybe reading this from)?
big love to you all and i'd love to hear how your new years are coming!
peace
becki

welcome to 2007!
i rung in the new year a little differently than usual this year... mainly, it was warm and sunny and we all went out to the dock to do our countdown. i could get used to that.
the ferry ride to the sounds was an adventure. i was very excited heading on to it, thinking it was very huge and luxurious, and what a fun, relaxing ride it would be. wrong.... so very wrong. everything was fine as we strolled through the halls and looked around. problems arose when we tried to get back to our seats and consistently walked into walls, railings, and other people as the boat had begun to roll around a bit. sitting down, i realized that my stomach continued to move with the waves. i glanced over at the poster of The Interislander (the ferry), a lovely photo of the ship sailing smoothly through bright blue waters and the sun shining in the background. dirty liars, i thought, as i stared out the window at the stormy gray sky and huge waves breaking over the boat. around this time, my friend heather (fellow landlubber) suggested that lying on the floor would make it better on our rolling insides. so lie we did, and i promptly passed out for the remaining 2 hours of the trip. she later informed me with a smirk that i had been snoring, but i'm sure she was only joking...
once in picton, in the south island, we proceeded to drive half an hour on ridiculously windy roads to reach zander's batch. well worth it. we headed to the ocean in the backyard, and that was the beginning of a phenomenal new years weekend. we proceeded to do some early morning ocean swimming, rock jumping in a frigid river, relaxing, haircutting, and numerous other activities. new years eve we played a girls vs. guys game of cranium where the losers had to go christmas caroling at the neighbour's house. haha- guys lost :) i've never seen anyone so intense at playing cranium!
this morning we managed to do some sunbathing before heading back to the ferry terminal to go home. so lovely! i'm sure i am quite brown now...
anyway, i've got this sneaky feeling that this year is going to be a really good one- the whole fresh start idea is quite exciting....
therefore, i wish you all the most WONDERFUL 2007 ever! blessings and love to everyone!
peace out from Seafarer Becki