baby driver: "Everyone has baggage, you just need to find someone to go on holiday with."

Unfortunately I cannot take credit for that adorable quote, it belongs to Tim Berryman.

Happy 2012! I had an incredible time on my backpacking trip throughout the Coromandel and New Years in Matakana. I returned home unscathed and feeling more proud and independent than ever.

Here are some pictures, beginning with my strangely wonderful Christmas day:

this is my flat mate Chris. His lovely family shared with me their Christmas company, Christmas food, and Christmas...

jet ski !

Johnny and Chris by the Harbour, before we returned home to play Christmas croquet (?!) and eat ham.

Though it was quite an odd Christmas being so far away from family (and jetskiing around the bay on a 75 degrees day certainly added to the list oddities), the Blundell's made me feel right at home. That Christmas night, outside in a summer dress, I stuffed my face with delicious foods and had countless lovely conversations with new friends.

The next day I left for the Coromandel. When I arrived at the hostel I met two really awesome girls here is what we saw on our adventure the following day:

I hiked to the top of Shakespeare's cliff and this is what I found

this too!

then this!

Lonely Bay

and here I am standing on one of the really awesome rocks

on our way to Cathedral Cove we found some cows!

and sheep!

This is Cathedral Cove

and the beach beyond it

Molly and Bonnie

we finally made it to hot water beach- it was way too crowded to experience the awesomeness that we had heard so much about.

The next couple of days I spent with new German friends eating fresh caught fish, dancing, and laughing at our inability to understand each other perfectly. On Thursday I set off again, this time for Auckland. When I arrived in Auckland, after a sleepless night and a rocky bus ride, I headed straight for the hostel and right into bed, not even attempting to be the least bit friendly to my roommates. When I awoke it was raining terribly. I decided to explore, despite the less than favourable conditions. I ended up inside of a cute little hole in the wall, but relatively fancy restaurant on one of the side streets and treated myself to a big steak meal (I started eating meat again about 2 weeks ago.) It was delicious, and definitely worth 2.5 times more money than I spent on my accommodations that night. After dinner I came across a little arthouse cinema. The next showing was about to begin so I bought a glass of wine (you can do that here!) and watched the surreally wonderful "Melancholia." I went home and fell quickly asleep, despite the drunk French girls in the bunk above me.

The next day I spent in the library because of the torrential rain. Later on I met up with Rachael, Caitlin, Elliot, and Dave and we began the trip to Matakana!

Wow, that was a lot of fun, and really beautiful. See?