No more school no more books . . .

That's right - the school year has ended here. I have a 7 week vacation!!! Friday was the last day - we had an awards assembly for the 9th and 10th graders, and then went to lunch with some friends.

On Sunday, a friend and I went camping, but before we did, I thought I'd stop at the local gypsy fair - they were passing through Pukekohe. Do we still have gypsies in the states? I just went in long enough to take some pictures because I went to one a few weeks ago and didn't take any pictures for the blog. I tried to finish my Christmas shopping there, but Lady Luck wasn't on my side.


After the gypsy fair, I took off for a few days to the Coromandel Peninsula. Here are a few of my favorite pictures - I won't put all 95 on the blog.





I thought this bird looked pretty cool and it let me get in really close so I decided to take a few pictures. It must of gotten tired of me snapping the camera, becuse after the 4th picture it looked right at me, puffed itself up and flew right at me. Anyone who knows me knows I wasn't graceful. I yelped and flailed and did a couple of karate maneuvers - then ran for dear life. I think I showed that bird who was tough.

We heard about a tourist area called Hot Water Beach. There's thermal activity at ths beach, and you can dig a hole, let it fill with ocean water, and the ground is so hot, it will heat the water. It sounded great - until we got there. I don't think I'm used to seeing crowds of people anymore since I've been here. I couldn't believe how many people were there.


No one told us you're supposed to bring a shovel. We gave up digging the hole, - it was deep enough for us to feel the heat on our feet. Once we did that. we got away from the crowds.


This is where we camped on Monday night. We had the entire beach to ourselves. It might have been because you're no allowed to camp there but we didn't realize that until it was too late to hike back out.