Sorry for the long delay, but here's the recap of my "study" week trip to the north Island. Nora, Alyssa, George and I flew from Chch to Wellington on the 6th, and hung out there for the weekend. We had an amazing time, and all of us really liked the city. It felt so much more like an actual city compared to Chch, which is basically just a huge sprawling collection of shopping centers and strip malls with no real "city". In Wellington you felt like you were actually in a real city, and the Uni, where we were staying with friends, was just up the hill(incredibly steep hill may i add) and provided incredibly easy access. We had amazing weather Saturday and spent the day walking around downtown and exploring the botanical gardens, etc. . Sunday it started to rain so we hung out at our mate's flat for a while and then drove up to Tongariro NP where we were hoping to do the Tongariro crossing the next day (one of the most spectacular day hikes in the world). We spent the night camped out under a cooking shelter at a DOC campsite, we set my tent up under the shelter for the girls to sleep in while George and I slept under the 2 sinks since it was the only other dry spot. Unfortunately the weather did not improve for Monday and there was 0 visibility and 90 km/hr winds on the saddle so we did not get to do it. Instead we drove up to Lake Taupo and hung out in a lakeside pub and watched the Celtics game 2. We also stopped by Huka falls which is nothing incredibly impressive but its a 9 km water fall draining from lake Taupo into the longest navigable river in NZ. What did make it impressive was watching a guy and 3 kids run it on white water kayaks! Our next stop was Waitomo caves, and we called ahead to receive a 20% discount on a black water rafting trip (in caves you can't see the white water so it becomes black water) . When we arrived at the caves the next morning we were given a good news/bad news scenario; the rain had flooded the rafting cave so our trip had been canceled, but since we had pre-booked the day before and they had already collected money from us they said we could do a 4 hr abseiling trip instead! Abseiling is a fancy word for repelling for those of you (including me) who don't speak climber. Bottom line was we got to go climb around caves and repel down water falls 80 m underground for 4 hrs!!! it was incredible, but unfortunately since we were wearing wetsuits and climbing through rivers we couldn't get any pictures, and they wanted $15 a pop for the ones they took... That afternoon we drove up to Raglan (google image search or youtube Raglan indicators). This is the most famous surfing destination in NZ, and for good reason. It is a bay on the west coast of the north island that under the right conditions can have one of the longest ride-able left hand point breaks in the world. Luckily for us, the massive low pressure system that had taken up residency over NZ and had brought all that rain was on its way out and had brought massive swell along with it! I spent all day Wednesday surfing and having time of my life. We stayed at an Eco-Retreat Hostel overlooking one of the breaks and were able to rent boards and wetsuits right from them. Arguably one of the best days of surfing i've ever had. From here we drove up to the Cormandel Peninsula which is just east of Auckland. We hiked the Pinnacles which are massive volcanic plugs that were left when the volcanic cones eroded away. We hiked in light rain and intermittent sunshine up to the top of the highest pinnacle and had an amazing view out to the water, and of the entire surrounding peninsula. We then drove along the coast out around the rest of the peninsula and circled back to Auckland where we were lucky enough to be able to spend the night with my friend from high school who is studying for a semester at Uni there. Overall it was an amazing last big hurrah of an expedition in NZ and I am so glad that I got to really see the North Island! Pictures will come as soon as I compile them from everyone's cameras.