Winter holiday has arrived! First stop? The infamous, beautiful Piha beach, about a couple of hours west of Auckland.
	PIHA: Lion Rock (it's supposed to look like a lion)
	PIHA: Sara and me.
	PIHA: One of my fav pictures of the day. (I didn't take it ;o)
	PIHA: Sara and Byron, my mates for the day.
	PIHA: Byron got me in a freeing moment.
	PIHA: Sara and me near the top of Lion Rock.
	Sara and I take another daytrip to Devonport, about 10 minutes across the harbour from downtown Auckland via ferry!
	DEVONPORT: Some of Auckland (City of Sails) taken from the top of Mt. Victoria. It was the most beautiful day!
	DEVONPoRT: Rangitoto Island.
	DEVONPORT: I guesture where I live (my right hand) and where I work (left hand).
	A way cool scene walking from university into downtown Auckland- or course, the great Sky tower in view.
	Alright, now if you wanted more pictures of me, you're going to get them. This is the day my sister came to NZ (July 4th) and began her photo frenzy. Here I am driving on top of One Tree Hill.
	Get a better look at what this Auckland butchery sales in the raw. It begins with a 'p' and is one of my fav birds!!
	My sister and I hit the outlet mall. Afterward, were treated by a beautiful rainbow. Do you see it?
	This is when I get to be a girly-girl. Yes, my sister caught me getting decked out for a night of presenting at the planetarium. It's funlooking professional for the public.
	STARDOME: In the staff quarters, Jim (Stardome's technical manager) shows us a digital voice editing system he's working with.
	STARDOME: Inside the planetarium, this is the computer I use to get the shows running.
	STARDOME: Aww, look at the cool seat covers.
	STARDOME: This is our $600,000 star projector. Ooo la la. I wish I could show you what it looks like inside when all the stars are up but you'll just have to come and see for yourself. MUHAHAH.
	STARDOME: The exhibits inside the waiting area of the Stardome. Those are the doors the public enter in, and to the left is the shop.
	I take my sister along my favourite strip of beach. We were rollerblading in this picture, though you can't tell, now, can you?
	Golly gosh I want to frame this picture of my sister. Isn't she gorgeous??!?!? Here we are walking through the Auckland Domain on my favourite path called "Lover's walk." *L* Katherine is holding a silver fern, a NZ icon.
	So the Lord's driving out my fear of man- I can lay ont he ground in public!! Here we are at the Univeristy of Auckland in the beautiful Clocktower.
	Another cool walk I took my sister on (Pt. England trail) led to some horses where my sister became infatuated. She's an animal lover, I tell ya.
	Well, this isn't a very monumental picture for what it marks- the day Nick, Katherine's husband-to-be, arrived (a week later than Katherine arrived)!! We picked him up at the airport, went to Christian Life Centre for our church service and then headed 4 hours south to Waitomo, where we stayed on an ostrich farm/bed & breakfast. This cabin we had all to ourselves!!
	WAITOMO: This is the guy who owns the farm and gave us a lovely tour. Ostrich's are the most unique, amazing animals, I believe!! I couldn't believe some of the facts about them- they are the fastest animal behind a cheetah and one egg is the equivalent of 12 hen eggs (and are much better for baking, too!) These are two female ostriches.
	WAITOMO: Say 'hi' to Nick. Here he drools over his 'favourite' animal. We all know he's thinking "dinner." No, but seriously, the cat was included with the cabin, and we didn't mind one bit!!
	WAITOMO: No, Nick, I'm not trying to embarass you too much. I love this- it got below freezing in Waitomo at night, and thus Nick liked to stick his feet right in front of the heater. I'm glad they were clean!!
	WAITOMO: Wow! A cat that doesn't run away from me! (what you didn't see is what happened two seconds after this picture was taken)
	WAITOMO: Okay, so the reason we were in Waitomo was to see the caves. Waitomo is ALL about the CAVES. This is the huge glowworm cave was found about a century ago... since then thousands of people have come to boat or spelunk through. When we boated through (as part of the museum tour), we saw glowworms glittering in the darkness above- it looked like the Milky Way!!
	WAITOMO: Here Nick and I walk through the Aranui cave.
	WAITOMO: Here's a nice picture of Nick in our cabin- look at that gorgeous scenery!!
	WAITOMO: The male ostrich of the farm. 9 feet tall!!
	On the way back to Auckland from Waitomo we stopped in Matamata, rather "Hobbiton." (or at least the whearabouts of where Hobbiton was filmed for the Lord of the Rings movie)
	I remember reading that! Do you?
	The infamous NZ roundabout road sign (that's what they have instead of four-way stop signs) alongside Kat an Nick posing near the infamous Hobbiton sign. Hey, two in one!
	While Katherine was here, we went to this Dairy near where I live every day to get our daily intake of Diet Coke/Pepsi Max. heh...
	Just as you can find a Dairy on every street corner in NZ, so can you find a bakery!! I'm probably buying my favourite biscuit- a date scone! (they pronounce it 'scawn' here- don't ask me why...)
	Did I tell you I moved while Katherine and Nick were here?? Nick caught a shot of me packing out.
	I had been dying to show Katherine some dances I learned in my jazz class from Fall Quarter at UCSC. Here I'm stretching...
	...and posing. (I don't think that even I ever get used to my long legs)
	A picture of downtown Auckland while beginning to head over the harbour bridge from Takapuna into downtown Auckland.
	Handsome Nick poses in the midst of helping me move into my new room at the Railway Campus.
	The Railway Campus has a piano! Yee haw!!
	NZ supermarkets are just like American supermarkets- yee haw!!
	When Nick and Kat were in Auckland, we stayed in Takapuna at the incredible hotel called Spencer on Byron. While Katherine and I are laying on our triple-kingsize bed, Nick sings "I'm a little teapot" to us.
	Here I bring Nick and Kat to my fav ice cream shop on Mission Bay. I was pretending to feed Nick the cherry on top of our sundae, but then I ended up eating it instead.
	Katherine, the creative one, has Nick and I pose 'just so' in front of Rangitoto Island from Mission Bay.
	This is the view we had from our hotel room- that's Rangitoto island out there!!
	The girls' room.
	Katherine had her wedding dress (in the white bag) made in NZ, here in Theresa Lim's house. This was the last day Kat and Nick were in NZ, July 18th. We picked up the finished product on the way to the airport. Too bad we never let Nick see it.
	Theresa Lim is in the middle of us sisters.
	Kat and Nick say farewell from the heights of our hotel balcony. Kat is so afraid of heights, but she was okay with her honey right next to her... It gives me great joy to know it will always be that way.