This weekend was much more relaxing than last weekend and my legs (particularily my calves), were extreamly grateful for that. Spent about 5 hours on Saturday with Trevor and Denise touring Rangitoto Island. Rangitoto is an old volcano only about a half an hour ferry ride from Auckland city center.

Auckland is basically all formed from old volcanos errupting and forming the land around here. And Rangitoto is the last of the these volcanos to have errupted, about 600 years ago. So almost all of the island is either balck volcanic magma rocks, or vegetation that has taken root and grown into these rocks.

Started out by catching the 9:15 ferry from the center of town. It probably took a little more than half hour to get to the island though as there was a stop across the bay in Devonport, and then on to the island. Then we headed straight up the mountain, and quickly started to see all of the volcanic rocks that had not yet lost the battle with vegetation. There were tons of large areas of ground where there was nothing but sharp, black, very hostile looking rocks. It was kinda cool, and of course we could't resist taking pictures looking like we were in the middle of nowhere.

About half way up we took a small detour to visit some lava caves which were carved out by streams of lava which later dissolved. One was really cool as it was high enough to reasonably walk through (having to duck some in places, but not have to crawl or anything). And we could see a very small spot of light at the end so were pretty sure it went all the way through, So, we walked through two sections of this big lava cave like that, and came out on the other end. There were a bunch of other little caves, but you had to crawl and we could not be sure if they went anywhere, so this one was the only one we really went through.

Then, back to the track up to the top. And, when we got to the top, I was pleasently surprised that Trevor and Denise had brought lunch. I have to keep remembering that other humans need food to survive, I keep fogetting that... although I must say that I am not nearly as bad a I used to be. As a matter of fact I can't remember the last Death March I did... oh yeah, there was Warsaw last year. I just checked, and that was way back in June of 2005, almost a whole year ago! Wow!

You know as a side note, nothing related to Rangitoto, but just thinking about that, and may other things lately, have made me realize just how much myself and other friends have changed over the last few years. Just a couple of years ago I would be all trying to conquer NZ at a whirlwind pace and stopping for something like food would have annoyed me. But now a days I find myself so much more relaxed and actually look forward to days where I have nothing to do... even here in NZ! It's very strange.

Also I have noticed quite a few changes in friends over the last few years. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that perhaps I don't see these people very much anymore and therefore when I do see them they have 6 months or more of "changes" that I see all at once? Does that make sense? Oh well, most of the changes are for the good, so it's a good thing. Like Kenny settling down with a boyfriend?! Who would have thought? And Tim going back to school (good for you Tim!). Chris stopped having wild and crazy sex!... jeez what next will PBJ, Bryon, and Joe stop having slutty sex too... well, maybe some things will always be the same... :) Oh well, the point is that it's sometimes a little strange when all these things, albeit they're good, "seem" happen at once.

So, any ways, back to the weekend. We had lunch at the summit, overlooking the cone of the volcano. It was great, very cool of Trev & Denise to bring a real luch all that way. I had energy and granola bars, which have been and will be my staple for hiking around in NZ. Then we made our way back down to the dock via the long way in order to make it about a 5 hours hike in total. The only part about the hike that was somewhat difficult, was that for about the last 2 hours, the path would occationally go over areas with nothing but the sharp black volcano rocks. And we had all simply worn running shoes instead of my hiking boots because I knew it wasn't really a hike and more of a day walk. However, the rocks were very very sharp and painful through the flimsy soles of running shoes. So even though they were only very short stretches of walking on the rocks, after 2 hours it was little painful on the feet.

We got back to the dock in pleanty of time to catch the 3:30 ferry back to Auckland. Then it was out grocery shopping and met up with Trev and Denise again for dinner out by Mission Beach, which is apparently an upscale neighbourhood that I have yet to check out, in the daytime any ways. It seems like a Kitsilano type area, only probably with houses the price of West Vancouver.

Then I was pretty much exhausted after dinner, and was pretty much in bed right away after getting home . And then on Sunday I spent a real nice day doing almost nothing! I loved it. I think I worked about 6 hours on my web site. I am in the process of getting my blogs to look better, with pictures, etc. as hopefully it looks like soon. And other than that, I just relaxed. I think I may have more "relaxing-only" days in the near future. I think I wore myself out on my last contract when I was in Europe. It was worth it and a ton of fun, but I was quite tired by the end of that contract. Here in NZ, I hope to have a more relaxing weekend (like this one), spaced between every crazy go-go-go weekend, like next weekend at Tongiriro. Only thing that always nags at my head though is this is the only time in my life I will ever have these opportunities, at least in NZ, ... Well, we'll see what happens...