April 1 - 9 pm

Happy Easter Monday! That's a thing here in New Zealand. Really it's just an excuse to have another day off work, but not such a bad idea. Good Friday too! Listen up USA!
Today was really good. As usual. The weather turned out great. I was able to spend most of the morning at the beach in Orewa. It was fantastic. I actually woke up really early - like 7:30 - and needed to get something from the supermarket for breakfast, so I went out for a walk right about 7:30. It was nice being out before the rest of the town was awake. And the sun coming up over the ocean was amazing. So I hurried back from the store, ate my bran flakes and banana, and got ready to check out and get to the beach! About 9 am I was walking along in the water, looking at the millions of sea shells that had come in with the tide. The water was the most perfect temperature. I found a few really cool shells that I'm bringing home. Figured I had to - it could be the last chance I get to be on a beach in New Zealand! Made the most of it.. Walked the entire length of the beach - about 3km - and then found a grassy hill right by the beach to sit on, and I just sat. For maybe 2 hours. Watching the waves and the people. Best morning.
Stopped in McDonald's for a 60 cent icecream cone when I got a call from Dad. The fam was all together eating Easter supper. Missed that. Gotta talk to Mom, Dad, Conor, Denney, Molly, Dave, and Eveny. Tully was there too I think. Good to hear from everybody. The call cut out unexpectedly though.
I headed to the bus stop. It was supposed to get in at 1:50. I waited until 2:35 when it finally came. So that was a fun little wait. But the bus ride was only an hour, so it wasn't too bad. Got to my hostel okay. Verandah's, on Ponsonby Road. A different part of Auckland I didn't get to see when I was here last week. It's the hip part of town. Winston called to see if I wanted to go tenpin bowling. With his accent, I had the hardest time understanding what he was saying, and finally figured out he was saying "bowling". So I said sure. We picked up Claire and her sister and went to the slummiest bowling alley ever. Quite hilarious. And I was given the bowling nickname "USA" and proudly represented my country with a score of 96. Took the silver medal. Winston took gold. We played pool too. It was all very fun. When they dropped me off I went and got myself another burger from Burgerfuel. Again, it was amazing.
So tomorrow I need to explore this new area of town and then I think I'll be satisfied with my time spent in Auckland, and on the north island. I've done almost everything I wanted to do, and a lot I hadn't planned on doing. Success indeed.