Halloween and Paritutu

Halloween here is basically non-existent. I heard like two things about it on the radio, but there were no trick or treaters and I only heard of like 2 dress up parties :( I miss Halloween! Hopefully it will start catching on here haha. I did go to a party last night, it was supposed to be a "dress up" party, but it was also for someone's 21st birthday....which, I think is weird! They make a big deal about someone's 21st birthday, but the drinking age is 18 here...so I didn't really get the significance of it...but, oh well, it was fun! I'm a little tired today :)


So, on Halloween day, I went into town with Alex and Caroline. Alex is from Martinique and Caroline is from Germany. Unbeknown to me, we were going to climb Paritutu...Paritutu is the tallest part of the rim of an old volcano...it's 153m tall and is older than Mt. Taranaki. It's right next to the port in New Plymouth and you've probably seen it in some of my pictures before.


Here is Paritutu...if you look closely you can see the path going up it...it was basically like rock climbing at some points! It was cool though, I'm glad we climbed it. Again, I was only slightly nervous a dinosaur was going to jump out of the trees and eat me...



Here I am on the top! Woohoo! And yes...I climbed it in flip flops...You see, I really didn't know were going to climb it...I wish i had worn other shoes, but it wasn't too bad. There was a really nice view at the top, so I'm glad it was nice and sunny out! And, it didn't take us very long to get to the top either.



This is New Plymouth from the top! You can see the port, and the main part of the city. The coastal walk I did goes all along that coastline you can see. I also posted a movie on this blog that shows a 360 degree view!





Here is one of those big rocks that have been in a bunch of my pictures. They are part of the Sugar Loaf Islands. For some reason, they remind me of Pirates of the Caribbean...maybe it's because I think things here look tropical even though they aren't....and the water looks pretty tropical and warm too, but I felt it before and it's pretty darn cold!




This is on the way back down with Alex and Caroline before me. It's pretty steep!

Some other interesting things...

-Alex cooked dinner the other night...it was some fish curry type dish...and i actually ate it and had seconds! AH! But, it's only because I like curry a lot and you couldn't taste the fish :)

-Rua is getting bigger! I visit her at the dairy farm where she still is. She's 100% better now too...I get lots of kisses whenever i go visit :)

-Dad - i don't know why you can't make some of the pictures bigger :(

-it's warm and sunny out today...like shorts weather! We had string of crappy rainy days, so it's extra nice! It's starting to feel like summer - yay!

-oh yea...I guess daylight savings in the US is Sunday (today for me, but tomorrow for you hehe)...so after daylight savings occurs, I will be 18 hours ahead of everyone!