New Plymouth

Well still here and lucky that we stayed. We payed for 3 nights wehen we arrived and then woke up to cloud and rain and thought, too bad that we payed for 3 nights. We then drove to the info centre and were informed that gale force winds were in the forecast for tomorrow and that to get to the top of the mountain right now you need ice crampons and lots of experience in ice climbing. So since we have neither of those than i guess that that was out of the question. So we decided to do the only thing that you can do outside when it's raining... surfing. So i picked up the board from the hostel (which was a 6'2 board and skiiny as well which i soon found out that i really wasn't ready for), jesse rented a board and a suit and we heard to the beach by town. Man was it ever stormy, it was as if the gale force winds were already here and at some point it was truly dumping rain. but hey gotta make the best of it and with a wetsuit on, all you need to do is keep active and your fine. So i did a bunch of skimming and some attempt at surfing and we battled it out. Where am I, Tofino? No, New Zealand during the summer time. Which everyone who we have talked to have described it as the worst summer they have ever had, hehe. There are even macdonalds commercials making fun at it. Well we returned to the hostel and as we get there and have kunch what does it do? Gets totaly blue skies and sunny. Wow, so we chowed down, jumped in the car and hit a beach about 15km out of town. Wow it was so nice to get some sun. And the skimming was ridiculously good. We got some good pics and vids and will try to get some up when we are at a regular computer. But didn't get back till 8pm, long day at the beach. But that's kinda what we are here for so its good.
That night we tried going out the bar, but things were kinda quiet, except one place which we soon figured out was a work xmas party, which we learned was called something like a chrstmas "bang"or something. We decided that we would tell the time by how many buttons were undone on the guys dress shirts. each one meant an hour. hehe
We woke up with sunny skies and were happy but then fell back asleep for a bit and then woke up again and it was cluody, boo. So we ventured out, picked up two boards, a longer one for me this time, in the rain and headed to the beach. after some surfing and getting pounded, i switched to skimboarding which i can do very well to make me feel better. After a nice skim session and some lunch, the sun began to peak through and it turned into a nice day. so moer surfing, got out once past the whitewater, that stuff it really hard here sometimes. but it was another great day ont eh beach nonetheless. tomorrow we get somewhere between here and wellington and then its to wellington for new years! man time goes by fast
take care everyone