NZ dRylands part 2

HI ALL
this comes to you from a dreadful computer terminal at auckland airport
- this is now my third attempt (take my advice, never send an email from an airport kiosk internet machine!)

so my time is now up, shortly i'll be boarding my long flight to home-shores with mixed emotions.
excited about coming home but naturally very sad about leving this beautiful country.

so over the last two weeks, i've not only been to two weddings but also managed 5 leaving do's between hamilton and wellington! each one another nail in the coffin signifying my end is near... and so my time here does well and truly now feel up
had a fantastic send off from my church in hamilton, really tying things up nicely here and making me feel like this incredible year has been so worthwhile.

gotta go now
byee for now, and look forward to catching ya's soon
lots of love
Mat

farewell drink with Mieke before my flight home

sarah & mieke - a very sad occasion for me, with 20 or so friends turning out

at my farewell curry

unveiling of the classic 'donald' book - at my farewell curry in Hamilton

M

ieke and Alyssa

Mieke &

Amy - bridemaids at Carolyn's wedding

Carolyn and Tony's wedding

jo & jono's wedding - excellent friends

from Gateway

The foll

owing pictures are taken from our christmas/january camping expeditions around the north island. Starting in Wellington for Christmas with Mieke's family and the Watsons - followed by camping at Ruatiti, a beautiful river near the north island mountains, then up to the Coromandel on the north west coast for new year (with one of Mieke's best friends - Naomi, and my UK mates; Rob & Sarah) - finished off by a trip up to the very north of the north island together with our friend Jared taking in the Bay of Islands, Cape Reinga and the Waipoura forest.

The photo above is a view of one of the many beautiful beaches on the west close to the top of the north island.

Tane Mahuta - the oldest and most significant tree in NewZealand

Mieke, Jared and myself at Cape Reinga

Cape Reinga - very top of north island

where Pacific ocean and Tasman sea meet

sandune sledging near

90 mile beach

view from 90 mile beach

"Derelicht my car" - 90 MILE BEACH

(stunning beach - 90km in length - operates as a national highway. Here a car sadly got stuck in the sand approx a month prior to the photo)

Mieke 'within' the hole in the rock

Bay of Islands - hole in the rock

View from Urapukapuka Island - stop off during incredible boat trip around Bay of Islands

Waitangi - where the orginal treaty was signed between the Maori's (orginal New Zealand settlers who arrived centuries ago from the Polynesian islands) and British in 1840's