Finally!

Ginnie (from France), Coco (from Argentina) and me!
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I got up the mountain!  It's only taken me a month, but to make up for it I went up twice in two days!

Last Friday there was no kiwi picking work due to the weather, so the group decided to go to Mt Maunganui.  We sat on the little beach at the bottom of the Mt and had a picnic, then some of us went for a walk around the base path.  Unfortunately it started to rain, so we didn't attempt the climb to the top.

On Friday night I went out with my flatmate Steffi, a rather late and heavy night, so I didn't manage to get up for work on Saturday morning! Once I had slept off the inevitable headache I discovered it was a beautiful day, so went back to the Mt, and made the climb to the top. Although it is not a long way it is very steep, and in the midday sun (yes, I know), it was pretty hard work. However, it was very worthwhile when I got to the top.

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I've done several more days kiwi picking, and apparently there are only about three or four weeks of work left (they have to have everything picked by a certain date in June), so I will probably stay here until then.  It's a really cool town and I'm enjoying being in the flat, so it's worth staying for now. After that I am still planning to head to Queenstown, although getting a job there from here is proving to be difficult, so I may have to wing it slightly and find something when I get there.

Not sure of the name of the girl on the left but she is Japanese, Ginnie, Rachel (also French) and Coco
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Anyway, still have a fantastic time, and life seems a little more settled than when I first arrived - although I'm not doing quite so much exciting stuff, it's great being able to settle somewhere for a while.

More soon....