Kia ora from Aotearoa - Greetings from Middle Earth

So it turns out that New Zealand is a wonderful place, just as I had suspected it would be. It would be even more wonderful if Lindsey was here to spend time with. I'm tired of having only myself to talk to although I've surprised myself a few times with my own responses...

Here are a few pictures of the hotel.

I got here Sunday evening at around 7:30pm and I couldn't believe how green and almost tropical it was. As soon as I got checked in I walked down to the beach as it was getting dark to see what it was like.

Here's a picture of the beach from up by the hotel.
I didn't have to work Monday so I basically just spent the day at the beach relaxing. It was about 75-80 and really humid so it was pretty good beach weather. The water temperature is probably about 70 degrees so it's not super warm but just warm enough to get in for a while to cool off.

All day long Monday there were lots of people at the beach swimming, boating, picnicking, etc.
The sand near the water was really compacted but soft but there was some softer drier sand near the retaining wall where you could actually lay out.

It turns out that jogging on the beach into the wind is really really difficult. It was like running uphill.

My hotel room is pretty nice. It doesn't have a/c which is ok, but I wish it at least had celiling fans. It does cool off enough at night that you don't need either and you really don't need either that much during the day anyway because it's so shaded.
Here are a few pictures.
Outside patio sitting area
Garden and pool are right outside the window
I think I could live in New Zealand if I could learn how to drive on the left side of the road. Even walking across roads is weird because I forget that here, you should look right for traffic first and then left. I've almost gotten myself run over from looking the wrong direction and not realizing a car is coming right at me in the opposite direction. Dumb American.