Oh no big deal...Just survived a Tsunami!

So this weekend I was lucky enough to go on a trip to the little beach town of Paekakariki. The plan was to leave early, like 5:25 AM on Saturday morning and return late on Sunday night. Sunday night the bus did not leave until 9:30 PM.

So we will start at the beginning:
Saturday Morning:
I barely get any rest on Friday night, because I am so afraid I will sleep in too late. So I get out of bed brush my teeth, grab my stuff and head out to the main bus stop on campus. It is called the MAIN bus stop for reason, aren't all the buses supposed to go there? Apparently not. I am waiting and waiting and I finally get a call from the other girls that they just realized the bus stops at a bus stop way down at the entrance to campus. I grab all my stuff and book it down there, now it is only 5:30 in the morning so it is dark and rather spooky, but finally I make it to the group and they inform me that we have MISSED the bus. What are you kidding me? The naked bus has a no refund policy, so we think about what to do. We decide the tickets were cheap enough so we each book a new ticket for the noon bus, head back home and get some sleep. During this whole ordeal, most of the girls were not very happy, but me on the other hand could not help but laugh, you no how I laugh in inappropriate situations ie: moving, this was definetly one of those situations. So 11:00 roles around and we decide to head to the bus, because I am definetly not missing this one. The bus picks us up and an hour and a half later we stop in Paekikariki.
Next we must make it to our hostel, I have never stayed in a hostel and am thinking all sorts of scary and creepy things about what I am about to encounter. But to my surprise I walked up this beautiful path into a wonderful garden and finally approach 2 homes that were the hostel. I thought to myself ok when can I move in, I was greeted by 2 dogs and some cats and fell even more in love.
After we got things settled into the hostel, we walked (not even a 2 min walk) to the beach and hung out for the rest of the afternoon, splashing in the water, playing frisbee and I attempted to throw around a rugby ball. Not much success however. That night we ate fish and chips, which apparently were to die for. I even had a bite and managed to keep it down. My goal is to eat fish and chips by the time I leave this country. We headed back to the hostel where we got to watch some "macho men" try and set up there huge "macho" tent. 3 boys and they really need a tent the size of my dorm room??? haha! After the tent was set we drank some wine and looked out over the ocean, some card games were played.

That is when it happened....
This guy I was talking to who was staying at the hostel, who was originally from London, got a text from his mom saying there was a Tsunami warning. Jane's mind--->"What I am too young to die". We looked it up on the Internet and it wasn't much of threat and was headed for the opposite side of the island. whew! Escaped that one, but in the end there was no damage to New Zealand. After the shock of a tsunami wore off I went to bed, in my little cozy room. My bed had a mosquito net!!! I was very excited about that. I slept so soundly and woke up very refreshed.

How to become a professional beach bum?...
Plan to leave on the bus that does not leave until 9:30 at night. I thought when I woke up...I am never going to survive until that late...what are we going to do? I thought I will buy an earlier bus ticket=meaning 4 tickets would have been bought for this trip haha! In the end I stayed and caught the late bus and I am so glad I did. We laid on the beach all day, watched the ocean, swam, walked around, and read. What a great lazy day in such a beautiful place and I got a pretty awesome tan to go with it. Due to the hole in the ozone layer, conveniently located above NZ I applied an entire bottle of sunscreen and managed to remain unburned...Susan would be so proud of me. Some of the girls did not bring a book, so we went back to 3rd grade and the days of popcorn reading. I was reading a book, and each chapter was a new short story, so each girl would take a turn reading aloud to the group. Something was so cliche about the whole experience, but I think I could do it everyday for the rest of my life.

We got some diner and made it to the bus stop early, I slept the entire way home and pretty much slept walked back to my room.

Today nothing special occurred just classes. Love Jane