Pre NZ: Santa Barbara

Welcome family and friends! Thanks for reading! I've been in New Zealand for ten days now, and I have plenty to write about. Where to begin?

I guess I'll start three days before I left for NZ in Santa Barbara with Boca. I flew into LA (over the Rockies for almost the entire flight) on Saturday, Feb 2. Flight notables: I finished my 5x5 Rubik's cube for the first time ever. Boca picked me up, and we made the two hour drive down the coast to is lovely house in Montecito.

 

We stopped in, grabbed his climbing gear, and we were out the door again. We went to a nice, little park nearby where he introduced me to rock hopping. It's pretty much parkour in the wilderness. Then we did some bouldering, which is tough, but really fun.

 

We then went to a local taco restaurant. Since I couldn't decide what kind of tacos to get, I just copied Boca's order: one cow lip taco, one cow tongue taco, one cow eye taco, and one pork taco. Boca could tell the difference between all of them. To me, they both looked and tasted like regular tacos, but regardless, they were delicious.
We then met up with Sherry at Boca's old high school for a musical. It was very well done and entertaining. When it was finished, we went back to his house and had a nice long chat with Will in Hong Kong.

The next day, we made bacon, eggs, toast with olive oil and avocado, and fresh squeezed blood orange juice for breakfast. We also had a guest at breakfast, Rizzo! We were able to skype her all the way in Cameroon.
Then we hit the beach with the intentions of surfing. Unfortunately, Boca didn't have the right board for a beginner like myself, so instead, we rented stand up paddle boards, which were awesome. We were even able to do a bit of surfing on them. It was a beautiful day.

 




Sherry came over that afternoon and we watched the Super Bowl. We were all kind of rooting for the 49ers, so it was kind of disappointing to see the Ravens win. At least Beyonce was awesome. So was the pizza.


The next day we went to a rock climbing gym and climbed for most of the afternoon. Three hours of bouldering and my fingers were blistered and swollen, but it was totally worth it. I conquered a few V1 routes (the easiest) and finished a handful of V2's, too. Boca is a few steps ahead of me, doing some pretty impressive stuff.

Then we made a gorgeous drive up into the foothills for a hike to an awesome cave. It was a short but beautiful hike, and the cave was super interesting. It's apparently a pretty popular spot, because it had been turned into a shrine-like place with candles and whatnot all over the place. We signed the journal, too. Apologies about the weird photo organization, I'm trying my best.

 

We got Froyo (Frozen Yogurt) with Sherry and her cousin, Will, that night, and I think I left my water bottle at shop. Woops. We ordered some more pizza from Boca's favorite pizza place that night, too.

The next morning I packed, went out for breakfast (bagel with lox) with Boca, and drove to the airport with Sherry via her uncle. We got there around 4:30pm, and out plane didn't leave until 10pm. We met a bunch of kids going to Otago with our program. It was a 13 hour flight, but I sat next to Sherry and Claire, and we watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower (9/10, highly recommended) and Pitch Perfect (pretty much Bring It On, that one cheerleading movie, except with a cappella goups. So obviously we loved it) while enjoying a few glasses of complimentary wine (thanks Air New Zealand). I slept a few hours and then watched Moonrise Kingdom (adorable).  Landed in Auckland at 7:30 am.