There's still a little Ireland in the sands of Ol' New Zealand

Never thought body surfing was an option for celebrating St. Patrick. Raglan was gorgeous. We all left friday early and basically went right to the beach. Got some fun shots of coastal rock formations and all that and I saw a bright red sea anemone in the wild!!!! so excited, haha. The hostle we stayed in was amazing, i'll get the name and throw it in here later. There was a ropes course, zipline, and it even came with a dog! Haha, so, we all went up to inspiration point (yes, there's actually a place called inspiration point) and we relaxed, sang, and sipped wine under a full moon. I shot a couple photos, one of which is up on Pinhole Adventures (shameless plug). So most the group left and it was Brian, Ed, Gina, Burger, TK, and me left up on the point. Brian's telling some story when Ed goes "Hey Brian, there's a dog next to you." Lo and behold, there was a dog next to Brian. It had tags, but no name, so at some point we decided Ray-Ray (a play off of Raglan.....kind of) So we hung out for a while wondering where this beautiful old girl came from, then someone remembered there was a water bowl down by the hostel. Now this hostel screamed "Commune," there were dirt paths everywhere and you were essentially in the jungle, AWESOME place for a dog to relax, so it made sense. It was getting a little later (or so we thought, it was actually around 12), so we started to hike back, and Ray-Ray just started following us, then after a little longer, Ray-Ray started leading us. She actually found us a bit of a shortcut. The leading turned to following as she trotted behind us, up the steps, down the bridge and up to our room door. So we said goodnight again and hoped our paths might soon cross and opened the door. Now it was a four person room for Tim, Ed, and me, and Ray-Ray knew that. So she strolls in and luckily settled for the bottom bunk. Brian snuggled up along her and we all had a lovely nights sleep. In the morning, Brian's gone (evidently it was a chorus of snoring, including our guest), and in his place next to Ray-Ray is a sizable wet spot, and all I can think is "I can't believe Brian wet the bed, and now he's gonna try and pass the blame on Ray-Ray" or at least that's the story we're sticking to. So we cleaned up after the ol' girl and gave her a reassuring head scratch. As we were all gettin up and ready to check out, we kind of expected her to just mosey on, but instead she did the most adorable thing ever. She just laid in front of the door. Anyway, she continued to hang about for another hour, then Ed went to go fill up his water bottle, so she trotted along beside her. Ed gets up to the kitchen and hears a sharp whistle and a forceful "Taupu!" Ray-Ray's ears perk up and she trots back to a familiar scent. We've decided that we may have given that dog the best night of her life, but all we can really hope is that she'll remember us. Pictures of her will get thrown up soon too!

So! the Rents are coming! Extremely excited, haha, until then I'll be researching and map reading and all the good things that come with travel! Also, side note, I'll be living in Baltimore this summer! I recieved a Fellowship Grant from the Humanities at Loyola for wet plate collodian urban photography. If anyone actually is interested about that stuff I can tell you guys about it, but I hideously tired, haha, so i'm gonna get some rest. Love you all!