Day 52

Today was another relaxing day-- laundry, getting organized, booking charters, and figuring out when to pick up the rental car. I'm SUPER excited and am finding it really hard to do homework while there is so much planning to do still! Dave will get here tomorrow at about 2:20 pm, so then we're going to rent him some dive gear and I think I might take him up the sky tower. There's a package deal that you can buy where you can get 2 drinks, dinner in the revolving restaurant (literally an amazing restaurant that revolves around the sky tower), admission up the sky tower to the observation deck, and $15 to spend in the actual casino (the gambling age here is 20!) all for $80 per person. I've never gambled before and I haven't been out to dinner since I got here, so it might be nice to try some New Zealand food outside of the dining hall. They also have a buffet dinner (and $15 gambling, sky tower, and two drinks)combo pack for $70 per person, which would also be awesome because the menu for the buffet includes tons of local foods, like pavlova, NZ oysters, and roasted lamb, etc. I think I might treat Dave as a way to thank him for coming out here (his flight from Leeds, United Kingdom to here was over $2000 US dollars!). Then we're going to come back, pack up everything and me, Dave, and Flora will pick the rental van up at 9 am on Thursday. This is the campervan company we went with: http://www.escaperentals.co.nz/vans.asp