Milford Sound

Today was a busy day. We started by driving just under two hours to get to Milford Sound in time for our 10:30 day cruise. It was a two hour cruise that took us through the sound all the way to the open ocean. It was beautiful! Even though it's called a sound it's actually a fiord since it was carved by glaciers. So it had huge steep rock faces on either side of the water. This region is the wettest part of New Zealand and gets on average 7 meters of rain annually. Meters! Last year they got 9.8 meters of rain. So we were extremely lucky to have clear sunny skies today. All of the rain drains into the sound and because of that there is a layer of dark fresh rain water, which looks almost like tea since it's been running along the bottom of the forest floor, that stays on top of the clear salt water. The dark rain water on top causes marine life below to think they are deeper than they really are. This is why there is a bunch of marine life in the sound that you can normally only find in very deep water, which makes it a really good scuba diving site.

The boat we were on was a smaller cruise boat than the others, so we were able to get closer to the cliffs and things. We were standing at the very front of the boat (the bow) and a couple of times they got us so close to a water fall that we actually got wet from it. We also got to see some New Zealand fur seals! We saw them a couple of times just lounging on some rocks so the boat took us really close for some pictures.

Once we got closer to the open ocean we also saw some dolphins! They were bottle-nose dolphins so they were bigger than the dolphins we swam with in Kaikoura. They were playing and leaping right next to the boat.

So we were really happy with our cruise experience. We went through Milford Cruise New Zealand.

After the cruise we headed back towards Te Anau and did some of the many hikes along the way. The first one we did was just a quick 20 min round trip to see the Chasm. It's this water-fall like area where the rock has been formed by the water and swirls around so deep it almost looks like it's going directly back into the center of the Earth. It was interesting. Also the short walk there and back was through the rain-forest area so it was very green and lush.

The second hike was our longest of the day; it was quoted as a 3 hour return trip but we did it in 2 hour and 15 min. It was the Routeburn Track for the first hour until you get to the Key Summit track. It was a pretty steady incline for the first part and then pretty steep for the last half hour. My garmin activity tracker died, otherwise I'd be able to tell you how many flights of stairs we climbed. This area is called The Divide because it's where one huge glacier divided up into 3 glaciers that carved different tracks down the mountains. From the top we had beautiful panoramic views of the Humboldt and Darran Mountains. At the top there was also a self-guided nature walk which was really interesting. It was marshy and lots of bogs up there. According to the signs along the path there were really unique vegetation up there as well. It's estimated that these were left behind as the glaciers passed through the area. We could also see Lake Marian from here which is a beautiful alpine lake situated in a hanging valley surrounded by mountains. 

Our last was a small ten minute walk along Mirror Lakes. The idea is similar to Lake Matheson which we saw a few days ago; a few times of day the lake is really still and reflects the mountain scenery behind it. This time it worked out a little better for us but there were still some ducks that were stirring things up and causing ripples so we didn't get a perfect reflection. 

We ended the day by eating dinner on the patio of a local restaurant. They played country music and we ate burgers so we felt like we were back home. I drove to the restaurant! My first time driving on the left side of the road. I did pretty well other than turning on my windshield wipers instead of my blinker a couple of times.

Sorry mom... I jumped

We bungy jumped off a bridge today! To be specific, the Kawarau Bridge (the world's FIRST bungy site!). Here's me as I'm leaving the platform.

And me flying through the air:

It was awesome! We went there first thing this morning. They have two platforms to jump from and I was the first jumper for my platform. I never thought I would bungy jump. I was never really that interested in it and I thought it would hurt your back. But we went to watch some of the jumpers yesterday and it looked like fun, so we signed up for this morning! Matt jumped a few minutes after I did. I got almost as nervous watching him jump. He didn't buy his photos so I don't have his. Jack took a video of both of us but it's too big to upload right now over this slow wifi. But it was so fun and in a gorgeous location. Definitely recommend!

Here's a video!

Then we drove south to Te Anau. We grabbed some food and went grocery shopping before checking into our hotel. We get to stay here THREE nights. That's a record, guys. I feel like we've moved in. I'm excited to stay in one place for a few nights so we don't have to pack up every morning. Our room is okay, nothing too special except the view faces Lake Te Anau, which is the second largest lake in New Zealand (by surface area). Yay for lake-front rooms!

Then we went down to the tourist info center and the craziest thing happened. We ran into the same couple from Madison, WI that we flew with to Auckland! They live only a couple of minutes from where we (used to) work and they were on our same flights from Chicago to San Fran and on to Auckland. We hung out with them quite a bit during our delays in Chicago so we got to know them fairly well. The other crazy thing is that they are going to be in Iceland the same time we are, too!! But anyway, I still can't believe that we just randomly ran into them on the sidewalk in Te Anau. They were literally just taking a walk around the lake and happened to be right in front of the tourist center as we pulled up. What are the odds?! We (finally) exchanged emails and took a picture together, since I'm pretty sure they are Matt and I's travel soul mates.

Then we went for what we thought was going to be a short 45 min round trip hike by the lake, but it turned out to be an hour each way so 2 hours total. Oh well, it was a little more than we bargained for but that's okay since we didn't have anything else going on. Jack and I jumped in the lake afterwards to cool off. And by that I mean Jack jumped in and I went up to my knees since it was cold. I let the little minnows swim around my feet. Like all the water in New Zealand, the water was really clear.

Then we turned in early in order to do some travel planning in the room for when we get to Australia. We just had a simple sandwich dinner in the room. Tomorrow we get to take a cruise through Milford Sound!

Queenstown

Queenstown- the "adrenaline capital of the world". We started by going downtown to buy a ticket for some sort of activity, we weren't sure which yet. After we bought tickets we grabbed some lunch at the Mexican Sombrero. It was pretty tasty. The guys got quesadillas and I had a burrito.

Then we went to our activity. Matt and I decided to do the jet boat; it's famous here so it seemed like a good choice. The company was called Shotover Jet and they have these jet boats which have 700 horse power and goes super fast through the canyons. It's supposed to be an adrenaline-inducing ride since it gets really close to the canyon walls and also does 360 degree turns. It was really fun, but I was mostly enjoying the beautiful scenery. I really wish they would've let me bring my water-proof camera aboard so I could share with you guys because it was gorgeous. If you want to get an idea of what it looked like, just do a google image search for "shotover jet" (linked here for your convenience).

Then we changed into some dry clothes and picked up Jack since he had decided to spend the day at the beach. We went back to the mountain luge to give that another go. This time the weather was perfect; clear sunshine. We were able to successfully get back on the gondola and ride down 4 times. Today was a lot more fun. They had two different tracks; one is the beginner one that we did yesterday and had to do again as our first one today but the other one is a lot more fun. It has steeper hills and more curves. Here's a picture as we're riding up the second gondola:

Then we went back downtown for some dinner. We found an Asian noodle place and got that to go and ate by the water. It was a beautiful evening. And it's nice because the sun doesn't set until after 8:30 here so we get nice long days.

We walked around for a bit to end the night. Tomorrow we head to Te Anau.

Luge in the rain

Happy weekend, everyone back home!

It's Saturday night here and we had a rather slow day. Matt and I were both struggling with allergies last night (which was weird, as we hadn't had any problems up until that point) so we took a Benadryl and zonked out until almost 9:30 this morning! That's way late for us, especially Matt. And then we decided to do laundry since we weren't sure when we would have the opportunity to do it next. So we lounged around and ate breakfast and did some planning while washing/drying our clothes. I also finally got to shave my legs- wohoo! First time I wasn't in a super hurry while showering since being here.

We left our airbnb in Lake Hawea shortly after 1pm and headed towards Queenstown. It's a pretty quick drive, only a little over an hour, so we took our time. We took the Crown route which is more of a scenic route and checked out the views. Here's a picture:

We also stopped in Arrowtown on the way and walked around there a bit. It's a quaint town with lots of little shops and restaurants. We all got a snack there; I got a Nutella and banana crepe. Yum.

Then we got into Queenstown and checked into our hotel. We finally get to stay in a place longer than just one night! We haven't done that since earlier in the North island. We're staying at the Holiday Inn and it's right along the water and we have a nice view from our room. This is a picture I took from our balcony:

Then we weren't really sure what to do, since the weather was cloudy and looked like it could rain, but we didn't want to do nothing. So we went up to the mountain luge place and bought some tickets. We rode the gondola up which was very pretty but it had started to rain so our view was a bit obstructed. Luckily the gondola was enclosed.

Then we got to the top of the gondola and discovered we needed to ride another gondola up to the top of the luge. This one was not enclosed at all, and it was pretty miserable to ride that up while getting cold and wet. We rode the luge down and it was fun but felt a bit out of control since everything was so wet the brakes weren't working very well. Some people totally wiped out and fell off their luge on some turns. Because of that we didn't really want to do it again but we had paid for 5 rides each. We finally talked one of the employees to re-issue our tickets so we could finish our rides another day.

The luge was also different than other lunges/mountains slides I've done before. This one had a wider track where you actually had to steer your way down as opposed to more of an enclosed track that just guided you down. I didn't really like it as much. I felt like I couldn't go as fast since I actually had to steer and slow way down for sharp turns.

So we left there and headed back to the hotel to put on some dry clothes and boom! The sun came out. We got to see a beautiful rainbow.

The rain stopped but it was a cooler day/night. After changing we went back downtown to walk around. There is a ton going on with lots of shops and restaurants and bars. We found an Italian place to eat dinner and it was delicious. It was called "The Cow" and it was on Cow's Lane. We got some yummy garlic bread and I got the spaghetti bolognese. It was my favorite meal of the trip so far, but unfortunately also the most expensive.

We walked around some more and enjoyed the sights and the people watching before turning in for the night. We plan to explore some of the more famous Queenstown activities tomorrow.

Mount Cook

We woke up this morning in our lodge that we never expected to stay in, and then were told that we couldn't stay another night since they were booked for a wedding. So we had to quickly find other lodging for tonight. Luckily, one of the Airbnb's I had inquired about last night got back to me that they had availability so he agreed that we could stay there even though it was last minute. I was surprised how difficult it was to find lodging; literally all the places we checked were booked solid. I guess it is prime time season and the weekend, but just so different from what we've experienced elsewhere in NZ. But all's well, we just had to pay a bit more than we intended.

After dropping our stuff off at our new airbnb we loaded up and drove 2 hours north to Lake Tekapo. We were able to go up to an observation area that looked over the lake and also had stunning views of the Southern Alps mountain range. We were told from that spot we could see 20 of NZ's highest peaks (out of 31 I believe is what he said). So we ate our picnic lunch up there and soaked in the view.

Then we drove another hour and a half to Hooker Valley by Mt Cook. It was a gorgeous 3 hour hike that took us along the mountain valley where we could see the 3 glaciers up above and then ended at Hooker Lake. The scenery and weather were just beautiful so we really enjoyed that. It was also a pretty easy hike; my garmin said we climbed about 50 flights of stairs which is much less than some of the other hikes we've done.

You can see in these pictures the water is really gray- this is because that's glacial water that's been grinding up the rocks, so the gray color is because of all the rock dust.

Then we drove back down to Wanaka and ate dinner at a fun bar/restaurant right by the lake. We enjoyed the food and the people watching. Then back to Lake Hawea for the night! We stayed up chatting and drinking tea with our host for a bit. He's a really interesting guy. He used to be a history professor at one of the universities here. He's published a few books and showed us one of them. He has a huge house here and rents out three of the bedrooms in the lower level, so there are two other groups staying here as well.

Off to Queenstown tomorrow!

Glaciers and lakes and blue pools, oh my!

For the first time in awhile we weren't in a huge rush to get out of the door this morning so we got to sleep in a bit. Hooray! We had a quick breakfast at the hostel of fruit that we had brought and banana bread that was shared with us and we checked out. Today's agenda was to drive along the west coast from Greymouth to Wanaka (about 5 hours driving time) and do some hiking along the way. It was a gorgeous clear day so the weather was perfect for it.

Our first stop after 2 hours of driving was Fox Glacier. First we had a picnic lunch then we began the ascent up the mountain to see the glacier. It was about an hour hike round trip so not so far, but it was about 35 flights of stairs up according to my Garmin fitness tracker. On the way up we used our LifeStraw and drank some of the glacial water that was flowing down. It was so crisp and clean tasting; it was so refreshing! I'm pretty sure we could've just drank it even without the LifeStraw. Drinking water straight from the stream made me feel really adventurous. :)

I'd never seen a glacier before so I didn't know what to expect but it was pretty cool. We could only get so close due to safety reasons. They also have helicopter tours that will take you on top of the glacier but we didn't want to spend that much money. But Fox Glacier and the one right next to it, Franz Joseph glacier, are pretty unique since they are the only two glaciers in the world that also touch a rainforest (at least I'm pretty sure that's what the sign said).

Our next stop was only 20 min from the first one, and it was a quick 40 min walk there and back to Lake Matheson. It's a well-known lake here because when the conditions are right it creates a perfect reflection of the mountains, including Mt Cook. This is because of a distinctive brown color it has and the right conditions for the water to be still to make a mirror. We didn't get to see the reflection since there was a slight breeze that was stirring the water up but it was still a pretty view.

Then we went another hour and a half down the road over and around mountains and stopped at the Blue Pools. This was a 30 min round trip hike and well worth it. It's aptly named since the water is crystal clear with a blue color. This is because the water is super cold glacial waters. It was gorgeous. It was so clear you could see right to the bottom even though it was clearly pretty deep. This was proven by a guy who jumped into the water from the bridge we were standing on, and he didn't die! I have a picture of him jumping.

Down by the water there were also a ton of rocks which someone had come along and made a zillion rock stacks. It was pretty cool actually. Then I tried my hand at it and made my own rock stack. Turns out it's not really that hard when you have a plethora of flat, evenly-weighted rocks.

Here's me with my rock pile:

Then we continued on our southerly journey another hour to Wanaka. It's on Lakes Wanaka and Hawea and surrounded by mountains. It's a gorgeous area. We were actually recommended this area (and the Blue Pools) by Chris from Airtrek, who we bought all of our flights from. He and his wife actually got married in Wanaka.

We planned to stay at a cheap motel in Wanaka, but turns out when we were booking it last night we accidentally booked it for a month out. Whoops. Almost everything was booked up already so we had to find something another town over, Lake Hawea. We were able to find a lodge and pay more than we intended, but it is nicer with our own bathroom and kitchen.

Oh, another fun part of today. On several of our treks we had to cross several swing bridges. Those are the ones where it kind of swings and bounces as you walk. Yikes. I made the boys walk several yards behind me since I don't like the way they make it bounce and swing.

 Tomorrow's plan is to hike Mt Cook, so I better get some rest. Night all!

Dolphins!

We woke up early again this morning to get to Kaikoura in time to swim with the dolphins. Helen, our airbnb hostess, also got up early to help us get ready and get breakfast for us. She was so helpful! She let us use her washing machine and then she hung our clothes on the line for us while we were at the grocery store. Then she helped us bring it in at night and hang it in the house since it still wasn't quite dry. Then she packed it all up for us this morning as we were getting ready! She just kept being one step ahead of us.

So we got on the road shortly before 6am and headed to Kaikoura. Kaikoura had a lot of the damage from the recent earthquake here and we could really see the destruction in the roads and tunnels on our way there. A lot of road construction going on. It was a pretty drive though as it was right along the ocean for a bit.

We made it to Kaikoura Encounters with plenty of time for our 8:30 appointment. We filled out our paperwork and suited up in full wet suits. We were told the waves were moderate with a high sea sickness warning. But luckily we all pre-emptively took a Dramamine so we were fine. We got on the boat with our fins and snorkels ready to find some dolphins. And wow, did we find them! The first place we stopped the water was pretty clear and there were lots of friendly dolphins. They had told us before that it's really more about us keeping the dolphins entertained and interested in us, rather than the other way around, and gave us a few tricks for doing that. The first is to make noises. Apparently there are a few methods for doing that; I decided to sing a song and that's how I ended up singing 'We wish you a merry Christmas!" 500 times this morning to dolphins. That was the first song that popped in my head and I went with it, instantly knowing my mom would get a kick out of it. Matt had a different approach; when I finally found him he was making whale noises like Dory in Finding Nemo. I asked him if he was trying to attract whales instead of dolphins. Jack apparently didn't make any noise at all but instead relied on everyone else around him to act like a fool. But anyway, once you get the dolphins to take notice of you then there are a couple of things to hold their interest. One is that you can dive down with them. The other is to swim in a fast circle as they swim circles around you. The key is to keep up with them. 

It was so crazy! They would just swim right up to you and circle you really fast like they were wanting to play. And there were so many of them! And they are completely wild. They aren't caged in or fed or in any other way artificially persuaded to hang out with us. They do it just because they are playful and curious. We were told this is one of the only places in the world where they can consistently have these dolphin encounters since the dolphins hang around the same few areas full time. This is because there are some deep ocean canyons right off the coast with abundant life.

After we left the first spot we found another area where the water was a little cloudy but there were hundreds of dolphins. So we were able to get back in and play with them for a bit, too. When we first got in it seemed like the dolphins were so excited to see us; there were times when there were about 5 dolphins swimming right at me and then swimming right past me on all sides and below. And this happened several times! And a few times I would get one to play with me and we would swim in circles for almost a full minute. It was incredible. Here is one of the many videos I took. It seems like the video doesn't work well on some devices/browsers. I'm not sure what the deal is, but the full video is over a minute long. If you're seeing only a couple of seconds you might try switching browsers to Chrome.

After we got out of the water they drove us around for a bit just to watch all the dolphins playing together. Sometimes they would do flips and somersaults in the air. It was all-around a great experience and I'd highly recommend it. And none of us got sick! 

We finished up there shortly before noon so we hit the road to cross to the other side of the island. It's about a 5 hour drive normally through mountains, but it was a little longer due to all the road closures and road construction. It was a beautiful drive though and we stopped for a picnic lunch along the way.

We arrived in Greymouth without a place to stay, so we found a cool hostel with a good rate and decided to stay here. It's called Noah's Ark and each room is themed after a specific animal. We have the cow room. Moo. Then we went to the grocery store to pick something up for dinner so we can use the grill and kitchen at the hostel. We decided to grill veggies and lamb and make a pasta side. 

Well good morning everyone, I'm going to bed!

South Island and a change of plans

We had a 6:40am flight this morning from Auckland to Christchurch and arrived right on time. Unlike the North Island, the South Island has given us fabulous weather so far.

We had plans to do a seal swim in Kaikoura first thing, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to poor water visibility. So we went to a Danish bakery to grab some breakfast and talk things over. We decided to book a dolphin swim for tomorrow instead and take advantage of the nice weather today and drove down south to Akaroa and check out the beautiful bays. The drive took us on curvy roads up and down the big hills and we could see the bays down below. We got some lunch on the water and then jumped right into the water. It was a perfectly clear sunny day and very warm, so the cold water was refreshing.

Picture of one of the bays as we're driving down the hill:

Then we made our way back north of Christchurch to our airbnb for the night in Amberley. We're staying with an older lady named Helen on her farm and she's very friendly. Feels almost like staying at grandma's house. She loves to chat and tell us stories.

We stopped by the grocery store to get some sandwich stuff for the next few days and we got stuff to make tacos tonight! We haven't had access to a kitchen in awhile so we're taking advantage.

Hobbiton

We packed up from our second airbnb this morning and they also let us pick some oranges from the tree right outside the house to take with us. It seems everywhere we go our hosts send us with fresh fruits and veggies!

Our first stop this morning was Hobbiton, where they filmed the Shire scenes in the Hobbit and LOTR movies. The set was literally 15 minutes from where we stayed. It was a pretty cool tour and I got a lot of pictures. The property is still a working farm and privately owned by the Alexander family. It was a guided tour and they took us around all of the Hobbit holes. Each of them had one room inside but we could only go into one of them. There wasn't much to it inside, we just jumped in and took a picture. When they built the set for the LOTR they built it with cheap materials and then took it down, but when they rebuilt it for the Hobbit series they built it permanently so it would look more authentic and so they could continue doing tours. So all of the Hobbit holes were built with real materials, and the gardens and trees were all real, with the exception of the tree on the top of Bagend, Bilbo's house. In the first series they had brought in a tree and then removed it, and since it was such a distinct tree they needed an exact replica for the hobbit series, only 60 years younger looking. So they built it and attached each leaf individually. Apparently after they put it up they realized the color of the leaves didn't look right, so they then spray-painted each leaf a darker green.

They also described a scene from the books where the younger hobbits would sit under the plum trees and eat the plums and stack the pits. But since plum trees are too big for hobbits, they planted other fruit trees like apples and pears. Then for the movie they plucked every fruit and leaf off the trees and wired on plums and leaves so they would look like plum trees. All this work for only a couple of seconds of screen time, and then it got cut into the extended edition!

Then they ended the tour by giving us some time to explore the pub and enjoy a free beverage. They had a few beers, an apple cider, and a non-alcoholic ginger beer. So Matt and I had our first alcoholic beverage of the trip in the pub in Hobbiton!

Then we drove back to Rotorua to check out the thermal park. We went to Kuirau Park and checked out all of the thermal pools there. It was interesting- some were very clear water and others were more green or yellow, and others were gray and opaque. All of them were clearly really hot and bubbling.  And they gave off a very sulphuric odor. There was also a pool where you could put your in feet. It was very hot; it was mostly pleasant except for where my legs are sunburnt.

Then we drove back to Auckland for our last night on the North Island. We have an airbnb close to the airport since we have a really early flight in the morning. The airbnb is really small but the hosts are super friendly. After we checked in and visited with them a bit we went to downtown Auckland for dinner. We found a place called Elliot's stables which was pretty good. It was essentially a fancy food court where you could go in and everyone could order from a different restaurant and they would bring you your food. It was a neat area, so we walked around a bit too.

Early and busy day tomorrow. Night, all!

From the Shire to Mordor in a Day

What took Frodo & Company 6 months to achieve we did today. We started out today in our own little corner of the Shire in what could be considered a Hobbit hole (it's a small place). Then we drove the 2.5 hours to Mount Ngauruhoe (which is Mt Doom in the LOTR movies) and climbed along the Alpine Crossing trail up to the South Crater (not quite all the way up, but pretty far nonetheless. I'm confident we could've easily made it before the 6 months were up). So we chucked a ring in and saved the world, no worries guys.

But in reality, I was feeling some sympathy for Frodo and Sam as we were climbing up. It was intense. My garmin registered 141 flights of stairs climbed. And we've been hiking every day since arriving so my body was already sore. My legs were very unstable by the time we got down. I was really hoping Gandalf would send in the giant eagles to bring us down, but no such luck.

The hike was very interesting though; the landscape was completely different than what we've seen of New Zealand so far. For the first part it was relatively flat and following along a bubbling brook but otherwise pretty barren; very unlike the lush green that we've grown used to, Then it gradually started going up over rocks or stairs. We were still following the water and it would flatten out in some parts where we would walk on a wooden path over the marshy area. Then it took a dramatic incline. This part was called the Devil's Staircase and the reason is pretty obvious. It was rough. We finally made it up to the crater and took some pictures before heading back down. Going down was almost worse than going up. All in all it took us about 4.5 hours. I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow.

Also, we had read online that it gets really cold up there so we had packed and prepared for that. It was a little chilly at the top but for the most part it wasn't at all cold. So we were ill-prepared for that. I had only put sunscreen on my face thinking the rest of my body would be covered. But when I kept peeling off layers I never thought to re-apply, so I've got quite the sunburn on my back and arms now.  Oh well, it was bound to happen eventually.

After that excursion we needed to refuel and rest up, so we got some dinner in a town called Taupo, which is right off of Lake Taupo- the biggest lake in New Zealand. There were a lot of pretty views around there and we ate right by the water. We stopped at a cafe and I got some beef nachos while the guys got chicken parmigiana and we all guzzled some water. Actually, on the way to Taupo we played a water-drinking game in the car so that we would all re-hydrate a little faster. The game was that every time the road said to slow down for a curve we'd take a drink. That happens every few hundred meters here so we drank a lot of water.

Lake Taupo in the distance:

After dinner we stopped by Huka Falls, which generates 15% of New Zealand's energy. The water was super blue, which I thought was unique.

So it's been a big day and I'm going to hit the hay. Night, all!

Rotorua

We checked out of our first airbnb this morning and were sad to say goodbye to our fabulous hosts. They had just harvested a ton of grapes from their vines so they sent some with us, as well as some spinach and passion fruit. I had never tried a passion fruit before but it was really good; surprisingly sweet. It kind of reminded me of a pomegranate in the way it had little pods inside. And the grapes are unlike any grapes I've had before. They are green grapes but they have a different flavor and they burst in your mouth differently. It's hard to explain. Very tasty though!

Then we drove south to a town called Rotorua. We ate lunch there at a cool spot they call Eat Streets where they have a bunch of cool restaurants. Then we went to the Polynesian Spa and sat in a hot springs tub for half an hour- it was lovely.

Then we drove out to the country to our next Airbnb. It's a guest house on a farm and the views are phenomenal. To give you an idea, since pictures don't do it justice, we're about 5 minutes away from where they filmed the Shire scenes in the LOTR series. The guest house is just a little one room and bathroom building, but new and clean. It's really all about the views though. Our hostess directed us to a hike right outside our door that took us up to a hill where we could see forever. Here are a couple of pictures.

This is from the hill during our hike:

And this is from right outside our window:

Then we jumped in the pool for a quick swim then cleaned up and ate a quick sandwich dinner. We then headed back to Rotorua to walk in the redwood forest, but it was raining too hard and we were tired so we just grabbed a few things from the grocery store and headed home for the night.

We've found prices down here to be pretty comparable to the US, with the exception of gas which is a bit more expensive. We paid NZ$47 for half a tank of gas, which is about $34 US dollars so that was a bit expensive. But the food has been pretty reasonable. We bought some groceries on our first day for $16 US dollars. For that we got 500 grams of ham, cheese, buns, potato chips, and breakfast bars. Then we've had a couple of nicer dinners but I haven't spent more than $10 US dollars for dinner, although I do tend to get the cheaper options. And there are fast food places with cheaper options. For lodging we spent $169 for two nights in our airbnb, so that's $84.50 per night. And split 3 ways is only $28 per night per person. That's all US dollars.

Happy Saturday to everyone back home!

Coromandel Peninsula

What a full day! We woke up to more rain today, surprise! But we decided to make the most of it and go check out Coromandel Peninsula.

It was about a 2.5 hour drive there on windy roads up and down mountains. It was a very beautiful drive, and another test of Matt's driving skills. He's really gotten the hang of it now.

Our first stop was Cathedral Cove. Once we parked it was about a 40 minute hike down to the cove. It was beautiful!

We got lucky with the weather while we were there because it hardly sprinkled on us at all. It was actually a very pleasant temperature and we got to see some sun while we were on the beach!

Then we explored some other little coves around that area. Some were sandy nice little beaches and other were rocky and good snorkeling and crab watching. It was quite the hike around there; my fitness tracker said I reached 60 flights of stairs before it died.

After that it got a little rainy so we explored the little town of Hahei and got some snacks. There was a beautiful beach there, too, but it wasn't really beach weather at that point.

Then we moved on to Hot Water Beach, which is exactly what it sounds. We had heard great things about it but were feeling a little silly when we were traipsing along the beach in the cold rain searching for the hot springs. But it was definitely worth it once we got there. We knew we had found it when we stumbled upon a group of people sitting in self-made hot tubs in the sand, steam rising from them. It was incredible! We literally just took a shovel (our airbnb host cleverly suggested we bring a shovel and lent us theirs) and dug a hole in the sand and voila! Instant hot tub. It was crazy how in one spot you could dig and it would be super hot, but a foot over and it would be cold. And some of it was so hot you couldn't even touch it. We dug our 3-person sized hot tub and relaxed while listening to the waves slapping onto the beach 20 feet away. At that point we were grateful that it was actual cool and rainy out. It was the perfect thing to do in that sort of weather!

Then we stopped and got dinner in a little town called Tairua and made our way back to Auckland. It was a busy day and almost 11pm here, so I'm going to bed. Good night, all!

Kia ora from New Zealand!

We made it! Of course we had some travel problems; I don't believe you can fly out of or through O'Hare without them. Our first flight kept getting delayed such that we would miss our connection in LAX, so we ended up re-routing through San Francisco and landing here in Auckland only a couple of hours later than we otherwise would've. It was a long travel day but hey, what's a round-the-world adventure without some re-routed flights?! The 12 hour flight from San Fran to Auckland was brutal, but we both got a couple of hours of sleep and watched lots of movies. I started watching the Netflix original "Stranger Things" and now I'm hooked on that.

We made it through customs quite easily, so once we finally got our rental car the next adventure was driving on the left side of the road for the first time.  Matt did great, but I think I lost a couple of years of my life being an over-anxious passenger driver. Not only do you drive on the other side, but everything in the car is the exact opposite, too. Luckily it was raining which helped to mask turning on/off our windshield wipers every time instead of our turn signals. Lol

Oh, and the rain. It's been raining constantly since we got here and we heard on the radio that today is Auckland's rainiest day in five years. 5 Years!! How does that happen?! And then every local we talk to also comments how strange it is to be this rainy this time of year. Normally it's the most predictable time for beautiful weather, they say. We just have to laugh.

We got settled into our airbnb and our hosts are very friendly and they have a beautiful house. They have a pool and a hot tub, too! She is a glass sculptor and she has her workshop here in the house. She showed us around and her work is really beautiful! She also teaches at the university. The other interesting thing we noticed was that they generally have all of their doors/windows open during the day, without even a screen! It's the middle of summer over here so I can just imagine the amount of bugs we'd get in the house if we tried to do that back home during the summer.

After settling in we ran to the grocery store to pick up some food staples for the next few days so we don't have to eat out for every meal. We were very tired so trying to rush through and not lollygag, but we noticed some interesting things. First we tried to get shaved ham at the deli by the pound only to be met with a blank stare. Matt had to convert that and order properly by the kilogram. We got half a kilogram, then realized they probably expected us to say 500 grams, but oh well- we got there. Also, they have lime-flavored milk.

Then we took a lovely little nap listening to the rain (after all - this is vacation, am I right?). And now I'm lying here writing this to say hi to everyone back home from the future! It's Feb 16th here and we're a whole day ahead of you guys. I don't want to brag, but the future is pretty great. I won't spoil it for you because with great power comes great responsibility, and we all saw "Back to the Future" and know how it worked out when they tried to meddle with time. But all I can say is- expect rain (because that's how weather works). And to my K-State people, don't bet on the Cats to win against the cyclones. Sigh.

But that's all for now! We get to test our driving skills in the rush hour traffic here in a few minutes to go pick up our friend Jack from the airport. Wish us luck!