Tongariro National Park

Hi people! We're back home adjusting to the real world again. I'm bored at work so I figured I'd blog about the rest of our travels!

Ok we left off at the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which Lonely Planet rated as one of the top 10 day walks in the world. We packed our bags with water and snacks and headed out for our 21km (about 13 miles) trek at 7:30am. No water along the way so we had to pack a lot! The hike went across Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe (aka Mt Doom from LOTR!) and crossed several active volcanoes, a crater, a glacier valley and several mountain springs. It was a lot of uphill hiking and climbing over rocks formed from lava.

At the bottom we wore shorts and Tshirts, but when we got to the top it was freezing cold and so windy! We could barely stand! There were no barriers on the top of the mountain, scary!

After about mile 4 we were pretty tired but we convinced ourselves to push through to see the emerald lakes that awaited us at the top! Beautiful! It took us about 4 hours to reach the top and we had a picnic lunch when we finally got there. There were three emerald green lakes and they were amazing. Except they smelled like rotten eggs from the sulphur in the volcanoes. Gross. You could swim in them but too cold today.

It took us about three hours to climb back down the other side of the mountain. So pretty! You could see for miles and miles because the land was so flat. We hiked over streams and saw tons of plants and birds. No animals though.

When we finally reached the end of our trek we were exhausted! Time for the hot tub :) Our hostel was kind of like the chalets at ski mountains back here and there were two jacuzzis outside. So we spent an hour relaxing our tired muscles in the jacuzzi. While we were sitting there hanging out talking to the other travelers, who waltzes by but out old bus driver, Dippy! Turns out Dippy was driving back to Wellington the next day as well and would be our driver for the rest of our tour. Small country!

After the hot tub, we cooked some frozen pizza and watched LOTR in the lodge with a group of fellow travelers who had also hiked the mountain today. And by watched I mean fell asleep five minutes in :) But we did get to see the Hobbiton scene we visited the day before! So cool! The first couple scenes of the first movie take place in Hobbiton. Unfortunately the actual set isn't as golden and sparkly and magical as the morning but still cool!

Then we hit the sack to prepare for our journey back to Wellington the next day. What a day!

Back in the states!

Hi dedicated readers!!

As most of you know, we are back in the states!! We need a day or two to adjust and get over jetlag but don't worry the blogs will continue to catch you up on the rest of our trip in new Zealand!

In the meantime we are enjoying delicious Mexican food and cheap hit chocolate! Good to be back :)

Waitomo!

So after our night in the creepy hotel in Hamilton, it fiiiinally stopped raining and we finished our journey to Waitomo Caves. The caves are old limestone mining caves and are lit up by green glow worms. There are maybe 40 or so caves in the area?? Pretty cool!

We spent the day black water rafting, which, to our surprise, is nothing like white water rafting! There are no rafts involved and there are not really any rapids. The rapids are a 1 or 2 on a scale of 1-6 (the rapids we did in Cairns were a 4). There was mostly just a lot of walking and crawling underground so I'm not sure why they call it the same thing! Not good for anyone with even a little claustrophobia! In order to get down into the caves you have to abseil (rappel) and climb and jump way deep down. We dressed up in something like a rubber snow suit, donned some rubber boots, helmet and flashlight and headed down under.

Boy were we surprised when we got underground! Our first descent into the cave was via rappelling (abseiling) down a 100ft waterfall. Yikes! We were strapped to a harness and had to jump backwards down the waterfall. Scary!

There were three other smaller waterfalls to rappel down and we froze our butts off! We climbed through rock formations, climbed up walls and waded through pools of freezing cold water. We got to see a bunch of glow worms...so cool! They looked like a tiny neon green light and there were tons of them. We were underground for four hours in the cold water...crazy! We saw a bunch of stalactites and fossils and bones as well which are formed by the water flowing through the limestone and dripping from the roof (creating stalactites) and coming up from the ground (stalagmites). The glow worms are unique to NZ and they emit light in the larvae stage to attract food. The whole life cycle of a glow worm takes 11 months and they glow for 9 of it.

At the end of the day we were exhausted and ached from head to toe! We were very proud of ourselves though for sticking it out through the cold, wet and strenuous activities. Actually I guess we didn't have much of a choice since there was only one way out but still. It was tough. I'm not sure how people do full day tours...we were beat after a half day! At the end of the day we were rewarded with a nice hot shower -- but the showers had no doors! Free shows for everyone!!

We couldn't take pictures underground but there are some general pictures online that are pretty cool. Check out www.waitomo.co.nz!!

After our exhausting day, I took a nice four hour snooze in the back of the car while Kar and Walt drove to Tongariro National Park, our stop for the night. What should have been a two hour drive some how took four hours...oops! Oh well, more sleep for me :)

Hot Water Beach and Hobbiton!

Helloooo sunrise!

I think this morning is the earliest we've had to wake up yet, and we've had ourselves some pretty early mornings!

Karina set her alarm for 4:30am because we had to go within two hours of low tide so we figured we'd get there around 5:30 and have an hour of beach time. Howeverrrr Sleeping Beauty snoozed til 5:30 so we got a little bit of a late start to the day. We rolled out of bed and drove to the beach in our pajamas.

Ok now let me explain the Hot Water Beach situation! There is a part of the beach where underneath the sand is really hot due to the plates in the earth's crust or something and if you dig a hole you sort of dig yourself your own little hot tub. Hot is a very accurate word to describe the water, scalding would also be appropriate. Temperatures can be up to 180 degrees!! Luckily the ocean waves come and add some cold water to the pool and cool it down a tad! You need to go at low tide or else the beach disappears under the water, hence the early morning. When we got there another couple had already done the work and dug a big hole with a shovel so we just mooched off them and used their hole! It was burning our feet and pretty painful but it was still cool. The whole ground was steaming so pretty hard to get photos but we saw a beautiful sunrise. Then Walter thought he lost the car keys which prompted a search of the beach! If we weren't awake by then, we were after! Miraculously the keys were just chilling in the sand (not swept out to sea) and we were able to move on to Cathedral Cove!

Cathedral cove is a beautiful hike ending in a beach just down the road from Hot Water Beach. Either side is made up of large rocks and cliffs and it's beautiful! Very calm and secluded beach which is apparently good for snorkeling. We hung out there for a bit then headed towards the place you've all been waiting for...Hobbiton!!! Aka Lord of the Rings central :-)

We had another long drive to leave the peninsula and head towards hobbiton. We were planning on visiting a nice gorge but the access road was closed. On Easter a truck fell into the gorge (which happens a few times a year apparently) and they had to close the road to get it out. So instead we had to take a longer route and made it just in time to take the last tour of the day! Phew!! And just in time for the rain to start. Our whole tour was done in the pouring rain, but luckily they provided umbrellas and the scenery was cool enough to distract us! We also had a private tour! Maybe due to the rain or the late timing, who knows, but it was pretty awesome. From the little town of matamata we got the tour bus which took us out to the farm where everything was set. A family owned the sheep farm with hundreds of acres and the film was only shot on ten of them. The shire was originally to be shot in multiple locations around NZ but apparently when Peter Jackson saw this spot he realized it was perfect in every way and shot it all there. They didn't had to build the lake or add the tree, it was already there and just like JRR Tolkien wrote about it. Fate!

We were able to see the different hobbit holes and the spot where Bilbo's party was and to bridge gandolf rode over! None of the hobbit holes actually open, the set was only used for outdoor scenes. Also the new movie the hobbit was filmed here. So they actually took down all the lord of the rings set and put up a new one, then recreated the lord of the rings again for the tour. Weird but I guess it works! We had a great tour, I only almost slipped in the mud once, and we met the resident cat. He is the number one cat lord of the rings fan in the world!

After we went to town and got good burgers to wait out the rain. We then couldn't find our keys for the second time that day so we sent Walter in search of them. He returns with them and says "I'm not sure what a boot is but these were in there" we left them in the trunk!! Oh man we were both very unlucky and very lucky that day!

Then began our drive to find accommodation for the night. It was still pissing down rain and made it very hard for me to see, thus very scary to drive. Plus the roads were beginning to flood, lame. So we stopped early and stayed in Hamilton. What an adventure! Karina had a tiny run in with the curb, causing the hub cap to fall off. Oops! Then I said ok Ill drive...and accidentally drove down the right side of the street into oncoming traffic! Yikes!! This prompted our 18 year old backseat driver to exclaim "I need to go to bed!! Look at this!!!" haha poor Walter. We finally found a motel and due to the days festivites, had some goon and watched some Letterman and went to bed!

Road Trip!!

Road trip time!!

After Bay of Islands we headed back south towards Auckland. We spent the night at Fat Camel Hostel...way dodgey. Good thing we were only there for a night. Our bus pass got a little screwy with switching around directions (apparently we can only drive north with our pass...who knows) so we decided to do a road trip! The Dutch bloke Wouter aka Walter only had a week left in NZ as well and hadnt been to the places we were planning to see on our road trip so he decided to tag along with our road trip. Woo hoo! Driving on the left again!

So, we laid down some ground rules for Walter including yes, we listen to girly music and sing very loudly, no, we do not have pillow fights and paint each others nails, yes, we eat and pee alot, and make sure Karina eats every couple hours or else she gets grumpy and we set off on our trip. Only after did we learn he can't drive (no license) or navigate (gets carsick) so we mostly had him sit in the backseat and occasionally prepare food for us, but it's ok he didn't complain too much...except whenever Karina wanted a snack...and we had a lot of fun teaching him American slang and different figures of speech/sayings. Our personal favorite is "hindsight is 20/20" after explaining it he says "oh yeah we have a phrase for that to- you always know better after something happens," definitely not as creative!!

First destination: Coromandel peninsula. This is the northeast part of the north island and its known for its mussels, beaches and gorgeous scenery. The drive should have been a three hour drive or so but it took us about 6 -- oops! Karina drove most of this leg of the journey while I took pictures of beaches, valleys and sheep. So pretty! The road was windy and full of sharp curves and after a couple hours of screams from the driver (she swears she wasn't scared, the screams just helped her make some of the turns) and a few yelps from the passengers (seems like the proper thing to do when your driver is shrieking!), we stopped off at the town of Coromandel for a picnic lunch alongside the beach. We were told that the best mussels in the country were from this little shop called The Coromandel Smoking Company, so naturally I had to get some. They had all kinds of flavors! I got lemon/garlic and smoked chilli. Omg. Out of this world!! $4 for 8 mussels that were like three times as big as they are back home! I'd say they were about 1 inch by three inches and almost an inch thick. Silly me made the mistake of asking how to take the shell off...the lady in the store looked at me like I had three heads...guess they don't serve mussels in shells around here! They were delicious and now I'm sad because seafood is so expensive back home and I've found my new food passion :-/

After lunch, we continued to drive along through some small towns and made our way around the peninsula. We were doing great until we got to Rotary City (ok that's not what it's called but that's what I'm calling it) and somehow ended up driving in the wrong direction, then back to the Rotary City, then back around in circles and down dead end streets because the signs for our destination of Hahei disappeared. A note about kiwis giving directions: they suck at it. A typical response to how to get somewhere usually involves "oh it's easy! Just take a left and drive down there then take a right over there then it'll just be right there!" Right where people?!?! Be more specific please!!

Anyways after a little two hour detour we finally arrived to a whole bunch of darkness in Hahei. No street lights in these parts and traffic lights are hundreds of miles apart! Who needs traffic lights when you have rotaries...grrr stupid rotaries. We stopped at a beachside hostel and had a private apartment room for the night. There was a queen sized bed and two twin beds, a mini kitchen and a fridge. Great success! We also learned that in order to see the hot water beach we drove here to see, you had to go around low tide which was either 3:30am or 3:30pm. We had to keep moving the next day so you guessed it, 3:30am means go time!! After a tough day of navigating and taking pictures, yours truly went to bed at 8pm and Karina and Walter went to check out the nightlife at a local pub. Fortunately for me the town was deserted and not many people were at the pub so I didn't miss much!

Bay of Islands

Karina here!

So bright and early (and a little hungover) we left Auckland on Saturday morning for the Bay of Islands! We went even further north to the northern tip of New Zealand. We went with Stray and had a new driver named Bear. He was very informative and cool and within an hour of the trip talked us into signing up to skydive, smooth eh? More on that to come.

Anyway we made a few stops on the way- first stop was at a kaori tree. These trees are crazy cool and significant and were farmed down to 1% of the population :( they grow incredibly slow (the one we saw was 250,000 years old) and are very sturdy. They don't rot in water and are great for ships and piers, etc. So we hugged one due to Maori belief that if you don't hug one every 3 days it will die! It was huge!

Next we went to a bakery with the worst food on earth. I'm still thinking about it and not happy. Then we stopped in a town where a famous German artist designed a public restroom. It was all mosaics and very cool. Reminded me of an art museum in Philly which was the same thing- all mosaic made of different glass and plates and random objects. anyway the Germans all knew him and it was a happy moment for them (and us). Then we walked to a big waterfall called the Hatea waterfall which was very cool and pretty. I'm sorry I'm not good like Alexa and don't remember the names of anything or places. All I can tell you is everything was great!

We arrived in Paihia where we would stay the next 2 nights about a block from the beach. We stayed at Base Hostel and our room only had one wimpy light. But the town was so beautiful. Little sailboats all along the coast and pretty rock formations and a lot of islands in sight as the name suggests. It was a pretty sleepy town but had a few shops, pubs, free Internet and fudge tastings. What more could you need? We were going to walk along the coast but not surprisingly it rained.

That night we had a BBQ from the hostel with our new posse which consisted of us, 2 Germans and holland still. We had a great big meal (Alexa and Holland shared my steak and sausage!) and soon were off to bed to catch up on 3 nights of sleep.

The next day was great! We had a tour of the most northern tip of the country, Cape Reinga. First stop was a kaori gumtree farm/museum which showed how they used to dig for roots and there was a whole industry out of harvesting these trees. Then we kept driving to cape Reinga which was the most northern tip and we could see the Pacific Ocean meet the Tasman sea. Pretty awesome! They say the waves where the two meet can be up to 30ft high! There was a nice lighthouse there and beautiful scenery. Theres also a cave in the middle of the ocean where its believed that Maori souls swim through when they die to go back to their motherland. After we drove on the beach Fraser Island style called 90 mile beach. It's the only state highway in the world that's actually a beach! We were able to get out and walk around and if you stood on the sand while the tide went out all these little oysters popped up and appeared! There were heaps of them around and the water was cold so for the first time this trip the ocean reminded us of home. Gonna be hard to swim in ice cold water again...

Anyway from the beach we drove to some large dunes and were able to go sand boarding!! You use a boogie board and climb up the dune, lie on the board and you just go! It's so awesome and you use your feet to break at the end. Climbing the dunes was hard so we only did 2 runs but they were fun, sort of like sledding! By then it was time to come home and on the way we stopped at a "world famous" fish and chips place called the Mangonui Fish Shop for the best fish and chips "in the world." I have to say as a non-fish lover, I had a bite of Alexa's and even I could eat that and love it. It was good!! (Alexa here...out of this world!! Hands down best fish Ive ever had! It was called Hapuku fish and it was $6 and it was fannntastic). Too bad we don't live near them because it's prob the only time I would like them. They did something special that's for sure!

That night we lost one of the Germans in our crew so Netherlands offered to cook us a delicious dinner of mushroom pasta. I think Alexa would agree with me when I say we could get used to having someone else around to cook for us! We also had a free beer from the hostel and watched Anchorman. Life was good, which is important because we had the lingering fear of dying the next morning at our skydive.

Monday we were picked up early by Skydive Zone and taken to the airport. So nervous but also in that mindset where I just couldn't think about it. They had us fill out forms and sign away our lives and pay and then brought us out to get geared up. We wore these funny jumpsuits and got a hat and goggles.

Ok my turn!! Alexa here :-) So. We got all geared up in our sweet jumpsuits and were paired up with a skydiver. We thought we would have some type of lesson on how to jump or what to do if we suddenly find ourselves falling through the sky alone or the parachute doesn't open or something but nope. All we were told was keep your head back and legs bent backwards into me like a banana -- otherwise we'll both die. Great. We watched two people pack our chutes and our lives in a tiny backpack and next thing we knew we were sitting in a small plane ready to take off.

Oh! I almost forgot. The woman who checked us in was Armenian! So i knew i was in good hands :) She was from France but moved to NZ and didn't know much about the culture except that we have awesome food. She said she has been searching for local Armenians and is dying to get to Armenia so hopefully I convinced her to go!! She said I was her first Armenian jumper :)

Anyways. We were warned by our instructors not to walk in to the plane propeller so that was reassuring. However when i told my guy (can't believe I don't remember his name!! I trusted him with my life!!) that I wasn't scared because i figured he didn't want to die either he told me his dog died yesterday and his girlfriend walked out on him so he didn't have anything to live for. Real great thing to tell someone as they're about to jump 16,000 feet through the air!

Six of us got into the plane - 3 jumpers, 3 instructors and the pilot. We went for a twenty minute ride, climbing higher and higher until we reached our 16,000ft elevation. It was a beautiful day and you could see for miles and miles. Every 4,000ft or so they filmed us on our videotape asking how we felt and what we were thinking. I wasn't scared until the very last minute when the pilot gave the go ahead to open the door. Then I feared for my life!!! I didn't think I was going to die but I suddenly remembered I was going to be falling towards the ground at 200km/hr. that's about 120mph...holy crap!!!

Soooo my instructor (let's call him Steve) buckled my onto him and told me to scoot over and dangle my legs over the edge. OMG!!!! 16,000ft IS PRETTY FREAKING HIGH!!!! And then before I even had time to say no I was falling through the air. Incredible!!!! My stomach didn't drop and I didn't feel like I was going to puke or anything!!! My ears did make a squeaking sound and took a few seconds to pop but once they did i was golden! All I could feel was the wind blowing me around and like I was flying! Unreal!! We were surrounded by islands and ocean and beaches...gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky!!

We free fell for about 65 seconds -- fastest 65 seconds of my life! I swear it was more like 5 but it was awesome. When we got to 5,000ft, Steve pulled the parachute and we bounced around in the air for a few seconds and then silence. Floating. Absolutely amazing!! I did it!! I got to steer the parachute around for a bit and we floated for about five minutes, then had a quick lesson on how to land. Basically keep your legs up and stand when Steve says stand. Got it.

Steve landed and then...well I kind of tumbled to the ground and landed on my butt but oh we'll. Back on solid ground!!! I was high on life. Coolest feeling ever!! I was a little dizzy after the adrenaline wore off but otherwise great success!! Now that I've jumped once and know that it's not scary to fall I definitely want to do it again!! Thankfully Steve waited till we were back on solid ground to tell me his friend died last week in Spain because his parachute didn't open.

We landed just in time to see Karina and her guy land a little bit behind us. I'll let her tell you about her experience...can't wait to show you guys the video!!

A lot of what Alexa wrote applies to my experience. Basically I really wasn't as scared as I thought I would be! I kept telling myself that all the people we met who went loved it and said it was the best experience. They can't all be wrong, right? But then we got to the top and they opened the door and I immediately didn't want to do it. I saw Alexa go first, and basically get sucked out of the plane and I knew that would be me shortly and did not like that. Luckily you have no choice at that point and the guy just scoots you to the door (you are attached so as much as I didn't help he still just pushed me along) and he said "you ready?" and I
Said "no!!" and didnt look out or down i just leaned back on his shoulder like you are supposed to and braced for dear life. And then suddenly we were out and it's terrifying for a few seconds-almost takes your breath away when you see all the space below you between you and the ground. And it's a feeling unlike any other to just be alone and dropping from so high! So after a few seconds of panic you can process in your brain what is happening And have that moment of "I'm skydiving! I'm doing it! This is it!!!" and it's so great! Such a nice feeling to be doing it after all this anticipation and worry and you can think to yourself, I went through with it :) its great and so much fun! The dropping is awesome and goes by so quickly and you are so focused on the feeling you forget there is a parachute. Then suddenly you stop moving and it goes quiet (feels like time stops for a moment) and you think, what happened?!, then you realize he opened the parachute and you think, "oh yeah, forgot about that, glad its working!" so really you are so busy enjoying it you forget all the things you worried About before. Then the rest of the way down is amazing. You still have that rush of being in the air like a bird and not dying, but it goes slower so you can look around and enjoy the view and feeling. We did a spin once which was so cool. it was just awesome! I saw Alexa below me and. Then it was time to land which actually made me really sad. I didn't want it to end and knew I wouldn't be doing it again for a while, so I got pretty sad about it haha. After we landed I was still in the clouds mentally and thinking about it and taking it all in. I couldn't really talk and so my video is lame I didn't say anything cool or funny, oh well. It was worth every Penney, which is good cuz we spent a lot!

After it was over and we were no longer amped up or nervous we realized how hungry we were! We were too nervous to eat before so we won't back and made a nice lunch, took a little walk around and then caught the bus back to Auckland. We had a quiet night in Auckland and bought heaps of groceries in preparation for our... Road trip!! Woohoo!

Auckland

Sheep, sheep and more sheep! So many sheep in this country! Every five minutes we pass a sheep farm. Theres a joke between the rest of the world and New Zealanders...well not really a joke but New Zealanders are knick named "sheep shaggers" because there are so many sheep...instead of being angry New Zealanders totally embrace this myth (or fact?!?) and they have postcards and magnets and other souvenirs with a person shagging a sheep. Crazy New Zealanders.

Oh. And a note about cows (which we've also seen a million of). They're so funny. They stand really close to the fence at the side of the road and then as soon as a car comes they run away (even though there's a fence). Then they come back to the fence and five seconds later when the next car comes they run away again. All day they do this, kinda funny.

Anyways made it to Auckland! Our bus driver said it's the most spread out/biggest city in the world, then said "at least in my world" (he's never left NZ) so I'm not sure if that's true or not. But there are only 2 million people who live in NZ and 1.5 live in Auckland so who knows. They wanted to make Auckland the capital but the south island said it was too far away and was afraid the north island would break away as its own country so they made it Wellington instead.

Oh. Our bus driver's name is Dippy by the way. He's kiwi and he's alrite. A little clueless sometimes but hey that's ok. Seems like we are with him this whole trip so we are getting to know him. He's pretty funny and has a lot of good stories! He just can't remember names.

Ok so Auckland. Great city! The main strip is called Queen street and there are loads of shops and restaurants. The waterfront is nice...a few restaurants and a museum. All the big companies (Deloitte, PWC, RBS...) have their offices here along the water. We walked around the waterfront and soaked up some precious sun, we really appreciate feeling warm now! Beautiful Harbour and bridge area.

We were there on Good Friday so all the shops and bars were closed :-/ We ate dinner with holland at a Chinese restaurant...smallest portions I have ever seen! A side dish of rice was the size of the bottom of a soda can and about one inch thick. And the sushi pieces were the size of a quarter!

We hung out at our hostel for the evening and played cards until midnite when the bars opened again. Then we wandered down to the waterfront with Dippy and our group and explored Auckland nightlife!

Next stop: Bay of Islands!

Rotorua

After our night in Kaikoura, we headed out early to catch a ferry from Picton to Wellington to start our north island trek. Our plan was to do the south island first but the buses were all booked for a week so we decided to go north instead. Supposedly the south island is more scenic, we'll see!

We took a four hour ferry across to the north island and landed in Wellington. Unfortunately karina had a little run in with a pole in the ground while waiting for the ferry and managed to escape with only a bruised foot (not very common- have you ever seen a bruised foot?! Only I could manage that...). Her Toms shoes however were not so lucky...looks like more sewing for me! We stayed at Nomads hostel in Wellington and were greeted with free shots of something tropical and a free BBQ in honor of their beach party (except theres no beach in wellington?!), always a great way to start a trip! We had a nice four person dorm with one queen sized bed that yours truly got to sleep in :)

Unfortunately we got there late and left early so we did not get to see much of Wellington during the day but we're stopping back here next week and will check the city out then!

To start our night in Wellington, we hung out with some people on our bus at the Nomads bar and then wandered around to a few different bars in the city with Finland, Holland and England. Unfortunately Wellington is not a very happening place on a Wednesday before easter night so we called it quits pretty early. But on the bright side England was a huge patriots fan!! He joined in on our pain with the superbowl ("it ruined my Monday!!") and has tickets to go see them when they play in London this summer, pretty sweet!

The next morning we were up early and drove up to a town called Rotorua, which is known for its hot springs and naturally occurring mud baths. On the way we stopped in a town called Bulls...were slowly learning that when people tell us oh its a great city check it out! They really mean its a small town with a bakery, McD's, post office and bank and has about 2,000 permanent residents.

We also stopped at a river/gorge (what's the difference btwn a gorge and a waterfall? Being around all these Europeans who learn British English has really made me question the definition of a lot of English words!) on the Waikano River called Spa Park. So cool! At the mouth of the gorge, boiling hot water flowed down and at the bottom it mixed with cooler water. Something about hot plates under the earth in certain spots makes it hot and bubble. If you stand in certain spots half of you is swimming in hot water and the other half is in cold water. Or you can sit in the waterfall and make it a jacuzzi. Pretty sweet. We enjoyed some proper NZ beer called Speights while we soaked in the hot springs. Not bad for a Thursday :)

Note about beer: in new Zealand the only license they accept is a NZ one or a passport. So as Alexa and I waited in line to buy beer they asked for a passport. Mine was with me but Alexa's was safely in her backpack so I thought ok I'll just buy it. But I couldn't buy it since she was with me! So we secretly found a friend from the bus who had his passport on him and had him buy us our beer while we waited outside. Keep in mind drinking age here is 18. So we felt like 17 year old rebels breaking the law!! Oh to be young again...

We also drove by Lake Taupo on the way...it's huge! I thought it was the ocean but that didn't make sense...biggest lake I've ever seen. A lot of people go skydiving here...supposedly it's the best/most scenic place in the world to dive.

When we finally reached Rotorua several hours later, we were greeted by a pungent smell of sulphur...aka rotten eggs. The whole town reeks from the sulphur that spews from the volcanoes that surround the town. Oh yeah, there are volcanoes all over this country!

Unfortunately we got there too late to see the bubbling mud, maybe on our road trip next week!

We stayed at Base hostel and hung out at Lava Bar, which was attached to Base. This country is funny, they're very free spirited and carefree, but when it comes to religious holidays, everything shuts down. We were in Rotorua on a Thursday and we had to stock up on food and supplies because nearly everything in the whole country shuts down on Good Friday. Lava Bar usually closes at 2am or whatever but because it was good Friday at midnight they had to close early. The bars closed at midnight and wouldn't open till 1201 am the next day so it's officially sat!

But hey no problems...just means we got to go to bed earlier, these 7am bus departures are killing us!

Another note about beer: it's great to be surrounded by all these Europeans. When they get tired/ drunk they tend to revert to their original languages. So we fell asleep to a Finnish talking to a German who responded in German (neither could understand each other) throw in some Dutch, Danish and our English and it was a great fun convo in which nobody was really understanding each other but it didn't really matter!

Kaikoura

Kia Ora! That's hello in Maori :)

Grrr I am very sad to report that I wrote a fabulous blog about our New Zealand adventures and it somehow got deleted. So I was boycotting blogger for a while.

But now were back!! First official post from NZ!!

New Zealand is gorrrrgeous. Just like everyone pictures. Well actually maybe people don't think about NZ but they should because its so pretty!

We flew into Christchurch and spent a night there before beginning our bus tour around the country. We didn't see much of Christchurch because we were only there to pick up the bus but it was the main area that was destroyed by an earthquake in 2009. A lot of the city has been rebuilt but many hostels and hotels and restaurants are still damaged. They are still working on rebuilding the roads and putting new water pipes and power lines in. They've come a long way but there is still much to be rebuilt. Christchurch also gets an average of 1,000 mini earthquakes a year or something ridiculous like that! A lot of the tour buses no longer go through Christchurch because the roads aren't suitable for buses but eventually it will be a thriving city again!

So, we met our bus tour by the airport and joined 30 other backpackers and headed to our first stop, Kaikoura. The bus company is called Stray and it's a hop on hop off bus where we can travel around and stop wherever we want for as long as we want. Our bus driver's name was Dippy...not exactly the brightest bulb in the shed as his name might suggest!

Kaikoura is a small town know for its marine life. There isn't much to do in town itself but there are loads of whale watching, dolphin swimming and fishing tours. Apparently it's one of the best places in the world to whale watch and they guarantee you see a whale every time or else your money back! They also supposedly have the best fish and chips in the world but I forgot to get them :-/

It was our first day and we wanted time to relax so we opted to walk around the town and see some seals instead. It's crazy, you drive down the street and there are dolphins playing and seals basking in the sun. The whole coast is like this, huge mountains going into ocean and animals frolicking in the bright blue water! Gorgeous!

That afternoon we wanted to sit in the common room and guess what was playing on tv...yup you guessed it, LOTR! Of course I fell asleep five minutes in so I have yet to watch it. Some day!

Not much to do in Kaikoura for nightlife so we played trivia at the pub in our hostel with our new Dutch and Finnish friends. Here's some trivia: What sport uses a piece of equipment that's 8ft x 13ft?!? Answer to come in a few days!!

Also. Funny phrase from Finlandia. Apparently in Finland, when you say "I'm angry," the literal translation is (excuse my language) "I have a penis on my forehead." Awkward!

New Zealand!!

Happy Easter!!!

Helloooo New Zealand!!!

After spending an entire day at the airport running around to different terminals, we had a nice flight to NZ and arrived in Christchurch shortly after midnight. Poor Karina got stuck chatting to an older NZ man who went on and on about how much he loved NZ while I read my book. Finally finished the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series!!! So good!!

Anyways just a quick post saying we made it safely to NZ and begin our bus journey around the country tomorrow!

Tentative itinerary:

We start in Christchurch on the South island, then head up to Kaikoura, (lots of whales and seals), cross over to the north island to Wellington, Rotorua for some hot bubbling springs and natural geysers and volcanoes, Auckland tmrw, bay of islands for the wknd, then hopefully get a car mon-fri and do the coromandel harbor, lake Taupo, Matamata (Hobbiton...LOTR!), back to Rotorua, Waitomo Caves (blackwater rafting), tongariro crossing (hiking across volcanoes), Napier, back to Wellington, then cross the ocean back to the south island to pick up the bus again and go to Abel Tasman (kayaking a national park), Franz Josef (hike a glacier), Milford Sound, Stewart island, then end up in Queenstown for some end of trip partying and activities! We fly back to Auckland on the 28 and fly out on the 29...Exciting!

Last stop: Byron bay!!

We hopped the bus to Byron bay after a nice afternoon on the beach. Unfortunately we had to share the bus with some giants fans... But anyway due to a random time zone change when you go to new south wales our 2 hour bus ride was actually one hour! Sweet!

Side note from Alexa: I have never experienced so many time changes in my life! First Boston to Phoenix, then LA, then our plane to Fiji was an hour early due to daylight savings in Fiji, then we had to fly there, then nearly every city in Australia had a different time zone (including a half hour difference in Alice springs...how does that work?!) Then there was daylight savings back home, then the bus, now new Zealand...I officially give up trying to figure out what day or time it is and I'm going back to Fiji time where it doesn't actually matter what time it is!! So my apologies for emails and messages that come in the middle of the night :-)

Ok back to Karina!! We arrived in Byron bay and in search of our hostel had a very nice introduction to the area. Multiple groups of People playing music on the sidewalks, other people dancing to that music on the sidewalks, free BBQ in the park, dreadlocks and hippie attire everywhere (shoes scarce). We realized we were going to like this place.

The area is very small, just like 3 main streets but a lot of shops and bars/pubs. For such a laid back hippie place the food was sadly still very upscale and expensive. So back to a diet of noodles and bread.

We stayed at nomads which is another big hostel chain in Australia, very nice! When we arrived our room was empty but it had a balcony! Yes!!! So we went out to find dinner and explore the town for a bit. When we returned the room was still empty so i thought it was going to be pretty dull in there. We left to shower and change and returned to the party in our room! Woohoo! We had already bought a box of goon and a group of 3 Australians arrived with their "eskie" and when we asked if we could out our goon in it they were very impressed with our assimilation to the lingo! Our new family also consisted of a nice girl from Montana who had never seen the ocean before and 2 crazy/hilarious Irish doctors! (who we later realized werent actually stayinh in our room...took Alexa 24 hours to realize this and she kept thinking the Australians were Irish and just met today. It was a very confusing night!!) This is why I love traveling! After some drinking on the balcony, trying and failing to teach the group a few different card games we decided to hit the town. We suddenly went from a group of 2 to 8! I almost forgot how much Aussie and Irish like to drink and share and was the victim to a few too many Jäger bombs (will help explain what's next)! The music was great tho and we danced it up till closing! Then someone (still not sure who) had the great idea of hitting the beach! It was still pretty warm out and the water was calling us so Alexa and I ran into the water to get our toes wet which was great fun. The Aussies took it one step further by stripping down to undies and running in... So, when in Rome right?! We had the best swim which wasn't too easy between the big waves and strong current but it is definitely a night and experience I will never forget :)

Alexa here -- don't worry parents, no jellyfish! Or sharks! Well maybe there were but we survived. Also, they aren't kidding about the rip and current...solo strong! Not necessarily a rip that pulls you down but you have to swim really hard to stay in one spot.

Anyways, we then brought most of the beach back to our room via sandy clothing (still finding sand everywhere a week later!) and had a well deserved nights rest.

Sat: the night before we discussed with our newly acquired Aussie friends a day trip to Nimbin and they wanted to go too, and, even better, had a car to take us in!! Felt like real people (vs backpackers) for a change :)

Ok family...to the dismay of our friends, this blog has thus far been pretty PG. So, to give the people what they want, we're about to spice things up a little here. We figure were old enough to share these stories with our parents without getting in trouble and you all lived through the '70's so why not. Stop here if you don't want to hear!

To be honest, the whole point of Nimbin is that it's this little hippie village lost in time in the middle of these hills and you can buy cannabis cookies there. (alexa here...weed!!) We thought it was legal (Amsterdam style) but turns out its not, they just don't care! When police do enter the area everyone yells out "bicycle" and the illegal activity is paused. So we got there after a long winding drive, had some lunch, and wandered. It's basically one street, not very long. We passed a sweet older woman knitting who said "cookies! Cookies!" when you walk past. We showed interest and she said "come to my office it's behind this tree!!" and we each got ourselves a $5 cookie. The town had all kinds of marijuana paraphernalia and decorations, pretty cool! Bringing out our inner hippie!!

After our adventures in Nimbin, we headed back and took a much needed nap. For our last night in Australia (it's bringing a tear to my eye just thinking about it!!) we went out with our new friends to a place called Cheeky Monkeys and danced the night away on a dance floor made out of picnic tables!! We finished the night back on the beach finishing the last of our goon. Unfortunately it was too cold to swim that night so we huddled on the beach instead and retold our stories of our Australian adventures.

The next day we checked out nice and early and wandered around the town some more. We finished the last of our food and headed to the beach to test out our cookies. They weren't as strong as everyone said they were but nonetheless Karina and I enjoyed some life discussions and went for a swim in the ocean. We realized just how strong the current was...guess we hadn't noticed the night before! I learned how to blow water out my nose instead of having to hold it every time I dunk, thanks Kar! In Byron there is a lighthouse that is the most eastern point of Australia and the first to see the sun each day. We were too lazy to walk to it but we could see it from where we were, pretty cool! We've now been to the most western, southern and eastern points of Australia. Sweet as!

Our bus back to the Sydney airport didn't leave until 11pm so we spent the rest of the day showering, packing and running last minute errands. It rained on and off all evening of course...why should our last day be any different!

Our bus was fine, slept on and off most of the way and had some strange drug-induced dreams but we made it to the airport safely and killed a day there before boarding our flight to New Zealand!!!

We had an amazing time in Oz...met some incredible people and saw some amazing places...hopefully we'll get back there someday! Thank you to everyone who helped make our journey unforgettable!!

Next stop: Christchurch, NZ!!!

Surfer's Paradise

Ahh so behind again!!

So, after Brisbane we took an hour bus ride down to Surfer's Paradise, aka Sin City!

Surfer's reminded me of Miami. Well I've never actually been to Miami but it's what I imagine Miami would look like. High rise buildings on the beach and glamorous shops on the street...only thing missing was our boyfriend Pitbull and Cubans!!

We stayed at a hostel called Surf and Sun and were upgraded to a private apartment with a queen size bed, kitchen, living room, bathtub, tv and a freezer! First freezer we've seen in three months!!

Apparently Surfer's is the second biggest city in Queensland (to Brisbane) but it didn't look that big. They're also known for their four big amusement parks but we couldn't be bothered, we preferred laying on the beach and shopping!

Everyone who goes to Surfer's does a hostel-sponsored pub crawl so naturally we had to join in on the fun. Wednesday night we joined 200 other backpackers and hopped around to four different bars with inviting names including Sin City, Vanity and Shooters. Good times!

The next day we tried to lay on the beach and soak up some rays but of course it rained as soon as we got comfy. Luckily it rained after we had our picnic! So instead we spent the day wandering around and eating the delicious food we prepared in our very own fridge! And we finally booked the rest of our lodging in Australia (only one more stop :( )

Thursday night is ladies night in Surfers so naturally we had to have a night on the town! Free entry and free drinks all night...didn't spend a single dollar all night, great success!

Surfer's paradise is the first place we have really met other Americans and other Australian backpackers! They were everywhere. Unfortunately the American accents are so ugly after months of not hearing them, especially one belonging to a girl from Florida- terrible!! When we meet other east coasters we don't mind the accent as much so that's good. At ladies night we certainly mingled with some local Australians. Again, all under the age of 20 which is pretty awkward. One Aussie was going to la soon and wanted to know of he could drink there if he scratched out his birthday on his
ID from 94 to 91. Then when we told him that still wasn't old enough he asked if he could marry Karina to get citizenship. As tempting as the offer was, she declined...

After our night out, Karina went to bed and I stayed up to message some of you lovely people at home (seriously...who's idea was it to go to a place with such a crazy time difference?!?! I've had enough 5am bedtimes to last me a lifetime!) and ended up meeting an Irish guy, an English guy, an African Norwegian, and an African French guy...talk about international love! I guess smoking cigarettes brings people together...those Europeans and their smoking. Oh, and our Canadian friend (and by friend I mean not friend at all- more like barnacle) who we hung out with two nights in a row wandered her way home at 4am and plopped herself down next to MY new friends and pretended she didn't know me. How nice of her.

Anyways. Good times were had in Surfers Paradise...it truly was paradise! Beautiful. And great nightlife and cheap food. Hopefully we'll get back there someday!