Rotorua Round 2!

The day after we got back from our roadtrip, we headed out to Rotorua for the day.  Aunty Noenoe, Keao, Kamakana, Logan, and I all packed into Aunty Noenoe's car and drove there.  Our first stop was a Korean restaurant, which turned out to be quite a dissapointment.  The prices were pretty outrageous and the portions were... small.  The boys (Logan and Keao) put up a big fuss about how they were still hungry afterwards, so they headed to McDonald's and bought another meal.  Keao knows Rotorua pretty well; it's been his getaway spot while he's been here in NZ.  He has a few friends and family who live there and on this particular visit, we stayed with his friend, Wetini Mitai Ngatai, the owner and founder of Mitai Village in Rotorua (which is where we were going later that evening).  After eating our Korean snack, we headed to Wetini's house and met him and a few of his kids.  We got to talking about some of the places in Rotorua that we haven't been to, such as the Blue and Green lakes, so we decided to go for a drive.  Wetini gave us a personal tour of Rotorua and we got to see the pretty lakes that really lived up to their name.  Logan and Keao went for a swim in the blue lake, and from what I heard, it was freezing! :)  We got back to Wetini's house with just enough time to change our clothes and head out to Mitai.  This Maori cultural village features a cultural performance, walk, and an authentic hangi meal.  The price of a ticket to take part in this experience is $100, but we got to enjoy for .... free.  Mahalo Wetini!  It's a family affair-- Wetini's children all work at the village and are a part of the cultural performance, and Wetini is well... the founder.  They share their culture and a lot of the dances and songs are special and unique to Wetini's tribe.  It was amazing!  The performance was awesome and the set up of the stage was established in such a way to create a true feeling of authenticity.  The hangi was 'onooooooo! We had lamb, chicken, scallopped potatoes, kumara, and a whole bunch of other good food.  It tasted similar to food that is cooked in an imu, which isn't a surprise considering that they are the same thing.  After our food, we didn't want to go on a tour with the millions of other tourists who attended that night, so Te Po (Wetini's son) took us on a special tour.  We saw a few glowworms, and saw some of the animals who live at Paradise Springs, the zoo type park right next door to Mitai.  We got back to Wetini's house at about 10:00 and stayed up talking, playing music and games.  The next morning, on our way back to Hamilton, Keao showed us a few places in Rotorua that he likes to go to.  It was a great mini trip!

Roadtrippin' Part 4

Sunday:

• This marked the end of our trip.  We drove down to Auckland (a 5 hour drive South), and stopped at L&L.  Yes, the same L&L we all know and love.  It was located in South Auckland, which is known for it's intense population of Samoans and Tongans.  The L&L was nicely built, and probably the biggest one we've ever seen.  The menu was the same, but the prices weren't.  The plate lunches were all above $13, so Logan and I settled for a spam musubi.  It tasted great.  Reminded us of home.  (By the way, I've been making a list of all the foods I want to eat as soon as I get home.) 

• We then headed back to our friend's apartment, dropped off all our bags, and then returned our camper.  When we got back to her apt, we all went to get some gellatto.  It was a sunny day, so we ate our ice cream at the park.  That night we went to the Fiji, Laga Savea, Kiwini, and Siaosi concert at one of the bars in Auckland.  It was PACKED with Tongans and Samoans.  Logan's football coach (here in NZ) is their producer, so we got in free!  It definitely wasn't the best concert I've been to, but they definitely pleased their targetted audience.  75% of the songs they played were in Tongan or Samoan!

Roadtrippin' Part 3

Saturday:

• Our first stop of the morning was the Waitangi grounds.  We thought we'd get in with free admission (because we're sort of NZ residents), but no such luck.  We had to pay the $25 admission fee!!! We got to see the Treaty house where James Busby stayed during the time of British colonization in NZ.  There were panels on the walls explaining the different rooms and facts about the events that happened there many years ago.  

• Outside of the house was a whare runanga that had been erected 100 years after the signing of the Treaty.  It was beautifully made with intricate carvings and designs.  Outside the door of the house was a sign saying, "Please take off your shoes before entering", but it seemed Logan and I were the only ones to pay it any attention.

• There was also a whare waka, which housed two gigantic war canoes which were also very intricately carved.  
• We were finished with the Treaty grounds at about 11:00 and we weren't scheduled to go on our dolphin cruise until 1:30, so we decided to hang around town until then.  We forgot that it was Labour weekend, and therefore it was packed with tourists and locals alike.  There was a market happening in town as well as a concert and fair (which you had to pay to attend).  We walked up and down the street into all the little sovenier shops and such.  I got a really cute ring, which has pieces of shell, paua, kauri wood, and pounamu! Had some fish n chips for lunch before setting off for the cruise.

• The dolphin cruise departed at 1:30 and it was crowded with heaps of people.  Our first stop was Russell, a town with lots of history.  It used to be known for it's lack of law and was nicknamed "the hellhole of the Pacific".  We then continued on past many of the islands in the Bay of Islands and came across some dolphins who played near our boat for a while.  They jumped and flipped while everyone attempted to snap pictures.  We went through the famous Hole in the Rock, but honestly I don't understand what is so cool about it.  It's just... a hole in the rock.  Whatever though :) We stopped off at an island for an hour and we all were free to explore.  Logan and I stayed along the shore line collecting shells.

• We got back to Paihia at about 6:00 and were starving!  We had some seafood chowder at the restaurant near the dock and then headed back to the holiday park for the night.

Roadtrippin' Part 2

Wednesday:

• This was the day for our big hike.  We heard that the hike to the Pinnacles was well worth doing and so we decided we'd do it... plus, it was free and that's always good! :)  It was a six hour round trip hike up a mountain (and back down).  We walked over Nepalese bridges, rock staircases of never ending stairs, wooden stairs, ladders, climbed over rocks and trees... the list goes on.  Lets just say this was a true hike :)  The trail followed the old trail the gumdiggers used to use back in the 1920's when kauri gum was a heavy industry.  I can't imagine walking that everyday with cows and donkeys carrying cargo.  Amazing!  When we finally got to the top, the view was amazing! Well, after 3 hours of hiking straight up a mountain, it should have been spectacular... and it was.  We could see the rolling hills throughout the peninsula and out in the distance, we could see the ocean.  It was beautiful!  When we finally arrived back at the car 6 hours later, we were releaved and felt so accomplished.  It definitely wasn't something I'd do again in the near future, but it was really fun! Our legs definitely felt all those stairs the next morning though :( 

 Thursday:

• We got up early, stretched our legs out, and headed to Paihia, the top of the island.  It was a six hour drive and Logan was a trooper and drove the whole way :)  We stopped in Whangarei and hung out with some friends we met at uni who lived there.  They took us to Whangarei falls, a pretty high waterfall that emptied into a big pond, and we hung out at their house for a bit.  On the way up north, there was a toll tunnel that had just recently been installed.  In the states, normally there are toll collecters who collect the fee when you drive through.  However, at this toll, it was electronic.  We didn't quite understand what to do, so we drove on through without bothering to pay or anything.  Little did we know, that was actually a felany!  Good thing our friends told us where we had to pay... we drove to a collecting station.  We put in our license plate and it showed exactly how much we owed! Oh, the power of technology. We finally got up to Paihia in the early evening and we mosied around the town and stopped at a few beaches.  

Friday:

• We got up early and went on our first "paid" excursion of the trip... a bus tour to Cape Reinga and the 90 Mile Beach.  Without a 4 wheel drive car and experience driving in those conditions, it was impossible to drive onto the beach itself and experience all its worth, so the tour was a good idea.  The driver's name was Barry and he was the best! He was so knowledgeable and hilarious, he kept us entertained the entire time... and sometimes, the drive was pretty long between stops.  
• We stopped first at the kauri forest.  There were big trees that were thousands of years old, so they were massive!  There's a lot of history to them and it's believed that if you hug a kauri tree, all the nutrients from the tree transfer to you. So, we hugged the tree!

• Our next stop was the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, the last stop for bathroom and food :) We got some fish and chips and Logan eyed out a pounamu necklace that he fell in love with.  Good thing we'd return to this store on our way home, so he had time to decide if he really wanted it!
• Next, we were off to the Cape Reinga.  It was a far drive, but we made friends with these two teenage boys from London who were here on holiday.  We talked about a bunch of different things, and they were fascinated to hear we were from Hawaii.  As we approached the Cape, Barry broke out into a karanga and waiata welcoming us to this sacred place.  Because this is the tip top of the North Island, the Maori believe that the spirits of the dead come together at the tip of the Cape at a tree called Te Aroha and then they depart to Hawaiki.  This was also a special place because we were able to send postcards that are each postmarked by hand with their own special seal that was meant to bring good luck to the receiver.  Enjoy the good luck that comes with postcards we sent you from this place, and also keep them... they're a collectable!  Another fun thing we did here was plant a native tree.  We planted a pohatukawa, a native Christmas tree.  We were given the GPS coordinates, so we can google earth it's progress :) 

• Next stop was the sand dunes!!! This was AWESOME! Barry drove the bus right over a quicksand stream and onto the sand.  He was an experienced "sand-duner" and taught us the tips and tricks to have a great time.  We each grabbed a boogie board and climbed up a 36 meter dune.  It was pretty steep and it reminded our legs of the strenuous hike we'd only done a few days earlier.  I was really scared once I got to the top of the dune... it was reeeeal steep and I watched a few people eat it and it looked sore!  Logan went and he gave me the thumbs up at the bottom, so I went for it!  It was so fun!! The only problem was the walk back up... yikes.

• Our final stop for the day was the 90 Mile beach.  We drove onto the beach and got to play in the shorebreak for a bit.  The tide is really unpredictable and it's really easy to get swept out to sea, so we weren't allowed to go for a swim.  Logan and one of the English boys attempted to dig for clams underneath the sand, but weren't so successful.  It was great though.  The beach has been deemed a highway and has the speed limit of 100 km/h, which I thought was hilarious.  It's only 60 miles long, not 90 and it's a mystery as to why exactly it was given that name, but there are a few theories. We drove along about half of the beach and it was amazing how long it was.  Because of the rip tides, car rental companies have a clause in their contract that says "do not drive on the 90 mile beach."  We saw evidence of what happens if you ignore that clause.... there was a car buried beneath the sand and only the roof of the car barely layed exposed.

• We ended up stopping at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom on our way home and Logan bought a pounamu necklace.  It was really nice and after staring at himself in the mirror for half an hour and getting the opinion of nearly everyone in sight, he settled on the "perfect" one.

Roadtrippin'

We just got back from our second... and final roadtrip to two places on the North Island we've been dying to go to, the Coromandel Peninsula and the tip-top of the island: Paihia.  Classes ended on Friday, October 15 and we packed up and headed out on the following Monday. Here's how our week long trip went:

Monday:

• We caught the Nakedbus up to Auckland and stayed the night at our friend's (Dani from HI) apt. at the Auckland uni.

Tuesday:

• We got up early and lugged our bag to the Jucy site to pick up our camper.  We were "supposed" to be on our way towards Coromandel by 8:00, but because they didn't start prepping the van until that morning, we didn't leave until 9:00 am.  Logan spent the hour pacing back and forth and checking on their progress every 5 minutes :)
• Once we were out of the hustle and bustle of Auckland, we headed to Coromandel (about a 2 hour drive).  Our first stop was Hot Water Beach, a popular tourist beach known for its hot water. duh.  You can rent a spade (shovel) for $5 and dig a big hole in the sand and let the hot springs underneath fill the hole with steaming water.  It's MUCH to hot to dig with you bare hands or feet, so a shovel is essential.  The water was so hot that we had to pour buckets of water from the freezing ocean into our "pool".  It was really relaxing though & I guess that is one of there main objectives: to let people relax and be free.  Some people took this a little too literal and there were a bunch of "oldies" wearing skimpy speedos and one lady was topless!

• Our next stop was Cathedral Cove.  It was a half hour walk down to the actual cove area, but it was BEAUTIFUL! Logan didn't have slippers, so he played the tourist card reeeeal well and sported his tennis shoes with his towel draped over his shoulders :) Due to rock slides, the actual Cathedral Cove was blocked off due to safety precautions, but the bay surrounding the area was amazing.  The weather was sunny and warm and the water was crystal clear! I haven't seen a beach so clean and clear... but since then, we've come to find that MANY of the beaches here are that clean.  Amazing!  Logan went for a swim, but I stayed on the sand looking for shells. Typical! haha.  The water was freezing... of course, it is the Atlantic.

• Our next and final stop for the day was New Chums beach... we think.  I read up that New Chums is a really popular beach in Coromandel for whatever reason, but we couldn't find it.  Maybe we did, but there were no signs or anything labeling what the name of the beach was.  However, we found a map that led up to a beach and we pretended that it was the awesome New Chums.  There wasn't really anything spectacular about it, but there were some pretty cool shells we collected.  The funniest thing happened... I was joking around that I really wanted to find a starfish (a dead one of course) and take it home.  As we were walking back to the car along the shore, there was a tiny starfish that had washed up on to the beach.  It was the weirdest thing! There were no rocks or reef around, so I'm not sure how it ended up there... but it did!
  
  
  
  
  
  

Kapa Haka Hōʻike

On Wednesday night, Loganʻs kapa haka class had a showcase.  Along with the higher level kapa haka class and a nice little "Hawaiian segment," they each had a 20 minute-ish slot to perform what they had learned throughout the semester.  It was really cool!  Ricky (Leoʻs bf) and I arrived at the concert chamber an HOUR before it was going to start.  Talk about dedication.  The doors opened at 6:40 and by that time, people were everywhere waiting to get inside.  It was a pretty big event. 
The first part featured a contemporary haka class where the art of haka was mixed with contemporary styles of dancing.... it was pretty interesting!
Next, Loganʻs beginning kapa haka class performed. Check it out :)

E Te Atua
E Ko Te Tui
E Noho Tuheitia

They did so good!  Next, came the Taonga Pūoro section... treasured instruments.  Majority of it sounded like birds or the winds. Very soft, subtle sounds resembling nature. 

The Hawaiian section came next! Aunty Noenoe and Keao NeSmith each performed a hula.  Keao performed a kahiko number in which he chanted for himself while he danced.  Snapshots of lava and Pele were in the background.  Aunty Noenoe performed Manu ʻOʻo with the vocal help of Logan, Kara, Kamakana, and Keao.  It was beautiful!  Then, as their "hana hou" number, they all danced Kauluwehi o Ke Kai, which they learned an hour before performance time :)

We ended the night by all going to celebrate at the Hilly bar.  It was awesome! :)

Poukai

Yesterday, we attended at Poukai with Aunty Kim's family at one of the King's marae in Huntly.   Poukai is a ceremony that originated in 1884 by King Taawhiao and eventually spread to many other marae throughout the country.  It's purpose was for the King to spend time with the widows, widowers, and those who had recently lost a loved one to help aid in the grieving and healing process.  Traditionally, people brought kai (food) and a big feast occured.  However, in modern times, each person donates money that contributes to the cost of the food that the hosts prepare. 

We slept over at Aunty Kim's house on Thursday night and got an early start the next morning.  We arrived at the marae at about 9:00 am, and of course met with the other manuhiri (visitors).  Aunty Kim and her family were part of the tangata whenua (family) so they entered the marae first.  We greeted many of the mātua of the manuhiri who were all gathered waiting for the Poukai to commence.  Everyone was dressed in black (or dark colors) and many were adorned with pounamu jewelry.  Whaea Pare, Aunty Kim and Uncle Hotu's close friend who accompanied us for the Poukai, explained to us about the dress.  She said that you could tell where a person was from by the color of accessories they wore.  People from the Waikato region had scarves and blankets with a dark green plaid pattern, people from the Rotorua region had blue accessories, such as scarves, or hat adornments.  The ceremony started at about 10 am with a whakaeke, movement of visitors onto the marae.  A band of school children led the manuhiri into the marae playing a well known Maori hymn.


The ceremony begun with a pōwhiri.  Karakia were exchanged between the tangata whenua and the manuhiri.  After the karakia, we sat along one side of the marae in chairs and benches facing the family of the Kingi.  People from both sides gave their whaikōrero (speeches).  A member of the tangata whenua start off and then the speaking duty goes back and forth between the tangata whenua and the manuhiri speakers.  However, there were more manuhiri speakers than tangata whenua, but the last speaker of the pōwhiri needs to be from the tangata whenua.  So, all the speakers of the manuhiri spoke and then the last tangata whenua speaker gave his whaikōrero.  This was the longest part of the day.  All the speeches were delivered in Maori and the entire process was about 2.5 hours long.  I started to go cross-eyed.  It helped that Whaea Pare explained to us what the speakers were saying :)

After the whaikōrero, we participated in the hariru (greetings) with the tangata whenua.  All the manuhiri stood in a long line and we exchanged hongi or honi with each member of the tangata whenua.  We even got to hongi with the Maori King!!! :)

After the hariru, it was time for kai! Yippee!  The manuhiri entered first into the Whare Kai (eating house).  The tables were lined with Maori delicacies including raw mussels, boil up, roast, beef, potatos, and tuna (long finned eel).  I had wanted to try all these foods :)  Everything was pretty good, except the eel.  It looked like it was going to taste like dried aku, but definitely didn't.  It was squishy when you bit into it, and it tasted.... different.  Let's just say I could only handle one bite of it... barely.

After the kai, we went back outside and sat down in our usual spot.  During this time, people were free to give speeches about whatever they felt, which usually resulted in talking about tribal affairs.  It became very political.

Overall, it was a GREAT experience and I'm so happy we got to partake in it :)

Frankton Market, Kanikapila, & Pavlova

This past weekend, Aunty Noenoe (another of Kama's contacts) picked us up and we went to the Frankton Market, which is a "swap meet" type of event that happens every Saturday.  Local vendors set up their booths along both sides of the street and everyone hangs out for the day.  It's not nearly as big as Swap Meet, but it's pretty popular amongst the locals.  People were selling fruits, fleece blankets, tshirts, wood furniture, mats.... the list goes on!  Logan got a really cool "Maori" blanket and a tshirt.  I didn't get anything (Surprise!), but I really enjoyed walking around.  There were people just sitting on the picnic tables talking and enjoying each other's company and some were playing music. 

Aunty Noenoe asked us if we would help her sing Manu 'O'o for her performance in the uni's show exhibiting the dances of the kapa haka classes here at uni.  She was asked to perform a hula and she chose Manu 'O'o, but she wanted help singing it.  (She's going to sing and dance the song!)  We went over to her house for dinner on Sunday night to practice and she cooked us a greeeeeat meal.  We had teriyaki beef, chicken, sushi rice, nori & PAVLOVA! We finally got to try Pavlova :) It's NZ's most famous dessert consisting of whipped cream, a cakey foundation, fruit garnishes... and some other secret ingredients which I couldn't pick out.  It was yummmmy!  Kamakana, Leo, Logan, and myself went over for dinner and practice.  I'm not too fond of my singing abilities (or lack thereof), so I decided that I didn't want to sing in the performance.  But anyway, we sang the song a few times, and watched Sione's Wedding, a Samoan movie filmed in New Zealand.  It was hilarious! I must say, NZ film's are prettttty funny. 

Yay, a Homecooked meal!

A few weeks ago, we had dinner with another one of Kamakana's contacts, Aunty Margie & her family.  They had just moved to Hamilton, and we were her first house guests (other than family)!  They lived out in the country part of the city in a nice small house with beautiful Maori decor.  For dinner, we had ... seafood!  Crawfish, seafood chowder, and a really nice NZ seafood dish that I can't remember the name of! :( Maybe it'll come to me later. But anyway, we all had a great time- Logan, Kamakana, Leo, Kara, and myself traded out a Friday dinner at the halls for a homecooked seafood dinner. Yum!  Another family came over for dinner also- Paul, Tania and their two sons.  Tania was originally from Hawaii and lived in Kuli'ou'ou... she "married Maori", which is a VERY popular story here in New Zealand.  Our dinner conversation eventually got to talking about Hawaiians, colonization, sovereignty, etc. etc. and we all had our opintions.  It was... interesting ;) 

All in all, the night was awesome.  Great food and great company.  Tama (Aunty Margie's son) and Logan are pretty good friends now, which is really nice!  I wish I had pictures of the food, but it was GONE before I could even get my camera out :)

Updates!

Since our outrageous roadtrip, things have been pretty mellow.  Getting back into the swing of school, homework, and terrible cafeteria food was pretty tough.  Not only did our trip leave us with lots of memories, it left us ... broke!  So, I've been blogging for Waikato and they pay me $12.50 for each blog I do, but since I'm not legally allowed to "work" while I'm here in NZ, they give me gift certificates for Pak n Save (a grocery store.)  Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess! lol.
For our Maori class, we got to visit the school's marae and take part in a welcoming ceremony.  That was pretty interesting and definitely a good experience.  We also learned about many different Maori musical instruments and got to learn how to use the poi, stick game, and a few other instruments.  We also learned a haka.  Logan is taking a kapa haka class and they have a performance on October 13th.  I'll be sure to record it!

Here's some "kiwiana" for you...

• togs= bathing suit
• jandals= slippers
• torch= flashlight
• fish n chips are the staple food. (we have them EVERY Friday for dinner.)
• hokey pokey is the best ice cream/candy I've ever tasted. 
• rugby=life
• "sweet as bro" = "awesome!"
• beer, beer, beer
• cookies here are amazing!

South Island Adventures Part 6: Christchurch, Wellington

Our last stop in Christchurch was Willowbank Reserve.  It was a zoo type place that had wallobies (?), long finned eels, and a bunch of other native animals.  The only difference with this place was ... there were no cages between us and the animals.  We walked through a door into each exhibit, and the animals were walking, flying, and crawling all around us!  It was so cool!  We saw some real kiwis here too!

We flew into Wellington on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday morning got frantic calls from our parents at 7 am in the morning asking if we were okay.  We just missed the 7.1 earthquake, and were so thankful.  We saw pictures of the damage and some of the streets we had parked on were covered in rubble and some of the buildings we walked past had collapsed.  Close call, but thankfully, we're safe!

Wellington was pretty fun.  Visited Te Papa museum.  It was huge with 4 floors of exhibits, including one for the collosal squid, the largest squid ever! DAD: how would you like to spear one of those?? I think it'd probably eat you.  Its HUGE!!! We went up on the cable car and walked around the gardens for a bit.  Pretty boring, haha!  Logan has been dying to go to the Weta Cave.  Its a store made for Weta, which is a company that makes the props for movies such as Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Avatar and a few others.  It was pretty amazing.  We saw a bunch of different collectibles, props from familiar movies, and watched a cool film on the actual factory.  Logan bought a TinTin book because "it's a collectors item and will be worth a lot of money someday." haha!

Our trip was AWESOME!  Definitely a success.  We got pretty attached to our Jucy camper by the end, and it was hard saying goodbye.  I promised you I'd tell you our total mileage, so here it is ... 2,884.5 kilometers = 1,800 miles!  And, we did all of that in 11 days :) Logan did a great job driving.  Now its back to school, and we've got lots of work to do!

Here's a map of everywhere we drove.  Follow the orange line to retrace our steps!

South Island Adventures Part 5: Dunedin, Akaroa, Adrenalin Forest

We finally got to Dunedin on Sunday afternoon, which was the day we had planned to get there.  That gives you an idea of how long we drove.  We made up a whole day of plans through driving the SS route!  We went to the Larnach Castle on the Otago Peninsula.  It was a privately owned castle that was built ages ago by William Larnach for his first wife.  The castle has some pretty interesting history to it and a lot of it was preserved and we were able to see much of the original furnishings!  We also headed to Cadbury World, NZ's Chocolate Factory!  We took a tour around part of the factory, tried some raw cocoa beans, learned how chocolate is made, and watched a ton of liquid chocolate fall from the sky.  Our tour guide was a cute old man who loved "chocolatey things."

On Monday, we went on a really cool walking guided tour on the Otago Peninsula and got to see animals in action!  We got up close to a NZ fur seal pup colony, saw some sea lions sleeping on the beach, and saw some rare Yellow-Eyed penguins. Yes, the penguins lived on the beach, and actually never left.  They stay there all year long, and sleep up on the hill under the trees at night and go fishing out in the ocean during the day.  These penguins are the second rarest in the world.  There are less than 200 alive now, and the infant mortality rate is 80%.  The odds of survival are rough :(  They share their hilly home with sheep, the most abundant animal, or creature for that matter, to inhabit New Zealand.  Hmmm ... talk about "opposites attract."

After Dunedin, we headed up North towards Christchurch, and stopped at the Moeraki boulders.  They are massive round, smooth boulders created by nature.  There's the Maori version of how they came about and a scientific version.  Of course.  They were amazing(ly big)! An awesome example of nature's work at it's best!

Finally, Christchurch.  On Wednesday, we drove through Christchurch to Akaroa where we did a nature cruise.  The day was surprisingly sunny and we got to sit on the front of the catamaran and enjoy the sites.  We saw a few swimming penguins, a seal, and a ton of seabirds!  There was a 98% chance that we'd see Hector Dolphins, the rarest dolphins in the world.  (They're only found near the peninsula.)  Well, it was a sunny day, and that was our gift for the day.  We saw NO dolphins.  Not one.  Not even a fin of one. 

We drove back to Christchurch dissapointed, but somehow we found humor in our streak of bad luck.  Thursday morning we put on our workout clothes because we were going to master Adrenaline Forest, an intense high-ropes course!  We asked the people at the holiday park where it was located and they gave us simple directions, so we ditched our maps, and followed what they said.  It was a 70 km drive out of town and our appointment was scheduled for 11.  We stopped along the way to ask and make sure we were going in the right direction and we were told we were.  So, we kept on driving.  Well, we drove past a really shabby ropes course that didn't even have an actual name.  There was no one there and we were a bit hesistant.  Come to find, we were at the WRONG place.  It was nearing 11 and we were at least 50 km from the actual Adrenaline Forest.  We resorted to the touristy map following and finally found the actual Adrenaline Forest!  (We were still the only ones there, and our skeptism only dissapeared slightly.)

The guide strapped us into our harnesses and taught us how to use the safety clips and all that.  There were 6 different stages, each stage increasing in difficulty as well as height.  There were 100 obstacles in all.  We were responsible for our own safety, completely.  We had to strap onto the safety line at each obstacle, unclip and reclip at each one thereafter.  Our safety was ONLY up to us!  They'd never have anything like it in the States.  Too many people sue and don't take responsibility for their actions.  We didn't even have to wear a helmet!

To our surprise, it was so much fun!  We jumped across spinning logs, climbed across a wire, swung on a rope into big nets, zipped on flying foxes, climbed through barrels, and a whole bunch more.  I did the first four levels and that was all I could handle.  The fourth level got to be 20 feet up in the air, and that was just too high.  I even had a mini-meltdown on one of the obstacles. haha.  Logan completed all 6!  I was so proud of him.  The sixth level was 60 feet up in the air and the hardest challenges.  He can tell you about it if you ask him.  It took 5 hours for him to finish the entire course, and the average time is 3 hours, but I think I slowed him down in the beginning.  I'm not too fond of heights :)

South Island Adventures Part 4: Piopiotahi, SS Route

The drive from Te Anau to Milford is a scenic journey in itself.  It's an actual drive with about 16 marked stops along the way.  Some of the stops are short walks off the roadside and others were just outside our window.  We were planning on doing a Milford Cruise that afternoon, so we jammed past all 16 stops and headed straight for the Sound itself.  We got there with just enough time to board the small boat and we were off!  The cruise took us around the edge of the Sound and we were surrounded by steep cliffs covered in different forestry, beautiful waterfalls, and the occasional Fiordland Crested Penguin, the rarest penguin in the WORLD! Yes, in the world.  It's unknown where they come from or where they go, and they're tiny cute little penguins that dip and dive beneath the water surface.  The Milford crew consider them to be "as rare as a shooting star."  The cruise was lots of fun, but of course ... rainy and cold!  Logan's motto for the entire trip was, "we're roughing it!" and he wanted to stand outside on the deck the entire time, but I couldn't handle.  It was too freezing. 

After the cruise, we stopped off at nearly all 16 stops along the scenic drive. Our mutual favorite was Mirror Lakes.  The name is pretty self-explanatory.  The lake literally acted as a mirror, even on a windy day like the day we went!

Nice mountains huh?  Well, actually this is the reflection of the mountains in the water.  I cropped, cut & flipped the picture :) Gotcha!

We were now a day ahead of schedule because we had left Queenstown earlier than expected, and we didn't know what to do!  Logan had talked about driving down to Invercargill, the most Southern city on the South Island, while we were making our plans, but it didn't seem like there was much to do there.  Well, we had a whole day to spare, so we drove down there anyway!  (This largely added to outrageous mileage.)

We drove down to Invercargill and stayed in a holiday park for the night.  The next morning, we woke up early and drove along the Southern Scenic route to Dunedin.  It was a long drive that we hadn't planned for, but we're both really happy that we did it because it was amazing!  It was a similar drive like the Milford scenic one, but a lot longer. A LOT.  It went along the coast from Invercargill to Dunedin.  It took us the entire day on Saturday, and even part of Sunday morning.  Along the way, we stopped at different beaches, lookouts, saw some sea lions, and the most beautiful waterfall we've ever seen.  The name of it was Purakaunui Falls.  We saw a picture of it on the brochure, and we had to see it for ourselves.  The drive into the falls was 2 km along a dirt road covered in large, sharp rocks and the entire time we were hoping our tires wouldn't pop.  Well ... thankfully, it was worth it!  The waterfall was amazing! See for yourself!

South Island Adventures Part 3: Queenstown

Enjoy Logan's blog? I think he should write some more :)

After Puzzling World, we continued our drive to Queenstown where we stayed for a few days.  It was our first stop in an actual city and boy was it different than driving in the lonely one-lane roads we were used to!  There were cars and roundabouts everywhere!!  It didn't help that we had no idea where we were OR where we were going.  We managed to find a parking lot and followed the flow of people to the lakeside for some shopping.  There were a bunch of different stores, mostly ski/snowboarding ones.  Queenstown is known for it's snowy mountains, but we weren't really interested in skiing.  We went to bed early so that we could get an early start the next day.  Actually, we went to bed early nearly every night!  By early, I mean by 8 pm.  haha!

Our first stop on Thursday morning was Zip Trek Eco Tours, a ziplining experience at the top of the one of the Queenstown mountains.  Of course, like Logan mentioned, it was raining.  We rode a LOOOOONG gondola up to the top of the mountain and walked down a gravel path to the small treehouse representing the Zip Trek office.  This company prides itself on it's "green" ways of operating and part of the money we paid goes to protecting the environment and all that good stuff.  The actual Zip Trek experience was awesome.  The rain cleared up a bit, which was nice.  We got to zip on four different flying foxes, each one a bit longer than the previous.  We got to flip upside down and Logan mastered the "flashing star" and the "running man."  Heaps of fun!

Up until now, our trip was going exactly according to planned.  We had made an itinerary before we left, and it probably would have been good if we emailed it to you guys considering the recent events and all.  Oops!  Anyways, we were planning on going luging like we had done in Rotorua, but the rainy weather didn't make luging sound too appealing, so we headed back into town and ate a Fergburger.  Now,  I wouldn't spend too much time writing about this particular burger if I didn't think I had to, but I do.  It was amazing; I mean the best burger I've ever had.  I'm not a big burger fan, but this one was good!  Apparently, it's preeeeetty well known; the place was packed!  Logan was nearly in Heaven.

After inhaling our burgers, we drove to Te Anau, which was our final stop before the infamous Milford Sound!!

South Island Adventures part 2: Fox Glacier, Blue Pools, Puzzling World

Hello family. Kailee said I had to contribute to some of the blog so I decided to write about my favorite part of the trip! Here we go...


So climbing a glacier was something I really wanted to do. I have been training at the gym for 3 weeks prior to make sure my climb was a success!! (just kidding, but seriously:)) My workout plan will be included in a different blog so that you all can use it haha!  So there was two glaciers in the south island worth climbing, Franz Josef and Fox glaciers.  The Franz Josef is much more popular, but I went with the Fox Glacier tour because only this tour group had access to climb the actual face of the glacier making it completely untainted by tourist (it was also like $10 cheaper which was a plus).  So story of our trip was that it was rainy whenever we wanted to do an outdoor activity, and this day was no different.  The weather did get better as our hike went on which made us extremely excited.  Our tour guides name was Passang, originally from Nepal, and he had a heavy Filipino sounding accent that kept me entertained for most of the journey.  Before we began, we had to get equipment, including a rain coat, gloves, crampons (the spiky things for shoes), steel toe boots, a beanie, and my favorite...WATER!  We then made our way by bus to the glacier itself.  When first looking at the glacier I didn't think we were gonna make it! The thick, gray clouds covered the valley and it was gonna be a very far hike.  We first had to bush walk (bush = forest) up about 800 stairs to the spot where we would start walking up the glacier.  Passang was good about letting us rest, so we would walk and stop about every 15 mins for a quick water.  Some parts were pretty scary, going up on the sides of cliffs and only holding onto a chain which they nailed into the mountainside, but he was very aware of the safety precautions and made us very aware as well.  When we finally got up to the clearing to start our glacier walk, the view was incredible.  I felt so accomplished to be up there. A glacier is such a natural wonder, and how many people do you know that can actually say "I climbed a glacier"?  We tied on our crampons to our boots and made our way onto the ice! It was amazing, the company cut out "ice stairs" with a pick that made it a little easier. Still it was pretty slippery, and Passang made sure we were super careful.  We got to see Ice caves, and drank pure water from the glacier runoff.  It was my favorite experience of the entire trip! We walked back down a different trail on the side of the glacier, and got to see its actual mass! After a 5 hour hike we were pretty tired, but the experience was totally worth every penny!
The next day we visited this place called the Blue Pools in Haast.  The Blue Pools were a 20 minute hike off the side of the motorway (motorway = highway) in the middle of a gigantic national park.  That was a short hike for us now.  It was very cool and very BLUE.  The title did not disappoint! The blueness is caused by snow runoff from the mountains.  It was a very worthwhile little trip, and I made the most tranquil little stone stack. (it definitely was the nicest one there haha, maybe kailee will put up the picture)  Than we had to drive another few hours, so we made ham sandwiches (that was all that we ate on our trip) and hit the road.
We finally arrived at Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World in Wanaka.  It was soooo trippy.  This guy had to be a real puzzle genius to put together this entire museum of puzzles.  There was many deceiving pictures that we took and we still can't figure out how he did it.  I hope you guys can see all the pictures from this place.  Built around his museum is a maze that takes on average an hour and a half.  It took us longer than that I think haha.  But it was very fun.  Basically you had to find all four corners and the way out.  The way out took us the longest and we were getting pretty frustrated by the end.  After completion we had fun looking at all the quirky gifts at the gift shop and settled on buying this hologram bookmark of these giraffes. Its hilarious.  That's all for me folks.  Hope you enjoyed it.

South Island Adventures: Jucy, hot pools, Pancake Rocks

We caught a plane to Christchurch on Monday morning, and it was surprisingly a breeeeze to get through security.  I was allowed to leave all my clothes (including my shoes) on through the metal detector, took a bottle of water through, and the craziest part of it all was that I was never ID'd. Only when we checked in did they ask for our passport.  Other than that, someone else could have been Kailee and/or Logan for the day and flew to Christchurch!  We got to our gate only to hear an welcomed voice over the PA system announce our flight was delayed due to bad weather in Christchurch.  Not a good start to our trip!  Over the next 20 minutes, the Christchurch airport had closed & reopened again and we were back on schedule.  The airlines didn't waste anytime; everyone boarded the plane, and we were off.  Somehow, we miraculously got to Christchurch only FIVE MINUTES after our scheduled arrival!

Our first stop and most important was to get our Jucy Chaser campervan!  A Jucy camper picked us up, and drove us to the dealership.  After some wheeling and dealing about insurance, diesel fuel tax, and a few other practicalities, we jumped in our Jucy and were off!  I must say, Logan did a GREAT job getting us from one place to the next.  You won't believe how many kilometers/miles we drove, but I'll save it for a later time to tell you ... create some suspense :)  We drove up North for about two hours to Hanmer Springs, a small town with award-winning hot pools.  To our surprise, three of our friends from Hamilton were in the exact same place at the exact same time as us!  There were about 20 different pools we could have chose from, and we all ended up in the same pool!  The scenery was really nice and we relaxed for a while in the nice geothermic hot pools!  It was great!  We went to get a quick bite to eat with them afterwards and then, we continued on to the West Coast. 

We got to Punakaiki at about 6ish and got a quick dinner and tried to find a place to sleep.  We didn't want to pay to stay at a motor camp, so we tried to find a "freedom camping" spot.  We saw a local campervan parked along the coast, so we pulled up next to them for the night.  All around BAD idea!  It was absolutely freezing!  The wind from the ocean went right through our windows and we nearly got hypothermia, which also made it hard to fall asleep, for me at least.  At about 9:00, I thought I heard some footsteps outside our van, but thought nothing of it.  In the morning, we woke up to find someone had drawn a Swastika right infront of our van!  How nice.  I was pretty scared, so we jetted out of there.  Since then, our nights were vandalized-free! Phewph!

In the morning, we headed over to the Pancake Rocks.  It was a 20 minute walk to see all the rocks.  Definitely worth it!  They were created 30 million years ago underground, and earthquakes have brought them up. 

Here's our pictures from our whole South Island Adventure (of course not ALL, there's a ton!):

South Island
South Island 2

Always start with A(uckland)!

We started our teaching recess adventure in Auckland!  Caught the Nakedbus on Saturday morning and got to Auckland around noon.  We lugged our 20 kg bags up steep streets to our friend Dani's dorm.  She's going to University of Auckland for the semester and we're so happy that she let us stay with her for the weekend!  She lives in a flat with 4 other roommates, and all but one are from the States.  Our first stop was Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World, or something.  I made up the second part of the name, but it fits :)  It was a lot more "kiddish" than we expected, although there were some pretty cool animals including the most ginormous stingray I've ever seen!  I can't even describe how big it was!!  We went on a cute ride around the penguin exhibit, and then took a dive in the shark tank!  There were makos, tigers, and a few other types of sharks and we got to go "shark caging."  It wasn't as intense as the ones at home because these sharks were kept in an exhibit, and therefore well fed so they weren't looking for an afternoon snack, thankfully.

That night, we went to a House of Shem concert.  It was a lot of fun.  They're really popular at home in Hawaii, and kinda old news here in NZ.  Consequently, the concert wasn't too packed and Logan got to meet/talk with the band after!

The next morning we took a ferry to Rangitoto Island and hiked up to the top.  It was about an hour hike, but on a hill.  It was pretty tough and we were pretty sweaty and tired by the end.  It didn't help that about halfway up the mountain, Ke Akua decided to pour on us.  Good thing I brought my trusty umbrella!  The view from the top was beautiful and we were able to see Auckland across the harbor!

Dani showed us a really good Japanese food place near her dorm and I got Chicken Katsu and Logan had some Teriyaki Chicken plate.  It was really good!  She said they even have L&L about 20 minutes away from her dorm.  Amazing!!! I wonder if it tastes like home?

South Island!

We've been in school now for 6 weeks, about halfway, and now we're on "teaching recess."  It's a two week break from "teaching," but the teachers still have work; therefore, so do we.  I have two papers and a test right after the break, so I've been trying to get as much work done as I could before the end of this week.  My growing excitement didn't allow me to get much done, but I'm not too worried ... for now :) 
Tomorrow morning, we'll be heading up to Auckland for a couple days to officially complete our tour of the city.  We'll be going to a House of Shem concert, shark caging at Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World, and catching a ferry to Rangitoto Island and hiking up to the top.  We'll be staying with our friend Dani who's studying abroad from USF.  She's going to join us on our Auckland Adventures, so we're really excited!

Then we'll be catching a plane down to the Christchurch airport where the real adventure begins.  South Island is supposedly absolutely amazing, and I believe it!  Everywhere in New Zealand is amazing :)  Although, I was expecting to see a lot more sheep on the North Island, but I've heard that I'll definitely get my fair share of them on the South Island.  Yikes!
I've never been on a roadtrip before, but I've always wanted to.  Renting a campervan is really popular in NZ and surprisingly, the cheapest!  Logan did his homework on campervans- he found so many different companies, and everywhere we go, he points out someone driving by in one that he recognizes.  We had no problem finding options on different companies within a reasonable price range.  The problem we had was finding one that didn't have manual transmission.  Logan was convinced that he could learn to drive manual within a short amount of time, and I didn't doubt him.  But, there was another catch-  he had to learn how to drive manual WHILE learning to drive on the left side of the road!  A bit much? Yes.  So, he continued to do research and ended up finding the "perfect" campervan.  It was like it was made JUST for us.  It had everything we needed, automatic transmission, AND ended up being the cheapest!  Talk about a scoreeeee!  Another plus was the company was giving coupons and vouchers for some of the South Island attractions that we wanted to do!  Too good to be true? Sure hope not! 

We'll start off in Christchurch and then tour the island, basically! Wish us luck on our first roadtrip!  Hopefully, it's a success.  Either way, I'm sure I'll have lots of stories ... I always do :)

Miss you all & love you!  The time is flying by so fast.  I wish it would slow down.  But, it's natural to always want more of a good thing :)

Maori 100 ... Tau ana!

Life in New Zealand's been "sweet as" ... but when is it not?  We've been really busy lately with essays and tests, but it's nothing like Linfield (or any other school experience for that matter).  We had our first Maori 100 test on Tuesday, and we actually studied pretty hard for it.  Cross your fingers and hope we passed :)  Actually, passing doesn't seem to be too difficult in any of my papers.  The grading scale differs quite a bit from US grading scales.  Normally, the "A range" is above 90%, but in NZ, the range normally starts with an A- being 85%!  I haven't received any grades yet, so I'm not sure if that means that the teachers here grade harder ... but I thought it was really interesting! 
I really enjoy our Maori class!  The lectures get a bit tedious, but it's hard to get 20 year old college students to find pleasure in sitting in a lecture for 2 hours at a time anyway.  We've learned about the Polynesian Migration and how the Maori culture relates to all the other Pacific Island cultures.  We've learned about nga atua (Maori gods), which are unsurprisingly very similar to Hawaiian akua.  We've learned a bit of language basics, and this week we had an oral test in which we had to recite our whakawhanaungatanga!  Yes, its a mouthful :)  It roughly translates to "introducing yourself," and if you're familiar with the Hawaiian culture, "introducing yourself" is defined by where you come from.  So, we memorized our pepeha, our "tribal" history.  All Maori came from iwi (tribes) and a pepeha is similar to a mo'oku'auhau.  However, a pepeha can be, and mostly is, similar/identical among tribes.  A mo'oku'auhau is a family genealogy specific to one person; I'm not sure what the equivalent concept is in Maori.  However, in our whakawhanaungatanga, we included a bit of our genealogy.
We also learned a waiata (song), which we'll sing at our marae visit!  After we get back from the teaching recess, we'll be welcomed to the marae here at uni.  I'm excited :)

Reggae Rhythm

So, reggae in New Zealand is BIG.  They have Katchafire, House of Shem, Three Houses Down, Sons of Zion, 1814, etc., etc. However, they LOVE Hawaii reggae-  the current fave is Kolohe Kai & Rebel Souljahs!  Crazy, huh?!  This was a big shock to me; therefore, it was an even bigger shock to Logan!  He thought he was going to visit Katchafire's house here in Hamilton, and get the "ins" with the band.  Well, last I heard, Katchafire's in Portland ... talk about a coincidence!  I guess that's how the world works- everyone's tired of music from their own culture.  Hawaii loves New Zealand reggae and vise versa.  I can honestly say that I've heard "Cool Down" every day since I've been here blasted from someone's window!  I had the funniest conversation with a Maori boy about this song.  When I first arrived in New Zealand in July, he asked me how cold it was in Hawaii, and I said, "it's really hot! It's summer!"  (In case you didn't know), the opening line of the song is "Its a firey afternoon, hotter than the month of June."  Well in New Zealand, EVERYTHING is hotter than the month of June.  Opposite seasons means its freezing here in June!  He was so relieved to be rid of his confusion .. I'm glad I could help :) 

If you know Logan, you know he loves reggae, so we went to a Sons of Zion concert here in Hamilton last weekend.  It was a half-pleasure and half-business concert for him- he enjoyed the songs, but of course was attempting to "steal" ideas for his own band back home.  What a ham! But hey, he swears he'll be famous one day!  I thought it was really good.  I really enjoyed the opening bands, particularly Sweet & Irie.  They played songs that I actually knew!  The only thing that was awkward about the night was the audience.  It seemed that we were the only people under 25 there.  Majority were 30 year old Maoris skanking to reggae! 

Next week, we're going to a House of Shem concert in Auckland.  I'm excited for it!  I think Logan is rubbing off on me...

Rotorua (Day 3&4)

What did we do on Sunday? We WALKED & WALKED.

A shuttle picked us up from Crash Palace at 9 am and drove us to the Wai-o-tapu Geothermal Reserve, about 30 minutes outside the town of Rotorua.  We arrived with enough time to watch the daily eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser, one of the site's main attractions.  The history behind the geyser is really interesting, and if you're interested, I suggest you read up on it!  :) The coordinators of the geyser trigger the eruption everyday at around 10:15 by putting a soap-like substance into the mouth of the geyser!  I won't write about why that is because it'd make this entry really long, but it's a really interesting story!  Anyway, the geyser can reach up to 20 meters high depending on the day and the amount of water that has accumulated in the geyser over the previous 24 hours. 

Next, we drove to the actual geothermal reserve and began our 3 km walk around the area.  It was really well mapped out and it was really neat being able to see the results of all the geothermal activity happening in the area.  There was sulfur everywhere and we were always reminded by the smell, but everything was soooo neat and we'd never seen anything like it.  There were pools with bright blue and orange, bright yellow rocks, caves, boiling mud, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  You need to see the pictures to see how amazing it was!  If you ever come to NZ, I definitely reccommend you do this walk.  It took a couple hours, but it was totally worth it.  There were professionals photographers who just sat at some spots the entire day taking pictures of the different sites.

Next, we went to Waimangu Volcanic Valley.  It was another walk, yet took much longer.  We walked through a large valley filled with lakes, and panoramic views of the area.  It was a lot more foresty and condensed by plants, but there was also a lot more wildlife at this place.  There was an area at the end of the hike especially made for bird watching.  We got to see geese (the daddy goose was making a nest for the mommy goose to lay her eggs.)  There was also a ton of different types of birds, some of which were native to New Zealand.  One area of the walk allowed us to do an optional hike up the side of the valley.  We all decided we would do the hike regardless of the sign at the beginning that said "This hike is not for unfit people."  It was a pretty tough hike.  The mountain was pretty steep and so were the stairs, but it was beautiful.  Logan was having a pretty hard time, and so was Kamakana- he kept asking when we would be finished.  I don't think he was enjoying the hike very much! haha.  When we got back to the information desk at the beginning, Logan told the lady, "You can take down the sign that says 'not for unfit people' because we just did it!"  haha!

We got back to Rotorua at about 4:00, and Kamakana caught the Nakedbus back to campus at 5:00 that evening.  He had class the next morning and didn't want to miss it.  Logan and I hung out around town and went to the local park which had geothermic ponds and footpools!

The next morning, we caught the bus to the Skyline Rotorua site and went luging! We rode on a gondola up to the top of the mountain where the luge tracks were.  As we were going up, we could see all of Lake Rotorua as well as most of the city.  It was beautiful!  When we got to the top, we each got a helmet and went on our first luge ride down the "scenic track."  This track is designed for beginners (or newcomers)- it's not as steep as the other tracks and allows you to get used to how the luge works!  It was really fun!  There were three different tracks: scenic, intermediate, and expert.  We got five luge rides and did 2 scenic, 2 intermediate, and 1 expert.  Our favorite was the intermediate track and it seems to be the common favorite among most people.  It was a lot faster than the scenic track, but not as fast as the expert.  There were some sharp turns, tunnels, and hills, but it was really fun!  Logan made me try the expert track with him, and I'm happy to admit that I am NOT an expert at luge.  It was soooo scary!  The turns were so sharp and were nearly vertical, the drops were very steep and the luge went way too fast! I nearly lost control a few times, but I'm happy that we did it at least once.  I'll just say I'm an expert because I completed the track ... alive! :) But this is another one of those things that you HAVE to do if you ever go to Rotorua! A greeeeat experience!  It's a really awesome family activity to do!

We had a few hours left before we were supposed to catch our bus back to Hamilton, so we went next door to Paradise Springs Wildlife Park.  It was sort of like a zoo, but a lot of the animals were free to walk, waddle, swim, and fly right around you.  There was a native birds section, a section of introduced animals, a trout viewing area (EW! I've never seen a trout before & let's just say, I've seen better looking fish), a kiwi viewing area (this was so neat! We got to see REAL kiwi birds walking around playing with the leaves in their "home"), and a bunch more.  One of the other cool things we got to see here was the tuatara, which is a lizard that was alive during the dinosaur age!  It looks like a komodo dragon or something, but is very special to New Zealand.  A very cool experience!

That was our time in Rotorua.  I hope you enjoyed reading about it; we had so much fun.  It's our favorite place here, SO FAR!


Pictures from Day 3&4:

Wai-o-tapu & Waimangu

Paradise Springs

**our luging pictures are in the album with Zorb and Agrojet!

Rotorua (Day 1&2)

This past weekend, we caught the Nakedbus to Rotorua and stayed there for three nights!  It's about two hours south of Hamilton and we arrived at about 5ish in the evening.  Our first stop was the Polynesian Spa.  It was right in the center of town and it featured hot mineral bathing and different spa therapies.  We got our own hot pool right on the edge of Lake Rotorua!  It was absolutely beautiful.  We got to see over the entire lake and up the mountains on the other side.  The sun was just beginning to set, and so we were able to watch the sunset.  The water was really nice- it wasn't extremely hot like a jacuzzi, but it was a comfortable temperature.  The pool was made of large river rocks, and it reminded me of the pools in Kapoho (with warm water, no fish, and a lot smaller.)

The hostel we stayed at was called Crash Palace and it's ranked the #2 hostel in NZ!  It was really good :) When we checked in that night, the owner told us they'd be having dinner for us at 6:30, and every morning they serve breakfast.  We had spaghetti that night, and everyone staying at the hostel ate together.  There were about 20 rooms all together, and some of them were dorm style and could fit up to 10 people.  Everyone was really friendly and they even had two dogs and a cat roaming around the hostel playing with the guests.  There was also a hottub, Wii, tv with a ton of movies, boardgames, and a pool table.

The next morning, we woke up and a shuttle picked us up and drove us to Hells Gate, which is Rotorua's most active geothermal park!  We started out by going on the hour long geothermal walk around the reserve.  We walked alongside boiling mudpools, sulfur ponds, hot waterfalls, and a whole bunch of other neat things.  The highlight was definitely smelling the sulfur!  It was STRONG!  After the walk, we got to make a wood carving of a Maori symbol to take home.  I was having a difficult time; I guess I wasn't born to be a carver.  Logan and Kamakana did a really good job carving out their symbols.

It started to rain pretty heavy, so luckily our next activity was under cover.  We got to sit in a mud pool for 20 minutes.  It was so nice and relaxing, definitely one of my favorite things on the trip.  The entire bottom of the pool was covered in mud and we rubbed it all over our bodies.  It felt really nice!  After the mud pool, we went into a sulphur pool.  This pool was a lot warmer than the mud pool and I couldn't stay in it for much longer than the half an hour.  There were two different pools to choose from, one was slightly hotter than the other.  We got to talking with the pool attendants about being Hawaiian and being Maori (typical conversations we have here.)  After the sulphur pool, we felt totally relaxed!  We were getting pampered this weekend :)

At lunch time, we caught the shuttle back into town and hopped on the city bus which took us to our Adventure spot #1: Zorbing and Agrojet.  It was pouring rain by this time, but these places functioned in all types of weather!  First, we did Zorb.  It's a 12 ft inflatable globe that you jump into and roll down one of their two hills.  There's a smaller ball in the middle of the larger one, so that you don't hit the ground while rolling.  You can either be strapped into the side of the Zorb and roll with the Zorb as it speeds down the hill.  Just the thought of doing that made me sick. The other option was Wet Zorb, and that is where they put a couple buckets of warm water in the Zorb with you, so that instead of tumbling, you just slide all around the Zorb as it goes down the hill.  There were two different tracks- a straight course that went down a hill (and it allowed up to two people to ride in the Zorb at a time), and a zigzag track with curves and one straight steep part at the end (which allowed only one person to ride at a time.)  We all chose the zigzag one, and we were drove up to the top of the track in a jeep.  I was the second one to go- I got out of the truck, jumped in the Zorb, got some water thrown in after me, and then I was pushed.  It all happened so fast! The beginning part was fun- sliding around the Zorb and getting pushed at every corner of the track, but the last part of the track nearly made me sick.  It was the steep hill and I was rolling down backwards.  I couldn't even imagine doing the dry Zorb and tumbling down the entire track!  Logan and Kamakana had a blast! Logan thinks everyone should try it at least once, and I agree, but that was the one time I'm going to try it ;) Logan wants to take the business back home and become a billionaire! haha.

The agrojet was just as exhilerating as Zorbing!  Personally, I had a lot more fun on this ride :)  A verrrry experienced jetboat driver sped us around a track in a small jetboat only designed for two people other than the driver.  He got up to speeds so fast that the boat was pushing out 200,000 of liters a minute! There were sharp turns and roundabouts throughout the track.  The track itself was pretty narrow and I'll admit that I got pretty nervous-  we were going SO fast and the track was so narrow with heaps of curves and turns!  But it was really fun! I DEFINITELY reccommend doing this to everyone!

That's a pretty good wrap up on our first two days in Rotorua!  I won't bother uploading pictures to the blog because now, you can see ALL our pictures on facebook!

Here's the links for the pictures from Day 1&2:


Polynesian Spa & other parts of Rotorua

Hells Gate

Zorb, Jetboat (& Luge)

Pictures!

I really want you all to be able to see the pictures we took at each of the places we go to.  My blogs don't do it justice!  Some of the places are amaaaazing, and I want you to see it for yourself!

I've uploaded all the pictures onto facebook (its the only way/site I know how to do so), and I'll post the links below.  Hopefully you can see them!

**IT WORKS! I FIGURED IT OUT!


Hamilton Gardens Album 1
Hamilton Gardens Album 2

Auckland Album

Waihi Album

Hamilton Zoo Album

Taupo Album

Taupo

Yesterday, we went on a school-sponsored trip to Taupo.  There were 10 of us on the tour and we left campus at around 8 am.  Our tour guide/van driver's name was Selwyn.  Him and his wife own a travel, Starr Tours, and they put on tours all over the North and South Island as well as Australia.

Our first stop was the Aratiatia Rapids, a two hour drive from the uni.  We got there at 9:55, which gave us 5 minutes until the flood gates opened allowing water to fill up the old Waikato River.  There are two gates that block water from filling up the old Waikato River and everyday, the gates are lifted three times for 15 minutes allowing water to rush at 200 liters/second down the river causing rapids.  We got there just in time to see the gates open and the river filled up within minutes.  It was incredible to watch!

Our next stop was Honey Hive, a shop specializing in different honey products.  There was a container in the store filled with honey bees busily making honey.  They had honey wine, honey soap, honey shampoo, honey lotion, honey hand sanitizer, honey fudge, peanut butter honey, lavender honey, EVERYTHING with honey.  We got to try the fudge; it was really good! I ended up buying a famous candy here called Hokey Pokey, and Logan bought some wine liquor :)

Next, we went to Huka Falls.  The actual falls wasn't tremendously huge, but the rushing water surrounding the falls was extremely powerful.  One of the well-known attractions here in New Zealand is the Huka Falls jetboat that races up and down the river.  We got to watch the jetboat speed around the river a couple times!  It looked like heaps of fun! :)

Next, we went to a part of Lake Taupo where the geothermal activity had created small hotpools along the edge of the lake.  We got to stick our feet in the water and it felt like a jacuzzi!  It was really neat!  The weather was really cold that day, so us Hawaiians really enjoyed being able to warm our feet up!  The view was beautiful from where we were.  We got to look out at the lake, but of course we weren't able to see all the way across.  (It's the largest lake in New Zealand.)

The highlight of our day, or the highlight of the GIRLS' day, was next.  We went into the town and ate lunch and ... shopped!  Taupo isn't a really touristy town, so there weren't any malls and hardly any people, so it was nice.  We ate at McDonald's :) and then walked around.  There were a bunch of sovenier shops.  Logan bought an All Black's flag and I bought some canvas posters to hang on my wall.  The shops were right along the lake and one of the major attractions of the town was a "Hole in One" golf challenge.  There was a big 20x20 dock floating about 50 ft offshore, and the challenge was to hit a golf ball and get a hole-in-one!  The grand prize was $10,000 cash, and of course Logan wanted to try.  So, he got 18 golf balls and started swinging away.  A couple times, he came close to hitting the dock :)  He had a lot of fun!

At about 2:00, we headed to the MAIN part of the day, the Taupo Bungy Jump!  It is the highest bungy jump over water in New Zealand and our friend Pi was going to do it.  It was 47 meters high, but looked much higher.  It was over a huge river, and it was absolutely beautiful.  We walked down to the river level to watch her jump.  None of the other people in our group were brave enough to do it, which made her even more nervous.  Of course, Logan gave her a hard time.  He told her, "you better not chicken out because no one else is going to do it!" haha.  It was awesome! Some of the people we watched actually got dunked into the river when they jumped!  Half of their bodies came up soaking wet!  It was crazy. But every person who did it said it was totally awesome, but no matter how fun they said it was, I had absolutely no desire to do it! :) It was funny watching some people doubt themselves when they stood over the edge.  Some people started praying, one girl screamed down at the river like she was scaring it, and others had to be pushed.  A couple brave people dove straight off with no hesitation!

That was our fun filled day in Taupo! Next weekend, we're off to Rotorua!

Waihi

Last week Saturday, our kiwi friend Ricky took us to Waihi and a few of the neighboring towns. We left uni at 8 am and drove through tons of pastures filled with cows, sheep, and horses. It was beautiful! Rolling hills on either side and miles and miles of open land surrounded us. It took us about an hour to drive to Paeroa (home of L&P, New Zealand's famous soft drink.) L&P stand for "Lemon and Paeroa" and the kiwis LOVE it! It tastes like a really lemony Sprite, if that’s makes any sense. It’s pretty good. There were banners on every light post and a giant L&P bottle right at the beginning of the town.

After stopping for a quick breakfast at a bakery, we went to the Karangahake Gorge, which was absolutely gorgeous! We went on a scenic walk along the river in hopes of finding the glowworm caves further down the trail. We crossed over bridges, some were more stable than others, and it didn’t help the boys kept bouncing on the bridge and scaring us! There were also a bunch of different artifacts that were left from the gold mine days. We finally got to the tunnel, and it was CLOSED for repairs! We were so disappointed, but oh well, we got over it.

Next stop: WAIHI beach! The entire beach stretches for miles (or km) and it takes about 4 hours to walk along the entire thing. First, we went up to the lookout and saw the entire town. We walked down to the sand, which wasn’t at all like back home. 1) It was hard; it felt like walking on concrete 2) It was freezing! Everything was freezing. It is winter here, so it should have been expected, but nonetheless, I wanted to go swimming! It reminded me of the beaches in Oregon, but it was much prettier. We wrote our names in the sand, took a bunch of pictures, and explored the caves built in the side of the mountain. There wasn’t anyone else on the beach except for a few fishermen.

Next, we went down to the main part of the beach where a lot of people go surfing during the summer time. There weren’t any waves during the winter nor were there any people. I guess the beach really isn’t a popular place to go when its 40 degrees outside. Now, if you know me, you know I love to collect shells. There were soooooo many pretty shells at this part of the beach. I could have stayed there the entire day collecting shells. I filled up the entire Ziploc bag that I had brought. Don’t worry, it was a snack-size!

Ricky had a soccer game at 2 and so we got a quick bite to eat and headed to the field. He plays on the A-team for the uni, and he’s only a first year student. That’s pretty good! The uni played a Waihi club team, and they had players of ALL ages, ranging from teenagers to some preeeetty elderly men. It was amazing! We watched for a while, but then got pretty bored, so we went to explore around the area.

We found a forest reserve right next to the field. There was a path that led through the reserve, so we went for it! We walked along a stream, through a bamboo forest, and even saw cows, sheep, and a pet goat! It was gorgeous! As we were walking along the path, a couple that was familiar with the area told us that if we walked about half an hour up the mountain, we’d find a mineshaft! We unfortunately didn’t have enough time to go up to the shaft, so we went back to the field and watched the last few minutes of the game. The uni ended up losing 4-1.

After the game, we went to Ricky’s house, which was nearby. He lives on a dairy farm! There were a bunch of cows, and even more cowpies! None of us had the proper footwear, except for Ricky who put on his gumboots before joining us in the pasture.

We hung out at Ricky’s for a while and then headed back to campus. It was an awesome day!