Rotorua and Auckland

Rotorua. Definitely one of my favorite places in New Zealand. Eoin and I were fortunate enough to get to visit this place three times. Our third visit was with Mike, and was very enjoyable. No visit to Rotorua is complete without Zorbing, and we all went rolling down the 200 meter hill. For those of you who don't know what Zorbing is, imagine being inside a hamster ball with warm water that is rolling down a hill. Super fun! Mike and Eoin each went seperately and then Eoin went again with me. I am a bit of a wuss (if you didn't know) and did not want to go Zorbing by myself. We also went luging in Rotorua. Just like in Queenstown, there is a skyline gondola with a luge run at the top. Unlike Queenstown, the tracks are much longer (2 km I believe) and there are more to choose from.

We definitely took advantage of all that we could while in Rotorua. My favorite part of our time in Rotorua this time was Mitai Village. Mitai Village is a reconstructed Maori Village that gives tours during the day and at night gives guided walks, hangi (a traditional meal cooked in the ground), and a cultural show.The hangi was chicken, lamb, potatoes, kumara and stuffing that is placed in the ground over hot rocks and covered with blankets and left to cook for three hours. It was delicious! While we waiting for the hangi to finish cooking, though, we watched a show about the Maori culture. We saw several examples of how Maori warriors trained for battle and used weapons. They also sang us several songs, and did a very impressive haka. A haka is a chant usually done before battle to intimidate the opposing side. The All Blacks do a haka during their rugby games. If you have time, look it up on YouTube...very cool stuff!After dinner (which was amazing!) and dessert (which was also amazing!) we went for a brief night walk through the village and saw some glow worms and eels. Ooooooo!

The next day I had a migraine, which was no good. So, unfortunately we didn't do too much exciting until later in the afternoon. We went to Waikite Hot Pools which is a place we had gone before. It is a bunch of hot tubs and pools that are filled with natural hot spring water. For $12, you can relax in hot pools with amazing views all around you. I enjoyed relaxing and Eoin enjoyed pretending he was stranded in the ocean and hung onto the decorative rocks for dear life.

If you ever find yourself in Rotorua and don't know what to do...Zorb, Luge, visit some mud pools and go to Mitai Village. You will not regret it.

After our time in Rotorua, we headed to Auckland. While there we didn't do too much as our funds were running low and Mike was headed home. We did get to go to the Auckland Museum which was pretty interesting but not as impressive as Te Papa. We also saw Wolverwine! Amazing! The cool thing about seeing Wolverine was that large portions of it were filmed in and around Queenstown. Eoin and I recognized a few places and that was really neat. This entry is really rushed, but that's mostly because we leave for Fiji in two days and I wanted to make sure I didn't leave you all hanging!

Right now we are in Whangarei (pronounced: fawn-guh-ray). It's not very impressive and there isn't anything to do. The job situation is looking pretty grim, and while I have applied to about 6 places I haven't heard back from anyone (except Glassons and they turned me down! Jerks!). So I don't know what the situation will be when we get back from our holiday in Fiji, but I will keep you posted!

Next update...Fiji!!!

Abel Tasman and Wellington

After we completed the glacier hike we got back in the car and drove to Greymouth. Greymouth is another place that no one really goes to unless they have to. And really, it was a 2 hour drive after a long day of hiking and we were really tired. We arrived at the hostel, cooked dinner and went to bed. The next morning we packed up the car again and went on a brewery tour at the Monteith's factory. I am not a big fan of beer, or brewery tours but the boys were into it so that was fun to see. They gave us samples of all their beers (7) and a glass of our choice after we had tasted each sample. Since I don't really like beer and Eoin had to drive, Mike got most of mine and Eoin's. After the tour we got back into the car and drove up to Marahau, the top of the south island, where the Abel Tasman Coastal Track is located.

The Abel Tasman Coastal Track is a 3 -5 day walk along an incredibly scenic section of beaches. To get to the end of the track you have to do the five day walk, so by doing the three day walk we got a little more than half-way on the track. We did the hike in three days, because (if you remember), I really hate hiking. But this one wasn't actually so bad. For the most part it was fairly flat with a few steep uphill climbs that wouldn't have been bad if I didn't have a backpack on. The best part was definitely the views and the various beaches along the way. We had beautiful, sunny warm weather the entire time and it was so nice to relax on the beach after walking for a few hours. While I was relaxing in the warm sun, Eoin and Mike went off exploring the beaches. The climbed on giant rocks, explored some caves and caused mayhem wherever they went. We spent our nights camping out in our tents just a few yards from the shore. It was like having one of those sound effect machines but 100 times better because it was real waves. Very relaxing! When we finished our section of the hike we waiting for a water taxi to pick us up and bring us back to the start of the track, where our hostel was and where we had left the car. We changed into normal clothes (we had been in polypro/dirty shorts for the hike) and drove off towards dinner and Picton. We ate a delicious dinner of KFC and McDonald's. Yummm?

After filling up on processed meat and deep fried potatoes we drove on to Picton, where our ferry to Wellington would leave the following morning. Our night in Picton was SO exciting. We showered and went to sleep. Jealous? We woke up early and got on the ferry by 8 AM and arrived in Wellington by 11:30. We dropped our stuff off at our friends, Jason and Tammy, house and took Mike on a bit of a walking tour of Wellington. I stopped in Glassons to say hi to the girls and then we went to a few of the book shops downtown.

The next day was definitely more exciting, Eoin and Mike went out to explore for a while I stayed back and worked on stuff for school. When I had finished my school work, I met the boys downtown and we walked through the botanical gardens.We took the cable car up and walked down the main walkway and back through down via Lambton Quay. Once again, I popped into Glassons (it's an addiction) and bought a nice coat. THANKS MOM!After I had my fun shopping, we went to Te Papa and did the abridged tour. We took Mike to our personal favorite parts of the museum and by dinner time we had made good use of our time. Dinner was a delicious meal from our personal favorite Fish n Chips place, Leo's. Tammy and I were girly girls and stayed in to watch Project Runway, but the boys went out and ran amok in downtown Wellington. The next morning was our last day in town, and we spent it packing up and eating as much Nando's as possible. Nando's is a Portuguese chicken restaurant that Eoin and I love more than anything, it is SO GOOD. Anyway, after eating we got back into the car and drove 5 hours to Taupo. Taupo is where Eoin was planning to sky dive.

Next time I will write about Rotorua, Auckland and Whangerei!Thanks for checking in everyone.

A view of the Abel Tasman Coast. Amazing!

A limestone structure with trees on it. This is one spot Eoin and Mike climbed up.

Eoin and Mike walking ahead of me on the way to one of the campsites.

The beach where we waited for the water taxi. Not bad, huh?

Franz Josef- it's cool!

After Doubtful Sound, Eoin and I headed back to our last weeks of work. Eoin's last day was two days before my last day which was April 14th. That same day, Eoin's friend Mike arrived for a two and a half week visit. It was good timing for Mike, because he not only got to see Queenstown (where there is SO much to do) he also got to join us on our road trip from the south island to the north island. Mike's time in Queenstown wasn't too exciting because Eoin and I had to pack up, clean the flat and sort everything out for the trip (get directions, book hostels etc). However, we did manage to get to Deer Park Heights (the now famous Queenstown attraction where I fed a llama) and Eoin and Mike also went to the luge. On our last day in town, we packed up the car and did a last minute clean up before heading out to Franz Josef.

Franz Josef is about 5 hours (by car) from Queenstown. It is the type of place you would drive right through and not even know it, seriously. Why would we stop off in a place more boring than Alfred during winter break? GLACIERS! Franz Josef village is home to the Franz Josef glacier which is 12 km long, and is the only glacier in the world that is growing and retreating as opposed to simply retreating. Now glaciers are cool to look at and all, but you really can't get a feel for how massive they are until you walk on one. Even I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, but it was definitely worth it.

The day started early, about 8 AM, with a quick breakfast followed by a short walk to the Franz Josef Glacier Guides center. There, we put on thick socks, hiking boots, gloves, rain pants, hats and a rain coat before we climbed on board the bus. The bus drove us about 10 minutes down the road to the start of the park in which the glacier is located. We walked about an hour before we made it to the base of the glacier, where we were separated into groups of 10 and put on our crampons (metal hooks that go on your shoes to help you walk on the ice). THEN the fun could begin!

In order to get onto the glacier you had to climb up a series of steps carved out in the ice. There was a rope attached to the side to hold on to, and even though we had crampons on, it was still a bit slippery. We hiked up and around the glacier, a total of about 12 km (up and back) going through several ice tunnels, jumping across huge ravines and shimming our way through tight crevices. Oh, and did I mention the blue ice? Yeah BLUE ICE!! Eoin may say that the huge ravine was not huge or a ravine, but to me it was. If I have to go into a split to get to the other side, its huge. And if I were to misstep and fall, I would be several feet down and probably dead, so it was a ravine. Despite this, I still had a good time and was surprised at how well I did on the glacier, despite my lack of outdoorsy-ness and love of hiking. After about 6 hours we had hiked the glacier half-way up and back and were getting back onto the bus to the village.

On a side note, our tour guide was insane! He was constantly chipping away random pieces of ice, trying to start new caves by himself, climbing up on dangerous ledges and chopping away at them while he was standing on it and kicking over huge boulders that weren't even in our way. Ridic!

The glacier from afar...still about 45 minutes away from the base.

Here I am climbing up out of a huge hole!

Coming through a tunnel.

Mike, Eoin and I at the heighest point in our walk.

Doubtful Sound

Before we left Queenstown, before we quit our jobs and before Mike came to visit, Eoin and I went on an overnight to Doubtful Sound. We left on a Tuesday morning and took a tour bus to Manapouri, a small town situated on a lake. We hopped off the bus and waited for our ferry to arrive. The only way to get to Doubtful Sound is by ferry via Lake Manapouri. The ferry ride was about 45 minutes and when we disembarked we were met by another bus that took us to the dock at Doubtful Sound where our cruise would depart.

The Navigator is a good sized ship with several bunk rooms, viewing decks, dining room and an observation lounge. It sleeps 70 people (plus staff) and they have an amazing dinner and breakfast buffet, not to mention the fresh muffins and soup available as well.

We left the dock and made our way out into the fjord (yup, just like Milford Sound...Doubtful Sound is actually a fjord). There are three "arms" to Doubtful sound, and we went down each one. We stopped off in Crooked Arm (guess why its called that) and had the option to go kayaking or take a cruise in a tender boat. Eoin opted for the kayaks and I went in the tender boat (basically a small little motor boat) and took pictures. We were out cruising and kayaking around for about an hour before we got back on board, when they made the announcement that the "swimming pool" was now open. Guess who jumped in the freezing cold water....EOIN. Four other people also had a lapse in sanity and joined him in the water. Crazy crazy crazy.

After everyone was back aboard the ship we continued out of crooked arm and towards the sea. I got a bit seasick and wound up sitting the observation deck with my head on the window trying not to puke, while Eoin and everyone else on the boat were outside watching the fur seals play. I managed to watch the seals a bit, but really, all I could think about was not throwing up. Finally, to my relief, the captain turned the boat around and we headed back into the sound/fjord.

Then, it was (in my opinion) time for the best part! BUFFET DINNER! Lamb, chicken, roast beef, potatoes, kumara, 3 types of salads, rice, and bread. So delicious! Followed by an amazing dessert buffet...pavlova, chocolate cake, cheesecake and fruit salad. Definitely the best part.

By now it was probably 8 PM and they had a bit of a nature slide show for those that were interested, so of course Eoin and I went to that. It was about the animals we might see in the fjord and also about animals all over NZ (kiwi, possum etc). Apparently, there used to be Moose in the Fiordland National Park, but no one has seen them for years. There is one guy, known as the "Moose Man" who is determined to prove/find a moose. He goes out everyday looking for droppings, prints, fur ...anything. Well, apparently he found sound moose hairs a while ago and is 100% sure the moose are still out there. No one else thinks there are any though. Poor "Moose Man".

After the slide show, at about 9, we went to bed. Seriously. We were exhausted. Oh wait, Eoin and I played a few rounds of Connect Four and THEN we went to bed. The next morning there was another fabulous buffet... cereals, fresh fruit, yogurt, toast, hash browns, baked beans, sausage, grilled tomatoes etc. Followed by a "Sound of Silence" in one of the arms. Basically, we all stood outside on the deck and made no noise for about 5 minutes...this was a difficult task for Eoin. But it was cool, we could hear all the birds in the forest, the waterfalls, wind blowing through the trees...very neat experience.

We then went back to the dock and disembarked the ship, got on a bus and headed home. :( Back to work.

Eoin and some other people kayaking in crooked arm.

The Navigator

Another scenic shot of Doubtful Sound with the kayakers.

Update coming...I Promise!

Been sooooooooo busy with Mike's visit, moving from Queenstown, traveling the two islands and looking for a new job and apartment. Haven't had anytime to update but I promise you...a super long and awesome entry is on the way!

Alexa

PS: got ourselves a room in a sweet house with Filipino roomies. Applied to two jobs...looking promising!

Eoin's Dad visits and we walk the Routeburn Track

It's funny how I can go weeks without anything exciting to update about and then all of a sudden have so much to say. I feel slightly disorganised with this blog entry so bear with me, please. I have a feeling this will be quite a long entry.

Eoin's dad arrived in Queenstown on March 11th (Wednesday). Thursday and Friday are my days off, so the three of us did some touristy things together. On Thursday we did the Lord of the Rings safari tour in Glenorchy. I am not a huge LOTR fan so it was mostly just some nice scenery that I was looking at. We stopped in a few places that were important for the film, though. We saw where the cast and crew met every morning for make-up/costumes/food as well as the spot the elephant battle began. I think Eoin got more out of it than either David or I, but I can't say that he was particularly impressed with the tour either. After the tour, we did some grocery shopping and went home to make some delicious fajitas. Amazing.

On Friday we hopped on the TSS Earnslaw (the boat I also went on with my mom) and cruised over to Walter Peak Station. Walter Peak used to be a working farm with sheep, cows, and deer and is now a tourist attraction. We had a barbecue lunch, which was amazing (and worked out to be only about 10 dollars with our locals discount!) and saw a sheep herding and shearing presentation. The rest of the week I had to work, but I did manage to get up to the luge one last time with Eoin and David.

Here I am posing with a sheep!

All in all, Eoin and I definitely enjoyed eating at restaurants and having astronomical amounts of food in the flat. We don't need to go grocery shopping for the rest of our time in Queenstown (except for little things of course but really, that doesn't count!).

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The start of the Routeburn Track

For the past three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) Eoin and I have been out in the Aspiring National Park and Fiordland National Park hiking the Routeburn. Putting it nicely, I was not excited at all about this trip. I am so un-outdoorsy its not even funny. I sucked it up (eventually) and trudged along for 3 days in the alpines of New Zealand. It was a lot easier than the Tongariro Crossing, but there were still some steep sections and lots of narrow paths with long drop offs if you miss stepped. The scenery was amazing- rugged mountains with glaciers, waterfalls and moss covered trees all around.

Walking on the track. Day two.

We averaged about 4-5 hours of walking each day with water breaks and lunch thrown in. We spent the nights at huts situated along the trail. Our first night we each had our own bunk on a bunk bed. The second night we shared a platform with two other people. It's a bit odd but there was enough space that it wasn't too awkward. We were in bed by 9:30 at the latest each night, and on the trails by 9:00 AM each morning.

Not a very attractive picture, but this is me walking along the waterfall.

As much as I hate (and I do mean hate) hiking the Routeburn wasn't that bad. My legs are definitely sore today, and my feet are a bit tired but I had an "okay" time. (I am not saying I had "fun" though haha).

One thing I noticed on the hike, though, is the vast difference between Americans and people from other countries. While on the hike, there was a group of four Americans, roughly our age that were staying at the same hut as us. They were talking rather loudly and I overheard them talking about how the hike the next day was "only" 10 miles and that one of the girls could "run that in an hour". They planned to finish by noon the following day, and wanted to be the fastest ones on the track. They were complaining that the trail wasn't challenging enough and it was too easy.

Meanwhile, while they were rushing through the Routeburn, everyone else was going at a nice slow pace, enjoying the outdoors, taking in the scenery and having a good time with their friends. No other place I have been as had such competitive people as the Americans. It's not about finishing the quickest, or being first. It's about the overall experience. If you can run a mile in 6 minutes, that's great, but did you look around while you were running? Did you have fun? Did you take it all in? If you can run a mile in 10 minutes I bet you see more than the person who ran it in 6. Being fast, first or the "best" does not make you a better person. In fact, I felt embarrassed by the group of Americans in the hut. I feel that people everywhere get the impression that we ( Americans) are "too good" for them. We aren't. We just like to think we are better.

I could go on and on about this, and maybe its "anti-American" (which is a stupid term anyway), but no other country, that I have been to, parades their patriotism as extremely as we do.

Alright, enough babbling. I need to get showered and dressed and off to work. Today is Otago Day (which is somewhat like Independence Day but on a smaller scale and only in the Otago County) so I get paid time and a half!

Miss you all!

Moms visit part 2

So Mom is back in the states now, but this is the first chance I have had to sit down and write a blog. Now that mom is gone, I am back to working full time, which is good because I seriously need the money.

Anyway, where did we leave off? Milford Sound I think.... So, the night we got back from Milford Sound my boss gave me off work (which was totally unexpected and super nice of her!) so that mom and I could go see the Maori Haka show. We rode the gondola up Bob's Peak (the same place the luge and paragliders are) and waited for the show to begin. I thought it was a big hokie, but mom enjoyed it. The performers told us a bit about Maori culture and weapons and then did the Haka. Afterwords you could get your picture taken with them, I decided not to pose with them but mom did:

The next day mom and I went white water rafting. It was a beautiful day out, and our guide (Chief) was hysterical. No one fell out of our raft, but a few people fell out of other rafts. Mom and I were sitting in the front of the raft so we got completely soaked, but it was fun.

More importantly, the weekend of moms visit was my birthday weekend! We went to Dunedin. This is where my blog will get super interesting. We left Queenstown at 9 AM and I mistakenly told Eoin to head towards Invercargill for an hour. Once we figured out I made huge mistake we turned around and headed back towards Queenstown. We stopped in Cromwell at a fruit stand to get some cherries, and when we went back to the car it wouldn't start. Turns out, the plugs going from the battery were cut off. Some nice man fixed it for us and we went on our way again. Neither Eoin or I saw the sign for SH 8 (state highway 8) and again we went the wrong way for about 30 minutes before turning ourselves around again. We made it to Roxburgh (what should have been about 2 hours into our trip but was now something like 4 hours) when our engine exploded. Yep, that's right. Smoke, sparks, flames and bits of engine came out of the hood. Good job, car. Our 1990 Toyota Corona is now in the car cemetery. We got a ride to Roxburgh, where we tried to figure out what to do next...get a bus to Queenstown? A bus to Dunedin? A rental car to Dunedin? We were all grumpy and tired, but decided to continue on to Dunedin to celebrate my birthday. We took the bus to Alexandra where we rented a car and headed back towards Dunedin. We made it to the hostel by 7 PM. We should have been there by noon.

We ate dinner and went to bed, we were THAT exhausted. The next day was my birthday! We started the day with a tour of the Speights Brewery. Speights in a beer brewed in Dunedin and is known as the beer that "southern men" drink. Think- cowboys, sheep herders and scruffy dirty old guys. It was still a good tour though, and drinking beer at 11 AM wasn't so bad either. I am sure Eoin will have more to say about this since he is the beer connoisseur. After the tour, mom and I went to a spa and totally got the celebrity treatment. It was amazzzzzzzzzzzing. Massages, facials, pedicures, manicures, lunch and cake! Fabulous!
Eoin went shopping. So I think he had a good time? I don't know, it was my birthday..whatever.

Then we had to book it back to the hostel to get out to the Otago Peninsula to see the Yellow Eyed Penguins at Penguin Place.

Penguin Place is a reserve that is also part of a sheep farm where the yellow eyed penguins live. Yellow Eyed Penguins are native to New Zealand and are endangered...there are only 4,000 of them in the world. They are the third largest penguin (but are still quite small) and we got to see them up close. The tour brings you out to the sheep farm to the section the penguins inhabit. There are paths and trenches for people to walk on and peek through to see the penguins without interfering in their habitats. We saw a bunch of chicks and juveniles waiting on land for their parents to come back from fishing all day. Most of the juveniles had patchy spots where there feathers had fallen out and new feathers would grow. The chicks were covered in downy feathers. While we were there we saw about 5 adults come out of the sea and preen themselves before heading back to their habitats to feed the chicks.

Here is a short video of some of the adults:




It was so cool to actually SEE a real penguin in the wild. It's a very different experience than seeing them in a zoo or aquarium. After we completed our tour, we went to see the Albatross, they were flying all over the place and they were HUGE! Eoin saw a sign that said "Blue Penguin Sightings" so he and mom went down to check it out. They called me about 20 minutes later and I came down to the shore to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently, a whole group of Little Blue Penguins came out of the sea all at once. I missed that, and I almost missed stepping on a chick on our way up from the shore. The chick was walking right in front of me, and hopped up a few steps before heading into the bushes. I was less than a foot away from the fluffy little thing, and it was so cute!
Unfortunately, the flash of a camera disturbs the penguins (they have very sensitive eyesight) so we couldn't get a picture. But it was definitely the coolest thing I'd seen all day.

We drove back to Dunedin and had some dinner and two desserts (it was my birthday, after all) and then went to bed. We got up early the next morning and drove back to Alexandra where we dropped off the rental car and hopped on the bus to Queenstown.

Eoin and I are now without a car and are walking to work and taking the bus home. So I guess I am getting some exercise out of all this craziness.

That's all for now, it's my day off and I am cleaning and blogging and watching tv. I might do some laundry...don't be jealous!

Miss you all!