Last day in New Zealand

Here are some scenery shots from our drive from Dunedin to Christchurch. We saw some of the sad devastation  from the Christchurch earthquake but I didn't take any pictures of that.

The coast just north of Dunedin

Pretty landscape - can you see some sheep?!

One half of the tallest rainbow I've ever seen!

Other half of tall pretty rainbow

Caitlyn saw a sign like this near Auckland and we were all excited there may be Target in NZ - but alas, it's a furniture store!

Visiting a friend in Dunedin, New Zealand

I'm catching up on some pictures now that I have some down time in Sydney. Caitlyn and I drove to the south part of the south island in New Zealand our last weekend there and met up with a friend I knew in England 10 years ago. Keith and Elizabeth opened their home to us and we enjoyed hanging out with them and their kids.

Cute Hazel - almost 2 years old

Handsome Ethan - 4 years old

Enjoying the flowers at a park

Hanging out with the kiddos

Reading a book to the kids

Goodbye, New Zealand and Hello, Australia!

Good bye beautiful New Zealand! We thoroughly enjoyed our 12 days in your beautiful land!

Caitlyn and I woke up at 4am Tuesday morning in Christchurch to drive to the airport. We stayed just outside the main earthquake destruction zone and it was heart-wrenching to see the devastation. We dropped our rental car off and said good bye - she headed to the domestic terminal to catch a flight to Auckland (and then home to WA state) and I went to the international terminal to fly to Sydney.

The check in line was super long for my Sydney flight but they got us all checked in on time. I made it to Sydney without any complications. I'm staying with a friend and her husband here and we're having a great time. I get to check out the botanical gardens today.

My best friend from college, Gloria, flies in tomorrow morning and we'll have a week together here. We are staying at a hostel in the heart of Sydney for a few days. We don't have much of an agenda, we just want to take in the sights and experience the culture here. I brought a handy book with me called "Sydney: Free and Dirt Cheap" so that should help us with the budget. I've been told Sydney is a very expensive city.

I continue to have a great time, although I do miss my love. I'll be ready to see him when I go home next Saturday.

Kaikoura and Lake Tekapo, south island, New Zealand

Caitlyn and Julia on ferry to the south island

Hello there!

We are on the south island and got to Lake Tekapo last night. We are staying at a nice hostel for 2 nights and enjoying some down time.  We have some good use of internet now so I thought I'd take the time to catch up and post some pics.

When we stayed at the large YHA hostel in Wellington, we asked one of the front desk guys, James, for his opinion on how to best see the south island in 6 days. We acknowledged that we are crazy Americans and are trying to shove as much as we can in a little amount of time. He agreed and perused the map for a while then thought some more and finally suggested we travel down the east coast of the south island. There are more tourist things to see and do on the west coast, but the east coast is faster and more straight (which we like since we both struggle a bit with carsickness!). He suggested we stay in Kaikoura the first night and then travel on down to Lake Tekapo. His suggestions proved perfect and we are thoroughly enjoying this route!

We found an adorable hostel in Kaikoura called the Albatross. It was by far our favorite overnight stop so far. The owners were very welcoming and friendly and even had free food nights once in a while! We were very tempted to stay an extra night for free spud night, but decided to keep on going. Kaikoura is a coastal town and is very beautiful. We got to walk out toward a seal colony and see some seals.

Here are some pics from Wednesday:

Caitlyn knitting on the ferry over to the south island

Beautiful Kaikoura coastline

Julia on Kaikoura coast - I had a bad cold so didn't feel great!

Two seals we saw near the beach

We did a hike today up to Mt. John, which overlooks Lake Tekapo. This is a really beautiful area and we're so glad we get to have a couple of days here!

 Overlooking Lake Tekapo from Mt. John summit

 Us in front of old church on Lake Tekapo

 Pretty old church

 Julia in front of Mt. John - we hiked to the top!

Julia at the summit of Mt. John

I'm gonna sign off now so that Caitlyn can watch the Portland Timbers soccer game home opener online! She's a die-hard fan, I tell ya! 

We drive to Dunedin tomorrow to visit my friend Elizabeth and family. It will be nice to spend the weekend with them before driving up to Christchurch on Monday. We fly out early Tues morning! It's been a wonderful trip and we're so grateful we got to come here!

P.S. I really wanted a milkshake today and ordered a "thick shake"...it was disgusting. I'm not even sure the girl put real ice cream in it, I think she may have just blended some milk and flavor stuff with some powdered "shake thickener" powder - gross. Oh well, I doctored it up with some peanut butter and hot choc mix and stuck it in the freezer, we'll see how it turns out!

Greetings from the south island!

We made it to the south island yesterday. We took the ferry from Wellington and it was very pleasant. We drove about 2 hours to a beautiful coastal town of Kaikoura, on the east coast of the south island.

We stayed at a really cool hostel and got to see a seal colony. I don't have access to uploading pics right now but we'll try to upload some in the next day or two.

My foot is all better from the wasp sting but I've been struggling with allergies or a bad cold. Thankfully, I am feeling quite a bit better today. We will be taking off in a few minutes to drive about 5 hours to a beautiful lake area called Lake Tekapo. We'll spend 2 nights there relaxing and taking in the sights before heading south to Dunedin. Caitlyn is hoping to catch the Portland Timber's home opener soccer game online on Fri night.

The weather continues to be mild and very pleasant, probably in the low's 60's.

We got to talk to our boys the other day in Wellington via Skype and that was great!

I'll post more in the next couple of days. Thanks for reading along!

Day 6 - Wellington, New Zealand

I have 7 minutes til my internet card expires so thought I'd write a quick post.

Yesterday was spent driving almost all day to Wellington.  Caitlyn is a road warrior and drove the whole 7 hours! I was a bit drugged on benadryl recovering from my wasp sting. Thankfully, my foot feels great and just fine and I can walk and do normal activities.

We booked 2 nights at the YHA Hostel in Wellington and are so glad we did! It's been wonderful to have some down time and just relax from our crazy American pace of a vacation! We are trying to see as much as we can in our 12 days of this glorious country and so far, so good!

We board the ferry tomorrow morning for the south island and will drive down the east coast to the city of Dunedin. I have a friend there who I met when I lived in England 10 years ago. We plan to take 3 days to get there and then will have 2 days with my friend Elizabeth and her family.

We got some yummy vegetables at a market yesterday and have been enjoying tasty homemade meals in the evenings. We plan to keep cooking on our own as it's a bit more economical and probably better for us too!

There may be some whales and/or dolphins to see on the ferry ride tomorrow. We'll post pics again when we can.

Good night for now!

Pictures from Thermal Wonderland

Does anyone remember Nickelodeon slime? This lake was seriously that color!

Sunset after caving

Yummy dinner after caving - hamburger and fries and farmer's pie

Day 4 in New Zealand

Sunday April 10^th

Highlight of the day: Awesome 5 hour caving adventure

Lowlight of the day: Julia stepping on a wasp just before bedtime

Sunday was pretty packed for us. We got up early and walked to McDonald's for some breakfast (hey, it's familiar and cheap!). We drove about 20 minutes to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland just outside of Rotorua.  It was somewhat similar to the sights at Yellowstone We had fun walking around and exploring the various pools and got to see a geyser go off. The colors were absolutely stunning in some of the hot spring pools.

After exploring the mud pools and hot spring area, we drove about 2 1/2 hours west to Waitomo Caves. We had arranged to go on a caving tour at 2pm. We were joined by a lovely family from Melbourne and had a great tour guide named Brendon. The adventure started with us piling into a van and driving to their changing  area (converted connexes), about 10 minutes from the office. We were handed damp (cold) wetsuits and told to put them on. We then donned some "gumboots" (white rubber boots) and a helmet equipped with a headlamp. We drove another few minutes up some hilly landscape and parked the van near many sheep grazing. We tromped down to a "practice area" and learned how to abseil with a rope, which is basically repelling. We went to the entrance of the cave and started our adventure! I (Julia) was the first one to go down into the cave. It was a bit intimidating to be hanging by a rope with nothing below but the ground for about 88 feet! Once I started going though, it was great and a lot of fun! We walked through the cave and wriggled through some very narrow passages. We then got to float on an innertube and look at the gloworms on the top of the cave. We also saw many eels and petted one.  The 5 hour journey ended by us scaling a 65 foot mountain rock wall. We were both a bit pooped and felt out of energy by that time, but we managed to do it and come back alive! Overall, it was a super fun adventure and we are so glad we did it!

We checked into our hostel after the adventure and found some food at a local pub. We were both pretty tired and were sorting our things when Julia stepped on a wasp in the bathroom. It felt like a very sharp tack and stung like the dickens! Caitlyn was a great nurse and took good care of me. I took some tylenol and benadryl and went to bed. I guess I thrashed around for a couple of hours because of the pain but eventually fell asleep and got some good rest.

The caving tour company took pictures that we purchased of our adventure but we do not have access to them right now (they're on a CD and our computer doesn't have a disc drive). We'll post them at a later time.

I'm gonna hit the hay for tonight (Monday night here) but will post some of the hot spring pics later for your viewing pleasure. 

Days 2 & 3 in New Zealand

Hello again!
We didn't have internet access for the last two days, so we'll catch up now on our latest adventures!

Day 2 (Friday, April 8)
We had a lovely walk into town and enjoyed a nice breakfast of freshly baked treats from a local bakery. We got some lunch supplies at a little grocery store and had fun looking at all the different interesting items. We drove about 2 hours east over to the Coromandel Peninsula. We stopped at the cute little town of Thames to stretch our legs and explore the shops. We continued on up the peninsula and discovered some very curvy, windy roads. We did all right but were very happy to reach our destination for the night, Coromandel Town. There were some breathtaking views along the hairpin curves and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing God's beautiful creation.

We stayed at a hostel Friday night called The Lion's Den. It was a bit "eclectic" with some interesting guests and no locks on the doors. We got our first "takeaway (to go) meal of fish n chips at a local shop and it was quite tasty. We enjoyed Magnum ice cream bars in the evening and did some knitting in cute little alcove at the hostel. We find that we're going to bed rather early as the sun sets around 6:30pm and we are not nightlife type of gals. It works out great as we get up early and have a good start to our day.

Here are pics from Friday:

Julia on an old piece of wood near the beach

This one's for you Jeanette! 

(My friend's husband's book was for sale at a Christian bookshop in Thames)

Breath-taking view between Thames and Coromandel Town

Having fun together!

Friday night dinner: Fish n chips takeway (wrapped in real newspaper)

Caitlyn knitting in cute alcove at Lion's Den Hostel

Day 3 (Saturday, April 9th)

We started our day out with an accidental detour that took us further up the peninsula (instead of east to the other side as we had planned). The views were spectacular along the coast line but so were the hairpin curves and carsickness that accompanied them! We only went about 45 mins out of our way and got back on track quickly. The road over to Cathedral Cove was a bit curvy and windy as well but very beautiful. Caitlyn did all the driving on Saturday and did a great job! I took a Dramamine to help with the carsickness and it made me pretty drowsy. We made it to the Cathedral Cove area and had a nice picnic lunch on some grass. It was a very popular destination and the parking lot was packed. We had planned to walk down to Cathedral Cove (about 45 mins each way) but decided to cut it short so we could make it to our next stop at a reasonable hour. 

Here are pics from Saturday:

Caitlyn the fearless driver!

Julia overlooking Cathedral Cove

Caitlyn at Cathedral Cove

Gemstone Bay - we walked a few mins to this pretty spot

We will be exploring some geo thermal areas today (Sunday) near Rotorua then head over to the Waitomo Caves. We have a fun-filled adventure planned this afternoon that includes rock-climbing, rafting through gloworm caves and abseiling (repelling down caves). We'll be sure to post stories and pics when we can! 

P.S. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous! Bright, clear, sunny days probably in the low to mid 70's!

Our first day in New Zealand

We decided to ditch the big city of Auckland and explore the cute town we are staying in (just outside Auckland).  After a lovely nap and shower, we walked up to the top of Mt. Eden which has stunning 360 degree views of Auckland.  We took some fun pics (see below) and even had some fun swinging on a zip line type contraption at a local park!

We walked 15 minutes into the town of Mt. Eden and found a lovely cafe to have a yummy dinner at. We plan to walk to the town in the morning for some coffee and breakfast. We'll get on the road in the morning and drive about an hour and a half to the Coromandel Peninusula.

The hostel we're at tonight is really nice and our hostess Dawn couldn't be more helpful or friendlier. We have found the people of New Zealand wonderful and are truly enjoying our experience so far! Two of our flight attendants on the flight kept stopping by to offer bits of helpful information (including what to skip and what not to miss).

Here's some pics for you to enjoy of our first day!

Auckland from the top of Mt. Eden

Julia pretending to fall into the crater

Sisters enjoying the view

Crazy Caitlyn on the zip line thingy

Yummy dinner of potato cakes with bacon and chicken naan salad

We made it to Auckland!

We arrived here safe and sound around 8:30am Thursday morning, local time. We are about 20 hours ahead of the States (depending on what part of the US you live in). The flight from Los Angeles was just over 13 hours. It was a bit of a rough flight with turbulence throughout the night and both Caitlyn and I ended up getting sick. It made us feel a bit a better to know a couple other passengers and even a flight attendant also got sick, I guess misery loves company! We felt a lot better as we landed and were so glad to be here! We went through immigration and got our bags without any problems and were picked up at the airport by the rental car company. Caitlyn was a great navigater as I drove us to our hostel, about 20 minutes from the airport. The roundabouts are a little challenging, but I did fine driving on the other side of the road.

Check in at the hostel is usually 1pm but they were nice and got us a room early. We have a cute room with 2 twin beds and our own private bathroom. We are going out exploring for a bit now and will post some pictures this evening.  

We are so happy to be here (it still feels a bit surreal though!)