Got Ice?

So the morning started off bright and early with cereal, yoghurt, and toast. Best of all, parting the curtains, we saw clear, bright, blue skies! The low front that was supposed to bring rain swept past in the night and we were left with an awesome day! Considering it rains 2 out of 3 days here, we were very happy.

After breakfast, we walked over to the Frans Josef Glacier Guides where we proceeded to get our Gortex pants, jackets, wool socks, hiking boots, crampons, beanie and gloves. The bus ride to the car park (for you Californians who don’t know what a car park is…read parking lot) was about 10 minutes and we were off. The first 45 minutes was a hike across rocks and dirt to the base of the glacier.

Once we were instructed on how to wear crampons and how to walk safely with them, we were off. Our guide, Tai, led us up the glacier. This thing moves roughly 1 meter each day, which is considered a very fast moving glacier. As we climbed, Tai used his pick-axe to fine tune the steps that these guys cut into the ice each day.

We walked onward and upward, crossing crevasses, glacial lakes, and lots and lots of ice. The first big obstacle was a crevasse that our guides had worked on for two days. Essentially, the guides sat on top of the crevasse and hacked away at the surrounding ice to plug up the lower part and create a bridge. Below the bridge, there was roughly 20 feet of nothing. We had to remove our packs, well Greg did since he was carrying everything, in order to slither sideways through this thing. Pretty cool. After a quick lunch break of sandwiches, we continued further up the glacier.

Eventually, we hit an optional section where we were climbing up a vertical ice face. It wasn’t that long, but it proved to be challenging enough. Another quick slither through a crevasse and we made a big loop back to the starting point for this section. After spending roughly 6 hours on the ice, we began our descent down the glacier and back to the car park.

Back in town, we were starving and craving beer. Even the health conscious Cheryl wanted a cheeseburger, fries and an ice cold beer. It must have been an intense day. Unfortunately, we found out that the entire Franz Josef township had a power outage. Damn it! So, we walked back to the grocery store, which had a generator, and picked up a rotisserie chicken and a six pack of Monteiths summer ale (it is summer here you know). Yum! Within an hour, 5 of the 6 beers were gone (you can guess who drank most of them) and the chicken was a pile of bones.

Pancakes Anyone?

Today was another travel day. We departed Abel Tasman and headed south for Franz Josef Glacier via the West Coast. We’d heard a great deal about the rugged beauty of the West Coast, and it lived up to its reputation. The terrain on the South Island is less pastoral and more dramatic: green valleys surrounded by lush mountain ranges, blue-green rivers carving out gorges, and beautiful coastline.

To break up the long drive, we stopped at Buller Gorge and walked across the New Zealand’s longest swing bridge (110m). There was a limit of 15 people at any time on the bridge. The bridge was surprisingly more bouncy than we expected, and we had deal with passing an elderly couple going the other way in 12 inches of space. After crossing the swing bridge, we took a short hike to the White Creek Faultline, epicenter of the 1929 earthquake. To get back across the gorge, we rode a tandem flying fox (zip-line). Fun!

Our next stop on the way to Franz Josef was the Pancake Rocks and blowholes at Punikaiki. It was really interesting. Pancake Rocks is a sedimentary rock formation that looks like a bunch of pancakes stacked on top of each other. Neither of us has seen rock formations like this. Even scientists aren’t sure how they formed that way. And the coastline was breathtaking too! It reminded us of Big Sur.

Kayaking Abel Tasman – Day 2

It was another beautiful, sunny day with no wind when we woke up. Sally made tea and toast, while Robyn made fruit salad and got the milk, cereal and yoghurt. (It’s not a typo, they spell it with an “h” here.) Rested and full, we were ready for day 2.

We met up with our guide and the rest of our group on the beach around 9am. To kill some time, we went for a walk down the beach. As we were walking, we found a starfish in the surf! It’s not like any of the other starfish that I’ve seen before. We think it’s a reef starfish.

Time to get back on the water, which was much calmer. We paddled around Boundary Bay, Frenchman Bay, Pinnacle Island, Sandfly Bay and stopped for lunch at Bark Bay. One of the bays we paddled past had a house on beach that sold for $14M (NZD). The owner had a helipad built so he could just helicopter there, rather than paddle. How nice.

The goal for today was to reach the marine reserve to paddle among the sea lions that lived there. After lunch, we crossed Tonga Roadstead to get to Tonga Island, where the sea lions live. We saw lots of sea lions and 1-year old sea lion pups sunning themselves on the rocks, swimming in the water and hanging upside down in the water with their butts and rear flippers sticking out. There was one sea lion that chased away another sea lion that tried to approach his rock. They swam right under our kayak! And boy are we glad they didn’t tip us over. After the marine reserve, we headed to Onetehuti Beach and caught a water taxi back to Marahau.

Kayaking Abel Tasman – Day 1

We spent the last 2 days kayaking Abel Tasman National Park with a guided group. The park is located on the northwest end of the South Island. It’s New Zealand’s smallest national park, but the most visited. There’re some great hikes in the park, but it also has many bays, coves and secluded golden sand beaches, which make it perfect for kayaking.

We started our trip at Sandy Beach in Marahau. Apparently the tides change a great deal here, about 5m on a full moon. We witnessed this change first hand since the tide was out when we arrived at Sandy Beach. We could see tractors with boat trailers attached to back driving the boats out to water deep enough so they could be launched. By the time we were done with safety briefing and loading the kayaks, the tide was in…right at the spot we were going to launch. Phew! We were worried we’d have to walk the kayaks out 500 ft just to get it into the water.

After paddling past Adele Island, we stopped for lunch at Watering Cove. There were several other kayak groups there as well. The water was a beautiful blue-green and very clear. It was also cold, too cold for us to swim in, even though our guide, Brad, was insisting that it wasn’t cold.

After lunch, we paddled the “Mad Mile.” The water was really choppy, and we were paddling into the wind. It felt like we were paddling, but not going anywhere. We stopped at Te Puketea Bay to rest and escape some of the wind for a bit. Then it was back out into the wind and waves. When we got to Torrent Bay, we rafted up (lined up all 4 kayaks parallel to each other with everyone holding on to the adjacent kayak) and broke out a sail. It was finally time to use the wind in our favor! We sailed into our final stop for the day, The Anchorage.

We stayed on a catamaran, Arorere (flying cloud), that evening. Robyn, the woman who owns and sails it, built it with her ex-husband. Very cool! It was a beautiful boat! We drank wine, ate and chatted with Robyn and Sally as the evening turned to night. Robyn and Sally were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed getting to know them. Robyn is a neat woman – a female pirate! Our cabin was in one end of one of the hulls. “The gentle rocking of the sea, rocked me to sleep,” says Greg. Me too! We really enjoyed our stay on Arorere and would highly recommend it to anyone else who’s planning to kayak Abel Tasman.

On the Road Again

This morning we started our journey to the South Island. We were on the road by 7:15 AM and had a 4 hour drive South to Wellington. The drive was easy; mostly 2-lane highway with rolling hills and more sheep and cows. Once in Wellington, we returned our rental car and caught an interisland ferry to cross Cooks Strait. The ferry ride was 3.5 hours and also uneventful. Upon arrival in Picton, we picked up a new rental car, a Holden Commodore and started our 2.5 hour drive to Abel Tasman National Park. We finally arrived at our destination at about 9:40 PM.

Bzzzzz’d

We spent the day tasting wine a several different wineries Chris and Kerrie recommended: Clearview, Craggy Range, Sileni, and Ngatarawa. They were all great! With the exception of Craggy Range, they all had a low-key feel to them. And everyone was very knowledgeable and friendly. Greg and I just faked our knowledge of wine and kept drinking whatever they poured in our glasses. By the end of the day, I (Cheryl) was pretty buzzed. Greg was a good designated driver and stopped before we got to the last winery.

We started a Clearview, which had a rustic feel and was right next to the ocean. From there we headed over to Craggy Range. The grounds were really impressive and beautiful. It reminded us of some of the wineries in Napa. The tasting room felt a bit more formal as well. We had lunch at the restaurant, and the food was yummy. After lunch, we went to the top of Te Mata, which provided excellent 360 degree views of the region. We were able to see all the way to Mt Ruanganui, a snow-covered volcano near Lake Tuapo. Our next stop was Seleni Winery, which had a modern look to it with interesting sculptures in the garden area. By this point in the day, I was having trouble remembering which wine was which, and was debating if we should head back to our B&B before dinner. But the guy at Seleni recommended one other winery that we really should check out. Okay, hold a gun to my head. So, our last winery for the day was Ngatarawa, which used to be race horse stable.

To cap of a relaxing day of wine tasting, we had dinner at the historic Mission Estate Winery. Mission is the first winery in New Zealand and was founded by some missionaries who were sent to New Zealand. The setting was really nice; the wine was excellent; the service was top-notch; the food was tasty.

Fat Dogs, Arsenic, and Art Deco

Today was another travel day…roughly 4 hours worth. We started our day back at the Fat Dog Café for breakfast where I (Greg) had spag, toast, and hashbrowns. What’s spag? Spaghetti…interesting. A lot like spaghetti-o’s.

After breakfast, we left the stinkiest city in the world (Rotorua) behind and headed south-east towards Wai-O-Tapu, the self proclaimed “thermal wonderland.” We arrived in time to witness the “Lady Knox” geyser spew off at 10:15 am. Pretty reliable? Sure…if you "help" Mother Nature by pouring 300 grams of “a biodegradable soap” down the neck of the geyser to set it off. It did spout water around 60 feet into the air, but the fact that it was induced by soap made it seem somewhat fake.

We then proceeded to do the 3 km walk through the park where we saw hot springs, sulfur deposits, steaming vents, collapsed volcanic craters and boiling mud. Everywhere you looked, there was something boiling or steaming. In Cheryl’s words, “this is probably what hell looks like.” One of the last things we saw was called the champagne pools. Of course, it’s another boiling hot spring, but the water is crystal clear. When you can see through all of the steam, the rim of rock at the edge is bright orange. Why? Apparently it’s caused by minerals: gold, silver, mercury, sulphur, arsenic, thallium, and antimony. Now…think about this. Of those, aren’t half of them poisonous? Isn’t this thing steaming? Haven’t we been breathing this stuff?! Great…time to go. I need the few brain cells I have left.

Back on the road, we stopped by the Prawn Park, where you can fish for prawns and play killer prawn golf. You might be asking yourself, what’s killer prawn golf? Basically, you tee off and if you can hit the golf ball into a target, you win cash! The problem – not even Tiger Woods could do this! The targets are at 50 100, and 200 meters and they’re the size of a life preserver. We couldn’t bring ourselves to spend $24 per person to get into the place, so we left.

We made a quick stop at Huka Falls, the Niagra Falls of of New Zealand. That was pretty impressive. The water was crystal clear, and Cheryl saw a fish trying to jump up the water fall. Honestly she did...or maybe it was the arsenic we inhaled at Wai-O-Tapu.

Once into Tuapo, we took a slight detour because of a bike race. Damn…wish we had our road bikes. Turns out the ride/race is a ride around Lake Tuapo. As we drove through Tuapo, we both commented that we'd need to come back and spend some time in this part of New Zealand. The lake was beautiful, and we're sure there was some good fun to be had here.

Two more hours on the road and we finally arrived in Hawke’s Bay where we checked into the Room@53 B&B. Awesome place! If you ever have the chance to visit this part of New Zealand and need a place to stay…go here. Chris and Kerrie are fantastic hosts. It’s like staying with friends.

After settling in, we headed into Napier, the Art Deco capital of New Zealand. It was a neat town with lots of buildings designed/built in the Art Deco style. Apparently the city was devastated by an earthquake in 1931, and the rebuilding efforts in the following years captured that era. In fact, the city has a huge Art Deco festival that happens once a year and the whole city gets dressed up in the styles of the 1930s and parties. It must be really interesting to be here for that event.

Human Hamsters

Growing up, I (Greg) had a hamster. Her name was Helen “The Hamster.” She ran around the house in a little plastic ball. Today, we got to experience what it must have been like to be Helen in her hamster ball. Some crazy Kiwi was trying to find a way to cross hot sand and invented a human size hamster ball called the Zorb. It’s basically a giant inflatable ball inside another inflatable ball with a tunnel for you to crawl into the “safety” of the inner ball.

On a calm day, you could opt for the standard Zorb where you’d be strapped into the inside of the ball. Today, there was a slight breeze, so the only Zorbing to be done was the Hydro-Zorb. If the breeze caught the Zorb, you could potentially end up being blown off course and end up in the thermal pools of Lake Rotorua (that’s hot enough to boil mud!). Unlike the normal Zorb, with the Hyrdo-Zorb you’re not strapped in and inner ball is filled with water. Think giant slip-n-slide.

Once we were dressed in our Zorbing outfits (board shorts and rash guard with swimsuits underneath), we hopped in a van for a quick ride up a hill. At the top of the hill, you can decide which track you want to take, straight down the hill or the zig-zag track. We both opted for the zig-zag track. We hop inside the Zorb. The Zorb guy pump in some warm water and zips it up. He gives the Zorb a couple of taps. You take a couple of steps forward and gravity takes over from there. Sliding and sloshing around, you eventually make your way down the course. Once you come to rest, the Zorb “gives birth” to you. It’s water breaks and you come sliding out…wet.

Kiwi’s are a strange people.

BTW, we were able to post pictures on some of our previous blogs. So check them out!

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

“E-I-E-I-O. And on this farm he had some…sheep! E-I-E-I-O. With a baa-baah here and baa-baa there. Here a baa; there a baaa; everywhere a baaa-baaa.” After lunch, we decided to visit the Agrodome and learn more about all the sheep we’d seen in New Zealand. The Agrodome puts on a daily shows about sheep and sheep farming. They had at least a dozen or more different types of sheep “on display.” Who knew there were so many types of sheep? In addition to learning about what the different types of sheep were used for, we watched a sheep sheering demonstration.

"And on this farm he had some…dogs! E-I-E-I-O. With a woof-woof here and woof-woof there. Here a woof; there a woof; everywhere a woof-woof.” To help herd the thousands of sheep grazing all over the hillsides, farmers use dogs. Actually, two types of dogs. One is similar to a border collie tha herds animals from behind, using only eye-contact. S/he doesn’t bark at all. The other dog they employ is some type of shepherd dog. S/he helps get the sheep moving by running along the backs of sheep and barking.

“And on this farm he had some…cows! E-I-E-I-O. With a moo-moo here and moo-moo there. Here a moo; there a moooo; everywhere a moo-mooo.” In addition to sheep farming, New Zealand also has a very large dairy industry, which means they have lots of cows. After the sheep, we were treated to a dairy cow milking demonstration. They invited volunteers to come on stage to milk a cow. So, I nudged Greg to go, but he had no interest In milking a cow. “I didn’t want to violate the cow’s private parts,” says Greg.

Mama Tang’s Gonna Be Mad!

So one of the things that Cheryl and I were told by Mama Tang when we left was to be careful. Those words of advice were thrown out the door today…at 15,000 feet.

The day started off early with a 7:00 am breakfast of eggs, toast, and fruit cooked by Chef Greg in the kitchen area of the hostel. Then we were off. 15 minutes down the road and we arrived at the Rotorua airfield. Cheryl’s photographer put it best by saying, “this is probably the only time you’ll take-off in a plane and not land in the same plane.” Yup…sky diving. For this jump, we needed to wear oxygen masks during the ride up because the air gets pretty thin above 12,000 feet. Cheryl looked fine at the beginning, but as the plane climbed higher and higher, she started to look more and more nervous. She was the first one out of the plane. Finally, once at altitude, the door slid open, the camera man / videographer slipped out the door and Cheryl inched her way towards the door. Feet hanging off, one good lean and she was off…plummeting towards the earth at ~110 mph for 65 seconds.

Greg was the last one out of the plane, which was a single prop plane that only held 3 tandem jumpers (plus the camera man). Once the chutes opened, he was able to spot the other two jumpers and zero’d in on Cheryl because of her bright, turquoise shoes! He could tell that Matt (her “guide”) was having fun, spinning her around, diving, and swooping. “It was fun, until I started to get dizzy and nauseous and had to close my eyes,” said Cheryl. Greg, on the other hand, has a new opinion about French Canadians – boring. His guide was build like Lurch from the Adam’s family and was about as talkative. Free fall, open chute, land safely. The views were amazing as we looked down on Lake Rotorua, the stinkiest lake on the planet, and even saw a snow covered Mount Doom out in the distance.

Back on solid ground, we packed up and headed back for some food at the Fat Dog Café. More later…but I’d like to leave you with this quote written on the café wall: “The bulldog is a funny dog. Both ends look the same. This end is his bottom and that end is his brain. Hold on. NO, I’ve got it wrong, or have I just forgotten? That end is his head and that end is the bottom.”

Kia Ora!

We spent our Thanksgiving dinner taking in some Maori culture – a concert and hangi. Upon arriving at the Marae, the Maori village, the host tribe sends out a challenge of peace. Several warriors greeted us with intimidating gestures, including bulging eyes and tongues sticking out, and displays of weapons before placing a peace offering on the ground for our designated chief. Only after we accepted the peace offering were we allowed into the Marae.

Once inside the Marae, we were treated to a performance of native songs, dances and haka. Of course, our chief had to perform the “hongi” (pressing of the noses) to seal the friendship between the different cultures. After the cultural performance we partook in a traditional Maori dinner prepared in the hangi, an earthen oven similar to the imu used for Hawaiian luaus. We had lamb, chicken, fish, stuffing, kumara, carrots, steamed pudding and pavlova.

We came to the conclusion that the Maori people are basically aggressive Hawaiians. Rather than the open arms of the luau, they intimidate you before opening their arms. Interesting considering that the kiwi’s are some of the friendliest people that we’ve met while traveling…although Greg hasn’t been to many places other than China and Vietnam and we all know how much he likes those people.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Save the Kiwis (the Bird, Not the Fruit)

This morning we visited the Mamaku Blueberry Winery on the outskirts of Rotorua. You might be thinking the morning is a bit early for wine tasting, and you’d probably be right. But we heard the café served tasty breakfasts. And they do! After a hearty breakfast of blueberry pancakes, blueberry crepes and tea for two, we sampled blueberry and gooseberry chutney, jam and chili sauce and tasted some blueberry wine and liqueur. They grow the blueberries and gooseberries at the winery and make everything there too. Yummy!

Now that our bellies were full of blueberries, we visited Rainbow Springs Nature Park and Kiwi Encounter. Normally, Greg refuses to visit anyplace that resembles a zoo. But Rainbow Springs isn’t your typical zoo. It has a number of natural springs that lead to the Lake Rotorua. The springs are filled with the largest rainbow trout we’ve ever seen, easily over 15lbs and over 25 inches long. And no they don’t give out fishing poles as you walk in. They also have several aviaries featuring native birds like the tui.

The highlight of the nature park is the kiwi conservation project. Because the kiwi bird is endangered, the nature park works with local park rangers to bring kiwi eggs from the wild to the safety of the park. In the wild, the eggs / baby kiwis have a 5% survival rate. The kiwis hatched at the park have an 80% survival rate. When the kiwi birds are old enough to fend for themselves, they’re released back where the eggs were found. We learned that kiwi eggs are very large. They’re about 20% of the kiwi’s body weight and laying the egg is equivalent to giving birth to a 35lb baby. Yikes! We think kiwis are cute in a funny-looking kinda way.

Did Everyone in Rotorua Just Fart at the Same Time?

We arrived in Rotorua yesterday afternoon, and boy does it stink. Rotorua is New Zealand’s most dynamic thermal area with hot springs, bubbling mud and geysers. It also has the ubiquitous odor of rotten-eggs, caused by sulfur. The closer to the water, the smellier it gets.

Despite the sulfur smell, we checked out the Polynesian Spa. The spa offers thermally-heated baths right by the lake. They have several spa areas (e.g. family spa, adult only spa, lake view spa, private spas), and we opted for the lake view spa. The lake view spa had 4 spas of different temperatures, ranging from 36°C to 42°C (roughly 100°F to 110°F). We managed to get into the 40°C pool. It was like sitting in a giant hot tub, only the water is heated naturally and it smelled like everyone at the spa farted at the same time, constantly.

Black Water Rafting

The adventure part of our trip started today! We booked a five-hour black water rafting trip, called the Black Abyss. What’s black water rafting? Basically you float in an inner tube down an underground river through Ruakuri Cave. What’s so adventurous about that? For starters, we repelled 30m (90ft) through a small, dark hole to get underground. Once underground, we zip-lined in the dark into a cave full of glowworms (very cool!). After a short break and snack of hot tea and cave cookies, we jumped off of a 20 foot ledge into the ice-cold river to begin our float down a long, glowworm-covered passage. Floating and looking up at the glowworms was like stargazing. Mother Nature is really impressive. After the tranquility of the glowworms, it was time for more adventure -- walking / crawling / swimming through the cave, sliding down a slide (face first), and climbing up a few waterfalls to get back above ground. We had a great time and came out with only a few minor scrapes. Our guides, Hop and Shannon, were awesome!

Glow, Little Glowworm, Glow

We arrived in Waitomo this afternoon and checked out the Glowworm Cave and the Arauni Cave. The glowworms are unlike any insect we've ever seen before. After walking through some pretty amazing caves of stalactites and stalagmites, we boarded a boat and floated down an underground river. Above us were thousands of tiny, green lights that looked like stars in the night sky. Those little lights were the glowworms! It was an amazing site. Unfortunately photography was not allowed in this cave. You’ll just have to use your imagination. =)

The next cave we explored was the Aranui Cave. This cave didn’t have any water running through it. So there were no glowworms. But there were lots of colorful stalactites hanging from the cathedral-like ceiling. If you use your imagination, you can see a village of little people, a bunch of carrots and one parsnip in the picture. Can you see them?

Spoiled by California?

This morning we took a half day cruise around the Bay of Islands. While the Bay of Islands was beautiful, we didn't think it was a "must-see" like the guidebook said. Maybe it's because we're spoiled by the California coastline, which we see on a regular basis.

One of highlights of the cruise was cruising through the Hole in the Rock at Percy Island. The other was finding several pods of bottlenose dolphins playing in the bay. Getting up-close and watching the dolphins frolic was definitely more interesting than passing through the Hole in the Rock. There were probably a dozen or more dolphins in the bay, including a couple of baby dolphins. Our captain thought one of the babies was only a few hours old. We weren’t able to get into the water and swim with the dolphins because there were baby dolphins in the pod. Otherwise, we could’ve slipped on a wet suit and flippers and swam with the dolphins.

Once back to port, we gassed up the car and headed out for the Waipoua Kauri Forest. If you think gas is expensive in California, try $6.80/gallon here! Granted it is 91 octane…but still…$6.80/gal?! (BTW, they also have 98 octane for $0.40/gal more).

We decided to visit the kauri forest because neither one of us knew what a kauri tree looked like. And kauri trees seemed like a big deal in Maori culture. We soon discovered what’s so special about the kauri tree. They’re BIG! I’m talking redwood trees big. They’re not as tall as redwood trees, but they’re definitely wider than redwood trees. Tane Mahuta (lord of the forest), is 51.5m high (a little over 150 ft) with a circumference of 13.8m wide (about 50 ft). It’s estimated to be Tane Mahuta sprang from seed around 2000 years ago. We were impressed by these giant kauri trees and wondered if they were the inspiration for the tree people in the Lord of the Rings.

Driving North to the Bay of Islands

Before we hit the road, we made a stop at the local supermarket to pick up some rations for the drive and lunch. Greg discovered meat-flavored potato chips and picked up 2 bags of chips: honey soy chicken and chargrilled beef with black pepper. He says the chargrilled beef chips taste like beef ramen noodles. I bet the chicken chips taste like chicken ramen noodles.

We found our way to SH1 pretty easily and soon we were driving through rolling, green hillsides with cows and sheep grazing on the pastures. We took a small detour to visit Whangarei Falls. It drops 25 meters into a brush-rimmed pool. There's a walking trail that takes you along the river and through fields of wildflowers and a grove of trees. After our short hike, we got back on the road to the Bay of Islands.

After another hour of driving, we arrived at our destination, Paihia. It’s a small, sleepy beach town right next to the water. Our accommodations for the evening: the Saltwater Lodge, a cool backpackers hostel. We visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, overlooking the Bay of Islands. Waitangi is historically significant because the first treaty between the Maori people and the British Crown was signed here in 1840. The treaty is how the Maori people get screwed by the British. There's an amazing Maori meeting house and war canoe. The war canoe is over 30 meters long and was built from three kauri trees. It's huge!

We’d love to post pictures, but we’re having trouble finding WiFi access here. As soon as we find an internet cafe or something, we'll post pictures.

Black Sand is Really Hot

After grabbing a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast (and coffee for Cheryl) at Dizengoff’s, we headed out to check out Auckland and the surrounding areas. While Auckland and the surrounding region is the most populated area of New Zealand, it really isn't a very impressive city. It's actually not very big. There isn't an impressive skyline (e.g. NYC, Hong Kong, San Francisco) or a unique landmark (e.g. Sydney Opera House or Golden Gate Bridge). Even the harbor was disappointing. Good thing we're only here for a day!

We we went to One Tree Hill, which is a park in Auckland. It really didn't feel like any of the parks I'd been too. It was open and pastoral with rolling green hills, trees, walking paths and sheep (yes, sheep) right in the middle of the city. We had our first sheep sighting as we hiked up to the top of the hill.

After enjoying the views at One Tree Hill, we headed out of the city to the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park to visit black sand beaches, Karekare and Piha, with a short stop at the Arataki Visitor Center.

Karekare beach was made famous by the film The Piano. Too bad neither one of us has seen that movie. We had a picnic lunch at Karekare and discovered that black sand is really hot on bare feet. (ouch!). At Piha, we climbed up Lion Rock, which sits just off the beach. We both like Karekare beach better because it was more rugged and less populated than Piha beach.

Yay, We’re Here! (and our butts hurt)

After a 13+ hour plane ride, the title of this post should be obvious. We arrived in Auckland at 5:00 am, picked up our bags, cleared customs and got our rental car. It didn’t feel like we were in a foreign country, until we got to the car. Greg tosses me the keys and says, “Here, warm up the car.” I walk over to the left-side of the car, open the door and…there’s no steering wheel.

Oh yeah! The driver’s side is on the right-side in New Zealand. And they drive on the left-side of the road. Hmmm…driving on the wrong side of the road and the right-side of the car is gonna be interesting. We (Greg) only drove on the wrong side of the road once on our way into Auckland. =)

On Our Way!

Well...we're all packed and heading off to the airport now! Our next post will be from New Zealand. Yay! =)

Plans or No Plans?

Once we realized that we were departing for New Zealand in less than a week and a half, Greg and I suddenly got really busy researching places to visit and stay in New Zealand. Greg read our entire Lonely Planet guide for New Zealand, and he is a self-proclaimed non-reader! Maybe it's because I made a comment about how the husband usually plans the honeymoon. =P Greg says he started reading because all my questions about where we should go and what to do in New Zealand stressed him out and now his head hurts from all the reading he did. Anyhow, we now have a rental car, our return flight from Queenstown to Auckland, our ferry reservations from the North Island to the South island, all of our accommodations, and even some of our activities booked.

The funny thing is that when I booked our plane tickets way back in July, I kinda figured we'd arrive in Auckland with a really rough itinerary of what parts of New Zealand we wanted to visit and how long, but not have anything really booked besides a rental car. We'd basically wing it. Pick a city, drive there, find a bed and breakfast or a hostel once we arrived, and then go plan our activities. I mean, it worked for me and my brother when we backpacked through Europe for 4 weeks before he started med school. In fact, some of the most memorable moments of our trip came out of trying to find a place to stay when we arrived in some city and didn't speak the language. So, if winging it worked back then, why wouldn't it work now?

Well, we've got some ideas:

• My tolerance for staying in 1-star hotels/motels/hostels with questionable cleaning practices has gone way down, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't stuck with only flea-bag places to sleep, especially on our honeymoon.
• Despite his go-with-the-flow image, Greg is secretly a planner. The idea of flying 13.5 hours to get to New Zealand and missing out on some amazing New Zealand experience (e.g. a Hobbit sighting expedition) because we didn't have a plan just doesn't work for him.
• While 3 weeks seems like a long time, it's not long enough for all the things we want to do! So, we have to plan some of our trip to make sure we include our "must-do" activities.

While we've got quite a bit already planned, there's plenty of opportunity for flexibility and spontaneity along the way too.

Welcome to our blog!

We're getting ready for our honeymoon in New Zealand, which is coming up in a few weeks! To share our adventures with everyone back home, we decided to create this blog. Hopefully, we'll find time to post updates on our journey -- stories and pictures.