New Zealand, Day 16

One last bus ride. Museli for breakfast, thanks to the continental services at the hostel. We’re off! We moved out of the nasty smelling town of Rotorua and traveled, slowly, to Auckland. It usually only takes 3 hours to get there from Rotorua, but we kept stopping in random towns for very long periods of time for not apparent reason really. We stopped at a town right along the coast, before Thames, for about an hour and a half. I grabbed a latte and walked down to chill on the beach. We laid there for a little bit then hopped back on the bus. An hour later, we stopped in Thames to waste some more time. We had lunch then left another hour and a half later. Nothing like bangin out the last bus ride in a timely manner. C’mon guy. And then he tells us, he’s “tired”. Great, well don’t fall asleep at the wheel or anything. It’d be nice to make it to Auckland in one piece please! We’re just about there, I think we’re about 50km away. Not too much longer! We’ll probably stop for another few hours just to sit around before we actually get into the city. Who knows. Well, sadly, that’s all for today! We’ll check into our hostel in just a bit, City Lodge, and chill around the city as our vacation comes to an end. We’ll leave Tuesday morning from New Zealand to go back to OZ! 

New Zealand, Day 15... Err, something. Better said as, a long ass vacation.

SLEEP! Yesss! What a great day today was, besides the gloomy weather and the ten year olds bouncing basketballs upstairs and right outside our door of our room starting at 6a.m. Jerks. Take your tournament to the courts, not above my head so early in the morning. Does anyone discipline their kids anymore these days?! My god. Right, so Karen and I walked to town today around 11 for lunch at a little cafe called Fat Dog 2 Go. I had a vegetarian salad and obviously I had to get my caffeine fix in for the day. After lunch we walked around a bit, poking around in a few shops and things. I love the clothes here, totally diggin it. We decided we really didn't have much to do, so we went and saw a movie. We saw Fast and Furious... 5. They didn't have too much out in the cinema. It was alright, but how many times can "The Rock" and Vin Diesel really drive amazingly good looking cars and explode things? We get it... Well, we got it after the first or second one. It had a lot of bad acting in it, but it was entertaining on such a dreary day. The movie finished and got out around 5:30ish. Neither of us were hungry yet and didn't really want to walk all the way back to our hostel just yet. We went to another movie. Haha, I haven't been to the movies in ages and went twice in a row today. I've never done that before, but we had nothing better to do! After the second movie, we had Italian. We walked back in the dark, got a little lost trekking through wet rugby fields, but made our way back eventually. It was a nice little day in town. Put some hours in at the cinema! It's bed time. Tomorrow is our LAST DAY on the bus. Thank god. I don't even want to know how many hours I've put in on that thing. It shouldn't be that long of a trip tomorrow, a few hours maybe. Back to OZ on chhhuuuuesday... as they say. Then home in a matter of weeks to see friends, family and my beloved Ryan.

New Zealand, Day 14

Geothermal mud pools!! Karen and I spent the morning//early afternoon at Hell's Gate mud pools and spa. We got picked up at 9a.m to head straight there. It was so cool there! Before we started our mud bath, we got to walk around the geothermal mud pools that weren't for swimming. There were a lot more pools than the day before, but they smelled just as awful. After we walked around a bit, Karen and I changed into our swim suits. Brrrr! It was freezing outside, I didn't want to be in a bikini. I needed to change quick and head straight for the hot bath! I stepped in first, we both shared a bath. They were outside. It was such a crazy experience. There was mud gooshing all in between my toes. I got in and lowered into the muddy water. Yuk, I was thinking. Apparently, it's really good for your skin because it opens up all your pours 100% and gets rid of all your toxins. They use all natural products and no chemicals so that was reassuring. After soaking in the mud for 30 minutes and rubbing it all over our bodies, we had to blast ourselves with ice cold water to ensure that our pores were sealed. The cold water does that for your skin. All I could think about was getting in the hot tub afterwards so I showered off as quickly as I could! We spent about 15 more minutes in the hot tub and got out to shower off in steaming hot water and got dressed. At the gift shop, I bought a special face scrub and lotion. Our bus driver and the woman at the shop said that the white mud they have is no where else to be found in the world and all the major makeup companies are trying to buy it. I found that pretty unique. Lets hope it works! It's been proven to really even out your skin and remove any blemishes and make your skin extremely soft. I'm looking forward to using it. I hung out for the rest of the day, skyped with Ry and took a little nap while Karen went to do more Lord of The Rings things. I'm glad I stayed behind! Haha. When she got back, we went for Indian. Big surprise there! I had a glass of wine at dinner... Not the same. Now I'm spoiled with great wines! We came back, excited about sleeping in  for once and mellowed out.

New Zealand, Day 13

I'm not an early riser. I don't like waking up early. Quit making me wake up at these obnoxious times, I need my beauty sleep! Riiiight, I'll sleep when I'm dead. This trip was made more no sleep, running high on life for 18 days straight. Whew, today we were up around 7 to head out of Wellington to Rotorua via Taupo. We had a haul ahead of us. We literally drove from the bottom of the Island to the very top. We didn't get into town until about 5p.m with only one or two stops the whole way.. Quite awful. We've both agreed that this trip has been draining and getting on and off the bus is wearing on us, but it's all character building right? Exposing ourselves to things we've never done before. I swear I've slept in more hostels than I would've ever dreamt about. Anyway. We made some, obviously beautiful, stops along the way. Before we got to Taupo we stopped at Huka Falls, which was a 20ft or so waterfall that we were told has an olympic swimming pool-size water load run through it every second. Mind boggling aye? That's a ton of water! It was so blue! Clearly, don't jump in is an obvious indicator, right? Apparently not. Some people jump in to try and survive the falls. No one has ever come back. How stupid can one honestly be?! After the falls, we drove all around Lake Taupo. Naturally beautiful. This lake is the biggest in New Zealand and Singapore could fit into it. Pretty interesting. By the time we hit Rotorua, we checked out some geothermal mud pools for a couple minutes. We were warned that Rotorua smells like rotten eggs... strange? It's because of all the sulfar that comes out of the mud pools. We got to experience that at the mud pools we stopped at. Yuk. The mud pools were really interesting. I've never seen anything like it before. They would splash like crazy, with a bare minimum of 400 degrees. We were also told not to stick our finger in it. Once again, you think that would be obvious, but no. A few weeks ago, some guy stuck his finger in it and it was only a matter of second until his skin shriveled down to the bone. He had to get it amputated. What brains he had! We hopped back on the bus for a few more minutes and winded down the mountain, right into the town of Rotorua. We arrived just in time for our Maori cultural dinner at 5. The Maori are New Zealand's native people and their cultural traditions are similar to those of Hawaii because their people came from the same place. A bus came and picked Karen and I up from our hostel around 5. We were labeled right off the bat as the "token Americans" because we were the only ones. Our driver was super sweet and funny. He had to have photographic memory because at the end of the night he remembered every single person's name on the bus. It was damn well impressive. I could never! On the way to their land where our cultural experience was held, our driver informed us of everything that was going to happen that night. The night started off with an opening ceremony of sorts, where the Maori dressed in their traditional clothing and imitated the birds and other animals that are in their culture. They use this as an imitation method and then peace was made to establish understanding between us and their people so we could enter their village to explore. They all had tattoos all over their body as a form of symbolization. Once inside the dark village, we walked around to different little huts where 1-2 people of the village would teach us more about their culture. After we finished in the forest, we went into a small theatre before we ate the dinner they cooked in a pit underground (we got to see them take it out and it smelled delicious). In the theatre, about 10 of the people from the forest came on stage and explained to us their music and some of their traditional songs. Words started coming out of their mouth... they all started to sing. I was blown away! I mean, really. They had some of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. Even the huge guys! We then made our way into the restaurant area where we had a buffet style dinner. Our guide was playing the guitar softly in the background after he dismissed each table up to eat. How soothing he was. After we finished up with dinner, the closing ceremony reminded me of an childhood memory... Brought me right back to home. Everyone stood up, he started singing a very familiar song... "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray..." Everyone was holding hands, we all formed lines together and joined in. What a moment. All the waitors and waitresses came out to join in as well. By just being their, I could really feel how much they enjoyed each other's company. Everyone was so happy and welcoming. It was a nice, warm feeling. They're really down to earth people, so kind to anyone they come across. What a beautiful soul each and every one of them had. Their really are good people out there. I'm so grateful to have experienced another culture in such a way that I'll never forget.

Beginning of opening ceremony

Wine, wine and more wine! New Zealand, Day 12

Once again, we woke up and caught breakfast downstairs just before we checked out of the hotel. We had to catch a taxi to the train, which we had about an hour ride or so on. We were in route to Martinborough... The land of fine wines. We weren't quite sure where we had to get off and ended up missing our stop. A very kind man let us use his cell phone and it wasn't a problem contacting our guide to get picked up from there instead. Whooopsie. The area was gorgeous. There were fields and fields of green with sheep all over the place. There were vineyards after vineyards. I was in heaven. I wanted to visit every single one of them! Some were smaller than others, mostly all using different grapes with various techniques when picking. We arrived at our first vineyard of the day and started to taste test right away! It was only 10:30a.m! Haha. What a wake up call! We tried 4 white wines and 4 reds. We had sauvignon blanc, chardonnay,  pinot gris and a reisling for the whites. Then we had 2 pinot noirs aaaand... I don't remember what else, but they were delightful. The finest wines are made in the region. We went around to four different vineyards and sampled many, many kinds. We also had a free glass at lunch along with our cheeses and things! It was a really enjoyable, relaxing day. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned much more about wine than I knew before. What a complex process it is to make any sort of wine! Our guide taught us so much, I was really pleased with the whole winery tour. So much that I sent a whole case home to enjoy over the hot summer for Ryan and I to enjoy. We were then in route on the way back to Wellington after our long day of taste testing at least 20 different wines. Best day ever, so classy ;) Rotorua tomorrow. Trip is dwindling down...

New Zealand Day 11

I woke up around 9 today, enjoyed breakfast downstairs & waited downstairs for our guide to pick us up for the Lord of The Rings tour. He came around ten in his movie tour bus, all cheesy like. Karen & I hopped in and we were off to pick up another girl. It was just the three of us for the day, which was nice. We were shown around various sets for the making of the movie. Our guide would drive us around to different places with his lap top in hand. He played scenes that took place where ever we were and showed us pictures from the set. It was interesting, but I'm not the biggest fan of LOTR movies so I wasn't as into it as Karen and the other gal. Don't get me wrong, they're great movies... Just not a die hard fan. We traveled through different parks and quarries through out various rainforests and mountains. It was nothing short of beautiful all day. They would chat about the movie scene that happened and I would gaze off into my own little world, daydreaming. I was taken back when he told us the movie was filmed in 1999. It’s already been 12 years since the first one came out! That’s nuts! The tour lasted until 2:30. We stopped for lunch in the middle of the woods underneath beautiful multi-colored. He picked us up some subway and drinks. We sat and chatted at a picnic table discussing American culture/sports in comparison to New Zealand. Quite funny. We sound so dumb trying to understand the game of rugby. After lunch, he showed us a few more scenes and dropped us back off at our hotel around 2:30. We had nibbles at our lounge and went out for din!

New Zealand, Day 10

Today was so relaxing. We took our time doing everything. We slept in and really kicked back. It was nice to slow down our trip a bit considering we've constantly been on the go every single day. We woke up at a decent time and went downstairs for breakfast and to the store for a few necessities. The rest of our day was spent mostly in the hotel because it was quite rainy, but we didn't care too much. We looked into things we could do for the following days spent in Wellington. Karen was more into doing Lord of The Rings move tour right outside of town & I wanted to visit a winery. So, we did the move tour on Tuesday & winery the following day. It worked out perfectly! We planned everything accordingly compromised a bit for one another. We met a very nice, retired couple later that evening in the club lounge that helped us out a bit with where to dine. We ended up at a Malaysian restaurant they recommended. Delicious! Locals always know best :)

New Zealand, Day 9

Of course, the weather as we left Kaikoura was beautiful. We could finally see the mountains, we hadn't been able to the past couple days because of the awful weather. The combination of the bright turquoise water and natural green mountains was picturesque! We enjoyed the view for a little while before we were out of town and headed north to Picton to catch the ferry to the North Island. We stopped a few minutes away from a hostel at another seal colony where there were tons of baby deals spread all over the rocks! So cute! There were hundreds all over the place. We left the seal colony and drove all along the coastline for a while. I wish I had more time to appreciate how pretty Kaikoura really was in the sunlight, rather than in clouds and rain. I can't complain though, we've truly been blessed with wonderful weather thus far. After getting breakfast, we drove through Marlborough ( WINE COUNTRY) straight on through to Picton. I wanted to stop so badly! So many vineyards were passing left and right. Can't we just stop for a morning taste?! Nope. We kept driving through the wonderful mountains. We shortly arrived in Picton and boarded the ferry. The ferry was massive ,by the way. It was literally a cruise ship. It had 10 decks! I've never been on a boat so big before. The trip over to the North Island took about 3 1/2 hours. Not too bad, as there was many entertainment options available on board. We cruised all through luscious green mountains and bright blue water. What beautiful nature, I just can't get enough of it. We arrived in Wellington, a smaller type city and stayed at a nice hotel overlooking the city. We were getting sick of the hostels and decided to stay somewhere nicer for a few nights, so worth it! The had a gym and a spa, perfect. We ate at an Italian restaurant called Portofino's for dinner. I had a nice seafood dish & Karen, typical American, branched out and had spaghetti! Ciao.

New Zealand, Day 8

DOLPHIN SWIMMING!! Ahhh, what an experience this was! Extremely cold encounter with dolphins, but absolutely phenomenal it was! Karen and I got to sleep in a bit today so we woke up feeling completely rejuvenated. Once again, the weather we woke up to wasn't what we had pictured in mind for a day out on the boat, but we figured we'd be in the water anyway so it didn't particularly matter too much. After we ate at a little cafe with a very rude lady that took our order, we were on our way to Dolphin Encounter. We got all suited up in our wet suits, booties, flippers, mask, etc! Anything we could get our hands on honestly to withstand that 60 degree water temperature. Which, really, doesn't sound to bad... but it was awfully cold. A lot colder than I had anticipated! My first jump off the boat I was hyperventilating. I had to lay on my back to catch my breath! Anyway, once we got out onto the boat our guide said it would only be about ten minutes to get to where the dolphins were. Within minutes, we could see hundreds of dolphins swimming everywhere. We were all so excited! We lined up on the end of the boat so we could slide off when they sounded the horn indicating us that it was okay to go in. We jumped in... I've never swam in colder water before in my life. The excitement numbed it for a little bit, but I could barely breath. Quite scary actually. We could see our breath, that's how cold it was. My fingers were turning purple. The cold water seeped through my mask/hood and trickled all the way down my body. We hopped off & on the boat 4 times. We can't keep up with the dolphins so they continuously would keep dropping us where ever they were swimming. The dolphins we were swimming with were completely wild, they're called dusky dolphins. So pretty! They're about 5-6 feet in length. The dolphins were literally inches away from our faces, all around! It seemed as if they were going to swim into us, but they don't touch humans. They'll play with ya though! We were told you have to make a high pitch sound to attract them towards you. Quite entertaining for the viewers on board I imagine, haha. All these swimmers going around squealing for the dolphins attention must've been entertaining.  I called one close to me and started swimming in circles with it. The dolphin made eye contact with me and followed me all around. It was awesome to have an actual interaction with them. We did this a handful of times, on and off the boat. I got off the boat and poured hot water down my wetsuit. That was it for me, I skipped out on the fourth dive. I was so warm by now, there was no way I was about to get back in! Although it was seriously awesome, I was done with that water! I got changed and started taking pictures and videos of the dolphins on the boat. I've never seen so many before in my life! What a wonderful experience this was, once in a lifetime! I really had a great day at sea. Off for a run, Thai for dinner & laundry, finally! Living out of a bag for weeks is a bit aggravating.

Picture doesn't do much justice, but their are literally hundreds.

New Zealand, Day 7

Getting back to you all... Picking up from Day 7! (I'm currently on Day 11 so I'll do my best to remember)
April 15th... We got on the bus and headed for Kaikoura via Christchurch. We continued to bus along through out the mountains, rainforests, hills & dry/flat land. The terrain here is just mind blowing. We stopped for breakfast and lunch along the way of our journey. Karen almost had a heart attack at lunch, she ordered Fish & chips and basically wound up with a bag of salt. Not even eatable. As we drove into Kaikoura, our bus driver informed us that Kaikoura simply means, "Where the mountains meet the Sea". He was right about that. Even though the weather wasn't the best for us here, we thoroughly enjoyed. It was quite cloudy and rainy. There were huge waves crashing against the rocks, ACTUAL boulders this time. Before we were dropped off at our hotel, our driver took us to the seal colony. This was my first time seeing seals! They truly look like a fish out of water. They all looked dead, but as we got closer they wiggled around a bit. Nothing crazy, sort of weird.  They were spread amongst the rocks and grass. We headed to our hotel after a few pictures. I took a run around town then we went for Indian. I'm never ordering Indian food HOT ever again. I was crying, seriously. I used a whole thing of yogurt he brought me. This shit was waaay too hot for my liking. I mean, really... How is that enjoyable? My nose was running, I've had the whole pitcher of water by now and wouldn't be apposed to him bringing me more yogurt. My god! After we got through dinner, we headed back to our place right down the road and called it quits.