Greetings from a land Down Under
Well, we're in NZ. We had a very safe and uneventful trip down here (the Air New Zealand flight had on demand movies, tv, music, and games all the way back in the cheap seats!) and have had a great experience so far. We arrived in Auckland around 5:30 am on Thursday, February 16. It only took us about an hour to get through customs and immigration and out to our bus. We had a little bit of a laugh when the "food sniffing" dog (a very cute little beagle) tuned his little nose into my day pack. He was convinced I was trying to smuggle some outside food into NZ. His handler kept asking me if I was sure I hadn't left any food in there on accident. I kept laughing and saying "no...sorry, no food". She pulled everything out of it and didn't find anything. I guess the little guy was at the end of his shift and his sniffer was tired. Apparently NZ and Australia are extremely stringent about keeping any outside food and vegetation out of their country. They even make you clean your shoes/hiking boots if they find mud on them. And if they catch you "lying" about whether or not you have said mud on your shoes, they'll fine you up to NZ$2,000 (about US$1,400). Luckily, my shoes were mud free.
We spent two days sight seeing in Auckland. We took a harbour cruise and made our way out to One Tree Hill with sweeping views of the Auckland area, from Manuaka Harbour in the south all across the Hurakai Gulf (please don't hold me to either spelling...I don't have my guide book open right now). On Friday we met up with one of Cece's former co workers from KC in the UK. Sid and his girlfriend Laura are on month four of a six month RTW trip of their own. They arrived a day ahead of us here in NZ and have just spent two months living out of a car in Australia. They are much more budget conscience than us! After a good lunch of chicken sandwiches (bird flu free!) we took the extremely fast elevator up the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. I'm pretty sure the observation deck is around 180 meters off the ground. They have some glass panels in the floor so you can look straight down about 650 feet or so. You can also "bungee" jump down from an observation level a little higher than the one we were on. I thought about it, but it cost NZ$175...a little rich for our daily budget. We met up with Sid and Laura again for a few drinks after dinner and took them up on an offer to drive us up to the Bay of Islands on Saturday morning. They were heading up to the tip of the North Island to stay at Laura's uncle's house and our planned stopping point was on the way.
The drive up from Auckland to Paihia (pronounced pie-HEE-uh) wound through lush forests with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. It was beautiful scenery to help pass away the three hours. Once in Paihia we looked around for a room, finally locating a room in a house about ten minutes from the main part of town. It turns out we are sharing the house with two British couples on separate trips. (commence quick blogging four days later...)
Bay of Islands was beautiful. Quiet, serene little beaches and scenic vistas out to sea. Went on a big jet boat ride out to the Hole in the Rock at Cape Brett and did some sea kayaking off Urupukapuka Island.
Syd and Laura gave us a lift down to Rotorua on Tuesday. About 10 km outside of Rotorua we narrowly avoided a nasty accident. A little hatchback (about the size of Paige's old Silver Bullet) spun out in some gravel (after hitting the brakes too hard) and crashed right in front, to the side of, and behind us. Cece will fill you in on the details.
Rotorua is on a big lake and there is the center of the Maori cultural experience in NZ. We took in one of the geothermal valleys with big geysers (Pohutu) and a Maori cultural show today. It was great fun. Yesterday we went Zorbing (Google it!) and had a blast. We rode down together in a "Hydro Zorb".
Tomorrow we're off to Lake Taupo, the largest freshwater lake in the Southern Hemisphere. It was created by a gigantic volcanic explosion 26,000 years ago. Hopefully, it will stay dormant for a couple of days! After that we'll head back up to Auckland and get ready to leave for Australia! We are really excited about doing some laundry in Sydney. I know, we're so exciting aren't we.
Cheers!
We spent two days sight seeing in Auckland. We took a harbour cruise and made our way out to One Tree Hill with sweeping views of the Auckland area, from Manuaka Harbour in the south all across the Hurakai Gulf (please don't hold me to either spelling...I don't have my guide book open right now). On Friday we met up with one of Cece's former co workers from KC in the UK. Sid and his girlfriend Laura are on month four of a six month RTW trip of their own. They arrived a day ahead of us here in NZ and have just spent two months living out of a car in Australia. They are much more budget conscience than us! After a good lunch of chicken sandwiches (bird flu free!) we took the extremely fast elevator up the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. I'm pretty sure the observation deck is around 180 meters off the ground. They have some glass panels in the floor so you can look straight down about 650 feet or so. You can also "bungee" jump down from an observation level a little higher than the one we were on. I thought about it, but it cost NZ$175...a little rich for our daily budget. We met up with Sid and Laura again for a few drinks after dinner and took them up on an offer to drive us up to the Bay of Islands on Saturday morning. They were heading up to the tip of the North Island to stay at Laura's uncle's house and our planned stopping point was on the way.
The drive up from Auckland to Paihia (pronounced pie-HEE-uh) wound through lush forests with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. It was beautiful scenery to help pass away the three hours. Once in Paihia we looked around for a room, finally locating a room in a house about ten minutes from the main part of town. It turns out we are sharing the house with two British couples on separate trips. (commence quick blogging four days later...)
Bay of Islands was beautiful. Quiet, serene little beaches and scenic vistas out to sea. Went on a big jet boat ride out to the Hole in the Rock at Cape Brett and did some sea kayaking off Urupukapuka Island.
Syd and Laura gave us a lift down to Rotorua on Tuesday. About 10 km outside of Rotorua we narrowly avoided a nasty accident. A little hatchback (about the size of Paige's old Silver Bullet) spun out in some gravel (after hitting the brakes too hard) and crashed right in front, to the side of, and behind us. Cece will fill you in on the details.
Rotorua is on a big lake and there is the center of the Maori cultural experience in NZ. We took in one of the geothermal valleys with big geysers (Pohutu) and a Maori cultural show today. It was great fun. Yesterday we went Zorbing (Google it!) and had a blast. We rode down together in a "Hydro Zorb".
Tomorrow we're off to Lake Taupo, the largest freshwater lake in the Southern Hemisphere. It was created by a gigantic volcanic explosion 26,000 years ago. Hopefully, it will stay dormant for a couple of days! After that we'll head back up to Auckland and get ready to leave for Australia! We are really excited about doing some laundry in Sydney. I know, we're so exciting aren't we.
Cheers!
posted by Matt | 11:24 PM
1 Comments:
Zorbing looks money. I hope you got some pics!!
Outside of the near accident, sounds like things have gotten off to a great start. It's still weird to think you guys have been gone over a week.
Keep the stories coming.
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