Well, I guess it’s time I wrote a little about New Zealand.

Our adventure started off when I met my friends Yessy and Frisca (from Indonesia but living in Singapore) at the Auckland Airport. It was so exciting to get off my plane and see them there waiting for me 🙂 Yay.

(That’s me and Frisca).

Next thing, we rented our car, and Frisca successfully drove us to Rotorua on the North Island, but about 3 hours south of Auckland.

This was our view while driving. Sheep. Sheep. And more sheep…

We soon arrived at our cottage…

Broekhaven Cottage – this is where we stayed. Came with fresh home-made bread every day. The owners, Debbie and crap I forgot his name, were so nice. We also met their daughter Elise. She was 12 and taught us a lot about the sheep and other animals.

A few times, we even got to help feed the animals! Sheep. Chickens. Goat. Rabbits… GIANT rabbits. Ducks. And my favorite part — we got to collect the eggs from the chickens, and then eat them for our dinner and/or breakfast! Delicious 🙂

Now, this is Lake Rotorua… we could see it out our bedroom window. It’s similar to Crater Lake in Oregon in that it’s made from a volcanic caldera. I thought I had more to say about that, but I guess not. =P

We ate out there a few times on the docks and enjoyed the sunset. So refreshing.

The first day we went Zorbing. I don’t have any pictures. I think Yessy took some, so I’m waiting for those. Google it. Until recently, Rotorua, New Zealand was the only place in the world that has this activity… But basically, you get in this giant rubber ball filled with air. They fill it with water. Then the zip you in. And push the ball down a giant hill. And you roll down, slipping, and flying all over the place inside this giant ball. Here’s a video from their website:

We did the one where you all 3 ride together (not the one where you have handles like in the video).

So, ya… I was really excited about it, until they zipped the door to that ball closed. And then I started freaking out.

I felt totally claustrophobic. And then my mind was freaking out thinking, “But what about air?! We’re gonna be trapped in here!” lol. But seriously. I screamed (and half laughed) the whole way down… and to be even more dramatic, I’m pretty sure I not only had my eyes closed, but had my hand over my closed eyes. Hahaha. Wow, I really didn’t know I was such a pansy. Haha. One ride was enough for me. I’ve never been so relieved to reach fresh air and steady ground.

The next day, we headed to Waiotapu Thermal Park where we watched the Lady Knox Geyser erupt. It was cool… I’ve never seen a Geyser before.

Side note — in New Zealand, they pronounce the word ‘geyser’ like ‘geezer’ instead of ‘guy.zer’. It made me laugh, because we (or at least in Louisiana) use it as slang for an old guy. You can say ‘an old geezer’. One old guy who owned the Waiotapu Tavern we stopped at down the road for lunch asked us, “So did you get to see the geezers?” I had to hold my breath to not laugh out loud.

After the Geyser, we walked around the volcanic park and saw a ton of volcanic… features? If I was a geologist, I think I would have been in heaven…

Waiotapu is known most widely for its multitude of colors… They even gave us a guide describing which chemicals cause which colors… I don’t remember any of it though…

This one’s known as The Champagne Pool. Beautiful. And really hot.

Here’s the “Devil’s Bath”… we also saw, “The Devil’s Home”, “The Devil’s Inkpots”, and “The Devil’s Hole”… there were others that I forgot.

Later that same night, we went to the Maori dinner… I wrote about that earlier though…

The next day, we went to the wildlife park slash kiwi bird conservatory. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the kiwis, so this is the best I got. And they’re not actually this big in real life… if you were wondering. =P But seriously… the kiwi birds are in danger… Something similar to some Hawaiian wildlife… Back in the day, the kiwis were plentiful. Then, the europeans came and brought rabbits. I don’t remember what. But the rabbits breed like… well… rabbits. So, soon, they were overpopulated with rabbits. Then, they brought over ferrets and possums (i think there’s one other animal that i can’t think of) to bring down the rabbit population (ohhh stoats is the 3rd animal). But… those animals were less interested in the rabbits than the were in the easy, flightless kiwi bird and moreso – their eggs. So, now there’s a ton of rabbits and not many kiwi birds…

So anywayyyy, long story short and my point in saying all of that is to say that at this place, they’re working to conserve and help reproduce the kiwis.

Btw. Kiwi birds are awesome.

Also, fun fact of the day… The kiwi bird hatches an egg so large that takes up so much space in its body, it’s equivalent to a human giving birth to a full out 4 year old. YOUCH! 

So, after we saw the kiwis, we wandered around the park and saw a TON of birds. That’s pretty much New Zealand wildlife for you. Birds. Those 3 animals I mentioned. And birds. No snakes. None of those crazy poisonous Australian animals. Mostly just birds…

I’m not a huge bird person, but these are cooler birds than we have in the States.

Later that same evening, we headed to the Polynesian Spa. Rated one of the top 10 world day spa retreats. And now I understand why. It was relaxation at it’s finest…

They have several pools of different temperatures – all overlooking Lake Rotorua – all filled with geothermic mineral water. I’m not a huge pamper yourself person, but this place… Mmmm. Totally worth it. And there’s something totally refreshing about sitting in a hot pool of water when it’s 45 degrees outside.

But that’s not all… after lounging around in the mineral pools for a while, we each received a mud wrap and facial. Including getting exfoliated (my Korean students would be proud — if you don’t get that — don’t worry about it =P).Wow. I mean. WOW. The mud of New Zealand’s volcanoes is supposed to be great for your skin. Detoxifying, soothing, smoothing…  And wow, we felt AWESOME. Well, I’ll speak for myself. My face has never felt so smooth. [Unluckily, it didn’t stay that way for long, since I still had 38 hours of flying left ahead of me — and airplanes have the exact opposite effect on skin].

Next thing up… we took a mini road trip south to Lake Taupo and Tongariro National Park. It was BEAUTIFUL. At least I thought so…

Eventually, we made it to the mountains… One of the cool things about Tongariro National Park is its diverse environments… from lush forests to dry deserts, they have it all. It’s also the oldest national park in New Zealand as well as home of the ‘Lord of the Rings trek’ also known as the ‘Tongariro Alpine Crossing’

The only way you can see some of the view is by either hiking it or flying over by plane or helicopter… None of us actually knew it existed until we arrived, and by then, it was too late to start an 8 hour hiking trip.

These 2 mountains are Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe – both active volcanoes.

I accidentally got the car in focus instead of the mountain, but oh well… This one is Mt. Ruapehu. It’s also an active volcano. AND an active ski resort. We started to drive up closer, but the wind was just too much for our littler car…

It was a great little road trip. Frisca drove most of the way since my license was expired… but I helped out a little 🙂 and during hte other times served as our trusty(?) navigator.

The next day, we headed back to Auckland… I had a flight that evening, and Yessy and Frisca had some more traveling to do in the north… And we definitely took the scenic route.

Btw. For our purposes, “scenic route” means Lauren (I) looked at the map and picked a road that looked smaller than most others or had a cool name like “Wilderness Road” which we did take 🙂

I should write more about the culture of New Zealand, but in all honesty, I went there to relax. And also, everything was quite Americanized and touristized… We actually had a really hard time finding food around town where we stayed… McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Dominos seemed quite overbearing. I still can’t tell you what ‘New Zealand’ food is.

Though, I will also say, I really miss having fish and chips in both Australia and New Zealand. The fish was actually really tasty.

So, there you have it, New Zealand in a nutshell. I apologize if you’ve already seen all the pics on facebook, but oh well, you know what they say, “The more, the merrier”… Haha.

Next up, Dubai. And I do still plan to write about the wedding in India… someday.