Back in the cubicle farm

Hi all. Chris here. I figured I'd do a post-trip update since I'm waiting for something from my boss.

Since Monday was a holiday, (YAY) we decided to use it to replenish our food supply since the fridge was empty. Wouldn't you know it... right after pulling out of our driveway to go to the supermarket, I signal with my wiper and pull into the left side of the street...

Things are almost back to normal though. It's still difficult to sleep at a decent hour and wake up early. At least it's only taken me 3 days to catch back up with work thanks to my co-workers who covered me while I was gone. :)

You know I noticed we went practically the whole blog without mentioning New Zealand Rugby. The "All Blacks" are EVERYWHERE. You can't go anywhere without seeing their merchandise. These people are as crazy about All Blacks as Raider Nation is about... the Raiders! I wish I could have picked up a shirt or something, but didn't seem right, me not knowing a thing about the game.

We mentioned the "Maori Haka" earlier which was, for the native New Zealanders, part of a warriors conditioning for war and battle. The All Blacks have adopted this practice to strike fear into the opposing teams. Imagine a group of HUGE guys with no necks going completely tribal and aggressively stomping, chanting/shouting, with their eyes wide open and showing their tongues? Try going into google images and searching "haka" and most of the images will be of the All Blacks rather than the traditional Maori Haka!



We're working on posting the pictures so please be patient. :) When we're done, I'll try inserting the appropriate ones into past blogs where they apply.

Time travellers

Today is our last few hours in a NZ. Our fight isn't until 3pm so we decided to wake up early, pack, check out, and feed the animals in the Deer Park before lunch.

Both of us really didn't want to stop foot into the hotel restaurant so we decided to forgo breakfast. We tried to eat our 2 leftover slices of pizza but they we're really the type of pizza that you could eat cold. I nibbled on some cheese bread that we got earlier which was enough to tie me over until lunch.

On to the Deer Park we went. We passed by some cafes near the airport so we knew where to find our lunch. We had $25 and some coins left of our NZ$ and it was $20 per car to get into the Deer Park. So we swapped our $5 bill for some $1 coins for food to feed the animals in the park. The first of 2 food dispensers had some donkeys, mini horses, ducks, pigs, and chickens on the other side of the fence with some sheep on our side. Watching us park and walk toward the bin, they all come running. But I get the dollar coin stuck in the machine and nothing comes out. Booo!!! We told them we'd come back later.

Next we drive around where the bus took us a few days before. There was a bison sitting on the side of the road. Looked like his horns were newly sharpened (like we can tell the difference). But we still didn't want to get out of the car... Moving on. Dispenser #2 shows up. This one works just fine, but no animals to feed. *sigh* So we find some picnic tables to sit at for a while. I (Melissa) shook the feed can around seeing if the sheep/goats were like my cat when we open a can of cat food. Nothing. Its a big breezy at 10am so we head back to the car and drive back to the food dispenser. What do you know... the animals were waiting for us. =) Goats on our side of the fence, horses on the other. One little billy goat took a liking to me right away. Jumping on my leg to say hello. Or maybe it was the can of feed. Later another goat and 2 kids came over, but they were more skittish.

We got another can of feed for the animals at the first dispenser. Sheep are a lot more demanding than goats. These were the big fuzzy sheep, not the freshly shaved, skinny sheep. I was having fun. =P Chris took all the pictures. Can's empty... and we were getting hungry. We drove toward the exit and got stopped by about 6 donkeys standing in the middle of the one lane road and a deer watching from the farther up the hill. A baby donkey was laying on the road. *honk honk* *flash the high beams* Nothing would move them. We had no more food. We just sat there staring at each other. Then I decide to get out of the car. I tried yelling, shoooing... finally I pick up a pinecone (they were small ones) and toss them to the donkeys as if it were food. And what do you know, they start moving. So I throw more cones toward the side of the road. They start walking toward me. "GET BACK IN THE CAR!!!" Yells Chris. So I do. Now all 5 are next to or behind the car, but the yearling is still sitting comfortably in the middle of the road, not to be bothered by some crazy humans without food. So Chris tries to edge the car closer and closer to it hoping it will move. Of course it doesn't. But he's far left enough that maybe we can barely pass by on his right without hitting him. Holding our breath, we keep going. I open the window to check the clearance. We're inches away, but we're clear. *pheww* Then I see a big sign that says "Empty Cans Here." So we could've got a 3rd can of food in case we ran into some animals on our way out (like the herd of deer like last time). But we didn't.

Back we go toward the airport and the restaurant we saw nearby. Chris had to order his favorite fish and chips for the last time in NZ. I got a lasagne. We ate lunch outside while trying to avoid the bees and flies that seemed to like our salads. It was noon and our flight was at 3pm. Do we go to the airport early and play scrabble or people watch with the bugs. We went straight for the car.

While driving the few blocks to the small airport, we see some signs for a shopping center. So we head over to waste some time. The shopping center consisted of a grocery store, a home depot type place, an REI lookalike, and some cafes. We went to the overpriced sporting goods store and used up about 45-60 minutes.

We leave for the airport and try to decifer the arrows and signs directing us to the rental car return. 2+ hours early for our flight, we check in our baggage and wait. We grabbed another packaged frozen delight and sit in the airport cafe playing scrabble until they let us go through security. Apparently there's a door and they only let you you into the boarding area as soon as boarding begins, but no earlier.

Boarding time rolls around and we put our carry-ons on the conveyer belt along with any cell phones, change, or other metal objects. We get pass the detectors fine but getting our bags back.... Chris' backpack goes in twice. "Excuse me sir, can we look in your bag?" *sigh* Of course we can't just go through on our last day without something happening. The lady opens the small pockets... "Do you have a lens or camera in here?" Chris pulls out his new wide angle lens from the very bottom of his backpack. "Oh, okay. Its just distorting our view on the monitor." Back through the machine it goes. "Okay, Thank you."

The hour & 45 minute flight was fine. Just like hoping to LA from SFO. Well, a little longer. Auckland airport took a little longer cuz we had to walk to the international terminal & wait in line to pay the departure fee and customs. We get to the customs lady, she scans our stuff, reads our paperwork and passports. No departure stamp?!?! My first international trip and I don't get both stamps???? Chris says they don't do it in Mexico either. But its my first stamp. =(

We had about 30 mintes before we could sit in the boarding area so we got some pastries from the Kiwi Cafe in the airport. Again the backpack goes through the dectectors twice, but no searching this time. Another hour of Scrabble in the boarding area before we board.

We finally get to enter our new home for the next 12 hours. No babies near us this time, with the exception of a perhaps 2-3 year old who just learned to talk... loud. Lucky she was only loud during the first hour and last hour of our flight. Waiting, waiting, waiting for everyone to board. Out to the runway. Waiting, waiting, waiting. "This is your captain speaking. Sorry for the delay. There a minor technical problem and well be going back to the terminal so our engineers can fix the minor problem. It should only take 10 minutes or so."

Problems get fixed and we're in the air. "The flight attendents will be passing out the necessary paperwork to enter the US." Question # 4 says "Have you been on a farm or handled farm animals?" *big sigh* We have to answer yes. We land, go through customs... "You were on a farm?" "Yes" Big red "A" circled right in the middle of our form. "Thank you." Great. What does that mean? We wait a long time for our bags and they broke the peg off the bottom of our big luggage!!?! Now its a 3 legged piece of luggage. But its cheap luggage anyway. Not worth complaining about. We'll find a fix.

On to customs again to check for fruit, etc. We get directed to the "A" line with the screeners waiting while everyone else goes to the "Nothing To Declare" line. Our luggages goes in, comes out. "Thank You." That's it? Okay. So why do they bother asking if they're not going to check our shoes or something?

My parents pick us up and we go out for lunch. Real Chinese food. Yummm. Hang out at the house, go home to rest. Home. Nice word. Glad to be here. And the fish are fine, all plants still alive. We're back just in time to finish of the 3 day weekend. =)

Wiper count: 45 and 1

Our last full day...

Melissa here. =) So instead of going to the super short over priced horseback riding tour, we slept in late and spent our last full day in New Zealand on the top of a very tall mountain.

We went out for our first meal of the day... Lunch. Gotta love those days. We had our usual conversation... "What do you want to eat?" "I don't know. What do you want?" "Anything is fine." Which lead us to a cafe called Vudu Cafe. Chris said it was the best tasting and satisfying breakfast we've had. He was right. He had pancakes with blueberries and I had french toast with fruit. Yummy.

Then we headed toward the gondola whose top sits 790m above sea level. The bottom is very close to the city. At the top, they have what they call "The Skyline Luge." You're basically on a little go cart type thing on a pretty steep course strategically placed just a foot or two from the edge of a cliff. :) 790 m above sea level flying around on a little plastic seat with wheels coming very close to the edge of the plateau??? Are you crazy??? After much convincing from Chris, we bought our tickets for 2 to ride the gondola and 2 trips down the luge each. But it was fun, I must admit. I'm not one for high speed adventures (unless strapped into a roller coaster type apparatus) so I was riding the breaks most of the time.

After the luge it was around 2pm and we got nice frozen packaged dessert and took a walk around the observation level and souvenir shop. We were debating to get tickets to the Kiwi Haka performance. 30 minute show for $30 each and 3 hours away. Do we sit around and wait or go back down to town and catch a movie or something. I thought it was a once in a lifetime thing to watch this show. When are we ever going to be back to New Zealand? But the Chris said they do this show at the Polynesian center in Hawaii and that Marielle knew how to do it too. We agreed to go back down into town and watch it next time we're in Hawaii (which would be a lot sooner and easier than coming back to NZ).

Once again we got distraced by shops. By the time we got to the theater, we had missed all show time by at least 30 minutes and the next weren't showing for 3 or 4 hours. So we did more shopping and had an early dinner at Winnie's Restaurant and Bar. We had a half Moroccan Lamb half Trio something (steak, ham, and mushroom). Interesting. Our waitress had an American accent and we couldn't help ourselves but to ask her where she was from. She said she was from Florida taking a year off after graduation to tour the world. 1.5 months in Figi and 1.5 in New Zealand so far. We gave her a nice tip considering they don't normally tip in NZ.

Roamed around the shops some more then to their local grocery to get some edibles to bring back for our coworkers.... and some ice cream for us. We went back to the hotel and ate ice cream and watched Raiders of the Lost Ark. They have a lot of US movies and sitcoms on their tv.

Tomorrow we go home. =/

Wiper Count: 45 and 1

The trails of Middle Earth

Here's your update for the Lord of the Rings tour we went on 2 days ago.... Hope you enjoy as much as we did. :)

Our coach was supposed to pick us up at 10:10 so we were able to sleep in a little. Melissa was still sulking about the horseback tour so I called them to figure out what happened. We picked up a pamphlet for the tour at the hotel lobby. It said that the tour was only an hour and a half for NZ$145. The length of the tour wasn't on the website when I emailed them in December. When I talked to the lady, it turns out that we needed to confirm with them 72 hours before the tour date otherwise they'll give away our spots. They offered us a 2 hour tour over the river but it wasn't a LOTR tour and it almost cost as much. She said the LOTR tour was a popular tour and to call them back at 8pm to check if someone cancelled. After hanging up we realized that we contacted them on Tuesday and the tour was on Saturday. That's over 100 hours prior notice.
We were under the impression that it was a half day tour or something longer than 1-2 hours. The whole thing wasn't really worth it anymore. They just lost our business.

We wanted to get ready and grab a bite to eat before our tour. I was fine without it, but Melissa rarely starts a day without breakfast. Little did we know that grabbing an early meal to go would be somewhat of a challenge.

So we walk into the hotel restaurant where they offer their hotel guests a choice between a continental buffet breakfast complete with cereals, breads, fruit, and drinks or an upgrade to a hot breakfast buffet which adds eggs, sausages, bacon, etc.. Well, it took us a little while to get ready so we just wanted a bagel, or breakfast sammich, or a pastry or something to go so that we can wait in front of the hotel for our tour bus.

I'm not sure that they've ever heard of breakfast on the run in Queenstown?! We asked if they had any breakfast "to go" or "takeaway breakfasts" and they looked at us as if we were speaking klingon. Keep in mind that New Zealand is an English speaking nation. "Can we just have a pastry to go? They don't even have paper cups for coffee. They didn't have muffins, bagels, or any kind of hand held pastries. Finally one of them said "How about a breakfast sandwich... scrambled egg sandwich?" That was okay with Melissa but she wanted to know how much it'd cost. It it was like $10 then we'd just go without breakfast. They said they'd ask the chef and to just take a seat and have some coffee. They came out later with a box with a sandwich in it and they charged it to the room. It turned out to be like $11 for 2 coffees and a sandwich.

I was expecting like an egg mcmuffin or something. But to our surprise, it was more like an scrambled egg salad sandwich complete with lettuce and tomatoes. Interesting to say the least. But Melissa ate the whole thing. What a trooper.

On to the tour. We waited for the bus for about 10 minutes when this minivan pulls up. "Do you think that's it?" "I don't know, I'd think they'd have stickers on their car or something advertising their tour." And low and behold, it was our tour.

Our tour guide's name was Melissa, too. And we were the only ones signed up for the tour for the day. Yeah!!! Another private tour! Apparently, the day before and the day after there were multiple couples, but today... all us! Our first stop was the Deer Park. While we were waiting for the Deer Park Tour bus, she pulled out her portable DVD player and showed us clips from the movie when the people or Rohan were traveling to Helms Deep. This is the area we were about to see. The tour bus finally came and left our car by the bus stop. They said this was the only tour company allowed up the Deer Park and she has an agreement with them to take her tourists up with them.

Driving through the park, we passed by some deer, bison, yaks, sheep, goats, mini horses, donkeys, ostrich... lots of animals. And you can feed them all too. After passing by Disney's "The Rescue" movie set, we reach the summit and get out for a walk. "Our first stop of all things is a bush. This thorny bush is where Gollum and Frodo hide from the Nazgul in the Dead Marshes." We took pictures under the thing. I pricked myself a few times, but it was worth it. Few steps up the hill we come to lake. "This is where Eowyn talks to Gimli about dwarf women before he falls off the horse. But this isn't where he falls off the horse. We'll get to that later." We turn around. "And this is where the King of Rohan blah blah blah." We look to the left. "And this is where Aragorn fights the blah blah blah." 5 more steps. "And this is where he falls off the cliff. But in the movie it looks like he's falling into a river, several stories below." We look down the cliff to the landing 10 feet below with no water. "We'll see the river later in the day." Each time we walk off a few steps and switch to a new scene, we notice how amazingly efficient she's pulling off explaining the set up of the cinematography. While she's talking about the scene, wherever she's cued us to stop and look, is the exact spot of the camera placement. At the same time, she's also pulling out a screenshot and showing us so that we have a visual reference of where we're standing and how the shot was filmed.

She knew a lot about the movie and other random info. She said that after the 1st movie, Legolas had a gay following. Since Peter Jackson listens to his fans, as the trilogy progressed, Legolas had more lines and outrageous stunts to please them. This was also true for the one elf that talkes to Arwen when they're leaving through the forest and she sees her son in the future. That extra had some minor part in the first movie and the gay community was telling Jackson to give him some lines because he was so popular. It took them a while to track him down at a local college and offer him a speaking roll.

After a few more sites at the Deer Park, we get back on the bus to go back to the car. We ran into some deer on the side of the road and the bus stopped for us to feed them. They said after the deer with the injured ear started to be more domesticated and approached the humans, the rest of the herd became more comfortable with humans as well. There were about 15 female deer and some fawn a baby donkey. 2 of the deer got a little too close to the back of the donkey, right where the food was laying on the floor. The donkey tried kicking them with his hind legs a few times before they backed far enough away. I got pictures. =P

Our next stop was Arrowtown for lunch. It was an old mining town with an old west style. They said per area, the Shotover River (which we were crossing to get to Arrowtown) was the highest paying river in gold in the world. Its a lot shorter than the one in Yukon but it paid out just about as much gold. Panning the rivers in NZ left the river in such a disarray with just piles of rock everywhere that the government made it illegal to pan the rivers for commercial gain in order to preserve the land. You can still take a pan out to the river to get some of your fortune, but that's about it.

We went to another cafe for lunch. They gave us a platter of goodies to share. It had some raw cod marinate in some kind of coconut marinade, salmon sashimi, tomatoes, cheeses, mushrooms, lettuce, ham, chicken, buttered bread, etc. It was all very good.

After lunch we drove a short distance to the river where Arwen was on the horse with Frodo and faces the Nazgul and she says 'if you want him, come and claim him.' Melissa, our guide, pulls out some sharp toys from her trunk and lets us play with them. We got to hold and swing around Arwen's sword, Legolas' daggers, Frodo's sting, and Aragorn's dagger. They were full with the detailing and all sharp too. With a closer look we read "Made in Taiwan." She laughed and told us that they were replicas of the ones that the actors used but made from the same mold. Thanks to good old American capitalism, (courtesey New Line Cinema) it was cheaper for them to be made in Taiwan. She said, however that she did have one original item actually owned and used by the original cast and brought out an elven cloak with a leaf broach that we got to wear. They don't know whose it was but she said only one of the Fellowship wore his broach facing left. We think it's Sean Astin's. Pretty cool to be wearing Rudy's cloak!

Another 2 minutes away, we visited another section of the river where they filmed the part in the movie where Isildur loses the ring in the river and gets shot in the back by orcs. In the film it looks spooky because they filmed in the middle of Winter and there weren't any leaves on any of the trees. When we visited though, it was a green forest. But you could definitely see where the scene played itself out.

From here, we drove out to the mountains through a dirt road with a really... REALLY steep ledge. This was the only spot (aside from paddling down the river) to see clearly the spot where they filmed the Argonath or Pillars of the Kings (Those gigantic statues on the banks of the river in the first movie). Cool stuff. People were coming down the river in rafts and they were tiny tiny.

After the blood curdling experience of heading back down that dirt road on the side closer to the edge (with more cars coming up on the side closer to the mountain), we headed north on the highway to yet ANOTHER dirt road in Tarras. This however, was just a shortcut between highways that the locals liked to use. Off the side of this road is yet another Lord of the Rings location. It's blocked off by barbed wire because before the movie was released, the land owner sold the land and it was turned into a vinyard. This is the forest where Arwen and Frodo are being chased by the Nazgul before they get to the river. Jackson was looking for a natural undisturbed forest and not one of the pine tree plantations. It was fairly shallow in depth and not that long.

Two stops left on the tour. We travel about 20 minutes north toward Wanaka to meet the author of the LOTR Location Guidebook, Ian Brodie. He's the curator at the NZ Fighter Pilots Museum and a friend of Peter Jackson. Ian is an extra in the third movie where Pippin lights the beacon. At the museum we also get to handle the Anduril, sword of the King of Gondor as well as the shards before its pieced back together. She also brought out Gimli's double sided axe, which we never see him use in the movies. The last weapon was King Theoden's sword. Its a lot shorter than Aragorn's, since the King uses his while riding his horse. We got some pictures of the swords and one with Ian. He was kind enough to autograph our book for us. Nice, down to earth guy. He just got a new blue Mini. Fast...

Our last stop on our journey was to Puzzling World to see how Jackson used perspective to show the Hobbits as 2'-4' tall being played by 5'+ humans. Melissa (our guide) showed us the clip of when Gandolf rides in his wagon with Frodo. She said the bench was 9' long and the wagon posts give the illusion that Frodo and Gandolf are sitting right next to each other. And how Elijah Wood isn't really looking up at Gandolf, he's looking up into space... and while in mid speech he turns to look forward and then back to look up at nothing again. But it appears that he's making eye contact with Gandolf. Maybe Jackson should've directed Obi-wan and Jar-Jar.

So by 5pm our tour has come to a close. Just a 1 hour drive back to Queenstown, through switchbacks and hairpin turns. She showed us an original script to Fellowship and the call sheets. These are the sheets that list locations, meals, who's staying where, where to park the makeup trailers... all that stuff. But traveling over the mountains with switchbacks doesn't create the best environment for reading. And our memory card was full and my film camera was being lame so hopefully the shots came out.

We went back to the hotel to rest our weary heads and then went to dinner. Melissa (our guide) had suggested a few places to eat in town. We wanted to try out their seafood at least once on our trip, but of course, it was more than we wanted to pay. So we had bulgogi at a Korean place, Seoul Gardens, that was located next to the internet place in the mall.

After dinner we were so tired, we went back to the hotel. We watched some tv and did laundry. We finally found the remote. *click* Nothing. *click*... what's wrong with this thing?... Ahh, no batteries in the remote. Great.

Wiper count: 43 and 1

Outstanding

The Tour rocked.

More on this later. Waaaaaaay too tired to write more. Good way to end the trip. (We'll try to come in tomorrow to update)

Wiper count: 43 and 1

Travel day and the evil stable hands

7 hours, the map said. The drive was pretty, but after a few hours of sheep, you kinda get a little numb to the scenery. Not knowing what the towns we were travelling through had in store for us, I caved in and elected for us to grab breakfast at a 'McCafe' (Yes. They're actually called that.) in Brighton and we were on our way. Can you believe there are no biscuit sandwiches here?! They've replaced our rich, warm, buttery, crumbly, biscuits with toasted bagels! They still have the english muffins though. No change there.

After about 3 hours in the car, we stopped at lake Tekapo. Imagine a glacial lake with light turquoise water and that's it. We took a breather and some pictures and drove another 30 minutes to lake Pukaki. Beautiful. Okay. Drive.

After another 3 hours, we stopped in Cromwell at a 'fruit stand' for lunch. It was a juice and cider factory with a cafe and fruit store attached. I had a chicken wrap and Melissa had a roast beef baguette, true New Zealand cuisine! I ordered a pint of their 'gold cider.' It didn't even cross my mind that the thing might have alchohol in it! But I guess if it doesn't say APPLE, it's probably gonna be some hard type of cider. Oops. My bad. Anyway, since I was turning red, we decided to browse the fruit stand and hang out near the lake while the effects wore down.

Turns out this fruit stand sold fresh fruit ice cream! Rather than hand mixing it Coldstone Creamery style, they have a machine that they mix any fruit in with the icecream of your choice. So we sat and watched the water while we savored our delicious fresh berry ice creams.

When I regained the brown in my cheeks, we drove another hour to our hotel. Melissa's thoughts on the hotel.... First of all we missed it the first time driving by, again. When we opened the door, we saw 2 twin beds. Interesting. Walk thru the hall... bathroom. Well, actually, you turn right into a doorway and there's a sink and mirror on one side, and a stall shower with a shower curtain and stainless steel floor on the other side. A door to the toilet in front. Okay. Walk further down the hall past a dorm fridge and closet is a queen size bed. 3 beds??? Uhh... one for us, one for one luggage, and one for the other. We started settling in and there's a mosquito on the wall. *SMACK* I think I killed about 3 bugs before we went to dinner. And the smoke detector is taped to the ceiling. *scratch head* There better not be a fire when we're in that room. I was a little disappointed cuz that was the last hotel we were staying at and for 3 nights. That's the longest stay and it was a mediocre room with watery shampoo/conditioner (Only one hotel had 2 seperate bottles for shampoo and conditioner?!?), with bugs, noisy toilet, barely a shower, a tiny tv with no remote, and it was cold. *End rant here.*

Back to you Chris... After trying to figure out where to park in one of the busiest little towns in NZ, we walked around to about 10 different restaurants looking at over price menus. Finally, after I saw a 15 dollar steak special in the window, we decided on dinner at a baa. The Surreal bar was playing good jazzy music when we came in and had a surprisingly American ambience, very modern yet rustic. Melissa had a beyooootiful (to be read in the crocodile hunter's accent with lots of enthusiasm) honey soy prawn salad. We took pictures again.

We did more shopping and called it a day. But before that, we're here at an internet cafe where there's actually a "Happy Hour!" Can you imagine that? Cool beans. Best deal in town. Tomorrow we're confirmed for our LOTR bus tour. we're here checking our reservations for our Ride of the Rings Tour. BOO!! (turns keyboard over to the boss.)

So we've strategically planned our last full day to do a horseback riding tour to some LOTR locations near Queenstown. We emailed on Tuesday to confirm the bus tour and this horseback tour. I had booked these back in December. They write me back 2 days later saying that there's only one spot left and that they have spaces for the both of us on Sunday or Monday. WE LEAVE ON SUNDAY!!! That was it, no explaintion why they cancelled my previous reservation, nothing. Just to call to "go over our options." What kind of options could we possibly have? They apparently only have one horse left so we can't both ride the one horse. We can't do another day cuz we're leaving. There was no way we'd be going on this thing. There's nothing they could possibly do for us... give us a discount for next time??? Uhh... we won't be here. So by now I'm frustrated and angry and want to yell at the other end of the email, but really, what good would that do me? We just told them we'd call in the morning to check things out. I don't even want to do it anymore. The last 2 tours were supposed to be the highlight of our trip with all the cool LOTR stuff. We even had our little marathon before we left. And now its just up to the one tour to rule the rest. It better be a good one.

See you tomorrow.

Wiper count: 39 and 1 =D

Christchurch Day 2

Today was a very interesting day. Where do we start? We woke up late and went into town to confirm our tours for Queenstown at their local e-cafe and had lunch at the Rickshaw Express. After said lunch, we decided to go to the Aquatic Center and Kiwi House to finally get a look at a real live Kiwi bird. Sorry to say, it was so dark in there that pictures would not have come out anyway. The Kiwi is a nocturnal bird and flash photography isn't allowed in there.

The Kiwi is a strange looking creature. It's about the size of a large chiggin or duck and spent most of the time running around and sticking its beak into the soil. That's about it. But they were kind of neat.

The fish at the aquatic center were a bit disappointing (Although it was 100000 times better than Kelly Tarton's). We were mainly going for the kiwis, so it wasn't that big of a let down. The fish we DID see had lots of character. There was a stingray that kept coming to the top when he saw us at the glass.

After our animal encounters, we decided to take a trip up the Christchurch Gondola. So we hopped in the car and were on our way... or so we thought. We weren't exactly clear on how we were supposed to get there so like any normal lost couple, we pulled over to look at our map! Did you know that a dotted yellow line means no parking? There are no red curbs in New Zealand! Anyway, we pulled over at the end of a dotted yellow line area to look at the map. After about 2 minutes we heard the DING DING of a bell! We parked right at the edge of where a trolley is supposed to make a turn! Since the trolley was at a stop, I put the car in reverse to try and move. When I did this, the trolley moved farther forward?! Apparently the conductor thought he could make the turn around me. (Dude was on tracks?) I no longer had room to move the car! So I put the car back into park. We were already as close to the car in front of us as we could get. The trolley went by very slowly and we ALL though it was going to clear until ... there was a thud and a scraaaaaaaaaaaape. I looked back and nothing was touching the car? I looked in the side mirror? Nothing. The conductor decided to go for broke (hehe) and pushed on through! After he cleared the car, we all got out of our vehicles to assess the damage. Their running boards scraped the tire and rim of the car. No real damage and practically not noticable, but to protect his butt, the conductor took the info of the car anyway. (Idiot should have waited for us to move.) I tried to shrug it off because we bought the full coverage insurance anyway... but you know after an accident... :P That's all I'll say about that.

Anyway, we move on. Car's fine, we're fine. I don't wanna hear anything out of you, mom!

We go to the gondola. The conductor that hit us gave us directions. :P He gave us some pretty vague directions. I'm thinking it was to get back at us for scraping his runningboard!

At the top of the gondola, you get a great panorama of the city, the beach and the opposing bay. We took a 2 hour hike when we got to the top. I think we were the only ones on the trail the whole time we were up there. The bugs and bees decided to join the party because they didn't want us to be lonely.

Beautiful. Green mountains, blue water... move on. When we had enough of our fill of the view, we went down, hopped back into the car and headed to the coast. The New Brighton pier was surprisingly busy for the time of day. None of the shops or cafes were open, but there were quite a few people on the beach. Their beach is really long and shallow. I'm sure you could walk out quite a while and the water would still be at your chest halfway out to the end of the pier. There were also LOTS of surfers off both sides of the pier. Some of them weren't even wearing wetsuits. The surf was okay but it looked like they were all fighting for the small ones. Some of them were sitting out there for quite a while and not catching anything.

We headed back to the hotel and decided to get Thai food for dinner. Pad Thai here in New Zealand is absolutely NOTHING like pad thai in California. I think they used saimin noodles for their version?! The sauce also tastes quite different. We took a picture. After we were done, we tried to pay, but they didn't take credit! Luckily, our last stash of NZ currency was just enough to pay for dinner.

Tomorrow, travel day. 6 hours to Queenstown.

Wipercount: 36 and 1

Melissa's Sidenote: There's tons of public 'toilets' all over the city and stuff, but no toilet seat covers. I don't get it. Not even at the restaurants. Do they just go commando? or do they hover? Its a little disturbing that there's no toilet seat covers. I just put tp down. But that seems kinda gross not to supply covers.

Christchurch

Since we had an hour and a half less to travel, which seems like all the time in the world, we woke up and checked out right when we were supposed to. Once again, we were hungry. Well, I'm always hungry so we walked across the street from the hotel to grab some grub. In the display windows were...? You guessed it! More meat pastries. Chicken pies, Beef (Steak) pies, sausage rolls, quiches of all sorts... blah blah blah blah blah. You name it. If it was a pastry with meat, there it was. :( I looked to the back wall and ordered myself a small loaf of cheese frenchbread. This was by far the best breakfast move I've made for the whole trip. :P

Anyway, moving on... We drove the hour and a half to Christchurch and checked in but our room wasn't ready. (Brainfart for Chris. My turn.) Cathedral Square, their city center is nearby so we went there to look around and get some lunch. We were thinking cheap so we went to their food court for some Japanese udon and donburi. The parking space was only for 2 hours so we couldn't do much shopping but we got a sense of what was around.

There's a big botanical garden on the map close to the 'centre' so we went there. Turns out that its free parking until 9pm. I think its supposed to be '180' minute parking but it didn't seem like it was regulated very well. We walked around the gardens for a while looking for the famous NZ silver fern. We saw lots of ferns but we're not sure if we found it. They had a beautiful rose garden outside and an indoor rose garden but they were tubulous roses. Very big blooms. We have pictures. Smelled wonderful.

After a few hours in there we headed over to the museum at the edge of the gardens. Lots of Moari history and NZ history as well. We're getting very cultured on this trip. Walked through some souvenier shops and did some shopping in town. It was an overcast day which turned windy at night. There's a big square with old stone building that they've converted to an art center. With our luck they closed at 5pm, so we couldn't go in, just walk along the grounds.

Our growling stomachs brought us to Tokyo Gardens. We were in the mood for sushi. I guess chicken sushi is big around here. It was at the food court and at this restaurant as well as in Auckland. We had the day's special of sushi and sashimi. The chicken roll was... interesting. I probably wouldn't order it again. The rest was yummy. Too bad for me they had 2 oysters laying all over the sashimi, so I had to pick around it in order to prevent an allergic reaction. Chris said they were tasty.

That was about it for our first day in Christchruch. We're here for 2 nights, then off to Queenstown for 3 nights which is the last leg of our trip. The South Island has a lot more hills and rivers than the North Island. The North had many more pine tree farms than the south. The South is more like the hills on the way to SLO or Murrieta, brown everywhere. We saw some deer farms as well as tons of sheep, cows and wineries. Its colder here too. =/

Tomorrow we're checking out the Antartic/Aquatic Center. They're supposed to have live Kiwi birds too. We'll let you know how it goes.

Wiper count: 34 and 1

Day 7 Kaikoura, here we come... or do we?

Melissa here taking over. =)

Today's another travelling day. We have to drive nearly all the way back to Picton (2 hours) and along the coast for another 2 hours to Kaikoura. The name's supposed to mean 'kai' for food and 'koura' for crayfish. So we're hoping to find some grubbin' crayfish to eat.

The day started out a little rainly. Not the whole lot of stinking rain, but more like the light Seattle rain. So back on the road to Hana gain. My cerebral fluid couldn't handle it as well this time. Since we didn't have breakfast yet, we stopped off in a town outside of Picton called Blenheim. We stop at yet another cafe. (I guess they really like their coffee and pastries here.) I think it was the Home and Garden Cafe. Lots of plants and stuff, like a garden. I had a stuffed potato and Chris had a "sausage roll." Mine was okay. It wasn't exactly what I expected. I was thinking it was more like a twice baked potato, but it had onions and corn and other stuff in it. Eh.. Chris' looked like meat in a pastry. "All I can say about the thing is, NEVER AGAIN. It tasted okay for the first couple of bites. After that, it started to taste like an old pig in a blaket. Bleh."

The idiot light came on after breakfast so we decided to get gas. We were about We didn't know how long it would take before we were totally out of gas. Our cars back home usually have about 1 or 2 gallons left when the light turns on. This one got us about 5 blocks then a buzzer went off. Luckily we were at the 'petrol' station by then. We learned from last time to let the attendant pump the gas for us. No window cleaning this time, since it was raining and all. $65 worth of gas!!!?!?!?!? *sigh* We're making sure to leave the car on fumes when we turn it in this time.

On we go. About 1.5 more hours of driving before Kaikoura. Another hour passed by of a mix of straight aways and switchbacks and my head was taking a beating. So, Chris realizing this, stopped off at a rest stop (rest stop = picnic area) off the coast. It just so happens that there was a seal colony at this rest stop!!! They were all resting on the rocks just off the beach. One, however, decided that he wanted to hang out closer to the humans, on the grassy area near the 'car park'. (car park = parking lot) We took a bunch of pictures with him. He had an itch. =) The break really helped my head. And we were on our way.

On our arrival at the Waves of Esplanade hotel, we encountered a familiar, but unwelcome, problem. Our reservations were once again CANCELLED by Mitchell Corp. This was the NZ agency used by the US travel agency that our travel agent booked our hotels with. Some guy named Nigel emailed Mitchell to cancel these 2 hotels. WTF???!?!?! Who is this guy and why is he cancelling our hotels?????

By now its totally raining and the lady at the hotel desk is trying her best to talk to Mitchell Corp to explain that they're booked and can't give us a room. "The whole city is booked for the weekend." *deep breath* She said not to worry and this company only books hotels so they'll find us somewhere to stay. Just to get a coffee at the cafe next door and come back in a few and she'll handle it. So we do. We leave, drink coffee, come back. "What did you find?" She calls them back and they finally found us a room in Hanmer Springs. Its a thermal reserve about an hour away. We planned on going there tomorrow so it was a good place to stay.

Dispite our initial frustration, the Heritage Hotel was quite an upgrade. So I guess it makes up for their massive mixup. After driving another hour and a half, we get there. Still raining. By now its about 4:30pm. It turns out that the room they gave us was like a private cottage type room. Very nice. =) They even have towel heaters. Very cool.... or hot. ^_^

Since its still early, we call the front desk to book us one of the private pools at the Hanmer Springs Thermal Reserve. Its kinda like Sycamore in Avila Beach near SLO. They also have the heated pools outside, but this one has a river looking thing too. Even though it was slightly raining, we hang out at the pools for a few hours before finding dinner.

We ate at one of the only places open on this 4 block town. It was called Robbies bar and bistro. I had more fried seafood and a salad. (I should really stop eating so much fried stuff.) Chris had the Valentine's Special, lamb with a glass of merlot. It was yummy.

Back to the newest temporary home for the night. Since we planned on going here tomorrow and we saved some time travelling, we figured we'd sleep in tomorrow. Finally, we get to sleep in.

Wiper count: 33 and 1 (Thanks, Chris, for doing all the driving.)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Christchurch is due for tomorrow.

Melissa Kayaked.

Today we went kayaking in Kaiteriteri. An area just North of Nelson and just outside of Abel Tasman National Park. We woke up early and the weather was perfect for kayaking. Not too sunny so that we get dehydrated or sunburnt, and not so windy that it would bring the waves up making the boat unstable. We got there early, and since we didn't have breakfast, we stopped at a gas station for some of New Zealand's famous meat pies. They seem to love meat pastries here for some reason. We got to the beach early so we waited in the car and took in the scenery while munching on our breakfast. (More on meat pies and meat pastries later on.)

Around the time we were supposed to meet the guide, we walked up to the kayak staging area where we met a crazy wide eyed Aussie who offered us some sunblock and set us up with a guide and a group of 7 other adventurers. To say that this guy had a lot of energy would be putting it mildly. The excitement almost knocked us over. He assigned us a guy nicknamed "Tazzy" who was yet another wide eyed crazy Kiwi born in Auckland raised in Tasmania and transplanted back into the New Zealand Nelson area. He had the same energy and intensity as the dude managing the register. Imagine the Crocodile Hunter with a goatee, dressed in hippie clothing with 10 times the intensity and a great sense of humor and that was our guide.

We got all our gear ready and warmed up by twirling the paddles around on our heads. (As instructed.) This was Melissa's first time on such a craft so it was good that he went over some safety pointers before we were on our way.

Probably can't take you on our exact route, but we basically paddled out to the far end of the bay, cut across, and then followed the coast to Split Apple Rock. It's a gigantic boulder in the middle of a small cove that's been split in the middle and is opened up upwards like a clam. They say long ago it was struck by lightning and the thing split in half.

After hanging out on the beach in front of this thing for a while, we got back in the kayaks and headed back along the coast to home base. When we got back we took pictures. When they're up you'll probably see them here.

Tired from our long journey, we drove back to the hotel. We paddled through lunch so we were hungry too and decided to walk into town to try and find something to eat. Did you know that on Sunday, everything is closed by noon around here? We ended up eating food court Chinese food at the local mall. :P bleh.

Side note: We've noticed that in New Zealand, especially in the Nelson area, it's perfectly acceptable to walk around barefoot... EVERYWHERE. Even in the rain. Grown men, little boys, actually mostly men, some girls just walking around everywhere with black, cracked, nasty, calloused, nasty, disgusting, gross, nasty, well... you get the point, feet. Moving on...

After achieving a satisfying food coma, we went back to the hotel for a nap. A long nap. By the time we woke up, it was dinner time so we went into Nelson and had dinner at a pub called Lambretta's. I had a veggie pizza and Melissa had some local scallops drowned in a really rich, creamy white wine sauce.

Side note #2: We've also noticed that around here, they don't bring the check to your table?! It's pho house style where you have to walk up to the register and pay for your food. Or you order and pay at the bar before your food comes to you.

After dinner, it was already 10 o'clock! So we went back to the room to get some rest before the drive to Kaikoura.

Wiper count: 28 and 1 (Melissa still hasn't been driving.)

Fairies are not boats... but a Ferry...

Travel day!!! After a short drive to the Ferry building, we took a 3 hour tour... a 3 hour tour... to Picton. The Cook Strait was pretty boring and we fell asleep, but the waterways when you reach the South island are beautiful. We took more green pictures with blue water.

After we arrived, we waited in the Hertz car rental line for an hour to get our brand new flashy American Ford somethingorother. (All the cars here have strange names. They even change a few of them. Like a VW golf is a VW polo.) We ate lunch in town at a nice little cafe (again) called the Sea Breezes Cafe.

The drive to Richmond was alot like a combination of the drive to Yosemite and Hana. They named this gem of a highway the Queen Charlotte Road. Lots of twists and turns. It made me, once again, very sick. bleh. And also, once again, very beautiful. Green trees, blue water. Yada yada. :)

2 hours later, we're at the hotel. The room is very nice. They've even got jets in the bathtub. We're tired, but we've got to eat dinner. The name of the place eludes us, but it was the Starter and something Bistro and Bar. There was a group of drunk locals betting on and cheering for a cricket game. I still don't understand the game.

We were too tired to do anything else. Go home. Sleep. Kayaking in the morning!!! Woo Hoo!!!!.

Wiper count: 24 and 1 (Melissa hasn't been driving)

Touring Wellington

Absolutely no driving for either of us today!! *Applause*

We woke up pretty early today. Probably too early because we spent alot of time getting ready, eating breakfast and still waiting for our tour bus. And wait we did.



When it arrived, it was a tiny vehicle about the size of a VW van. But the cool thing about this tour, was that there was no one else on it! Just us two. So we had a personal tour with our tourguide, David. I should point out that this isn't officially a Lord of the Rings tour, but David humored us with some facts about some of the movie sites because we told him we were fans of the movie. First, we went up to Mt. Victoria and took some pictures of the city's panorama.



On the way down, we stopped by a patch of trees that were planted really close together. They were described as "really spooky." These were the woods that they used for the outer Shire in LOTR! They filmed the part where Frodo yells, "GET OFF THE ROAD!" in these very woods! We were going to look for the exact tree, but imagine our disappointment when we were told that the "tree" was a stump that they brought in that had polystyrene appendages attached to it. It's basically not there anymorel. Looks good on film though.



After our little "Rings" fix, we drove up and down lots of windy roads to get to the coast and a place called Red Rock. I got car sick. :P bleh. But it was beautiful. The rocks basically have alot of iron in them and as they sit there, they basically rust in place. Hence the red hue.

From there we drove to our next destination passing through Island Bay where they filmed some Dunharrow scenes from the movie and Lyall Bay which is a premiere surfspot in New Zealand. The surf wasn't very good today and David pointed out that it was quite embarrassing having Californians in the bus. Apparently the cast of the movie learned how to surf in this very bay.

(Melissa taking over the blog from here. Chris is tired and repeating himself. *grin*) We arrived at our first hike, at the beginning of the "Eastern Walkway." This was a 2 hour walk to finish at the Chocolate Fish Cafe. It was a nice hike through some "bush" and trees and stuff along the peak of this hill. Lots of noisy bugs. They sound like tons of weedwackers all going off at the same time. They call them the Wata, relative of the grasshopper. You can't see them but there must be tons of them. We finally saw one on a fence during our walk and took a picture. They're pretty big.



But anyway, we had great views of the bay and soaked up the scenery. We passed a black sand beach that we might've stopped at, if we didn't have to meet the tourguide later. It turns out it was a "clothing optional" beach. It was empty when we saw it. Oh well.

We passed through Seatoun where they filmed parts of Bree. We quickly found out that pedestrians do not have the right of way!!! The car was pretty far from us when we started crossing the street and by the time we were 3/4 across, it was honking at us and almost hit us!!!! Luckily we were watching it speed toward us and were able to get out of the way in time. Sheesh. But we're alive and well.

The trail took us along the coast for about an hour. Very windy there. No one was on the road, it was pretty barren. Walking, walking, walking we reach Peter Jackson's house. Not "flashy" but doing some serious upgrades. David told us that Peter is building a studio and following George Lucas' footsteps and creating his own empire here. His house was big but looked like any old house... all the windows were open, some of the rooms were kinda messy, well, looked lived in. He has the gun from Hellboy displayed in the front window. We got a picture (sorta). =)
On to the Chocolate Fish Cafe. Fairly small inside but they have tables outside and across the street for customers. The waiters wear the reflective vests and cross the street to deliver the food. We got there just in time to order before 3 busloads of people came in. The food was pretty good. They say the actors from the movie ate there quite often and we could possibly be sitting in the same seats that they sat in. We theorize that they ate there cuz it was the only one near Jackson's house. It wasn't long before David came back in his van to pick us up.



Next stop, back to town to the cable car. The station was next to the botanical gardens so we decided to take another little stroll before hopping on the cable car. Chris was navigator this time. Uhh... yeah, maybe I should keep the job. He got us a little lost. But in his defense, the map didn't look to scale and there were more paths than on the map. But we found our way out anyway. Jumped into the cable car and down the hill back to downtown.

We found another fish and chips place for dinner. We sat next to C3PO and the rest of the Star Wars cast that was painted on the walls. The whole place was done up mural style with all kinds of movie stuff, NZ stuff, artsy stuff... Pretty creative.



The Embassy Theater wasn't too far. The world premiere of LOTR showed here. Its one of those 1920's theater that was remodelled for the premiere. They have name plates showing where the actors sat to watch their movie. Those leather seats cost more. The Aviator was showing and neither of us have seen it yet so we pulled out our student IDs for the discount. Luckily I still look like I did when I was a freshman at Poly. Whoo hoo!!! They actually have assigned seating at that theater, like as if you were watching a play or stage show. It was pretty nice inside.



When the movie let out, it was aobut 9pm and raining. It was about a 5-10 minute walk back to the hotel. Not too bad.

Total wiper count still 21 and 1. Tomorrow we head for the south island and take the ferry to Picton. Bye bye North Island.

Complete Photo Set Day 4

All roads lead to... Wellington. Apparently.

Today we drove. And drove. And drove. 6 hours we drove from Taupo to Wellington. But it was far from boring! :) We took a few pictures of the lake on the way by. We didn't take that many. It looked alot like Lake Tahoe to me. So sorry. You'll see.



We managed to take a few snapshots driving by Mt. Doom and Mordor... I forget the actual names.... Does it really matter?



We noticed that lumber must be one of their biggest crops around here. There are entire forests of pine trees all lined up perfectly in rows just like on the farms except they're on mountains and hills and such. They're all the same height, and all pruned halfway up the trunk. So weird.



We... uh... I had an interesting time trying to pump gas. As I got out to pump the gas, a dude comes out of nowhere, grabs the pump... and we do a sort of strange dance... me trying to twist open the gas cap and him trying to do it for me. he smiles and says something to the effect of, "take off." I think he might of said "you silly boy" under his breath, but I was too confused to notice. Anyway, all I had to do was go inside and pay. $54?!?!?!?!?! for 3 quarters of a tank. That's a dollar fifteen a liter?!?! Holy crap?!?! Even with the exchange rate... how much is that?!?!?! *tears out hair*



So we're on our way again. As we near the coast, Melissa spots on the map a beach close to a "Rings location." Never saw the "Rings Location" but the beach in Foxton was breath taking. It was almost completely secluded, except for a few people that were there when we arrived. The water was turquoise and the sand completely flat except for random specs of seashells. Good call Melissa! We hung out for a while and of course, continued on the road.



Next we stopped at Otaki beach to take some more pictures. While we were driving through town, we noticed that school just got out. Scads of kids in blue uniforms were all along the street walking or biking home. We even saw a punk traffic cop giving a kid a bike ticket. Looked like he wasn't wearing his helmet. Many more people, and almost as nice. We took pictures for some of the lucky few that requested a postcard. Too bad if you want one now! :P



We move on! Upon arriving at our hotel in Wellington, The West Plaza informed us that our reservations were cancelled. Not lost, or otherwise, but CANCELLED. In November even?!?! Our voucher was printed in January? After alot of confusion, a little complaining, and a couple of phone calls, we came to an agreeable solution. All their rooms except one "smoking room" and the "Executive suite" were taken for the next two nights sooooooo... they upgraded us! Now that that was settled, we decide to take in some of the town before it got too late.



In another stroke of luck, the Te Papa Museum usually closes early every day. EXCEPT for the day we're there! They closed at 9! So we took in some of the Maori culture, learned about some of the native animal and plantlife and stared at some artwork. Pretty cool stuff.



Afta afta, we walked back to the hotel and ate dinner at an Indian restaurant nearby called the Curry Club. The food was quite good. We probably ordered too much food for just the two of us, but it was all good and we ended up eating all of it! On the way out, we had a short conversation with the owner who was from Virginia Beach! He said he just opened up some time ago, but he was having trouble getting people in because they just built a new town center that took all the focus off of the area he was in. Too bad about that, maybe he should advertise.



All in all, a long day. Some things to note when you're in Wellington:

• It is very windy here. Bring some sort of jacket.
• You think one way Streets are confusing when you're in San Francisco? Try not having yellow lines. They ALL look like one way streets.
• EVERYONE except you, smokes
• Everything closes early
• You should have fun.... You're in New Zealand.
• Wiper Count: 21 and 1

Complete Set of pictures Day 3

Day 2 and the Hobbits

So we've decided to alternate who gets to write. Its my (Melissa) turn. Today we grabbed a ham and cheese muffin from one of the many cafes for breakfast before our 2 hour trip to Matamata (pronounced Metameta). Foreigners must have a hard time ordering coffee at Starbucks in the US. After ordering, we figured out that a 'flat white' is coffee with cream and 'short black' is a shot of coffee without cream. And knowing is half the battle.



We finally reach Matamata after trying to decifer the freeway system. On the smaller highways, instead of freeway exits, they have roundabouts... everywhere. And 'give way' signs. Talk about challenging driving. But Chris has been doing great. Day 2 wiper total up to 16. I've got 1... but I only drove 3 blocks. *sigh* Its pretty darn tough.



Hobbiton is on the property of the Alexander family farm. The farm is huge. After a 15 minute drive from the bus stop we drive thru about 3 sheep gates and about 10 minutes latter we get to Hobbiton.



Only 17 out of 37 hobbit holes are left. The family had to sign some kind of agreement with the movie people so they can't alter the holes in any way... even to restore them. But I guess they're luck to get what they've got. I'm sure they're making $$$ with their tours going for $50NZ per person. Good thing for the exchange rate. =) We saw the Party Tree, Bagend, and lots of markers of where things used to be. It was pretty cool. Didn't see any Hobbits though. We'll keep looking.



Fish and Chips... great lunch. They're everywhere here. We grabbed a bite before heading 1.5 hours to Lake Taupo for our next hotel.



Lakeland Resort. A lot bigger than the Auckland hotel. About average size compared to a motel in CA. One drawback, no screens on the windows.... bugs. But a nice view of the lake.



We drove to the Huka Falls and the Craters of the Moon... a geothermal reserve. All free. Can't beat that. Awesome forces of nature, across the road from each other.



Sidenote... we've come to the conclusion that all radio commercials sound like Outback Steakhouse commercials. And there's tons of internet cafes. I think they purposely have slow computers so they can charge you for the time.



Tongue and Groove. That's where we had dinner. Chris loved his Thai Fish Salad. My pasta was pretty good too. Originally he was so hungry he was willing to eat at McDonalds. We're in New Zealand, why the heck do you want McDonalds???? Luckily I talked him out of it. He claims that he went crazy for a split second. Good thing he snapped out of it.



So far the trips been great fun. Chris likes how they talk here. He's trying to assimilate. I too have found myself saying "theynk yeww". Not sure why. I didn't even notice... Chris caught me. Its been pretty hot today. Getting cloudy with some wind in the evening.

Tomorrow we head out to Wellington on our 6 hour drive. See you there.

The complete set of pics for Day 2

Touchdown!

(We've changed the settings to reflect New Zealand Date and Time)

WE'RE HERE!!!!

Okay. We missed the superbowl. Who won by the way? Anyone know? Anyone CARE? We're in NEW ZEALAND!!!!! So we arrived like 5 in the morning and it was really really early. So early it looked like nightime. It took like an hour and a half just to get out of the airport with customs and all. AND we had to get our rental car (More on this later). After waiting in said line for them to stamp our passports, we headed off to our hotel.

this woodcarved maori tiki was just part of a beautiful archway leading to the customs area. notice the abalone shell eyes!

It was way too early to check in and we only had one day here in Auckland anyway so there was no time to sleep! That'd be a complete waste of a day?! We walked straight into downtown and took in the city. We made like we were students at Auckland University. No one paid us any mind. Come to think of it, I wonder what would have happened if we sat in on a class?

doesn't melissa look the student?

After taking in some of the sights, we checked into our tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny hotel room and then took off to Kelly Tarlton's <-- (I misspelled it the first time. Melissa was austute enough to tell me the correct spelling) aquarium. Never go here! It was pretty good for its size, but after visiting Monterey Bay, you feel sort of spoiled. You can't really be too hard on them though! Their penguin ride was out of order (we got 20percent off our entrance because of this!). You can see them through a little window when you first walk into their facility. I'm sure we would have enjoyed it more if we got to see that.

these crayfish are all along the north-eastern coast of the south island near Kaikoura. Check out how big it is compared to my forearm!

After that, we headed off to the beach. I walked probably a hundred meters (everything is metric here) off shore and the water was still only to my chest! There were sand dollars everywhere under the water! Oh by the way. It's really hot and sunny here. We were actually worried about rain?!?!? We are totally blessed!

Anyway, from the beach we drove home... IN RUSH HOUR. Oh CRAP?!? We survived though thanks to the navigator. The freeways were really weird. <-- Technical term. No joke. Without Melissa we'd still be stuck on their "Motorway." When we got back, we watched a Chinese New Years Eve celebration at the Skytower. We gambled at the 5 cent machines and ate at a Japanese Restaurant where we stiffed the lady on the tip because I wasn't sure if they did that here or not. :( My bad.

Year of the chiggin!

In other news, this driving thing has been a real Challenge. I've been driving for 13 years on the right side of the road. Today, I was thrown into the hellhole that I call... the leeft side of the road in a car where the driver is on the right side of the cah. Everything else is the same except the shift knob. And the mirrors. And the turn signal. And the wipers. After 1 day, my "mistake the turn signal for wiper count" is 8.

We ended up with a brand new Mazda6. Whoever had the car before us had the radio tuned into a hip hop station and turned the volume all the way up! what else could we do but dance?

Tomorrow is Hobbiton. We have to drive there. Wish us luck.

Complete set of Day 2 pics

Leaving on a Jet Plane

We leave tonight! The anticipation is crazy, but at least we have stuff to do while we wait. Church today of course, I really should get a haircut, and we should try to clean up a little before we leave the apartment. Melissa's dad is going to stop by to feed the fish sometime during the week. We don't want him to think we're slobs? Melissa's parents also just got a new dog! She's a half doberman half lab and we'll probably be playing with it before they take us to the airport.

that's our plane!

Lists

This list WILL change...

Things left to do:

• Update roam software on my phone
• Get vacation food for the fish
• Tell co-workers what they need to do in my absence
• Clear out all photos on memory cards
• Mow the lawn
• Email family our itinerary
  

Things left to pack:

• Light Jacket
• Fleece
• Headlight
• mp3 player
• Travel Scrabble
• My rosary
• Snacks
• The Camera
• Sunblock
• Slippahs

5 days and counting

So we're finally going on our honeymoon and in anticipation of the slew of internet cafes that I've been told exist on the island nation of New Zealand, I've begun this blog. :) Testing. 1 2 3.... 4 5.

I so can't wait. Maybe I should finish packing