New Zealand
So um, I've been a slacker. But now I have no excuse since I'm over my jetlag from a week ago. Enjoy!
Day 1- Auckland
The flight was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. California is alot closer to NZ than previously thought. It was a 12 1/2 hour flight, over which a good deal of "The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay" was read. I arrive at the hostel to meet Jen at 7:30 in the morning, then I found her and we set off to explore Auckland. My jetlag is killer, and I'm practically sleepwalking the entire way. Aukland is really lovely, it looks a little bit like a small English town. The downtown area is really nice, but I really didn't go for the shopping. We walk around the pier on a day that can't quite decide if it wants to be rainy or sunny. After meeting up with a couple of Jen's friends and walking around Auckland University, we head back to the hostel. I fall asleep at 8:00pm, my earliest bedtime in over a year. I'm EXHAUSTED.
Park in Auckland
Day 2-3 Rortorua
New Zealand's winter season is just beginning(other side of the equator) and so I am freezing cold. I'm bundling up in four layers at this point. Also, I am a tiny girl.
It rained off and on in Auckland, but now that we are in Rortorua it is a heavy downpour, and shows no sign of letting up. Which kind of sucks because I wanted to see the thermal pools. We make a go of it anyway, but they aren't much fun to look at because there's too much of a downpour to see the steam coming out of the pools. But then I don't mind it so much because this is the day we get a massage(complete with honey and lavender oil), sit in the thermal pools, and RELAX.
You can't tell as much, but it's raining like a motherfucker.
After a wonderful massage we lay in the thermal pools. There are four in all, each with a different temperature, so you can move from one to another, depending on how hot you want the water to be. The slight drizzle is actually welcome, because while you're sitting in a steaming hot bath, your face gets cooled by the rain. Lovely.
Day 4-6 New Plymouth
After an 8 hour bus ride from Rortorua(New Zealand is BIG, people!) we arrive in New Plymouth, which is a beautiful town along the western coast. One of the most pefect moments I had was walking along the rocky coastline to Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" blasting on repeat in my ipod. What a perfect match of scenery to music.
THEN I FLEW TO THE TOP OF A DORMANT VOLCANO.
So Jen suggested that I look up something adventurous to do on my own. I look through the list of activities to do, and that when I come across this. I decide to take a helicopter ride to the top a Mount Taranaki, a volcano that has been dormant for 350 years. I've never been in a helicopter before. When we get up in the air, I'm not even scared. I'm exhilarated. We fly over the forests at the base of the volcano, then our pilot takes us up all 8,261 feet to the top of the volano. It's covered with snow and it's GORGEOUS. It looked like this:
If you're curious, Mount Taranaki, and the area surrounding it was where The Last Samurai was filmed, with Tom Cruise.
Then we walked through a giant park straight out of Lord of the Rings.
Day 7-10 Wellington
Wellington city is alot like San Francisco, if San Francisco had less people and more volcanoes. Wellington is probably my favorite city of NZ. Not only is it super easy to get to get everywhere, but it has everything. Mountains, beach, city life, countryside. It's just all-around awesome. The first day we went to the botanical gardens where I went crazy sniffing every herb in the herb garden and seeing rare plants that only grew in NZ. Went to a tattoo museum that made me want to get a full body tattoo. Not gonna happen, but now I want to get my own tattoo more than ever.
THEN I SAW A GIANT SQUID.
So a few years ago, scientists in Antartica caught the largest squid known in existence: it is 4.2 meters and weighs nearly half a ton. It's eyes are the size of a soccer ball. I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the museum, but it looks like this on the internet:
We climbed Mount Victoria, which was like climbing a beautiful, very mountainous stairmaster. Worth it for the view of the city at the top. Then on the last day of my trip Jen took me to a costume party. She dressed up as Adam Durtiz from the Counting Crows(she already had the dreads to pull it off) while I dressed up as Claire Danes' best friend from My So-Called Life. Side ponytail, flannel, and bad 90s clothing galore. Haha.
The only real snag of the trip was when I had to find my way back to the hostel and get directions from my friends, who were drunk. But man, I really loved it there. I've decided that if I ever get married, I will have my honeymoon in one of three places: Spain, Greece or New Zealand. My only regret is not seeing the south island, which is supposed to be even more beautiful and wild than the north. Unfortunatley, I just didn't have enough time. Oh well, that's what return trips are for.
Day 1- Auckland
The flight was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. California is alot closer to NZ than previously thought. It was a 12 1/2 hour flight, over which a good deal of "The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay" was read. I arrive at the hostel to meet Jen at 7:30 in the morning, then I found her and we set off to explore Auckland. My jetlag is killer, and I'm practically sleepwalking the entire way. Aukland is really lovely, it looks a little bit like a small English town. The downtown area is really nice, but I really didn't go for the shopping. We walk around the pier on a day that can't quite decide if it wants to be rainy or sunny. After meeting up with a couple of Jen's friends and walking around Auckland University, we head back to the hostel. I fall asleep at 8:00pm, my earliest bedtime in over a year. I'm EXHAUSTED.
Park in Auckland
Day 2-3 Rortorua
New Zealand's winter season is just beginning(other side of the equator) and so I am freezing cold. I'm bundling up in four layers at this point. Also, I am a tiny girl.
It rained off and on in Auckland, but now that we are in Rortorua it is a heavy downpour, and shows no sign of letting up. Which kind of sucks because I wanted to see the thermal pools. We make a go of it anyway, but they aren't much fun to look at because there's too much of a downpour to see the steam coming out of the pools. But then I don't mind it so much because this is the day we get a massage(complete with honey and lavender oil), sit in the thermal pools, and RELAX.
You can't tell as much, but it's raining like a motherfucker.
After a wonderful massage we lay in the thermal pools. There are four in all, each with a different temperature, so you can move from one to another, depending on how hot you want the water to be. The slight drizzle is actually welcome, because while you're sitting in a steaming hot bath, your face gets cooled by the rain. Lovely.
Day 4-6 New Plymouth
After an 8 hour bus ride from Rortorua(New Zealand is BIG, people!) we arrive in New Plymouth, which is a beautiful town along the western coast. One of the most pefect moments I had was walking along the rocky coastline to Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" blasting on repeat in my ipod. What a perfect match of scenery to music.
THEN I FLEW TO THE TOP OF A DORMANT VOLCANO.
So Jen suggested that I look up something adventurous to do on my own. I look through the list of activities to do, and that when I come across this. I decide to take a helicopter ride to the top a Mount Taranaki, a volcano that has been dormant for 350 years. I've never been in a helicopter before. When we get up in the air, I'm not even scared. I'm exhilarated. We fly over the forests at the base of the volcano, then our pilot takes us up all 8,261 feet to the top of the volano. It's covered with snow and it's GORGEOUS. It looked like this:
If you're curious, Mount Taranaki, and the area surrounding it was where The Last Samurai was filmed, with Tom Cruise.
Then we walked through a giant park straight out of Lord of the Rings.
Day 7-10 Wellington
Wellington city is alot like San Francisco, if San Francisco had less people and more volcanoes. Wellington is probably my favorite city of NZ. Not only is it super easy to get to get everywhere, but it has everything. Mountains, beach, city life, countryside. It's just all-around awesome. The first day we went to the botanical gardens where I went crazy sniffing every herb in the herb garden and seeing rare plants that only grew in NZ. Went to a tattoo museum that made me want to get a full body tattoo. Not gonna happen, but now I want to get my own tattoo more than ever.
THEN I SAW A GIANT SQUID.
So a few years ago, scientists in Antartica caught the largest squid known in existence: it is 4.2 meters and weighs nearly half a ton. It's eyes are the size of a soccer ball. I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the museum, but it looks like this on the internet:
We climbed Mount Victoria, which was like climbing a beautiful, very mountainous stairmaster. Worth it for the view of the city at the top. Then on the last day of my trip Jen took me to a costume party. She dressed up as Adam Durtiz from the Counting Crows(she already had the dreads to pull it off) while I dressed up as Claire Danes' best friend from My So-Called Life. Side ponytail, flannel, and bad 90s clothing galore. Haha.
The only real snag of the trip was when I had to find my way back to the hostel and get directions from my friends, who were drunk. But man, I really loved it there. I've decided that if I ever get married, I will have my honeymoon in one of three places: Spain, Greece or New Zealand. My only regret is not seeing the south island, which is supposed to be even more beautiful and wild than the north. Unfortunatley, I just didn't have enough time. Oh well, that's what return trips are for.