Our Time At Tui

Wednesday, Jan 30, 2013

“Rotorua Whirlwind“

Today was an activity filled day starting with delicious chocolate chip pancakes made by Jenny-Lynn and then Travis got a violin lesson from a 6 year old.  It was pretty funny to watch! 

Gibby teaching Travis how to play violin.

 Then it was off to Town to roll down a hill in a big ball full of water! Up, it was ZORB time!  Travis and I did the water one on a zig-zag track and it was super disorienting, but over all pretty fun!  Then I did the harness one, so it tumbled head over heals and it was really quite sweet.  Def something I’d like to see at WBC in the future!

Chilling on the chairlift up at the luge

 Next was we were off to the gondola and luge, which was also super fun and I want to see a luge at WBC!  We raced down 3 times and were on 2 wheels way too often, but it was super sweet!

Rotorua lake from on the gondola

  We made a quick pit stop at the local park to see the boiling mud that makes Rotorua famous (along with the rotten egg sulfur smell) and then we did some thrift store shopping!  Sadly I didn’t find anything worth buying, but there were some pretty crazy shirts there.

I totally remember this Aussie show from when I was a kid

In case you didn't know...

Well are you?

 Lastly was some grocery shopping and then we headed back to camp for a relaxed time of biking a bunch of the trails at camp and chilling in the dining hall.


Thursday, Jan 31, 2013

“Cabin Fever”

Today was the first time in 2 weeks that we could actually sleep in with nothing planned that we had to get up for.  Once I finally woke up I went for a 6k run (I’m gonna miss this weather when I get home) and then went on a random shopping trip with Cesh.  

Shopping with Cesh!

I really like doing the “real life” things like shopping so it was super fun, and Cesh is great, so we chatted it up as we picked up a bunch of stuff for the camp.  We made plans to go swimming later on in the day, so once we returned to camp we went back to our regular spot on our deck and waited…and waited…and waited.  

Oops

And we got a little restless, which resulted in an iphone throwing contest (I won), sword fighting with kitchen knives, and pots and pans ping pong in our kitchen.  Needless to say we had fun!

After waiting and making supper we decided to go to the gym to workout and after a solid (5 minute) workout, it was finally time to to swimming!  Well, not so much swimming as jumping…on a bridge…into moderately shallow water!  Videos will be posted when i have move consistant internet...but it's pretty sweet stuff!

Don't think, just do! 

Afterward we played a boisterous game of NZ edition monopoly, and checked out the glowworms on the way back home.  All in all quite a fantastic day!  

Still seeing smiles because we just started, that changed later.

T-Time and J-day!

Sunday, Jan 27, 2013

“Planes, trains and automobiles…”

In the past 24 hours we’ve been on a plane, train, bus, taxi, and ferry! Such travelers!

We planned a day out to Coromandel Town near the Coromandel national park, an area that everyone said we super beautiful!  Due to our hostel bing super far from the city and it being Sunday morning we booked a taxi for 7:00AM, but by 7:45 when it had still not shown we had to get another one (for cheaper amazingly) and then of course the first one showed up.  But eventually we made it onto the Ferry and had a wonderful 2 hour ride on the ocean.  The last 20 min was super choppy and it was really fun getting tossed around in our little boat!

A view from the top

As normal we didn’t know what we would to until we got there, and we were presented with the option of taking a train up the mountain, and it turned out to be a super awesome view and a very unique train ride.  It was all designed by an old pottery guy and so all along the tracks that were cut into the mountain forestry were random pottery photo opportunities and other random and cool things like walls made of wine bottles and a double decker train bridge! At the top was the “eyeful” tower, a  tree house of sorts with an amazing view on top! It reminded me a little of Dogtown from back home, very quirky but cool.

The Eyeful tower

Other than that we got ice cream, walked the town, and enjoyed our Ferry ride back to Auckland where we wondered and then headed to the airport to pick up Jordana!  Her response to the hostel was great, not quite what she’d expected either, but we made the most of it and had a blast anyways!

A Highlight: As we waited for Jord, we found a super sweet and removed observatory area in the int. terminal and chilled there for a while.  IT’s so much more chill than most of the rest of the airport!

Chilling at the Airport

Monday, Jan 28, 2013

“J-day!”

Starting J-day with Ice cream!!

Today was J-day, so we made Jordana make the decisions. Sort of.  The day included fresh strawberry ice cream for dessert at breakfast, moving to the Base hostel in Auckland, checking out the Skytower (and paying the extra $2 so owe could check it out at night too) and booking jet skis!  Unfortunately due to busy choppy harbor conditions they canceled the jet skis on us.  So, instead we headed out to Mission Beach!!! (after Travis bartered the Taxies down from 36 to 20!)  It was a beautiful day and the water was actually warm (and shallow…3 feet for forever!)

Loving NZ!

In the evening we went back to the skytower for night pics, grabbed some starbucks and then chilled at the hostel. 

A couple of beauts at Mission Beach!

It was really fun to hang out with Jordana, and Travis and I are getting a little crazy after traveling together for over a week…but hopefully Jord still had fun with us!

Pretty Pretty

Random Hap: Today, I heard Milli Vanilli playing over the speakers at the skytower.  Now, that probably won’t mean much to any of you , but it amazed me! Who plays Milli Vanilli!?!  Check them out here.

The view in the day

The view at night

Even more random hap: We met a guy from Morden today at the hostel!!!  He’s going to Capernwray too, but the odds of running into him amaze me!

 Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013

“Goodbye, Hello”

Today was a travel day as we went with Jord from Auckland to Caimbridge to drop her off for school.  Then after having some Dominoes pizza and a nap in the park we hopped on our second bus and headed back to Rotorua, and the eventually we made it to Tui Ridge! 

A fairly typical view by now

In the evening we biked some of the trails and toured the camp, and then caught up on fb/emails and such.  Hence this blog.

Random Hap: We met the random girl that Travis talked to in a park in Wellington, today at the bus stop!  It’s seriously such a small country!

Thought #1: I’m pretty pumped to be at the camp again. As much as I love new things, it does get tiring to always be figuring stuff out and adapting to new situations and places.

Thought #2: Thinking of Jord’s program and talking to some of the new students makes me excited to do something like that where you’re with a small group of people for an extended period of time and I wouldn’t have to do any of the planning.  It sounds really fun!

Thought #3: I’m ready for many of the comforts of home. Friends. Familiar places. Not moving always. I still love the adventure and all the new sights and experiences, but as the week draws to a close, I am looking forward to some home things.  (But not the cold or the expectation to work or the way much is demanded of me, I like the holiday part of being out here!

Random Fact: I paid to use the toilet today, but mostly because they called it a “Superloo!”.  It was…SUPER!

NZ Fact of the day: The North Island is pretty much in a state of drought as they have not received a good rainfall all summer.  It means really nice weather, but the framer are needing rain.

Finally got my police car photo!

1 week left!

Friday, Jan 25, 2013

“Farewell forever Base?”

Well, today was a pretty chill day, and it was wonderful.  We moved from Base to YHA, a different hostel, it’s right on the water and really quite nice.  Very clean, a bit old, but still very well kept.  I’ll be honest thought, as I sit here in lounge room full of people all in complete silence, I find myself missing the pumping bass and general fun and easy to meet people atmosphere of Base.   Anyways, the day:

After switching hostels, we hiked up to where to gondola is (1 hour, all uphill) and wow is it every an active place up there.  We watched helicopters come and go, hang gliders take off, loads of people racing on the luge, bikers using the crazy intense mountain bike trails and there is even a small bungy jump there!  After hanging out and getting our tan on, we took the gondola down to the bottom.

Fav Movie!!

The rest of the day was chilling in the park, walking the town, and then in the evening, we checked out the play we had seen being practiced days earlier.  It was..well, like much dramatic productions are…artsy?  I’m not sure how best to describe it, but we went and were cultured? 

Other than  that it’s been  packing for our flight tomorrow (easier said than done) and chilling in the hostel.  That’s it that’s all, thanks for reading!

Saturday, Jan 26, 2012

“We’re in the air again!”

I’m sensing a pattern her, but today was again a really chill day. We walked around, ate, walked, etc until 3:00 when we bussed to the airport, hung out, and then flew back to the wonderful city of Auckland. 

A highlight was the sweet 50’s diner we had lunch at, very much a “Twisters” feel and I loved it!  They did a great job with the theme!

Upon arriving in Auckland, we got a ride to our new hostel and it got interesting again.  It’s just a hard one to to even explain.  But here goes.  It’s really just a converted house into hostel and it reminds me of an Agatha Christie novel due to the amazing mismatch of travelers brought together for the night.  I told Travis there was going to be a murder to solve in the morning.  It’s really like a house, we chill in the large common living room and kitchen.  We have a pool and a hot tub.  It’s really…relaxed and…homey.  Anyways, its’ sweet, but really different than the others ones we’ve been to.  There’s a large Asian family, A Dutch couple, a American professor, and 2 German guys, and maybe more people I haven’t met.  Meet the Robinsons anyone?  Anyways, we’re 10 min from the airport and 30 min from Auckland which makes it pretty hard to get around, but we’ll figure it out!

Random Fact: There’s a strawberry farm down the road that sells fresh pancakes, waffles, and ice cream every morning!

Queenstown's a great town!

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013

“To Queenstown!”

The trek continued today like this:

9:50am – Shuttle to airport

12:05- Fly to Queenstown

1:35- Arrival, make way to hostel, book the fun!

Before leaving we walked around Wellington, and it really is just a dirty city, but I reminds me a lot of San Francisco with it’s tall houses build on steep streets. At the airport, things are done differently than we were used to and they run you through security only right before your flight and then you wait for a very short amount on the other side, but there’s nothing to do there, like no restaurants or anything.  Just the seats. But on the upside, they have beanbag chairs to sleep on.  Point for Wellington airport.

Me and my buddy G-dawg

We must be getting better at traveling, because this time we took a shuttle straight to the hostel (no getting lost), and it was much nicer than the last one (but it’s not saying much).

Queenstown is a really cool city and it has a very Banff feel.  Pretty much a resort town.  We booked our bungee jump and jetboat experiences, wandered around a lot, ate at Fergburger because “you haven’t had a burger until you’ve had a Ferg burger”.   Life is so fun, because no matter where we are, we see/experience interesting things. Just sitting in park we saw disc golfers playing, a girl in a Winnipeg jets hoodie, what looked like a Shakespeare play happening around is, and a man in hip-waders plunge into the duck pond in pursuit of a lady’s flown away paper.

Random fact: Queenstown has an indoor ice rink…right beside the lawn bowling.

STORY: Hannah from England

She’s traveling and working for a year, super nice. She accidentally rented a bus instead of a car for a 6hr trip, but she just rolled with it and found passengers to take with her and charged them for the trip.

Loving Queenstown!

Thursday, Jan 24, 2013

“Livin’ it up, BUNGY style!”

Did I mention it was beautiful?

 Today was the day! It’s adventure time!  We have the photos, video, and t-shirts to prove it, but let it be said, Travis and I both did the Nevis Bungee, 134m into a canyon and it was AWESOME! Like…an indescribably amazing feeling!  Actually, the ride up to the site was almost as scary; the full size tour bus was driving on a 1-lane path with a sheer cliff drop off on the other side!  It was intense!

Thats right world, I bought CHERRIES! And I loved them!

The other super fun thing we did today was the shotover Jetboat experience, a high speed cruise though a rock canyon where you come ridiculously close to hitting the rocks and do 360 degree spins on the water too!  It was so much fun we did it twice!  I’d recommend it to everyone as it was a really great time!

Mine was that big too!

Random Fact- According to the bungy scale, I’ve gained  12 pounds since leaving. Wow. I hope it's muscle. :s

So, a bit of honesty here, the BASE hostel chain seems to be pretty much completely aimed at the young party crowd, and it shows.  Due to a rough night of room mates being drunk, locked out, vomiting, and the ever present pounding of the bass from the first floor bar, we’ve decided to spread our wings and branch out into another hostel chain.   We’ve booked tomorrow night with YHA so we’ll see what happens.

One of these things is not like the other...