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!
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| Chilling at the Airport |
Monday, Jan 28, 2013
“J-day!”
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| 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!)
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| Loving NZ! |
In the evening we went back to the skytower for night pics, grabbed some starbucks and then chilled at the hostel.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| The view in the day |
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Finally got my police car photo! |
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