Okay, so I realized I posted about life after New Zealand, before I even posted about life in New Zealand. Honest mistake. I know it's been a couple months since I last blogged (story of my life...still can't seem to get past that), but here's a brief log of how our journey went in New Zealand...highlighted with a few photos along the way. And by a few, I mean a few...it took a long time to narrow it down to just a couple! Here's to our journey...
Days 1-4: Fly to Los Angeles, CA, then onto a 14-hour flight to Auckland, NZ. Adam and I were the student facilitators for the study abroad, so we got to fly out a few days early with the professor and the other 2 student who'd be driving the vans along with us to get 'acclimated' to driving on the right side of the road so we didn't kill anyone when it came time for the other students to arrive. Holy mackerel, run-on sentence. Driving on the other side of the road wasn't as big of an adjustment as I thought it would be, except for the occasional freak-out when I would look over and not see anyone driving! However...there was someone driving, just not where I was used to seeing them. We did end up in the wrong lane once after a u-turn (because that just confuses you) and that caused a bit of a scare. We got to spend the first few days with our small group up in the Bay of Islands on the North Island (we were on Russell) and basically just got to play and eat fish 'n' chips = amazing. Our holiday park was super close to the ocean, so we got to beach comb and play in the water all day. I >
Days 5-20ish: The first 2 weeks of our trip with all the students were spent taking a journey from Auckland all the way down to our new home in Invercargill, New Zealand. Some of the fun things we got to do along the way were:
Sledging in Rotorua
It's pretty much a thick boogie board with handles
that you go down white water in - and it's a blast!
Hiking the Tongariro Crossing - Emerald Pools behind
us. Adam hiked Mount Doom from LOTR on this hike too.
Taking the ferry from Wellington to Picton. I didn't realize
how crazy my hair looked until after I saw the pictures!
Frolicking around glaciers - Franz Josef
Bungy jumping in Queenstown! Adam's the little
black dot connected to the white line :) We jumped
440 feet and it was amazing! I'll figure out how to load videos
and show our jumps later.
Day 20 & Beyond: Once we got to Invercargill we got to meet our wonderful host family - Liz & Craig Murch. Boy do we miss them! They are some of the funniest, most lovable, wonderful people and I can't wait until we get to see them again. We got sooooo lucky with our host family because several students didn't have as quite enjoyable of a stay as we did - we definitely lucked out.
The adventures continued in Invercargill with all of our fun classes and trips!
Kayaking class - no, synchronized pictures weren't part
of it, but our natural skills paid off for a great shot!
Our dear and loyal mode of transportation - our bikes.
Attached to us from the first day in Invercargill...buffest
my legs have ever been in my life.
family's ranch - so much fun and such a wonderful family!
The views were incredible everywhere!
Fishing for flounder on Oreti Beach! This was the one
flounder in our net (normally you catch around 20 I guess),
but we were happy about it! We caught some puffers too!
Lake Wakatipu outside Queenstown just before heading
to hike the Routeburn Track- it's this gorgeous everywhere!
(The LOTR scene where Sam starts drowning was filmed
on a lake up here)
world! I thought Routeburn was incredible, and then I did
this hike! You hike along mountain peaks so much of the way,
and have the most incredible views the entire time.
After the program ended, Adam and I headed back up north
to Rotorua to do some of the things we missed out on! We couldn't
choose, so we did it all :) This is luging and is incredibly fun! It looks
like you're on a dorky little scooter, but what the picture doesn't show
you is that you ride these down the mountains and you fly! So much
fun! Definitely would be a liability in the US, so that's why you should
go to New Zealand! So much fun! We found a ticket on the ground so
Adam got an extra ride!
hill! They fill it with warm water and push you down a hill -
it's awesome! It goes by fast though, but I think it's worth
doing once in a lifetime.
to visit my Uncle Russ and his family. They took us on an
amazing trip down the Great Ocean Road to see the 12 Apostles -
the stone pictured below - and all sorts of beautiful things there.
Feeding the parrots in the middle of a campground -
you just hold out your hand and they fly right to you!
They also have koala bears everywhere because there
are Eucalyptus trees all over. They're so cute!
know the turtle song, that's what Adam hooked her with,
it was bff's after that - I think she still talks about him sometimes.
Super cute - who can't resist those sweet faces?!
Samoa for more fun. We just couldn't stop!
We stayed in the faale's behind us - the water was crystal clear
and incredible! A lot of the reef was damaged because of the tsunami,
but there were still tons of pretty fish to see!
Samoa is beautiful everywhere.
I mean it.
Some coral love.
One of the many blue starfish Adam found! I love
this picture :) Some nice Finnish travellers let us
borrow their snorkeling gear.
This is what happens when I take Dramamine to
avoid getting seasick - unconciousness.
Eating bat on the last night of our trip! They looked
like little werewolf/humans! Super creepy and not too tasty -
Yes, that is the head. Zoom in and it will look even grosser.
We finally headed home to the states after Samoa, and after a couple hours in LAX, we were free! And then we went to Disneyland. Refer to following post.
This sure was a lengthy one! I made up for lost times...hopefully you enjoy seeing a little of all the things we did!
Holy cow what an amazing experience for you guys!!
ReplyDeleteHoly Amazing!!! Wow...that looks incredible. I'm completely jealous. And your photography skills are fantastic. You guys look like you had a lot of fun.
ReplyDeletewow those pictures are awesome!! you guys are the coolest people i know. Looks like SOOOOOOO much fun!!! dream trip. we should plan something fun one of these weekends. miss u tons. you looked dashing at the party it was fun to hang out with you guys again. =)
ReplyDeleteHOLLY! I miss New Zealand and I miss you! I made a new blog. Click on my name to go to it
ReplyDeletemoretalklesswalk.blogspot.com
Holly!
ReplyDeleteThis post was fantastic! How fun would that be to go and be able to do the New Zealand trip with your hubby! I think that is so awesome! You guys are awesome! This really made me miss New Zealand!
Thanks Tara! Yes, it was the BEST trip ever and I wish we could do it again...just without having to pay for it :) Don't you just miss it? How are you?! You've got your own fun adventures with your little one now huh? He's so cute and you guys look so happy!
ReplyDelete