Best of June

After flying back to the United States and clearing customs I had a few days to relax in Los Angeles and let my vacation wear off slowly rather than jumping back into real life. Although... June ended up being a pretty fun month anyway - real life and all! As always, I had to participate in some great outdoor activities with my brother Diego and his wife Mariela. This time we went to Devil's head and did some rock climbing on the beach. We parked above the rock, set up a rope, and rappelled to the bottom to begin the fun. It was pretty challenging for my out-of-practice skills, and I fell once just trying to start the climb. Good thing I was top-roping instead of leading!

If nothing else, the location was great for pictures!

My brother likes to surprise me. He told us all to get dressed up, and he drove us downtown. This was a pretty cool surprise - I got to see my brother be sworn in as a lawyer. I'm so proud of him!

I got back to Vegas eventually and was able to see my mission trainer Haley Flake when she came in to town for a teacher's conference around the 9th. I picked her up from her hotel and we got to spend an evening together. Good times!

On the 12th my Polynesian dance group - called the Ofa Angas (sweethearts) danced in a Luau that was hosted in the backyard of one of the group members. We did the Luau as a fund raiser for new costumes and earned a good chunk of change! I only danced in one number, but it was fun! Here are a few members of our group...

Bubs and Rachel:

Jessica:


Me:

Our instructor and good friend Siva, her middle child Leo, me and Jessica. By the way, it is quite possible that I am the whitest girl in the group! Rachel might give me a run for my money, but I'm even tan in this picture!!!

The next day I accompanied my friend Ashlyn to her friend's wedding and reception. The location was pretty cool - an old famous mansion with an indoor pool in the middle of the reception hall (no, we weren't allowed to even dip a toe in it!). We enjoyed good food, and then were ushered on to the dance floor for the boquet toss. I won.

Little did I know however, that in non-lds culture the guy who catches the garter then wins the priveledge of putting said garter on the leg of the girl who caught the boquet. I was suddenly really grateful that I had chosen to wear slacks instead of a skirt that night!!!

'Twas now nearing the season of my birthday, and I was pleasantly surprised to get a birthday package from my parents. Can you say hooray for cute flip-flops?!?!?! Love them!!

On the 18th some friends of mine threw me a birthday party. With the help of my roommate Rashida I did my hair all cute and had a fun night. Julie Koch hosted the party at her home and made me a beautiful (and delicious!) cake. It was fun to be surrounded by friends and play fun games... like Chutes and Ladders!!

The next night was filled with more friends at a dance party. I saw my old roommate Airline and her husband Eric and said hello to baby-to-be Kaleb. And of course, there was dancing!!

Well folks, it took me only 26 years, but I finally did it. On the 21st (my BIRTHDAY!) my friend Pamela and I got up dark and early and drove to DISNEYLAND!!! Can I just say I was excited??

If you know me well at all - you know I love moose.

I was also to see part of the Small World ride pay tribute to New Zealand. I had to take a picture to share with Ashley!

I had a great day filled with all sorts of adventures... finding treasure, capturing Pamela, running (and riding) around in circles and becoming characters from great movies.

I even thought I found my frog prince... turns out he was really just a toad.

It was a short trip and we wore ourselves out - so much so that we had to pull off at a rest stop somewhere near the Nevada boarder on our way back home that night so we could sleep a little instead of driving off the road.

On the 25th I drove to the institute to meet up with members of my ward's Relief Society to go see the Wizard of Oz. I hadn't been to the institute at all during the summer but was excited to discover that this one random day I had chosen to be there was the same day that one of my MTC teachers Nicole Harr was randomly passing through Vegas and had made a stop at the institute too. I hadn't seen her since I left the MTC! She had her husband with her - who happened to be another teacher we'd seen at the MTC; he had even taught us a couple of lessons toward the end of our training. I didn't get a good look at their baby though - she was sleeping in a dark room.

The Wizard of Oz was GREAT! My friend Jessica played Dorothy, and I swear at times you couldn't tell that she wasn't Judy Garland! Even her voice sounded the same. Talk about skills! I also enjoyed the opportunity to wear my own ruby slippers for the first time!

Back to Los Angeles! On the 27th my ward took a temple/beach trip to LA. It was fun to spend another few hours with my brother at Santa Monica Beach.

On the 29th I got a new battery put in my car and I headed out of town to Chandler, Arizona where my very kind cousin Eric and his wife Stacy let me stay the night, and then abandon my car for three weeks while I went to New York. I was dropped off at the Phoenix airport the morning of the 30th, and surprised my friend Dianna with my presence - she had no idea I had booked my flight the same as hers... I'm a good secret keeper! We had fun playing in the Atlanta airport during our loooong layover, but eventually we got tired of waiting around and started getting a little nutty. We even had to take a picture of a wall that looked like it had an image of a brain on it. I know. We're weird.

And that does it for June!!! I can't talk about our arrival in New York state yet... because technically we landed in July. So that will be saved for the next "best of" post. Goodnight!!

Goodbye New Zealand!

Also known as Day Eight - May 31, 2009

I woke up not believing that our trip was already coming to a close! We got ready for the day (wearing very tourist-y matching shirts) and packed up our things, checked out of the hostel and loaded our luggage in the car. It was time to explore Auckland by day. We walked a couple of blocks to the base of the space needle-type tower that we had seen lit up the night before. Ashley explained how a co-worker of hers had paid to jump off the tower once - if you look at the left side of the tower you might notice a couple of wires stretching from the ground up to the balcony of the tower - somehow you can get harnessed up and slide down these wires to the ground. Too scary for us. We just took pictures and walked on.


Remember Ashley's fear of eels? Well, we finally found one next to a playground that she wasn't afraid of. Way to conquer your fears!!


We wandered our way down to the Victoria Park Market - a semi-outdoor shopping place that is great for tourists. Being the goofballs we are, we bought matching tote bags whose logo just happened to match our shirts...

We strolled by the yacht docks and dreamed of sailing the world in one of these awesome vessels. Oh the things I'd do if I were rich!! (See the matching shirts now??)

After picking up the car Ashley and I drove around the city a bit trying to find a park, and crossed a really cool bridge in the process. I snapped a picture of the flags on top of the centermost part of the bridge, only to notice later that there were people standing up there! I had no idea! The view of the city on the way back across the bridge was excellent too.

From off in the distance we could see a hill that we assumed would offer a good view of the city, so we drove off to find it. It was a short walk up to the top, and it was beautiful! The hillside was covered in flowers - planted there as a memorial to members of New Zealand's military that had fallen during their service to the country.

The plants in New Zealand never ceased to amaze me - this tree looked as if it's roots were growing down from its branches.

It was relaxing to sit on the benches and gaze at the city. As was typical in New Zealand there was livestock (cows this time) sharing the space; I loved how all the pasture gates were designed to let visitors pass through easily - it seemed very unselfish that anyone would allow people to spend time on their land whenever they wanted.

While on the hill we talked to a very nice couple who pointed out a better hill another few kilometers away (named One Tree Hill) that was taller, and home to a national monument. We chatted for quite a while about their son's business, what we did for a living, etc, and exchanged contact info before getting directions to One Tree Hill. The park area surrounding this much bigger hill was beautiful - trees everywhere!

The monument was to honor the first Maori in New Zealand. The hill had been named for a single tree that had been planted at the top of the hill (and survived) even though it was not originally from New Zealand. Unfortunately, the tree is no longer there... someone was upset that it wasn't a native tree and tried to cut it down. The stopped the guy in the process, but he had already done too much damage, so the tree got infected and ended up dying. There's a plaque next to the stump.

We were running out of time. So, we had a countdown. Or, I mean, we went to a countdown. This was one of the major grocery store chains we saw during our entire trip, and one of our favorite places at which to find our meals. This time we went with one intention: JUNK FOOD! We had to bring some New Zealand treats home with us.

The entrances to grocery stores were interesting... these poles allowed you to walk in, you could even push a cart through them, but it was impolssible to walk the other direction. No stealing here! We loaded up on giant chocolate bars, unique flavors of Mentos and suckers, and of course - Tim Tams!

Sadly, we left the city and headed to the airport. Our exit said what I felt - that we were coming to the rainbow's end.

But, we did find a pot of gold... right at the turn off the exit there was one of our church buildings under construction! We had only seen a church building in Hamilton, and NO WHERE else during our entire trip! I'm sure they were around, we just hadn't noticed.

We topped off the gas tank, and returned our car and camping gear before being shuttled off to the airport. The sign at the rental office explains what Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand) stands for.

Ashley and I got through check in and made our way to the concourse and found some things to occupy our time as we watched the stormy weather roll in. By the way, kiwi filled chocolate is really good!

As the rain came in, so did the delays in departing flights. At first our flight said it was delayed an hour... and then two... and three... We tried to keep in good spirits by playing card games. It became increasingly difficult however as people around us took over table space to feed their families, etc. I REALLY wasn't in the mood to be cleaning ketchup off of my new deck of cards, so we balanced everything on the armrests of the chairs we occupied. There was an adorable 6 year old girl waiting with her family for a flight to India; she was so SMART! Some of the questions she asked surprised us:

girl: "How can pilots fly when it's cloudy? They can't see out the windows!"

dad: "They have instruments to fly the plane."

girl: "How do drums and instruments fly a plane?"

dad: "Not musical instruments; they're tools that tell a pilot where they are - they can even steer the plane with them."

girl: "Then why do they need windows?"

She also talked and asked questions about governments and ruling bodies - she was trying to understand the difference (or similarity) between a king, prime minister, a president etc. It was fun to explain things to her.

When it was finally time to head to the gate we were a little worn out. We had been delayed nearly four hours. Ashley had recently experienced delay after delay while flying around on business trips, and was not happy by this point. She really needed to catch her flight from LA to Utah so she could be back to work the next day. So, to make her laugh I pulled out my camera and took a picture:

And another...

And yet another...

But then even I was getting tired of waiting.

We were tired!

At last we boarded the plane and got ourselves situated with our blanket and pillow, and a fresh "goodie bag" of socks and eyemasks like we had on our way down. We waved goodbye to New Zealand, stuffed our faces with the dinner they brought around, popped a Tylenol PM started watching a movie or two before happily passing out.

It was an excellent vacation!

New Zealand Day Seven - May 30, 2009

It was time to say goodbye to Rotorua! We had thoroughly enjoyed all three days we spent there; it was the place we had stayed in the longest. We cleaned up our things and headed to the kitchen for breakfast. We tried a very strange fruit neither one of us had heard of - it was called feijoa. We had bought them earlier in the week at a roadside fruit and veggie shed because we were curious. I didn't like it much. After some research I learned that it's related to guava, and be over-ripe if not eaten the day it falls off the tree (yes - falls. That's when it's ripe). Could explain why I didn't like it. Our fruit was old.


I opted for some kiwis on the way out of town.


We headed West and drove through scattered showers to Hamilton; home of the first LDS temple in the Pacific Islands. It was dedicated in 1958. We attended a session there, and then looked around the grounds and visitor's center. From the hill you can see a church school that is still in operation farther away on the property.


We had to take a picture of these crasy trees that to me looked like they grew upside down. At the same time the picture encompases typical New Zealand: in the bottom right-hand corner of the picture you can see a random herd of cows.

We had already stopped once to see the Tasman sea earlier on our trip, but this time we stopped to see a beach that was different: it was made of black sand! It was still pouring so we left our cameras in the car, but we changed into our flip-flops and made our way down to the water. We stood under the protection of a lifeguard tower while watching the die-hard surfers brave the water in their wetsuits. After venturing out from our cover and strolling on the beach a bit we scooped up some black sand in a water bottle to take home with us.

It was time to head back to Auckland. We appreciated the break in the rain, and took some great sunset pictures while driving on the highway (pardon the telephone lines!).

By the time Ashley and I checked in to the hostel it was dark, and we were starving! We had managed to get an awesome parking spot just in front of the hostel, so we decided to leave the car there and find our way around on foot. We were surprised to find that even in Auckland everything shut down super early. We expected a larger city to have later hours. Then, Ashley got hit by a bus. At least it said "sorry!"

We finally did manage to find a couple of small restaurants that were still open, and decided to eat at the one offering food from Turkey. Talk about good! We stuffed our faces with kebobs, french fries, and falafel...it was really good food, there was just a lot of it!

This Base hostel was the busiest we had stayed in yet; we were in a small room with five bunkbeds, all of which were filled by the time we went to bed! We loved the lockers they had underneath the lower bunks to store your things though, and I had even packed a padlock which we used to secure all of our stuff.

Since it was our last night in New Zealand we decided to stick with tradition and play Phase 10. This time however, we made friends with a couple of German girls and convinced them to play with us. It was fun explaining the rules to them; they had never seen anything like it before. We're pretty sure they thought we were crazy by the end of the night.

One of the Most Entertaining Days EVER!

Also known as New Zealand Day Six - May 29th, 2009

I failed to mention in my last post that in the evening we went swimming at our hostel. This is important because this is where we met Pete. Pete is a Rotorua local who occasionally sneaks into the different hostels to use their swimming pool and hot tub after rugby practice. He asked us about what we had already seen on our trip, and asked what our plans for our last few days on the island were. When we mentioned that we were going Zorbing the next day (I'll explain what that is in a bit) Pete told us that he worked there! We jokingly asked if we could get a special discount, and he said if we remembered his name the next day he'd see what he could do.

Thus dawned a slightly cool Friday morning. We drove to the edge of Rotorua and pulled up to the Zorbing tracks. We were so excited! Almost immediately we saw Pete running around outside the office and called our hellos. We registered on their computers inside the office and went to pay for our ride. Pete let us in for free! Better yet, he let us go twice! We walked to the edge of the porch and waited for Pete to bring the jeep around to drive us to the top of the hill.

Now, this is what Zorbing is all about: climbing into a huge inflated ball and rolling down a hill. There are two ways of doing this. Number one: strapping yourself into a seat and somersaulting all the way down (dizzy=barf!), or number two: pumping some water inside the ball with you and sliding down the hill as if you were on a waterslide. This was definitely our choice! Ashley and I jumped in the ball together after Pete added some warm water (they use warm water in the winter, and cold water in the summer), and we headed down the hill!

We laughed SO hard the entire way down, partly because you're given an instant wedgie that you can't fully fix until the ride is over. You can't really see where you're going very well due to the water that's flying all over the place, but it didn't matter. The ball rolls pretty much straight. We hit a big bump at the bottom and thought we had just reached the end of the ride, but come to find out later we had run over one of the workers! It was on purpose though... the employees there were a riot!

I loved that they had a photographer constantly snapping pictures for you; no need to take your camera in the ball and worry about ruining it.

Getting out of the Zorb ball was more difficult than just jumping in head first...

Hooray! We made it! Now let's go again!

To try something different on our second run, Ashley and I took separate Zorb balls, and by doing so we were allowed to go down the zig-zag track. This one made me dizzy! I'd be flying down the hill when the sudden change of direction would send me spinning around the inside and send me down the next chunk of hill backward or sideways; any direction I wasn't anticipating.

I had left my camera at the front desk while we slid down the hill - only later to discover that the employees had a little fun with it when we weren't looking.

Ashley and I with our man Pete. He made it all possible!

After getting dried off and packed up again we drove across the street (literally) to the Agrodome. As you might be able to guess, it's all about sheep!

Several times a day they put on a little performance that shows you every type of sheep that lives in New Zealand (there are 17)...

They explain how to shear a sheep - and then show you...

And command sheepdogs to herd ducks and then run across the backs of the sheep on stage. Of course, there's a meet and greet afterward.

Once outside again they actually let the dogs herd sheep into a pen (think "Babe").

Next we stopped at Rainbow Springs because I was obsessed with seeing a real Kiwi (the bird) while I was in New Zealand. It was Ashley's turn to play tour guide.

We saw lots of animals, including this eel (see the squiggly thing in the water?) that was more than 6 feet long and estimated to be more than 50 years old! Turns out eels really creep Ashley out.

When you pay for admission to the preserve you recieve an empty water bottle that you can fill up at the Rainbow Springs.

Wallabies! Not native to New Zealand, but still cute. And yes, I did see a couple of kiwis, but it was in a very dark room where they were sleeping behing glass... not prime opportunity for picture taking. They were bigger than I thought though.

We had a few hours to kill around town, so we walked around looking for souvenir shops and other interesting things. Here's Ashley and her mangos, our hostel, and the croquet fields out in front of the museum.

One of the highlights of our trip was going to the Mitai Maori Village. For those who are less culturally inclined than others, the Maori are the native inhabitants of New Zealand. The Mitai tribe (among others) still lives on a piece of their original land, and follow their traditions as much as is reasonable in today's modern society. One way the Mitai tribe brings in money is by allowing visitors to experience their old traditions. We were picked up at the hostel by a shuttle and were seated at a table after having our reservations confirmed.

While we were waiting we listened to an older man from the tribe sing karaoke in the background - he was cute! After everyone was settled our host welcomed us and then had us follow him to the Hangi pit where our food had been cooking in the ground. There was lamb, chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes and stuffing. My mouth was watering.

The food still needed to be sliced up, so while we waited our host took us on a walk down a dark trail to the river where warriors rowed by on a Waka - a war canoe. They chanted as they rowed, made faces at us (they made faces to intimidate their enemies), and followed the commands of their chief who sits in the back of the Waka.

They all jumped out of the Waka and headed to the performance area, while the chief was responsible for tying up the canoe. The poor guy had to jump at least waist deep into the freezing water (it was soooo cold), but as he did Ashley noticed something a little peculiar about his attire... what we thought were dark colored shorts were actually tribal tatoos. And while he had the front of his body covered by some sort of loin cloth, his behind was left quite bare!

The chief greeted us as we were seated in the performance area, and welcomed us to the land of his tribe. One guest had been selected earlier to be the chief of the "Tribe of Many Nations" - aka, all the visitors, and participated in the welcoming ceremony before the men and women danced and sang for us.

The food was awesome! We shared our table with a cute family that was originally from France but now live in New Caledonia. We could only communicate with the mother - she was the only one in her family who spoke any English.

After the meal was over our host once again led us out and down the dark paths to the river where we looked at the lights from glowworms that lived along the bank. The Mitai village is immediately next door to the Rainbow Springs Preserve, and is the home of the enchanted Fairy Springs. The Mitai Village's website explains: "In Maori mythology, some springs were regarded as 'places where the Gods sprung out of the water'. A priest (Tohunga) would visit the Spring and ask the Gods whether this was an appropriate time to plant crops or make war. If it was the right time, as legend has it, a column of light like a clear Rainbow would arise from the water. This is how this sacred place got the name Rainbow Springs. It is also the location where the Fairy People (Patupaiarehe) would descend the slopes of Mt Ngongotaha at night to visit the springs and drink from the waters of life." We stood and watched the water bubble up into the large, clear pool when our focus drifted to what appeared to be a large tree branch covered with some sand on the bottom of the springs start to move slowly. Tree branch?? Ha, no... that's another gigantic eel. Sorry Ash...

We left feeling very full and very tired. It was a great day!

New Zealand Day Five - May 28th, 2009

Today was meant to be an outdoors day! Planning on enjoying the sun and sand, I finally decided to wear the capris I had packed. We wanted to get an early start, so we headed out and ate our breakfast in the car in the parking lot of a hike we had picked out.

It was freezing outside! I had my hoodie pulled up over my head nearly the whole time and I jogged in place a lot to get my blood flowing again. The hike was only about 7 minutes each way but, like all of New Zealand's sights, it was worth it! There was a cool waterfall, some crazy vines hanging down from the trees, and a tree that grew sideways at its base.

After loading back up in the car we made our way North up to the Bay of Plenty. We passed through Bethlehem on the way... who knew that Bethlehem was really in New Zealand?? There were also pretty Fall colors along the way.

We got lost along the shore for a little bit and ended up at one of the sea ports.

Welcome to Mt. Manganui - volcano. Perfect for more hiking, and filled with spectacular views!! Hiking up...

Nearing the top.

Up on top!

Looking down at the town where we started our hike. We could see surfers hanging out in the water waiting to catch good waves; they're barely visible in the full-size version of this picture.

There were multiple paths up the volcano, so Ash and I explored a different route on the way back down. This path led us through more trees. These are the stairs on the back side of the volcano and an ocean view.

Once we got back to the bottom the path passed right through several large pastures of sheep; each pasture was fenced off, but all the gates didn't have latches - nobody minded that tourists walked through their private property every day.

The beginning of the path we ended on, and looking back at the volcano. It doesn't look so big from this side.

Beach time! Although the air was still fairly cool Ashley and I layed out on the beach for two hours working on our tans. I love the sun in New Zealand! I never once put on sunscreen and I didn't burn at all! That's quite impressive for a white girl like me!

The sand was so beautiful!

Although, it wasn't the kind of sand that would be great for castle making, but it worked great for other things!

We stuck our feet in to discover that the water was FREEZING - and noticed that all of the surfers were wearing wet suits. Ashley and I were probably the only ones wearing a bathing suit on the beach that day.

And of course, we took jumping pictures!

Because of the temperature of the water we started thinking twice about the decision we had made earlier about jumping in the ocean no matter what... but being the crazy Americans we are we had to represent, and so we went screaming (literally) into the ocean. You may not be able to tell, but we were dripping wet here. People were looking at us like we were insane.

Once back in Rotorua for the evening we decided to explore the park across the street from our hostel and found a wonderful thermal pool meant to soak your feet in - a good way to warm up after a cold dip in the ocean! We're eating apples...

The view from my seat at the thermal foot pool.

The whole time I was in New Zealand I had been waiting for the opportunity to go geocaching. My friend Ryan had picked up a geocoin in Las Vegas and asked if I would deposit it in a cache while on my trip. It took FOREVER to fin the cache, but once Ashley found it (smart girl) we were able to examine the contents, sign our names and trade the coin for another.

The coin I left.

Back at the hostel we headed to the kichen and made ourselves a hodge-podge dinner of butter chicken, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Soooo good...

As per our pre-bedtime ritual we played Phase 10. Still playing two hands each to make it more interesting, I won again. Ashley wasn't happy. But it had been a fun day!

My Last First Day of School!

So, I'm still not caught up on all my summer adventures, but we're going to ignore that right now because....

TODAY IS MY LAST FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

I had been trying to live in the "school-isn't-really-starting" denial bubble (you know, pretending that the 24th of August was just going to be another late summer day...) for the past couple of weeks, but as my 2:30pm class time nears I realized that I should be celebrating this moment! I already know I don't want to do grad school, law school, or anything-else-school after I graduate this December, so this is it! The last time I'll dread heading off to my first class of the semester. I feel like I've reached a huge milestone (and it's about time, don't you think??).

How much sight-seeing can YOU do in a day??

Also known as New Zealand Day Four - May 27th, 2009!

I decided to make just one post for this day, so therefore this is going to be the longest post I have ever done! Get ready for loads of pictures (and you won't believe how many I cut out)!

Ashley and I had enjoyed our quiet room and slept very well. We were a little sad to leave it, but had great hopes for the other hostels we were planning on staying at.

The Base hostels offered "Sanctuary" rooms - for girls only.

We drove down the block to the Northern part of Lake Taupo to take pictures of the Mt. Dooms (covered in snow), and the cool Maori carving before we started the real sight seeing.

The first stop was at Huka Falls. Ashley and I had read in a book about the falls and discovered that there were hiking trails along the river. Having been in a car for multiple hours a day we decided that an hour hike to the falls would be well enjoyed! We drove to the starting point indicated on our map and walked across a bridge over the river to begin our adventure. We immediately found a little sign that pointed to the two trail options we had. The first option was off to the right; an hour-long hike along the river (what we thought we were going to do). Then we saw the other option that said: Huka Falls - 1 minute. And it pointed to the left. We had parked at the wrong parking lot, but loved the scenery anyway.

Having some extra time to kill due to the unexpected shortness of our hike, Ash and I decided to drive off on some random roads on our way to sight seeing place number two. Along one road we crossed a thermally active area that was full of steam, and further along we ended up at a small farm house. Ashley was excited to see a row of ducks waddling down the hill...

I was excited to see a llama!

I jumped out of the car to stand near the fence so Ashley could take a picture of me with the llama. As she was preparing to press the button Ashley happily announced that there was a second llama! Then, she panicked and went running back to the car when she realized that this new llama was on OUR side of the fence. She even freaked me out to the point that I didn't get near enough the llama to be in the picture with it.

Sight seeing location number two was a small dam. It really wouldn't have been much to see, but three times every morning the dam lets out enough water to fill the little canyon below the dam.

This was the view of the lake/mini-canyon area just before the water was let out:

And this was the canyon after it was full. You can see the color change in the water where it's entering the lake from under our feet (we were on a bridge).

We discovered a 5 minute trail to a lookout point that gave us a view back toward the bridge where we first stood, and spent about 30 minutes just relaxing in the sun and listening to the water rush by until the dam shut off the flow again.

Along the road to our next destination we stopped at some interesting places. Puzzle World looked highly entertaining but when we walked in we were slightly disappointed. It was a little store that sold games and, of course, puzzles. Then we saw a sign for lava glass blowing, and paid the $5 NZ Dollars to watch the guys at work in the workshop.

The first guy was making colored glass threads by heating up the colored glass, pinching it with some large tweezers, and pulling out a long string of glass that cooled almost instantly. He would stretch each thread all the way across the room before he returned to re-heat the blob of glass he was working from. The second guy would dip the end of his pole/tube thing into the clear melted glass, roll it in some of the crushed up colored threads the first guy had made (this made a funky pattern on the finished product), and then go to work spinning and twirling the glass after he had blown some air into the blob. We watched him make 3 or 4 glasses (cups) before we went back into the main store and browsed around the other creative things they had made.

Sight seeing destination number three was Wai-O-Tapu - Thermal Wonderland. Think mini-yellowstone in reagards to hot pots and stinky boiling mud. That kind of thing. We had plenty of time, so I grabbed a map/guide of the place, and played tour guide throughout the park; reading each discription aloud as we passed each viewpoint.

It smelled SO bad! I gagged multiple times upon entering the park; it was that gross. The worst was when the trail was lined by bushes and we were sneak-attacted by a sudden breeze that came from across a few smelly potholes. Eventually however, we got used to it enough to not loose the lunch we hadn't eaten yet.

Some random tree in the middle of the path.

Still not used to the smell here... and some geography of the region.

There were signs all over the park that reminded guests to stay on the designated walking trails... I wonder what happened to the last person who didn't follow the rules...

We turned a corner at one point and saw this random ball of foliage up in the trees... but couldn't figure out which tree it was attached to. Talk about random.

Some of New Zealand's wildlife...


This particular viewpoint was funny. We saw the sign for Bridal Veil Falls (also a place in Utah), and then laughed where there was absolutely NO water running over the "falls."

The colors were so vivid sometimes... I liked this pool because the neon-yellow bubbling sulfer stuff was emptying into a blue-green lake and there was quite a distinction in colors. The next picture is Ashley wondering why there were established trails when the trails were just as wet and soggy as the rest of the ground on the other side of the trailmarkers.

I liked the way this staircase looked, so I told Ashley to dance - it just looks like she's running up.

Lunchtime! We finished driving up to Rotorua and decided to go see a few more lakes (there seems to be a lot of those in New Zealand); these ones were right next to each other and cleverly named Blue and Green Lake. We ate our lunch on a picnic table and were quickly befriended by a little flock of sparrows - some of which would land within an arms' length of us.

We saw a tour bus drive up, and we watched it drive right into the lake! We were startled at first, but quickly realized it was a duck - it was a bus on land, and a boat on the water! It even quacked at us as it exited back onto dry land. No joke.

Of course, we took some time to play on the playground before getting back in the car.

This piece of equipment was my favorite... it's called the Rocktopus, and has four arms that reach down and has a small tire attached to the end that you sit on. You can then rock up and down and spin the thing around, and it's basically a four-way see-saw that spins. I think they should make these in the States... I've never seen them here!

There was however one of these at a park nearby my parent's house when I was a kid that had been taken down because kids kept falling off and getting hurt... so it was fun to re live some memories.

Sight seeing stop number four was the Buried Village. Back in the 1930's this village was buried in mud, fireballs, ash and rubble after a nearby volcano erupted. Quite a few people died. The volcano is still active, but now they closely monitor it with special equipment so they can evacuate the surrounding area whenever it decides to rear it's ugly head. We stopped in the museum first, and then headed outside to see the remains (most roofs had been reconstructed).

There was an optional trail that branched off and went down in a canyon for a nature walk, which we of course wanted to do. We thought the warning sign was hilarious. How dangerous could a trail be? We quickly discovered steep staircases and dense forest and understood a little better why the warning was needed. After a few steps down the staircases we had our first "oh my gosh, we're in a foreign country" moment. The jungle-like forest was beautiful - complete with waterfall!

One of the staircases we descended, and a view from the bottom of the waterfall.

Once we got back to the top we thought it was strange how there was a huge canyon and forest next to the flat area where the village stood. The landscape changes so dramatically!

We then checked in to our hostel, jumped into the swimming pool for a bit (it was a thermal pool), changed into our pajamas and headed to the kitchen to make our dinner. Halfway down the stairs Ashley realized she had put her pants on backwards... it was funny.

And of course, we had to play a couple rounds of phase 10 before going to bed.