It's just about midnight here, and I was behind the wheel for something like 6-7 hours today. Exhaustion + exhilaration = 10 minute blog post. :) I think I'm up to 1100 pictures in 3 days. Hopefully I'll have the energy to upload pictures on the next post. Be warned that they are incredible, and still won't do justice to the unrelenting beauty of New Zealand!
Recap so far (VERY brief!):
6/17-6/19: flew from LAX to Brisbane.
6/19 Brisbane: Left the airport-took the train to the city, walked along the Brisbane River. Caught a bus to the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary! Hugged Kat the koala, petted kangaroos and emus, and saw shows with lots of sheep and various birds of prey. Bus+train back to airport. Flew to Wellington, NZ.
6/20 Wellington + Auckland: Back to the airport (8 hrs after arriving), flew to Auckland. What a cool city! People had said that Auckland was "skippable". We are SO glad we went! We found a great tour (Auckland Adventures) that took us to a rain forest (where it rained on us!), a winery, a black sand beach with the most incredible views I've ever seen, and up Mt. Eden (the remnant of one of the many extinct volcanoes in Auckland). For dinner, Corey and I went up the SkyTower and ate at Orbit restaurant. Delicious (we both liked the other person's meal better!)-Corey had steak, and I had lamb. We went to the SkyCity casino where I won $25 playing blackjack. At this casino, the game was a little different than we're used to in the states! We stayed at the SkyCity Grand Hotel-a five star hotel!
6/21 Coromandel Peninsula: We picked up our rental car in Auckland (we're driving a really nice white Toyota...Corolla?). I drove first (Corey will drive tomorrow). They drive on the left here. Surprisingly, it hasn't been too challenging. I even drove a stretch for 2.5 hrs tonight in the dark that was very curvy and not too easy to handle (but I did great)! Anyway, we left Auckland and drove to Thames, where we walked around and had lunch at a place called Food for Thought. I had a salmon frittata that tasted EXACTLY like Mom's fish chowder (which, if you didn't know, is the best soup EVER). To say the least, I really enjoyed lunch! Corey had pancakes, bacon, caramelized bananas and real maple syrup. Bacon here is really more like Canadian bacon-Corey had it on a burger at the airport and didn't like it. Today's, he loved! We continued on to Cathedral Cove. It was about a 40 minute hike each way, but we had an incredibly gorgeous beach to ourselves for about 45 minutes (before we had to hike back up, since the sun was beginning to set). We took pictures under a little waterfall, I ran into the Pacific and climbed on a rock, and we just had a blast running all over the beach! Next, we went to Hot Water Beach, where we hiked across a COLD stream (that was deeper than it looked... oops!), and made our way to the area that makes the beach famous. There were 5 other people there, and a bunch of pre-dug pools. The area is geothermally heated, and the pools range from warm to burning hot! While enjoying our soak, we were able to see the best sky either of us has ever seen. We could see the Milky Way, a few meteors, and even caught a glimpse of a passing satellite! Then, we drove to Tauranga (about 2.5 hrs), via the above said windy road. When we got here, NO hotel lobby was even open. We lucked out and found a late guest getting to a hotel (she got the last room), and the owners were nice enough to call and find us a room at another hotel. So we're staying on some body of water, somewhere outside (inside?) of Tauranga.
Tomorrow, we'll leave around 10, grab breakfast (since we didn't eat dinner. Just had some fruit and snacks), and head down to Rotorua for another day of adventures!
OK, this has already gone much longer than I anticipated, so I'll upload a photo from each day:
Me with Kat the koala and the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, outside of Brisbane, Australia.
Corey and I overlooking Muriwai black sand beach, on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand.
The rock I climbed (just the base of, don't worry) at Cathedral Cove, in the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand.
That's all for now! I'll try to write the next time we have internet!
Awesome pics Debbie! Such a cute koala. Had you planned out each detail of the trip or are you just spontaneously finding these awesome places/tours?
ReplyDeleteThe thing that worries me about driving on the left is making turns! But I'm glad to hear that it's not too difficult. I suppose I'd just have to pay attention and be fine.
The trip sounds amazing!
Hi Jenni! We have planned out certain details (like the tour). Other details, like the hotel we checked into last night--not so much. :) We have a general idea of what we want to do each day, but since we rented a car, are able to be flexible about the time in which we accomplish things. For example, yesterday, we just had "pick up car, cathedral cove, and hot water beach" on the schedule. We ended up stopping at a bunch of pretty spots between getting the car and going to Cathedral Cove! :)
ReplyDeleteAs for driving on the left, it's really not too hard. When I wasn't turning, I just pretended like I was driving in the fast lane of a 2-way highway! The turns are a little tricky, but the signage here has been (mostly) very good.
Thanks for reading and commenting!!!
Yeaaaah! You're hitting all the right notes! Isn't the Coromandel amazing??? It was seriously my favorite place in NZ :) It sounds like you're having a great time, keep up the good work! And I'm glad driving on the left doesn't intimidate you, it scared the daylights out of me when I started... Huzzah Debbie!
ReplyDeleteCAITLIN-WE OWE YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR GENIUS!!! :D Hot water beach at night=genius! Renting a car=genius! Everything we talked about=genius!!! You rock!
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