Skully!

Originally uploaded by nutty bunny.

we got him in a bag of treats from Hell, along with candy and Hell trading cards. plus he’s full of eyeballs!

It’s about 12:30 in the morning and we are staying in a nice little backpackers in Picton. Picton is the port town in the south island that the ferries all go to from Wellington. You’d think a port town with this much traffic would be big, but no. It’s a quiet little town with a main street that’s about three blocks long. The place we are staying in is called the Juggler’s Rest, and sure enough, there are juggling batons for use out front. We have a nice little wood shack next to the house, which is actually nicer than it sounds. It is very new, and smells nicely of wood, and has a rather comfy bed. The house is fairly small, but very clean, and the guy running the place seems to run a tight ship, if somewhat informal. Checkout is 10:30, or thereabouts, if we run a little late, eh, that’s okay. We spent two nights here, doing some resting and catching our breath in this quiet, peaceful atmosphere. We finally got some wireless internet, but it took a day and a half to get it going. So there are some pictures up on flickr, although we have lots more that will have to wait. Too many to put up all at once.
The ferry ride over was not the most pleasant. The ship was really big, possibly the biggest ship either of us has been on. Despite this, the wind had it tilted at an awkward angle almost the whole ride over, which apparently is pretty normal. Although, according to the guy running this hostel, the sea was so bad once that the ship almost capsized and the 3 hour crossing took close to 9 hours. Can’t wait to take it back.
Tomorrow we head south, and maybe stop off in Blenheim for some wine tasting at one of the vineyards. Then on to Kaikoura, the whale watching capital of New Zealand. Will we go on one? Tune in to further episodes to find out!

Sort of how the landscape feels from the car. It’s really incredible, we pass these very green, gently rolling hills, then we turn a corner, and we are hugging the turns through winding mountain roads, surrounded by what looks like rain forest vegetation.

So after Rotorua, we went to the thermal springs of Hell’s Gate, so named by some English writer whose name currently escapes me. He called it that because it loked like the what his theologean friends warned him were awaiting him in the afterlife. Then we drove south to more thermal pools and springs in Orakei Korakou (not sure I spelled that right), also called the hidden valley. We walked through them into the hills, and eventually came to a cave with some of the clearest waters I’ve ever seen. Sarah almost stepped into the water, because there was no visible edgeline. Crazy.

Then it was on to Taupo, on the edge of Lake Taupo, a volcanic crater formed around 26,ooo years ago. We spent two nights in a nice hostel that gave us a three bed dorm just for us, and had a bar with a pool table right down the hall. And a hot tub. We also met a nice young couple, Rich and Em, from the U.K. They were essentially doing the same trip as us, but in revesre: they started out in Australia, then toured the south island of New Zealand. We spent our days in Taupo visiting the falls just up the road, viewing the dam opening to let out the rapids, and doing some short days walks through wooded paths. The last day, we went out on the Barbary, a yacht once owned by Errol Flynn, now used to take people out to some rock carvings on lake Taupo. We lucked out and got a beautiful, sunny day for the trip.

After that, it was south to a town called National Park, which is on the edge of Tongariro National park, home to the volcanic mountains Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, and Ruapehu. Ngauruhoe is actually part of Mt Tongariro and was Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies. The hostel there was very nice and clean, and both the air and the water were amazingly clear and fresh. We went into the park the next day to skip the 4-5 day mountain hikes in favor of a two hour walk that went to an impressive water fall. The views of the mountains would have been spectacular, had they not been shrouded in clouds.

We then spent the next five hours driving windy roads down to Wellington, and spent the night in a dingy, dirty hostel, occupied by slovenly youths. We found a new place for today, and it is much nicer. We aslo spent the morning getting the brakes fixed (for free at the rental place) for Little Car, our rental. Apparently the right front pads were so worn down, they would have been gone soon had we kept driving.

Tomorrow we take the ferry to Picton, and on to the south island.

Just another quick post, since we have lost our free internet connect, and are once again paying for it when possible. We left Auckland on Saturday, and picked up a rental car. Driving on the left is not so bad, but the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, and so the car itself feels backwards. We hiked ONe Tree Hill, just south of the city, and it was beautiful. We then drove along the Bay of Plenty, stopping in Thames. Yesterday we arrived in Rotorua, home of thermal springs, and stinky egg sulphur smells. Today we are off to see Hell’s Gate, a large thermal area, and then head south again. More updates to come…

So we’ve been in Auckland for a couple of days now, and we went out exploring a little bit, although it was mainly to check out different rental car companies. Mostly we have been holed up in our room at the hostel, doing some trip planning and lots of sleeping. I think a lot of it is jet lag, although like Sarah has pointed out, it actually feels like what time it is. It’s just the wrong day. I think we are also tired from the flight. That long on an airplane is draining. Anyway, we are renting a car tomorrow, and heading out to some pretty cool stuff (we hope). I think we need to get away from big cities for a while.

we’re tired

Originally uploaded by nutty bunny.

jet lag is a bitch

Fire & Water

Originally uploaded by nutty bunny.

a cool sculpture in Auckland, with water pouring over the sides and flames coming from the top

So I awoke this afternoon (yes, afternoon, don’t pretend to be surprised) to find that mike had discovered some free internet! Hooray! We’re staying in the city garden lodge in Parnell, a fashionable suburb just outside Auckland. The house used to be the Queen of Tonga’s many years ago. Now all of the rooms have been converted into bedrooms, save the kitchen, dining and lounge areas. There are a plethora of showers, toilets and washrooms; most of these being entirely separate rooms. Currently we’re in our very cute vaulted ceiling, peach and blue painted, incredibly cheery room, which is the most luxurious room we’ve had so far this trip (no offense meant to our other hosts of course). There is a double bed, which is a bit small for mike and I, but we are absolutely in love with it despite this. It is by and far the most comfortable bed I think I have ever slept in. The mattress is some soft foamy stuff, and it’s piled with 3ft of blankets weighing several pounds. Which is good, because it’s a bit chilly here, definitely a moderate to cool spring with a bit of occasional rain thrown in. It’s so nice here though, and everyone is friendly but not nosy, which I think is perfect.

Yesterday once we got into our room around 11, we took very hot showers and very long naps in order to recover from our very very long flight. (I actually managed to sleep most of the time, thank god.) About 7pm we got up and headed out to find some dinner. The little info book that came with the room suggested a place called Wisconsin Burger, which I thought would be funny and also delicious. Supposedly it was located just a short walk from the side street the hostel is on to the main drag, Parnell Rd. Well, we walked quite a way down Parnell one way, passing many sushi, thai and trendy restaurants out of our budget, but no Wisconsin Burger. So we turned around and walked even further the other way, up into the less trendy area of Parnell I guess. Once we’d walked another 5 or 10 minutes we decided that there was no longer a Wisconsin Burger. Across the street from us was Al & Pete’s Burgers & Chips; a small takeaway type place with a few small tables inside.

The menu seemed okay, and there were a variety of things listed under the heading “burgers” on the menu board. Actually, I thought the “burgers” they offered were a bit strange; ham, egg, steak and egg, seafood, not things that we’d put on our burgers back home. But I found one that was bacon and cheese, listed under burgers, so I thought I was ordering a bacon cheeseburger. Mike ordered a Chili Burger, we both ordered some chips, and waited for our orders. When the came up we realized that we could’ve easily split one bag of chips, but they were oh so good it didn’t matter. We opened up our paper-wrapped sandwiches to fine that “burger” didn’t mean what we thought in meant. Mike’s was okay, a real hamburger on a bun, but with salsa – not chili. He says it was good, but not at all what he was expecting. Apparently chili = salsa, perhaps with chilis in it? Anyway, he made out better than I did, because I had a number of discoveries with my meal. 1) Burger doesn’t necessarily mean a beef patty; it’s apparently anything they can think of placed on a hamburger bun. This explained the weird listings on the menu. 2) Here, bacon isn’t anything at all similar to bacon. Closer to thinly sliced ham, but not quite. Sort of fatty, salted, and on the tough side, but not at all the burnt crispy deliciousness of american bacon. The sandwich that I got was this sliced ham stuff, piled 3 high, slathered in cheese, with lettuce and tomato and some sort of sauce similar to a bbq type thing. Not a hamburger, not bacon, and the cheese was a lot of cheese.

We ate it regardless, and after the initial shock it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t finish mine though, because it was a lot of “bacon”. Walking back down Parnell to where we’d seen an irish pub, we mused that they probably are horrified by what we consider bacon, or chili maybe. From here on out I am going to be very careful what I ask for, and make sure that I fully understand what I’m ordering. Luckily I’m not that picky, but I really don’t want any more food surprises either.

I don’t like flying, it quite frankly scares me. I’m not as bad as I used to be, but I still get pretty anxious when I get on a plane. Plus I don’t really fit well in the seats. So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I got on our flight to New Zealand. And it really wasn’t that bad. Ok, the seats were cramped, and we couldn’t move or stretch out, because it was a completely full flight. But the take off was smooth, and I realized that you don’t feel the flying quite as much in a bigger airplane. And it was big, a 747, one of the two-story planes. (we passed the stairs on the way to our seats) And they took care of us. Every seat had a little video screen that had a remote control tucked into the armrest that you could pull out and select what you wanted to watch. They had about 25-30 movies, a bunch of TV shows, some programs about NZ, and even video games! The TV remote turned sideways and became a game controller. Sarah and I both played a bunch of Tetris. They also had pretty good food, and free wine. Flying internationally apparently has benefits.
Of course, it also lasted forever. I set the timer on my watch to count down the 12 hours and 15 minutes we were going to be in the air. At some point in the flight, after I had played video games, eaten dinner, watched half of a rugby match and an entire movie, I tried getting some sleep. I drifted off for probably a few hours, woke up and looked at my watch. Five hours to go. So I went back to sleep for what seemed like a long time. I woke up again thinking we must be close, and looked at my watch again. Three hours to go. We were never getting off that plane. After an eternity, we finally started our descent into Auckland, only to have the captain come on and say that we were having technical diffculties, and would be holding for about 5-10 minutes while they figured it out. Of course, my first thought was that the landing gear was broken, and we’d be making an emergency landing. But, sure enough, about 5 minutes later, the captain told us the problem was fixed, and we proceeded to make a rather smooth landing.
Maybe someday I’ll be better with flying. Maybe.

Hi all, just a quicky to let everyone know that we made it to New Zealand and they even let us in! They were dubious about our boots, tent, and snackbars, but eventually determined that neither we nor our stuff posed any great threat to the ecosystem. Customs is indeed a weird thing. But we’re in, and even have exchanged our us dollars for cute nz funny money! (They have the equivalent of lunies and tunies, for those familiar with canada.) Anyway, we just got the one minute warning, times up for the interweb!