A couple of days off so we end up the river and to Wellington!

Cecil had a three days off so we decided to take the advantage and do some last minute things that we hadn't got a chance.

Day 1- we decided to go to the Saturday market and then and pack the first day. And yes, it took all day. Remember that Cecil is going to do his marathon and then fly to San Francisco for a Emergency Medicine Conference. He's going to take practically all of our luggage and mail them home, which is cheaper than mailing it from New Zealand. So we basically had to pack up our entire life again. That takes longer than you think. that evening we were fortunate to be able to spend with Will and his family. We got to have dinner with Will, Emma, and their children (Conrad, Paisley and Eloise). Then play some games with the family. Regrettably, it probably will be the last time we get to see them which is sad.

(Cec at the market)

(Will and his family)

Day 2-  The next day, we finally got a chance to go to want to do a National Forest and up the long, sometimes terrifying Wanganui river road. It was another early start to the day. We basically got up at about 6 AM, and started driving towards a small-town up the river road. The river road itself is a historic road. The road used to be used by the few people, mostly farmers, and Maori that lived there. Today, it's mostly used for tourism. Although there are a small group of people that still live up in that area. The road it's self is rocky, muddy, washed out, and littered with road hazard's. Specifically, we had to stop for sheep, peacocks, cows, and scary looking roadways. Being so remote, we didn't get to see an amazing sunrise as the day started. We also watched the fog burned off the river as the daylight continue to increase. The river itself, seem to get more beautiful as the cliffs got higher and the region more remote.

(Just a pretty standard view as we drove up the road, can you say "jaw dropping"?) 

(One of the cliffs was made of fossilized oyster shells, thats what all the little white things are in the cliff face behind me)

(Just one of the many road hazards... sheep)

(I loved this Maori Mailbox we passed!)

Once we finally got to the operator for the tour, we got checked in and then we ended up going on a jet boat up the river to the bridge to nowhere. Let's start with the jet boat ride, which was awesome. The jet boat went up the river very fast allowing everyone to see the cliffs and the untouched scenery without having to work too hard. Once we got to the bridge to nowhere, the jet boat let us off and we walked 45 minutes up to the bridge. The bridge is self is constructed to allow settlers to try to make farmlands from one side of the cliffs to the other. Notice I said try to, as no one was able to farm this vast harsh landscape. Somehow, the government did raise enough money to put the bridge and even though it was basically never used. The bridge itself is now a tourist attraction but hey beautiful one at that. Our guy told us about the history of the sellers in the area, of which he was related. We ate lunch while listening to him, and then hiked back to the jet boat which took us back to our car. I'm really glad we went out the wanted to be river and the road. We've got all over New Zealand, but never had gotten up there and I'm glad we didn't leave without getting to see it. It's beautiful, just like all of New Zealand.  We then went back to the small town of Jerusalem, and went to see a Catholic church with Maori influence.  Very interesting, very beautiful.

(Suited up and ready to JetBoat!)

(So green and wild)

(Where did you go this weekend?  Bridge to Nowhere.... wait what?)

(See?  Proof we were there)

(The river is a green brown, but still wild and beautiful.  Untouched nature)

(Jerusalem church.  Notice the "normal" catholic pews and alters melded seamlessly with the Maori meetinghouse patterns)

(Jerusalem church's alter.  Again, blending traditional catholic and Maori)

(Maori Jesus!  Notice the bearing cross and halo, melded with the maori symbolic greenstone weapon and tatu)

Day 3- Cecil had the day off, and rather than being completely nonproductive we decided to take advantage of his last day off and head to Wellington for one last hurrah. Basically, we went to Zealandia again and walked around and looked at birds for a couple hours. I really like Zealandia and I'm sad that I'll probably never get there again. Then we hit Fidel's for one last brunch. After that, we decided to kill some time at a local board game café. To be honest, it was a disappointment compared to the one in Auckland. The library was tiny, and the owner was very awkward and very bad at explaining games. We made the most of it, playing seven wonders with some students who we met. After that, we went to the movies at the movie theater. Jack Reacher wasn't bad, I've seen worse… but the seats in the theater were amazing! They were leather recliners. I could've watched a blank screen it would've been awesome. Our house doesn't have very good seating so it was nice to actually sit comfortable with your legs up. By the time the movie was over it was time to drive three hours home.

(Sunrise)

(This little bird loved cecil and kept following him)

(See him on the left?  Cec was trying to entice him)

(Cheeky Kaka!)

(My spirit animal -the wood pigeon- made a showing)

(The green parrots were loving feasting on the new shoots)

(I LOVE this Tui pic, look at that blue highlight on black feathers)

Lately, it's been feeling like we've been very busy. I think it's because everyone realizes we're leaving and wants to hang out. The next day, Karen/myself was invited to Brenna's house for impromptu get together dinner. Everybody grill burgers and we all ate and chatted. The next day, we played boardgames with some of the people who wanted to really push the gaming (we played Caverna), and the next day were planning on meeting Marc and Molly for dinner! Following that, we're heading up to Auckland for Cecil's marathon :-). Somehow we managed to stay busy it's amazing.

(I love all our Kiwimerican friends!)

(playing Caverna!  Good times)

A few last minute to do's- Tiritiri Matangi Island, Adrenalin activities, and Te Waihauo Spring

First Picture- see below for details.   This was from prawn fishing, but it makes a good starting photo :-)

Cec ended up with a few days off so we decided to tick a few "last minute" items off our wishlist before we have to leave New Zealand (only about a month left!). We decided to fly as we didn't feel like driving the 7 hours up the twisty highway.... faster and easier. We drove to Palmerston North and a little over an hour later we are in Auckland. From there we drove up to the "Manly Bay" area. This is the Bay right above Auckland. So the flight went great (We love Air New Zealand!) But the big surprise came when we went to pick up our rental car. I (Cecil) sat down in the car and couldn't believe what I was looking at... a shift stick! It was one of the newer manuals that did have an "automatic" mode that ended up being really inefficient..so I just ended up driving at night, in the rain around hilly Auckland with a stick shift!

(Cec was not this happy the first time he realized the car was a manual)

We decided to stay at Manly Bay because you can ferry to Tiritiri Matangi Island in about 20 minutes vs. 1.5 hrs from Auckland's CBD (central business district). Instead, you drive the 45 minutes north. Considering how seasick Cec can get, its a good trade. We stayed in a wonderful Motel that night.... but woke up to some bad news. Our ferry was Cancelled!

We has a choice to make, so we decided to eat a night of hotels and stay one more day and try to make it to the island the next day. We killed the super rainy day by driving around Manly Bay and admiring the views, then catching a movie. We saw The Secret Life of Pets. It was ok, the theater was nice. We even had tea/coffee while waiting in the cafe in the theater! After that, we checked into our new motel and drove into Auckland to the Board Game Cafe- Cakes and Ladders. Nice joint. They had some snacks, great tea and a decent selection of games. We killed an entire afternoon into evening while it poured. We had delicious burgers from the burger joint next door for dinner. I can think of worse ways to kill a really crappy weather day. We should have stayed later as when we got back to the hotel we found out that the hotel was above a bar, and we ended up hearing drunk people and LOUD music until after 2AM!!!

(A storm brewing on Manly Bay.  You can see the blue sky to the right.... and storms to the left)

(Cecil in front of the nice dry movie theater)

(Cakes and Ladders, you got the Meeple/Orange thing Karen is holding so they can keep track of your time, as there is a fee per hour)

(Playing Some Board Games)

We practically ran out the room the next morning, but the good news was our ferry was running! We picked up tickets and finally made to the open bird sanctuary that Karen has been trying to get us to for the last several months. The weather was a bit windy but otherwise was perfect! We took a 2 hour guided tour with Ian. He was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the island, birds and plant-life. 

(Finally Made it to Tiritirti Matagi Island- It's for the birds!)

(Nice clear walkways made for easy bird watching, and view watching too!)

(Beautiful views from the island, in addition to the birds)

(View of the other island we visited, Rangitoto the volcanic one!  Note the sailboat aka tiny sliver of white in the water as well)

We saw ALL the types of birds. I especially liked the bird boxes for the small songbirds. See the video HERE. We had taken protein shakes for lunch, then hiked another trail. We were hoping to see the Kokako that we had heard so much about but also we did not. It was still beautiful. The recovery efforts on the isalnd are impressive and I love being in the woods without any "human" noise and just hearing birdsong. Enjoy samples of the literally over 1,000 pictures we took. We maybe went overboard....

(I was looking for little blue penguins in these nesting boxes.  Yes, I found one!)

(little well camouflaged bird that is relatively new to the island)

(Amazing Pohutakawa tree (New Zealand Christmas trees) that grows practically in seawater)

(can you find the fantail? )

Two Tui's in a Tutarara Tree 

(not really, just one Tui sitting in a tree, but trying saying that 3 times fast!)

(We found out that Tui's were called "Parson Birds" because they looked like they have a priest collar)

(Here is a Male Hi-Hi (pronounced Hee-Hee))

(There were 2-3 different feeding boxes throughout the island with about 20-30 Hi-Hi's sitting around waiting to get some nectar)

(Female Hi-Hi)

After a ferry ride back, we drove about 3 hrs to Rotorua and checked into our hotel. We decided to make Rororua a jumping off point as there were backup activities if the weather destroyed our plans and it was close to everywhere we wanted to go. 

(Cecil sleeping on the ferry ride back)

(Aaaand he gets a coffee and is awake! )

We crashed pretty hard and got up the next day to find out the weather was going to be ok through lunch then rainy again. We flew out the door to Taurangi Area (about 1 hour northeast) to the Blokart track (wind sailing). We had seen this activity and wanted to try it. Basically they put wheels on a sailing cart. You have a rope to pull the sail in with one hand and drive with another. You can get yp to 30K if the wind s really blowing! I'm sure we didn't go that fast but let me tell you it is an adrenaline rush when it hits. Its hard not to tip over, although you are seat belted in if it does. Since we were both blokarting at the same time I only have a few pics and one video HERE.   

(Karen Blokarting)

(Cecil Blokarting)

(Zoom Zoom!)

After the blokarting, we figure we would try the other activity the park had to offer- Drift karts. Another 3 wheeled cart, this one when you when around the turn your back end would drift fast n furious style. SO much fun. See the video HERE and Karen Driftcarting Video

.

(Drift Carting)

(Drift Carting, note that it rained on us a little the pavement is wet)

(Cecil Wins!!)

After that we randomly decided to stop at the Comvita Honey and Wellness Center. We had a great honey tour and learned a LOT about bees. I've taken a few honey tours as its kinda a big deal here but this one was by far the best. They had scaled bee boxes as well as a "hive" and nice video. 

(Karen in front of the Manuka tree, which is a famous tree that produces a very potent honey with antibiotic properties)

(This was a big money...I mean big honey operation 

with a large network of local beekeepers and lots of locations around the country

started 40 years ago by a single beekeeper! )

(Funny Bathroom Sign)

(Seems like New Zealanders like over sized artwork as much as Americans do!) 

No, we were not done for the day either. After that, we headed to go Zorbing. Basically, you get into a swimsuit, jump into a small ball (filled with warm water) inside of a larger ball. It was zany, fast and laughter inducing.   It was also perfect to do in the rain.  The water they used was warm and there were hot tubs to wait in.  We only have pics of the balls as we didn't ant to pay the $50 for the photos and videos. After this we were finally done. We grabbed some soup and bread for dinner and headed to our hotel. We played a board game and then hit the sack.

("Zorbing" or Ogo - was actually invented in New Zealand!)

(Paying good money to get thrown down a hill)

The next day, we had decent weather so we went for a morning run in the redwood forest. So beautiful, even though it was pretty wet. Then we went prawn fishing, yes again. Yes, we like it that much. We did much better this time. We fished from around 10AM-3PM and got 13 prawns. Yes, they are tasty. We really enjoyed the day even with the light off and on rain. We had parked our self in a little hut so it didn't bother us. 

(Cec running in the forest)

(this was our view prawn fishing)

(Last dawn for this prawn! )

(Biggest catch of the day! )

(Two buckets full of prawns! )

(13 total prawns over 5 hours! Cecil is quitting his day job and becoming a professional prawn fisherman! )

We decided to risk the weather and drive the hour to the Te Waihou Blue Spring. Let me tell you what, I'm glad we did. We didn't have the 3 hours to do the whole track so we parked at the end and walked 45min in then turned around. Like many things in New Zealand, it was hard to picture. The water looked fake. SO clear and blue. You just wanted to jump into it. Fun fact for you: 70% of NZ bottled water comes from that spring. It looks just like you'd want it to- Magical. We timed it well as it was getting dark as we got to our rental and got to Rotorua and went out to dinner at the Craft Beer Kitchen. It got an amazing salad, cec cooked his own steak. Then we had some delicious caramel doughnuts for dessert. It was a perfect last day. The next morning we pretty much drove to the airport and flew home.

Short Video Clip of the Blue Springs

(we finally made it to the blue spring! )

(Blue spring )

(Pukeko swimming in the blue spring! We were both jealous)

(Cecil and Karen in front of blue spring)

(It was overcast and actually hard to get some decent pictures showing the amazing clarity of the water! )

(Back in Rotorua later that night enjoying some spring water...I wonder where it came from?)

(I am eating a raw piece of beef that is on a piece of rock that is 400 degrees. So I got to cook the steak to exactly how well I wanted it.)