Elliot's Dad Visits

We might not have much time left here in New Zealand, but Butch Koop wasn't going to let us come home without sneaking in a visit!  Butch (Elliot's dad) arrived on July 3rd ready to go!  Luckily, we actually had some nice Wellington weather the first few days he was here.  We got to drive around, see some sights, and even hike Mount KauKau, which has an amazing view of the city from the top.  It was quite a hike up, with plenty of breath catching stops along the way, but the hike leads to an amazing view and it was worth it.  I've got some photos of that hike along with our other trip.  Let's start with something else first...

As with our other guests, jet lag started to take hold around dinner time that first night.  I told Butch he'd be in bed by 7pm, but he didn't believe me at first... until about 5:30 rolled around, and he wondered if he would even make it to 7!  Once he was fast asleep in the other room, Elliot and I made our gourmet meal of Skyline Chili Sandwiches.  Thank you Butch for bringing the chili!  I knew he would most likely sleep through the night, but I would have never guessed that he would also sleep right through so much excitement.  At 10:36 a powerful earthquake hit the North Island.  It was a magnitude 7 earthquake, the largest in the region in seven years.  Luckily for everyone, it was far below the surface, so no major damage was done.  You wouldn't have guessed it from the effect it had.  It sounded like really heavy thunder and the floors felt like jello!  Elliot and I even reverted to what you learn in Kindergarten and ran to the nearest doorway to wait it out.  Once we were sure it had passed, we went to the bedroom and listened to see if it woke Butch.  He was still sound asleep!  When we finally told him what happened, he was bummed to have missed all the excitement!  What a way to start the trip.

The earthquake related trip didn't end there, with a visit to post earthquake Christchurch on the trip schedule.  After spending a few days in Wellington, we were off on our trip of the South Island.  We took the Interislander Ferry from Wellington to Picton.  As it always is, the Ferry was running late so we had to rush from the Ferry to the train station.  Then we boarded the first of our train trips on the Coastal Pacific Train, which took us from Picton to Christchurch.  What an amazing way to see the sights.  With huge picture windows across all the train cars, comfy seats, and an onboard open air viewing deck, it was truly awesome.  There are plenty of pictures to show!  That train took about 5 or 6 hours.  Here is a snippet from the website so you can see the path we took

We spent our time in Christchurch exploring the beauty and the devastation.  For those of you that don't know, here is a quick look at what has happened in Christchurch in the past couple years (thank you Wikipedia)

The February 2011 Christchurch earthquake was a powerful natural event that severely damaged New Zealand's second-largest city, killing 185 people in one of the nation's deadliest peacetime disasters.
The magnitude 6.3 (M_L) earthquake^[1] struck the Canterbury region in New Zealand's South Island. The earthquake was centred 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) west of the town of Lyttelton, and 10 kilometres (6 mi) south-east of the centre of Christchurch, New Zealand's second-most populous city.^[1] It followed nearly six months after the magnitude 7.1 Canterbury earthquake of 4 September 2010, which caused significant damage to Christchurch and the central Canterbury region, but no direct fatalities.
The earthquake caused widespread damage across Christchurch, especially in the central city and eastern suburbs, with damage exacerbated by buildings and infrastructure already being weakened by the 4 September 2010 earthquake and its aftershocks. Significant liquefaction affected the eastern suburbs, producing around 400,000 tonnes of silt. The earthquake was reported to be felt across the South Island and the lower and central North Island.
In total, 185 people were killed in the earthquake, making it the second-deadliest natural disaster recorded in New Zealand (after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake), and fourth-deadliest disaster of any kind recorded in New Zealand, with nationals from more than 20 countries among the victims.Over half of the deaths occurred in the six-storey Canterbury Television (CTV) Building, which collapsed and caught fire in the quake. The government declared a state of national emergency, which stayed in force until 30 April 2011^.
The total cost to insurers of rebuilding has been estimated at NZ$20–30 billion, making it by far New Zealand's costliest natural disaster, and the third-costliest earthquake (nominally) worldwide.



So, needless to say, the downtown area, or lack there of, was practically abandoned, with much of the city fenced off to keep people from entering the most dangerous or "red zone" areas.  You'll have to see the pictures to understand what we saw.  These earthquakes happened after Elliot and I had decided that when we moved to New Zealand we would settle in Christchurch.  Needless to say, our plans quickly changed and that is how we ended up in Wellington.  It was sad to see the city we had hoped to live in being in such shambles, but you could still tell the beauty and character it had before the earthquakes.

After our time in Christchurch we boarded another train, taking us from Christchurch to Greymouth.  The TranzAlpine train trip took us through the scenic Southern Alps and across some amazing landscape.  This one was definitely my favorite of the two trains.  It got quite cold as we neared the top of the mountain, and the few stations we stopped at along the way had snow covered grounds.  The open air car was obviously quite cold, but if you bundled up enough, it was such a cool experience.  Wait until you see the pictures and decide for yourself.  Here is where that trip took us (also from their website)

We didn't have much time in Greymouth with just one night, so we went to the highly recommended pancake rocks and blowholes.  " The Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts though a number of vertical blowholes during high tides. Together with the 'pancake'-layering of the limestone (created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments)"  It was worth the 30 minute drive to see such a sight.  We were lucky enough to get there less than an hour after high tide, so the blowholes were active and the tides were crashing around the rocks. 

We took the TranzAlpine back to Christchurch the next day, stayed one more night in Christchurch, and then flew back to Wellington.  It was a beautiful and sight filled trip.  We still had a few days before Butch left, so we spent a rainy day at Te Papa Museum and some quality time with good food and good company.  We saw Butch off knowing we would see him when we got home a month later!

Okay, here is the link to all the pictures I talked about.  Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157630799727558/

Australia!

In mid-June we decided enough was enough of this winter Wellington weather!  Good thing we had tropical North Queensland to escape too!  Joined by our work friends Jason and Sean, we headed off to Cairns, Australia.  We had booked 7 nights in a 2 bedroom apartment on Trinity Beach, a small town about 15 minutes from the city.  The trip there was comical to say the least.  We had to be at the airport at 4am, which meant we were all sleep deprived and a bit loopy.  We flew straight from Wellington to Brisbane, where we had to spend 6 hours killing time until the second leg of our flight.  Elliot and Sean decided waiting around sucked, and promptly took a nap on the floor of the airport in the middle of a busy gate.  We got a lot of weird looks, but at least Sean and Elliot got in some good sleep.  Elliot said it was the best sleep he had all week!  Imagine that. 

Once we finally arrived in Cairns airport we looked around for a guy holding up a sign with Elliot's name.  We had arranged with the hotel to be picked up.  there were a lot of people around, lots of shuttles, and lots of names.  No Elliot Koop though.  We found one guy who had the name "Coop" on his board.  Elliot's last name is often mispelled, so we thought this might be our guy.  We got our bags in the back, took our seats with all the others, and waited to head out.  When the guy came around the van to take role call, and he called the name Coop, another group said "here".  Damn!  There really was another Coop and we were on the wrong bus!  We gathered our bags, got off, and headed back in to the airport.  By then, most of the other buses had already left, so our ride was gone (if he ever was there).  We got in line for a taxi and just called it a bust.  The taxi took us to our hotel.  Once we told the guy at reception that we had arranged a pick-up and never found the guy with Elliot's name, he upgraded our room for free.  We decided it was totally worth it to miss our ride because our room was amazing!  It was a big apartment on the top floor (it's only 3 floors, but still, I'll take it).  There was a huge kitchen and den area, a big balcony overlooking the beach, and two large bedrooms and bathrooms.  It was time to get into vacation mode!

The trip ended up being a little different than we expected.  Trinity Beach was beautiful, and there were lots of little shops and restaurants that we enjoyed.  I have to say one thing about it though, we rarely saw other young people and the nightlife was non-existent.  It may have been because it was winter, but we realized then that we were going to have to make our own fun!  And that we did!  Most of the days were filled with soaking up the sun on the beach, by the pool, or walking around.  We had BBQs, enjoyed naps, and enjoyed our fair share of vino.  It was such a relaxing vacation, so no complaints here.  The first couple of days Elliot had a stomach bug, so he saw more of the bedroom then the beach, but once he was recovered we started doing some more exploring. 

We did a few things outside of laying around on the beach.  One day we drove into Cairns, drove around the city, and stopped at a market.  The market was pretty cool.  There were vendors peddling everything from produce to jewelry.  I definitely left a little of my money there!  Another day we went to Cairns Tropical Zoo.  This was my favorite part of the trip.  They have a place where for $15 you can have your picture taken cuddling a Koala.  It was awesome.  The Koala was so cute and soft, although he wasn't exactly smelling like roses.  You'll see the pictures of the Koala cuddles when you click on the picture link.  We also saw plenty of crocodiles, wombats, wallabies, and other very Australian animals.  They even had an area where you could get in with the kangaroos and wallabies and feed them by hand.  I really enjoyed the zoo, and didn't even mind that it was so small.  They didn't bother with elephants, giraffes, or even any large cats.  They stuck to what was local to their area and it allowed us to see it all in just a couple of hours.  Another day the boys decided it was time to do some Go Kart Racing.  The four of us geared up, hopped in, and were off.  Well, at least 3 of us were, Sean ran into the tire wall on the first turn.  I guess he forgot you have to turn the wheel when driving Go Karts!  The staff were able to free him and he was back on the chase.  A rivalry began shortly after between Jason and Elliot.  I started realizing, as they lapped me, that I better get out of the way when they were coming because they meant business.  Elliot was able to maintain the lead the whole time, but I was a casualty of Jason trying his hardest to catch up.  Apparently I didn't get out of the way fast enough and I was slammed from behind and sent head first into the tire wall.  The good news was that on the next lap Jason ran into a wall too, so I thought Karma did it's job!  It was all in fun, but I'm sure the Go Kart people were glad when our turn was up, after all, they did have to free us multiple times and may have been wondering if we knew the difference between Go Karts and Bumper Cars!

Well, that is the top line look at our week in Australia.  No one got eaten by a crocodile, bitten by a poisonous spider or snake, or stung by a jellyfish, so I consider it a success!  Click on the link below for all the fun pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157630312326816/

Rarotonga

So, I am once again significantly late with this, but I couldn't help sharing.  Elliot and I both turned 30 years old this season, and we weren't home to celebrate with our families, so we celebrated a different way!  Tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, time to party!  To celebrate the big 3-0 we put our butts on a plane and went straight to the tropical paradise of Rarotonga!  Don't get me wrong, we considered Fiji, Tahiti, and many other popular destinations in the South Pacific... but why not use the tools you have, aka, locals!  We got an overwhelming vote from the NZ locals and decided on Rarotonga.  Man, they were so right!!  It was absolutely amazing!  I won't go into too much since the pictures tell most of the beautiful story.  The majority of the week was beach, pool, sun, and relaxation, but we did do a few things story worthy!

Let's see, first off, I hitchhiked for the first time.  Now don't get me wrong, I didn't stand with my thumb up on the side of the road.  Elliot and I were peacefully waiting at one of the few bus stops (they don't have stops often because a bus just stops if it passes you and you flag it down, so simple!).  An older woman pulls over, asks us where we are headed, we tell her, and she offers a ride.  I'm not lying when I say I didn't have any red flags pop up, but you rarely do in a small island community.  I'm still careful though, don't worry mom, but an older woman in nice clothes, driving a decent car, and offering a ride to me and my much-bigger-than-her boyfriend didn't seem like a hug risk!  She was so nice.  Especially since we pretended to know where we were headed... we only knew the name of the place and were hoping the bus driver would tell us when to get off.  So, thanks to her, she dropped us off at the front door.  It was so worth it!  The food and fun service at Captain Jack's remains one of our favorites!

Other than that daring experience, wink wink, we enjoyed a few other great ocean activities.  For all of those that know me well... yes, I did get in the ocean, multiple times!!!  My favorite activity was ocean kayaking.  Now, this may be partly due to the fact that when I'm in a kayak I don't have things swimming around my ankles, but mostly it's because it's a great way to explore.  It also helps that there was free access to the kayaks from our resort.  There was also free access to snorkeling gear, which we used, but it just wasn't as fun.  I did like snorkeling, but the tide was low and you had to be careful to avoid the coral... which I didn't manage once and scraped my knee up a little.  Not enough to worry about blood drawing in the non-existent sharks, but enough for me to pout about :)

One last thing, we did two tourist trips.  One was a glass bottom boat cruise.  It was the most amazing tour.  The boat took us to an ocean wildlife sanctuary.  We got to snorkel in the amazing, un-fished waters.  The fish were so amazing.  Every color, size, shape, and type.  I loved it!  We also had a BBQ on a close island where they cooked us up some fish caught that day.  We were lucky, catch of the day was yellow fin tuna... yum, yum, yum!  Those island boys can seriously cook.  Besides the amazing fish spiced to perfection, they had local fruits and veggies that were super mouthwatering!  We also had the coconut tree climbing champion (yes, it's a real competition... for island folks, it's like the Olympics... this guy traveled across the pacific island kicking coconut tree ass!!).  He gave us a demonstration, and it was something to behold.  This guy got to the top of a gigantic coconut tree, picked a coconut, and was back down in less than 10 seconds, amazing!

Last thing to mention was the Highland Paradise Cultural Experience.  Our last night we signed up for this unique experience.  They pick you up, take you into the mountains, and show you a very authentic representation of life on the islands before the settlers came.  It was moving, amazing, and educational.  To top it off, there was a show after dinner by a group of locals doing some island dancing that would blow your socks off.  I can't quite describe this night without too much detail, so I'll let the couple of videos posted below tell the story.  What an amazing trip

To conclude, if you have the chance... GO TO RAROTONGA!  amazing.  Below are pictures and a few videos from the dancing!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157630021804811/

Jamie and Derek Visit

I've been very lazy about the blog lately, so I am trying to catch up.  Jamie and Derek Ammons, friends of mine from Louisville, came to visit us in New Zealand! They came in late March, and it was such a treat.  While it was only for a few days before they headed off to Australia, we definitely made the most of it!  The trip started off a little bumpy, since Jamie and Derek's luggage didn't arrive in New Zealand with them, but luckily they both had their luggage by the next day.  One big difference between Air New Zealand and many other airlines worldwide...  Air New Zealand actually sent someone to our house to drop off their luggage when it arrived.  Talk about service!  While they were here we did some sight seeing of Wellington, and even took the Interislander Ferry to the South Island and stayed in Picton for a mini-trip.  St. Patrick's Day gave us a chance to take them downtown to experience the nightlife of Wellington.  There is a very big "party scene" in downtown Wellington, and it's quite a sight to see.  St. Patrick's Day was no exception.  I have to be honest though, we were heading home about the time the majority of the people head out, but I'm just too old to stay out that late!

After a few days of Wellington exploring and March Madness watching, we headed for the Ferry!  The Interislander Ferry is a really great experience.  The scenery is beautiful and the ride to the South Island is about 3 1/2 hours.  You land in Picton, which is where we stayed for a night.  The ride was smooth (although Jamie slept through most of it!) and we got some great pictures.  Once in Picton we walked around for a while, watched some more basketball, and then headed to Lochmara Lodge.  "Lochmara Lodge Wildlife Recovery and Arts Centre is set on the tranquil shores of the Queen Charlotte Sound in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand." (from their website).  A boat picked us up in Picton and took us to the lodge in the sounds.  It was a little cold and windy, but that didn't make it less beautiful.  It was such a great place.  We had dinner scheduled for an hour after we arrived. So we took the hour and walked around.  We looked at all the animals and took in all the views.  There are some great pictures you can check out by clicking on the link at the bottom.  Dinner was absolutely delicious!  After a little relaxing in front of the lodge's big fireplace we headed home.  The next day the weather was awful.  After several cancellations and delays due to weather, we finally boarded a ferry back to Wellington.  The winds and rain we so severe that the boat ride back was nothing short of nerve-wracking.  These are REALLY big boats, and usually you can't feel much at all while on it, but not this day!  We were tossing and swaying the whole time.  It took an extra hour longer than normal to get home just because of the weather.  A good chunk of people on the ferry got seasick, but luckily we weren't in that group.  To be honest, Elliot had a blast.  He loved the excitement!

The next day we sent Jamie and Derek off on the next leg of their journey, and Elliot and I were left with a gift from them of several cans of Skyline Chili.  Yum, yum, yum!!!   Some of the pictures of the trips are on Flickr, so just click on the link below!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157629983946257/

Auckland!

It's been a while since we did anything blog-worthy, but I finally have something to tell you about (have a few more coming soon too)!  We took a trip to Auckland a couple weeks back.  While Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, Auckland is by far the biggest city in the country.  That was the first thing that hit us when we arrived; it was so crowded!  We were staying in a hotel right in the heart of downtown, and the sidewalks were full of people.  This was a good thing, since it felt a little more like home!  Our main reason for going to Auckland was to go to the Roger Waters concert, but we did a few other fun things while we were there too.  The concert was AMAZING!  It was by far one of the best stage shows I've ever seen.  There were no cameras allowed, and since we both have the cheapest, most generic phone money could buy here... we were probably the ONLY ones without cameras on our phones.  Therefore, I must admit, we did not record these little videos.  We found these on YouTube, and they are from the actual concert we were at. So that should count for something.  Roger Waters performed "The Wall". It was like going to the theater because there were so many amazing things going on on-stage.  Here are a few of my favorite videos:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acS5FDc0cvk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZZzb1PLbds&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5JQqVTDKv0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12YpJI9FLRY&feature=related


Once we had the concert out of our systems, it was time to play tourist.  We were only there a couple nights. So we hit only the major stuff.  One of the cool things we did was have dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower, which is the highest point in the city.  It afforded great views and a nice time, but the food was way too pricey for what we got...  I guess that's what happens at tourist traps!  The cool thing is they do these Sky Walks where they strap people to the top of the tower, and you can walk around the outside of the tower.  It was terrifying... to see other people do it (you didn't think I would actually get out there, no way!).  In addition to a few great restaurants and watering holes, we also visited Kelly Tarlton's Arctic Encounter.  Basically, it was an aquarium.  We were picked up downtown by the "shark bus" and taken about 10 minutes outside of the city to the aquarium.  For the first hour we walked around to the different exhibits.  Nothing was too impressive to be honest, but still fun.  I especially loved the penguin enclosure.  You ride in a little cart around and through the exhibit so you can see everything.  Got some great pictures.  We went through the hamster tubes that all aquariums have so you can see all the fish and sharks from every angle.  That was cool.  It was good to see the sharks at a safe distance to start with, considering what we had already signed up for... Shark Swim!  The shark swim was basically this, you pay money, a employee/diver takes you back behind the scenes of the aquarium, gives you a wet suit and snorkel, takes you to a shark cage, and drops you in the aquarium.  So, while we weren't free diving with the sharks, we definitely got up close and personal, and it was so cool!  I was a little nervous at first, considering the "shark cage" was simply some PVC pipe as a frame and some mesh netting.  It keeps them out, but since it was just mesh we were told to keep our "bits and pieces" inside the netting.  If I ever do it again I'm totally buying a waterproof camera!  Needless to say our digital wouldn't go on that trip with us, so the best I can do is give you the awesome photo-shopped marketing picture... see here (pretend that is Elliot and me)   :)

So, lots of fun in Auckland.  Here is a link to the rest of the pictures (the ones we actually took ourselves).  Enjoy! 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157629712919739/




















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Visit From The Parents!

Yay!  I thought the time would never come.  I was so anxious leading up to my parent's visiting. I just missed them so much.  We got our house nice and clean, bought a second bed for the spare bedroom, and made room in the spare closet.  It was sooooo worth it!  It was 10 wonderful days.  Here is what we did (it is a little lengthy, so feel free to go straight to the pictures if you aren't interested)!

Day 1 - My parents arrived the morning of New Year's Eve.  We picked them up at the airport and it was rainy and glum outside.  This was not a bad thing though, because after a long flight we knew they would want a nice night in.  We cooked dinner, watched some TV, and relaxed.  We were all in bed shortly after the ball dropped... wait, technically we didn't see a ball drop.  Weirdest thing; they don't show any sort of NYE concerts or coverage on any of the 4 major stations.  It was really weird.  Anyway, that concludes day one.

Day 2 - New Years Day, and everything around here is closed.  Luckily, the weather participated and we had a nice day.  We took my parents on a drive around the peninsula to see all the beautiful scenery and beaches.  We stopped as we were driving to have some lunch at the Chocolate Fish.  It has some great local seafood and other yummy choices.  This is one of our favorite places.  It was a great afternoon followed by a great dinner of salmon (marinated in Sweet Chili), rice, and salad.  Yummy.  After dinner, we took my parents to the newly rebuilt Roxy Theater to see Tin Tin in 3D.  The movie was decent, but the theater was AMAZING!  It was torn down and rebuilt using photos so that it was as close of a replica to the original Roxy built in the 30's.  It has some amazing murals, old movie equipment, and wonderful artwork and statues.  The seats all have little tray tables on the arm rests and are leather.  One thing was a bit strange... no popcorn.  They don't sell it, and they don't allow it.  I guess if you are going to spend that much money and time rebuilding a place to be as nice as it is, you don't want people getting it messy.  They only sold "lollies" and ice cream cones. 

Day 3 - January 2nd, which was a Sunday back home, so we woke up and headed down to the waterfront downtown so Elliot and Dad could watch a little football while we had lunch.  We took them to an American bar called Chicago because we knew they would have ESPN on!  After filling up on some good American food and watching a little football, we headed out to a sunny day in downtown.  We took my parents around some of the hotspots in downtown Wellington.  We spent a little time walking up Cuba street going in all the cool little shops.  We even bumped into several of our friends and got to introduce them to my parents, which was great!  Once we were ready to go, we stopped by the grocery store and headed back to the apartment to cook some dinner and relax.  In the evening we even drank a little wine and went head to head, girls versus boys, in a game of Cranium.  The boys won, but barely!  I will be ready for a rematch when we return.

Day 4 - January 3rd, which is Jan 2nd back home.  Jan 2nd=college bowl games.  You know what that means!  Mom and I dropped Elliot and Dad off at the local sports bar after having some lunch at the Chocolate Frog (same owners as the Chocolate Fish).  While Elliot and Dad watched football, mom and I went to the beach.  We took Belle with us, because Belle refuses to be left out when it's beach time.  It was a wonderful afternoon!  Later that evening we made a chicken recipe we had seen on a cooking show earlier in the day.  We had some fun experimenting in the kitchen and even found out what Tamarind Paste is... I had no idea until now!

Day 5 - January 4th.  I honestly can't remember what we did, but I'm sure it involved driving around, showing them sites, and soaking in the sun.  At night I took my parents to dinner at The Gasworks (the restaurant Elliot and I work at).  Elliot had to work that night. So, while he was slaving away in the kitchen, we were enjoying the night :)

Day 6 - January 5th.  We are off to Queenstown!  We all got up early, headed to the airport, and went to sunny Queenstown.  It was so amazing and beautiful there.  I haven't seen a place like that before in my life.  The weather was sunny and hot and the town was abuzz with locals and plenty of tourists.  You'll see in the pictures, that most of them were taken in Queenstown (or on the plane heading into Queenstown).  After looking at all the pictures we took, we all agreed there was no way any of those pictures would do this city any justice.  The towering mountains and turquoise blue water (the colors, because it is melted glaciers, are absolutely breathtaking) must be seen in person.  Our first day there we walked around the town checking out the scenery.  We had dinner at Flame, a restaurant in the main part of the little town.  It was soooo good!

Day 7 - We woke up early to get ready for our all day trip to Milford Sound.  The tour coach picked us up at 7:30am and we were off!  The trip to Milford took about 5 hours, but that includes several stops along the way for photo opportunities.  We went through some amazing scenery, and our driver Ernie had a great corny sense of humor that kept us entertained.  Once we finally made it to Milford Sound, we had a 1.5 hour cruise on a tour boat to check out the sound.  We even got up close and personal with a few seals and waterfalls.  Check out the pictures.  After a 4 hour ride home and a late dinner at the hotel restaurant, we called it a day!

Day 8 - Lake Day!  We decided to use this day to really enjoy the lake that is the center of Queenstown.  First we went to inquire about the Jet Boat rides.  The price was right and the weather was good. So we booked a trip.  They rides last about 1 hour, and these boats fly around the lake and the rivers.  They get up to 95km/hour and do 360 degree turns.  It was like riding on a roller coaster... except I got wet.  Next, we walked along the lakeside street where they were having an art sale of sorts.  Apparently every Saturday they have this market where people sell their goods.  There was everything from jewelry and home goods, to clothing and food.  We bought some cherry plums (they are plums, about the size of a cherry and tart), some cheese, and a cool clock.  Mom even bought a possum shawl (possums here are soft, furry, and nothing like the possums back home, but just as big of a pest).  We finished off the afternoon with a quick swim in the lake (the sun was hot but that water was cooooold) before heading back to the hotel for a break before dinner.  Dinner was at the local Mexican restaurant.  I can't remember it's name, but the food was good!  Once full we headed back to the hotel for some hot tub time!  A nice relaxing dip in the spa pool followed by a few glasses of wine rounded out a great day!

Day 9 - Headed back to Wellington.  Our mini vacation was over and we left a sunny, warm Queenstown to land in the middle of a rainy, cold, and windy Wellington afternoon.  The weather was so crappy all day that we pretty much just hung around the house, cooked some dinner, and watched a movie.

Day 10 - I had to go back to work.  It was a bummer after having off so much time, but the bank account was running low after an expensive trip to Queenstown.  I worked a short afternoon shift while Elliot and my parents went to the beach and for a nice scenic drive.  When I got off we went to the store and got all the supplies we needed for a cookout!  Hot dogs, baked beans (mom added a little southern love to the beans), salad, chips, and fruit were all on the menu!

Day 11 - Mom and dad's last day :(    They didn't have to be at the airport until later in the afternoon. Therefore, we decided to go on the Wellington Cable Car.  It is popular with tourists, and Elliot and I hadn't ridden on it yet.  It was a cool little cable car that took you from the top of a big hill in Kelburn down into the city.  We parked up the hill, took the cable car into town, and had lunch at the Bruhaus downtown.  When we were finished we took the cable car back up and walked around the Botanical Gardens and Observatory.  There are some killer views of the city from up there!  It was a nice ending to a wonderful visit.  I am so happy they came!  Now, back to the grind....

Here is a link to the pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157628893181361/

Summer Is Here

So, summer is finally upon us.  The weather has turned nice and we are starting to explore a lot more.  First, we took a mini trip to Martinborough.  Martinborough is a town full of vineyards and shops.  We enjoyed good wine, beautiful scenery, and some relaxation!  We got a great little cottage for a couple of nights.  The town was super cute, but very small.  Here are a couple of pictures of the cottage and, of course, some wine

Next we hit up the Wellington zoo.  It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just a small city zoo.  It was fun though.  The combination of beautiful sun and a day off made it even better.  Our timing was good too, because we got to see the lions being fed, which was pretty cool.  We also watched as the otters ate some chicken newborns (dead already of course).  You could still make out all the parts of the chickens though, which was kind of disturbing.  The funniest part about the zoo was the signage.  They had this signage all over the place featuring the cartoon zoo keeper.  So many of them were about not feeding the animals because it will make them sick or not going in an area meant for zookeepers only.  Then we came upon the chimp exhibit... and this is what we saw, sooooo classic!

 Here were some of our favorite animals... the giraffes and the cool pelican

 Our friend Jason riding the stone hippo

 The otter eating his baby chicken

Okay, lastly, it's Christmas season!!  It's weird having Christmas in the summer, but it sure beats snow storms.  I wasn't feeling very much in the holiday mood, until a few days ago.  Apparently, on Thanksgiving my whole family took the time to decorate ornaments for Elliot and me.  Everyone did at least one and my brother mailed them to us as a surprise.  It was sooooo awesome.  We went out the next day and bought a Christmas tree so we could display them.  My brother even stopped by Koop Diamond Cutters before mailing them and Elliot's brother Justin made a last minute ornament to add to the collection.  The thought was there, even if he used an empty toilet paper roll, some wire, and a ball point pen.  He even left some of the end of the toilet paper stuck to the glue, and it really added to the beauty of it.  Kyle even included ornaments with the faces of his 3 dogs.  It really was classic and made us feel so at home. Here are a few pictures, and until the next blog... Miss you all!!

What's New?

It's been a while since my last post, but life has been somewhat predictable lately.  I'll have more to say after Elliot and I road trip again in 2 weeks (asked off for 4 days at work, don't know what we're going to do yet, but it will be fun).  I guess I'll just comment on a few random things.  Today was the Melbourne Cup, aka, the Kentucky Derby of Australia/New Zealand.  It was a lot of fun, but made me sad that I won't be at the Kentucky Derby this year.  I worked all day, but we made an event of the Cup which was fun.  We all had to come dressed as if we were going (not a big fan of working for 8 hours in dress clothes).  All I could think about was how many great hats and outfits I could have borrowed from my mom if I were at home.  Instead I had to wear the one nice dress I brought with me and work my hair into an updo.  It was all I had to work with.  I was put in charge of rallying people to do the "draw a name out of a hat" type of gambling.  It was fun.  I should probably be a bookie because I macked that job and got a bunch of people in the pool for the race.  One guy told me I should sell snow to eskimos (very cliche, but hey, I was seriously selling it!).  It probably also helped that there were $5 glasses of bubbly leading up to the race, so people were feeling cheery!

What else.... MULLETS and RAT-TAILS.  In case you were wondering if you would encounter those hairstyles in New Zealand, the answer is HELL YES!  Here is something strange I can't understand.  The Rat-Tail is actually a semi-popular hair style around here.  You see it on everyone from a child to a grown man.  I didn't get it, so I asked a local.  One person told me it was a Saomian influence (only makes sense if it's just Samoans, and it's not, trust me), the other told me it was just trashy!  I don't know what it is, I just wish they knew that Rat-Tails are ridiculous and should have left at the same time the 80's left.  It amazes me how many of them I see daily.  Mullets aren't as popular, but they are spotted here and there.  One girl at work even told me she likes the mullet if the sides of the head are shaved.  I busted out laughing and told her that no matter what is shaved or not, she should never like a mullet!  Awww, cultural difference!

Food.  I tried Marmite (kind of like Vegemite).  It made me gag.  I had to run for a drink.  I don't know how people eat that stuff.  It has the consistency of tar.  Seriously gross.  On the other hand, oranges here are fantastic.  I think they are Australian oranges, but they are so sweet and juicy.  I like them a lot better than Florida oranges (sorry Florida, not trying to hate).  Elliot had a goat burger the other night and really liked that.  I'm sure they sell goat meat somewhere in the US, but I know I've never come across it.  They also put Sweet and Spicy Chili Sauce on a lot of food around here, and it is delicious.  The seafood is also amazing, which isn't surprising since we are on the ocean.  It's always fresh!  One thing I really miss, turkey.  They don't sell a lot of turkey around here.  I used to love making turkey burgers, turkey tacos, etc.  I have to actually use beef now, which disappoints me (at least the beef is all lean since bio-engineering is illegal here I think). I do miss my turkey.  You can get shaved turkey at the deli counter, but I'm on a budget now and only buy my meat cheap and prepackaged.

Okay, more random stuff to come later!  Hope everything is well back home.  The weather is warming and summer is almost here!  Yay!

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring is underway here in Wellington, and we are so glad!  While the Winter weather pales in comparison to Winter at home, at least at home we have adequate heating systems in our houses!  They aren't used to it getting as cold as it did this year, so they aren't equipped to keep you as toasty.  We were happy for our space heaters!  Now that Spring is here we are getting a lot more sunshine days, which is allowing us to spend more time outside.  It hasn't warmed up too much yet, but it's hovering in the mid to high 50's.  Belle has turned into a real beach lover, and we have found some great trails around our neighborhood to hike and walk Belle.  Here are a few pictures of one of the new ones we found.  As you can see, once you get to the top (it's a hell of a workout getting there by the way!) there are some really great views.  Check out the link below!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627841034378/

Work is going well.  I'm picking it up pretty quickly.  Having never worked as a waitress or bartender it is interesting.  My feet aren't as big a fan of the job as my love for a new challenge.  Let's just say that after five years with a desk job, i'm a having to re-train my body to think like it did when I was an assistant manager at Walgreens!  On your feet all day!  One of my managers approached me last night to start training to be a Duty Manager.  I was a little surprised that he would want to put the time into getting me certified to be a Duty Manager even though I'm only here for a year, but he does. I'm assuming it's not a long certification process or he probably wouldn't.  A Duty Manager is basically like a shift leader.  In other words, as long as a Duty Manager is there, the other managers don't have to be there the whole time.  It gives them a little more wiggle room to take care of other stuff.  You do have to get certified, but I don't quite know what that entails yet. I will have to get back to you on that one!  I was told though that if I am certified to be a Duty Manager, and I go out to a bar one night and get in a fight or get arrested that I could lose that certification.  It's quite a risk with my rage issues, but it's just a chance I'm going to have to take.  I'll save the bar brawls for when I get back to the US.  One pattern has emerged from my waitress duties so far.  At least 2-3 times a night I get asked the question "Candian or American?".  I'm tempted to fake a Canadian accent one night and see if the questions go away.  If I say "ey" a lot or "Aboot" instead of "About" will they even ask?  It's funny too, because when I answer there are often people who say "I was right", so you can tell they are discussing it and making bets on who guesses right.  They also do the same when they ask what part of the States.  I say Midwest and it appears people guess that too.  It's funny though, and gives me something to talk about with the customers, which makes the night more fun.  Our staff is really diverse, which is cool.  There is myself and 2 other guys that are Americans that just graduated college (graduated from University of South Florida!!  Same school as my brother Kevin).  There is also a girl from Argentina, a girl from Venezuela, 2 girls from Ireland (the accents are fantastic), and a girl from South Africa.  There might be more that I don't even know about.  Most of the rest are kiwis I think.  One part that makes me sad... I am the oldest person on the Front of House staff!  Even my manager is younger than me!  There are a couple of people that are 27 or 28, but I'm the elder at 29.  Makes me feel old being surrounded by such young people.  Okay, most of them aren't young-young, they are mid twenties, but there are a few high schoolers.  The drinking age here is 18, and there are no limits to the age you have to be to pour a beer.  We have a 15 year old (she acts way older though, cool chick), and while she doesn't work on the bar, she would legally be allowed to serve someone alcohol!  Crazy!

Drum roll please, Elliot has a job now too!  The job market here is actually quite tough, there are a lot of unemployed young people.  I got lucky with my job because they were hiring a bunch of people all at once, which improves your odds!  Elliot ended up getting lucky the same way!  It turns out the kitchen at my work was in need of several people, and Chef John told me to send Elliot (he had met him one night) down to see him.  He was very eager to get Elliot working for him.  I know Elliot was glad; he was getting bored!  You'd be surprised, you think you would enjoy the time off, and we did, but there comes a time when you need to be productive again.  Elliot and I were both feeling that way!  So Elliot is now a kitchen guy at The Gasworks!  Originally we didn't want to work at the same place, but this situation is perfectly fine.  As anyone whose worked in a restaurant knows, while you do work with your kitchen people closely and get to know them, the kitchen and the front of house are like two separate universes.  The only bummer is that he will be working mostly nights, and I get mostly days with one or two nights here and there.  We figured as long as we can coordinate getting a day or two off the same day it will be fine.  Once we get in the groove we can try to make sure our schedules at least line up some days.  Plus, with Elliot joining the team it puts the American count at four!  WE are taking over bitches!  Okay, I guess that is enough about that for now.

Oh!  I almost forgot.  There is an awesome service you can purchase out there these days, and of course Elliot knew all about it.  Here is the problem:  many of the websites, such as Hulu, will not allow you to view anything from outside the United States.  Since we haven't purchased cable here we are limited to 4 TV channels, their names are TV One, TV Two, TV Three, and Four (can you see a pattern?  Apparently "Four" is fancy because it's the only one without the word TV in front of it, though that is implied!).  In addition to not having access to Hulu to watch some of my favorite shows (House, Bones, Modern Family, I can't miss these!), we also can't get on 700 WLW to listen to Xavier games!  With the XU basketball season fast approaching we needed a solution!  Elliot found a site where for $50 a year you can sign into a VPN server and it will re-route your signal so it thinks you are in the United States!  It works great!  Now we can watch Hulu, listen to radio stations from back home, and all that good stuff.  Radio is seriously boring here, well talk radio at least.  They are basically not allowed to be political or have opinions about politics or public policy or anything worth having an opinion on.  There are all kinds of laws about what they can discuss.  With no real opinions or debates, they get a little dry and boring.  Elliot was so happy to have 700 WLW again.  Anyway, this might seem very small, but it was $50 VERY well spent!

Until next time, CHEERS!

RUGBY

Sorry for the lag, there hasn't been too much excitement lately.  I do have some fun stuff to share though!

Rugby!  We went to the USA vs. Australia Rugby Match here in Wellington a week ago.  For those of you that don't know much about Rugby (like us), there are 20 teams in this World Cup Tournament.  Australia is ranked 2nd, USA is ranked 17th.  In other words, we were well aware that our team would most likely get slaughtered on the field.  Elliot and I geared up with our USA flags and headed down to the waterfront to grab a beer before the match.  We figured there would be a good crowd of USA fans, but we TOTALLY underestimated.  We forgot to figure in the big rivalry between New Zealand (#1) and Australia (#2).  Any kiwi All Blacks fan wanted Austraila to go down.  They had lost in a big upset to Ireland, so another upset losing to us would have prevented them from going on to the next round.  So, one of the few teams New Zealand doesn't want to meet in the finals was going up against the USA.  If you haven't figured it out by now, pretty much all the kiwis were USA fans for a day!  It was crazy!  People were so dressed up, and in very elaborate ways.  We saw grown men in American Flag spandex suits.  It was awesome.  We headed over to Chicago, which is one of the few American bars in Wellington.  We expected a crowd, but we did not expect what we found.  The place was decked out in USA decorations including giant flags hanging outside and red, white, and blue Christmas lights strung everywhere.  You could barely move, let alone get to the bar to order a drink.  We took in the scene, snapped a few pictures, then headed out to a less crowded joint (The Bull & Bear) for some food and beers (still met an American there though, which was cool).  See some of the pictures from Chicago by clicking on this link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627667368815/
The stadium is right on the Waterfront in Wellington, so we were pretty close.  We started to make our way to the stadium and ran into even more crazy USA fans.  Some of them were actually American, but the large majority were kiwis.  As were were walking into the stadium we heard a group of people chanting.  Once we got closer we realized what they were saying and joined in...
Leader: AMERICA!
Crowd: Fuck Yeah!
For anyone who hasn't seen the movie Team America (by the South Park guys), as long as you aren't easily offended, you really need to watch it.  Not only will the above make sense, but it is a really hilarious movie.

The match went better than expected.  Don't get me wrong, we lost, but it wasn't a blowout and we even scored some points!  There were lots of USA chants going on, which was cool.  We took a video of it so everyone could hear.  It ended up that the people sitting next to us were Americans visiting New Zealand on their honeymoon.  They were really cool and also knew nothing about rugby.  They, like us, just got tickets because they figured why not, if we're there anyway we might as well go!  They were from Portland, but originally from Alaska.  We had a great time hanging out with them and even hit up a bar together afterwards.  It was great to hang out with some more Americans, but unfortunately that was their last night before leaving.  Hopefully we at least helped them enjoy it!  On a side note, we met a couple of communists while at that bar.  It was weird.  Elliot was talking to this older guy, and so I started talking to his female friend.  After a few minutes she began to elude to the fact that she didn't like that New Zealand gave us Visas to work in the country, and that we shouldn't be there.  I was shocked.  That was the first time anyone had been anything but accepting.  I found out from Elliot later that he started having a political debate with the guy, and based on everything the guy was saying he was a Marxist. I didn't expect to find many communists in New Zealand.  Weird but funny!  Elliot couldn't resist a political debate with a Marxist, when would he have that opportunity again?  The links below will take you to some pictures of the match, our friends for the night, and a video so you can hear all the USA chants :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627667374337/


http://www.youtube.com/user/EandLeeNZ?feature=mhee

Lee Gets A Job!

I now have a job again.  It was a nice little month and half of being unemployed, but I knew it couldn't last forever.  My new job is probably as far from my previous analyst job as I could have gotten.  I will be working in Front Of House of a brand new Cafe/Bar down the street from our apartment.  The place is named Gasworks (it has to do with a historical power plant that used to be in Miramar).  Basically, it's going to be a Cafe in the morning and afternoon, and then around dinner and after dinner it will serve more as a local pub/bar.  I say "will" because it's not open yet.  It opens next week.  It's pretty cool getting in at the start of a new place. Everyone is training together, so no one looks like a dumbass when we don't know what to do!  It's a pretty young group of people running it.  I would say the owners and managers are between 30 and 40 years old.  The other staff I am being trained with are pretty young as well.  I would say I am on the older side of other employees.  There are two other Americans too.  The Americans are two guys from Florida who just graduated college and are also on working holiday visas.  Most of the people seem pretty cool so far, so I am looking forward to hopefully making some friends.  Last night we were trained on the FISH! philosophy and we had a beer training.  Apparently Heineken is a premium beer here and it's poured differently then other beers.  We had to learn a 7 step process to pouring and presenting the perfect glass.  Tomorrow we will be trained on some of the Front Of House operations, complaint resolution, dress code and other small things like that, and at the end a wine training.  It should be cool.  The fun thing about this job is that none of us know who will be waiting tables, who will be seating people, who will be tending bar, or who will be doing anything else.  We are all being trained to do it all, so hopefully that means they will switch it up every now and then! 

Well, its a beautiful sunny day here, we just got back from walking the dog along the coast and enjoying some of the beaches.  Not a bad gig I must say!  Now we are going to make some burritos and Sangria and settle in.  Hope everyone is having a great week!

Random Facts We've Learned

1.  New Zealand has no major predators.  No bears, no big cars, no snakes... nada.  The worst thing you have to watch out for when camping are possums (see #2) and the very rare bush hog.

2.  There is a big difference between a possum back home and a New Zealand possum.  They are both pests, but they are much cuter in New Zealand (don't try to cuddle one, they are mean just like ours!)
USA vs. NZ Possum

3.  There are very few poisonous spiders in New Zealand.  Many say the "White Tailed" is the one to watch out for, but everything I've looked up shows them as harmless.  The only 2 we have to watch out for are the Katipo and the Redback, which are from the same genus as the Black Widow.  Bites are so rare that all the people I asked the other night about poisonous spiders to watch out for didn't even mention them!

4.  Enough about nasty creatures.  Here is another weird fact.  In New Zealand, unlike anywhere else in the world, the person crossing traffic has the right of way to someone turning on the same side.  Let me put this in US terms.  You are at a light (pretend you are not allowed to turn on red, because you can't turn on red here), and you are waiting to turn right.  The person coming the other way is waiting to turn left on to the same street as you.  Instead of them having to wait until the traffic clears through, you, the person turning right, have to let them go first.  It's really weird, because if you are going straight you don't wait for them to turn first, only if you are turning the same place as them.  It certainly confused the heck out of us at first!!

5.  Many of the products here are the same as the ones back home but just have a different name.  We know they are the same because the packaging and commercials are identical, with only the name changed.  For example, Aquafresh Toothpaste = Macleans Toothpaste, Febreeze=Ambi-Pure, Honey Nut Cheerios=Uncle Tobys Cheerios, etc.  You get the point.  They also use the same commercials, only they do voice overs so the people in the commercials have New Zealand accents.  Imagine watching the Mucinex Mucas Man being kicked out of his house in the host lungs... only he now has a New Zealand accent.  It's so funny

 

 I'm sure there are a lot more, but I'm drawing a blank now.  Anyway, will be back on later to show you some pictures of the awesome new walking trail we found less than a mile from our apartment! 

Road Trip!!!

DAY ONE - Wellington To Lake Taupo

Our destination was Rotorua, but we left with the intention of stopping somewhere along the way.  We decided to pick this somewhere based on what peaked our interest on the way.  The weird but awesome thing about this country is that it has pretty much every landscape in one compact area.  As we drove we passed through mountains, forest, more mountains, farm lands (sheep mostly, along with cows and some horses), rolling green hills (filled with even more sheep), more mountains, and even a desert!  The desert really threw us off because we didn't expect it.  There were rolling green hills and mountains and then out of nowhere the landscape completely changed.  Not a sheep in sight!  We made a few road side stops to take pictures and stretch our legs.  Of course there was a very old, very high, very scary looking train bridge, so we had to stop and take pictures of that.  Anyone who knows the Koop boys knows you pay attention to things train related.  Here is a link to some of the pictures we took along the way.  Nothing too exciting, but we did get some sheep for you!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596325578/

When we arrived at Lake Taupo we were drawn to the water.  The time of day and the clouds were just right to make it look almost like a mirror.  It was very pretty.  That was all we needed to see and we decided to find a motel.  There was no shortage of choices, there was a whole street of them right by the lake.  The problem here we had one thing that makes people with empty motels still turn us away...

Needless to say not everyone is a dog lover... or a lover of cleaning a motel room where a dog has stayed.  The first place we stopped was called the Executive Motel (sounds fancy, but trust me, it wasn't).  The nice German gentleman named Wolfgang immediately said No Dogs Allowed.  Luckily he knew which motel along the strip did allow small dogs and sent us down the road to the Lake Front Motor Lodge.  It ended up working out great too, because they were very dog friendly.  Not only did we have our own enclosed "hot tub" room connected to our motel room, but it had a door leading to a little outside area that they had fenced in for dogs!  It was great.  The Mineral Water Hot Tub was a nice perk for sure.  It even had a shower head so you could use it for a shower if you wanted.  Here are a couple of pictures of the lake and our mineral bath (don't worry, you won't see me in a swimsuit... this picture is before we got in)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596309726/

DAY TWO - Lake Taupo to Rotorua

As we started our drive we found ourselves easily distracted.  We would see a sign along the highway talking about a sight or attraction and turn off the path to go see it.  It was nice to not have a plan or a schedule because it allowed us to stumble upon some great sites!  First we followed signs leading us to a waterfall.  Once we got there we got out and walked around, and it was beautiful.  The water was high, and the rapids were rushing.  It was very pretty and very loud.  We found a bridge over the main part of the water just before the falls and stopped to take some pictures.  If you stared at the water well below you for too long it kind of made you dizzy.  Here are a few of the photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627471923453/

Then, after leaving the falls, we got enticed once again by a sign for a Geothermal park.  This part of the country is ripe with geothermal activity, which is pretty cool.  Basically, this is where the earth is hotter than the surrounding areas due to the presence of hot rock or magma near the surface.  This heats the ground water and you find hot springs, geysers, and boiling mud pits.  It's pretty cool.  So, we followed some signs to a geothermal area and found "Craters of the Moon".  It's a park where they have built paths around and between many craters that release steam, have boiling water spots, or a boiling mud pit.  It was really cool because they created the paths so you could get as close as was safe.  It takes about 1.5 hours to walk through.  Here are some pictures we took


http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596191890/

After a very long detour, we got back in the car and headed up to Rotorua.  One important note about Rotorua is that it is nicknamed "Sulpher City".  Basically, there is a side effect that comes with a city full of beautiful spas, mineral bathes, and geothermal activity... it smells like eggs.  Certain spots were worse than others, but the smell lingered in the air no matter where you went.  I can't imagine living somewhere that smells like sulpher all the time.  Regardless, it is still one of the most highly touristed places in New Zealand, so we were ready to find out what the buzz was about.  Once again we were faced with the motel situation.  Luckily, I had found a place online before we left that said "Small Pets Considered".  They allowed us to have Belle and then pointed out some cool stuff to do in the area.  We planned on staying 2 nights, so we actually got to see more while we were there.  Once we got all our stuff unloaded into the motel room we headed off to "The Redwoods Whakarewa Forest" (say that three times fast) for a walk through the giant redwood forest with the dog.  This forest is known for it's towering Californian Coastal Redwoods with lots of hiking paths to suit all types of people.  170 tree species from all over the world were also planted in this forest, starting in 1899, which made it the first exotic forest in New Zealand.  We picked one of the shorter walks and got the dog a little exercise.  The water in some of the streams was very strange.  Everything under water was the same color as the water.  There was obviously some algae or something that stained anything under water, because if there was a branch partially in the water, the section under the water was stained the same color and the section out of the water retained it's normal color.  One of the ponds we saw turned everything a gray-blue, and another section appeared more like a mud red.  Here are some pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596318630/

After that we headed back to the motel room and freshened up we headed off to dinner.  We tried to go to a place we had read about in the Lonely Planet book we have, but once we got there we saw how formal it appeared and felt entirely under dressed in our jeans and jackets. So we turned around and went to a place called "Breakers".  We had some food and a bottle of wine and then went back to the motel for some much needed rest because we had some sightseeing plans for the next day!

DAY THREE - Still in Rotorua

On the advice of the Motel Desk clerk, we decided it was high time we saw a Kiwi Bird!  Now, the problem is Kiwis are not only a small population in the wild, but also nocturnal.  This means you pretty much have to go to a wildlife reserve if you ever want a chance to see one.  We headed off to the Rainbow Springs Kiwi Wildlife Park.  In addition to the Kiwi, there were also lots of other animals including native birds, reptiles, and fish.  One of our favorite birds was a kea named Jenny.  She was a total ham.  When you walked up to her cage she would show off with squaking, wing flapping, and funny movements.  Then, as you tried to walk away she would jump down and follow you all the way down the fence and stare at you "crying" in a way as you left.  It was so cute.  Now, since Kiwis are nocturnal there were two parts of this experience.  We saw the Kiwis in the nocturnal room, but they are behind glass.  The other part of the experience includes returning at night where they allow you to go into the enclosure and the only thing separating you from the birds is a shin high wooden fence.  Obviously we couldn't take any pictures, you had to be quiet and move slow to even get them to come out of hiding.  One of them came all the way up to the fence and stuck his long beak out checking us out.  It was pretty cool.  So here are a few photos from the reserve where we were allowed to take pictures


http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627471921157/

The other activity of the day was a trip to the "World Top 10 Spa" up the street.  The "Polynesian Spa" had anything and everything you could want in a spa... for a price.  And because of that price we stuck to a hot mineral bath.  We did spend a little extra to get the Deluxe Private Pools that offered panoramic views of the Lake and had its own shower and heated changing room.  It was really nice.  We were dumb and forgot to take the camera, so I am just pasting a picture below from the website.  It is as pretty as it looks too!

To round out the day (after the nocturnal visit to the Kiwis) we picked up a pizza and curled up in the motel room to cuddle with the dog and rest up for a long day of driving the next day.


DAY FOUR - Rotorua to Napier

We knew we wanted to stop somewhere between Rotorua and Wellington, but we weren't sure where.  As we were checking out we asked the desk clerk if she knew of anywhere worth going on the way back to Wellington.  She suggest Napier.  Napier is a town on the coast with wonderful vineyards and great scenery.  On the way to Rotorua we passed a sign for the "Rainforest Highway" that peaked our interest.  We decided we would check that out first then head to Napier.  Technically, according to the map, we could travel down that way instead of the main highway and still get to Napier.  As we headed down the "Rainforest Highway" we we passed a sign warning of "95km of Winding Unsealed Road".  We figured it would just be another part of the adventure.  Boy were we right.  First, I'm not sure what justified that as a rainforest, it just seemed like a regular forest on a mountain, but who knows.  Next, by unsealed they mean winding, mountainous, sometimes gravel, hard to drive on road.  If a sign warns of winding roads in New Zealand... where most the roads are super winding compared to anything I'd ever driven on, believe it.  Their "winding roads" are our "if you don't have an SUV please skip this area" type of roads.  We drove for about 2 hours and decided to stop for a leg stretch.  According to the map, we were close to half way down the road.  Oh, were we wrong.  We decided to put Napier in the GPS and see how much longer it would take.  The GPS kept telling us to "turn around" and backtrack the whole winding 2 hour drive.  It would take us 5 hours to get to Napier that way.  We decided to put in the name of the city at the end of the road on the map to see how much longer until we would be off those roads... The GPS estimated 6 hours!!  To go 50km!!  We knew that could only mean one thing, the road ahead of us would be far worse than what we had already traveled.  Unfortunately, that meant we had to go back 2 hours on those crazy roads.  After this grueling day of driving, we did finally make it to Napier, where we ran into the same motel issue we've had the rest of the way.  After finding a "pet friendly" Motel we tucked in for the night.  We were exhausted!

DAY SIX - Napier to Wellington

We woke up in the morning expecting to just get on the road... then we walked out to our car.  We had a flat tire!  That bumpy, windy, gravel road did more than just delay our drive getting here, it cause what we later found out was not just a nail in one part of the tire, but an actual hole in the side of the tire!  In other words, we couldn't get it repaired, we had to buy a whole new one.  It sucked.  The good news is, as always, it lead us to something fun before we left.  Elliot put on the dinky little spare tire and we headed off to find a tire place

When we got to the tire place he asked us to give him an hour.  Luckily, there was a little farmers market going on right next to the place in their park.  It was a beautiful sunny day, so we leashed up the dog, took her for a walk around the park, and then hit up the farmers market.  The torturous thing about going to a farmer's market with fresh meat and seafood is that when you have a 5 hour drive ahead of you, you can't buy any!  It was hard to resist.  In the end we bought a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from a local vineyard that had a stand and 6 fresh chicken eggs.  I've never bought eggs from a farmers market.  It said no egg was older than 7 days, and they looked like Easter eggs.  With no dyes or bleaches to make them look alike, it was cool to have a blue-green egg, a pink egg, a white egg, and a brownish egg all in the same package!  Can you tell that I am easily amused.  So, with our fresh eggs in tow, a new tire, and pretty day for driving, we headed home to Wellington!

Now, it's time to get a job.