New Zealand Love

Disclaimer: This entry is going to be miles long. If you have a short attention span, I suggest you just get the cliff notes version from someone.

FRIDAY
Longest day of my life. I woke up early because we had been having problems with our rental car and since it was in my name, I needed to fix it. Honestly, it being Monday now. I don't remember everything I did, but I was on the go from 9AM to 1:30PM. And I even got some homework in, which benefited me because I didn't have to do it when we returned tonight.

Our flight left Sydney at 6PM for Auckland, New Zealand. Check in took FOREVER. The line for carry on baggage only check in was just unacceptable. We arrived to Auckland around 11PM. As soon as we stepped off the plane, I was a nervous wreck about our car. I just had this fear that something was going to go wrong and we were going to be hitch-hiking around NZ instead of driving. Thankfully, our car was there and waiting! No problems there. Getting out of the car park at the airport was another story. Al was the first up to try his hands at driving on the "wrong" side of the road. All was good and dandy until the machine was faulty and it wouldn't eat his card. Oh, good laughs late at night in a foreign country. We made it to our first hostel unscathed, Base Auckland. It was right downtown, with plenty of bars around us. Too bad we were all tired and starving. So we ate Wendy's! That was exciting! I don't even think Australia has any of those. We didn't end up going to bed until 3AM, which worked out great considering we were getting up at 6AM.

SATURDAY
We left Auckland bright and early to begin the trip to Taupo. Al, Courtney & Cait were scheduled to sky-dive. I wish I could have participated, but it was not in the funds for me. New Zealand is B E A U T I F U L. I didn't sleep one time in the car because it's just too gorgeous to miss. Everything about it equals love. While those three were jumping out of an airplane, I took the car and drove around Taupo. I walked amongst the shops in search of sunscreen, and then I headed to the beach at Lake Taupo to read. I didn't do much reading. I did more picture taking and listening to the water. A m a z i n g. Oh, and driving on the other side of the road is surprisingly easy to pick up. I was scared to death at first, but it was no biggie. We all did it at some point, and we didn't die nor crash. Success!

After their crazy plane adventures, we jumped in the car to head to Rotorua. We were originally going to go to the Thermal Wonderland, but by time we got there, it was closed. I was depressed. This place really sold itself well in the brochures as one of "New Zealand's best volcanic areas with colours and hues everywhere." Sigh, at least we got to see the boiling mud pools. I have never taken so many pictures of mud in my life. After being in Rotorua for a bit, we were accustomed to the rotten egg smell of the place and hit up the thermal pools. For just $12, we relaxed in hot, natural pools. It was the best experience and the cheapest spa type place I will ever be at. Okay, it wasn't really a spa but it might've well as been!

We ended the night at Cactus Jack's Backpackers hostel. It was themed and all! I'm not sure what the theme was- Western most likely. It was the cheapest and greatest atmosphere of all of our hostels.

SUNDAY
Not quite as early of a start, but the first activity was White Water Rafting! OMG, I WAS A NERVOUS WRECK. I was so scared! I mean, me and extreme sports have a habit of not mixing well. But IT WAS FUCKING AMAZING. I can't wait to do it again! What a rush! Once I got over the fear, I had a blast. The four of us got our own raft with two guides, Wade & a handsome 18 year old named Tory. Can you feel the love already? Wade enjoyed us Americans and decided to give us a chant. Whenever we accomplished a rapid or right before, we held our paddles in the air and he yelled "TEAM AMERICA". Of course, we responded with a hearty "FUCK YEAH!" All of the other rafts were jealous.. I just know it. The rapids that we went on were Grade 5, which is the hardest that you can do like this. Can you see why I was so scared? We went down a 7m waterfall! That was the best part of the whole trip. Luckily, we didn't flip but we did get to see a boat flip. I was just happy to survive the waterfall intact. Wade also let us do a bajillion other fun things that most of the other rafts didn't do. Courtney rode on the front Cowgirl Style down a rapid. All four of us jumped out and went for a swim, only to have Wade tell us that we would be going down the next rapid with only our bodies. AWESOME! Cait and I got to "white water surf". Basically, I sat at the front of the raft facing the back on the floor. Wade then pushed the raft against the rapid and made the water fly over my head and soak everyone. It was hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing, while trying not to drown. Tory said that I was completely covered by a wall of water at some points. Don't worry, we paid the money for a CD of photos. They are the best! I was just proud of myself for not falling out, nor getting hurt. Huzzah!

After that, we went to Hobbiton aka where they filmed the hobbit parts of LOTR. I am ashamed to say, I have never seen the movies. But now I can say that I saw parts of where they were filmed. Oh, and we may or may not have seen construction for an upcoming movie which they are not allowed to discuss but everyone else knows about anyways. (If you don't know what I am talking about, that is sad. Even I knew!)

We headed to Waitomo after that to find our final hostel, Juno Hall Backpackers. This place was nice as well. There were hammocks! Which Al and I hung out in for a bit after our adventure of getting lost. We went to get dinner at the "two second town" and then we were going to go see the black sand beaches. Well, we did not quite make it there. Instead, we wound around and around for 45 minutes before deciding to turn back. The most adventurous parts were Cait running over a rabbit (I tried to make her feel better by saying it was on a suicide mission.. not funny?) and the talk of how we were in a scary movie & we shouldn't stop for anyone.

MONDAY (aka today)
Our final adventure in the Canada of Oz was Black Water Rafting. Let me just say, I was completely naive about this. I expected to just sit in a tube and float down through the caves while looking up at the glow worms and relaxing. Wrong. This was the most strenuous activity yet! We legit went hiking through a cave in wetsuits and helmets. I knew I was going to have problems from the moment that I couldn't get my wetsuit up and I needed a hike up from the muscular tour guides. To clarify: A hike up means that two men lifted me off the ground (feet dangling and all) by my straps to pull the suit up. Sadly, there was no documentation. After a crazy hike to the caves, we climbed our way down. We had to jump off a waterfall backwards with our bums in our tubes. There were some relaxing parts where we floated around in a long chain in COMPLETE darkness with only the glow worms guiding our way. It had the appeal of the night sky at points. The whole thing was phenomenal. I can't even describe in words how wonderful it was. Everyone should go black water rafting at some point in their lives. Of course, it would be better in New Zealand but just go wherever you can.The whole experience was exhausting, claustrophobic, cold, and fucking amazing!

Sadly, this is where the weekend came to an end. We had to jet our way back to the airport in time to catch our plane. We all had doubts for awhile if we would make it, but it really wouldn't have been the end of the world. We all fell in love with NZ, even more so than Australia. We did not want to leave at all. Gah, parts of this weekend are already a blur. Great people. Great fun. Great drives. Great scenery. Great activities. Everything was just amazing.

THINGS I LEARNED IN NZ: Kiwi men are sexy and very manly. I want to marry one and become the wife of a white/black water rafting instructor or something similar. Glow worms are really maggots that glow when using the toilet. Yum! Glow worm caves sound much better than glow maggot caves. Good job kiwis. I want to live in NZ more than Australia now. I never thought I'd see that day.

Well, I feel like I have forgotten about a million things to say. But this entry is miles long. I miss the adventures. Can I have them back? Oh wait, only 4 more days until Cairns & the Great Barrier Reef for spring break. I love the way we planned our trip.