My dear friend Kelly was so gracious to invite me to her parents home to meet her lovely family. Her mom, dad, brother and two beautiful pups were a pleasure to meet! Her father grilled lamb and chicken and her mom made salad, kumra (like a sweet potato, but not as sweet) and a beautiful yummy dessert!The next morning I woke to breakfast from the BBQ, my very first! Just before we took off for Auckland we took a stroll along Papamoa Beach and it was a beautiful day with a ton of jellyfish on the beach! Yikes!On our way to Auckland a quick stop in front of the giant L&P softdrink bottle was a cheesey must on my trip to NZ!!NYE...well what can I say?? I'm fortunate to have been one of the first people in the world to ring in 2011!! We went out for dinner at dine by Peter Gordon! Whoa! What a feast!! I can't recall how many courses we had but each one was scrumptious!!! Dinner was followed by staring in awe at the fireworks that were shot off of the Sky Tower!! Yeahhhhhh!!!! Happy 2011!!! What a way to start my new year!! Thanks to you Kelly for a wonderful evening!! (Sorry everyone no photos from our night out ;))
Rainbow Springs Wildlife Park is where I met my first Kiwi...the actual bird, that is. So cute, but so endangered. Here at this park they are rescuing and breeding the Kiwi. They are really interesting little creatures. Two facts of many: 1. They have wings but cannot fly and 2. They have marrow in their bones like humans!
In the photo above, note that Kiwis are not that gigantic!
Holy Sheep!!! At the Agrodome I learned about 19 breeds of sheep, sheep dogs and saw a shearer shear a sheep (try saying that three times fast)!! I was even able to bring a bit of that little guy's wool home! What a show! Even Romney showed up! ;)
The next morning Kelly drove us to a traditional Maori village with geothermal springs...Whakarewarewa! There is a smell of sulphur that rises from the geothermal springs, but it doesn't taint the flavor of the food and it really wasn't that strong.I saw a traditional meeting house, dancing and listened to traditional Maori singing! The people in this village use the geothermal springs to cook sweet corn and other veggies! They utilize the steam as an oven and cook their meals in the ground!The best surprise was a natural geyser shooting upwards in the distance! I haven't been to Yellowstone yet, so my first geyser experience was pretty cool!
December 29th, 2010 off and running!! Kelly drives us 2.5 hours to Waitomo to see limestone caves and glow-maggots...I mean glowworms! Initially I thought okay, we are going to see caves...I've seen them before in PA (Laurel Caverns) but I was just totally blown away! First by the entrance at Ruakuri...a spiral ramp that descends ~12 meters! Imagine entering and looking 12 meters down a spiral ramp...not spectacular?? Well imagine this...staring down by daylight and the light is out and it's pitch black, then each level of the ramp is lit with a row of soft rust-coloured lights. Level by level each row is flicked on for dramatic effect! Still not impressed...well you have no imagination and just need to go to NZ and see for yourself! At Rurakuri Caves we see amazing formations of stalagmites and stalactites and glowworms that are literally inches from your face! My photos don't do these caves justice, so please follow the link above. The guide that took us on the tour was one of the people who helped reconstruct the entrance and footpaths in 2004, so tourists no longer entered upon a sacred Maori burial area.
The paths are concrete floors and metal bridges that are suspended with cables secured into the walls of the cave?? Unbelievable! And then comes the sights of the formations of stalactites, stalagmites and cave coral! Throughout the tour only a section of the path is lit at one time and is on a timer (this is to conserve energy and preserve the cave). So at one point the tour guide says, it's going to be pitch black for a few meters. Just place your right hand on the railing and follow. Uhhhhh....okay...so I let the darkness pull me in and held on tight to that railing and followed it to the end...although at times my feet did not want to move. What a dramatic prelude to formations! We were able to see glowworms up close & personal but the true beauty of them can only be seen by boat in the Waitomo Caves.Waitomo Caves weren't the same after a tour by a guide who actually helped build the paths into the Ruakuri Cave. Waitomo's best feature was floating silently on a boat in the pitch black with the ceilings of the caves lit up by millions and millions of glowworms!! It looked like a night sky filled only with blue stars!! Just beautiful, absolutely beautiful!! Oh so pretty...and shiny!!
Wow! What can I say!! I guess in the words of the Terminator..."I'll be back!" A country of two major islands both so beautiful and uniquely different. North island...sooo many things to see. South island...sooo many things to do. So here's a glimpse of my trip!To New Zealand: OAK-->LAX-->MEL-->CHC-->AKL. Departed on December 26, 2010 at 1600.
Arrived on December 28, 2010 at 2130.Greeted by my photo-trigger happy friend Kelly!!! (The best part of arriving to New Zealand)!!First "tour" Auckland at night! Night sky lit up by the Sky Tower and the Harbour Bridge and who can forget TV NZ!!
