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Sunday, August 31, 2008

Rotorua


Rotorua means "second lake" in Maori. It earned this auspicious title by being the second lake found by the Maori cheiftan who gave the place its name.

The whole city is pockmarked with pools of thermal hot springs. Unfortunately, Taylor does not share my love for spending hours and hours sitting in boiling water, so we didn't visit any. Plus, I'm sure they charge a small fortune for the privilege, just like everything else here (including toilets...more on that later).


That's steam, not mist.

After I staggered away from zorbing, we found this odd western themed hostel named Cactus Jack's where we spent the night. Here are a couple of photos.


We also saw some emus, or ostriches, or something... Whatever they are, they are big.
Photos don't do them justice...

Finally, we found this really cool ride in a playground on the shore of the lake.
It's harder than it looks.

Zorbing




On Thursday we left Auckland for a weekend trip south to Mt. Ruapeho. On the way, we stopped in a little town (or "decent sized city" by NZ standards) called Rotorua. Rotorua, it just so happens, is home to zorbing. Zorbing is an attraction that involves a giant inflatable ball and a hill. Basically, you strap yourself into the center of a big beach ball and roll and bounce down the hill.

I did it. These aren't pictures of me...the scoundrels wouldn't let me bring my camera. But, I did it.


It's a unique experience, but I would advise against eating beforehand.

Monday, August 25, 2008

The Buffet and a hike.

After the caves we booked a cabin at the local Holiday 10 campground (Holiday 10 is like a campground/rv park chain). It was quite nice, they had a sink (read: urinal) in the room and they gave out free dvd rentals to guests. I watched Thank You for Smoking and Catch Me if You Can. However, the communal showers were another story. Someone had deposited a bit of a dookie in one of the showers...and it didn't glow. Worse, it looked like someone had stepped in it. Needless to say, I didn't shower today.

After a liberal application of deodorant, we headed to Roselands Farm and Buffet for lunch. It wasn't quite a full buffet, the only things all-you-can-eat were side dishes, salad, carrot cake, and tea. It sufficed though, I gorged myself on salad, spring rolls, and lamb samosas. I think I have a problem - I really believe I can eat forever. I only stopped today because Taylor got bored of watching, and the wait staff were giving me dirty looks. Anyways, I got in enough food to last me the whole day and we headed out for a hike.


We stopped outside of the restaurant to look at the sheep then we headed to some woodsy place that allegedly has a waterfall. We couldn't find it, so we just wandered around.


Still hungry...


Hunting for cheap souvenirs.


The Forest with a waterfall*.

Hail Taylor! King of the Log!

Dethroned!

Hail Taylor! King of the Lake!


Hail Taylor! King of the bottom of the rock!


* Waterfall availability may vary.

Glowworms.

Needing a break from Auckland, we journeyed south a bit to Waitomo, home to a network of limestone caves, and a ton of glowworms. Normally you can float through the underground river that runs through the cave on an innertube, but it has been raining so much lately that the caves are too flooded for tubing. So, we settled for a walk through. It was really impressive, as you can see from the pictures.


Glowworms are the maggots of some sort of fly. Eggs are laid in clutches of 30-40 on walls and ceilings. Immediately on hatching from the egg, the larvae emit a light to attract prey, build a nest, put down lines and feed. Sticky substances on the lines trap insects and these are drawn up and devoured. The larvae stage is the longest phase in the creature's life and lasts around nine months. It then turns into a pupa in a cocoon and emerges as a two winged flying insect, which looks like a large mosquito. The adult fly lives no longer than a few days as it has no digestive system and so cannot eat. Instead it uses this time to mate and lay eggs. The glowworms found in the Waitomo Glowworm Caves is a species unique to New Zealand. -from the Waitomo website

Apparently, they basically live off of the previous generation. The flies get trapped in the larvae's webs, and get eaten by their children. And, the light is basically their dookie.

I tried to get a good picture of the glowworms, but without my tripod it was almost impossible. So instead I drew a picture. Pictures really can't do them justice anyways. It's amazing, it's like looking up and seeing a galaxy of fluorescent stars...

Let's see you hold a camera perfectly still for 30 seconds...


An artist's rendition of the glowworms of Waitomo.

Glowworms in the light. You can see their webs.



Kevin and the scary guy.


Fossils.




Apparently, the earthquake in the background caused Taylor's hands to shake.

The underground river. A 6 meter sheer drop from where I stand.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Twitter

In the interest of making life easier for stalkers everywhere, I have added twitter to my blog.

You can see it now - top right.

Friday, August 22, 2008

*Sigh*

The past couple of days have been frustrating. We are looking for a place to live, and it has been a real pain. I've been paging through ads online, and calling realtors, it takes forever... Out of 8 places that I found on Thursday, we ended up choosing 3 for viewings.


One was a bit far away but nice enough, unfortunately the owner wants a lot of money up front in cash – which makes me a bit leery. Furthermore, he won't make his decision for another week, which is a long time.


The second was in a rough looking neighborhood, and the front entry is a big sliding glass door.


The third realtor didn't even show up.


So yeah, all in all, a frustrating day. At least my gear shifting skills seem to have returned.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Olympics: We are second in medals table - behind Slovenia

From the New Zealand Herald national news.

This article made me chuckle. Read it.

New(ish) Car


We bought a car. It's a little blue 1991 Nissan Sentra imported from Japan some number of years ago. The car has 150,000 kilometers on it, and cost us about $1700 USD. It has a manual transmission, so wish me luck. I drive stick like twice a year. Fortunately, it has a new clutch; unfortunately, the speakers are prohibitively sucky, so we might need to upgrade that.


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Return to Auckland


We are back in Auckland to buy a car, and hopefully find a place to stay and/or a job. After a few days of experience, I think I can safely say that we have found one of the best backpackers in New Zealand. We are staying in the Bamber House in Mt. Eden, it's old mansion that has been converted to a backpackers. They have space heaters, blankets, and electric blankets – quite luxurious. Unfortunately, there is only one outlet in the room, so you have to pick and choose what you want to be warm.


The house is located at the foot of Mt Eden, a dormant volcano rising out of the suburbs just south of downtown Auckland. Last night we climbed it. They keep the entire thing covered in grass to protect the natural shape safe from erosion. Apparently the whole place used to be covered in sheep as well, to keep the grass under control, but they recently switched to some new kind of grass...


Anyway, we climbed it and took some pictures of Auckland at night.


A view of the bay


Bluff Beach



On the way back from the Kaori forest Taylor and I saw a sign for Bluff Beach, so naturally we slammed on the brakes and made a quick exit off the motorway. After traveling down a winding gravel road for about 10 mins, we came across a tiny collection of about 15 houses. In the distance we could see the ocean roiling with a passing storm. We followed the road to its end – a sign that said “Council Road Maintenance Ends Here”. The road continued directly onto the beach, unfortunately we didn't have a 4WD, so we stopped.

The Road to Bluff Beach

Why it is called Bluff Beach.

Hail Taylor King of the Rock!


...is cold.


The Bluff


The Storm


If you look at the pictures you can see the storm in the distance. It was really rough; there were about 5 layers of waves constantly crashing upon the shore. While exploring the rocks we saw a familiar looking seal and his family, I guess the great white was only after our pipis after all.


He's in the center of the picture...

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Kaori

The Kaori Forest is a giant protected stretch of jungle/forest that holds the world's largest Kaori trees.






Kaori trees can grow to be quite massive:
XOXO

Taylor and Te Matua Ngahere

The Lumberjack Pose

We ended our adventure with a nice refreshing drink from....