Ed

Yesterday when we were walking out of the grocery store and there was a little black weenie dog tied up to a pole waiting for his mommy or daddy to get done shopping. So I sorta lost it cause it made me want to see my little Ed more than anything. There are a few things I miss over here and Ed is definitely up there in the top.

We also miss anything cheap... everything is SO expensive here! and Sportscenter... I never thought I would miss my sports this much, and basketball season hasn't even started yet!

Napier!

So when we left Rotorua we headed for a place called Napier, in Hawkes Bay. Its an adorable town that is centered around art deco architecture. We went to a comedy show the first night we were there and it was hilarious. We ended up hanging out with the comedians afterwards which was also fun.... however we keep telling our parents that this type of a night is just networking while looking for jobs, they aren't really buying it and dad says we better not network too much longer. Nevertheless, it was fun.

Napier also happens to be in the middle of the wine region of the North Island, so after spending the first day or so just wandering around town, we decided to take a winery tour. We had a driver who took us and a couple we had been hanging out with around to 3 different wineries and a brewery/cider house. We got to do a tasting at each of the places and we all had a really good time.

At the last winery we went to, they had lots of these flowers called Birds of Paradise, which my dad loves, and even has one of his own back home. Just before we left, he had just gotten his first 2 blooms on it and was so proud of his little blooms (i'm now told there are around 10). So anyway, when Laura and I got here and saw these seemingly rare flowers EVERYWHERE in this country, we sorta had a good laugh about dad back home with his 2 little blooms. So dadm the picture with us and the BOP is for you! (it didn't turn out how we wanted it... we couldn't stop laughing long enough to take the picture.)















a cute little park in Napier











So after 5 days we left Napier and arrived yesterday in Wellington. We are hoping to like it enough to stay here and work for the summer. So far it has been raining the whole time so we haven't gotten out to see much.... guess we'll have to wait and see

Coromandel and Rotorua

One of the places Laura and I stayed maybe a week and a half ago or so was a place called Whitianga (pronounced fitianga). It was a small town in the Coromandel region. So the first full day we were there we decided to take a bike ride to a place called Cathedral Cove, and then a little farther down, a place called Hot Water Beach. We were really excited about hot water beach because at low tide, you can go and dig big holes in the sand, and they fill up with hot water and make a sort of natural hot tub for you to sit in.

So we rented bike in the morning and set off. What we didn't know was that it was actually a 20km bike ride up and down huge hills just to get to the entrance of the HIKE to Cathedral Cove which we were also not aware of. So we finally got there, and it was a gorgeous beach and so we stayed and took some pictures and it was great.

THEN, we walked back to our bikes, and just as we were headed down to Hot Water Beach, an awful thunderstorm started and we were stuck riding bikes back in the pouring rain and lightning, so we decided to stop at a winery and hang out and hope the rain let up. But it didn't... fortunately for us these 2 nice women in the winery offered to toss our bikes in their car and gave us a ride at least back to the ferry to get back to Whitianga. It was not a fun day.

So then we left and took a bus to Rotorua, which is sorta the tourism capital of NZ. It is the most visited place out of the whole country. There is a ton of Thermal activity here, geysers, hot springs, and stinkiness..... the place stunk of sulfur. So we spent a few days here cause we were sick of traveling, but overall, the only stuff there we wanted to do cost and arm and a leg so we left without seeing much of anything. The only thing we did was take a walk around Lake Rotorua and saw some of the hot springs and mud pools around there.

This is one of the black swans on Lake Rotorua. I was playing with them and the HUGE ducks until one of them bit me. and then i stopped

they're ugly

getting the hell outta dodge!

We finally got to see Penguins! but it was at the aquarium, but still cool! They were way bigger than we expected, they even had one named Fat Boy.

all those little white dots are sheep!

So we FINALLY got out of Auckland and rented a car to head up north. We stopped and stayed in Paihia for a few nights. Its a quaint little beachy town a little like Southport actually. It was nice, we took a speedboat ride to a cave and through a hole in one of the islands in the Bay of Islands. We also got to do some really pretty hikes through forests that really looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss story. A few days later we got to go horseback riding to a volcano called Mt. Te Puke. The ride was awesome, Laura had a little Paint Pony and I got to ride this HUGE Clydesdale that was just not interested in me at all and did whatever she wanted.

Paihia

View of the Tasman Sea

After we visited Cape Reinga lighthouse we headed back out and on our way we stopped at a place called Te Paki and got Boogey Boards and went sandboarding. This has easily been the best and most thrilling thing we've done. The dunes were absolutely enormous and you feel like you are in the desert cause all you can see is just rolling sand dunes everywhere. We were just throwing ourselves down these huge mountain of dunes and you can't imagine how fast you get going and how steep it is.

We went to our first Rugby game last night! It was so much fun but we didn't understand ANYTHING that was going on..... So a nice group of kiwis who were really really into the game sat with us and tried to explain the game to us, although I think they were just picking on us the whole time cause every time Auckland scored they would yell "TOUCHDOWN." (its actually called a 'try')

We're finally here!

So after a LONG 30 hours of traveling we finally got to New Zealand. We wandered around Auckland from about 6:30 am until we were allowed to check into our hostel at 1:00 pm. We were exhausted but there are tons of coffee shops everywhere, so we powered through :)











In the airport customs line in Auckland I (emily) ran into a friend from UNC who was also and EXSS major and we had several classes together. He is living in Wellington and playing water polo so we may try to go see a game sometime. When we got to the hostel, we were roomed with a couple that we had met on the bus from Oregon (about our age) and made good friends with them and one other of our roommates who is an extrememly funny French guy named Ben. His English isn't great so he's been pretty entertaining tagging along with us. We all went out together last night and had a blast. Ben keeps calling us his 'team' and when we do things for the other people, we are "doing it for the team"

We've decided we are going to move away from Auckland to live, we don't know where yet but we have talked about buying a car and possibly living with the couple we are rooming with in the hostel. We'll see what happens. Tonight we are going to a Rugby game and then going out with "the team" to have some fun.

Travis, Tara, Me, Laura, and Ben - "The team"

down by the harbor

Wandering around Auckland, we found The White House, and a fun climbing tree