New Zealand - North Island

Hi everyone! Our apologies for the long delay in posting from New Zealand. Internet connections here are not the quickest so downloading all of our pics has been a challenge. And frankly we've just been too busy! NZ is like one big adventure park for adults, coupled with some of most spectacular landscapes we've ever seen.

Our krazy kiwi adventure began almost immediately, during our bus ride from the airport into downtown Auckland. The driver was a gregarious old lecher and asked every female rider if she wanted to come home with him. He had a big gulp and we grew increasingly suspicious that he was inebriated. Over the course of our 1/2 hour bus ride, he managed to hit something (and just kept going, exclaiming “that wasn’t me was it, nah that wasn’t me”), forgot to drop a woman off at her stop, and took us to the wrong car rental agency. Fortunately, we managed to track it down without too much trouble. NZ has about 4 million people and 1.5 million of them live in Auckland. Since they get about 2 million visitors per year, they are extremely helpful to tourists, and on several occasions people have literally stopped their cars to see if we needed any assistance. In general, kiwis have got to be just about the nicest people on earth. We could probably live here except for the weather. It rained nearly every single day we were on the North Island, a pretty radical climate change from the AZ desert.

Driving on the left has been an adventure. Jason managed to get us nearly killed when he pulled into a roundabout right in front of an oncoming SUV. The hardest tasks to master were the turn signals (up=right) and keeping to the center. And of course the bloody roundabouts! Another bizarre rule of the road in NZ is that when two cars going in the opposite direction are turning onto the same road, the car turning right has the right-of-way, despite being further away from the road. The equivalent would be if a car turning right in America had to yield to cars turning left. We have made it a rule that we both drive at least once each day we use the car in order to keep our skills sharp. Even after getting comfortable with the driving, it is very easy to revert to old habits, particular early in the morning or late in the evening.

We hung around for a bit in the posh Parnell district in Auckland. We had some tasty fish n chips (Snapper, yum!) before contacting Zak, who I’d met online through Couchsurfing.com. He looked a bit like Ricky Gervais and his British accent made the resemblance more striking. His father was a rock manager and he said there are pictures in his family album of him sitting on David Bowie’s lap! He was extremely fun, cooked us a couple tasty meals and took us out clubbing all night at Spacebar. There was a contest for best costume and Zak, donning all-green shiny pants, dreads, fairy wings and wand, won 1^st prize—a bottle of absinthe. It was a great night and something we never would’ve experienced sans a local connection. In fact, we had such a good timehanging out with Zak that we ended up forgoing a trip to the Bay of Islands in the far north; instead we opted for a couple day trips to Piha (top picture), Bechtels Beach (pictured here), and Orewa, all of which were great.

Our next destination was Rotorua, which is the smelliest city we’ve ever been in due to the sulfur. It would be one thing if it was ubiquitous so that we could get used to the smell; however, the sulfur smell came in waves so that it was impossible to acclimate ourselves to the smell. Despite the odor we stayed for several days. We were hoping to go whitewater rafting on the Kaituna River, a class five famous for its seven meter fall. Unfortunately, it remained closed due to heavy rains. We ended up rafting the Rangataiki, which was not as extreme but was a longer trip and thus able to take up most of a day. There were a few scary moments but mostly it was just good fun. Tim, our guide, was quite the energetic fellow, and spent everyday doing some kind of activity. After rafting we spent a nice and relaxing evening at the Polynesian Spa, which had a bevy of mineral pools at various temperatures (in Celsius of course).

Another evening in Rotorua we went a Maori hangi. It was pretty interesting learning some of the history and what the facial tattoos symbolize. There are four birds: the owl, the bat, the parrot and of course the kiwi. Also, their dances were fascinating, particularly the warriors who’s facial expressions were terrifying (bulging eyes, tongues out). We also learned that the national symbol, the silver fern, was used by tribes who were traveling at night to guide each other. So the person leading would flip a silver fern over so the others would know where to follow, then the last person in the group would flip it back down so no one else would know they had been there. The following day we went zorbing—rolling down a hill in a big plastic ball…an activity that could have been invented only in NZ. We both went down together and they threw in some hot water so that we just laid on our backs after falling down about 3 seconds into the ride.

We also spent one evening hanging out with a German woman who was hanging out in NZ waiting to have her visa extended so she could return to Australia. She was dating an Indian guy back there. She was pretty interesting and we had a good time chatting, although we never even learned her name. That is a fairly common phenomenon among the traveler set; many interactions are so brief that trying to learn names is just a pain. However, when you end up hanging out with someone for awhile it’s unfortunate to not even know their name.

Our next step was Taupo, another nexus of adventure in the Kiwi landscape. On our way there we stopped at Wai-O-Tapu, which is essentially NZ’s answer to Yellowstone sans the wildlife. Geysers, mudpools, and wacky colorful rock formations dominated the landscape. The rust, lime green, and white moss that covered the trees also provided some surreal scenery. Jason's attention got sucked into this one area called The Devil’s Palette and he kept taking pictures as the mud formations changed shapes, some of which will likely end up on our walls.

We found our way to the Rainbow Backpackers Lodge in Taupo, Jason's favorite hostel thus far. The people were all very cool and the location was within walking distance to lots of stuff. The main reason for stopping in Taupo was so that Jason could go skydiving. They advertise as the cheapest place to do it, although the price quickly adds up as they talk you into jumping from a higher altitude and purchasing a DVD of the experience. Thus, I opted for the 15,000 ft jump with it’s minute plus freefall. My tandem diver JK was pretty cool and a former world champion freefaller. He explained that there was virtually no sponsorship for the sport, necessitating his becoming a tandem skydiver to make a living. But what a way to earn income! It all happened so fast that there are few words to describe the experience. AWESOME pretty much sums it up. The freefall portion is so radically different from any other experience I’ve had in my life that it took a good ten to fifteen seconds just to get my brain to begin processing the sensory input. Once I got my bearings, I began to truly enjoy it. Of course I had to ham it up a bit for the cameraman. I’m not sure if it was the Maori hangi or what, but afterwards I realized I had my tongue sticking out almost the entire freefall. Once JK opened the chute, we went from pure adrenaline to total peacefulness as we floated back to the landing spot.

Once on the ground, my entire body was literally buzzing from the adrenaline, and my fingers and feet were frozen due to the rush of blood to my internal organs. My right ear also was hurting from rapid pressure fluctuation. Another girl in my jump group had a panic attack on the way down, so she couldn’t even stand on her own. It was a bit annoying that I had to spend the next half hour or so listening to her reliving her terror, whereas for me there was very little fear, especially after JK told me on the way up that he’d jumped over 17,000 times. Before the jump I assumed I would do one jump and then be over it. Perhaps that might still be the case, but at this point I can’t wait to do another jump, probably in Namibia. Highly recommended. More pics are coming once we get around to sending them home.

The four Nebraskans

No, this isn’t some two-bit gunslinger tale but rather one of our experiences in Taupo. Back at the hostel after the skydive, we met Nan from Taiwan. He was studying economics and told us some interesting things about Taiwanese politics. Most entertaining was the fact that their president (or prime minister?) had staged an assassination attempt and blamed it on the opposition party.

Later in the evening, a young woman approaches and is clearly ready to party it up for the night. It turns out that Nikki and her two friends Micheal and Ashlee were native Nebraskans! Considering we’ve only met a few Americans thus far the chances of meeting three other Nebraskans in Taupo was astronomical. Nan got drunk so quickly off a few beers and was all over the dance floor, and managed to headbutt several of us over the course of the evening. It would've been annoying if it wasn't so damn entertaining. Ashlee and Nikki grew up in Grand Island but Ashlee is currently living in NZ on a work visa. She is also passionate about music and travel and seems to have found a new home down under. Nikki has plans to move to Taupo some time next year. We also met an an Irish bloke named Clark, who had some incredible stories to tell, including his best friend being killed by a mine in Northern Ireland.

Our final stop in the North Island was the capital city of Wellington, which is where the ferry departs for the South Island. Despite being fairly small, it has an amazing array of great restaurants and we ate some excellent Indian and Chinese food. We saw a great sunset but there but Tucson still has the title.

We're on the South Island now and will be leaving for Australia next Saturday. Hopefully we'll have another update soon. Take care folks!