Thursday, October 29, 2009

AUSTRALIA!

We made it to Sydney!

First of all I have to say I LOVE Air New Zealand. The seats are awesome, you get your own TV with a selection of over 30 movies to choose from where you can pause, FF, or rewind, there are games, and music (you can make your own playlist), and there's free beer and wine. Best flights ever so far.

So we made it. Finally! We arrived at 3pm and didn't get to our hostel until 8pm. We didn't know where we were staying so we had to find a place that was in the city but on the same train line as our scuba diving center. We finally found one called The Sugar Shack for $70/night (we'll be here for 4 more days). It's not too shabby and it's right in Kings Cross. We went to bed at around 10:30pm and were woken up by the night club that happens to be right below us at around 2am... Looks like it's the weekend.

We woke up this morning not knowing what time it was and since there is free breakfast at our hostel from 8:30am-9:30am we thought we missed it. No one was downstairs so I went out on the balcony and asked someone below what time it was... 6:45am... haha oops!

The final part of our Scuba Diving course is 2 days of diving in the pool and ocean which starts tomorrow. Our plan today is to get our medicals done for scuba diving, print out some forms, then walk around the city. We met a kid at breakfast from CA that will probably come with us around the city.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Another set of pics from NZ

Notice the sheep in the background?

Sheep on golf course + beer = NZ golf

trying to get the ball on the green without getting shocked by the electric fence
Playing golf with the sheep.

In the morning at the campsite. Getting ready to play golf with the sheep.

Cozy free bed.

Cam brushing his teeth in our parking lot bathroom... Our sleeping bags are all set up in the car.

Milford Sound

More Pics

These are backwards. Start from bottom to go in order.




Kayaking the Milford Sound.
Getting ready to Kayak. We were giving these really hot stripped leggings.

around 7:30am in Milford Sound. An hour before we start Kayaking.

Driving to Milford Sound. Sunset.

Picking up our Ford Focus at the airport.

Jet boat!

About to take off in the Jetboat.

Queenstown

We hiked to the top of the Gondola in Queenstown.

Our view from town in Kaikoura.

There were a ton of fur seals in Kaikoura.

Kayaking in Kaikoura.

Ocean, green pastures, and snowy mountains in one place = beautiful

Kayaking in Kaikoura... AWESOME!
Our own apt. in Kaikoura... livin large before the rental car.

While waiting for the train we were able to get a game of mini golf in. Cam is serious about his t-off
Leaving the YHA... On our to take the train from Picton to Kaikoura.
YHA Hostel in Picton. We had our own house!
Cute pic from the ferry... not a very sunny day though.

My artistic shot of Cam. He can use it when he becomes a famous photographer :)

the ferry from Wellington to Picton.

About 30 km from Lake Ferry (that's the name of the town) with Rob and Maria

Feeding Sammy and Milly, 2 lambs that lost their mama's at Maria's parent's farm in Masterton.

A beautiful view on the car ride to Napier

Lake Taupo. Active volcano in the background. From left to right: Rob, Maria, Diana, Cam.

Huka Falls near Taupo. Until the mid 50's it was used to generate electricity for a hotel. A couple we met there hadn't been to the falls since the early 50's.

post dive... we're skydivers!

Preparing to jump out of a plane at 1200ft. Signing his life away... Literally. Maria still didn't think she was going at this point.

Monday, October 19, 2009

We're still going

Helloooooo. A lot has happened in the last couple of days. I'll start when we left Kaikoura. We took a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Christchurch to catch a bus the next day to Queenstown aka Aspen's sister city. The bus to Queenstown was a brutal 8 1/2 hour ride. We made a bunch of stops with a nice lunch break on Lake Tekapo (no idea if I spelled it right). Before we went to Queenstown we wanted to do some of the adventure activities like bungy jumping or paragliding but once we saw the prices we decided it wasn't really worth $250 to bungy jump when we already went skidiving. Instead we stayed 1 night and went for a really great hike in the morning to the top of the Gondola and Jet boating which is a less expensive activity. It was really cool because it brings you through the canyon at full speed and then you do a 360 turn. Sooooo fun.

When we were done we were prepared to rent a Jucy camper van which we would live in and drive to different car parks to stay the night. It's a really popular way to travel around New Zealand. When we got to the airport, every single van (even from different companies) were taken. We ended up renting a Ford focus which was the cheapest one we could get for $30/day (insurance included). Cam was first at driving on the other side of the road. He did really well and only started driving on the right side of the road once by accident :)

Milford Sound

Our next stop was The Milford Sound. We woke up at 7:00am to prepare for our day of kayaking around the sound. It was AWESOME! We were with a pretty fit group so we kayaked 12 kilometers to this waterfall that is just over 150 meters. Our guide had only gone that far once in 7 years with a group. We got to go right up to the waterfall. The power behind it was so strong it was a little hard to breath.

The other couple that was in our kayaking group was around our age and also from Colorado. We got along really well and exchanged email addresses. They're also going to Australia around the same time we are so we might meet up with them.

Once we were done kayaking we had to discuss where we were going to go next. We had planned on driving 8 hours to see the Fox glaciers but we were kind of done driving long distances so we decided to go to the most southern part of the island with no schedule. We hoped in the car and started to drive.

THE BIG BIRD

As we were driving out of Milford Sound Cam wanted to take a picture so I pulled into a lookout. Before Cam got out of the car he looked at me kind of freaked out and said "ummm Diana, there's a really big bird outside the car that's starring at me and it looks pissed." I couldn't see it so I took my seat belt off and leaned over. Cam rolled down the window a little bit so I could stick my head out the window to check it out and just as I did it flew up and tried to get in the car!! We screamed and rolled up the window so it landed on the mirror before it could get in the car. We were laughing hysterically because it was so big and we had no idea what kind of bird it was. It looked like a parrot but we were confused because we weren't really in parrot territory. It started walking on the roof and to the drivers side trying to get in. I rolled my window down a crack and it kept putting it's beak in the window to say hello and stare at us. I stuck a pen out the window to see if it was aggressive and it played with it as if it was a pet so we thought it was someone's pet parrot that got out. Finally I got out of the car and it followed me everywhere. I flagged a car down to see if they had a phone we could call to see if it was someone's pet... Looks like it was a Kea. A Kea is a really smart, social, and interested bird. I guess we're supposed to look out for them because they steal people's passports and wallets as a game. It was time to hit the road again and say goodbye to the Kea but it wouldn't get off our car. I was driving at 50 km/h and it was still on the roof! It stayed on for about 5 mins before it flew away... Don't worry, we have pictures and videos to show when we get back.

Car Camping
We stopped in Te Anau for dinner and on our way out we ran into our friends that we went kayaking with. We told eachother our plans and got back on the road. We drove all the way to Invercargill which is around where you take the ferry to a little island called Stewart Island. By this point it was around 11pm and we were tired. $30/night each for housing was starting to get pretty expensive and we really didn't want to spend $60 when we were only going to stay for a couple hours. We made the decision to park our car, fold down the seats, get out the sleeping bags (THANK YOU PAUL!), and sleep in the car. It actually wasn't as bad as it sounds. I guess we were parked in to small apartment complex parking lot (about 4 apartments). We woke up to a couple looking in our window saying "Are there people in there? I think those are feet" the husband said "no dear there aren't people in there and those aren't feet." Our faces were hidden by the trunk cover :) We thought that was a good sign to get up and go.

The South

We got up and started driving, not really knowing where we were going but ended up in Owaka which is where the sea lions and yellow eyed penguins live. We found a nice camp ground that cost $11/person to park there. We could use the kitchen, bathrooms, and living room to hang out before we went to sleep in our car again. It happened to be New Zealand's labor day weekend so there were a lot of local families on long weekend there which mad it really fun. There was a group of 27 Kiwi's staying there that wanted us to join there group. The group was mainly in the 50-70 year range with only a small group of 30 year olds. Towards the end of the night they asked us what our plans were the next day. Since we didn't really have any they invited us to go farm golfing which is basically a pasture of sheep that a farmer has partially turned into a golf course. There are still sheep on the course munching away and there are electric fences around the green's so the sheep can't get to them. It was pretty funny and fun. We'd like to see Tiger play on it.

By the time we got back it was a little too late for us to go anywhere so we decided to stay another night. Someone mentioned there were extra pillows in the laundry room that we should use as padding in our car since we'd been using clothes to lie on. Last night was a lot more comfortable.

Back to Queenstown
It is a rainy day in NZ today so we decided to come back to Queenstown a day early and get some internet stuff done. We're going to sleep in the car one more night and then most likely stay in the YHA tomorrow night. We head out on the 28th (27th for the states) to Auckland and then Sydney the next day. We're going to finish our online scuba diving certification work today and then do our actual dives with the instructors the first weekend in Sydney.

Trying to figure out how to post pictures at this computer.

Pictures

It's a rainy day in Kaikoura and we're waiting for our bus. Found a place to upload pics. These aren't in any order.




Rotorua Luge- Cam was a speed demon. Front: Rob and Cam... Back: Maria and Diana
Rotorua- Preparing to go down the luge

Rotorua- Our 2nd motel (nice matching shirts Rob and Maria)


Taupo- Cool restaurant called L'arte. Cam sitting on a couch made of ceramic pieces




Rotorua- Dinner with the Maori's




Auckland- Only a few hours in NZ. Laying on the glass at the top of the sky tower.




Sunrise from airplane. 1 hour left.






LAX- about to take off!







Auckland- Skytower








Auckland- Sky tower



























































Saturday, October 17, 2009

Wellington-Picton-Kaikoura

So it's been a little while since we've sent an update. Internet has been pretty expensive lately ($1 for 10 minutes) so it's been hard to do everything in 10 minutes...

Wellington- We left Masterton the other day and arrived in Wellington which is an adorable city. Definitely our favorite after Taupo so far. Since it was our last night with Rob and Maria we decided to go out on the town for a beer or 2. After eating at an Italian place for dinner we ended up at a pub where a local band was about to start playing. They were really good and played a lot of cover songs of classic as well as new songs. A couple people started dancing on the dance floor, but then these 2 girls who didn't know each other started doing ballet to the music. No joke... it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen and they didn't know each other. So the band even made a comment about it, something like "anyone know any ballet songs we can play?" So the band kept playing and they made another comment about the girls dancing. It became awkward because no one wanted to dance because they felt bad if they got in the way of these girls twirling and kicking their legs out. People around were looking at each other saying "what is going on?" I decided I'd take things into my own hands to make it not so awkward so I gave my beer to Cam, looked at him, Rob, and Maria and said "watch this." I ran out on the dance floor and did my own interpretive dancing haha... twirls, leg kicks, foot shuffles... all around the dance floor hahaha (mom, just picture me and Molly dancing in the kitchen). Everyone starting laughing and cheering (even the band) and then I exited. It was pretty funny.

Picton- The next day we took the ferry from Wellington to Picton. It was really cold and rainy but just clear enough to see the view of the Queen Charlotte Sound as we arrived in Picton. When we arrived we walked around to a few places to check out prices. First we went to Atlantis, a hostel that looked like a run down college dorm. It was really gross so we moved on. We ended up at the YHA where we paid $58 for the night and ended up getting our own house that was separate from the main dorm.

We went out to dinner and bought a few things to make breakfast. We decided to go back to the main part of the hostel where a few people were hanging out in the lounge and play a round of cards (we've been playing A LOT of cards). We met a couple that had just been through the whole south island so we exchanged places to stay and go, a German that was traveling on his own for a couple months and hitch hiking the whole way. We also met a man from Malta who we had seen on the ferry and our bus. We talked to him for a few minutes and he told us he recognized me because he saw me do my interpretive dancing at the bar the night before hahaha!! oops!

Kaikoura-

The next morning we got up, had breakfast and went to the train station where we would go to Kaikoura. We dropped our bags off and went across the street to play a round of mini golf to pass the time until we had to leave. We boarded the train were on our way. It was a beautiful train ride and only took about 2 hours. When we got there we walked into town, which was only about 300 meters away. We looked at the first place which was nice but decided to check out the hostel that the couple we met stayed at called The Albatross. It seemed like a far walk since we had our heavy bags but it was only about a 1/4-1/2 mile away. We showed up and all they had was a 2 bedroom apartment for $150/night. They told us they'd give it to us for $75/night since we were staying more than 1 night but there would be a chance we'd get another couple in the other room. After discussing it for about 20 minutes we decided to stay. We were able to get a room for 2 nights and food for 2 days for $115 each. We won't be going out to dinner which is great.

Today we are going to go swim with the dolphins and hike around the peninsula. Tomorrow we're going to Kayak before our bus to Queenstown.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Where we are now- Masterton

We are currently in Masterton, NZ at Maria's parent's farm. We went to Napier the other day for a night and checked out a wine vineyard but didn't do the tour because we had missed the early one and there wasn't another one for a while. Cam went swimming in the ocean, while Rob, Maria, and I stood on the beach bundled up in our jackets and sweaters.

We arrived in Masterton yesterday and got to feed 2 lambs that lost their mothers. Maria's parents have 5000-6000 sheep and about 1000 acres of land. It's beautiful here. Jim, Maria's dad told us we would wake up to the birds, however, I don't think he thought we'd wake up to a bird smacking into the window for 3 hours. We thought the bird was trying to get in so we closed the shades but it continued to smash it's body into the window... so weird. We hope he gave himself a big enough headache to not do it tomorrow morning. ;)

We drove to Ngawi and Lake Ferry today to see the Seal colonies (the babies were sooooo cute). We stayed in Lake Ferry for Fish and Chips and returned home in time for tea and biscuits :)

New Zealand is absolutely beautiful. There are so many sheep and the land is so green. A few things we've noticed:

-we don't have to tip at restaurants
-we have to drive on the other side of the road (we haven't had to do it ourselves YET)
-the people are awesome
-our verbiage is different... i.e toilet=bathroom, entree=appetizer, bill=check
-our dollar is stronger which is GREAT

Not sure what we're doing tomorrow but we'll be in Wellington on Friday (Thursday for you guys) then off to the South Island on Saturday (Friday for you).

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Skydiving in TAUPO!!!!

Yeah... we did it..... We went SKYDIVING IN TAUPO!!!!!!!!!!

"We're on Taupo the world"- Cam

It was probably one of the coolest things we've ever done. Ok, I know we said that about the glow worms but we can definitely check this off our list. After much coaxing, we were able to get Rob and Maria (who's scared of heights) to do it with us.

Check out our pics!


Cam was first... Check out the Stache...

Bye Cam!!

Look at the view!!!

WOW!

My turn... I love u mum!





Worth every penny...