Explorin' New Zealand

Cheers Mates!

After 6 hours on planes and 5 hours in the Sydney Airport, we arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. Trevor and Randi rented a car (they're both over 25!) and we explored Auckland. We went to One Tree Hill for a great lookout over the city. Then we visited the Auckland Zoo and saw a kiwi, a red panda, monkeys, tigers, and lots of other animals.

Kim and Randi, our two adrenaline junkies, bungy jumped off the Auckland Harbor Bridge. Meanwhile, Trevor and I watched them from the top of the Sky Tower (700 feet tall) that overlooked the whole city. It was a beautiful sunny day. However, even with the sun out, it was still freezing. I bought a New Zealand beanie to keep warm (it goes well with my Australian Socceroos jacket!)

We also visited a black sand beach 30-minutes away from Auckland. There were very few people around, the sand was soft, and the sun was setting, so we had fun taking lots of photos.

On our way to Rotorua, we took a 2.5 hour detour to go caving. We saw stalactites and stalagmites in one cave and then we went deep underground to see glowworms. We took a boat ride in the pitch black and looked up to see thousands of glowworms above us - it was quite a sight!

In Rotorua, we met up with one of my best friends, Veronica, who is currently living in New Plymouth, NZ. We started our adventures with luging on three different tracks - scenic, intermediate, and advanced, and had way too much fun. The luge course was on top of a mountain overlooking the city and Lake Rotorua. Kim and Randi also went on a giant swing that goes to 150km/hour in 2 seconds. I think their screams could be heard across the city :)

Trevor, Veronica, Randi, and Kim went on a Zydro (aka Zorbing down a hill in a giant hamster ball filled with buckets of warm water). I was the group photographer. They lucked out and got to go twice.

We also went to Te Pui and visited an area with a giant geyser. We waited 30 minutes and watched the geyser explode 20-feet high. We also saw more kiwis and learned more about the Maori culture. Then we spent the afternoon in a Polynesian Spa (one of the top 10 in the world!). There were pools ranging from 39 - 42 degrees Celsius. We relaxed in a 42 degree (107 degree Fahrenheit) pool overlooking Lake Rotorua.

Veronica headed back home as the weekend came to an end and we enjoyed one last night in Rotorua. Tomorrow we head back to Auckland and on Tuesday we fly back to Los Angeles!

Here are more photos of our adventures:

Trev soaked by water at the black sand beach.

Veronica & the geyser

Chillin' at the Minus 5 Degree Bar in Auckland

Stalactites in the Arranui Cave