May 27
Again we woke up around 7:00. It was our last morning to
wake up in Queenstown, which was definitely sad, so we packed up our stuff to
be checked out by 10:00. The day before we found the Catholic Church in town,
so we’d be ready to go Sunday morning. Unfortunately, we woke to rain. Though
we had been very thankful because before we left I checked the weather in
Queenstown and Auckland and it said rain every single day! I was a little
nervous about this, knowing it was going to also be cold…but this was the first
downpour we had seen! While in the lobby we saw someone else ask for
an umbrella from the hotel desk. I had no idea they offered this kind of
service! So, we followed suit and walk to St Joseph’s in the rain, luckily it was only a 5-10 minute walk.
The church was super tiny and quaint. But going really made
me appreciate the Catholic Church and its traditions. Here we were half was
across the world and worshiping the exact way we would in Dallas. There’s no
better way to feel connected to the mystical body of Christ. We did notice one
difference though. During one part of the Mass where we are used to standing as
we say something, they wait until after it’s been said. So there I went, then Husbandy,
but no one else. Hahaha, it was slightly embarrassing, but also kind of funny.
After Mass we walked back to the hotel. D&R were sitting
in the lobby and had already eaten. Since it was still raining they didn’t want
to walk to town, so Husbandy and I ventured out. We walked to a few
places that we were hoping would be open, but they weren’t, so we ended up going to
Brazz again. Not a bad decision since the food was good, but we would have
liked to try something different.
After breakfast, we walked back up “the hill” one last
time and passed D&R on their way down because the sun had started to come
out. We hung around in the lobby for about an hour, but then decided another
walk up the hill was worth going back to town for a little souvenir shopping.
J
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| Pictures don't do "the hill" justice |
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| Around the Copthorne, Queenstown |
Before too long though we were at the Queenstown airport on
our way to Auckland! Around 5:30 we
reached the Copthorne Hotel. First impressions: these people need to talk to
the management in Queenstown, cause their resort was much nicer! The Copthorne
in Auckland was concrete everywhere and things needed to be updated, especially
the bathrooms!! I felt like I needed to wear shoes any time I got out of bed.
Good thing we were in New Zealand and wouldn’t be in our rooms very much.
After some freshening up, we met D&R to walk around the
city. Auckland is very pretty, right on the water, but the scenery just
couldn’t compare to Queenstown. We walked around for a while looking
for a place to eat. We actually went in to a bar type place, sat down, and then
left after realizing they didn’t really have what we wanted to eat. It was
kinda awkward, but it was bar, we sat ourselves…they should have come to take
our order faster. :P R really wanted to go to Britomart for dinner. The entire
day he had been talking about it, but I kept hearing “burrito mart” so I was
thinking something like Freebirds. Hahah. No. Turns out Britomart is an area in
Auckland, and we ate at
The Brewery.
Husbandy and I shared a pizza, I’m pretty sure it had rabbit on it. This was my first time to eat rabbit. Not bad. After dinner we stopped for some ice
cream then went back to the hotel. Husbandy and I needed to figure out what we
were going to do on out free day. Our budget was quickly running out, so we had to
decide if a day trip out of town was what we wanted to do, even if it meant we would have to break the budget. We ended up deciding we would probably be in New Zealand
once in our lives, so we needed to see more than just Queenstown and Auckland. After look at several options we booked the trip D&R had signed up for and headed to bed.
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| Right to left: Where we ate dinner, the Copthorne, Auckland, and a breathalyzer station (?) |
May 28
Husbandy and I woke up around 6 to be at breakfast by 7:00.
We had the same 2 for 1 deal as in Queenstown, same breakfast, but $2 more
expensive. It was drizzling outside, but luckily we were on our way to a guided
bus tour around Auckland. Our tour guide, Ron, was super sarcastic! He kept us
laughing the entire time, and I think he really enjoyed the American’s company.
We all interacted with him and gave him his sarcasm right back.
J One of the most
interesting stories he told was about the famous Auckland Harbor Bridge. It was
originally built with only four lanes, however, it was quickly discovered that
more lanes were needed. So, two young Japanese students designed lanes that
were added to the bridged without extra support columns needing to be built.
These extra lanes were nicknamed the "nip on clip ons." No lie.
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| Right to left: The Auckland bridge, Sky Tower, and driving on the nip on clip ons |
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| Around Auckland |
After the bus tour, we took a ferry with D&R across the
harbor to Davenport. We walked around the small island for a bit and then
stopped at The Patriot for lunch. Husbandy and I stuck to appetizers and beer,
though I did try some of R’s mussels. I was a little skeptical about the
texture, but I ended up liking it! It may have been the sauce that was with the
mussels that I really liked, but I thought they just kinda tasted like…
seafood.
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| On our way to Davenport - most expensive hotel in Auckland, The Hilton, is built right on the water |
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| In Davenport |
After more pics and walking around Davenport, we headed
back to Auckland where we just kind of hung near the hotel until 6:00 which
meant it was time for our
dinner cruise. Before the cruise we were blessed with
an amazing sunset. It was absolutely beautiful, so we tried to capture it on
camera the best we could. By this time the weather had cleared up, a little
cloudy and cool, but not raining! The dinner cruise was nice, our guides, Pablo
and Michaela, were so much fun. They were both young and got along great
with us. For dinner we were served
bread, shrimp with a hazelnut sauce, salmon, potatoes and artichoke, cream
brulee, and coffee or hot chocolate. Husbandy and I were unaware that entrée in
New Zealand doesn't mean main course….so when we got one shrimp as our entrée
we were a little surprised. Luckily entrée is just the course before the main
course, so we were excited to see salmon.
J Unfortunately there was zero wind that night,
as in we never reach 1 knot, so we just kinda sat in the harbor. But the night
was pretty and the company was nice, so we had a good time. I was a little skeptical about the nip on clip
on story Ron told us earlier in the day, so I asked Pablo what people around
the city called the bridge. He didn’t immediately say nip in clip on, but once
I mentioned he was like oh yeah, we call it that. I guess it’s true!
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| Beautiful sunset! |
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| Dinner cruise |
We started to head back to land around 8:00 and literally as
soon as we got off the boat it started raining. It was the weirdest thing!!
Since it was raining we all decided to go to bed cause we had to wake up
eearrrly to go on our
day trip!! I’m pretty sure we were in bed by 9:00.
May 29
Husbandy and I woke up at 5:30 to get ready for the day trip
which had a prompt 6:30am pick up time. While at the bus station getting ready to
go, we saw our tour guide from yesterday, Ron. He of course recognized us,
cause he loved us (J),
so he warned our bus driver about the crazy Americans. Our tour guide was named
Kenny, though Ron told us to call him Brad Pitt.
We had quite a drive to our first stop, so we tried to sleep
on the bus, but the mic was up super loud and Kenny talked for 1.5 hours straight
about New Zealand and its history. I mean, wow, it was A LOT of info. We later
asked him to turn the sound down just a bit. Our first stop was the
Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. Basically there were these little worms that hung from the ceiling of the cave and glow. They
were pretty cool to see. We actually got in a boat and our tour guide rowed us
around the cave for about 10-15 minutes. You had to stay quite because the
worms stop glowing when they hear noise as a defense mechanism. Luckily,
everyone stayed quiet and we saw the worms glow the whole time. Husbandy and I
really enjoyed our tour guide, he had a very interesting voice, we still mimic
him today.
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| A small dose of New Zealand countryside |
After the worms it was back to the bus for lunch….premade
sandwiches, an apple, and a cookie. I actually kind of like the sandwich, but I
don’t know that Husbandy was impressed. We drove for another while and stopped
at the
Rotorua Agridome. This was a
large farm where we drove around and saw cows (they literally came RIGHT up to
us….I think D may have been kissed by one :P), fed sheep, watched a sheep dog do his thing, and watched a sheep
shearing. We learned a lot about New Zealand agriculture. I was also really
impressed with the sheep shearing, our guide, Shane, made it look really easy.
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| Lots of farm animals |
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| Sheep dog showing us his tricks |
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| Sheering sheep |
Our next stop on the day trip was a
Maori village at Te Puia.
The Maori people are the New Zealand natives. This stop was definitely my
favorite of the day! Right when we got there we sat in on a traditional Maori
dance/welcoming ceremony. We took a really cool video during part of the
ceremony. After the ceremony was over, we took a guided tour, with Carla,
around the village. Our first stop on the tour was to see a couple of geysers. We
were lucky enough to see both geysers go off which was pretty neat. We also saw
a hot springs pool which had been nicknamed the “conception pool.” Don’t think
I’ll be sitting in there any time soon.
J It was pretty chilly out so Carla took us of to some concrete slabs which were geothermally
heated. The slabs were built over hot steam, and they certainly worked! In some
areas it got so hot I could feel my skin getting burned (that word may be too
strong) through my clothes. We sat there while Carla told us a lot about the
Maori people and her childhood growing up in the village. It was all very
interesting. Our next stop was a mud pool, so we learned about mud baths and
such. Because our bus had to leave, we had to cut the tour short, but not
before we got to see a kiwi bird! Kiwi’s are the national bird of NZ and are nocturnal,
so they are hard to catch. But, we went into controlled environment where it was
dark and we spotted one all curled up in the corner. Cute little
puff balls.
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| Rotorua, NZ |
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| Maori village |
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| Welcome Ceremony |
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| Geysers |
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| Right to left: Carla, natural warming, mud bath, Maori art |
At about 5:00 we were back in the bus heading back to
Auckland. Husbandy and I were glad we made the trip to see and learn more about
NZ. We’re not quite sure when we’ll be back on the other side of the world
again. J
Once back, we decided to eat dinner with D&R at an Irish
pub called
Danny-Doolans. The atmosphere was really fun, great music. Husbandy
was really craving wings so I consented. They definitely weren’t Wings Stop,
but they were pretty good. We also caved for some fries and beer. Around 10:00 we headed back to the hotel. It had been a long
day with lots of traveling so we quickly fell asleep.
May 30
For our last day of the trip we decided to take it easy and
sleep in. We woke up with no alarm and leisurely packed up our things for check out. We
had missed breakfast, so we decided to try a coffee shop that was all over
Auckland, Esquires. The muffin we split was alright, but the coffee was really
good. Probably cause the put lots of caramel in it.
J After breakfast we walked around
Auckland and made our way to Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern
hemisphere. We didn’t want to pay to go in it, but we did get to see some
people jump off of it and walk around the perimeter. Crazy Kiwis (ok the people
who were doing it were most likely tourists…).
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| Financial District |
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| Sky Tower |
After we were finished sightseeing we met D&R for lunch
at the fresh fish market. Ron had original told us about it on our bus tour
around the city, so we had to try it. Husbandy ended up getting fish and chips,
and I got the captain’s feast which consisted of an assortment of seafood.
Maybe it was a little risky with a 13 hour flight in my near future, but I just
had to. One of the things on the plate was oysters. I figured since I liked the
mussels I tried a few days ago, I’d like oysters, so I gave it a try. Wrong.
It was not the same. Don’t think I’ll be springing for any of those here in The
States.
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| Fisherman's Wharf |
After a short walk around Fisherman’s Wharf we headed back to
the hotel. We still had a while until we were going to be picked up for the airport, but we had really done all we could around the city. We ended up playing spades in the
lobby with D&R and getting ready for the flight. Our ride to the airport was filled with
laughs as we remembered all the funny things that had happened throughout the
trip. I’m pretty sure Husbandy and Rich had everyone in the car laughing, even
those who weren’t on the trip with us, including the driver.
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| Random pictures I wanted to add. Right to left: I think our trashcans should say this is The States, my swollen feet, the Starbucks of Auckland (don't worry, Starbucks was there too), view from our room in Auckland, this pattern was everywhere in NZ, speed limit sign, and a random billboard. Clearly these people aren't partying with my friends. :) |
We made it through security without any random compliance checks!
Yea us!! We had slightly better seats for the flight home because D&R let
us in on their traveling tricks and we contacted the travel agency that booked
our flight and asked for a change of seats. We again watched movies, played
some games, and tried to sleep.
Once we landed in LA, Husbandy and I raced to get
our luggage and then through customs. We knew there was an earlier flight we
wanted to catch, so we quickly said our goodbyes and ran to the domestic
terminal…not an easy feat with all our luggage! When we originally booked our
tickets we knew there was an earlier flight, but without knowing how long
customs would take, it was a risk to book. Plus, we decided we could just try standby if
we could. Once we finally reached the correct terminal we went to customer
service counter, but we were told the airline did not do standby. Dang! The only way to
get on the earlier flight was to pay some outrageous price! Normally it wouldn't matter too much, and it didn't for Husbandy because he didn't start work until
the next week, but I had a meeting at work at 8:30 the next morning, so I
wanted to get to bed asap. (PS when I heard there was a meeting scheduled at
that time the day I got back I just kinda laughed…) With no flight change we
would have been getting into Dallas around 11:45pm (again, my gracious mom had
agreed to pick us up). Dallas was also having bad weather, so there was a
chance the flight would be delayed. Despite these two things I
decided I wanted to just suck it up and not spend the money. Husbandy had a
better idea and decided to call the airline and try to get them to change our
ticket. He was very nice on the phone and had zero trouble getting our flight
switched! Yea Husbandy!! Somehow in the mix our baggage fee was also waived! We
were excited about this.
Once on the plane we finally relaxed and started to watch a
movie. About half way through our flight we had some terrible turbulence. I. Mean.
Terrible. I had never been through turbulence like this and hope I’m never
there again. It was the kind where you are flying out of your seat and you’re
sure the airplane is just going to fall right out of the sky. Luckily, I had
Husbandy to grab onto…but the poor girl sitting next to me was alone and just
curled up in her seat and put a blanket over her. It last for what I thought
was too long, but eventually the pilots got above the storm. I knew we were
just going to have to go back through it to land though. I said a lot of
prayers, and thankfully it wasn't as bad when we landed. I was so happy to be
on land! We got our luggage and met my mom. On the way home we told her lots of
stories about the trip. J
At this point May 30th had officially been the longest day of our
lives…literally…we kind of lived it twice with the time change, so we were super
tired.
I don’t know that I ever thought I would actually go to New
Zealand. It was such a wonderful trip with Husbandy. Though it was a little
short, we were happy to be home, in our new home (!) and start our lives….as a
married couple….living in the same city.
Just in case you were wondering, I treated myself to Starbucks on the way to work in the morning and tried to stay alert as best as
I could during the meeting. I actually think I did pretty well, surprisingly.
There you have it! Our entire trip to NZ. I hope we continue to get to travel together, seeing the world is so fun!
