Day 7 Last day on the North Island….Let’s go for a drive

Today was going to be our slow drive from Napier down to Wellington. If we did it straight it’d be around 4 hours, but we decided to take our time and see things on the way down. We started off by swinging into one of the wineries in the area before heading out, they were the only ones who opened at 9AM. About ½ way down the drive was a town called Woodville, we stopped there for a short 30 minute hike to just stretch our legs. They had a long hiking trail along a gorge and we just did the beginning portion of it.

We also drove through a town called Dannevirke, which surprised me because it was a Danish town in the middle of New Zealand. Just thought I’d mention that.

Just south of Woodville we stopped at the Tui brewery for lunch. We’d seen signs for this type of beer for a while but hadn’t been able to find it on tap anywhere. It was actually pretty good and brewed in the middle of nowhere. Turned out to be a good stop for lunch.

From here we headed out to Martinborough, which is basically a wine territory. We were having trouble because we rolled into town at 3PM and many of the wineries closed during the week at that time. We ended up finding 3 of them that were opened, which was plenty since we still had to make the drive into Wellington. Most of the wines here are Pinots, and some were pretty good. We bought one bottle and figured we’d end up drinking it in our Bed and Breakfast on some rainy day over the next two weeks we’re here.

We then took a straight shot to Wellington and got in around 5PM, right in the middle of rush hour, which is significantly lighter than what we’d see in the states. Wellington is the capitol of NZ, and is a legitimate city, nothing like the towns we’ve stayed in so far. We found our hotel, checked in, and headed out for dinner. Turns out our hotel is 1 block from the main strip of bars and restaurants. We had some fancy schmancy pizza which turned out to be good. You know I actually did something I’d never thought I’d ever do….I ordered a pizza that had sour cream on it, I had my doubts, but it was really good.

We then just took a walk down by the waterfront, nothing too special. Turned in early since we had to be up early to catch the ferry to the south island.

Day 6 Let’s go for a LONG walk

Well the 1st item on the agenda today was to get the tire on the car fixed. Marlo took off to go to the information center to figure out what we should do today and I drove about 200 ft around the block to the auto place, they told me they couldn’t patch the tire so I had to buy a new one and it would take them about 30 minutes. So I left them to do their work and walked around the corner and found Marlo at the info center, where she was discussing the local hikes with the lady working there. We ended up deciding to take a walk to the end of the cape kidnappers, which was about 10 miles or so away, she told us the walk was pretty long, about 10 kilometers each way, but it went right along the shoreline next to the cliffs out to the point. On our way back to pick up the car we stopped at a possum store, they had all kinds of things from sweaters to throws made out of possum skin. Possums are everywhere out here, but they aren’t quite like the ones in the states, they aren’t as menacing looking. The pelts are soft too, but the sweaters were a bit pricey so I passed. No need to pay that much for something made from a possum.

When we got to the auto place the car was all ready to go, so it didn’t end up holding us back much at all, just setting us back about $80 or so. I’ll know when I see the exchange rage AMEX gives me.

On the way out to the hike we stopped at one of the wineries that was right on the way. This region is known for it’s wine, so we had to give some a try. Just like by us, the tasting was free, so that was nice. The wine wasn’t too bad, it was actually pretty good, but we didn’t have too much of it since we had to head out on a long hike. We bought some bread and spreads to eat while on the hike and headed out to the starting point.

We drove out to start the hike, which began at a trailer park. They actually give you guidelines based upon the tides that dictate when you can do this walk. The times vary each day since so do the tides. Today you had to wait til 11:15 before you could start, which is pretty much exactly the time we got out there. You had to start your walk back from the end of the cape no later than 4PM to avoid being stranded out there all night by high tide. We didn’t plan to come anywhere close to staying that long, we figured it’d be a 2 to 2 ½ hour walk each way, so we could get back by 4:00 or so. It was funny to walk through a New Zealand version of a trailer park, there was no evidence of white trash present, it was very neat and clean. Not what you’d expect to see if you were stateside.

When you began the walk you could look out at the cliffs and beach we’d be walking along to get to the end, the cape at the end, and it looked a LONG way out there. But the walk was great, the cliffs were probably 200 to 250 ft tall and were all sorts of colors from grey clay to reds and tans. The colors were in large bands, I’m assuming depending upon age and what type of rock they were. The water basically comes right up to the base of the cliffs, which is why you have to do this walk during low tide, otherwise there’d be no beach to walk on. We were right in our guess, it took about 2 hours to get out to the end, where we had our lunch and then went a bit further to get to the very tip of the cape. We had to climb up to the top of the cliffs at that point to get to the reserve that is for the Gannet breeding, these are colorful sea birds that all nest right at the end of the cape. There were thousands of them, all sitting on their nests (it is spring here remember). They weren’t afraid of people at all and would come swooping right over your head to find their mates sitting on their eggs. The views from up here were really good. Also of note, once we left the beach area to climb up the cliff to the top, part of that walk was actually through pasture full of sheep and cows, the cows were really curious and actually began coming towards us like they were threatening. Once we turned and faced them they ran the other way.

The walk back was quicker since we didn’t stop to eat or take many pictures. We got back around 4:30 and instantly took off the shoes and put on the sandals, the feet were ready to feel some air. We figured the total walk was around 14 miles, so we were a bit fatigued. The weather was PERFECT again, it’s really unbelievable how great it’s been for us, all anyone ever told us was to get ready for rain. I’m sure we’ll get our share, but it hasn’t happened yet. Today was actually warm, we both bit sunburn despite coating ourselves in sun block.

We had planned to go to a winery afterwards, but we were kinda sweaty and just wanted to shower so we went back to our B&B to get cleaned up before going out to find dinner. Nothing too major happened for the rest of the day, we went to the irish bar from yesterday and had 1 beer since neither of us was hungry enough for dinner yet. We ended up at a Mongolian BBQ which was really good, but tons of food, now I’m totally stuffed but don’t feel guilty about it since I walked 14 miles today and have only eaten some bread and my breakfast.

Red Sox win the World Series in a clean sweep of the lowly Colorodo Rockies. Can any national league team compete? Guess not. I also saw the Patriots trounced Washington by like 50 pts.

The plan tomorrow is to get up whenever we wake and get out of here and begin our 4 hour drive south to Wellington which is where we’ll take the ferry to the south island in two days. We plan to take the drive slowly and stop at several places along the way.

Day 5 (Sun Oct 28) Pop goes the Tire and the tire goes pop

Well even though our place was a dump, the sleeping was still fine, and the shower was hot, those are the two important things and they were acceptable. Got up around 8:00 or so and checked out of the dump and headed back to the café we had lunch in yesterday for breakfast and then off to hike Huka Falls. The total walk was to be around 2 hours up and 2 hours back, so we figured it’d get up right up to lunch and then we could drive out to our next destination, Napier in Hawk’s Bay. The river rapids were pretty impressive, mainly because of the volume of water that rushes through them and then over the falls, which weren’t very high, but were still impressive with that amount of water flow. I have to say that the weather has been great since we’ve been here, but today was perfect. Great day for a long hike. The walk started out just going along side the river, which widened and slowed down after we got further upstream from the falls. After about a mile or so the trail moved in from the river and more towards the open prairie where we saw lots of sheep and cows. We walked right up on a baby cow that had just been born, we heard the noise and were wondering what it was, it was the baby crying when it popped out of mamma. It was just trying to walk and was still all wet. That was pretty cool.

We took about an hour and 45 minutes to do the walk from start to turn-around point, where there was a dam and on the other side was a river which very closely resembled the American river back home in Folsom, with tall rocks on either side. On our way back we stopped to see how the little calf was doing and another cow went over to check on it, then pooped on it’s head. I thought that odd, but the little guy took it in stride. He seemed to be just fine, and sleeping next to his mom.

By the time we got done hiking it was around 1:00 and time for lunch, so we headed back into Taupo to the same bar we were at yesterday to try and take advantage once again of the free internet connection there. We also caught the 1st inning of game 3 of the world series before leaving and driving off to the Hawk’s Bay region, where we planned to stay the next two nights in Napier.

The drive was nice, very open and green. Tons of sheep. We even passed a golf course that looked like it used sheep to mow the grass. There were people teeing off into a fairway full of sheep. That was pretty funny to see.

We arrived in Napier around 4:00 and had a few bed and breakfasts in mind so we drove though town til we found them and parked the car to go see who had vacancies. Here’s where the driving on the left side of the road takes it’s 1st toll. I (Mike) didn’t correctly gage the left side of the car when pulling over to the side of the road to park and brushed the tire on the curb, it pinched, and pop….flat tire. Turned out we were directly across the street from the bed and breakfast we ended up staying at, and found out that we were also just 1 block from a tire shop. Luckily there was no damage to the car other than the popped tire, so I put the spare on for now and will take the damaged tire to the shop tomorrow to get patched. Shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Our Bed and Breakfast is very nice here, makes up for the dump of last night. Very quaint, all painted nicely and the owners were very friendly too. We’re about 2 blocks from downtown Napier, and we’re right along the street that runs along the waterfront. Napier is right on the east coast of New Zealand, on the Pacific Ocean.

We took a stroll into town to see what was there, ended up at an irish pub and had dinner there which was good for pub grub. On the walk back we found some other restaurants that looked interesting for tomorrow night, and we also found the information center which can give us some direction on activities for tomorrow, Marlo will go check that out while I handle the tire problem.

Day 4: Land of the Lost

Another great breakfast at the b&b and we were out the door before 9AM. Before heading towards our next destination which was Taupo we tried to swing into the local library to see if there was free WiFi, but we quickly found there was not. We also found out that the gas stations can’t use overseas credit cards at the pump, we have to go pay inside everytime, it took a potential temper tantrum from Mike before we figured thae one out.

The drive to Taupo is about an hour or so, but on the way we stopped at Orokei Korako a thermal reserve that Collin, the owner of the 1st bed and breakfast we stayed at, recommended to us as the place to go if we wanted to see thermal stuff as a tourist but not be bunched in w/ other tourists, because it was out of the way not many people went there. I have to say it was pretty cool, several geysers and bubbling mud, boiling water, and steam rising from the ground all around you. The walk was about an hour and a half all through this terrain, so it wasn’t a small area. I half expected Chaka or a Sleestak to run by us, it seemed really prehistoric (Land of the Lost reference there, sorry for those that just don’t get it). The running water all around us was bathwater warm at the beginning and too hot to touch at the top, I can only imagine what the actual pools were like, I’m guessing since they were bubbling that they were boiling. Takes a college education to figure that stuff out. There weren’t too many other people there, evidently the tour buses don’t come here because you have to take a boat across a lake to get to the thermal grounds and the boat wasn’t large enough to fit a bus load of people. Evidently this is one of the best thermal spots in the whole world, it was definitely like nothing I’d ever seen.

After that 2 hour break we finished our drive into Taupo, which is situated right on a very large lake, I’m guessing it’s larger than Tahoe. Since we didn’t have reservations anywhere here our 1st agenda item was to find a place to sleep tonight, even though it was only about 1:00. We didn’t want to waste too much time doing this, so we quickly found a hotel and checked in, the place is kind of a dump, but the bed was clean, that’s all I really need.

We had the whole afternoon to kill, so we drove about 4 miles outside of town to the “Craters of the Moon”, which was basically more thermal ground. It wasn’t as impressive as what we did earlier, but it was still pretty cool. There wasn’t as much vegetation around this place, so it really did look like the moon. There were also large craters here, which is where the name came from. That was about a 45 minute walk for us, so a bit more exercise which is all good. After that we drove right across the street to some tourist trap that was a honey store, they had all kinds of honey they make onsite from literally millions of bees. I have to admit it was pretty cool. We even tried wine made of honey, which is what mead is, I never knew this.

We made our way back into town and decided to search for an internet connection so we could email our folks to let them know we arrived here a few days ago safely and to see about booking our accommodations in the next couple of destinations we had in mind. We went to the café we had lunch in and paid for the wireless connection which was enough to everything we needed to do done. After that we found a nice Irish pub to relax and have a couple of beers, and low and behold I was able to pick up a free wifi connection here, so we did more planning and hotel booking.

Our final activity of the day was dinner, we walked about 100 ft from our hotel door to a pub that was also a restaurant.. the Crooked Door Inn. We had a massive seafood compilation that had three full plates of foot stacked on top of each other when it was served on a tiered tray. Scallops, prawns, salmon, mussles, oysters, and other stuff was all included. So now we’re stuffed and ready to go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a big hike before we drive out to Hawk’s Bay.

Day 3: Let’s go for a walk….

Once again we were able to jump up early due to our time zone advantage and headed downstairs for our breakfast. The older couple that own this B&B had a great set up for breakfast, the wife evidently makes fresh muffins each morning, they were really good. She provided fresh fruit and yogurt that was outstanding and she also had fresh eggs from their chickens that were really good too. Their dog had just had pups and she brought out the 3 of them to show us, they had to only be a week or so old, they were really small and sweet. The daddy dog barked and jumped proudly as she displayed them to us. She also had a small cage in the living room with newly hatched chickens that were under a heat lamp. She was very proud of them too.

We finished up breakfast and were able to head out by 9AM, and by 9:30 we were on the 1st trail that we planned to hike today. The total walk was about 2 hours and it weaved through an "exotic" forest that was actually created by the Kiwis to test different trees from other countries to see which could grow best in this environment for industrial use. It was odd because most of the trees were Californian, there were coastal redwoods, douglas firs, sugar pines, and several others that were pretty familiar. Marlo and I joked that we didn’t have to come all the way out here to have this hike... but of course the under growth and the even some of the tree properties were totally different. Part of the walk brought us along the hillside with a spectacular view of the town with the lake in the background and thermal pools in the foreground. The geyser was shooting up at this time too, so that was cool to see from afar. There were several trails where we were, two were shorter hikes than the one we did and one was an 8 hour one, we weren’t quite up for blowing a whole day walking through the woods, so we stuck to our 2 hour hike. There were a lot of mtn biking trails too, and they even had built in ramps for jumping and some other obstacles built into the track.

Once we finished the first walk we drove about 2 miles up the road to Blue lake and did our 2nd hike which went completely around the lake. This was a completely different type of walk, there were no redwoods or pines, it was all indigenous plants which are much more tropical and almost prehistoric looking. The coolest "tree" here is a Pongas which is a fern tree. Very prehistoric feeling... and have been on just about every hike we've been on thus far. There were duck tours going on here too, which was funny to see, they plunged into the lake and did a quick circle and were on their way off to their next stop. The only place I had ever seen duck tours was in Boston. This hike was easier than the 1st one, there was little climbing and was pretty much all along the waterfront of the lake. It took about an hour and a half total and once we were done it was around 1:30 and we were ready for some beer and headed back to our familiar bar to watch the Red Sox game which had started at 1:00.

The lunch crowd was just thinning out when we got to the Pig n’ Whistle, I don’t think they’d changed the channel since yesterday because the world series was already on even though no one was watching it. (The Pig and Whistle used to be the old police station, hence the name of the bar.) The bartenders saw us come in and gave me the thumbs up when they saw I noticed the game was already on. About 1/2 way through the game the bar was pretty much empty and a couple walked in, with the guy wearing a Colorodo Rockies cap on his head, I was pretty amazed. I had figured there could potentially be parts of Red Sox Nation out here, but not Rockies fans. Go figure. He said he’d never have imagined sitting in New Zealand watching the world series with a red sox fan. They were cool folks, from Denver, and evidently she worked for a tourism company and they were tagging along w/ one of the trips, which was mainly for Seniors, so they slipped away for some free time to watch the game. Four or five beers later the Sox won the game and we came back to the bed and breakfast to clean up before heading out to dinner.

The bartender at the Pig n’ whistle (she had a cool name, Kirianna) recommended a place for dinner so we went there to try it out. It was a bit pricey, but very good, way better than the Indian food from last night. They actually served meat fairly raw on a rock that the waiter told me was 400 deg Celcius, you cut up the meat and rolled it around on the rock for a few seconds to cook it before eating it. It was interesting, and definitely different.

After dinner we finished the day off by going to the Polynesian spa that is right downtown, only a few blocks from where we ate dinner. Evidently this is rated as one of the ten best spas in the world. We got a private spa, which was basically our own room with a hot tub in it that was enclosed on 3 sides and the open side faced out to the lake, so the view was really nice. The water was all from the natural hot springs that are underneath the whole area, so it smelled like sulfur and was sort of algae greenish in tint, but very warm and soothing.Turns out we timed the stay at the spa just right, because we were able to watch the moon rise - it was a full moon - and the city lights turn on as the sun set. We were serenaded by sea gulls as the sun set. haha. We soaked in there for 30 minutes before heading back to the B&B which is where I sit now getting ready to fall alsleep because I’m pretty relaxed after soaking in that water. They say that natural hot spring water is healthy for you, I am not sure about any magical healing powers but I definitely am relaxed and shouldn’t have any problems sleeping tonight.

Day Two: (The Boston Masacre)

Thanks to the time advantage we got up early and made it to our breakfast at 8AM with no problem. Collin gave us a map and showed us the best way to drive to Rotorua, which was to be our next stop. He also gave us a handful of other tips on places to see before jumping over to the South Island in a week. He referred to our destination affectionately as ‘rotten’rua because of the heavy sulfur smell there due to the volcanic hot springs all around the area.

Before leaving town we went back down to the glow worm caves and did the 45 minute hike around a trail that gave great views into the river flowing into the caves. The trail was really beautiful with lush green valley. Was interesting to see the forest on top of what we had floated through the afternoon before. The trail weaved through open caves both large and small - a small one is to the left.. . and some beautiful river views (below). We were lucking out on the weather, it had been raining up til now but both of our days here so far have been perfect, blue skies and sunny, around 65 degrees.

By 10AM we were on the road for our ~2 hour drive to Rotorua, where we hoped to be able to find a pub that would be broadcasting the world series on Sky TV, channel 1, we had already confirmed it was on. The Red Sox had of course made it to the series this year, I had something to do with that since we came here to New Zealand and made it difficult to see the games. If I was home and in front of a TV, guaranteed they’d have lost by now.

We made one stop on the way at some small town, Tirua, that Collin suggested we quickly stop to see the information/tourist building. and a few artsy shops. The info center was shaped like a big dog and a big bear made out of corrogated white sheet metal. Was odd looking, and definately unique. The shops weren't much... but clearly a spot where the tour busses stop on the way between Auckland and Rotorua. We strolled up and down the main strip there for 15 minutes then took off. Rotorua was only another 20 minutes away.

We got in just before noon and found a place in the local car park, and walked around the small town of Rotorua for a bit. This town was definitely larger than Waitomo, with a downtown of about 4 or 5 square blocks, and nested right on the banks of a large lake. We grabbed a quick lunch at a very San Francisco’ish deli before nesting at the local pub - Pig and Whistle - that had sky sport on the TV, and they were kind enough to put the world series on for us. We were the only Americans in there, but we struck up conversation w/ several of the bartenders and some of the locals at the bar. They were intrigued by the baseball since they had limited knowledge of the game. We hung out there most of the afternoon, through the 7th inning at lease, since the Sox were well in command (13 to 1) so I felt comfortable enough that we could leave and they wouldn’t blow the lead. I’d better not find out tomorrow that they brought in Eric Gagne to pitch the 9th inning and he gave up 15 runs. It’s possible.

We made our way about 5 miles outside of town to our B&B for the next two nights stay. This was more of a traditional bed and breakfast compared to where we were last night, which was more of a room like at a hotel. This was a bedroom in a house, but it’s very nice and the place is situated up on a hillside and our room has a great view of the town and lake below. We drove back into town for dinner, settled on some Indian food place because there was a good crowd , turned out no one knew what they were doing because the food was average at best, but my hunger was gone.

That was pretty much it for the day, we took a quick stroll after dinner to get some of the crap Indian food settled into our guts then headed back to the B&B where I’m writing this now. I think tomorrow we’re going to do a serious hike in the morning, hopefully making it back into town to catch the tail end of the Sox game 2.

So far my overall impression is positive of New Zealand. The people are very friendly. A few observations have surprised me, first of all there are many more Maori people than I anticipated. These are the native people to this land, they are of Polynesian decent and look like Samoans or Hawaiians. There was actually a big protest by a group of them outside of the bar when we were watching the world series today, the bar is right next to the courthouse. I guess a Maori guy was arrested for something and it’s big news that they feel it was due to racism and they are protesting it. Looks like America isn’t the only country with racism issues. David Allen Coe would like it here too. The other thing I’ve noticed that I didn’t expect to this degree is the tropical feel of the forests, the landscape as we drive around resembles Vermont a lot, lush green pastures and rolling hills for as far as the eye can see, but when we hiked through the woods you could have told me we were in central America it was so tropical feeling.

Day 1: The Glow Maggots

It was raining when we landed... but it didn't last for long. Once we got the car the sun came out. It was like NZ was welcoming us!

The drive was only about 2 hours, and very picturesque with all the lush green countryside here. We got to our bed and breakfast, Waitomo Guest Lodge, and were able to check in at that early hour, which was to our benefit because they gave us the best room at the place, with a great view of the hillsides and pastures. The owner was a guy named Collin, he was very friendly and gave us an overview of everything to do in the small town, and he even went as far as to tell us which places weren’t any good, were overpriced, or had poor customer service. We took a couple hours to stroll around the small town, by small I mean only about a few hundred feet from beginning of civilization to the end of it.

At 3PM we had made reservations to go see the glowing worms. What you actually do here is inner tube through underground rivers and streams while looking up at the top of the caves at the thousands of green glowing lights that are emitted from the butts of maggots. But for tourism purposes the maggots have been renamed ‘glow worms’. Gotta love good marketing. It turned out that the typical group of 10 people that go together was going to just be Marlo and I and our guide, a local guy named Lucas, evidently things were slow this afternoon, so he told us he’d take us on the typically 3 hour tour but since it was just the two of us he could show us some other things as well. Looks like we lucked out. The water was cold, the wet suits were uncomfortable, but the ride was very cool and well worth it. There were spots when we turned off our helmet lamps and just floated through the caverns in total blackness looking up at the thousands of tiny florescent green lights, it looked like a bizarre sky you might see in tahoe filled with stars, only they were green . We also had to take the tubes over several underground waterfalls, they weren’t too big so the danger level was low, but it was fun none the less. For the "extra part" of the tour, we hopped a railing and went to look at another cave that was loaded with stalagtites and stalagmites. Was really cool. The railing and walk way we jumped onto was pretty significant too... because it turned out that our guide had been one of the guys to build it a few years ago. They sent the metal beams down a natural shaft (way high up) and then waded the stuff upstream in the dark. Was crazy to think! When we went to leave the tour group before us had thrown extra inner tubes on top of our bus, so Lucas had to do donuts in the parking lot to throw them off. This wasn’t a big deal, but the couple families in the parking lot who were doing the trail hike didn’t understand what we were up to and gave us a really good confused look.

This turned out to be a great way to spend the 1st day here, and that cold water helped keep us both awake and alert to avoid any jet lag, although in reality New Zealand happens to only be 4 hours different in time than California, the adapting won’t be too hard. We’re actually 20 hours ahead, but the actual time difference is just 4 hours, it’s just a day off. But thanks to my lack of sleep and excess of convulsions on the plane I was pretty tired, so we went to the local pub for a some beers and to the local youth hostel restaurant for some pizza before turning in….at only 8:30, but we both went down instantly and slept straight through the night.

The Trip there

I’d love to say the rest of our flight to New Zealand was uneventful, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. All of our flights were right on time, and despite LAX being a hell hole, we got on our connecting flight without any problem or delay. The flight from L.A. to Auckland is around 12 hours, so we figured if we could get some good sleep on the plane we’d be all ready to go the day we arrived, since we got in at about 6AM. Marlo had asked the pharmacist about any good sleep aids and he recommended melatonin, which is a natural hormone your body creates when you sleep, the pills help you fall asleep ‘naturally’ and you tend to sleep well. At least that is what is supposed to happen. After we ate dinner on the flight we popped one of the melatonin pills to try to zonk out for the rest of the trip. Within about 5 minutes I (Mike) was having convulsions in my window seat. When I regained consciousness Marlo was shaking me and had a look of terror on her face, but I was so out of it I had no idea what had just happened. All I knew is that something was very wrong. I then had another convulsion for about half a minute. When that one ended I had hot and cold flashes for about an hour and then another convulsion. It was a horrible feeling thinking I was going to die on that plane and there was nothing that could be done, we were thousands of miles out over the Pacific ocean, so I just sat there in my seat and waited for the next seizure to come about. Fortunately that was the end of those episodes, but I didn’t know that at the time, I was petrified to go to sleep because I didn’t know when the next one would hit me. After several hours I seemed to return to normal and was able to fall asleep for a bit.

We arrived in Auckland and retrieved our luggage and got our rental car all by 7:30AM and were on the road south to Waitomo where we had bed and breakfast reservations and planned to go through some caves that have some sort of glowing worms in them.

Travel Day

Well it finally got here, Marlo's 3 week vacation and Mike marking the end of his sabbatical. We're sitting in Sacramento Metro in lovely terminal B waiting for our flight down to L.A. and then the 12 our jaunt over to New Zealand. Got all the baggy/comfortable clothes on, I am not sure it'll really matter though, I'm prepared for 12 hours of hell.

Preparing for the trip there

Haven't left yet, just testing this blog thing to see how well it'll work. Right now we're just stocking up on REI stuff since we'll be doing tons of hiking while we're there. Got the fancy schmancy pants that turn into shorts, expensive hiking shoes, all kinds of rain gear, etc.

I wish there was a way I could practice driving on the left side of the road without killing anyone, especially myself. Guess I'll just be rolling the dice there.