Kia Ora,Let's get one thing straight right now, Mike and I have been in this internet cafe for over 3 hours now downloading pictures for your viewing pleasure so you all better go and look at them!!!!!!!
BY THE WAY, a big shout out to Ruth and John for dealing with us and out NINETEEN emails with all the pictures and LITTLE CAPTIONS that go along with them!
Let it also be known that it is 9:45 PM here and we have to get up at 6 AM tomorrow to catch a bus on the Kiwi experience.... Does anyone know, other than my family and Mike's, how hard it is for us to get up early?!?! Well, it sucks, but then again, we are on vacation in New Zealand.....
So far things have been great! We have some wonderful pictures that we just spent THREE HOURS downloading, so definitely check them out. The website will explain most of those adventures so far:
www.geocities.com/mnladventures (for those that don't have the address yet!)Today Mike and I bought a stylin' Toyota Cressida (it is blue and has a sunroof...yipee) This place called Budget Buggies is awesome since they bought the car back from us already for $500NZ less than we paid for it. That means we only spent $250US to have a car for a month! Sweet huh? This allows us to move freely around the islands and there is tons to see and do!
Tomorrow we are off to the North Shore to the Ninety Mile Beach and the Bay of Islands, it is supposed to be marvelous! Can't wait. We pick up our car on Monday as it is in for service and inspection right now. Once we have the car we are off to the East Coast and then to various places where there are adventures to be had. Hey Carla and Ard, what exact caving adventures did you go on? There are many and we want to choose one that is the best. Thanks :) Any other suggestions would be great as well.
Well, we have had enough of this damn computer for one day so we are out of here....we just got a warning call from the owners! GET OUT! WE ARE CLOSED! They are going to make us sign up for memberships soon! Ahhhh
Lots of love, check out the pictures next week, give Ruth some time to post them, and talk to you all soon! Lauren and Mike XO
New Zealand: Our descent into Auckland on the first of March
2: Same as above, there is quite a contrast in the city to country here, as you can see for yourselves.
Samade
Amazing sunset: This was the most spectacular sunset by our campsite in Waitomo...
Opposite moon: then Mike took a picture of the moon on the opposite side!
Dashboard of our car: These were the lovely clouds, as we are in the land of the "white fluffy clouds" We also have palm trees in memory of Hawaii and Pam and Sean as well as the trustee KIWI!
Lauren spa: This is our camp site, they have hot springs you can swim in, or rather mellow in!
Mike Lake Taupo: MIke taking a picture of the lake
Huka Falls: This falls supplies 65% of New Zealand's energy, believe it or not! It is also the most visited attraction! Why? We don't know. :)
MNL huka falls: Us there!
Elephant rock
Soda Fountain: Got ya! This was a great picture huh?
Loo: their puns on the loos!
Waitomo camp site: Our new car Cressida Cassidy and the first tent site on our travels. We did the caving trip here and the glow worms.
Mike skittles 2: There are three of these, Mike was catching skittles in his mouth for entertainment, WE REALLY NEED A FRISBEE!!!
Mike eating skittles again.
Giant Totara tree
A tree that they attempted to cut down but couldn't, these trees are so massive
Giant Totara: Mike by another tree. The forests are fantastic, full of birds and these lovely trees! We just can't take enough photos!
Hello All! Mike and I did it!!! We jumped out of a plane 12,000 feet up! It was by far the most amazing thing I have ever done! We got the video and the pictures to show you soon! (This place is state of the art, but the poor guy running the place doesn't have access to any of the drives so I can't download pictures...silly, but hey!!) WOWOWOWOWOWOW, we are on such a high it is amazing! Mike can't wait to go again, I am just waiting for bungy jumping now! We feel as though we can do anything now. We jumped out of a plane! YIPEE..... We met a local guy here that is taking us sailing this afternoon and then we are staying at his place. Really nice people here in Taupo. We have also run into a bunch of people that we went on the Kiwi Experience with, so we are all out for some drinks tonight! Hope the snow stops burying you all! It is chilly here as it is fall, so we need to find a salvation army to buy some warm clothes, particularly for the glaciers in the South Island and camping!! It just keeps getting better! Miss you all, lots of love, talk to you soon! Lauren and Mike XO
P.S Check out the awesome web site, RUTH ROCKS!
www.geocities.com/mnladventures
Sky diving: View as we were with the parachutte out already....Lake taupo is gorgeous....
This one is a view also
My tandom partner
Sky diving: Landing...not us, someone else, but you get the point!
Taupo sunset..... The two people, one is mike and the other our local friend Wayne who was nice enough to let us stay with him an extra night! Beautiful skies here....many clouds and colors
Cassidy the Cressida....
Our car!
The buried city: This was in Rotorua and there was a volcanic explosion in the city in the 1860's burying the place. They had since begun to excavate it. Pretty interesting.
Buried city water fall....
Hungry duck... did I send this one with Mike and his duck .... I lose track easily
Peacock: Also at the place we had breakfast in Taupo
Same as before... details of the maori meetings houses are decorated with Paua shells that wash up on shore. They are very colorful and beautiful.
Maori meeting house Lauren: There is a huge Maori population in the East Cape as it is all protected Tribal lands. We stopped and saw some sites on the way. The reason we are sticking out tongues out (like we need a reason :) Is because the Maori's used to try to scare their opponents away (by acting strange :) So they wouldn't have to fight, hence the scary faces on the houses and the sticking out of the tongues. Also, many Maori's have their faces tatooed to look scary...it works :) The details are lovely on these meeting houses. They call them Marae's.
We went up the Motu River on a Jet boat trip! It was very fun on the way up, slow and relaxing. We were there early so we got the whole history of the Maori's and the settlers, the land distribution and what is going on now. It was a beautiful river with the contrast of the native forest to the left and the logging pine trees on the right. Our guide told us that in a year he will have to put up a screen to hide all the deforestation that is going to happen there. It is the Maori's that use the land to log to make money. Our guide saw more of a future in tourism, I think he is right as the lands are badly eroding due to all the logging and farming.
Trees in the forest: The fern trees grow and shed their leaves so they form like a skirt around the top of the trunk...very cool looking.
Sunrise at Te araroa: If you can believe it, Mike and I got up at 4 AM and watched the sunset til 6:30! we also had to hike up to it again!!! Straight uphill at 6 AM.... Well worth it again as you will see in the pictures!
The sun rising at the lighthouse... Lovely huh? Too early though, we need coffee and now!
The sun rising at the lighthouse again
View of east cape on our way around
More views of east cape
Totomaru Wharf, not the one we thought we were at, but we later got to the large historic one! It was a nice extra bonus! :)
Tolaga Bay Wharf: This was the historic one that we had meant to go to! It was very long and very old, great walk to the end and a lovely huge cliff face on the right hand side.
Napieran
More Napieran
More fun skydiving!
Hello all, We just went to the North Shore for a quick weekend trip while we waited for our car to be ready. I just downloaded those pictures and send them to Ruth so hopefully they will all be there soon! Things are well, we are hopefully going to leave the city today to get out to see more country, but you never know! We are off to see caves, waterfalls, beautiful coast lines and more "adventures". Hope that snow storm you are all getting back East isn't that bad! Keep us posted. Lots of love Lauren and Mike XO Hello all! Mike and I are down in Lake Taupo now. We left Auckland in a hurry as we were sick of the city and madness. We got our car and headed to Waitomo Caves where we did some adventure caving!! After pitching our tents we booked the Haggas Honking Holes adventure and then hit the glow worm forest!! It was like something out of a fairy book! All the sudden there were hundreds of worms glowing all around us like the constellations. It was an experience, and Mo, if you are reading this, this is where your "gnomes" live in their tiny villages lit up by glow worms. Anyway, we then went through these caves, first having to abseil down a 27m cave entrance. WOW!! Then through tiny caves we had to squeeze through and abseiling down waterfalls and the such! Then a great drive through a wonderful Pureora Forest where we saw a huge Totara tree! The native jungle is a rainforest so the birds and wilderness were alive all around us! Today we saw the geysers. mud pools and amazing huka falls!! HA~! Hope to get the rest of these pictures on the web site and we are hoping the Ruth and JOhn are away on vacation or are ignoring their emails because we haven't heard anything after we downloaded and sent all the other pictures! LET US KNOW RUTH! :) Thanks. Glad to hear that some of you escaped the huge snow storm and for the rest of you, don't bother shoveling or going to work, come traveling with us! This is way more fun! There may even be some sky diving tomorrow! Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.... lots of love to all! Lauren and Mike XO Hello All, MIke and I made it around the East Cape, pictures to be posted by Ruth when the poor girl gets a chance! We have been bombarding her with all these lovely views! Thanks again Ruth! The East cape was absolutely gorgeous with lovely views around every corner! There are tons of pictures for you all to see. We also did some cultural things like go to churchs and maori maraes (meeting houses). We did a cool jet boat trip up the Motu River which was awesome, and the guide gave us some history as we were his first clients (and very interested) of the day. We also hiked up a GIGANTIC mountain! It was worth the views and our lungs are happier for it. We attempted to swim, but the coast they sent us to was too rocky and muddy. Believe it or not, Mike and i got up at 4AM to see the sunrise at the Eastern most point of NZ. It was at the East Cape Lighthouse, another UPHILL climb at 6AM!!! It again was well worth it and we are ready to tackle the glaciers in the South Island now. The pictures will explain it all when you see them on the website. We are now in Napier, an art deco city. It is surreal. There are also wineries around here so you can only imagine where we are off to next! Sorry to hear about the SNOW SNOW SNOW to the east coasters and hope it is sunny in San Fran! Talk to you all again, we are moving south to Wellington maybe tonight or tomorrow, we just go with the flow.... Mike's birthday is on Sat, so we are trying to get a ferry to the South Island tomorrow instead of on Sat... much cooler to celebrate in Nelson than on a boat! My b-day is next Sunday, where we will be??? No one knows! :) Miss you all, be well, talk to you soon! Lauren and Mike :)
more deco...
And some more...
I think this one is the criterion, i know one of the other ones is too... It is the hostel we stayed in.
Some flowers in the garden
Gorilla on top of building...
Outdoor sunshine arena.
Mike & Lauren in front of a fountain
Lauren in Fountain
Art
Amba is a gal that we met in Napier. She was awesome! This is her flat as well where we hung out with her one night.
Outside view of Amba's flat
These were some of the views from Amba's house at night on the roof! Sweet!
More Nite
the outside of the hostel (criterion)
Norfolk Island Pine trees....I just liked them :)
These were the views from the coastal road that we traveled on to get from the ferryboat port to Nelson. Very beautiful. We then stayed in Nelson City for a while then up to Abel Tasman
Now we are going to Abel Tasman that Mike and I decided to rename abel tourism as the place totally sucked in tourists and we could have done the same kayak tour ourselves for a quarter of the cost they charge you! DOH! Oh well, it was beautiful except for all the TOURISTS!!!!!!!!!!
More picture coming!
On Australia!
